Number
868 - 11th February 2017
Franz
Harary will be holding a one-off lecture/Q&A session at the Blackpool
Convention on Sunday 19th at 4pm. It
will be streamed live on Facebook, allowing magicians at home to also join in
and ask any questions. See
www.franzharary.com
and
www.blackpoolmagic.com.
11.2.17
Tonight
with Trevor McDonald: Living in a Box. This week from the
MagicWeek Video Archive, a behind the scenes look at David Blaine's endurance
stunt from October 2003. See
The MagicWeek Video Archive. To catch up with past weeks and the occasional
'bonus' video
Click Here.
11.2.17
Magic Makes You Laugh Out Loud. "Clip show featuring the best and most hilarious antics of magic tricks going horribly wrong. From disappearance fails to dodgy tablecloth tricks, magical kids to animal magic, plus the magician who turned his usual routine into a marriage proposal, and the world record-breaking skydiving magician." Sunday 12th February on Channel 5. See TV Magic. 11.2.17
West
End Magic - Saturday 18th March. From the organisers: London's premier magic
show returns for 2017 with a star-studded selection of top UK magic and variety
acts including the latest BGT winner! The exciting family friendly show will
feature magician Lance Corporal Richard Jones, as seen on the Royal Variety
Performance and winner of 2016's Britain's Got Talent. Plus the conjuring feats
of Oliver Tabor, ‘King of Comedy Magic’ Christian Lee and gentlemen juggler
extraordinaire Ian Marchant. Guaranteed to deliver the best in magic, illusion,
comedy, juggling and variety! Booking line: 0207734 2222. Tickets:
www.leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com. West End Magic, Saturday 18th
March at 3.30pm, Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BX (Map).
11.2.17
Showzam
Central is an exciting free attraction as part of Blackpool’s Annual Showzam
Festival of Magic, Variety and Circus. From the organisers: Tipped by The Guardian newspaper, last
week, as one of the top ten family half-term attractions in the UK.
This year Showzam Central features the return of The Sideshows - Yvette The
Headless Lady, she moves, she breathes, she lives! She’s kept alive by the
miracles of modern medicine. See Cleo, a tiny five-inch tall girl swimming in a
Goldfish Bowl in her polka dot bikini. She is a real live girl! Dr Phantasma’s
Sideshow promises thrills, laughs and amazement with four performances a day of
a fire-juggling, whip-cracking, ladder-balancing show, packed with amazing
sights and stunts. And new at this year’s Showzam we are joined by Sam the Scam,
aka Russ Appleby, with his Bunko Booth that will challenge your senses – Heads
you Lose, Tails he Wins! If you’d like to run off to the Circus then you can try
juggling, unicycling , tightrope walking and much more with Circus Avago’s daily, free,
circus skills sessions. Melville and Catch’s Parlour of Prestidigitation and
Victorian Magic Shoppe will mystify and entertain you.
It’s all great fun! Winter Gardens, Blackpool,
Saturday 11th to Tuesday 14th February, 10am - 4pm, (shows at various times).
Free admission. See
www.visitblackpool.com/showzam
and www.sideshowillusions.com.
"10 years of magic, mayhem, music... and all that jazz!"
Click Here.
11.2.17
Trickster,
a documentary entertainment. Tim Bat is a fool. At least on stage. And it’s not
easy. It’s taken years of practice.
Trickster is a 72 minute documentary entertainment about a year in the life of
Tim Bat, entertainer extraordinaire! It’s the story of what it takes to be a
professional fool. Tim juggles, he yo-yos, he twirls his hat and brolly, he
delights audiences with his unruly puppets and his cowboy lasso - but will this
fool prevail?
From Brighton to Eastbourne to London and ultimately to Edinburgh for the Fringe
Festival, Brighton-based entertainer Tim Bat plies his trade on the stage, in
the streets and in shopping centres. On the way he meets his old
partners-in-crime Bodger and Badger (of children’s TV fame) and Romany, Diva of
Magic. As Birdyman he tramps the streets of Brighton selling whistles.
Arriving in Edinburgh with 10,000 leaflets for his show and a Birdy whistle on
his tongue, Tim begins his three-week run at the Fringe Festival. “I’ve got to
get people in to my show, but I’ve got to earn my money. Selling these is how I
pay for my dinners you see, literally. Hopefully it'll get noticed, and that’s
the point.”
Video: Click Here,
also see www.facebook.com/tricksterfilm.
The Tim Bat Trick Show can be seen at Brighton Fringe in May, see
www.timbat.co.uk for details.
11.2.17
Masterclass
Volume 3 from Magicseen Publications: As well as releasing the new book by
Chris Congreave called Congreave's Curiosities at the Blackpool Convention on
Thursday 16th February, Magicseen is also pleased to announce the publication of
Masterclass Volume 3. The Masterclass section in Magicseen magazine is where in
each issue we publish a small number of quality effects for readers to try.
Every four years, we collect together all of the routines and ideas from the
period and publish them in a convenient stand alone book. At Blackpool we will
be releasing all 51 effects from years 9-12 of Magicseen (issues 49-72), and
making them available as a 100 page A4 size comb bound book. The material is
varied and covers close up, stand up, mentalism and children's routines, and
includes many colour photos amongst the illustrations. With such top names as
Andy Nyman, David Regal, Chris Rawlins, Boris Wild, Mel Mellers, Pit Hartling,
John Bannon, Vincent Hedan, Thomas Fraps, Dan Garrett, Anthony Owen and many
others contributing, you know that you are in for a treat. The printed book will
be available from the 16th February, but the download version is already
available for purchase and, until the 13th February, the download edition is
delivered free to anyone who pre-orders the aforementioned Congreave's
Curiosities book. More information:
www.magic.forgecom.info/magbooks.htm.
11.2.17
The
Card Collection at Blackpool 2017. Clive Leewarden writes: It's Blackpool time again. The Card Collection will be attending, and
will be in
the usual place with some amazing knockdown sale prices on Books, DVDs and
tricks.
Don't forget to come and see us and go home with some amazing sale bargains.
If you want us to bring anything special for you let us know before we leave on
Wednesday morning. See you all there!
www.cards4magic.co.uk.
11.2.17
Catch up with Katherine. Katherine Mills: Mind Games is currently being repeated on W, see TV Magic. 11.2.17
Mel
Harvey is trading in his role of Spellcaster for a Stradcaster when he takes his
guitar and joins his comedy show band, 'The Meltones' for a special fundraiser
for the Shakespeare Hospice in Stratford upon Avon next month. Mel who has been
Sooty's vocal/guitarist since touring with Harry Corbett in the seventies and
for the last four years for Richard Cadell in the annual IBM shows is now
going for a little older audience. Mel was recently given a Long Service Award from The Hospice where he is a
volunteer in the Diversional Therapy department.
The show is being held at The Bear Pit Theatre in Stratford upon Avon on
Saturday 18th March at 7.30pm and tickets are now available from The Royal
Shakespeare Theatre and The Bear Pit Hotline: 01789 403416. Price £12 and £10
for concessions.
The first half of the show will feature comedy magic and audience participation
from Mel's cruise show, and the second half will feature Mel and his five-piece band
including well known Pop Stars! Mel looks forward to meeting friends old and new at next week's Blackpool
Convention.
11.2.17
New
for E-Club Pro Members! Mark Leveridge writes: The content stored on the
E-Club Pro Members' Only web pages now reaches almost 650 pages, most of it
video, and it provides a truly comprehensive database of ideas, advice and
information for online learning drawn from Mark Leveridge's 35 years experience
as a pro. Recently there have been some additions to the benefits enjoyed by the
worldwide membership. Firstly, there is now a new section called the Audio
Booth, in which each month an audio extract from one of Mark's range of
informational Audio Books is posted. Currently the Going Walkabout Audio Book is
being serialised here. The second new benefit, is that now members receive a 10%
refund on all full price orders that they make with MLM. E-Club Pro Elite
members, who belong to the enhanced version of E-Club Pro, have always
benefitted from a 20% refund, so the 10% offered to regular E-Club Pro members
brings them more into line with their Elite colleagues. Membership to E-Club Pro
is available via an automated monthly PayPal payment and there is no fixed
subscription period, so you can stay as long as you like. With so much great
magic content to enjoy, with updates and additions every single month, and with
access to the monthly E-Video Newsletter at no extra charge, E-Club Pro really
is a great way to supercharge your magic life every month. For more information
and to sign up, please go to
www.markleveridge.co.uk/eclubpro.php.
11.2.17
Hey, we're Colm and Greg, one a student of
Theology and the other of Philosophy and Economics. Having met by chance in
First Year, we have since become an inseparable duo, bound by our love of magic
and the struggles we face in pursuing such a perilous occupation. On our quest
to victory in Jailbreak 2017, you will see the feeble yet valiant attempts of
two failing artists, desperately trying to muster enough cash through second-rate busking and cheap props (we're stocking up on squirty flowers) to push us
through to our European destination, all in the aid of charity. But be aware,
behind the jovial facade, we are serious competitors and will do anything - even
use sleight of hand - in order to win. For more information visit
www.jailbreakrace.com/teams/team42.php and
www.facebook.com.
Both are members of the Society of Irish Magicians
and this year we are promoting St.Vincent DePaul and Amnesty International, as
well as the art of magic.
11.2.17
Wolverhampton
Circle of Magicians' annual competition. On
Wednesday 1st February, the Wolverhampton Circle of Magicians held their annual
competition for members who have joined in the last 5 years. This popular
competition for the William Stevens Shield, was deservedly won by Mitch Gibbons,
who also won our Pocket Tricks Drive in December. Well done Mitch! President,
Adam Cooper presented the trophy.
Sue Oakley. www.wcm-magic.com.
11.2.17
Adam
Hudson: Tricks From the Library, The Cumbrian Magic Circle, Carlisle. Adam
Hudson loves learning magic from books. He has spent twenty years studying many
genres of magic, just using things you already own or can
easily obtain. He will share many of these discoveries in his new lecture
'Tricks from the Library' at The Cumbrian Magic Circle, Houghton Village Hall
near Carlisle on Tuesday, 14th February from 7.30pm to 10pm. For more info and
directions visit
www.cumbrianmagiccircle.co.uk. Visitors welcome for a small £5 fee.
11.2.17
Wayne
Fox lecture - Farnborough Society of Magical Entertainers. From the
organisers: Wayne
Fox lectures at the Farnborough Society of Magical Entertainers on Monday
13th February. Doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Guests £5. Please
contact the treasurer Mike Simpson and join us for what will be a fantastic
night with one of the UK’s top magicians.
www.fame-magic.co.uk.
11.2.17
Help
raise £2000 to allow a small group of disabled people to visit the Blackpool
Magic Convention in 2018. Organiser JJ Lucia-wright writes: In 2003 I
started to adapt and perform magic so it could be accessed by visually impaired
people. This started of as a bit of an experiment to hopefully create inclusion.
I performed and taught magic specifically to and for blind and deafblind people
(both deaf and blind). Many years have passed and this continues to grow and
grow - I have toured with Jimmy (see pictures) as my assistant, Jimmy was born
deaf and went blind at the age of 18 - he is now 48. We performed for Sense,
plus various disability groups up and down the country. Jimmy was lucky to
attend the Blackpool Magic Convention twice, many years ago, with thanks to
funding from Derren Brown, Kaymar Magic, Uri Geller, Beard Juggling and The
Berglas Magic Foundation. This was an amazing opportunity for him and opened up
many doors. We continue to teach magic to disabled adults and adults with
learning difficulties and would really like to organise it for 2 of them to
attend the Blackpool Convention in 2018. Please visit
www.justgiving.com for more information and to contribute.
11.2.17
Don Quest. Tom Trix of Copenhagen writes: This is to tell you that Don Q has passed, he was running Don's Magic Studio for many years and was also a friend of mine. Basil was alive until he was 91 years old. According to my information the funeral will take place on 13th February. www.tomtrix.dk. 11.2.17
News
Deadline next week. Please submit news by 12 noon Thursday 16th for Saturday
18th February. DT.
11.2.17
"World Record Price - Houdini Poster"
Click Here
• "David Copperfield: How He Became The World's Most Successful
Magician"
Click Here • "Debbie McGee reveals she’s finally ready to do magic
on TV again after husband Paul Daniels’ death"
Click Here • "The magic of politics: the irrationality of rational
people"
Click Here • "Matt Tarrant: From Survivor to Fringe World"
Click Here • "Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show, The Riverfront,
Newport"
Click Here • "Telly psychic Uri Geller fixed my lad’s Xbox over the
airwaves says amazed mum"
Click Here • "Was Uri Geller bending the truth? CIA files reveal
secrets of a ‘psychic spy"
Click Here • "Uri Geller is extraordinary - Oswestry ironwork boss"
Click Here • "Michael Carbonaro Lies About Everything—Except Being
Gay"
Click Here • "Debbie McGee reveals Nigel Havers has become her
‘personal counsellor’ after the death of husband Paul Daniels"
Click Here • "Magician Steven Brundage talks America's Got Talent,
future"
Click Here • "Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell work magic on readers"
Click Here • "The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir: Berenice Bejo
roped in for Dhanush's film"
Click Here • "Comedy magician John Archer appearing in Blandford"
Click Here • "Ely Business awards magician wins country’s top Magic
Circle award"
Click Here • "Magician Martin Rees completes 11 tricks while
skydiving over Old Sarum"
Click Here • "Magic men need no assistance"
Click Here • "Family, friends gather for Celebration of Life for
Tony Sacca at Stratosphere Showroom"
Click Here • "Criss Angel has Belinda's name tattooed on his chest"
Click Here • "Black Rabbit Rose Revives the Magic Theater in
Hollywood"
Click Here • Thanks for all your news this week - see you next week, Duncan.
11.2.17