* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Magic New Zealand * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #395 Date: Sunday 12th March 2006 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. Magician Banned From Reading Magic Books! 3. Meetings with Remarkable Magicians #1 - Nick Lewin 4. From Magician To Speaker Part Eight 5. Update From Jeff McBride 6. Juliana Chen Launches Her First Magic Show In Athens 7. One Very Important Mistake 8. James Sherrill Has Cancer 9. Radio Magic - 3 Magicians Live Tonight! 10. Abbott's Close-Up Convention 11. 38th Annual Academy of Magical Arts Awards Show & Banquet 12. 19th Annual Comedy & Magic Spectacular 13. What the IBM is doing for YOU! 14. The Amazing Orchante Saga 15. e-zine Archives 16. Privacy Policy And Copyright Notice   ------------------ 1. Editors Message ------------------- I.B.M./S.A.M. Combined Convention in 2008 Update July 21- 27, 2008 Louisville, Kentucky, USA The latest update on the combined convention report go to: I.B.M. website http://www.magician.org/convention2008/IBM_SAM_report.pdf S.A.M. Website http://www.magicsam.com/publicdownloads/ReporttoIBM_SAMMar1-06.doc Registration forms I.B.M. website http://www.magician.org/convention2008/regformfront.pdf http://www.magician.org/convention2008/regformback.pdf S.A.M. Website http://www.magicsam.com/publicdownloads/RegistrationForm2008a.doc We hear that the registrations are now flooding in, taking advantage of the early bird registration price. ----------------------- Remember if you have any magic news drop me a line: AW@Alan-Watson.com ----------------- 2. Magician Banned From Reading Magic Books! ----------------- Message from Jack Straw British prison authorities have banned magic books from a prisoner serving a sentence for murder. Prison Shaun Tuley is a high risk prisoner in a maximum security prison. It is feared he will get too many "tips" studying escapology. Houdini style! Read this story from BBC NEWS. Here is the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4775532.stm --------------------------------------------- 3. Meetings with Remarkable Magicians #1 - Nick Lewin -------------------------------------------- Message from Nick Lewin (US) The man with the thread There was a very special place hidden away in London that changed a lot of things for me, it's called the Conway Hall. This was a very important spot because once a month there was a magic show held there that featured the best performers in London. Actually some might not have been that good but at age eleven it never occurred to me at the time. These shows even had live music and if I close my eyes I can still conjure up a vision of the drummer. His name was, I believe, Alfred and he looked like a merchant banker perched behind his drum kit, in fact he probably was a merchant banker but not on the first Monday of every month. During the show he could have been one of the 'Sultans of Swing' as he rapped out drum rolls, riffs and rim shots to punctuate the onstage antics. I saw many fine magicians perform on that stage John Wade, Ali Bongo, Alan Shaxon, Francis White and many others. The night that I remember the most fondly at the Conway Hall was the night I first saw Billy McComb. Billy had an easygoing Irish charm that won over an audience by the time he had finished walking out onstage. To this eleven year old he was nothing less than dazzling. The first time I sat in the dark theatre, watching Billy perform I realized that what he was doing was what I wanted to do. Looking back I have never changed my mind and that most of my life has been devoted to trying to be like him. I still sometimes refer to myself as Billy McClone! What took my breath away when Billy performed was the way he blended non-stop comedy and amazing magic. Other comedy magicians fell far short of the mark when you compared them to Billy. Most intriguingly he performed small tricks that seemed to make the biggest impact I had ever seen on an audience. He turned blank pieces of paper into five-pound notes. He put a half crown inside a tiny Schweppes bottle. Best of all, he took a tiny piece of white thread and after breaking it into small pieces he elegantly restored it all the while causing huge waves of laughter with a steady stream of one liner jokes. I remember watching him standing in the spotlight in his shiny mohair suit, gazing intently at the piece of thread as the entire audience burst into wild applause. The fact that he later produced a live hen from nowhere was amazing but not the same class of thrill for me. No I had it straight in my mind I wanted to be Billy McComb. If I could be half as charming, half as witty and able to transfix an entire theatre with a piece of thread, well that would be just fine for me. I didn't get to meet Billy that night but I soon did and that is a whole other story. Move over Houdini this young magician has a new hero. Please address any bricks or bouquets concerning this piece to: nicklewin@earthlink.net -------------------------------------------- 4. From Magician To Speaker Part Eight -------------------------------------------- Message Quentin Reynolds Putting Your Talk Together. The biggest fault made by novice speakers is writing out their talk as though it were a writing assignment. The written word is meant to be written and the spoken word spoken. That is not to say you shouldn't write out your talk. You should. It's vital that you do. It's just important to realise that we are taught in school to write a certain way and that is not the way we speak. The written word tends to be more formal and structured. What you want is a conversational style - your conversational style! You have your title and your theme, the main point you want to make and your stories. Keeping conversational style in mind, write them out or give a friend your list and have him or her interview you, record the interview and have it typed out. Once you have your script, read it aloud. Does it flow? Does it sound natural? Does it sound like you or you trying to be someone else? All we're aiming for now is a talk that sounds like you are talking intelligently to a friend. You'll need to do some editing - removing words that are repeated too often, adding in words that help create pictures in your audiences mind. Most important of all you need a good opening and a good closer. A good opening will grab the audience's attention. You might start off posing a question. Maybe you might start bang in the middle of one of your stories (a Hollywood tactic). Or perhaps give a striking fact that would be relevant to the audience. Do not start with a joke. You are not a comedian. You are a speaker. If you start with a joke and it doesn't get a laugh you have diminished your authority and credibility. Keep your funny stories until you have won them over. Next week we'll talk more on openings and I'll show you what to do when you tell a funny story during your talk and it doesn't get a laugh. © 2006 Quentin Reynolds. Quentin Reynolds works as both magician and speaker. You can read about one of his programs at http://www.speakinschools.com -------------------------------------------- 5. Update From Jeff McBride -------------------------------------------- Message from Jeff McBride (US) "What we like to do becomes the thing we do often, and the thing we often do become the thing we do best." -- Diane Ackerman, Alchemy of Mind Tobias, Abbi and I enjoy making magic together; we do it often, and our touring show is one of the things we do best. The three of us just returned from the breathtakingly beautiful Pebble Beach golf resort in northern California, where we were performing our corporate show for the high tech CSC Group. It's always good to have Tobias at the light board running the show from the front of the theater, and Abbi coordinating all of the onstage/backstage mysteries as well as doing her "Kabuki-babe" in the show. We also had some big fun performing close-up magic together. We have a new formula, where we work tag- team together, blending our magic into the flow of the party. Next time you see Abbi, you might want to ask her to perform JINX, one of our favorite Gordon Bean card creations. You can read about JINX at http://www.yourmagic.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=139 McFreak! This week was an exciting week here in Las Vegas. Abbi and I filmed three episodes for A&E's new television series MINDFREAK, with Criss Angel. We shot our three episode segments out in the Nevada desert. It was a very windy day to shoot outdoors, but due to our experience performing at the Burning Man art festival over the past few years, we were able to pull it off. Tobias was with us for the shoot and took a few photos of us out in the desert. In upcoming MUSE-LETTERS, we will give you more information on what very strange things we did in the desert and the air dates for our episodes. The Keyboard Wizard Later that night, I was off to Mandalay Bay, to the House of Blues, to attend the DREAM THEATER concert. My friend Jordan Rudess is the keyboard wizard for this mighty- mighty progressive rock group. Jordan also composed many of the musical scores for my theater show, Mask Myth and Magic, in the early 90s. Jordan's hands move faster than ANY other keyboard player I've ever witnessed. During his solo, his new innovative whiling, swirling keyboard blew the roof of the House of Blues! Rock on Jordan! We will look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming shows or classes. You can always check the tour schedule on our site to see when we'll be in your area! Next Muse-Letter, we'll tell you about our upcoming rituals at Stonehenge... Stay tuned. Yours in the great mystery, Jeff P.S. Our web-guru, Bryce, sent this amusing thought into our Vegas office the other day: "A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats." -- Anonymous Upcoming Events March, 2006 23 - 26 Akasha Con - Poughkeepsie, NY 31 Magic - The Secret Art - Cornwall, UK April, 2006 1 - 3 Special Master Class in Cornwall - UK 13 - 16 European Master Class - Amsterdam 19 - 24 Cruising - Alexandria to Rome -------------------------------------------- 6. Juliana Chen Launches Her First Magic Show In Athens -------------------------------------------- Message from Clive Court (Canada) Vancouver (Canada) Feb.11--- The World's First Lady of Magic, Canada's world champion magician Juliana Chen, will give her first performance in Greece at the end of March when she opens at the Gialino Music Theatre in Athens. Late last year, when the theatre's management went looking for a world class magician to produce their 2006 Art and Illusion Festival , they were directed to Juliana Chen, a popular performer on the expanding German vaudeville circuit. Chen is currently in the final weeks of a three-months contract at Frankfurt's Tiger Palast. She has also been the talent consultant for the Shanghai International Magic Festival. Following the debut of her full-evening show at Vancouver's 2005 Lunar New Year Festival, Chen agreed to return for a one-night fundraising performance in mid-March 2006. Even a magician finds it difficult to be in two places at once, so she solved the problem by agreeing to produce two separate shows featuring ten world class magicians for the Athens Art and Illusion Festival.. Each show will run for three weeks. Chen will star in the second show (March 29--April 19) along with Kevin James from Las Vegas and Omar Pasha from Paris. The first show (March 9--27) will star Shimada, Japan's most famous magician, and Italian-Canadian illusionist Erix Logan. Vancouver's Shawn Farquhar, a good friend of Chen and fellow world champion magician, will be production coordinator for the first show while she is performing in Vancouver. Farquhar is also performing in the first show. He is currently in Macau performing and lecturing at an international magic festival. He returns to Vancouver February 14 where he will be auditioning dancers for both shows. Juliana Chen does fifty percent of her work in Germany and another 25 percent in Japan. Her first appearance in Greece also marks the debut of her full-evening show in Europe. She will be in Vancouver, March 15-20 and April 21-23 -------------------------------------------- 7. One Very Important Mistake -------------------------------------------- Message from Thomas Fraps Many thanks for posting Obi's plug for our Flicking Fingers USA "tour", but there is one very important mistake: The website address of our small convention in New York on May 13th/14th has a typo (one S is missing), so if there's any chance, please send an errata (or include it in your next letter?!) this time with the right address, which is the following: www.theflickingfingersfestival.com -------------------------------------------- 8. James Sherrill Has Cancer -------------------------------------------- Message from Bev Bergeron (US) James Sherrill is a full time professional magician who has never gotten any recognition. He has been playing the part of the Con Man at Sea World of Florida for over ten years. This week he was operated on for Cancer. It would be nice if we flooded his mail box with letters and cards. His address is: James Sherrill, Jr. 851 West Lake Mann Dr. ORLANDO, FL 32805 USA -------------------------------------------- 9. Radio Magic - 3 Magicians Live Tonight! -------------------------------------------- Message from Jay Fortune [jay@radiomagic.co.uk] Three magicians live tonight! www.radiomagic.co.uk Three Magicians Live Tonight! How on earth we're going to keep to an hour tonight, we've no idea! Layman Steve is away on an annual booking (it's for charity bless him!) so stepping into his shoes is our new recruit magician Jon Randall. Jon produces the show and has a vast knowledge of magic. If that wasn't enough to keep your wand wet, we have our special guest live in the studio; former president of the New Zealand Society of Magicians, our guest is a master cold reader, a psychic entertainer, and author of over 72 books! Richard Webster is live tonight from 8pm. Make sure you tune in! It could run over an hour! Stay tuned! Jay Fortune & Layman Steve - Hosts of Radio Magic Live every Monday at 8pm (GMT), 12 noon (PST) -------------------------------------------- 1O. Abbott's Close-Up Convention -------------------------------------------- Message from Darlene F. Bull forwarded on by Sam Martin Abbott's Close-Up Convention is just around the corner. It will take place the weekend of March 24th & 25th. All the activities take place in the Abbott show room located at 124 St. Joseph St., Colon, MI 49040. This year's convention features three outstanding performers, Eric DeCamps, David Solomon, and Mike Powers. In addition to the performers, starting at 7:00 PM on Friday evening, there will be a People's Choice One Trick Contest and Show with $300.00 in Merchandise Certificate Prizes. Plus a Mini Auction. This will be followed by a lecture at 9:00 PM by Mike Powers. Saturday, March 25th begins with coffee and donuts at 9:00 AM, followed by a morning lecture by David Solomon. Eric DeCamps will lecture Saturday afternoon. The banquet will take place at 4:30 PM. The Saturday Night Gala Show begins at 6:00 PM. Seating is limited, so you will want to guarantee yourself a spot by registering now. The admission price goes up to $75.00 at the door, if seats are still available. Contact Greg Bordner at http://www.abbottmagic.com/ or (269) 432-3235. On a personal note, this will be my 23rd consecutive year attending Abbott's Close-Up Convention. My only regret is not to have attended the first four. Each year I continue to look forward to being there. It goes without saying that the magic is always first rate. However, attending the convention goes beyond the magic. It's a fun place to be. The attendees are a group of really good people. If you have attended any of the previous close-up conventions, you know what I mean. If you haven't, then this year, give it a try. I hope to see you there. John Luka -------------------------------------------- 11. 38th Annual Academy of Magical Arts Awards Show & Banquet -------------------------------------------- Published with the kind permission of Milt Larsen (USA) Saturday Apr 01, 2006 Hobson's Back!! In front of a scintillating selection of Fellowship honorees and incredible acts at the 38th Annual Academy of Magical Arts Awards Show! Paul Daniels - Criss Angel - Jason Latimer - Flip - Chase Curtis - Rich Bloch - Arthur Trace - Richard M. Sherman And a royal roll-call of the AMA's superstar celebrity members to take part in the celebration, including (subject to schedules): Steve Valentine - Ed Alonzo - Neil Patrick Harris - Tony Shaloub - Camryn Mannheim - Johnny Thompson - Dimmare - Rick Gerber - Jo Anne Worley - The United States Marines The fabulous, funny, flamboyant and indefatigable Jeff Hobson, star of "V" - The Ultimate Variety Show at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, returns as ringmaster of ceremonies for the 2006 Awards Show and Banquet on April 1, 2006. This year this celebrated salutation to sorcery returns to the elegant Beverly Hilton Hotel, a picture perfect red-carpet backdrop for the star-studded black-tie and glamorous gown affair. If there's one thing Hobson is famous for, its unpredictability - so you can count on surprises as well as sleight of hand. Humor, pathos, modesty, rage - and that's just at the bar! Wait till you hear the acceptance speeches! Jeff's promised to keep this year's Award Show fueled with laughs and moving at light speed. Share the excitement with the brilliantly talented nominees as the envelopes are opened and winners of The Magic Castle Stage Magician, Parlor Magician, Close-Up Magician, Bar Magician and Comedy Magician of the Year are proclaimed! The price for admission to this enchanting event, including a sumptuous four-course meal served by the four-star staff of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, is only $145 per person, and tables are vanishing quicker than a half-dollar at David Roth's fingertips. Call (323) 851-3313 (ext. 801) right away before it's too late - and join your fellow members, honorees and guests for a magnificent night celebrating wizardry and wonder: the 38th Annual Academy of Magical Arts Awards! -------------------------------------------- 12. 19th Annual Comedy & Magic Spectacular -------------------------------------------- Message from R.G. Smith R.G. Smith's 19th Annual Comedy & Magic Spectacular will once again be staged in 6 US cities. Line up for 2006: Ice MacDonald Comedy Magicians "Haywire" Balloon Madman John Cassidy Lance Burton Award winner, Nathan Burton Juggling Team, Gizmos Guys R.G. Smith, MC Shows for 2006: March 11 West Chester, PA Asplundh Concert Hall West Chester Univ. 7PM March 17 Harrisburg, PA Harrisburg Consitory Auditorium 7PM March 18 Chambersburg, PA Capitol Theatre Center 2:30 & 7PM April 22 Lancaster, PA Lampeter-Strasburg High Perf. Arts Center 7PM April 28 Hanover, PA Eichelberger Performing Arts Center 7PM April 29 Frederick, MD Weinberg Center for the Performing Arts 7PM -------------------------------------------- 13. What the IBM is doing for YOU! -------------------------------------------- Message from Steve Hart forwarded on by Tony Wilson I cannot keep this secret any longer. I have been given the go ahead from our IBM Internet Guru, Kirk DeWeese. This is an idea that Tom Vorjohan and I came up with for the Mid-Year Board meeting. It was passed and just like magic here it is....... Go to: http://www.magician.org/member/all What you are looking at is a list of members and Rings that posted their very own Website within the I.B.M. Website and It's FREE! Now every member of the I.B.M. and every Ring can have their very own Website. Kirk and his program wizards have created a outstanding program for you to use to post your own Website on the Internet. How? Starting at the I.B.M. home page click on "Members" there on the left hand side of the page you will see a button that reads, "Members Only" (Login required) Click on that and this opens a whole new area for our members. To get in you must login. Your first time may take some time. We want to make sure you are a member before we let you in. Once inside you find a button that reads "Free Website Builder." That is where you find a note from Kirk and the amazing program that will build your site for you. You can at anytime go back and make changes on your site. So cool! It is your job to keep your site up-dated. Put the Internet address on your business cards and book more shows. Or use the site to sell stuff. Or use it to network with other members who share a common interest in magic. The April issue of the Linking Ring will announce this new member benefit but you have the inside scoop. So get you Website done before everyone else does and let your fellow Ring 2100 members know. Enjoy! Steve Hart ----------------- 14. The Amazing Orchante Saga ----------------- Message from Tommy Orchard (The Amazing Orchante)(UK ex-pat Kiwi) Page 91 Timaru; 'Galaxy Enterprises' and a 'Spook'! After finishing our contract working the hotel circuit with the band 'Noazark' around Auckland city and beyond for David McKee, we then toured the north of the North Island with the hypnotism show (this also was arranged by David, see pages 44 &56). From there we somehow arrived in the South Island of New Zealand - I have used the word 'somehow' because, as I have stated on previous occasions, my diaries for the years of 73/74 have vanished, and gone with them are the bookings that would have told the story. I can only assume that we were again touring the extensive hotel circuit that I had established throughout the South Island, as we did quite regularly. I think it was when we were performing for a few nights at a hotel in Timaru, that we first became acquainted with entrepreneur EDDIE BROOKS. He was nicknamed/known by his friends and acquaintances as - 'NOD', I never had the foggiest idea why, nor how exactly he got into 'show-business' itself. He was/is (?) a farmer who had a few months previously, put a show together with one or two big names, then, having financed the entire venture himself, toured the South Island - and MADE A KILLING! Not a bad trick, for a farmer, in the fickle world of 'show-business'. Needless to say he was running hot and firing on all cylinders when he offered us personal management with his new company 'Galaxy Enterprises Ltd', with a guaranteed wage per week, including housekeeping money (Another Angel), - whether we worked or not, with full accommodation provided - in Timaru. Our 'temporary home' that Eddie provided as with was a huge two-storey nine roomed X boarding house that was situated on the corner of Stafford and King George St's. The front door was on Stafford Street and next door to the right, was the St John Ambulance station. The Theatre Royal was just a few doors further up and further on still up the hill was the Hibernian hotel, which was where we performed our show whenever we were in Timaru. It now became my drinking hole and, a great place to perform my close-up magic into the wee small hours. It was no problem to 'STAGGER', ever so slightly inebriated, the short distance home - it was all down hill! THE BLOODY HOUSE WAS HAUNTED! Before I explain how, I'll try to give you some idea of the layout of the House. It had three entrances - there was a side door from King George St. that led straight into the massive lounge room. The back door opened out onto a large concrete car parking space that was shared by the St John Ambulance next door and as I mentioned previously, the front door was on Stafford Street. Entering via the front door brought you straight into the foyer where you could hang up your coats and hats etc. Turning immediate right led into the kitchen, which had two doors on the left back wall - the first led into a small kitchenette which had a door that led into the lounge room, and the second door led directly into the lounge room from the kitchen. To your immediate left from the foyer, was a wide stairway that curved up to the right to a landing, from there it carried on up to a long, wide corridor. Standing in the corridor at the top of the stairs, the first door on the left was the toilet, next was the bathroom, and next to that was the main bedroom - it was enormous. On the right the first door led into another small bedroom, next to that another bedroom which had another door on the left-hand wall that led into a long sunroom/bedroom, which would have been more or less above the lounge room below - facing out on to King George St. At the top of the stairway, as well as at the bottom, were two-way light switches. In other words you could turn the stairway lights on or off from either end of the stairs. Therefore, it was rather disconcerting on reaching the landing - TO HAVE ALL THE LIGHTS SUDDENLY TURN THEMSELVES OFF - plunging you into pitch blackness, as you felt the rest of your way up - or down, the stairs. The first time this happened I assumed that a fuse or the light bulbs had blown but, on reaching one of the switches and flipping it, the lights immediately blazed on, bathing you and the surroundings in all their comforting glory. WEIRD! Even more unsettling, to say the least, was the overwhelming feeling that 'something', most definitely not of our plane of existence, was right behind you! Your skin - the nerves on your back literally jumped and crawled with anticipation of.? It was not a feeling of something Diabolically Evil or Ungodly, more of a 'Ghostly Soul' playing silly buggers, because you're invading its territory! CONTINUES NEXT WEEK ---------------- 15. 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) ------------------- 16. 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. You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from the Magic New Zealand® E-zine at www.watson.co.nz/fezine.html. Magic New Zealand® E-zine is published each Sunday. The opinions expressed therein are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of Magic New Zealand®. Neither Magic New Zealand® nor Alan Watson vouch for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, message, statement, or other information reported via Magic New Zealand® E-zine. Subscribers to this publication and authors who contribute to it by doing so agree they will not hold Magic New Zealand® or Alan Watson, jointly or individually liable or responsible in any way for the opinions expressed therein. Magic New Zealand® reserves the right to alter, correct or disregard any articles submitted. Readers are encouraged to submit timely articles or news items which may be of interest to subscribers. By submitting articles to this e-zine, the authors grant Magic New Zealand® the right to publish such articles and such authors confirm their copyright of the material submitted. All works published by Magic New Zealand® are protected by international copyright legislation and articles must not be published for profit by anyone other than the individual authors without the written permission of Magic New Zealand®. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this publication may be freely redistributed, but not sold, to other magicians if copied in its entirety, including the copyright notice below and the above disclaimer. © Copyright 2006 Alan Watson