The comparisons to Harry Potter won’t be easy to avoid. Joel looks much like the legendary, book-selling, movie making, fictional character with glasses. But as Joel points out, he may look like the junior wizard but he is an illusionist.
Joel will be one of six junior magicians to appear in the Stars of Tomorrow show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show will go on in July (which is winter for Joel) in Sin-City.
Joel had intended to show the crowd a billiard ball routine as well as rabbit productions and dove work but in this Mad Cow Disease, SARS and Monkey-Pox world we live, Joel ran up against”The Man.” “The Quarantine Service would not let me.”
He’ll juggle boomerangs instead.
This is the first time an Australian has been invited to perform by the Society of American Magicians.
Do you remember the feeling you had the first time you saw the Svengali Deck? You may have seen it as the famous TV Magic Cards as performed by Marshall Brodien. It seemed impossible: a deck is shown to have indifferent cards; a single card is selected by your lovely volunteer5 and returned to the deck. With a tap of the deck, every card in the deck becomes the same card. Marshall promised in his television commercials that performance of the card trick was “easy, once you know the secret.”
Marshall Brodien Rocks!
Now take the excitement you felt watching the Svengali Deck for the first time and multiply it by ten.6
The effect is straight forward. You ribbon spread the deck face down to show the entire deck to be blue backed. You then turn the deck over and ribbon spread it to show that each card is different. You ask the lovely volunteer to select a card, and it is lost in the deck. With the assistance of the two jokers, the selected card suddenly appears on the face of the deck.
You now ribbon spread the deck to show that every card in the deckmatches theselected card. But wait, there’s more! You now turn the deck over and ribbon spread it again to show that the back of every card has turned red.
I have truthfully described the trick. The strength, in my mind, of the trick is found in therepetition of moves. You use the ribbon spread to show the changes in the same manner each time. The audience won’t notice any “funny moves”7 and the effect moves along so quickly that it seems impossible. Check out the video at Penguin Magic of the trick. It is exactly as you see.
There is a downside I need to bring to your attention. The deck is not in Bicycle, it is bridge-sized and you cannot allow the audience to examine the deck. This means you can’t switch it in or out of your routine easily.
I personally don’t think you should let an audience member touch your props. You don’t see singers allowing the audience to touch their vocal chords or dancers allowing the hungry crowd to feel their feet. So keep your props to yourself. If you’re willing to accept the different size of the deck and the different back design, this is the perfect trick. It will make or enhanceyour reputation.
INSIDE MAGIC RATING: Three and a Half out of Four.
One of the great pleasures of having insidemagic.com is the way it allows us to meet exciting people in the world of magic.
Ed is just such a person. We first reported on him a few months ago after we read of his success with his approach to magic called ?majik? and his well-received work with the rock band Magnarok. He?s received great press and it is well-deserved. He is a young man with a very old soul and a great love for the art of magic.
We were honored to include his essay ?What is Majik?? in the first edition of our new website.
A very young Ed.
INSIDEMAGIC.COM: How did you get started in magic? Where did you grow up? What influenced you?
ED: I grew up and still reside in Weehawken, New Jersey. Weehawken is a small town close to New York City. In fact, it?s the first town you?d enter coming from NYC via the Lincoln Tunnel.
When I was nine years old, my grandparents opened up a small jewelry store where I met, magician, Al Faria. I learned a great deal about life from him. We?re still close friends and meet up from time to time. I didn?t have a very carefree childhood so with magic, I really created an escape for myself and as I found later, for people around me.
I was influenced by a lot of things growing up: Positive and negative. That?s why I wouldn?t change anything that ever happened to me. It all contributed to who I?ve become.
INSIDEMAGIC.COM: Was there a time when you felt magic turned from a pastime or hobby into a passion or obsession?
ED: As far as I can really remember I was obsessed with creating the impossible. There was something about it, which empowered me. ? It really gave me hope. When it comes to me as a magician, nothing is impossible!
I don?t think that?s changed since the first time I made a little, red sponge ball disappear. Except maybe in the sense that now it?s a conscious mission to erase impossible rather than a hook to keep me interested like it was when I was nine.
Ed and his grandmother
INSIDEMAGIC.COM: What kind of encouragement did you receive from your family and friends that kept you interested in magic?
To me, magic is an art form, just like painting. How often do you ask if a painting is real or fake?
We call it ?magic? but that?s merely a word we use to describe the action, the feeling. It?s the action of making seemingly impossible things possible for that one moment and the feeling of liberation from this ?real? world full of problems and negativity. It?s all about imagination and the fine line between reality and dream.
Anyone can pick up a pencil and draw a picture, but only artists have the ability to create works of art. Anyone can pick up a magic book and learn a magic-trick, but only magicians have the ability to create magic.
We tend to draw an imaginary line between real and magic. Often, magic falls onto the ?fake? side of this equation. However, what we fail to realize is that magicians in no way claim to be doing anything other than magic. Performers, calling themselves magicians, who attribute what they do to the supernatural are not necessarily being true to the art but the feeling created and trapped in that very moment is still very real. The way we look at magic often reflects our outlook on life.
Those of us who don?t believe in magic and comfort ourselves by calling it fake usually look at life through a tunnel vision – missing everything and anything that we can?t see. We look at everything as real or fake, missing the entire spectrum in between.
On the other hand, those of us who accept magic for what it is and let our imaginations soar tend to enjoy life a lot more. We still posses that ?inner child? inside, which enables us to dream. We?ve accepted that not everything is black and white and not everything can be explained.
Magic can be more than just what a magician does. It can be a way of life, a way of thinking and, of course, a form of existence. It can be something different to everyone, but to me it is an art that invokes creativity and imagination. Quite simply, it?s a state of higher consciousness.
Comparing it to a butterfly? You can look at it, admire its beauty, and than let it fly away or you can pull the wings and the legs off of it, to see how it works? All you will have left is a dead butterfly. As for ?What is Majik?? Well, I can?t possibly discuss everything in the same writing?
There is a very strange story in The Herald of Monterey County.It doesn?t have an impact on the most of us ? but is it the steady encroachment of Magicians? Rights?
I
am no Constitutional Lawyer but it seems to me there must be some
amendment that says, ?Government shall create no law to infringe on the
right of a magician to perform.?And if there isn?t there should be.
The Montereyauthorities have an on-going dispute with a club owner over what he can do with his establishment.
Sure, if Bill Lee of the Marina Airport Restaurant wants to have exotic
dancing or suggestive erotic dancing, he?s okay as long as he doesn?t
have more than 50 people attending.
But
under the new agreement he has with the county, he has to inform the
authorities if he is going to change his cabaret fare from mostly naked
people dancing and serving liquor to the more hard-core type of
entertainment such as ?belly dancing or magicians.?
The Herald quotes a local religious leader: Calvary Baptist Church Pastor Tim Knauf said Friday that while he’s not trying to stymie business in Marina, he is disappointed that the city has allowed an activity that is not “wholesome.”
I think he?s talking about the belly dancing ? I think.
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