Early this morning, we received word from Inside Magic Favorite Dean Gunnarson, that things did not go as planned in his planned escape from the tracks of a speeding roller-coaster in Beijing.  

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The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) broke the news — at least to us — that a night club in Las Vegas has implemented holographic technology to create a “virtual strip club.”

The dancing girls in Lolita’s Cantina and Tequila bar may look real enough, but in reality they’re conjured out of thin air using holographic technology. The entertainment in the bar, owned by veteran nightclub developer Eric DeBiasi, is created using the same technology used by Damon Albarn’s virtual band the Gorillaz and Live Earth Tokyo to project former US vice President Al Gore onto the stage.

No more dressing rooms, stench of flop-sweat, or real-world salaries.  The performer appears real but can be brought to the stage whenever the whim hits.

Digital Illusions, the company behind the technology, says that the DJ will have total control over both the music and the dancing, creating a seamless audiovisual performance that will look totally realistic to the audience.

“Imagine having a library of hundreds or thousands of clips of entertainers, magicians, comedians, dancers,” asked one of the Digital Illusions folks in a rhetorical fashion.

“Each one is ready to perform at a moment’s notice. Each one is surrounded by special effects and magical appearances and disappearances. But most importantly, each one looks totally real.”

Why the possibilities abound.  You could do six or seven birthday parties at one time.  Magic Club lectures could happen over and over and over — if such was the desire of the club.

Yes, the equipment to build a holographic stage is expensive but the price will drop.  Remember when calculators cost $17,200.00 and took up an entire room?  Remember how back in those days, you would have to literally turn the entire room of computer equipment upside down to show friends that the letters 9009 was a secret word produced by the calculator?

Now a days, kids have the processing power twice that necessary to get man to the  moon in their hand-held gaming devices.  In fact, Neal Armstrong was recently quoted as saying if the Nintendo DS was around when he was a kid, he never would have made it to the moon.  He would have set his sights on mastering the dual-screen DS classic Mario Kart.  ”We never dreamed we could control cartoon monkey race car drivers to throw banana peels in the way of Italian plumbers or fair anime princesses.”

Surprisingly, it was Skylab that demonstrated 45 days of weightless living has the same atrophying effect as being addicted to video games.  ”But,” says Bob Grayson, “and this is a big but; the men and women in Skylab were still involved in a pursuit of knowledge and experienced things beyond our terrestrial dreams.”

Mr. Grayson knows that’s a big but and he wants to keep kids from learning the hard way.

We asked Mr. Grayson what he thought of the virtual nightclub idea.  Would it hurt society in the same manner as video games or celebrity survival shows?

“No.  Society will reject a virtual magician without much question.  How would the audience know if any of the effects performed are real or camera tricks.”

Good point.  It would have the same impact as watching a televised street magician perform.

So once again, we learn that what is good for the strip-tease industry doesn’t necessarily help advance the cause of Magic.  Just like when Li’l Tom Hardy tried to steal Sally Rand’s feathered fan as an emergency replacement for his damaged Super Botania, the needs of strippers and magicians diverge at the intersection of concealment and exposure.

It sounded much better when we heard that last statement in our mind.  Of course when we heard it echoing in our noggin, it was in the voice of Jim Nabors of Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. and Mayberry R.F.D. and preceded by the trademarked phrase, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!” 

What are your thoughts on this important development in theater?

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We don’t usually plug our sales on eBay.

Most of the time we are selling horrible goods with starting prices well above what any rational person would pay, to which we tack on incredibly inflated shipping charges.

Remember when we were selling our knock-off of Nickels to Dimes made out of kiln-hardened clay? We don’t think many of those even made to the buyers in one piece.

Who could forget our Pen thru Anything rip-off described as “the Original” because it used a quill instead of a ball point pen?

If it hadn’t been for those pesky game wardens, we’d still be selling that trick.

We thought the Bald Eagle would stand for capitalism and understand our need for his feathers.

Well, today we listed a good friend on eBay.

Dusty the Dragon is leaving the act and we wish him well. He is a smoke-breathing dragon puppet made by Axtell Studios and used in our Kid Show act. The kids loved him. They were always excited and shocked when he would blow smoke out of his nose.

We had a wonderful time together but decided the time had come to go separate ways. We hope a young magician or ventriloquist will pick him up. He deserves to stay in the business.

We had him made with all the upgrades – the smoke package and arm control. He cost us close to $600.00 but we started the bidding at $28.88 without reserve and we’ll ship him free anywhere in the U.S.

You can check him out on eBay here.

We’re going to return to our fetal position and sobbing corner now.

 Robin Leach goes full bore with a virtual open house tour of Criss Angel’s new home in Nevada.

Nicknamed Serenity, Robin Leach describes it blithely as “inspired by an Old World Tuscan castle, Criss Angel’s extraordinary 22,000-square-foot home is a breathtaking 2 1/2-acre mountaintop paradise with spectacular views of the mountains and the entire Las Vegas Strip.”

How nice is it?

Well, The Association of Pool and Spa professionals named his 22,000 square-foot pool and spa as one of the “Top Five Most Beautiful Residential Pools in America, and it won the Gold International Award.”

We assume the award was for in-ground pools.  Our uncle Ben Hardy has one of the nicest above-ground pools in all of Michigan replete with a faux wooden deck that circles half of the dark blue plastic backyard oasis, two ladders, and a custom built twisty slide attached firmly to the decking and painted with bright red Rustoleum for years of enjoyment.

Robin Leach says Criss Angel’s new abode is the largest in his “triple guard-gated community

overlooking the Las Vegas Valley.” 

Does that mean he has three guards or three gates?  Language ambiguities vex us like nobody’s body lice.

Robin Leach breathlessly wrote about the bedroom in Serenity.  One gets to Criss Angel’s bedroom by following a path adjacent to the sculpture garden. 

“Walk along the exterior gardens called Whimsical Way (although he spells it differently) and gaze upon the priceless sculptures, and you’ll come to his master mega-spectacular, a 3,000-square-foot bedroom suite with phenomenal views and where his pet cat Hammie reigns over the exquisite dream estate. He probably knows more about the secret rooms than anybody else.”

One wonders how Criss Angel spells “Whimsical Way” differently.  Robin Leach gives us no help in the rest of his 2,000 word fluff piece.  Does Criss Angel spell “Whimsical” differently; or is it “Way”? 

We know the English spell “Way,” as W-H-E-Y.  Maybe that is only when they are writing about food eaten by arachnophobic maidens. 

We cannot think of a different way or whey to spell “Whimsical.”  That may be what separates us from the big time.  Our thinking is within the box; never venturing to the world outside its four walls where words are spelled differently and the pools are below ground.

We could continue on with a cynical screed on his proclamations that the large house, the millions, the celebrity mean nothing to him.  Family is the most important thing to Criss.  And yet, he lives alone in the 22,000 square-foot estate behind three gates or three guards on a differently spelled pathway working around the clock to improve his show.  But cynicism is a self-defeating approach to dealing with one’s own inadequacies – or something ridiculous like that.  We cannot recall what the fortune cookie said right now, but it was deep and heavy – like uncle Ben’s above-ground pool. 

He revealed to Robin Leach that “I didn’t get into magic to make millions or to be on TV. I got into magic to feel a sense of wonder, that feeling of gratification you get when you have that connection to the person you perform it for and the wonder that they feel.”

He promises 40 illusions for Believe this season.  That’s a lot of illusions for anyone.

But the illusions, the fans, the money, the cat, are not primary.  Criss Angel’s future is about giving back, says Robin Leach.

“I’ve been very blessed by the man upstairs. My future life will be about charity … that’s in the cards. I’m busier than I’ve ever been, but there will come a time when I’ll be able to work with more balance, smell the flowers and do things for others to make it a better life and a better world.”

Perhaps then the three gates or three guards will lose their importance.

In the meantime, Lance Burton will continue to pour his time and money into assisting children looking for protection, care, help, and even perhaps adoptive parents and Mac King will push on with his drive to help children read and send children to camp.

Read the full interview and the breath in the incredible slide show of photographs at the Las Vegas Sun.

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We received word last night that Glen Falkenstein, long-time partner and husband of Frances Willard passed away in a nursing facility on July 4th.

According to Dodd Vickers’ always informative The Magic Newswire and a bulletin from Alan Watson, Mr. Falkenstein’s death was due to advanced Alzheimer’s disease after a very brief stay in a nursing facility.

Mr. Vickers has included a heart-breaking note from a friend of the great performer.  Apparently Mr. Falkenstein suffered for years as the disease took his memory and memories.  Mr. Falkenstein hid his illness through feigned recollection of people and events.  Less than two weeks ago, Mr. Falkenstein was unable to recognize even a close friend and could no longer hide the true state of his health.

Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease that causes pain to so many in addition to the patient.   So many families have been affected by this unrelenting, wasting attack on that which we as humans treasure most, our memories.

We add our prayers to those offered around the world for Mr. Falkenstein’s family and loved-ones.  We met him and the beautiful Frances Willard after one of their performances.  He was gracious and incredibly charismatic.  He withstood our fusillade of effusive praise as if it was the first time he had heard such compliments from a fan within or outside of the magic community.

We will post information about any memorial service or preferred charity for donations in Mr. Falkenstein’s name.