Posts
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 07/16/2008 at 7:30 PM SHARP
Board meeting at 6:30 pm
Meeting theme: Home made magic
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
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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
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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.
Monday, July 14, 2008
2008-07 From the Editor
The heat is on, and thanks to global warming (?) we have another sweltering summer. Ti escape the heat I took my wife up to the North East for some cooler weather. This also enabled us to take in a visit to the longest running off-braodway show, Monday Night Magic. This show, which has appeared in my column a number of times, is a show that varies from good to excellent. Each week has a different line up, so each week is different. As the MC says, "if this week's show was good, come back and see another different show. If this week's show was bad, come back as next weeks show will be completely different."
The one we saw was was very, very good, and in the new theatre that MNM is using. they have moved downtown from 46th Street to Bleecker Street, in East Village. Any magician visiting New York, and there on a Monday evening, should really try to make it to this long running (11 years) show.
Thanks again to all the contributors this month, Dennis, Mystana, Joe and Dan.
Your editor
Stefan
The one we saw was was very, very good, and in the new theatre that MNM is using. they have moved downtown from 46th Street to Bleecker Street, in East Village. Any magician visiting New York, and there on a Monday evening, should really try to make it to this long running (11 years) show.
Thanks again to all the contributors this month, Dennis, Mystana, Joe and Dan.
Your editor
Stefan
2008-07 Ring Report
June brings the tourist season alive in Orlando. President Craig Fennessey is also our lecture chair and he does a great job in providing lectures and event at the ring meetings. To spice up the summer activities Craig began with a program for the June meeting that was a “Dealer Demo” by Aldo Columbini and his recent bride Rachael Wild. The meeting drew 32 enthusiastic people.
Aldo and Rachael are sort of the “Sonny and Cher” of the magic world. He has an Italian accent and she has an English accent and the ethnic differences make for a lot of comedy by-play between them. Rachael is not shy about showing her curvaceous figure by wearing a tight fitting camisole top and leg enhancing stiletto heels. Aldo contrasts with her by looking a bit disheveled. Their team work is the real magic. They alternate in the presentation of their effects with great comedy lines and interaction. Aldo quipped, “Gas prices are so high, even the Amish are worried!”
All of their original effects are priced at just $10 each. Their collection of some 45 tricks and DVDs and books is one of the best bargains in magic today. Old timers can remember in the 1960s when Jack Chanin sold a single effect for ripping and restoring a dollar bill for $10 and the one dollar bill was not included! In terms of inflation, Aldo and Rachael are selling magic tricks, books and DVDs today for $1.63! You can calculate the effects of inflation on any thing you buy or any magic item at http://www.westegg.com/inflation/
Their original effects included cards, mentalism, rope and tricks using magnets. Even though their presentation was a dealer demonstration they did reveal enough of the method so buyers could determine if the method was suitable for their use. Several standouts were their book-test called “Words of Wisdom” and the classic “Wild Levitation” where the performer holds his jacket in front of his legs and floats upwards and rocks side to side. There are no external gimmicks for the magician to position.
Aldo’s presentations were peppered with a continuous barrage of funny lines: “I took a job with the circus as a human cannonball- Got paid $50 a day- plus mileage. I was the only guy that got hired and fired the same day!” He was selling a great collection of his books filled with one-liners. Don’t pass up a chance to see either the regular lecture or dealer demonstration of Aldo and Rachael.
Good Things are always happening in Ring 170!
Dennis Phillips
Aldo and Rachael are sort of the “Sonny and Cher” of the magic world. He has an Italian accent and she has an English accent and the ethnic differences make for a lot of comedy by-play between them. Rachael is not shy about showing her curvaceous figure by wearing a tight fitting camisole top and leg enhancing stiletto heels. Aldo contrasts with her by looking a bit disheveled. Their team work is the real magic. They alternate in the presentation of their effects with great comedy lines and interaction. Aldo quipped, “Gas prices are so high, even the Amish are worried!”
All of their original effects are priced at just $10 each. Their collection of some 45 tricks and DVDs and books is one of the best bargains in magic today. Old timers can remember in the 1960s when Jack Chanin sold a single effect for ripping and restoring a dollar bill for $10 and the one dollar bill was not included! In terms of inflation, Aldo and Rachael are selling magic tricks, books and DVDs today for $1.63! You can calculate the effects of inflation on any thing you buy or any magic item at http://www.westegg.com/inflation/
Their original effects included cards, mentalism, rope and tricks using magnets. Even though their presentation was a dealer demonstration they did reveal enough of the method so buyers could determine if the method was suitable for their use. Several standouts were their book-test called “Words of Wisdom” and the classic “Wild Levitation” where the performer holds his jacket in front of his legs and floats upwards and rocks side to side. There are no external gimmicks for the magician to position.
Aldo’s presentations were peppered with a continuous barrage of funny lines: “I took a job with the circus as a human cannonball- Got paid $50 a day- plus mileage. I was the only guy that got hired and fired the same day!” He was selling a great collection of his books filled with one-liners. Don’t pass up a chance to see either the regular lecture or dealer demonstration of Aldo and Rachael.
Good Things are always happening in Ring 170!
Dennis Phillips
2008-07 The Future of Retail Magic?
Apologies for the blatant commercial, but is this the future of retail magic?
The Fantasma Digital Download Cyber Sessions are finally here! Check out Fantasmamagic.net right now to see the latest video downloads from some of the best magicians in the business! See David Roth, Simon Lovell, Shoot Ogawa, Johnny Thompson and many others perform some of their favorite effects right now on your own computer screen. It’s easy and fun to do. Simply go to Fantasma Magic’s FDDs homepage to see the free demonstrations, and then click the download button to purchase the secret for one or all of these amazing videos!
Learning magic was never this convenient or easy to do! With these high quality video downloads you will be adding great new magic to your repertoire faster than you ever thought possible.
The Fantasma Digital Download Cyber Sessions are finally here! Check out Fantasmamagic.net right now to see the latest video downloads from some of the best magicians in the business! See David Roth, Simon Lovell, Shoot Ogawa, Johnny Thompson and many others perform some of their favorite effects right now on your own computer screen. It’s easy and fun to do. Simply go to Fantasma Magic’s FDDs homepage to see the free demonstrations, and then click the download button to purchase the secret for one or all of these amazing videos!
Learning magic was never this convenient or easy to do! With these high quality video downloads you will be adding great new magic to your repertoire faster than you ever thought possible.
2008-07 America's Got (no magic) Talent
If Craig allows me, you will hear, at the meeting, more behind the scenes info on my four (4) appearances on America's Got Talent. Also, look for a full article about it in a near-future issue of MAGIC magazine.
Dan
Dan
2008-07 Conjurers, Carnies & Collectors Show No. 005
Click above for direct link
Episode #005: Bunnies in Peril
Bunnies in Peril is the comedy magic team of James Songster and Joe Vecciarelli
Together they work outdoor venues, corporate events and renaissance faires all over the southeast, which means lots and lots of travel and very early mornings. For those of you who have never known the realities of working a lot of shows and working a lot of shows outdoors with crummy working conditions, questionable fairs and driving hours and hours to your site with your whole family in tow, and still finding a way to keep your sense of humor, you better have the funny bones and years of experience. These guys do.
Bunnies in peril.
This week coming from Orlando, Florida.
Episode #005: Bunnies in Peril
Bunnies in Peril is the comedy magic team of James Songster and Joe Vecciarelli
Together they work outdoor venues, corporate events and renaissance faires all over the southeast, which means lots and lots of travel and very early mornings. For those of you who have never known the realities of working a lot of shows and working a lot of shows outdoors with crummy working conditions, questionable fairs and driving hours and hours to your site with your whole family in tow, and still finding a way to keep your sense of humor, you better have the funny bones and years of experience. These guys do.
Bunnies in peril.
This week coming from Orlando, Florida.
2008-07 iTricks Magic Week in Review podcast 06.08.08
Click above for direct link
Special guest: Kostya Kimlat
Our 2007 Trick of the Year finalist makes his Magic Week in Review debut and talks about women in magic, what annoys him about lay people and why one UK shop owner now has the coolest demo in the world now that the government has banned it from being performed indoors. He also give listeners a special deal on his Roadrunner Cull DVD.
JoeV
Special guest: Kostya Kimlat
Our 2007 Trick of the Year finalist makes his Magic Week in Review debut and talks about women in magic, what annoys him about lay people and why one UK shop owner now has the coolest demo in the world now that the government has banned it from being performed indoors. He also give listeners a special deal on his Roadrunner Cull DVD.
JoeV
2008-07 Mystana and Mystan
Back on March 22 of this year, I got married to a wonderful man named Jeff Rhoades - who happens to have an interest in escape magic. In fact, when it comes to escaping from various things, Mystan (the performing name which my husband adopted and by which he will be known as for the rest of this article) is very good - in fact, he's a regular Houdini. So far, he's really adept at doing rope escapes and the Siberian Chain Escape. It came to pass that my husband and I were discussing greater escapes for him to do, after he became more adept at that particular form of magic - and unbeknownst to us, we were being overheard - by Kyle, who is one of Mystan's and my 2 roommates - who also happens to work in law enforcement. Kyle, deciding that what he was hearing were claims being made by both Mystan and myself, decided that he was going to test out these supposed "claims" that we were allegedly making for himself - on us, unfortunately for both my husband and myself, spontaneously and as soon as he could get the chance. This was something that came very soon for him, unfortunately for us.
Deciding that he was going to have a little bit of fun with what he perceived to be a pair of very cocky escape artist wannabes (and apparently forgetting that I, Mystana, not only do not performs escape magic, but I have no desire to), Kyle pulled out 2 pairs of regulation police handcuffs and proceeded (after some ducking, on both my husband's and my parts) to lock one pair around my husband's wrists. This being done, Kyle (forgetting that I have NEVER claimed to be an escape artist) decides that it's my turn. Before I could move from where I was standing, Kyle had the second pair of handcuffs on me and I was standing next to my husband (ignoring my protests that I can't do any escape tricks to save my life, I don't do escape magic, and that the only thing that I can escape from is a gassed-up bathroom). After Mystan (my husband) and Mystana (me) were thus bound, Kyle proceeded to stand back, challenging us to escape - I meanwhile, proceeded to just stand there a little bit from Mystan, knowing that he had not yet studied this type of escape yet, at the same time alternating between wondering why the heck our roommate was doing this to us and telling Kyle that what he was overhearing was our PLANNING to do AFTER becoming more knowledgabe regarding that particular type of escape, NOT stuff that my husband could do now.
After about 45 minutes, consisting of Mystan's and my trying to explain to Kyle that what he was overhearing were our FUTURE escape plans for him, I got tired of Kyle's game. Mystan, noticing this, proceeded to ask Kyle to release us right then and there - all he had succeeded in doing was basically secure the hands of 2 magicians who were trying to explain to him what the heck we were REALLY talking about and that what he was perceiving about us was all a big misunderstanding - at this point, my husband was also VERY tired of Kyle's game as well and just wanted Kyle to release us right then and there. Kyle, deciding that he had gotten his point across, decided that he would release us - slowly. Grabbing his handcuff keys, he first released me, then proceeded to release Mystan. After both my husband and myself were free, I did what I had wanted to do to our roommate, which was give him the finger and walk away free - along with my husband.
The moral of this story is this: if one is going to plan escape tricks, don't plan them within the earshot of anybody who works in law enforcement.
Deciding that he was going to have a little bit of fun with what he perceived to be a pair of very cocky escape artist wannabes (and apparently forgetting that I, Mystana, not only do not performs escape magic, but I have no desire to), Kyle pulled out 2 pairs of regulation police handcuffs and proceeded (after some ducking, on both my husband's and my parts) to lock one pair around my husband's wrists. This being done, Kyle (forgetting that I have NEVER claimed to be an escape artist) decides that it's my turn. Before I could move from where I was standing, Kyle had the second pair of handcuffs on me and I was standing next to my husband (ignoring my protests that I can't do any escape tricks to save my life, I don't do escape magic, and that the only thing that I can escape from is a gassed-up bathroom). After Mystan (my husband) and Mystana (me) were thus bound, Kyle proceeded to stand back, challenging us to escape - I meanwhile, proceeded to just stand there a little bit from Mystan, knowing that he had not yet studied this type of escape yet, at the same time alternating between wondering why the heck our roommate was doing this to us and telling Kyle that what he was overhearing was our PLANNING to do AFTER becoming more knowledgabe regarding that particular type of escape, NOT stuff that my husband could do now.
After about 45 minutes, consisting of Mystan's and my trying to explain to Kyle that what he was overhearing were our FUTURE escape plans for him, I got tired of Kyle's game. Mystan, noticing this, proceeded to ask Kyle to release us right then and there - all he had succeeded in doing was basically secure the hands of 2 magicians who were trying to explain to him what the heck we were REALLY talking about and that what he was perceiving about us was all a big misunderstanding - at this point, my husband was also VERY tired of Kyle's game as well and just wanted Kyle to release us right then and there. Kyle, deciding that he had gotten his point across, decided that he would release us - slowly. Grabbing his handcuff keys, he first released me, then proceeded to release Mystan. After both my husband and myself were free, I did what I had wanted to do to our roommate, which was give him the finger and walk away free - along with my husband.
The moral of this story is this: if one is going to plan escape tricks, don't plan them within the earshot of anybody who works in law enforcement.
2008-07 Dennis' Deliberations
Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem - Horace, Odes, book II, poem III-
With gasoline approaching the price of whiskey, it is ironic that we already are pouring 10% cheap whiskey into our gas tanks! It is called “ethanol”.
I just filled up my little gas sipper, a Hyundai Tucson, and the bill was sixty bucks. The total impact hasn’t hit us yet but fuel costs are bound to upset the typical traveling magic business. For the performer that works a wide area and does “hundred milers”, the fuel costs will be cutting heavily into the profits. Raising your rates is called, “inflation” and everything fuel related will be rising if companies want to stay in business. All of this assumes that the consumer, the buyer, will still want to pay the higher costs or even have the money to spend. Any downturn in spending in our consumer driven economy will result in job losses and a decline of business and a Recession/Depression. A Recession is when your neighbor is out of work, a Depression is when you are out of work.
One illusion performer told me from a truck stop in Colorado that he had just put $800 worth of diesel in his tanks. I commented, “Wow, 800 bucks for a fill-up!” His response was, “Fill up? Heck, I just put in what my card would allow me to buy! It was only about two thirds of a fuel load!”
In the live-show business remember that all those folks that filled the seats in the shows have to also use fuel to get to the show place. Are they going to want to spend the gas money to go see your show? Are they even going to be in the mood to want to see your show? In 1974 following the October ‘73 Yom Kipper War with Israel, the foreign oil producers decided to punish the United States for aiding Israel so they cut off oil shipments. By early 1974 long lines appeared at gas pumps and slowly the gasoline supplies dried up and American motor traffic came to a grinding halt for a few weeks. I played my magic show in Eastern North Carolina and had to travel from Charlotte, in the central part of the state. The trip would require a fill up and I was unsure if I could get the gas to get back home so I borrowed some Jerry cans (named after the Germans who developed and used them in World War Two) from the TV mobile unit for Jefferson Productions where I worked. I arranged for all three to be filled outside of the typical gas line by the owner of a gas station, whose son-in-law was a friend and worked with me.
We carried the cans, with my props, in my utility trailer and they enabled me to make it back home. I felt like a 1942 Doolittle Raider squeezing out every ounce of fuel from spare gas cans as they tried to make it across the China Sea after their Tokyo bombing Raid. Most of them crashed their B-25s after running out of fuel. I made it home but I was sucking fumes as they say in the aviation business.
During that gas crisis in 1974, when fuel was unavailable, Magic Legend Ron Urban generated a unique idea. I saw his advertising materials. He was planning to take out his illusion show using Amtrak! He planned to play towns along the route. It was a brilliant strategy and may have worked in the days of Keller and the early years of Thurston. The major problem would have been that the people with the tickets lived mostly in Suburbia and also needed gas to get to see his show. The other fact was that the country went into a Recession and entertainment dollars for live shows evaporated. Before trucks, Thurston used horse and wagons to get his props from the train station to the theater. In most towns that was a short distance. It was only a little before World War One that trucks came into general use in most places. We still honor the horse and wagon days with the union named, “The Teamsters”. When I moved to Orlando in 1975 there was a small office near the Train Station. It was called, “Orlando Cartage” and their job was to “break bulk” on railcars and take care of the small freight packages on the rail platform and deliver it to you. They were a part of the old Railway Express Agency (REA) that most old timers like me will recall in the years before UPS and FedEx. Abbotts used to advertise all their illusions as F.O.B. through R.E.A. (Freight on Board – means “shipping charges collect on receipt”)
My gut feeling is that we are headed into a Stagflation Recession. This is where inflation continues to drive up prices of manufactured goods and services. But just as prices are rising, people are being laid off and unemployment rises as the economy spirals downward in stagnation. The $1,160 stimulus check that Cindy and I got went directly to pay for long over due dental work. Maybe I should have bought Bear Sterns stock? I wonder how many of the remaining checks will end up in gas tanks for people driving to work? I don’t think many of the stimulus checks will be used for tickets to see the latest magic road show.
The real sadness is that all those dollar values that Baby-Boomers socked away in 401Ks and IRAs for their retirement are now plunging in real value! Was the whole IRA scheme a plot by Big Money on Wall Street (ERISA 1974!) to con you out of your retirement savings? At least Social Security is indexed to Inflation and adjusted upward. I don’t trust Wall Street anymore than I trust Government. In fact, I trust Wall Street even less because I can’t vote them out! Recently, since the 1980s, Wall Street has been buying the government they want so they can do what they want. I should say, they have been paying government to stay away from them.
You need to hope that your IRA has beaten the underlying rate of inflation by at least 7 to 10 percent. If it has, please contact me. I want to be your agent! You need to be recognized as the leading financial and stock market genius. You need to replace, “Baldy the Screaming Manic” in the evenings on CNBC or any of the Fox Noise Network Financial idiots. You are better than Warren Buffett! Your collection of quality collectable magic props probably had appreciated more than your “buy and hold” IRA! In fact, I guarantee you that they have!
There is a glimmer of hope and that comes from this old guy remembering history! Just about the time of the original 70s gas crunch, a new breeze blew through magic. The Magician with Bill Bixby appeared on NBC primetime and Doug Henning opened on Broadway. Realize that all the while the original Broadway “Magic Show” was playing at The Cort Theater; the country was in a horrible inflation and flat economy. Doug’s bell-bottoms and rainbow shirts were the last gasp of the fun time Disco era that New York audiences demanded. Also David Copperfield first appeared on the TV magic scene in the late 70s with the help of Freddy Silverman and Joe Cates.
I am optimistic that people will crave escape and entertainment during hard times just as they did in the 1930s when Hollywood boomed. The key is to figure out just what they will want. Will it be a new round of mega-illusionists who move National Monuments? Will it be the Sadomasochism of a Criss Angel or the Evil-Knievel street-magic mysticism of David Blaine? Or will it be some yet to be seen superstar?
I am laying my bets on a totally new style of magic. It will be intimate but with the help of eye-cams visible in the largest theater/stadium. It will be a kind of mentalism, motivation, hypnotism, close-up, good feeling shamanism. No cards, no coins, no typical props. You will be mystified but not fooled (think about that statement!) This new magic will be immune from You-Tube exposure and anyone trying to discredit it will be greeted by most fans with distain because the presenter will be loveable and not challenging anyone’s intellect. The “tricks” will be object lessons. Fans of this new magician will have good things happen to them: they will lose weight, stop smoking, work their way out of debt and make friendships and restore relationships and experience new fun in their lives. It may be a tool to restore imagination. Not many modern people have much of that anymore.
In someway, Jeff McBride seems headed in that direction-perhaps. I supposed it is not coincidence that Eugene Burger is an academic theologian. At this point, I am not into enjoying McBride but something intrigues me about his approach. LeGrand David has another “exposure immune” form of magical entertainment. Almost everyone who goes to the show loves it and marvels and no one would put up a You-Tube site exposing anything they do. LeGrand David is an experience and not just a magic show. It is, however, an experience from the past that “artsy” Boston enjoys and would not succeed anywhere else. I use it only as an example of magic that is immune from You Tube revelations because it comes with no challenge to find its secret. The secret is the production itself.
This new “magic” will be a support and adjunct to religion yet not compete or oppose it. Prior to the 1860s there was no understanding of a separation between “magic” and “religion” and that is why people feared magicians. With the rise of modernity and the scientific view of cause an effect, most people dismissed the “supernatural on demand” and enjoyed magic and illusions as an amusement without superstition. The future for human civilization may not have such a simple dualistic view of the universe.
The coming years will see a return to a more unified view of science and mystery, the spiritual and the physical. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle has yet to actually penetrate into the minds of the general public. Eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and eigenspaces may end up in everyone’s understanding of what they experience as finite human beings.
Magic is on the edge of a big change. We will never solve the energy crisis by the old values of drill, refine and burn. Magic won’t make it into the 21st century with only cards, silks, die boxes, change bags and boxes to dissect ladies. Those will probably exist forever in the routines of hobbyist performers, but they will not be in the routines of the next magic superstar. –neither will: The Zig Zag, The Origami Box, Modern Art and every familiar illusion; the principles are eternal, the look, presentation and style are not.
The future superstar will be the smart magician who can see what people want in magic entertainment in the future and fill that need!
Dennis Phillips
With gasoline approaching the price of whiskey, it is ironic that we already are pouring 10% cheap whiskey into our gas tanks! It is called “ethanol”.
I just filled up my little gas sipper, a Hyundai Tucson, and the bill was sixty bucks. The total impact hasn’t hit us yet but fuel costs are bound to upset the typical traveling magic business. For the performer that works a wide area and does “hundred milers”, the fuel costs will be cutting heavily into the profits. Raising your rates is called, “inflation” and everything fuel related will be rising if companies want to stay in business. All of this assumes that the consumer, the buyer, will still want to pay the higher costs or even have the money to spend. Any downturn in spending in our consumer driven economy will result in job losses and a decline of business and a Recession/Depression. A Recession is when your neighbor is out of work, a Depression is when you are out of work.
One illusion performer told me from a truck stop in Colorado that he had just put $800 worth of diesel in his tanks. I commented, “Wow, 800 bucks for a fill-up!” His response was, “Fill up? Heck, I just put in what my card would allow me to buy! It was only about two thirds of a fuel load!”
In the live-show business remember that all those folks that filled the seats in the shows have to also use fuel to get to the show place. Are they going to want to spend the gas money to go see your show? Are they even going to be in the mood to want to see your show? In 1974 following the October ‘73 Yom Kipper War with Israel, the foreign oil producers decided to punish the United States for aiding Israel so they cut off oil shipments. By early 1974 long lines appeared at gas pumps and slowly the gasoline supplies dried up and American motor traffic came to a grinding halt for a few weeks. I played my magic show in Eastern North Carolina and had to travel from Charlotte, in the central part of the state. The trip would require a fill up and I was unsure if I could get the gas to get back home so I borrowed some Jerry cans (named after the Germans who developed and used them in World War Two) from the TV mobile unit for Jefferson Productions where I worked. I arranged for all three to be filled outside of the typical gas line by the owner of a gas station, whose son-in-law was a friend and worked with me.
We carried the cans, with my props, in my utility trailer and they enabled me to make it back home. I felt like a 1942 Doolittle Raider squeezing out every ounce of fuel from spare gas cans as they tried to make it across the China Sea after their Tokyo bombing Raid. Most of them crashed their B-25s after running out of fuel. I made it home but I was sucking fumes as they say in the aviation business.
During that gas crisis in 1974, when fuel was unavailable, Magic Legend Ron Urban generated a unique idea. I saw his advertising materials. He was planning to take out his illusion show using Amtrak! He planned to play towns along the route. It was a brilliant strategy and may have worked in the days of Keller and the early years of Thurston. The major problem would have been that the people with the tickets lived mostly in Suburbia and also needed gas to get to see his show. The other fact was that the country went into a Recession and entertainment dollars for live shows evaporated. Before trucks, Thurston used horse and wagons to get his props from the train station to the theater. In most towns that was a short distance. It was only a little before World War One that trucks came into general use in most places. We still honor the horse and wagon days with the union named, “The Teamsters”. When I moved to Orlando in 1975 there was a small office near the Train Station. It was called, “Orlando Cartage” and their job was to “break bulk” on railcars and take care of the small freight packages on the rail platform and deliver it to you. They were a part of the old Railway Express Agency (REA) that most old timers like me will recall in the years before UPS and FedEx. Abbotts used to advertise all their illusions as F.O.B. through R.E.A. (Freight on Board – means “shipping charges collect on receipt”)
My gut feeling is that we are headed into a Stagflation Recession. This is where inflation continues to drive up prices of manufactured goods and services. But just as prices are rising, people are being laid off and unemployment rises as the economy spirals downward in stagnation. The $1,160 stimulus check that Cindy and I got went directly to pay for long over due dental work. Maybe I should have bought Bear Sterns stock? I wonder how many of the remaining checks will end up in gas tanks for people driving to work? I don’t think many of the stimulus checks will be used for tickets to see the latest magic road show.
The real sadness is that all those dollar values that Baby-Boomers socked away in 401Ks and IRAs for their retirement are now plunging in real value! Was the whole IRA scheme a plot by Big Money on Wall Street (ERISA 1974!) to con you out of your retirement savings? At least Social Security is indexed to Inflation and adjusted upward. I don’t trust Wall Street anymore than I trust Government. In fact, I trust Wall Street even less because I can’t vote them out! Recently, since the 1980s, Wall Street has been buying the government they want so they can do what they want. I should say, they have been paying government to stay away from them.
You need to hope that your IRA has beaten the underlying rate of inflation by at least 7 to 10 percent. If it has, please contact me. I want to be your agent! You need to be recognized as the leading financial and stock market genius. You need to replace, “Baldy the Screaming Manic” in the evenings on CNBC or any of the Fox Noise Network Financial idiots. You are better than Warren Buffett! Your collection of quality collectable magic props probably had appreciated more than your “buy and hold” IRA! In fact, I guarantee you that they have!
There is a glimmer of hope and that comes from this old guy remembering history! Just about the time of the original 70s gas crunch, a new breeze blew through magic. The Magician with Bill Bixby appeared on NBC primetime and Doug Henning opened on Broadway. Realize that all the while the original Broadway “Magic Show” was playing at The Cort Theater; the country was in a horrible inflation and flat economy. Doug’s bell-bottoms and rainbow shirts were the last gasp of the fun time Disco era that New York audiences demanded. Also David Copperfield first appeared on the TV magic scene in the late 70s with the help of Freddy Silverman and Joe Cates.
I am optimistic that people will crave escape and entertainment during hard times just as they did in the 1930s when Hollywood boomed. The key is to figure out just what they will want. Will it be a new round of mega-illusionists who move National Monuments? Will it be the Sadomasochism of a Criss Angel or the Evil-Knievel street-magic mysticism of David Blaine? Or will it be some yet to be seen superstar?
I am laying my bets on a totally new style of magic. It will be intimate but with the help of eye-cams visible in the largest theater/stadium. It will be a kind of mentalism, motivation, hypnotism, close-up, good feeling shamanism. No cards, no coins, no typical props. You will be mystified but not fooled (think about that statement!) This new magic will be immune from You-Tube exposure and anyone trying to discredit it will be greeted by most fans with distain because the presenter will be loveable and not challenging anyone’s intellect. The “tricks” will be object lessons. Fans of this new magician will have good things happen to them: they will lose weight, stop smoking, work their way out of debt and make friendships and restore relationships and experience new fun in their lives. It may be a tool to restore imagination. Not many modern people have much of that anymore.
In someway, Jeff McBride seems headed in that direction-perhaps. I supposed it is not coincidence that Eugene Burger is an academic theologian. At this point, I am not into enjoying McBride but something intrigues me about his approach. LeGrand David has another “exposure immune” form of magical entertainment. Almost everyone who goes to the show loves it and marvels and no one would put up a You-Tube site exposing anything they do. LeGrand David is an experience and not just a magic show. It is, however, an experience from the past that “artsy” Boston enjoys and would not succeed anywhere else. I use it only as an example of magic that is immune from You Tube revelations because it comes with no challenge to find its secret. The secret is the production itself.
This new “magic” will be a support and adjunct to religion yet not compete or oppose it. Prior to the 1860s there was no understanding of a separation between “magic” and “religion” and that is why people feared magicians. With the rise of modernity and the scientific view of cause an effect, most people dismissed the “supernatural on demand” and enjoyed magic and illusions as an amusement without superstition. The future for human civilization may not have such a simple dualistic view of the universe.
The coming years will see a return to a more unified view of science and mystery, the spiritual and the physical. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle has yet to actually penetrate into the minds of the general public. Eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and eigenspaces may end up in everyone’s understanding of what they experience as finite human beings.
Magic is on the edge of a big change. We will never solve the energy crisis by the old values of drill, refine and burn. Magic won’t make it into the 21st century with only cards, silks, die boxes, change bags and boxes to dissect ladies. Those will probably exist forever in the routines of hobbyist performers, but they will not be in the routines of the next magic superstar. –neither will: The Zig Zag, The Origami Box, Modern Art and every familiar illusion; the principles are eternal, the look, presentation and style are not.
The future superstar will be the smart magician who can see what people want in magic entertainment in the future and fill that need!
Dennis Phillips
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