* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * MagicNZ e-zine * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #19 Date: Monday 1st May 2000 Editor: Alan Watson www.alan-watson.com ================================ Contents ================================ 1. Editors Message 2. Ex-pat kiwi returns home 3. Priscilla and Paul Romhany's special day 4. Lance Burton officially engaged 5. Many of you may know Ron London? 6. Richard Webster - books for sale 7. Magic on TV this coming week - by Ed Hall 8. Florida Magic Association Convention 9. Electronics in magic 10. Advantage Magic Show at the Pet Expo 2000 11. The next issue of "Magicana" 12. Circus called "Illusions" 13. Advertised on TV "Himber" wallets 14. Diarise these events 15. News Items 16. MagicNZ e-zine archives 17. Benefit of subscribing to the MagicNZ e-zine 18. Subscription Management 19. Contact Information. ------------------------------------- 1. Editors Message ------------------------------------- Message from Alan Watson - The Magic One Over the last two weeks I have been sent a virus on seven different occasions. The most prevalent being prettypark.exe. I would suggest that if you are not running a virus protection programme you invest in one. News just to hand. An American magic manufacturer has released an Appearing Broom in competition to the original made by Wayne Rogers of Chicane Enterprises. Wayne's broom has been on the market for almost 12 months selling worldwide. Some dealers are refusing to carry the "rip-off" and have described the quality as poor. It is not the same style of broom bit is still called by the same name. The manufacturer claims to own the rights to the Appearing Pole and says no one is entitled to improve or make products using the pole. This is an extraordinary claim, as George Schindler of Show-Biz Services owns the rights to the Original Pole From Box. ------------------------------------- 2. Ex-pat kiwi returns home ------------------------------------- Message from Patrick Henshall Last Thursday, I have concluded employment discussions with a company in New Zealand and, after being away for nearly 10 years, we will be returning to live (at least for the next few years). I had to sacrifice a large drop in overall salary/benefits but weighed this up with the quality of lifestyle that my kids could have versus living in central London. My new role will see me having to frequently visit both South Korea and Japan. We are very excited by the news and should be back in Auckland by August. As you can appreciate there is a lot to do winding up issues here and I have not been as active as I would have liked at the Magic Circle. I did fly through San Francisco recently to see my brother and went to www.calmagic.com - only 10 minutes away from his house. Excellent local store and nice hospitality. ------------------------------------- 3. Priscilla and Paul Romhany's special day ------------------------------------- Message from Michele Watson Paul and Priscilla celebrated their wedding on Friday 28th April. The service was held at St Patrick's Cathedral in Auckland city. Priscilla looked like a fairy princess in a stunning white full-length guipure lace dress, diamantes around neckline and full satin train. Her two bridesmaids (Danny from Holland) and Anita (from Costa Rica) wore royal blue Thai silk full length dresses with cropped jackets and Paul, his twin brother Peter (who flew from UK especially for the wedding) and his groomsman Peter (who played trumpet) wore gold waistcoats and ties and dark long-coated suits. The Reception was held at Northridge Country Lodge in Silverdale amidst beautiful rose gardens and golf course and the Lodge itself was real "homey" with lots of porcelain ornaments and flowers. Guy Cater made an excellent toastmaster with his usual wit and flair and magicians/comedians of course attended: Jonathan Acorn and Dave Sheridan (acted also as the ushers), Richard and Margaret Webster, Wayne and Liz Rogers, Tony and Mary Wilson, Ken Ring and Alan and myself. Vast array of food and lots of wine, songs from the 50's and 60's and dance wrapped up a very memorable occasion. Messages of congratulations can be sent to Paul and Priscilla Romhany at: comedy@comic.co.nz ------------------------------------ 4. Lance Burton officially engaged ------------------------------------- Message from Bernard Reid Lance officially got engaged to his long time girlfriend, Kim, last Saturday and they had a big backstage party at the theater. ---------------------------- Editor: Bernard Reid is an ex-pat Kiwi who writes an excellent column for Magicana magazine and his interesting articles are worth the subscription alone. To subscribe to the new Magicana magazine e-mail Editor Michael Woolf: michaelw@ihug.co.nz ------------------------------------- 5. Many of you may know Ron London? ------------------------------------- Message Don Wiberg Many of you may know Ron London? In case you don't, Ron is a full time professional magician and lecturer from Indiana. In addition to being one of the nicest guys in magic, several years ago he served as a member of the Board of Trustees. He has also been a tireless worker with the I.B.M. Convention Committee. He's the guy who arranges for a team of magicians to visit children's hospitals prior to the convention just to spread some joy among those less fortunate. Now is the time to return some of Ron's kindness. While on a recent lecture tour of the eastern part of the United States he developed problems with an infected toe. To complicate matters, Ron is diabetic. At the time he had stopped in to visit Mrs. Howard (Marjorie) Bammam, widow of Past International President and Editor of The Linking Ring. Fortunately for Ron, Majorie persuaded him to let her take him to the Emergency Room of the local hospital in Huntington, New York. The doctor took one look and said the toe had to be amputated immediately, and hopefully he could save his foot. It had turned gangrenous. As it turned out, he lost two toes, the big one and second one on his left foot. If he had waited longer, the surgeon said he could have lost his leg and maybe his life. Ron was upset that he couldn't complete his lecture tour. He had been on the road for three weeks and didn't want to disappoint the groups for whom he was scheduled to lecture, but this was truly a life-threatening situation. Ron is now on the road to recovery. He's getting proper treatment and has a good, if somewhat resigned, attitude. Thanks to the wonderful Brotherhood that exists within our organization, several magicians in the area have stopped to visit with Ron. This has meant a great deal to him. If you'd like to show your concern, you may send a card to him. He uses the name Ron London professionally but his real name is Ron Mabis. Ronald Mabis, Huntington Hospital, 270 Park Av., Huntington, NY 11743 Room 305. Don Wiberg, IBM International Secretary ------------------------------------- 6. Richard Webster - books for sale - esp@psychic.co.nz ------------------------------------- I'm spending half my life at the post office sending books around the world. In the last week parcels have gone to Australia, England and the United States. This week the books are all by Karrell Fox: Clever Like a Fox $20.00 Another Book $20.00 Goodies $20.00 For My Next Trick $20.00 My Latest Book $20.00 ------------------------------------- 7. Magic on TV this coming week - by Ed Hall ------------------------------------- Sunday 7 May, 3pm, TV4. TV Guide lists the weekly series 'Masters of Illusion'. While not quite magic..... Saturday 6 May, 8am, Discovery Channel. Equinox: Secrets of Super Psychics. email: edhall@ihug.co.nz http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~edhall/magic/ ------------------------------------- 8. Florida Magic Association Convention ------------------------------------- Message from Bev Bergeron SIGN-UP NOW! FLORIDA MAGIC ASSOCIATION CONVENTION May 26, 27, 28 --- Orlando, Florida - Bev Bergeron, Chairman and Producers of Shows 4 Stage Shows, Close-up Shows, 20 magic dealers, 8 lectures, Clown Activities, Special Children Show, Ladies Event, Close-up magic all night --- It's a Magic Party! Performers Coming: John Calvert, Bev Bergeron, Denny & Lee, Murray, Alain Nu, Mark Merchant, Lee Noble, Abb Dickson, Jair Bonair, Puck & Kecia, Sammy Smith, Tim Glancy Paul Cummins, Bob Knigge, Gerry Frye, Danny Hill, Carl Fowler, Mike Kent, Lyle Balcom ---And doing his "20th Final Friday Night Lecture" PAUL DIAMOND! The largest collection of miniature illusions and theatre - museum Reg.: Adult - $90, Magician & Sp. - $140, Jr. (17&under) 45 Send Check to FAME % Bernie Sommers, P.O. Box 941393, Maitland, FL 32794 Hotel: Orlando North Hilton Hotel, 350 S. North Lake Blvd., Altamonte, Sp., FL 33715 - phone: 407-830-1985 - Rates till May 1 are $85 ask for Fla. Con. rates. $5000 Contest give away of Cash and Prizes --- Contact Carl Fowler, 407-380-7122 THE PARTY STARTS AT 4:00 PM ON FRIDAY - GOES TO MID-NIGHT SUNDAY. ------------------------------------- 9. Electronics in magic ------------------------------------- Message from Malcolm Silverman - malcolm@scanpark.co.nz http://www.malconi.magic.gen.nz/ For those who have seen my performance, you will know that I quite often incorporate electronics into my equipment. In fact, being an electronics engineer probably pushed me into magic (with the help of two of my boys and the Philips family.) I had to know how things worked! I guess that a lot of things that I have made have already been made overseas. What normally happens, is that I read an advert about a routine for sale - think about it and then build it without seeing the original. So I can't exactly call it my own, but then again, I didn't see the original to copy it. My first routine was a jewellery box that had four coins in it. A person was asked to open the box sitting on a table. Remove 1 or more of the coins and close the lid. I would be standing some distance from the box and would then tell the audience how many coins they took and what was the total value. This system is very basic. The coins were held in place with a length of black elastic. Under each coin was two metal contacts (hidden from view if the coin was removed by the elastic. When the coin was in place it completed a circuit and illuminated a small LED (light emitting diode). Set into the back of the box was the four LED's. When all the coins were in place all the LED's were lit. Whatever coin was removed would turn off the corresponding light. All you had to do was to memorize which coin corresponded to which light - very simple. Probably the most common devices that can be used are the remote control and sound operated units. Remote control usually consists of a little transmitter (similar to a car central locking unit) and a receiver. You can get anything between 1 and four channels. Anything more than 1 channel gets a bit tricky to operate by yourself, as obviously the transmitter has to be hidden, usually in your pocket. You just push the button from the outside of your trousers to activate it. A bit hard if there is more than one button. The receiver normally operates a relay that then in turn activates a device. Wayne Rogers uses a hotwire, which cuts through nylon cord to release 'what ever' or just a hotwire on a balloon to bursts it. For Gidon's (my son) act. We used it for various things: operating a humming bird reel, and triggering the valve in a compressed air tank to make the flying carpet he was sitting on rise. If you want more control you can use a fully proportional radio control system. We used this in the snake that was built for Gidon's act. While the concept was similar to the collector workshop snake, we were able to control the speed of the snake moving up and down. To attach the silk onto the snakes tongue the second time it rose, we connected a nylon thread, through the tongue to the silk at one end and a hummingbird reel at the other, The first time the snake rose (courtesy of a electric car aerial), there was enough slack of nylon for the silk to remain in the basket. When the snake disappeared into the basket, the radio control operated a servo, which in turn operated a micro switch, which in turn operate the motor reel. It took up the slack of the nylon, pulling the silk up to the tongue of the snake. The silk was actually connected to a bit of Velcro that was tied to the nylon. In that way, when the snake was fully extended with the silk in its mouth, Gidon could snatch the silk away without breaking the nylon. It was very impressive! Sound operated devices are also useful, but need a bit more care when in use. The Side Kick table uses this format, and recently when I did a show, I was so relaxed with the assistant I was using, I casually clapped my hands and said" ok lets try again" I got a bit of a shock, when the sound of my clap triggered one of the sequences. But that is pretty unusual. As with the radio control device, the output of a sound device usually operates a relay. Relays are like switches that can turn things on and off. These units can be very small, about the size of a box of matches. The biggest thing is usually the battery. Last year I built a sound operated switch into a top hat, cut the top away and then hinged it and added a spring so it was always in the up position. I then fitted a solenoid (electrically operated mechanical rod). When the solenoid operated it released the top of the hat from its lock down position and flew up. Inside the top of the hat was a flat rabbit. The idea was that I would hold (at arms length) a box with a rabbit in it. A member of the audience would take a gun and fire a shot at the box explaining that the rabbit would catch the bullet in its teeth. When the gun was fired, the top of the hat would fly open revealing a squashed rabbit with a tooth missing. The hat worked well but was a bit uncomfortable to wear. Probably my most interesting project was in the mind reading area. I saw the advert for it on the Internet, but it didn't say much about it. However, because it was very close to the normal work that I do, I was able to build the unit very quickly. The idea: two boxes - one is given a member of the audience and the other is kept on a table in front of you. You tell the audience that you had just been to the zoo and you had seen many animals. You now ask the person holding the box to think of an animal and write it on a card that is supplied with the box. All this time you have your back to the audience. You then ask the person to open the box, which appears empty and black, and place the card in the holder on the inside of the lid, and then close the lid. You now face the audience and then talk about mind reading and such things. You explain that you believe that they have now transferred that image of the animal to your box. You open the box for a few seconds, close it, pick up a large drawing pad and draw the animal (with it's name if you don't draw too well) on the pad, and then reveal it to the audience. Wow! How does it work? It is so simple. Inside the box that sits on the knee of a randomly chosen person (the box I used was about 80mm x 200 mm x 80 mm - not big at all) is a dummy bottom panel. Cut into the center of this panel is a piece of red Perspex about 50mm square. The whole panel is then covered with black panty hose. In this way the Perspex panel cannot be seen. Under the false bottom is a miniature black and white camera that is also able to pick up infrared. Surrounding the lens of the camera are 6 infrared LED's. The human eye cannot see the light that is emitted from these lamps - but the camera can - it can also see through the red Perspex panel. Also set into the base it a miniature video transmitter. So when the lid is closed, the camera has been preset to focus on the card that is set into the guides on the inside of the lid. When I open the box on stage, I am simply looking at the screen of a small TV that has been tuned into the channel that the transmitter is tuned to. I originally hoped to use playing cards and have someone pick a card totally at random and then place it in the box. However, because you need infra red (there is no natural light in the box when you close the lid) any red cards chosen would be shown as blank, and I didn't want to have to force a black card. Some of you may have seen me do the routine at the Wellington Convention. I would be happy to talk to anyone who would like some info on incorporating electronics into their routines. ------------------------------------- 10. Advantage Magic Show at the Pet Expo 2000 ------------------------------------- Message from Bill & Mandy Reid Mandy and I will be performing The Advantage Magic Show at the Pet Expo 2000 date 6th and 7th May First floor in the Members Lounge at Alexandra Park Show times 11 am, 12.30pm, 2pm & 3.30pm both days. We look forward to seeing anyone that pops in for a look. ------------------------------------- 11. The next issue of "Magicana" ------------------------------------- Message from Michael Woolf - michaelw@ihug.co.nz The countdown is on! The next issue of "Magicana" - New Zealand's magic magazine - will be published at the end of May. This is a reminder: all contributions for this issue are needed urgently. Please send items, advertising and subscriptions ($NZ40) to the address below. It will be a great issue: we have material from Henrique, Jon Zealando, Jim Reilly, Alan Watson and Bernard Reid among others, plus many new features and the best of the familiar ones. From this issue forward the cover will be in full colours. Send any material now! Michael Woolf President, Hutt Valley Magicians' Society; Editor/Publisher, "Magicana." Box 38046 Wellington Mail Centre Wellington New Zealand 64 4 587 0045 fax 64 4 587 0042 mobile 25 577774 ------------------------------------- 12. Circus called "Illusions" ------------------------------------- Message from Paul Romhany In Northcote, on the North Shore, I saw yesterday a huge circus being put up called "Illusions" .... it must be a travelling illusion show. On the poster it had advertised tigers, lions etc so must be a huge show. ------------------------------------- 13. Advertised on TV "Himber" wallets ------------------------------------- Message from Paul Romhany Advertised today on TV they are now selling "Himber" wallets and they are called, "Magic Wallets". The add shows how the Himber wallet works and they are selling them as 'new' wallets for the public. Made from good quality leather priced at $29.95 for two. For more information contact LV Martin and sons. ------------------------------------- 14. Diarise these events ------------------------------------- Sunday 25th June Auckland - Harvey Berg (USA) - lecture Tuesday 27th June Wellington - Harvey Berg (USA) - lecture Thursday 29th June Christchurch - Harvey Berg (USA) - lecture Sunday 22nd October- IBM Ring 160 Day of magic Thursday 12th - 16th April (Easter) 2001 - 26th New Zealand Magicians' Convention If you require more information about the above events go to www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive to research for more information. ------------------------------------- 15. News Items ------------------------------------- If you have any news items that you feel the majority of our subscribers would be interested in please e-mail me so I can include them in the next e-zine. The magician who e-mails me a particular news item FIRST will receive full credit at the top of that item. If the news is of major importance I will send them out immediately as a Newsflash. ------------------------------------- 16. MagicNZ e-zine archives ------------------------------------- Back issues of the MagicNZ e-zine go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive Both the User Name and Password MUST be entered in lower case to gain access. User Name: ezine Password: magicnz When you enter the archive the e-zines are in issue order and are coded. Eg 001nov6.txt first three numbers denote issue number then the date. ------------------------------------- 17. Benefit of subscribing to the MagicNZ e-zine ------------------------------------- You will now be informed well in advance of coming events and kept right up to date with the latest news. MagicNZ e-zine is published weekly, late on Sunday night. ------------------------------------- 18. Subscription Management ------------------------------------- Our subscriber list is NOT made available to other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and respect your privacy. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the MagicNZ e-zine: www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html The opinions expressed in this e-zine are those of the individual contributors. Neither MagicNZ nor Alan Watson can vouch for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, message, statement, or other information reported via MagicNZ e-zine. We reserve the right to correct any errors or omissions as we see fit. >> This publication may be freely redistributed to other magicians if copied in its ENTIRETY << (c) Copyright 2000 Alan Watson ------------------------------------- 19. Contact Information ------------------------------------- Alan Watson Ph. (9) 483-9274 Fax. (09) 483-9274 Mobile 025 95-7070 e-mail alan@watson.co.nz www.magician.co.nz www.magicianz.com