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Sunday, June 24, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
2007-06 Famulus newsletter of IBM Ring 170
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 06/20/2007 at 7:30 PM SHARP
Board meeting at 6:30 pm
Meeting theme: Patriotic Magic (break out the Red, White and Blue Magic in honor of the upcoming July 4th holiday)
Marks Street Center, 99 Mark Street, downtown Orlando
If you visit with us and do not know the room we meet in , please be aware that some of the people in the office at the Senior Center may not be aware we are meeting there! At the last meeting one visitor asked where the "IBM" was meeting and the management apparently thought they were asking for the International Business Machines group! They said that there was no "IBM" on the schedule. So, if you have never been to our ring meeting , please say "magicians" or "FAME" and if that doesn't get the room location , just walk around looking for us. The Senior Center is a public building.
Lunch meetings every Tuesday at noon at Goodings (next to the food court)
Website: http://www.ring170.com/
F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Art Thomas – Treasurer – Art.Thomas@Disney.com
Dennis Philips- Secretary – Dennis@alliedcostumes.com
James Songster- Director at Large, - JjTjMagic@aol.com
Joe Vecciarelli- Sgt at Arms - talkingmute@tampabay.rr.com
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************
GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print. Please, please, please, use the above e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 06/20/2007 at 7:30 PM SHARP
Board meeting at 6:30 pm
Meeting theme: Patriotic Magic (break out the Red, White and Blue Magic in honor of the upcoming July 4th holiday)
Marks Street Center, 99 Mark Street, downtown Orlando
If you visit with us and do not know the room we meet in , please be aware that some of the people in the office at the Senior Center may not be aware we are meeting there! At the last meeting one visitor asked where the "IBM" was meeting and the management apparently thought they were asking for the International Business Machines group! They said that there was no "IBM" on the schedule. So, if you have never been to our ring meeting , please say "magicians" or "FAME" and if that doesn't get the room location , just walk around looking for us. The Senior Center is a public building.
Lunch meetings every Tuesday at noon at Goodings (next to the food court)
Website: http://www.ring170.com/
F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Art Thomas – Treasurer – Art.Thomas@Disney.com
Dennis Philips- Secretary – Dennis@alliedcostumes.com
James Songster- Director at Large, - JjTjMagic@aol.com
Joe Vecciarelli- Sgt at Arms - talkingmute@tampabay.rr.com
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************
GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print. Please, please, please, use the above e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
2007-06 From the Editor
Well, we are already half way through the year, time to start making your preparations for the holiday season rush. But your thoughts are probably more focussed on the upcoming vacation period.
Lots of good magic events over the last few weeks, but as summer comes up things will slow down. But watch your email, as the reminders will continue to appear as events are organized.
Thanks to this month's contributors, hopefully your articles will not slow down over the next few weeks.
Greetings from Winnipeg, Canada
Stefan
Lots of good magic events over the last few weeks, but as summer comes up things will slow down. But watch your email, as the reminders will continue to appear as events are organized.
Thanks to this month's contributors, hopefully your articles will not slow down over the next few weeks.
Greetings from Winnipeg, Canada
Stefan
2007-06 Ring Report Ring #170 The Bev Bergeron Ring
The month of May is often special in our ring because we begin to get an influx of tourist magicians who pay us a visit. We always enjoy visitors. President Craig Fennessey gaveled the meeting to order and we had three guests. From the Ireland and England area, we had Quinton Reynolds who later treated us to his great signature routine. Rebecca and Mary Lynn Dillon also were with us and plan on joining the ring. Treasurer , Art Thomas, said we had the best attended Flea Market in years and he was happy with the balance sheet. Craig announced the upcoming lectures and Dan Stapleton filled us in on the recent show at The Villages in which some of our members performed. Dan also attended the Chicago auction for Jay Marshall's estate and the concurrent Magic Collector's convention.
Following the business meeting, Secretary Dennis Phillips presented a mini-lecture on spoon-bending. He did many of the classic moves and then demonstrated plastic spoon bending that can be done impromptu at a picnic or school cafeteria.
Kerry Pierce, "KP" acted as this month's Emcee for the monthly show. The theme was Rope magic. He opened up with a knot that fell off the rope and moved into some clever vanishing knots and ended with his version of Bob Sheet's Hang 'em High Rope through the Body. Charlie Pfrogner brought his classic Block off the Rope and applied some clever patter about stopping the block from sliding down the rope. Dan Stapleton re-presented the same, but improved, "Bank-Night" effect he did at last month's ring show. It is a Bruce Bernstein and Barry Richardson effect. The response was great.
Director at Large, James Songster presented a version of Nick Trost trick where every card in the deck has a name. In this case the spectator chose a card named "Yensid". James explained that Yensid is a character from Disney movie and is, in fact, "Disney" spelled backwards. "Ms. Tanna", guest Rebecca Dillon, presented a card trick that featured a clever adaptation of a technique usually used in mentalism. She was able to know a card the spectator chose by them naming a number at random and counting in a circle of cards. Ms. Tanna is a young lady with a wonderful smile and bubbling personality.
Finally, our guest from the British Isles, Quenton Reynolds treated us to two of his classic routines. The first was the classic "Rope with Four Ends" woven into a great story about how Marmaduke got four stars in school. He then went into a handkerchief act that was a comic masterpiece. Think Dave Williamson's "Rocky" along with Chapeauography. Quenton got a solid 5 minutes out of a simple handkerchief and twisting, folding and puppeting. He has a DVD available.
The show concluded with Bev Bergeron prsenting his classic Sympathetic Match Boxes.
What a treat from all of this month's performers! Good things are always happening in Ring 170.
Dennis Phillips
Following the business meeting, Secretary Dennis Phillips presented a mini-lecture on spoon-bending. He did many of the classic moves and then demonstrated plastic spoon bending that can be done impromptu at a picnic or school cafeteria.
Kerry Pierce, "KP" acted as this month's Emcee for the monthly show. The theme was Rope magic. He opened up with a knot that fell off the rope and moved into some clever vanishing knots and ended with his version of Bob Sheet's Hang 'em High Rope through the Body. Charlie Pfrogner brought his classic Block off the Rope and applied some clever patter about stopping the block from sliding down the rope. Dan Stapleton re-presented the same, but improved, "Bank-Night" effect he did at last month's ring show. It is a Bruce Bernstein and Barry Richardson effect. The response was great.
Director at Large, James Songster presented a version of Nick Trost trick where every card in the deck has a name. In this case the spectator chose a card named "Yensid". James explained that Yensid is a character from Disney movie and is, in fact, "Disney" spelled backwards. "Ms. Tanna", guest Rebecca Dillon, presented a card trick that featured a clever adaptation of a technique usually used in mentalism. She was able to know a card the spectator chose by them naming a number at random and counting in a circle of cards. Ms. Tanna is a young lady with a wonderful smile and bubbling personality.
Finally, our guest from the British Isles, Quenton Reynolds treated us to two of his classic routines. The first was the classic "Rope with Four Ends" woven into a great story about how Marmaduke got four stars in school. He then went into a handkerchief act that was a comic masterpiece. Think Dave Williamson's "Rocky" along with Chapeauography. Quenton got a solid 5 minutes out of a simple handkerchief and twisting, folding and puppeting. He has a DVD available.
The show concluded with Bev Bergeron prsenting his classic Sympathetic Match Boxes.
What a treat from all of this month's performers! Good things are always happening in Ring 170.
Dennis Phillips
2007-06 Don Masters....from Bondi
Kudos to Dan Stapleton and his colleagues for organizing such a warm tribute event to 3 of Central Florida's most generous magicians. Mr. Stapleton was the perfect "Dick Cavett" style host, whose admiration for each honoree was plainly evident. Bravo!
Don Masters, one of the guests of honor, taught me so much that I was glad to be able to thank him in person. Over twenty years ago, I met Mr. Masters at Paramount Theatrical, now known as Pizazz. It was there that I learned not to just perform tricks but to entertain. Don later hired me to cover his days off at a Church St. Station magic booth. For over 4 months, I honed my skills demonstrating both beginner and professional close-up magic effects. I did not do it for the money. I did it for the experience. It paid off by improving my stage presence which has served me well ever since. And yes, I too perform Don Master's 5-Card Version of Wild Card to the delight of lay audiences and magicians.
Two quick stories: In 1981, Mr. Masters was recovering at Florida Hospital from a minor illness. When I went to donate blood, the hospital staff had a difficult time locating a Mr. "Don Masters." Well, after a quick phone call to Clarence of Paramount, my donation was correctly credited to a Mr. Douglas Cameron! Hey, who knew?
More recently, I was performing close-up at the Fashion Square Target store, when a friendly elderly lady named Emma approached me to say, "I'm going steady with a magician." Her enthusiasm and words made me chuckle inside. Then I asked who was her boyfriend. "Don Masters." she said blushing like a school girl. Wow, I thought. Forget about my card skills. If my wife is half that giddy about me when we are older, I will have really learned Don Master's true magical secret!
Thanks Don! :)
Bondi
Don Masters, one of the guests of honor, taught me so much that I was glad to be able to thank him in person. Over twenty years ago, I met Mr. Masters at Paramount Theatrical, now known as Pizazz. It was there that I learned not to just perform tricks but to entertain. Don later hired me to cover his days off at a Church St. Station magic booth. For over 4 months, I honed my skills demonstrating both beginner and professional close-up magic effects. I did not do it for the money. I did it for the experience. It paid off by improving my stage presence which has served me well ever since. And yes, I too perform Don Master's 5-Card Version of Wild Card to the delight of lay audiences and magicians.
Two quick stories: In 1981, Mr. Masters was recovering at Florida Hospital from a minor illness. When I went to donate blood, the hospital staff had a difficult time locating a Mr. "Don Masters." Well, after a quick phone call to Clarence of Paramount, my donation was correctly credited to a Mr. Douglas Cameron! Hey, who knew?
More recently, I was performing close-up at the Fashion Square Target store, when a friendly elderly lady named Emma approached me to say, "I'm going steady with a magician." Her enthusiasm and words made me chuckle inside. Then I asked who was her boyfriend. "Don Masters." she said blushing like a school girl. Wow, I thought. Forget about my card skills. If my wife is half that giddy about me when we are older, I will have really learned Don Master's true magical secret!
Thanks Don! :)
Bondi
2007-06 Exposure in Gatlinburg
Just returned from Gatlinburg, Tenn. where there is a small walk-through attraction called World of Ilusions. It's located right on Main Street, costs $6.95 to go through and takes 20 min. It reminded me of the old Mystery Fun House in Orlando. Most of the "special effects" were the same Pepper's Ghost illusion but with different themes (Dracula turning into a bat, Frankenstein appearing in a window, Elvis turning into stone etc.) What I did not appreciate was the blatant exposure of the thumb tip (on video) and the "cut-aways" of some of close-ups most guarded secrets. Yes, they are the cheap versions that we have all seen and had from magic kits but there were many exposed...not good reason in an attraction like this. I can only hope that the average person doesn't really understand what each of the effects are supposed to do or look like, therefore, passing by those windows since there were no demonstrations of the effects. But the cut-outs were obvious and if anyone stands there for a minute to study its intent, they will see, although perhaps (and hopefully) not absorb, the secret.
Shame on the attraction owner, Wes Esterbrook, who is probably wealthy from the three other attractions he also owns in the area. For someone to have this kind of $$ to put an attraction like this in operation (the lease on the building more than likely far exceeds the cost of putting all the exhibits into it), I don't understand why he doesn't pay an expert to add finer optical illusions to this "museum" rather than hurting those who still perform those classic tricks.
Dan Stapleton
Shame on the attraction owner, Wes Esterbrook, who is probably wealthy from the three other attractions he also owns in the area. For someone to have this kind of $$ to put an attraction like this in operation (the lease on the building more than likely far exceeds the cost of putting all the exhibits into it), I don't understand why he doesn't pay an expert to add finer optical illusions to this "museum" rather than hurting those who still perform those classic tricks.
Dan Stapleton
2007-06 Change of EMAIL Address
Effective immediately: Please change my email address to
knappd@mindspring.com
Use that address for Helen as well.
If you received this notice before, or receive multiple copies, pleasse
understand the challenges of managing email accounts and feel free to
exercise your delete key.
Dan Knapp
knappd@mindspring.com
Use that address for Helen as well.
If you received this notice before, or receive multiple copies, pleasse
understand the challenges of managing email accounts and feel free to
exercise your delete key.
Dan Knapp
2007-06 Rocky Raccoon and a Way of Thinking
Rocky Raccoon instantly captures the attention and interest of kids from 2 - 90. Why is that? Because he is different and yet plausible. I have had people from babies to Mensans keep grins on their face while Rocky goes through his paces. (Note the wording - Rocky goes through his paces, I don't put him through his paces - it's an attitude!)
Now, I am strictly an amateur magician but I have learned some lessons from working with Rocky.
People accept Rocky as long as I treat him as I would a living animal. He keeps moving and I pet him while talking to people. If someone walks by, he watches them. His head follows the conversation.
At our annual banquet I brought Rocky out and an unnamed magician made the statement that Rocky is just too hard to sell as real. Is that to say everything else we do in a magic show is real, or that the audience believes it is real? People like Rocky, they make him real in their own minds; good enough.
People ask questions, but the questions, as worded, open the door for some diabolical slight of mouth. People just don't ask what they really want to know; we can work with that error to our advantage.
The invariable question "Is he real?" takes me back to Kenton Knepper's Wonder Words. It isn't the answer given, but the effect the answer has on the questioner. I have taken to answering the question by: "He's as real as he gets." What does that
mean? Search me! I flippantly said it one time and noted the odd reaction. Cha-ching bank that one! Yet, people do not pursue the question further. Obviously, Rocky is real; he is a real spring animal.
The intended question of course is "Is he alive?" Strangely, people seldom ask that question. My answer to that question is: "He thinks so." The point though is that people don't ask the questions they really want answered. They will ask a related question, one that we can answer in ways that build mental illusions.
What questions do you get during your performance? How can you give direct questions to the words used and not address the questioner's intent? Find your answers and add to the humor and illusion of your act.
Dan
Dan Knapp
Now, I am strictly an amateur magician but I have learned some lessons from working with Rocky.
People accept Rocky as long as I treat him as I would a living animal. He keeps moving and I pet him while talking to people. If someone walks by, he watches them. His head follows the conversation.
At our annual banquet I brought Rocky out and an unnamed magician made the statement that Rocky is just too hard to sell as real. Is that to say everything else we do in a magic show is real, or that the audience believes it is real? People like Rocky, they make him real in their own minds; good enough.
People ask questions, but the questions, as worded, open the door for some diabolical slight of mouth. People just don't ask what they really want to know; we can work with that error to our advantage.
The invariable question "Is he real?" takes me back to Kenton Knepper's Wonder Words. It isn't the answer given, but the effect the answer has on the questioner. I have taken to answering the question by: "He's as real as he gets." What does that
mean? Search me! I flippantly said it one time and noted the odd reaction. Cha-ching bank that one! Yet, people do not pursue the question further. Obviously, Rocky is real; he is a real spring animal.
The intended question of course is "Is he alive?" Strangely, people seldom ask that question. My answer to that question is: "He thinks so." The point though is that people don't ask the questions they really want answered. They will ask a related question, one that we can answer in ways that build mental illusions.
What questions do you get during your performance? How can you give direct questions to the words used and not address the questioner's intent? Find your answers and add to the humor and illusion of your act.
Dan
Dan Knapp
2007-06 Dennis' Deliberations
Ring #258 is in Leesburg and is our first cousin. A number of our members in Ring #170 are also active in Ring #258. So it would not be unusual that the recent Leesburg sponsored stage show had representatives from Orlando. Roger Reid and Chris Dunn did a hilarious politically incorrect sketch. Okay I will say it! It was about a Polish magician (Gruchnick) and his assistant (Maryshka) played by Chris Dunn in drag (don't read anything into that) . Magic Ian did a bit. Dan Dyer was on stage as well as our former ring president, Richard Hewitt with a nice dove and rabbit act. In such an eclectic evening performance as The Savannah Center Show at The Villages, stacking the acts and pacing are important.
The real star and glue that held the show together was comedy magician and emcee, Jim Moody. Jim's comedy approach is to use a barrage of one-liners , a running gag of teasing a couple of male audience members on the front row and self-effacing humor. "Mike, your babysitter is on the phone. She wants to know where you keep the fire-extinguisher!" Anyone will quickly surrender to this classic schtick and have fun. Jim, is a seasoned performer and was loved by the older crowd.
Our own ring member , Kendrix Adcock , was the big act and star illusionist . He asked me to help him stage The Asrah Levitation as his finale illusion at the end of the show. Now you know how I got to be backstage at the April 25th show . We used his Asrah table but the rigging was from my prop collection.
The Asrah Levitation was created near the turn of the 20th century by Servais LeRoy. Jean Henri Servais LeRoy was born in Spa, Belgium, May 4, 1865. He died at the ripe old age of 88. LeRoy's creations include The Asrah, the Duck Pan, Stolen Jam (now called the Palanquin ), The Costume Trunk, The Magical Farm Yard and The Master Tray. His contributions to stage magic were monumental. He invented the wedge-base in illusions and was masterful in his use of elastic webbed traps. (today we use spandex) The Asrah Levitation has the lady laying on a table and covered with a light cloth. She floats up 10 feet high and vanishes in mid air as the magician pulls off her cloth cover.
The Asrah demands a complicated stage rigging, lighting and expert coordination. Earlier versions of the Asrah were rigged a bit different from the modern versions but they all basically work the same way. I have been performing and staging the illusion for 40 years.
The secret is well-known: A bed-table is used and the female assistant reclines on it and sinks into it. A thin and lightweight wire form that looks like her profile is placed where she is supposed to be laying. It is covered with a thin cloth . She is wheeled off stage unknown to the audience. The form is suspended by four threads from a pipe baton high above the stage. In front of the baton is a "border" curtain that hangs down about 4 feet from another baton about 3 feet in front of the baton that is suspending the wire form. The border hides the black painted wire form when it is in the "up position".
That is not all! There needs to be a patterned curtain as a backdrop in back of the whole illusion to hide the threads. Since the 1950s and the invention of Mylar *, most illusionists now use a sparkly "rain curtain". So don't think that everybody is going to be doing this illusion! I forgot to mention that there needs to be an expert puppeteer standing behind one of the curtain legs on the side of the stage "flying" the form with a control rope. Timing is critical. Also the lighting is vital. It almost demands a "followspot" for proper lighting. In fact, I own an expensive followspot mostly so I can perform this illusion properly.
The Asrah has to be the perfect illusion. It has no "emotionally low" parts. Most levitations emotionally fall flat when the lady floats back down. It is anti-climactic. With The Asrah she flies up 10 feet and she vanishes in mid-air. Dr. Thaddeus Seymour, former president of Rollins College and a magician, once told me that his dream was to one day perform the Asrah. So far I haven't had the chance to set it up at the Annie Russell Theater on campus and have him experience the joy of pulling off the cloth cover and hearing the audience gasp!
As it is in life, things don't always go according to plan but experience, skill and ingenuity go a long way to getting back on track. The Savannah Center Theater is not so much as theater as it is a multi-purpose room with a stage. The stage has a 20' by 40' proscenium but it has no grid or flying system. Thus, we had to hang the batons on the top of the fixed curtain system by using a tall wheeled scaffold. Kendrix's helper Jim, was the brave soul that scaled the 20 feet and hung all the system. It was a
2 hour set up for just the pipe batons. Challenge number two was that the mid-stage traveler curtain was too close to where we had to rest the form on the floor during the beginning of the performance, so we had to use a half dozen stage stands to tilt the curtain back at an angle.
Challenge number three: I don't have a 20 foot high Mylar rain curtain so we had to pin my 12 foot by 18 foot rain curtain onto the Black Commando Cloth traveler.
Finally, after close to three hours, we had the Asrah ready to work. We went over the stage cues and the lighting cues with the lighting director and followspot operator and Kendrix. A quick walk-through and light check and we had to surrender the stage to the rest of the acts and their tech rehearsal.
Kendrix likes to set the mood for his opening illusion , The Quantum Leap ( a Modernistic type Palanquin), by using two large floor-mounted ornate candle-stands with lit candles. Jim Moody informed us that any kind of fire was forbidden. Bummer! Since the Rhode Island Night Club Fire a few years back, fire is now mostly forbidden on all theater stages, so folks toss away your Fantasio candles, Fire Cages and Dove Pans. Magic Ian had to slash his act to follow the rules.
Ken's choreography was done by Joannie Spina ( Copperfield's chief female assistant for years) and reflects a visual jazz and ballet fusion to the sound of rock music. Ken's two female dancers were superb in action on stage as was Michelle, Ken's wife and efficient backstage prop coordinator. Also well-trained was Anthony and Glen Foster as his male assistants. Glen is also an illusionist with his own show.
Illusions performed were Quantum Leap, Modern Art, Origami, The Blue Box, Twister, Arm-Vanish, Bits and Pieces and Asrah. Here is a montage on You-Tube of some of the illusions Kendix did at The Villages.
There were two shows, and early and a late. During the first show, we were very rushed in spotting the Asrah table and form and the back threads got twisted . As the form arose , I pulled the cord and it went up slightly tilted forward. Of course, I was in a panic with no way to communicate what to do to Ken and he was equally mortified. (Make a note! Next time have at least one assistant on stage with an ear piece to communicate with the stage coordinator).
The form rose up about 6 feet with an increasing tilt and when I felt that it was going to arbitrarily dump the cloth, I gave a pull and made her vanish. Spectators that watched the action from the front said that no one was the wiser that we were not doing the full classic Asrah vanish. The effect was that she rose and vanished with the cloth falling into Ken's hands.
On the second show, everything worked perfect. As Thurston said in his patter, "She vanished like a fading cloud!". This Asrah performance was captured on tape and hopefully will be on You Tube. All the other illusions went off flawlessly and Ken got a lot of compliments from the crowds and fellow performers. I was pleased.
Illusionists need to have a complete understanding of the age demographics of their illusion audience. That issue is more important that ever in today's magic climate. Ken was "right on" with the age of the crowd. Ken's style is still popular in Las Vegas, and Convention and Cruise venues but changes are happening as the younger generation replaces us old folks.
I found out this past month that younger audiences 15 to 20 are not at all enthusiastic about the illusion styles of the 80s and mid 90s. As many of you know, I am a fill-in teacher for Orange County Public Schools. Because of my qualifications in science I took a job for the final 6 weeks of the school year finishing up for a resigned teacher that had 2 honors Chemistry and 2 Integrated Science classes. The last day of class, after the test review, I told the science class that I would show them some examples of magic illusions to inspire critical thinking about what they see.
First of all "critical thinking" is a lost art for most high school students today. The biggest shocker to me was how much they loved Criss Angel and to a lesser degree David Blaine and how they hated almost everything from David Copperfield and the mid 90s "World's Greatest Magic" series. They poked fun at the dancing, the illusions and the style of that mid 90s series. I can not repeat what they said about Jeff Hobson and James Dimmar! The only "hit" of those show samples was "The Amazing Jonathan".
On a final note: The Kendrix Show was packed and out of the theater well within the time limit. The secret was that he uses a large utility trailer and the props are rolled off and rolled on with very little time-consuming assembly and disassembly. Almost all small-crew illusionists (Stan Kramien, Mark Evans, Phil Morris, Vince Carmen et.al.) simply carry a big enough vehicle to do this. It saves time and wear and tear on the props. If you can afford a large stage crew and you have over-built props then full crates can be the option. The advantage of crates is that if you roll your truck or trailer, your props will probably survive. Don't laugh! This has happened to Bill Neff,David Copperfield, Andre Kole and others.
Next month I will walk down the memory lane of my 33 years in Orlando with stories of Harry Wise, Lee Bernard, Clarence Godwin, Wayne Scott, Michael Ramm, J.L. Harding, Joe Conrad, Carlton Beck, Mark O'Brien, Bev Bergeron and Dan Stapleton's 1976 Halloween Show in the Lake Eola band shell where we accidentally played "musical white shirts"!
Dennis Phillips
*Dupont's polyester research lead to a whole range of trademarked products, one example is Mylar (1952), an extraordinarily strong polyester (PET) film that grew out of the development of Dacron in the early 1950s. Polyesters can be formed from ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Polyethylene terephthalate is the basis of synthetic fibers such as Dacron, and terylene. Polyester film (PETF) is a semi-crystalline film used in many applications such as videotape, high quality packaging, professional photographic printing, X-ray film, floppy disks, Magic Asrah Rain curtains etc. Polyesters are made from chemical substances found mainly in petroleum and are manufactured into fibers, films, and plastics. With the rising price of oil, look for big increases in the costs of these products.
Source from: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpolyester.htm
The real star and glue that held the show together was comedy magician and emcee, Jim Moody. Jim's comedy approach is to use a barrage of one-liners , a running gag of teasing a couple of male audience members on the front row and self-effacing humor. "Mike, your babysitter is on the phone. She wants to know where you keep the fire-extinguisher!" Anyone will quickly surrender to this classic schtick and have fun. Jim, is a seasoned performer and was loved by the older crowd.
Our own ring member , Kendrix Adcock , was the big act and star illusionist . He asked me to help him stage The Asrah Levitation as his finale illusion at the end of the show. Now you know how I got to be backstage at the April 25th show . We used his Asrah table but the rigging was from my prop collection.
The Asrah Levitation was created near the turn of the 20th century by Servais LeRoy. Jean Henri Servais LeRoy was born in Spa, Belgium, May 4, 1865. He died at the ripe old age of 88. LeRoy's creations include The Asrah, the Duck Pan, Stolen Jam (now called the Palanquin ), The Costume Trunk, The Magical Farm Yard and The Master Tray. His contributions to stage magic were monumental. He invented the wedge-base in illusions and was masterful in his use of elastic webbed traps. (today we use spandex) The Asrah Levitation has the lady laying on a table and covered with a light cloth. She floats up 10 feet high and vanishes in mid air as the magician pulls off her cloth cover.
The Asrah demands a complicated stage rigging, lighting and expert coordination. Earlier versions of the Asrah were rigged a bit different from the modern versions but they all basically work the same way. I have been performing and staging the illusion for 40 years.
The secret is well-known: A bed-table is used and the female assistant reclines on it and sinks into it. A thin and lightweight wire form that looks like her profile is placed where she is supposed to be laying. It is covered with a thin cloth . She is wheeled off stage unknown to the audience. The form is suspended by four threads from a pipe baton high above the stage. In front of the baton is a "border" curtain that hangs down about 4 feet from another baton about 3 feet in front of the baton that is suspending the wire form. The border hides the black painted wire form when it is in the "up position".
That is not all! There needs to be a patterned curtain as a backdrop in back of the whole illusion to hide the threads. Since the 1950s and the invention of Mylar *, most illusionists now use a sparkly "rain curtain". So don't think that everybody is going to be doing this illusion! I forgot to mention that there needs to be an expert puppeteer standing behind one of the curtain legs on the side of the stage "flying" the form with a control rope. Timing is critical. Also the lighting is vital. It almost demands a "followspot" for proper lighting. In fact, I own an expensive followspot mostly so I can perform this illusion properly.
The Asrah has to be the perfect illusion. It has no "emotionally low" parts. Most levitations emotionally fall flat when the lady floats back down. It is anti-climactic. With The Asrah she flies up 10 feet and she vanishes in mid-air. Dr. Thaddeus Seymour, former president of Rollins College and a magician, once told me that his dream was to one day perform the Asrah. So far I haven't had the chance to set it up at the Annie Russell Theater on campus and have him experience the joy of pulling off the cloth cover and hearing the audience gasp!
As it is in life, things don't always go according to plan but experience, skill and ingenuity go a long way to getting back on track. The Savannah Center Theater is not so much as theater as it is a multi-purpose room with a stage. The stage has a 20' by 40' proscenium but it has no grid or flying system. Thus, we had to hang the batons on the top of the fixed curtain system by using a tall wheeled scaffold. Kendrix's helper Jim, was the brave soul that scaled the 20 feet and hung all the system. It was a
2 hour set up for just the pipe batons. Challenge number two was that the mid-stage traveler curtain was too close to where we had to rest the form on the floor during the beginning of the performance, so we had to use a half dozen stage stands to tilt the curtain back at an angle.
Challenge number three: I don't have a 20 foot high Mylar rain curtain so we had to pin my 12 foot by 18 foot rain curtain onto the Black Commando Cloth traveler.
Finally, after close to three hours, we had the Asrah ready to work. We went over the stage cues and the lighting cues with the lighting director and followspot operator and Kendrix. A quick walk-through and light check and we had to surrender the stage to the rest of the acts and their tech rehearsal.
Kendrix likes to set the mood for his opening illusion , The Quantum Leap ( a Modernistic type Palanquin), by using two large floor-mounted ornate candle-stands with lit candles. Jim Moody informed us that any kind of fire was forbidden. Bummer! Since the Rhode Island Night Club Fire a few years back, fire is now mostly forbidden on all theater stages, so folks toss away your Fantasio candles, Fire Cages and Dove Pans. Magic Ian had to slash his act to follow the rules.
Ken's choreography was done by Joannie Spina ( Copperfield's chief female assistant for years) and reflects a visual jazz and ballet fusion to the sound of rock music. Ken's two female dancers were superb in action on stage as was Michelle, Ken's wife and efficient backstage prop coordinator. Also well-trained was Anthony and Glen Foster as his male assistants. Glen is also an illusionist with his own show.
Illusions performed were Quantum Leap, Modern Art, Origami, The Blue Box, Twister, Arm-Vanish, Bits and Pieces and Asrah. Here is a montage on You-Tube of some of the illusions Kendix did at The Villages.
There were two shows, and early and a late. During the first show, we were very rushed in spotting the Asrah table and form and the back threads got twisted . As the form arose , I pulled the cord and it went up slightly tilted forward. Of course, I was in a panic with no way to communicate what to do to Ken and he was equally mortified. (Make a note! Next time have at least one assistant on stage with an ear piece to communicate with the stage coordinator).
The form rose up about 6 feet with an increasing tilt and when I felt that it was going to arbitrarily dump the cloth, I gave a pull and made her vanish. Spectators that watched the action from the front said that no one was the wiser that we were not doing the full classic Asrah vanish. The effect was that she rose and vanished with the cloth falling into Ken's hands.
On the second show, everything worked perfect. As Thurston said in his patter, "She vanished like a fading cloud!". This Asrah performance was captured on tape and hopefully will be on You Tube. All the other illusions went off flawlessly and Ken got a lot of compliments from the crowds and fellow performers. I was pleased.
Illusionists need to have a complete understanding of the age demographics of their illusion audience. That issue is more important that ever in today's magic climate. Ken was "right on" with the age of the crowd. Ken's style is still popular in Las Vegas, and Convention and Cruise venues but changes are happening as the younger generation replaces us old folks.
I found out this past month that younger audiences 15 to 20 are not at all enthusiastic about the illusion styles of the 80s and mid 90s. As many of you know, I am a fill-in teacher for Orange County Public Schools. Because of my qualifications in science I took a job for the final 6 weeks of the school year finishing up for a resigned teacher that had 2 honors Chemistry and 2 Integrated Science classes. The last day of class, after the test review, I told the science class that I would show them some examples of magic illusions to inspire critical thinking about what they see.
First of all "critical thinking" is a lost art for most high school students today. The biggest shocker to me was how much they loved Criss Angel and to a lesser degree David Blaine and how they hated almost everything from David Copperfield and the mid 90s "World's Greatest Magic" series. They poked fun at the dancing, the illusions and the style of that mid 90s series. I can not repeat what they said about Jeff Hobson and James Dimmar! The only "hit" of those show samples was "The Amazing Jonathan".
On a final note: The Kendrix Show was packed and out of the theater well within the time limit. The secret was that he uses a large utility trailer and the props are rolled off and rolled on with very little time-consuming assembly and disassembly. Almost all small-crew illusionists (Stan Kramien, Mark Evans, Phil Morris, Vince Carmen et.al.) simply carry a big enough vehicle to do this. It saves time and wear and tear on the props. If you can afford a large stage crew and you have over-built props then full crates can be the option. The advantage of crates is that if you roll your truck or trailer, your props will probably survive. Don't laugh! This has happened to Bill Neff,David Copperfield, Andre Kole and others.
Next month I will walk down the memory lane of my 33 years in Orlando with stories of Harry Wise, Lee Bernard, Clarence Godwin, Wayne Scott, Michael Ramm, J.L. Harding, Joe Conrad, Carlton Beck, Mark O'Brien, Bev Bergeron and Dan Stapleton's 1976 Halloween Show in the Lake Eola band shell where we accidentally played "musical white shirts"!
Dennis Phillips
*Dupont's polyester research lead to a whole range of trademarked products, one example is Mylar (1952), an extraordinarily strong polyester (PET) film that grew out of the development of Dacron in the early 1950s. Polyesters can be formed from ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Polyethylene terephthalate is the basis of synthetic fibers such as Dacron, and terylene. Polyester film (PETF) is a semi-crystalline film used in many applications such as videotape, high quality packaging, professional photographic printing, X-ray film, floppy disks, Magic Asrah Rain curtains etc. Polyesters are made from chemical substances found mainly in petroleum and are manufactured into fibers, films, and plastics. With the rising price of oil, look for big increases in the costs of these products.
Source from: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpolyester.htm
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