Branson Critic Awards: Let The People Speak!
Someone once said, "there are things you know, there
are things you don't now, there are things you know you don't know, and
then there are things that you don't know you don't know."What does
it mean? We don't know. (Rim-Shot!).
But we do know there is one thing we did not know but if we had known
we didn't know we would have wanted to know. There is a huge, swirling
controversy whirling like a Dervish on crack-rock through the usually
staid Branson (MO) entertainment world.
[We mean no offense to the Dervish. Some of our best friends are
Dervish. We know some Dervish families we'd be proud to have live near
us -- assuming it their homes were downhill. We even know some Dervish
at work and other than the fact that no one wants to eat with them for
fear of becoming nauseated by the post-meal spin, they're just like
normal people. Frankly we feel the press took our comments about the
Dervish out of context. Our point was only that Dervish are
high-energy contributors to the world of magic. Leave it to the press,
though, to find a way to twist words far from their original meaning.
When we said, "Yo, Top-Boy, who pulled your string this morning?" we
meant, "we care about you and your culture." But you are our friends,
we need not defend ourselves here].
But back to the controversy. The other one.
We stumbled out of the our 1999 LTD and learned two things as soon as
our scruffy coconut hit the pavement: first, show leagues in Branson
want to put an end to fan-based selection of the award winners; and
second, the fall from our LTD is higher now that we have the classic
vehicle up on cinder blocks.
We didn't know the shows wanted to exclude fans from voting. We also
didn't know that some of the show leagues encouraged past winners to
reject the awards because they were awarded at least in part on fan
participation.
Wow. Talk about your wacky world. You would think getting fans
involved in the selection of awards would be a natural for a town
built on the loyalty of fans.
The awards are presented in seven categories: Best Show, Best
Performer, Best Comedian, Best Band, Best Singer, Best Musician, and
Best Morning Show plus special Editor’s Choice Awards.
Past winners include Quinlan's Inside Magic pal Darren Romeo, the illusionist protégé of Siegfried
and Roy.
The current selection process really does involve the fans. "The
Branson Critic Magazine is a volunteer organization of writers and
researchers for shows and 'everything Branson' and has accumulated over
2,000 reviews," according to a spokesperson for the organization.
"Branson Critic also has a forum where fans of Branson
shows discuss, debate and vote for the Branson Critic Awards."
The winners will be named on October 1st. Make sure to check out the Branson Critic for the results. Of course, if Mr. Romeo wins again, we'll tell you here.
Categories: Magic News Tags:
Letters to Inside Magic
The first email is from a young magician in Shelby, Tennessee:
Tom:
How do you know the news so quickly? How do you find out about some magician doing some walk around restaurant gig in a Denny’s in Taipei on alternate Sundays? Do people send you the news or do you comb the web or what?
Signed,
"If this buggy’s rocking, call 911. I’m alone in here."
Dear Lonesome Buggy Boy:
First of all, the name is Tim. Second
of all, just because some magician hasn’t made it to Vegas yet, and is
still doing what we do at the Ordinary Magician Stratum, doesn’t mean
you can make fun of him/her/us/me. I read a poll
the other day in MagicData that said, 97.2 percent of all magicians who
actually make a living from their work, "are working in restaurants,
bars or doing parties." I thought that was a high statistic so I called Irwin Sines at MagicData and he told me it was a real stat. Apparently
there is a big drop off in the figures when you go from magicians
working for a living by doing magic and magicians doing magic for pay
(every once in a while) but not living on the wages.
I
learn about the magicians covered here by either combing the Internet
or receiving press releases or notes from magicians around the world. The
magician you referred to in your email, was actually not doing
table-hopping at Denny’s in Taipei but was doing Hippity Hop Rabbits
that he bought from Denny and Lee’s Magic Shop with a toupee. I think you need a new web browser or something. Maybe that’s why you got my name wrong.
The second letter is from someone in an unidentified location:
Hi:
Are
you embarrassed by what women think of you? Do you wish you could
please them even more than they’ve ever dreamed? Have you given up on
being a real man . . .
Dear Unidentified Emailer:
I assume you are either my first or second wife. I
doubt you are my common law wife from the former Dutch Republic of
Southern Vimgav ? as she does not read and write in English.
Categories: Magic Stories Tags:
Guest Article: The Kids’ Show Done New
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| Tony Spain |
It
is the policy of Inside Magic to offer its readers new and different
views on the art of magic — even if they are offered by those who have
no reputation for honesty or integrity. We are thinking about changing
this policy but any change has to be approved by the Bankruptcy Trustee
and that takes forever.
Anyway, we have today an essay on a new and different approach to
magic for kids. Inside Magic does not approve of Tony Spain's thoughts
or approach to kids' magic. In fact, we find them horrible.
With that praise, we offer you Tony Spain.
It is a given – and
so I'll write it at the beginning and get it over with – that people
are reluctant to accept the new and cling so tightly to the old. The
old is comfortable, fits well with their beliefs (in part because the
beliefs have been formed by the comfortable fit with the old pattern)
and to leave the comfortable is to risk the unknown.
I think it was John
Wilkes Booth that yelled "Sic Semper Tyranus" as he hit the stage floor
after assassinating President Lincoln. His words are
reportedly from some foreign language, maybe Latin – even though people
didn't speak Latin then – and some scholars have translated them to
mean, "So Always Goes (or With) Tyrants." Ironically, it
was Phillipe Anjou, the cartoonist and creative mind behind the 1870's
most famous one frame comic, "Li'l Trachea: The Funny Passage Way,"
that first declared in his comic that the last statement meant, "Let's
Do Something Different." The cartoon showed LT jumping
from the Presidential Box at Ford's Theater with a pistol in his
ligaments and the ever-present hand-rolled cigarette balancing ever so
gently on the top of the animated and loveable organ.
LT's little friend,
Liver Boy is about to jump from the box as well and by all estimates,
will land right on the proud little trachea. He doesn't
know how different it is about to get and only we, the audience, can
anticipate the fun when a liver lands on the trachea from 17 feet above. LB
is also holding a pistol and a bottle of rum – again, as always – and
seems oblivious to the pain he is about to inflict on his putative,
fleshy friend below.
I traveled down that side road of cartoon history, to make a point. Even within 10 years of the death of a great public leader, the method of his assassination is lampooned as trite. Indeed,
with the death of the Archduke Ferdinand that was used as an excuse to
begin WWI, critics were very harsh on the murderer because he killed
the Archduke and his new bride but more so because it was done with
shots to the back of the head in a theater.
So what does this have to do with my innovation in Kid's Magic?
Only this: I believe
I have hit upon a formula that works and works independent of the
traditional trappings we associate with the Kid Show or Kid Magic. I believe it takes a certain kind of personality to perform this method but then again, so does any kid magic. You
have to feel comfortable with the children and make them feel that you
are safe and you are there to entertain them for exactly 55 minutes
pursuant to your written agreement with their mother, father or legal
custodian.
Rather than go into
the nuts and bolts right now, I thought I would relate to you my
experience this weekend as I tried out my new, novel, approach to Kid's
Magic.
At the age of seven, psychologists tell us, children become aware of mortality generally and their own mortality specifically. Perhaps a relative has passed away or maybe a family pet or close friend. Regardless of the trigger, the age of seven, is the time to understand that few will make it out of this life alive.
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| Tony Spain |
Most Kid Shows ignore this ground-shaking revelation and allow the
Birthday Boy or Girl to reflect silently that their birthday also means
they are moving irreversibly along the canal towards their final day. Those kids are terrified but they cannot verbalize their fear. By pretending all is sugar and donuts, the entertainer is really just reinforcing their fear. Every breath used to inflate a balloon is one less breath available to the child. Blowing
out the candles on their cake provide only a harsh reminder that, as
Buddha said, they too will vanish from light like the flame from a
candle.
I say, don't fight these fears. Exploit them. Use them to make this the best birthday ever.
That's where I came up with my concept for Kiddy Séance. I will get to the marketing opportunities in a second, but imagine this scene.
You: Kids, how many of you believe in ghosts?
Kids: (Wild yelps of approval and raised hands)
You: Who is your favorite ghost?
Kids: Casper the Friend Ghost!!
You: Did you ever think that Casper used to be just like you? He was a little boy who died.
Kids: Silence
You: We don't know how he died. Maybe
he was hit by a car while riding his bike; got kidnapped; caught on
fire while he was sleeping; or had bad thoughts that caused his heart
to burst
Kids: Silence
At this point, I know I have something. The kids are quiet. They are listening. Some are crying. I turned down the houselights and invite the kids to sit in a circle around an Ouija Board. Some were scared and I told them that unless they were in the circle, their soul could be snatched when Casper comes back.
The rest of the presentation was simply a spiritualism act but brought down to the kids' level. We
spelled out the words of Casper, "Help Me!" and "Avoid Candy and Pop!"
(this was particularly hard for one little girl because her father had
divorced her mom and married a Dental Hygienist ironically named
"Candy." But for the most part, it worked well.
We had a bell ring
when anyone was thinking a bad thought and I released some really foul
odors to give them a smell of the sulfur of Hell. I covered the sound of the release of the odors with the ringing of the bell.
It was great fun and
at the end I reminded the kids that they needed to keep the channel to
the other world open or it would fester like a wound. To keep it open, they needed to have me entertain at their parties to regularly communicate with Casper.
What did the parents think? This was the first party I have done where the parents got into the act as much as the kids. Granted,
the parents were preconditioned because they were all participants in
my adult séances and have pretty much bought this stuff hook, line and
sinker. I think having the parents approve of the act really goes a long way to selling it to the kids.
If you are interested
in the act or would like to develop your own, contact me and I'll
direct you to the resources (all made by and sold by me) you need to
have a successful act they'll remember and talk about (probably with
court appointed counselors) for years. The magic of the mind is the magic of the heart.
Tony Spain
master@themagicwire.com
Categories: Magic Stories Tags: