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: #1617
Date: Sunday 2nd May 2021
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. MAGIC Live 2022!
3. Magical Women With Connie Boyd
4. 112th Annual Salute To Magic! Show
5. TC Tahoe On The Magic Word
6. New Poster - Female Magicians Through The Centuries
7. Subtle Prefiguration - John Carey #116
8. Jeff McBride's May Magic & Mystery School Events
9. Steve Valentine Is Giving It All Away!
10. No Stone Unturned - Paul Stone - Article #9
11. The Orchante Saga - Beginnings
12. E-zine Archives
13. Privacy Policy and Copyright Notice

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1. Editor's Message
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If you would like to read the Magic New Zealand e-zine in HTML format
go to: http://www.magicnewzealand.com/ezine-archive/2021-Jan-to-Dec-2021/1617-May02-2021.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. MAGIC Live 2022!
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Message by Stan Allen (US)

On April 8th, we put 2021 Registration on hold, while we reevaluated producing MAGIC Live this summer. Actually, while we overthought every aspect of the event - again! It's been a little like nailing jelly to a tree, while the tree keeps moving.

After projecting out all the things we were going to be able to do and all the things we weren't going to be able to do, MAGIC Live started looking more like MAGIC Lite! Sort of a low-fat Live! The fun of producing this unconventional convention is trying to do something better each year. And we came to realize that just wasn't going to happen in 2021.

While it's very disappointing to have to cancel this year's event, for us that's better than being disappointed in the event itself. Instead, we're moving forward with a full-scale MAGIC Live in 2022.

So, what now?

Please mark your calendar to join us:

May 15-18, 2022

No, that's not a typo. We had an opportunity to move from summer to spring next year, and we took it. By the way, the average mid-May temperature in Las Vegas is 78°. It's a beautiful time of year to be in the "Entertainment Capital of the World."

Registration to MAGIC Live is $455 per person. Each registration includes tickets to all performances, access to all sessions, workshops, special events, parties, and our dealer room, as well as giveaway items. There are no extra-charge events.

You have the option of paying in full, or joining our convenient payment plan (seven installments of $65 plus a $2 fee per transaction). Your registration is 90% refundable through March 1, 2022.

General Registration for MAGIC Live 2022 opens:

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 o 10 a.m., Pacific Time

You will be able to simply register for yourself, or you can create a group of up to 8 people.

Hope you can join us in May of '22!

Stan
wwwMagicConvention.com

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3. Magical Women With Connie Boyd
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Message by Connie Boyd (USA)

Mistie Knight's third sequel talk is full of insight and experienced advice.

Together with her husband Kyle they won the grand prize on Wizard Wars hosted by Penn & Teller.

Watch and learn the behind the scenes television taping stories and struggles, plus how they manage a magical life, "Married to Magic."

What did you learn from Mistie's second sequel talk?

Contents
0:00 - 0:16 - Connie introduces Mistie
0:16 - 4:24 - Adapting to different Mediums
4:24 - 4:33 - Call to Action please subscribe
4:33 - 5:38 - Future contract choices and travel
5:38 - 7:12 - How they survive as a couple
7:12 - 8:12 - How Mistie met Kyle
8:12 - 9:53 - Mistie sees a positive change in magic
9:53 - 10:15 - Call to Action

https://youtu.be/BA30tnz3Kbg

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4. 112th Annual Salute To Magic! Show
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Message by George Schindler (US)

Doug "Lefty" Leferovich Honored as PA #1 "Magician Of The Year 2021"

The Parent Assembly #1 of the Society of American Magicians is excited to name Douglas "Lefty" Leferovich as the Parent Assembly's 2021 Magician of the Year.

Douglas joins a select group of magicians being recognized for his contributions to elevating the magical arts.

Douglas has been a member or the Parent Assembly for over 30 years, and lives and works in Las Vegas.

In the world of magic, "Lefty" is a Creative Director, Featured Performer and a Magic Consultant.

He will be honored at the "112th Annual Salute to Magic! Show". (Currently being planned as a live virtual event airing from Las Vegas June 22, 2021 at 8pm.)

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5. TC Tahoe On The Magic Word
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Message by Scott Wells, M.I.M.C. with Gold Star

This week on the Magic Word Podcast we feature a comedian who has a twist of the bizarre. TC Tahoe is a successful comedy magician who has been nominated by the Academy of Magical Arts on several occasions but has yet to come home with an award. TC has worked at both Magic Island in Newport Beach, California, and in Houston, Texas, and we discuss those halcyon days of yesteryear. But TC is also an illustrator and quite adept at not only tossing the pasteboards, but also at reading them, or at least reading the Tarot cards.

You can listen to this week's episode wherever you get your podcasts, but for more information and to watch videos, see photos, read the blog and listen online, then you can visit the website at: https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwellsmagic/610-tc-tahoe

And congratulations to the winner of our recent contest, Rick DeNatale, who won "Grandpa Magic" by Alan Kronzek. Thank you to all who entered the contest. To keep up to date on current podcasts and contests, be sure to sign up for our weekly podletter on the website.

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6. New Poster - Female Magicians Through The Centuries
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Message by Paul Romhany

Lupe Nielsen And Vanish Magic Magazine Create A Unique Poster

A new poster produced by Nielsen Posters. This is a poster made out of a recent cover for Vanish Magazine. This image was designed by Paul Romhany and it graced a 2021 Special Edition about Female Magicians through the Centuries. The image is a headshot of magician Josephine Lee created using a giant collage of hundreds of images of women in the magic field. It is an impressive and stunning artwork.

Connie Boyd - creator and producer of the Magical Women Channel on YouTube - loved this image so much and suggested that it should be made and offered as a poster.

This poster comes in two sizes:
- Standard: 20" x 16" - $125
- Large: 30" x 39" - $250

This image is quite special as it is a fine GICLEE, printed with UV INKS on CANVAS.

This truly unique poster that is available from:
https://nnmagic.com/store/contemporary/vanish-magazine-special-edition-women-in-magic-cover-poster/

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7. Subtle Prefiguration - John Carey #116
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Message by John Carey (UK)
http://www.johncareymagic.co.uk/

One of my absolute favorite tricks to do is Larry Jennings Prefiguration, from his book Classic Magic. Knocking out four of a kind from a spectator shuffled deck sleightlessly is my idea of a good time! But quite recently I came across a version by Ramon Rioboo that appealed to me, where both you and the spectator each pocket a card. His routine One in the Side Pocket from his book Thinking the Impossible is well worth your study.

My humble offering to this genre uses the Rioboo idea combined with a classic automatic placement of Karl Fulves to pretty strong effect. It's strong, interactive and memorable. Ahead of time secretly pocket one of the queens. Do some effects and then hand out the deck for shuffling.
Take back the deck and spread it face up in the hands with the faces towards you and comment on how well they shuffled. As you do this look for a Queen.

Casually cut this card to the rear/top of the deck and square up. State you will use your intuition to find a card for your helper. Once again spread the face up deck with the faces towards you and up-jog the first Queen you come to. Pause a little as if uncertain and then continue spreading
until you see the next Queen, which you also up-jog. "I'm torn between two random cards. Please pick up either and put it in your pocket without looking." As you say the above, strip out both Queens and table them sight unseen. Let your spectator put one in their pocket. This is quite subtle in the scheme of things. Drop the deck face-down on top of the tabled card and square up. Ribbon spread the deck and ask your helper to push out any card for you. Take it and place it inside your pocket behind the Queen already there.

So with little to no work we are the proverbial mile ahead. There's a Queen on the top and bottom of the deck and one in your pocket and one in theirs! Give the deck a casual Ose false cut if you desire. "I have a hunch we are working well together. Let's try one last thing." We now
segue straight into Karl Fulves brilliant Gemini Mates to set up for the grand finale: Ask your helper to deal cards face down one at a time into a tabled packet and to use their intuition to guide them when to stop. Once they have ask them to turn the last card dealt face-up and then drop the balance of the deck on top. A Queen has been secretly set next to the face up card. Take the deck from them and replicate their actions, dealing, stopping, turning the last card dealt face up and setting the balance on top.

The work is done from your viewpoint but to the people the effect hasn't even started yet. Spread the face down deck and take out each face up marker card and the card above it and table them as pairs. Remind the audience how the deck was shuffled and how everything has been as fair as fair can be... "Sometimes in life things happen which we just can't explain." Direct your spectator to turn over the face down card on top of their marker card to reveal a Queen. Pause a couple of seconds and then turn your face down card over to reveal another Queen. "See I told you we were working well together. Now take out the card I gave you earlier as I take out the one you gave me. Now that's impossible!" Both cards are removed from their pocket and yours and the mystery is successfully concluded.

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8. Jeff McBride's May Magic & Mystery School Events
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Message by Jeff McBride (US)

May 5, 12, 19 - Career Builders Workshop - with Tobias Beckwith - LIVE Online

May 5, 12 - Theater Games for Magicians - with Tobias Beckwith - LIVE Online
Theater Games for Magicians - with Tobias Beckwith - LIVE Online

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9. Steve Valentine Is Giving It All Away!
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Message by Steve Valentine

Steve Valentine is giving it all away!

Actor and multi-award winning magician Steve Valentine is celebrating adding the 600th video to his incredible online magic site, Magic On The Go, and Steve wants to share some of the videos with you, for free.

Just go to this link Stevevalentine.com/magic and sign up for access to free Magic On The Go content. You'll be happy you did :)

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10. No Stone Unturned - Paul Stone - Article #9
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Message by Paul Stone (US)

This week I am going to tell you about one of the greatest magicians I have ever seen, Fred Kaps.

Fred Kaps was a close friend of renowned British magic dealer Ken Brooke and it was in Ken's magic studio in London's West End that I first met this legendary Dutch magician.

As a young man keen to learn the business, I spent as much of my spare time as possible studying with Ken, and, as luck would have it, Ken Brooke's Magic Place was where all the top pros hung out when they were working in London.

These were the days when the major London hotels, including the Dorchester and the Savoy, booked cabaret; and top performers like Fred Kaps, Paul Potassy, and Finn Jon appeared for up to a month at a time at these prestigious venues.

Fred Kaps was an elegant and classy professional performer, who always looked immaculate on stage. His smile and charming personality put every audience immediately at ease. He had a presence that very few magicians possessed.

To experience a Fred Kaps performance was to witness a master class. He wasn't simply a magician doing tricks; rather, every effect he performed was truly magical, with Fred appearing to be genuinely surprised by the extraordinary things that kept happening.

His achievements in the world of magic are legendary and included winning the FISM Grand Prix on no less than three occasions. But it was his performances on television and on stage at which Fred particularly excelled.

Thanks to my good friend John Fisher, undoubtedly the premier magic and variety producer in British Television, I was fortunate enough to be asked to help Fred in the Fred Kaps Magic Show and also in The Parkinson Christmas Special, which featured Fred Kaps, Ricky Jay, and Richiardi Jr. (Sir Michael Parkinson was the most famous British chat show host on BBC TV. His show was watched by millions of people in UK.) John Fisher produced both of these excellent shows.

But probably the most memorable event that I was involved with Fred Kaps, and also coincidentally with John Fisher, took place during the weekend of the Blackpool Magic Convention in February 1978. In those days the Blackpool Convention was still a one-day (Sunday) event. This convention is now a four day affair and is by far and away the largest in the world.

Fred Kaps was to be the headline act at the convention and was booked to perform in the Close-up show and also to close the Gala Stage Show in the huge three-thousand-seat Opera House theatre.

John Fisher had decided to travel up north from London with Fred on the train, so I invited them both to come up on the day before and stay overnight at my home in Liverpool. I would then drive them to Blackpool early on the Sunday morning. (Blackpool is about one hour's drive from Liverpool.)

I knew that it was unlikely that Fred would visit Liverpool again, so I asked him if he would mind giving a short lecture to a few invited guests and magicians at my home on the Saturday evening. He very kindly agreed to do so.

When I introduced Fred, he told the audience that he really wasn't sure what to show them, but he'd perform a few tricks. For the next four hours the twenty-five guests were treated to a never-to-be-forgotten evening of magic!

However, it was the next day that was to prove to be even more memorable for me in a very different way! My car was a Volvo station wagon, an extremely reliable vehicle - normally! As we left my house, Fred was smartly dressed in a coat and tie and an expensive looking long, black, leather coat.

We had barely gone half a mile when the car inexplicably broke down. The only way to get it to go was to "push start" it. I can still vividly remember sitting in the driving seat, looking in my rear view mirror, and watching as the world's greatest magician and TV's number-one producer pushed my car down the road!

Anyway, it worked, and fortunately, both Fred and John saw the funny side of the situation. To my great relief we arrived in Blackpool without further incident. But, unbeknown to me, the day's drama had only just begun!

Fred had incorrectly understood that he would be performing just one Close-up show. In fact, due to the large number of attendees at the convention, he was expected to perform eight shows.

Fred was the nicest man you could hope to meet, but he was known to have a temper. When he was upset, he could very occasionally fly off the handle! To say he wasn't happy about having to perform his Close-up show eight times was an understatement; he was furious.

As a result, when Fred went to do his band-call (sound and lighting check) in the Opera House theater later in the afternoon, he was still fuming. Consequently, he gave the theater's technical crew a very hard time.

The Opera House played host to major TV and entertainment stars every week and so their technical crew regularly worked with the biggest names in show business. Although Fred Kaps was a big star in the magic world, his name meant very little to them.

The main Gala Show at the Blackpool Convention is the culmination of an exciting day and Fred Kaps was the guest star. As usual, his act was superb; everything was going well until midway through his signature closing effect, the Salt Pour, when all the lights suddenly went out, leaving the stage in total darkness.

Although this probably lasted only fifteen to twenty seconds, it was long enough to spoil the finale of Fred's act. There was no way to prove that the blackout was the work of the technical crew, but it seemed likely that they had indeed got their own back!

If I had thought that Fred was angry before the show, he was now even more unhappy. And I still had to drive him and John Fisher back to my home in Liverpool! We loaded Fred's props into the car and set off in total silence.

The atmosphere was extremely uncomfortable, so I felt something was needed to break the ice. I stopped the car, ran into a local fish and chip shop on the Blackpool promenade, and ordered two portions of fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, which I then took back to Fred and John.

I took a deep breath, then told Fred to lighten up, eat the fish and chips, and forget about what had happened. For a few seconds Fred said nothing at all, then he burst out laughing, and calm was once again restored!

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

Eddie Low - A New Zealand Icon

The Voice In A Million

A Talent scout from an Australian booking agency arrived in New Zealand, on the lookout for singers to take back to Australia. Starting his nationwide search in Auckland City, he toured the whole country, finishing up back in Auckland, where the two best singers in the land were, right from the start, Eddie Low and John Rowles. He signed them up to a three-month contract; They left the band and flew out for Melbourne. That contract was extended for another three months.

At the conclusion of the agreement, Eddie and John went to Sydney for a holiday, before returning home to New Zealand; but they stayed in Sydney and formed a band instead - 'The Sundowners'. I wonder where they got that name from - a movie perhaps? The band members were two 'kiwis' - Eddie and John, two Aussies and a Dutchman. A year later, John decided to go solo, and Eddie got an offer to join the fantastic 'Quintikis' Show band. That's when the New Zealand public really started to notice Eddie Lowe, "The Boy with the Golden Voice", as he was known then.

Eddie constantly toured back and forth between New Zealand and Australia with the 'Quintikis', and it was during a Country and Western tour of New Zealand that the late Joe Brown, famous New Zealand promoter and record producer - he ran the: 'Nationwide Radio Search For Stars' (which is where I got my start back in 1960), and the: 'Miss New Zealand Contests', asked Eddie if he would consider going solo, under his personal management. Eddie said he would think about it. 'Think About It'? Dear God! Every entertainer in New Zealand, without hesitation, would have given their 'eye teeth' for an offer like that, from Joe Brown!

They produced a record on Joe's label - Eddie's first, it was: 'Crying Time'; then Eddie went back to Australia with the 'Quintikis'. In the meantime, Eddie's rendition of 'Crying Time' became an Instant Smash Hit, rocketing up the music charts at a phenomenal rate! Three months later, Eddie arrived back in New Zealand as a solo artist; 'A New Star Had Been Born'! For years, the guiding light behind Eddie's success was Joe Brown, and his son Dennis, who took over the reigns of the 'Joe Brown Enterprises' Empire, when his famous father died.

Joe Brown's strong conviction that New Zealand had the equal, if not the better of overseas talent, was borne out, not only by favourable agreement from visiting world famous entertainers, but also from strong public support. He had no trouble in arranging lucrative contracts for his artists - who performed in all the major entertainment Capitols throughout the world!

Tonight, Eddie could be singing in a nightclub in Auckland, tomorrow at a dance in Invercargill. Next week's engagements may include a weekend of stints in Fiji, or Tahiti, or both, followed by a solid month or two working various clubs in Sydney, Australia, which is now 'home' to Eddie, likewise many other New Zealand entertainers. That included ourselves, for 10 years, until we 'stretched our wings' and departed for England.

Most people think we were mad to leave the wonderful weather, the wide open spaces and blue skies of Australia ( Apart from the fact that we were only a hop, skip and a jump from New Zealand), for the infamous cold, damp, bone chilling weather and grey skies of England. But, I can't complain too much. Britain, in fact all of Europe, and beyond, has been very good to us. We have many friends here, and my 'brother' - Martin Baird, NOT by blood - BY choice - is as good a friend and mate, as any red-blooded 'kiwi bloke' could ever hope for! Yes, I know, I've wandered off the beaten track - again!

Eddie Low had conquered New Zealand and had become established throughout the South Pacific. Now, in 1973, he was ready, willing and invited, to Music City USA - Nashville, Tennessee, to represent his country New Zealand to meet the finest talent in country music, to
record in the top studios on music row and, to appear on the 'International Country Music Award Show' and also, as a Guest Artist on the famed: 'Grand Ole Opry show', in the Ryman Auditorium.

- Continues -

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12. 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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13. Privacy Policy and Copyright Notice
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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.

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