ART - The Magic Profiles

These have been posted here before, but it was back in 2010. So I thought I'd share them all again, in one place. They are all acrylic and I think they are all the same size.

Houdini w Chain

Chung Ling Soo w Lantern

Blackstone and Dancing Hank

Back to ART Magic Hats

This was a series of paintings I did, with a specific theme (outside of magic that is). The idea was to paint magicians wearing different hats. Because it was fashionable for the late 19th century and early 20th century magicians to wear hats, I had an interesting mix to choose from.

I realized after I had done several of the paintings that all but one person that I had painted was named "HARRY". I will list them in the order they were painted.

Houdini

Kellar

Blackstone

Herrmann The Great

Dante

Harry Anderson

A Great Book- Poke The Box

I just finished reading a fantastic book by Seth Godin called Poke The Box. In a nutshell the book says, "get off your duff, stop waiting for people to tell you what to do, and be a leader instead of a follower, be a trail blazer instead of a, ummm, trail follower". Well you get the point.

It's all about taking initiative. It's also got a very good point which I've been guilty of in the past which is not following through with an idea till the end.

It's 84 pages of gold! It's great and I'm about to give the book away in the hopes that the person I give it to will read it, get inspired, and give it to someone else!

POKE The BOX, good stuff!

Saying Goodbye to the Magical Genie

In early June 2011, my friend Eugene Johnson and several members of his family were killed in Maryland by a drunk driver. Eugene was only 52 I believe. He was a super nice fellow, always a smile on his face and always the first to laugh at a joke. He went by the stage moniker of The Magical Genie. I met Eugene through the Society of American Magicians Assembly #252 back in the 90s. In fact, it was because of Eugene that I started going back to the meetings of the very group I started!

In keeping with the traditions of magic, Assembly #252 held a Broken Wand Ceremony for him during the July meeting. Present were the MidAtlantic Regional Vice President David Bowers who came down from Pennsylvania to conduct the ceremony. Because I probably knew Eugene better than the rest of the current membership, I made sure to say a few words about my friend. The Broken Wand Ceremony dates back to Houdini. Magicians traditionally break a wand to signify that this persons magic has passed on to the next world.

His obituary also appeared in the August issue of MAGIC Magazine and I expect it to appear in the next issue of M-U-M which is the official magazine of the Society of American Magicians.

Farewell Magical Genie!

My Past-A Real Job Adventure

I have not always been a full time performer. There was a time when I had what some might call 'a real job'. I'm not sure why it's called that. My job is just as real as the next persons. But perhaps because my job seems more glamorous or fun that is why people don't consider it a 'real job', or maybe because I LOVE my job, lol.

Anyway, I was thinking today of when, many years ago now, I was working as a supervisor and was having trouble with one particular employee. He was a bad seed,  I did everything  to treat him like everyone else. The only problem was he was always causing trouble and I had to call him on it, time and again. I did let him slide on more that one occasion, but even I have my breaking point.

So one day he gets out of line and I decide 'enoughs enough' let's take this to the managers office and have a little talk. The manager talked to him and I figured that this issue was over. As we walked from the office into another part of the building the troublemaker pulled a knife on me. In fact, he whipped it out so fast he dropped it. And he did this in front of about 8 other employees. I walked right up to him with the knife still in his hand and told him where he could 'put the knife' (you'll need to use your imagination on that part). As we stood there face to face, all the other employees were freaking out, the manager even came out. The trouble maker put the knife away and then proceeded to leave the building.

My eye witnesses were still freaked out over it. Being new to the supervisor position, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I wondered if I should file a complaint or something. Looking back it was clear that the police should have been called. However, do you know not ONE fellow employee would back me up and say that they saw him with a knife!!! They all stood there and watched it and not one would support me when I did file a complaint. Oh, for the record, I was very well liked, so it wasn't like they wouldn't support me because I was a jerk. They didn't support me because they feared the knife wielder!

I suppose he knew what his fate would be and he never returned and a couple days later he notified us that he quit.  I'm not sure why, it was clear the upper management wasn't going to do anything, cowards! But he left on his own. HOWEVER, that isn't the end of the story. Fast forward a couple years and I find out that this very same guy was now in jail. Why?
Well it turns out, he left our company to go to work for the Postal Service and while there he pulled a knife on one of his supervisors!!!! They didn't hesitate to fire him and have the police deliver him off to jail! He could still be there for all I know, lol!

So there is a story from my days of having a so called 'real job'. And for the record, NO I do not miss those days, lol!!!!!

Summer 2011/Week Two

Another week of Summer shows is finished. June is in the can, so to speak (meaning it's over). Yesterday was an interesting day. I had two shows in Fredericksburg, VA which went really well. Then I drove over to a car dealership and told the dealer I'd buy a car if they could get me OUT in an hour. Amazing how fast folks work with a little motivation, lol.

All jokes aside, the salesman and dealership were fantastic and my new car (see above) is fantastic. The $100 gas every time I filled up was killing me with my Van, so for the time being I'm going with a vehicle with better gas mileage. It's going to put a slight crimp into the size of the show I can travel with. Though very slight. I'll need to rent a vehicle for the big show, though in all honesty, that has pretty much been the case for a while anyone. Some of my illusions are too big even for my old Van.

In regards to Summer, a big change is about to take place next week. I'll either be doing Show A or Show B on the tour, no mixture of material any longer. It's too much to go into, but the material in Show A was designed for one show and one particular audience, as was Show B. They were not designed to be interchangeable, so there will no longer be a 'C' show that mixes material. In the long run it helps me keep track of things.

I expect the two shows to look drastically different in a few days, which will be good all the way around. Plus, more original creations going into show B!

Summer 2011/Week One

My first full week of Summer shows is officially over. It was an exhausting 15 show schedule which was also incredibly fun. I'll share a couple highlights and low lights.

On Monday, I debuted my new version of the Magic Tea Kettle, an effect  from the act of England's greatest magician, David Devant. My version actually was a far simplified version with a surprise ending. The concept is that any drink the magician wants can be poured from the tea kettle. In my version basically, several drinks are poured from the pitcher and tested out by audience members to prove they are the authentic drinks. In my case, these include iced tea, kool-aid, milk and other non alcoholic drinks. For the finale, I had planned to say something about the one drink that had me stumped, ORANGE JUICE. I explained how for some reason the orange would separate from the liquid in a most unusual manner. Then I would pour water from the tea kettle with orange slices, however, after a moment, the audience realized those orange slices were actually Goldfish! Pretty cool ending I thought. Most of the audience LOVED IT! But to my sudden surprise, two people who tested the drinks got a look on their face like they were about to throw up! I had to quickly let them know they did NOT DRINK Fish Water, lol! It was funny, and not funny, and then later still funny to me.

The Tea Kettle was pulled from the show after that until I could rescript the ending. By Thursday, it was back in the show temporarily, and this time out it delivered the punch I was looking for, without any fear of people wanting to vomit, lol. However, the Magic Tea Kettle is probably going to be pulled from the Summer show for another reason. It is too messy and difficult to set up and take down quickly. The Magic Tea Kettle will make a couple additional appearances this summer, but just not in every show.

Oh, also on Monday I got the 'summer welcome' by performing in a building which had ZERO air conditioning. It was actually cooler outside and it was 90 outside! Thankfully, that was the ONLY location like that this week.

This week was very successful, but I have to say I had an idea about twenty minutes ago about totally scrapping the current version of the summer show and starting all over. Not because there was anything bad about it, but I've got some other ideas and areas I'd like to explore. I don't think I'll actually scrap the show, but there are routines that are going to get replaced by some newer things. One in particular is a 'Magic JigSaw Puzzle. This is another one of my crazy ideas that has gone through numerous versions in my head, but I've not yet begun to build the props needed. I do have the puzzle, but I might even replace that one for something a little better.

This week was fun. I'll have more surprises for week 2!