Magic News Network

Mark and Shelia Cannon's Great Escape Convention Featured

We received great news from Mark and Shelia Cannon this morning and wanted to share it with you -- in case you have not yet received M-U-M or are not a member of the Society of American Magicians.

Mr. and Mrs. Cannon are more than tremendous performers, they are wonderful and giving people to our art form.  We are lucky to have them in our profession.

 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Sheila and I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season.

We wanted to be sure to let you all know to be sure to check out this month's (December) issue of M-U-M magazine. 

 

It features a GREAT TWO-PAGE REVIEW OF THE 4TH ANNUAL ESCAPE ARTIST CONVENTION!  It is written by David Goodsell (Please be sure to tell him thanks when able).

 

The article includes pictures of EVERYONE in their strait jackets with Robert Baxt EmCeeing, Kevin & Kristen performing their wonderful Full-View Water Torture Cell,  Mr. Hall Eisner of FOX TV trying out a strait jacket, Joe Fox and Sheila locking some guy in a packing crate, etc. 

 

And the mentions in the article are even better.  Those include:  Bill Shirk winning the Silver Cuffs and performing his act, lecture and showing of "Modern Day Houdini", Kevin and Kristen performing their spectacular Water Torture Cell as well as lecturing on "Bumping", Robert Baxt doing such a great job as MC, Thomas Solomon with his dramatic "Cabinet Obscura", Margarette LeClair performing her charming "Mirror Cuffs",  Matt Marcy with his hilarious "Blender of Death!", Joe Fox presenting the bizarre "Escaped Artist" act on opening night, Sheila, Joe and some "Hayseed" in a wooden box, etc.

But it also goes into detail about Criss Angel stopping by, and the contest winners including Joe Marotta for the handcuff picking, Mark Lundblad for Padlock picking, and Joe Fox for the Special Escape Challenge. 

 

It also mentions that we had folks form Argentina, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and of course, the USA.  A main theme of the article is how our escape convention had such a terrific press coverage on TV, and presents the challenge to magic convention producers to start booking escape artists!

 

Anyway, we thought you would like to know.  This really isn't an ad to join the S.A.M., but if you aren't already a member you may want to consider it, as MUM has been really good to us. 

 

Check out www.magicsam.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mark and Sheila

www.cannonsgreatescapes.com

Magic Tags:  Magic News,  Magic Conventions,  mark cannon,  cannons great escapes,  escape artist,  society of american magicians

A Strange Request - Stranger Answer: Ask Mr. Magic Column

Guy "Bug" Tussle is more than a great magician and friend of Quinlan's Inside Magic, he is also a tremendous historian on all things Magic.  His Henderson, Nevada townhouse is filled with books, magazines, pamphlets, and posters related in any possible manner to Magic. 

When we are stumped with a question from one of our readers through ask-tim@insidemagic.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , we send it along to Mr. Tussle.  He usually finds the obscure to make the past come alive.

We thought he was stumped on this one from Julie DeWitt of Macon, Georgia.  By the way, we did not send Mr. Tussle Miss DeWitt's real address based on lessons learned from past "misunderstandings."

Dear Ask-Tim:

This is going to sound like a weird question but here goes. 

I am new to magic but have been doing performing for years in school drama clubs and even two local community plays here in town.  I was lucky to learn hand-eye coordination from baton twirling and Diablo juggling and things like that but not magic like a magician does magic. 

Splitting Hairs on Your Face: No Mustached Magicians!

Mark Panner submitted sixteen articles this week (and it's only Tuesday).  This one made the least sense so we print it without comment. You can reach Mark Panner at magicmark@insidemagic.com. 

Introduction to this Column

It used to be magicians were clean-cut, All-American men.  Not any more.  No. Now, magicians have to look like every other performer in the side-show. They have long hair, tattoos, pierced body parts, and even facial hair. 

Walt Disney didn't allow facial hair on the people meeting the public. He knew that facial hair (on men or women) makes people nervous (when it is on men) or nauseous (when it is on women). Mr. Walt Disney did not let his women wear too much make-up or his men wear any make-up at all. Men couldn't have ear rings or any other kind of piercing and no visible tattoos were allowed at all.

Nate Kranzo - Good Guy with Great Magic

We consider Michigan's Master Magician Nate Kranzo a friend -- we have no idea if the feeling is mutual.  Regardless,  any friend of Nate is a friend of ours.  We've checked out his links and were impressed.  Check out his video showing of one of the neatest tricks we've seen in a while, Invisible Elasticity II (pronounced "Invisible Elacticity TWO" not, as we called it, "Invisible Elasticity EYE-EYE").  We intend to save up our money to buy the download (it's only $12.95 but they took all of our money as a condition of the parole).  Finally, you must sign up for Mr. Kranzo's newsletter.  He writes with vim & vigor about things we love.  Subscribe by heading here.

Jeannie a/k/a Sue-Anne Webster is Coming

We think the world of both Sue-Anne Webster and Tim Ellis.

The following from their outstanding web site (http://magicunlimited.typepad.com)serves as an invitation to meet and see the more attractive of the dynamic magic duo, Sue-Anne, in her role as Jeannie. 

If you happen to live in, or near, Sydney then you may be interested to know that Sue-Anne will be appearing as Jeannie at the JB HiFi Store in The Galeries Victoria (that's how they spell it...) at 500 George St, Sydney on Thursday for Sony to promote the release of the classic TV series 'I Dream of Jeannie' on DVD.

You can catch her between 1-3pm and again from 5-7pm. Bring a camera and get a photo of yourself with 'Jeannie'!

Spread the word!

Visit Tim and Sue-Anne's web site here.

Tim Ellis  Sue-Anne Webster  I Dream of Jeannie  Magic News 

My First Kid's Party

Mark Panner is a fan of Quinlan's Inside Magic or at least he has our number on his mother's speed-dial.  He submits stories almost daily and we rarely print (or even read) any of the offerings. 

We are printing his recollections of apparently his first Kid's Show Party because we think it might teach some important lessons.  Or maybe not.  You can read Mr. Panner's review of Bob Sheets' act here.  You can also check out his review of a magic effect offered by FAB Magic in Colon, Michigan by going here .


The kids were so cute and they had a devil of a time sitting still as I set up my props.

I was trying to think of a way to keep them in line and though about offering candy or Mountain Dew if they would sit in one place while I set up. 

I read somewhere that with kids that have ADHD, they need stimulants like Ritalin to keep them calm and since my DEA license was suspended as a result of a misunderstanding during a routine traffic stop, I had only the combination of sugar, more sugar and caffeine to replace the well-documented cure for all things that distract.

Ironically, this didn’t work.

The kids were now standing and spinning like dervishes but without the religious connotation. 

I tried hard to finish setting up while the "Mom" looked on with a helpless countenance that told me:

1) she couldn’t help;

2) she was not really the Mom of any of the kids but possibly the "Daddy’s" new friend; or,

3) she was getting a serious buzz off the Mountain Dew.

 

So I was on my own.

I got the Hippity Hop Rabbits set up and the Sucker Sliding Die Box as well as the Fraidy Cat Rabbit. 

I figured kids love sucker tricks so I’d do about ten of them in a row, go into a poker deal presentation that would let me demonstrate my ability to control fifteen cards as I shuffled and cut the deck one-handed. 

The final effect would be my latest purchase on eBay, Andre Kole’s Table of Death.

That table was a tough thing to set up. Plus the kids kept crawling up on the slab to try to reach the spikes.  I had to scare them by letting the spikes jerk down just a tad.

 

Anyway, I began by doing a dove pan and producing tons of candy. 

I threw the candy into the audience and rather than wait their turns, the kids started diving for and grabbing the candy.

I was trying to get them to return to their seats but they seemed more intent on grabbing more candy than they could possibly eat. 

Even "Mom" (or "Heather" as she was called by her future step-daughter) was grabbing for candy. 

I reminded her that she wouldn't be able to convert her status from "Daddy's Special Friend" to his next wife if she ate too much candy.  I reinforced my point with a gentle swat on her butt.

She gave me a look that could kill if I cared.  People don't like to hear the truth and especially women; and especially when it's a truth about their weight or shape. 

 

We finally got things cleared up when I fired a starter’s pistol. Even Heather yelped.

My second through seventeenth effects were all sucker tricks and over the course of the 80 minutes of magic, they seemed to either become more calm or bored.

I doubt it was bored because I asked them if they wanted to see more magic and two of them said "okay."

 

    

But With a Rabbit!

One of the classics of the sideshow has been the Woman without a Head.

It is a great effect – still sold by Abbott's – that shows a woman without a head sitting in a chair with tubes going into the stump of her neck and various machines keeping her alive.

I wanted to make the effect more real for the kids so I did it was a bunny. 

I had a bunny belted to a little chair and the optical illusion made it look like its head was missing and that it was being kept alive with the tubes and wires going down the stump holes. 

 

I had a second bunny with just his head showing on the top of a little box.

I opened the box to show there was no body; just some veins and stuff dangling. 

 

To be honest, this was the first time I got to use this classic with a kid show. 

You should have seen their little mouths fall open when I unveiled the set-up. It looked so real, Heather threw-up and that caused a spontaneous chain reaction amongst the kids. 

We had so much to clean up that I never got to the poker deal, the Twentieth Century Bra trick or the Andre Kole Table of Death.

 

I guess I learned some valuable lessons:

1) bring a gun;

2) do your most expensive illusion first because you might not get to it if there is puking;

3) don’t hit on the "mom";

4) bring actual Ritalin rather than trying to make a substitute – if I had produced the Ritalin from the dove pan at the outset, the rest of the show may have been calmer; and,

5) be prepared for extreme reactions from extreme tricks.

I had assumed most of the kids had been to some slimy sideshow and seen the Woman without a Head but you shouldn’t assume that. 

This may have been the first time the kids ever saw the illusion and had no idea how imaginative I was to adopt it for a bunny.

 

I did do some balloon animals but because of the stench in the living room, I didn’t want to stay too long and certainly not for cake and ice cream.

 

I didn’t get my check as I left but I did have a chance to give Heather my business card so she could either forward the check to me or bring it herself if she ever got tired of living in a house that smelled like puke.

ADHD  Magic Shows  Kid Show  Stepmother 

Docc Hilford Gives it Up

John Luka - the Godfather of Detroit Magic - wrote us today that Docc Hilford is about to come clean and teach his secrets.  We were skeptical, but intriqued. 

(Experienced readers of Today's Magic News realize we rarely write straight news.  But this story is too big to mess around with.  So we'll put our ramblings and interlineations off to the side - in a second story you can read at your leisure.  If you really want to, you can read the article about our mental process here).

Imagine seeing a professional mentalist’s act and wanting to add one, a few, or all of the effects you saw to your show. 

You attend his lecture, but he only explains a few tricks and none of them from this actual act. Many professionals refuse to perform their “A” material if there are magicians in the audience; they don’t want their private effects to get out. 

A Specialist on Magic Addict Issue

We're as concerned about addiction as much as the next guy sitting at the table, smoking cigarettes, drinking black coffee and waiting for his chance to speak.  But few thought there could be something like "Magic Addiction."  The article in last week's edition brought in a ton of email (tough to weigh so we're approximating).

The article was really a long letter from a group determined to stamp out Magic Addiction.   See, "Is this a Joke?" here.

We sent most of the comments, both pro and con, to the organization for comment but have not heard back. 

Until we have a formal response, we can think of no one better to address the issue of Magic Addiction than Harris Deutsch. 

Mr. Deutsch is more than a magician and the man behind Nigel his vent figure.  He has worked with those truly addicted to substances over the years.  He's worked in prisons, community centers, and even for small groups to ecourage and educate.

We're guessing Mr. Deutsch is familiar with the 12-Step Program we attend for our each of our addictions.  We love the way he's modified the first four steps to match the particular need of Magic Addicts.

Please note, we are not trying to make light of the efforts to bring attention to Magic Addiction but at the same time we don't really think it can be the same type of addiction suffered by those involved with drugs or alcohol.  Mr. Deutsch's comments follow.

=====

As a Nearly Normal Substance Abuse Counselor, Prevention Specialist,
Laughologist and Magician, I couldn't resist.

Prior to going to the Dai Vernon Hospital for Magic Addicts I was a mess. I had to admit I had a problem......

With Tongue firmly in my cheek!

Step 1. I am powerless over my addiction (magic) and my wife is unmanageable.

Step 2. Came to believe a power greater then myself (Helms, Vernon,Buckley..) could restore me to sanity.

Give Me Criss Angel Over David Blaine Any Day!

Paw Lawton

Paw Lawton shares his thoughts with us about the "cool people" in our trade. Paw worked as an agent and advance man for the Li'l Tom Hardy show.

I really enjoyed the Melinda, the First Lady of Magic, show while it lasted at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I know I’m not supposed to say that because the same magicians in the inner circle, who told me I shouldn’t like Darren Romeo’s show or even Rick Thomas’ act, have informed me that her show was no good.

They should know, they’re not performing anywhere so they have plenty of time to evaluate shows. They know all of the cool people in magic. Us working folks might have to squeeze in a show during a vacation or on a business trip.  We might have to pay cash for our ticket and even sit near the back.  If we are lucky, maybe we can shake hands with the performer afterwards or have our picture taken with them.

Can You Really Be Addicted to Magic? One Group Thinks So.

We received a letter -- a long letter -- that we thought was a joke at first. We decided to publish it in its entirety and to quote the letter's authors, "let you be the judge." We have not included the address or web site address for the organization and will not until we can determine it is legitimate. The claim that it is a not-for-profit charity hasn't been demonstrated to our satisfaction but we will update this article with the contact information once we receive verification. Also, we have not edited or corrected the several typographical or grammatical errors in the letter. The photo below was taken from the pamphlet sent by the organization and had the caption, "why is she really taking such good care of her nails?"   

Dear Friend:

Magic Addiction is a serious problem and no longer associated with the "Skid-Row Magician." Anyone can become addicted to magic. The National Institutes of Health study "Addiction in America" note: "Ten percent of all people exposed to magic will be susceptible to addiction." There is no such thing as "Safe Magic." Any exposure – from an uncle making a pebble vanish to Lance Burton performing the finest 12 minutes of manipulation ever – can be sufficient to cause addiction.

Contrary to the popular theories of the late 1970's, Magic Addiction is not evidence of a character flaw or weakness in its victim. It is a disease as real as any other malady and often more costly to the victim.

The disease affects ten percent of the population regardless of their race, creed, color, gender, or socio-economic status. Unfortunately, in some segments of society the Magic Addict is ostracized or excluded because of his or her illness. The fear of shame or shunning keep many Magic Addicts from seeking the help they so desperately need.

Traditional medical insurance does not cover treatment for Magic Addiction even though there is no longer any debate in the medical community as to its reality and devastating effects on the victims. Even medical insurance coverage broad enough to provide for psychological or psychiatric care, often excludes Medical Addiction.

A recent report by the United Nations' World Health Organization noted "the lack of appropriate treatment in combination with the societal pressures forces the Magic Addicted Person into seclusion and often leads to participation in "risky magic" in a vain effort to regain the "high" felt when first introduced to magic."

Treatments and therapies are not readily available and the Magic Addict cannot "just snap out of it." Clinical evaluation of Magic Addict's brain tissue evidence the very real organic differences from the average human. Scientists cannot say whether this difference is the cause of the Magic Addiction or if is the result of the malady.