It's YSM week

There are thing the world needs to see. This is one of them:

Hilarious. Like watching a really bad movie. The kind of bad that is so freaking great that it is good. Like "Troll 2" or "The Howling 4". So clap your hands for the Young Society Magicians and their members. Sexy Carlo, Mark the Fingers, Bad Hairday Al, Afro Dondee, Ninja P-Boy, Posing McPose Jhong, NoFancyName Kim, Crazy Robert, Madskillz Jhonelle, Nikko the Dwarf, Longing Stare Dhongz, Pasteboard Jerald, Extreme Arafat and Sheena.

This whole week will be YSM week... you're in for a treat. Let the train wreck begin.

They took our jobs!

Well look at this! 01

Wow, talk about bad advertisement video...



It basically gives away the method. I don't have to mention that this is supposed to be a self worker! Obviously too hard for some.

The Angry Man of Magic - Bill of goods

One of my magical pipe dreams is to receive a bill of goods with my purchases. Not just a scrappy compliments slip with the cost of each trick I've bought, but a breakdown showing where the money goes within each trick. For example:

Zip-lock bag : $0.05
Booklet : $1.20
Gimmick : $3
Secret : $27
Tax,P&P,random markup : $5.75
Total: $40

It seems reasonable. My monosyllabic mechanic does it, even, separately listing the cost of labor and parts - such as indicator fluid, long weight, and diesel spark plugs - so I know I haven't been ripped off. So why can't my magic emporium? Oh, that's right, I remember - it's so they can charge me FULL PRICE for replacing a $3 gimmick.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

First off, I'm not buying a secret - I'm buying a product. If part of the product involves a secret, then it's fair enough to pay for it. Once. You can not justify charging me $27 for something I already have. It's knowledge. Half the word 'knowledge' is 'know'; and since I already know it, why are you trying to re-sell it to me?

Tell you what - let me buy the gimmick on its own, and I'll even send you a couple of bucks for postage. I'll even pay $1.20 for the mis-aligned photocopy you have the cheek to call instructions, and a quarter to pay for the land-fill un-friendly non-biodegradable plastic bag, that I also have no need for. At least then you can send me exactly the same physical product, and won't feel compelled to charge me another $10 for handling a special order.

You see, I'm not an unreasonable man. I will pay for something I already have (like instructions and gimmicks) because I understand that the physical cost of the materials needs to be met. But paying again for a chimera is wrong.

Oh, and the next time I hear the "the trick is sold when the secret is told" you will have proven my point, and put a monetary value on the secret component of the trick. At which point I will non-proverbially bitch slap you, and expect replacement gimmicks at a reasonable cost.

Plus $2 P&P.

Quote To Guide You Through Magic, Life and the Rest!

Here is a nice little piece of advise by Bugs Bunny you may find of use:

"Don't take life too seriously, nobody ever makes it out alive anyway."

Lovely

WMF The Magic Café Again

I sound like a broken record, repeating myself... I have a serious case of a deja vu.

In case you haven't noticed and you are not a member of the green monster. Everyone got an email by Mr. Brooks:

As most of you know, I consider the Magic Café a work in progress. Always adding some new things while often removing some of the old.

Working with my buddy Acar Altinsel and the gang over at Penguin Magic (who are now official supporters of the Café ), during the next twelve months we will be engaging in a little experiment of sorts.

Penguin Magic will now be assisting Café members in helping them to better understand many of the new offerings which become available to the magic community on almost a daily basis.

Let me explain.

Begining today, any Café member who browses thru the topics of following forums: Latest & Greatest, Tricks & Effects, Books, Pamphlets & Lecture Notes, Dvd, Video tape, Audio tape & Compact discs, Ebooks, PDF's or Downloads, Stage Illusions or Magical Accessories will now notice a little message in the lower right-hand corner of their screen.

The message says; "LIVE PRODUCT HELP: 8-4PM M-F"

Basically, anytime during normal business hours (Monday thru Friday) you need only CLICK the little box and you will be chatting LIVE with a spokesperson from Penguin Magic!

So, say you are reading a discussion on the latest card trick but have a few questions in the back of your mind which have yet to be answered on the Café - give that box a CLICK and chances are you'll quickly have answers to those questions by a very knowledgeable Penguin Magic associate.

How cool is that?

Well hold-on to your seats folks because we have plenty more new features coming to the Café over the next few months and I want to thank all of you for your continued support of my little website which has helped to make features like this one possible.

Summarized: The Cafe is working with Penguin!

Frank Starsini posted a comment quite fitting and I'm gonna post it here as there is no way to know how long this thread will be up.

So now that Penguin will be "assisting magicians" Live does this mean when someone wants to know a GREAT spongeball routine...
Is penguin actually going to help or are they going to promote something horrible like Jay Nozbleda's spongeball DVD (produced by penguin) ??

Who are these helpers? Daryl? John Carney? Penn and Teller? Or some Kewl teenagers that like triks and will work for free dvds???

If someone wants the a great shell game DVD... Is penguin going to promote Bob Kohler's fantastic offering or the SFS DVDs or are they going to promote Jay Noblzlelda's awful awful Shell Game DVD (again, produced by penguin).

It's unfortunate that Jay was the magician in both of these that I find so low quality. I don't mean to be hammering on him personally.
But those 2 DVDs (there must be others) are truly awful compared to the best media on the market. Yet jay/penguin had the effrontery to call the spongeball DVD "The Last Word on Spongeballs". Seriously???!!! Hardly a responsible DVD title for something so ... bad.

I'm hoping this doesn't turn this website from "magicians helping magicians" to "penguin helping themselves at the expense of newbie magicians".

I'm concerned for the newer magicians.

But this doesn't worry me. What I think is weird is that The Magic Café does that but can't get their search function fixed. Seriously... their priorities are fucked up. Well Mr. Brooks promised more features coming up in the next months. Maybe fixing the bugs will be a feature.

They just wanna have fun!

Quick busking story... I was doing my little act when I got to the sponge balls. The presentation involves a spectator jumping and some other bits. So there I was about to do the trick. I was looking for a suitable spectator. My eyes aren't that good, so it was obvious that I was looking for an assistant. Some raised their arm. So did a guy in a wheelchair. And I was all like: "Nope, sorry, can't use you." after which the man in the wheelchair with no legs got an angry face and asked me loud: "WHY NOT!"

Gee I though.... damn I went too far now I look like a discriminating bastard. "The act needs someone to jump, you got no legs" I muttered.

He looked down on his body and replied: "Shit, where are my legs... they were here a second ago."

We all had a laugh. But I wonder how often he pulls somebody's leg (pun intended) with that joke.

So and now I'm off to go at it again!

Flawless Victory!

I got an email a few days ago:

There's an effect by Shin Lim called "Flawless" which is an ACR technique.

Here it is:

The email continued:

Not a bad idea, per se, but one of the main problems with it is that the double doesn't work well unless the cards are brand new. And even then, it's risky. The bottom side of the double (where you're not gripping) can open, causing a mini-tent effect. Very easy to flash.

What my gripe is, this flaw is IN the demo, in both takes that Shin uses.

So what does Shin do? He momentarily BLURS the video image so the viewer can't see the double is exposed at the bottom! He clearly flashes in both takes, but the blur covers this flash at the obvious point.

I found it rather amusing that Shin couldn't come up with even ONE decent take that has a convincing double in his effect.

Hehe I agree.

I cannot make it to the end

Can someone please summarize what is going on!

WMF Geryn Childress Again!

Hey remember that kid?



Right... that's him:

He is a child of Geryn Childress. (I'm not making up shit here)

That means, Geryn was well aware of the illegal content of his website and was supporting it. Which makes all his claims fucking bull shit. I don't believe that man anymore.

There is a lengthy tread about him over at Genii. Read that to know all about the other side projects of Mr. Childress.

I've been told that the Childress family owns about 10 websites. So claiming to be new at this online stuff is a lie by Mr Childress.

So I am putting him back on the list as a WMF.

And before anybody does any claim about protecting the identity of his child... Geryn Childress himself makes those pictures and videos available. I'm just linking to them.

Just A Sunday Post #99

Don't you just love the choice of music that is used in front of all the Chinese officials. Starts at 4:34.

The Daily Card Trick needs your help!

Email address: Zaubererroland@gmail.com

Here are the details: Make a video of you doing card magic. It needs to be published card magic. It can even be your own creations. Upload the video to a free fileserver like megaupload or yousendit. Then send me the link to the video and I will download it. Be sure to add a source and your personal comment to the email. Also make it very clear if you want your name attached to that.

I will upload the video to my YouTube account and set it to "unlisted".

The Angry Man of Magic - Spulling mistooks

“Their coming too sea if its reel.”

See what I did there?

Did you? Are you sure? If so, you're probably in the minority of magicians. And you know when you're in the minority when, as a magician, you've performed for an audience that isn't a web-cam, wondered how 'blue bikes' could be used as a means of transport, or have ever kissed a girl!

If you're scratching your head like a client in a cut-price Turkish harem scratches his bits, I'll tell you the secret - I used lots of correctly spelled words, in the wrong context, to make a completely nonsensical sentence. Unfortunately, it still reads better than most lecture notes, booklets, instructions, and even several “professionally” edited books that seem to find their way across my grubby little desk!

Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

You see, in days of old, us magicians were so paranoid about letting out magic secrets, we'd write them up ourselves. Alone. Our secrets were locked tighter than the Fritzl's cellar; suitable for us and the purchaser only. We'd even destroy the typewriter ribbon, and hand-duplicate the books, to stop the sweat-laden printer taking time out from his 18-hour day to learn such life-changing secrets as how to turn over two cards as one. So naturally, errors would occur. But we knew the pains the magi writer had gone through, so we were forgiving.

Nowadays, however, every magician has access to a word processor, a spell checker, and a grammar checker. The software is free, dammit! So there is really no excuse for spelling mistakes, or for using grammar that would embarrass Yoda after drinking a train of Jägerbombs.

And the Internet has provided us with enough connectivity that we can even ask a human (shock! horror!) to give our writing the once over. You don't even need to be in the same country, continent, or time zone. There are no excuses.

Know moore spulling mistooks!

Holy Shit I think I made a horrible mistake!

About that Geryn Childress issue. I claimed, when I wrote that article a few months ago, that he has a sponge ball video out, exposing sponge ball magic. I claimed it got 3 million hits on YouTube.

As you can see in the comments one post earlier, a user named "rocboy315" has removed his comment. Naturally I still get a message (I get that automatically, when a comment is made). "rocboy315" wrote:

I've never even made a sponge ball video so I'm not sure how you ever got the idea that I've received over 3,000,000 hit on youtube for anything, it would be nice...but that's not me dude. As I mentioned before you take down all the false or out of context information about me and my site and I'll make sure my students do the same for you.

That got my brain spinning. First: "rocboy315" is Geryn Childress. Second: I could have sworn I saw that video. Then I found it. But it turns out it is NOT Geryn Childress.


its a guy named Cartess Ross. He also has a online school for magic. (FreeMagicSchool.com​)

What the hell happened?

I tried putting two and two together: As insensitive as it may sound. I guess I confused both guys simply because they are black. In fact I was looking for pictures for Geryn Childress, so I googled him via image search. What came up was always the same guy. And he looks a lot like Cartess Ross. I guess the "fusion" of both guys was made then. And it certainly didn't help that the video above is also posted on Geryn Childress' website.

Gee, what a dick move of me not to double check that. Now I look like an idiot.

Alright... wouldn't be the first time I am wrong. And wouldn't be the first time I try to fix the mess I created. Here is what I do, i will reedit my original post, adding what I know now. That should put things in perspective.