An Interview with Criss Angel’s Beard
February 22, 2008
“I don’t care about what I look like at this point.”
“I didn’t get into this art form for money.”
“I don’t care whether I drive a Hyundai with 200,000 miles on it…”
These fascinating facts and more are revealed in a recent interview Criss Angel’s beard had with Robin Leach on his blog Vegas Luxe Life.
Dancing With Penn Jillette
February 22, 2008
Earlier this week the new celebrities were announced for the ABC show Dancing With The Stars. Penn Jillette is one of the stars appearing on the show.
Searching dancers forums we couldn’t find any dancers who were upset a magician who isn’t a dancer is going to dance on national TV. Searching magic forums, we did find some disgruntled magicians who are upset celebrities are going to perform magic on Celebracadabra. Hmmm.
Good luck Penn!
Les Smith - Owner of Owen Magic Supreme Passes Away
February 18, 2008
From Lupe Nielsen on The Genii Forum:
Just a brief message to inform everyone that Les Smith, master craftsman and owner of Owen Magic Supreme, passed away last Friday, February 15, 2008, at a nursing home near Los Angeles, California. He was 92 years old. Magic is diminished by his death, and we will miss him very much. At this time, we don’t know what the family’s wishes are concerning his funeral.
On a personal note: Most of you reading this may have never heard of Les or had the privileged of meeting him. I had the chance to meet Les on a number of occasions when I worked for the late Harry Blackstone Jr. The Blackstone warehouse was literally across the parking lot from Owen Magic, so when something needed to be repaired, we wheeled it across the lot to Owen. Being with Blackstone gave me the rare opportunity to get a behind the scenes tour of the workshop to see how some of the best magic apparatus is made. Les will be missed!
Mac King’s March Book Drive
February 15, 2008
Thanks to the Vegas Eye for the heads up on Mac’s cause:
Comedian magician Mac King and Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza join forces to support Spread the Word Nevada: Kids to Kids during Mac King’s March Book Drive March 1-March 31. Mac King’s March Book Drive promotion encourages Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza guests to bring in a new or gently used children’s book targeting ages 4-12. In exchange for the book donation, Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza will provide a free “Giant Messy Sundae” certificate to customers. Mac King Comedy Magic Show ticket holders are also encouraged to donate a new or gently used book at the show to receive a free autographed Mac King Tricks With Your Head book.
Copperfield Pulls Lawsuit Out Of His Hat
February 15, 2008
Several months ago David Copperfield found himself in a lawsuit with two overseas promoters who sued him for canceling 48 scheduled performances.
Part of the official Copperfield statement said:
“David Copperfield canceled his overseas tour because promoters did not honor their contractual commitments, including failing to make a contractual payment of more than $1 million and canceling a segment of the tour without Mr. Copperfield’s consent. The cancellations had nothing to do with the investigation into allegations by an unidentified woman.”
David Copperfield is firing back at two companies that sued him over a canceled tour in Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf — by filing a lawsuit of his own!
According to TMZ.com - Copperfield says that Viva Art International Ltd. and Maz Concerts Inc. owe him $4 million under an “artist’s guaranteed fee,” in which he was to be paid $2.8 million for the Southeast Asia portion of the tour and the rest for performances in the Persian Gulf.
Copperfield’s lawyer exercised an option in his contract to cancel the tours because the magician wasn’t paid on time, saying the two companies were late in paying Dave $500,000, and the attorney feared a repeat of “the fiasco in which Mr. Copperfield and his staff were stranded on tour with no assurance of payment.”
Lance Burton Celebrates Monte Carlo Reopening!
February 15, 2008
Lance Burton’s show is up and running again at The Monte Carlo following a fire at the hotel. While there was no damage to Lance’s theater or props, the show has been down for the past 3 weeks. Just in time for the 3 day President’s weekend, Lance is back and ready to do what he does best.
Angel Gets “Merlin Award”
February 15, 2008
Yesterday Criss Angel received the 2008 Merlin Award. That what award? Yeah, that’s what we said. This was awarded by the International Magic Society. The who? Yeah, that’s what we said. According to their website, they are the world’s largest magic society as recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records with over 37,000 members worldwide. Looking at the past recipients page, it’s hard to tell their criteria for this award considering people like Kirby VanBurch, Melinda and a bunch of other people we’ve never heard of are part of the club.
Actually I have heard of IMS. To be a “member” you pay a $25 lifetime fee which gives you a certificate, member card and mental magic DVD. You then have the “privilege” of buying their products.
Unfortunately Criss wasn’t on hand to personally accept the award, so they allowed a homeless person wearing Angel’s clothes to accept it on his behalf.
Another Angel Record Broken
February 15, 2008
Criss Angel is having a hard time keeping his world records from being broken. Another record of his was just broken - escaping from a straitjacket upside-down. However this time the record was broken by a 17 year-old kid.
According to The Seattle Times, Alan Smola (pictured here with Angel) escaped last Friday from a straitjacket in less than two minutes. By completing his dangerous stunt in about 1 minute and 50 seconds, he broke the record of 2 minutes and 3 seconds set by Criss Angel on the “Oprah” show May 7. Suspended upside down 15 feet in the air at the Mattawan (Mich.) High School gymnasium and shackled in chains by his ankles. Congratulations Alan!
Houdini performed the escape in about 5 minutes.
It’s important to note that escaping from a straitjacket is actually not very difficult and doing it upside-down makes the escape even easier. The most difficult part is making it look difficult. Houdini was a master showman and he was able to keep audiences in suspense for a long period of time. Houdini could escape very quickly, but chose to draw out the escape in order to build suspense.
We have faith that Angel can bounce back from this one and show that kid how the big boys do it.
Here’s an old clip of the real master.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITmfDmDLXQY[/youtube]
Showing up Houdini - not cool. Showing up Criss Angel - VERY COOL!
Keeping Up With The Blog
February 14, 2008
There are a number of ways to keep up with the latest blog posts. Some people just come back to the site several times a days to see if it’s been updated. There are a few automatic ways to be notified when the latest post has been written.
RSS Reader
Every blog has an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed. These feeds are used by RSS readers (also called aggragators) to notify the RSS Reader that the blog has been updated. Typically all you have to do is provide your RSS Reader with the blog’s RSS url and you’re ready to go. Ours is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Ellusionist
You can read more about RSS and the various readers available here: http://blog.ellusionist.com/get-the-feed/
If you have a Google account, you can read and manage blogs through Google Reader. If you’re on a Mac and use Safari, Safari can act as your reader.
Also if you’re on a Mac running OS X and using Widgets, Thomas Detlefsen developed an Ellusionist Blog widget for us. You can download it here: http://blog.ellusionist.com/blogwidget.zip. Thanks Thomas, I installed it on my Mac this morning and it works great! Here are some images to show you what the widget looks like and what it looks like in the dock.
Happy Birthday Teller
February 14, 2008
Teller is 60 today. Here’s a video, with commentary of Teller’s signature effect - Shadows:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un1pNtmYguA[/youtube]