Magic New Zealand® E-zine

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Magic New Zealand®
* Proudly sponsored by International Entertainment Ltd (New Zealand)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Issue Number: #1584
Date: Sunday 23rd August 2020
Editor: Alan Watson QSM
www.watson.co.nz
E-mail: editor@magicnewzealand.com
================================
Hi here is the latest news
================================

1. Editor's Message
2. Academy Of Magical Arts 52nd Annual Awards Show
3. Nominees are... (AMA Awards Virtual Experience 2020
4. The Magic Word Podcast
5. Las Vegas Is In Huge Trouble!
6. A Perfect Ten - John Carey #92
7. Ongoing Adventures Of Romany! #22
8. Magicians In The Golden Age Of New Zealand Vaudeville - Part 3
9. The Orchante Saga - Beginnings
10. E-zine Archives
11. Privacy Policy and Copyright Notice

--------------------------------------------
1. Editor's Message
--------------------------------------------

If you would like to read the Magic New Zealand e-zine in HTML format
go to: http://www.magicnewzealand.com/ezine-archive/2020-Jan-to-Dec-2020/1584-Aug23-2020.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

-------------------------------------------
2. Academy Of Magical Arts 52nd Annual Awards Show
-------------------------------------------
Message by Max Maven (US)

On Sunday, August 23, at 7:00 PM (California time), the Academy of Magical Arts will present its 52nd annual Awards Show.

As you know, in normal times, this is an upscale theater event, with high-priced tickets. But these aren't normal times.

This year, for the first time, it will be a virtual show. Everyone is invited. You don't have to be an AMA member to attend, and it's absolutely FREE. So please spread the word to everyone you know who might be entertained by a bunch of magicians congratulating each other. On August 23, simply go to www.magiccastle.com/awards

There will be a digital program in conjunction with the show, to be released for free in early September (about a week and a half after the show, so that specific winners can be congratulated, if desired.)

Because our costs are low in going digital, we've slashed our prices. Full page is $400; half is $200; quarter is $100; eighth is $50. We're also doing a "sponsor" deal. If you pay $1000 or more, you get a full-page ad, plus a full screen credit at the end of the show.

Joan, I understand that this is the worst possible time to be soliciting ad buys, when money is so tight. If you or the CAM would want to buy space, great. If you don't wish to buy an ad, no problem. And I promise, you won't get further solicitations from me! If you do want to do this, go to www.magiccastle.com/program which is a simple interface. Or, if you prefer, you can get back to me and I'll walk you through it.

-------------------------------------------
3. Nominees are... (AMA Awards Virtual Experience 2020
-------------------------------------------
Who will the winners be? Tune in and find out!

Nominees are:

Close-up Magician of the year:
Hannibal, Armondo Lucero, Asi Wind, Jared Kopf, David Regal

Parlour Magician of the year:
Hannibal, Chris Capehart, Derek Hughes, Mike Pisciotta, Arthur Trace

Stage Magician of the year:
Lindsay Benner David Kovac, Gregory Wilson, Chipper Lowell, Lucy Darling

Lecture of the year:
Woody Aragon, Dani DaOrtiz, Karl Hein, Jonathan Levit, Shoot Ogawa

Academy of Magical Arts presents the virtual awards show
This Sunday, August 23rd, 2020 / 7pm pdt
Free To Watch! Anyone Can View! No Password or Special Software Needed! Family-Friendly Fun! Magical Surprises & More!

Tune In:
MagicCastle.com/Awards

-------------------------------------------
4. The Magic Word Podcast
-------------------------------------------
Message by Scott Wells, M.I.M.C. with Gold Star

"Master of Deception" Book plus F.I.S.M. Contests Demystified on The Magic Word Podcast

Last week we featured an episode by author and magician, John-Ivan Palmer, who spoke about his newly released book, "Master of Deception" about growing up in the back seat of his father's car as they drove back and forth across the country performing at every conceivable venue available to variety artists in the post-World War II era. Jack Pyle was one of those master magicians who ultimately ended up in the Chicago area where he was one of the members of the legendary Chicago Round Table. This new book explores all the adventures of the young boy as he lived in various trailer parks and attended dozens of schools and rubbed shoulders with many variety artists from ventriloquists to whip crackers and comedians. You can hear this episode or download it at: https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwellsmagic/572-john-ivan-palmer We also have a contest running for another week for an opportunity to win one of two autographed books from the author. Check it out at the blog. The contest will run until 26 September.

This week we respond to another listener's request from the email bag. We go deep into how one prepares, enters, competes and wins at the Word Championships of Magic (F.I.S.M.). We first speak with Noel Britten, President of The Magic Circle, who asks that we first ask ourselves why we want to compete and what we want and expect from the results. Next we go to Las Vegas where we talk with Vinny Grosso, Past President of the National S.A.M. and Contest Chairman who talks about the "preliminaries" or the Continental Magic Championships that lead up to F.I.S.M. We finally chat with Boris Wild in Paris, France, winner of F.I.S.M. and head of the Jury. Boris helps explain how they judge acts that make it this far. You can hear it all on The Magic Word Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. But you can get more at: https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwellsmagic/573-fism-contests

-------------------------------------------
5. Las Vegas Is In Huge Trouble!
-------------------------------------------
Article forwarded by Peter Phillips (US)

Miles To Memories

New Layoffs, Empty Rooms & Billion Dollar Losses: Las Vegas Is In Huge Trouble!

Vegas Is In Huge Trouble

When Las Vegas reopened at the beginning of June many people had high hopes. The virus numbers had never grown to a high level here and the hope was that pent-up demand would be enough to keep the casinos afloat. Fast forward a couple of months later and the picture isn't quite as positive. Las Vegas is in huge trouble.

To start, Nevada is in the middle of an outbreak of COVID-19. This post isn't about the virus so I won't spend too much time talking about this, however the 7 day moving averages for new cases and deaths are spiking. We also have had our two largest death days this week. It seems COVID-19 is finally here and that's just the start of the bad news.

Wynn Las Vegas Furloughs & Limited Operations

Due to the overall slow recovery a number of businesses are making huge adjustments (layoffs/furloughs). Wynn Resorts just announced furloughs of employees who had already returned back to work plus the shutdown of some midweek operations. "Although we retained all of our people while we were closed, we now know how challenged business volumes in Las Vegas are and are staffing to the significantly reduced demand," spokesman Michael Weaver said.

As part of the announcement they will close one of their spas midweek along with many restaurants. This comes after Venetian/Palazzo announced that the Palazzo tower would be closed midweek. It's clear these higher end casinos simply aren't drawing in people midweek where the conferences used to fill up the rooms and the restaurants.

Circus Circus Hurting Too

But the problems aren't just the on the high end. Circus Circus (which was recently sold to Phil Ruffin), has announced the permanent firing of 252 employees as of September 1. Of the layoffs announced most of them are dealers and guest room attendants. With less hotel rooms to clean and less people on the floor that makes sense, but it's a sad reality.

Las Vegas Sands Loses A Billion Dollars

And even sadder is what Las Vegas Sands announced this week. As mentioned before they are closing their Palazzo Tower midweek, but we have learned they are losing so much money! And the main reason for that is the lack of conventions. Along with the many tourists who are staying home, just about 100% of the conventions that keep Vegas afloat have been cancelled.
Because of that Las Vegas Sands lost a staggering $985 million in the second quarter with revenues down a whopping 97.1% from last year.

The good news is that the company seems to be in good enough financial standing to survive this. "We remain optimistic about an eventual recovery of travel and tourism spending across our markets, as well as our future growth prospects. We are fortunate that our financial strength will enable us to continue to execute our previously announced capital expenditure programs in both Macao and Singapore, while continuing to pursue growth opportunities in new markets."

While the news is certainly bad for Las Vegas and the many people who rely on tourism for their livelihoods, there are some projects that are about to be finished. Resorts World & Circa Resort Downtown continue their construction and Allegiant Stadium is just days away from being finished! Hopefully these new projects along with real pent-up demand will get people to come back in 2021 and beyond.

https://milestomemories.com/vegas-is-in-huge-trouble/?fbclid=IwAR0WGc6inZg7JsP5y1GLg-2VWur9OzArnJogs0KonSw3Qqv92aowquPA1EU

-------------------------------------------
6. A Perfect Ten - John Carey #92
-------------------------------------------
Message by John Carey (UK)
http://www.johncareymagic.co.uk/

A Perfect Ten is a subtle and practical card at a number effect.

No difficult moves, but a pleasing and strong piece. The only preparation is to begin with any Ten spot on the bottom of the deck.

Slip shuffle retaining the Ten at the bottom and then table the face down deck. Cut it into two halves and hand the original upper half to a spectator for shuffling. As they do this you invite a second spectator to cut the other packet in half. Then you place the lower half of this packet on top of the cut off packet offset at an angle in readiness for the venerable cross cut card force.

Direct attention back to your first spectator and take their cards back from them. We will now have them select a card and control it to tenth from the top in a very efficient manner. Start dealing cards one at a time into a face down packet. As soon as you've dealt the fifth card ask them to call out stop as you continue dealing. If they stop you on the tenth card it's perfect.
Have them pick it up and look at it as you pick up the other nine cards and place them on top of your remaining cards, but secure a left pinky break beneath them. Then dribble to your break and have the selection returned and square up.

However, if they stop you at say eight, have them take that card as you casually deal and drop two cards onto the tabled pile. If they stopped you at nine you would drop just one card. Either way you continue as before controlling their card. In the unlikely event of them stopping you at say thirteen, fear not. In this scenario you would let them take the card as you casually pick off three cards, one at a time and drop them onto your packet, as you say they could have stopped earlier etc. Then simply continue as first described. I like to do a simple false cut before tabling the packet.

Divert your attention to the other spectator as you comment on how they cut the cards at the beginning. The palm down right hand lifts off the upper angled packet and then the left fingers slide out the bottom card of that packet. Turn that card facing up revealing a Ten. Drop that card face up to the table and assemble the packet. To conclude the effect have the first spectator pick up their packet and count ten cards into a tabled pile. Then ask for the name of their selection and turn over the tenth card to successfully conclude the effect.

--------------------------------------------
7. Ongoing Adventures Of Romany! #22
--------------------------------------------
Message by Romany (UK)

Hello from the Magic Cottage!

"Oh no! Quick! There are two dogs in the field with the sheep!"
These days my bedroom window looks out onto a field of sheep. Sometimes they seem to have magically vanished but they are only hiding, munching grass peacefully around the corner.

Until my labradoodle Bongo passed last summer, I was a responsible dog owner, I know very well that dogs should not be running around with sheep.

"What?" Walkabout (current husband) shouts from the bathroom.

"There are two sheepdog in the field with the sheep!"

He doesn't answer and I hear the electric toothbrush buzzing again.

"I'm going to do something!" I shout, running downstairs and out the front door.
Oh.

I see.

They are sheepdogs. Doing what sheepdogs do, rounding up the sheep for the farmer who is leaning on the gate.

So annoying when husbands understand stuff before I do.

As you were. Nothing to see, move along.

This week has been more showbizzy than most.

After posting a photo of me on FB looking miserable at the lack of shows, New York magician Mike Maione invited me to be his guest on his YouTube chat show Trick or Treat. https://youtu.be/pzLupo_JmYI

Obviously not the type to sit and do nothing during lockdown, Mike has put together a light, funny show featuring a different magician guest each week. With clips from videos and photos, we went through my adventures which you can see here https://youtu.be/pzLupo_JmYI if you'd like. Oh, and I do a trick. Two even!

On top of that I was a guest for two podcasts, one for aspiring writers and the other for a business woman interested in magic. It's easy work talking about magic. I could talk about it forever, probably like you. Wouldn't be lovely to be paid to talk about magic though? Abracadabra for that.

Today we are off for 5 days in my Divamobile VW camper van to explore the wonderful Lake District on my doorstep. Making the most of this unusual time and leisure. And no, I still haven't organised my new magic studio. And yes, there is still, apparently, lots and lots of time. I think, maybe, the thing to do is to enjoy the heck out of it!

Hoping you do, with best wishes,

Romany

You can read more about Romany's magical adventures in her inspiring memoir Spun Into Gold - The Secret Life of a Female Magician, available worldwide and as an audiobook.
Book Depository Free Shipping bit.ly/2ONMFvB
Amazon UK bit.ly/2kqB4G6
Amazon USA amzn.to/2m3XT2J
Audible adbl.co/2qROlu5
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/romanydivaofmagic Please subscribe!

--------------------------------------------
8. Magicians In The Golden Age Of New Zealand Vaudeville - Part 3
--------------------------------------------
Reviewed by Kent Blackmore (Australia)

Magicians in the Golden Age of New Zealand Vaudeville - Part Three.
By Bernard Reid

Bernard Reid has created something which possibly no other country has - a comprehensive history of the magical performers in New Zealand right through from the earliest days until the end of the "Golden Age" in 1929. While other historians have documented parts of their nations' history, Reid has covered every known touring magician since 1855, firstly in "Conjurors, Cardsharps and Conmen", and then in three volumes of "Magicians in the Golden Age of New Zealand Vaudeville", with a detour to write the biography of New Zealand's versatile artist, Jon Zealando. All of this published in the space of just six years.

The current volume covers the years 1920-1929 and, following the same format as previously, it is a chronological examination of who was in the country at a certain time, rather than separate chapters about the travels of one specific magician. That allows a fascinating insight into the competition between performers, the sort of magic that communities were seeing during a certain year (for instance, the flood of "Sawing" illusions), and the fluctuating fortunes of theatrical entrepreneurs as they viewed New Zealand either as a money-pot, or as an unreliable audience for big touring shows.

Reid also has the eye of a veteran professional, and makes salient observations about why a performer used particular theatres, or what the commercial realities were during this time of change. He notes the drift across from vaudeville shows with multiple specialty acts, into a "comedy revue" format requiring less cost and risk, and the consequent reduction in employment for vaudeville artists. While moving pictures were slow to impact on the New Zealand, by 1929 they were starting to sound the end of vaudeville/variety theatre, and the close of the 'golden age'.

The performers covered in the book are far from just being local talent, though many native magicians are included, such as Edgar Beynon (later 'Benyon'), Tom Driver, Roy Raymond, the Nola Brothers, and the criminal Franklin Smith. The early tours of Les Levante and Cecil Keech are examined, as are the visits of Cardini, Long Tack Sam, Wong Toy Sun and Jean Le Roi. Some annoyingly difficult to trace performers are investigated, particularly Argus the Boy Wonder whose career is a series of vague dates and publicity misinformation. For those who only recognise the biggest international names, there is no shortage - Carter, Nicola, Cefalo, Malini, Chris Charlton and Prof. McEwen. All these, plus many others of greater or lesser fame, are documented along with many excellent photographs and illustrations, in the same quality hardbound format as the other volumes.

There is always scope for some new historian in New Zealand to one day select a particular subject and delve even more deeply into their life story. They will undoubtedly start with Reid's series as their essential foundation.

For most magicians, though, "Magicians in the Golden Age" will tell them everything they need to know about New Zealand's magic history, in a thoroughly readable format. For my part, I am constantly returning to the series as I do my own history research, in order to relate the New Zealand stories to the Australian tours made by many of these same performers.

You should really consider buying the full set, not just the current volume. For anyone interested in magic or theatrical history in the Southern Hemisphere, this series is essential to a complete library.

Contact Bernard Reid for pricing information, at bernardlreid@gmail.com

-------------------------------------
9. The Orchante Saga - Beginnings
-------------------------------------
Written by the late Tommy Orchard (The Amazing Orchante)

Skippee, Skippee, Skippy the Bush kangaroo

Must say, every time I open up the lid of my 'bottomless' aluminium trunk it feels like I'm blindingly inserting my hands into the - 'swirling, nebulous mists of times and memories past'. On this occasion the original itinerary (with amendments) for a South Island tour, fluttered up from its unfathomable depths into my fingers, which is how this episode got started.

David McKee, promoter in Auckland, telephoned me saying that he'd had a query from a promoter who was based in the capital city of New Zealand - Wellington, regarding a show that was to tour the South Island for a total of 18 performances. The International 'Television Star' headlining the show was -' Skippy - The Bush Kangaroo'! The tour dates were from August -16th to the 24th - the year was 1973. "Unfortunately", David said, "the money is pathetic, 'McDonald' is only offering $250, the miserable sod, so it's up to you whether you take it or not but, forgetting the money (which wasn't difficult), the publicity should be fantastic - oh, and by the way, your mate Peter Newberry' - 'Crunchy the Clown', will be on the tour as well". Well it
was only nine days, we had nothing else on and we should at least, have a good time. "Okay Dave" I said, "we'll do it".

For those who may be interested, especially ex pat Kiwis, here is the itinerary, which more than likely will make you feel rather homesick - it does me.

Thursday 16th August: Skippy arrives Christchurch airport 12:45pm - TV and press promotion then leave for Timaru. More promotion. Distance - 100 miles

Friday 17th - leave Timaru for Dunedin - even more promotion, 130 miles. Leave for Invercargill - still more promotions. 140 miles.

Saturday 18th - perform six shows at Invercargill Civic Theatre - 10:30am, 12, 2, 4, 5:30 and 7pm then leave for Gore - 50 miles
.
Sunday 19th - perform three shows at St Mary's - 12, 1:30 and 2:30pm.
Leave Gore for Balclutha - 50 miles - one show only, at 5:00pm then
Leave for Dunedin - 50 miles.

Monday 20th - worked five shows at the Dunedin in Town Hall - 10:30am,
12, 2, 4, and 5:15pm. leave for Oamaru - 50 miles.

Tuesday 21st - two shows at the Opera House, Oamaru, 9:30 and 11am
then leave for Timaru - 50 miles; three performances at the Theatre Royal - 2:30, 4, and 5:30pm. leave for Christchurch - 100 miles.

Wednesday 22nd - four shows at the Christchurch Town Hall - 10 and 11:30am, 1 and 3 pm. then left for Blenheim - 200 miles.

Thursday 23rd - two shows at the Blenheim Centennial Hall - 9:30 and 11 am then left for Nelson - 75 miles. Perform two at the Trafalgar Centre - 3:30 and 5pm then returned Blenheim to stay the night.

Friday 24th - left Blenheim for Christchurch where originally, we should have gone to the airport to fly back home to Auckland. We stay the night.

Saturday 25th - James Hay Theatre Christchurch. We worked four shows, 10 and 11 am, 12:30 and 2:30pm.

The original contract was for 18 shows - we did 26 - eight extra! The overwhelming success of the Skippy tour was way beyond Tom McDonald's wildest imagination, or anybody else's for that matter. Every show was totally and utterly packed out!

To give you a good example, the Christchurch town hall auditorium has a capacity of 5000 plus. If you look at the itinerary - Wednesday the 22nd, we did four shows, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. That is over 20,000 people, in one-day! Now I have photographs taken many years ago of the Franquin Hypnotism Show, which shows people queuing around the block hoping to buy tickets for his shows - that were already sold out! It is something rather difficult to comprehend until you see it with your own eyes. That's how it was with the Skippy show - no matter where we went, the 'House Full' sign would go up - With Queues Stretching Around The block for each and every show - four or more shows a day! As you can see from the itinerary, we were in Nelson on Thursday the 23rd, which should have been the last show, but we went back to Christchurch and did another four shows at the James Hay Theatre, and once again, all four shows were totally sold out. Amazing!

Personally, I think the show should have been renamed the 'Crunchy the Clown and Orchanté' Show. Why? Because 'Skippy' couldn't do a blind thing! The first half of the show was Peter Newberry and myself doing our thing and the second half was a simple question and answer
programme from the audience to Phil Bowers (an Australian park ranger who had come over as Skippy's keeper), about Skippy the kangaroo and information about kangaroos in general. What an absolute rip-off! The kids were expecting Skippy to at least perform some tricks, as they had seen her apparently do, on television. In actual fact, kangaroos are as thick as two planks!

While I'm the subject of rip-offs, for the extra eight shows, we got paid - wait for it, - $50!!! Never in my life, before or since, have I ever met such a mean, tight-fisted bastard! Needless to say I refused, never did work for that total - ~~##**^*- promoter again! In the space
of seven working days, he cleared, after tax and expenses, well over $20,000 plus. Fair pay/bonuses are not in his vocabulary! With that sort of attitude, it's no wonder the 'arsehole' went 'bust' and took off for Australia!

The skippy tour broke every box office record in New Zealand's show business history! Not even 'Franquin' or 'the Beatles' could match it. I called it 'the seven-day wonder'!

In New Zealand during the late Sixties and Seventies, ' Crunchy the Clown' (Peter Newberry) was almost of superstar status as far as the kids were concerned, with his own television show and quite naturally, Peter capitalised on this, during the Skippy tour. He had hundreds of
photographs of himself, as Crunchy the Clown of course, on which he would sign his autograph and give away to kids after shows. The ' Fanta' drinks company, who were his sponsors, paid for them. The bottom quarter of the photograph was taken up, quite logically, by the 'Fanta' logo. Great publicity for both parties.

After signing a few hundred copies of these during the first few shows of the 'Skippy' tour, Peter hit on a 'great idea'. He cut the 'Fanta' logo off, pre-autographed every one that he had then, instead of giving them away as he was supposed to, he sold them, the cheeky bugger, for 10¢ each, after every show! I bet 'Fanta' would not have been too pleased had they are known about this (more than likely, he'd have lost their sponsorship), especially when he phoned them in Auckland requesting thousands more, and that it was of the utmost urgency! They arrived at one of the theatres within days.

Imagine 'Crunchy the Clown', either in the theatre foyer or outside on the footpath, with thousands of excited kids milling around after a show. There were so many kids happy to pay 10¢ a pop for a photograph that Peter couldn't cope, so he roped Veronica (my wife and assistant) in, to sell them as well - for a commission per 100 sold! There was one incident that upset Veronica terribly at the time. A little boy around two years of age, dressed in a 'bunny' outfit, approached 'Crunchy'. Timidly holding up a one cent - piece for a photograph -
Peter told him that, 'they cost 10¢ each', then sent to him away! (The McDonald syndrome / greed must have rubbed off) Peter lost a lot of Veronica's respect, and mine after that. God knows how many thousands of - his free, autographed photographs he sold by the end of the tour; he probably made more money from the sales of them, than his actual fee!

The only thing that was memorable about 'Skippy, the Bush kangaroo', as far as we were concerned, was that when she defecated, the stink was unbelievable - it 'hung' around forever and seemed to 'stick' to everything! Five or six months after the 'Skippy' run, we were touring
the South Island on a different show, and arrived once again at the Dunedin town hall. The awful, unmistakable 'heavy aroma' of - 'Skippy crap' was still pervading the air backstage! oh, such 'sweet' memories!

Archives continued next week.
--------------------------------------------
E-zine Archives
---------------------------------------------
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)

--------------------------------------------
Privacy Policy and Copyright Notice
--------------------------------------------
Our subscriber list is NOT made available to any other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and respect your privacy.

You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from the Magic New Zealand® E- zine at: www.magicnewzealand.com

Magic New Zealand® E-zine is published each Sunday.

The opinions and statements expressed therein are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of Magic New Zealand®. Neither Magic New Zealand® nor Alan Watson QSM 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 they will not hold Magic New Zealand® or Alan Watson QSM, jointly or individually liable or responsible in any way for the opinions or statements contained therein.

Magic New Zealand® reserves the right to alter, correct or disregard any articles submitted.

Readers are encouraged to submit timely articles or news items which may be of interest to subscribers. By submitting articles to this e- zine, the authors grant Magic New Zealand® the right to publish such articles and such authors confirm their copyright of the material submitted.

All works published by Magic New Zealand® are protected by international copyright legislation and articles must not be published for profit by anyone other than the individual authors without the written permission of Magic New Zealand®.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, 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.