The Magic Detective on the Radio This Weekend!

This Sunday, January 18th at 10pm PST, 1am East Coast Time, I'll be interviewed by Jim Tyson for Spaced Out Radio. We'll be talking Magic History and probably a lot about Houdini. The good news is it will be available to listen to online after the initial broadcast.

Spaced Out Radio is a new online radio show dealing with the unknown. It's part of Blogtalkradio.com programming. You can find them at http://www.spacedoutradio.com

Another Forgotten Illusion-OH!

I am always astonished at the creativity of the old time magicians. Today when we think of illusions the first notion is some big box, which is usually correct. But the Victorian Magicians did not restrict themselves to mere boxes. In fact, the following is an example of very modern thinking, the props involved all look ordinary.

The illusion is called 'Mahatmas Outdone' and it was also known as 'OH!'. The basic effect is vanishing a person in a chair under challenge conditions. This was the co-creation of Charles Morrit and Nevil Maskelyne. According to two sources*, the effect first appeared at Egyptian Hall on September 29th, 1891. Oddly, the British Museum lists the date for the above poster as 1877. I think the date is incorrect on the part of the British Museum actually. Morrit would have been 17 years old in 1877 and as far as I can see, he didn't make his stage debut until 1878.

Interestingly, the Kellars Wonders book listed Harry Kellar as adding this trick to his act in three months after the Egyptian Hall debut. The book presumes that Kellar purchased the rights to the act as well as the rights to another routine he would add to his show.

Oh! is a remarkable illusion which requires the assistance of at least three people from the audience. The magicians assistant sits on a chair and places one wrist through a ring which is attached to a cord. The end of the cord is held by one of the audience helpers. The assistants other wrist is tied or buckled to the arm of the chair and then the curtain is lowered and the assistant can put their wrist through a hole in the curtain, thus allowing yet another audience helper to verify that the assistant within in still there. A sheet of metal was slid under the chair to prevent the person from going through some trapdoor.

When the magician gives the word, the volunteers raise the curtain, at the same time the hand that was being held is yanked inside the cabinet, but the second the curtain passes the height of the chair it's evident that the assistant is gone! Moments later the assistant reappears in the back of the audience! What an interesting trick. I love all these little convincers to prove that the person is still inside the curtained cabinet and then a second later, GONE!

The effect was presented by a number of different magicians at Egyptian Hall and later St. George's Hall. And of course, Harry Kellar used the effect to great success in the United States. There is a very cool poster of the Kellar OH! chair in the Kellars Wonders book. In addition, Howard Thurston also performed the OH! Chair Illusion.

UPDATE:
I hate when I send these things out before I've done all the work! I forgot to check one source and now I'm kicking myself because this source was full of information. You see, I knew that one of the OH! Chairs was in the possession of Mike Caveney. I remember seeing a photo of it in MAGIC Magazine. It might even have been accompanied by an article, I don't recall completely. At any rate, Mike's newest book,Wonders and The Conference Illusions has an incredible amount of information.

I forgot to mention, and thankfully Mike does in his chapter on the OH! Chair, that the Morrit OH! Chair was likely an answer to the popular DeKolta Vanishing Lady. The DeKolta Chair had been exposed in the press and in magic circles by the time the OH! Chair came along. Though they both used a similar method of vanish, the OH! Chair's convicers made it seem more impossible.

In 2003, Mike Caveney recreated a presentation of the OH! Chair for the Los Angeles Conference on Magic History. He used Thurston's original chair. The chair by the way, had been restored by John Gaughan and the platform/curtain used in the recreation of the illusion was built by Craig Dickens.

FINALLY
There is a video of famed British Magician Paul Daniels recreating the OH! Illusion for his TV show
which can be seen here http://youtu.be/Cr2zKCsbkdA

*The two sources were Kellars Wonders by Mike Caveney and Bill Miesel, and St. Georges Hall by Anne Davenport and John Salisse

LIVE Magic and TV Magic NOW

Suddenly magic is everywhere, again. Tonight on the CW TV network, Masters of Illusion airs an all new episode. The only stinker is it airs at 9:30pm. That's an odd time, but I'll be up so I'll be watching! And speaking of Masters of Illusion, Gay Blackstone and her live version of the show is at it again with the LIVE version of the show. In fact, she is pulling double duty, or the show is at least. They have shows at Harrah's Rincon in Valley Center California on Jan 2, 9, 16. And all the way across the country on the east coast in Atlantic City, also at Harrah's they play 8, 15, 22, 29th.

I hear that Michael Finney, Jonathan Pendragon and Michael Turco are among the performers in Atlantic City. I don't know who the cast is on the West Coast.

IF you are near these locations, please take the time to go see the shows. The Masters of Illusion Show is an excellent production that showcases the best acts in magic. They will be touring all year long so watch for them to come to a city near you!

Speaking of Magic on TV, Wizard Wars starts up again on the SyFy Network in a couple weeks. AND Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller fame, has his own show on the Travel Channel called Penn Jillette's Street Cred, which features Street Performers from across the country and each week an act has a chance to win $10,000. It's different but I saw one of the episodes and enjoyed it. You'll have to check the listings on the Travel Channel to see when it airs.

Speaking of the Travel Channel, one of their regular shows, Mysteries At the Museum, often features magic. I've seen a number of stories on items stored in Ken Klosterman's collection, The Salon deMagie. They've covered, Houdini, The Great Lafayette, and recently I saw a story of John Mullholland. Even when they don't feature magic history stories, it's still a cool show.

Seeking Assistance From My Readers...HELP!

I am trying to get someone to make a high resolution scan of the cover of Modern Magic by Professor Hoffman. There were several different covers of the years, I'm looking for the earlier editions. Any of the ones above are fine. I noticed that some editions follow a different color scheme, so that is ok as well. I'm looking to get a hi-resolution (350dpi) photo of a good quality edition of Modern Magic, that I can then blow up into a very large size and have it printed so I can put it on the cover of my Book of Life Illusion. If you happen to have a good copy of the book and would be willing to make a high resolution scan of the cover, I would certainly appreciate it. You can email me at carnegiemagic@aol.com

There are two editions I'm not interested in, the Dover edition of Modern Magic, and the one pictured below.

The Illusionists @ The Kennedy Center -Review

I just returned home from seeing The Illusionists at the Kennedy Center. I can tell you that this show was one of the tightest, most professional shows I've ever seen. Every act was top notch. Every act was different and unique in their own way. The transitions between acts were well done. The live music that is used is such a big selling point. Live music adds a dimension to a show that recorded music just can't capture.

The show opens with sort of a pre-show routine with Adam Trent and a member of the audience. Not really the kind of opening I expected but for a lay audience they loved it. He followed this up with something that totally caught me by surprise, and I loved it and I'm not saying what it was. After this, the show actually begins.

If you've seen clips of the show, basically the opening is each act doing some quick magic routine one after the other. This is solid, eye candy magic, one visual effect after the other. They even introduce Andrew Basso by lowering him from above the stage in a straightjacket. Wonderful opening!

At this point, I think Jeff Hobson took the stage to do a solo routine. Jeff Hobson is not only one of the strongest acts in magic, he is one of the strongest acts in show business. Jeff, in my opinion, should be a house hold name, he is THAT funny. He simply destroyed the place.

I believe Dan Sperry was up next doing a routine he did on Americas Got Talent. He did the routine silently and with a big screen projector behind him capturing the magic for folks that were sitting further away. Dan performs as The Anti-Conjurer. He has such a clever twist on magic and presentation. I always enjoy watching Dan perform but I think I enjoy watching the audience react to Dan's magic even more. He is odd looking, even scary, and yet he is the one that many people gravitate to after the show. He wins everyone over with his killer brand of magic.

I think Aaron Crow was up next. He performs as The Warrior. I saw Aaron perform at Magic LIVE

and he scared the sh*t out of me. No kidding. I couldn't believe that Stan Alan let him do the act he did at Magic LIVE. It seemed like Lawsuit Central to me. So what did he do here? Same act. I honestly can't say if what he does is a trick or skill, I don't know. I do know that watching him perform this act at the Kennedy Center, I absolutely loved it. His character in Vegas was very serious as I recall. Here, it's kind of serious, but playful at the same time. That playful friendliness takes the edge off a really scarey act. It's STILL UNREAL! It's still breathtaking, and it's still unbelievable. Go see it for yourself. I thought it was incredible. And I wont' say what it is, you've got to experience it for yourself.

The Manipulator was up next. This is Yu Ho-Jin from South Korea. He was awarded Magician of the Year by the Academy of Magical Arts. And he is a past FISM Winner. Let me preface this by saying that I am a Chavez Graduate, which means I went to school to learn the art of manipulation magic. Yu Ho-Jin is a manipulator. I have no freaking idea how he did what he did. That was the most mind boggling card manipulation act I have ever seen. The greatest part about the act, it totally caught this audience by surprise. I could tell, they had never witnessed this kind of magic before and they were collectively blown away. He was tremendous.

Next up was my friend Andrew Basso from Italy. Andrew is The Escapologist and performs a full view Water Torture Cell. Andrew and I are both students of Steve Baker the famous escape artist. Steve Baker always had a very striking personality, very commanding presence on stage. This is a common trait among escape artists. But Andrew has a very different personality. He is humble and likeable and genuine. You want to root for this guy. You are concerned about him. When he goes into the tank of water, handcuffed, you fear for his life. The audience is on his side the entire time. His version of the Water Torture Cell is first class all the way. Andrew is a fantastic talent and the art of escapology is in good hands with him. Though I had nothing to do with his act, I must admit I was very proud of his performance. Steve Baker would be proud too.

And that was the first half, for the most part. I think I may have left off something but you get the general idea. The first half was tight tight tight. It ended with the thunderous applause of Andrew's escape from the Water Torture Cell. Frankly, if the show was over at that point it would have been worth the ticket price. 

INTERMISSION

Yep, there was still a second half to the show! I don't recall the order, but Dan Sperry opened with a very funny and well done Russian Roulette routine.  I think Keven James followed with what might be the best sawing a person in half illusion. By the way, Kevin was in the first half as well, I forgot to mention. I don't want to say what he did in case you see the show. It was awesome though. Kevin James always delivers original and awe inspiring magic.

In fact, I'm not going to say much about the second half except it was just as strong as the first half and featured some really amazing magic. I really enjoyed Adam Trent's act with the jumbo screen, incredible stuff. And speaking of Adam Trent, he does an opening illusion early in the show which is sort of a high tech variation on an older principle that rocks! He is a very likeable performer with a wide range of abilities. His 'futuristic magic' is fun because it's so outside the normal kinds of things you see illusionists do. But in regards to the second half, I simply don't want to go into detail because I don't want to spoil it for you if you attend. The simple truth is, the second half is as rock solid as the first.

The show is in town until Saturday January 11th and then it heads to Dayton Ohio. They are on a 30 city tour across the United States wrapping up in late June. Then in September they head BACK to Broadway.

Magicians in the D.C. area. GET OFF YOUR BUTTS and go see this show. I only saw one magician in the audience, and the reason I knew he was a magician was because he wore a rabbit and top hat t-shirt and his magic coat with his business name on the back. Do yourself a favor, if you attend, dress up, this is the Kennedy Center after all. There are still tickets available for all the remaining shows. The show we attended looked mostly sold out, which was nice. The show ended with a standing ovation and a well deserved one. I think it is very very important for the magic community to support these types of shows. I have said this before and I'll say it again, we are lucky to have shows of this nature traveling the country. It's been many many years since a traveling illusion show came to town. It's so refreshing to see a top notch show and even more refreshing to see an audience of 21st Century lay people totally mesmerized by good magic. The Platinum Age of Magic is in good hands!