Magician Daniel GreenWolf plans to be burned at the stake to promote the faire's opening.  

Actually, Mr. GreenWolf is hoping to escape before being consumed in flames before attendees. 

The event is set for  8:30 p.m. June 23. 

In an interview with the New Hampshire paper, he admitted the obvious up-front.  “It’s definitely a little stupid,” GreenWolf admitted in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s something that has been in my head for a very long time.”

As we know from our latest probation hearing, just because you think something, you don't need to do it.

Nonetheless, Mr. GreenWolf plans on being locked affixed to a 12-foot wooden stake on a raised platform in an open field.  He will be secured by more than 100 feet of chain, locks and rope.

Shortly after the binding, the logs and tinder at his feet will be doused in gasoline.  An ignition source in the form of a burning torch will be rigged with a "medieval-style timer" and set to fall on the platform when time has expired.  

While there will be folks with fire extinguishers surrounding the platform, it is unlikely they will be able to save the magician from serious injury should things go afoul. 

He admitted the plan is “crazy, but with a very specific message.”  Mr. GreenWolf claims inspiration comes from his study of magic history and stories of magicians burned at the stake just for doing their job. "They were wrongfully accused” of being warlocks.

The town's mayor and fire official were not able to comment on the stunt.  They were just hearing of Mr. GreenWolf's plans. 

Fire Marshal Ralph Tingley said he had not yet heard about the stunt. “(GreenWolf) needs to talk to me,” Tingley said. “I need to know what’s involved here.” He said state permits may be required.

Mr. GreenWolf said 10 percent of the event’s proceeds will go to the Against Malaria Foundation, which provides underdeveloped countries with much-needed supplies to combat malaria.

If you are in the area, you can check out the escape attempt as well as the The Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Faire on weekends from June 23 to July 8. 

Learn more about the Faire here: www.MFRenFaire.com.

Visit Mr. GreenWolf's excellent website here: www.greenwolfmagic.com

Former Nevada Lieutenant Governor, lounge singer and hall of fame member Lorraine Hunt-Bono presented the team their beautiful and pointy crystal trophies. Teller broke his silence to say "thanks" to the attendees.

Las Vegas Sun columnist John Katsilometes has deigned 2012 to be The Year of Penn:

I'd joked that 2012 was shaping up as the Year of Penn, given his ubiquitous-ness in the first 4 months of this year. Jillette even showed up at Marty Allen's 90th birthday party celebration at Palace Station on Saturday afternoon, joining a similarly odd collection of celebs and newsmakers onstage at Louie Anderson Theater that included Allen, Mayor Carolyn Goodman (presenting Allen with a key to the city), former mayor Oscar Goodman, Anderson and Allen's wife, Karon Kate Blackwell.

It does seem Penn is appearing in more places and garnering more television time. We have seen him on political talk shows, British stump the magician series and of course The Celebrity Apprentice. He survived last night's episode and thus continues his fund-raising for Opportunity Village, a Las Vegas foundation providing vocational training for our fellow citizens with intellectual disabilities.

"If I worked all the time I was on 'Celebrity Apprentice,' and gave all that money instead to Opportunity Village (laughs), they would do better," he says. "But I give them a lot of attention, no question about that, I have raised awareness. So you can't be too cynical about it."

Penn & Teller continue to entertain capacity crowds at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and offer the best magic per dollar spent in town.

The advertising consultants we've consulted unanimously agree the best type of advertisement is also the toughest to create, word of mouth. 

We were impressed by the praise heaped upon Inside Magic Favorite Mac King in a pithy review posted on Trip Advisor this morning. 

Under the title, “Better than David Copperfield” a traveler from the Midwest penned just a few sentences that likely has more power than any paid-for advertisement Mr. King could muster.

Mac King, who looks like a blonde Paul McCartney, is much more genuine and entertaining than David Copperfield, who comes off as jaded and almost contemptuous of his audience. I laughed at King's silly jokes in spite of myself because he seemed like such a nice guy. This show is definitely worth the money and time spent. Go see it!

We hate to see two fantastic magicians compared against each other in this way and hope that readers of the Trip Advisor site are able to overlook this poster's negative impressions of  Mr. Copperfield's act.  Not to sound too much like your mother, but we love both acts and each magician equally.  They are each special.

Additionally, we never saw Mac King as a "blonde Paul McCartney" but have noticed that each time we have seen his show at Harrah's in Vegas, Paul McCartney was not to be seen.  We're not saying this is like a "Dancing Bear – Captain Kangaroo" situation where the Captain would always just miss seeing the much-heralded dancing bear thus leading some to suggest that it was the Captain within the costume.  Still, it seems more than a coincidence and perhaps this citizen poster has a point. 

We have taken the liberty of requesting DNA from Paul McCartney and will compare it with that which we have sampled from a goldfish we perloined from Mac King's show.  Once we have the former Beatle's scrapings, we will post the results. 

If Paul McCartney provides a sufficient amount of DNA, we will divide it into smaller bits and sell it on eBay to pay for the rather expensive DNA Comparator 3000 Plus we purchased for this journalistic investigation.  Why not just sell the DNA Comparator 3000, some may ask.  

We intend to obtain and compare the DNA of several pairs of very similar people for our new, non-magic website, SamePersonOrWhat.com. On our list:  Miley Cyrus and Hanna Montana, the Lindsay Lohan looking twins in Parent Trap, Dr. Evil and Austin Powers, and a former girlfriend and the woman who rented the single-wide across from the Inside Magic double-wide and stares intently through bent and broken blinds. 

You can read all of the reviews of Mac King written by uncompensated, real-life audience members at Trip Advisor here: Better than David Copperfield – Review of Mac King Comedy, Las Vegas, NV – TripAdvisor.

Check out Mac King's web site here: http://www.mackingshow.com

And visit the equally great David Copperfield here: http://www.davidcopperfield.com

We live by few rules as magician / magic writer persons. ; First, "if it bleeds, it leads." ; The shocking and graphic stories go to the front of the line. ; In this way, we are very much like Disney World. ; The more grotesque or disgusting a person is (either in mannerisms or odor) the more likely he or she will be permitted to cut ahead of others standing in the Florida Sun. ;

Our second rule gets us in trouble, sometimes. ; “When in doubt, don’t leave it out.” ; Some news sources will pass on stories that have only a single source, seem self-serving or seem highly unlikely. ;

If it wasn’t for Inside Magic, you would never know what got passed over. ; We publish the stuff others won’t because they have “standards” or insist on “some basis in reality.” ; Not this major magic periodical. ; If it wasn’t for this policy, none of the following would have found a voice on the endless maze of copper tubing we call the internets.

1. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; President: Magic Will Be Criminalized

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; This seemed within the realm of possible when we printed it several years ago. ; Our source assured us that the hobby and profession enjoyed by millions was about to be made illegal and practitioners would face jail time. ; Imagine how embarrassed we were to learn that the headline was technically true but just barely. It was the president of a local fraternal lodge that made the statement. ; And that he actually said, “Magic should be taught to criminals as a practical skill to boost self-esteem and confidence.” ; Whether he intended jail birds to learn escape techniques is still the subject of litigation and debate within the lodge.

2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Ching Ling Foo: Not Who He Seemed

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; For pure volume, this article should rank high on our Google search results. ; Unfortunately, we were wrong. ; Ching Ling Foo was actually a magician from China and not really Billy Robinson, former assistant to Kellar and Thurston. ; Mr. Robinson used the derivative name Chung Ling Soo to hide his Anglo identity and perform until he was killed performing the Bullet Catching Trick – not the Cups and Balls as we also erroneously reported. ; We agree now that it did not make sense that a person could be killed when his or her Cups and Balls routine went “Horribly Wrong” and that we should not have guessed at what happened.

;

3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; David Blaine’s Box Falls: Kills Paul McCartney and Others

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; We had to go with it. ; Yes, we could have immediately verified the story by looking at the live web cam showing every second of the 44 days of boredom induced and experienced by the American magician’s endurance test. ; But we were writing from our phone ; while waiting in line at the 7-11 convenience store. ; We note that several of the letters in Mr. Blaine’s name alone take forever to type out on a cellphone key pad. ; We were lucky to get the story out at all. ;

4. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Blindfold Drive Test Ends in Tragic Failure

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; We admit now that we just made up the entire story. ; We thought it would catch the attention of the readers and get us some notoriety. ; It did and so it was sort-of successful. ; Looking back, we think we should not have used real names and places to describe the accident because it was so easily debunked. ; Still, for a good 45 minutes, we were the buzz of the web and everyone was clicking to Inside Magic to read more about Lindsay Lohan’s wild romp around the hills along the Malibu coast whilst donning a blindfold and the sudden and unfortunate end to said romp when her car plowed into several parked and occupied luxury vehicles. ; As it turned out, the accidents did happen as described but Ms. Lohan was not wearing a blindfold at the time.

6. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Six Card Repeat Record Set at 1,002

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; This one was sort of true and sort of false. ; Local Mystic Hollow magician and annoyance, Tony “Pull My Finger” Spain announced he would set the record for performing the famed Six Card Repeat by breaking the previous mark of ten repetitions. ; The rules were established by the Guinness World Records people; the magician must perform in a business suit or similar ensemble, no assistants may come within five feet of the performer, no tables or free-standing props could be on the stage at the time of the attempt, and the final iteration had to show six individual cards. ; Mr. Spain began with a fist-full of what he represented were six cards and began in earnest. ; We left after three iterations because we have a life. ; ; As the story noted, we do not have independent verification that the record was broken or that the new record was 1,002 iterations because apparently no one stayed around to watch, much less count. ; A check this morning of the Guinness World Records site shows no entry for this particular stunt so we guess even the judges couldn’t bear to stay in attendance. ;

7. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Dove Droppings: The Secret to Long Life

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; There is an ingredient in dove or pigeon droppings that, if taken in moderation, can lower cholesterol and help kidney function. ; So that much of the story was true. ; Of course, that ingredient needs to be distilled out of the fecal matter collected before ingesting. ; We thought that was obvious and did not need to be included in our short article on the subject. ; We were wrong, sue us. ; Actually, many did. ; Fortunately, we have no money or personal possessions so the lawsuits came to naught. ; We are very lucky to be impecunious. ;

8. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Politician Killed in Bullet Catch Trick Gone Wrong

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; This was very early in our publishing career. ; The politician was Abe Lincoln and we assumed it was an attempted performance of the Bullet Catching Trick because the trigger man was famous stage actor John Wilkes Booth and the event happened in a theater. ; Given those facts, anyone would assume President Lincoln was trying his hand at stage magic and got his signals mixed. ; We agree that having made this incredible blunder, we should have second-guessed our subsequent story about James A. Garfield’s assassination but we thought the headline wrote itself and we had a big void on the front page. ; At the time, Inside Magic was a printed periodical distributed at railway stations throughout the United States. ; Imagine our chagrin when it turned out President Garfield was shot in one of the train stations that carried Inside Magic. ; Talk about ironic. ;

9. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Roughing Fluid Cures Baldness

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; The story made sense. ; Roughing fluid does amazing things and if the reason someone was bald was because their head was too smooth or slick, the popular magician’s liquid would make one’s dome good and rough. ; As it turns out, the reason people are bald is almost never because their heads are too shiny or smooth. ; We stand by our story, though, for those who suffer baldness due to the admittedly very rare condition of lubricus caputus or “slick scalp.”

10. ; ; ; ; ; ; Copperfield’s Air Sickness Ends Vegas Run

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Someone had told us that world-famous illusionist David Copperfield had a very sensitive inner-ear. ; It did not seem much of a stretch that while performing his incredible “Flying” illusion, he could become nauseous and void his stomach contents whilst levitating over the expensive seats at a major Las Vegas theater. ; The animation that accompanied the article was produced by an off-shore creative studio and was too graphic. ; It went further than our actual made up article with the vivid images of the great magician hurling with apparent deadly accuracy on the patrons below. ; As a professor at MIT noted, “your cartoon is not only disgusting but also illogical. ; Assuming he was propelled in directions by the expulsion of emesis, he would have moved in an opposite direction from the stream, not towards it. ; Check out Newton’s Third Law of Motion (‘for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’).” ;

We received the sad news today.  This was one of the best conventions on the calendar.

Dear Friends:

The Columbus MAGI-FEST has had a great run of 80 years (81 conventions). And while we hoped to see the 100th, for now we’ve decided it’s time to retire the convention.

This decision did not come easily; there were several factors. The Redcoats have a strong friendship—we are like a second family to each other. We’ve all watched our kids (and even some grandkids) grow up at MAGI-FEST, and we thank you for being a part of their lives and for the wonder that we and they got to experience these many years. We finished the convention in the black, able to pay all our bills and refund money to those who pre-registered for 2013.

While we wanted to have our 82nd convention in 2013, we decided to change those plans after further reflection. We see some potential headwinds that could affect the quality and financial health of future conventions. These include:

Long-time, loyal attendees who are aging out faster than younger registrants are coming in

The downturn in the economy over the past few years

Financial pressure on the convention due to increasing costs and insurance requirements, while keeping registration, food, and lodging costs affordable to attendees

We are all very sad to retire MAGI-FEST, but we want to do so on our terms as a quality, family-friendly convention, at an affordable price, that was fair to all who participated.

We also wish to thank our wonderful staff: Tony Dolciato, Randal Fath, Mike Heniken, Steven Kline, the Krech kids, Glenn Mackie, Red Penley, and Mike Sanderson. We appreciate their tireless dedication and support more than they know. They are the ones who made it happen at “show time”.

Thank you again for all your support, love, and friendship for these many years. We hope our paths will cross again in the future and that perhaps we’ll see many of you at other magic-related events.

With warmest regards,

The Board of Directors of the Columbus Magic Club, Inc.