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: #1633
Date: Sunday 22nd August 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. Grand Opening Of The Academy Of Illusions
3. Something Unorthodox As I Prepare For FISM N. America
4. Magical Women With Connie Boyd
5. Crime Does Not Pay - John Carey #130
6. Broken Wand - Gerrit Brengman
7. Broken Wand - Brian Miller UK
8. Productive During The New South Wales COVID Lock-Down
9. No Stone Unturned - Paul Stone - Article #25
10. The Orchante Saga - Beginnings
11. E-zine Archives
12. 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: https://www.magicnewzealand.com/ezine-archive/2021-Jan-to-Dec-2021/1633-Aug22-2021.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. Grand Opening Of The Academy Of Illusions
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Message by Jay Scott Berry

I'm very pleased to announce the official opening of The Academy of Illusions on September 1st. This project has been in development for decades, and comes of the heels of the many Zoom Lectures, Gala Shows and Mentoring Sessions I've done over the past 18 months. In fact, it is with the collaboration of one of my top Students, Tommy Chiang, that this shared dream is finally being realized. Better known as Tomillusions, he now takes on the position of Academy Director.

Our All-Star Faculty includes multi-award winning Masters and Grandmasters, with over 300 years of combined professional experience! First, I am honoured to welcome Robert Fitch and Anthony Darkstone in positions of Professor Emeritus. The other six Professors are Roger Nicot, Geno DeVille, Eva May, Scott Cuthbertson, Arthur Tivoli and Daryl Sprout. Each are available as private Mentors and Coaches. They will also be joining in Group Sessions, Interviews, Seminars and Shows.

As a State-of-the-Art Training Academy, we offer a full spectrum of services, from Teaching, Coaching, Act and Character Development, Scripting, Brainstorming, Routining, Soundtracking, Websites, Graphics and more. Current students include Austin Moody, who I've been Mentoring, via Zoom, for over a year. In that time, he's gone from being a promising unknown to an emerging pro, who will star in this month's S.A.M. International Assembly Gala. I'm also working closely with FISM Contender, Rod Chow, to fine tune his amazing act in preparation for the upcoming competition.

Over 30 Virtual Events, for magicians and public, are scheduled for September alone. These include the Grand Opening on the first, the premiere of the Zoomstorming workshops, The Darkstone Dossiers Mini-Series on "The Golden Age of Mentoring" and a full Gala show on the 26th. More details will be on the website: www.AcademyofIllusions.com and our FB Page, which is already Live Streaming preview events: www.Facebook.com/AcademyofIllusions

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3. Something Unorthodox As I Prepare For FISM N. America
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Message by Stuart MacDonald

I'm doing something unorthodox as I prepare for FISM N. America. I'm opening up my "Stu"dio for anyone to watch a Live streaming rehearsal for free. Since I have no live gigs between now and competition I'm opening the doors to let anyone watch for free. I will only Broadcast for 15 minutes and from there if anyone wants to offer a critique or better still tell me if the story I'm relating makes sense. In other words if something about the act bothers you tell me.

Most magicians think this is a bad idea opening the doors to other competitors to see your process...I think they are wrong. You only improve by putting yourself out there. If I had any shows....I'd learn quite a bit in a short time but Covid has stopped all those bookings. So if you have free time join in on the fun. All times are Detroit MI time (EST).

Aug 23 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85768915891
Aug 24 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82412631960
Aug 30 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86720315743
Sept 13 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81940322817
Sept 14 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81940322817
Sept 15 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81940322817
Sept 16 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81940322817
Sept 17 8:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81940322817
Aug 23 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86743579112
Aug 24 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89283292113
Aug 30 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84755794226
Sept 13 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86591142081
Sept 14 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86591142081
Sept 15 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86591142081
Sept 16 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86591142081
Sept 17 9:00 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86591142081

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

Lea Kyle is Quickly Changing How the World Sees Magic. Léa Kyle, who became an overnight viral sensation on Tuesday June 29th, 2021 when her Quick-Change Magic audition act performance, on America's Got Talent, received the Golden Buzzer Award from fashion icon Heidi Klum.

What makes this feat even more spectacular is the fact that the French Female Magician designs and creates all her own original wardrobe looks.

"I am so excited to meet Heidi Klum because she is the Queen of Fashion," stated Léa before winning the prestigious award. To receive the Golden Buzzer from her idol was overwhelming. Léa is the first female magician and the first French magician on AGT to win such a high honor and move forward to the final rounds.

Winning is no surprise to Léa, last year she won a Penn & Teller Fool Us award for her astounding, new versions of fashion magic. Last month, she placed second in the European FISM, World Championships Qualifying Competition in Manresa, Spain. She is also the French Champion of Magic, she's appeared in the Mandrake d'Or and with great success on France's Got Talent.

Content

00:00 - 00:45 - Introduction
00:45 - 2:10 -winning a Fool Us Award on Penn & Teller
2:10 - 3:39 - How Léa Began in Magic
3:29 - 4:12 - Sewing & Quick Change
4:12 - 5:20 - how she started her act
5:20 - 6:55 - what she has been working on during the pandemic
6:55 - 7:38 - how she handles negativity
7:38 - 8:12 - the biggest challenge
8:12 - 8:52 - how she handles her nerves
8:52 - 9:12 - Léa's message
9:12 - 9:35 - Call to Action please subscribe

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5. Crime Does Not Pay - John Carey #130
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Message by John Carey (UK)
http://www.johncareymagic.co.uk/

Crime does not pay is a strong small packet piece inspired by my friend Cameron Francis. You get a lot of effect out of very little here with a climax they won't see coming!

In addition to a regular, say red deck you will also need 6 red backed blank faced cards. Place a regular card, say three of Diamonds on top of the deck and immediately beneath it place the six blank faced cards. Introduce the effect by talking about how detective stories have always fascinated you. Remove the two red Jacks from the deck and toss them face up on the table, calling them the detectives. With the deck face up execute a centre Hindu shuffle, pulling out a block from the middle and shuffling them onto the face and then square up.

This of course retains your set up on top. Turn the deck face down as you state you will require some suspects for a crime. Push off four cards and drop them face down onto the table. Then push off three more cards and drop them on top. Discard the deck and pick up the packet, then run three cards from the top to the bottom with a simple overhand shuffle. Your force card is now on top.

Spread the packet in the hands and ask that they touch a card to represent a criminal. Upjog it from the spread and square up. The right hand comes over the packet and swivels out the selection. As it does this the left thumb secretly pushes over the top card just enough to get a left pinky break beneath it. Drop the selection on top. Bring the right hand over the packet palm down and pick off the two cards below the break as one and raise the face of this card/s and ask your helper to commit the card to memory.

Lower the hand and drop the double card back on top of the packet. A moment later push off the top card and lose it into the packet. The selection is on top. Now casually push off four cards and drop them in a face-down spread onto the table. Next drop the remaining three cards on top, positioning the selection fourth from top.

"We have seven suspects and it's the job of the detectives to whittle them down to just one- the criminal. The Detectives will trap your card!" Hold a face up Jack in each hand and hover over the tabled packet. Then drop the right hands Jack face up onto the packet, pick up the packet with the right hand and drop the packet on top of the face up Jack in the left hand, then ribbon spread the packet across the table. "A Jack on top, a Jack on the bottom and your card trapped in between!!!" This is Roy Walton's great gag from his Smiling Mule effect. It will get laughs and groans...

"Ah but those detective Jacks will trap your criminal card in slow motion!" Commence a left/right dealing of the cards forming two packets. Pick up the packet on your left and spread showing three face down cards trapped in between the face up Jacks. Repeat the left/right deal ending with one face down card trapped in between the face up Jacks. Ask your helper to name their card. Then remove the face down card and turn it face up revealing the selection. "But the other innocent people were not happy and wanted their names erased from the system!" Pick up the six face down cards and turn them face up and deal them face up to the table to reveal the blank faces kicker!

Notes:

I'm not the biggest fan of characterizing cards, but this piece is an exception and is fun but also very strong considering the ease of working. Have fun with it!

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6. Broken Wand - Gerrit Brengman
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Message by Domenico Dante (FISM International President)

Words fail me today to express my deep sadness about losing a very dear friend, with whom I have shared so many wonderful moments, thanks to magic. From our encounter some forty years ago, magic happened: a strong friendship was born, that nothing or no one could attain. What unforgettable moments we lived together, only rewarding experiences, not forgetting our twenty years of joyful and fruitful collaboration at FISM, even in the most complex situations!

Besides my dear friend, Gerrit has always been a man of strong values, a man worthy of respect worldwide, with a critical sense always developed towards the positive and an incredible knowledge of the history of magic and his evolution through time, not forgetting its enormous contribution to the development of FISM, especially with the establishment of competition rules.

The world of magic is losing a great character today, whose presence will be missed forever.

Thank you, Gerritt, for everything you brought to us, FISM, magic.

My most expensive thoughts are with Lut and Malaika.

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7. Broken Wand - Brian Miller UK
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Message by Don Wiberg-Past International President I.B.M. 1984-1985

I too would like to add my sincere condolences to Audrey Miller and her sons on the passing of Brian Miller. Brian was the British Ring President the same year I was the International President of the I.B.M. We kept in touch over the years and he invited me to represent the I.B.M. at the British Ring Convention in 2014.

Brian & Audrey ventured to Colon, Michigan for the Abbott's Get-Together a couple of years ago and we had the pleasure of sharing time and dinner at the River Lake Inn. I recently received a photo from Paul Stone in which Brian, Tony Shelley, Bud & Audrey Dietrich, and Joyce and myself were pictured. This picture will serve as a wonderful reminder of our friendship.

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8. Productive During The New South Wales COVID Lock-Down
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Message by Joel Howlett (Australia)

Hi Magic Friends,

I'm trying to be productive during the NSW COVID lock-down. One of the tasks I set myself was to finally document three of the routines that the late Jim McKeague and I spent many hours working on.

This information is aimed at intermediate magicians as standard moves (such as the 'Mexican turn over') are include but not described in detail.

You can find more information here:

https://www.lybrary.com/magic-from-joel-and-jim-p-924692.html

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9. No Stone Unturned - Paul Stone - Article #23
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Message by Paul Stone (US)

Having been around the magic scene for close to 50 years I have seen a lot of magic and been fortunate to meet and book many of the world's greatest magicians.

I mention this because during the past few weeks I have been going through numerous photographs, show programs and fliers that I have accumulated over the years. I need to stress that whilst I am definitely not a magic collector, I've nevertheless ended up with a considerable amount of magical memorabilia.

There is a tendency for those of us who are, shall we say, approaching our senior years, to compare the magicians at the top of the performing tree today, to those magic stars and personalities of days gone past, and yearn for the 'good old days'.

Although it is a natural reaction, I do feel some degree of sympathy for those new magicians coming into our profession because they have missed seeing so many wonderful performers.

I made a list of just some of the names who are no longer with us that I have known and that I was lucky enough to see perform. Dai Vernon, Tony Slydini, Johnny Paul, Jimmy Grippo, Fred Kaps, Ken Brooke, Richiardi Jnr, Ricky Jay, Channing Pollock, Karrell Fox, Richard Ross, Ali Bongo, Jay Marshall, Marvyn Roy, John Calvert, Paul Daniels, Harry Blackstone Jnr, The Morettis, Peter Reveen, Terry Seabrooke, Johnny & Pam Thompson, Norm Nielsen, and of course Siegfried & Roy. What incredible talent!

One of the fliers that I came across was for a magic themed restaurant right in the heart of London's West End. It was called The Magic Moment Restaurant, and it opened in September 1985 in a fantastic location on Regent Street at the site of one of London's oldest and smartest restaurants known as Verrey's.

Magic Moment was a professionally themed restaurant serving a combination of first-class food and magical entertainment, and was based on a similar restaurant in Sarasota, in USA.

It boasted very stylish décor and oozed class, from its dark oak paneling to the red velvet on the chairs. Customers entered via a secret door that, when opened, placed them immediately into the bar area, where they were met by a welcoming host. At the end of the meal, intimate magic was performed at the table.

The Magic Moment Restaurant closed its doors in 1988, not because it wasn't successful, in fact it was extremely popular, but because of a massive and unexpected rent increase which made it impossible to keep open.

The reason I mention this restaurant is because of a VIP Lunch that was held to celebrate its first birthday. It was a very exclusive event with a celebrity guest list of just 25 people. I was lucky enough to be invited, and as I have also said before, I was the only person there that I'd never heard of!

The guest list included Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee, Harry and Gay Blackstone, Bill and Irene Larsen, Charles and Regina Reynolds, Ali Bongo, Jay Marshall, Terry Seabrooke, John and Sue Fisher, Tommy Edwards and John Salisse. The 'house magician' for this prestigious event was Trevor Liley.

What made it such a unique occasion were the impromptu performances from Harry Blackstone who vanished his trademark birdcage, Jay Marshall who performed his Juan Escadero paper hat routine, Ali Bongo his Pom sticks, Terry Seabrooke his knife through jacket, and Bill Larsen created a chicken out of a napkin!

They are special memories that I will never forget.

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

Epilogue -

The first episode of my saga (the foreword) appeared in issue No. 44, of Alan and Michele Watson's Magic New Zealand e-zine, on Sunday 22nd October 2000. Three years, four Months and 102,258 + words later, I have finally finished the New Zealand phase of 'The Amazing Orchanté' Saga. My warmest wish is that this mammoth 'work of love', has perhaps brushed some ancient cobwebs aside, bringing back long forgotten personal reminiscences for
many of my fellow New Zealand entertainers, especially those of my vintage. 'Names', shows, concerts, agents, and the many clubs/restaurants, like the 'Dutch Kiwi' and the Toby Jug; those
wonderfully historic - 'golden days of times past' - that all of us were lucky to be a part of. None of us (or future entertainers) will ever see the like of them again!

I can't begin to guess how many hours have gone into this phase of my memoirs. Hours? More like months - of searching and pouring over diaries, letters, newspapers, magazines and clippings; anything that I could find in my seemingly bottomless - 'tardis' like, aluminium trunk; apart from scraping the top, bottom and sides of my memory banks. I dare not even think how many cartridges of black ink or reams of paper have been used, so far. And the wastage?

Have you ever watched a film where the actor/actress was playing the part of an author suffering from - 'writers block'? They would type a word or two, or. then suddenly stop, stare blankly
at the page for a moment before ripping the sheet out from the machine, crumple it into a ball then hurl it across the room, to join a sizeable pile of similarly scrunched up and discarded paper balls. That little scenario used to amuse me, until I realized that my wastepaper bin was constantly overflowing with, and surrounded by scrunched (I just love that word), and screwed up paper balls that were forcibly fired towards it. That image isn't quite so amusing anymore!

I am enormously grateful to several friends who have, without a quibble, helped me whenever I needed information - cajoling them to delve into the murky depths of their own memories; making sure that I had my facts right. I'm not perfect - pretty damn close mind you (I am a Virgo), but just a trifling fallible, as we all are. Mmmmm!

My appreciation and acknowledgments to: Sally Metzger (nee Philips) and her husband, Derek Metzger (top singer in major theatrical musicals), Sharon Moore (my first wife, who remains a
great friend, and her husband John), Pat Newbury (wife of the late Peter Newbury, trick cyclist, acrobat, 'Crunchy the Clown' etc.) Burns Scandrett ('Delarno', magician, semi-retired; {now
deceased - 9th April 2006}), John Sullivan (theatre manager, retired Christchurch.), Eddie O'Strange (Blue Smoke Music Co. N.Z.), Trevor King (tour and theatre manager, retired,
Christchurch.), Mike Brittenden, Alan Watson (N.Z.'s No.1 magician, and editor of the 'Magic New Zealand' e-zine), Eddie Low (who is, in my humble opinion, N.Z.'s No.1 vocalist), Richard
Webster (N.Z 's most prolific, and No.1 author), and last but certainly not least, my wonderful wife/ assistant/partner of 32 years at the time of writing, Veronica.

Saga continues next week ….
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11. 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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12. Privacy Policy and Copyright Notice
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Magic New Zealand® E-zine is published each Sunday.

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