Today’s Inside Magic News – And WhatnotInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

This News is Boring! Can’t Ya Make Up Stuff!

For my 18^th Birthday, my father gave me a card with the following saying in it: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” That would have been sage advice for a father to give his son as he headed off for a three year stint with a mudshow circus.

But Pop stopped drinking two days before my Birthday and had the shakes bad. I read the card to say, “Keep your fiend clothes in your enema’s closet.”

I had been living by that doctrine for years and years before I realized it made no sense. When my Pop told me what he intended to write, we had a great laugh. Oh, did we laugh.

Here I had been stealing my enemies clothes and sticking them in a small cabinet filled with Fleet Enemas. I had thought it was a religious ritual or something.

You’re probably wondering what the heck that has to do with today’s magic news. Well, only this: you can’t believe everything you read or think you’ve read. That’s why our editors stayed up all night performing “fact checking” on each story.

We owe it to you, as the reader, to be spared the ridiculous anti-magician propaganda that is taking this country by storm. Contrary to the anti-magician press, most practitioners are very well paid men and women who have one act that they stick with until it is perfected over years of repetition; never purchasing “the latest trick.”

Magicians are not, contrary to the rag reports, struggling to survive, eating Ramen Noodles cooked over Sterno stolen from the buffet table in the banquet hall of their last show. Almost none of the magicians I know have ever eaten their livestock ? by choice.

Most of the magicians in our clubs are not fanatical about the art, wouldn’t sell blood to buy lecture notes, have slept during a magic convention, could care less about learning…

This News is Boring! Can’t Ya Make Up Stuff!

But Pop stopped drinking two days before my Birthday and had the shakes bad. I read the card to say, “Keep your fiend clothes in your enema’s closet.”

I had been living by that doctrine for years and years before I realized it made no sense. When my Pop told me what he intended to write, we had a great laugh. Oh, did we laugh.

Here I had been stealing my enemies clothes and sticking them in a small cabinet filled with Fleet Enemas. I had thought it was a religious ritual or something.

Most of the magicians in our clubs are not fanatical about the art, wouldn’t sell blood to buy lecture notes, have slept during a magic convention, could care less about learning a new pass, do brush their teeth, and do not store their magic magazines in the bathroom with toilet paper serving as a bookmark.

Be strong, be proud and keep your fiend’s clothes.

Siegfried and Roy

Crazed Gunman Shoots at Siegfried & Roy. Police are still looking for the gunman who opened fire on the duo’s home September 21st. Initially, police considered the attack to be a hate crime but have dropped that charge. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the shooting.

According to witnesses, a man fired an estimated four shots from a white van while shouting, “We need to get?Siegfried and Roy out of our country!” The shotgun blasts shattered two windows and left a 12-inch hole in the fa?ade of the Jungle Palace. While police are able to identify the owner of the van used in the drive by shooting, they have yet to find the shooter.

Read more by clicking here.

You can also read the Russian view in Pravda by clicking here.

Safire: Stuart and Jayne Loughland

Safire Picks Up Shield Award. Stuart and Jayne Loughland, known as the North Wales illusion act Safire, won the Magicians British Shield Competition, held at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne.

The Shield Competition was organized by the International Brotherhood of Magicians. The contest judged which of the thirteen international acts was the “most entertaining.” Safire picked up the Shield and ?1,000 prize money.

Read more by visiting The Stage by clicking here.

Radner Houdini Items Up for Sale. After the falling out between Sidney H. Radner and the obstinate, short-sighted, misanthropic, history-hating, trick-exposing, publicity-needing, sounding not so nice on Good Morning America, no-sense of propriety folks at the Houdini Historical Center in Appleton, Mr. Radner decided to sell his rare equipment at auction rather than leave it to the museum.

Houdini Auction

Mr. Radner obtained much of the collection from Houdini’s brother, Hardeen, and in turn, lent many important pieces to the Houdini Center on a long-term basis from 1988 until fairly recently.

Last week, Radner confirmed that he would be selling off his picks, leg irons, handcuffs, straitjackets, letters, posters, playbills and other vintage objects the day before Halloween, the day of Houdini’s death in 1926. He’ll offer the more than 1,000 objects through an auction based at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas.

Radner’s collection will be displayed at the Liberace Museum, 1775 E. Tropicana Ave., in Las Vegas, Oct. 17 through 29, prior to the Oct. 30 auction. The auction is set to be shown via Webcast on eBay Live.

To read more about this event, click here.

For information, visit or call (800) 300-6852.

Jadugar Anand

Jadugar Anand Gets Big Press. The Indian Press outlet The News Today has a great article in celebration of Jadugar Anand’s career and upcoming series of shows in Chennai.

Mr. Anand is self-taught and has developed as one of the leading professional magicians. He has performed over 26,000 shows in 36 countries. One of his titles is “world’s fastest magician” and he has three international records.

Mr. Anand is bringing his 80 member troupe to Chennai to perform “his mind boggling and hell-freezing tricks to enthrall Chennaiites.” To encourage the curious and support save driving, Mr. Anand will riding a bicycle blindfolded throughout the city. He promises to make his elephant, Lakshmi vanish “from the stage at a blink of the eye.”

Read more about this fascinating magician by clicking here.

Mac King

Howdy, I’m In the Newspaper. Mac King, headlining comedian and magician on the Las Vegas Strip, is popping up in the funny papers across the nation. His syndicated comic strip ?Mac King?s Magic In A Minute? is now featured in the Athens Banner-Herald in Athens, Georgia.

The Athens Banner-Herald is a daily newspaper with a Sunday circulation of 35,000 that reaches a tri-county area and Northeast Georgia. A distinguished newspaper, the Athens Banner-Herald has received numerous professional and journalism accolades.

?Mac King?s Magic in a Minute,? features Mac King and his sidekick Lewis, a cute, comical monkey, demonstrating one of Mac King?s magic tricks. The trick is displayed in six or eight colorful informative boxes giving exact instructions on ?how-to? perform the trick incorporating the comedy of Mac King. Also included is The Secret ? magic trick explanation. Each week Mac King will feature a different magic trick in different themes such as, ?Banana Jujitsu? and ?Freezin? For No Reason,? and more.

Mac King was recently awarded ?Magician of the Year? by the Magic Castle, Academy of Magical Arts and is a Guinness Book of World Records holder in 2004 for ?The World?s Longest Game of Telephone/Chinese Whisper.

Mac King was recently awarded ?Entertainer of the Year? by the Las Vegas Weekly 2004 ?Readers Choice Awards.? King, one of today?s brightest and most talented magicians, takes the stage twice daily, Tuesday through Saturday, at Harrah?s Las Vegas Casino & Hotel.

Visit Mac King on the web at http://www.mackingshow.com