There is one thing we stand firmly against here at Inside Magic and that is exposure of magic secrets. We don't like it, won't eat near it, won't let our kids go to school with it, and certainly would never let it kiss us full on the mouth, ever. Given our distaste for this abominable practice, a casual reader of this magic news outlet might be forgiven for thinking that all of our loathing was used up and that we loved every other thing in large quantities. Nope, we dislike people who incompetently expose magic almost as much as we dislike the more proficient secret leakers.
There are several programs on the internets that allow a very lazy web master or mistress to publish articles about any topic in seconds. Better yet, these programs can write the articles to neatly incorporate trending Google search terms to suck traffic to their owners' website to generate the all-important pay-per-click revenue. The programs are not smart but quick. They search the webs for real content about any given subject and then steal from the articles located to generate or "spin" an allegedly unique bit of content.
Fresh content is essential to making one's website appealing to Google. Fresh content that contains key words used in searches moves the site up the Google Page Rank chart. But there is apparently no requirement that the fresh content containing key words make any sense at all.
We received a Google Alert this hour for an article meeting our pre-set search terms. We try to search for magic news constantly and have layers of filters to get breaking stories about "Harry Houdini" rather than a professional athlete surviving a close game with "an escape worthy of Houdini." The notice we just received met up with several of our Google Alert terms and so the automated sms notification system alerted us to possible breaking news.
Here is the article in part. It ostensibly exposes the Svengali Deck. Perhaps it does, we cannot tell.
The Svengali deck is made up of 47 business cards, 23 that are most of duplicate and are also slightly shorter as opposed to 23 which are all distinct and slightly longer. There are actually coin tips, card tips, mind-reading tips, rope tips, all different types of tricks easily together with objects that you’ve in the pockets as well as lying savings around your house. If you need a number of really straightforward magic tricks to master which you can try in your own friends the two observing ones is going to be perfect in your case.
We are not trying to be harsh. Maybe this is one author's earnest attempt to expose a very commercial trick and it falls short because the author has yet to master the English language. Or, maybe there is a different Svengali deck — one made with 47 business cards, 23 of which are most of duplicate of something. We have checked with all of our reliable sources and no one is familiar with a Svengali deck made of business cards that are either most of or not most of duplicate of anything. Yes, we recall that Burling Hull claimed to have created a deck that was part Mene-Tekel, part Two-Way Forcing and part Brainwave but to the best of knowledge Mr. Hull never released the deck and even if he did, it wouldn't be one of those "really straightforward magic tricks to master which you can try in your own friends the observing ones is going to be perfect in" anyone's case.
The couple will perform two shows at the 10,000 seat Sun Arena as stars of the Master of Illusion Live tour.
Jinger is a favorite daughter of Bridgeport, Connecticut and her parents still reside in the Nutmeg State.
The lithe and talented performer told the local media, “It's great to perform in front of people you know. It makes it special.”
"Special" is the perfect adjective for Kalin & Jinger's act and career. We had the distinct honor of sitting next to Jinger as a committee person for their Spirit Cabinet performance. As you loyal and disloyal readers of Inside Magic are aware, we will never expose the secrets of any magic effect unless it somehow makes us look good, smart or could serve up more internet hits to boost our ad revenue.
We can say that while being immediately next to Jinger was thrilling and magical in its own right, we were unable to learn their secret. We assisted in tying charming and beautiful better half of the Kalin & Jinger show and then sat as close as possible to her whilst the curtains closed around us.
Perhaps we were still unnaturally giddy being so close to someone of such renown and talent, intoxicated by her incredible beauty or startled by the rapid-fire succession of events, but we remain clueless as to how she was able to manifest the loud, chaotic spirit that literally filled the ad hoc cabinet, put a bucket on our disproportionately large skull and pulled up our pant legs all within no more than five to ten seconds.
Jinger began as a dancer at the age of four and by 15, she was in demand around the United States. She worked with Disney, Fuji Television and Southern California dinner theaters and bestowed with the a scholarship to the “Young Americans' College of Performing Arts.”
Mark and Jinger became a couple when she filled in as his assistant while performing in Guam.
If you have not seen the couple perform — and that seems unlikely given their exposure through nationalize televised shows like NBC's “Word's Greatest Magicians”, “Hidden Secrets of Magic,” Fox Family's “Magic on the Edge,” Fox TV's “World Magic Awards” and “Entertainment Tonight”, CBS and ABC — you need to make the trip to the Sun Arena this weekend or one of their upcoming performances.
We know Broadway like the back of our prosthetic hand.
We still have our two real ones but like having the third for status. We are so cool when we go to the manicurist shop and all the gals with their lousy one or two soak dish set-ups have to stare with envy.
We used to have a little (and we mean little) shop right in front of one of the big-time theaters. This was a while ago and the theater went by a different name and we cannot print the name or our website will be thrown out of public libraries, again.
Our shop was designed to look like a card table with a Navajo blanket covering the top. We sold us some Cups and Balls, Ball in Vase, Multiplying Billiard Balls, Magic 8-Balls, Bounce/No-Bounce Balls and our knock-off version of the spring and fake fur puppet, Rocky Raccoon. At the time, the real ones were selling for $17.00 over at Tannens. We cut out the middle-man, the man who enforced the child labor laws and the “you don’t need to go through Customs” man; but we could not eliminate the “It would be a shame if something were to happen to your cute little store or cute little wife” man.
Broadway was a tough place where guys like us would walk the mean streets with our pants weighed down by coins in our pockets. All the sales people on the Great White Way jingled. There was almost no paper money on Broadway then. The Automat served meals and hot coffee but only if you had exact change. The restrooms in the nicer establishments cost a dime or a quarter. Showers were half a dollar and all of the better movie theaters charged per three minutes per $1.00 in coins. You could always tell a fellow salesperson by the tension on his or her belt, the bumpy, dimpled bulges projecting like a topographical map over their pants legs, and the bar of Ivory Soap in their back pocket.
Ivory Soap was started right on Broadway and they never forgot their roots. They went from selling cheap turquoise or silver plated jewelry to becoming one of the largest companies in the world. If you were from the Broadway Sidewalk Sales Society, you could walk into any store – it didn’t have to be on Broadway – and pick-up one bar of Ivory Soap per month. Most of the times no one even noticed or cared. They likely knew about Mr. Ivory’s promise to his fellow merchants and were happy to see his wishes fulfilled. Sometimes you’d get a new clerk or cashier and we’d have to go through the whole story. They usually gave in about an hour into our spiel and we’d walk out cleaner.
Rumor had it that there were folks on the south side of Broadway that worked with their version of the Ivory Soap man. He was the person who invented orange juice and they could go into any store that sold orange juice (fresh-squeezed only – we guess he didn’t invent the concentrated version) and take one gallon a month.
So the north side merchants smelled good and the south side guys smelled bad but didn’t have scurvy. Life is all about trade-offs, though.
Our point was that we cannot wait until Hugh Jackman takes on the role of our hero. In fact we named other people’s children “Harry” and “Houdini” and “Bess” when we were employed for a week as a temp at the Mystic Hospital for Women and Childrens. (Yes, we know the “s” is grammatically incorrect and there is not even a word with that spelling but the benefactor of the MHWC was a self-taught Polaroid Land Camera repairman. He knew everything about every version of that famous camera from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. He could fix your camera as good as new in no time but he was otherwise unintelligent. He couldn’t count (except to 60 – the number of seconds to wait before exposing pictures taken with the first film stock) he chewed with his mouth open, he sewed his own clothes – while they were on – and they remained in place for years as a consequence. Jimmy knew those dang cameras though. He would lose all the money he made on one repair job when the next customer would get him confused about the amount of change he was owed. Poor guy.
Even though he was destitute for most of his life, he loved what he did and folks in town loved to have him roam the streets looking for Polaroid Land Cameras in need of repair. People wonder how he could afford to fund Mystic Hollow Michigan’s largest building and most important medical service when he rarely had a dollar in his usually securely sewed pocket. Apparently, one of the big celebrities heard of Jimmy’s abilities and brought his camera for repair while he was performing in Chicago. He couldn’t stay for the hour or so it would take to repair so he asked Jimmy to send it to the Schubert Theater in Chicago when it was ready.
Jimmy was surprised to find two photos stuck in the mechanism. He wasn’t sure if he should look at the pictures to make sure they weren’t ruined from their cramped position inside the camera for years. He decided he wouldn’t look because he thought that would invade the celebrity’s personal life. Instead, he caught a series of trains to the Schubert Theater and tried to drop the pictures off at the box office. They wouldn’t take them and they directed him to the stage door outside and down the alley. It was raining pretty heavy and Jimmy put the pictures in his tattered but well-sewn pants. His pockets were completely sealed from years of stitching practice and probably of the natural glue we all produce through our skin pores if we don’t change clothes or bathe properly.
Philadelphia Eagles long snapper, Jon Dorenbos had all the excuses necessary to fail but chose the tougher route and is a success. We learn from The Press of Atlantic City that magic has been a big part of his very difficult life.
After 20 years of marriage, his father brutally murdered his mother and was sentenced to more than a decade in prison. He was released in 2005 but has not been a part of Mr. Dorenbos’ life since their last, heated exchange in 1993.
"I haven't seen or spoken to him since 1993," Jon Dorenbos said. "The last time I saw him was when I was 13 years old. I visited him in prison in Walla Walla, Wash., and his last words to me were (profanity). Those were also my last words to him."
Mr. Dorenbos was a talented athlete and invested time and practice in several sports. In fact, it was during an all-star team series in Woodinville, Washington that he fell in love with magic. While staying with a coach and his son, one of the neighbors performed a single trick that got him hooked.
"He gave me a sponge ball to hold and he held the other one," Dorenbos said. "When I opened my hand, I was holding both of them. I still have the VHS tape from that day. The next day, we went to a magic store and I bought my first magic book, 'Modern Coin Magic,' by J.B. Bobo."
He moved to California to adoptive parents and found a new father figure in magician Ken Sands, owner of Magic Galore in Westminster, California.
Mr. Sands taught him tricks and how to entertain with magic. How to go from performing a series of tricks to presenting a magic act. "He taught me how to connect with an audience. If you just do a series of magic tricks, people will get bored. But they dig you as a person, you can make their experience go through the roof."
Robin Leach describes Siegfried & Roy recently leaked news as "beyond magic — it's a Christmas miracle." The duo announced they will soon be celebrating "a very big step in Roy's extraordinary rehabilitation this holiday season."
The magical pair was on hand to support the local charity, Opportunity Village and host their annual party for friends and colleagues from their record-breaking magic show at the Mirage Casino and Resort and conservation project co-workers.
Mr. Leach reports the assembled cast, crew and staff greeted Siegfried & Roy with a standing ovation upon their arrival at the event. According to Mr. Leach, "Roy, who suffered severe blood loss, was said to have died three times on the operating table at the University Medical Center trauma unit here in his fight for life. He suffered partial paralysis and, at one point to relieve the pressure on his swollen brain, part of his skull was removed and protected in his stomach pouch. It was later reattached during his long-term recovery and rehabilitation at UCLA Medical Center."
Roy's recovery has been long and difficult but has apparently progressed to the point where he can ride a horse once again. Roy surprised Siegfried with the gift of two horses and his promise "that they'll be able to ride together at their Little Bavaria farm."
Siegfried told Mr. Leach he managed him to ride for 35 minutes this week – his first such activity since his injury. "In fact, we had to beg him to stop and get off so he wouldn't be sore," said one of the riding instructors helping with Roy's recovery workout program.
The development not only marks encouraging progress in Roy's physical therapy and rehabilitation, it also gives him the freedom to traverse the couple's ranch independent of his wheelchair or walking cane.
There is one thing we stand firmly against here at Inside Magic and that is exposure of magic secrets. We don't like it, won't eat near it, won't let our kids go to school with it, and certainly would never let it kiss us full on the mouth, ever. Given our distaste for this abominable practice, a casual reader of this magic news outlet might be forgiven for thinking that all of our loathing was used up and that we loved every other thing in large quantities. Nope, we dislike people who incompetently expose magic almost as much as we dislike the more proficient secret leakers.
Robin Leach describes 
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