Hey Big Blind Media...

...I got an email by yours truly:

"Hi there Roland The man genius who is Michael Ammar has a message for YOU! Click on the image below to hear it! "

Fuck you! Seriously! If Michael Ammar has a message for me, he would message me. He wouldn't use henchmen! Get your advertisment together ;)

WMF Xavier Perret

What do you get when you have a guy who wants to be a film school graduate and he knows a bunch of magic tricks? Someone who humbly plasters his own name all over! Having said that, does he actually claim intellectual ownership to the lapping techniques, which are not even well done? Lacking time misdirection, telegraphing the moves needlessly and having this aura of "I don't belong here"?




Of course there is the exposure aspect, teaching material that is not his. I've gone over this many times. Briefly: emulating people who taught you magic and that you adore, by teaching material that is not yours will not get you the same amount of adoration. But his videos are well made. Props for that. Aside from that: Asshole!

Episode 10 "RED"

Click here for a more detailed review

As usual if you have something you want reviewed, then let me know. Are you a creator of a cool magic trick and you want and honest review? Do you have some weird prop lying around and you want people to know about it? Shoot me an email! I will review everything I get.

Well, look what the cat dragged in!

Now I have to review that piece of shit!

My first Deck Review

TV Magic

I hear this argument a lot when it comes down to justifing TV magic: The job of a magician is to use fool the eye and mind to create the illusion of magic. Therefore any method that is available to accomplish said illusion can and has to be used. Therefore camera tricks and editing tricks are just another addition to the arsenal of the magician.

Oh boy is this missing a contextual frame!

I agree that camera tricks and editing tricks can enhance or even create an illusion. And I think that it shouldn't be out of the question to use them. However.... if you use the medium of TV, you have to obey the conditions that the medium demands.

If you say you make a coin vanish and then close your hand around that coin and then the fist goes to your pocket, emerges from the pocket and is shown empty... you have not done a bloody miracle. You have done a gag. One condition of the coin vanish is that the coin either never leaves sight or that the hand holding the coin never leaves sight. With me so far? Good!

On TV the main condition is "the continous camera shot during the magical phase of the act" no cut is allowed. David Copperfield understood this clearly when shooting his magic specials.

This is 22 years old:



for contrast: (starts at 0:34)

As Expected

a half assed apology! Somebody should review RED!

Just Monday!

Remember Christopher Wayne? The naked magician? Aka the Gospel magician? I was a bit confused to see an outspoken Christian magician doing a naked act. I assume others have felt the same, so an open statement by Christopher Wayne was about due:

Hey guys, I have something very important to share.Alot of you would know me as a "Christian Entertainer".As of today I want to publicly let you know that this is not something that I identify as any more. This is a journey that I have been on for some time, and want to be really straight forward and open because of my profile.Im still very passionate about encouraging people to live their... lives to their full potential, but the Christian faith is now something that I am no longer tied to professionally or personally.
I will still be working in entertainment, and I am still the same guy that you know and love.
For the years that I shared my faith journey on stage, I will say that it was a real pleasure to be able to use my story to encourage people on their own personal journeys.
If you have any questions or thoughts, Im more than happy to hear them and would invite you to contact me directly on morethanmagic@westnet.com.au
Much love always. CW

That brings up a very interesting thought. And being the devil's advocate I feel the need to share that thought: Pretending to be a Christian magician would get you performances as you would get into the Gospel circuit. And that would get you money. So did Wayne initially just work the church angle to get regular work?

Animal rights activists... watch this!

 

Some Peruvian clown, setting a dove on fire by accident. Read all about it in this DailyMail article. If you are a pussy, don't watch this!

Man I was smoking crack or something!

Did I really claim that the issue is taken seriously and discussed behind closed doors? Boy was I wrong. I got some interesting screen shots telling me that one order was accepted AND send out yesterday AFTER the debacle was well on its way. So they recouped the money by have no moral integrity to stop the selling!

I further assume that I was wrong claiming that they pulled RED off the shelves. I assume furthermore they are sold out.

And now for something completely different!

At least they have taken RED out of the store shelves. And the Facebook page banner of the World Magic Shop has been reset as well. But still no statement and no mention at all. That at least is a good indicator that it is taken seriously and discussed behind closed doors.

Will it change anything? Nope! I assume they will give out a big appology, Bob King will get some of the money, after the production cost have been taken. And life will go on. People will forget. The Internet will forget.

I will not. So my watch begins!

WMF Craig Petty and RED

I was busy so I missed the whole RED issue. If you have been busy as well, here is the short version:

Craig Petty (the better half of the Wizard Product review show) released a card trick named RED. In theory the effect should appear like this: In a blue backed deck of cards a red backed card is shown. The spectator is asked to think of a card. The red backed card is removes turned over and turns out to be the thought of card. At least that is what the trailer suggests. This is not what is happening and the trick is not as clean as hoped and has a multitude of problems and requires conditions over conditions. It requires a mathematical procedure, a thought-of card force stack and some rough and smooth.

So the trick has been out and it was pointed out by several people that this is exactly like Bob King's New Wave Prediction. Exactly the same. The "same mathematical procedure, the same thought-of card ranging force stack, the same rough and smooth stack."

So one could argue in Craig Petty's defense that sometimes great minds think alike. But a screen shot from the Magic Bunny Forum from 2005 surfaced where Craig Petty clearly states his favorite gimmicked card tricks. The very first item is New Wave Prediction.

So one could argue in Craig Petty's defense that Craig has no moral issue about copying other's work and claiming it as their own. But is this is untrue either, as watchers of the Wizard Product Review will know. Craig Petty has a sense of moral and ethics. And he clearly was against this sort of conduct of business. (Hat tip to the Smiling Mule)

So one could argue in Craig Petty's defense that he may have bought the rights to Bob Kings trick. And doing so would allow him to republish the routine with a new name and a new face. Petty's face! So far I know nothing of it. And if it were true, would it morally be true to omit the creator's name in the credit? I think not.

So it comes down to this. Craig Petty has released a known trick under his name. Craig clearly has a moral agenda when it comes down to theft, and it obviously doesn't apply to him. There is a professional term for this: Fucking hypocrite!

Episode 9 "Vortex"

Click here for a more detailed review

As usual if you have something you want reviewed, then let me know. Are you a creator of a cool magic trick and you want and honest review? Do you have some weird prop lying around and you want people to know about it? Shoot me an email! I will review everything I get.

First

Ah another year. Somehow I think it won't be too different from all the many years we had together. Someone in the magic community will fuck up and tries to cover up his tracks. I will point out the failure and get more hate mail.

I wonder what purpose finger pointing has, aside from the instant satisfaction of doing so. Apparently it doesn't change a thing. But maybe I'm thinking about it too much. This blog seems to have it's readers and among those are even some fucking idots who are fans. To you: "Happy New Year!" To the rest "Happy New Year!" Why should I treat people differently?

So what happened on the magic front? You know, those magic trenches! Nothing much either. People are still doing the ambitious card, but this year they will spice it up with Vapr.

PS: I took an old image, because I'm retro!