Here is a fun idea. Our pal Dezrah, who more than sacrificed for the site by submitting his own derpy magician photo for mockery now has asked a favor.

Care to help a magician in a time of need?

A few hours ago, I got a call from a local venue asking if I would be interested in opening for Garbage. Yes, that Garbage… I’ve been a professional performer for a few years now, working colleges, burlesque shows, neo-vaudville, etc.

This is entirely outside my wheelhouse.

Since you guys were so incredibly helpful when one of our peers got the chance to be on Ellen, I thought I could reach out to you all.

If you have experience bringing your show in front of a rock audience, what mistakes should I avoid? What’s the best way to convert a cabaret-style show with a lot of talking to a high-impact show that will let me survive a group that’s there to see Shirley Manson?

In short, how do I turn a geek magician into a rockstar…literally overnight?

Thanks for all of your help!

LEAVE YOUR ADVICE IN THE COMMENTS!

Did you know there is a magic film on Kickstarter? Did you know it looks really good? Did you know that it has already been funded to the tune of $20,000?

If you didn’t don’t feel bad, we didn’t either.

Find out how Harris III made such a big splash in such a tiny community without any one knowing about it. In fact, hear why he was reluctant to alert the magic community about his project at all.

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The current craze surrounding magics insight into science has yielded a television show. Objective Productions, who’ve produced magic content for Derren Brown as well as Barry & Stuart, sold nine 30-minute episode of series entitled “Magic of Science”.

It is described thusly…

The 9 x 30-minute Magic of Science (working title) will use the laws of science to “reverse engineer” tricks to show how they are done.

The tricks are yet to be finalised, but the show could demonstrate, for example, how a person is seemingly transported between rooms, or how a car can be made to change shape and colour.

A group of magicians is also being recruited to perform magic tricks through the show which will not be explained, and a large set-piece stunt will end each episode.

From what we can tell in the article, the show will air outside of the US initially but may make it’s way to our shore eventually.

In what we suspect is an act of pure coincidence, one of the performers on the forefront of the scientific study of sleight of hand is Apollo Robbins who starred in the American version of the Objective hit franchise The Real Hustle on TruTV some years back.

Part one…

Part two…

A graphic video showing Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy groping employees, grabbing their junk and squeezing their nipples is being shopped … TMZ has learned.

We have seen the video, and it’s extremely disturbing. Roy — who was mauled by a tiger in 2003 — has been going through rehab to strengthen his left side. But the physical therapists tell us, Roy’s right side is “extremely strong,” and the video clearly shows Roy sexually assaulting the male therapists.

The report goes on to describe the video. No word on if this is the same video that was rumored to be part of a sexual harassment lawsuit against Horn in 2010.

More on this as it develops…

From the mind of Cameron Francis comes solitary: A signed coin to impossible location that takes up almost no pocket space, is gimmick free and completely examinable. Imagine this, you produce a sealed cardboard coin holder and have it examined. A quarter is then borrowed and signed by the spectator on both sides. Suddenly, the coin visually appears inside the sealed coin holder. The coin holder is held at the finger tips, clearly displaying that the coin is suspended inside. The coin holder is then ripped open and the spectator can remove the coin. Everything is examinable.

On this DVD, Cameron teaches several routines with coin holders involving appearances, penetrations and transpositions. The effects are all easy to do, highly visual and completely examinable.

http://www.papercranemagic.com/solitary.htm

Harris III, a Tennessee based illusionist has surged past his $20,000 goal to replicate and distribute a DVD of his live act and a short film to accompany it. As you can see above, the film looks very good. On the Kickstarter page, Harris tell prospective donators that the project is already shot, mastered and edited. The additional funds are for the following:

We not only need to wrap up what we already have well underway, but in addition, investing up front in packaging, duplication, marketing, promotion, publicity, screenings, and a dozen more details that go along with releasing a project like this adds up to thousands and thousands of dollars that we don’t have. So, we need your help getting this project across the finish line!

It’s pretty amazing that a project that looks this good and raised this kind of money was under our radar until now. We wish Harris III the best!

What you see above are the Mach Bands. Notice the descending greyscale tiles. But look closer, notice how the side of each independent band appears slightly darker on the edge that touches the lighter shade tile? That is a quirk in our perception, in reality, each line is completely uniform in color.

io9 explains today how this is not an exclusively human phenomenon, but rather shared with most visual creatures. However, from a magic perspective, it’s very instructive.

How can you take advantage of this brain hack?

Pit Hartling was the first Vanishing Inc artist featured in a download. Now he is back with two ingenious and offbeat card miracles, both together for just ten dollars.

Strange Attractors: Pit’s take on Larry Jennnings’ The Searchers plot is a real fooler! Two cards eerily sink into the pack to sandwich a chosen card. Notice how Pit’s handling is so, so free and hands-off. He merely squares the cards and magic happens. The “attraction” happens in two phases, which is particularly smart.

Odd Men Out: To find two selected cards, the performer changes the pack into all red cards, and then all black cards. The illusion is perfect, and it is accomplished using little more than a two-handed fan and a faro shuffle. You get lots of mileage out of a basic yet subtle method.

GET IT HERE

The world tour continues for stacked magic compilation show The Illusionists. After a run in Australia, the show looks to swing down south hitting Mexico and South America in July.

Here are the details from Dan Sperry, one of the men on the tour:

The tour of Mexico will kick off on Thursday, July 12 at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, touted as the world’s largest theater with just under 10,000 seats. Sperry will perform through Sunday, July 22. From there he will travel to Monterrey where he will perform at the Auditorio Banamex from Thursday, July 26 through Sunday, July 29. His last stop prior to heading on to South America will be for audiences at the Teatro Diana in Guadlajara from Thursday, August 2 through Sunday, August 5. Tour locations and dates for South America to be announced.

The roster for this go round is as follows: Dan Sperry, Kalin & Jinger, Jeff McBride, Andrew Basso, Brett Daniels and Joaquin Kotkin. At right you can see a press conference held in Mexico City last week to announce the dates.

Here is the trailer for the show when it ran in Australia.

Apparently, he’s been kept in this box by Murray SawChuck!

Murray made the CNN veteran appear on stage for a Larry King Cardiac Foundation fund raiser. On the upside, it looks like he’s having more fun than Piers Morgan.

Here is a few interesting patter suggestions.

A pair of 1,600 year old black magic curses have been found, one each for a senator and an animal doctor named Procello who really gets cursed out.

“Destroy, crush, kill, strangle Porcello and wife Maurilla. Their soul, heart, buttocks, liver …” part of it reads. The iconography on the tablet actually shows a mummified Porcello, his arms crossed (as is the deity) and his name written on both of his arms.

And not to be left out, Fistus the senator…

“Crush, kill Fistus the senator,” part of the curse reads, “May Fistus dilute, languish, sink and may all his limbs dissolve …”

The curses are written in Latin and are believed to be directed toward the Greek goddess Hekate (at right). They were originally discovered in Italy in 2009.

A new study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience gives some new insight into why magic is effective, specifically citing a few performance elements you wouldn’t otherwise notice.

For example, the trajectory of Apollo Robbins hands…

One of the studies was initiated by professional magician Apollo Robbins, who believed that audience members directed their attention differently depending on the type of hand motion used. Robbins believed that if he moved his hand in a straight line while performing a trick the audience would focus on the beginning and end points of the motion, but not in between. In contrast, he believed if he moved his hand in a curved motion the audience would follow his hand’s trajectory from beginning to end.

Or Mac King’s lovable face…

They studied a popular coin-vanishing trick, in which King tosses a coin up and down in his right hand before “tossing” it to his left hand, where it subsequently disappears. In reality, the magician only simulates tossing the coin to the left hand, an implied motion that essentially tricks the neurons into responding as they would have if the coin had actually been thrown.

Although we probably didn’t need science to tell us that King and Robbins rule, it might put a kibosh on that mask routine with the big circular arm movements.

We’ve covered Simon Pierro before. His iOS routines have regularly proved to be extremely original and well executed. This is no different.

Pierro took to a Berlin beer hall to pour some suds for delighted drinkers.

Of course, the magic always better when the audience has had a few.

It should comes as no surprise that one of the judges viewing a wholesale rip off of Piff the Magic Dragon’s Fool Us routine on a Russian reality competition show totally busted him.

Her translated comments…

“there is a famous magician who works in the same costume with the same act but the only difference is that he has a little dog and you have a little guinea pig”

It’s not Kate Medvedeva first time judging magic, in fact, she served as a judge for the most recent FISM in 2009. You can check out her own cups and ball routine below.

Thank to our eagle eye FISM expert Tim Ellis who pointed this out in the comments of the original post.

Shot on an iPhone by Homer Liwag, this video demonstrates why Andrei Jikh is on the short list entitled “Best in the World: Cardistry”. Jikh freestyles some moves while riding backwards on a Las Vegas escalator.

Watch it here. Enjoy.

Usher performed on the Billboard Music Awards show in Vegas this Sunday and lo and behold, he couldn’t help but choreograph in a little magic. Check out the transformation at 1:27 of the performance.

To perfectly interweave a deck, that is shuffle the cards one-for-one, is by far one of the more challenging feats of our craft. Known as a faro, this form of perfect shuffle has many applications for the magician. However, if one were able to unmix the cards, that is separate them one-for-one, this could provide unparalleled support for new possibilities. The Anti-Faro, a concept devised by Christian Engblom, which accomplishes exactly what its name implies, is real and finally revealed.

The Anti-Faro is a groundbreaking discovery and a singular leap forward into the design and construction of effects utilizing the faro. It is no surprise Christian’s method for unshuffling the cards has reached legendary acclaim in recent years. Once thought impossible to achieve, the Anti-Faro has evolved mechanically from a concept to an efficient technique.

Whether you’re willing to challenge yourself to learn the Anti-Faro, or are simply curious about its potential, this video offers an in-depth course on everything from the inspiration and concept to the physics behind why and how it works. For those of you incredulous about its practicality, witness it executed perfectly several times over and discover how even a not-so-perfect Anti-Faro can be useful.

“When we first heard about the Anti-Faro we had little understanding of how it could work or if it were even possible. At the time, it was only being talked about and no one had seen it executed perfectly. We were adamant it could be done though and after two years of practice, we only began to experience near complete anti-faros.

Had we known what we know now, we could have become fluent in the Ant-Faro in just a few short months.”

Join Christian Englbom, Alex Pandrea and Paul Wilson in this one-hour session on the technique, theory, and applications of the Anti-Faro.

Available exclusively at www.dananddve.com

The Lottery Ticket by Nate Staniforth

As performed by David Blaine in his 2008 “Dive of Death” special on ABC:

In a theater, a banquet hall, a restaurant, a coffee shop, a street corner; the performer places a wallet in full view.

Six spectators are randomly selected, and each is asked to choose a number between one and fifty.

The performer opens the wallet and removes a lottery ticket. The numbers printed on the lottery ticket match the numbers selected by the spectators.

This is a miracle.

In The Lottery Ticket, Nate Staniforth explains every facet of the lottery illusion and provides the reader with all of the information necessary to perform it on the stage, from the platform, in a coffee shop, on the street, and in a number of other performance environments. The book covers the design, handling, theory, and philosophy that have gone into Nate’s creation and takes the reader step by step through the necessary preparations required to perform the effect.

The Lottery Ticket is limited to 150 copies for professional magicians and mentalists. It will never be reprinted.

www.thelotteryillusion.com

Rahat, he of the notorious magic pranks is at it again with a massive straw production from the bags of various fast food joints.

Penguin Magic has an interview with the straw man himself.