Archive for October, 2008

Magic Castle Celebrates New Houdini Star

The Magic Castle sends news of their good work on the streets of Hollywood; where adults of all callings can wear festive and mysterious costumes year-round. The Magic Castle's Founder, Milt Larsen received a call on November 1, 2000 from a concerned visitor to the Walk of Fame, that the Houdini star, located just one block south of The Magic Castle, was cracked. Interestingly, the manifestation happened exactly 25 years to the day of its placement at Hollywood and Orange.

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Buy A Brick Infused by Houdini’s Spirit

The Detroit News tells us of a great opportunity to connect with the great Harry Houdini. Jamie Flora is more than just a fan of Harry Houdini. He owns bricks from a home that may have been built from with materials salvaged from the demolition of The Garrick Theatre in Detroit. Okay, it is a stretch but it is better than any connection Inside Magic can currently claim; especially since we learned recently blow driers were not even invented when Houdini was performing and we likely bought a piece of junk from that nice old lady. Mr. Flora researched the construction lineage of his Plymouth, Michigan home and came to the inescapable conclusion - there may be some connection! Consider the following factors if you will:

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David Copperfield Works It Hard

David Copperfield brings the tour to west Canadian fans with a scheduled stop in Edmonton to perform three shows over two days. If there is one thing Mr. Copperfield does well -- and he does many things well but he does this one thing more well than any of the other things -- it is advance work for his show. Tickets for the Edmonton show are $56.00 CDN to $86.00 CDN for seats in the beautiful Rexall Place. Mr. Copperfield knows he can please fans in those seats but he needs to get them into the theatre first. That is where the advance work makes the difference between his show and so many other truck and bus tours. According to The Edmonton Journal article, Mr. Copperfield's hard work has paid him as much as $57 million in one year. To put that number in proper perspective, assuming there was no sales tax or shipping costs, $57 million would buy (at retail) 1,900,000 D'Lite pairs; or pay rent on the Inside Magic office for 4,750 years. That is some serious coin. He could walk into any magic shop, in any town, and ask to see the most expensive trick -- maybe The Bengal Net (U.F. Grant's) or Passe Passe Bottles (the nice glass ones) or one of those Black Art Tables with the cool top -- and he would not worry one second about dropping said trick.

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