This morning, we heard from Mark and Shelia Cannon of the coincidentally named Cannon’s Great Escapes.
The email came in around 5:00 am here in Mystic Hollow, Michigan so
that means it was sent at about 2:30 am in Orange County, California.
They are clearly working the late-nights to make ready for the best escape convention ever staged.
How can we make such a claim? What about the famed Oakbrook Convention of 1913? Wasn’t that a better convention?
After all, it had Houdini and fifteen other performers with names sounding like “Houdini.”
Surely, you’re not saying the Great Escapes Third Annual Convention can top this classic of escape history.
Yes. Yes, we’re saying exactly that.
In his review of the infamous Oakbrook Convention, Hardeen wrote,
“But for my brother, the conclave would have been a waste of entrance
fees.” (Hardeen: What I Thought and Why I Thought It, Magic Rag-Time, June 1913).
Historians have puzzled over this sentence for years. Otto Maxing noted in his treatise, Houdini: Ein Schlag ins Wasser, “Theo (Hardeen) was right, of course. But why would Houdini charge his own brother entrance fees?”
It should also be noted that unlike the Cannon’s Great Escapes, the
Oakbrook Convention of 1913 happened only once. Mark and Shelia Cannon
are preparing for their third annual convention.
Quantity does not equal greatness — we know this to be true.
If it were otherwise, we’d have the greatest collection of magic in the modern world.
Instead, we have 252 boxes (each holding 144 smaller boxes of 12 packages each) of improperly printed sets of the Tree Card Monte
packet trick. Long-time readers will no doubt note our inventory has
decreased just a little (down from 254 boxes in 1998) thanks to our
clever use of our bulk purchasing power to buy hundreds of glue sticks
to turn bad magic tricks into not so bad beer coasters.
(We still have some available on eBay in both the 24-pack and 144-pack economy model).
So the Cannon’s Great Escapes Convention is the greatest not because
it has staying power. It has staying power because it is the greatest.
Today is the last day to take advantage of the $99.00 room-rate.
We’re advised you will still be able to get rooms, but they will be at
a higher rate.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Why am I still reading this?” Or more
pertinent, “what can I get out of a convention bringing together the
finest escape artists in the world?
I have never performed an Upside Down Underwater Escape, I can
barely pick my teeth after a turkey dinner, much less a Master padlock.
I never practice getting-out of rope-ties. I have a straight jacket but it’s not that kind of straight jacket.”
That’s where your thinking is diseased and wrong.
There will be contests, lectures, shows, dealers, and escape
artists. Chances are you’ll find something to meet your current level
of interest and ability as well as something to encourage your further
development in this great part of our magical culture.
The Louisville Courier-Journal
is reporting this morning Master Magician Lance Burton will perform in
his old home town of Louisville tomorrow (Friday) evening. His show,
“Lance Burton & Friends: Magic Under the Stars,” is billed as a
fund-raising event for the venue, the Iroquois Amphitheater, and the
Louisville Magic Club.
The article has a great interview with the incredible Mr. Burton. We
learn about his new granddaughter, his method of developing new
effects, his newest illusion/routine, and two more reasons to respect
him.
Here are a few of our favorite parts of the interview. You have to read the article for all the latest:
You’ve retained very close ties with your Louisville
friends and family, not to mention that fact that your mother still
lives here. Why not just stay in Vegas and write a big fat check for
the fund-raiser instead?
(Laughs) Because I’ve been a member of the Louisville Magic Club since
I was about 12 years old! The other performers at the event that night
are fellow LMC members. ? This year’s event was actually scheduled to
fit my post-Labor Day vacation.
Which of your tricks to date was the most difficult and why?
We recently put in a new trick (“The Twilight Zone”), which was a
really big departure since I’ve never done anything like it before.
It’s sort of a one-act play, six minutes in length — which is very
long. It’s also different from anything else I’ve ever done because
other members of my cast have speaking roles besides myself. I wrote
the routine and the script. It was a challenging trick because it was
quite involved. ? We worked on it for four years before adding it to
the act.
Have you abandoned any tricks after their debut because the audience didn’t like them?
(Laughs) Oh, sure. I’ve had plenty of tricks stored in my warehouse
that I thought were great and that I loved that the audience didn’t.
And then sometimes I’ll throw in a trick that I think is hopelessly
dated and actually stupid … and the audience will love it! The
customer’s always right.
Mr. Burton views his current schedule (seven shows a week) as a
perfect situation. He compares it with the schedule he lived under when
he first arrived in Vegas at the age of 22. “I was 22, I worked 14
shows, seven days a week. I worked two straight years without a day
off.” Dang! He’s the man.
But we always knew Mr. Burton was our psychic kin. His last response
only confirmed our suspicion. Asked if there was anything that really
bothered him in his world, he replies:
“(Groans) The McDonald’s near my house never has milkshakes. This
has been going on for about two years now. No matter what time I go
there, the milkshake machine’s always broken!”
If we can’t find some aspect of the story sufficiently fit for our
cheap exploitation, we just abandon the story or make something up
We have no pride.
(In fact, our lack of integrity in the face of a good joke or funny
twist of a phrase is something noted by one of our readers in an email
we received this morning. We’re not able to say “his” or “her” email
because the first name was one of those ambiguous monikers that could
be either. “Is theren’t anything you will not make fun of?” we were
asked.
We thought about the question as we walked the short trip to our
late-sleeping neighbor’s mobile home to pick-up a copy of The Ahmedabad News. (We stopped our subscription last year after they dropped the Funnies).
There, on the third page, just beside the story about that other
thing with the shop they are going to either shut-down or move or
something, we read a horrible story about a magician being sentenced to
hard-time for using magic tricks to kill a 14-year-old.
[Note: an August 2001 report in the Times of India
said the boy was 16-years-old, the method used was different and that
the boy fell-unconscious. We do not doubt the court considering the
case had all of the proper facts when it made its sentencing order
yesterday].
Gopal Mali is a “tantrik” or magician (presumably “black magic”)
from the Dasama temple near the slums of Nagarwada. The young victim
was the son of Laxman Maiji Solanki and brought to the magician to help
relieve the boy of fever.
The magician “Mali used black magic tricks by hitting the head of
the boy with wall and branding hot iron rod on his buttocks. [The]
dazed [victim] succumbed to grievous injuries four days later.”
Why should this be in a magic journal or newsletter? This
isn’t the type of magic about which we obsess, is it?
Well, here’s the part most bothersome and perhaps it will serve as an object lesson for us all.
In the course of the court proceedings, the parents became convinced
the magician had not done anything untoward or harmful to their child.
They still accepted the magician’s claims he had the power to help.
In the midst of the trial, they attempted to retract their complaint
and became “hostile witnesses” to the government’s case against the
magician.
The wise judge refused to accept the retraction and convicted the
magician for “culpable homicide.” This resulted in a fine as well as
five-years of “rigorous imprisonment.” Hard-time in a remote prison in
India cannot be seen as anything but a very harsh sentence.
The prosecutor said the parents were not penalized for recanting.
The judge took mercy on them “keeping in mind their illiteracy and
poverty.”
We walk a fine line when we allow lay-people to believe we have
supernatural powers. Sadly, even if we do no harm – no physical harm -
we run the risk of so convincing the naive that even in the face… Continue reading Nothing Funny Here: Tragic Story of Magic Trick
We
received an urgent note from our friend George Robinson, Jr.,
Proprietor of Viking Manufacturing Company and Collectors Workshop.
Mr.
Robinson is one of the great guys in our business. A visit to Mr.
Robinson’s web site is almost too much for mere mortals. The pages are
stocked with the classics of magic made with all of the care and
attention to detail one normally associates with custom-made
equipment.
The
craftsmanship and quality comes at a price, however. Mr. Robinson will
not stock items unless they meet his high standards. The carpentry,
metal-work, and electronics have to be perfect for each item sold and
so there will be times when the products are not available — his
clients understand and are willing to wait.
A second
component of
the price charged for the effects is almost invisible to the consumer.
The classics of magic did not develop on their own. In fact, Mr.
Robinson doesn’t really sell “tricks” or “props.” He sells routines;
perfected by their creators through years of use in front of real
audiences paying real money to see what they hope will be real magic.
Mr.
Robinson pays for the right to sell the routines. The inventors of the
effects are willing to market their prized inventions through Mr.
Robinson because they appreciate his insistence on quality, his respect
for other inventors’ rights in their creations, and, presumably,
because he pays a fair price for those rights.
We
look at Mr.
Robinson’s business as indicia of his desire to keep the real core of
magic alive. Others look at Mr. Robinson as a sucker.
On page
86 of this month’s Magic magazine, you can find an effect very similar
to one Mr. Robinson sells. Greg Gleason, proprietor of Gleason Magic,
offers I’m Sitting on It. The effect is blithely
described but to many readers it is complete enough to jog memories of
Chuck Fayne’s Card on Seat. Actually it is the
very same routine.
Mr.
Gleason suggests on his website the effect is based on Karrell Fox’s
Magical Assets but that “This chair is different than any other model
on the market. There are no funny or unnatural movements needed to
trigger the card.”
Mr. Robinson’s version is
out-of-stock right
now. He is making some in anticipation of advertising in the very same
Magic magazine Mr. Gleason used this month. Mr. Robinson’s is made
under license from Rich Bloch and Chuck Fayne (and credits help from
Karrell Fox). The authorized version costs more than Mr. Gleason’s
product. But Mr. Gleason, presumably, is not paying a licensing royalty
for the rights to sell the routine.
We fully support
Mr. Robinson
and inventors of magic. As consumers, we’d love to get effect cheaper
than what we have to pay if we decide to buy from the rightful owner.
But magicians know, perhaps more than any other profession, how
important it is to encourage invention.
You can see
the authorized version of the Jumbo Card on Seat
at Mr. Robinson’s outstanding web site here:
Kerry Scorah is one
of the top performing magicians in the world and member of the
prestigious Magic Circle in London.
In fact, she was asked to be one of the performers for the Magic
Circle’s Centenary Celebration and you can see her pictured in this
month’s Magic magazine.
Ms. Scorah is well-respected by her peers on both sides of the
Atlantic. She has appeared at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and has
made numerous appearances in Las Vegas.
Among the many firsts she has accomplished, Ms. Scorah was the first
female magician to win the Simpson Shield for her close-up magic. Her
stage act was awarded the prestigious title, British Magical Champion
of Comedy.
Viewers of UK television have had the good fortune to see Ms. Scorah on many occasions, and most recently as a star in Undercover Magic – a new hidden camera magic series on Sky One.
We were so delighted she agreed to participate in the grueling
process known as the Inside Magic Celebrity Interview. We felt guilty
for not telling her how tedious it would be — we take notes on an Etch-A-Sketch. As regular readers of Inside Magic know, when we’re around beautiful and talented people we shake badly.
There is another interview of Ms. Scorah as part of the publicity surrounding her work on Sky One’s hit Undercover Magic at the UK’s Metro Cafe web site.
We must caution you, however. Even though Americans and English speak
roughly the same language, the differences between the two worlds will
come crashing in an idiomatic maelstrom. We have no idea what was meant
by some of the phrases. Such as, “[t]here are a few who sussed it but
not many.” We assume that is a good thing or a bad thing.
We are honored to have Ms. Scorah agree to be interviewed and wish
her the best of all possible luck with her career. She is an
outstanding representative of our art.
Have you always wanted to be a magician?
When
I was a kid growing up in Yorkshire, I remember watching Paul Daniels
on the telly. We always watched his show as a family and although my
sister always fancied herself as Debbie McGee, I always knew that I
wanted to be the magician!
When did you actually begin to perform?
To
be honest I was a late starter as even though I watched the shows and
wanted to do what he did I didn’t know that women did magic or there
where clubs to join. In fact looking back now it seems odd that there
was once a time in my life when I didn’t know any magicians!!!!
You were a featured performer at the Close-Up Gallery at the Magic Castle. Is Close-Up your favorite magic to perform?
This morning, we heard from Mark and Shelia Cannon of the coincidentally named Cannon’s Great Escapes.
Kerry Scorah is one
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