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We Respond to Letters to the Editor

When required by court order or threat of litigation, Quinlan's Inside Magic publishes letters to the editor and issues corrections, retractions, or admissions of total fabrication. 

If you have a beef with something written, said, not said, or not pictured, on Quinlan's Inside Magic, please feel free to send an email to editor@insidemagic.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .  We always answer the letters either in this type of feature or directly by email. 

Accused Pesterer: Copperfield Baited Me

We were checking out the hemline forcast for next spring in today's online version of Vogue UK  when we came across this strange story.

Matt Hooker has been accused of stalking or "pestering" Nicole Kidman and Claudia Schiffer. 

He claims to have at least one celebrity stalker of his own. According to one of his numerous websites, Hooker fancies that both Schiffer and her ex, David Copperfield , have tailed him in the past, while Ben Affleck is more recently on his case.

Mr. Hooker describes the most recent "tailing" from Ben Affleck on one of his many web sites.

In the two months after I met Nicole, I caught him following or stalking me five times.

Three times on the streets in Santa Monica, once on the hiking trail near Nicole's home, and once, on May 8, he, or someone who looks a lot like him followed me into the men's room at my office, and, dressed like a Frenchman, with a 'pencil' or 'toothbrush' moustache, and a French shirt on, simply looked at me, smiled and waved goodbye and said 'sorry.'

Jeff Beacher's Mad House Jammed-Packed for Escape

We received a press release from Jeff Beacher's people today and became glee-filled. 

One of the keys to success in the search-engine game is to get popular key words incorporated into content.

Mr. Beacher provided a treasure chest in his news release. 

Get a wax pencil and circle the key words in the following.  It's like a word-seek puzzle. 

Plus, Mr. Beacher is insane to even attempt the escape he proposes so it is like a puzzle about someone who is going to risk his life to set a world record.

We're Sorry David Blaine - You're a Good Guy and We're Terrible

Some one once said, "keep your words soft and without foreign elements -- you may be forced to eat them later." 

Here we made fun of David Blaine just hours ago and then we read of his noble and brave efforts to help children in the northern cities of Israel. 

We should know better.  Note to Mr. Blaine: you're a good guy and good person -- we just wish you did more magic.  We want to see your tricks as much as your audiences in Israel or anywhere.

Non-Magic / Non-Poker Things to Do in Vegas

The poker-friendly magazine, All-In suggests there is another reason to go to Vegas other than poker; and that is to see Master Magician Lance Burton at the Monte Carlo.

Viz.

Hands-down, the biggest draw at this property is Lance Burton's magic show. The dapper illusionist-more approachable than David Copperfield, less spooky than David Blaine-thrills crowds with sleight of hand and multi-million-dollar special effects: his latest featured illusion is rumored to include a $10 million prop made of real gold. Burton's signature trick, the flying Corvette, is cheaper but just as impressive. The show runs Tuesday through Saturday in the custom-designed Lance Burton Theater, and is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2006. 

We Interview Cameron Fisk - PCAM Champ!

We wonder what one does when one does so well so young.

We told you last week about Cameron Fisk  – the rising star and recent winner of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians ("PCAM") Gold Medal Children's Magic competition. We were astounded to learn he was a mere lad of 19 and yet was able to not only hold his own but win against professionals from around the Pacific Rim.

We asked if he was man enough for the grueling Quinlan's Inside Magic Celebrity Interview. We warned him that we wouldn't let up on him just because of his young age or well-deserved celebrity. Our awkward, pointed, and insinuation-laden questions would open a Hot Pocket of microwave-prepared steaming intimidation on him.

Youth, it is said, will be served. We have no idea what it means but when we got to talking about Hot Pockets, we got hungry. Perhaps he is foolhardy or brave, but he took up our tossed gauntlet and submitted to The Process.

The transcript of the session follows.

We've made only one change: Mr. Fisk improperly identified the breakfast cereal "Kellogg's Frosted Flakes" as "Frosted Flakes." We are loyal to both trademark law and all who manufacture products within the great state of Michigan. We had no choice but to change the raw text. 

(See, Kellogg Company v. Exxon Corporation, 2000 FED App. 0123P (6th Cir. 2000) Kellogg has a valid and trademark registration for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes for "cereal-derived food product to be used as a breakfast food, snack food or ingredient for making food").

Make sure you check out his great web site here.

 

How long have you been performing Magic?

I started, like most magicians, when I was very young, around six years old. A simple very unimpressive little cut and restored rope trick got me interested. It finally gave me a reason to cut up my shoelaces!

Copperfield's Waters Restore Bugs - Fountain of Youth for Magician?

David Copperfield claims he can restore bugs and leaves that have been left for dead.

He sure is one hard-working guy.

He tours constantly and when he's not on the road, he's planning or rehearsing for the next leg of his never-ending world-tour.

We often wondered how he kept up the pace. How he stayed perpetually young. We also had questions about how he does that trick where he lasers off half his body and walks down a platform.

We have answered one of the two questions.

According to the very reliable Australian Broadcast Company's news feed, Mr. Copperfield has found "The Fountain of Youth."

19 Year Old Cameron Fisk Wins PCAM Gold Medal

Success is defined in so many different ways and always in accordance with the reasonable expectations for the task and individual.   By any standards, Cameron Fisk has been very successful.

We heard from Mr. Fisk fresh off a very successful five days at the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians ("PCAM"). 

Mr. Fisk is nineteen-years-old and the alter-ego of the kid-show character Mac Backwards. 

If he were to attend an international convention of PCAM's caliber, meet new friends, learn new magic, perhaps even share a trick or two, we would all agree the trip was a success. 

Magic Book Review: Penn Jillette on How to Cheat Your Friends in Poker

The book is based on material putatively provided by an old acquaintance of Mr. Jillette, called by the nom de plume Dickie Richard.  Mr. Jillette was permitted to create any pseudonym for his source and for some reason chose the name "Dickie Richard."  Our therapist says were obsessed with these types of things but the name gave us pause.

You can call us "moronic," "unethical," "psycho," or "scum-bag-esque" but we admit we love to be verbally abused -- especially in writing.

But that's not the reason we loved -- absolutely and in all connotations of the word -- Penn Jillette's How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker. 

After all, the last name Richard is rather rare in the United States.  The surname is most often "Richards."  According to the U.S. Social Security Death Registry, there are a mere 13,353 folks in their database of over 77 million with the last name spelled in this manner compared with fewer than 40,000 for "Richards." (Interestingly, there are only nine records for "Jillette").

Erik Mana Breaks the Magician Mold

Magicians do come in many flavors but we're all basically the same.  We can change our clothes -- we get a new shirt every ten shows -- but it doesn't change our approach to the art.

Erik Mana wants to change all of that.

Erik Mana's introduction on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/erikmana) starts out with a grabber - literally:

Long time ago, a wise man once told me "...pat your hand near his crotch, then pull it out!!"

I later realized that he was referring to how to lift a man's wallet from his back pocket whilst applying the necessary distraction. Since then,

I've been picking pockets, stealing watches and lifting jewelry like a bad habit, but then again - that's my job."

We've written about Mr. Mana on other web sites and found his fans to be the most loyal and enthusiastic of any of our subjects.