Houdini Painting For Sale

Here is a chance of a lifetime. I never let my paintings go this quickly, but this painting of Houdini, which is painted in acrylics on canvas, 24x30 in size is available. I will ship it in a special box made for artwork, foam fitted, plastic covering the back and front to prevent punctures while in transit.

Though I painted a view of Houdini basically from the waist up, my intention was to put all the emphasis on the face. Notice the texture on the image below. I used a ton of paint on the face to give it a very thick appearance, but kept the remainder of the painting simpler, with the exception of the background. By the way, pay no attention to the color in the photo below, the actual color is closer to the top image.

I've not alerted anyone on my art mailing list about the availability of this painting, mainly because I'm hoping it stays in the magic community. However, today I received my first email from a non-magic person who had an interest in the artwork. So, it may be going into the 'world' rather than stay inside the confines of the magic world. I'm frankly ok with that, I just wanted to make the offer to my magic friends first.
If you are interested in potentially purchasing this piece of artwork, you may contact me via email. Serious inquires only, contact me at carnegiemagic@me.com

Show for Ancestors

photo by Hendricks Pioneer Newspaper

About a year ago I discovered, via ancestry.com, a little town in Minnesota that my Great Great Grandparents settled in when they first came to America. It turns out that BOTH of my Great Great Grandparents on my fathers side lived in this town and actually very close to each other.

Well, last weekend I did a show in this town. One of the interesting parts was that it turned out I was related to probably half the audience. The show was outdoors and part of their annual Harvest Festival. The main street stores all had my poster hanging in the windows. Before and after the show people would come up and introduce themselves and explain the family connection they had to me.

In all my years, I can't recall ever performing on a street! I wonder if this is how David Blaine started, lol. But it didn't matter at all. Everyone from the Harvestfest was AT my show and they were a splendid audience. They simply couldn't have been better. The show was extremely well received. Afterwards I sold a slew of posters and DVDs. The local newspaper, the Hendricks Pioneer put my photo on the front of their paper a few days later (see photo above).

After the show, I got to see both of my Great Great Grandparents farms. The original houses are still on the two properties. I also found the cemeteries where they all are buried. Below is a picture of my GGGrandparents on their farm,and next to it is me, sitting in front of the same barn on their old property today.  It was quite an experience and I can't say enough good things about ancestry.com as I never would have found out about my past without their help.

Painting Non-Magic

As much as I love magic and painting things magic related, every now and then I paint something that doesn't have anything to do with magicians. This piece of artwork was actually a test for another painting that I have planned. I had never painted butterflies and the next painting was going to feature butterflies, so I wanted to knock this one out first just to see what it would be like.

Next up is a rare water color painting I did for my Mom. It was a painting 15 years in the making. I say that because I had started it 15 years ago, and only painted a few of the leaves and a tiny bit of the flowers. Then one day I came upon the painting and decided it finish it. I actually had to go out and purchase water color paints as I had none. But the finished piece turned out nicely and it hangs on the wall at my parents house.

Now we have one of my favorite paintings. This is my old office manager and lead assistant. Her painting is different from anything I have done before or since and I was quite happy with the final result. It's painted in acrylics and is actually kind of large. I gave it to her as a gift.

The last painting is kind of weird. I was very intrigued with Tony Curtis and his style of painting. I wanted to try and understand how he painted so I tried to adopt his style in order to get a better understanding of his work. As simple as the image might look, it was very hard to paint! Oh and this painting also spent years in an unfinished state. I was never happy with it so I set it aside and then one day decided to add some minor things to it and finally considered it done.

My White House Easter Egg Roll Nightmare

The year was 2007 and I was invited along with a number of my friends to perform at the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll. Along with the group of magicians were a number of celebrities. The wonderful thing about the W.H. Easter Egg Roll is ALL of the performers are treated the same. We get catered meals and a private area so it's very possible that you might be sitting with a celebrity.

I had heard that the very famous Hannah Montana was there at the event. Keep in mind this is 2007 and she was a big star on the Disney Channel. I had heard her name countless times but couldn't honestly say that I had watched her show. After we had all finished performing, we decided to go around and get photos taken with the various celebrities. I really only wanted a photo with Hannah Montana as I thought that would be a cool thing to feature on my webpage and in my newsletter.

Joe Jonas and Ken Scott

So along with a couple fellow performers, we decide to track down the various celebrities. First we come upon some guy who I thought was a friend of one of my friends. He was somebodies brother apparently. So my buddy Ken Scott says, "Hey take my picture!" so I do. I don't think anything of it. I had no idea who the guy was. I don't have teenage daughters that would have tipped me off to who this was. But now I know that he was one of the JONAS Brothers! Lost opportunity #1.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but we actually had a celebrity magician among our group. The very famous Mac King, who is a Las Vegas Entertainer and also has appeared on TV many many times. So naturally it would stand to reason to have my picture taken with Mac, right? Well, er um, I didn't do that either. I did get a group photo with Mac, but I never had a one on one photo with him. In fact, the only one in our group that had a personal photo with Mac was Ralph Metzler....and that is a story all in itself!

Ralph the Great and Steven Baldwin

Speaking of Ralph, he was actually out on his own hunting down celebrities and ended up with a photo  with the First Lady and with actor Steven Baldwin. I didn't even know he was at the event, but he had been invited to do one of the celebrity book readings.

Comedian Adam Ace and Mr. McFreely

Because this is an event mainly for children, there were a number of 'kidshow celebrities'. One of them, who I vaguely recalled was Mr. McFreely from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. He was a nice man and I took photos of him with several of my friends. But I was determined to find Hannah!

So the hunt is on! But we were stopped temporarily as my friends say "HEY, there is Miley Cyrus, let's get our picture with her!" All I can think is, "OMG, you guys, quit wasting time!" So I quickly snap a photo of each of my friends with this girl Miley Cyrus. Miley walks away and I say "Ok, NOW can we find Hannah Montana?". My buddies look at me and say "We just did!" WHAT?????????? Yes, you read that right. I had NO idea that Miley was Hannah. It was 2007 and I never watched the show, I had no clue! We ate lunch with her earlier and I didn't know that's who it was.

Miley/Hannah and James Munton

So in case you are wondering if the day was a complete disaster for me, no it was not. I did not give up the hunt to have my photo with a celebrity. It was a long search and not an easy one. The celebs pretty much kept to one of the catered tents when they weren't on the grounds of the White House and they were surrounded by tons of government workers who frankly should have been WORKING!

But finally, towards the end of the day, I found a celebrity who was more than willing to have his photo with me. So to my friends who were NO help with the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana photograph, eat your hearts out!!!!

Carnegie & SHREK

Lance Burton Painting

So here is a painting 2 years in the making. Actually, I started it two years ago, but then didn't touch it until very recently. I think the reason it sat was because I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. There is a very famous LB photo of him with is floating birdcage that I used as the basis for the pose. But I didn't want to birdcage. I wanted something else but I wasn't sure what. For a long time it was just Lance and his hand, and the fingers were posed differently than what was in the photo.

The original artwork had a different background and was not done in blues but in flesh tones. When I decided to go for the blue, I also decided to add the bird. It's got a cool look. Not sure how thrilled I am with it though. But then again, that's the case with all my artwork.

Cesareo Tribute Painting

I painted this cubism style image of my friend Cesareo, performing his linking rings, about two weeks ago now. I had done the original sketch years before but never put the sketch on canvas. Something possessed me to do it and I finally finished it. I sent the image to David at LeGrand David to show Cesareo. I don't know now if that happened or not.

Cesareo passed away this morning at 3:00am. It is a very difficult day for me, and frankly for many people who knew Cesareo. I cannot imagine what my magic family in Beverly are going through right now. My heart goes out to all of them. The magic world has lost an icon, a real giant. But most of all, so many of us have lost a dear friend.

Below is another painting I did of Cesareo presenting the Linking Rings in an impressionistic style.

 

more of my LeGrand David Artwork,

http://artistofmystery.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-le-grand-david-artwork.html

The Magic Road Less Traveled

There is a fantastic commentary in the April 2012 edition of MAGIC Magazine by Gabe Fajuri. It's called "Not Available in Stores" and it's on page 78. In the article, Gabe talks about how the old time pros rarely purchased props at a magic shop but instead had their items specially built.

Reading the article made me think about a complaint I've heard from some bookers that 'magicians all do the same act' and then they list the items that they see every magician do. Funny thing is, they never list the 'classics' anymore. Tops of the list are the Kevin James Bowling Ball Production, Torn & Restored Newspaper, Scott Alexander's Paintball Bullet Catch, the vanishing Ketchup Bottle, the Losander Floating Table, and Snowing. All fantastic tricks sure, but when they are in everybody's act, there is a problem. On top of that, when everyone does them all the same way, more problems.

I guess if I have a pet peeve it's with so many people doing the same material. I avoid popular items like the plague. I feel bad sometimes too because I want to support brick and mortar magic shops, but I can't buy these things, UNLESS I've figured out some way to present them differently. For the record, I don't present any of the above routines. Though, I will admit to using dealer tricks in the past, in fact many times. But in the last few years I've gotten away from it. Instead, I've gone the route of either creating my own effects, or taking much older things and trying to give new life to them. It's a much harder route to go, but I think the rewards are greater in the end.

If you don't feel you are super creative, one method I use is to browse through old magic books and try to just read the effect and then think about how it could be updated. Sometimes, if you find something in an old book, it might not need to be updated. Often, there are gems just waiting to be rediscovered. If you feel the trick does need to be updated, then consider keeping the basic effect, but changing the props or items involved and see what new combination it creates.

Sid Lorraine created a trick called "Lemon Crush" which Bert Douglas altered and turned into "Watch the Lemon". The later routine appeared in the Tarbell Course. Lemon Crush and Watch the Lemon all have a lemon vanishing in some unusual way and turning into lemonade. I stumbled upon this a few years ago and loved the trick but didn't like the props involved. The routine called for several specially prepared props, a tube,  a glass and some lemons. I did not like the tube at all. So I sought out a change of props. I introduced a prop called a Niffon Tube (which is not a tube at all) to provide the finale. A prop that some might think is out of date but it's not when you refer to it as a thermos. This new prop altered the method of the trick so I had to come up with additional methods to do the 'dirty work'. The end result was something I called "Lemon Transpo" and I published it in the KIDabra Journal and also in a set of lecture notes.  It was an incredibly strong trick.

But publishing it in a magazine and then lecture notes meant I was giving away my updated version. The reason I did that was I wanted to try and force myself to create something even better. It took a while and it didn't come together quickly, but I eventually came up with a new routine which I called "Organic Magic". All of the props are different, even the fruit. There is much more magic in the routine than what was in the original "Watch the Lemon" trick. But it was my desire to try and create something unique that took me down the road less traveled and the end result was a signature piece of magic in my show that no one else is doing but me.

Now if you are up for a challenge, I'll tip you off on a great routine that is in Tarbell right now, which I don't think anyone is doing. It's in Volume 5 and it's called "Watch and Geranium". The trick is attributed to Ed Reno, but that's only because he was performing it. I believe the originator of the effect was the Austrian magician, Ludwig Doebler. The patter described in Tarbell needs some serious updating. The method is fantastic however. The effect is a borrowed watch vanishes and reappears tied to the roots of a potted plant. It's a beautiful illusion with simple props and one that is waiting for a smart magician to make his or her own. The trick has issues, the biggest one of all, it's going to be messy. But it's a hidden gem just waiting for someone to reintroduce it to 21st century audiences!

The Next Big Trick

Every magician is searching for that 'next big trick', the trick that will take their act to the next level or help sustain the level they're at. But usually, there is no real 'next big trick'. Truth is, developing material to fit your personality is the best course of action. And I know, that sounds like the same ole thing that is always said. But let me give you an example.

Take the Cups & Balls. You won't find a much older trick than the Cups and Balls. Countless magicians present that effect. Many do the exact same routine, still others vary it slightly, with different sleights and maybe different sequences. Someone like a Tommy Wonder takes the trick and turns it on it's head, with two drastically different interpretations, one for stage and one for close-up. Jason Latimer introduces clear glasses and does things that don't seem humanly possible. Suzanne adds a story to give the routine purpose and drive the action. Penn & Teller added clear cups in an effort to expose the trick and Ricky Jay uses, Cups, Bowls and a Candlestick to illustrate the history of the trick during performance.

All of them are doing the Cups and Balls, but all of those variations are different. THIS is an example of how you take a routine and fit it to who you are. Of course, if you don't know who you are, then it's not magic that you need help with.

I recently added a Jim Steinmeyer trick to my show. I remember mentioning it on Facebook, and I got a number for responses from friends, things like "well he just spent thousands of dollars" and things of that nature. Indeed, I did add a J.S. trick to my show. No, I did not spend thousands of dollars. No, I'm not going to tell you which one. I can tell you, it's probably very overlooked and highly underestimated. I don't think it's a good trick for a beginner because it involves a degree of audience control that a beginner might lack. It's not a perfect trick, in that it has limitations on who can understand it. Yet, it's still a brilliant effect and I figured out how to make it play for me. I consider it a 'work in progress' even though it's been hitting home runs since it's first introduction in my show. WHY would I consider it a 'work in progress' if it's doing so well? Because the process of making it 'mine' is an ongoing thing. The jokes and comedy from the effect are all mine and continue to evolve. The extra bits of business I've added are mine. The completely alternative routine, which was a suggestion of a friend, adds a dimension to the routine not even suggested by Mr. Steinmeyer.

I don't actually like doing tricks created by others. But if I do, I'm going to take the basic effect and change and alter it in anyway I can to make it unique to me. I remember something Teller once said, he said "The person who does a trick the best, OWNS it!". That is something to think about. Years ago, Michael Ammar said something similar, though I forget his exact quote. Basically, the idea was to do a version of the trick so well that it becomes associated with you. If you've done that, then you've definitely made that trick your own and you've more than likely discovered 'the next big trick' for you.


For the record, I'm also developing a different twist on the Cups and Balls :)