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.

Just A Sunday Post #98

It's fake but funny!

Just A Sunday Post #97

Jérôme Murat's Statue act. It's not new by any means, but I hardly see anybody doing something quite as beautiful. Nice combination of Zombie, third hand and switching between them.

Just A Sunday Post #96

The following is an interesting approach to 3 Fly. Basically it's from the performers point of view.



I don't know if this is going anywhere, but when it comes to combining magic and YouTube this seems to be an interesting way to go. You could have it filmed from both sides. Each time changing the methods accordingly. To a layman's eye this might seem honest.

Just A Sunday Post #95

Hey, wanna see an act that is totally not deserving masters of illusion:



I got a Nintendo DS... I know what it means to do timed action. My twitch skills are not up to par with FPS, but enough for simple platforming. Back to the topic.---

Jeff McBride is playing nothing but a video game here. Timed action to keep up an illusion. The illusion that Jeff McBride is a top player in the business. And as impressive as it might seem. Any 11-year-old will be as good as him within one day of practice. And the toys of the 11-year-olds are even brighter and more noisy.

Jeff McBride is doing no magic here. He's just playing with toys.

Just A Sunday Post #94

Don't you just love magic? To fool others?

But what if you cannot fool all of them?
Well if you do a video, you can do all sorts of neat stuff.



This will be gone in 3,2,1...

Well at least there is a real thing:

Just A Sunday Post #93

Underestimation seem to be a common thing in magic. We tend to underestimate our audience and fellow magicians.

Here is a pretty horrific example of a children's act. I might be wrong and it is okay in a cultural context, but if I were drag my kids to a children's show, this would not be alright with me:



Is silly dancing and a magic effect once in while enough? This was confusing as hell and honestly they way the two acted that vanish of the bottle didn't even need a gimmick. (Yeah right, there was a vanish of a bottle somewhere in there)

This is underestimating the audiences need for proper entertainment. You might argue and say: "Hey, did you hear the reaction? They were killing!" To which I feel the need to at a few points. Maybe the audience knows the two on stage (maybe its a teacher and the principal of the school), that alone would be hilarious and generate proper reactions. Let's assume this is not the case and that the audience have no relation towards the protagonists on stage. Have you ever heard the term: "I couldn't look away, it was like a train wreck." And this is probably what it is. You see those two destroying the credit they have with silly costumes, being all over the place, cheap effects and loud noise. How can you not look at it, if you don't have the option of skipping it.
And that should not be the goal of magic, killing by killing your own prestige. It works, but the audience is smarter than that. Proper audience management and structure would have helped the act. A simple example. When one person does something, the other one must not move at all, as not to draw focus away from the one doing the trick.

But this underestimation goes on. Magicians who do crappy instructional DVD's insulting their target group. Case in point: Randy Wakeman's DVD on the pass.



Aside from the fact that the pass is one of those moves that in concept needs to be embedded in a context, it should not look that bad. My pass sucks, but I can make it look a lot better than those in the videos.

Seriously this is how NOT to do a pass.

And I know Randy Wakeman as a solid magician. So it is sad to post this. But someone needs to tell Randy Wakeman that his "skillz" are not good enough to teach them. He seems to be underestimating the magicians to think this is good enough for them.

Just A Sunday Post #92

Clothes for magicians? Actually a good idea I think. It's called a costume.

For good looking fashion check out Heinemann in Hamburg

Scroll down a little and take a look through the gallery. Have a laugh or two.

Just A Sunday Post #91

If there is one move I really like it is the one phase in a regular dancing cane routine by which the cane is swung around the back of the head. Most performers do this automatic ducking action. Just cute!

Also, wanna see a piss poor performance by a magic dealer?



Seriously.... keep the cane straight! Since nobody can be fooled with the method (key word: flow-wand) at least dazzle them with beauty.

Just A Sunday Post #90

What's up with Jay Sankey nowadays?

Eight minutes of bullshitting:


Bending the Real. At first I thought.... Bending, is that just another word for magic trick? Then I read his blog:

"A bend can be shared in almost any form and medium. A push-up bra is a bend. A magic trick is a bend. A practical joke is a bend. A forged painting is a bend. Even a puzzle or riddle, shared with people in such a way as to mislead their thinking, is also a bend. Bends can be shared for many reasons. To impress, amuse, control, humiliate, flirt, amaze, connect, and even inspire. It depends on the bender, the situation, and who the bend is being shared with."

So a bend is a deception then?

"A bend is a deception."

Oh, thank you Jay for making that clear to me. But I do have another question.
What is the difference between a magic trick and a bend?

"Bends are only possible thanks to a combination of people’s everyday assumptions, the bender’s understanding of the ‘blind spots’ of most people’s awareness, and a familiarity with techniques and principals designed to explore, exploit and even celebrate these ‘blind spots.’ Shared at the right time and place (and in the right spirit) a bend can be a truly transcendental experience."

So there is no difference then? Well I thought so.

Just A Sunday Post #89

What the hell is this?



How do you do sell an torn and restored card effect where the restored card cannot be handed out? This is the fucking point of any Torn and Restored routine. But I forgot that Theory 11 put that out. If it would be practical it would be called Practical 11.

My bad, carry on!

Just A Sunday Post #88

I am moving today, so this post was actually written yesterday... Well anyway, as I was packing my magic stuff I found a box of magic stuff that I haven't used in all those years, yet I kept it for some strange reason. It took a deep breath and then I dumped the whole box into the trash.

As it was falling I saw glimpses of stuff that I used as a beginner. Weird brass tubes with colored sticks. A coin (actually an old D-Mark) with a slit in it. A pen and a matching pen that was slightly bend. Many, many playing cards. Gaffed cards with shit glued to it. Lot's of rubber bands and a nice hollow needle with a hole on its side. Then a few really badly rotten sponge balls and few packet tricks (Star Gazer, Gypsy Monte) a CD with Music that I used for my linking ring routine and much more... man I won't miss any of that.

Just A Sunday Post #87

I get a laugh out of this one. And maybe you do too.



That you Aaron Ducker for making this one.

Just A Sunday Post #86

Ah the Magic Cafe. Love it or hate it. Here is someone who hates it. Click ME Well to be more precise, someone who hates Steve Brooks. So if you need to get off some steam... you can share your story there.

Well and here is someone who loves the Magic Cafe. Click ME too. Oh wait that is something different.

Just A Sunday Post #85

Starts at 1:20, ends at 10:45



That's more than nine minutes of "Arschkriecherei"! I know that you none German speaking folk will google it!

More on that tomorrow.

Just A Sunday Post #84

Lately I feel like a father who has a kid who loves to draw. Naturally all of that the images are crap but you can tell that a lot of effort went into most of them. And like a daddy, I love to see what my little son has come up with today. Sometimes it is a picture of a bird and sometimes a space ship. Hard to tell the difference most of the time.

Pretty much this is what I feel when I take my daily look at the latest Calen Morelli creation.

One day he will grow up and be someone creative.

Just A Sunday Post #83

Talk about leaving motivated magic to ventriloquists. I have seen many square circles in my life, but never actually seen a square circle that is "motivated" Kudos.



Although this is cute too:
Combining it with a Genii Tube indeed gives you way more mileage out of this thing.



better than this unmotivated piece of trash:


I never liked the square circle, but I gotta admit that there is a way to motivated prop magic.

Just A Sunday Post #82

Some rants:

Magician's Oath

"As a magician I promise never to reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, unless that one swears to uphold the Magician's Oath in turn. I promise never to perform any illusion for any non-magician without first practicing the effect until I can perform it well enough to maintain the illusion of magic."

The line "I promise never to reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, unless that one swears to uphold the Magician's Oath in turn." is weird, that means you can show it to anyone. And anyone can show it to anyone in turn! As long as you recite the oath.

Calen Morelli
Thinking one is the creative gift to the world is alright, sometimes. A little hubris prevents us from feeling like one of many, but with Calen Morelli it seems to be too much.



Mind Blowing. And so nice to make the spectator's clothing wet. Anyway, Calen Morelli sucks as a performer. Yet you can have an online skype session with him for just 99 dollars. Do you want to get taught by this young man?
Calen suffers from the Sankey Syndrome. That means he will create tons of tons of material that is neither groundbreaking nor shit. Once in a while he will hit the jackpot. Pro tip: Don't publish your material unless it has proven to be good. We got one Jay Sankey, that is more than enough.

Magic Contest
How pathetic is this: In order to learn cool magic secrets the maker of this blog made up a contest It is sick, that it has come to this.

Just A Sunday Post #81

This is just a minor rant about a certain way manipulation is done. Especially with thimbles and cigarettes.



STOP DOING THAT!

Also don't turn your back towards your audience while doing so. This is the result of the habit of watching your own manipulation without the aid of a mirror.

The Annual Magic Failure

2010 is over. And the following people have pissed off the readers of this blog so much that they get the title Annual Magic Failure.

3. Tony Hassini, 33 votes. Not only did he make up an award, the cool looking Merlin, no he offers it to several magicians and if they choose to accept it he charges money for it. An award you can buy. Great! Wait... no! It's an administration fee and travel expenses. My bad!

2. Justin Miller, 51 votes. Right after Justin was declared WMF I got a lengthy email from Justin Miller himself explaining his situation and telling about his view of things. Friends suggested not to answer the email. And it wouldn't be fair to quote the thing here. But here is a small fraction.

And to say there was "no recourse" is ridiculous and a flat out lie!
I have contacted everyone that did not get their products for whatever reason and I have made it right or tried to make it right.

Is this true? Is anybody still without product or money?

1. Rob Matthies, 65 votes. I gotta give Rob one thing. He tried and tries to fight back. But he does it poorly. Calling me an racist anti semite. Godwin's law says that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." It took Rob less than a week. And this means he has no more valid arguments. Which means I am right and he deserved his WMF title. There are good losers and bad losers. Rob is even worse. He is a trolling loser. Too bad he doesn't seem to understand what my complaint was. All he seems to hear are racist statements. Talk about a deluded soul.

More than 230 votes were given. That is quite a bit in our small magic world. Let's see what 2011 brings.