Just Another Magic Monday - Valentine's Edition

Due to the specific day of the week used for my JAMM posts, its nice when holidays and other special days line up Monday and its easy to associate magic with them. Valentine's Day 2011 is just such a day. Its Monday and there isn't much that is more magical than love. So without further ado, let me present to you a little Valentine's Day inspired magic.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9cuGpqMWuA&w=640&h=390] [ad#Ellusionist] And just one more quicky, because I love Ekaterina: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_DSRCwtXxA&w=640&h=390] I'd love to hear what you think about these two videos. I know there are more out there so feel free to share those as well. Thanks for reading.

Just Another Magic Monday - Jason Latimer and Buick

If you've been following my JAMM posts since my old my.opera blog, you might have seen me post about Jason Latimer in the past. Today's JAMM post isn't just about him but about some alternate ways that we can experience magic in our everyday lives - advertising and promotion. Recently Jason worked with Buick on the campaign for the new Buick Verano. In the advertising Jason got to use some of his magic on screen to get across the idea of hidden keys. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrhSE8g7Qhg&w=640&h=390] [ad#Ellusionist] In a more subtle bit of magic, Latimer's team also built the magic into the reveal of new car. See if you can spot the magic ;) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Lq6739x6U&w=640&h=390] If you've seen or been a part of any great uses of magic other than a straight magic performance I'd love to hear it. If you have any questions or comments about the videos above please put them into the comments below.

If you like what you are reading please follow me on twitter and/or follow my RSS feed. Also, please connect with me via google friend connect. Thanks for reading.

- Deacon

Just Another Magic Monday - Castle Style

As a fan of the cancelled TV show firefly I found myself drawn to watching the Nathan Fillion's current show Castle. It's not very deep but it is entertaining and they've thrown in a couple of great Firefly references. After watching last week's episode and seeing the ad for this week's episode with a magic related crime, I couldn't help but make it my first JAMM post of 2011.  So here it is, a sneak peak at tonight's episode of Castle - Poof! You're Dead![youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5mcQ0OOVps&w=480&h=385]

Also, here is a clip from the show using the often overused background music which was the theme music for the "Hardy Boys" [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqKhvSARjBE&w=640&h=385]

If you enjoy magic and/or you enjoy the TV show Castle I'd love to hear what you think of the show and especially this episode.

Thanks for reading

-Deacon

EMC 2010 Report - Just Another Magic Monday (Day 1)

The 15th through the 17th of July held a very special magical event. This event was the Essential Magic Conference. The first ever international online magic conference ( at least that's what I got from the marketing ).  At a price of just 55 euros, it was worth every penny before the end of the first day. One participant even mentioned in chat that it was worth the price after the first session. Speaking of the first day, so far that's all I have gotten through. Sure, I listened and watch parts of the sessions from days 2 and 3 as they were happening live but its taken until now for me to have the time to actually study the first 3 sessions from day 1. As of last Friday, all 9 sessions are available online as video on demand for people who signed up for the conference. So, if you missed this conference in real time you can still get more than your registration fee out of these videos.

As someone who still considers himself a novice magician, I gained loads from the first day( and even the first session) with speeches, performances and presentations form the likes of Lennart Greene, Barry & Stuart, Ponta the smith, Apollo Robbins, Gaetan Bloom, Max Maven and many more.

While I gained a lot from everybody, I gained the most from a magical duo I hadn't heard of before - Barry & Stuart. They had a first day speech entitled, "Everything We've Learned So Far" [Registration Required]. What drew me in the most was an idea that their presentation kept dancing around and they summed up in one of their final bullet points as:

If you want to subvert your art, you need to first learn your craft.

While I have never come across as much of a rebel who would want to subvert much of anything, I do have this constant need to make things my own and I latched on to many of their ideas. Barry and Stuart are 2 young guys who have worked hard and created a niche and name for themselves in magic. And while there are many performances from day 1 I'd like to show my readership ( Ponta the smith's performance in session 1 comes to mind ) - I don't have access and permission to do that. So, I've looked up an entertaining video of Barry and Stuart for my magical and muggle readership alike. Enjoy. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFSkpwLEi-A&w=500&h=405]

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Not Just Another Magic Monday

The weekend before last was a very magical weekend for me.  The local magic ring in my new home, Ring #199, had a weekend of 2 lectures, a magic show and a master class. All of which I had the pleasure of attending. The first lecture was an awesome lecture from Dan Harlan that was more about presentation than it was on any tricks. His background in drama came through clear and at times he had me in stitches. The second lecture followed a show by none other than Jeff McBride, my favorite magician. His show was more amazing in person than any recording I had seen, even if it was in a more intimate setting than a Masters of Illusion taping. In fact, the intimate setting and the fact that I'd seen some of these before made the show better. I had the chance to see, well...nothing. The routines and effects which I was unaware of how he accomplished them left me still unaware - though very entertained. Much of the audience were magicians and I can say that we were all entertained. He actually did sorcerer's apprentice on stage with a teenage magician and it came out quite funny without deviating much from any time I've seen it performed on video. [ad#Ellusionist] As if that show and the following lecture weren't enough I was lucky enough to be part of a 4 hour ( turned into 4.5 hour ) master class taught by Jeff Mcbride the following Sunday. In this class I was able to get a little taste of what it must be like at Mcbride's Magic and Mystery School out in Vegas. I learned a lot from this master class and I feel very lucky that I was able to attend.

However, this post is not about me gloating that I got to see my magical hero in person and learn from him. Instead I want to teach a lesson I learned from the weekend. If you want to learn to be a master you need to seek masters to learn from. For some that means making it out to Vegas to attend a Master Class at the Magic and Mystery School. For others it means heading to South America to learn from Juan Tamariz ( mentioned several times by Jeff ).

It may not be ( or at least it may not seem ) possible for you to do any of this right now. However, thanks to the power of the internet, the Magic and Mystery school can come to you. Now there is a Virtual Magic and Mystery school available for you to learn from the masters. I'm not sure how long they'll be doing this but you can sign up for a free trial and get a free lesson in magic from Jeff to see how the system works.

[flv:http://virtual.magicalwisdom.com/video/vms_promo.flv 480 360] [ad#Google Adsense]

Liu Qian - Just Another Magic Monday

Magic is international. In some of my previous JAMM posts I have shown some stage performances from magicians of different locales. Stage performances, especially card manipulation performances, don't usually require a lot of words.  More intimate performances, especially table performances, require quite a bit more banter to connect with the audience. However, the following video proves ( if you don't speak chinese at least ) that magic, and the language of "holy crap that's insanely awesome", doesn't require much more than body language to convey its message. Watch and be amazed...watch more and be amazed more..keep watching its worth seeing all of it :) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwVy_2eOfsE&w=500&h=300] [ad#Ellusionist]

Bill Malone and Sam the Bellhop

Before I got into magic there were a lot of magicians I had never heard of but should have. I still have many more to learn about. Of course, with magic there are so many types of magic that this fact is not that surprising. Many of my past Just Another Magic Monday posts have shown off card manipulators as I learned about some of them. However, recently I posted about Go Magic Go and the Royal Road to Card Magic. I did this because I've decided to make 2010 a magical year for me and those are the tools I am using myself to gain some magical confidence. The Royal Road to Card Magic isn't a book about card manipulation even if it does have some utility flourishes. Instead, it is a book about good old fashioned card magic.

For many people, card magic is the reason they think they don't like magic. Since card magic is so easy for people to get started at, many people learn the tricks but don't learn how to really perform them.  Without the performance a trick is just a trick and rarely, if ever, entertains. Thank goodness for my pro wrestling background, I already understand this fact.

Card magic can be extremely entertaining though. In the hands of the right performer, a simple deck of cards can be all someone needs to entertain any group of people. In the magical world many would say that Bill Malone is one of the best card magic entertainers there is. I only learned about him while talking with an old friend about my new journey into magic. In the following video Bill Malone does a lot of magic, but you may not even notice it because the routine is so entertaining.

Enjoy Bill Malone's - Sam the Bellhop

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GErpOl3KG_w&w=480&h=385] [ad#Ellusionist] If you liked this post please follow me on twitter and/or subscribe to my RSS feed. If you only want to see my JAMM posts you can subscribe to the Just Another Magic Monday Feed.

Go Magic Go down the Royal Road

As a magician, I can't in good conscious tip any methods on my blog because there is no way to tell if my reader is a magician or not. However, I am still a novice myself and I know how hard it is to find good methods to learn magic. So, I will gladly share some of the better ways I find to learn some magic if you too are wanting to learn the arcane arts ;) My JAMM posts are the perfect place to do this on occasion. Today's JAMM post, as you have probably already figured out, is me recommending the book The Royal Road to Card Magic. But that is not all. I didn't start making my way through this book until I came across an podcast series called Go Magic Go. Unfortunately, this podcast isn't still being created so you have to do a little, technical, leg work in order to find it. I've done the work for you so just point your RSS reader to http://thetrapdoor.libsyn.com/rss.

If you don't know what an RSS reader is, a great online tool is Google Reader. Just click the "Add A Subscription" button and add the URL above. While your at it, do the same with http://ducharme.cc to follow the blog you are currently reading.

Back to the topic at hand. The Royal Road To Card Magic is the book they work through in a special series of podcasts  Go Magic Go did for beginners. Even though the book is written well and you can get a lot out of it on your own, what you get from the beginner series podcasts is almost like a virtual magic mentor. You get tips for practicing, things to watch out for and other information that you would only get from making mistakes yourself.  I still haven't gotten through the book because I'm going quite slow ( as recommended by the Go Magic Go podcast ) and still was learning some very powerful techniques and tricks almost immediately.

Here is the first lesson to get you started:

For less than $10, this book is a gold mine of magical technique. It goes well with the fact that card magic is a nice inexpensive way to start learning magic theory. The Go Magic Go podcasts are free and come with a wealth of information for anyone serious about magic. So I highly recommend listening to more than just the Beginner Series podcasts. [ad#Ellusionist] If you liked this post please follow me on twitter and/or subscribe to my RSS feed. If you only want to see my JAMM posts you can subscribe to the Just Another Magic Monday Feed.

Lance Burton: glass and bottle routine

In honor of my last JAMM post of the year ( and decade for that matter ) I thought I would revisit the magician recognized in my first JAMM post ever. If you followed the link you realize that my Just Another Magic Monday posts go back before the start of this blog ( but not really that far back in time ). At the beginning of my personal magical journey I found Lance Burton, who is still one of my favorite magicians. He has a lot of great routines, so how does one choose a routine to share. As with comedy and magic, it's all about the timing. This being the JAMM post before people go out and celebrate the new year, possibly in a bar but most likely with some drinks, I thought I would show his Glass and Bottle routine. There may be more slick routines out there for this but Lance performs in a way that just makes it look easy. He is a true master magician. [ad#Ellusionist] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPELYkYsNk&w=500&h=405] If you liked this post please follow me on twitter and/or subscribe to my RSS feed. If you only want to see my JAMM posts you can subscribe to the Just Another Magic Monday Feed.

The Gift of Magic - Just another magic Monday

In my attempt to keep with the theme of the holiday season this week I tried to look for some holiday magic. A search for holiday magic in google let's you know all the different things that magic means to people. In some ways that is enlightening. Holiday or Christmas illusion does not yield much better results. Feeling a bit disheartened in my quest, I almost gave up. Then I remembered something I had heard from one of Jeff McBride's videos. Magic is a gift. Then I searched for ,"The Gift Of Magic". One of the first things I found was this video which shows how much of a gift it has been for one magician by the name of Bill Rollins. It seems he had the good fortune to attend McBride's Magic and Mystery School and decided to write a poem and share it via youTube as a thank you. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrOd-8tWhqg&w=500&h=405] This poem is awesome, and could almost move into one of my Wednesday Warriors posts. The issue of mentors is often a big missing in this world. But as they say

When the student is ready the teacher appears

For any of you interested in magic, here is a little Hogwart'sesque advertisement video for the school. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpZOHNkMmSg&w=500&h=405] [ad#Ellusionist] And for those of you buying gifts for the magician in your life ( eh, hem - I think my family knows who I am talking to :) ) and wish to give them the gift of magic they do have gift certificates available. For those of you more magically inclined though, remember that magic is a gift that we bring into people's lives. So give joyfully this holiday season.

Have a magical season :)