This is a fun version of my color changing silks routine that I found on an old hard drive! I really love this trick and used it to open literally hundreds of shows over the years. It has everything going for it as an opening effect……
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This version was filmed in about 1991 and was from my one-man show “Comedy Magic” which played for nearly 5 years at the Maxim Hotel in Las Vegas. The routine served me well for every one of those shows and kicked things into action and allows me to really take command of the audience. The opening trick is the most important one for any performer and needs to be chosen with extreme care.
I recently released my version of this effect with a very specially constructed dye tube that assists in some truly amazing handling (I do not use this handling on this version. Sorry but you have to buy the trick for that!) I have been getting raves from the performers who have purchased the routine. We supply the trick for performance with 12, 18 or 24 inch silks. The tubes are hand crafted in America utilizing metal rather than the customary copper, this means they are can be used with the supplied magnets for extremely interesting ways to steal and ditch them. You can order it from my web site lewinenterprises.com
The props are all very high quality and the DVD teaches the routine and alternative handling in a minutely detailed manner. I can honestly say that this is very best prop and handling of this effect available and a perfect classic routine to add to your act. You can find another more recent video and further details about the routinely by clicking HERE
I recently had the great pleasure of performing for a week at the World Famous Laugh Factory in Las Vegas. It had been about a decade since I performed in a comedy club environment and I was delighted to discover that I hadn’t lost my touch in this kind of venue. For eleven years I headlined in the comedy circuit and it was a tremendous learning experience. I want to thank Harry Basil not only for the booking but for running such a wonderful club! Harry is a tremendous comedy performer and many moons ago we performed together in Guam for one of the Comedy Concerts we booked for Budweiser. I fondly remember the evening we both spent singing Karaoke together. Harry knocked out the crowd with his Elvis style vocalizing and as for me—the best thing to say about my singing is nothing! If you have a chance to catch Harry perform his wonderful Movie Guy show—do NOT miss it! Harry is a hysterical one of a kind performer.
I really enjoyed performing in an intimate club atmosphere again. I have been performing in much larger venues recently and it was a real joy to be that up-close with my audience again. It took a couple of shows but then all my Vegas material came flooding back. I finished every show with a streamlined version of my Slow Motion Torn and Restored Newspaper. I am damned if I can find a stronger way to finish a show!
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I performed for the week with the very talented Heath Harmison and Carl LaBove. It was a fabulous treat to work with such funny and nice people. Life doesn’t get better than sharing a stage with such lovely people! I have been performing in Vegas since 1976 and enjoyed this gig as much as any I can remember.
There was a steady stream of very welcome magical visitors who came along to the Tropicana to catch the show. Amongst the visitors were Greg Gleason, Fielding West, Jason Andrews, Iam Creed, Niels Duinker, Anders Hansen , Rick Nestlebush and Rich Clesen. Not to mention my wife Susan, daughter Katrina and Tagert! The Laugh Factory boasts a spectacular green room that makes performing there a special joy. A visit with Norm and Lupe Nielsen in their beautiful home was another highlight of the week. I have featured one of Norm’s doves in my show for decades now and it was a thrill when they showed me the full process with which they manufactured these featherless birds!
I will really look forward to my next engagement at the Laugh Factory. It was a very, very pleasant experience!
I am a huge fan of the magic and magical thinking of Roy Johnson. Over the years Roy’s spectacular manner of thinking out a routine and planning its development have been a wonderful benefit to me in making my living. One of Roy’s great additions to the professional magician was his Card in Chewing Gum. I recently found this clip from my Las Vegas show “Comedy Magic,” which is my handling of this fabulous piece of magic. I wanted to post it here on my blog and say once again how much Mr Johnson’s thinking has contributed to my repertoire. I can not too strongly recommend that any comedy magician study his books and lecture notes. The man is quite simply a genius!
This routine is featured in Roy’s first book “The Roy Johnson Experience.”
It has been a busy performing schedule in the last few weeks! For a guy who is supposed to be semi-retired apparently someone didn’t get the memo! On the 6th-7th and 8th of November I performed three shows at the wonderful Coastal Repertory Theatre in Half Moon Bay. It is a jewel box of a theatre and it was a delight to perform there.
The show was the 4th annual installment of the event and every detail was beautifully handled by its producer Steve Shufton who was a delight to work with. Magicians are probably familiar with Steve from his online magic company that produces a great collection of magical releases. Steve was kind enough to gift me an assortment of his magical effects and I was very impressed with his product line. He is a really good magical thinker with a fine mind for commercial and direct magic. I am looking forward to working with his routines and beginning to present them to audiences. You can check out his magic line at shufton.com I will be writing more about them in the near future.
One of the joys of this gig was that I got to perform with my good buddy Fielding West. Fielding and I have been dear friends for 33 years but this was the first time we have had a chance to work together and it was worth the wait. Fielding is a terrific performer who was a huge hit with this audience. We each performed 50 minute sets and then closed the show by joining forces onstage for a grand finale involving his long suffering partner Bob the Bird! I am still slightly deaf from firing the cannon onstage that propelled Bob into Fielding’s mouth and ultimately into a crystal casket! Rounding out the bill was the delightful juggling act of Ben Farber and his beautiful wife Jessica.
During the course of the engagement we were visited by a wonderful array of Bay area magicians including three of my very favorite performers– the dynamic Jay Alexander, and the beautiful and talented Jade with her magic computer wiz husband Mathew Holtsman What a perfect group to lunch with. I also got to reconnect with my old Magic Castle pal Bruce Sinclair, the fabulous Phil Ackerly and also got to meet my Facebook friend Alan Sands in person. It was like a mini-magic convention and I really enjoyed myself. The background of Half Moon Bay made it just perfect and I want to thank Steve for inviting me to be part of the proceedings.
Susan and I had the good fortune to catch the “Masters of Illusion Live” tour last night when they stopped off at the beautiful Majestic Theatre in San Antonio. This was the second date of the current 21-day segment of their ongoing tour. While there is a little shaking down to do, I suspect the show will be as tight as a drum within a couple of dates.
The show was an excellent family production that was jam packed with magic that thrilled the audience and left them on their feet applauding at the finale. It was a very nicely presented affair that kept every audience members attention throughout its two hour running time.
The show featured Jason Andrews, Michael Finney, Greg Gleason, Nathan Phan and Michael Turco. All the performances were excellent, with Michael Finney stealing the show (as he so often does!) with his wonderfully seasoned comedy magic. I want to give a special shout out to Jason Andrews for his masterful blend of manipulation and participation magic.
I have to really commend Gay Blackstone on the way she has turned her award winning TV show into a full evening production. Her understanding of magic and skill at matching performers to her ticket buying demographic is exemplary. She brings another era and dimension to the already legendary influence of the Blackstone family in the magic world.
I would highly recommend catching the tour if you have the opportunity. Here are the upcoming dates;
The recent Kraftwerk 3D Concert at the Wang Theatre on the 3rd of October was A BLAST!
Here is a short video slideshow of some of the awesome looks and effects they achieved, including being totally replaced by robots for one encore. The Sound quality and the lighting and visual effects were amazing.
The Concert was a total triumph! Check it out if you have a chance.
Have you ever seen the Magical Carpenter performing live and in person?
Why not make a trip out to the great intimate showroom at the Junkyard Grill in Simi Valley and catch Milt Larsen performing his hysterical magic act at Junkyard Magic on Wednesday 30th at 8.00 pm. Appearing on the bill with Milt will be Dale Hindman. It should be a really great evening of magic and fun.
Be there or be square! It is a very unique venue and extremely intimate, so I suggest you make your reservation NOW at the websitehttp://junkyardmagic.weebly.com
The TAOM 2015 convention is now just a vision in the rearview mirror— and a memory, a very pleasant memory indeed. Hats off to Trixie Bond and everyone connected to this event all of whom helped to make it such a success. The convention was held right here in my hometown of Austin and although I am rather biased, I have to say that our wonderful little city made quite a backdrop to the event.
Rather than write an exhaustive list of what went on, I want to just mention a few of my personal highlights from the three and a half day event. I want to begin by saying how much I enjoyed my own participation, I had a blast performing and lecturing at the convention. I especially enjoyed my Monday morning lecture, which was amazing well and enthusiastically attended. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of it. I got to perform with three very talented youngsters, James Irwin, Drake Stanton and Ava Byers — who were quite rightly billed as Our Stars of Tomorrow!
The theme of the convention was Magic, Music, Weirdness and Women. This worked for me as I love all four of these things and the event got the mixture just right. For a music buff like myself, the addition of music in the lounge/bar area between shows was a lovely addition. The weirdness was pretty firmly under control given the location, but most magic conventions could definitely use a dash more of it in my personal opinion.
There were two Gala shows and each was excellent. The first Gala featured many dear friends including Peter Samelson, John Carney and Mark Merchant. The entire show was great but as is so often the case the rather edgy comedy of ventriloquist Mark Merchant rather stole the show. It really helps being the only non-magician on a bill! I know I have been the only magician on the Gala Shows at ventriloquism convention!
The second Gala was an all female event (OK, Steve Daley was there in his Tiny Bubbles persona. And very funny he was!) There was plenty of talent on the bill including Ali Shelley, Margaret Steele, Amanda Eve, Rachael Dunn, and Jesse Patterson with the lovely and talented Jade making a fine headliner to the bill. Hats off to an event that really highlighted the talented women in our business.
During the convention Lectures and workshops were presented by Bob Fitch, John Carney, Jay Scott Berry, Oscar Munoz, Peter Samelson and Robert Baxt — they were all resounding successes. Another crowd favorite was Brian Brushwood’s Scam School. There was much to learn from this skilled and talented group of lecturers and performers. The Close-Up Show was well represented by Suzanne the Magician, Peter Samelson, Jay Scott Berry, John Carney and Robert Baxt. All of these performers wowed the crowd with their skills and talents. The convention also hosted an excellent close-up contest, in addition to stage contest, which highlighted our very own Texas talent.
An incredibly successful addition to the convention was the chance to catch Austin’s own Ray Anderson in a specially formulated edition of his Esther’s Follies show. A trip to Austin is not complete without catching this amazing show. After 30 years the show is a tightly run triumph of production and performing skills. The sensational Ray Anderson along with his wonderful assistant/partner Ellana Kelter present magic the way you want to see it! The skill and charisma they project make each of them a national magical treasure. If you have never visited Esther’s and caught their show you have missed the best magic show in the country in my opinion.
Well, I missed a few items out I am afraid—you can’t pack all the details of that much fun into a couple of pages. I heartily congratulate everyone involved and strongly suggest if you love good magic you register early for next years TAOM Convention in beautiful Corpus Christi.
A Few Glimpses of one of Magic’s Most Iconic Duos—Mark Wilson and Nani Darnell.
A few years ago I got to write a two part cover story for Vanish Magazine about Mark Wilson and Dani Darnell. While I was very aware of what a tremendous influence Mark’s pioneering television show Magic Land of Allakazamhad been on so many magicians in the United States. I only arrived in California in 1974 and missed seeing the show or I am sure I would have been a big fan—I love seeing good magic on TV.
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend some quite extensive interview with both Mark and Nani while preparing for the articles. I was excited to do so and enjoyed the process immensely, both of them are not only charming and gracious but they are so damn interesting! I also really enjoyed getting a personal tour around their extensive offices and warehouse in Valencia, Ca. If you have the mind to, you can find the full article in the back issues of vanishmagazine.com I think you will enjoy it and also learn some useful insight from Mark’s illustrious career.
During the course of our meetings I snapped some photos of their fabled magic warehouse to help prepare the visuals for our story. I have to emphasis how unbelievably cool the warehouse is to any visiting magician, It is jam packed with amazing and historical magic effects (The classic sawing in half train) and highly person/professional memorabilia (The original curtain from Allakazam.) Every room holds fresh surprises, packed boxes and travel cases and I had a blast exploring the impressive facility.
I thought it might be fun to add a blog entry with some of my “field photography” in the hopes that it will be of some interest to my readers. If you want to really relive some memories, or discover a hidden gem in magic’s history, I should mention that you can purchase DVDs of them of the “Magic Land of Allakazam” series at http://www.markwilsonmagic.com/allakazam-dvds.html
This is a column I wrote a while ago about a piece of legendary comedy and the story behind it, as told by the equally legendary Ian Finkel. Ian is the World’s Greatest Xylophone Player and if you don’t believe me then check out the clip!
I am typing this column somewhere between the Caribbean and Tenerife and hope it gets out of this Internet Black Hole and onto your computers! I am in the middle of a very extensive tour designed to give me lots of sea days to finish work on the book detailing my Linking Finger Ring book.
Thank you to the surprising amount of you who expressed interest and wanted to pre-purchase this very limited and dear to my heart routine. I am delighted at how many of those people really liked my ideas about how to keep this routine exclusive and not flood any one market. You will NEVER see this book at your local magic shop.
I love writing this column and really do try to impart some knowledge in it. You can’t please everyone though (thank God) and I recently wrote a column with some excellent advice about how to raise both your personal and magic’s standing in the outside entertainment world. It included a strong recommendation that some ideas have served their purpose and need to be replaced.
I made a special mention of cheap shot methods of getting standing ovations for your show. First of all, yes, I KNOW THEY WORK. I have probably done them all at one point in my career! That wasn’t what I was saying, it is just that some of them have worked for too long and incite serious lack of respect for magicians in general.
I happened to have the opportunity to learn the true origin of the greatest of these bits today. The piece I am talking about is the recitation that ends up with the request for a standing ovation: not for me but for ——my child, my mother, my grandfather etc. etc. The person varies but never the punch line. It always goes, “it’s not for me, it’s for little XXXXXXXXX!” Followed by a standing O regardless of what the act was like!
This piece has been credited to many people but I heard the definitive truth of its origin from Ian (pronounced Ion) Finkel the World’s greatest Xylophone player and superb academic student of comedy and showbiz history. Ian and his brother Elliot are the two seriously talented sons of the legendary Jewish comedian and character actor Fyvush Finkel who was one of the kingpin performers in the Catskill resorts in New York during their heyday.
This particular ‘bit’ began in the 40’s in the Catskill resorts and like so many other unique pieces was rather more collaborative than anyone claiming it’s creation would like to remember. That never happens in magic does it! However for your entertainment and education here is the piece as it was first performed.
At the end of his act the performer tells his audience that just prior to coming down to his show he was talking with the hotel chambermaid who was cleaning his room. She was telling him how much she enjoyed his show. As they were talking the hotel manager walked by and began to berate the performer telling him that if his show didn’t get a better reception that night then he will be fired.
Rosalina (the maid) tells the manager that she is so sure that he will get a great reaction that she is willing to make a bet with him. She has managed to save up 25 dollars to her name and will risk it all on a wager with the hotel manager that the performer will get a standing ovation that night! He accepted the bet immediately. The performer then tells the audience “ It’s not for me, it’s for Rosalina!” This was of course always followed by a standing ovation.
This version answers a lot of little questions that had previously lingered in my mind. It is absent of the inclusion of a family member in the storyline, which would have been a little emotionally tacky for the comedians of that time in those venues. It is certainly easy to see how it crept in later though. Winning a bet for a financially challenged chambermaid would have appealed a lot more to a comedian and more to the point the Catskills Resort audiences he was playing to.
I know this may be a rather specialized story for a worldwide publication like Magic New Zealand but I just had to share it! Let me furthermore add that the world divides into two groups, those that know Ian Finkel and those that don’t. If you fall into the second group, I can only say that you are missing out on one of the greatest characters ever to be a part of an industry famous for great characters.
A world-class musician, director and cigar smoker, If you want a little taste of Ian and his great stories I would highly recommend his book ‘You’re not supposed to be here!’ which is available on Kindle or through Amazon. It is the Philosopher’s Stone of great stories about some of his experiences working on cruise ships.
Since I wrote this article Ian has written a magnificent novel about the Vaudeville era that is a MUST READ for any performer interested in this fascinating time. It is called Vaudeville 1922 and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I will write a full blog entry about it in the near future. You can purchase it at http://vaudeville1922.com
