Believe: Cirque show or Angel show?
October 9, 2008
Photo courtesy L.A. Times
The bad reviews keep coming in for Criss Angel’s “Believe,” his collaboration with the Cirque Du Soleil — although they aren’t actual reviews. Producers have asked for no reviews during the first few days, while the show works out the tweaks and kinks before its Halloween debut.
Agreeing with that detail, Mike Weatherford of the Las Vegas Review-Journal was allowed in to see the show. True, he didn’t review the show. But he did dish about some of the effects, and that the show has a long way to go toward living up to promises that it would reinvent magic. From his column:
Weatherford suggests that Cirque’s production approach might be the problem, in that they didn’t go to the right illusion builders. Weatherford’s biggest beef is that he didn’t see any illusions he hadn’t seen before.
That seems to be confirmed by a story in the L.A. Times, which states there is a disconnect between Angel and Cirque’s developers about what “Believe” is supposed to be. According to this quote from Gilles Ste-Croix, Cirque’s senior veep for creation:
“It’s a Cirque show where he is the main character,” Ste-Croix said by phone from Montreal last month. “We used this man who has the following of a star, but in our scenario. It’s not MGM with Criss Angel, it’s MGM with Cirque du Soleil. Because he is the main artist, we had him participate with input.”
Angel’s response in the story to the notion that it’s a Cirque show, not a Mindfreak show, is chilly:
“That’s not the case,” he said, looking to a coterie of managers, publicists, lawyers and illusion specialists in his room for confirmation. “We need to have a conversation with Mr. Gilles Ste-Croix.”
Sarcar to open school of street magic
October 5, 2008
Ugesh Sarcar, the street magician burning up TV in India, plans to open a school of magic, according to a report from The Hindu.
He talks a little more about it in this interview with Tellychakkar. He said he is simply following in his father’s footsteps. MC Sarcar, his father, is also a magician, and inspired him to carry out the concept. Also from the interview, he had this interesting thought about magic performance (as well as the state of magic in his country):
Believe me, I have taught a few tricks to some exceptionally good magicians, but they can’t perform them. That’s because I have invested 13 to 15 years in practice. The reason is as Indians we at times are very lethargic. We want everything cooked. A (sleight) that takes a fraction of second to perform actually needs ages of practice. Perseverance and patience is the key and it is not everybody’s cup of tea.
Ugesh Sarcar, and some of his street performances, can be seen on the Bindass network. Or watch him below, rockin’ a gaff deck all Justin Miller style:
“David Blaine: Dive of Death’ inspired by ceiling dancers; hidden anagrams in names?
September 18, 2008
Photo courtesy The National Ledger
I doubt he’s talking about Lionel Richie.
David Blaine told The National Ledger that his inspiration for his upcoming special, “David Blaine: Dive of Death,” was inspired by turn-of-the-century ceiling dancers, who would dance on a ceiling ages ago.
His intense training for living upside-down has consisted of building up his endurance by developing a resistance to it. By Sept. 16, he had done about 60 cumulative hours of upside-down training.
“What was even more interesting to me is how your whole perspective on the world changes when you’re upside down. You kind of feel giddy in a weird way.”
In the article, Blaine confirms something that we’ve known for a while: He’ll be doing more street magic in an attempt to get back to his “roots.”
“It’s a show filled with magic — more magic than I’ve put on any show in 10 years. I’m really proud of it.”
Back to the training: The first few days were chronicled in this London Telegraph story, which has been mentioned on quite a few magic sites and forums. My only frustration with this story is that the Telegraph didn’t give the reporter a byline.
That is a tragedy, because it’s one of the most descriptive, brilliant, compelling pieces of journalism on Blaine, or anyone, I’ve seen in a while. Take the time to read it, and post what you think the hidden anagrams are.
McBride: Magic success comes simply from practicing
September 16, 2008
You can tell Justin Robert Young used to be a newspaper journalist, because he gets his interview subjects to say awesomely profound things. His interviewing secret: Ask a question, then shut up and let the subject talk.
Jeff McBride, celebrity judge on VH-1’s CelebraCadabra, star of Magic at the Edge and the new Wonderground night club in Las Vegas, was featured on a recent iTricks Magic Week in Review. During the interview, he talked about the magic scene in Vegas: Specifically, how the competition is tough, how the audiences have already seen a lot of great magic and that it is best to be invited there, rather than just showing up and hitting the streets. Oh, and “TV is for suckaz.”
Back on point, McBride, who has a long history of training magicians, said all is not lost for someone with big performance aspirations:
“The good news is this. To make a name for yourself in the magic industry, you don’t have to four-wall a room in Vegas. You just need to practice and get really good.”
McBride cites the lecture notes of Rudy Coby and says that there are only two things you need: Original material and strong character. The latter takes priority, because it takes years to build.
While you’re waiting to scoop up Tattoo Joe, check out the podcast with McBride and prepare to have your world rocked.
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.
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