Archive for September, 2005

Kenneth Branagh to Debut New Magic Show in UK

Brilliant Actor/Director/Writer Kenneth Branagh was given a budget
of ?800,000.00 (more than we make in two months doing birthday
parties!) a blank piece of paper, an open theater, and two fellow
writers.

The result of this combination is the highly-anticipated new play
“Ducktastic” — a Siegfried & Roy-inspired story of a magician on
his last legs hoping to use his magic duck act to get back into the
Vegas spotlight. 

The show is set to open in London on October 11th. 

No word yet on the magic performed in the show but we will follow
this one carefully.  Mr. Branagh has a soft-spot in his heart magic;
especially sleight of hand with cards. We also know that Simon Drake is named as the Magic Consultant. 

Check out Mr. Drake’s incredible web site including information about his secret Magic Cabaret.

Visit the show’s web site to try the interactive ESP
effect featuring Marjorie the Mind Reading Duck.  The effect is one
you’ve seen before on the web but still a great improvement over the
typical flash-based mind reading games. 

Check out the link below for the full story. 

Read more…

Joe M. Turner to Open Shenanigans at Hyatt

We
were reading the press wires this morning — as we do every morning–
looking for the word “Magic.”

Joe M. Turner’s new venture jumped to our attention.

Here’s Mr. Turner’s press release:

Shenanigans
is Atlanta’s new magic experience. On November 10, Joe M.Turner
presents classic sleight-of-hand and mental magic with charm andwit to
create an unforgettable one-hour adventure in fun and mystery.

The show
is presented at 7:00 PM and again at 9:00 PM at the distinctive and
elegant Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, the city’s most prestigious and
fashionable district.

The November performances are a sneak
preview of Atlanta’s new magictheatre show; Shenanigans will be the
only ongoing magic destination in the city. While the content is
suitable for all ages, the show is designed for adults and draws on some
of the most popular components ofMr. Turner’s corporate entertainment
repertoire. All seats are $25 and the audience is limited to 80 people
per show, in order to provide an exceptionally engaging and intimate
experience.

Turner notes, “After working primarily for private
audiences for many years, it’s a thrill to make the show available to
the general public. The Grand Hyatt Atlanta is truly a beautiful venue
and I’m blessed to be working with their creative general manager Scott
Vanden Berg, and director of food & beverage Gregg Zeringue.”

Turner
is a popular speaker and entertainer at meetings, conferences and trade
shows across the United States. His corporate background includes seven
years of consulting in change management and human performance
improvement.
He is also an expert sleight-of-hand performer, and
often combines his skills when appearing as “America’s Corporate Magic
Communicator”  to promote companies or motivate employees at trade show
booths, product launches, or sales meetings.

Turner has appeared at
the Magic Castle in Hollywood and Houdini’s Magic Theatre at the
Tropicana in Atlantic City, and was featured in a highly-rated segment
on CNN Headline News focusing on his application of magic to corporate
marketing.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit www.joemturner.com or call the Zerve ticket service at (212) 209-3370.

About JMT Entertainment – Corporate Magic

JMT Entertainment is a leading supplier of corporate magic for speaking and entertainment events across the country.
Corporate
magic is the creation and performance of customized sleight-of-hand,
mentalism and illusion presentations to inform, motivate and entertain
corporate audiences at corporate meetings, conferences, banquets, trade
shows, product launches and other events.

Read more…

Seth Grabel Profiled

Seth Grabel

We don’t know what it is about Vegas, but those folks love magic. They love
talking, writing, showing, seeing, and buying magic. That’s good for us when the
usual oasis of magic news, the UK’s The Scotsman is covering some
allegedly important topic like . . . whatever would be more important than
Magic. We’re stumped but that’s not the point.

So you put together, Vegas, Magic, and Grabel and you’re thinking Lee Grabel.
But then we read further and further.

We started reading The Rebel Yell – the Official Newspaper of the
University of Nevada Las Vegas back when we were fans of head coach Jerry
Tarkanian and his incredible run towards the NCAA Tournament. So, that’s quite a
while ago.

Today’s edition has a great profile on a 23-year-old senior, Seth Grabel.

The magician meets reporter theme is one of the classics in magic reporting.

There are few moves in this prosaic dance: either the reporter is a skeptic
or an enthusiastic lover of all things magic; or, the reporter is enthusiastic
lover of the particular magician in front of him or her.

Last week, we featured a
story about a young cub reporter who attended the Jim Karol show with
skepticism and disdain for what she considered “lame jokes” and “predictable
magic.” She left the show to hurry her glowing, almost cult-like hagiographic
work for the next day’s paper. She had not only sipped the proverbial (and
frankly over-used) Kool-Aid, she brought mixers and tried to keep the moment
going like the hostess of a otherwise lifeless At-Home Crack Party.

We had the other end of the extreme in reporter cum fan continuum.

Remember the glowing awe in which the New York Times reporter
described every nuance of Derren Brown’s “mischievous grin” “his cool charm”?
We’re still unable to eat and read newspapers after that.

The point is not that Jim Karol or Derren Brown are unworthy of the praise
they ultimately receive as a result of the trite technique, just that it is
trite and technique-like.

[By the way, we received several emails complaining about the Jim Karol
article. We made a point of quoting the cub reporter's fears that the show would
be "lame" and that John Edwards performed "stupid tricks." We weren't trying to
pick on Mr. Karol or, for that matter, the young reporter.

Her entire world
was converted by the show -- she became a Karol-Follower after watching his
incredible work.

Unfortunately, her ability to convey that transformation and Mr. Karol's
ability to cause the transformation far out-performed our ability to write about
it. We did a poor job and are sorry for the confusion.]

Okay, with that in mind, let’s consider how a professional, hardened reporter
would approach the interview with a young magician; a fellow student. The
article begins with the following stanza:

“Seth Grabel is a magician, so I’m focused on his movements. My eyes
follow his eyes, his hands and his body…
Read more…