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’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 find it amazing that James Randi is still out there debunking Uri Geller. In an age where anybody can go online, spend some money, and learn “the secret” to bending metal. Uri has explained countless times over and over again that he does what he does for entertainment. Sure, he claims he’s legit, but, the reason he does that is to add to his performance. This is nothing more than the rest of the performers who appeared on “Phenomenon”.

I guess if you know that Uri Geller isn’t “legitimate” then he becomes a joy to watch.

Just by searching “magic” or “magic tricks” into google and you’ll find lots of websites, and nearly all of the suck! But, never fear! With a bit of digging you can find lots of information on magic, weather you’re looking for magic news, new magic tricks, or even the latest magician gossip. Here is my list of the top magic websites online:

1. Without a doubt the top magic website online is www.iTricks.com. They cover basically everything going in the magic community at large. In fact, they cover so much, that sometimes you can hardly tell where the magic part comes in Dispite this, I check their website everyday and I never miss a post.
2. Coming in at number two is the highly controversial www.themagiccafe.com. Easily the best resource when looking for specific information on something magical when you don’t have something better in your own collection. Lots of the time they’ll mention sources that you might even already own, or can borrow from somebody, or get from the library, etc etc. I use this site all the time when I’m researching something new, or before I make a purchase.
3. I’m going to give #3 to www.Magic.org. This is where I buy almost all of my magic from. Their customer support is helpful, and I think the site was even designed by my Internet friend Ryan Philling. Go Ryan! Also, if you sign up for their newsletter, every couple of weeks they run a special where you can get 25% off everything, or other specials. (But shhh, it’s a secret!)
4. Here’s another blog that I read everyday. It’s Magic Unlimited run by Tim Ellis and Sue-Ann Webber alllll the way from the land down under. Although not _every_ post is magic related, he always dishes up some good stuff. He also runs the “magic fakers” page that everybody links to online. He manages a list of all the copy-cat tricks out there so that you stay away and give your money to the inventor. I mentioned Tim in my last post too, I posted the same movie he did
5. Love em, or hate him, Ellusionist has made a splash in the community. Although I think most of their stuff is overpriced, watching their magic trailers is entertaining. For the beginner magician, there’s better things to spend your money on rather than a $25 one trick DVD, but the production value on them is great, and if nothing else, again, it’s entertainment for an hour.
6. I’m giving slot six to MYSELF! It’s my blog, so I can rank things however I like. Check out www.alikzam.com and you can see all the different types of shows I offer, past clients, and all of that sort of stuff. I also have an interview clip on that page, hopefully soon though that website is going to be changed. I’ve got something in the works and I’m not going to reveal what it is just yet. Hopefully it’ll happen within the next month or two. But, in part that website will be changed, and the current interview thats on that page will be edited down into something else along with other footage.
7. Some people are going to disagree with me on this one- well- half agree/half disagree. YouTube is without a doubt a place where you can find some of the worlds best magic, some good magic, and some awful awful magic (sadly it took me like 2 seconds to find that). Please please please, don’t use youtube as a place to learn magic! And, don’t use youtube as a place to get feedback. thanks
8. Although not magic related, Seth Godin inspires me to work harder on my business, my magic, and on life in general. More often than not he challenges you to excel at what you do and become great while doing it.

That rounds up my list for now, If I think of any more I may come back later and edit this post. I hope you found something of use! Cheers.

Looking around online I found www.trickmagic.com that has a bunch of the classic beginner magic tricks for free. One of my favorite beginner tricks is “The Jack Robbers” and you can learn how to do it on their website too!

Effect:

The four Jacks act as robbers who successfully rob a bank (the deck) and make a miraculous getaway! Each jack goes into a different place in the deck, and as the police come, they all rise to the top and get away! This is a great beginner card magic trick!

It really is a great trick… Enjoy

This creative wine bottle holder is designed and sold by Jason and Justin Senft and was featured in January’s MAGIC magazine. In the magazine there’s a larger picture, and they have another one as well but it isn’t listed on the site. Their website has this to say about it:

Don’t just store your wine, DISPLAY your wine. Inspired by the legendary Indian rope trick, Jason & Justin Senft’s design for a magical wine holder will have your guests scratching their heads, or just thinking they drank too much!

I know, I know, I keep mentioning things I found in the magazine but there’s just so many cool things inside each issue! If you want to buy one of these for your home email them at houdiniart@hotmail.com.

I must say that I’m loving my subscription to MAGIC magazine! I’ve been eagerly awaiting my new issue, everyday checking my mailbox, usually twice because I check it before the mail lady comes. Today January’s issue came out. I had found out through iTricks that this months Talk about Tricks was going to feature Tyler Wilson. I met him at the PCAM convention this past summer and he’s an excellent performer, very creative, and super funny. It’s good to see some of his tricks again in print because I didn’t get a chance to really understand them too well during the lecture. I doubt I’ll ever perform any of them, but they’re certainly a good study none the less.

This month’s issue also included a link to December’s cover magicians Phillipart and Anja. I tried looking online for a video of them myself, but I didn’t come up with anything. Check out the Thrillusions video online on the MAGIC magazine website here.

If you want to be connected to the magic community at large, ditch the online magic forums and get yourself a subscription to Magic magazine!!

Yesterday I posted a video of Criss Angel from the 80’s and today I came across an interview where Criss mentions his adventure in editing video. It turns out that producing those music videos is how he learnt editing and it helped him later on while working on Mind Freak. Now that he’s almost in season 4 though, he basically has a whole team that does it for him now. Still interesting though how life works like that.

Read the full article at the LA Times.

Q: There is also editing. Have you become as familiar with the mechanics of television as you are with magic?

A: I’ve been incredibly familiar with directing and editing since I was in my teens, because I didn’t have the money to hire people to do that stuff for me. Some of my first music videos I directed and edited and did for $2,500 and favors to get edit rooms on off times. I was always familiar with that. In my first three TV specials I would spend on average 18 to 20 hours a day editing with the editor doing that. Now, we have gathered six or seven editors who are great and who have been with the show for a while and know how I think. So, I just go to my warehouse here in Las Vegas, and I have a facility where I am able to communicate in California and Las Vegas at the same time, and we do editing. That saves a lot of time, and I am able to oversee it but yet not be there.

I received an email today and it had a poster for Ted’s new tour show that I hadn’t seen before.

Look! A floating girl! It looks like the rumors are true. I look forward to seeing this one live

Ted and Marion Outerbridge are coming back to Kelowna again this year in February at the Rotary Center for the Arts. There will be two shows, one on February 12th that’s a school matinee. The second show will be on February 13th in the evening. Tickets are available from the Rotary Center for the Arts. I don’t know how much tickets cost, but, I saw their show last year and it’s worth whatever the ticket cost is. Also, I heard a secret that they are going to levitate somebody during their show this year! I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I guess we’ll find out together.

Also, if you’re a beginner magician Ted is going to hold a 1 hour magic class. Here is more information:

ATTN: GRADE 7-12 ASPIRING MAGICIANS! VERY SPECIAL OFFER

The Rotary Centre for the Arts is proud to offer a special free magic class for middle and high school students with an interest in magic. Hosted by master magician/ illusionist Ted Outerbridge, this workshop is a one-hour, hands-on clinic that develops skills and increases the magician’s repertoire. It will be held in the boardroom of the RCA from 10 am to 11 am on February 12^th, 2008.

We ask that if you know of students who would be interested in this event, to please pass this information on to them. Registration can be made with the contact person below. In the case of wide appeal, a select few will be chosen from each school. Media will be at the workshop, and may want to interview one or two of the participants on their experience.

The workshop is free; Ted has offered his time before the school matinee at the RCA for no charge. Only thirty students maximum will be admitted, so act quickly.

To register, please contact:

Margaret Gobie

Community Program Coordinator

Rotary Centre for the Arts

421 Cawston Avenue

V1Y 6Z1

Phone: (250) 717-5304 x 111

Also, Each month a bunch of us local magicians get together and talk magic. Anybody who has a serious interest in magic is welcome. For more information on the Okanagan Society of Magician please email me at alikzamnews@gmail.com.