Nepal’s Daily Magic InterviewInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

We Don't Interview Good

Today we turn the tables on Tim. Daily Magic of Nepal interviewed Tim Quinlan, editor and publisher of Inside Magic for their upcoming newsletter. They kindly allowed us to publish it here.

DAILY MAGIC: How did you get interested in magic?

TIM QUINLAN: Don’t
you want to ask me first about my personal background before jumping
into the “how did you get interested in magic?” or “what is your
favorite trick?” questions?

DAILY MAGIC: Okay, sure. How old are you?

TIM QUINLAN: That’s not what I meant by “personal background.” I meant, “tell us about your life in magic.”

DAILY MAGIC: Oh. Alright. “Tell us about your life in magic.”

TIM QUINLAN: I started magic when I was seven years old. I had the good fortune of seeing a classmate of mine perform Spirit Slates for our kindergarten class. I asked my father if I could learn magic or if it was just something special people learned. He told me . . . .

…

We Don't Interview Good

Today we turn the tables on Tim. Daily Magic of Nepal interviewed Tim Quinlan, editor and publisher of Inside Magic for their upcoming newsletter. They kindly allowed us to publish it here.

DAILY MAGIC: How did you get interested in magic?

TIM QUINLAN: Don’t
you want to ask me first about my personal background before jumping
into the “how did you get interested in magic?” or “what is your
favorite trick?” questions?

DAILY MAGIC: Okay, sure. How old are you?

TIM QUINLAN: That’s not what I meant by “personal background.” I meant, “tell us about your life in magic.”

DAILY MAGIC: Oh. Alright. “Tell us about your life in magic.”

DAILY MAGIC: A seven year old did Spirit Slates?

TIM QUINLAN: I wasn’t done with my story. Yeah, he did Spirit Slates. It was a small set of slates from a cheap magic set he received.

DAILY MAGIC: What was the message at the end?

TIM QUINLAN: You mean, what did I learn from my life in magic?

DAILY MAGIC: No, I mean, what was written on the Spirit Slates at the end of the trick? Was it a forced card or something?

TIM QUINLAN: I don’t remember. I don’t think it was a card, though. I think it was a message from one of his dead relatives. His grandparents had been in a gondola accident in the Swiss Alps or some place. He was pretty messed-up about it because they watched him while his mom and dad worked.

DAILY MAGIC: What was the message?

TIM QUINLAN: Don’t ride gondolas, I guess.

DAILY MAGIC: The Spirit Slates had “don’t ride gondolas” as the message?

TIM QUINLAN: Oh, no, I thought you were saying what was the message of his grandparents getting killed. I think the message was “Help! Help! We’ve fallen and we can’t get up!”

DAILY MAGIC: Really? That must have been traumatic to hear.

TIM QUINLAN: No, not really. I was just making a joke. You know like that ad with the old lady who is sprawled on the floor and she’s talking to the on-line security service . . . “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

DAILY MAGIC: Oh.

TIM QUINLAN: Anyway, so I asked my father if I could do magic and he said anyone could. He suggested I earn enough money to buy a trick and he’d take me downtown to buy one.

DAILY MAGIC: Where were you living then?

TIM QUINLAN: Palm Beach.

DAILY MAGIC: Florida?

TIM QUINLAN: No, Arizona. Of course Florida.

DAILY MAGIC: Sorry, we’re not from here.

TIM QUINLAN: No problem. It is pretty famous here in the states. The Kennedys grew-up there. You heard of President Kennedy, right?

DAILY MAGIC: Of course.

TIM QUINLAN: So I saved up my money and we went to Johnny’s Playland and Trick Shop on Clematis over in West Palm Beach.

DAILY MAGIC: What did you get?

TIM QUINLAN: Well, I only had the money I saved from a couple of weeks of saving so I was kind of limited. I got a Milk Pitcher, Spirit Slates and a Nightclub Table with the black art well and servante. I also got the Tarbell course; except not volume eight – it wasn’t out yet.

DAILY MAGIC: That’s quite a bit. How did you make the money for all of that?

TIM QUINLAN: I used to volunteer at the nursing home and the old people gave me tips if I did stuff for them. Some of them were half-crazy so they needed a lot of help.

DAILY MAGIC: How would the half-crazy ones tip you?

TIM QUINLAN: I don’t know. I don’t remember but it isn’t really important. The important thing is that I got enough money to buy a couple of tricks and some books.

DAILY MAGIC: Did they have money with them at the nursing home? I thought they didn’t keep valuables there.

TIM QUINLAN: Well, they must have had money. I think sometimes I would have to tell the relatives who came to visit grandma or grandpa that I was promised a tip.

DAILY MAGIC: So what happened next in your magic career?

TIM QUINLAN: I started performing in my father’s show.

DAILY MAGIC: He was Little Tom Hardy, America’s Foremost Psychic Entertainer?

TIM QUINLAN: Actually, it was “Li’l” not “Little.”

DAILY MAGIC: So why didn’t your father just let you use some of his magic?

TIM QUINLAN: Beats me. He did psychic stuff and I was clearly more into the stage or illusionette type of magic.

DAILY MAGIC: What did you do in your dad’s show?

TIM QUINLAN: I did a five minute bit where I poured milk into a paper cone and when it was opened up, the milk was gone.

DAILY MAGIC: Oh, I see. Nothing spectacular, huh?

TIM QUINLAN: Excuse me but the Milk Pitcher trick was not a bad trick. I got a great response from it.

DAILY MAGIC: No, I know. I’m sorry. I was just saying that you were performing the trick as it came in the instructions. You didn’t have some special routine.

TIM QUINLAN: Oh, do they do it differently in Nepal?

DAILY MAGIC: Let’s talk about your work with Inside Magic. Wasn’t this the name of a newsletter years ago?

TIM QUINLAN: I think I know where you’re going with this. Yeah,
it was the name of a magic publication and then Richard Kaufman and
Stan Allen both used it in their publications but I didn’t know its
rich history when I named the website.

DAILY MAGIC: Oh, did you just get into magic recently or just didn’t read that much?

TIM QUINLAN: No, I just didn’t know about Inside Magic as a title in the past.

DAILY MAGIC: So then when you found out . . .

TIM QUINLAN: Yeah, when I found out, I wrote Richard Kaufman and spoke with Stan Allen. Both had no objections to me using the name.

DAILY MAGIC: Is it all a bunch of jokes?

TIM QUINLAN: What?

DAILY MAGIC: Inside Magic.

TIM QUINLAN: No, it’s is all about magic news, views and reviews.

DAILY MAGIC: But mostly made-up stuff about magic?

TIM QUINLAN: No, it’s really about magic news. We just use the magic fiction and humor to round it out.

DAILY MAGIC: Say something funny.

TIM QUINLAN: What do you mean?

DAILY MAGIC: You say you have humor to round it out. Say something humorous.

TIM QUINLAN: I can’t just . . .

DAILY MAGIC: Oh, okay. No pressure. I just thought you could be spontaneously funny but I guess it must be a tough process.

TIM QUINLAN: No wait, I can say something funny. Hang on. Okay, two magicians go into a bar. The first one says to the second one, “I will bet you a drink I can make a glass of wine disappear.” The second one says, “okay, you’re on.” The first one orders a glass of wine and drinks it. He says, “Ta-Da! You owe me a drink.”