Twitter Updates

Walter Blaney’s Open Letter to the Chinese Magic Community

knock off hoopWe received the following open letter to the Chinese Magic Community from Inside Magic Favorite Walter “Zaney” .

We debated whether to include the domain name for the offending web site.  We did not want to give the pirates more traffic.  We can attest, however, the site is as Mr. Blaney describes.  They do indeed have David Copperfield performing Mr. Blaney’s world-famous Ladder Levitation.   The image to the left is from the listing for the knock-off hoop.  We pixelated the domain name the pirates used to prevent folks from copying their images.  Ironies abound.

We fully support Mr. Blaney in his crusade against those who steal, knock-off, copy, or even “improve” on the inventions of our best magical minds.  Mr. Blaney has always fought on behalf of all magic inventors — not just himself.

Some would suggest it is a losing cause.  We think it is one of the most important causes in our craft and well worth fighting.

Continue reading Walter Blaney’s Open Letter to the Chinese Magic Community

September 14th, 2009 | Tags: , , , | Category: Latest Magic News, Magic of Asia | Leave a comment

Richie Magic Grosses Out Kids for Good

ash can fran and friendsNew York’s Newsday reports one of our brethren broke the world’s record for “orally extinguishing, chewing and expelling” a carton of cigarettes.

Who knew such a record existed? People never tell us anything.

The paper reports “Scarsdale magician says he’ll never smoke again after his attempt Saturday.”

Richie Magic chewed 200 cigs in six minutes and 3.7 seconds.

The magi was a smoker for “decades” before performing the feat at Rogue Magic and Fun Shop in Elmhurst, .

He had a profound effect on the kids who gathered to watch, or gawk.

“Kids told me it was so disgusting that they’d never smoke,” Richie Magic told the paper.

We note, however, that Hardy family lore describes the equally spectacular but under-reported achievement of cousin Francine Hardy, wife of Li’l Tom Hardy III. Aunt “Ash Can” Fran once consumed 421 cigarette and cigar butts found on the floor of the now closed Hialeah Race Course just outside of Miami, Florida.

Admittedly, many of the cigarettes were not fully lit at the time, but spectators believed Aunt Fran was.

September 14th, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: Magic News | Leave a comment

Ft. Myers’ Magician Frank Mikeska Profiled

magic frank mikeskaFormer Ford Executive Frank Mikeska was pronounced dead on arrival after a horrendous automobile accident in 1973.

Over the more than five years it took to recover, he learned to walk again, and found a new passion in performing magic.

The Lehigh Acres Citizen (Florida) has a great profile on the man known as . He works restaurants in the resort area of , Florida.

“They took me to the hospital DOA (dead on arrival). I died three more times there, spent 30 days in a critical coma, and went from critical care to intensive care, then step-down care,” he said. “Finally, about four or five months later, I got into my own room and they started putting me back together again.”

During one of his many hospital stays while recovering, an uncle introduced Frank to an old-time Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey magician.

“He knew how everything worked with magic, but his hands were so arthritic. Of course I was a young pup then, so my hands were young and agile, and he showed me everything he knew,” the magician said.

“After that, I started attending numerous magic lectures, magic seminars, weekend schools I just became fascinated with the craft and wanted to learn all I could about it.”

Check out the great profile of this remarkable man in today’s Lehigh Acres Citizen.

Continue reading Ft. Myers’ Magician Frank Mikeska Profiled

September 14th, 2009 | Tags: , | Category: Magic News, Magician Feature | Leave a comment