Twitter Updates

Sin, Myrrh and Death – Hardy Christmas on the Road

Originally written on Christmas Eve seven years ago and posted on Inside Magic. We’ve republished it by request. Definitely not one of our “light” or “funny” pieces.
======
Our father, Li’l , was a proud man who frequently tried to pretend we were not too poor for Christmas presents.
Usually around December 13th, he’d come stumbling back to the trailer just as we were getting ready to head to the next town and announce,

“You know, I was talking with this Jehovah Witless Guy and he convinced me there is no biblical basis for celebrating Christmas.Now, while I don’t accept everything they those old boys say, ‘specially the no-drinking or smoking stuff, but I started thinking about it and I think they might be right.
I’d hate to see our whole family damned to Hell just to get a present under some pagan tree.”

“You know, I ran into that guy that used to be a ringmaster with Stamster Brothers and he commenced to talking about how Judaism – in its strictest form – really had the whole picture together.

They were waiting for the Messiah and that’s got a lot to say for it. I disagreed with him on the whole no-drinking and dragging out their equivalent of Christmas for a week or whatever, but the idea that we should really anticipate the birth of our Lord is a good thing.

Sooo, I’m thinking we anticipate how he can come into our life without the week of candles and presents.”

Or the worst was:

“You know, I was down at the Stop, Drop and Roll (that’s Circus Talk for a booze tent or trailer – usually just off the parade grounds), and I was walking back and saw this guy with a gun. He was mumbling something about how people demand so much from him and stuff and he was pretty well-bombed. I didn’t want to get too close cuz he was drunk and had a gun but I walked up a little closer and thought he looked like a biker.

Continue reading Sin, Myrrh and Death – Hardy Christmas on the Road

March 31st, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Magic Stories, Mystic Hollow | Leave a comment

Ryan Swigert Helps You and Your Magic iPod

This just in from Inside Magic Favorite Ryan Swigert.  He knows of what he writes.  Be sure to visit his site and sign up for his newsletter and free tricks.

Mr. Swigert will also become a guest contributor to Inside Magic as soon as his agent becomes human and more reasonable.

Have you played around with any of the iPhone magic apps yet?

I just published a new blog post where I share some creative ways to stay in-touch with your audience using your iPhone (or any cell phone).

You can check-it out at Lesson 1.

Also, in a few weeks I will be attending the invite-only FFFF convention.

I am planning to conduct various interviews and Q&A sessions there.

The actual attendee list is pretty hush-hush… I can’t share who will actually be attending this year, but it will be some of the top magicians in the world.

So what questions would you like me to ask them? Simply reply to this email and let me know…

In other news, the U.S. Playing Card Company is ready to print my “special cards”!

If you enjoyed my KickBack you will really enjoy what I have up my sleeve.

I plan on releasing this new trick to the magic community in the late Summer/ early Fall time frame.

I was in Orlando last week and showed magician Jason Wethington a sneak peek at it.

Due to the fact that I’m trying to keep this clean, I cannot print the words that came out of his mouth… Let’s just say he really liked it… :)

March 31st, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Latest Magic News, Ryan Swigert | Leave a comment

Magic Trust and Betrayal

There is a maxim we follow — and we don’t mean the magazine by the same name. Although it is possible that the magazine Maxim actually has written about our maxim. Of course, we would never know. We trusted and apparently our trust was foolishly tossed to the four winds – three of which came from the person we trusted.

In fact, the more we think about that lying little creep, the more we become perturbed. She said she was selling magazine subscriptions for her troop. We’re always looking to help out any scouting activities and while we normally associate cookie sales with troop fund raising, we trusted.

And we gave her good money to go with that trust. We mean we paid for the subscriptions with “real money”; not a charge on one of our almost certainly over-the-limit credit cards or even proceeds from a cash advance or payday (HA!) loan.

Our intention was to use real funds to purchase subscriptions the great journals of our era; and help the local troop raise money for something.

Well, we learned the hard way.

We have not received a single issue from any of the top quality magazines we ordered.

Not one.

We paid over $422.12 for the subscriptions and received nothing. No cards falling out of the pages and cutting one’s lap or landing in the toilet. No poster-size images of the featured models in faraway places with a “come hither” or, in our case, “don’t bother,” or “stay there-ith” look in their eyes.

Yes, we were foolish to trust. We should have been suspicious and cautious. Did we already mention she wasn’t wearing a scout uniform?

Continue reading Magic Trust and Betrayal

March 31st, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Magic Stories, Mystic Hollow | Leave a comment