From the editor

From the Editor

Lots of contributions this month, inlcuding some "old" ones, thanks to everyone for them.

In the last few weeks we managed to take some time off and drive up the East Coast.  I managed to squeeze in 2 Monday Night magic's, as we were just outside New York twice on a Monday night.  I attended a couple of their shows a number of years ago, when they were in a small theater in Greenwich village. At that time there were about 30-40 in the audience. Now they have moved uptown to the theater district and both of the shows that I attended were sold out with almost 200 seats. Ther reason for their success is obvious, the show is professional, but different every week and so there are many repeat visitors.

Although they have moved, they continue with one of their traditions, close magic during the interval. However now they have three magicians performing in different locations in the theater, including the producers, Micheal Chaut and Ian Jamy Swiss. Just before my vacation I also attended another performance at the Comedy and Mystery Society (formerly Wednesday Night Wizardry), a cousin of MDM in the Washington DC area.  I was glad to see that thier performances are also much better attended than in the past, also growing from 15-20 to 50-70.  I do not know whether this is due to the weather, or might it be due to more magic on TV, and specifically that of Criss Angel?  I know that many have berated his shows in the past, and I would agree that much of his first season was more of the extreme stunts than magic.  However, this second season he has focussed on true magical effects, and his shows are far more entertaining. There is some discussion about the use camera angles to assist with effects, but as we always say, the method should not be the measure of success, but the entertainment factor.  And to judge by my own family, they find it very entertaining and have placed him on our DVR list.  See also Dennis' Deliberations below for further discussion about Criss!

The ring was saddened by the loss of two magicians in the last few weeks. Personally I had met and talked with James at club functions.  He was always very friendly and I am sorry that I never made it to SeaWorld to see him perform there. Both of them will be missed.

Stefan