Now You See Me - Review

I finally got to see the movie NOW YOU SEE ME today. I think in a previous blog I mentioned it looked like it had potential from watching the trailer. Well, I'm happy to say that it more than delivers.

The movie has quite a cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Michale Caine, Morgan Freeman, Dave Franco, Melanie Laurent, and the drop dead beautiful Isla Fisher. I frankly could have watched the movie with ONLY Isla Fisher and I would have been happy, but that's just me. The story is basically about a group of magicians who are known as the Four Horsemen, who put on a show together and the big trick is robbing a bank in the middle of the show and giving all the money to the audience. That is the premise, but the story is much more involved and there are twists and turns and pieces of misdirection that are worthy of the best magic show. In fact, the opening scene is a magic effect not only in the movie but it also is subtly done to the theater audience, brilliant!

My thoughts on the movie after it was over was that the must have scene David Copperfield's PORTAL Illusion and created this elaborate story around that trick. David is one of the consultant's on the movie, as well as Keith Barry and Jonathon Levit and Dan and Dave Buck. The magic in the movie is exceptionally well executed and frankly inspiring.

One thing I found interesting is the connection to magic that many of the stars have. Jesse Eisenberg is from NJ and his earliest exposure to magic was from a very popular NJ kidshow magician named Bruce Bray. I knew Bruce, he was a great guy and sadly he passed away not long ago from complications due to an accident.  Mark Ruffalo actually co-starred as Theo Hardeen in the TNT HOUDINI movie that came out a few years back with Jonathan Schech in the lead role. Michael Caine of course was in The Prestige and another movie called Is Anybody There in which he plays a retired magician. Then there is Dan Franco, who is the brother of James Franco, better known now as the Wizard from The Great & Powerful OZ. That's as close of a connection as I could put together for Dan Franco, but he does do a great job in the movie. I'm not really sure what the others stars connections to magic are, but I can say that Woody Harrelson and Isla Fisher both did pretty decent tricks on TV Talk Shows promoting the movie.

Now I have to tell you about the strangest thing that happened when I saw this movie today. I walked into the theatre with a buddy of mine, a fellow entertainer. As we sat down we noticed the theatre was fairly packed, pretty unique for a weekday showing. But the odd thing was that the movie was packed with all women. We actually thought that we might have gone into the wrong theatre, so I got up and walked out to make sure we were indeed in the correct theatre. We were. So next we figured THEY were all in the wrong theatre and the moment the movie started there would be a grand exodus. But that didn't happen. My conclusion, "chicks love magic!" That was the line I said to my buddy who cracked up. They were probably there for the young stars like Franco and Eisenberg, but still, they were there and the movie was so well done that it was clear everyone enjoyed it.

As a magician I would encourage you to see this movie because there are moments in the movie that are frankly inspiring. The water torture cell by Isla Fisher is superb. The way the magic show is shot in the round with big video screens around the theatre is honestly, something we should all look into.
Five out of five stars for me!

Magic Detective Vanished???

 Hi Everyone,

Sorry for vanishing on you though it was not on purpose. There was a minor complication with my site that caused it to dissappear. I was unaware that the site had been down until I started getting emails from my readers. It's been a very frustrating day of trying to figure out what happened and getting it resolved. You'd think it would be an easy fix, but that was hardly the case. The good news is it's back up and running and viewable by the WORLD!

Thank you to everyone who alerted me to the problem and for those who helped in getting it fixed and back up!

Dean Carnegie

Our Magic and More!

OUR MAGIC is a book by Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant originally published in 1911. I first heard about the book through an article that Jonathan Pendragon wrote for Genii Magazine which he gave a list of his top 20 magic books related to illusions. Among the list was OUR MAGIC and unlike some of the other books he listed, it was easy to obtain a copy.

Here was an eye opening book! Probably the first book to discuss magic theory and certainly the first book to really help define whether or not magic was art. My favorite chapter is called The Three Degrees of Art and it breaks down into: High Art, Normal Art and False Art. It's an intriguing chapter to say the least and it's followed by 300 other pages of incredible theory, ideas and secrets. It's certainly a must read for anyone involved in the performance of magic. Sadly, the few magicians I know who own a copy have felt the book is best preserved in the shrink wrap they purchased it in. In other words, they haven't read it. I'm sure there is plenty of room for debate on 100 year old theories discussed within the book. It's still worth a read and a great deal is still quite applicable today.

The NEXT Our Magic
I don't know if I'm asleep at the wheel, or if Facebook is just not allowing me to see posts by friends as often as it used to, but I've now missed two opportunities to contribute to film projects. One was by a fellow magician who has moved into movie making. I found out about his project just after the funding had been raised.

The next is a documentary film project by Dan & Dave Buck, Jason England and Paul Wilson. I had seen the mini-documentaries that they had posted on the internet and was enthralled with what I had seen. I only wished I had been among the folks giving their thoughts on magic because I certainly am filled with my opinions on why I think magic is art and why it often falls short. Their new project was up on Kickstarter.com to raise funds and ended on May 27th. I think I had heard about this back in April but was not aware of the timeline and the fundraising ended over a week ago.

But the good news is they raised the nessassary funds and are now moving forward with this new documentary which will be aptly called OUR MAGIC. Please watch the video below to get an idea of how these film makers are putting their hearts into this project. If it's anything like their other videos, this will be something we can all be proud of! Best wishes to all involved!