magicinterviews

John Calvert documentary review

2009-12-29T16:02:00.004-05:00

Here is my review of John Calvert- His Magic and Adventures, now on DVD

John Calvert- His Magic and Adventures is a fitting tribute to a fascinating and inspiring man. Both magicians and non-magicians alike will find this film on John Calvert to be informative and entertaining. If you’ve heard the stories about John Calvert being a legendary magician with an incredible, “only-in-the-movies” life story, this film serves as a confirmation.

For magicians, a highlight of the film may be his on-camera performances, filmed throughout the decades-- much of which was recently shot at The Magic Castle. For non-magicians, you’ll enjoy the story of a man who has remained young at heart for nearly 100 years.

Imagine this-- seeing behind the scenes into the life of a legendary magician, one whose career has lasted 80+ years, and, for good reason. There isn’t a film like this on any magician, let alone a great one. Just watching John Calvert perform and listening to his advice scattered throughout the picture, you’ll have an opportunity to learn from the best. And it will inspire you to aspire to greatness. It’s well worth the small price of the DVD.

We all have something to benefit from learning about the life and career of John Calvert. He’s an expression of what’s possible in life. It was a story that needed to be told. Bravo!

You may buy the DVD here.

John Calvert Feature Length Documentary - Now available!

2009-11-19T02:40:00.006-05:00

If you can't see the above trailer, click here.

I can't wait to see this film! I'm a big fan, and you'll be amazed by John Calvert and all that he's done. You can read the interview I did with him, here.

"Available on DVD starting December 10th, 2009 on www.johncalvertmagic.com

Produced over a period of nine years, veteran filmmaker Fred Calvert has captured a "stunning portrait of this master magician and his Indiana-Jones-like adventures" (William V. Rauscher).
John Calvert, born in 1911 in a small farm town in Indiana, conquered New Yorks Broadway as a magician, starred in over 40 motion pictures and, in the course of his world travels, often found himself in dangerous circumstances that called for luck, magic, and a determined effort to survive."

Click here to buy the DVD.

Teller Lectures on Magic

2009-11-12T03:00:00.003-05:00

This lecture starts at 1 minute in.

Two Videos of The Great John Calvert

2009-09-14T21:35:00.003-04:00

John Calvert, 97, performs for the Oakland Magic Circle on Jan. 6, 2009. He has been performing magic since 1934 and is booked at the Palladium in London on his 100th birthday. http://www.youtube.com/user/insidebayarea

John Calvert shares some insight on his many years in magic in a brief interview with Scott Wells. http://www.youtube.com/user/texasmagician

Penn & Teller in Wired magazine

2009-05-12T12:44:00.002-04:00

The May "Mystery" issue of Wired magazine focuses on puzzles and perception. There are some excellent pieces including one by J.J. Abrams, the creator of the Lost television show (and previously featured here).

Just as J.J. Abrams is a genuine fan of mystery (albeit sometimes of the manipulative Pop culture variety), Penn & Teller are fans of atheism and are shown as artists collaborating with scientists in pursuit of the cutting edge of perception.

What's surprising is just how limited the repertoire of magical illusions actually is. The Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper lists nine fundamental "conjuring effects" of modern magic, from the vanish and the restoration to telekinesis and ESP. While these basic tricks have been varied endlessly—you can "restore" a cut rope, a sawed-in-half assistant, a shredded piece of paper—each of the effects relies on a specific perceptual phenomenon. This may be why exposing the "secret" of a magic trick is so often deflating. Most of the time, the secret is that we're gullible and our brains are riddled with blind spots.

This isn't just the stuff of magic shows; those perceptual phenomena also allow us to make sense of reality, as we translate the blur of photons hitting our retinas into a coherent world of three-dimensional forms.

While I enjoy exploring the psychology of magic, the meme of magician as all knowing expert of perception gets tiring. Don't get me wrong, it's a compelling and natural narrative and has some truth (and marketing cache) but at a certain point magic simply becomes a science study and is no longer good emotionally compelling theater. But I guess, magic has always held a unique position somewhere between science, art and religion. Maybe the science storyline will give way to magic being treated as an art form and conjurers grouped with other professions exploring important questions of human life with humility.

For those interested in magic psychology, Jonah Lehrer, the author of the article, has an enjoyable blog called The Frontal Cortex.

Ricky Jay on the Sound of Young America

2009-05-07T16:47:00.013-04:00

If you are the type of person who sees deception everywhere, you'll enjoy this old 2005 interview with Ricky Jay on The Sound of Young America, a wonderful NPR radio show and podcast.

Let the nerdy but awesome interview begin.

Ricky Jay's segment starts at minute 31:35

The Peekaboo Paradox

2008-12-07T19:51:00.000-05:00

I'd like to recommend a wonderful piece of writing by Gene Weingarten from the Washington Post exploring The Great Zucchini, a pre-school Magician and Entertainer in the DC area. The article weaves together Eric Knaus' professional and personal life. While it was published in 2006, I'm glad I finally got around to reading it-- narrative journalism at its best!

[Note: It's a long article but worth the read.]

"Eugene Burger - Magic and Mystery" on Point of Inquiry Podcast

2008-11-03T13:37:00.005-05:00

photo of Eugene Burger from magicbeard.com

"In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Burger discusses belief in the paranormal, “Spirit Theater,” and the possible deception of the public by paranormal claimants or entertainers such as Israeli psychic Uri Geller and American psychic medium John Edward. He also explores the relationship of magic to religion and to science, what magic can teach us about how we believe, and the kinds of benefits the student of magic receives from learning the art."

from Point of Inquiry Podcast

Click here to listen to a great interview with Eugene Burger

Guess What? You're an Actor!

2008-11-01T21:51:00.006-04:00

by Aaron Aptaker

Reprinted from The Boston Mini-Wizard, with permission of the author

Have you ever gone to a play and it looks like you are seeing life unfold before you? The characters are saying their lines for the first time and they are thinking of what to do and say as the story unfolds. That is what it is supposed to feel like. If you have ever attended a rehearsal you would see a much different story. The actors have memorized their lines from a script, and know exactly where they are going, and how they are moving. An actor’s facial expressions are carefully planned out, and their gestures are nuanced to perfection. The actor has rehearsed the same thing hundreds of times yet everything seems off the cuff and inspired.

Robert Houdin got it right when he said, “a magician is an actor playing the part of a magician”. Go ahead and reread that first paragraph, only this time replace the word actor with magician, and the words play/theater with magic show. Still works doesn’t it? Looking at your magic through the lens of an actor is a great way to improve as a magician. I highly recommend every aspiring magician attend drama classes, and audition for local plays. Here are a few ideas to apply to your own magic.

Always have a script! Actors never go onstage without knowing their lines. As far as scripts, the only difference between a magician and an actor is that usually magicians write their own scripts whereas an actor gets their words from a playwright. The idea of scripting your magic can be a scary one; after all you have so many routines and no idea what to write down. Here is a method of script writing I have used. First, pick one routine you already perform. Then, write down what you already say (don’t create any new lines at this stage! Just write down what you have already been saying). Next, think about a story or theme for the trick. Maybe it is a trick that is themed around cooking, or maybe the theme is falling in love. When you have a theme that you think fits the trick, brainstorm everything you know on the subject (see how useful your notebook is). Put your brainstorming list down for a day then come back to your script with new eyes.

Think about what on the brainstorming list is related to the trick, and now you have a plot.

Let’s say the trick is a do as I do card trick. You chose cooking as a theme, since you had a scrambled eggs joke in the original routine. On your brainstorming list you wrote down Iron Chef. You decided that it would be an awesome idea to have an Iron Chef style card trick where the chosen cards are the “secret ingredient”. Now that you have a clear plotline, the script is easy to write. All you have to do is write, rewrite and edit.

You have a script, now time for rehearsal! Actors never go onstage reading their lines for the first time. Rehearsing your magic technique and sleight of hand is extremely important, but I want to stress the importance of rehearsing the routine itself since you’ve already practiced the moves into the ground (right?). When actors move around, it’s called blocking. As a magician you should know exactly where you move, when you raise your eyebrow, when you put your hands on your hips etc. Your script should motivate all of your actions. Use facial expressions and gestures to support what you are saying. Now rehearse, practice, rehearse, break for lemonade, and rehearse again! You should know your routine inside out before you perform it.

If you’ve followed that process for one routine you now have a stellar performance piece. Now go to another routine and start the process again. Before you go out and perform your superb routine I want to let you in on a huge secret of acting. This is a secret so HUGE you only know about it if you’ve been in a play. Here’s the secret: Things never go exactly as planned in theater, but when actors do their jobs well no one in the audience knows. Actors forget lines, props go missing, and sound cues don’t work! Actors are always on their toes ready to adapt what they are doing to fit a situation. Magic is exactly the same way. We call this WHLIH (whatever happens let it happen). You will forget a line from the script, your funny gag will go missing, and your music won’t play. All of these things can and will happen to you, but here is the great thing, your audience does not know what to expect, so if you keep going gracefully they will not notice a thing! Scripts and rehearsal are very useful, but performance changes everything so be prepared and be flexible.

Remember legendary comedian George Burn’s famous quote about acting, “Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

TED Talks--Keith Barry: Brain magic

2008-10-31T22:51:00.005-04:00

First, Keith Barry shows us how our brains can fool our bodies -- in a trick that works via podcast too. Then he involves the audience in some jaw-dropping (and even a bit dangerous) feats of brain magic.

--from TED Talks

TED Talks-- Lennart Green: Close-up card magic

2008-10-31T22:41:00.005-04:00

"Like your uncle at a family party, the rumpled Swedish doctor Lennart Green says, "Pick a card, any card." But what he does with those cards is pure magic -- flabbergasting, lightning-fast, how-does-he-do-it? magic."

--from TED Talks

Magic in The New Yorker

2008-09-27T13:39:00.005-04:00

"The Real Work" by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker, Mar. 17, 2008

"On the plane, Swiss’s voice rises a touch: “You’ve got to—no, you’ve got to relax your wrist just then, you have to—you want it to look more casual. You’re making too much of the moment. The ace is no big deal. Don’t force it. Let it happen."

Read the article here.

Technorati Tags: newyorker,jamyianswiss,adamgopnik

MAKE Magazine on DYI magic and John Gaughan

2008-05-26T22:14:00.005-04:00

Click here to read the online contents.

Technorati Tags: MAKE_magazine,

John Gaughan

2008-05-25T19:49:00.002-04:00

That Mr. Gaughan, 68, is not easily found befits an artisan who has spent most of his life creating large-scale illusions for many of the world’s most famous magicians and illusionists: Siegfried & Roy, David Blaine, Criss Angel, David Copperfield, Doug Henning, Mark Wilson, Ricky Jay.

read more of the NY Times Article... http://tinyurl.com/3zg4zt

Jeff McBride II

2008-01-20T00:16:00.007-05:00

Click here if you can't see the above video.

This is another interview with Jeff McBride by Richard Wiseman--from richardwiseman.com. Wiseman has done some interesting work on the psychology of magic. I'm looking forward to reading his new book, Quirkology.

You can read the other interview with Jeff McBride here.

J.J Abrams Talks about Mystery and Potential

2008-01-16T13:16:00.005-05:00

If you can't see the video, click here.

From the TED Talks page,

"J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery -- the heart of Alias, Lost, and the upcoming Cloverfield -- back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own unopened Mystery Box."

Alexander, King of Jesters

2007-07-25T20:17:00.002-04:00

Alexander, King of Jesters, performs all over the world with his hilarious fool act which entertains both kids and adults alike. The New Zealand Herald calls him “Outrageous, offbeat, and full of surprises!” Visit his website at alexthejester.com.

Via email, Alexander King of Jesters responds to general questions about performing in 1998.

Thanks for your interest in my opinions on performing. By the way, you guys (S.Y.M. 29) are already doing something cool that many solo performers shy away from or are clueless about. I'm talking about working together. Those of you actively helping each other out in creating better magic are doing something that I believe is very worthwhile. I wish I began 'jamming' with other performers at an earlier age, because it really because it really works at pushing you to grow. Still, it's never too late.

These days I feel so charged up after my periodic sessions with other performing artists, that I sing it's praises with gusto.

Questions are great. I' m constantly asking them, beginning with, 'what the heck am I doing here on stage' or 'What's the purpose of this part here?' 'What should this character really look like?' Is this apparel or that comment really agood fit with character? How can you get the feeling of this character across in the shortest amount of time?' If your costume and your walk onto the stage gets your character across in just a few seconds, you've struck gold. Does the audience quickly get a sense that you are elegant? Goofy'! Bizarre? Witty? Hip? Lovable' Pathetic? Unassuming? Psyche? Nerdish'! Kid next door? Angry? Sweet? What can you play convincingly?

If you don't know the answer, ask that question while looking at yourself in the mirror. Pretend you never saw yourself before. Or else ask that question while looking inside yourself. Choose an intention, and stick with it! Then go as far as you dare. Gather your nerve and go even further!

I'm not saying that an outrageous personality is the goal, although that can be good. Calm is great too. Almost any choice is great if you commit 110 %. Audiences care less about what you do. They care more about who you are.

Why not cut the weakest trick in your act and then develop what's left a little deeper. This takes a little work. In fact, I'll venture to guess that younger artists keep adding and acquiring new bits and routines to their performances. It's natural. Then comes a time when they get a little surer of their character, and then finally there are some artists who spend the rest of their careers paring down. They are concentrating on the few things that really make sense for themselves.

Here's a question that I've been asking alot lately. What is the emotional response I want from my audience at that particular moment? Sometimes it can even change from moment to moment and when it does, I find that very satisfying.

Top 40 radio hits may sound lame sometimes, but ask yourself, do these hits grasp an emotion? I think that's what usually gets the song on the airwaves. I think a good variety performer captures a feeling or sentiment too. Music, costuming and props can either work together in harmony toward this end or they can contradict each other. Use what you've got and ride that spirit to where it takes you.

You don’t go on stage unless you think you have something special to share, right? If you trust yourself enough to do that, than why just throw it at people in a hurry? All of us in the audience will lean a little closer and be more attentive if you purposely share a moment with your audience on stage before you begin your ‘schtick’. This is an under-utilized showmanship principal: Before you start, let the audience check you out. Hit your mark on stage or in front of the microphone or wherever, and then just wait. Look at the audience and let them look back. The audience is composed of humans, and humans are really just another warm-blooded animal. Like all warm-blooded animals, when we meet a new one right in front of us, we gotta look at you and then sniff! I’m serious! Let us fill our eyes with your visage, let us breath in your scent (symbolically, of course!) After this little break, a breath or two, perhaps an exchange of glances, we trust you more and then relax. We tune in. As and added bonus, the longer that you intentionally wait before starting, the greater is the intrigue that you build in the audience.

The same principal is true when it comes to taking your bow. This is even harder, especially if you are a soloist. How often have you seen a solo act begin doing his or her next bit while people are still applauding the last bit? It is soooooo common! I‘ve been working a very full-time schedule for years and I still catch myself doing it. What’s the hurry? I think half the time when we rush applause, what is going on in our head is a little dialogue that goes something like this: “Thank you. You’re too kind! It’s just little ol’ me up here, and I’m not an egomaniac, so I will rush to my next thing quickly before you lose interest in my act” This is bogus! But so often we feel pushed to rush to the next thing. A video of your performance is an excellent way to find spots in your act where you might be doing this. Please do not confuse accepting applause with begging for applause. This is probably just a personal peeve, but I hate watching a magician do a trick and then immediately bend over in a bow and say “Thank you very much” or else make an ad-lib that goes something like: 'yes, when I first saw that trick, I was too stunned to applaud myself' This may be excusable if you’ve got a dead crowd and trying to liven them up early in the show. Or if you are performing outdoors and you’re trying to bind the passersby into a tight and lively unit. But most of the times I think this is a weak move, especially if done repeatedly. A solid performance that ends in a punctuation mark (which will require that all-important pause!) will earn you spontaneous applause. That’s a promise. Even a less than solid piece can get spontaneous applause if you put great care into your the way your character acts at it’s concluding moment. This gets you booked at The Ritz. Begged applause gets you Motel 6. So have the courage to wait. Leaving space in a performance is magic. Ahhh “space the final frontier!!”

Finally, let’s come back to solo performers benefiting from outside help. This stuff we’ve been discussing about character and showmanship is not really part of any school curriculum that I know of. Variety performing is not a college subject yet. I know of only a few small schools in Europe and one in California that even touches on this stuff. Experience is the main teacher here. But don’t underestimate the benefits of both apprenticing and mentoring. I see this happening at the SYM already and applaud. Personally I have am both an apprentice and a mentor and will continue to be, I hope. Fortunately, the Boston area has more than it’s share of full-time variety artists. There are many artists here who are more than willing to mentor if the conditions are right. David Oliver or myself can steer you to them. Meanwhile, I still carry the bags of those artists who inspire me!!

Well, you happened to ask me about one of my favorite subjects, and I happened to have just been discussing this when I read you’re E-Mail. As you know, I usually don’t actually speak during my show. This reminds me of a quote from Marcel Marceau, “The reason that mimes don’t speak is that if given the chance, they just won’t shut up!”

Best wishes with your many efforts,

--Alexander

visit Alexander's site at alexthejester.com

"The Magic Shop" by H.G. Wells, published in 1903

2007-03-27T00:26:00.003-04:00

I had seen the Magic Shop from afar several times; I had passed it once or twice, a shop window of alluring little objects, magic balls, magic hens, wonderful cones, ventriloquist dolls, the material of the basket trick, packs of cards that LOOKED all right, and all that sort of thing, but never had I thought of going in until one day, almost without warning, Gip hauled me by my finger right up to the window, and so conducted himself that there was nothing for it but to take him in. I had not thought the place was there, to tell the truth — a modest-sized frontage in Regent Street, between the picture shop and the place where the chicks run about just out of patent incubators, but there it was sure enough. I had fancied it was down nearer the Circus, or round the corner in Oxford Street, or even in Holborn; always over the way and a little inaccessible it had been, with something of the mirage in its position; but here it was now quite indisputably, and the fat end of Gip’s pointing finger made a noise upon the glass.

“If I was rich,” said Gip, dabbing a finger at the Disappearing Egg, “I’d buy myself that. And that” — which was The Crying Baby, Very Human — and that,” which was a mystery, and called, so a neat card asserted, “Buy One and Astonish Your Friends.”

“Anything,” said Gip, “will disappear under one of those cones. I have read about it in a book.

“And there, dadda, is the Vanishing Halfpenny — , only they’ve put it this way up so’s we can’t see how it’s done.”

Gip, dear boy, inherits his mother’s breeding, and he did not propose to enter the shop or worry in any way; only, you know, quite unconsciously he lugged my finger doorward, and he made his interest clear.

“That,” he said, and pointed to the Magic Bottle.

“If you had that?” I said; at which promising inquiry he looked up with a sudden radiance.

“I could show it to Jessie,” he said, thoughtful as ever of others.

“It’s less than a hundred days to your birthday, Gibbles,” I said, and laid my hand on the door-handle.

Gip made no answer, but his grip tightened on my finger, and so we came into the shop.

It was no common shop this; it was a magic shop, and all the prancing precedence Gip would have taken in the matter of mere toys was wanting. He left the burthen of the conversation to me.

It was a little, narrow shop, not very well lit, and the door-bell pinged again with a plaintive note as we closed it behind us. For a moment or so we were alone and could glance about us. There was a tiger in papier-mache on the glass case that covered the low counter — a grave, kind-eyed tiger that waggled his head in a methodical manner; there were several crystal spheres, a china hand holding magic cards, a stock of magic fish-bowls in various sizes, and an immodest magic hat that shamelessly displayed its springs. On the floor were magic mirrors; one to draw you out long and thin, one to swell your head and vanish your legs, and one to make you short and fat like a draught; and while we were laughing at these the shopman, as I suppose, came in.

At any rate, there he was behind the counter — a curious, sallow, dark man, with one ear larger than the other and a chin like the toe-cap of a boot.

“What can we have the pleasure?” he said, spreading his long, magic fingers on the glass case; and so with a start we were aware of him.

“I want,” I said, “to buy my little boy a few simple tricks.”

“Legerdemain?” he asked. “Mechanical? Domestic?”

“Anything amusing?” said I.

“Um!” said the shopman, and scratched his head for a moment as if thinking. Then, quite distinctly, he drew from his head a glass ball. “Something in this way?” he said, and held it out.

The action was unexpected. I had seen the trick done at entertainments endless times before — it’s part of the common stock of conjurers — but I had not expected it here.

“That’s good,” I said, with a laugh.

“Isn’t it?” said the shopman.

Gip stretched out his disengaged hand to take this object and found merely a blank palm.

“It’s in your pocket,” said the shopman, and there it was!

“How much will that be?” I asked.

“We make no charge for glass balls,” said the shopman politely. “We get them,” — he picked one out of his elbow as he spoke — “free.” He produced another from the back of his neck, and laid it beside its predecessor on the counter. Gip regarded his glass ball sagely, then directed a look of inquiry at the two on the counter, and finally brought his round-eyed scrutiny to the shopman, who smiled.

“You may have those too,” said the shopman, “and, if you DON’T mind, one from my mouth. SO!”

Gip counselled me mutely for a moment, and then in a profound silence put away the four balls, resumed my reassuring finger, and nerved himself for the next event.

“We get all our smaller tricks in that way,” the shopman remarked.

I laughed in the manner of one who subscribes to a jest. “Instead of going to the wholesale shop,” I said. “Of course, it’s cheaper.”

“In a way,” the shopman said. “Though we pay in the end. But not so heavily — as people suppose. . . . Our larger tricks, and our daily provisions and all the other things we want, we get out of that hat. . . And you know, sir, if you’ll excuse my saying it, there ISN’T a wholesale shop, not for Genuine Magic goods, sir. I don’t know if you noticed our inscription — the Genuine Magic shop.” He drew a business-card from his cheek and handed it to me. “Genuine,” he said, with his finger on the word, and added, “There is absolutely no deception, sir.”

He seemed to be carrying out the joke pretty thoroughly, I thought.

He turned to Gip with a smile of remarkable affability. “You, you know, are the Right Sort of Boy.”

I was surprised at his knowing that, because, in the interests of discipline, we keep it rather a secret even at home; but Gip received it in unflinching silence, keeping a steadfast eye on him.

“It’s only the Right Sort of Boy gets through that doorway.”

And, as if by way of illustration, there came a rattling at the door, and a squeaking little voice could be faintly heard. “Nyar! I WARN ‘a go in there, dadda, I WARN ‘a go in there. Ny-a-a-ah!” and then the accents of a down-trodden parent, urging consolations and propitiations. “It’s locked, Edward,” he said.

“But it isn’t,” said I.

“It is, sir,” said the shopman, “always — for that sort of child,” and as he spoke we had a glimpse of the other youngster, a little, white face, pallid from sweet-eating and over-sapid food, and distorted by evil passions, a ruthless little egotist, pawing at the enchanted pane. “It’s no good, sir,” said the shopman, as I moved, with my natural helpfulness, doorward, and presently the spoilt child was carried off howling.

“How do you manage that?” I said, breathing a little more freely.

“Magic!” said the shopman, with a careless wave of the hand, and behold! sparks of coloured fire flew out of his fingers and vanished into the shadows of the shop.

“You were saying,” he said, addressing himself to Gip, “before you came in, that you would like one of our ‘Buy One and Astonish your Friends’ boxes?”

Gip, after a gallant effort, said “Yes.”

“It’s in your pocket.”

And leaning over the counter — he really had an extraordinarily long body — this amazing person produced the article in the customary conjurer’s manner. “Paper,” he said, and took a sheet out of the empty hat with the springs; “string,” and behold his mouth was a string-box, from which he drew an unending thread, which when he had tied his parcel he bit off — and, it seemed to me, swallowed the ball of string. And then he lit a candle at the nose of one of the ventriloquist’s dummies, stuck one of his fingers (which had become sealing-wax red) into the flame, and so sealed the parcel. “Then there was the Disappearing Egg,” he remarked, and produced one from within my coat-breast and packed it, and also The Crying Baby, Very Human. I handed each parcel to Gip as it was ready, and he clasped them to his chest.

He said very little, but his eyes were eloquent; the clutch of his arms was eloquent. He was the playground of unspeakable emotions. These, you know, were REAL Magics. Then, with a start, I discovered something moving about in my hat — something soft and jumpy. I whipped it off, and a ruffled pigeon — no doubt a confederate — dropped out and ran on the counter, and went, I fancy, into a cardboard box behind the papier-mache tiger.

“Tut, tut!” said the shopman, dexterously relieving me of my headdress; “careless bird, and — as I live — nesting!”

He shook my hat, and shook out into his extended hand two or three eggs, a large marble, a watch, about half-a-dozen of the inevitable glass balls, and then crumpled, crinkled paper, more and more and more, talking all the time of the way in which people neglect to brush their hats INSIDE as well as out, politely, of course, but with a certain personal application. “All sorts of things accumulate, sir. . . . Not YOU, of course, in particular. . . . Nearly every customer. . . . Astonishing what they carry about with them. . . .” The crumpled paper rose and billowed on the counter more and more and more, until he was nearly hidden from us, until he was altogether hidden, and still his voice went on and on. “We none of us know what the fair semblance of a human being may conceal, sir. Are we all then no better than brushed exteriors, whited sepulchres — ”

His voice stopped — exactly like when you hit a neighbour’s gramophone with a well-aimed brick, the same instant silence, and the rustle of the paper stopped, and everything was still. . . .

“Have you done with my hat?” I said, after an interval.

There was no answer.

I stared at Gip, and Gip stared at me, and there were our distortions in the magic mirrors, looking very rum, and grave, and quiet. . . .

“I think we’ll go now,” I said. “Will you tell me how much all this comes to? . . . .

“I say,” I said, on a rather louder note, “I want the bill; and my hat, please.”

It might have been a sniff from behind the paper pile. . . .

“Let’s look behind the counter, Gip,” I said. “He’s making fun of us.”

I led Gip round the head-wagging tiger, and what do you think there was behind the counter? No one at all! Only my hat on the floor, and a common conjurer’s lop-eared white rabbit lost in meditation, and looking as stupid and crumpled as only a conjurer’s rabbit can do. I resumed my hat, and the rabbit lolloped a lollop or so out of my way.

“Dadda!” said Gip, in a guilty whisper.

“What is it, Gip?” said I.

“I DO like this shop, dadda.”

“So should I,” I said to myself, “if the counter wouldn’t suddenly extend itself to shut one off from the door.” But I didn’t call Gip’s attention to that. “Pussy!” he said, with a hand out to the rabbit as it came lolloping past us; “Pussy, do Gip a magic!” and his eyes followed it as it squeezed through a door I had certainly not remarked a moment before. Then this door opened wider, and the man with one ear larger than the other appeared again. He was smiling still, but his eye met mine with something between amusement and defiance. “You’d like to see our show-room, sir,” he said, with an innocent suavity. Gip tugged my finger forward. I glanced at the counter and met the shopman’s eye again. I was beginning to think the magic just a little too genuine. “We haven’t VERY much time,” I said. But somehow we were inside the show-room before I could finish that.

“All goods of the same quality,” said the shopman, rubbing his flexible hands together, “and that is the Best. Nothing in the place that isn’t genuine Magic, and warranted thoroughly rum. Excuse me, sir!”

I felt him pull at something that clung to my coat-sleeve, and then I saw he held a little, wriggling red demon by the tail — the little creature bit and fought and tried to get at his hand — and in a moment he tossed it carelessly behind a counter. No doubt the thing was only an image of twisted indiarubber, but for the moment — ! And his gesture was exactly that of a man who handles some petty biting bit of vermin. I glanced at Gip, but Gip was looking at a magic rocking-horse. I was glad he hadn’t seen the thing. “I say,” I said, in an undertone, and indicating Gip and the red demon with my eyes, “you haven’t many things like THAT about, have you?”

“None of ours! Probably brought it with you,” said the shopman — also in an undertone, and with a more dazzling smile than ever. “Astonishing what people WILL carry about with them unawares!” And then to Gip, “Do you see anything you fancy here?”

There were many things that Gip fancied there.

He turned to this astonishing tradesman with mingled confidence and respect. “Is that a Magic Sword?” he said.

“A Magic Toy Sword. It neither bends, breaks, nor cuts the fingers. It renders the bearer invincible in battle against any one under eighteen. Half-a-crown to seven and sixpence, according to size. These panoplies on cards are for juvenile knights-errant and very useful — shield of safety, sandals of swiftness, helmet of invisibility.”

“Oh, daddy!” gasped Gip.

I tried to find out what they cost, but the shopman did not heed me. He had got Gip now; he had got him away from my finger; he had embarked upon the exposition of all his confounded stock, and nothing was going to stop him. Presently I saw with a qualm of distrust and something very like jealousy that Gip had hold of this person’s finger as usually he has hold of mine. No doubt the fellow was interesting, I thought, and had an interestingly faked lot of stuff, really GOOD faked stuff, still —

I wandered after them, saying very little, but keeping an eye on this prestidigital fellow. After all, Gip was enjoying it. And no doubt when the time came to go we should be able to go quite easily.

It was a long, rambling place, that show-room, a gallery broken up by stands and stalls and pillars, with archways leading off to other departments, in which the queerest-looking assistants loafed and stared at one, and with perplexing mirrors and curtains. So perplexing, indeed, were these that I was presently unable to make out the door by which we had come.

The shopman showed Gip magic trains that ran without steam or clockwork, just as you set the signals, and then some very, very valuable boxes of soldiers that all came alive directly you took off the lid and said — . I myself haven’t a very quick ear and it was a tongue-twisting sound, but Gip — he has his mother’s ear — got it in no time. “Bravo!” said the shopman, putting the men back into the box unceremoniously and handing it to Gip. “Now,” said the shopman, and in a moment Gip had made them all alive again.

“You’ll take that box?” asked the shopman.

“We’ll take that box,” said I, “unless you charge its full value. In which case it would need a Trust Magnate — ”

“Dear heart! NO!” and the shopman swept the little men back again, shut the lid, waved the box in the air, and there it was, in brown paper, tied up and — WITH GIP’S FULL NAME AND ADDRESS ON THE PAPER!

The shopman laughed at my amazement.

“This is the genuine magic,” he said. “The real thing.”

“It’s a little too genuine for my taste,” I said again.

After that he fell to showing Gip tricks, odd tricks, and still odder the way they were done. He explained them, he turned them inside out, and there was the dear little chap nodding his busy bit of a head in the sagest manner.

I did not attend as well as I might. “Hey, presto!” said the Magic Shopman, and then would come the clear, small “Hey, presto!” of the boy. But I was distracted by other things. It was being borne in upon me just how tremendously rum this place was; it was, so to speak, inundated by a sense of rumness. There was something a little rum about the fixtures even, about the ceiling, about the floor, about the casually distributed chairs. I had a queer feeling that whenever I wasn’t looking at them straight they went askew, and moved about, and played a noiseless puss-in-the-corner behind my back. And the cornice had a serpentine design with masks — masks altogether too expressive for proper plaster.

Then abruptly my attention was caught by one of the odd-looking assistants. He was some way off and evidently unaware of my presence — I saw a sort of three-quarter length of him over a pile of toys and through an arch — and, you know, he was leaning against a pillar in an idle sort of way doing the most horrid things with his features! The particular horrid thing he did was with his nose. He did it just as though he was idle and wanted to amuse himself. First of all it was a short, blobby nose, and then suddenly he shot it out like a telescope, and then out it flew and became thinner and thinner until it was like a long, red, flexible whip. Like a thing in a nightmare it was! He flourished it about and flung it forth as a fly-fisher flings his line.

My instant thought was that Gip mustn’t see him. I turned about, and there was Gip quite preoccupied with the shopman, and thinking no evil. They were whispering together and looking at me. Gip was standing on a little stool, and the shopman was holding a sort of big drum in his hand.

“Hide and seek, dadda!” cried Gip. “You’re He!”

And before I could do anything to prevent it, the shopman had clapped the big drum over him. I saw what was up directly. “Take that off,” I cried, “this instant! You’ll frighten the boy. Take it off!”

The shopman with the unequal ears did so without a word, and held the big cylinder towards me to show its emptiness. And the little stool was vacant! In that instant my boy had utterly disappeared? . . .

You know, perhaps, that sinister something that comes like a hand out of the unseen and grips your heart about. You know it takes your common self away and leaves you tense and deliberate, neither slow nor hasty, neither angry nor afraid. So it was with me.

I came up to this grinning shopman and kicked his stool aside.

“Stop this folly!” I said. “Where is my boy?”

“You see,” he said, still displaying the drum’s interior, “there is no deception — -”

I put out my hand to grip him, and he eluded me by a dexterous movement. I snatched again, and he turned from me and pushed open a door to escape. “Stop!” I said, and he laughed, receding. I leapt after him — into utter darkness.

THUD!

“Lor’ bless my ’eart! I didn’t see you coming, sir!”

I was in Regent Street, and I had collided with a decent-looking working man; and a yard away, perhaps, and looking a little perplexed with himself, was Gip. There was some sort of apology, and then Gip had turned and come to me with a bright little smile, as though for a moment he had missed me.

And he was carrying four parcels in his arm!

He secured immediate possession of my finger.

For the second I was rather at a loss. I stared round to see the door of the magic shop, and, behold, it was not there! There was no door, no shop, nothing, only the common pilaster between the shop where they sell pictures and the window with the chicks! . . .

I did the only thing possible in that mental tumult; I walked straight to the kerbstone and held up my umbrella for a cab.

“‘Ansoms,” said Gip, in a note of culminating exultation.

I helped him in, recalled my address with an effort, and got in also. Something unusual proclaimed itself in my tail-coat pocket, and I felt and discovered a glass ball. With a petulant expression I flung it into the street.

Gip said nothing.

For a space neither of us spoke.

“Dada!” said Gip, at last, “that WAS a proper shop!”

I came round with that to the problem of just how the whole thing had seemed to him. He looked completely undamaged — so far, good; he was neither scared nor unhinged, he was simply tremendously satisfied with the afternoon’s entertainment, and there in his arms were the four parcels.

Confound it! what could be in them?

“Um!” I said. “Little boys can’t go to shops like that every day.”

He received this with his usual stoicism, and for a moment I was sorry I was his father and not his mother, and so couldn’t suddenly there, coram publico, in our hansom, kiss him. After all, I thought, the thing wasn’t so very bad.

But it was only when we opened the parcels that I really began to be reassured. Three of them contained boxes of soldiers, quite ordinary lead soldiers, but of so good a quality as to make Gip altogether forget that originally these parcels had been Magic Tricks of the only genuine sort, and the fourth contained a kitten, a little living white kitten, in excellent health and appetite and temper.

I saw this unpacking with a sort of provisional relief. I hung about in the nursery for quite an unconscionable time. . . .

That happened six months ago. And now I am beginning to believe it is all right. The kitten had only the magic natural to all kittens, and the soldiers seem as steady a company as any colonel could desire. And Gip — ?

The intelligent parent will understand that I have to go cautiously with Gip.

But I went so far as this one day. I said, “How would you like your soldiers to come alive, Gip, and march about by themselves?”

“Mine do,” said Gip. “I just have to say a word I know before I open the lid.”

“Then they march about alone?”

“Oh, QUITE, dadda. I shouldn’t like them if they didn’t do that.”

I displayed no unbecoming surprise, and since then I have taken occasion to drop in upon him once or twice, unannounced, when the soldiers were about, but so far I have never discovered them performing in anything like a magical manner.

It’s so difficult to tell.

There’s also a question of finance. I have an incurable habit of paying bills. I have been up and down Regent Street several times, looking for that shop. I am inclined to think, indeed, that in that matter honour is satisfied, and that, since Gip’s name and address are known to them, I may very well leave it to these people, whoever they may be, to send in their bill in their own time.

Eugene Burger

2007-01-21T16:45:00.003-05:00

Howard Thurston Video!

2006-12-08T12:16:00.006-05:00

Howard Thurston

"Howard Thurston's performance at the Palace Theatre, in Cleveland Ohio - October 26, 1932. To find out more about Howard Thurston please check out www.ThurstonMasterMagician.com!"

John Calvert on Howard Thurston:

"...I saw the great Howard Thurston and I never forgot it, his music, the presentation and so-forth. When I was a kid we didn't quite t have magic clubs like you have now as a matter of fact I hadn't read a book on magic before I was doing a complete magic show. I had to create a lot of things that I had never even seen another magician do. And I remember Thurston did the Iash where the girl is drawn to the top of the theatre and fires a shot and she vanishes. Twenty-one years later I built one by memory. Now I often wondered whether it was as a little boy that figured how it was done or it was over a period of time as I became an adult that I figured out how it was done. And of course I think it was the latter."

read more

Jack Chanin

2006-11-21T12:32:00.005-05:00

photo from http://www.magicnook.com/forum/bioCDE.htm

"Jack Chanin (?-1997) was one of the original characters in magic. Besides being a manufacturer, creator and magic shop owner, he was also a superb performer and demonstrator. He wrote many books on magic including his classics on sleeving and the Three Shell Game." --magichistory.com

link to purchase a book on Jack Chanin

To listen, use the player below.

audio player doesn't appear above? try downloading www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

"The Magic of the Human Mind" By Barry Gordemer

2006-10-24T20:46:00.004-04:00

“I did a trick for a little boy.... He looked up at me and said, 'I know how you did that.' I said, 'How?' He said, 'You used magic.'”

Al Cohen

from NPR's website

Cardini on youtube.com

2006-09-05T18:59:00.004-04:00

There is plenty of junk on youtube, but some great stuff too. Here: what appears to be Cardini's complete act, uncut.

ladies and gentlemen, Cardini!

David Copperfield on NPR's "This I Believe"

2006-08-24T19:00:00.002-04:00

The first magician that became an idol to me was David Copperfield. I saw him perform live at "The Wang Center" in Boston when I was in the second grade. He had not yet put out his new TV special, "Flying." So with my brothers, I saw much of a new show that had not been on his last television special, "The Orient Express." That night I saw David Copperfield fly onstage--I had not seen it on TV, nor ever seen anything like it. It was one of the three most awe-inspiring magic show moments of my life. The other two are watching an illuminated light bulb fly right over my head by the late Harry Blackstone, Jr. and seeing Lance Burton's show at the Hacienda. (I think I saw these two shows during the same year.)

A friend of mine said that the great part, for him, about being a professional magician was that he got to meet all of his heroes, and in some cases, got to know them well. I am neither a professional magician nor a practicing amateur, but when I was really into magic as a kid and teen I got to meet many of the leaders of magic. Many of them whose interviews appear on this site. I got to meet Lance Burton after his show and shake his hand and get my photo taken with him--it meant so much to me. I remember telling Harry Blackstone, Jr. that I wanted to be a magician.

And David Copperfield, I got his autograph after his show in 1992. I remember as a first grader, I wrote a letter to him telling him I was a big fan and that I'd been to the same magic shop he once visited. A while later--probably not as long as I had impatiently thought-- my Nana presented me with a postcard that had come in the mail for me. On that postcard was a photo of David Copperfield, framed by the light from the windows of the Orient Express. It read, "To Christopher, All my Best, David Copperfield." It meant so much to me, and it was an example of a small act of kindness.

This week, David Copperfield appears on the radio program called "This I Believe," found on NPR. You can also read or listen to it by clicking on this link. Copperfield speaks on the challenge of kindness. I'm sure Copperfield has his flaws and the pressures of his position and stature allow many people get to see his unpleasant side, but my experience has shown me otherwise. He'd taken one of his few days off from touring to visit a "magic camp" for kids (can you believe it?) on Long Island, NY. When I was a part of a young magicians' club, he'd meet the young hobbyists backstage. At one time, David spent 15 minutes talking with one of these young magicians, who was going through treatment for cancer. Although I don't know if he owes it to anyone, I'm happy to say that my childhood idol has shown some kindness within him.

So here he is, David Copperfield. Click here.

Thanks to C.D., who let me know about the NPR essay.

Neil Burger speaks about magic and "The Illusionist"

2006-08-20T14:39:00.001-04:00

I found this link of an interview with Neil Burger, director of "The Illusionist," on the Genii Forum. Again, this movie is so good!

You can listen to this NPR interview HERE.

above photo of Neil Burger from http://www.cinemaspeak.com/Interviews/examiningtruth1.html

link: An Interview with David Abram

2006-08-15T18:58:00.001-04:00

http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/abram.html

link: McSweeney's Article--former magician's assistant

2006-08-15T18:48:00.001-04:00

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/unusualjobs/watson.html

I was just looking for the correct spelling...

2006-08-04T12:56:00.001-04:00

of the German magician, Lafayette (or The Great Lafayette).

He was mention in the interview I did with Ray Goulet (this interview will be posted soon). In googling "La Fayette magician," I found a grusome story about the magician himself. There certainly are strange stories about magicians, and this is one of them.

click here to read The Scotsman's article on Lafayette

updates

2006-08-01T13:41:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone!

I want to let you know of some updates. The Jeff McBride interview is now transcribed and so it the Walter Gibson one. Ray Goulet's is coming soon.

Also, while this site still will be at magicinterviews.blogspot.com, magicinterviews.net is the easy URL to remember, which you can tell your friends about. It forwards you to the blogspot site

Thanks for all the great feedback.

have a nice day

CB

Mike Caveney

2006-07-07T21:53:00.002-04:00

On July 10, 1998 as President of S.Y.M. 29, I made it my goal to interview as many professional magicians as I could for the Boston Mini Wizard. With my microcassette recorder in hand, I had the opportunity to interview Long Beach Mystic alumnus, Mike Caveney.

Mike Caveney is a magic performer, publisher, author, consultant and inventor. He frequently appears at magic conventions including Hank Lee’s Cape Cod Conclave and the Society of American Magicians National Convention. He is known for his linking coathangers routine, arm juggling, bow and arrow card stab, and the appearing chicken from a borrowed coat trick. His publishing company Mike Caveney’s Magic Words has a reputation for producing the finest books on the history of magic. He has consulted for numerous magicians including David Copperfield and the late Orson Welles. During my interview with Mr. Caveney, he commented on the involvement of magic in his life, especially as a young person. It was very encouraging to hear a veteran of magic, whom I respect, expound on the meaning of magic in his life with the enthusiasm of a kid.

This is the audio interview with Mike Caveney from which today's interview post was transcribed. Running time 8:15. It may be a strain to hear:

The Mini-Wizard: Has the Long Beach Mystics helped in your magical development?

Mike Caveney: Yes, tremendously so. You know these kids today they don’t know what to do, they don’t have any interests, they fool around. They are wasting their life. If you could be so lucky as to find what you are interested in, and then find a bunch of friends the same age that you can do that with; it’s great. I grew up with all these guys, some of them became magicians, some of them didn't, but we are still friends; even the ones that became schoolteachers, or dentists and magicians. We’re still old friends and it’s great. We see each other all the time. It was competitive when we were younger. We all wanted to have a great act, and we helped each other because we all had different types of acts. We certainly all advanced faster as being a part of this group than we would have had we been sitting at home thinking about it for ourselves. We’d have a meeting and everyone would throw in an idea. “Well what about this for an idea?” and “What about this?” And I thought “Wow! I have so much to think about, so much to work on.” It was great.

The Mini-Wizard: So you found being honest with yourself and others important in the growth of an act?

Mike Caveney: Absolutely. Especially with a group of friends no one was afraid to go up and say “Ali, that trick stinks.” And you’d go “Oh my…Aw, how could he say….” (but he would continue) “Look, it just doesn’t fit you. But that other trick that you did, we think that’s great and we think that’s what you should pursue.” He’d say “Well, ok.” It hurts to have some one tell you that, but in the long run you’re better off. We’d go to magic shows together and watch the old professionals work and we would get inspired and go back and be real honest with each other; which was great. You could do a trick for your mom and dad or aunt or uncle and they think it’s great no matter what you do and that doesn’t really help you. It’s great to have some friends who aren’t afraid to say “Hey man, I was sitting on the side and you flashed everything. You gotta cover you angles.” And that helps.

The Mini-Wizard: Any last words…

Mike Caveney: Well here’s what I think. You guys are lucky that you are young magicians now because this is the biggest magic boom of the century and I mean the whole 1900’s, twentieth century. There is nothing that has gone on like what is going on now. When people say “What was the real golden age of magic?” It’s today. It’s never been this good. It’s unbelievable. When I was a little kid there might be one magician on Ed Sullivan, once a month, and we’d get four minutes of magic on TV a month. Now there’s a magic special on every month it seems like. There are so many conventions, so many places to work; it’s really amazing. So there is no reason why if someone really wants to make their living doing magic they can’t do it because there are so many different ways to go: working in night clubs, working in the corporate world doing trade shows, running a magic shop, doing a magazine….

(When I was young) Channing Pollack was a great magician who worked in a nightclub. And most of the nightclubs were in Europe. Well, as much as I wanted to be a magician, I kind of didn’t like the idea of working for a bunch of drunks or in a smoky nightclub. That didn’t sound like fun to me. So I wasn’t sure what I was going to do because I thought if you are a magician, that’s what you do. Then I found out about trade shows--guys who do magic for businessmen at conventions and that made a lot more sense to me. And I said “That sound’s like fun…working for really smart people and making really good money.” So that’s what I headed into. But until I found out about that, I went to college and graduated from college. Stan (Allen) went to college and Mike Weber went to college. Mike Weber’s got a law degree, which is fine. He’s a smart guy and now he’s a magician. I think school’s good.

I’ve got a perfect example. I just worked on a ship down in South America. It’s a really tiny ship and a really expensive ship. The people that take these cruises are millionaires. So they want you to be able good magician but they say “Look, we know you can do magic, but we want you to able to have dinner with these people sit with them, talk to them for two weeks.” And these people have been around the world running a big company and stuff and they want you to be able to talk to these guys. Well at that point I thought “I’m glad I went to college, I’m glad I read the newspaper and watch the news so I know what’s going on.” So it was real easy to talk to these people. But here’s the best advice. This cruise line said “Most magicians don’t work on this cruise ship. These people are very sophisticated, wealthy and they travel in very high social circles.” So they were afraid that they wouldn’t like magic. I know from experience, as you guys know too, that I don’t care who it is… whether it’s a homeless guy or a millionaire, they all turn into ten year old kids. As soon as those sponge balls appear in their hand, they go “Wow!! How did you do that? That’s great!” Magic is a great equalizer. That’s what I found, even on this ship. It made me think that I picked the best, best job in the world; magic.

I was in Romania once and I met some Romanian kids on the beach. I couldn’t speak their language but I got some seashells and did some tricks for them and their eyes lighted up; they couldn’t believe it. It’s the greatest thing you can learn. Even the Long Beach Mystics who didn’t be come magicians, became school teachers and all these other jobs all that they learn growing up being magicians has helped them a lot in their career.

visit Mike's site for his wonderful books www.mcmagicwords.com

Read about Mike in the December 2005 issue of Genii Magazine. Thanks to Genii forum and visitors for your readership!

Sylvester the Jester

2006-06-16T00:14:00.002-04:00

This week's interview is with Sylvester the Jester. You can visit Sylvester's website here.

This video is posted with permission by current.tv. The video is by Robert R.

remember that supreme court act from last summer...?

2006-06-15T22:24:00.001-04:00

Barry’s Magic Shop Threatened With Eviction by Montgomery County After 31 years in Business in Wheaton, Maryland.

JUNE 14, 2006: The owners of Barry’s Magic Shop, Mr. Barry Taylor and Ms. Susie Kang, are dismayed to inform our many loyal customers and the general public that our beloved magic business located at 11234 Georgia Avenue in Wheaton, Maryland, is being threatened with eviction by Montgomery County through the Wheaton Redevelopment Program, which on May 31, 2006 forcibly acquired title to the building that we lease through a condemnation action. Tragically, unless we are able to promptly work out suitable alternative arrangements with Montgomery County, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area may well lose its last remaining magic shop.

Ironically, Barry’s Magic Shop not only serves professional and amateur magicians, as well as young children interested in learning the traditional performing art of magic, from throughout Montgomery County, Maryland, but it actually attracts many hundreds of customers to Wheaton’s declining business district from relatively distant locations such as Fairfax County, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Annapolis, Maryland, and beyond. Customers who visit us at our Wheaton magic shop often patronize other local businesses in the area, such as delicatessens, coffee shops, and the like. We are puzzled as to how using taxpayer-generated public funds to potentially snuff out our wholesome, family-oriented business constitutes community redevelopment.

Montgomery County plans to demolish the building which we have leased for 31 years so that it can improve the alley sidewalk which connects Georgia Avenue to the parking lot behind our building. It is a shame that the County has not given more serious consideration to creative ways to beautify and improve that sidewalk without demolishing our building and threatening our small business.

While Montgomery County has stated that they wish to cooperate with us to assist us in relocating to another building, and we welcome good faith cooperation, a forced relocation would place an enormous financial strain on our small family-owned and operated business. Furthermore, we are unlikely to quickly find any suitable alternative business site which has the space and commercial access for anywhere near the rent that we have been paying under our lease.

We truly doubt whether Montgomery County fully considered the unique family-oriented nature of our magic shop and its customers, as compared to other alternative sites in the vicinity which might have been used for enhanced pedestrian access in Wheaton. At this point in time, we do not know what the outcome of this terrible conundrum that we are facing will be, and frankly, facing this uncertainty has been very stressful to us at a personal level.

We ask for the prayers and support from our loyal customers and friends in Montgomery County, Maryland, where we have lived and worked for decades. Please promptly send (by email or letter) your respectful expressions of support for Barry’s Magic Shop to the government officials listed below, along with copies to us in order that we may keep track of your efforts. Every letter helps. Your letter may make the difference! Thank you very much for your many years of support as our customers and friends.

Barry Taylor & Susie Kang, Barry’s Magic Shop, 301-933-0373,
magic@erols.com, www.barrysmagicshop.com

Montgomery County Executive
Douglas M. Duncan
Executive Office Building
101 Monroe Street, 2nd Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
(240) 777-2500
TTY (240) 777-2544
Email: douglas.duncan@montgomerycountymd.gov

Joseph R. Davis, Director

Wheaton Redevelopment Program

Montgomery County Maryland

2424 Reedie Drive

Wheaton, MD 20902

(240) 777-8125

Joseph.davis@montgomerycountymd.gov

Tom Perez, Councilmember (District 5, Wheaton)

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Ave, 6th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
(240) 777-7966
Councilmember.Perez@montgomerycountymd.gov

Ms. Nancy Floreen, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7959

councilmember.floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov

Ms. Marilyn J. Praisner, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7968

councilmember.praisner@montgomerycountymd.gov

George Leventhal, Councilmember and Council President

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7811

councilmember.leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov

Howard A. Denis, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7964

councilmember.denis@montgomerycountymd.gov

Steve Silverman, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7960

councilmember.silverman@montgomerycountymd.gov

Michael L. Subin, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7828

councilmember.subin@montgomerycountymd.gov

Michael Knapp, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7955

councilmember.knapp@montgomerycountymd.gov

Phil Andrews, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7906

councilmember.andrews@montgomerycountymd.gov

Governor Robert L. Erlich, Jr.

Office of the Governor

State House

Annapolis, MD 21401-1925

www.gov.state.md.us/mail

Lieutenant Governor Michael S. Steele

Office of the Lt. Governor

State House

Annapolis, MD 21401-1925

ltgovernor@gov.state.md.us

Wheaton & Kensington Chamber of Commerce

wkchamber@wkchamber.org

from an email

2006-06-14T17:50:00.000-04:00

Barry’s Magic Shop Threatened With Eviction by Montgomery County

After 31 years in Business in Wheaton, Maryland.

Thank you very much for your many years of support as our customers and friends.

Barry Taylor & Susie Kang, Barry’s Magic Shop, 301-933-0373, magic@erols.com, www.barrysmagicshop.com

Montgomery County Executive
Douglas M. Duncan
Executive Office Building
101 Monroe Street, 2nd Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
(240) 777-2500
TTY (240) 777-2544
Email: douglas.duncan@montgomerycountymd.gov

Joseph R. Davis, Director

Wheaton Redevelopment Program

Montgomery County Maryland

2424 Reedie Drive

Wheaton, MD 20902

(240) 777-8125

Joseph.davis@montgomerycountymd.gov

Tom Perez, Councilmember (District 5, Wheaton)

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Ave, 6th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
(240) 777-7966
Councilmember.Perez@montgomerycountymd.gov

Ms. Nancy Floreen, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7959

councilmember.floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov

Ms. Marilyn J. Praisner, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7968

councilmember.praisner@montgomerycountymd.gov

George Leventhal, Councilmember and Council President

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7811

councilmember.leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov

Howard A. Denis, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7964

councilmember.denis@montgomerycountymd.gov

Steve Silverman, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7960

councilmember.silverman@montgomerycountymd.gov

Michael L. Subin, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7828

councilmember.subin@montgomerycountymd.gov

Michael Knapp, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7955

councilmember.knapp@montgomerycountymd.gov

Phil Andrews, Councilmember

Montgomery County Maryland

100 Maryland Avenue, 6^th Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 777-7906

councilmember.andrews@montgomerycountymd.gov

Governor Robert L. Erlich, Jr.

Office of the Governor

State House

Annapolis, MD 21401-1925

www.gov.state.md.us/mail

Lieutenant Governor Michael S. Steele

Office of the Lt. Governor

State House

Annapolis, MD 21401-1925

ltgovernor@gov.state.md.us

Wheaton & Kensington Chamber of Commerce

wkchamber@wkchamber.org

Jim Steinmeyer, John Gaughan, David Devant and Doug Henning

2006-04-04T17:13:00.003-04:00

Here's a short commercial for Doug Henning's broadway show, Merlin. At the end is a vanishing lady illusion called the Mascot Moth. It was invented by David Devant and reconstructed nearly a hundred years later for Merlin by Jim Steinmeyer and John Gaughan. There is a wonderful story about it's method in Steinmeyer's book, Art and Artifice.

and now for something completely different...

2006-04-03T08:47:00.004-04:00

Here are a few videos that have to do with magic and life. Enjoy!

Steve Martin as the Great Flydini

Get this video and more at MySpace.com
how does he do it?

Alan Watts Meets South Park

check this out... http://www.neticons.net/music_life/

David Kaye Part II

2006-03-25T09:59:00.001-05:00

This is another email interview with David Kaye, aka Silly Billy. The first interview can be read here.

Also, Kaye's great book Seriously Silly can be found on his website, www.sillymagic.com

Magicinterviews: Where do you find inspiration for your magic performances?

David Kaye: I find inspiration in many places. First I read a lot about magic. Old magic books, new magic magazines. And I also see lots of magic shows. I can get an idea from an illusionist that I then use in my kid show.

But also I get inspiration from watching other kinds of art: movies, theater, stand up comedy, paintings, variety artists, like jugglers, clowns, performance art.

I never know where I am going to get an idea from. It is always exciting when I am struck with a good idea. As a form of advice I would tell other aspiring artists to always watch art other than their own medium.

Magicinterviews: How do you think New York City audiences differ from audience from other areas?

David Kaye: I would say in general new yorkers are more liberal and accepting. Audiences from other parts of the country will be offended more easlily than audiences from NY. Which means artists can try more new things in NY while they have to stick to the old and familiar in other parts of the country.

Part of the job of art is to push the envelope. That can happen in NY. But it's tough to push the envelope in communities that dont accept things and people who are different from themselves.

Magicinterviews: What are the pros and cons of managing clowns under the Silly Billy banner?

David Kaye: It is a tough business. I am always busy running the company and training clowns.

The idea is that I am supposed to make money at running my company. But the real advantage is that I am able to train new performers to be great entertainers. Then I send them for very little money to the poorest people in NY. And these people are very lucky to get a clown taught by me for their party. If I didnt train my people, these poor people would end up with very bad magicians at their party. Instead they get a great show and great memories.

The con is that it takes a lot of work to make that happen.

:::

you can purchase David Kaye's book at your favorite magic dealer or directly from the author at www.sillymagic.com

Ricky Jay

2006-03-19T15:49:00.003-05:00

This is a half an hour interview with Ricky Jay before a live audience in San Francisco. Terri Gross is the interviewer and it was broadcast on the program Fresh Air. What should be interesting, are the types of questions and words non-magicians use to describe and inquiry about magic.

I had the privilege to see Ricky Jay’s show, Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants while it played in Cambridge, Massachusetts several years ago. Jay is a fantastic performer and allows people to see the artfulness in magic.

Click here to go to NPR to listen to the interview. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1132984

:::

Teller

2006-03-12T13:48:00.002-05:00

This is a great interview in which Teller speaks candidly and passionately about theatre and magic. Click here to got to the NPR site with the audio link!

--magicinterviews

David Kaye

2006-03-06T00:40:00.001-05:00

This week's interview is with David Kaye, a.k.a. Silly Billy. The following biographical information is from his website, sillymagic.com:

"In New York, where he performs more than 300 shows each year, he has been recognized as New York’s top children’s entertainer by five New York publications.

His television credits include appearances on Late Show with David Letterman, as well as multiple appearances on Comedy Central. His client list reads like a Who’s Who. Clients include Bruce Springsteen, Susan Sarandon, Madonna, Eddie Murphy, and the Sultan of Brunei.

Since June 2000, David has been writing a monthly column for M A G I C magazine about performing magic for children. The column is called Turn It Around. Silly Billy was the first, and still only, children’s magician to appear on the cover of MAGIC magazine (September 1995)."

This interview is reprinted with permission from The Boston Mini Wizard and its author, Aaron Aptaker.

Mini-wizard: What advice do you have for getting into birthday parties?

Silly Billy: I find that for the birthday party market the most successful performers are characters, rather than someone who shows up as a magician. Silly Billy and Dr. Blood are good examples of this. Characters are easier for kids to wrap their brains around. Like SpongeBob and Elmo. These characters are more popular than Bob (a person) from Sesame Street.

This is also true for the stage, except that on stage the characters can be traditional magicians. But these are magician-characters. For example Lance Burton plays a character. His character is a magician who is classy and friendly. Kevin James plays a character too. He is a crazy magician who would do anything to create a great magic effect - even cutting up his assistants. Look how far Johnny Thompson got with the Great Tomsoni act.

Mini-wizard: When creating a show based around a character, like Dr. Blood, what is the first thing you do? How do you get an idea? What steps do you take when developing a character?

Silly Billy: The idea for the character can just hit you, like it did for me with Dr. Blood. I just got this idea one day for a new character and I loved it immediately. Actually I had the name before I knew what he looked like or what tricks he did. Other times, you have to sit down and say, "Today I am going to come up with a new character." Then you make a list and start brainstorming until you hit on something you like. Try to do something that hasn’t been done before, especially in your market.

Once you have the character, the show is the easy part. Just ask yourself what tricks would this character do?

It is much easier to design a show for a character than it is to design a show for just a magician. A Spaceman character would do what kinds of tricks? That’s easy! A Farmer would not do silk tricks. A Baker wouldn’t ride on stage on a motorcycle. The better defined the character is, the easier it is to write the show. Think about Bart Simpson. This is a great character. He is so well defined that if I said to you "Bart goes to a farm," you would know exactly what kind of mischief he would get into. You see, once the character is defined, everything else falls into place easily. Once you have a successful character you need to be careful not to do things that the character wouldn’t do.

...

you can visit Silly Billy's website for magician at www.sillymagic.com

not responsible from any injury caused by being blow away

2006-03-05T19:14:00.003-05:00

Film and Magic: Welles, Steinmeyer, Wheldon

2006-02-26T20:48:00.003-05:00

here's an essay that I wrote on actor and magician Orson Welles...

Therapeutic Deception

“At its most personal level, therefore, the movie [F for Fake] becomes Welles’ confession that he was a prisoner of an illusion, a self-created public image which does not necessarily correspond to the ‘real’ person which is potentially destructive,”
James Naremore (Naremore as qtd. by Wheldon 30)

"I love magicians because they are honest men. They tell you they are going to fool you and then they proceed to do it. But no matter what happens at the show, when you get home you will still have your watch, your pocketbook, and your appendix. And that is more than I can say for some of my non-magician acquaintances." E. Hubbard (www.andrekole.org/magicbib.html)

Critic James Naremore suggests that F for Fake served as a catharsis for Welles’ years of deceit both onstage and offstage. In his book The Magic World of Orson Welles, from which this quote originates, Naremore alludes to the theatrical sphere in which Welles found himself “‘hiding himself under whiskers, false noses, and a variety of accents’” to the non-theatrical sphere which was comprised of such events as “the trick he tried to play upon the Gate Theatre in order to become an actor, the War of the Worlds hoax, etc.’” (Naremore as qtd. by Wheldon 30) However, particular to Welles’ perception of magic’s metaphor, the therapeutic function it served for him, and phenomenological nature of film, Naremore’s hypothesis does not stand. It is not F for Fake, but the live performance of magic itself, through which Welles aimed for catharsis; a practice he continued for years after making the film. Indeed Welles’ search for catharsis lasted until the very end. Welles’ final public performance occurred on television the night before he died.

It is important to understand the problem that Welles had with his life long immersion in the illusory theatrical and non-theatrical spheres to understand why the need for catharsis existed. In the documentary Fellini: I’m a Born Liar, actor Donald Sutherland speaks of this tension with identity in relation to Fellini and Welles,

“Fellini is constantly threatened by his own superficiality and is constantly running away from it. You know in the same sense as Orson Welles, you know. Orson Welles created a lie about himself that was in fact the truth but he knew it was a lie he created and once everybody believed it he went, he found it insupportable.” (Sutherland qtd. in Pettigrew)

This "insuportable" reputation for clouding the distinction between reality and illusion must have caused him the severe psychological distress for which he needed the catharsis. However, for several reasons, this catharsis more likely came in the form of live performance than on film.

For Welles, performing magic was the execution of a metaphor for deception. Welles is quoted as saying, “‘I discovered at the age of six that almost everything in this world was phony, worked with mirrors. Since then I’ve always wanted to be a magician.’” (quoted by Wheldon as quoted from Brady) It is important to realize that the deception metaphor for magic’s function is not necessarily the only one that can be conceptually held. Since Welles chose this particular metaphor, his choice supports the idea that his much of his identity was based on the worldview of deception. For Jim Steinmeyer, the metaphor that magic exacts on our lives is different. Steinmeyer is perhaps magic’s most eminent inventor. He has created stage illusions and consulted for clients such as David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, and even Welles himself. In his 1997 lecture notes, Steinmeyer sees magic’s metaphor as contrary to Welles’ metaphor, “As magician’s, we’ve traditionally misled ourselves for years by thinking of conjuring as the art of deception. Certainly, the ‘artist of deception’ is a title equally applied to the used car salesmen or advertising men.” (Steinmeyer 1) Instead, Steinmeyer believes that a “magician reminds his audience of the essential quality of mystery and wonder… a reminder of how much we do not know about the world. This is the essence of the magician’s art, the point at which the trick hints at a greater meaning” (13)

Welles’s focus on the deception metaphor made performing magic a therapeutic exercise for him. First, Welles’s role is that of a magician, yet the character is Orson Welles. Welles and his audience enter into a social contract by the audience exchanging money to be deceived and the Welles promising to fool them. Welles understands, perhaps only on a subconscious level, that the audience recognizes that he is working outside of the narrative frame and they are seeing him more as a himself than, say, Citizen Kane. For Welles, this understanding in confluence with the social contract between him and his audience makes performing magic onstage therapeutic. Before a live audience, Welles’s words and actions in performing magic could not be perceived as lies. The audience does not see them as such because of the social contract between the magician and the audience; the audience demands the lies. This is an example of why some magicians say that they are “honest liars.” Therefore, for only a few minutes onstage, Welles was able to escape the psychological distress of identifying himself as being illusory or unbelievable. If Welles did not properly execute the trick, he would not gain any therapy.

Furthermore, the phenomenological nature of the narrative film precludes any release of Welles’ psychological distress particular to Naremore’s argument for F for Fake. When Welles appears onscreen as a magician, one sees it as yet another one of his roles. One can watch this film without the knowledge that Welles indeed was a magician who had performed for the U.S.O. and on television in real life. Furthermore, if one were to believe Welles in F for Fake for saying that he was a performing magician, he or she would not have a license to do so because of Welles being a character among others in the film. Since Welles knew that as a magician onscreen could be perceived as yet another one of his deceptions of character, he would need to seek the stage as a means for therapy.

In conclusion, Orson Welles rendered the distinction between illusion and reality indistinguishable in his work and in his life. Welles identified so greatly with the concept of deception over the concept of wonder that he needed an escape from his world of lies. Contrary to Naremore’s hypothesis, Welles’ F for Fake did not provide him with the necessary means for escape. Welles could only perceive himself as a character among others within a world of fiction. Welles onstage, however, provided a different phenomenon for both himself and his audience. This phenomenon allowed Welles to gain therapy, even if only for a few minutes onstage.

:::

Works Cited

Hubbard, E. www.andrekole.org/magicbib.html

Pettigrew, Damian. Fellini: I’m a Born Liar. 2002.

Steinmeyer, Jim. Reminding and Deceiving: Guidelines and Examples Towards

Creating Theatrical Magic. Burbank: Hahne, 1997.

Wynn Pierce Wheldon. “Orson Welles the Magician.,” Genii: The Conjuror’s Magazine,

15 February 2000, 20-31.

on vacation

2006-02-26T14:06:00.003-05:00

hopefully I'll have a new interview for you next week,

best,

magicinterviews

Ray Goulet

2006-02-18T23:34:00.004-05:00

When I was in high school, I worked at what is one of the greatest magic shops in the world, The Magic Art Studio, in Watertown, Massachusetts. The shop's creator and owner of 30 years is Ray Goulet, a retired professional magician and magic collector, historian, and publisher. Ray is known and respected by all circles in the magic community. Whether touring David Copperfield around his one-of-a-kind private "Mini Museum of Magic" or patiently teaching a magic trick to a first-timer in the shop, Goulet treats everyone he knows with respect. You can visit his website here.

In this interview, which I will transcribe this later, I asked Goulet about how newcomers can break into magic and on "playing the part" of a magician. In addition, he speaks on magicians Marvello, Lafayette, John Fisher, and quick change artists. Goulet also explains the presentation of his Russian Roulette mentalist act.

DISCLAIMER: This interview is for entertainment purposes only, especially the description of Russian Roulette. Chris Britt, Ray Goulet, and Magicinterviews take no responsibility for any injury or death resulting from any attempt of such a routine or any similar routine described in the interview.

Listen to the Ray Goulet Interview ~20 minutes. You'll need the free macromedia flash player if you don't see the playbar below.

Magicinterviews: What advice do you have for magicians who want to perform?

Ray Goulet:

Well, there’s work out there. There are not many agents like there used to be. And if there are agents, it’s tough to get in with them because they have their own select people that they use. But mostly, your agents today, they’ll either book at colleges or corporate shows, or cocktail parties.

I think the good work would be to break into children’s shows. That is the avenue where there’s an awful lot of work if you wanna pursue it, you wanna get out there and do it. As you know – you booked yourself – and most of the time, you have to book yourself. And I did that even when I was younger because I wasn’t qualified to go to agents.

A secret I learned is when I went to this non-union agent. Her name was Peggy Tarbox, very active as a non-union agent. And I walked into her office, and she said, “Who are you?”

And I said, “I’m Ray Goulet, and I do magic.”

She said, “What kind of magic?” And I explained it.

And she said, “Well, how good are you?”

I says, “I think I’m pretty good.”

She said, “Okay. You come back in a month or two when you’re good.”

See, I should never have said pretty good. And that’s a no-no. You’re gonna go in with confidence.

But for young magicians, I would say there’s a lot of work for children’s shows if they wanna go out and pursue it. But do free shows before you think you’re gonna go out there and make fortunes.

Probably my best breaking-in point was working local for this woman named Peggy Flanagan, who was booking USO. And I would go in her Cadillac, which had no heater. And I would go into wards, like in the Cushing General, the great Marine hospital. Charlestown, to the Navy Yard.

I did these free shows. I did 500 free shows. 500 of ‘em. And how you worked was there was a singer or a dancer; usually there were both, singer and a dancer, and a piano player.

Well, my agent, Peggy Flanagan, was also the piano player. And her husband and her would drive out the acts, meet her in Kenmore Square, Boston. They would drive us – of course, we froze most of the time – drive us to these hospitals.

And I never forget. The first one I did was the Cushing General, and all I had to do was 12 minutes. However, the dancer went on. Now, we had to push this piano. I had to put my suitcase on top of this upright piano with her husband, and we pushed into a ward. And I had to set up behind the piano while she played some music to start the show.

And then she had a dancer come out and do a tent dance. And then I went on and did my act, and brought it back behind the piano; packed it back in the suitcase; put the suitcase back on the piano while the dancer went out and did another number, or a singer took place at that time. Then we would have to take, like, push it into another ward.

Well, the first night, I almost thought I was never gonna be in show business ‘cause I did nine wards. I was so exhausted.

And what did they give us? After the show, we got a cup of coffee and a donut. And then we rode home to Kenmore Square, freezing. And I carried my suitcase. And I didn’t have a car at that time. And I took the bus – the trolley, actually, the trolley – from Kenmore Square to Watertown, and then walked a mile and a half with my suitcase.

But you know, those are great experiences, after you’ve done them. They’re not very nice when you do ‘em but, however, it’s great experience. It shows you, well, if I did this, I can do anything.

Magicinterviews:

You said something very interesting once which was the conflict between – you wanting to be a magician, and then some of the icons of magic such as using silk handkerchiefs, and things that really didn’t fit with what you wanted to do as a male performer.

And I also think that there’s young magicians who – you know – see these debonair magicians out there. And a lot of people getting into magic don’t exactly fit, maybe, the –

Ray Goulet: Fit the part.

Magicinterviews: Fit the part.

Ray Goulet: They don’t fit the part.

Magicinterviews: How do you suggest they fit in, and kind of deal with – in the same way that you didn’t want to do silk magic?

Ray Goulet:

Well, mine was a little different then I would think that most. First of all, I was sort of a rough-and-tumble guy. I played all the sports in schools. I enjoyed sports, and I enjoy roughness. I mean, I wasn’t what you’d call a wise guy, but I never cowed down to anybody. In fact, if they even came near me – I mean, they wanted a fight, they got it. And I’m not happy about that part of it.

However, I would never go into a play when I was in parochial school. They used to say you’re never gonna be anything but a rubbish pick-upper, you know? So I should actually pull the curtain, or sweep the floors, ‘cause I was shy.

I wasn’t shy amongst my own people – the guys that I chummed with. I was shy that, for me, I never thought I’d ever be on stage. I mean, the furthest thing from my mind.

And I loved magicians, and I loved to watch them. But I never thought I would get into magic.

And it really came about by playing CYO, for the Catholic Youth Organization, in Boston. And the fella that was with me that played, Paul Burns, took me up to the joke shop. And the man behind the counter kept vanishing this handkerchief in his hand. And I said I have to buy one of those. I bought that and did it for the guys on the corner, or every place else. I must have done it hundreds of times. And then I dropped it for a year or two.

But then I picked up this little magazine, and it said Max Holden’s Magic Shop – ‘cause I never knew there was a magic shop in Boston. They were joke shops.

So I went in there. And I see this kid in there, after two or three times that I visited the shop.

I looked over and I saw this fellow, this kid. And I said, “Hey, do I know you?”

He said, “I don’t think so.”

But he used to buy some more magic. And we got to talkin’. And I said, “Well, where are you from?”

And he said, “Watertown.”

I said, “I’m from Watertown. I must have seen you on the streets.”

He said, “Probably, but I don’t know you.”

Well, as we talked more, I found out that he was the newsboy that delivered newspapers to my house. He lived on this street, Spring Street. I lived up at the west end of town.

So he invited to me his home. And when I went there, he was now doin’ nightclubs. He was a couple of years older than me.

And he had two rooms in his attic, right on the corner of Spring and Summer Street. I never forgot it. And I walk up there, and I see these posters and everything. Malcolm, the Boy Wonder. Malcolm the Magician. This and that. And then shows with magic on them. I got so intrigued with all of this that I decided magic was gonna be for me.

Well, being sort of a rough-and-tumble guy, it kinda was very difficult for me to wave a silk in my hands and do these things. These were sort of feminine. And to me, I was definitely not – had any femininity in me. I was a man’s man in the sense of the word.

Magicinterviews: Right.

Ray Goulet:

And so but I had to learn that that isn’t just for women. I should think, who were some of the greatest tailors in the world? Men. Who were some of the greatest artists in the world? Men. That doesn’t mean that they’re womanlike. That’s what it is, you know. That was there problem.

And I watched a couple of magicians who did silks, and did manipulation with balls, and things like that. And I said no, I guessed – you know – they don’t look like they’re feminine in any way.

Magicinterviews: Right.

Ray Goulet:

In any way. You know. And that’s how I got started. And from that point on, he and I performed – after I did the USO – we performed the M&R Magical Parade. We started doin’ our own shows in the hospitals. And we had 13 people in the show. And that’s when I had my wife and brought her as an assistant in the show at that time.

So we did that for a couple of years. And that was great, because we had four magicians. You know, he was the comedy musician. I was the sort of the large – I liked large magic, so I did the large magic in the show. And you know, like the head chopper, and razor blades. I did more of that. And did no talk in the sets. Just very little bit of patter. And then the other one was a comic, and the other one was a manipulator.

Well, I ended up sorta taking parts from them. I’d watch what they do with manipulation. I started manipulating, and I was ending up doing a better act.

I started telling a few lines and found I got a couple of laughs because of it. I said, well, hey, I could be a comic. You know. So I’ll do a little bit of patter. You know.

And Mal was a fast-talking act. And that’s where I became a fast talker, because association – sometimes that happens. You know?

Magicinterviews:

Can you tell me about your favorite act? You once told me about this magician that did this musical act. He changed the trumpet into a different…

Ray Goulet:

Oh, that’s the Marvellos. Yeah. That was one of my favorite acts. In fact, John Fisher from England and I got to talking, and sure enough, he came up with the Marvellos. He said, “I saw the Marvellos several times at the RP of Boston. One of the greatest acts that I’d ever seen.”

This act had three people in it. There was a husband and a wife, and the other guy who was sort of the comic. And the great part of it was, first of all, the magician, the main person would come out, and he’d blow the sax and play a great tune. Then the assistant – the male assistant – would come out with a scarf, like – you know – that you hold up in your hand. And he would put the saxophone in there. It was gone. It vanished. And in its place would be a flute. And then that would vanish in another way.

And everything that he did – like the clarinet. When he came out and played the clarinet because this man played every one of the instruments, and played enter on it. When the guy came out with the cloth, he was making faces at them. And all of a sudden, he just took the clarinet, and he shoved it and it went through the man’s throat. You see it from this end, and he’s hollerin’ and he’s hollerin’. He runs off stage with that scarf coverin’ him.

Another time, when he had the foulard type piece in front of him, his head would stretch, and the neck would be about three feet long comin’ over the top.

And then another time, when the assistant came out, he would take him and he’d run him off stage, and grab him again, and drag him on stage. And then he would crush him into a ball and throw him off.

This was a time when people didn’t know much about latex. Because he did the violin, and after the violin, there was a switch fade, and he put the violin in the bag, and then he crushed it. I mean – you know – it was a wonderful act. It was the most novel act you could possibly see. Not just magic, but talent and everything.

Magicinterviews:

Well, the novelty of this act is reminding me of what my brother saw. David and Dania, the costume change?

Ray Goulet: Oh, yeah. Well, the Russians, you know, they have a school for that.

Magicinterviews: Oh, yeah?

Ray Goulet: Did you know that? They have a school for change. Oh, yeah. It’s a wonderful act. But it’s really not the same kind of an act. That’s what they call a quick-change act.

Magicinterviews: Right.

Ray Goulet:

In magic, LaFayette did a great job with that, where he would run behind the curtain. He’d tell a whole scene about the gangster, the policeman, and a spectator. And he would say, okay, this gentleman’s walkin’ out on stage. Then he sort of goes behind it. As he comes forward, out comes this gangster. Well, he was makin’ these changes instantly. Instant changes comin’ back and forth. Well, there was always a person behind helpin’ him. ‘Cause, you know, he had to do a rip off clothing and so forth.

Now, they do it right almost in front of you by throwing some confetti up, and it comes down and they’ve changed.

Magicinterviews: They’ve been doing these on basketball courts.

Ray Goulet: Right.

Magicinterviews: And halftime shows.

Ray Goulet: Right.

Magicinterviews: And people go crazy.

Ray Goulet:

Yeah. I got to see – quite a few of them were on the FISM show in Amsterdam. So I got to see quite a few of them there. That’s become very popular. See, that was a lost art for many years.

And then I have a very fine tape here that John Fisher put together of world’s greatest magic. Sometime when you’re here, I’ll be glad to show it to you. He had this guy on in every show. He was absolutely unbelievable as a one-man show. He’d go behind the screen, come out just dressed as somebody else. Go behind the screen, dressed as somebody else. Kept going around.

Magicinterviews: Could you describe your Russian Roulette act?

Ray Goulet:

Russian Roulette – when I was doing it at the time, what was done was, first of all, back at the rear of the stage, there was an easel, and four pistols were on it. And I had these four giant cards with nothin’ on ‘em, one to four.

And I would give them to a spectator; say, “I want you to shuffle them up, and I want you to place them – after that – face down, and then shuffle ‘em again. I don’t want you to use any sequence. I want you to use them as they come off and put the numbers out so the audience may see them, and place those numbers on the easel. But before you do that, I want you to blindfold me. And I will stay center stage front.” So I stayed in front, in front of the mike, and I would talk to the audience while he was doing it. “Now, go back there, and place those numbers on at random.”

And then I would say to him, “Now, come forward. Sir, I want you to concentrate on those numbers. We have four pistols, fully loaded, but they are .22 caliber blanks, because I certainly wouldn’t want to use a projectile here in the audience.” (Laughter)

So I said, “But if you notice, and you’ve heard, that even with a .22 caliber, you can blow open your head. So I want you to go back there and take number three, and bring it to me. But don’t let me touch it.”

“Are you back?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I want you to take that pistol and place it in my hand, because I feel that’s unloaded.” ‘Cause there’s only one that was loaded. And I would take it to my forehead and shoot it. Nothing happened.

“Thank you. Now concentrate on the others.” And the audience, they’d participate.

“Pick two of those numbers. Let’s take number two. Bring that over here. Concentrate on it.” ‘Cause I’d never let ‘em sit next to me or by me. He had to be in back of me.

“You picked number two? I get the feeling that number two is not loaded. Would you hand me that pistol, please?” And I would do that.

And next time I did it, I would say, “But now there’s only two left. There’s number one and number four. Bring number four here.”

And they would do that. And sometimes it was a she, but most of the time, I always asked if there was a lawman in the audience – a policeman, a security guard. Someone who handles firearms, ‘cause they know what to do, okay? You know, a precaution, ‘cause these were real pistols that I got a license to carry because of this trick.

And so I said, “That number four is loaded.” Then I resumed. “Sir, will you hand me the pistol?”

And then I would take the pistol, and I’d put a cut on top of it to see. And I’d say, “Now, I want you to take the number four and place that to my forehead. Oh, wait. I think that’s an unloaded pistol.”

And they would fire that pistol, ‘cause most of the time, I had to take their arm and push it there. Security people – no, they would do it. Don’t ask me why they would, because I wouldn’t do it.

Magicinterviews: (Laughter)

Ray Goulet:

But again, that was unloaded. And then I would take off the blindfold, and I said, “There’s one left. Would you bring number one up to me?”

“Now, this is the one that’s loaded. I’ll prove it to you. I will take a lily cup and fire into--” --And that shoots the lily cup into the air, blows a hole out of the bottom of it, you know? And that was the loaded one. And it always went over big.

And then they had a few accidents on TV. There was one guy that was on a soap opera, and he blew his head open and then killed himself with a blank .22.

So my wife used to say, “Stop doing that.” At that time, guns were becoming a problem, at that period. I can’t think of the exact period now.

And so when we’d do it in colleges – I didn’t have to worry about it if I had a regular banquet audience or standard stage-type audience. My biggest problem was always worry about collegekids, because they’re crazy.

Magicinterviews: (Laughter)

Ray Goulet:

And so you had to be sure. So my wife would always stay backstage to watch that person take the guns and scramble them around. ‘Cause if they did that, then I’d be in a lot of trouble, because I can’t tell them how I did it by them scrambling them guns. I can by their numbers, but I can’t by the guns.

So that happened, and that’s the end of it.

...

David Oliver

2006-02-12T10:38:00.002-05:00

photo by: David Fox

David Oliver is one of my favorite magicians. This is not just because he has been my mentor and friend for the past 10 years, but because of his great bird act. Critically, Oliver has been called a Neo-classicist magician—blending his personality and the style of today with the greatest illusions known to magicians. His act is an extension of himself and looks spectacular in front of 10 or 1,000 people.

Along with performing all over the U.S., David Oliver regularly headlines Monday Night Magic in New York City and the Mystery Lounge in Harvard Square. The response is always the same, which NBC’s Matt Lauer calls “The most amazing magic I have ever seen.”

David Oliver Interview in audio: You'll need the free macromedia flash player if you don't see the playbar. ~2o minutes

[you may click on all photos to enlarge]

MagicInterviews: You’ve been a fulltime professional for nearly 20 years. How has your relationship with your act/show changed over this period?

David Oliver: In looking at my performances over the past 20 years or so, I would have to say that I have grown INTO my show. Allow me to clarify. I used to attempt to perform in such a way, that I was trying to cram as much "stuff" into the show as possible. I thought that was the way to create a successful show and character. The more "stuff" that was involved, the more the audience would enjoy the act/show. Because there was so much stuff (i.e., props, tricks, characters, comments, asides, etc) there was no connection between anything (except for everything being purple!). The relationship between my act and me as the performer was lost in a hodgepodge of confusion. Sure, it was somewhat entertaining for the audience. Sure, I received some excellent reviews. But there was something missing. Although I could never articulate what that certain something was, I knew there was something missing. Eventually, I was able to figure out what was missing. It wasn't more "stuff." That missing something was my true self.

All of us try to have some sort of performing character. That character could be a wizard, a clown, the goofy scientist or the mysterious mind-reader. The character could simply be the performer being him/herself. The only important thing, is that the character must be genuine to the performer. We have all emulated other performers. When starting out in magic, we copy the successful performers/acts that we see. It's a common way to begin. We eventually hear the suggestion to "be original" over and over. And that can be very difficult to do. Especially if you are searching for originality in the wrong places. Initially, I tried to be like many of the performers I enjoy watching. Why? Because they were not only successful, but they were fun for ME to watch. If I enjoyed them, then certainly the type of audiences I worked for would enjoy them as well. This is not to say that I was outright copying their acts. Absolutely not. But their personality traits seemed to pop up throughout my shows for years. And although my show was a solid, workable entity, the guy in charge (me) seemed to have multiple personalities. Once I began to truly understand who I was as a person onstage, the rest of the show started to fall into place. The guy you've seen onstage in my shows for the past decade is definitely me.

MI: How has it impacted how you understand magic or what magic means to you personally?

D.O.: Let's look back at my character transformation for a moment. Originally, I used to try to be as clever and mysterious as possible. I figured that if I performed the most amazing tricks and effects, with the eyebrow-raising persona I had seen so many others use, I would be a success. That wasn't the case. For me, now, even though I proudly call myself a magician, the magic is secondary. My magic isn't about the clever tricks. It isn't about how funny I can be. It's not about me knowing something they don't. It isn't even about the purple. True magic to me, is about the one-on-one connection with my audiences. Did they have fun? Were they moved? Was I moved? Did we share an experience that is, in effect, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? The answer for me, must be "yes" to all of these questions. I no longer try to rush through a show to get to the next one. It is far more important to be in the moment.
photo by: Mike Maione

Enjoy the experience of sharing yourself with others. They will then feel comfortable enough to be able to share themselves with you. Close-up or on stage, there must be that connection. Once you've made that connection, and more importantly, recognize how to regularly make that connection, your magic will be forever changed in a positive direction. If there is a personal connection, it won't matter what you do on stage. The audience will go on whatever ride you wish to take them on. Rather than being the destination, your magic will be the vehicle to take that journey, to a much greater destination. Performers like Doug Henning, Bill Cosby, Robin Williams and Johnny Carson, to name a few, were all able to bring you into their world when they were on stage. It really didn't matter what they DID, it was WHO they were. Whenever they performed, you enjoyed the time you spent with them. I want my audience to enjoy spending their time with me. It's all about the connection, and enjoying the journey together.

M.I: Besides being an accomplished stage and close-up performer, there’s a creative side of you that’s very strong—particularly in your ability to collaborate with others in working on material. Can you speak on a memory of a favorite collaboration?

D.O.: Collaborating with others is, for me, one of the most enjoyable things that I do. I don't consider myself to be a creative inventor-type. You know, the kind of person who sits around, inventing amazing magic, figuring out complicated card plots and designing never-before-seen illusions. That's just not me. Rather, I think of myself as a problem solver, a tweaker, more of a director in a way, when it comes to collaborating. When working with others, I'm usually the one who says, "well, what if you tried standing like this...," or, "get me a coathanger, a band-aid, a bottle of Windex and a birdbath - we'll fix your rope routine." I've been called the "MacGyver Of Magic" by more than one person.

As for one special collaboration. That's a tough one. Partially, because there have been so many. Not to drop names, but in the past 25 years or so, I've had the opportunity (and extreme pleasure) of working with some top pros, including Jon Stetson, Jeff McBride, Frank Monaco, Joseph Gabriel, Mike Bent, Todd Robbins, John Cassidy, Danny Alan, Bob Sheets, Todd MacDonald, Darren Romeo, a few brief moments working out a piece of material with David Copperfield, and I was honored to have written a line that was used by the late Jay Marshall (that he first did at the S.A.M. National Centennial Celebration). Some of these encounters were full out collaborations on their shows, others were just tips and tidbits for a single effect or act. And they have each been quite reciprocal, when helping with my material. But as you can see, there have been many. To narrow it down to one is challenging. Especially after working with the kids in the S.Y.M. and at Tannen's Camp for over 20 years. I have fond memories of working with many young people, including with you, on your "Private Eye - Magic Detective" stage act, and our pal, Paul Denaro - arguably, one of the most caring people I have ever met. It's been gratifying to watch the growth of some of today's well-known young performers that I have coached and/or collaborated with including Ryan Oakes, Brian Curry, Chris Chiappini, Winston Helling, Justin Willman, Kristi Toguchi, Ashley Springer and Joshua Jay. There are so many other young performers with whom I've worked that did not pursue magic as a career, yet, have left a profound impact on my life because of the time I spent working with them. Two used magic to overcome their battles with cancer, several needed to use magic to move past family problems or learning disabilities, and I lost one of "my kids" in a horrific car accident in 1990. Not all who made an impact were involved in tragic circumstances - one kid thought he was a leprechaun. He definitely left a lasting impression! There are also a few talented teens that I am currently mentoring, that the magic community will be seeing a lot of in years to come. To mention all of them would fill up a lot of web-space (sorry, guys!).

Of course, your question still needs to be answered. I suppose if I had one favorite memory of a collaboration, it would have to be with a young man named Jason Holterhaus. About twelve years ago, Jason and I constructed, created and built an act around a Shop-vac® and a Daniel Boone-style raccoon hat. Over a period of about two years, we wrote and rewrote the act, adding bits, magic and character that all tied together. The act was called the "Sux-A-Lot 2000™." It was loosely based on the (then) new pop culture phenomenon known as "infomercials." The idea for the act began with the purchase of the raccoon hat at a roadside gas station one day. It eventually evolved into a fast-paced borrowed bill routine that included a bowling ball production, a mutilated and restored raccoon, a full person levitation, some really bad puns, an exploding Shop-vac® and a Twinkie®. Jason performed this act at a few conventions, variety shows and banquets and won many awards with the act, including being the first talking act to ever win the senior stage competition at Tannen's Camp. He received rave reviews wherever he performed. Although not performing magic anymore, Jason graduated from college, and now uses his creative talents as a television director for CNN, Comcast Cable and others. He has become one of my dearest friends, and is one hell of a director.

M.I.: If you could perform on the same bill with any other entertainer, alive or deceased, who would it be and why?

D.O.: Great question. I can honestly say that I've never contemplated this before. However, now you've got me thinking. I think I'm partial to clowns. Not your typical red-nosed variety. More like the subtle clown. There are so many "clown-ish" entertainers with whom I would've loved to have had the chance to work with, including Jackie Gleason, Donald O'Connor, Dick VanDyke, Jack Benny, Gene Kelley, Robin Williams, Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Ray Bolger, Elton John and Charlie Chaplin. They all were/are larger-than-life characters that gave of themselves while performing, mostly in the persona of the underdog. With the heart and soul of a clown, each was/is a consummate professional who understood their craft, and more importantly, brought their audience into their world to cheer them on. It didn't matter what was happening off stage or off screen, when they were on, they were "on." They are some of the most memorable entertainers the world has ever known. It would have been fun to work with them.

However, if I had to choose one specific person with whom I would've enjoyed working with, that would have been the late Johnny Carson. Mr. Carson embodied the same characteristics of the people I mentioned above, entirely without ego. He was a clown who perceived his job as that of a party host. Bring your friends together, and let them shine for each other, just guide them and stay out of their way. He would always allow his guests to be the star, and do whatever it took - be it an ad-lib, a moment of silence, or a doubletake - whatever it took, to make his guest feel warm, welcome and on top of the world. He was the true star, but he wouldn't let you know it. He sat back, and watched the other performers play. If he liked you, the entire country liked you. He was like a trusted family member. He tucked us into bed at night - every night. At the end of the day, after watching the news of the day, Johnny Carson made us feel safe, happy and at peace with the world. It would have been an honor to have worked with him.

M.I.: For next question, I’d like to back track a bit. You said “It's all about the connection, and enjoying the journey together.” I can definitely see that in your bird act now--especially compared to when I saw it ten years ago. Perhaps it’s just the intimate venue of Mystery Lounge, but your approach seems to be more lighthearted in your persona and you make more of a genuine connection, which is really something that few performers, let alone magicians, do. It’s really refreshing. Do you think I’m imagining this change that I think I’ve seen in you in the 10 or so years I’ve known you?

D.O.: You are definitely not imagining the change. I think all performers grow - or should grow - as they mature. When I first began performing the bird act, it was my goal to be as good as those performers I had looked up to at the time. Emulation was the tool of choice.

Most magicians I had ever seen doing a bird act, all had the mysterious eyebrow raise, a serious facial expression, and gave off an aura of power. That is what I believed all bird acts had to be like. So, I followed in that path for quite some time. There were little touches of "David Oliver" in the act, but those were only small addition to something larger.

My act was good, I got great reactions and plenty of bookings, but I never felt quite right when performing. The person that I was trying to be when doing the bird act, was not the same as the person who performed the rest of my show, or did walk-around close-up magic the way I did, or was anything like who I was offstage. I knew this wasn't what I was looking for, but I couldn't put my finger on the reason why. I only knew that I wasn't making that connection. Most audiences commented on how good the tricks in the act were, but no one commented on the person performing the act. And it always surprised me when audience members spoke with me after a show, and mentioned how different I seemed from the guy onstage. At first, I believed this to be a good thing. I assumed I must have been a good actor, acting the "part" of the magician. It was how I was "supposed" to perform, I thought.

There is a former teacher of mine, who I have stayed in touch with since graduating high school, named Peter Travaline. "Trav" offered some advice several years ago, after I had attended college, and returned to do a show at his church. The show was to benefit his youth group, and was about 45 minutes long. His wife and kids were there, and I had known them for years. I performed the bird act along with audience participation pieces they had never seen. "Trav" asked me after the show who the other guy was. "What other guy?" I asked. "The other guy who performed all the magic to music stuff. That' was not you up there, David. When you talked, and played with the audience, you let us see YOU. That other guy wasn't you. You don't need him." At the time, I had no idea of what he was talking about. Now, I think I understand. (Thanks, Trav!)

It might have been gradual, but I remember the change happening almost over night. I had been performing at "Monday Night Magic" in NYC, on a very special night. There were many special guests in the audience, as well as on the show. I was asked to open the show with the bird act (as I done many times before), because it was a solid act, and the producers could count on me to set the tone for the show. The act began as I had done for almost twenty years, with the music thumping as I entered into one overhead light. Flash paper turned into a silk which was used to produce the first bird. So far, so good. And then, IT happened.

photo by: Mike Maione

As I put the bird into the cage, my music stopped. It simply stopped. I stayed in character for what seemed like an eternity (probably more like 3 seconds), and the music returned. I continued. The music didn't. It stopped again. Another in character "look" from me silently conveyed it all, "nope this wasn't part of the usual act, folks." The music came on and off several times, all the while I was still onstage, in front of a paying New York City audience. I looked offstage at the sound person, and they were struggling to fix the problem. Adrenaline and experience kicked in, and I began speaking with the act, commenting on the silks, the birds and even members of the audience. I was in "save my skin" mode, and didn't notice right away how much FUN the audience was having. Of course, most who had never seen the act before, didn't know there was a problem (that was the "experience" part kicking in. That was also the night that I decided to purchase my first remote control music system.)

After what I assumed was a catastrophe, I received some of the best after show comments I had ever heard. Most were comments I had longed to hear about the act for the past twenty years, but had never heard. The difference was that in this performance, the audience witnessed the REAL David Oliver onstage, dealing with anything and everything as "a person," and not as the character of the eyebrow-raising magician. Laymen and magicians alike were commenting on how unexpected it was to have fun watching a bird act. More importantly, that they felt as if I had walked onstage as the cocky magician, and when the music stopped, my facial expressions and reactions made me appear as someone they could relate to - just a guy who can do some pretty cool stuff.

Although everyone had a slightly different perception of what happened that night onstage, they all agreed that the act was secondary to the performer. They all enjoyed seeing ME onstage, and it didn't matter what effects or magic I did. I had made that connection with my audience, finally. The new challenge became how to understand this connection, harness this connection and make it more than a one-time fluke. That has become my goal for the past 10 years or so (coincidentally, during the time that you have known me), and based on the reactions of my audiences, my peers and my friends to this growth, it seems to have paid off, so far. I'm still working at it, but it seems to be the right direction in which to take my performances. Thanks, Trav.

M.I.: Also, that emphasis on connection and your commitment to preparedness (i.e. M.E.A.T. case) shows the great respect you have for your audience. Can you speak about what it means, for you, to respect an audience?

D.O.: You have to respect the people who are there to see you. Firstly, if it wasn't for the audience, I could not be called a magician. I can practice in front of a mirror forever, but I can't do magic and fool myself, can I? (Well, maybe.) Seriously, if someone has brought me in to entertain a group, I owe it to the booker, the audience and myself to give the best performance possible. I try to give 120 percent every time I step onstage, and I don't settle for less. The audience doesn't care whether I was stuck in traffic, if I left my birds at home, if I am suffering from a life-threatening illness or my father died that morning. I know, because I have performed under each of those exact circumstances.

Think of it from the audience perspective. We've all been IN an audience before, watching a show, a movie or a concert. We know how amazing it is when we have been swept away to another place. We also KNOW when the performer(s) isn't on their game or are holding back. We know when the performer is not prepared, is simply "winging it," or just doesn't give a you-know-what. When this happens, we walk away disappointed. Personally, I don't enjoy disappointment in the entertainment world. Everyone suffers disappointment in the everyday world of reality. They go to a show, to get away from disappointment and to forget the outside world. They want to be taken away, on a journey, to a better place - if only for an hour or so. If I don't do my job, they are disappointed. That's why I strive to give the audience 120 percent every time. That way, if I am slightly off my game, they still get 100 percent. I don't feel it's fair to disappoint those who are supporting me.

M.I.: Second, could you speak on the issue of respect for the performer by the audience, especially in the case of magicians watching other magicians?

D.O.: Oh, man. This could be a long one. But I'll try to keep it short. My basic rule is this - if it's not your show, DON'T PERFORM! As you know, once each year, in our local S.Y.M. newsletter, I publish an article about respecting other magicians, specifically when meeting them for the first time, and also when watching someone else doing a show. In a nutshell, trying to upstage, outdo or expose the performing magician is unacceptable under any circumstance. Time and again, I've seen so-called "magicians" sit in an audience, explaining the methods of the effects to their friends, WHILE THE SHOW IS STILL GOING ON! This is unacceptable. That conversation should be had at home - with other magicians only. Not in the audience area, lobby or restroom of the show. These same magicians bring their own effects to someone else's show, and will perform them in the lobby, in the audience or yes, even the restroom. This shows NO respect for the other magician. I've seen performers unknowingly pick a "magician" volunteer from the audience, who then proceeds to try and upstage the actual magician in some way, whether trying to be funny or clever. That is absolutely ridiculous. Respect the performer as you would want to be respected in the same situation. A layman in the audience may be rude to the magician, and that is simply a shame. A magician in the audience being rude to another magician is disrespectful and unacceptable.

In over twenty-five years of teaching magic, I may not have produced the next David Copperfield, Richiardi or David Blaine. I may not have created the most amazing effects that everyone is using. I have, however, created a mindset with those who have studied with me, to not only have an appreciation for the tricks and history of magic, but to also have respect for an artform and the artists that have come before them, and have earned their respect. Teaching the next generation a little respect could be my only legacy to the world of magic, and I'd be satisfied.

: : :

visit David Oliver's site at www.davidolivermagic.com

Jeff McBride

2006-02-05T02:24:00.002-05:00

About Jeff McBride

"Jeff McBride, named Magician of the Year by The Magic Castle in Los Angeles, is recognized as a foremost innovator in contemporary magic. New York Times columnist Glenn Collins writes, 'What Mr. McBride gives his audiences is amesmerizing performance...a magic show that is at once a celebration of mystery and a struggle to understand powerful forces.'"

(from his bio at www.McBridemagic.com)

This week's interview is graciously provided by Professor Richard Wiseman. Mr. Wiseman is the co-author of Magic In Theory, among other titles. You can visit his great website here.

Also you can purchase Magic in Theory via amazon.com. Also visit his website to see his other books.

click the play button to listen to the Jeff McBride interview. running time ~6 min.

This interview was a part of a panel

Some magicians talk about the art of astonishment--the moment of astonishment. Is that something you try to go with into your work?

McBride:

Even the most skeptical observer of magic can all of a sudden have their paradigm popped by a magical illusion. And all of a sudden, all of the linear thinking, and all of their logical foundations that they depended on their entire lives, at that moment, falls away. And in that moment of astonishment, there is a potential for transformation.

Another thing that the magician – that I as a magician – try to do onstage is to remind people that you’re the magicians in your own lives, and I’m just here to remind you. You know, you have choices and you can do anything you want. You can shape your life and make your life anything you wanna be; just the way the magician can apparently shape reality.

And wasn’t it David Blaine in just what seemed like a physical stunt rather than magic?

McBride:

A lot of his things have to do with him trying to be totally still: being buried underneath water, being frozen in a block of ice. They’re about stillness. And when we live in an age where there’s a Starbucks on every corner, and we live in a hyper-caffeinated, technological, sped up society where everybody’s on a cell phone all the time, and plugged into their Blackberry then [makes a whirling busy sound] and it’s like, ah, look at him.

(imitating the words of the crowd:)

“He stands still. He does nothing longer than anyone has ever done nothing.”

(crowd laughs)

“I can’t believe how much nothing he can do.”

(crowd laughs)

You know, it’s a statement on our times that the person that can be still and at peace, and with themselves without being constantly distracted or pulled by desires, is actually accomplishing something miraculous.

Yes. I’m not very interested in sleight of hand, because it’s all very clever, but it doesn’t arouse me in any way.

(Laughter)

(another says) That’s another type of show.

(Laughter)

McBride:

Wow. I think sleight of lame.

What I’m trying to say is the big illusions.

McBride:

In the magic show, it’s one of the few places where people can come close to death in a theatrical art form. The buzz saw illusion of Horace Goldin. The sawing in half trick, as we know it in popular culture, was Percy Tibbles – as P.T. Selbit was the name Tibbles backwards – made this trick famous, the sawing in half of a man.

But it wasn’t as horrific as Goldin’s version – sawing a woman in half, taking advantage of a helpless woman, and putting her in a box, and sawing her in half. And they had units of this show touring all over the world simultaneously. So these kind of illusions have always fascinated us, these death and resurrection illusions. And they also speak to a mythic theme of the indestructibility of the feminine of nature.

What do you think is important to the performer who wants to achieve presence on stage?

McBride:

One of the most important things is creating the illusion of intimacy with an audience, even if you can’t see the audience out there. Channing had it. If you notice, he’s not looking at what he’s doing at all. He’s mostly looking at the audience, or looking away. So there’s this sense that he’s almost more interested in you out there than what’s happening here.

As soon as the dove happens, he kind of hands that out to them. It’s not like hey, ha – here’s the double dove. Boom. Hey, you know.

(Laughter)

He’s not doing the cheesola style of magic. He’s underselling everything, so he can concentrate on his audience. Max Maitland has that. It’s the eye; that, like, master gaze. That what’s going on inside of this performer’s head is as interesting as what’s happening in their hand.

And, again, I come back to David Blaine. I come back to Derren Brown, performers like that. What’s going on inside of their head? That’s what people want. Not so much about the technique.

Yeah, I was very interested to hear what you’re saying about – I think they call the Masked Magician, where he gave away all the tricks.

McBride: Right.

Do you think, I will say, an international thing, or just in the U.K. that we’re overly hung up on sort of secrecy of magic, and it sort of gets in the way of getting more people into magic. Or do you think it’s still important?

McBride:
It’s one level. And I think – you see, interestingly enough, my biggest fans and my biggest supporters know how my stuff is done. It’s really interesting that the biggest supporters of magic and the magic industry are people that know about the tricks.

And then that’s not the important part. It’s the presentation, and the styling. I think presentations like this are very healthy, because they gather people together – oh, we’re gonna learn the tricks. Oh, it’s not about the tricks. It goes a little bit deeper.

So unless we had shows like that – and I’m not saying I’m not a big supporter of Valentino, the Masked Magician. They were very mean-spirited specials. They had a very, kind of nasty, cynical Nineties edge – you know, early millennium edge to them when they were done. Breaking the code. This guy’s bad. He’s a bad – and that creates news and controversy, and makes magic – you know – a subject for the media. But it also got a lot of kids interested in magic.

audio, update and donate

2006-02-02T20:54:00.003-05:00

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magicinterviews

Andre Kole with promo video

2006-01-29T03:19:00.002-05:00

Andre Kole is one of today's top magical innovators and performers. He has created many illusions such as the Spike Through Balloon, Squeeze Box, Table of Death, Head Mover, Vanishing Feet and many others. When I emailed about creativity, this is how he responded…

Andre Kole:

Different means of inspiration work for different people. My inspiration often comes from what I have created in the past.

Jim Steinmeyer is the most creative magician I know and he told me that his creative ideas come as a result of studying the history of magic and the creators of magic's past. So if this works for you there is certainly nothing wrong with it.

Andre Kole

Trevor Lewis

2006-01-22T11:28:00.003-05:00

This is an interview with Britain's Trevor Lewis, conducted at the Young Member's Workshop at the 1998 SAM convention (Yes, I got a lot of interviews that week!)

While he performs magic all over the world (he specializes in magic for children), Trevor Lewis starred in his own TV show in Britain called "Trevor's Tricks." He is also a member of the prestigious Inner Magic Circle of London's famed Magic Circle, founded by David Devant 100 years ago.

Listen to this interview. Running time 6:26

Mini-Wizard: Please tell me about your involvement with children's magic.

Trevor Lewis: I've done children's magic for many years on televison and all over the world. Now if you are going to do children’s magic you have to specialize. So that they recognize you and identify you with a particular form of children's magic, or magic for children. I specialized in road safety magic.

What happened was that I was doing a couple of road safety tricks in a show one day and at the end of the show a Road Safety Officer came to see me, who happened to be in the show, and he said "Have you got any more tricks on road safety as a theme?” I said yes--I really didn't have any-- I thought but you always say you have. So he said, "Well if you can come up with a 45 minute act with road safety magic, I can get you a lot of work.”

And so I went home and thought about it for a while and of course in the I came up with an act of 45 minutes which I performed at schools all over the world under the contracts for road safety. They have a special road safety department, so consequently that's where I went onto the schools one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The underlying message in Britain is "stop, look, and listen."

Are you familiar with a trick a called “The Professor's Nightmare?”

[Interviewer’s note: This has nothing to do with “The Professor” of magic, Dai Vernon and his nightmares. Although, maybe it does.... Anyhow, ask another magician to show you this trick if you’re not familiar. It’s in some books of beginners magic.]

Mini-Wizard: Yes

Trevor Lewis: Well there you have a great trick for road safety--because the small piece represents "stop," the medium size piece represents "look," and the long piece represents "listen." "Stop look and listen." Now some boys and girls think "stop" is the most important, some think the "look" is most important, and some say "listen" is most important. But of course they are all as important as each other and that's why the three ropes all become the same size. (and you “magic” them the same size)

At that particular point, as you know, you have one small piece which is looped around the large and you have the middle piece. You toss the medium piece over your left arm which leaves you with the long and the little in your hand looking like two of the same size. You can't show the three pieces separately as the same length. So, there's a move that you can do to show them. [counting the two as separate]

Now, because you have one in one on your arm and two in your hand, you have to come up with a line to cover that position. And you say, "So you have be careful where you see a road with one yellow line or two yellow lines." Now in this country they have a double line on the road where you can't park at all and one line where you maybe you can park. So you see by holding one and the two you say be careful whether it's one yellow line or two yellow lines. An so you say holding the one and the two, “One yellow line and two yellow lines." And that gives you an excuse for showing the pieces that way.

And you say the “stop” is no good with out the “look.” (tie a knot) “Definitely knot.” And the “look” is no go without the “listen.” (tie a knot) "Definitely knot." And you know how you can slide the knots down and make it look like one large piece of rope? Then say, "And if you always remember the three words--"stop. look. and listen," you always get across the road in one piece." [Show one piece] Ok? You've got it?

So now you've taken a routine with three bits of rope and you've given it a road safety theme. Very, very important because then you are doing magic with a message. Not only are you entertaining the children, but you are educating them as well.

Mini-Wizard: Do you have any other advice for young magicians doing kid shows?

Trevor Lewis: Yes, don't try to be too clever. And try and be a part of the scene yourself. As I said in the lecture, the most difficult thing in any children's show is trying to get some applause between tricks. Very difficult. Because children watch television. And they don't applaud for television so why should they applaud the magician?

So what you do is at the end of a trick say, "That's the end of the trick say that's very sad," so when I come to the end of a trick I have them say "aww!" But then you say, "I have another trick so I want you to say 'hooray!'" So consequently between each go that dead spot covered by "aww!" and "hooray!" And all the children will do that. "Aww!" and "hooray!" fills in the dead time between the tricks. The most important things to know about doing children’s magic are business, involvement, and participation. Get them to do as much action as you possible can.

(final horn rings in young members workshop ending the session)

Mini-Wizard: Thank you very much.

Trevor Lewis: It's been my pleasure.

visit Trevor Lewis' site here or purchase his DVD here

Meir Yedid

2006-01-15T00:51:00.001-05:00

Meir Yedid is an award-winning close-up magician, known for his finger magic. For many years he ran the daily updates for http://magictimes.com. Yedid now runs a multi-media publishing company and series of website under http://MYmagic.com. I emailed him in 1998 and this is how he responded...

Mini-Wizard: How did you come up with the theme of you act? What inspired you?

Meir Yedid: In my opinion, evolution is one of the best ways to get an act. Do what you love, do it the best way you can, be yourself and over time everything will fall into place. One day you will realize that you will have an act that not only fits you but is an extension of yourself.

I have seen many teenage magicians create excellent acts but as they grew to be adults the act did not evolve with them and no longer fit. There are other ways to go--but the above works for me. And my act is still evolving from year to year, show to show and audience to audience.

Mini-Wizard: Do you have any tips, advice or suggestions for the youth in magic?

Meir Yedid: Don't try to be an overnight sensation. Work hard at what you like and you will eventually succeed. Be yourself.

Meir

visit Meir's site at http://mymagic.com

consider supporting magicinterviews by purchasing magic from Hank Lee's Magic Factory

How do I do it?

2006-01-09T22:23:00.003-05:00

How do I come up with weekly posts of interviews with magicians? Well, I had a back log of them and now I am running out. This is where you come in-- please email instant-pud@hotmail.com with any interviews that you have conducted or that you have the rights to for me to publish.

By the way, this site has been an experiment for me. I have learned much by doing it. I have not made any money off this site, nor is that my goal. I placed links to Hank Lee's on these pages to see if I could cover some costs of the audioblog.com membership fee and counter. But I have not made any money and that's ok. I might take them off, anyway.

So if you submit an interview, rest assured that you are not contributing to a scheme for me to make a lot of money ( i.e. www.milliondollarhomepage.com) It would just be cool to see this thing keep going.

Good luck with all your interests!

Steve Fearson

2006-01-01T11:51:00.001-05:00

Steve Fearson is recognized worldwide as one of the most creative minds in magic today. He has created illusions exclusively for David Copperfield and also for magicians in general, including his “Fantastic Floatation.” Fearson is also the first to start an online magic shop with instant downloads of tricks, http://downloadmagic.com.

In 1998, I emailed him a few questions and this is how he responded.

Steve Fearson: I'll try to answer your questions, let's see...

Mini-Wizard: What magicians have influenced you?

Steve Fearson: I would say that David Copperfield is responsible for initially sparking my interest in magic. When I began to perform myself though, I became interested in close-up and I was inspired by many magicians like David Williamson, Daryl Martinez and Gary Kurtz--to name a few.

Mini-Wizard: How do you come up with your effects?

Steve Fearson: That is a tough one. Obviously, there is no exact system or I would come out with a new hit trick every week. I just seem to get inspired once in a while. I usually come up with ideas in bunches of two or three. Then the hard part is developing them to the point that they are ready for market. It really is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

Mini-Wizard: Any advice for young magicians, or any magicians?

Steve Fearson: I high suggest entering contests. Contrary to what some magicians may say about performing for other magicians, contests will give you the discipline you need to work as a pro in the real world. And I cannot recommend them highly enough when it comes to improving your act. I have never practiced and worked so hard on my magic as I have while preparing for contests.

Visit Steve Fearson's site http://downloadmagic.com

consider supporting magicinterviews or by purchasing magic from http://downloadmagic.com and Hank Lee's Magic Factory

Lyn Dillies

2005-12-25T01:39:00.001-05:00

Lyn Dillies is one of magic's most successful touring magicians in the country. She was recently featured on the cover of MAGIC Magazine. Here is an article written about Lyn for
the Boston Mini-Wizard.

"Whether pausing to fix her hair in the Origami mirror before placing it on the back of the illusion or exhibiting her choreography, Lyn Dillies personalizes her magic to reflect herself as a performer. This approach to magic must have worked since The Magic of Lvn has toured the nation with rave reviews. I recently got a chance to interview Lyn as she set up for the S.Y.M. #29 Banquet Show.

Lyn has been in magic for 23 years and started as a result of being inspired by the television series The Magician, starring Bill Bixby, whose character captured criminals with the aid of magic. A number of other performers from magicians to ice-skaters have also had an impact on Lyn. Not just magicians, but all performers who are passionate about what they do have influenced her. Included is the author of her favorite magic book Device and Illusion, Jim Steinmeyer. Jim's philosophy on his developments is "... not just something you forget about but something to keep coming back to." says Lyn. She feels similarly toward her favorite illusion in her show, Metamorphosis. Lyn favors this illusion not only because it is her finale but also because it is always a challenge.

As far as Lyn's ambitions for the future, she wants to become more nationally known but is quick to say that she does not want fame "... to the point of insanity." Well, the clock was ticking toward three o'clock--which was the time that the show started -so I had the chance to squeeze in one last question: "Any advice for young magicians?" Her reply: "Find out who you are as a performer, and don't let anyone stop you."

- J. Babayan for the Mini-Wizard"

visit Lyn Dillies site at http://www.magicoflyn.com/

Eugene Burger

2005-12-25T01:34:00.001-05:00

Eugene Burger is a master magician--voted one of the 100 most influential magicians of the past century by MAGIC Magazine. He responded by email to the Mini-Wizard in 1998.

Mini-Wizard: What magicians have influenced you to perform the way you do today?

Burger: When I was 8 years old, I saw Jack Gwynne at the Oriental Theater in Chicago. He taught me that, if I was going to be a magician, I would then choose to look like one. When I was about 14 years old, I spent time with Don Alan who taught me that every magic effect needs a well thought out presentation. I also learned that knowing how large numbers of tricks work is rather pointless in the big picture of being an entertainer with magic. The real task is learning to master a few tricks. (Perhaps we should put the word “master” in bold face type. It’s a magic word!)

Mini-Wizard:How did you come up with your character and what influences you to perform magic the way you do?

Burger: Actually, I don’t think that I “came up with it.” I didn’t invent my character, rather, I uncovered it. I uncovered the character that was always me; it was already there. And so my “character” that you experience during one of my performances is basically me -- though a more theatrical version of me that stresses some things about me (my look, my voice) and hopefully minimizes other things (which I won’t even mention!)

Mini-Wizard:Do you have any advice for young magicians, or magicians in general?

Burger: Yes, since I have magic students when I am here in Chicago, I think a great deal about how we can best learn magic. Check out my column, “Beginner’s Corner,” in Genii magazine. I deal with some aspect of this fascinating question each month.

Best regards,

Eugene Burger

You can read his column and other essays on his website www.magicbeard.com

consider supporting Eugene Burger and magicinterviews by purchasing magic from Hank Lee's Magic Factory

The Chicago Tapes - Eugene Burger
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

Magical Voyages - Eugene Burger - 3 DVD Set
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

Fantasio

2005-12-18T09:18:00.003-05:00

This interview was taken with Fantasio at the 1998 SAM Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Over the summer I had been interviewing magicians via the Internet and in person. The first person I interviewed in person was Fantasio. He is known internationally as a great sleight of hand manipulator and creator of many (over 500) fine magic products. These products include his famous vanishing(cane, candle)/appearing (cane, candle) canes and candles. He has appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show five times, one of those being the warm up act for the historic Beetles TV performance decades ago.

While busy at his dealer booth, Fantasio was gracious enough to answer a few questions.

Listen to this interview. Running time 4:30. Note: if you hear another interview, switch browsers or clean your cache.

Mini-Wizard: Fantasio, you competed in FISM, what was it like…

Fantasio: There are many acts for magicians in Yokohama, Japan. In 1994, I believe. Right? Yeah. (I won) Second prize in comedy magic, three Germans beat me. (It was) three against one, so okay! (Laughs)

Mini-Wizard: How did you go about putting together the act for such a big competition?

Fantasio: Well it is because I do not want to do my old act anymore. Because I did it for many years, I have many ideas with comedy effects for magicians. I want to make magicians laugh. And then I put all those ideas together and I built a small act, and I went for competition because nobody knew me. They don't want to engage with something they don't know.

Mini-Wizard: I know you have been in magic for a very long time…

Fantasio: Oh yeah. Since 1957.

Mini-Wizard: So you do a lot of manipulation in your act…

Fantasio: Yes, I love it.

Mini-Wizard: Do you have any type of advice for young magicians trying to get into that type of manipulation, or anything you see as downfall on you magicians?

Fantasio: Even if in the future, you don't want to do any manipulation in your act, it is better to learn how to move your fingers because, you can see the way that a magician, who is not a manipulator, hold a glass for example. And you see the way a manipulator holds a glass on stage. He has more grace with the hands.

Mini-Wizard: So it is important to know exactly what you are doing…

Fantasio: I think it is the ABC's of magic, you don't have to be an expert, but at least to know hold to hold a coin, ball, cards, or a thimble or anything between your fingers. I think that everybody should start with manipulation.

Mini-Wizard: And that's your advice for young magicians…

Fantasio: That's my opinion… advice I don't know! Take it or leave it! (Laughs)

Mini-Wizard: Were there any influences you had when you were younger?

Fantasio: Yes, you always you have somebody that show you something you dream about, you know. I saw David Bamberg, Fu Manchu when I was eleven years old. My father took me to the theatre. Fu Manchu was Okito's son with his fantastic illusion show in Argentina. And I saw (it). When I saw him, I said, "I want to be a magician!" I was eleven years old, yeah. Until I was sixteen or seventeen I couldn't get any one to teach me some sleight of hand magic. Mario Lobo, he's dead now, showed me billiard ball manipulation, thimbles, silks, cards. And he gave me some books for practice.

Mini-Wizard: You have also invented a lot of magic…

Fantasio: Well later, yeah. I always liked to build my own props. Inventors, nobody is really an inventor. You have an idea and you take things you know from the past, and maybe you put it together, but nobody is really an inventor.

Mini-Wizard: Thank you for you time Fantasio.

Fantasio: You're welcome.

visit Fantasio's site here

Support this site and Fantasio by purchasing the following:

or by purchasing magic from Hank Lee's Magic Factory

John Calvert

2005-12-14T01:50:00.003-05:00

In the summer of '98, @ the SAM national convention, the President of S.Y.M. #29 had the pleasure of interviewing John Calvert, our assembly namesake for the Mini-Wizard. Even with all of his fame and fortune, the Mini-Wizard was struck by how genuinely nice Mr. Calvert was. SYM #29 would like to extend special thanks to Ray and Ann Goulet for making this interview possible.

Mini-Wizard: This is an interview with John Calvert, a very famous magician. I've heard you have traveled all around the world with your stage show. I was wondering about how your act grew and how you started in magic.

Calvert: Well, believe it or not I started when I was eight years old, after seeing the famous Howard Thurston show in Cincinnati, Ohio. And for a long time when I was doing tricks that I was able to do, I thought I was faking things that real magicians could actually do. Then I found out I was like all the rest. That I was creating an illusion of magic. My advice to all young magicians is to realize that it is more important to entertain the audience, than it is to fool them. I trick that just fools people is only a puzzle. A trick that entertains people is what we want to go in to. And I find just to do a trick and not entertain the audience is not worth while. So we try to find the illusions or tricks that really entertain the people. And whether they're fooled, or whether they're not, that's not important. But it is important that they go away from the theatre with a smile on their face, and saying they've been entertained. And the most important thing, when a young magician goes out, or any one, if he realizes if the audience doesn't like you, they won't like your magic. No matter what you do. But if the audience likes you, like the performer, virtually everything the performer does, they will like.

Mini-Wizard: So you mean they have to like you as a person, before they like your magic?

Calvert: Of course. That's most important because if you build a resentment towards your audience, they'll say "What is he doing out here?" you will break your neck (performing and working on magic) and they still won't care for you. They will say"Well he did a good trick but he was a bore" or something like that. So I found that years ago, I had the heaviest show, I carried more props than anybody else in America. I had the biggest, but not the best show. It wasn't until I went out to California and I cut my show down into a smaller show, got rid of a lot of worthless props. I was a demonstrator of illusions, in other words if you didn't like this one, maybe you'll like the next one. But when, I cut the show down to were I had to go out and sell John Calvert and present the illusions and entertain the audience, that's when I became a success.

Mini-Wizard: Were there any influences, you mentioned Howard Thurston...

Calvert: Oh, yes. Howard Thurston was the one that caused me, my dad to me to the theater in Cincinnati, Ohio when I was eight years old. And I saw the great Howard Thurston and I never forgot it, his music, the presentation and so-forth. When I was a kid we didn't quite t have magic clubs like you have now as a matter of fact I hadn't read a book on magic before I was doing a complete magic show. I had to create a lot of things that I had never even seen another magician do. And I remember Thurston did the Iash where the girl is drawn to the top of the theatre and fires a shot and she vanishes. Twenty-one years later I built one by memory. Now I often wondered whether it was as a little boy that figured how it was done or it was over a period of time as I became an adult that I figured out how it was done. And of course I think it was the latter.

Mini-Wizard: How does seeing Howard Thurston Compare to anything any magicians you see to today, or is he incomparable?

Calvert: Howard Thurston was the Prince of magic, he was the epitomy of magic. He had beautiful music. When I think of music I think that maybe its a good idea to remember that even though this is the day of rock n' roll, you don't have to have rock music to do magic. Maybe just one number, but you don't want to drive them out of the theatre with loud bang, bang, bang, bang music. It is all right maybe in one or two numbers. But there are so many beautiful numbers that you can get prerecorded that will go with magic as well. Think about that. Think about when you're doing a show, 'Am I doing a rock show, or am I doing a magic show?' Another thing. Some of those magicians are getting risqué and doing vulgar things. It would be a pity if the next generation of magic took magic from a wholesome family entertainment to shows that run in only nightclubs and in the gutter window. Wouldn't that be a shame? And it seems as though magicians are the last of the entertainers that realize that. Some are getting vulgar and I think that is a pity, but I'm sure you'll never do that will ya?

Mini-Wizard: Absolutely not. Back to your show, you say you carry a lot of props and had a full stage show?

Calvert: I still have a full stage show.

Mini-Wizard: Oh, you do, and that you travel around a lot? Can you describe your show, and how it has evolved over the years?

Calvert: Well I first carried my show in a car, in the back of the car. Then I got a trailer put behind the car. And then I thought that if I had a truck, I could have a bigger show. And finally I have a huge semi-trailer truck. And then it came to me that 'If I had an airplane' and I thought maybe in ten years…well it wasn't that long at all that I had an airplane, then a DC-3, a Douglas airline, and well I had about a dozen airplanes in my time. And then Henry Ford built a big yacht for his son Edsel. Edsel died, and I bought this hundred foot sailing vessel. And sailed it to Hawaii with the show on board. From Hawwii and up to Japan and down to Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia. Since that I have had a number of motor yachts. Motor sailors, and now I have a pure triple crew world cruising yacht with a cruising range of three thousand miles. And I've traveled all over the world. We crossed the Atlantic in eleven days with it. I would like to point out that this came for magic.

Mini-Wizard: You didn't have a side business, this all came from magic?

Calvert: It all came from magic, I've been a magician virtually all my life. However it did get me a film contract out in Hollywood and I've made a number of films. I used to do the falcon detective series. But I would have never worked in the movies if I hadn't first been a magician. I went out to Hollywood and they liked what they saw and I wound up with a contract with Columbia. And since that time I have taken part in forty motion pictures. If you set your sights, aim high, work hard, and don't try to copy all the things you've seen other magicians do, don't try to be a dancer instead of a magician. You don't have to be a dancer to do magic. You don't have to wiggle your hips and tell dirty vulgar stories. You got to go out there and stand tall, with dignity and assurance and practice, practice, practice so when you go out on that stage you don't have to be nervous or worried.

Mini-Wizard: In your show do you perform many classic effects?

Calvert: In our show we opened with a very fast routine of magic. I've had magicians come back and say " Hello John. You do in the first three minutes in your show (what) I could do in an hour." I said, "where are you working?" (Laughs) So we do a lot of fast magic we call magic variety in the first three minutes. Then we shoot a girl out of a cannon into a space capsule. We cut a man's head of with a buzz saw and put it back on. Out in Hollywood many years ago, Danny Kaye, was in my show and came out and impersonated Hitler. Then the marines would come out and grabbed him, put him in the buzz saw and we'd cut his head off, put his head in a sausage grinder, and out came German Wieners (Laughs). Now we still carry the buzz saw, cutting a man's head off I've done for years. As a matter of fact I originated it. Another thing that is my own and no one else does the flying organ. Tammy, who's my wife, plays the console or the pipe organ, it floats about the stage and then it floats over the heads of the audience

Mini-Wizard: That sounds pretty interesting. So you create a lot of your magic?

Calvert: Well, like I told you, when I was a kid I never read a book on magic, I never had one to read. I didn't know any other magicians, except Lester Lake, who lived in my hometown. He originated the guillotine. He was six years older than I remember one time Lester Lake drove his father's school bus and all the kids to school blindfolded. Today you'd get arrested for that! But, we have taken the show all over the world, we've probably had a thousand employees in the show. Our show's the longest running show in the history of show business, it's in its 64th year. That is double the length of Howard Thurston and Blackstone Sr.'s tours combined, and I don't intend to quit as long as I can walk out there and do a good show.

Mini-Wizard: That's very encouraging. So, I assume that you were friends with Harry Blackstone?

Calvert: I knew both Harry Sr. and Jr. In fact, I was one of the last persons to talk to Jr. I called him and a voice answered that didn't sound like Harry and I said, "I'd like to speak to Harry." And he said, "this is Harry." I said, "How you feeling?" and he said, "Oh, I'm fine. I'm going into the hospital tomorrow to have my gallbladder removed." So I called after the operation and talked to his mother-in-law. I asked how he was doing and she said they opened him up and he was too infected so they sewed him back up again. So, I said to Tammy (Calvert's wife) I'm afraid he's going and he was dead shortly after. And it's a sad thing, he was a great friend of mine and had a great future ahead of him.

Mini-Wizard: As for magic in general, are you happy with the direction magic is heading…

Calvert: Not exactly, are you?

Mini-Wizard: Ummm…maybe I'll have an opinion about that later.

Calvert: Tell me your opinion.

Mini-Wizard: My opinion? I honestly think for both young and old performers magic is very commercial today. It seems that a lot of people think they can buy magic and become a magician and that's really not true. I also think that more people need to put more thought into their magic and respect their audience.

Calvert: That's exactly right. Now the first thing to become a magician is to remember you're not a magician. You are an actor playing the part of a magician and you have learned to take material things and normal things and create what seems to be magic. If you can do that, then you become a master magician. We all know there's no such thing as true magic. No one can wave a wand and make something happen without some mechanical or electronic aid. So never get to the point where you really believe you're a magician. I co-directed Paul Newman's first picture, which was the Silver Chalice. There's a character named Simon the Magician who believed in his magic so much, he got to the point where he believed he could really fly. And he tried to fly off a tower and killed himself. So what happens when a young magician gets to believe he is too good…sometimes he's no good.

First thing to remember is this: Walk out on the stage with confidence. You must portray confidence. Be polite to the audience and recognize them. Never go out on stage and start performing without first recognizing your audience. And another thing I notice which is a very bad mistake, for a magician to have his audience in pitch black and have the magician with only a spotlight on him. Now how can you have any communication if you can't see your audience? You need to see the audience. I will never perform on a blacked out house, unless I will be doing a piece in dark for a few moments. When an audience is in pitch black, here's what happens. They talk to one another because no one can see who's talking. Instead of feeling like they're watching a live show, they feel like they're watching a movie and you don't get that warmth, in Spanish they say "simpatico", and communication with a blacked out house. And I don't understand why so many magicians work for a blacked out audience. I suppose it's because they practice so much without ever paying attention to their audience and that's a bad thing.

Mini-Wizard: So I assume that's why it's important to rehearse rather than practice your magic? And isn't it also important to get out and perform in front of people?

Calvert: Of course, to get their reaction. And another thing, it's more important to find a trick the audience loves whether you like it or not. I've been doing some tricks so long, I'm very tired of doing them...in fact, I hardly know I'm doing them. I could do them in my sleep! But, it's a number that warms me up to the audience and I'll never stop doing it.

Mini-Wizard: In addition to the excellent advice you've given so far, is there anything else you want to say?

Calvert: Out in Las Vegas when Siegfried and Roy were getting ready to close there original show. And Lynette Chappel, their leading lady, I trained her, she was in my show long before she was in their show. Mark Wilson's wife worked with me in the show, before she even knew Mark Wilson. Siegfried and Roy invited me to their show and after the show they invited me back stage. They said, "Now John we are getting ready to open a new show. Do you see anything in the show that we should do or shouldn't do in our new show?" And I said yes, what you're doing at the end of your show you should be doing at the beginning of your show. And they said, "what's that?" And I said, "warm up to the audience." It is so important to get warmed up to the audience, get acquainted with them. Let the audience get acquainted with you. Let them feel like they know you.

Never play down to your audience. Never play down to them. Never give them the impression that you're better than they are. And another thing. Never turn your back to the audience, stand up straight, don't let your shoulders droop, and let people admire you from the way you walk and the way you talk and it's important that you pronounce your words so everyone can understand you. It's important that your grammar is correct, that you speak correct English or some other language correct. And remember, as I said before, you're an actor playing the part of a magician and be suave and elegant and likable.

Mini-Wizard: Well, I think that is a lot of great advice and I think the SYMers back in Boston will very much enjoy this conversation.

Calvert: What group do you belong to by the way?

Mini-Wizard: Well, I'm the President of the John Calvert Assembly of the Society of Young Magicians. Well, we have a website and a newsletter.

Calvert: You do! Well I'm glad to know they named that assembly after me. I'll have to give you something to take back to them. I'm going to give you one of the John Calvert brochures to take back.

Mini-Wizard: Thank you! Well thank you very much for your time and it's been a pleasure to meet you.

Since the Mini-Wizard conducted this interview (1998), John Calvert has graciously met with members of our assembly in Boston on two seperate ocassions (performing, lecturing and visiting), and has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragment to our members. We would like to publicly use this space to thank Mr. Calvert for his continued support of our assembly. Thank you!

At 94, he's still going strong!

To support magicinterviews and John Calvert, consider purchasing:

Five Keys To Fame and Fortune - John Calvert
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

or by purchasing magic from Hank Lee's Magic Factory

Mike Caveney

2005-12-11T11:43:00.001-05:00

visit Mike's site for his wonderful books www.mcmagicwords.com

Read about Mike in the December issue of Genii Magazine. Thanks to Genii forum and visitors for your readership!

consider supporting magicinterviews and Mike Caveney by purchasing,

"Harry Anderson - Wise Guy" by Mike Caveney--click here to order

or anything else through Hank Lee's Magic Factory

Mac King

2005-12-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

Mac King is the newest rising star in Las Vegas. If you haven't seen his show at Harrah's you are missing out. He is author of Tricks with Your Head : Hilarious Magic Tricks and Stunts to Disgust and Delight and character in the syndicated comic strip Mac King's Magic In A Minute. Mac answered the Mini-Wizard's email back in 1998.

Mini-Wizard: What magicians have influenced you to perform the way you do today?

Mac King: I always say that my biggest influences are Jay Marshall, Billy McComb, Roy Benson, Max Maven and Lance Burton. But that really isn't true because I hadn't met or seen any of them (except Lance) until I had already sort of developed my act and my approach to magic.

Mini-Wizard: How did you come up with your character and what influences you to perform the magic the way you do?

Mac King: My character started out as a shy, dorky, quirky, guy from Belgium, complete with funny accent, etc. But when the comedian Andy Kaufman showed up on the scene it looked like I was copying him, so I changed it to a shy, dorky, quirky, guy from Kentucky (much easier to pull off).

Mini-Wizard: Do you have any advise for young magicians, or magicians in general?

Mac King: Two words-- Law School.

visit his site at www.mackingshow.com

consider supporting magicinterviews and Mac King by purchasing:

Tricks With Your Head book--click here to order

or by purchasing magic from Hank Lee's Magic Factory

Andre Kole w/ video

2005-12-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

Andre Kole is one of today's top magical innovators and performers. He has created many illusions such as the Spike Through Balloon, Squeeze Box, Table of Death, Head Mover, Vanishing Feet and many others. When I emailed about creativity, this is how he responded…

Andre Kole:

Different means of inspiration work for different people. My inspiration
often comes from what I have created in the past.

Jim Steinmeyer is the most creative magician I know and he told me that his
creative ideas come as a result of studying the history of magic and the creators of magic's past. So if this works for you there is certainly nothing wrong with it.

Andre Kole

Christopher Hart

2005-12-09T23:33:00.002-05:00

The setting is the 1998 Society of American Magicians Convention in New Orleans in the lobby of the hotel after the evening’s show. Originally the Mini-Wizard planned to interview Christopher Hart after spotting him in the lobby. Minutes later, and after a few interruptions, Mike Caveney eavesdropped into our conversation. Of course, I didn’t hesitate to hear what he had to say about our topics. At first, however, he thought the interview wasn’t to be used for a real purpose. After he realized that we were not joking around he offered his sincere thoughts on the involvement of magic in his life. It was very encouraging to hear a veteran of magic, who I respect, expound on the meaning of magic to his life with the enthusiasm of a kid.

Christopher Hart has a brilliant stage act with his famous hand--the character "Thing" that you've seen in the Addams Family movies.

Listen to this in audio. Running time 7:31. It may be a little difficult to hear.

Mini-Wizard: Who are the magicians that have inspired you to perform the way you do?

Christopher Hart: My early inspirations for my act were people like Norm Nielson. Mostly Norm Nielson, actually, was my main inspiration. I kinda structured my act like him, with three different pieces. He and Marvyn Roy, and Johnny Thompson talked about having an act you can do anywhere, by yourself, without any special staging. so I structured it like that…hopefully. I like other performers: dancers, comedy troupes, Gregory Hines, I like their style of performing a lot.

Mini-Wizard: How did you come up with your act?

Christopher Hart: In the beginning it was because I didn't have any money. So I couldn't afford anything expensive, so I had to get fairly cheap tricks that I could be creative with. Ideas don’t cost money so I tried to be creative. A deck of cards to do manipulations, a torn and restored music sheet, and I used to do a zombie, the floating ball. Those were all pretty cheap tricks so I just tried to add music and routining for it. Interesting music and routining for it

Mini-Wizard: So do you create a lot of your magic?

Christopher Hart: Yeah, I've basically created it all. I mean, my card routine, I learned moves and came up with some of my own, but then you pick your own music, and you put a routine together that makes it your own. I mean cards are not original, but the way I do them is, for me. The torn and restored music sheet, is the torn and restored newspaper but with the music it is different. And I created the hand that crawls on different places of me…

Mini-Wizard: So the act is an extension of you?

Christopher Hart: Yeah, it is, and I think it should be…

(Interruption)

Christopher Hart (cont'd): What was that question you were just asking me?

(Mike Caveney walks by, and stops to listen)

Mini-Wizard: Was it about creating magic?

Mike Caveney: HA!

Mini-Wizard:Oh no, you were saying that--

Mike Caveney: HA!

Christopher Hart: Just to finish up that topic, a lot of other magicians copy other performers and take their tricks and mannerisms instead of understanding what makes that performer great. Because it’s all about personality. (said in a cheesy way) Just try to be you…'cause there's nobody like you!

I think It is important to do you own thing.

Mini-Wizard: Any other advice?

Christopher Hart: What kind of advice?

Mini-Wizard: Advice in general.

Christopher Hart: Get a good education. The more skill you have the better, it does not necessarily need to do with magic. If you have business skills, it helps if you run your own business. Building skills, if you want to build things in your act. You got to keep educating yourself. I read all the time on all types of subjects. A lot of Mike Caveney's Magic Word Books, I highly recommend them. Learn you history in magic kids…then you're be bound not to repeat it.

Mike Caveney: Buy lots of ties with playing cards on them.

Christopher Hart: That's very important because you have to look like a magician, so people knoooow…that…you are… a magician. Vans that say, "I do magic." License plate holders, any kind advertising, bumper stickers… I like the van that say "Children's entertainer" those are good. "Spiteful clowns." Balloon animals. Learn Balloon animals because it can increase an extra ten dollars to your rate. Don't give that away. That's my biggest advice, don't give away the balloon animals for free. If there’s anything that I want to say in this interview, it is charge extra for the balloon animals. And if they're not going for it, then you throw it in, but it seems like a perk, now they feel they have gotten something. You want to leave your customer wanting more. That actually what I am trying to say in this whole interview is " Leave your audience wanting more", and think that they got more than they… did, for the money.

(to Mike Caveney) Mini-Wizard: Tell us about the Long Beach Mystics?

Mike Caveney: You know, I wish when I was a kid we had guys like Chris Hart around. To tell us the real story about being a pro, the real tips the professional inner workings of show business. How to get that extra dollar for a balloon animal…I never knew that when I was a kid. This is a man who has been through the mill. But to just be in the same hotel lobby with him, with these other meatheads standing around, and I think they know who they are. I won’t mention any names…What's this for?

Mini-Wizard: For an SYM assembly newsletter.

Mike Caveney: This isn't a joke?

Mini-Wizard: No this isn’t a joke at all.

Christopher Hart: Not at all. And you've been giving him information he can't use.

Mike Caveney: What was your question?

then Mike Caveney gives a great interview that you can read on magicinterviews.blogspot.com! click here.