* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Magic New Zealand * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #471 Date: Sunday 7th January 2007 Editor: Alan Watson www.magicianz.com www.Alan-Watson.com e-mail: AW@Alan-Watson.com ================================ Hi here is the latest news ================================ 1. Editor's Message 2. Predictions And Prophecy For 2007 3. Announcing: A New Magic Partnership 4. Meetings With Remarkable Magicians # 42 - Nick Lewin 5. How To Put "Entertainment" Into Your Kid Show "Tricks" 6. Castlemaine Festival 2007 7. Hamilton Kaye, 1921-2006 8. The Future's Bright, The Future's YMC 9. Surplus Magic I Plan To Be Selling Off Very Soon 10. The Amazing Orchante Saga 11. e-zine Archives 12. Privacy Policy And Copyright Notice -------------------------------------------- 1. Editor's Message -------------------------------------------- Michele and I wish all subscribers a happy New Year. Just spent the day with good friends Paul (ex-pat Kiwi now living in Vancouver, Canada) and Natalie Romhany who are on a short holiday to visit family and friends in New Zealand. Paul as you may know is a very successful cruise ship magician playing the part of magical Charlie Chaplin. ----------------------- Remember if you have any magic news drop me a line: AW@Alan-Watson.com -------------------------------------------- 2. Predictions And Prophecy For 2007 -------------------------------------------- Message from Jeff & Abbi McBride (US) Greetings Magical Friends! A goal is a dream with a deadline. Predictions And Prophecy For 2007 As I gaze into the crystal ball, I see a vision swirling within its murky depths.... a magical vision, a mysterious vision, a mystical vision... I see you, dear reader, joining us on an extraordinary magical adventure. I see us journeying together in pursuit of the real secrets and deeper meanings of magic. New years are new beginnings, times to set goals for the year to come. At this moment, I invite you to take a breath and consider what you wish to attract into your life in this coming year. For those of us in the magical arts, let's think about what we want our magic to be, by this time next year. What new effects or routines do you wish to polish and perform? What will you do to further your magical education this year? So, let's start setting goals and making our dreams come true! Welcome to the world of magic for 2007. The Secret The Secret is a new movie that one of my students, Robert Ray, told me about. The Secret is a film about the Law of Attraction. This is a Hermetic principle of making thoughts manifest into physical reality. The Secret is based on The Emerald Tablet, which is the most ancient of all Hermetic texts. The Emerald Tablet is a formula for transmuting lead into gold. Mysterium Abbi and I share a passion for Alchemy. Each year, we host a three day conference called Mysterium, where we bring in special guest teachers and authors from around the world to share their knowledge of the Royal Art. Q. What Is Mysterium? A. An alchemical fusion of art, ritual theater, shape-shifting, trance-dance, ceremonial magick, spoken word poetry, invocation, meditation, divination, rites of purification, transformation, illumination and celebration! Oh, and did we say plenty of live drumming, dance and music? All lovingly blended together with divine inspiration into the elixir of life!! You are invited to join our inspired magical community! Come celebrate with us; dance, drum, dream, and learn from some of the best teachers in the world of ritual and magic. Is it really possible to turn lead into gold? To find out and to get more information, go to http://www.vegasvortex.com Tour Report: Where In The World Is Jeff Mcbride? At this moment, we are coming to you live from an internet cafe, en route to Barbados, where we'll be meeting a ship and cruising through the Caribbean. We'll be ringing in the New Year, as is our tradition, at sea, doing our magic show. Jeff has been honing his new "oracle show" of mind reading and mental mysteries, which he's looking forward to presenting. We'll also be reviewing the past year, and setting goals for the year to come. Private Sessions One of my resolutions from last year was to spend more time developing our mentoring program here at the Magic and Mystery School. To that end, I am devoting more time to our one on one coaching sessions. Many of our students are not professional magicians; yet, they have a deep passion to explore the deeper meanings of the art, as well as to expand their performance capabilities. I find it especially rewarding when I can create a magical experience for magicians. Over the past year, we've had students from Australia, France, Hong Kong, and all over the United States stop by the school when they visit Las Vegas, and spending time deepening their passion for the art of magic. I invite all of you to take a few hours out of your Vegas visit and stop by the school. Call Abbi at 702-450-0021 in advance to arrange a convenient time. Master Class Update Our January Master Class is completely sold out. We have some spaces available in February, March and April. Go to http://www.magicalwisdom.com/calendar.php The February class will be hot on the heels of the WORLD MAGIC SEMINAR. If you're planning to come in for the WMS, plan to stay a few extra days with us here at the Magic and Mystery School. New Year's Revolution-- I've been putting the finishing touches on a new DVD project, titled "REVOLUTION! The Evolution of the Double Dancing Cane." This levitation effect has been one of my pet secrets for many years. Now, I've decided, as a part of my "letting go process," to release it to the magic community. Look for it in the Spring. Also this year, Tobias Beckwith, my manager, director and lighting designer, will be publishing his new book on theater games for magicians, creativity, and "making it your own." Bryce Kuhlman, our webmaster, is honing his skills in the Shao-lin martial arts. Abbi is preparing to release her new CD, Fire of Creation... and I'm writing a new column for MAGIC MAGAZINE, called THE SHOW DOCTOR. In addition, I'm devoting more time to staying connected and nurturing my relationships with the magical community and friends like you! Please stay in touch with us. We love hearing from you! May you transmute all of your lead into gold, and achieve all of your golden goals. May the New Year be filled with peace, prosperity and magic for all of us! Jeff & Abbi McBride -------------------------------------------- 3. Announcing: A New Magic Partnership -------------------------------------------- Message from Andrew Lock Andrew Lock -- co-Producer of Paul Daniels's acclaimed Master Classes -- and the Magic Marketing Center are pleased to announce a new partnership. (Andrew assured us that many of his old friends and customers would be delighted to hear about this news, which is why you're receiving this email.) The Magic Marketing Center has obtained the rights to distribute Andrew's 'Make Money With Magic' lecture. If you're looking for creative, new ways to leverage your magical expertise, then Andrew's talk could be exactly what you're looking for. In case you didn't know, for nearly a decade, the Magic Marketing Center has provided magicians and entertainers around the world with tools and strategies for growing their businesses. If you'd like to sign up to receive the regular 'Magic Marketing Center ezine' -- packed with tips, insights, and totally practical information you can use every day, then just click the link below. http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/optin.asp?j=0&c=103858759&pg=imp&nc=0&ar=217453 As a one-time bonus, by signing up for our newsletter, we're going to send you to a webpage where you can download Andrew's lecture and notes for nothing. That's right. Free. Remember, there's no long term obligation, no cost, no risk to you. It's totally our gift to you as part of our roll-out of the updated, 2007 Magic Marketing Center. If you're not interested, then PLEASE just delete this email right now. We will respect your wishes totally, and you won't hear from us again. From one magic fanatic to another, Jack Turk Chief Operating Officer Magic Marketing Center 15127 NE 24th Street, Suite #307 Redmond, WA 98052 US -------------------------------------------- 4. Meetings With Remarkable Magicians # 42 - Nick Lewin -------------------------------------------- Message from Nick Lewin (US) Jeff McBride: who is that masked man? The first time I met Jeff McBride was in the lobby of 'Catch A Rising Star' in Las Vegas. It was Halloween night 1990 and I was presenting one of my rather quirky celebrity séances and I was attempting to bring back the spirit of Lenny Bruce or perhaps it was Elvis. I was introduced to McBride who had bought his own ticket for the event, which impressed me right from the get go! While I had never met Jeff before or seen his work I was very aware of who he was and was very pleased to make his acquaintance. I asked him why he was there and Jeff replied that he wanted to check me out because I was the first person he had ever seen described in the non-magic press as a 'Bizarrist'. It seemed like a pretty good reason to me and I made a mental note to thank my publicist for going against her better instincts and using the term in our press releases. I didn't meet up again with Jeff again until I caught his performance at the Caesars Magic Empire in Las Vegas. What a delight it was to watch his show. I love the classics in magic and no one performs them with more flair and thought than McBride. His version of the Miser's Dream is on my top ten all time magic favorite list. He was closing on his 'light bending/beam of light levitation' illusion and it totally blew my mind. If you haven't seen this piece of theatrical magic you have missed something very special. I became a fan immediately and have remained so ever since. As a long-term student of metaphysics I was very pleased to see a magician perform who wasn't afraid to mix the Great Work with their magic work. Since then I have had the occasion to visit with Jeff and spend a little time talking metaphysics. His thinking in this area is as diamond clear and brilliant as any of his work with masks and cards. Recently Jeff has expanded his teaching work beyond the pioneering work of his 'Mystery School' and he has been releasing DVDs that teach manipulative magic in a highly direct and authoritative manner. His Las Vegas based magic center is another way he has extended this teaching process. During my travels I meet young magicians who have worked with Jeff and everything I hear convinces me that he is doing a wonderful job of improving the magic world. My recent excursions into writing and lecturing for the magic community, has in no small way been influenced by the style and standards that McBride has introduced to the task. It is not easy to be esoteric and open at the same time. I have never been someone who felt too comfortable allowing people access to my personal beliefs through my professional career. Nevertheless it has always been present in a somewhat cryptic manner in my performances and is now a more prominent part of my plans. If you are looking for a role model in these areas it is very tough to beat Jeff McBride. Caesars Magic Empire is long gone as is 'Catch A Rising Star' both having disappeared in a typical Las Vegas manner. Other than an email or two in the last couple of years I haven't had much contact with Jeff but when you are writing a column entitled 'Meetings With Remarkable Magicians' it is unthinkable that Jeff isn't going to figure high on the list. Heck, he is probably one of the only magicians who understands the source and nature of my current series of writings! Please send any 'bricks or bouquets' to nicklewin@earthlink.net -------------------------------------------- 5. How To Put "Entertainment" Into Your Kid Show "Tricks" - Kyle Peron -------------------------------------------- Message from By Kyle Peron E-Mail: Magic4u02@aol.com I thought I would take a moment to talk about something I feel is so important in children's magic and something we all, at one time, have come to understand or have had to face. This would be the difference between performing just mere tricks as opposed to performing a truly entertainment experience. When discussing this topic, it is safe to say that there is a big difference between the two. The first part in learning how to make your children's magic entertaining, is to do just that. It is to first recognize the differences between performing a trick and performing an entertaining routine. To me, anyone can do a trick. I can have anyone be taught how to perform a trick. A trick is just the mechanics and movements involved in making a seemingly impossible situation possible. Anyone can do a trick as long as they learn the movements of how the trick is done and study the secrets and methods behind it. However, that is where I see the "Trick" part ending. A person performing a trick is not interested so much in patter, presentation etc. This is where I see a true children's performer can really start to change that trick into something far more special. I think an audience who sees a trick only goes away thinking the trick was good or bad and nothing more. There is no focus on the performer or on laughing or creating any type of emotional response to what is happening. For the children's performer, the entertainer really must understand and start to learn that performing just tricks will not win you over the children nor will it engage them in such a way as to get them having fun with what they are seeing. This is where you must add in the "Entertainment" portion to the trick. Once the trick is learned, the performer must learn to build upon the trick and create an entertaining experience around it. Give that trick substance and make the journey you take the kids on even more fun then the trick's climatic moment. How do we add entertainment value to our kid's show tricks? Well that is a good question and one I would like to explore here with you and hope that you will also share your thoughts on this as well. There are so many vast and different ways in which to do this, so I will describe some of which have worked for me over the years. First, I would like to make a simple analogy as to why adding the entertainment value to a trick is so important in a children's performance. Let us say that the trick is a plain pizza. There is nothing wrong with the pizza as is and the kids may eat it and think nothing of it. However, the entertainment value you add is like the many layers of toppings you can place on this pizza to make it even more special and rewarding an experience. Each "layer" gives the children something more to enjoy. So what are some of these so called layers that you can add to your children's trick to get it to be more entertaining? - Comedy props: These are items that look funny to a child or have a funny thing happen to them. They can range from comedy wands to jumbo sized toothbrushes to even comedy rubber chickens. I think for children, just the site of a funny object can often times make them laugh and giggle and have fun with it in the course of the routine you build. - They see but you do not see: This is a layer whereby you build into your trick a period in which something happens that the children notice first long before the magician does. Why does this work? Because children feel empowered. In their lives, they are seldom ever right when they are with adults. The adults are always correct and always correcting them. In this situation, the child feels empowered because he or she sees something first before the adult does and gets to tell the adult that something happened. - Imagination: This is a huge one. This is a layer in which you allow yourself to use imagination to make a trick more entertaining. Children live in a magical world. To them, turning on a light bulb is magical. They also have vivid imaginations and you can see this when they are at play. So we can use this idea by allowing the children to pretend and imagine things as the trick progresses. Suddenly a rope is not a rope any longer, but is a worm named Bob. The kids can stretch their imaginations and they can have fun with imaging what will happen to Bob the worm. - Story Telling: This leads us into a layer called storytelling. A magician can change a trick into entertainment through the use of effective storytelling. Use a storyline to tie in the tricks or parts of the trick together so that it has more fun for the children. Children love stories and read or hear them all the time. A story can be a great way to tie in different aspects of the trick and make it fun and easy to understand for the kids watching. - Dress Up and Costumes: As I stated previously, kids love to imagine things and pretend. They also like to dress up and become someone else they might admire. We can use this layer to change a trick into an entertaining routine by allowing ourselves to get the children dressed into costumes or even wear a costume ourselves. If baking a cake for the b-day child. Perhaps the b-day child gets to feel even more special because they get to become the master chef with a chefs hat and chef's jacket. It is fun for them and gets them involved in a different way. - Adding a human quality to an object: This is something fun that can be done to change a trick into an entertaining routine by simply creating a human character around an ordinary object. Kids may not understand or may not really grasp what a sponge ball is. However, they can have a lot of fun if that sponge ball all of a sudden becomes Marty the Martian. Marty always likes to travel from place to place but never likes the dark. Now all of a sudden the kids can relate to the little character and what this funny character will be doing in the routine. - Magician in Trouble: This is a classic principle that works great for adding entertainment to a trick. Children love to see the magician apparently get into trouble or mess up a trick. I think they enjoy it because it shows them that even adults can and do make mistakes. They can have fun with it when the magician messes up. - Empowering the child: This is a layer that I use quite often. This is where you really empower a child because they actually make the magic apparently happen on their own. You try it and it does not work, but the child tries it and wonderful magic starts to happen. The child feels extra special because they made something work on their own. Making the child feel like a star can be a very entertaining experience for them and the audience watching. - Music: Music can be used as a fun layer to evoke a mood or an emotion. Funny music can get the kids laughing while upbeat music can get them interacting with the trick in an entertaining way. There are many many more, but I will leave it at this for now. I hope this gets people thinking and starting to look at their own tricks in a new light. I hope it gets you to rethink routines and find ways to make old tricks into entertaining magical experiences. I would love to hear your own thoughts on this and how some of these have worked for you or different "layers" that I may not have even mentioned. It is a great way we all can share and learn together. Thanks for letting me share this with you. I hope you find it helpful. As always, I encourage you the readers to let me know your thoughts. So if you have any thoughts on my articles or suggestions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me directly at magic4u02@aol.com. I would love to hear from you. Kyle Peron Magician and Illusionist Graphic Designer and Illustrator (Specializing in Logo creation) www.kyleandkellymagic.com -------------------------------------------- 6. Castlemaine Festival 2007 -------------------------------------------- Message from Ross Skiffington (Aust) I will be performing my show "Lounge Wizard" at the Castlemaine Festival on April 1st 2007. This is no April Fools Day joke! Castlemaine is a country town about an hours drive out of Melbourne and every year they have a Festival of the Arts. Here is a link to their website. http://www.castlemainefestival.com.au/index.html As this year we are celebrating 100 Years of the Australian Society of Magicians I think it is timely and also great that "magic" is included in a serious Arts Programme. I am currently re-writing and re-working material to bring routines up to date. Amongst the many I do in the show is a routine I created about 5 years ago, a 3 card Monte rap using Eric Henning's 'Titanic Monte". My routine is based on an incident a friend had in New York when we were there in the 1980's. He lost some dollars at a 3 Card Monte cardboard table and when I purchased Eric Henning's "Titanic Monte" in 2000 I remembered this event. After working with the effect for a while I was not happy with it the way it was playing and decided to create a Rastafarian character, like the 3 Card Monte Man we had encountered, and thus my version was created. I have performed it numerous times and it plays very well. Curiously I see that there is about to appear on the market a similar routine created by John Kaplan, quote, "Card Rap, the hip-hopping-est Three Card Monte ever! Take Joe Riding's 3 Card Trick Using 4 Cards, add Martin Lewis' Sidewalk Shuffle cards, then mix in an original musical soundtrack with catchy lyrics about the day you encountered the slickest Monte Man in town!" unquote. I don't know what John's routine is but out of interest I include my lyrics. The Three Card Monte It was a beautiful day in NYC I was walking down Broadway hoping to see Some lights, some shows, somebody famous When I turned a corner at 42nd street And I saw this guy who stood six foot four He was standing in front of a two-dollar store. Well he caught my eye and I couldn't go by Cause he said . "Hey Man! You could win a hundred dollars no sweat, all clear. All I got here are three big cards, Two Aces, one Queen All I want you to see is where the Queen has been. Cause I'm gonna put the Queen right here in the middle Turn the cards over, and give a bit of a fiddle Now your money on the table if you please good sir Make a choice . Hey Man! Have you lost your voice?" Well I placed ten dollars on the table that day And I said to myself I hope this will pay I looked at the cards and said really clear The Queen is the card that is at the rear. "Sorry Man. You were not watching, You did not see," His eyes were twinkling as he said to me "The Queen is the card here right in the front Hey Man! Would you like to make another punt? If you want I'll raise the stakes for you Make it twenty dollars this time." I thought oh oh . So I put my twenty dollars down on the table And watched as carefully as I was able As he put the Queen back in the middle Turned the cards over and did a bit of a fiddle At the front I said, but sad to say My twenty dollars vanished into the fray Because the Queen was at the rear and not in the middle And how she got there was a bit of a giggle! "Hey Man! You lost your voice again? You're thirty dollars down, you want to try once more?" Said the man in front of the two-dollar store. OK! You're on! But this time round, Let me be you, so hand me the cards. Double or nothing and here's a surprise I'll take an Ace away to make it easy, His eyes lit up, his smile went cheesy I took an Ace away, I said place your bet! "Hey Man! These are the best odds I'll ever get." He put a hundred dollars down, and then one more On the cardboard table outside that store. He said with a grin, "The Queen's at the front." Wrong, I said and here's a sting, I turned the other Ace into a King. And here's something else that is completely true I'll always know this Queen 'cause I changed her back to blue. And the moral of the story is unless you know some magic Never gamble with a hustler as the outcome could be tragic. © Ross Skiffington 2002 I trust that 2007 is a great year for everyone. Yours magically Ross Web page: http://rossskiffington.com.au -------------------------------------------- 7. Hamilton Kaye, 1921-2006 -------------------------------------------- Message from Peter Zenner (UK) It is with a heavy heart that I have to report the passing of Hamilton Kaye on Christmas Day. He hadn't enjoyed the best of health in recent years but the phone call on Boxing Day was totally unexpected. I came to know Ron in the early sixties when we were both members of the now defunct Chesterfield Magicians Club. I was in my teens when the club folded and he and his charming wife, Marion, took me under their wing -- almost becoming a second set of parents. If ever there was a magic act appearing anywhere in the vicinity, they would pick me up and take me. We were together so often that people thought Ron was my dad. After being a very busy semi-professional entertainer, Ron took early retirement and became a very busy professional. He also set up a magic dealing business and became a very popular attender of magic conventions. You can see a photograph of him being installed as President of the IBM British Ring 25, 1982-83, on the front cover of 'The Linking Ring' for January, 1983. A few of the old CMC members and friends decided to carry on having monthly meetings at each others houses in turn. Ron was one of those 'secret seven' who we called 'Midwiz' and latterly those meetings were hosted regularly by the Kayes because of transport problems. We have been going for well over 30 years -- add 10 years for the old club and yes, Ron has been a friend for over 40 years. We, as well as many magicians around the world, shall miss him. Peter Zenner Visit my web-site 'Zenigmas' at http://www.zenigmas.fsnet.co.uk -------------------------------------------- 8. The Future's Bright, The Future's YMC -------------------------------------------- Message from Mandy Davis (UK) Mandy Davis is a member of The Magic Circle, London UK. In fact she is an Associate of the Inner Magic Circle with Silver Star and a busy professional close up magician and balloon modeller, performing for corporate events as well as all types of banquets and celebrations. Mandy writes for the magic press both in the UK and the US; she has been the Convenor of Reporters for The Magic Circle's house magazine for over ten years! She became involved with the Young Magicians Club team in 1998. This is part of The Magic Circle's Youth Initiative and is open to young people, aged over 10 and under 18, all over the world. Mandy wrote their newsletter, then organised monthly workshops at The Magic Circle's HQ. She has been editor of YMC's prestigious glossy magazine 'Secrets' for the past two years and has now added the job of Chairman to this list! Here she tells us all about the club: As our tenth Anniversary year ends, and after almost a year as Chairman of The Young Magicians Club, it seems time to let you know about what we do and achieve. I lead a small but dedicated team of volunteers. They are a solid band of resourceful members of The Magic Circle with the right combination of attributes, energy and inner child to run YMC to the highest standards. A steady flow of enquiries from our web site usually converts into new members. Our Secretary administers the new members, sending out their registration packs (containing a badge, a signed certificate, a membership card, the latest issue of our magazine and a free trick). He also deals with our database and issues passwords for the members' area of our web site and for our very busy forum. On-line chat is very close to teenagers' hearts and we provide a safe and relevant platform for this purpose. The number of members accessing this increases daily - the last figures showed around 11,000 posts covering 650 topics!. Our membership is in the range of 500 and is very much a mail order based club with the on-line forum as a lively meeting place. We also run workshops which are highly successful, around 75 members attend each time and they come from all over the UK - and from overseas each month too! We hold a Member of the Month -performance-based competition, which is very popular, and then the day progresses with tuition in tricks or performance skills, we hold an annual auction of items donated to us as well as members bringing in their own unwanted props. The workshops are a YMC benefit which continue to be the envy of many similar clubs. Those who come to teach or help out on those days are carefully chosen so that an atmosphere of fun and learning through fun is always maintained. The YMC members who come along are a very dedicated and enthusiastic crowd, queuing outside the building from quite early in the morning. They can't wait to sit down in the club room and share their latest tricks and moves with their friends! |We also hold one-hour workshops at some of the larger conventions that take place in England such as our own IBM one. These are open to any young people under 18 who are attending the conventions and I try to get the stars of the event to come and give back a little of their knowledge. These have included Max Maven, Alexandra Duvivier, John Calvert, Simon Lovell, Eugene Burger and Derren Brown to name but a few and all of them have come along for a short time - only to stay longer as they have enjoyed the experience of sharing with such enthusiastic young minds. A regular at our monthly workshops is Ali Bongo, our Honorary Vice-President. Members enjoy his presence and huge sense of fun and his advice is always sought by them too. At our workshop in September each year we hold auditions for our annual one-day convention - J-Day - which includes two competitions, one for close up and one for stage. This year we were delighted to receive donations of The Kaymar Comedy Kup and, especially, the Peter McCahon Originality Award in memory of one of the UK's top comedy magicians and a past president of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians - Peter was the previous editor of the YMC magazine. The day also has two lectures, a small range of dealers and a star-studded gala show to complete the magical experience - and it's always a sell-out! The magazine is issued every other month but there is an on-line newsletter for those in between times to keep everyone up to date on what we are doing. There are often enquiries for young magicians to appear on TV shows and I try to examine these very carefully and match the opportunity with the right young performer - first making sure that they are not required to expose methods which is sadly something often asked for these days! The Young Magicians Club continues to grow with members both in the UK and overseas and I am constantly proud of the achievements of boys and girls (yes, we have girls too!) who join us with knowledge of basic magic and grow in confidence and skill to become the magicians of the future. Performing is my career, magic is my life and the Young Magicians Club is my passion. For more information go to: http://www.youngmagiciansclub.com ----------------- 9. Surplus Magic I Plan To Be Selling Off Very Soon ----------------- Message from Wayne Rogers of Chicane Enterprises, New Zealand I am currently preparing a list of surplus magic I plan to be selling off very soon. These are mainly recent purchases that do not fit my current act. All effects have full original instructions. Most have been purchased in the last year. Any New Zealand magicians who would like to receive a notice when the list is published, please contact me so I can make sure you are on my current mailing list. Much of my "Chicane Magic News" data base was lost last year when I set up a new computer. Any magicians Worldwide who would like go onto my Chicane address book to receive the occasional news of my original products, also drop me an email to mailinglist@nzmagic.com Everyone who responds will receive a free PDF file of a commercial card effect by return email. Wayne Rogers Chicane Enterprises Ltd New Zealand ph/fax +64 9 483 9641 http://www.nzmagic.com ----------------- 10. The Amazing Orchante Saga ----------------- Message from Tommy Orchard (The Amazing Orchante)(UK ex-pat Kiwi) Page 136 Eddie Low -'The Voice In A Million' Prelude Friday afternoon last (18th of October, 2002), I had a surprise visit from fellow New Zealander Richard Webster, a friend whom I haven't seen for eighteen years - 1984 to be exact; I had returned home to New Zealand, from Sydney, Australia, where we were living at the time, for my mother's funeral. Richard (accompanied by his son Nigel, who resides and works in London) made a 'very special trip' to Doncaster, staying for several hours. The time just flew as we gossiped and mused over past memories. According to Veronica, I did most of the yakking. No kidding - what a surprise! For those of you who don't know who Richard Webster is (you should be ashamed of yourselves), I'll enlighten you in a future episode. For now, I can tell you that he has written 75+ books that have been translated into twenty different languages. How's that! During our/my reminiscing, the name Eddie Low cropped up, hence the title of this episode. A New Zealand Icon I can't remember when Eddie Low and I first met, but it would have been some time during the early Sixties. Back in 1972, Eddie, his girlfriend and Veronica and I, went to see Neil Diamond's outdoor performance at the Western Springs stadium in Auckland. I'm fairly certain that it was his first ever overseas concert - the start of a worldwide tour that culminated at the Greek theatre, Los Angeles, where the live double album, 'Hot August Night' was recorded. Apart from Neil Diamond's fantastic band, that created so much excitement and fabulous music, and Neil's incredible voice and songs that reach right into your soul, the night was made even more memorable when the heavens decided to open up - it absolutely chucked it down, a relentless downpour upon the thousands of fans. What the weather threw at us, Neil Diamond, not about to be out done, threw double, musically - we sat there, soaked to the skin, enthralled, cheering and screaming with everyone else! What a professional! What a night! Eddie, born blind on May 14th, 1945, grew up at the New Zealand Foundation For The Blind, in Parnell in Auckland, where he began learning music and playing the piano from the age of six. He had three eye operations when he was seven, which gave him a small amount sight in his left eye. He says: "It was really good, at least I wasn't banging into everything so much"! Yeah, right mate, but you were still 'banging' everything in sight - excuse the pun, back in the old days! When he turned eight, he joined the blind brass band at the institute as second cornet player, during which time he would pick up any instrument he could lay his hands on, and learnt to play it! Today, he is a multi - instrumentalist, and plays piano, trumpet, guitar, organ, violin and bass. With all the multi track facilities available in a recording studio, Eddie can be the singer and backing voice(s), as well as the complete band, all in one. Saves a fortune in recording costs! While at the institute, Eddie won many talent quests and when he was thirteen, he formed a group with two friends; they called themselves - 'The Three Blind Mice'. At the age of fifteen, another eye operation partly restored the sight in his left eye, although he is still totally blind in the right eye. He left school, and formed another group: The 'Trutones', the lead singer was a blind girl - her father managed them. Eddie's showbiz career got off the ground when he joined his brother, who was playing in a band in an Auckland club. The rhythm guitarist had left and Eddie took his place; John Rowles joined the group as a bass player. A few years later, 1967, John gained international superstar status when he was taken to London and recorded the song: 'IF I ONLY HAD TIME'. John celebrated his 21st birthday as the song climbed the charts to reach No.1 in England, New Zealand and Australia. The song was a smash hit 'across the pond', in America, as well. CONTINUES NEXT WEEK! -------------------------------------------- 11. Magic New Zealand e-zine Archives -------------------------------------------- Back issues of the Magic New Zealand e-zine go to: www.watson.co.nz/fezine.html Both the User Name and Password MUST be entered in lower case to gain access. User Name: magic Password: kiwi When you enter the archive the e-zines are in issue order and are coded. Eg 001 Nov06 1999.txt first three numbers (001) denote issue number, then the date (Nov06) and the last figures the year (1999) -------------------------------------------- Privacy Policy And Copyright Notice -------------------------------------------- Our subscriber list is NOT made available to any other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and respect your privacy. 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