Category: Latest Magic News

The very latest in magic news

Inside Magic Image of Lance Burton, Master Magician
Latest Magic News

Master Magician Lance Burton Brings it Closer to Home

Inside Magic Image of Lance Burton, Master MagicianMaster Magician Lance Burton performed in Las Vegas for 31 years and yet looks to be no older than 30 — so there’s your first mystery.  The second is how this man who has performed more than 15,000 shows for more than five million people can make each show seem like it is all new and fresh.

We know the answer to neither of these two questions but suspect it has to do with good health care and talent.

He will be at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino this Saturday at 8:00 pm in Indio, California, performing his show for a no-doubt sold-out house.  Don’t get left behind or boxed out.  If  you are in the area (and we are) make the trip to Fantasy Springs for his show.  You will be glad you did and won’t regret it and will remember it for the rest of your natural life.

We have seen Mr. Burton perform more times than we can count — that’s due to the tremendous number of shows we have seen – not to our well-documented inability to count.

His show is what you (and by “you” we mean “anyone in the world”) would consider a real magic show.  He is funny, smooth without being hokey, and talented (his sleight of hand is the best we have ever seen — even better than the guys on YouTube that perform one part of an effect with questionable camera angles and techniques).

If you were to ask us who our favorite magician in the world is, we would have to say Mr. Burton.  He puts the “magic” in “magician.”

Check out the ticket availability to this weekend’s show here.  The tickets range from $29.00 to $49.00.  Even if he never appeared on stage but just showed his props, that would be a steal.

Check out Mr. Burton’s website here.

Latest Magic News

Mental Madness on Display August 24th

Garrett Thomas

Magicians Garrett Thomas, Kozmo and Joe Maxwell will be performing at the Coolidge Theatre in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania on August 24th.   This is a must-see show and not just because it is being shown in a “theatre” and not a “theater” but because of the line-up.

You have everything you could want in a magic show.  Illusions, great comedy and close-up magic to mess with your mind.

In fact, the messing with your mind part is covered in the title of the show.  Magic Beyond Imagination is presenting “The Mental Madness Show.”

We’re pretty sure you can’t say something is a “Mental Madness” show if it is not truly mental madness.  We think that’s the law.  And the cast will bring you incredible magic in addition to messing with your mental madness quotient.  Ours is currently 7 but has been as high as 12.

As a special treat, magic enthusiasts can pay extra for VIP tickets for a 45-minute meet-and-greet with these magicians, including an up close and personal magic session with cards and coins that begins at 6 p.m. VIPs will be admitted early to the theatre and be given their choice of seating.

Kozmo told reporters, “we consider it a work in progress. We are doing material we’ve been doing for 15 years but not in this configuration. We use cameras and screens so people in the audience can see all of the details of our magic.”

As magicians and magic fans know, Mr. Thomas is more than a great performer, he is a fantastic magic inventor.  He has created effects for David Blaine – including the high-profile feats of endurance that make us squirm.

(We do squirm normally so this is additional squirming over and above our natural snake-like involuntary movements we do when watching television magic whilst sitting in our antique bean-bag chair.  The guy on Antique Roadshow said it was worth $1,200 but then he re-examined it and determined it was likely not made for George Washington the first president but someone named George Washington and then he started to re-examine us on how we got it.  It was as if he was implying we stole it.  We didn’t but at that point we didn’t feel like explaining ourselves if the amount was going to drop from $1,200 to “a buck two-eighty.”   Plus the Mark Wahlberg that is the star of the Antique Roadshow isn’t even the real Mark Wahlberg).

Kozmo is a great magician who has taken his craft from Bourbon Street (New Orleans) to China (not New Orleans).  He is a joy to watch because he seems to enjoy what he is doing and he does it well.

We have not met Joe Maxwell but if he is hooked up with Kozmo and Mr. Garrett, he has chops by association.  He will be the master of ceremonies for the Mental Madness Show and, according to the newspaper “is one of the world’s most sought after drummers, having toured the world with Grammy-nominated recording artist, Moby.”

If you are anywhere near Wellsboro on the 24th of August, you have to see this show.  Outside of the Magic Castle, you will never have an opportunity to watch the performers who have entertained Johnny Depp, David Copperfield, Olivia Wilde, Willie Nelson, Scarlett Johansson, Seth Rogan, Jay Leno, Trace Atkins and others.

Purchasing tickets in advance is strongly recommended.  For tickets and more information, visit www.deanecenter.com or call 570-724-6220.

Read the article about the show in the Wellsboro Gazette.

Latest Magic News

Magicians Flock to Colon

Inside Magic Image of Favorite Melvin the MagicianEvery year for the last 82, Colon (pronounced “Colon”) Michigan is the site of the Midwest’s largest celebration of magic in West Michigan.

Colon is the home for magicians live and dead – their cemetery is incredible.  It is a tracing of magic history with wonderful stories to be told.

The 82nd annual Magic Get Together lasts from Wednesday, August 7th (today), until Saturday, August 10 (a day in the future – herein in identified as “a few days from now”).  The event has been held in Colon, the magic capital of the world, since 1934.

B.J. Mallen, a magician and employee at Abbott’s, says, “We only have 1,100 people or so year long. We get just as many magic enthusiasts that come through on these 4 days.”

It is wonderful festival.  We visited often whilst stationed in Mystic Hollow, Michigan, as part of an elite magical team with one less than elite member – we never figured out who or she was – ready to engage in card throwing, flash paper attacks, and the tearing and restoring of enemy maps.  Of course the enemy and non-magic community denied our existence – as one would expect.

It is one of the most family friendly conventions we have ever attended.  In fact we would bring our family eyery year with or without their consent.  “Every year, Abbotts Magic Shop hosts a long list of family-friendly events for the get together. Street performers, stage shows and lecturers will all be on hand in 2019.”

Our favorite location – other than the Pizza Parlor where all things magical happen or the VFW Hall where all things magical also happen but with more crowded conditions – was the dealers’ room.  There guests can purchase magic tricks and commune (now legal in Michigan) with visiting magicians.  Fox 17 of Western Michigan points out that Inside Magic Favorite Bob Little has been making the trek for more than 50 years.  He is now 87-years-old but still just as spry and inventive.

“Magic has changed tremendously. It’s not the hobby it used to be,” he says. Little says he has noticed people’s attention move away from magic in recent years to electronic devices.”

They’ll come back, they always do.  We had electronic devices back in the 30’s, 40’s and so on.  We predict, and you can write this down – or just take a picture of the screen on one of your new-fangled ePhones:  “Magic will be a part of society as long as there is curiosity and invention.”  We didn’t make up that quote but it seems to fit well right about here and we’re certain the true author, statesman and magic lover Harry Truman wouldn’t mind.  We’ll check our ePowered Ouija board this evening to make sure.  Yes, he was talking about a different thing and he didn’t use the word “Magic” or “curiosity and invention” but it was the midst of the famous coal strike and he didn’t have time for such niceties.  But we knew what he meant.

Where else can you see magicians on the street, the bright sunlight, eating a hot dog from the gas station and filing into the Dealers’ Room to see the latest tricks from the best shops our Art.

“The get together dates back to the 1920’s when two world renowned magicians, Harry Blackstone and Percy Abbott, moved to Colon.  Mallen tells FOX 17, “He (Blackstone) was looking for lakefront property to purchase because he likes to fish.”

The two magicians would form Blackstone Magic Company. After a falling out between the two, Abbott would open what would become Abbott’s Magic Shop.”

See a list of all the performers here.

Latest Magic News, Magician Feature

Magicians Lance Burton and Bette Davis

Inside Magic Image of Lance Burton, Master MagicianMaster Magician Lance Burton and All About Eve have one thing in common.  They are perfect.  We can watch either over-and-over without need for any breaks.  But this is a magic blog read by fives to tens of people every day.  We are not here to talk about Bette Davis incredible role in her Oscar® winning film, but the incredible magic of Lance Burton.

Watching Lance Burton is, in a word, wonderful. He has the sleight of hand skills to astound magicians, the professional illusionist chops to wow the crowd and he loves animals and is a very nice person.

We know magicians who love animals but fail at meeting the remaining criteria.  Lance Burton has it all and always has.  His sleight of hand act on Johnny Carson iced the deal for us.  He does things that can only be explained as magic.  We don’t look for secrets or flaws, we just drink it in like a gerbil immediately after his wheelwork.

We say all this because Lance Burton will be in Modesto August 18th and performing in the perfect environment to see him work.   The Mary Stuart Rogers Theater is a fantastic venue and reminds us of the Lance Burton Theater that once held his nightly show at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas.  The sight-lines are great and the place is plush.

If you are anywhere near Modesto, you need to visit the theater and experience the true magic you will see by the Master Magician Lance Burton.

Visit the box office and get your tickets now.  They are going very quickly!

[UPDATED to include correct date for show]

Latest Magic News, Magic Review

A Trick that Fooled Us

lil fobWe are magicians through and through. The FOB caused serious damage to us. We’re no Penn & Teller although we refer to our self in the third-person.  But we love to be fooled and fooled horribly.  The kind of fooled where we can’t see straight from the headache that comes on almost  instantly, interrupted by the need to catch or absorb our slobber.

We stamp on the ground like a baffled horse — which was our 22:1  the pick in the Oaks Classic at Churchill Downs the day before the 1999 Kentucky Derby.  It was an all filly race and we figured we had the inside track.  We had a dream that day that the Number 7 was rubbing our back with a light oil (scentless), we woke at 7:07 am, we caught the 777 bus to Churchill downs, found Baffled Horse was the 7th horse in the 7th race and put $777 on the nose.  We watch the race with a certain sense of satisfaction to find that our pick game in 7th.  So even though we didn’t win, it was significant to us and taught  us to not sleep or if we do sleep, not to enter into REM states of sleep where dreams can occur.  We have switched to coffee in large amounts.  We go to 12 step meetings just to get the free coffee and cigs.  We never even smoke cigs, we just light them in a cool manner and blow the smoke out through the cigarette and then toss the flaming stick on the ground with the assured throw once would see in 1940s movies.

But we digress.

What’s new?

We love this trick.  It fooled us so badly.  We were sitting with friends outside the Magic Castle one night an a young man asked if he could show us a trick.  He was smoking a cigarette but really smoking it.  It was as if he wanted the smoke to go into his lungs.  He still had the cool toss and the smelly fingers but he was taking smoking to a whole new and likely unsafe level.  We don’t know if there has been any research on the effects of taking tobacco smoke into your lungs but it seems like something they should look at it.  Maybe the big tobacco companies could look into it since they would seem to have the most data.

He performed the trick and I could find no explanation.  None.  Now I learn that it can be bought here at MJM Magic.  Check it out and see if doesn’t make you drool.

Latest Magic News

Impostor Syndrome and Magicians

Inside Magic Image of Innovative BunnyThere is a wonderful, short essay in Jeff McBride’s newsletter today from a fellow magician by the name of Santiago.  His topic is one that we ponder incessantly – the Impostor Syndrome.

Magicians may face this more than other realms of the variety arts.  After all, our whole job is to be an impostor.  We recall Robert Houdin’s famous saying that a “magician is an actor playing the part of a magician.”  We weren’t around when he said or wrote it but we think it applies in spades to our feeling each time we take the stage or the close-up table.

Part of being a magician is deciding how we represent ourselves to the audience.  Do we claim to have magical powers (or can a psychic truly read minds)?  Or are we simply using skills undetectable by the audience to accomplish what appears to be real magic?  Or are we just presenting puzzles for the audience to guess their method?

Pop Haydn taught in his phenomenal School for Scoundrels that when presenting the Three Shell game, the audience doesn’t see it as true magic because they know there must be some way the invisible movement of the pea is being accomplished.  But that does not diminish the effect.

We are a sucker for charts.  You could tell us that the earth was round, the sky is blue and grass is green, and we would nod knowingly.  But if you showed us in a chart or a graphic, we would say things like “of course, now we see!” and we would say it in a manner that implied an exclamation point at the end of our statement.  Probably by speaking emphatically and nodding like a bobble head and smiling like a fool who is doing brain damage from incessant head nodding.

We mention charts not only because we love them but also because Santiago includes charts in his essay.

If you have pondered the Impostor Syndrome or are suffering from it, you should check out the essay and sign-up for Jeff McBride’s newsletter.  It has yet to disappoint.

Read the essay here.

Sign-up for Jeff McBride’s newsletter here.

Latest Magic News

Criss Angel Heads to Broadway

Inside Magic Image of Criss AngelMagician Criss Angel is taking his show from Las Vegas to Broadway.

He recently returned to Planet Hollywood, where he began the MINDFREAK television series that brought him and his unique brand of magic into the living rooms of millions.  That led to a long run with the Luxor and his association with Cirque du Soliel.

But now, as he points out in an interview with Fox News, his new show has “more lights than all seven Cirque [du Soleil] shows combined — over 2,000 lights. People are going to come to this show even in the entertainment capital of the world and they are going to see a show that will blow their mind unlike any show in the world of entertainment.”

He will bring his show “RAW – The Mindfreak Unplugged” to Broadway in July.

“The Broadway show is another goal that I’ve had since I was a kid and now I’ll be accomplishing that July 2nd — doing eight shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre that once housed Doug Henning, my childhood inspiration,” he said.

What will it be like?  Think of it as a rare, intimate evening with a magician usually only seen in huge venues.

He told Fox, it will be like a “stripped-down version of getting to know Criss Angel, as if I was in your living room hanging out having a beer,” adding that the experience will “make you feel like you can go out and conquer the world, especially after you see me levitate in pure light in a way that no one has ever done in the history of magic.”

The man works nearly around the clock performing, inventing and rehearsing.  It is more than just learning the secret to a trick on the internet.

“I didn’t have the Internet back in the day, I went to the card catalog … Now you know if somebody wants to learn a secret they go online and there’s no real work to understand what that secret really means to make it something valuable and to make it your own,” Mr. Angel said.

He is not just working to perfect his performances at Planet Hollywood or Broadway.  He has dedicated much to bring awareness to childhood cancer.  His son, Johnny Crisstopher, was diagnosed with leukemia at 2 years old. Now, Johnny, who is 5, is in remission.

“It really underscored what it means to really be a voice for these kids. And, so for me, my life’s commitment is these kids. I’ve dedicated a lot of my time, my money and just my focus to using my success which I’ve been blessed with to really raise awareness and be a voice for these kids.”

Read the full Fox interview here.

Check out Mr. Angel’s website here.

Latest Magic News, Magic on TV

Why is TV Magic So Unmagical?

Inside Magic Library Cover Page for Happy Hollisters and the Perfect FarosEntertainment Weekly writer Brittany Frederick asks why with so much magic on television recently, we are not feeling magical?

She points to the recent spate of shows about our craft such as Criss Angel BeLIEve; Syfy’s Wizard Wars, Close Up Kings, and Troy: Street Magic; The CW’s resurrection of Masters of Illusion and importing of Penn & Teller: Fool Us.   She likes the craft but apparently not the way it is being translated to television sets.  It is tough to disagree with her take.

She points out that Masters of Illusion has been squished from an hour-long show to 30 minutes (including commercials).  The net effect is that “Dean Cain has to go through acts so quickly that you barely have time to let the tricks sink in.”

Ms. Frederick bemoans – again with our wholehearted agreement – the move from logistics of putting on a magic show to the effect in isolation.
“What was so fantastic about Criss Angel BeLIEve when Spike unveiled it in October 2013 was that it was almost about everything but the performance. We got to know Angel a lot better and understand what it was like for him to do these challenging tricks every day. We learned about the history involved with many of his demonstrations. We met his team, and were able to listen in on their discussions about how to make magic happen, whether it was building a prop or finding the perfect location. We saw when things didn’t go according to plan and how they dealt with those situations. These are elements of magic that most TV audiences probably haven’t even thought about.”

Audiences are now taken from appreciating the history of a particular effect and the very real logistical challenges of presenting the trick, to merely asking whether an effect is performed with camera tricks or dodgy editing.

Check out her full article and well-considered opinions here.

Latest Magic News, Magic of UK, Magician Feature

David Blaine Takes on UK

Inside Magic Image of David BlaineIn an interview on this morning’s Heart Radio from the UK, Magician David Blaine talks about secrets – and how well he keeps them.

Even though that is what a magician does best – keeping secrets – his pals remind him to “not tell anyone” before letting him in on some confidential information.

He is in the United Kingdom for a tour – the first time he has ever toured with a live show.  He was suspended in a Plexiglas (“Perspex” in metric, we think) box near the Tower Bridge back in 2003.  But he didn’t tour in the box.  It remained in one place and was not dragged around the nation for people to peer at him trying to avoid motion sickness.  For that we and he are grateful.

His new show is called “Real or Magic.”  The title is somewhat similar to our tour of the tri-county area, “Really, it’s Magic.”  We had to adopt that title because we were ill-prepared and hardly able to perform the new effects we had inherited just five days before we started the tour of two towns in three counties.  (One of the towns was on the border so it still counts as a “Tri-County Tour” according to the official rules.  See, “Tri-County” entry in the 2nd edition of Black’s Law Dictionary).

The write-up on the Heart Radio page dispels an image of David that is apparently going around in the UK world.

Mr. Blaine, according to the article, has a “reputation for being somewhat of a ‘weirdo’, but in person he’s surprisingly friendly – and normal.”

Phewf!  In our book, being called a ‘weirdo’ is right up there with being called a ‘magician.’   At least that was our experience our whole life up until the typing of this article on our Underwood Portable TypeWriter; being watched by our covey of doves and two rabbits (both female – we think) over by the bed in our studio apartment near the train tracks for which we haven’t paid rent but for which we do little shows performing tricks a/k/a babysit for the building superintendent’s kids while he is out looking for a “better job than living in this dump by the tracks.”

Back to Mr. Blaine.

He loves being a father to his eight-year-old.  “Being a dad is the greatest feeling and the greatest joy and greatest feeling I’ve ever had in my lifetime and I can’t imagine anything ever equaling it.”

Continue reading “David Blaine Takes on UK” →

Latest Magic News

American Museum of Magic VIP Invite

American Museum of Magic InteriorWe received a very exciting note from Joshua Wilde of Wunderground Magic about Marshall, Michigan’s American Museum of Magic.  His post follows.

The site is located in the beautiful historic town of Marshall. The museum’s extraordinary treasures, dating from as early as the 16th century, tell the story of the history of magic – a story with deep Michigan roots!

Readers of Inside Magic are invited to partake in the American Museum of Magic’s 9th Annual Magic Gala on the evening of Saturday, June 15th. The festivities begin at 5:00pm with a reception at the Oak Hill House. Then at 7:30pm the party moves to the Franke Center for the Arts at 214 E. Mansion St. in Marshall for an evening of magic by the internationally renowned magician Matthew David Stanley.

You’re invited to an evening of wonder and magic to support the American Museum of Magic, featuring Comedy Magician Matthew David Stanley.

VIP admission includes a one-of-a-kind insider tour of the American Museum of Magic at 5:00 pm and a wine and cheese reception at the museum before the show. General admission includes the show only.

Matthew David Stanley is the proud recipient of the prestigious Lance Burton Award presented in Las Vegas, NV as well as the “International Brotherhood of Magicians Stage Champion Award”. He has been featured on NBC and FOX television networks and currently tours the United States, as well as internationally, performing at comedy clubs, colleges, theaters, and corporate events.

Tickets are available at the museum. You can also reserve them by calling (269) 781-7570. Tickets can also be purchased directly on-line at Brown Paper Tickets.

Marshall is one hour west of Detroit and 50 minutes south of Lansing – located just east of Battle Creek at the intersection of I-94 and I-69.

The American Museum of Magic is located on Marshall’s main business street at 107 East Michigan Street. It will be open on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Please consider helping us get this Michigan treasure back on its feet by joining us for some fun! If you are unable to join us but would like to help out with a tax deductible donation, please send the museum a check at P.O. Box 5, Marshall, MI 49068.

If you’re not familiar with the American Museum of Magic, it’s the largest collection of magical props and memorabilia that’s open to the public, and it’s just down the road from us. Please show your support for our magical heritage by attending the Gala or making a generous donation to the museum.

Tickets for the RECEPTION & MAGIC SHOW are $70 or for MAGIC SHOW ONLY $35. Tickets for this event are available online. or if that link doesn’t work you can find them from the main page of the American Museum of Magic at http://americanmuseumofmagic.com/events/summer-fundraiser/

Please come and invite your friends for an evening of pure magic!

Take care,

Josh

P.S. Share the Wunder, not the secret