Bullets: Cyril’s debut, Jay’s cameo, Kate’s campaign, skeptic’s complaint

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November 17, 2009

Sometimes, when I look for something cool and blogworthy, I find a couple of things worth pounding keys. Other times, I find a whole bunch of stuff. Tonight is one of those nights. Bullets, baby. Bullets:

Attention, Asian viewers of the AXN Network: We are jealous of you. Cyril Takayama’s newest TV show, Simply Magic, is slated to premiere this Thursday. Set your DVRs and save it until we can crash on your couch and watch it with you… we’ll bring the roast beef and Baconnaise sandwiches on sourdough. AXN has a teaser vid you can watch.
When we’re not pounding keys (Hey! Twice in one post for that phrase!), we’ve been getting wrapped up in ABC’s FlashForward. So we not only geeked out when Lloyd Simcoe managed to beat a four-of-a-kind in poker with, we suspect, some sleight of hand — we about jumped out of the couch and threw our practice Arcanes in the air when we saw Ricky Jay at the end.

Speaking of Arcanes: Remember that video in the Artist Gallery featuring the redhead who perched a stack of cards on her wrist and gave them a spin? That’s Ekaterina Dobrokhotova, a magician and flourisher widely known in the flourishing community. She’s asking for help landing another job as a shopping consultant. Thecuso is helping her out with a contest; he has the details.
We all know magicians have powers, but Ontario may be giving too much power to them, according to a skeptic’s blog. A member of the Canadian Skeptics United has a problem with an effort to grant the power of prescription to naturopaths, who practice natural healing. Not really magic related, but interesting nonetheless.

Posted by Joe Hadsall | Filed Under Ellusionist Products, General, Magic on TV

Daniels: No respect for David Blaine

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November 9, 2009

For those wondering what Paul Daniels has been doing: He has been searching for the best sausage in Britain, as part of British Sausage Week (Sorry, Brits, we just can’t bring ourselves to call them “bangers” for very immature reasons). In an interview with Andrew Trendell of the Nottingham Evening Post, he spoke about a number of things, including today’s crop of magicians including Derren Brown, David Blaine and Criss Angel.

Blaine and Angel drew Daniels’ ire, because of their use of technology:

“I can’t respect David Blaine, Chris (sic) Angel and particular others coming from America. There was a rule for us magicians when we were on television, and that was that if you can’t do it live then you don’t use technology to change the appearance. You have to be able to do it live, that’s the job of being a magician.”

Daniels also wasn’t impressed with how Blaine has moved into stunts, and his wife, Debbie McGee, said that it’s the same thing as the vaudevillian endurance acts of the Great Depression, only that TV companies are paying, not customers.

Posted by Joe Hadsall | Filed Under Magic on TV

Bullets: Mindfreak’s prank, Blaine’s marathon, Asher’s trip, iTricks’ call for vids

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October 17, 2009

Whadaya know… a correction helps us get that possessives thing we wanted. ANYWAY… click, click, BOOM, here’s some bullets:

Dodd Vickers called it: Criss Angel was never arrested in Mexico, despite all the mysterious tweets and pics. The Mindfreak has been vacationing across the border with his family. But Dodd (can you name a living magician he HASN’T interviewed? We can’t) posts the videos that prove the whole thing wasn’t exactly for realsies.
David Blaine is preparing for a marathon in a contest established by Edward Norton, star of The Illusionist (though he was great, we’ll always love him more for Fight Club). Blaine is asking for your donations in support of the race’s mission: Fundraising to support the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.

Card lovers will have a heyday with a recent post in Lee Asher’s Cardstar Diaries: The creator of the Diving Board Double recently attended the joint convention of 52 Plus Joker and the International Playing Card Society in Toronto, Canada. He has pictures of some incredibly cool, antique cards.
Said The Whale, the band that performs the catchy “Camilo (The Magician),” has released the official video for the song. Justin Robert Young had earlier asked magicians to submit videos of their performances for the video, at the request of the band. That project is still in the works, and needs a video editor. Below is the video:

Editor’s note: This post has been corrected. For details, click here: Read more

Posted by Joe Hadsall | Filed Under Criss Angel, David Blaine, General, Magic on TV

Bullets: P&T in NYC, mental over mentalists, Brown’s next gig, Pixie magic

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October 9, 2009

Bullets, bullets, bullets! Whoo-hah!

Bullets: P&T in NYC, mental over mentalists, Browns next gig, Pixie magic

Our upcoming Next Level with Sean Fields has us thinking about one of his influences: Penn and Teller. Um, two influences. ANYWAY: P&T are venturing off the Las Vegas strip for the first time in, like, forEVER. iTricks has the scoop.
Speaking of Vegas: Mike Weatherford of the Las Vegas Review Journal has a great column about mentalism and what makes it so compelling. After reading it, does it make you wanna set the cards aside and brush up on your NLP skills? Us too.
Speaking of great mentalists: Derren Brown has announced what his next venture will be. The master mentalist will star in several documentaries with people who believe they have psychic or paranormal abilities.
Speaking of wondering where is my mind: Did you know that Pixies drummer David Lovering was a magician? And good enough to be featured at the Magic Castle? We didn’t, either. Wanna see? Here comes your man:

Posted by Joe Hadsall | Filed Under General, Magic on TV

Daily Show plays race card ambitiously

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October 7, 2009

When we’re not practicing Aaron Fisher’s Illusion Control or dreaming up new uses for the M5, we chill in front of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. So we went absolutely crazy go nuts when we saw “Senior Black Correspondent” Larry Wilmore break out a pack of League Backs. While you may not agree with the politics or commentary, you gotta agree that Wilmore killed with his ambitious card routine (starts at 2:53):

Two words: HECK YEAH. Did you see how shaky his hands were, yet he still killed it? There’s more to talk about from this video, and you can do so in this thread on the forums.

Posted by Joe Hadsall | Filed Under General, Magic on TV