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Thursday, 28 February 2013

The Angry Man of Magic : Web Forums – A Modest Proposal

A little while back I saw a post on a magic forum. It's ok – no names, no pack drill. But it was in a thread where the social convention dictates that people express their regret at the passing of the threads titular magician. It wasn't a magician I had heard of particularly, but death is always sad occasion to someone. What we want are reminiscences, stories, and anecdotes. One post was essentially, “Person X loved my Y trick, from my book Z. The Y trick floored X. It's in my book, Z.” Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot. Why didn't they just add an Amazon...

A while ago

there was advertisement on this blog. Just in case you wondered how it worked out. I actually made 14 dollars. Who clicks on these add's...

Quote of the Week

"Sometimes just being quite for a moment ... slowing down ... stimulates increased audience attention.Expectations are generated.Drama is born.Woo-Woo. (An American Indian term referring to the cosmic, mind-shattering, and earth-shaking dimensions of the Unknown.)Audiences love Woo-Woo.Heavy breathing, a mystic pass, a deep gaze.They want you to be a little 'farther out' than they are.The dramatic pause.Silence.One shouldn't talk too much about...

Long Time No See

Wow I've been to magic show... well not really. It was a bunch of magicians practicing magic... nope that's not right either. It was a bunch of young people, who have a serious interest in wanting to learn magic. The only problem they don't speak a lick of English so all the good books on that naturally are like a big big secret to them. So they got German books from the public library. And they practiced the hell out of these and I saw something...

More of the Same

Here is another trick they did from that book. It was the good old saltshaker through the table. Even with the feint of pretending to put a coin through the table. So they sat around practicing stealing the saltshaker when suddenly it dawned on them how to turn this into a full fledged piece. Here is what happened: "Hey, see this coin on the table? And see this saltshaker? I will try to put the coin into the saltshaker. And there are three ways...

Quote of the Week

"Material alone will never make you a star, but it is a most important ingredient in the recipes that make what we call acts. There have been a few instances where real genuine stars of the entertainment industry reached a stage where they thought that they no longer had to do anything. They just had to be there and everyone would applaud like mad as they had always done before. Sadly, their careers took a nose dive, and in some instances, perhaps,...

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Gala Shows

I heard the last of the FISM Gala show was the worst one. An "offence of magic" to quote a famous magician. So what acts did make up the last Gala sho...

The Next Big Thing

If I could turn back time and had my heart ripped out.... I  assume I wouldn't want to be a magician. I would be a magic dealer. Seriously! Think about it! I could buy a product from the big supplier and resell it for about 1000% interest... and call it a discount, when it is 20% off. Of course all of that would make me money, but any business is out to make even more money in less time, so I would have to think of a way to generate money...

Quote of the Week

I watched Tom perform this - for me, and other magicians. Most were fooled by the "vanishes." I wasn't H...

Name Change Anyone?

Sometimes I think that maybe people take my blog a little too serious. For heaven's sake. It's called WEEKLY Magic Failure. It was supposed to be a little mention on what went wrong in magic this week. Nothing more. But some of the winners carry the virtual award that I hand out a little too long. Just note that you won. Disagree with me and go on with your life. Some people don't get it. Maybe the term failure is a little too much. So I'm seriously considering a name change of my blog. How about: "Flavor of the Week" or "Aftertaste of Magic"...

Quote of the Week

"Jugglers suck! Look at them, they throw burning clubs at each other. They toss, and toss and catch and catch and all the time you have to listen to "Adiemus" by Enya. And the throwing usually goes on forever. Well, it could be worse. It could be a magician doing card tricks." J...

Quote of the Week

"If Erdnase was a deck of cards, he’d be the Artifice deck." Ellusionis...

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Magic Fakers fights back? Come on, they even stole that from ... like everybody!

Oh yeah, I wish I was making up that shit. http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019023220_apsdmagicdispute.ht...

Respect...

Edit: Crap the Bottom Palm was faster... what an idio...

x - 1

The one behind principle is in my humble opinion a totally underestimated principle. Most magicians don't seem to understand the benefits the principle offer...

Quote of the Week

"Dis is vedy vedy vedy easy." D....

No table

Did you ever try to rework most of your closeup material so you are using no table at all? I suggest doing that. It gives you a whole new perspective on your repertoire. And a lot more freedom. Coins through table becomes coins through spectators cupped hands. Suddenly the trick has a new interactive level that invites communication instead of stock patter. Certain card material becomes interesting. Ace assemblies are now seen as the convoluted card tricks they are. And reworking them forces you to get rid of the piles and straight to the point. Of...

Jolly Times Ahead

It's really though to judge ones own material. Let's say you came up with some magic trick. You perform it for audiences and the audiences react really well to it. They love the trick. Most of the time that leads to the assumption that the trick is really good. But that doesn't have to be. It could also be that the reason the audience reacts so well is not the trick, but the performer. Nevertheless the performer fails to see that and releases that magic trick and wonders oh so much that the rest of us fails to deliver that little performance...

Monday, 25 February 2013

This grosses me out!

Posted by "Gr8gorilla" on the Magic Cafe "So today I washed my Goshman Color changing ball to jumbo square. I swear to you, each one of them doubled in size. The Square won't even fit in the box it came any longer without being compressed. Is that normal for super soft sponges? Do they always grow when wet or moist? It was so noticeable that I could almost imagine an effect where the ball was moistened and grows before your eyes...." That's disgusting... Don't you wash you balls each time you use them? They get dirty when people touch them. Those...

"Quote of the Week"

"Show a trick to a child, and you will make him happpy for one day. Teach him a trick..... and he will ruin the art of magic." L.v.T...

Did you ever notice that

most "Any Card to Any Number" are NOT "Any Card" almost all flowers look different from the stuff magicians produce a slip cut force makes a noise that can be heard from across the room magicians when seated stand up from time to time; Elmsley Count time so called pro tips from professionals most often are basic socials skills there are always the same people in any L&L video. (I'm talking about the magicians, not the audience) Daryl uses very preaching patter when performing Jeff McBride has gone way past his prime and belt size Dai Vernon...

Quote of the Week

"And what I mean by that specifically is name calling and insults. There is no need for it. He's called people morons, idiots, and a slew of epithets." SE...

You got Sankeytized

Straight from Jay Sankey's website A NOTE TO EXPERIENCED MAGICIANSIf you think you already know the secrets behind all these amazing effects, keep in mind that Jay's been teaching people the secrets to performing REAL MAGIC for over 30 years. So no matter how experienced a magician you may be, you are still going to learn something special from these free videos!  Yes and remember: even an experienced magician who teaches magic for thirty years can still do the Twirl Change wron...

Dear Barry

If you have a problem, dear magician, don't forget to address all your letters to "Dear Barry". Remember, whatever your problem is, I'll never give a fuck about it. ...

Stuff that is Random

Imagine you had to work for your money. It took hard labor to get where you are now. Isn't your accomplishment much greater and more valuable compared to the guys getting their money from their parents? Now substitute money with magic and parents with the internet? So the WPR is back. And in my opinion they did the only right thing. Just go on, with an apology admitting their mistake. This is what they should have done in the first place. Instead of behaving like children with an empty couch and all of that. Had a great idea for a trick. But...

Sunday, 24 February 2013

Card Manipulators listen up!

Has it ever occurred to you that purposefully dropping a single card, stepping on it and producing a fan of cards from the sole of the shoe really doesn't make a lot of logical sense? How about just one! The one you droppe...

Sankey Panky

I learn a new thing every day. Sankey Pan...

Friday, 15 February 2013

WMF CENSORED again

There are a few things in life that are for free. Taxes, trouble and a never ending supply of people who fail in almost every facet of life. My initial post about this man was all about the many things he called himself on his website... No let's add another. Identity thief. May I humbly direct your gaze to this blog: Bob Cassidy Mentalism. The author is CENSORED. We are dealing with a case of implied identity theft. It seems like...

Hey, just trying something!

...

Haters gonna hate!

You gotta love Google cache. So a friend of mine sends me a message: "Dude you got haters!" And links me to rolandhenning.com. Somebody actually made a website using my name. That sort of behavior seems familiar. I think Bob Cassidy had a similar problem once. There seems to be no content, but thanks to Google cache... here it is in all it's glory: Stay away from Roland Henning. He’s the biggest magic failure ever, which is why he attacks...

WMF The Encyclopedia of Magic

Another week, another failure. One thing I feel the need to address. The weekly schedule doesn't mean that it needs to be current. As you can see with those guys. Vinh, Jeffrey and Lenny run the encyclopedia of magic website for a while now. If you don't know what that is, it is quite an ambitious project. They say it "is dedicated to helping people all over the world improve themselves and their magic." I would claim otherwise. Straight from...

Thursday, 14 February 2013

The Price of Magic

Should magic be made available to those with money only? Of course not. But magic needs a price. Magic secrets need to be earned in order to be appreciated. It used to be hard to get magic knowledge. The public libraries were a good start, but those resources were limited. Where did you go then? There was no internet, you didn't even know about magic dealers. In fact you had to get a phone book and go through the lists. And then you planned your...

The Angry Man of Magic - Self-workers : an apology

When I was starting in magic, I did a lot of self-working tricks. Unfortunately, most of the self-working tricks I did were the same ones that everyone else did. And 50 years previously. So there's no buggering Uncle, PEdo teacher, or big brother, that didn't know how it was done. Yes, I probably did the 21 card trick, I don't remember. And I probably did some spelling deals. But I also did others with stacks that I thought no one else had heard of. But they had. So for the first few years I equated self-working to bad. Later on, I discovered...

The Internet Tarts

Hi, For those who punt their wares on the internet, willy nilly, like a bunch of cheap tarts, here's a message: You fucking tarts! Get a frigging life already!!! Whose "Haunted" is best? Whose "T & R" is best? Whose goddam ass-fucking ACAAN is best?  MINE, YOU FREAKING PIECES OF MINDLESS CRETINOUS SHIT!!! It's obvious. Now get to fuck and don't come back, you stupid fucking fucks. BS...

Public Child Abuse.... gotta love that!

...

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Winner Rick Merrill

It is April. In celebration of this blogs three year existence, the whole month will be winner time. Only the coolest and best members of our elite circle of nerds will be featured. Today: Rick Merrill I love a good display of sleight of hand. And those who practice often seems to forget that having some sort of presentation also is a necessity in order to be entertaining. Rick Merrill has understood that. His magic is funny AND full of killer...

Winner Eric Mead

It is April. In celebration of this blogs three year existence, the whole month will be winner time. Only the coolest and best members of our elite circle of nerds will be featured. Today: Eric Mead It maybe that I completely miss the point here. But I think that Eric Mead had a perfect act when it comes to performing for scientists. Basically he is brain fucking them into believing they see a lecture, when in reality they not only not learn...

Winner FL!P

It is April. In celebration of this blogs three year existence, the whole month will be winner time. Only the coolest and best members of our elite circle of nerds will be featured. Today: Flip Hallema Flip's style takes some getting used to. But once you do it is quite enjoyable. An overgrown Dutch child doing some devastating and strong magic. Every now and then a sudden burst of joy. A calm demeanor most of the time and then without warning...

Winner The Inner Glow

It is April. In celebration of this blogs three year existence, the whole month will be winner time. Only the coolest and best members and things of our elite circle of nerds will be featured.  Today: The Inner Glow This is a request post. But I agree so much. Here is a story of a father who did a magic show for his daughter. For her first birthday party ever. Years later she is going to get married. And the proud father does it again....

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Winner Roy Walton

It is April. In celebration of this blogs three year existence, the whole month will be winner time. Only the coolest and best members of our elite circle of nerds will be featured. Today: Roy Walton Do I have to write this? Isn't it clear that Roy Walton deserves a big spot among any magic winners? When it comes to card magic and somebody is pressed to name the most influential card magicians of the last century, you can easily judge his knowledge...

Winner Kevin James

It is April. In celebration of this blogs three year existence, the whole month will be winner time. Only the coolest and best members of our elite circle of nerds will be featured. Today: Kevin James When it comes to having strange imagery being the catalyst for strange magic routines Kevin James is just one of us. But being able to actually implement those brain children into actual working routines is a different beast. And this is where Kevin...

Monday, 11 February 2013

This is wrong

On so many levels...

Yeah! So refreshing!

Wanna have a down to earth experience. Try a trash festival. With carnival rides, can knock downs, cotton candy and all of that glory where soon to be daddies drink a lot. If you're hired, you don't care about having a perfect pitch. Just do some magic for the kids, the parents, the drunk and even the pubescent teenagers who dress way too slutty. It really dumbs down your magic. Down to the basic level of communication. And what fun it is. No...

Sunday, 10 February 2013

So the Masked Magician gets a unique treatment

So the masked magician does a show in Fortaleza which is in Brazil. It's a magic revelation show. And what do people see. utter disappointment. The same kind of disappointment we magicians have when buying the latest magic trick. Naturally people complain and want their money back. Have a look: At 1:20 a woman says that the tricks are made for children. At 1:26 a child says that he liked the tricks. Cute. Even the news report this: G1 says this (using google translate and some common sense.) The magician's show Mister M U.S. ending squabble...

WMF Gurguren

Failing on national television is bad. But being mocked for that fail on national television is even worse. Case in point Brasilian magician Gurguren. He screwed up while performing an illusion. And here I am to point out that I think that illusionists are the lowest kind of magicians out there. All the dancing, the music the spectacle. All trying to misdirect that most of them have little to no character, style or charisma. Also the lack of...

It made me lol and rofl

Quoting Mr. Brooks in his latest Spam for Everybody: On my recent trip to Las Vegas I was able to spend some time with my buddy Criss Angel who asked me if I could pass on some information regarding just one of his exciting projects, and here it is! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha........ Buddy...... hahahaha. That sounds so wrong. Reminds me of this I found a while ago. Always wanted to use this. ...

On treating animals!

Just because you eat them doesn't mean you can treat them like shit. A rabbit in a small tube with hardly any room to breathe, monkeys in small hold outs, cats and dog being janked. Weasels fiercely pulled by their skin after they get dropped on the stage. A cat being tossed in the air. Utter fear on the monkeys faces. Disoriented dogs, doves in obviously too tight dove holders. The claws of the cat obviously being trimmed so they cannot inflict any damage. Kittens dropped in a box. Ducklings being squeezed flat so they can be produced from the...

Saturday, 9 February 2013

Do You Know How To Do The Color Changing Deck?

If not check out this nifty Howcast video tutorial. Actually I think this brilliant. The video promises a great trick. It seems legit, as lines like "Most magic stores have these" make it feel well researched by Howcast. Then the execution is so bloody awful with no convincers, no setup, no payoff... that all you feel is utter disappointment. Suddenly you don't wanna know anymore magic secrets. We need more of the...

clever post title

There is the good old bite coin. And there is a bite cookie out there. But seriously who bites off cookies like that? Also, is there ANY good change bag routine out there? Only seeing shit so far. Any... I'm despera...

Friday, 8 February 2013

Busy right now, here's a treat!

When I started with card magic this was one of the first things I learned. But I didn't need a gimmick. I was so 1337 back then. Times have changes. 111 Aside from that... put him in a lab coat and he can talk about medical problems. Power house medical problems. Rudy T. Hunter... If you magic career is fading here is an option:...

As a side note!

Holy fuck something awesome has happened. How can I tell you without telling you? Let's say it this way. A certain someone has decided to have a website. That someone didn't even have Internet before. Not only that. That certain someone has decided to sell stuff. That makes me happy. Is it magic related? You bet. I don't know if I can talk about it. So I'm being all fucking cryptic about it. So nothing to see here. Move alo...

WMF Tim David

Tim David is a magician who somehow thinks he knows a lot about magic. Enough to teach it. And of course he is above moral debate and ethics. So he is free to spoil magic secrets and he makes it really easy to get them. Via video. The sad part, he isn't alone. He is one of many, many lost souls. But I think he has not lost it yet. He may still turn the wheel around and drive the car back to the road. On his website he has a section he calls Free...

Thursday, 7 February 2013

It's Kieler Woche Baby! Yet Again!

Today was a fun day at the Kieler Woche. Today I ran into "security". The first time in seven years. I was finishing my show and then I got approached by two really tall guys with big black vests telling me what to do. Them: "You have to know that you are allowed to stay here... but you must not ask for money." Me: "Wait what? I didn't ask for money, I told them if they want to they can pay me. Them: "No mention of money, if they put you something...

Get help!

Today I'm gonna give you some real good advice. Seriously! I have come across so many magicians and I noticed one thing: They all wanna do everything by themselves. The have no skill programming a website, yet they tinker around until they got a website that looks like shit. They have no photoshop skills and end up with something like this: Take a look at how others do some stuff that they cannot do. They get someone to do it for them. They...

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

"Quote of the Week"

"As I show you these cards, I want you to think of a card and remember the number at which it lies. Now take the deck and deal it into two piles. Pick up one of the piles and perform a Down & Under Deal and then take the last remaining card and insert it down into the other packet at the number you remembered earlier. Take that packet and place it behind your back. Spell your name - one card at a time - and place the new top card reversed...

Dear Magic Makers

Spell "Fred Kaps" correctly. If using that name is supposed to be a homage to the fanatastic Fred Kaps, at least make the effort of researching how to spell his name. La...

Gee that brings back memories!

I believe I saw this cartoon before I ever saw a magician. That clearly shaped my understanding of what commercial effects are. In fact I remember seeing the part with the endless silks tied to each other and I loved the method....

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

WMF The Cactus Boi

The interesting thing about this young man is not that he is exposing or making a tutorial on a card flourish, no it's his serious laziness on research. First watch the video. The first 40 seconds should be enough: So what do you see? A normal fan? Yes! There is nothing, I repeat nothing unusual about this fan. A regular standard two handed fan. This is pointed out to the young man in the comments. "sorry but has i see it's a freaking thumb fan" to which The Cactus Boy... sorry, Boi replied: "*facepalm*. Do you actually know anything..?...

Coin in Bottle

The great thing about the good old "coin in the bottle" effect is that there is no way to get the coin into the bottle, as the coin is bigger than the neck of the bottle. This is the actual effect, not so much the apparent penetration of the coin through the glass of the bottle. So all these new versions seem to miss that fine point. It's about creating an impossible object....

Decode

Hey, I got a better idea than this. How about this. A small card is introduced. On it is a QR code. The spectator is asked to think of any object/animal/thing in the world. The the spectator is to use the own phone to scan the QR code. The code will link to this website. There they have to answer just 20 simple questions about the thing they are thinking of. And instead of charging 31,50 dollars for it, I'd sell it for 30. It's a bargain. And not overly complicated at a...

Monday, 4 February 2013

"I never guess. It is a shocking habit — destructive to the logical faculty"

I'm fascinated by Indian street magicians. I have studied many videos of those guys doing magic. Mainly the Cups and Balls. They are all pretty good. Then I stumbled upon the following video, where the guy is speaking English: It's a horrific magic act. The timing is way off, the magic moments are reduced to a mere challenge. It is repetitive as hell and there is no climax but the reveal of the main principle of being one ahead. But here is what I like about it: The fact that the timing is way off, that the magic moments are reduced to a mere...

Talk about a White People Problem

I still wish something like that would happen for a magic sh...

WMF Dynamo

Some of you may know him, some don't so here we go. Steven Frayne is a UK magician in his late 20's and has managed to get a deal with some big media companies that got him to produce TV magic specials. And as many that went before him he also chose to take the dark side. I will now use the ugly F-word and the S-word. Fake.... Stooge.... If you start to rely on those principle along side camera trickery and editing reactions into the shot that...

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Buyers Remorse

I don't want to alarm you, but I feel the need to tell you. If you buy Serial by Tom Wright you probably get buyers remorse. The method to this tricks more than bold. The video cuts out a crucial part. A part you need to know. You need to turn you head. You gotta have good eyesight and you gotta use English bills. It will work with Euros too, but the method will be more than transparent. The video tells you that this is not an opening item, and that you need to establish credit as a mind reader first. That's a nice way of saying that if the...