* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * New Zealand's MagicNZ e-zine * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #97 Date: Sunday 18th November 2001 Editor: Alan Watson www.magician.co.nz www.alan-watson.com e-mail AW@Alan-Watson.com ================================ Hi here is the latest news ================================ 1. Editor's Message 2. Joe M. Turner Consults For Coke, RIF With "Harry Potter" Tie-In 3. Burns Scandrett With His Award. 4. More On How About A Drink? 5. Story On Fifty-One Year Career oF Walter Zaney Blaney 6. S.A.M. Founder's Weekend (May 10-12, 2002) 7. Problems My Internet Service Provider 8. Jeff Martin Lecture 9. "How About A Drink" Saga 10. Kiwi Entertainers To Perform In East Timor 11. Top Banana - Peter Marucci 12. The Orchante Saga #51 13. Diarise these events 14. MagicNZ e-zine archives 15. Subscription Management ------------------------------------ 1. Editor's Message ------------------------------------- Message from Alan Watson - The Magic One The 26th New Zealand International Magicians Convention - Auckland Thursday 28 to Monday 31 December 2001. Headliner acts are: Hank Moorehouse (US), Richard Pinner (UK), Oscar Munoz (US), Tom Jones (US), Rachel Wild (UK) and Jay Scott Berry (US). The Waipuna Hotel & Conference Centre is an excellent choice of venue to hold the convention as all the facilities you require are all under one roof - accommodation, theatre, restaurant, breakout rooms and dealers room. The convention committee has secured a heavily discounted accommodation rate for registrants of $85NZ per night. Major credit cards accepted. To view the Waipuna Hotel & Conference Centre website go to: www.waipunahotel.co.nz For reservations e-mail: res@waipunahotel.co.nz For The registration form, Convention programme & The Official Competition Form go to: www.magician.co.nz/convention2.html ----------------------------------------------------- Remember if you have any magic news drop me a line: AW@Alan-Watson.com ---------------------------------- 2. Joe M. Turner Consults For Coke, RIF With "Harry Potter" Tie-In ---------------------------------- Message from Joe M. Turner November 10, 2001 Have you bought a CocaCola lately? If so, you may already have visited the "Live the Magic" website that is now being plugged on most containers. And when you visit that website, you'll run across one of Atlanta magician Joe M. Turner's most recent consulting projects. As part of the tie-in to the Harry Potter movie, CocaCola has partnered with RIF (Reading is Fundamental) to fund and produce a national reading promotion. Turner was selected by CMI (a division of SFX/Clear Channel) to design and write a magic show for one element of this promotion, a national tour called Story Travellers. Fifteen Story Traveller trucks are crossing the country this fall performing interactive storytelling, puppet shows and magic shows with the theme "Reading Takes You Places." Each truck distributes free books to children at each location. "Obviously, the magic itself is technically pretty easy," says Turner. "None of the performers had previously studied magic. Only about half of them had any significant theatre experience, and we had only two days to conduct the training for our part of the show. Besides selecting effects that were fairly easy to learn, the biggest challenge was to develop scripts that could hold the kids' attention while delivering all the messages that the corporate sponsors wanted to include." In addition to designing and writing the show, Turner also located suppliers for the necessary apparatus. Nearly all of the magical equipment for this phase of the tour was supplied by Laflin's Magic & Silks of Troy, Montana and Klamm Magic of Independence, Missouri. Additional creative assistance on the project was provided by magicians Amos McCormick of Jackson, Mississippi and Scott Horn of Atlanta, Georgia. So... the next time you open a CocaCola, take note of the promotional language for "Live the Magic" and the "Reading Takes You Places" tour. Also be on the lookout for the national commercial, in which owls swoop out of the sky dropping off books for kids all over the country. And remember that behind all the Hollywood scenes of broomsticks and dragons, real magicians are using their magic to encourage kids to develop better reading habits. For more information, visit the following websites: http://www.joemturner.com http://www.livethemagic.com http://www.youthdevelopment.coca-cola.com http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/film/newsid_1588000/158 8261.stm ---------------------------------- 3. Burns Scandrett With His Award ---------------------------------- Message from Peter Wentworth (UK) At long last I can put fingers to keys and pen a few lines prompted by reading the last news letter and the ceremony to present Burns Scandrett with his award. During the 1960's and early 1970's I was a regular visitor to New Zealand in my capacity as an Air Loadmaster flying on the Comets of No 216 Squadron, Royal Air Force and I was fortunate to meet several NZ Magicians. Among them were Burns Scandrett, Jon (Trev) Zelando and the Welsh Wizard Peter Evans. 30 years on I have very many happy memories of those days. I wish to pass on my congratulations to Burns on this award and to tell him that after all this time I am still using the 'Almond Daquiri' gag that he gave me. It never fails!! To Jon and Peter - what great days we had - I treasure the night that I met Max Andrews at Jon's house and the fun and laughs that we had on each meeting as I passed through Auckland. Yes Jon I am still inhaling the fumes of the safety match to light my thumb whilst pretending to be a pipe - and am still alive to prove it! During my flying career I visited 96 different countries and met magicians in many of them - great times with them all - but my magical heart will always be with you lot in New Zealand - I am still in the business doing the occasional close up gig and telling the odd gag or two - so send me a message by emailing me ------------------------------------- 4. More On How About A Drink? ------------------------------------- Message from Richard Walls (NZ) Well, I think, the various contributions to this newsletter have clearly identified that Canadian magician, Joe Stuthard, did indeed bring "How About A Drink' to New Zealand. I have a fairly clear recollection that he and Kay were performing and/or exhibiting here in the late 50's and/or early 60's (in sideshows at the various A&P shows around the country?) and that he did a lecture or two for Don's Magic Shop in Christchurch. Ivan Hannah's note further jogs the memory bank, I am as sure as I can be, that Don's secured the NZ rights to several of Joe's and/or Kaymar items - including "How About A Drink?" - which is how it ended up with Nzedda and, later, DeLarno as the successors to Don's. I wouldn't want anyone to think from Ivan's comments that we had pirated it! Somewhere in my storage area is a file of the instruction sheets (all churned out on a Gestetner - remember those?) and I will look them out when I can. ---------------------------------- 5. Story On Fifty-One Year Career of Walter Zaney Blaney ---------------------------------- Message from Walter Zaney Blaney (US) If interested, you can read (online) a nice story on my fifty-one year career in professional show business, in the November 7, 2001 issue of The Kingwood Observer, the newspaper weekly that serves the city where I live, Kingwood, Texas. Go to www.TheKingwoodObserver.com Home page shows six "top stories". Mine is number six, at the bottom, with a photo showing me with my "floating microphone". Then click on "FULL STORY", and it should "magically" appear for you. ---------------------------------- 6. S.A.M. Founder's Weekend (May 10-12, 2002) ---------------------------------- Message from George Schindler (US) The Society of American Magicians was founded on May 10 1902 in the back room of Martinka"s Magic Studio in New York City. In commemoration of this event, the Society has designated the weekend of May 10-12 as "Founder's Weekend" during which time local Assemblies around the world will celebrate with dinners and/or magic programs, exhibits or shows (many open to the public) to recognize the event. A list of events and locations will be forthcoming as plans are being made. ---------------------------------- 7. Problems My Internet Service Provider ---------------------------------- Message from John Williams (Aust) My Internet Service Provider has some problems which have taken him off the Net for at least a few days. So Aladdins is not currently available but will be in place at http://www.ezytodo.com/ in 2 days time. This problem is nothing to do with me or my business except that I cannot access the Net through his service while he is working through the glitches at his end. I had already set up the other domain for the new ebook section of the business but this problem was totally unexpected. BTW the free ebook offer currently on the homepage at http://www.ezytodo.com/ has been withdrawn due to circumstances my crystal ball never revealed. My Aladdins Magic Shop secure catalog will be in place within 2 days with more items and, hopefully, an easier layout. I am grateful to the support people at my e-commerce provider and e-gateway who have been very supportive. I hope that my regular Internet Service provider will be back online within a couple of days. If so, you will get another rambling email. But the new set-up will remain in place and the other planned upgrades will go ahead but they will be slightly delayed. Please pass on this information to anyone who you think might be interested and apologise for me; after spending several hours on software problems yesterday and last night I am unable to speed through setting up the new site as quickly as I would like. All emails should be sent to johnbw@optusnet.com.au until further notice. Mail, phone and fax remain as before, of course. ---------------------------------- 8. Jeff Martin Lecture ---------------------------------- Message from Jeff Ezell (US) Keep your eyes open for your yellow postcard regarding the Jeff Martin lecture on Monday, 19 Nov at 7pm. The mail has been a little slow lately. Here is a brief idea of the lecture just in case: **You will learn how to do a kid's show **You will learn marketing tips that have helped Jeff Martin become a very busy performer **Linking Ring, Thumb Tip Work, Torn and restored sugar packet, Floating Dollar Bill, Four Coin Trick, Multiple Coin Changes, Ten Card Poker Deal with Jumbo Cards and many more. **Jeff Martin has been a friend of mine for the last 4 years and comes with my personal recommendation. Bottom line...SEE THIS LECTURE Only 30 seats available so call now...818 562 1921 $25 per seat 818 562 1921 ---------------------------------- 9. "How About A Drink" Saga ---------------------------------- Message from Burns Scandrett, (aka DeLarno) (NZ) Regarding the "How About A Drink" saga, I don't believe anyone has the sole rights to it. I first met Joe Stuthard here in Christchurch, New Zealand when he toured with an unsuccessful variety show which included Maurice Jarvis, "The White Yogi" who ate fire, swallowed swords and also lit a fluorescent tube which could be faintly seen through the walls of his chest when the performing area was darkened. I opened my magic shop, DeLarno's Magic Centre, 16 Chancery Lane, Christchurch, in 1954. Joe gave me permission to print and sell his drink trick which I did for the forty years that I was in business. He had some fascinating tales about his creations, for instance, he was playing with a Svengali deck and Stripper deck on a train traveling through Canada, and wondered if he could blend the two together. Hence the Trilby Deck and Bico Trilby deck were created. When he later moved to Sydney, Australia, he gave Alfred Hayes, director of DeLarno's International Magic Centre, in Wesley Arcade, permission to also produce his drink trick, which Alfred demonstrated and sold in his shop. He also gave Richard Walls, NZEDDA Magic, Dunedin, N.Z. permission to produce this trick. No doubt he also gave other magicians around the world his permission. Regarding Ken Ward, I cannot understand why his name is associated with it. The last five times that I have visited Britain, I stopped in Essex with Ken, whom I had known since he was a lad coming into my shop. I stayed with Ken for a week and together, we sorted through his magic, some were collectibles which he was donating to the London Magic Circle. Amongst it all, he proudly showed me his collection of DeLarno magic, practically every packaged card trick which I produced, which included "How About A Drink', still in it's original packet. This is why I cannot believe that he claimed it as his. He and I then drove to the British Ring IBM convention, after which I traveled to Edinburgh to visit my relations. The second day that I was there, I had phone call from his brother Brian in Christchurch N.Z. to say that Ken had suffered heart attacks while in hospital for a minor operation. I traveled back to London, met his son Peter, who said that his dad was in a critical condition. Ken died a few days later. Unfortunately Joe is also dead, so we will never know the full story. ---------------------------------- 10. Kiwi Entertainers To Perform In East Timor ---------------------------------- Message from Guy Cater (NZ) On the 16th December, 30 New Zealand performers, lead by singer Larry Morris (Larrys Rebels) will board a Royal New Zealand Air Force 727 at Whenuapai to head to East Timor to entertain our troops there. In the group will be Suzanne Lynch (The Chicks), Ritchie Picket, Shane Hale, Jordan Luck, Hello Sailor, Steve Larkins, three lady backing vocalists, assorted musicians and sound and lighting technicians. The only act that is not a singer or muso will be myself and I will act as M.C. and perform my stand-up comedy and comedy magic. We fly to Darwin, Australia and stay overnight there before boarding a RNZAF Hercules the next day for the flight to Suai in East Timor. At a meeting with the military the other night we were told to expect temperatures of 38/40 degrees and incredibly high humidity. The biggest danger is from malaria carrying mosquitoes and we have to beware of spiders and snakes... hey; who needs Club Med!!! First night in East Timor we perform at the New Zealand Battalion Headquarters to approx 600 male and female soldiers and then the next day we will break into two groups. The first will be trucked to a base close by and perform to around 350, the 2nd group (which I am part of), will be helicoptered to the Forward Base where we will entertain just the 70 male soldiers there. During the two nights in East Timor we will sleep under canvas and under mosquitoe netting... although we were told it is too hot to sleep anyway!!! Next day it is back to Darwin where we perform a show for the Kiwi and Australians on the Darwin Base. Our flight back to New Zealand will be in the Air Force Hercules (a large flat truck with a couple of enormous engines) and this trip will take ten hours. We are all being issued with earmuffs for the return journey as it is so noisy in this aircraft. No flight attendants or onboard movies and no real seats either. We will be given army rations to eat on the way home. Will be a Loooong flight!! May be a difficult few days for some of the musos as the entire area is dry .... no alcohol permitted ... this is not an army rule it is the rule of the Muslims there and we have been warned against smuggling alcohol into the country. Our only real danger is from disease and we all have to have a whole heap of vaccinations that would have cost everyone about $160 ... however, Peter Charles Leitch Q.S.M. (The Mad Butcher) has come to the fore and is paying for the entire group innoculations ... a most generous man. The official name of this tour is NZTEAMFET which stands for New Zealand Technicians, Entertainers And Musicians For East Timor. We come under the control of the New Zealand Defence Force and The United Nations Peacekeeping Forces ... should be a lot of fun and informative and I'm really looking forward to it. ---------------------------------- 11. Top Banana - Peter Marucci ---------------------------------- Message from Peter Marucci (Canada) This is a "confusion" routine that has been around so long it's as new today as when it was originally presented. The first time I saw this was about 40 years ago on the old Ed Sullivan show; at that time, at least two magicians did it within a year. Since then, I have never seen it performed -- and more's the pity, since it is such a hysterical routine. How it was originally done, I have no idea; this routine is my own handling of it. The humor lies in the magician's confusing the words "bandanna" and "banana." TOP BANANA Effect: You announce that you are going to present a "classic of magic," the famous Bandanna to Flags trick, to mark Flag Day (the Fourth of July, President's Day, or any national holiday). You take out a banana, repeatedly miscalling it a bandanna and try to do the trick. However, in the end, you actually do produce a string of flags from the banana-bandanna. Preparation: You'll need a string of small flags, about 18 inches long. These are usually available from magic dealers. You'll also need a thumb tip and a pair of scissors. And, of course, you'll need a banana. The string of flags is folded and concealed in the thumb tip, which is on the right thumb. The banana is in the right jacket pocket, along with the scissors. Presentation: In your most pompous voice, tell the audience: "To mark this important occasion (whatever the day), I would like to present to you one of the great classics of magic -- the incredible Flags From Bandanna."And, to perform this classic miracle, I first must have a bandanna -- a common, everyday bandanna. No one in the audience have a bandanna? No matter. I've got a bandanna right here." Reach into your pocket and bring out the banana. "In presenting this classic wonder, the great magicians of the past would first show both sides of the bandanna, so that there would be no suspicion of trickery." Hold the banana between the hands, at the fingertips, and show both sides of it, just as you would if you were holding the top corners of a real bandanna. In the process, without your saying anything, your hands are shown to be empty. Let go with your left hand and hold the banana up in your right hand. Then put the opposite end of the banana in your left fist, about a third of the way down. At the same time, load the thumb tip into the left hand. "The amazing conjurers of the past, having shown the bandanna on both sides, would place it in their left hand and fold the bandanna in half." Here's where it starts to get messy: Fold the banana over towards you, at the same time pushing the thumb tip into the crotch of the thumb, in preparation for later and to keep the banana pulp from messing up the flags in the tip. "Then the astounding prestidigitators of the past would take a pair of scissors (take the scissors out of your right pocket) and cut the bandanna in half." Cut the banana in half with the scissors. I told you it was going to be messy! Put the scissors down on your table -- or put them back in your pocket if you have good credit at the dry cleaners. "The incredible sorcerers of the past would then gesture magically over the severed bandanna, pronounce the secret and forbidden magic words and -- presto! -- produce a string of flags from the bandanna." As you say the final words, produce the string of flags, extending your arm out to the right and leaving yourself in the classic applause stance. Take your bow. Alternate handling: Another way of presenting this is as the bumbling amateur magician, learning the trick for the first time. This requires a tape recorder with the instructions on tape as to how to do the Flags From Bandanna trick. The humor here comes from the magi misunderstanding the banana-bandanna and trying to follow the taped instructions with the wrong apparatus. He becomes more and more puzzled and confused as the instructions continue. And all the while, the voice on the tape keeps reassuring the listener (the magi) that the trick will work out correctly if he just keeps following the instructions. And, of course, it does. And at the end, when the string of flags is pulled out, the magi look just as surprised as the audience. Second Thoughts: For ease of handling, one end of the string of flags should be taped into the thumb tip with a small piece of duct tape; the other end should have a knot in the string at the end, so your fingers don't slip off the end of the string; after all, they're going to be a bit slippery since you've been mucking about with banana pulp. One of the great things about this routine -- although I've never seen another magician do it this way -- is that it can be adapted to all sorts of national holidays, depending on the flags used. This could also be a magical gold mine to any magician working ethnic parties of any sort (providing the right flags can be found). It's an easy routine, with lots of laughs and some surprise magic at the end. Have fun with it; it deserves better than to be gathering dust of the shelf of Magic From The Past. ---------------------------------- 12. The Orchante Saga #51 ---------------------------------- Message from Tommy Orchard (The Amazing Orchante)(UK ex-pat Kiwi) A few nails more -'Angels' and hypnotism at the Wellington Opera-House. Some time, early 1972, a Mr Gerald Weekes, engaged the 'ORCHANTE SHOW' for 10 days in May at the up coming Wanganui motor and Transport show, with the Mayor of Wellington, Sir Francis Kitts, officiating at the opening ceremony. Some wonderful publicity was generated when 'The Dominion', the major News Paper in Wellington, who were there covering the proceedings, published a rather impressive feature photograph. The caption read - " Sir Francis Kitts, 'nails' the entertainer Orchante with 16 1/2 stone at the National Motor and Transport show in Wanganui on Saturday night. The amazing Orchante, and his bed of nails, was a feature attraction at the show, which drew a capacity crowd of 14,000". The organisers also ran a beauty contest, so during one of my shows, I got five of those lovelies to perform a great balancing - I think that should be 'wobbling' act - standing on top of me during my 'nails' routine - they weighed a total of 43 stone - that sure was a lot of - Boo?s - 'Beauty'; I didn't mind! Talking about beauty, reminds me of the time I was performing at a fashion show for the New Zealand Wool Board. It was held in a huge marquee, with one corner section off to form a dressing room for all the models. I had crammed myself into a little cranny and was down on my hands and knees getting my equipment from out of my trunk. Then, a voice above me quietly said, "so what do you do then"? Still looking down, I turned around and spotted bare feet, followed by 'lo-o-o-n-g' bare legs, bare thighs, bare shaven- you-know-what, in fact, a perfectly formed-bare everything. !!! Sometimes, 'show' Business can be so kind! Gerald Weekes, just happened to be a brilliant sketch cartoonist/artist/model-maker, and he decided that what the Orchante show needed was - 'a backdrop'. He set about painting one for me, on canvas, 20 ft long by ten-foot high! It was /is - 'Fantastic'. It pictures an Arabian style Castle, complete with turrets and windows. On the right hand side there is a large urn with a huge puff smoke coming from the spout, a la Aladdin's magic lamp, with my name - 'ORCHANTE', in oriental style lettering, displayed in the middle of it. On the far left there is a tall palm tree, curving slightly to the left, and peaking thro the palm leaves, shines a yellowish crescent moon. Scattered on the ground, are what appears to be hundreds of multi-faceted, beautiful, scintillating, sparkling jewels! Gerald painted the whole scenario in perspective; as we 'performed', it appeared to be 'floating', 20 feet or so behind us. He used Fluorescent paint so that, with-'Black Lights', the 'windows' lit up, with a yellowish glow, as if with candlelight. Everything shimmered and glowed with the most gorgeous of colours. I can still remember Gerald standing back to look at it, then declaring that, "Something is missing". He 'filled' a huge paintbrush with paint, stepped back and flicked it all over the canvas. For a moment, I thought he had ruined it but then, like magic, 'stars' appeared, glittering in the clear, desert night sky! (Eat your heart out, Rolf Harris) That backdrop served me well, for over 20 years (I've still got it, in perfect condition) in clubs, theatres even on cruise ships, around the world. The Harem/ Ali Baba style clothing that we wore, together with the exotic style of music (Arthur Lyman - Martin Denny) used in the show, blended in perfectly with the backdrop. It certainly set you apart, presentation wise, from all the other acts/artists! After making a huge bundle of cash from the overwhelming success of the Motor Show, Gerald and his partner (whose name I can't recall) who, between them, had financed the Motor Show, decided to finance - "The Amazing ORCHANTE - Hypnotism Show!"- WOW, 'ANGELS'!!! Unfortunately, probably because they were so flushed with their highly successful Motor Show venture, they wouldn't listen to my advice in regards to -'show-business' - a totally different 'kettle of fish' to a Motor Show. They wanted to start 'BIG' and then hit the 'SMALLS'. WRONG! Start out in the 'smalls' first, to iron out any problems - get the show running as smooth as ice, and build up a reputation as you go, THEN try your 'luck' in a large City Theatre/Town Hall. They opted for - 'The Wellington Opera House'!!! (continues next episode) ------------------------------------- 13. Diarise these events ------------------------------------- The 26th NZ Magician's Convention Auckland Friday 28th to Monday 31st December 2001. For The registration form, Convention programme & The Official Competition Form go to: www.magician.co.nz/convention2.html ------------------------------------- 14. MagicNZ e-zine archives ------------------------------------- Back issues of the MagicNZ e-zine go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html 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 001nov0699.txt first three numbers (001) denote issue number, then the date (nov06) and the last next two numbers the year (99) If you want to print copies of MagicNZ e-zine go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive ------------------------------------- 15. 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 MagicNZ e-zine is published weekly, on Sunday. The opinions expressed in this e-zine are those of the individual contributors. Neither MagicNZ or 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 << © Copyright 2001 Alan Watson