* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Magic New Zealand * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #302 Date: Sunday 19th December 2004 Editor: Alan Watson www.magicianz.com www.Alan-Watson.com e-mail: AW@Alan-Watson.com ================================ Hi here is the latest news ================================   1. Editors Message   2. Peter Eldin To Edit The Magic Circular   3. Peter McCahon Funeral Details   4. Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year For 2005   5. Abbott's 26th Annual Close Up Convention   6. 72nd Pacific Coast Association Of Magicians Convention   7. Johnny Thompson Honored   8. Collecting The Tenyo Series Of Magic Illusions   9. 2500 Special Needs Children   10. Appearing Rose - Jamie-G   11. The Amazing Orchante Saga   12. e-zine Archives   13. Subscription Management ------------------ 1. Editors Message ------------------- Message from Alan Watson - The Magic One Received a large number of messages from around the world from friends of Peter McCahon, MIMC, "Editor of The Magic Circular" who were shocked by his tragic death. Refer item 3 for Peter’s Funeral Details. -------------- Remember if you have any magic news drop me a line: AW@Alan-Watson.com ----------------- 2. Peter Eldin To Edit The Magic Circular ----------------- Message from Steve Biddle (UK) Peter Eldin has agreed to edit The Magic Circular, the magazine of The Magic Circle until a replacement can be found for the post made empty by the recent sad death of Peter McCahon. Peter Eldin is no stranger to The Magic Circular for he was editor from 1990 to 1998. When he took over the magazine it had remained unchanged for over forty years and was showing signs of age. Peter dragged it into the twentieth century, changing the size to A4 (it had been an obscure size previously), improving the layouts, and introducing computerised desk-top publishing. He produced the magazine single handedly for eight years which is quite a remarkable feat when you consider that there are now at least half a dozen people involved in its production! Peter Eldin is well known for his work on the Circular, Abracadabra, author of several magic books and as the writer of over two hundred books on other subjects! Most of his books are for children but he has written books for adults and has edited books, magazines and year books in addition to providing material and research services to television, radio and businesses. He also writes a magic news column for the weekly newspaper World's Fair and compiles children's pages for two in-train magazines in the UK. ----------------- 3. Peter McCahon Funeral Details ----------------- Message from Neil Martin (UK) Please excuse the generic form of this email but there are a lot of people to inform. Please forward this email to anyone you know would like to attend as I may not have contact details for them myself. Better to receive it twice than not at all. If I have omitted any details I can be reached on 020 8669 3128 during office hours, on 07941 547221 all other times or by replying to this email. I am in touch with Peter's parents and brother if need be. The burial and funeral are to be held on Christmas Eve. This was the only day available before Christmas. You are all invited to both. Burial The burial will take place at 11am at Kingston Cemetery, Bonner Hill Road, Kingston-Upon-Thames. This should only take 15 - 20 minutes or so. Anyone travelling by car is requested to park in the cemetery car park and walk back to the main gate where a piper will meet Peter as he arrives. Service There will then be a thanksgiving service at Midday at the New Malden Baptist Church which is on the corner of Kingston Road and Westbury Road, New Malden, Surrey. Flowers Please don't feel in anyway obliged, but in case you wish to send flowers they can be sent directly to the undertakers (must arrive by midday on the 23rd December). Their address is Alan Greenwood & Sons, 119 London Road, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 6NH. ----------------- 4. Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year For 2005 ----------------- Message from Tony Wilson - IBM International President 2004 - 2005 On behalf of all members of the International Brotherhood of Magicians throughout the world I want to wish all the subscribers of Alan Watson's E Zine a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2005. For those IBM members who receive this E Zine my Christmas message will be published in my monthly "President Speaks" column. Here is an excerpt "While the period leading up to Christmas is important for those earning a living from magic we need to step back a little and think of those less fortunate than ourselves and what we can do to bring a little more happiness into their lives by giving them something of ourselves whether it be our time, our skill in magic or our personal support at this time of the year which places great stress on all families in not only financial ways but in their relationships and often accentuates the loneliness for many people who do not have family around them. My challenge to all of you IBM members around the world is to seek out and perform that little extra good deed for someone living in your city or town this month that will be an act of giving that makes a difference. Christmas is a time for giving - whatever your faith journey. Plus a quote for you all to consider at this time of the year as well as all year around "Fifty years from now it will not matter what kind of car you drove, what kind of house you lived in, how much you had in your bank account, or what your clothes looked like but the world may be a little better because you were important in the life of a child." Anon ----------------- 5. Abbott's 26th Annual Close Up Convention ----------------- Message from Hank Moorehouse (US) Abbott's 26th Annual Close Up Convention will be Friday evening, March 11th and all day Saturday, March 12th. Limited to 75 people. Always a sell out. This year featuring Bob Sheets with close up and comedy, Bruce Bernstein with close up and mentalism, and for the first time at a convention, Tomas Medina of Cardiologist Deck and Geek Magic DVD fame. Abbott's Annual Flea Market and Auction will be held Saturday April 23, 2005. For more information contact Abbott's Magic, Colon, MI 49040, phone 269 432 3235 ----------------- 6. 72nd Pacific Coast Association Of Magicians Convention ----------------- Message from Shawn Farquhar (Canada) The 72nd Annual Convention of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians will be hosted by Shawn Farquhar on the incredible MS Norwegian Star cruise ship. The cruise will be from Vancouver, BC Canada to Los Angeles, California with stops in Victoria, BC; Seattle, Washington; and Astoria, Oregon. The dates for the convention/cruise will be September 25 - 30th, 2005. The cost for the cruise is very low as this is a repositioning cruise. All the information one might want to know is available at: www.magiChampion.com ----------------- 7. Johnny Thompson Honored ----------------- Message by Steve Dacri (US) (December 15, 2004) LAS VEGAS - Johnny Thompson was honored in a special evening here in Vegas, and the stars came out in force to honor (roast) the man, the myth, the legend, along with his delightful wife, Pam. You will certainly read about the festive affair in various magic magazines which will feature Jan Dacri's great photos, but you are hearing about it here (on www.magicwebguide.com) FIRST! Check out the article and great photos. It was a fun evening for all. ----------------- 8. Collecting The Tenyo Series Of Magic Illusions ----------------- Message from Peter John Henry Craney (Aust) I was wondering are there any New Zealand magicians you know who collect the Tenyo series of magic illusions. I have been collecting for about 10 years now and really found myself quite caught up in this form of collecting as much that I have been searching all over the world via the web to fill all those ones I have yet to find. At present I have just on about 130 of the 214 known ones to exist. Tenyo also has many they are not so sure of as well. In the 10 years I have been collecting and with Tenyo releasing about 4 items per year I have managed to acquire around another 90 that eluded me before. For a while I was stuck on about 110 just about half of the ones on offer and suddenly I discovered eBay, better late than never I suppose. So this year I was able to acquire another 20 to bring it up to the 130 I now have. There is quite a few Tenyo out there but I have this unfortunate hobby of only collecting mint original factory sealed Tenyo so my collection will take some time to fill. This gives me a reason to search for only there best rather than any at any cost so to speak. I have made good email friends with Tenyo nuts like myself in Germany and another in Denmark and we communicate on a regular basis, who says magic doesn't make the world a little smaller. So I then had this bright idea why not ask Alan if any one in New Zealand collects as well. It is hard to find a forum to find people who collect as I do as far as I know there are no newsgroups and I only came about finding these other two as I mentioned by communicating with many on eBay until these two other collectors came to light so to speak. Anyway if any come to light in New Zealand please pass on my details so we can communicate across the waters. Thanking you Peter John Henry Craney inkakola@optusnet.com.au ----------------- 9. 2500 Special Needs Children ----------------- Message from Phillip Schultz (Aust) My little bit of news is on the weekend we had the 4KQ (radio station) special children's party held at the Brisbane Convention Center, 2500 special needs children plus their families attended. I chose this year to wander around performing Balloon Sculptures aiming at some of the long cues, let's face it when you’re a kid and there is a long queue for a hot dog it's no fun, so what better way to pass the time than a Balloon Dog they don't eat much, and they don't bark back. Next year I will do some stage magic and an occasional balloon here and there, if there are any Brisbane based Magicians that would like perform next year get in touch with 4KQ or myself it really is a blast. The reward for me was the best smiles I've ever seen from very special kids and their parents. ----------------- 10. Appearing Rose - Jamie-G ----------------- Message from Jamie-G (Canada) For children's birthday parties Effect: The magician shows a red silk, the magician waves the silk in the air and a red rose appears within the silk. The magician then turns the rose upside down and a never ending colourful streamer comes from the rose. When the streamer comes to the end the magician then gathers up all the streamer and puts it around a little girl’s neck as a magical necklace. Just a great effect to add in any magic program and it looks great too. Note: You must go to your magic dealer and purchase the disposable streamers. They come 12 per pack and they are all different colours. These streamers are made with Mylar and come with a plastic disk and a hand gimmick. You must put this rose together from scratch. This is what makes this effect so special. I haven't seen this effect out in the magic world yet. To my understanding this is the first. If someone has a rose on the market like this I simply did not know. Construction: You need to go to a flower shop and get a fake red rose and special green flower tape. First you need to take apart the top of the rose. (Take all the red pedals off and be careful you will need these). So all you have is a steam. Now you have to take the streamer gimmick and attach it to the rose. (This gimmick looks like a plastic disk the shape of a coin with a little nipple in the middle of it.) I used black tape to get the gimmick to stay at the tip of the stem. (You could use hot glue or what ever to attach this gimmick to the top of the stem.) Make sure that the little nipple in the middle of the plastic disk is at the top. Once you are at this point take the green flower tape and go around the entire plastic disk so none of it is showing. Then all the way down the stem. At this point you take the red pedals and put 2 or 3 of them right down thru the nipple. Now take one of your streamers and put it on the little nipple, this locks the pedals on the flower but also these pedals hide the streamer. Method: You hold the rose by the head and the rest of the rose rides on the inside of your arm. While holding the rose like this you put the red silk in your hand as well, and, if you are doing the move right you cannot see the rose at any angles. Practice this move you will get so good at it you won't even need the silk to produce the rose. (You would be able to produce the rose all by itself) This is a cool method but use the red silk until you get to that point. Wave the silk up and down left to right and when you are ready to produce the rose, you have the silk in your hand place the head of the rose in the middle of the red silk (towards you) and now you can fold the silk around the rose at this point all you have to do is open the silk and produce the rose. Note: You will have a little piece of tape to hold the streamer from coming lose before you turn the rose upside down take this tape off if you don't the steamer will not come down. Also I use 150 foot disposable streamers I get them from my wife she is a dealer and you should be able to get these from your dealer. Also I don't use patter for this effect I have a special routine I do to music that has all kinds of roses and flowers. Might I add that when you to this effect and put the streamer around the little girl it adds a special feeling to the spectators rather then just taking the streamer and throwing it out. I have only made one of these and it has lasted for a year now. After each show you just pop a new streamer on and you’re ready to go. I have used this in adult’s shows and the outcome is the same instead of a little girl you are putting on a woman. I hope you guys like this effect. Right now I'm working on new Harry Potter magic and I'm talking about some real cool stuff. As every one knows this is a very hot topic for any children’s entertainer. I know that the rose is a little difficult but well worth it....Have fun.......JAMIE-G ----------------- 12. The Amazing Orchante Saga ----------------- Message from Tommy Orchard (The Amazing Orchante)(UK ex-pat Kiwi) Page 32 Harry introduced me to his ‘little room’ - the Projectionist’s Box. Inside, two identical Cine-projectors, standing 4 feet apart, each facing out through a little window, angled down towards the screen. To one side was a Slide projector to show all those ‘ads’ before the start, and during the interval. A long bench was fixed to the back wall – two spindles were screwed to the front edge, their function, to re-wind the film, the spools, one obviously empty, were locked on with special nuts. That was my first ‘job’, learning how to rewind film, making sure it was the right way round – not back to front or upside down. Also, as the film rewinds, you held it lightly by the edges; feeling for any splits or breaks in the film. I remember one Saturday morning, rewinding film ready for the 2 o’clock matinee. I hadn’t locked the spool of film on properly. The nut came loose; the spool flew off, spinning as it hit the deck, and thousands of feet of ‘Ma and Pa Kettle’ became a twisted, curled up mess, on the floor. Oh, Christ! It took two hours to sort that mess out, ready for the Matinee showing. LESSON! LOCK THE NUTS ONTO SPINDLES, PROPERLY! Harry Roycroft - Fire Chief, and Movie Theatre Projectionist, taught me how to ‘thread up’ the film on the Cine-Projectors. This HAS to be done with absolute precision. Briefly, the spool of film is loaded and locked into the top holder of the projector, and then the film is threaded down into the ‘gate’, where a very bright light shines through onto the frame, which MUST be perfectly lined up. The film is then brought down through a series of sprockets, and spring loaded clamps are snapped closed to hold the film against each sprocket. The film must also be perfectly lined-up with the little pins that project from around the sprockets. They go through the perforated holes that run along each side of the entire length of film. A half loop of film of exactly the right size is made at each sprocket; otherwise the film will become taut, and snap. Both projectors are loaded up, readied for the Start-Up. As the spool of film on projector number one nears the end, the light source in projector number two is ‘fired up’. Standing between the two projectors, a hand on the shutter levers of each projector, you look out of one of those little windows, intently watching the top right hand corner of the screen, where a special mark will flash momentarily (it’s printed onto the film). That’s the cue to flick a switch on the right hand side of projector number two. This starts the motor, and the film starts running. Then a second mark flashes on the screen – at that precise moment, you close the shutter on projector number one, and open the shutter on number two – a seamless switch! Spool of film number three is then loaded onto projector number one, and the reel of film, which has just been shown, is re-wound, ready for the next session. Threading up a projector takes about 2 minutes, but initially, it’s more like an hour. It’s quite a finicky process until you‘ve acquired the knack of holding the film in place with the fingers of one hand, while the other forms the half-loops and then snaps shut the clamps – everything has to be totally accurate, and in perfect alignment. If not, the film will jump out of frame, the sprockets will rip the film, which then snaps, and oh horror, the screen goes blank – that’s when the howls of derision and foot-stamping on floor-boards starts, growing in intensity the longer the wait, until the film restarts. Up in the projection box, you are both frantic, and calm, as you unlock the clamps, pull the film through past the break, and then re-thread the machine – the faster you can do it, the better – one minute equates to one hour to a ‘rioting’ audience! Later, when you’re re-winding that spool of film, it pays not to forget that it’s broken somewhere along its length – otherwise you’ll have thousands of feet of film spilling all over the floor, thus adding to your woes. Because you know the running time of a particular film, you therefore know how much is on a spool – e.g. 90 minutes = 3 reels of film = 30 minutes per reel – so, after 25 minutes, you have 5 minutes left to thread up the 2nd projector (if you haven’t already done it earlier). As I mentioned before, it takes on average, 2 minutes to thread up. I got it down to less than a minute; having the very supple and skilled fingers of a sleight of hand artist was a big advantage. Threading a Cine-projector with total accuracy was a ‘Piece of Cake’, compared with some of the intricacies of Sleight of Hand Magic. ------------------ 11. Magic New Zealand e-zine Archives ------------------ Back issues of the Magic New Zealand e-zine go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html Both the User Name and Password MUST be entered in lower case to gain access. User Name: magic Password: kiwi When you enter the archive the e-zines are in issue order and are coded. Eg 001 Nov06 1999.txt first three numbers (001) denote issue number, then the date (Nov06) and the last figures the year (1999) ------------------- 12. Subscription Management ------------------- Our subscriber list is NOT made available to other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and respect your privacy. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Magic New Zealand e-zine: www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html Magic New Zealand e-zine is published weekly, on Sunday. The opinions expressed in this e-zine are those of the individual contributors and not those of Magic New Zealand. Neither Magic New Zealand nor Alan Watson can vouch for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, message, statement, or other information reported via Magic New Zealand e-zine. Subscribers to this publication and authors who contribute to it by doing so agree that they will not hold Magic New Zealand and or Alan Watson liable or responsible in any way for the opinions expressed herein. We reserve the right to edit, correct or, in our discretion, choose not to publish any submissions provided to Magic New Zealand for potential publication. Magic New Zealand welcomes readers to submit timely articles or news items which appear to be of interest to our readers. Those submitting to this e-zine agree that we have permission to publish their submissions and that they have the full copyright to the material submitted. All works published by Magic New Zealand are fully protected by international copyright as provided by law, and articles cannot be published for profit by anyone other than the individual author without the written permission of Magic New Zealand. >>This publication may be freely redistributed (but not sold) to other magicians if copied in its ENTIRETY including the copyright notice below and the above disclaimer.<< © Copyright 2004 Alan Watson