A Face Fit For A Punching Bag.
Just a bit of background. WE HATE Dave J. Castle. Hell I’m even going to side with Tim Ellis on this one. You can learn about his gig with a simple search. Basically he’s a teen that wants to expose as much magic as he possibly can over the internet. He also sells shirts and books and shit. In a nutshell he’s a total man whore. It’s one thing to have kids explaining on youtube, but it’s another to try and get them all in one place and make money from it. Be sure to check out the WMF channel…..brilliant. So here is what WMF has concocted:
We did it. The fake video is now at learnmagictricks.org. Here it is. Marvel at the wonder of fake explanation.
I encourage others do do the same. Create lots of fake videos spam the site. (For legal reasons I am compelled to say that the former encouragement is made in jest.)
Oh and here is the sad thing. You DO NOT even need to submit your OWN videos. Just link to a video and enter a half decent description and everything works.
So here just an idea. Upload a few videos of your friend doing and explaining the magic, then have that friend complain at Dave J. Castle that the videos are up. The complaint will be just.
I’d like to add that in naming the ruse video on youtube, you may want to name it something like “adjkfs;dlzakjg;sajgdsvnm”. So it appears to be “top secret”, and no one was meant to view other than a friend.
He chose......poorly
Bill Abbott is now selling 5 Card repeat for 60 dollars. This plot does NOT need to be gaffed, and honestly isn’t much, if any harder with just normal cards. The plot is old as the hills and is in more books than I can possibly state here. The simple point is why would one purchase this item when you can buy the Dai Vernon Book Of Magic or Collected Works Of Derek Dingle for only 40 dollars, and get a lifetime of sublime material?
It should be noted also that the Homing Card is a fantastic plot that is basically the polar opposite of 6/5 Card Repeat. John Hamman produced a fine method of this in Secrets Of. Again for 40ish dollars and is the master’s life work.
Filed under:
Magical Rants
Have you ever been milling around a magic forum and you decide to add something to the conversation, with a light heart and a flutter of the finger you send it, in hopes someone may take a little bit of the idea with them. Before you know it hell fire and brimstone shoots from the monitor, burning your eye sockets, smelling of piss and viniger. Ah fuck it burns man! All I said was “I think using the biddle steal 15 times is a bad idea, I like the Roadrunner Cull”.
Of course the Magic Cafe is the most prime example of territorial pissings. If you post your true thoughts be sure to wear a jock strap and cover your corn hole. Simple fact is no one knows who you are, or how “good” you are online. “How long have you been doing magic, and how old are you” is mostly irrelevant. The guy could be 40 and spent two years in card magic, but he practices 8 hours a day while the next guy could be 60 and started when he was 9, but only practices a couple of hours every month.
Ever since the intenet came into form the first ideal that popped out is “everyone is an expert”. I say everyone is, and will always be a student. If you disagree with what someone says, by all means let it be known. But don’t judge the guy for stating that “x” works for me.
The best thing I’ve found is to start your own PRIVATE forum, for you and your buddies where you can openly talk about whatever you wish. The Cafe and others are flawed in the manner that for the most part in that it’s rare you can have an open discussion. The internet is nothing more than a form of communication. None the less the best thing to do in magic is to stay away from the hoard. People are at places like the Cafe mostly to promote each other, no matter what shitty effect has been “officially released and is MINE”.
Make your own world online if you can. Stickcam is another great place to roll with like minds real time. If you look at the bottom of my page “Street Of Cards” is also a fantastic place to chat with kind folks. I’ve had many a laugh hanging out over there. Being with your peers of the art should be fun! It’s better to be constructive than walk on eggshells.
Filed under:
Magical Rants
Jamy Ian Swiss once stated “Our Choice Of Material In Itself Is A Matter Of Creativity”
This idea I think is one of the most profound and enlightening explanations of where we stand in the modern era of magic. Rather than repeat myself to Ad nauseam again, I’ll simply state the the choices magicians make at magic factories and downloads usually has little to nothing to do with being creative at all. Being hip, new, and hoarding effects serves no reward in the long run. Being choosy indeed does have rewards, as do not serving on blind faith because “x” is making a video series.
The other day I was practicing Hofzinser’s Kartenkunste plot and remembered Edward Malkowski (Marlo) Devilish Miracle. These two effects are somewhat simular in plot and can be swapped with each other depending on how many spectators you may have. If two or more spectators are around I think the obvious choice is Devilish, being the the switch and card turning up and down makes it a bit more perplexing.
The above is just a simple showing of how to be creative in what you decide to perform. Find a nice transpo, mental effect, color changing routine etc. None of us need to invent much anything any more. Though to some that may have been a blasphemous statement. Alas if your excited for the next “new thing” that hasn’t even been released yet, your just being passive, rather than being dynamic. There is a difference from sucking teet, and putting things together that fit our style and skill levels.
Never mistake being creative as reinventing the wheel. It only takes a small time to get these things sorted out, and they will treat you well through life. We all should stop going “all over the place”, and take Swiss’ words to heart.
Los Angeles, CA – Magician Yigal Mesika filed a patent infringement lawsuit at the Federal District Court in Los Angeles – no magic here – through his attorneys. I thought the magician’s code was to never reveal their secrets. Maybe I’m wrong because Mesika filed a patent application for his invention and was issued U.S. Patent No. 7,311,609, entitled “Miniature Spooling Apparatus.” The patent generally relates to a miniature electrically powered thread reel and spooling mechanism discretely hidden inside a pen. There goes the secret. The pen is used by magicians in routines requiring “invisible” thread to control small objects and the “Electric Spider Pen” is sold through authorized magic shops and websites.
Magic seems to be a popular legal topic lately, including a motion in limine to prevent opposing counsel from performing magic tricks during closing arguments (article here). And now back to our regularly scheduled legal magic programming:
Defendant Bogunia sells an “iThread” product which allegedly infringes on one or more claims of the ‘609 patent. In addition, Defendants are set to release a modified product called the “iThreadX,” which is also believed to infringe. In May of 2008, Plaintiff informed Defendants of their allegedly infringing activity and attempts were made to settle the matter. When negotiations went up in a cloud of smoke, Plaintiff filed this lawsuit. Don’t worry, that was my last pun for now. I am saving “Defendant Magician To Make Lawsuit Disappear” pun until a motion to dismiss is filed. The case is titled Yigal Mesika v. Sean Bogunia et al., CV09-1580 JFW (C.D. Cal. 2009).
The story is this, From the point that mesika saw a demo video off YOUTUBE he wrote a fax as quick as possible claiming infringment. I was there when the fax came in. He did not know what what the product looked like and had no idea how it worked, since the demo was shot with the prototype. From the point he had claimed many infringments with no knowlege of what it was infringing on. Of course the device was produced and on the market before his was. And was nothing like his. This wasn’t the point, Mesika for whatever reason seems to really believe everyone should just not enter into his market, or sell any thread products, Including Elastic rubber bands. He even made a personal call to Sean’s Answering Machine and left a message claiming he was the devil and that sean was going to lose a lot of money for trying to produce a product. This was the entire point, there was no infrinment, he just wants Sean to give up. He even claimed he was going to produce RIPOFF”S of sean’s products. The Ithread is by far better and much more expensive it was a completly different market, but Yigal felt this was direct competition to his new Product which was not even put out on the market until later. He also personally called distributers directly to tell them not to buy the Ithread. Claiming it was crap as the kid next to him had his tarantula fall apart. Later in his DVD release he claims all moves to be directly his a claiming pantents on everything, including the floating dollar trick, even your mom. So you be the judge.
Denny And Baby
You know…”finding yourself” is perhaps one of the most difficult things in performing magic. It literally took me about ten years before it finally “clicked.” I spent the first ten years of may career being sort of a “hack” magician. Don’t get me wrong…that statement is not meant to be an insult but a standard act, doing the doves, the props, the standard routines is all that Lee and I really were at the time. The act was “good” but it didn’t really stand out among the rest.
We all begin magic by copying the others that we admire. In our own minds, we are “envisioning” those that we admire as we perform on stage. The problem is that what we envision is not really what the audience is seeing.
There is only ONE Channing Pollack, Fred Kaps, Johnny Thompson, Jeff McBride, Hobson,Lance Burton, Mac King, and on and on.
We will never REALLY become ourselves until we learn our tricks so well that we can do them almost without thinking. This will build confidence. Once the confidence is built and we stop worrying about the mechancis of the trick, we can then BEGIN to relax a bit on stage.
That is the beginning stage.
When it finally reaches a point where you are soooo confident in the content of your show, your own personality will begin to come out because you are now “thinking on your feet.” You begin to pay more attention to your audience and react to things that they may say or do while you are performing. You begin to HAVE FUN. You no longer worry about saying the wrong thing or looking a certain way because you KNOW that no matter what, they will like the content of your show. Now you are on a roll!!
I am a firm believer in the thought that your audience will write your show and will develop your character as you perform, IF YOU LET THEM. You can only let them do this when you are free of worry about the content of your act. You will begin to ad lib, make faces, say things off the top of your head, etc. You will do this WITHOUT FEAR as you know the content of the act is strong.
As you discover “little” things in your personality that seems to play well, you then begin to make them “larger” on stage. Little actions, habits, movements, etc now become “bigger.” You begin to become YOU. No one can become YOU better than you can. You can’t be Lance Burton or any of the others because that job has already been filled by THEM.
In summary, the only way your character will grow and develop is to start by knowing the content of your act WELL. After that you must work without worrying about how you look or what you say. Just let it flow.
I am not a fan of “scripting.” I believe in an “outline” of what you are going to say or how you are going to act BUT I feel that a “script” is too confining. It doesn’t really allow to you stray or develop.
Free yourself from restraints and fears. Just be YOU and don’t worry about it. You will makes mistakes, say the wrong things, and sometimes do the wrong things. That is how we learn to be whatever we are. When we do or say something wrong, it’s no big deal. We just will know never to do that again.
Again, it’s one of the most difficult things in magic to do. It took me ten years BUT if any of this can knock a couple of years off of your work, then I have done my job.
