Month: November 2012

Latest Magic News, Magic of India

Documentary Spotlights Magician Colony’s Disappearance

Inside Magic Photo of Raheja Phoenix Project Concept DrawingYears ago we wrote of a special Indian community where magicians and puppeteers flourished. The story captured our hearts and evoked a tremendous number of comments from Inside Magic readers.  We wondered what happened to the colony of formerly itinerant performers over the last decade.

We were happy to learn the story attracted the interest of documentary cinematographers who will soon release their project titled, Tomorrow We Disappear.

Part of the funding came via crowd sourcing on Kickstarter and the pledges quickly exceeded their goal of $40,000.00.  As of November 13, 2011, pledges exceeded $64,000.00.

The producers offered unique gifts to those who pledged funds.  $5.00 merited a high-five or chest bump, $10.00 got a magic ring from one of the performers in the film, and for $1,200 you would receive a custom made puppet from one of India’s foremost puppeteers.

Producer Jim Goldblum joined with Adam Weber, Joshua Cogan and Will Basanta to bring the story out of the vanishing slums and to western audiences.

The documentary tells the story of the Kathputli colony’s unique history and apparent imminent destruction. In the late 1950s, Kathputli became home for “traditionally itinerant performers — puppeteers, acrobats, magicians and fire-breathers.”

They settled in what was then a remote area bordering New Delhi.  The land – described as New Delhi’s “tinsel slum” – recently became the chosen site for the city’s first-ever skyscraper, The Raheja Phoenix.  The community belonged to one of society’s lower castes and it was not surprising the government chose to have them “resettled” to accommodate the building.

Continue reading “Documentary Spotlights Magician Colony’s Disappearance” →

Magic Law

The Mystery of the Magic Castle Trademark

Inside Magic Image of Magic Trademark LawyerWhat do magician Richard Bloch, a highly (pun intended) rated medicinal marijuana dispensary and the world famous home to the Academy of Magical Arts have in common? They each use the phrase “Magic Castle” in their names.

Mr. Bloch recently sought federal registration for the trademark “Magic Castle at Sea” to identify his particular brand of magic shows designed for cruise ships.

Magic Castle Solutions describes itself as a “North Hollywood Marijuana Dispensary” where customers can order a variety of different strains of the drug pursuant to their physician’s prescription.

“The Magic Castle” private club is also in Hollywood, California but likely does not sell any strain of marijuana with or without prior approval of one’s physician. Rather, the club is a place to enjoy the performance and teaching of the art of magic.

We support our magic habit by our day job as an intellectual property attorney and so the confluence of these three trademarks was the kind of thing about which we become giddy. We feel spiritually uplifted now that we have admitted we become giddy by such things and feel our relationship with you, the reader, has become more meaningful by our sharing.

Or maybe it’s the airplane glue we have been using to perform “Smoke from Fingertips” all night long.

But trademark law is fun with or without fumes of glue.

The purpose of a trademark is to identify the source of goods or services. That’s it.

Anyone can make bread, but a consumer looking for the taste and quality of Wonder Bread will look for loaves bearing that trademark first used in 1921. Consumers are confident Wonder Bread brand of will be the same when purchased in Los Angeles, California; Mystic Hollow, Michigan or DeFuniak Springs, Florida. Consumer confidence in the trademark is supported by civil and criminal laws to protect against counterfeiters; like rogue bakers selling bread with the Wonder Bread trademark.

Consumers interested in magic as a performing art have similarly associated the trademark MAGIC CASTLE with certain qualities. The castle offers visitors a chance to see magic performed from at least three different disciplines (close-up, parlor and stage) after enjoying a fine dinner and taking in the grand collection of magic memorabilia.

Continue reading “The Mystery of the Magic Castle Trademark” →

Magic News, Magic of UK, Magician Feature

Steve Truglia, The Card Shark Guides Us

Inside Magic Image of The Card Shark Show Promotional PictureOur rule of thumb is to never visit the underworld of real-life gamblers and card cheats unless escorted by a former member of the Special Forces or professional stuntman / stuntwoman. But that is just us. We like to be protected at all times and some may consider us excessive because we refuse to kiss without an American-made dental dam. And if we are going to kiss another person, we require even more.

Fortunately for us, Steve Truglia is not only a great card magician but is also a former member of Special Forces and was a record-breaking stuntman. Even more fortunately for us, Mr. Truglia brings his outstanding show The Card Shark to the beautiful theatre at the Five Star Mayfair Hotel on Stratton Street in London from December 15, 2012 through March 22, 2013. He will guide us safely through the shadowy realm of card sharpies and crooked gamblers (or the politically correct designation “advantaged gamers”) throughout the ages.

Inside Magic Image of the Spork of DeathMr. Truglia has, in a word, skills. He can kill a man with a spork whilst crashing through a plate glass window and performing a one-hand false shuffle. (Actually, we don’t know if he can kill someone with a spork but it seems like if anyone could, it would be a Special Forces person or an employee of Kentucky Fried Chicken®).

Take a few seconds to check out some of Mr. Truglia’s incredible stunts over on the Wikipedia web site.  Be sure to return to the rest of this article when you are done, though.

Continue reading “Steve Truglia, The Card Shark Guides Us” →

Latest Magic News

19 Year-Old iCarly Star Sneaks into Magic Castle

Inside Magic Image of Miranda Cosgrove

The highest paid child actor / actress in the whole world, Miranda Cosgrove snuck into the very private Magic Castle in Hollywood this weekend.

Reports say she pulled up in a Porsche SUV and entered despite the well-posted prohibition against anyone under the age of 21.  Not to mention it is a members only club.  

Ms. Cosgrove is a mere 19-years-old and, as far as we know, is not a member of the Academy of Magical Arts, the owners of the Magic Castle.

But she is a star and she did have a Porsche — albeit an ugly station wagon version of a Porsche — and Nickelodeon does pay her close to $200,000.00 per episode of iCarly.

But that cannot be the standard for entry and bending the rules, right?  We're guessing tons of people in Hollywood are stars of something and bunches of those make outrageous amounts of cash for what they star at and some of those probably drive cars more impressive than the lamest of the Porsche family of fine vehicles.  

Apparently the front desk hostess told Ms. Cosgrove's escort or babysitter that no one under the age of 21 may pass into the Magic Castle.  Nonetheless, Ms. Cosgrove was permitted entrance shortly before midnight. 

We could find only two certain connections between Ms. Cosgrove and Magic.  She appeared in the November 12, 2006 episode of Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh in which the two boys attempt to resurrect the career of a has-been magician ("The Great Doheny" Season 4, Episode 6).  And, weirdly, she was born on the same day Inside Magic Favorite Harry Blackstone, Jr. passed away, May 14th.  Ms. Cosgrove was born in 1993 and Mr. Blackstone left us entirely too early in 1997.

The story was first reported on RadarOnline and later picked up by Examiner.com.  

Uncategorized

Inside Magic’s Corrections

Inside Magic Image of Writer Disappointed that She Made an Error

When required by court order or circumstances that would somehow improve our stature in the magic community, Inside Magic will issue retractions, corrections and amendments in response to verified complaints by real people who have been offended or injured in some manner by our writing.

The April 1, 2005 "April Fools Edition" of Inside Magic was written as a parody and should not have been taken as literally representing the truth. We assumed most magicians would know it is unsafe to snort fanning powder or make mixed drinks with "magicians' milk." Because of a few kids who were smart enough to sound out the words in that edition but lacked the common sense to not really swallow razor blades, we had to wait until 2012 for the statute of limitations to run and issue this correction.

Despite the apparently real photograph shown in our July 22, 2010 column "Magicians on the Go" we had no evidence the world famous magician pictured was suffering gastric and intestinal distress as the image indicated. We used a trial version of Photoshop to place the magician in a port-a-let with the door apparently blown off by a horrific gas explosion. We thought this was obvious because the magician's hair was still in place in the image and everyone knows he wears a toupee.

Contrary to the thrust of our September 15, 2008 story, "Guess What Disease" the two magicians identified in the article were not suffering any malady and, to the best of our knowledge, are healthy as a horse and a cow respectively. To be fair, we never said they had a specific disease, only that they looked "sick and gross like they swallowed the gross end of decaying pig carcass." That could have been interpreted to mean they looked normal for them or that we were just concerned about their health. To suggest that the story was a method of besmirching their good name is an over-reach.

As far as we know, there is no evidence to suggest Harry Houdini faked his own death to marry a marionette or, for that matter, any type of puppet used by popular entertainers of the day. We were just speculating what he could have done if he wanted to sneak out of his marriage to meet his well-known fetishistic needs. We regret any misunderstanding arising from the August 11, 2011 article, "Houdini Faked His Own Death to Marry a Prop."

In our "Best of Las Vegas" column of December 12, 2004, we inadvertently provided the wrong address for the Magic of Vegas Theatre. Frankly we were surprised it took until last week for anyone to complain about the mix-up and even more surprised that magicians visiting Las Vegas would mistake the establishment at the address given for a theater for performing arts. We also apologize for any part we played in establishing the tradition of appreciative magic fans stuffing dollar bills into the waistbands of close-up performers in Las Vegas and The Magic Castle.

The answer to our 1996 Fourth of July Magic Crossword Puzzle for Clue 22(Down) should have been "bunny." The clue was "what a magician has hidden in his clothing." We regret the error and are frankly troubled by some of the answers proposed by our readers.

Because we did not conduct our own research but printed verbatim the press release we received, the article "Tony Spain Makes Island Nation of Guam Vanish" was incorrect. Guam remained intact and Tony's press release was a total fabrication with no basis in reality. Similarly, the articles, "Tony Spain Cures Warts in New Dinner Show," "Tony Spain Licks Own Elbow," and "Tony Spain Found Not Guilty in Mayonnaise Smuggling Trial" were not properly fact-checked and were all fabrications of Mystic Hollow's own Tony Spain.

Magic News

Magicians Have Their Own Fun Too

While the work of a magician is to entertain his audience by presenting wondrous acts of magic that can trigger amazement, smiles, and other similar adrenaline-pumping feelings, at the end of the day a magician is still a regular human being in seek and need for a personal means of entertainment. In other words, all magicians needs to find hobbies and passions outside their line of work that can help them relax and get in touch with their inners selves, having something else entertain them and getting mentally prepared for their next shows. Today we are going to discuss one excellent idea of a hobby for a magician – casino slots online.

Bejeweled 2 – The Magic Of The Reels

 

Bejeweled 2 Slot is a game you can play on the Ladbrokes site – found under the 5 reel slots tab. The game is a 20-line game rewarding players when managing to match 2 to 5 consecutive symbols on active win lines. To make the game even more fun, there are three different scatter symbols that can lead players to some extra bonus games to keep the magic going for a magician looking to have some fun. The rules of the game are simple to follow and all one needs to do is visit the Paytable page and look at the payouts given for winning line combos. A winning line consists of a combo of at least two symbols that match. Players also enjoy the freedom of selecting the desired number of lines to play (1-20) at a time by making full use of the up/down arrows. The fun Bejeweled 2 game makes it easy for players to select their desired stake for each line they play; there is even an AutoPlay option that enables the play of a predefined number of games (10-50) one after the other. The Wild Symbols add more salt and pepper to the game, while the Free Spins Bonus Game, the Bejeweled Bonus Game, or the Wheel Of Riches Bonus Game turn Bejeweled 2 into the ideal slots game.