Pillow fight!

Watch this, then stick around for some commentary...


I liked every bit of that until the production of the girl at the end. It's the same reason I dislike the shadowbox illusion (as well as a few others). Magical unexplainable stuff is happening and then a girl appears which can explain away so much of the actual magic. I think bringing an inanimate object to life is far more impressive than producing some rent-a-chick (or girlfriend/wife/relative) so why bother?

Bimbo is not always better...

Full steam ahead...

I wouldn't say T11 is trying to capitalize on a trend, but the guy in the video is the farthest thing from steam punk they could have gotten.

It's almost insulting to those who actually embrace the style.

You can decide for yourself.

A warm moist opening...

I always laugh when someone calls a chair or broom suspension a floatation. To me they are more of a puzzle than any other illusions out there. Kind of like some of my ex's. Nice to look at but they're not fooling anybody.

I also like the fact Jay Sankey thinks about magic. This means he is not afraid to experiment and figure out the hows and WHYS of something. Despite the fact he does flood the market a bit from time to time with product, he tends to know his shit for the most part.

A new Product Demo I saw recently addresses something I agree with. A good opening to your set, routine, etc doesn't need to be anything but visual. Something to set the tone and mood and character of what is about to happen following it. I also believe suspensions are not magic. They are not a trick in themselves. They are a quick visual that is a layer on top of the rest. Effects like Jay's or Rick Lax's Vertigo are a great way to get people's attention and introduce props or ideas you are about to utilize for actual magic.

Suspend your disbelief my friends...

With fans like these...

I'm kinda glad I'm not famous...

You're welcome...

In a few more sentences I am going to give you a gift. It's nothing tangible. Nothing you can hang on the wall. It's an idea. It's a GREAT idea. You can start thanking me now.

As many of you who perform "Easy Money" (Hundy 500, Prophet, Extreme Burn, etc.) the trick has some fundamental flaws. (Except for the original one that turned pieces of paper into money, that just make sense) The biggest one of course is why would you EVER turn them back into a lower denomination. I don't care what your patter it, it's dumb. The other is you can't hand the bills out (yes I know a few have come up with ways to do it but that's not the point).

I was in a restaurant last night and came upon a saying I have never heard before. It read as thus:


I then realized by quoting this line, (especially good here in Las Vegas), you not only have a reason to fold your money in half to execute the change, but you have the perfect motivation to just put it away in your pocket and move on.

Everything is now justified by just that one line alone. This my friends and readers is my gift to you. The gift of "Helping Your Magic Make Sense".

Now go forth and multiply!

PS: If you can't get enough of my ramblings, I did a guest column Over Here.

Knocik it off....

A message to all the younger magicians out there:

Hey kids, I know it's a catchy tune and all but for the love of all that is holey, please stop using that damn Fireflies song. It's annoying.

Thanx,

The mngmnt.

Round and round...

Tomorrow we release our new training video! Do you want to teach your sponge balls some new tricks? Then go to www.spongeballbreeding.com and learn more!

Rattling the chains...

So my previous post tught me two things. 1. Andrew Mayne reads this (waves hello the Andrew) and was kind enough to offer a counter-point to my ramblings. And B. I need to be more specific in this thing sometimes.

Sometimes I start with an idea and I forget to actually point something out that inspired it, be it tongue-in-cheek or not. When I said I was happy about my stuff being ganked I should have elaborated a bit. (keep in mind this is half-sarcasm coming up) It's nice to see my stuff is good enough/liked enough to be ripped off with the likes of people like Andrew, Garcia, and many others who are revered for their material.

Does this make it right? That's up to you. As stated in another post this kind of stuff doesn't bother me. It's the world we live in now.

Kind of like a Genesis song...

We have arrived...

Recently I discovered some of my magical offerings for download on a magic torrent site (No I won't give you the link). Believe it or not I am actually glad about this. Hell, I might very well be the only magician in the world who is. Crazy you say? Probably. Eating tacos right now? Definitely!

If you got to the big green bean you can find a lot of people in the ethics section bitching an orange streak about how they have been ripped off and pirates are the scourge of the this that or the other. Regardless of where you sit on the subject matter, one thing is for sure, those people are greedy.

If you sell to Murphys Magic then you have made a pretty good penny already off their initial order. (If it's a popular product you have no worries) If it's a download you are of course subject to overnight uploading, but the people who download it are unlikely to buy it anyway or even have the money to do so.

The way I look at it is thus: I would rather have people know my name and like my product to possibly buy future releases. If they like you and what you do they will show it to others and tell them about you. If you are just going to be captain bitchy-pants they will steal from you out of spite.

So be happy they found your items to have the value enough to steal. Then you can release something that ISN'T a damn DVD that they will be forced to buy.

Mmmm tacos.

Judge Dread...

I need to stop watching youtube videos of magicians because it makes me realize that if I was ever asked to judge a magic competition and give my feedback, I might make someone cry.

and a drop of self-promotion...

As many of you know we have been working with Sponge Balls for the last few years. We have collected quite a few rescues and learned a lot about these little fellas. With that in mind we decided to release a training DVD. Want to learn more? Head over to Sponge Ball Breeding dot com.

You'll be glad you did...