* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * New Zealand's MagicNZ e-zine * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #36 Date: Sunday 27th August 2000 Editor: Alan Watson www.alan-watson.com ================================ Hi [first] here is the latest news ================================ 1. Editors Message 2. Magician Bafflin Bill Cody visiting Australia 3. Help with a prop I need 4. Magic At The Edinburgh Fringe 2000 5. Phil Cass "Trust Me" Tour 6. Summer Magic UK 7. Bill Seagraves shall be your gain 8. Interest to readers who do children's shows 9. New Magic Product Reviews 10. Suggestions on Medieval-looking props, stories, humour 11. Update on the Day of Magic on October 22 12. Diarise these events 13. News Items 14. MagicNZ e-zine archives 15. Benefit of subscribing to the MagicNZ e-zine 16. Subscription Management 17. Contact Information. ------------------------------------- 1. Editors Message ------------------------------------- Message from Alan Watson - The Magic One We have really enjoyed Peter Marucci's magic contributions and feedback has been very complimentary - Thanks Peter. See item 8. Mandy Davis (UK) has joined the team and will be reviewing the major conventions in England on our behalf. See items 4 and 6. If you enjoy reading our free MagicNZ e-zine tell a magic friend and forward a copy on to them suggesting they might like to join by going to www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html to subscribe. Thanks go to Gene McCarthy's generous donation so that I could upgrade the software to put the MagicNZ e-zine on a more professional footing and we are now able to automate most functions. Remember if you have any magic news drop me a line: alan@watson.co.nz ------------------------------------- 2. Magician Bafflin' Bill Cody visiting Australia ------------------------------------- Loch Crane "Bafflin' Bill Cody" (USA) - capnkirk@connectnet.com I'll be visiting Australia in Jan-March 2001. What conventions, meetings, or events can I participate in? I have a Western Comedy Magic act called "Bafflin' Bill Cody" and I have an additional lecture with the show for Magicians' groups. Can you tell me which groups meet on your continents? I'll be bringing my STAR TRIKE on its way around the World. See my site at for photos and info. I'm a Magic Castle, Magic Circle, IBM and SAM member. I'd also like to patronize local performers on stage or at restaurants, and will donate to local charities or self help groups as well. ---------------------------------- 3. Help with a prop I need ---------------------------------- Message from Anthony Hay (NZ) - anthony_hay@myob.co.nz I work mainly in amateur musical theatre, but I have done several shows that involved magic, illusions, juggling, fire, etc. I love entertaining folks with cards, balloons, whatever I can get my hands on. I'm hoping you can help with a prop I need for my latest show. It involves a visual gag where my character's nose needs to catch fire (?!). Essentially the bit would be that I react while bringing my right hand quickly up to my nose, holding a device, which produces a short flame/firework type effect. This would need to be done so quickly that it would appear the reaction is due to the flame and not after it. My other hand would then appear to try to extinguish the flame, and then quickly succeed. And the show goes on. Do you know of any standard prop to achieve this? I have worked with 'hand pots' (as we called them in Canada) for producing flame from a hand, but in this case I really need a short pen shaped device (I need to palm it for a while prior to the effect) with a simply push button mechanism to produce a flame/flare. It only needs to last 2 seconds max. Do you have any idea where I might find this, or who may produce/sell this type of prop? I really appreciate any advice you can offer on this one. ---------------------------------- 4. Magic At The Edinburgh Fringe 2000 ---------------------------------- Message from Mandy Davis (UK) Just back from the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh and it was brilliant! I am totally exhausted - we arrived at 4.30 on Sunday afternoon and left at 6 pm on Wednesday; in three days, we saw twenty productions! Magically, we couldn't find a lot happening this year. Being the first week of the festival, not all the shows were up and running. However, the magic that was there was very good indeed. The one person we knew we had to see was Jerry Sadowitz! He was amazing! He actually came across as a warm personality but one who doesn't suffer fools gladly and he could be extremely cutting as and when he wished. The show was definitely an adults only ticket but the magic left the audience stunned and amazed. The trick that seemed to get the biggest gasps of amazement at this sell-out performance was Chink a Chink, which Jerry was at great pains to credit properly. He even sought the opinion of another magician in the house (my partner, Rob Cox) to ask what he thought and also to confirm that this rather racist name for the trick was, in fact, real. Jerry was very funny, very accomplished and very professional. His opening, with a Bill Switch, had the most logical ending I have ever seen. He performed twenty-two tricks altogether, working across the board from Coins Across and a Diary trick through Ambitious Card to some excellent gambling routines and card transpositions. This show is definitely a must for magicians and lay people alike. Then, on to another venue for the Wee Magic Show, another one-man event featuring Scots magician Ian Kendall. His show was an hour of close up with a capacity audience of just twenty people. His magic was not aimed at magicians but I enjoyed it anyway and the lay audience loved it; you could hear the intakes of breath at various times. There were some very responsive American lads in the front row and some totally amazed Austrians behind them. The repertoire started with some rubber band routines and continued with a short Chop Cup sequence, cards across, a Max Maven ESP prediction and a book test to name a few - but his party trick was a muscle pass which he threw in at odd intervals and is obviously his pride and joy (and rightly so). This was a show with a pleasing personality and some strong magic. Last year we had managed to catch Magic Bob's children's show but we ran out of time this week. Suffice it to say that I am certain that he will be providing a very slick and professional performance as he certainly had done so previously. I couldn't finish this article without mentioning the talented ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, with Comedy Magician Mandy Muden who was not performing the night we went. She was listed as Paul's special guest but wasn't going to appear as she had only just arrived hotfoot from Beirut where she had been working with Fay Presto; we had a good natter with her and Paul before going on to enjoy his performance. He had told us that his animatronic, which usually closed the show, had fallen off the table during the act the night before and had broken. So we only got 50 minutes but they were of the highest quality as always. His three dolls, Baby, Sam and Grandpa, all made an appearance and we were also treated to a human vent doll sequence, which was innovative and funny. Paul's party pieces included a rhythm session where he and Sam speak simultaneously and some wonderful byplay when he and the dummy swap voices! I can honestly say that these three shows were of the highest standard and absolute 'must-sees' for anyone visiting Edinburgh this month. And my recommendations for non-magic performance? Go see Stephen Berkoff's "The Messiah" which premiered this week and is to be seen at the Assembly Rooms in the mornings. Spend an afternoon with the Weird Sisters in Loveplay - a story of ten characters, both males and females of all ages, played by two women with no props or costumes and don't miss Rich Hall as Otis Lee Cranshaw, an ex-con from Tennessee with his own brand of late night humour in the form of re-written Country and Western songs. (Both these acts are at the Pleasance). ---------------------------------- 5. Phil Cass "Trust Me" Tour ---------------------------------- Message from Phil Cass (Aust) My tour dates in Queensland here in Australia. August Tues 29th - Rockhampton - Frenchville Sports Club Wed 30th - Proserpine Cultural Centre Thurs 31st - Charters Towers RSL Club September Fri 1st Sept - Mackay Entertainment Centre Sat 2nd - Townsville Civic Theatre Sun 3rd - Cairns - Cazaly's Football Club Thur 7th September - Toowoomba - Empire Theatre ---------------------------------- 6. Summer Magic UK ---------------------------------- Message from Mandy Davis (UK) On Thursday last (17th August) we spent the day on the South East coast of the UK in the resort of Margate. The reason we went was to support a close friend and President of our magic club - Watford Association of Magicians. His name is Terry Seabrooke - maybe you've heard of him?!! Terry has been appearing in Summer Magic at the Winter Gardens, Margate three days per week (matinee and evening performances) since mid July and will be there until mid-September. An almost typical seaside event, the show comprises some excellent dance numbers with several costume changes in each medley. The costumes themselves were worthy of a West End production and the dancers were well choreographed. As well as Seabrooke, the comedy was also supplied by the Simmons Brothers. They used lots of old but reliable gags and their final set included a magic cabinet into which one brother was forced. Several swords penetrated the box but none of the blade ends corresponded with the hilts which had the audience in stitches. Terry, himself, told us that he was feeling lost in the show as he was not allowed to use any volunteers from the audience. However, his discomfort was not evident in any way and in a tight fifteen minutes, he acquitted himself admirably, performing his dove production, bar code gag, torn and restored newspaper and pop-eyed pips. That man never fails! ---------------------------------- 7. Bill Seagraves shall be your gain ---------------------------------- Message from Jack Greenberg (USA) I'm happy that Scotland's loss of Bill Seagraves shall be your gain. Bill is one of my favourite people, and Carole and I wish him well in his new abode. Hope he'll come back to visit us soon so that we can learn if Scotch Whiskey descends the esophagus in a counter clockwise fashion as a result of one's "down under" experience. Hope that as many NZ magi as possible will register for I.B.M.'s upcoming 73rd Annual International Convention next July in Orlando, FL, USA. Convention Chairman Jep Hostetler and his great Committee assure us that it's going to be a bell-ringer. Talent listings and other info soon will be posted on the www.magician.org Web-site. And we're all working feverishly to ensure that Tony Wilson has an easier time of managing his travels next year! What a wild trip he had this year ... if I didn't hear it from Tony himself, I wouldn't have believed it. ---------------------------------- 8. Interest to readers who do children's shows ---------------------------------- Message from Peter Marucci (Canada) Getting an early start for September; herewith is a bit of lunacy that may be of some interest to readers who do children's shows: If you are going to do magic, then it's only logical that you should uses some things that look magical. This is especially true with children's shows, where the young audience expects you to appear to be magical as well as doing magic. And what could be more magical than a magic wand? That's why, in my children's act, I use various types of wands all through, finishing with an array of gimmicked wands -- Drooping Wand, Nesting Wand,. Flower Wand, etc. Recently, I added -- with some considerable success -- the Pop-Away Wand; that's the giant wand whose end pops off at your command. It's a fairly standard and relatively inexpensive item that your dealer should have, if you don't already have one. The wand comes with several pages of ideas and the following is one more that I hope will find favour with my fellow magicians. THE FISHING WAND Because the tip of the wand will fly off several yard, it is suggested in the instructions that a string can be attached to the tip, allowing for easy recovery. But a string hanging down didn't seem very magical; I wanted something more. After playing around with ordinary thread (too plain), a multi-colour silk streamer (too bulky), and ribbon (too heavy), I came up with gold-collared Mylar metallic tape, about a quarter of an inch wide. I came across this at Christmas while my wife and I were wrapping presents. The tape comes in several colours and it is almost weightless, even the five or six feet you'll need with the Pop-Up Wand. Using electrical tape, attach one end of the Mylar to the inside of the end of the wand and the other end of the five or six feet of Mylar to the flat, inside end of the tip. Don't tape it to the inside wall of the tip or it will jam and not pop off properly. At the tip end, I used one-inch-wide green metallic tape, cut out the figure of a fish, and stuck it to the Mylar tape. At this point you have the wand (with no tip), about five feet of narrow gold tape hanging down, a shiny green fish at the end of that, and the tip of the wand just below the fish. Feed the tape, then the fish, into the wand; put the tip on, and you're ready to go. Presentation: For my final trick, I use about seven trick wands and the Pop-Up Wand comes about halfway through. After you've got your audience laughing and worked up about all the gimmicked wands, bring out the Pop-Up Wand and start to hand it to your young volunteer. "Oops," you say, as you take it back. "I can't give you that wand because it's very special. It's my fishing wand. And do you know why I call it my fishing wand?" Wait for the audience to scream "NO!" -- and, believe me, if you're doing this right, they will. "I call it my fishing wand because I use it when I go fishing," and at this point, pop the wand so that the tip flies off, pulling about five feet of gold "line" with it and the green fish on the tip end. Hold the wand up high and horizontal, long enough for everyone to see what has happened. "So I can't give you that one, or I'd never catch anymore fish," you say as you put the wand away and bring out the next one, heading for your big finish. Second Thoughts: Okay, so this isn't going to get you your own television show (although, given that standard of TV today, it might). But it's one of those effective little bits that the audience remembers, long after they've forgotten those sleights that took you six months to learn. You can, if you wish, make up a duplicate fish and make it disappear earlier in the show, only to re-appear at the end in the Fishing Wand. I've had a lot of fun both making and performing this; I hope you do, too. ---------------------------------- 9. New Magic Product Reviews ---------------------------------- Message from David Malek (USA) Welcome to the newest edition of the elmagicshop.com e-mailing list, the most honest publication of product reviews in the world. Bar none! If it sucks we tell you. If it's great we will let you know. Click the link below to go to elmagicshop.com reviews of the newest products. If you want to be taken off, no problem, instructions appear at the bottom of the e-mailing list. Click below on the link to check it out. If you click on the words below and nothing happens then copy the entire line and paste it in the address line on your web browser and press the enter or return key. Thank you. http://www.elmagicshop.com/cgi-bin/2/webc.cgi/August_e-mailing_List.html ------------------------------------- 10. Suggestions on Medieval-looking props, stories, humour ------------------------------------- Message from Loch David Crane Hello fellow MagicNZ e-zine members--this is Loch David Crane (Bafflin' Bill Cody). I'm collecting ideas for a medieval Merlin character and would like your advice if possible. I'd like to do period Magic (such as cups & balls or rope effects) and avoid most modern props, even playing cards. My dramatic persona will be that of a time traveller brought forward by Magic, allowing me to comment on the current day with a very old-fashioned viewpoint. Of course I'm collecting old jokes to reuse, and have been stealing from George Burns and Milton Berle who apparently knew Merlin personally. I'd love some of your suggestions on Medieval-looking props, stories, humour, or other ideas I might use in creating a parlour/stage act in this exciting character. I hope I'm not treading on anyone's toes--the only Wizard I can find Internet evidence of is Walligog. If I was there on a Monday night I'd bring it up live, but as it is I only get to the Magic Circle every 2 years or so. I appreciate net access to your meetings, discussions, and petty bickering...just like at home! ------------------------------------- 11. Update on the Day of Magic on October 22 ------------------------------------- Message from Tony Wilson (NZ) We now have a total of 28 registrants, plus additional bookings for the evening public show from our current registrants. We plan to offer additional public show tickets to Dolphin Theatre supporters shortly who will be allocated some front row seating to provide a "lay audience" for our performers with registrants seated behind the front 2/3 rows in strict order of receipt of registrations. This worked very well last year even though the 121 seat theatre has excellent sight lines and is steeply raked. In answer to one of your subscribers last week, am told that the Dolphin Theatre has a fire alarm directly linked to the Fire Station which will result in a call out if any of the numerous heat detecting devices are triggered. Fantasio candle productions, lit cigarette productions (haven't seen any recently!) flash paper and similar quick magical effects involving fire will be permitted but have to be notified to our stage manager before performing. Flash pots, large dove duck pans that use a large flame or heat producing effect are not. None of the audience will want to leave the theatre wet through from what I believe is a very sensitive sprinkler system. There will be another flyer posted (and emailed) in September with further information re competitions, sponsorship and updated information including how to find the Dolphin Theatre. Keep those registrations flowing in folks. Two of our committee have seen Daryl's Millenium lecture and can highly recommend it. Remember he will also perform close-up AND perform on the evening show. ------------------------------------- 12. Diarise these events ------------------------------------- Monday 2nd October Auckland - Danny Archer lecture Tuesday 3rd October Palmerston North - Danny Archer lecture Wednesday 4th October Wellington - Danny Archer lecture Thursday 5th October Christchurch - Danny Archer lecture Sunday 22nd October - IBM Ring 160 Day of magic - Auckland Thursday 12th - 16th April (Easter) 2001 - 26th New Zealand Magicians' Convention - Christchurch If you require more information about the above events go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive to research for more information. ------------------------------------- 13. News Items ------------------------------------- If you have any news items that you feelthe 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. ------------------------------------- 14. 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: newzealand 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. ------------------------------------- 15. 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. ------------------------------------- 16. Subscription Management ------------------------------------- Our subscriber list is NOT made availableto 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 ------------------------------------- 17. 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