Photo courtesy New York Daily News

In a tribute to our grandfather’s punishment, a magician has started to kick a smoking habit by breaking a world record.

New York magician Richie Magic is now the world record-holder for “extinguishing, chewing and expelling” 200 cigarettes in his mouth. Using five lit cigs at a time, he put them out IN HIS MOUTH last Saturday. This was his way of kicking a 40-year habit.

Magic said he did the stunt to make a point: When you smoke, your mouth feels, tastes and smells like an ashtray. The stunt caused quite a few blisters in his mouth, he said:

“I’m having a problem speaking to you right now,” Magic said. “I have blisters inside my mouth. My tongue has got a few burn marks.”

The dictionary outlines a pretty clear difference between the words improbable and impossible. However, the difference is even more important for magicians. It’s the difference between a really great trick and miraculous magic.

So argues forum member Var18, of Pennsylvania, in this thread he posted last week. In it, he tells how his brother’s reactions led him to realize how to improve his performances. His post is very reminiscent of what Darwin Ortiz writes about in his book “Strong Magic.” Because we’re reading that book right now, and because his post started a great conversation, Var18 wins this week’s Post of the Week.

Go check the thread out and give him props, cred or whatever congratulatory noun feels right. Then think about how you can make your magic tricks even more impossible.

Ever watched poker on TV, and seen the players do those fidgety shuffles with their chips? No one is better at those than Rich Ferguson.

The Icebreaker is booked to teach chip tricks during Full Tilt Poker’s Million Euro Challenge 2009. Held in Hamburg, Germany on Sept. 5 and Salzburg, Austria on Sept. 12, Ferguson will show both regular players and pros how to do some of those kick@$$ shuffles and spins. He will also be on stage with the host doing a little magic and poker entertainment.

If you’re in the area, check his stuff out. We’ll post vid as soon as we have it. Oh, dude also has a custom deck of playing cards coming soon.

Did you try it? Did you float?

In what is sure to become the next great Internet response meme, many watched Wednesday’s episode of Criss Angel’s Mindfreak with a camera turned on themselves. That episode, of course, featured Angel making millions of people at home “levitate.” (By the way, forum member TWB totally called it. So props to him.)

Angel is encouraging people to text their experiences to him. But many have gone further, by recording videos of themselves taking part in the experiment.

See the videos after this jump. (more…)

Judging is under way for the 2009 Video Contest, and all the entries reaffirm something Brad Christian has said from day one: “Simple hits hard.” That, and watching too many episodes of Late Night with David Letterman, got us thinking: What are the top 10 easiest magic tricks available? Here’s the list we came up with:

• No. 10: Indecent, by Wayne Houchin. A card ends up inside a plastic bag, with little work from you.
• No. 9: Two Card Monte, from Kard Klub. This is a David Blaine regular; the only reason it’s not higher is because that one part is kinda nerve-racking. But what a payoff!
• No. 8: Mercury Aces, by David Kong. We can’t tell you how many times this has blown people away. This is an outstanding, powerful packet trick that is easy to perform. And we like how this one directs newcomers to discover Arturo Ascanio.
• No. 7: Negative Erdnase, from Army of 52. We’re big fans of the Erdnase color change. But in this one, Justin Miller adds his smooth handling to the classic color change, and with one simple tweak makes it look so much more beautiful and convincing.
• No. 6: Trick Sharpie. This thing combined with a simple force blows minds left and right. The hard work is already done for you with this one. All you do is point it out when you’re good and ready.
• No. 5: Fallen, by Danny Garcia. As an ending to an ambitious card routine or a great reveal, Fallen opens eyes. And it’s easy to perform, especially when you use a fresh deck of playing cards.
• No. 4: Biddle trick, from Inside Magic. We love watching all the different presentations you come up with for this. It’s a find the card effect with an inexplicable, impossible ending. What you guys do with that ending is awesome.
• No. 3: Search & Destroy, by Aaron Fisher. This is the best invisible pass on the market, even though everyone sees it. This is a powerful sandwich effect that puts all the work in the spectators’ hands, leaving you to focus on the magic and suspense.
• No. 2: Invisible Deck. What magician doesn’t have one of these as a Plan B? They name any card, and it turns out to be the only one flipped over in a deck. All it takes is some deft handling from you.
• And No. 1: Here Then There, from Crash Course 1. This is another effect that Blaine uses regularly, and he gets as many dropped jaws as you guys did in the videos.

Let the debating begin. What do you think of the list?