Chaplin and Houdini

If you’ve ever seen my live stage show then you’ve seen the Chaplin-Houdini Story routine. The story in my routine is fictional, though the two performers did meet in real life. Originally the story was going to be about Harry Kellar and Harry Houdini but I realized quickly that modern audiences would have never heard of Kellar and thus would have little connection. But Chaplin and Houdini are icons and most people are familiar with them regardless of whether or not they have ever seen them.

Upcoming articles

I often take for granted that not everyone is familiar with many of the classic stories from the annals of magic history. I study and read about this stuff all the time but not everyone does. With the a new generation of magicians quickly coming into the fold, I'd like to be able to contribute to the newcomers knowledge as well as those that have been into this for a long while.

So in the coming weeks and months, I'm going to try and share some of the more classic stories in the annals of magic history. So expect to see articles on Sigmund Neuberger, Helmut Schrieber, Max Katz Brietz, Billy Robinson, Matthias Buchinger and more. There will also be some new Houdini articles coming. There is one that I'm currently working on which should be out fairly soon. I'm a little behind, but I'll catch up soon enough. So keep watching for the new articles on our old art!

The Man Who Knows

You've probably seen the posters before. The man with the unusual gaze wearing a turban. Who was he? Did he really know?

His real name was Claude Alexander Conlin (1880-1954) and he was one of the premier mind readers of all time. He was called a crystal gazer by some, a con artist by others and he admitted to killing at least four men in his lifetime.  He began his career in show business around 1902 by doing a magic act. Not just any magic act though. Part of his act was an escape act basically copied from Houdini. There were many performers ripping off Houdini at this time and work for no named escape artists was pretty thin.