Keith Cobb

Hanukkah begins this evening and for many children it will be a day of excitement as the festival of lights begins. The event is usually celebrated at home but for children undergoing long-term medical care, this can be a lonely time.

Chicago Magician Keith Cobb brightened their day with a show. The Chicago Tribune noted, “For many of the small patients, it was a time to avoid thinking about the needles, surgeries, medicine and tests that go along with their illnesses. At the party, they focused on the ropes that Keith the Magician tried to untangle instead of the intravenous tubes in their arms.”

You can read the Chicago Tribune article here.

Keith the Magician worked with the incredible organization the Chai Lifeline ? dedicated to helping hospitalized children celebrate special events regardless of their religious affiliation but especially Jewish children who are otherwise inundated with Christmas themes.

The Chai Lifeline brought singing, lighting of the menorah and presents to the children. The Midwest region of Chai Lifeline boasts a network of 140 families and is part of a larger network across the country.

A particularly touching part of the story involves Victoria Charneske, a three year-old child in her sixth week for bowel lengthening surgery. She watched Keith Cobb perform and clapped her hands as a rabbit puppet appeared from a magic hat. “She really enjoyed it,” her mother, Helena, said.

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Kelly Cass

We are often asked, ?how is it that you stay up all night writing Inside Magic?  Have you no real job? Are you some kind of night-sloth?? 

Actually, we are slothful but we do have a real job.  We work as a high-priced consultant to Putt-Putt Golf Course designers.  (We specialize in windmills and clown nose holes). 

But our need to stay up all night is dictated by the Weather Channel?s schedule and infomercial schedule.  We have the benefit of five satellite dishes here at the Mystic Hollow, Michigan, home of Inside Magic, and so we see the best of K-Band and private satellite all-night long. 

The prime mover behind our desire to stay up all night is Kelly Cass of the Weather Channel.  Like a wonderful dream, Ms. Cass appears and disappears according to a schedule that is not our own.  She is usually on only between five and six o?clock in the morning each weekend.

How great is our obsession for Ms. Cass and her presentational abilities?

We were speaking with Paul Emmick, formerly of the Weather Channel and now with a station in Indianapolis, at a magic convention recently.  We could have discussed magic, magic tricks, magicians, life, death or shopping on-line.  Rather, we quizzed Mr. Emmick (a fine magician and great guy, by the way) about Ms. Cass. 

As the evening wore on, we asked more and more embarrassing questions: was she married? How stable was her marriage? Is there a chance her marriage could become unstable? Would she find…
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Not that long ago,I reviewed the wonderful review of Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic. I thought the reviewer did a great job in appreciating that Magic is a special kind of Art.

The reviewer did not believe magic had to be exposed to be enjoyed. He was alone in his thesis. The same DVD was reviewed recently and found to be lacking precisely because it did not reveal secrets.

Well, here is the very same DVD reviewed by another on-line service that writes:

??Explore the rich, fascinating culture and history of magic. Come backstage and see what’s behind the curtain!? So proclaims Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic. Oh, if only it were so. But instead of a true exploration of an intriguing subject, we get 160 minutes of bland and nearly content-free pap.?

The pappy part of the show is apparently that the secrets are not exposed:

?A fundamental flaw in Grand Illusions is how it approaches its subject matter, which is to simply present a descriptive summary of the careers and favorite tricks of various magicians. There’s no attempt to explain how the tricks were, or are, done.?

Magic should be considered in the same light as movie making. We?ve lost our innocence and no longer think Magic is magic.…
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