A Student Reporter Wonders

We don’t know K.C. Vetter and we use the word “know” in the non-biblical sense.  That’s not to say we know her in the biblical sense, either. 

We just don’t know her, that’s all. But we wish we did.  We checked out her other opinion pieces on The Western Courier and were impressed by her production and novel approach. 

But
we enjoyed — although we did not know why we enjoyed — what K.C.
Vetter knew or did not know about David Copperfield’s well-publicized
Magical Impregnation effect.  She writes in The Western Courier this afternoon with either the satiric pen of Swift or youthful innocence. 

The article to which she refers was discussed last week on Today’s Magic News.

Ms. Vetter suggests magic may have lost its gusto. 

The
tricks aren’t as impressive anymore.  “Some people believe in
magic and some don’t. Magic is meant to entertain, whether it’s real or
not. But when is magic taken too far?”

The author suggests Mr.
Copperfield “doesn’t seem content with those accomplishments. Now he’s
going to kick it up a notch and essentially be playing God.”

She asks the musical question, “Wait a second. He’s going to make a girl pregnant right on stage? I don’t think so.”

Ms.
Vetter wonderfully accepts the premise and then considers the real-life
implications of making someone pregnant on stage. 

For instance, she asks, “How can he prove that he did it?”

Will
she be followed for the next nine months, take a pregnancy test? Plus,
Ms. Vetter asks, “how will we know she wasn’t pregnant when she came to
the show?”

This really is a charming article and we’re not trying to be patronizing.  But consider her last three paragraphs :

But
this is stupid. There aren’t any tests that can be done to prove this
woman got pregnant right there on stage. I suppose she could take a
pregnancy test right there in front of a crowd to prove that she’s
really not pregnant when this whole thing starts. But then what?
Implantation of an embryo to the walls of the uterus can take days. It
just won’t work.

And one final question is how he is going to find a
woman to participate? Is he just going to put up flyers asking who
wants to be the present day Mother of God?

The only moral way I see
this working out so it is acceptable to his viewers would be to use a
nun. Then he’d really be playing God. Impregnating a virgin through
Immaculate Conception and all.

We scan the news wires
around the world throughout the day and found no other writer asking
these questions.  Ms. Vetter isn’t naive; she’s insightful and
charming.

We found a great…
Continue reading “Student Reporter’s Charming Look at Copperfield” →

The Lance Burton of His Day

Lance Burton teams with The History Channel to present a special two-hour program on our hero.

The special, Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery, premieres this evening on the History Channel.

The investigation into Houdini is not a new concept.   This is
well-trod ground but according to the very cynical Variety Magazine –
the defacto Industry Rag for the Entertainment Biz – says Mr. Burton’s
show is not just good, it could bring a whole new audience to Houdini.

You don’t often read such complimentary prose from Variety:

An auction of Houdini collectibles provides the excuse
for yet another documentary about the legendary magician that
nevertheless proves extremely interesting — an unsentimental portrait
capturing both his enduring influence and cultural importance in
turn-of-the-century entertainment.

Beyond a better understanding of the man, the various aficionados
who weigh in include the usually mum half of Penn & Teller, who is
shot in silhouette so as not to see him speak. It’s just one of the
nifty wrinkles in this unusually engaging specspec.

Although a Halloween-timed confection, docudocu also explores the
significance Houdini held for early 20th century immigrants (a point
alluded to in the book and musical “Ragtime”), offering symbolic escape
from their drudgery as they toiled in backbreaking jobs.

Blessed with an instinctive genius for marketing, his ascent from
poverty to vaudeville’s highest-paid performer burnished his
credentials as a populist hero.

Wow!  That is saying quite a bit.  The History Channel sums it up by suggesting, “Houdini
represents the kind of History Channel fare that if sold properly could
help bridge the gap to younger audiences — a program that entertains
without pandering or sacrificing its historical legitimacy.”

Frankly, we never tire of anything about Houdini.  But we also know
we love his story, myth, and legend precisely because we were hooked as
an elementary school student. 

That Mr. Burton, our era’s Master Magician, has apparently been able
to once again find a way to introduce Houdini to a new generation of
magic-lovers is perhaps a further testament his importance in our art. 

We’ll be watching tonight – flipping between Lance Burton and Criss
Angel.  It’s sort of the magic equivalent to the New Year’s football
bowl schedule.  It’s all good. 

Read the Variety article yourself here.
The show will air at 8:00 pm Eastern on The History Channel.

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Continue reading “Variety Hails Lance Burton’s Special on Houdini” →

Impacted-Mouth Coil Removal Procedure

The Morris Daily Herald features front-and-center with the story of Dr. Mark Kaschube’s Annual Halloween Magic Show accompanied by the slug-line “Wicked Fun.”

This
struck us ironic or true.  Sometimes when our mouth is filled with
appliances, partially numbed, constantly dried, wedged and contorted,
beneath an alum-covered dental dam, our nitrous oxide-affected mind
wanders to places beyond the 2000 watt light looking for our “happy
place.”  Is our dentist enjoying her own special “wicked fun”?

If so, shouldn’t she be covering our co-pay? 

Some
would suggest — as they have in our group-therapy sessions as late as
yesterday — we shouldn’t assume our appointments with our doctor mean
anything to her.  She takes no pleasure in hurting us.  In
fact, she has to cause us pain to prevent us from having pain
later. 

Still, call us paranoid (and we know you and your
little clique call us that and worse) but we think she does take a
perverse pleasure in causing us pain.  Maybe it’s the dog-collar
she makes us wear and that she works out of her mini-van.

We digress.

Dr.
Kaschube recalls with fondness a disturbing image. “I remember when I
was a kid and I was having my braces done on my teeth. My orthodontist
? Dr. John Bonaguro, in South Holland, Ill., where I grew up ? had six
chairs in his room, with kids sitting in them, facing away from each
other,” Dr. Kaschube said.  “And he would walk in between the
chairs ? his audience ? and he told jokes, and he was funny, and had us
all laughing.”

“It was actually fun to go to the dentist,” he
said. “And later I worked for him part-time, not knowing then that I
was honing my skills. But I also learned from him that you can be a
dentist and still be open and funny with your patients. You can make it
fun to go to the dentist, believe it or not.”

We’ll take his word for it. 

“I
suppose all kids get bit by the ‘magic bug’ at some point in their
childhood,” he said. “With me, though, it happened when I was five
years old. And it stuck.”

The Dentist Magician uses the allure
of magic and illusion appeals to a childlike fascination in everyone,
separating the real from the imaginary, causing those in the magician?s
audience to choose between what they think they know and what they
think they are seeing.

“It?s a suspension of disbelief,” he
explained. “With magic, it’s neat to just relax and let your brain take
a break. You see the seemingly impossible suddenly appear possible.”

Like when our dentist gives us Rohypnol (“roofies”).

“As
a magician,” he said, “one of the greatest things is someone in the
audience yelling out to you, ‘Do it one more time!’ They feel this
burning need to believe what they?re seeing, even though their rational
mind tells them it can’t possibly be real.”

Over the years, his act has grown. His magic act has traveled from Las Vegas all the way to Europe, and he has performed on the Bozo the…
Continue reading “Our Experience May Differ: Dr. Mark Kaschube – Magician – Dentist” →

Jerry Andrus

The Newhouse News Service pumped a feed on one of our all-time heroes. 

Jerry
Andrus signed our instructions to Linking Pins back in 1974 and we’ve
kept it ever since.  When we replaced the pin set, we tossed the
instructions and kept our personalized version.

The Jerry Andrus
depicted in the article on today’s wires is a strange man, with crazy,
half-completed inventions littering his “Castle of Chaos.”  The
100-year-old ivy-covered home is described in almost Dickens-esque
prose:

Peeling stucco on one corner reveals a
crumbling foundation. Sheets of plastic and old curtains block the
windows, some shaped like keyholes. From the street, the place looks
abandoned. Certain wintry branches of candles on the high chimneypiece
faintly lighted the chamber: or, it would be more expressive to say,
faintly troubled its darkness. The only way in is through the back
door, where the bell produces alien tones that summon 87-year-old Jerry
Andrus. With a great flourish, he waves his arms toward the dark,
unheated interior.

Okay, all but the last sentence is
from the article, the third-to-last sentence describes the inside of
Miss Havisham’s house in Great Expectations.  Still, it fits the
theme.

The reporter goes on in vivid-detail to describe the
room “jammed floor to 10-foot ceiling” with tools and gizmos.  He
tells the reader “no more than three people can fit in what once was
the dining room of the house Andrus has lived in since childhood. Even
then, they must walk single file along a 2-foot-wide trail worn into
the hardwood floor. The path ends in a small clearing surrounded by
mountains of debris. Buried somewhere is a manual typewriter Andrus
last saw about 1970. Years ago, junk filled the living room and blocked
the front door, which hasn’t been opened since the Kennedy
administration.”

The author shows appreciation for Mr. Andrus,
however.  He suggests trying to explain the magician “to the
uninitiated is like trying to describe the color blue.”

You should read the full article to drink in the full-bodied description of Mr. Andrus and his life.  We cannot do it justice here.

He
is hailed by Milt Larson and Rick Killion for his skills and
knowledge.  “People consider him the last of the living legends,”
Mr. Larson says of one of the oldest members in the Academy. “Most
tricks are based on old principles. He does things that are difficult
to explain. You’ve got to see them. He pulled off an optical illusion
where a giant mask that was on the stage suddenly appeared over the
audience and scared the hell out of everyone.”

The story ends with a poignant piece.

He
pulls out other illusions he invented and explains them, one by one.
Finally, he packs them away and leans back in his chair. He holds out
his right hand. His thumb trembles. “Don’t know how much longer I’ll be
able to do this,” he says. “That tremor isn’t going away. And my memory
isn’t as good as it used to be.”

He glances around…
Continue reading “Jerry Andrus – “The Thomas Edison of Magic” – Featured” →

New York’s Newsday asks the musical question,
“Hot?” and answering with a less than musical but still true statement,
“[t]his guy is on fire – Criss Angel’s star burns brightly with a hit
series and a Halloween special.”

The article portrays Mr. Angel as a cult celebrity on this way to “the celebrity mass market.” 

Burning
himself alive on the Las Vegas strip is just a way of sharing his
“ability” with his fans whilst giving his mother a special 70th
birthday gift. 

Mr. Angel uses the terms “ability,”
“special ability,” and “natural ability” to describe that “something”
he has been fortunate to discover. 

With all due respect
to Mr. Angel, the way he is quoted in Newsday reminded us of Mavin
Johnson’s search for and finding of his “special purpose” in the Steve
Martin movie, The Jerk.  Mavin’s mother promised one day
he would find his “special purpose,” although she never translated that
term to her inteneded meaning, his sexuality.

But that’s just us.  But it also tainted how we read the rest of the article.

“Everybody
has a gift, a natural ability,” said Angel, as he stabbed another piece
of chicken off the shish kebab. Outside the Best Shishkebab restaurant
on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow, rain fell on the car waiting to
take the magician-producer-TV series star to another talk-show
appearance in Manhattan.

He added, “I’ve been fortunate to discover what my ability is.”

Setting yourself on fire?

“It’s
not about how I do the tricks,” he said. “What I do is mental – it
involves the mind, body, spirit.” He took some water and fluffed his
hair.

Mr. Angel and A&E are happy with each
other.  There is mutual respect and admiration for the partnership
that brought in 1.7 million viewers per episode in July and expected to
bring in far more Halloween night.

On Halloween night, Angel work
his special purpose at the first magic shop he ever entered.  The
Hicksville shop will serve as backdrop and history as Mr. Angel works
magic to freak his already well-freaked audience.  One of the
effects planned will have Mr. Angel locked in a coffin with his paws
manacled.

Mr. Angel has captured the key demographics groups
with his approach to the presentation of magic.  The paper notes
in hyperbole:

Historically, magic hasn’t played well on
TV, and hasn’t played particularly well elsewhere, unless the act had a
twist (Siegfried & Roy, anyone?) or powerful personalities (Penn
& Teller, David Copperfield).

But Angel claims to be smarter
than the average magician; a story in Forbes recently noted that he
earns $1.5 million a year.

In fact, he says, he’s not a magician at
all, but an artist who employs music, cinema and theater to “blur the
line between reality and illusion.”

In effect, a magical creation
tailor-made for TV.

So cross Angel’s shaggy good looks and gothic
eyeliner with his exotic silver jewelry, theatrical flair, endearing
public manner and show-biz whiz, and it adds up to an…
Continue reading “Criss Angel Finds His Special Nature and Success” →

Charlotte Pendragon

Their love was magic, says The Vacaville Daily Republic of Jonathon and Charlotte’s four-day courtship 29-years-ago.

The article considers the team through the eyes of Ms. Pendragon who is more than just an assistant.

For Charlotte Pendragon, the second and considerably muscular half
of the illusion duo named The Pendragons, creating figments of the
imagination are second nature.

After all, she and her college sweetheart turned husband, Jonathon, have been doing this sort of magic for 29 years.

Despite her muscular physique, Ms. Pendragon must make everything
look “simple.” “The levitation is difficult because of muscle control
and balance,” she confesses, who weight trains twice a week and fills a
solid three days with Pilates.

“It’s difficult to make it look like you’re airy and relaxed and really feel and look like you’re floating.”

Ms. Pendragon says her husband helps her maintain her shape and
weight.  “He works as a scale.  He has to carry me around on stage and
sometimes up the stairs, so he knows when I’ve gained some weight, ”
she says, slightly embarrassed.

You can read the full article at Today’s Magic News here or by subscribing to our free daily magic newsletter. 

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Continue reading “The Pendragons: Seen Through Charlotte’s Eyes” →

Steve Cohen

Monday’s
Forbes Magazine will profile Steve Cohen and his unique ability to
perform “lots of neat tricks” “like how to get hired by people with
deep pockets.”

Sure, but once you’re hired by bazillionaires, how do you
entertain them? Mr. Cohen has a routine called “Instant ROI” (that’s
rich-person language for “Instant Return On Investment”).

On a recent night at the Waldorf Towers Hotel in Manhattan Steve
Cohen was casting a spell over the room. Primped up in a tux and
horn-rim glasses, Cohen, 34, sidled up to a few people and asked if
they’d lend him some one-dollar bills. After teasing the guys and
flirting with the girls, he crumpled up the bills in his fists and,
when he opened his hands, out came a few hundreds.

Mr. Cohen is doing more than rubbing elbows with the richest in the
world — which in itself would get us tossed in to jail where we’d like
be rubbing different things with poorer folk — he’s becoming rich as
well.

Forbes points out, “Cohen made $1 million last year turning tricks
like this at the homes and corporate events of America’s richest
people. He’s been flown in private jets all around the country, from
Aspen to Cape Cod, playing at the homes of Forbes 400 members Martha
Stewart (where he made three spools of thread pop out of a loaf of
bread), New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Reebok founder Paul
Fireman (where he miraculously pulled some freshly torn-up $20
bills–intact–from the toe of a sneaker). His fee: $10,000 to $25,000.”

His roll in the tub of big bucks came in 2001 when he convinced the
folks at the Waldorf to give him a suite to perform in every Friday
night. The shows created word of mouth among the well-off who frequent
the grandiose hotel, and Cohen’s career began to flourish. People still
pay $55 each to see him perform weekly at the Waldorf. “Event planners
come and immediately book me for their corporate entertainment,” he
says. He spends one week per month on the road.

Here’s a strange end of the story, however. Forbes reports Mr. Cohen
is putting together a new show that highlights some of the custom
tricks he has performed privately for the ultra rich and powerful.

For whom would this show be performed? Not the rich, super-rich, or
the ultra rich. They already see it. Would it be for other magicians?
Like a lecture? No, the article says he won’t be giving away the
secrets.

Would it be like a taste of what you could see if you were
super-rich? Sort of like when we go to Costco and make a lunch of the
free food and drink samples? We chew our pizza-puffs and sip our new
Tropical Berry-Berry Punch dreaming of the day we could afford such
food stuffs for our very own toaster-oven.

Maybe that’s what the new show would be like.

Maybe not.

Mr. Cohen has written a book as well. It was published this year by
Collins – a major house – and according to Amazon’s rankings is doing
very well. …
Continue reading “Magician Steve Cohen Performs for Rich and Gets Rich Too” →