I doubt that I’m the only one that gets distracted when cleaning up the magic pile. Today I was organising my DVDs and decided to take a break at look at one of the Johnny Thompson videos – #2. For some reason, I wasn’t thrilled when I first watched this series, even though I’m a huge fan of his. When I brought up the menu of performances, I was intrigued to see what Trumph was.  It may seem obvious reading this, but it never occurred to me that it was a simple misspelling.

Anyway, Johnny described it as the perfect card trick. After watching him perform and explain it, I tend to agree. I’ve been using John Bannon’s Play It Straight Triumph recently,  but I believe I’ll go practice my Strip-Out Shuffles and put the Vernon classic back in my working repertoire.

If you haven’t seen it recently, pull out this DVD and enjoy a classic in the true sense of the word.

Take care……… 
 

Everybody’s A Critic

This is my best buddy and magic watcher. I’m lucky to be able to take him to work with me every day. Normally, whatever I do is OK with him, UNTIL I pull out the wand. He’s learned, from experience, that when the old man starts practising his wand spins, the floor is no place to be.

Invariably, I find him huddled under the desk or in the corner until I’m done. He finds card tricks boring, but safer.

Unfortunately, when I start doing card tricks I find the human spectators huddled in the corner…..

In a recent post I was urging everyone to grab Steve Cohen’s Win the Crowd, while it is cheap and readily available. 

To whet your appetite for the kind of advice he offers, here are his Maxims of Magic:

1. Be Bold
2. Expect Success
3. Don’t State—Suggest
4. Practice, Practice, Practice
5. Be Prepared

There’s nothing ground breaking or revolutionary here, quite obviously, but his approach and expansion of these ideas is eye opening. For instance, wait until you read his method on learning boldness. Quite clever.

Take my advice and run this book down.

Take care……… 
 

Why does this hobby / business / profession / art….. attracts so many self aggrandizing, pompous and just plain mean jack asses? 

Take care……… 
 

Answer

Yeah – me too.

Many, many moons ago The Great Ballantine appeared to be breaking out of his magic buffoon act and performed a beautiful floating ball effect – complete with music, hoop and graceful movements. He received genuine and appreciative applause from the audience. Towards the end of the routine, he reached in his pocket – pulled out a pair of scissors and cut the string. Of course, the ball fell to the ground. Ballantine’s statement? How else!

You can read all about James Cheung’s ripoff of Richard Osterlind’s Psychic Control in a number of magic blogs. There seems to be little doubt that he was aware of Osterlind’s creation prior to the release of Moveo.

In all honesty, “how else” was exactly the reaction I had when I saw it performed on Mind Mysteries Too – Volume 5. It was no great mystery. At least I didn’t think so. Of course Osterlind managed to wring every bit of entertainment possible out of the routine and – SURPRISE – the L&L audience went into orgasmic palpatations.

My point? If Cheung wanted to rip something off, Osterlind has better stuff than this.

If you’re gonna pilfer, man, make it worth your time. All you got out of this was a bad reputation and a copy of a lame trick!

Take care………

Software time:

I’m on the computer many hours a day and there are a few pieces of software that I find indispensable. One of these is Evernote. A random access note pad. I can’t imagine going to forums, participating in news groups and general browsing without having Evernote available. It sits quietly in the background and is ready to capture anything you like. Just right click and you send it there. Later you can classify the note in one or many ways. It’s a little hard to describe.

Drop by the site and check it out. It’s truly free. You won’t be disappointed.

As I’ve said before, most of the magic blogs are pure crap – this one included. The only serious journalism has always come from John LeBlanc at Escamoteurettes. John’s articles are always well researched and intelligently written, unlike this spittle most of us spew with little thought.

Anyway, John’s blog had not been updated for quite a while and I was afraid he’d moved on to more intellectual pursuits. Thankfully, I was wrong. His latest article just hit and it’s a beauty.

John discusses Richard Osterlind’s allegations that James Cheung stole his Psychic Control and issued the ripoff as MoveO. From what I’ve read and seen, there can be little doubt about the parentage here, but read John’s article for the full story.

From my perspective, I can definitively say Cheung is an ass hole. All you have to do is read his reply on Osterlind’s blog where he refers to him as a delusional, insecure old man to see that. Dipping into the sewage and name calling that quickly, certainly solidifies my take on his character. Cheung shows his originality, by using the clever ROTFLMAO and then If you think I ’stole’ ‘your’ idea, sue me. FWIW (see I know Internet acronyms too) I think Cheung is an unoriginal and unimaginative buffoon, but I may be just another delusional old man.

Take care……… 
 

A strange theory

I received a private email wondering why I persist in dumping on Mein Brooks at the Cafe’. It’s worth exploring, I guess.

When I was a sophomore in college, I was assigned an art major as a roommate for a semester. We had nothing in common, but got along OK.

The first thing he put up on the wall was a LARGE nude pin-up of Mama Cass Elliot – the lead singer and the sound of The Mamas and the Papas. For those that don’t know, Cass Elliot went about 3 bills. Very frankly, she was not one of those fat women that had a pretty face and would look good if the lost a couple hundred pounds. She was just butt ugly. Thank heavens she was on her stomach and it was just her large, flabby tattooed ass staring me in the face every morning. I guess it could have been worse. It was another semester before I could sexually function normally…. I still have periodic nightmares flashing back to that terrible visage.

Maybe this is where I developed my fear and loathing of large, ugly things. Possibly, but I don’t think so. I believe it is the morality passed from my father that causes me to fight self righteous jack asses that exhibit no sense of fairness in their dealings with others.

Who knows……

My general feelings about the Cafe’ are probably best expressed graphically: 

There was a time I checked into their hallowed hallways at least once a day, but over time I grew weary of that pompous ass Brooks (and that’s a LOT of pomposity) and the generally sour mood that permeated the groups. I now stop by on most weekends and browse a little, but that’s it. I no longer post – actually I can’t since I am banned – just read a few areas.

His attempt to create internal blogs, called The Buffet, has been, to put it kindly, a disaster. As I write this, Paul Chosse hasn’t posted since August, Brooks and Curtis Kam haven’t posted since early November. Even Bill Palmer hasn’t posted in over a week, which is a lifetime for him.

In January of this year Brooks added:

Magic Friday by Jamie D. Grant
Every Friday a trick will be taken out into the real world – Read here for a complete review.

I don’t know Jamie Grant, but I do know you’ll find some of the best reviews I’ve seen in a long time in his column. Not only are his reviews spot on, but his choice of material is excellent. Tricks like:

• Ringer
• Signed Torn and Restored Post-It Note
• Torn and Restored Transpo
• Hundy 500
• Ultimate Three Card Monte

as well as others are covered and covered well.

Jamie, at least publicly, seems to have not caught the superiority virus that seems to afflict most of the staff. I hope that continues. It’s damn refreshing.

If you can stand the stench that is the Cafe’, I highly recommend this diamond in a pile of insufferable manure.

Take care………