Hey guys, If you’re new to my site you’ll notice a new script that puts little box above the posts asking if you’d like to sign up for my RSS feed. Please sign up, and I’ll post often, and I promise you lots of delicious magic news. Yummy!

To show you I’m serious, here’s a picture of a cake…

I made a post earlier today about Penn and Teller and a few of their online clips. I was going to search for some clips of Teller speaking, but I ended up getting sidetracked and working on something else. Anyways, on the Ellusionist blog they posted a video of Teller explaining the psychology of magic.

I remember reading an article about this presentation about a year ago on reddit.com I thought, but I can’t seem to find it now. Anyways, it’s much better to see the video of it anyways.

I also found some other videos of Teller speaking as well.

Here’s a clip of Teller speaking in a deleted scene from “Fantasticks”

Online magic friend David Garrity was featured today on Boston.com!

“This isn’t your grandfather’s magic show,” says Comedy Studio owner Rick Jenkins. Every Tuesday at the club’s long-running Mystery Lounge, top magicians from throughout the country perform their mysterious arts. Tonight catch the magic of special guests David Garrity (below) from Six Flags New England, Erik Starkey from Pittsburgh, and David Oliver from Broadway’s “Monday Night Magic.” “Such a big show in such a small, cozy room,” says Jenkins, “is a rare spectacle.” 7:30 p.m. $10. The Comedy Studio, 1238 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 617-661-6507. thecomedystudio.com

To learn more about David Garrity goto his website.

I must say I’m continually impressed with the magic depot – www.magic.org. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been slowly adding items to my shopping cart but I haven’t purchased anything yet. Well today I received this email.

Hello Leif! Aaron Smith here from http://www.magic.org I noticed you have a
couple of items in your cart but haven’t checked out yet. Is there anything
I can help you with?

My 20% OFF Sale ENDS Wednesday! http://www.magic.org/secrets

How very cool! Now thats a great marketing lesson. If you shop for magic online, I’d check out The Magic Depot- great service, free shipping, and if you sign up for their newsletter they have specials every few weeks or so.

PS: If you live in Edmonton/ Calgary check out http://www.vanishingrabbit.com/. Brent Smith will take your online order as well and shipping is probably next to nothing. I think I heard he also gives you a deal if you’re an IBM member. Check out their site for more info. But, if you’re from that area, you probably already know this.

I’ve always been a fan of Penn and Teller’s magic, and recently on YouTube I found a couple clips I had never seen before. Check em out, they might be new to you too.

As we all know it’s hard to distinguish the good from the bad when buying magic. I’ve put together a list of recent purchases that I enjoyed and thought to be worthwhile. Although these won’t suit everybody, I certainly enjoyed them. You can find more information about all of these by doing a quick search on the magic café.

• Exploring Magical Presentations by Eugene Burger (“Fading Coin” is much better live!) [review] [ Buy ]
• Bill Malone – Here I go again. Vol 1-3 [ Buy ] (Great card magic for any level)
• Paul Potassy – World Renowned Magic [ Buy ] (A living legend!)

I’ve also been going back and practicing some things that I had once started to learn but then forgot about. Its nice to pick a slight back up and start practicing again because you aren’t fumbling quite as much as before, its a good feeling! I’m trying to put down my cards more often and practice other stuff, but cards just have this magical allure about them, I can’t seem to put them down for any length of time. Between handling cards and the weather my hands are super dry too, arg.

I just came across a website that tracks all the magic blogs out there, check them out at http://www.magicforge.net/blogtrack/. My page isn’t linked yet, but I sent them a link to it so hopefully it will appear in the next few days.

If magicforge has linked to me, and you’re a new visitor, then welcome! Read the past entires and check out some of the free magic tricks in the right hand menu.

Just like everyone else I LOVE Derren Brown, he’s brilliant and everything he’s put out is done exceptionally well. Through some website today I came across this interesting article/interview with the man himself in TIMESONLINE some UK magazine/newspaper I guess. Check it out here.

“I’ve had about three weeks off in these past four years,” Brown says, with no evident weariness or ran-cour. “There are huge blocks of time with no evenings or weekends free. But if I had time off I’d only use it for evil,” he adds, with a devilish grin.

I’m constantly trying to updates my websites and provide the best information I can. Today I did just that, I updated my birthday party tips page after an experience today. The new tip reads:

Try to avoid inviting children who are sick. A coughing or sniffling child could easily pass it onto your entire family and the rest of the kids. Also, a sick child will take the attention away from your child’s birthday party and distract from the magic show.

That comes from direct experience! Today at a show a little girl wasn’t feeling too good and she sneezed all over the place. It became distracting when the host was helping her clean up. The girl looked flush and almost looked like she was going to puke. She was insistent though that she wasn’t going to. The show went on without a hitch at all, but I can just imagine it now. A child becomes sick and vomits all over the living room during a show! So here’s the tip, Don’t invite kids to your childs birthday party if they’re sick.

Here’s another tip for the older people reading this blog. Don’t goto school if you’re sick. You’ll get everybody else sick and the teacher. At my college in my program it was so bad. People would come to school sick all the time because if you missed class you’d be so far behind it was impossible to catch up.

I’ve read on a couple blogs now about how Mark Wilson commented on how he thinks that Criss Angel has set television magic back 48 years.

I have mixed feelings about actually.

Mark Wilson is talking about how Criss Angel uses movie magic and camera tricks to accomplish some of his magic tricks. The problem with this is that some of the things on his TV show can’t be done in real life at all. The problem comes when audiences expect that these types of tricks can be done in real life as well, which of course they can’t.

I don’t even know how many times I’ve been asked to levitate, or if I can levitate from building to building like Criss does on TV.

Up until a few weeks ago I always felt that he cheated his audience. He can’t really do those things without the help of a camera crew and an editing room. But, in the latest MAGIC magazine there was an article with Cyril. He basically explained how the things that he does on his show can be done in real life. If you were there at the filming, it would look exactly the same to you, as it did to the camera. The thing that blew my mind is when he explained just how much money it costs to produce these “done in real life” effects. Pulling a card through a submarine window for example. When Cyril did it they spent an enormous amount of money to create the effect. Whereas, with a few stooges and some fancy editing and you can do the same effect for free basically. Which would you do? The end result on TV is the same (or nearly).

Cyril can’t REALLY do that trick in real life either, but, he DID do it in real life. Does this distinction matter to the home audience?

How could Criss possibly produce a whole season’s worth of episodes if he blew the whole budget on a single episode? He couldn’t. It becomes a trade off. Sure, there might be a way to create this effect in real life, but, the home audience isn’t watching it in real life- they’re watching it on their TV sets.

Love Criss or hate him, he’s put magic out there in the mainstream. I’m for one am grateful for that.

I’m very interested to see what type of Illusions will be in Criss Angels Cirque show. I hope I get a chance to see it!

I love performing magic because it lets me do things that ordinary people don’t get to do. Two nights ago I had an amazing opportunity to help someone PROPOSE to his girlfriend! Lets call him David and Jessica. David and Jessica had seen me at a Christmas party back in December and they both loved my performance. He thought it would be the perfect way to do something unique and to pop the question.

Quite honestly, I was really nervous about it all. What was I going to perform? How was it all going to work? We talked back and forth by email and phone and arranged all the details in about 2 days.

The plan was he was going to propose over dinner at “The Fixx Cafe” just after they received their drinks. I would be at the bar having a drink until the right moment when he was to signal me over.

I arrived super early and brought my girlfriend along as well. We sat around playing with cards and showing some of the wait staff and the bartender some tricks.

They arrived, ordered drinks, and he motioned me over just as planned. I was really nervous- I never get that nervous anymore. I knew what was a stake though- they were going to remember this performance for the rest of their lives! I went up and pretended I didn’t quite remember which show they were from and I asked if they wanted to see some magic. They both eagerly agreed and I showed them some of my classic performance items. It felt great to perform. As soon as I went into my material I was calm, collected, a zen moment. Cards jumping around to impossible locations, flash mathematical calculations, and metal softening and melting between my fingertips- I was born to do this.

During my performance he made lots of comments and asked lots of questions, He was clearly nervous, nobody ever makes that many comments. But I was in the zen mastering the situation, nothing could shake me now. I finished my last regular item and prepared to launch into the big trick! I asked if they would like to see one more trick before I left, something new.

This was the big moment. I could see David reaching into his pocket and pulling out the ring box, not that Jessica noticed. She was busy listening to me set-up the trick. David knew exactly how the trick was going to work, we had discussed it at length that morning. I adapted a trick that I’ve only performed a few times especially for this occasion. She would win an envelope that “contained a description of a prize that she could take home and keep forever and ever”. She joked “Maybe it’s you inside” while looking to me, “That wouldn’t be a very good prize” I said as I laughed. I completed the routine and she won the correct envelope. I then excused myself from the table and instructed them to open the envelope together.

She had no idea what was in store!

Inside the envelope was, of course, a description of her boyfriend and how they are perfect for each other. She opened it up, and read it out. He pulled out the ring box, set it on the table and pushed it towards her. He then got down on one knee beside the table.

At this point I was back over at the bar with my girlfriend, the bartender, and the entire waitstaff. We all watched on. We were too far away to hear, but she suddenly through her arms around him and began to kiss. And kiss. And kiss. Another table in the back corner began to clap. He then went back to his chair, and that’s when she got up and went over and sat on his lap.

She said yes.

I’m just glad she won the right prize!

Seth Godin posted an interesting video about curiosity. I think he’s right. Most people I know aren’t curious about the world around them, they don’t come to appreciate the wonder, and they don’t try to discover the unknown. Magic is a great thing for me in my life, and I think it’s taught me more than I realize. It’s shown me that even though something appears impossible, it can still be done. That mommento is something I try and live my life by. Always searching, exploring, and trying to better myself.