Tattoo Joe - Coming Soon
September 5, 2008
Worldwide release: Tues Sept 16th, 2008 1pm Pacific / 4pm Eastern
Tattoo Joe by Joe Russell
I have to admit, in the wake of all of the serious magic out there, this one pushes my button.
Tattoo Joe
is a serious effect, however after watching the DVD, I have a very light-hearted and fun outlook to presenting this. It was well produced, the music is great, and it just the kind of effect that makes you want to get out there and have some fun.
Your examined empty hand gently rubs your naked arm … a big bold tattoo boldly and visibly appears on your skin. Rub your arm again and the tattoo completely vanishes. And if you feel like it, produce a different tattoo on your other arm.
No Chemicals. No make up. No wet or sticky stuff.
The possibilities are endless:
- A girl blows you a kiss and you catch it on your arm.
- Pull pips off a playing cards and re print them on your skin .
- Make your phone number magically appear for the ladies.
- Produce your clients name or logo
- A spectator grabs your arm and their finger prints appear in blood
- Anything you can draw becomes an instant astonishment with JOE RUSSELL’S TATTOO JOE.
- Customize a gimmick with ANY word, picture, or symbol
- Works with just about any skin tone.
- Use the same gimmick hundreds of times (two different tattoos per gimmick).
- Instant Reset
- Perform surrounded with sleeves rolled up or with short sleeves.
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Mislabeled sushi proves experts easier to fool
September 4, 2008
Photo courtesy Lars Klove, The New York Times
Are you scared of the skeptical spectators? The questioners? The ones burning your hands? Do you think the more attentive or smart a spectator is, the tougher they would be to fool?
You’d be proven wrong by a couple of girls who bought a lot of sushi.
Kate Stoeckle (pictured, left) and Louisa Strauss, two New York City high-school students, conducted a painfully easy science project and discovered, through genetic fingerprinting, that about a quarter of restaurants and markets sold mislabeled sushi. Expensive tuna turned out to be cheap tilapia. Several red snapper samples were actually everything from cod to Acadian redfish.
NYT columnist Edward Dolnick, in this column, revealed the arrogance behind a restauranteur’s bold assertion that his restaurant did not have any of the mislabeled fish. “It is impossible to mislead people who have knowledge,” said Eric Ripert, the chef at Le Bernardin, in the column. Dolnick continues:
Few statements could do more to gladden a con man’s heart. In the art of the con, magicians and swindlers and forgers insist, the ideal victim is not an ignoramus but an expert. Any magician would rather take on a roomful of physicists than of 5-year-olds. “When you’re certain you cannot be fooled,” wrote the magician Teller, “you become easy to fool.”
Dolnick’s column goes into a little bit of detail about the phenomenon. In a nutshell, a more aware, educated person makes assumptions about what they are actually seeing; ergo, they trick themselves. That means you shouldn’t fear those skeptical, quizzical, eagle-eyed spectators. Perform boldly for them, because they will be even more stunned. And think about how you can use this sushi psychology to set up your audiences for even more amazing, impossible effects.
‘Quicknotist’ to blend illusion, hypnosis in new show
September 3, 2008
Imagine you’ve just done a trick that pushes the edge of reality, and a spectator is stunned. Gobsmacked. Astounded. Staring at your hands in disbelief. A New Zealand hypnotist said this is the perfect time to induct them into a hypnotic state.
Reg Blackwood, the “Quicknotist,” published his thoughts about a new stage show he’s developing, where no one will be able to see where the illusion starts or the hypnosis ends. The show will be a true “mash-up” of magic and mentalism, he said on the hypnosis-related blog WhatsOnMyBrain.com, and not a show with distinct phases for hypnotism and ledgermain. From the blog:
“Where an unhypnotized volunteer is sufficiently mystified/astounded/confused at the climax of a magic trick, I have them in the ideal state to lead right into a fast induction, so needless to say, I rarely waste that opportunity! That’s just one example of using a magic trick as the lead-in to an induction but I also have built a collection of effects which can be used as a reinduction cue.”
Blackwood said that such a state works well with psychokinetic-type effects. He said he was inspired by a video of another hypnotist using a Banachek pen, and is now scratching the surface of some amazing effects.
Which begs the question: Why the heck would he spill the beans this early? Don’t know, especially since he admits he might be plagiarized the world over. So we’ll fight that plagiarism, give him his due credit and encourage him to bring this stage show to the States.
Here’s a video of his street hypnosis from his YouTube channel:
Release Today Sept 2, 2008 - Xtreme Beginnerz 2
September 2, 2008
RELEASE DATE: Tuesday, Sept 2nd 2008 1PM Pacific / 4 Eastern
Finally, a glimpse of the long-awaited XB2 by the one and only De’vo. XB2 destroys the traditional thoughts of manipulation. De’vo vom Schattenreich outdid himself on XB1, which sold thousands and became a staple for anyone wanting to psycho-charge their card manipulation skills. Now, he’s setting the bar higher in Xtreme Beginnerz 2. Not only is he evolving XCM Card Manipulation again, but he’s added Card Throwing, Pen Spinning and the elusive Dice Stacking in this packed two DVD set packed with 3 hours of material and a ton of artists.
Forum user: Keep performing like yourself
September 1, 2008
Forum user Sands had a quandary about four years ago: Criss Angel was becoming pretty popular.
“Before I even knew about Criss Angel I performed with a very bizarre style very close to his with the heavy breathing and shaky hands, the whole deal,” Sands writes in this forum thread. “When Criss Angel got big I realized he was being just like me so I felt like I was copying him and started to find a ‘new personality’ if you will.”
What Sands discovered, he writes, is that his magic suffered — not because he was acting less like Angel, but less like himself. His thread shares his personal experience and stresses the importance of being true to ourselves and our performance style. That’s why his thread is the first-ever Ellusionist Post of the Week.
A sentence like that calls for a definition. Ellusionist’s forum is a vast repository of discussion, ideas and advice. Though the password-protected forums are valuable, E’s general forums have more than 74,000 users of different magical persuasions. E’s forum is one of the largest communities of magicians dedicated to helping people further their art. So when a new thread accomplishes that goal, it could get named as a Forum Post of the Week. New Posts of the Week will be named every Sunday, culled from the past week’s forum activity.
Currently, the prize for writing the Post of the Week is getting to say that you wrote a Post of the Week. Congratulations, Sands. Keep up the good work!
XB2: What has you stoked?
August 31, 2008
De’vo vom Shattenreich’s Xtreme Beginnerz 1 was filled with so many crazy, over-the-top moves. The video has inspired thousands to look at a deck of cards in a completely new way.
Thanks to the upcoming Xtreme Beginnerz 2, we’ll never look at dice or pens the same way again, either.
So, what are you excited about? The talented guest performers (including Jerry Cestkowski, Daniel Madison, Angela Funovits and others)? Stacking dice in a deck of cards? Spinning a pen in your hand with the skill of a martial-arts master holding a weapon? Throwing a card with damaging power? New, insane XCM moves?
Keep in mind that teasers for XB1 didn’t reveal all the moves and flourishes in that video. There may something else that blows all those other things out of the water. Find out Tuesday…
Until then, what are you anticipating the most?
New playing cards help solve cold cases
August 29, 2008
For years, playing cards have helped people multitask. With the right deck, players can identify an airplane by its silhouette, wanted war criminals and geographic details.
Chalk up another use: Solving cold cases.
Florida law enforcement officials have designed a deck meant to help solve unsolved murder and missing-person cases. The deck features 52 of Florida’s unsolved cases — each card has a picture and relevant case details. Each card also has an 800 number, which someone can call if they know anything about the case.
The decks are given to inmates and supervised offenders in Florida’s legal system, which is about 206,000 people, according to numbers in this news release published by WCTV. The decks are also for sale to the general public. From the release:
“People are often fearful of providing information on criminal activity – especially in a prison environment,” said Florida Association of Crime Stoppers President Steve Rowland. “Our greatest hope is to continue to gather the missing information needed to bring closure to so many grieving families in Florida.”
Previous editions helped solve two cases. The third edition of Florida’s statewide deck was released today.
Indian magician’s street-magic show catches on
August 28, 2008
Half a world away in India, street magician Ugesh Sarcar is making major waves with his show, “3rd Degree Burn.” The Times of India reports that Sarcar, who has already featured the band Indian Ocean!, taught Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra a few tricks for today’s episode.
His show appears on the Bindass network; its CEO said that Sarcar is making the first show of its kind for Indian TV. However, the show is not Sarcar’s first magic performances for the network. He used to do fillers and commercial promos. Incredible audience response, according to the story, is what triggered Bindass to give Sarcar his own show. From the article:
“I work with common man on the streets without doing an audition or looking at the qualification of the individual, which is an amazing aspect of this art form. It helps create the real big magic.”
From fillers to his own show. That wouldn’t be happening unless people wanted to see good street magic. That point is like an ambitious card routine in this blog, as of late: It keeps jumping to the top.
Bindass has posted a few clips from the show. In this video posted on YouTube, our gravebound friend from Ellusionist’s Bicycle Gaff Deck makes an appearance (video quality herky-jerky and not very good).
Spectators want to see more
August 27, 2008
We already know that David Blaine is going to put more magic into his upcoming ABC special, “Dive of Death,” than has been in the last few specials. As it turns out, Criss Angel plans putting more magic into season No. 4 of “Mindfreak,” on A&E.
Justin Robert Young at iTricks was at Angel’s building-implosion stunt. He snagged an interview with several of his creative team, including Ben Seidman, who said that two full episodes this season would be dedicated to closeup magic. From the Aug. 4 Magic Week in Review podcast:
“Although (Angel) is great at closeup, he hasn’t had all of the experience that other closeup magicians have had. So watching him work, starting out as a terrific (stage) magician, but then working his *** off to become a really amazing closeup magician has been great. It’s been inspirational watching the amount time he has dedicated to practicing, and he is learning things beyond a lot of closeup magicians.”
Seidman said to watch out for a trick where a deck is dropped in a pond. Every card will melt away except a spectator’s chosen card.
Over the last several months, magicians have criticized both Blaine and Angel about focusing more on stunts and less on magic. The fact that both of these powerhouse magicians making changes means the viewing public also wants to see more magic.
That means — and this ought to get you excited about hitting the streets — that spectators are hungry to see more.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there. Show them your art.
Fire , Money and Electronics - few of my favorite things
August 26, 2008
Branded by Tim Trono
If you’re into playing with fire (better yet, flash paper) then put it to good use. How about burning your fingers so bad that they blister up right in front of your spectators? Not my idea of a fun Saturday night either, unless of course the blisters looked just like the card my spectators were thinking of. Enter “Branded” by Tim Trono.
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Extreme Burn - By Richard Sanders
It’s easy to get the wind pulled out of your sail when you break out a pimp-roll and all you have is a roll of one dollar bills. We’ll, I hope someone is watching when you give them a flick and they turn into all $20 bills, or $50’s…. yep even Benjamin’s are nice too. The bill switch is a classic, but this is so visual, it’s sick. Richard Sanders has turned ‘ye-ole bill-switch’ into an effect that is, bluntly, eye candy. Check the Extreme Burn demo.
Thanks, Richard. I’ve started paying cash with more and more stuff just so I can have the chance to do this in public. The credit card industry should be worried.
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Magic with the IPhone
Iphones are obviouly capable of many things… camera, phone, camcorder, tv, computer, chainsaw, phaser, baby pacifier, roach motel, the list just goes on. However, my favorite thing it can do, besides ward off evil spirits, is now magic. Iphone lovers, rejoice, you now have to keep an excel spreadsheet of everything your IPhone is capable of.
Seriously… I can’t wait to sit in the doctors office X-raying my own hand in the lobby. I’d better fake a cold.
