Just finish the following joke.The best entry will win the brand new VHS videotape (still wrapped).Our decision will be announced in Friday?s Inside Magic Daily Newsletter.
Mike Weatherford?s column in the Las Vegas Review Journal follows Siegfried back to the stage where he and Roy started; literally and metaphorically.
Siegfried was back to the Stardust in August as he prepared for the beginning of a new show but not one that he or Roy would star in.It was the same stage where the duo began their meteoric rise in the Lido de Paris.
Siegfried told Mr. Weatherford the stage smelled the same and ?In my dressing room, it’s still the same wallpaper. It made me feel very at home.?
Havana Night Club was opening for what was planned to be a limited run.Siegfried and Roy put up the money for Nicole Durr and her outstanding show featuring Cuban dancers and musicians.Last week most of the show defected to the United States and extended their run.
“We haven’t stopped, we only stepped back to leave a little space for new talent,” he told some of the interviewers.
The columnist points out, however, that the duo?s home at the Mirage is no more.In mid-2006, the stage will be gone and in its place will be stadium seating for the new Cirque du Soleil show.
Mr. Weatherford asks ?who would have thought the old Stardust stage would outlast the audacious Mirage showroom that opened in 1990??
Law enforcement officials are seeking a man who used ?palming? to swipe $270.00 from three Washington banks.The crook has been dubbed ?The Sleight of Hand Thief.?
Police say the unidentified man hit three banks with the same trick and picked up $90.00 each time right in front of the teller?s eyes.
In each of the three Mount Vernon cases, the thief asked the bank teller to exchange his five $20 bills for a $100 bill, police said.
When the clerk gave him the $100, the suspect turned slightly to the side, palmed the large bill and replaced it with a $10 bill.
Officers said he then told the teller, “You only gave me a $10 bill.”
The crook is described as between 35 and 45 years old with short, black hair and a thin mustache. He stands 5-foot-7 and weighs around 170 pounds. During the bank scam, he wore a ball cap and a dark zipped sweatshirt with dark pants.
The police deny the bandit was being followed by ABC cameras filming a segment for the next David Blaine Special.Said one enforcement official, ?We were pretty sure it wasn?t David Blaine because this guy did it all in one take and didn?t use stooges.?
Michael Tulkoff (?Magical Michael?) immigrated from Baltimore to live as a haredi Jew in Jerusalem and to bring magic, not clowning, to young patients.While he lived in Baltimore, Mr. Tulkoff, former President of the SAM Chapter in Baltimore, immigrated to Israel four years ago and immediately used his skills to entertain and help some of the country?s most seriously ill and injured children.
The story in today?s Jerusalem Post brought tears to our eyes.We eschew saccharine features about those we are supposed to admire ? we are cynical and hard.But to read the final vignette in this story (and you?ll have to go to the article yourself to read it) and not become irrationally emotional was impossible.
Mr. Tulkoff works in Jersulaem?s Alyn Hospital, the national pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation center, as well as Tel Aviv?s Dana hospital and Safra in Sheba in Tel Hashomer.Many of his young audience will never leave their institutional home.The patients include the chronically ill and severely injured from terrorist attacks.
Mr. Tulkoff is careful to describe himself as a ?Medical Magician? rather than a clown.He has nothing against clowns, “But I don’t want to be a hit-and-run clown who makes a joke and gets a laugh but has no long-term effect. Can you imagine if I did clown antics before a disabled teenager or young adult. He would tell me, and justifiably, ‘Get outta here! This isn’t for me.’ The difference between what I do and what a clown does is that I don’t come just to lift spirits.?
Mr. Tulkoff meets with attending physicians to design the best way to meet the medical and psychological goals for the patients.?For example, a child with a severely degenerated nervous system who would otherwise sit around like a vegetable is motivated through my relationship… Continue reading Medical Magician Not A Clown
Rob Lake is featured in today?s Wichita Eagle in a way that we could only hope to one day be featured.
As he looks forward to a performance in the City?s famous Orpheum Theatre, Mr. Lake told reporters that he is planning for a big show.Big as in big illusions, big effects.
He was interviewed from his warehouse in Oklahoma City as he prepared for two shows tomorrow (Saturday) at the classic theater.
How big a show is it?Mr. Lake told reporters, ?It’s very Las Vegas-style. Some of the same illusions you’d see at a Vegas show, we’ll be performing. It has the high quality, the fast pace and lavish production values you’d expect in Las Vegas. Large illusions, beautiful dancers, amazing magic.”
Mr. Lake loved magic from the first trick ? and the first sighting of David Copperfield and his beautiful girlfriend/fianc? Claudia Schiffer.
He faced limitations we all face.He told the Wichita Eagle reporter that:
“When I was very young, I couldn’t perform with large illusions and beautiful dancers, so I created tricks around the house. My first illusion, my parents didn’t like, because it was making things disappear. I’d make the pet canary and fruit from the kitchen disappear. I performed that trick all the way through growing up; I first did it when I was 10, and I still do it.”
Mr. Lake employs technicians, prop builders and consultants to make the act he will present on Saturday; still, Mr. Lake strives for the simple sensation of magic that first captivated him as a child.
“Sometimes this is a crazy world, and people forget to marvel at it,” Lake said. “That’s the best part of my job. I make people smile and feel like a kid again.”
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