Magic Live Update No. 7Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Inside Magic: Great Reading when Bored!

When we last left our hero, he was stumbling away in a bewildered daze from the booth of Meir Yedid ? Boy Magician.

I had to return to sanity. I had to remember it was all just pretend. Mr. Yedid was not a ?true magician.? He didn?t have real magic powers. He couldn?t turn me into a __(Insert Political Party You Hate Here)___. After all, I?d been a loyal __(Insert Political Party You Love Here)____ since I was just a small __(Insert Young Mammal You Like Here)__.

[By the way, Inside Magic is a proud recipient of the Mad Libs Award for Journalism on the Internet. And frankly, we?re just as __(Insert an Emotion Here)___ as a ___(Cute Mammal or Reptile Here)__ in a ___(Insert a Household Furnishing or Food Source Here)__].

I bumped into John Sterlini and nearly toppled the side panel of his booth. Fortunately, his expertly crafted Headed Chopper was there to break my fall. I looked up, still in a daze, and tried to focus on what stood before me. ?Sterlini? read the sign. Guilt kicked in like the famed transmission of a 1991 Dodge Dynasty ? late and hard.

Read On . . .

I knew of Sterlini Magic from their beautiful advertisements in Magic Magazine. I checked out their ads, fell in love with the quality of both the advertisements and the products the promised in their glossy photos and wonderful descriptions, and then noted they had a Michigan Area Code.

…

Inside Magic: Great Reading when Bored!

When we last left our hero, he was stumbling away in a bewildered daze from the booth of Meir Yedid ? Boy Magician.

Read On . . .

John Sterlini Demonstrating

That?s where the guilt kicks in. I had promised myself many times that I would follow up on the phone number and the ads to learn about my neighbors in the State of Magic, Michigan. Did I do it? Nope. Do I hate rhetorical questions? Yes and no; about as much as I hate ambiguous answers. It was not until I arrived at their booth in Las Vegas, Nevada, a five day car journey from my home in Mystic Hollow, Michigan, that I would finally have a chance to talk to the Mr. Sterlini of Sterlini Magic. I figured he must either be in charge or that it was an incredible coincidence in his selection of job offers.

Let?s be up-front up front. I have no bias towards a fellow Michigan Magician. If their materials or assembly or ideas were bad, you would hear it from me. Why, I?d beat them like a rented donkey. I?d point out their every flaw and even exaggerate those flaws to make me look smart and them guys look dumb. If you don?t believe me, check out the Yellow Pages for Fostoria, Michigan and see if Mike and Mary?s Magic Shop is still listed. I blew them out of the water in a review titled, ?Mike, Mary, Magic and Mucous.? It was a fifteen page rant about how they both had very bad colds the day I called on their shop during my return from the Upper Peninsula.

They had no excuse; I called them both from my car as I pulled into the driveway of their humble little shop beneath their apartment. Sure it was Sunday and Easter Sunday at that and Mary was later admitted to the Fostoria ICU for what turned out to be pneumonia but I found their lack of response to reasonable customer demands to be unreasonable. They trudged down the stairs like they had lead in their slippers and were genuinely unhelpful when I asked for a chair so I could sit in the Adult Party Goods and Novelties Section to browse.

I ruined them and I?d do the same to Sterlini, even if they were based within a rifle shot of my modest mansion in Mystic Hollow. (Actually, Mystic Hollow Hills ? slightly better than the Calcutta-like Mystic Hollow).

But Sterlini was Sterling. The material lining the back wall of the booth and the front area of the draped desk were on par with that I had seen at Chance and Shelly Wolf?s booth the day before. Take a look at the Flexible Mirror as advertised in Magic Magazine. Looks pretty good, eh? Now imagine it looking sturdier and larger with the type of quality you used to associate with Thayer or Okito.

Sterlini Flexible Mirror

As interested as I was in the Flexible Mirror, the Vanishing Cage and Cage Production from the advertisements, I was hooked when I saw them in person. They look like professionally built props for you and me. These are not the ?grind-em? props we are used to seeing or even buying from some of the mass-marketers of days gone by or even the present.

When I was talking to Mr. Wolf over at Wolf Productions, he showed me a Crystal Silk Cylinder re-made as if it were made by Wolf Productions. It was beautiful even in its incomplete stage. The outer tube was smooth, painted and detailed just as you and I might have imagined it would be when we ordered from Tannens or some other mail-order shop. When we received the actual product, however, there was great disappointment ? it looked nothing like a magical prop; it looked like a poorly welded/soldered tube with a stencil paint job.

But we paid the $18.00 for the prop, it was going to be the centerpiece of our routine and by golly we used it. That was a long time ago and now we know better. If it looks great in the advertisement, that?s because it is an advertisement, not reality. We knew that we would receive what was considered a professional magic prop because the quality of the props sold to most working magicians was at approximately the level of stenciled, obscure and out-dated images on poorly constructed tubes. We all had the same props so none of us stood out as being shabby.

Sterling, like Wolf Productions, takes the notion of professional working props and makes them professional, working and good-looking props.

Makes you wonder why? After all, they could get away with pushing out trash; especially with the great ads they have. Their ads are atypical for magic promotions: clear pictures, good composition of the copy and art, correct use of spelling and grammar and a professional logo.

Susan and John Sterlini

My theory: John Sterlini has been a magician for quite a while ? even though he looks far too young to have the experiences he has had ? and knows the importance of quality magic props. It is not enough to do the trick. One must also entertain the audience. After all, wasn?t it Robert-Houdin who wrote, ?A magician is merely an actor playing the part of a magician with run-of-the-mill equipment?? No, that?s right; he thought a magician should play the part of a magician. A magician, I suggest, is someone like Mr. Sterlini who plays the part of a magician with wonderful equipment.

The other night I wrote about Mark Kalin and Jinger Kalin and described their steel table used for the Alan Wakeling Sawing. It looked like what you would expect to see used in a bloodless sawing performed by a magician and his beautiful assistant. Now, in the abstract, I can?t tell you what that table would look like but as Justice Potter Stewart wrote in 1973, ?I know it when I see it.?

Similarly, I don?t know what a framed mirror that could be pierced with a knitting needle and then folded in half before being restored would look like, but I knew it when I saw it in the Sterlini Magic booth. Their Head Chopper looked solid, intimidating and exactly what I suspect a real magician would use if he was really going to push a shimmering blade through the neck of a volunteer and leave the volunteer un-hurt.

From the magician?s perspective, however, the pieces were even more impressive. The gimmicks were intelligently placed and practical. The gimmick for the Head Chopper, for example, was safe, hidden in plain sight and practical.

Mr. Sterlini performs many types of shows from big illusions to sleight of hand and doves. Given that background, he has knowledge of what works and what does not work in those genres as well as the many venues we might perform. The Sterlini Production Cage is virtually angle-proof and looks great.

Sterlini Sword through Neck

While on the subject of really bad props in our past and desire to have something that looks real: do you remember the first Sword through Neck you bought, used or saw? Chances are it was one of those great models with the long metal spring from someone?s screen door for a sword. Do you recall the image? Do you recall how we would fool ourselves by thinking no one could catch on, except the volunteer who had the stocks around her neck? We figured she wouldn?t tell anyone, so it didn?t matter. What a yucky feeling that is.

Mr. Sterlini?s Sword through Neck sports a sword that looks a lot like a sword. In fact, it looks exactly like a sword. As an extra bonus, the stocks actually look like something you would place around the neck of a volunteer to hold her hands out of the way of the blade and to provide some stability during your dangerous surgical technique.

Remember, I am not shilling for the Sterling Magic people because they are near enough to my beautiful mansion-esque double-wide home to cause an unexpected fire or minor gas explosion. I am shilling for them because, like Wolf Productions, they really seem to care about the need for quality in our props. Quality workmanship is not a ?nice to have? but it is a previously unattainable need.

Here?s the bottom line on the bottom line. You may have purchased a Coin Pail manufactured by Morrissey Magic or some other company. It looked great and felt great. But there was something troubling about the design. If, after all, the pail was to be gimmicked, shouldn?t it be gimmicked in a manner that actually made the trick easier to perform rather than require you to learn to palm a load obtained in your non-dominant hand in a difficult position to hide as you hold the pail? Sure, but where could you find such a thing?

Sterlini Coin Pail

Sterlini Magic brought to Vegas one of the nicest looking Coin Pails I have seen and it had a gimmick that seemed perfect and perfectly configured for the performer. Now, you know the approximate cost of the Morrissey Coin Pail? Drop the price quite a bit, keep the quality, improve the gimmick and you have the Sterlini model.

I am sure there is some active pursuit of new customers by making the prices so reasonable, but regardless of the reason, the prices being charged are remarkable.

The Magic Live Seminar was an outstanding opportunity to meet and greet new friends from around the world. It is ironic or at least strange that it took a five day car trek to meet folks just down the street from me. It is unexpected that the goods they promoted in the pages of Magic Magazine were surpassed by the real props they offered for sale.

Check them out at http://sterlinimagic.com/