Saturday, September 13, 2014

The Magic Detective Show Season 2 Episode 4

On this weeks episode I share some old Victorian Style Magic. The effect was known as The Magnetized Cards and is a very cool routine that uses cards in a none pick a card fashion. Also, I'll be showing another one of my magician figurines.

Enjoy!


Sunday, September 7, 2014

The Magic Detective Show Season 2 Ep 3

It's time for another episode of the weekly, or semi-weekly, Magic Detective Youtube Show, the five minute online magic history show. This week, I share a new acquisition with you, a piece of apparatus that comes from the book Modern Magic by Prof. Hoffmann. Also, I share one of the large statues from the collection of magician figures! In the coming weeks, I hope to share material from the various Prof. Hoffmann books, as well as Greater Magic, the Tarbell Course and more.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The Houdini Miniseries-A Tale of Two Movies


I'll begin by throwing all my cards on the table.....This is the movie that could have been and should have been the greatest Houdini movie of all time. I think all of us in the magic community had very high hopes, maybe too high. With the History Channel's track record of fine productions, we certainly expected to get a quality film. Did we? Read on.

As far as acting, set design, costuming, cinematography, all very well done. Some of the attention to detail was incredible, like the recreation of Houdini Posters with Adrien Brody's image.  As far as the story, that's where the wheels come off. The story on Night 1 was so full of errors and fabrications I was truly stunned. But then Night 2, though it still had a few errors, the movie was so much closer to the true story. It was almost as if they had been written by different people.

I'm puzzled by the copying of material from the Tony Curtis/Houdini movie. That movie was mostly fabricated, but still fun. And a number of the elements of that movie find their way into this movie. For example, the wedding night/bedroom scene where Houdini has his wife climb into a box. In the Tony Curtis movie Bess gets into a sawing in half box. In the Adrien Brody movie, Bess gets into a trunk, and it's a little unclear why.

The Original Under Ice Scene
Later in the film there is a bathroom scene where Houdini is in a tub of ice, this is straight out of the Tony Curtis movie. And the whole under the ice escape scene is borrowed as well. In Tony Curtis movie Houdini claims he heard his mother's voice and that is how he found the hole in the ice. In the Adrien Brody movie, same thing. The only difference was in the Curtis movie it was the Detroit River and a packing case escape. In the Brody movie, it was the Mississippi and a Bridge Jump.

There seemed to be less borrowing of ideas on Night 2. But there was some real glossing over of things, like Houdini's film career. It was there and gone very quickly and didn't get the amount of air time it deserved. His exposure shows were not even featured. They did show him at seances proving the mediums were faking things, but that's where it stops. In real life Houdini added the exposure of mediums to his show and from all accounts it was loved by audiences. OH and Theo, man he got the crap end of the deal, almost no air time. As for Houdini's other siblings, not a word.

Then there were some real gems in the movie as well. The scene with Houdini and his doctor near the end, wow. The scene with the Lady Doyle Seance was really quite enthralling. The scene featuring the Cannon Escape, excellent.

So where does that leave me? I didn't really like Night 1 at all. But Night 2 I really enjoyed. Now, please understand, I was watching night one through the eyes of a magician and Houdini historian. Night 2 my expectations were lowered and to my surprise, Night 2 was really quite good except for one thing. I felt a little disappointed when the movie didn't run the full two hours. I understand there is close to 30 minutes of additional footage on the DVD, but I would like to have seen it tonight.

Despite the fact I didn't care for the first nights showing, I can tell you I was in the minority. The movie had huge viewership and those are average everyday lay people.

The Houdini Bloggers saw their number of views shoot up greatly. I think John Cox with WildaboutHoudini.com was in first place hands down with 50,000+ views. I had around 10,000 views and Tom Interval reported he had an increase but didn't reveal any numbers. I'm sure the other Houdini bloggers also saw an increase of traffic on their sites so that is good.

OH, last night before the movie aired, there was an episode of Pawn Stars where Gay Blackstone was featured trying to pawn one of the original(?) Blackstone Vanishing Cages. My article on the Vanishing Bird Cage received 2000 views last night.

I spent a couple hours at lunch today with a friend who couldn't stop talking about Houdini and he is not a magician. Again, great sign. I'm really looking for all the positives from this movie at this point. I'm very grateful for the History Channel for putting this movie together, for the incredible Houdini-like publicity campaign and for all the magic-tie in commercials. The marketing department at A&E did a great job.

Yes, the movie could have been better, but it was not a total loss. Night two did a lot to salvage the movie from a magic history perspective. Remember, the History Channel wasn't making a Houdini Documentary, nor were they making this movie for the magic community. This was for the lay people and by all accounts the lay folks LOVED IT! The movie can only be good for magic and for Houdini's memory. As far as the falsehoods, well that's why the Houdini historians are out there to correct the record.

Finally,  WWHT? What Would Houdini Think? I tend to think, with the exception of a couple scenes, he would have loved the movie. Afterall, he was the original fabricator of Houdini stories!!!!!

Now in the words of Bess Houdini, "The Zero Hour Has Past....I now reverently Turn Out the Light...Good-Night Harry."

UPDATE: Watch for an upcoming issue of The Linking Ring because I took this article and expanded on it for the magazine.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

The 30 Days of Houdini Celebration is Now Complete

Well, looks like I pulled it off. 30 Days of articles on Houdini. And actually, there were more than 30
articles. Sure, some were fairly light fair, but I also gave some meat in the mix. It sure was fun and it sure put my Houdini skills to the test, both as a researcher and actually as an escape artist. You see, there was something you didn't get to see. During the filming of The Magic Detective, I did a multi-handcuff escape. There were 8 pair of cuffs on my wrists and a pair of thumbscrews clamping my thumbs down. I have not done an actual escape for several years because I had an unusual injury (not related to escaping) that resulted in me being on blood thinning medication. So escapes were out.

But I picked it back up for this one time. I must tell you it felt pretty good and was also a little painful. The darbies I have are really too small for me now and dug into my wrists. The escape went really well. Later in the evening when I went to edit the footage I discovered the handcuff escape was not there. In fact, more than half of the video footage I shot was missing. I apparently must have forgotten to shut off the camera after one of the sequences and then every time I went to shoot a new one, I was actually turning the camera OFF! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGH!!!

I would have reshot it, but instead chose to let you see the Steel Straitjacket routine from my old Underground Magic Theatre. I'm going to save the handcuff escape for a later date. You see, this is not the last of my Houdini Marathons. I have had plans for some time to do a number of them. The next one will begin sometime in the Spring and will be VERY different from this one. So keep your eyes and ears open for news.

To complete the month, below is the 4 minute trailer for tomorrow's History Channel 2 Part HOUDINI Miniseries. Thank you for reading my 30 Days of HOUDINI and enjoy the trailer and tomorrow, let's all hope for a Fantastic Night of HOUDINI MOVIE MAGIC!!!!

To check out all the 30 Days of Houdini articles, follow this link http://www.themagicdetective.com/search/label/30%20days


The Magic Detective Show Season 2 Ep 2

A special treat for the 30 Days of Houdini is a new episode of The Magic Detective. The show is a semi-regular weekly video blog on magic history, typically the episodes run about 5 minutes. This episode has two Houdini items and then finishes with an ESCAPE.

My interest in magic began with the Tony Curtis Houdini movie and one of the things that always stuck out to me in that movie was his Steel Straitjacket. I thought it was such a cool looking prop and a little over ten years ago I had to opportunity to have one made. My jacket routine evolved over time from the type of routine done in the movie to more of a true escape. The current version, is more intense than the one on this video, but I thought you might like to see it just the same. Enjoy!