MAGIC MAGAZINE Februar 2010

By Rory Johnston

The six-story home of Swiss magician Peter Marvey has some handy features downstairs — like a full theater, a nightclub, and an illusion workshop.

By Gabe Fajuri

Gathering material to celebrate their 100 years in magic, the Davenport family turned up lost texts by Robert Harbin, Edward Victor, and G.W. Hunter.

By Alan Howard

The Fercos Brothers have taken their large illusion show and wild animals around the world for 25 years, but only recently played a run on the Vegas Strip.

By Richard Faverty

Billed as “The Beauty of Magic,” dancer turned magician Connie Boyd has been touring the world with her shows for more than two decades.

By Rory Johnston

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey returns to the world of magic with their latest circus spectacular, Illuscination, starring David DaVinci.

The Santa Monica Museum of Art has commissioned artist Diana Thater to create a 360-degree view of an iconic magician (Greg Wilson) pulling a rabit from a top hat.

Seventeen products are covered this month by Michael Claxton, Peter Duffie, Jason England, Gabe Fajuri, Brad Henderson, and John Lovick:

!WARNING by Kostya Kimlat
Search & Destroy by Aaron Fisher
David Nixon: Entertainer with the Magic Touch by Edwin A. Dawes and Stephen Short
Dough or No Dough by Brandon Smith
Fred Keating: 1930s Movie Magic
The Infinity Deck by Sterlyn Steel and Brent Arthur James Geris
The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace
Levitator by Andrew Mayne
Effective Card Magic Card Magic for Professionals and Amateurs by Bill Simon
It Takes All Kinds by Maurice Zolotow
Suzy Wandas: The Lady with the Fairy Fingers  
Enigmaths 1, 2 & 3 by Werner Miller
I Dream of Mind Reading by John Lovick
Departure by Derek Roberts
Vertical Plain by Brent Geris
The Top Change with David Williamson
Beating a Dead Horse: The Life and Times of Jay Marshall by Alexander “Sandy” Marshall

Joshua Jay begins this month’s “Talk About Tricks” with a romantic card trick by pickup expert “Spidey.” Two legendary magicians also contribute: Martin Gardner with a floating cup, and Roy Walton with a self-working gem. Ben Williams offers a commercial card effect, and both John Carey and Ed Oschmann provide practical routines for your walk-around work.

DEAR SHOW DOCTOR: I have been working on finding my onstage identity or personality. What is the best way to find out who you are or should be? — Aaron V.

One of the very first to jump on the Magic Kettle bandwagon was Carl Hertz, an American who had enjoyed years of success in Britain’s music halls by performing magic created by other magicians. In his autobiography, A Modern Mystery Merchant, Hertz claimed that “a great friend and great scientist from America” mailed to him the details of the liquid air act, but he failed to name this great friend and scientist. A more reasonable assumption is that Hertz witnessed the Kettle Act during its first month at the Palace Theatre and immediately realized that its requirements were simple: a thermos full of liquid air and a healthy dose of showmanship. With his theatrical abilities already well established, all he needed was a source for the mysterious liquid.

The Ten Biggest Mistakes
Magicians Make with their Websites

Of all the forms of marketing that magicians have at our disposal, a website is our best investment. If it is well designed and well written, it can promote our services and generate leads and prospects for us 24/7, for pennies a day. The challenge is to design a website that works.

It’s absolutely true: in watching other performers, we can see ourselves. We sometimes make the same mistakes or the same brilliant choices, but don’t recognize them until we observe them in someone else. Through this series of articles, enhanced by the accompanying videos you can find at www.MAGICmagazine.com, you can learn from watching other performers as I gently point out ways that their material can be improved, as well as the aspects of their acts that are working well. Although they refer directly to the video in question, these points also carry over as general principles of performing. There are many right ways of doing things, and these are a few options.