Tag: Levitation

Magic of UK

Dynamo: Magician Impossible Season 3 Begins with Viral Success

Inside Magic Image of Dynamo Levitating on London BusWe don’t know if he and Pepsi planned this but it seems Dynamo has made quite the sensation on the social media machine.

Apparently, a guy cannot just float along side a double-deck bus without it bringing attention of the entire world through the internet.  It went viral shortly after it was posted to YouTube and like any social virus, it spread quickly as friends shared it with friends, co-workers, fellow travelers and, we’re guessing, the NSA.

There have been theories about how Dynamo performed the effect but as long-time readers of Inside Magic know, we do not reveal secrets.  We just marvel and the ingenuity and creativity evidenced by this expert piece of advertising and well-executed public magic performance.

You can read about how the effect was performed on The Christian Science web page.  The author of that article is the son of an unnamed female magician and refuses to give away the real secrets but does share some of the meta-secrets behind the science behind the magic.

Check out the full article here.

Levitating magician: How magicians use science to deceive – CSMonitor.com.

Dynamo will air the first episode of his third season of Dynamo: Magician Impossible on Watch Channel (UK) on July 11th 2013 at 9 pm but you can get a sneak preview here.

Magic News

Copperfield Levitates Guests at LA Gala

Inside Magic Image of Kellar's Levitation

Magician David Copperfield contributed to L.A.'s Promise "A Night of Magic" fete this week and gave attendees a souvenir unlikely to be forgotten.

Mr. Copperfield's creative people built a photography studio to simulate each guest's levitation. The effect was really cool.

As regular (and irregular) readers of this magic news source know, we are loathe to expose any magic secrets, ever. So this story provided a challenge for us. Could we expose the secret behind trick photography used to apparently show a real magic trick that we would never expose? We checked with Mystic Hollow, Michigan's resident scholar on all things related to ethics and magic, Maurice "Moki" Vanderwallenjag. Professor Vanderwallenjag wrote the book on magic ethics, literally. His The Ethical Magician is the authoritative text in the field and he teaches a course on ethical considerations of the variety performer at the Mystic Hollow Community College every other year.

"To expose a trick is always wrong," Moki wrote. "Unless one is exposing the trick to a very select audience for the purpose of educating that audience on the subject of performing said trick and the trick being taught is the sole intellectual property of the instructor."

We weren't sure how that helped us in this circumstance. We didn't feel like asking for clarification because we had a deadline to meet and Moki takes forever to say anything. There was a reason he succeeded as a silent act and failed miserably as a telephone solicitor.

We invite you to visit BizBash for a behind the scenes look at Mr. Copperfield's very ingenious method.

Latest Magic News

Magic Sales: Our Favorite Time of Year

Inside Magic Image of Ellusionist Sale BannerEllusionist.com knows we are vulnerable and yet taunts with offers of up to 30 percent off magic we want (need) if we buy in the next three days. 

Yes, we freely admit we have a problem with Magic. 

The deficiency is found not in the craft but in our soul.  Our double-wide (practically, just shy of a true "double wide" as defined by the ISO) is about to burst at its aluminum strip covered seams with magic purchased and never used. 

Our stage routine has not changed significantly since 1972 and our close-up presentation is identical to that which earned us the 1974 Florida State Magicians' Convention First-Place trophy.  So, counting each deck of cards utilized as a separate trick and not counting the Atomic Light as magic but more as a novelty, we use a total of seven "tricks" in both shows combined.  If we learned to do a false shuffle, we'd be down to five tricks total. 

Our insurance inventory sheet, however, details 421 separate pieces of magic equipment and 1,901 magic books in hard or soft cover.  If the Magic Trailer ever went up in a blaze, we could replace both of our shows for just over $35.00; not including a table.  We could collect about six hundred times that figure for the loss of our "magic collection."

Perhaps your collection is our size our larger.  Maybe you are just starting your collection of unused tricks in a spare dresser drawer or trunk.  Each time you attend a convention, watch a lecture or visit a magic shop you likely add to the stockpile of regrets and forgotten promises. 

We're not psychopathic or even amnesiac, but when we are given an opportunity to buy a magic trick (in our very low price range) we usually take full advantage.  We then return home to inventory the new effect, perhaps open it from its wrapping, maybe even read the instructions, and, possibly, try it once or twice.  We don't intentionally put it into the collection and when we purchase it we never think it will be anything but the primary effect of our new act.

If we performed the new act for which we have purchased so many effects over the years, we would be on stage for more than two weeks.  This assumes we did not overly milk the sucker effects like "Fraidy Cat Rabbit," "Run Rabbit Run," "Run Wolf Run," "Run Monster Run," "Hippity Hop Rabbits," "Sucker Sliding Die Box," "Shamrock Sucker Sliding Die Box," "Classic Sucker Sliding Die Box," "Nu-View Sucker Sliding Die Box," and "The McCombical Deck."

Continue reading “Magic Sales: Our Favorite Time of Year” →

Magic News

19 Year-Old Inventor Sues Criss Angel

jacob spinneyMagician and inventor Jacob Spinney filed suit against Criss Angel on June 8, 2009 claiming Mr.  Angel renigned on a promise to pay for rights to Spinney’s Chair Self-Levitation, Spinney’s Chair Self-Suspension and Spinney’s Fork-Bending gimmicks.

You can download a copy of the complaint from Inside Magic here.

Mr. Spinney filed his eight-count complaint against Criss Angel in Nassau County, New York, home of Angel Productions, Incorporated.

According to the complaint, in 2004, Mr. Angel asked Murphy’s Magic Supplies for  “illusions or magical effects” to be used in this upcoming MindFreak television series.

Murphy’s referred Criss Angel to teenage inventor Jacob Spinney.  The two spoke, and Angel offered Spinney a position as “Magic Consultant” on the upcoming series.

Continue reading “19 Year-Old Inventor Sues Criss Angel” →