Inside Magic

Ron Performs

One incident last night defined for me the type of person Ron London truly is. While performing sort of a mini dealer?s demo following the first half of his lecture, Ron was asked questions about the tricks from two newer magicians. Their questions were straightforward and demonstrated their relative newness to our world but they were clearly sincere.

Ron did not hesitate a bit in answering, and answering a manner to make them feel very comfortable for asking their questions. As you know, I am a world traveler and attended a lecture in the big city of Chicago where such questions would have almost required the performer to humiliate the questioner ? certainly the crowd of very experienced magicians would have been required to guffaw and smirk. But here, last night, not only was the club supportive but Mr. London?s responses showed he cared for the feelings of the magicians.

What a very neat guy.

Mr. London?s lecture was essentially themed, ?New Things You Can Do with Equipment You Already Have.?

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Continue reading Ron London’s Lecture – An Inside Magic Review

Amazing Magic for Your Friends

So, starting today, you can: Sell your magic tricks with our Classified Ads for FREE; exchange ideas and rumors on the Magic Forum; exchange private messages and files with other magicians through the Forum; add your links or review the links of other magicians in the Links of Famever 2.0; and finally view videos of the latest magic tricks stored on the Penguin Magic website through our portal.

We’ve beta-tested all of the systems and we seem to berunning with full power.The Forum is not yet populated withcomments, stories, rumors or thoughts — that will be up to you. The Classified Ads have magic offered by Tim. The Links of Fame will be updated with the links we had on the old Links ver.1.2.2.

The programmers are still working on a way to allow instant commentson the articlesto be posted to the Forum without the necessity of logging-in first. That should be functional by Wednesday.

Melinda: From Vegas and Does Magic.

Here’s more good news, theClassifiedsreach approximately 2,000 visitors each week (or at least that’s how many hit the site and actuallyread more than one page) and you can reach them for the low price of nothing. That’s right, not a dime, nickle or even a 1943 steel case penny. We don’t charge if you sell theitem and we don’t even charge if you resubmit the ad. Free is good. Tim’s saying is, “If it’s free, give it to me.”

We’ve tried to minimize the invasion of privacy that usually comes with these types of services. We won’t ask for addresses, actual names, ages (exceptthat you are over13 if you want to sell something). And ithas been our policy since 1972 to never distribute a single email address to anyone — ever.

I hope you’ll take advantage of the services and let us know what would make it better. We’ll be setting up instant links for the Classifiedads so you canlet others know about what you have for sale.

Continue reading Lots O Fun

Missy Met a Friend in Minneapolis

The Infomercials are getting worse now.

Lucinda Bassett of the Midwest Center for Anxiety is telling me that she can help me control my "ranging, consuming, negative or compulsive behavior." I don't really understand what she meant by "ranging." She must have meant "raging" because "ranging" doesn't really seem like a common problem of folks up this late at night.

But I digress.

Missy Rochelle and Kathleen Lakeland had a wonderful idea. They would take a little time off from work — it was near the end of the school year at the University of Michigan — and brainstorm new ideas for the site.

They decided to attend the grand opening of the new "Bed, Bath and Beyond Super Discount Outlet" at the Mall of America. Something happened either on the way, or once they were there. Kathleen returned but Missy has apparently decided to head to Las Vegas where she believes the opportunity for female magicians is greater than Michigan.

Kathleen hasn't really spoken to me about the Missy's epiphany. I think there may have been some interpersonal relationship issues that were not discussed until they began the 18 hour road trip to Minneapolis.

Kathleen suggested we improve our link page and purchase a professional product to allow magicians to provide links, review links and even evaluate the quality of the sites. Sounded like a good idea and was probably worth the thousand bucks we paid for it.

Then Kathleen suggested we change our bulletin board system to make it more user friendly and to incorporate our calendar. This was also a great idea that cost less than the link page generator but still a sizeable amount of lettuce.

I'm Ready for the Contest

Finally, Kathleen suggested we bring on-line a free magic market where people could sell new and used effects with images and payment methods. This one cost a ton of cash but it really works. Unfortunately, it's not up yet.

So, I am beginning to think that Missy was right about Kathleen.

Like I said, I am focused so much on the Kansas City IBM convention. I'll be in both the close-up and stage competition. Unfortunately, there is an 8 minute time-limit for each contest. I was going to do my now famous "Cut and Restored Head of Hair" for the close-up and "Smells From No Where" for stage. We'll see how it shakes out.

I know one thing for sure, I need to get in front of some real audiences soon. Whatever I do will be new in my act and I want to have some confidence or at least have an idea how the trick is supposed to end up.

Well, I think it is time to hit the hay. I've apparently now hit that time of the informercial cycle where it is only about "Male Enhancement" formulas. I don't want to start getting paranoid that the evil television forces are focusing their thought beams at me again. Maybe I should go back to the Anxiety lady infomercial.

Continue reading 5:09 In The Morning — Thinking of KC