Magic New Zealand® E-zine

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* Magic New Zealand®
* Proudly sponsored by International Entertainment Ltd (New Zealand)
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Issue Number: #1483
Date: Sunday 16th December 2018
Editor: Alan Watson QSM
www.watson.co.nz
E-mail: editor@magicnewzealand.com
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Hi here is the latest news
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1. Editor's Message
2. Melbourne Magic Festival Applications Close January 13, 2019
3. Potter & Potter Auctions
4. The Magic Word Podcast - Murray Sawchuck and Headliner.app
5. It's All In The Cards - John Carey #25
6. Broken Wand - Johnny Hart
7. Wayne Dobson On Johnny Hart
8. Festivals - Illusions - #513 - Kyle Peron
9. Actors Training For Magicians Stockholm
10. The Assembly Convention 2019, Brisbane, Australia
11. Privacy Policy and Copyright Notice
12. E-zine Archives

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1. Editor's Message
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ATTENTION EVERYONE: We will be sending out our FINAL Magic New Zealand e-zine for 2018 NEXT WEEK, 23rd December, so send in all your magic news, columns and reminders before we break for our festive holidays and seasonal break. We will resume sending out the Newsletter on January 13th 2019.

If you would like to read the Magic New Zealand e-zine in a HTML format
go to: http://www.magicnewzealand.com/ezine-archive/2018-Jan-to-Dec-2018/1483-Dec16-2018.html

If you would like to write a regular column for Magic New Zealand or
have some magic news drop me a line:
Editor@MagicNewZealand.com

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2. Melbourne Magic Festival Applications Close January 13, 2019
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Message by Tim Ellis (Australia)

Just a quick note to let you know you have less than a month to get your applications in to perform at the 2019 Melbourne Magic Festival - June 30 to July 13.

You can find all the information you'll need at http://melbournemagicfestival.com/producers-pages/

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3. Potter & Potter Auctions
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New lots added auction this Saturday online only o 12/15/2018 o 10am CST

Lot 221 - Kellar Christmas Postcard to Dr. Samuel Hooker
Est. $300-500

Online Only o Exclusively at PotterAuctions.com

Over a dozen new lots have been added to this weekend's auction.

Bid live, online (with a 20% buyer's premium), at potterauctions.com

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4. The Magic Word Podcast - Murray Sawchuck and Headliner.app
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Message by Scott Wells, M.I.M.C. with Gold Star

This week it's time for our annual holiday visit with Murray Sawchuck, "Celebrity Magician". Murray gives us an update and overview of the Las Vegas magic scene; who has come and gone this past year, who is still there and who's coming soon. He also gives us a tip on a tourist site not to be missed on your next visit. Murray is also the king of social media and is sought out as a presenter on the subject at conventions. This week he tells us what works for him and what doesn't and why and how you can apply them to your branding. Murray knows what he is talking about having recently surpassed 1MM subscribers to his YouTube channel.

We also spend a short visit with Oliver Wellington, creator of SpareMin.com which recently developed Headliner.app which is a fantastic, free social media app for promoting your show and brand. Highly recommended.

And finally, we follow-up with a few performing tips for Joshua Jay's "Balance" after I've performed it a few times this past week.

You can view one of Murray's hot videos, see some photos, read the blog, listen to the podcast online and download the MP3 file at:
https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwellsmagic/465-murray-sawchuck And be sure to use the link on the bottom of the website page to link to your Amazon account when you purchase anything there. Your purchases will help support the podcast.

Thank you for listening.

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5. It's All In The Cards - John Carey #25
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Message by John Carey (UK)
https://carey-scene.com/jc-main

"Playing cards are not only used by magicians and gamblers. For generations they have been used by gypsies, fortune-tellers and psychics to tell the past, the present and the future.

Imagine these cards are fifty-two pages all about you Mick. Please shuffle them as I want your personality to rub off on them. Now as I flick through the cards slowly, just call out stop. This card will represent you. Now I need something personal from you. No not your pin code Mick! Your signature please. Reach over and sign your card.

Let's, give the cards a shuffle and would you take them and give them a few cuts. That's perfect. Will you cut the deck into two halves? Now you have to make a decision, based purely on your impulse or gut instinct. Pick up either packet. And we will set the rest aside. Spread your cards in your hands. Now push some out of the middle and put them on top. Do that again and again once more, mixing your cards while totally under your control. Cut away a chunk and set them aside. Now they say that three is a magic number Mick. Deal a card down, then one next to it and then one more next to that.

Continue dealing the cards into three piles, just as if you were playing some crazy game of cards with friends.

So, from a deck of cards mixed thoroughly by you, we will use the top card of each packet and see what Lady Luck has dealt us. Remember at the start I told you about the cards being used by fortune-tellers? Well this card represents your past. It tells me you've had a very interesting past, full of mostly highs with occasional difficult times, like all of us. This next card represents the present. Ah, this one tells me you are at a good moment in your life, both personally and professionally. Now finally there's just the future to deal with Mick. To be honest, I don't tend to dabble in the future. But maybe, just maybe this remaining card will tell me something very personal about you. Ah, indeed it does, Mick. It tells me how you sign your name!"

The public, especially ladies, are fascinated by Horoscopes, palm reading and other items dealing with the telling of fortunes. This piece, inspired by my dear friend, Andrew Gerard's effect Finding Yourself, published in Crafted with Carey, is essentially presentational smoke thrown around the discovery of a signed card. The fact that it is almost self-working and pretty much hands off after a selection is made gives one freedom to really sell the conditions and apparent fairness of it all.

From a spectator shuffled deck riffle down the outer corner of the deck and ask a helper to say stop. Lift off the cards at the point stopped at and raise the right hand to show the face of the selection to the audience. Have your spectator pick up a marker from the table and reach over and sign their card. A moment or two later bring both hands together and secure a left little-finger break beneath the selection as you square up.

Take back the marker with your right hand and place it away. Then cut off all the cards above your break to the table, followed by cutting small packets and dropping them on top until the deck is exhausted. The selection is efficiently controlled to the bottom of the deck.

Slip shuffle, retaining the signed selection on the bottom. Hand your helper the deck and have them perform the Jay Ose false cut from Lorayne's Close Up Card Magic on themselves: Have them cut off about a third of the deck and table it. Then ask them to cut off another third and table it to the right of the first packet. Finally get them to place the remaining packet furthest to their right. A few moments later have them gather up the packets from left to right. The signed selection is still on the bottom but the conviction of fairness is pretty strong.

Reach over the deck and cut it into two halves. Have the spectator pick up either packet. If they pick up the target packet you casually set aside the remaining packet. However, if they pick up the X packet first casually ask them to set it aside without any fuss.

Now for a delightful (and very sneaky) Chad Long ruse: Ask them to spread the packet they are holding in their hands and push out a bunch of cards from the middle. Request they put that bunch on top. Get them to repeat the above actions twice more, covertly keeping their signed selection on the bottom.

Direct your spectator to cut away a chunk of cards and discard them. Then talk about how the number three is a magic number. We will now use a beautiful placement force of Al Leech to get ready for the fortune-telling phase prior to the finale of the effect. Ask your helper to deal a face-down row of three cards and then continue dealing back and forth until all the cards have been dealt. Make a mental note where the last signed card is dealt.

To finish the effect, pick up the top card of either of the X packets and give a friendly 'reading' of this card to represent the past. Then pick up the top card of the other X packet and turn this card over and make comments about their present. Finally pick up the top card of the remaining packet, look at it and pause. Then smile as you reveal the future and how they sign their name!

Kudos to Gary Kurtz for that tag line.

There you have it. A presentational piece with the public in mind. No weird moves or extraneous actions and a hook that should keep them interested.

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6. Broken Wand - Johnny Hart
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Published with the permission of Chris Wasshuber from Who's Who in Magic

Hart, John "Johnny" (Britain: 1945-2018) Protégé of Harry Stanley in teens. Pro birdman to illusions. Magic Circle Young Magician of the Year 1961 with his budgerigar act. In USA in 1965 playing the Ed Sullivan Show (TV), Las Vegas, & Reno. Co-star (with Zee) at the Magic Castle (London) 1985-86. Retired due to illness in 1993. (Genii5/65;Wat)

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7. Wayne Dobson On Johnny Hart
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Message by Wayne Dobson published in Facebook

I was 14 years old and watching the David Nixon magic show when Johnny Hart burst on to the screen and for the first time it made me think that young people do magic as well - I wanted to be Johnny Hart - he would never have known the impact he had on me and it wasn't until FISM 2012 I actually met him I actually felt really starstruck and very emotional!

I couldn't take my eyes off him. He still had that special something about him and never realised how emotional I felt. Do you remember this Russ Stevens! He will be so sadly missed and there are so many magicians the world over that owe him so much, me included! RIP Johnny Hart X

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8. Festivals - Illusions - #513 - Kyle Peron
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Message by Kyle Peron (US)
magic4u02@aol.com
KyleKellyMagic@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/perondesign
http://www.kpmagicproducts.com

Yes you can perform illusions at festivals. However, it really is not necessary to do so. Do not feel that you cannot work the festival market if you do not have the best and latest Origami or thin sawing. Festivals just want their audiences to have fun and for you to give them a reason to stay at the festival. You can certainly provide that to them with or without illusions.

By an "illusion" I am specifically referring to any larger style prop in which a person is the center of the magic. The magic happens to the person. This can be a transposition, levitation, suspension etc. Illusions I am talking about would be things like sub trunk, Miss made lady, sword basket, chair suspension etc. Those are what I refer to as illusions.

I do offer illusions as one of my day packages and I have done them before. I must admit that I often times do not even have to do them at all and can still have a wonderful show that really makes them cheer, smile and laugh. The illusions can bring in more potential income for the day and so I keep this as an option for the festivals should that meet their needs. If you offer illusions, make sure your price covers the expense of the extra set up involved in presenting them, carrying and also traveling with them. You also have to factor in the cost of the assistant.

If you decide to present illusions in your festival show, there are a few things you will want to take into consideration before deciding on which ones to perform or purchase for this market. Make sure that your illusions:

- can be done surrounded
- can be performed in any kind of lighting
- can pack down flat and are easily moved on and off elevated stages
- do not require a "pre-load" that the audience does not see.

Let me go into a bit of detail on each of these mentioned above to give you more information as to why these are so important to working the festival market.

Surrounded: In many cases you never know just what staging you will have to work on when you are doing a festival. I have worked on stages ranging from full stages with lighting to setting up my own small tent to performing in the street surrounded. You also cannot control exactly
where people will be seated or standing during your illusion performance. Because of these situations you will find yourself in, you never will have the perfect angles to do illusions that rely on this.

This is why every illusion I perform at festivals is an illusion that can be performed totally surrounded. Because of this, I am not worried about where I have to perform the illusion as I know I will be fine and the illusion will be performed without problem.

Lighting: Almost every festival I have ever performed for was outdoors. Because of this, your lighting is always changing based upon where the sun is during the day. Keep this in mind for illusions that work on black art principles will not work well in the outdoor environments. It
is best to leave these illusions behind for a better opportunity. Use illusions that do not rely heavily on proper lighting and you will be much better off.

Packs Flat: The easier it is for you to carry, set-up and transport your illusions, the better off it will be for you and the festival. I try to always keep and build my festival illusions to pack as flat as possible. This allows me to keep my transportation vehicles to a minimum without having the extra cost for truck rentals etc.

You must also keep in mind that festivals are outdoors with a lot going on during the course of the day. There are a lot of people moving about and so you will have to place your storage and packing cases back in your vehicle or plan with the festival crew a place for you to store them for the day. If they are flat and less bulky, you can store them back in your own vehicle and cause less problems for the festival to deal with.

You never want to keep your illusions or packing boxes out in the open during or between shows. If you are using your cases as part of your on stage set up, then this can be an exception for you. This may be common sense, but some performers feel that the festival will watch them for you. This is not the case as the festival crews are usually much too busy moving around and solving problems that occur throughout the day. I usually try to get a booth spot (a designated vender area) near to the stage so that the illusions can be moved under my booth tent between
shows so they are out of the way and I can keep an eye on things without causing traffic problems for the festival.

Pre-Load: By pre-load, you will want to try and stay away from illusions that require the assistant to be loaded into the illusion ahead of time before the show starts. Because you never know where you will be performing or where people will be standing, pre-loading can be
difficult to set up and arrange so that no on sees this taking place. If you have an opening illusion like a Blammo production, you can probably get away with it but make sure to talk about staging with the festival prior to you getting there so something can be arranged. In most cases
you might be able to move your vehicle behind the stage and use that to temporary block the angles for the pre-load. Or they might be able to block off an area for you. Just keep this in mind if you have an illusion that requires this before your show start time.

So what type of illusions go over well at festivals? Well, I will answer this by saying that you want to first start off with the classics. They are classics for a reason. They have been tested and proven to get great responses over and over again. Some that I am referring to would be Sub Trunk, Sword Basket, Chair Suspension, Broom Suspension etc. All of these are classics and work very well for any festival style show. Most pack flat, are easy to travel with and can be done surrounded and in most lighting situations. Certainly there are more, but this should give you an idea of the types that tend to work well and get good responses.

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9. Actors Training For Magicians Stockholm
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Message by Tom Stone (Sweden)

Acting skills are not something that 'magically' appear when you need them.

Instead, you have to practice acting techniques just as much as your magic techniques if you want to be good at it.

But how do you do that? How do you practice acting techniques, if you don't know what they are?

This is a two-day workshop where you will be guided through some basic actor's training, like impulse training, focus, rhythm and tempo shifting.

All with an eye on how it relates to magic performances.

You will learn to understand what you and your body are expressing on stage, and how to apply acting techniques during magic performances on stage.

Your instructor is Leif Olberius, a trained actor and magician who has had his own theater company.

Limited to 8 participants.

February 11-12: Stockholm:
https://magic-workshops.com/event/actors-training-for-magicians/

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10. The Assembly Convention 2019, Brisbane, Australia
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Message from Sean Piper (Australia)

June 21, 2019 - June 23, 2019 · Eatons Hill Hotel · Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Here at The Assembly HQ, we're putting the finishing touches on our Saturday night stage show which promises to be a spectacular line-up of both local and international talent.

If you haven't already registered for the convention, what are you waiting for? Early Bird rate is available only until the end of January 2019, and includes no less than:

- 4 x lectures
- 3 x intensive workshops
- 2 x world class stage shows
- 1 x amazing venue
- and a partridge in a pear tree*

What better Christmas gift to ask for than a ticket to the greatest weekend of magic Brisbane has seen in over a decade.

https://www.theassemblycon.com.au/

Numbers will be limited due to the size of the venue, so ensure you get in early or you might miss out!

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E-zine Archives
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Back issues of the Magic New Zealand e- zine go to:
www.magicnewzealand.com click on the red button centre right "Archives"

When you enter the archive the e- zines are in issue order in folders for each year and are Coded, e.g. 001 Nov06 1999.txt first three numbers (001) denote issue number, then the date (Nov06) and the last figures the year (1999)

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Privacy Policy and Copyright Notice
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