WMF Justin Lane aka Cornflake the Clown

I think this is the first WMF from New Zealand. And all because of a stupid business decision. Let me quote the Auckland Now

The magic community has banned Cornflake the Clown and threatened him with legal action after he awarded his colleague Magic Matt with Cornflake's Magic World Grand Master of Magic Award.

Why is this of any issue at all? Aside from the fake nature of the award.

The Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians asked Cornflake to withdraw the award because it was too similar to the Grand Master of Magic Award they hand out.

Alright, that is very similar and might be confused. But why did Justin Lane hand out the award to his magic buddy Magic Matt?

Cornflake refused to withdraw Magic Matt's award which he says recognised his efforts in making up new tricks and being a great performer.

Oh really? What kind of new tricks? Let's have a look at the demo trailer:



Store bought effects. Well, that could be misleading. Maybe he doesn't have his unique magic published out of fear that someone steals it.

Who is Magic Matt anyway?

Magic Matt came second place in a SCMC according to Justin Lane's Facebook page. What's the SCMC? Well the Shore City Magicians Club of course. I say this without googling it. In fact Matt got this award. A local club contest award. Anything else?
His website claims he is a multiple award winner. So what are the other awards? I guess the Cornflake's Magic World Grand Master of Magic Award kind of counts.

Wait a second, before I get lost in research land... let's focus. Who is the other guy mentioned in the article? Alan Watson..., quick Google search... let me take a look at his website OHHHH MY GOD!

This needs serious updating. It hurts my eyes. Oh I see the picture on the top is always a random one when you refresh the page. I just got lucky and got the "Rainbow Car of Doom!" Dude! Fix your appearance, this was never in style.

Anyway, let's click a bit further. Oh, there is a whole bunch of awards listed. Seems like Alan Watson has a bit of an obsession with proving he is the best. Let me pick one of those awards at random. "1996 - Benny Award - Top Magician" So what's a Benny Award? If it is this, then he is not listed. Let me search some more. There must be something to prove the validity of the Benny Award aside from the website of Alan Watson. Oh, another one, no that's not it either. Gee, there are many Benny Awards. Hey, yet another one. Screw it, this leads to nothing... wait... found it.



Man this looks official. So he won the 2006 award for a Lifetime achievement... So how many Bennys has he won? Five... damn, that's so impressive. Are there no other magicians who tried to get it from 1994 to 1997?

So where am I going with all of this? Alan Watson also got the 2006 - The Grand Master of Magic Award. Naturally it sounds like Alan Watson was pissed when Justin Lane gave his Cornflake's Magic World Grand Master of Magic Award to his buddy Magic Matt. So it sounds like that Alan called the press and started a tirade against Justin Lane, that got him kicked out of the magic club,

But this is not true. It was Justin Lane who called the press and posted this all over his wall on Facebook. Now Justin Lane has his Facebook friends trash talking Alan Watson.

Justin Lane seemingly started it all by calling his buddies multi-award winning entertainers. He was told by other magicians that it is not a good business practice. So Justin Lane made up an award, which is totally similar to a respected award in New Zealand. He knows about the real award and it's 40 year history. By not respecting it's history and his refusal to change the name of the fake award Justin Lane fails.

I can only speculate why he chose that name for an award. Simply because it would stir up controversy and get him press. And any press is good press I guess. A layman reading the articles wouldn't give a crap about any of the awards. But they would remember that some old magician bashes a children's entertainer. And Cornflake is a good name to remember. That indeed would be a smart business move, if it were true, but I doubt that. My guess is that he did it to piss off Alan Watson because there was something bad brewing before that. Well Mr. Lane... I give you a real award. It's called the Weekly Magic Failure.