Category: Magic News

News from the World of Magic

Latest Magic News, Magic News

David Blaine Signs on with the Beeb

Inside Magic Image of Fed Chairman Ben BernankeEveryone loves Justin Bieber.  We weren't sure until we read the USA Today and saw their very helpful graphic showing that everyone love everything about Justin Bieber always.

We think that was the proper interpretation of the graphic.  It wasn't our copy of the USA Today.  It was half-way tucked under the door of our neighbor here at the Marriott by the airport.  Ours was locked in our spacious executive suite along with our luggage and the two keys made specially for us by Trina last night. 

The graphic showed some kind of pie chart with an outline of the globe and pictures of either Justin Bieber or a child actor with a really bad haircut surrounded by hearts flooding towards his floating head from locations around the world. 

It may have been a graphic about the Federal Reserve Board's decision to undertake a third round of Quantitate Easing but the picture didn't look like Princeton University Professor and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke per se.  

Anyway, our point was that Justin Bieber is one popular singer and he wants to add some specialness  to his upcoming tour.  Logically, he has hired David Blaine to mix magic, mirth and music to give the audience something about which they will no doubt tweet and blog.   

Mr. Bieber's first show will be on September 29, 2012 in Glendale, Arizona. 

He said he is rehearsing "like crazy" and is "really excited" about having David Blaine consulting. 

Ironically, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has also signed on David Blaine to assist in the creation of a pamphlet teaching readers how to go without food for up to 40 days in the event the latest monetary move doesn't do the trick.

(See what we did there? "doesn't do the trick"? Blaine's a magician and . . . )

Magic Law, Magic News

Magic Patents Don’t Help: Learn from Horace Goldin

Inside Magic Image of Saturday Evening Post Advertisement from Camel CigarettesWe uploaded into the Inside Magic Library, the 1938 decision by the federal district trial court in the Southern District of New York dismissing Horace Goldin’s lawsuit against R.J. Reynold’s Tobacco for an injunction blocking their alleged exposure of Goldin’s trade secret for Sawing a Woman in Half.  You can see the decision here.

The Court’s decision was correct — Goldin was wrong and apparently didn’t even appear for the hearing.

The Court buys R.J. Reynold’s defense that it did not take Goldin’s secret.  The tobacco folks claimed they got their version of the secret by reading a book written by Inside Magic Favorite Author Walter B. Gibson.

We are publishing the decision to demonstrate an unfortunately frequent mistake of magicians.   A patent only keeps others from making the exact same illusion — it cannot protect the secret or even the idea behind the secret.

Mr. Goldin also failed to understand what is meant by “Trade Secret.”  This is still a common mistake made by magicians.   True, one can protect trade secrets under US intellectual property law but a trade secret must be secret first and foremost.

The method of performing a magic trick is not a trade secret if it is known by others — even if it is known only by magicians.  It may be a secret of the trade but that does not make it a trade secret.

A magician can protect a trade secret only if it is truly secret, he or she has taken the steps to protect the secret, and the person being sued had some agreement or contract with the magician to keep the secret.  Unless there was an agreement between the parties or there was some sort of special relationship between the parties where a court could conclude all agreed the secret was to be kept, there is no basis for a lawsuit.

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Magic News

Cruise to Magic Castle: Special Admission for Non-Members

Inside Magic Image of Magician Rich BlochIt is well documented that we love magic.  In fact, we challenge anyone to question our nearly fanatical obsession with all things magic.  As we said under oath during a U.S. Senate hearing recently:

“Senator, simply put, we love magic.”

Of course the question posed was not directly related to magic — it was about something related to alleged embezzlement of crop insurance premiums and we needed to stall — but still it was under oath and without ambiguity.

We also love cruising (not “cursing”) as our spell-check incorrectly substituted in the earlier editions of this post.  Given a choice, we would live aboard a ship sailing the smooth seas from port to port whilst we puffed on a fine cigar, sipped an appropriately aged and chilled Diet Coke and practiced our one-hand shuffles.  We have often offered to be a boy-toy to any rich matron with the resources to keep us in cigars, cards and Diet Coke but we are beginning to think we have signed up for the wrong social networking site.  We have received many offers but not one from rich widows.  The closest offer was from a sea captain working a trawler in the North Sea who thought the expression “boy-toy” meant “boy robot” like Astro Boy.  Once the translation was cleared up, he had no interest.

But we digress.

This morning, we read that the very ritzy “Crystal Cruises has pulled the ultimate rabbit out of a hat with a new, industry-1st program named ‘Magic Castle at Sea.'”

It was nothing less than amazing that the name of the program was virtually identical to the advertisement we had on PensionersPals.com.  Ours was “Tricks on a Boat.”  Pretty close.

The cruise line engaged fellow lawyer and magician Rich Bloch to perform aboard the Crystal Symphony.  Similar shows will be available on the stunning Crystal Serenity.  But wait, it gets better.

Once the passengers return to dry land, they will be given a special ticket for entry into the exclusive Magic Castle.

“Considering club guests might only get entrance if they’re in LA and invited by a member, Crystal’s Magic Castle at Sea secures rare admission to a truly spellbinding entertainment experience,” told in a statement Crystal’s Vice President of Entertainment, Bret Bullock. “We’re excited to suggest our guests yet another amazing opportunity in high-caliber vacation fun.”

This is a combination we cannot resist.  Great magic, outstanding cruise and a ticket into the the Magic Castle.  We look forward to seeing you on board. Read more about the deal here.
Magic News

Boy Scouts, Magic and Screeds

Inside Magic Image of More Courtesy Poster from WPAWhat is a person to do? We enjoy (or enjoyed) Carl E. Jones’ newsletters over the years. We have never met the man but found his mailings to be filled with great leads for interesting stories related to magic and clowning.

Today, out of the blue, we received a tirade with the subject line: “Update on the update on the BAN on homosexuality in the Boy Scouts (aka) Sometimes you just have to stand up for what you believe in and let the chips fall where they may.”

Usually, Mr. Jones passed along links to upcoming magic shows, great deals on used magic or clowning equipment, commendation of gifted performers or reflections on the state of magic in Texas and elsewhere.

We read through the lengthy screed and thought maybe it was a parody or lampoon. It was filled with double entendres. He bemoans those who would foist their position on him by writing “I am sick and tired of people trying to cram things down our throat . . .” and two paragraphs later, “Gets old having something crammed down your throat you don’t agree with, doesn’t it……..” (ellipses in original).

Mr. Jones objects to homosexuals being in positions of leadership within the Boy Scouts (presumably he has no problems with homosexual Girl Scout leadership) because he believes homosexuality to be wrong, contrary to the teachings of the Bible and somehow related to the criminal behavior of pedophilia.

On this last contention he writes: “I also did NOT say that all homosexuals are pedophiles. Some are. Some aren’t. Some heterosexuals are pedophiles and some aren’t. That’s not the only issue.”

For those keeping score, that makes the pedophilia argument moot. If Mr. Jones concedes homosexuality is not causally related to pedophilia (presumably homosexual pedophilia – as if that makes a difference), then it does not advance his argument that homosexuality should disqualify one from being a scout leader. After all, if as Mr. Jones writes, heterosexual men are as likely to commit the felony of pedophilia, they too should be disqualified from scout leadership.

Mr. Jones writes: “A BIG issue for most of us that will fight this issue till the day after hell freezes over is that the LIFESTYLE of a homosexual is NOT the lifestyle that we believe in. It is NOT the lifestyle that we want our children exposed to because many of us believe, as the bible states, that it is wrong.”

One wonders how a homosexual scout leader will expose his troop to this lifestyle. Certainly many of the scouts have heard of homosexuality and, according to statistics, a percentage of the young men are homosexual themselves. Speaking of statistics, it has been proven that 100 percent of all homosexuals come from heterosexual parents. One might think that something other than environment or parenting skills influences or determines sexual nature.

Mr. Jones begins his conclusion by reminding readers, “If you are a homosexual that is NOT my business. It is NOT up to me to judge that issue for you. And to be clear, I am NOT judging you. I am commenting on a LIFESTYLE.”

Mr. Jones posits those who accept homosexuality as a “small minority” of the American population. That is not actually correct. According to a September 2011 survey from the University of Chicago, “Although 44 percent of the people surveyed felt that sexual relations between two adults of the same sex is always wrong, another 41 percent thought such relations were “not wrong at all.” “Just 11 percent were in the middle, saying it was either ‘almost always wrong’ or ‘wrong only sometimes.'”

Continue reading “Boy Scouts, Magic and Screeds” →

Magic News

Blaine Does Trademark Card Tricks

Inside Magic Image of Johnson Smith Ad for Magic SetDavid Blaine played to a nearly empty theatre in Holland recently.

The dearth of audience members was intentional, however.

DNA India reports his sponsor, Madonna, rented out the entire movie theater “so that she could enjoy a night out at the movies with her boyfriend Brahim Zaibat.”

Described as Madonna’s “Toyboy” by the media source, Mr. Zaibat is a 24-year-old dancer on tour with the iconic performer.

Mr. Blaine was brought in to entertain the small party of Madonna, her companion, daughter and manager at The Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam.

DNA India says Mr. Blaine performed his “trademark card tricks.”

We are told that Madonna was wearing “a cardigan, knee length skirt and glasses” and her ensemble could be considered “demure.”

We have attempted to learn more about Mr. Blaine’s “trademark card tricks” but to no avail. Initially, we assumed this was some new effect in which trademarks of various companies or services vanished or transformed visibly whilst in the able control of the magician. This left us without the satisfaction we crave when we encounter something new.

We immediately tore through our books and periodicals collected in the anteroom to the great Hardy Estate’s Southern Annex. We found nothing about “trademark card tricks” in the more recent journals and books.

Knowing Mr. Blaine’s penchant for reviving the classics of the great masters – such as Buried Alive in the spirit of Harry Houdini – we thought “trademark card tricks” maybe a knowing wink to the performance of his predecessors.

Interestingly, it is widely accepted that one of the very first trademark was created by and for the Dutch East Indies Company in Amsterdam around 1601. Perhaps that was why Mr. Blaine performed the “trademark card tricks” whilst in the city.

We were able to find one reference to a trick that sounds similar to the “trademark card trick” in an old Popular Science magazine advertisement from Johnson Smith & Co. The writing is difficult to make out and we have tried to highlight the portion that seems relevant. Our reading of the original (sorry for the poor quality scan) is:

“but none MORE entertaining then (sic) TRADEMARK Cards trick . . . VANISH and REAPPEAR with EASE . . . friends and even GIRLS!”

We will continue looking for additional references and supplement this article as we find them.

But for now, as the Sherlock Holmes commented to Dr. Watson upon learning his toilet seat was stolen – no doubt by Professor Moriarity – “I’m afraid there’s not much to go on.”

 

Latest Magic News, Magic News

Blaine, Murder, Magic & Art

Inside Magic Image of Performance Artist Marina Abramovic Performing Rhythm, 0 (Circa 1974)There is a fine line between art and premeditated murder.

Magician and endurance stunt endurer David Blaine knows the location of that fine line. He will come close to it but not cross. That’s why he continues to command huge fees and great ratings for his appearances.

Marina Abramovic?, artist and author of Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, has made a reputation in the often confusing but almost always entertaining world of Performance Art. New York Magazine’s Vulture blog notes the documentary about her 730 hour-long staring contest at the New York Museum of Modern Art won the Audience Prize for a feature film at a festival in Paris honoring US indie films.

The film is now showing in New York and stirring some controversy. New York Magazine’s Vulture blog writer Andre Tartar wondered “just how much lustier the reception [for the film] might’ve been if Abramovic? really had let magician David Blaine disembowel her with a fire axe.”

Mr. Blaine chews on a glass whilst discussing a performance piece with the artist. We assume he was just “spit-ballin'” some ideas with his creative equal. He proposed taking a hatchet to Ms. Abramovic? and leaving her in pieces-n-parts all over the exhibit space. “You know there are always those axes in the glass in case of emergency,” Blaine says on the video. “…She’s laying there, and the whole exhibition is over.

We are not sure why Mr. Blaine and Ms. Abramovic? abandoned this sensational plan. Then again, we are not sure why Mr. Blaine goes through with many of his other stunts. There is a shrewd calculus in the mystifier’s mind. That’s what makes him special.

As for Ms. Abramovic?, however, she is clearly not adverse to taking her pursuit of art to places rarely considered in suburban wine-and-cheese galleries.

In the early 1970’s, Ms. Abramovic? performed Rhythm, 0. She became completely submissive to her audience and allowed them to use one of 72 different items to interact with her. The items were a mixture of harmful, pleasurable and benign. She had a gun held to her head, she was pierced by rose thorns, and suffered other indignities. The lesson, “if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.”

Excellent point and, in our humble opinion, an amazing work of art.

Check out the incredible MOMA page documenting The Artist is Present exhibition here.

The documentary will appear exclusively on HBO on July 2nd.

Magic News, Magician Feature

WILD ABOUT HARRY: Houdini’s watch sells for $25,000

Inside Magic Image of Beautiful Watch Owned by HoudiniJohn Cox’ website Wild About Harry is a must-stop on our daily gallivant across the digital dusty trails that crisscross the internets.

He feeds at least half our jones with information about Harry Houdini’s continued hold on the imagination of our collective, modern mind.

Today, he filled us to the brim with news about Harry Houdini AND antique watches.

We have admitted our weaknesses often, publicly and consistently to certain objects that hold a fetishistic control over our innards.  Two of those “things” that can make us lose track of time, sense of place and dollars we do not have or could hope to ever obtain are antique pens and watches.

Why?  We don’t know.  No clue.  Yes, much of our schooling was accomplished (or at least attempted) while we were traveling with the Li’l Tom Hardy show and the private tutors hired often had peculiar takes on educational methods.  And yes, we were affected deeply by one tutor who would hypnotize with the aid of a brilliant gold watch, rewards us with beautiful fountain pens and, when necessary, punish us with the same two items but used differently.

Some (such as the California Child Endangerment Board) might associate our current irrational joy or fear to our prior experiences with watches and pens.  We do not think about it that much, however.  We just assume it is one of those special little quirks that make us “special.”

Other quirks include:

1.         Refusal to drink any hot beverage unless it is placed on a table and sipped through a 24″-26″ plastic straw;

2.         Refusal to eat any meat unless purchased from Burger King (or other establishment with a connection to royalty);

3.         Fear of spontaneous landslides occurring whilst using a portable toilet;

4.         Insistence that all Swiss Cheese have an odd number of holes;

5.         Belief that the souls of chicks from eggs we have eaten cause dyspepsia and hearing loss; Continue reading “WILD ABOUT HARRY: Houdini’s watch sells for $25,000” →

Magic News

Houdini: Who’s Your Daddy?

Inside Magic Image of Novel Ferret Out by Tim QuinlanHoudini’s father was a ________?

If you answered Rabbi, you may or may not be correct.

If you said, “lawyer,” you may be close.

If you asked, “who is ‘Houdini’?”  You are on the wrong site.

If you whined, “a person is much more than what he does for a living,” you are probably also on the wrong site but because your response evidences so much depth and sensitivity we assume you have lived life of considerable pain and disappointment and would hate to add to the long list of places and people who have rejected you.  You can stay but don’t touch anything.

The Houdini File is publishing a multi-part series on the question of Houdini’s daddy.  It is absolutely fascinating.

The series is a product of The Houdini Birth Research Committee of the Society of American Magicians.  Their task was to “ferret out hard facts about Mayer Samuel Weisz.”

As an aside, we love the phrase “ferret out hard facts” for inducing a wonderful melange of visual imagery.  In fact, our first World War II novel was titled “Ferret Out!” From the dust jacket “Captain Elmo Ferret was a young aviator trained as a crop duster in rural Key West, Florida drafted into Uncle Sam’s Air Corps to put a hurtin’ on a different kind of crop-destroying pest.”

Continue reading “Houdini: Who’s Your Daddy?” →

Magic News

Magic and Anesthesiology in the News

So we were perusing Anesthesiology: The Journal of the American Association of Anesthesiologists whilst waiting for our HOT POCKETS® brand Breakfast – Ham, Egg & Cheese sandwich to cook and came across two articles with magical applications.

The first is by Dr. Amr Abouleish titled “Try and hold your breath while reading this!”

The second is “A Mixed (Long- and Medium-chain) Triglyceride Lipid Emulsion Extracts Local Anesthetic from Human Serum In Vitro More Effectively than a Long-chain Emulsion,” by Weiming Ruan and Deborah French.

The first piece gives an anesthesiologist’s take on magician David Blaine’s world record setting attempts at holding his breath (as opposed to holding someone elses?) for more than 17 minutes. You can watch the TED Talk in which Mr. Blaine instructs audience members in the special preparation needed to hold their breath for more than three minutes after breathing “normal” or upwards of 17 minutes after huffing pure oxygen.

Dr. Abouleish poses the following question to his new anesthesiologist residents when discussing the relationship of end-tidal CO2 and respiration. “If your oxygen saturation is 100% and you hold your breath, what would your oxygen saturation be when you have to breathe?”

Of course all magicians know the answer to this but non-magic oriented medical residents need to be reminded of the relatively slow decline in oxygen saturation experienced by pre-oxygenated patients under general anesthesia.

We agree with Dr. Abouleish’s praise of Blaine’s talk. Those in the audience were able to hold their breath for as long as three minutes or more. Check it out for yourself and abide the constant warnings that this is not a skill easily acquired and one should never try this under water. The chance of passing out is high and because the risk of drowning whilst underwater is directly proportional to being conscious, you could, in the medical parlance, “konk out and die.”

The comments to Dr. Abouleish’s article are also instructive. There is general agreement that Mr. Blaine should have sought advice from an anesthesiologist rather than neurologists.

Instructive is a comment from Dr. Gerald Zeitlin. His capitalization and grammar is taken verbatim from his post:

As you all know Dr. Abouleish is discussing apneic oxygenation.

Watching David Blaine do his 17 minutes was fantastic – but what an incredibly wasted opportunity for science.

As we all know, HE SHOULD HAVE CONSULTED AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST!

Neurosurgeons “Don’t know nuffin’ ” about respiratory physiology. Why did Blaine not have an arterial line for his record attempt – then we’d have known what his arterial pCO2 was after 17 minutes.

Of course we all know that, at rest, during apnea the pCO2 rises between 3 and 5 mm. Hg per minute.

I failed math in Kindergarten but I think 17 times, let’s say 4 mm. Hg = 68. So, approximately he was at 108 mm.Hg pCO2.

As WE (anesthesiologists) know that level has mild to moderate anesthetic properties. I bet if you Emailed Dr. Eger he would know what the MAC of CO2 is.

We would love to meet Dr. Zeitlin. He is our kind of guy.

The second article of magic merit in the February 2012 edition of Anesthesiology, attempts to the answer the age old question, which extracts local anesthesia better, a “mixed” triglyceride lipid emulsion or a long-chain version?

Houdini’s correspondence with Kellar on this issue springs to mind.

Continue reading “Magic and Anesthesiology in the News” →

Magic News, Magician Feature

Failure Means a Drowning Death Redux

Inside Magic Image of Adam CardoneToday’s New York Daily News draws readers into its tabloid fold with the headlines “Snooki tweets photo of baby bump”  and Adam Cardone works magic on escapist fare.

If you are interested in the Snooki baby bump story, check out our sister website, Inside Snooki for the latest sonogram images of what she has cooking.  Here on Inside Magic, however, we discuss magic and not the kind of magic Snooki works on the MTV show Jersey Shore.  We’re talking the kind of magic that makes you feel good and involves some degree of book learnin’.

Mr. Cardone didn’t start off to be a magician.  He did recognize his extroverted nature would lead him into fields where his personality would be appreciated and perhaps rewarded.  Perhaps he does share something in common with Snooki.

“I’ve been an extrovert in my home life,” he says, “so why be any different in my professional life?”

He studied acting at the very prestigious and very tough to get into Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  With his Masters of Fine Arts in hand, he set off to act.  Soon, however, he found “straight acting” to be blasé.
So from straight acting to straight jackets, the young man with big dreams and high energy found magic and its sub-discipline of escape artistry.
He will appear in Brooklyn this Saturday at “The Olde Time Coney Island Strongman Spectacular,” a free event on W. 12th St. and the Bowery in Brooklyn.
Inspired by Harry Houdini, Mr. Cardone will perform the Milk Can Escape.  But with a twist.

“If you type ‘milk can escape’ into Google,” Mr. Cardone told the news folks, “it immediately comes up with the secret to the trick. I start my show by telling the audience Houdini’s way.”

His way, according to the Daily News is not an illusion but that the dangers of the escape are genuine. “The straitjacket is real, the locks are real, and the possibility of it all going very wrong is the most real of all.” Continue reading “Failure Means a Drowning Death Redux” →