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."
Hitfix.com describes young magician Rob Zabrecky as "wraith thin as an Edward Gorey drawing with a piercing stare and an unnerving wide selection of bow-ties, Zabrecky's creepy, witty Odd Man character might best be described as 'a mix of Vincent Price and David Byrne.'"
Flattering, no? We think he looks more like Chess Immortal Bobby Fischer.
Mr. Zabrecky is a multi-talented package with a résumé as the lead singer of Possum Dixon, a 1990's band who recorded three records with Interscope Records (former label of Mystic Hollow resident Eminem).
'I did a show at Brookledge (the site of invitation-only performances for magic aficionados) and he came up to me afterwards and paid me a nice compliment,' recalls Zabrecky. 'And I thought he was a magician, because he said "I really like what you do and it's really inspiring." And all I'm thinking is stay away from my act, buddy. No, you can't do my diminishing cards act and dance.'
Magic Man Zabrecky finally got hip to the identity of his new fan, and agreed to perform magic and tap dancing along with Mr. Gosling's music. The mainstream star helped the "Odd Man" with his appearance for French television and offered Zabrecky advice from the perspective of an actor or director.
"Ryan really looked at my character through an actor's eyes, which was something that hadn't really been done before," says Mr. Zabrecky. "I've gotten a lot of great input from magicians who know some things about theater, with my friend John Lovick (Handsome Jack) being the only guy who could look at my act and tell me theatrically what was wrong with it or what was good about it. But Ryan has no magic background, so for him it was all character."
Mr. Gosling's questions are appropriate for all magicians. "What is this guy doing? Why is he coming out here? Does he just reach for that? What if he reached for it here?"
The "Odd Man" was inspired by a walk in streets of Baltimore made famous by Film Director John Waters He happened upon Kenzo's Yogi Magic Mart in Baltimore whilst touring with Possum Dixon. "The air conditioner was shaking from the outside, so I said, that's where I'm going to cool off."
Several months ago, we published an article about T. Nelson Downs' adopted hometown celebrating his part in their history. Researching the story got us thinking and researching and reading.
That's a lot for a bear with little brains, as AA Milne noted. So it took us a lot longer than we expected to get where we are now. And where exactly are we?
We have read, re-read and corrected our distillation of the several copies of Mr. Downs' Modern Coin Manipulation floating about the public domain realm of the interwebs. None of the publicly available and public domain versions of the book were ready for publication. There were pages missing, headings applied incorrectly and very poor scanning performed. Our various attempts to run optical character recognition scans met with failure due to one or more of these flaws.
Our solution was to purchase some pretty sophisticated OCR, image and books assembly software. We were able to stitch together images from different scanned versions into one document ready for OCR and assembly. Still, we wanted to do more. Mr. Downs' book has historical references throughout that need to be chased. For instance, he begins the book with a defense of his position that he was the true inventor of the Back Palm.
He provides the place and time for his first public use of this essential sleight and suggests that those who claim to have invented the move are wrong or disingenuous. His use of the sleight was to hide and produce coins as part of his Miser's Dream routine. But he notes that other magicians use the same move for card effects.
Speaking of The Miser's Dream, Mr. Downs dedicates substantial portion of the book to teaching this classic act. His instruction is outstanding and the images are very helpful but if one hopes to duplicate his success with the act based on a quick reading and memorization of the script, that one will be frustrated and sad.
The moves taught are knuckle-busters plus. Perhaps part of his motive in writing this book was to dissuade would-be imitators from starting. If you are just starting in Magic or have worked as a professional for decades, this book will have something for you. You may not yet have the skills to perform everything but you will find something to fit your routine with a little practice.
Robert Browning was clearly speaking of magicians when he wrote, "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp / Or what's a heaven for?"
We will put T. Nelson Downs' Modern Coin Manipulation in the Inside Magic Library for those who would like a copy. The version will be revised periodically to include annotations and cross-references. Let us know if you find any problems with this or later editions. Enjoy!
Magician and television star Brian Brushwood filmed a segment for his very cool “Scam School” series at Stanford’s Chess Club last Friday night.
The fact that the club was packed with players is either a testament to Mr. Brushwood’s fame or because most of us hard core chess players do not have other pressing social engagements on a typical Friday evening. It is probably a combination of both factors.
Mr. Brushwood started his presentation with a challenge to the assembled players; it was a puzzle.
The puzzle was this: place eight queens on a standard eight-by-eight chessboard such that no queen is able to attack another.
By saying this is a classic chess puzzle, we do not mean to imply that it is easy. We have seen the answer and still cannot replicate it.
Mr. Brushwood filmed the students in their respective piques of frustration for his very popular internet series, “Scam School.” We want to enjoy the series but have significant reservations about Mr. Brushwood’s exposure of substantive effects. Unfortunately, his time with Stanford’s chess club exemplified his disregard for one magic’s most important doctrines.
Mr. Brushwood demonstrated his powers of mental telepathy after claiming he and a chess club member had been “’struck by radioactive lightning’ and gained the miraculous ability to read each other’s minds.”
The trick is a standard but it clearly got the imagination of the reporter covering the event.
While his co-conspirator looked away with his ears plugged, another chess player selected a piece and placed it into Brushwood’s mug. Brushwood slammed
the mug onto the chessboard and told his accomplice to turn around and take a guess. “White rook!” his accomplice said to the stunned disbelief of the other club members.
Mr. Brushwood confesses an “intense interest in chess” that surfaced whilst in college himself. He believes chess players may have an advantage over non-chess playing magicians.
A magician maps out these probabilities and possible audience reactions in the same way that a chess player maps out moves. According to Brushwood, having a chess player’s intuition aids him in his performance. It allows Brushwood himself to “begin acts without having any idea how [he’ll] be
proceeding,” because he has enough tricks up his sleeve for every move and outcome.
He justifies his blatant exposure of magic’s secrets saying, “
“When I first started out with magic, it was hard to find tricks,” Brushwood said. The shortage of magic tricks motivated Brushwood to spread his own knowledge. This “open source” approach to magic can capture an audience as much as a well-executed act, Brushwood argued.”
Hank Lee's Magic Factory is a great place on the web for magicians and magic lovers. It is, to us, the virtual equivalent of a real magic store. Hank Lee is always friendly, topical, and filled with enthusiasm for our art.
Yes, some of his enthusiasm could be an outgrowth of his desire to sell magic, stay in business, eat and sleep somewhere other than under a bridge. Still, with his writing talent and business skills, he would likely make the same if not more plying his talents selling something other than magic. We suspect he likes this world of magic and magicians and finds a nice synergy of his passion and profession.
Each week, Hank Lee sends out emails to those who subscribe. The Hot List usually contains a short, well-considered essay or reflection he believes may be of interest to customers and subscribers.
This week's Hot List begins with a very interesting take on the "Pre-Order" game played by magic shops and wholesalers. We have pre-ordered many items in the last few years. It can be frustrating to pay in advance for an effect that fails to materialize on the promised date, or even within a month of the promised date.
We have accepted this scenario as a fact of life in the internet magic age. We assumed the pre-order funds helped to fund the production of the effect or provided some cash-flow for those in the supply chain. We realize our pre-ordering is enabling poor money management and perhaps even bringing poor quality magic to the market. No one would pre-order an effect described as ordinary or anything less than spectacular. Most magicians are happy to wait for the newest trick's arrival at their favorite magic outlet.
But the pre-order scenario works because the effect is described as something so wonderful, unique, novel, and new that the demand is likely to outstrip supply. Magicians cannot wait to purchase the effect on the day it debuts on store shelves – it may not be there.
We have a policy of not criticizing magicians or magic tricks. There are plenty of places on the web for snark and haters (or "snaters" or "harks"). Post a message to any one of the major magic forums asking for help or offering an opinion. Within seconds, a fire-fight of nastiness and sarcasm (complete with bad spelling and not good grammar) will appear in the post position immediately below your earnest comment.
We resist the urge to join the poorly thought out screeds because it is ultimately exhausting. We have a very limited ability to hate or question another magician's integrity or intelligence. Soon, we are disgusted with our own words and intemperate actions and need a shower or at least a good wet wiping (if that is the proper verb form for use of the moist towelettes we have collected from Kentucky Fried Chicken locations across this great land).
So, we won't name the names of those fortunate magicians and magic stores who have taken our pre-order money months in advance of the closest thing to real magic only to deliver a poorly edited PDF document teaching either something we already knew or something we would never use.
The fault, dear Caesar, lies not in the stars but in ourselves. We continue to fall for the promises of nearly miraculous results through use of a hitherto undiscovered magic principle as used by the inventor for the last thirty years, in thousands of shows.
Logic is lost when we are caught up in the moment. How could it be a tried and true effect honed by decades of real-world performances and yet be "hitherto unknown?" Perhaps the inventor lacks publicity skills and no one attended the shows held over the last quarter century? Maybe the inventor or distributor is puffing? Maybe we should think before we drop good cash on a promise of something we know does not exist?
Hank Lee's thoughts on the pre-order issue are refreshing. He provides a take from the perspective of a magic dealer.
I have been in this business of magic for 36 years. I remember when dinosaur magicians roamed the earth. Back in the olden days, we somehow managed without pre-orders. We sold items that had actually come into stock before they were advertised; or, within a few days of being advertised. It seems intrinsically sound business practice.
So why do magic dealers buck the sound business practice to offer promises in exchange for real money combined with a high likelihood of customer frustration and disappointment?
Recent Comments