Headlining Las Vegas comedian and
magician Mac King, whose show is a favorite for parents and kids alike,
partners with Barnes & Noble in creating the official Mac King’s
Magic in a Minute Suitcase O’ Magic, due in Barnes & Noble stores
nationwide and on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com) in November.
Mac King’s Magic in a Minute Suitcase O’ Magic features the look of Mac
King’s real on-stage magic suitcase along with characters from his
nationally syndicated comic strip, Mac King’s Magic in a Minute. Mac
King’s Magic in a Minute Suitcase O’ Magic is loaded with gags and
magic tricks that are simple and fun for kids and adults.
Mac King’s Magic in a Minute Suitcase O’ Magic offers more than 50
amazing magic tricks, a 64-page book and a one-hour instructional DVD
that features Mac King demonstrating and explaining many of the tricks.
Intended for kids eight and older, Mac King’s Magic in a Minute
Suitcase O’ Magic offers a rare opportunity to learn magic and
techniques from a professional magician. The magic kit will sell for
$14.95 at all Barnes & Noble bookstores and on Barnes &
Noble.com (www.bn.com).
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller
and a Fortune 500 company, operates 819 bookstores in 50 states.
For the fourth year in a row, the company is the nation’s top retail
brand for quality, according to the EquiTrend Brand Study by Harris
Interactive. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business
through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest
e-commerce sites and the number one online bookseller for quality among
e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey.
Mac
King was recently named Magician of the Year by The Magic Castle,
Entertainer of the Year by the Las Vegas Weekly 2004 Readers Choice
Awards, and is a Guinness Book of World Records holder in 2004 for The
World Longest Game of Telephone. King, one of today’s brightest
and most talented magicians, performs The Mac King Comedy Magic Show
twice daily, Tuesday through Saturday, in Las Vegas.
King has made numerous TV appearances on such shows as Houdini:
Unlocking His Secrets, The World’s Wildest Magic, An Evening at the
Improv, Comic Strip Live, Penn & Teller’s Sin City Spectacular, the
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus show starring Cybil Sheppard
and The Donny and Marie Show. King has the distinction of being the
only performer to have appeared on all five of NBC’s World’s Greatest
Magic shows.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are in negotiations to topline Touchstone Pictures’ The Prestige, which will serve as Christopher Nolan’s next directorial outing.
Mr. Bale and Mr. Jackman will play rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London who battle each other for trade secrets. The rivalry is so intense that it turns them into murderers. The title refers to the residue left after a magician’s successful trick.
We have no idea what trick this might be? In fact, our search of our vast catalog collection shows no effect in which “residue” is left as evidence of a successful performance except: 1) Dove Pan; 2) Chick Pan; 3) Double Duck Pan; 4) Human Cremation; 5) Duck Cremation; 6) Chick Cremation; 7) Double Duck Cremation; 8) Smoke from Fingertips (ADAMS); 9) Pull-My-Finger; 10) The Arsonist’s Dollhouse Illusion; and of course, 11) The Bullet Catching Trick (different kind of residue depending on whether there is success or failure in effect — either way, pants must be cleaned before next performance).
The script is based on Christopher Priest’s 1996 novel of the same name and was adapted by Nolan’s brother, Jonathan. He wrote the short story on which Christopher’s Nolan’s breakout movie, Memento, was based on.
The Texarkana Gazette features Roger Sheppard in an article today, “Businessman Never Lost Childhood Fascination with Art of Magic.”
We
note this subtitle seems to assign the titles “businessman” and
“magician” at two different ends of the job spectrum.
This may have
been the reporter’s first real article or perhaps he has never seen a
magician before. Read the article for yourself and see if you get
the same impression.
One give away: the awkward
description of the props. Not “rope” but “cotton rope,” not
“card fan” but “the deck of spread cards in his hands.” It’s not bad,
just awkward. We wanted to learn more about Mr. Sheppard than we
were told in the article.
In that way, the cub reporter helped us search for additional information beyond the little he provided.
[We're
not being critical, just expressing frustration at not getting more
about the personality behind the story.
Okay, we are being a
little critical.
The reporter posits that everyone knows there is
no real magic and that the illusions use some kind of "trick" or
"secret device." He spells Michael Ammar's name incorrectly and
incorrectly spells the name of Mark Wilson's ground-breaking television
show.
He doesn't know that the color-change and card assembly Mr.
Sheppard has performed was actually an impressive piece of sleight of
hand requiring years of practice and not simply "another card puzzle."
]
We’re done. Let’s get back to the story.
Mr. Sheppard owns a advertising, sports uniform and specialty T-shirt screenprinting business Sports Magic and from the name of the store, you can tell he is obsessed.
The
businessman has been practicing the art for 37 years. And whilst
he does have a day job running his business — as you would expect from
a business man, he takes time out each week to perform.
The Gazette reporter caught Mr. Sheppard’s act at the Health South Rehabilitation Center.
“Magic
is a hope and a dream come true. If a child sees a piece of candy
appear from nowhere, he’s going to be curious about how it happened and
want to see it again. For an older person. it’s a bit like recapturing
childhood feelings of fascination with magic,” Mr. Sheppard said.
The
reporter describes his subject thusly: “Dressed in black trousers, coat
and shirt, Sheppard’s gray-white beard satisfies “the look” of one who
has been blessed/cursed with what were once termed the “dark arts” of
magic.”
Mr. Sheppard tells the reporter he has little patience for those who would use camera-trickery to accomplish their effects.
“Just
ask David Blaine to do that levitation thing without the camera
present,” Mr. Sheppard said almost disdainfully. “Magic is a form of
art. I don’t believe in mind-reading, I don’t believe in predicting the
future, I don’t believe in levitation. It is the simple art of trying
to fool someone’s eyes.”
The Texarkana Gazette features Roger Sheppard in an article today, “Businessman Never Lost Childhood Fascination with Art of Magic.”
We
note this subtitle seems to assign the titles “businessman” and
“magician” at two different ends of the job spectrum.
This may have
been the reporter’s first real article or perhaps he has never seen a
magician before. Read the article for yourself and see if you get
the same impression.
One give away: the awkward
description of the props. Not “rope” but “cotton rope,” not
“card fan” but “the deck of spread cards in his hands.” It’s not bad,
just awkward. We wanted to learn more about Mr. Sheppard than we
were told in the article.
In that way, the cub reporter helped us search for additional information beyond the little he provided.
[We're
not being critical, just expressing frustration at not getting more
about the personality behind the story.
Okay, we are being a
little critical.
The reporter posits that everyone knows there is
no real magic and that the illusions use some kind of "trick" or
"secret device." He spells Michael Ammar's name incorrectly and
incorrectly spells the name of Mark Wilson's ground-breaking television
show.
He doesn't know that the color-change and card assembly Mr.
Sheppard has performed was actually an impressive piece of sleight of
hand requiring years of practice and not simply "another card puzzle."
]
We’re done. Let’s get back to the story.
Mr. Sheppard owns a advertising, sports uniform and specialty T-shirt screenprinting business Sports Magic and from the name of the store, you can tell he is obsessed.
The
businessman has been practicing the art for 37 years. And whilst
he does have a day job running his business — as you would expect from
a business man, he takes time out each week to perform.
The Gazette reporter caught Mr. Sheppard’s act at the Health South Rehabilitation Center.
“Magic
is a hope and a dream come true. If a child sees a piece of candy
appear from nowhere, he’s going to be curious about how it happened and
want to see it again. For an older person. it’s a bit like recapturing
childhood feelings of fascination with magic,” Mr. Sheppard said.
The
reporter describes his subject thusly: “Dressed in black trousers, coat
and shirt, Sheppard’s gray-white beard satisfies “the look” of one who
has been blessed/cursed with what were once termed the “dark arts” of
magic.”
Mr. Sheppard tells the reporter he has little patience for those who would use camera-trickery to accomplish their effects.
“Just
ask David Blaine to do that levitation thing without the camera
present,” Mr. Sheppard said almost disdainfully. “Magic is a form of
art. I don’t believe in mind-reading, I don’t believe in predicting the
future, I don’t believe in levitation. It is the simple art of trying
to fool someone’s eyes.”
Simon
Drake has been a significant player in magic on both sides of the
Atlantic for years. He is a mainstay in the world of magic news.
His
work spans genres and generations in large part because he is able to
offer magic and magic advice that helps to spotlight the project at
hand. He has worked with Sir Cameron Mackintosh (producer of our
favorite Les Miserables) on the recent hit The Witches of Eastwick.
Metal fans like us will recall he was the illusionist on the Iron Maiden tour in 1993-94 and featured in the band’s outstanding live film of the concert.
He has established the place to see and be seen in London by building the Simon Drake’s House of Magic. All of his work has been favorably reviewed in the magic news and information world.
It
was no surprise, then, Kenneth Branagh would call on Mr. Drake to
consult on the magic used in the new London play, Ducktastic. The
play is based on a mixture of a magic duck, down-and-out magicians, and
the over-the-top spirit of Siegfried & Roy.
Mr. Drake was kind enough to answer some questions about his life, his work, and his plans.
What support did you receive from your family in the very earliest days of your magic ventures?
My family are in medicine on both sides going back generations.
My
father died when I was twelve and would most definitely NOT have
approved of magic becoming a profession. However my mother was
encouraging in whatever I or my siblings wanted to do.
What would you say was your big break in the world of magic?
Kate
Bush’s tour in 1979 was my first break really and that led to numerous
TVs and other stuff. In Kate’s tour I played seven really contrasting
characters all doing magic of a sort and also wrote the visuals with
Kate and her brothers over the preceding year. Most of the press
thought I was seven different performers
. What has been, out of all the big illusions you have performed, your favorite to present?
Not sure I have favourites but amongst them I would say The Impaler that I made for Raising Hell with Iron Maiden and the Head Off that we perform at The House of Magic.
Speaking of which, The Simon Drake’s House of Magic
has received very positive reviews as one of the places to see and be
seen in the UK Magic and celebrity world. Could you tell us a
little about it?
Yes it’s a permanently
themed 4000 sq ft Victorian venue totally dedicated to my take on magic
and illusion. I built a ‘Haunted Cellar’ with many optical effects and
forgotten illusions as well as a few new ideas.
The Whispering Chair
which started as a cold reading thing but now utilises a real
clairvoyant, where each audience member get their fortunes told in
three minutes.
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