Early this morning, we received word from Inside Magic Favorite Dean Gunnarson, that things did not go as planned in his planned escape from the tracks of a speeding roller-coaster in Beijing.
The Toronto Sun had coverage this afternoon filling in the details of what must have been a horrific event.
Dean Gunnarson is insane but also very safe. That is to say, when he hangs by his toes over the Hoover Dam, he makes sure the wind speed is in the single digits and he has no butter or slippery goo on his boots. Despite his devotion to safety, he has had several near catastrophes over his career.
He began with hypothermia and near drowning in the frigid waters of Canada where the water and cold robbed him of a chance to escape from his shackles or the locked wooden casket. He's pulled, broken, snapped, and twisted body parts with verve much to the delight of fans and his medical professionals.
Still, as we have admitted on this magic news outlet and to professional mental health workers, his stuff scares us silly.
Here's the report from The Toronto Sun:
He had freed himself and was attempting to dive to safety when the roller-coaster car, which was travelling at nearly 100 km/h, clipped his right foot.
He sustained a broken bone in his foot and some internal bleeding.
He was in hospital Tuesday in Beijing but was hoping to return to Canada by Wednesday.
In his news release, Gunnarson said he believed hot and humid conditions, with a temperature of 36 C, contributed to him losing the extra split second he needed to completely avoid the bullet roller-coaster car.
The 46-year-old Manitoba resident – who has performed death-defying escapes around the world since he was in his teens – said this escape was a little too close for comfort.
"I have always said I don't do card tricks or pull bunnies out of a hat," Gunnarson said in his news release. "I push the envelope in an extreme way that tries to do the impossible with every great escape I have ever attempted. I like to keep things close but this was beyond close. It was near death."
The escape was part of Gunnarson's Bound for Danger world tour and was being shot for inclusion in a magic special on Chinese television.
This autumn, Gunnarson is planning an escape in which he will be locked inside a steel coffin and buried six feet underground for 48 hours.
After two days, he will attempt to escape on Halloween, the anniversary of the death in 1926 of legendary magician and escape artist Harry Houdini.
Houdini wrote, "No one wants to see a man die, but they want to be there when it happens."
The escape from the roller coaster tracks stunt almost claimed the life of Inside Magic Favorite Lance Burton. He too misjudged the closing speed of the coaster leaving no margin for error as he leaped to safety. He said later, "That was stupid."
Read more…
Tags:
China,
Dean Gunnarson,
Houdini,
Lance Burton,
Roller Coaster Escape
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The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) broke the news — at least to us — that a night club in Las Vegas has implemented holographic technology to create a “virtual strip club.”
The dancing girls in Lolita’s Cantina and Tequila bar may look real enough, but in reality they’re conjured out of thin air using holographic technology. The entertainment in the bar, owned by veteran nightclub developer Eric DeBiasi, is created using the same technology used by Damon Albarn’s virtual band the Gorillaz and Live Earth Tokyo to project former US vice President Al Gore onto the stage.
No more dressing rooms, stench of flop-sweat, or real-world salaries. The performer appears real but can be brought to the stage whenever the whim hits.
Digital Illusions, the company behind the technology, says that the DJ will have total control over both the music and the dancing, creating a seamless audiovisual performance that will look totally realistic to the audience.
“Imagine having a library of hundreds or thousands of clips of entertainers, magicians, comedians, dancers,” asked one of the Digital Illusions folks in a rhetorical fashion.
“Each one is ready to perform at a moment’s notice. Each one is surrounded by special effects and magical appearances and disappearances. But most importantly, each one looks totally real.”
Why the possibilities abound. You could do six or seven birthday parties at one time. Magic Club lectures could happen over and over and over — if such was the desire of the club.
Yes, the equipment to build a holographic stage is expensive but the price will drop. Remember when calculators cost $17,200.00 and took up an entire room? Remember how back in those days, you would have to literally turn the entire room of computer equipment upside down to show friends that the letters 9009 was a secret word produced by the calculator?
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Tags:
Las Vegas,
li'l tom hardy,
percy abbott,
sally rand,
skylab,
virtual reality
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We don’t usually plug our sales on eBay.
Most of the time we are selling horrible goods with starting prices well above what any rational person would pay, to which we tack on incredibly inflated shipping charges.
Remember when we were selling our knock-off of Nickels to Dimes made out of kiln-hardened clay? We don’t think many of those even made to the buyers in one piece.
Who could forget our Pen thru Anything rip-off described as “the Original” because it used a quill instead of a ball point pen?
If it hadn’t been for those pesky game wardens, we’d still be selling that trick.
We thought the Bald Eagle would stand for capitalism and understand our need for his feathers.
Well, today we listed a good friend on eBay.
Dusty the Dragon is leaving the act and we wish him well. He is a smoke-breathing dragon puppet made by Axtell Studios and used in our Kid Show act. The kids loved him. They were always excited and shocked when he would blow smoke out of his nose.
We had a wonderful time together but decided the time had come to go separate ways. We hope a young magician or ventriloquist will pick him up. He deserves to stay in the business.
We had him made with all the upgrades – the smoke package and arm control. He cost us close to $600.00 but we started the bidding at $28.88 without reserve and we’ll ship him free anywhere in the U.S.
You can check him out on eBay here.
We’re going to return to our fetal position and sobbing corner now.
Tags:
Axtell Puppets,
Dragon Puppet,
eBay,
End of Era
Early this morning, we received word from Inside Magic Favorite Dean Gunnarson, that things did not go as planned in his planned escape from the tracks of a speeding roller-coaster in Beijing. 
