The Houdini Festival and MORE

 

You no doubt have read about The Houdini Festival on here, several times in the past. That poor festival has suffered some serious setbacks, as have many events over the past few years. The organizer is Wayne Alan, a professional illusionist and he is also a theater owner. He owns the Historic North Theater in Danville, VA. Wayne is an award winning illusionist. In fact, he won the Gold Medal for Illusion at FISM in 1982. But what you may not know about Wayne is he is an avid Houdini fan and has been researching Houdini for 30 years. He is writing a book, that I can tell you will be eye opening, probably controversial at the same time. But you are in for some big surprises. What kind? I can't tell you. I'm sworn to secrecy for the time being.

Let me tell you this. Among the collectibles that Wayne Alan owns, is the floor grate from the hospital room that Houdini died in! Yep, he visited there just prior to that part of the hospital being torn down. He's got some other very cool Houdini stuff, but I'll save that for another day. 

For now, let me just get back to the Houdini Festival. It has been moved to March 2023. Wayne wanted to be sure we were all clear of Covid before he went through with this festival. He already has quite the line-up in store. That's assuming that there are no changes in the coming year. Here are a few names you might be familiar with: Johnathan Pendragon, Dan Harlan, Robert Baxt, and Dale Salwak. Also on the bill is recent FOOL-US Fooler Wes Iseli, and then there is yours truly, ME! I'm sure there will be others added to the bill over the coming months. 

The town of Danville is getting a major upgrade soon and this will likely be a positive boon for the Houdini Festival. At one time, Danville was a bit off the beaten track, but now it's going to be a major travel destination. Hey, and if nothing else, the famed Confederate Civil War Gold is rumored to be buried in Danville, so you could always go hunting for gold, lol! To stay up to date and to register for the festival go to https://thehoudinifestival.com

I am confident that in 2023, the Festival will be a GO!!!

Ivan Reitman Has Passed Away at 75

 

The death of director, writer, producer, Ivan Reitman is sending shockwaves through Hollywood. But it should also send shockwaves through the world of magic. If not for Ivan Reitman's involvement, there would have been no MAGIC Show on Broadway starring Doug Henning. What kind of course would the world of magic taken had it not been for Henning's rising star giving new birth to the popularity of magic?

The two would meet at McMaster University. Their first venture together was when Reitman asked Doug to play a part in his upcoming production of Lil Abner. In Doug Henning's own words, "I was terrible, but I had a ball." 

Their next collaboration would be a magical musical called SPELLBOUND. Ivan would be producer and the director, Doug would handle the magic. It played at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. This show eventually led to being picked up for a Broadway run. It was retooled and altered and it eventually became The Magic Show on Broadway. This was the magical musical that put Doug Henning on the map. 

After The Magic Show, the two would have one more collaboration and that was the Broadway musical MERLIN. At first Reitman was reluctant to get involved, but was later persuaded when Hollywood friends expressed their interest. 

Ivan Reitman would best be known as the producer of such comedy hits as Ghostbusters, Stripes, Meatballs, Kindergarten Cop, Twins, and Evolution to name a few.

Doug would go on to have a great career, starring in his own touring show and numerous Network TV Specials. 

Ivan Reitman passed away in his sleep,  Feb 12th, 2022, he was 75 years old.

365 Days of Magic Videos

 

Ok, that title is a bit misleading. The truth is, it's 365 magic videos in a year. They might sound the same, but the truth is, I know I won't be able to get one video per day done. But over the course of the year, there will be 365 videos, if not more. 

The next question is, why? LOL. That's a good question. There are multiple reasons. One is exposure. Another is it's a challenge. A third, and one that I wasn't expecting, it's improving my magical skill sets. But the main one is exposure. And I'm approaching this in a very unorthodox way. I'm putting the videos up on multiple social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and more. And I'm putting them up on international social media sites as well. I just did my first Russian video, and I'll follow that up with a Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, and French version of various videos. 

The magic videos are generally short. Though some of them have longer routines. Most of the material will be stuff that is no longer in my working repertoire, however, some of the material is finding a new place in my show. There are two things so far in the first 20 videos that really struck me. One was the Linking Hearts. I had this for years, and never used it. I pulled it out strictly for the video and was astonished by the number of views and comments it received. Clearly, it was an effect that people could relate to. As a friend of mine said, "it's so much better than stupid rings! People can identify with hearts and it opens a world of possibilities for stories and presentations."  Ok, I'm sold.

The next item was a rather astonishing Monte effect which has a whopper of an ending. I saw my friend Bob Sheets do this a few years back. He had a slightly different ending to his, but it was no less a fooler. I inherited the effect from a friend who passed away, so I decided to learn it for the video. It's just killer. I will post both of those videos below.

I'm going to try and create a 'magician's only' page about the Magic 365 videos. Which will have information on each of the various effects and where they can be found, whether they are commercial items, or in books, or original creations. I'll try and credit folks appropriately as well. I don't have that ready to go yet, it's coming.

If you are wondering what this has to do with 'magic history', well to be frank, lots. Over the course of the year, there will be plenty of historical pieces in the line-up. In a way, almost all the magic we do is steeped in magic history. Take the One Cup and One Ball mystery created by Al Wheatley. It's such a common piece today, we forget about it's history. And of course, it was a variation of the classic Cups and Balls, which is hundreds, if not thousands of years old. 

One thing that I haven't really yet pointed out is that I will eventually be posting 'variants' of the episodes. For example, the video that is on Facebook, may be different from the one on Twitter or TikTok. As I build an audience, I hope that people will search out the variants. Also, I'm hoping to open a dialog with viewers as well, even taking requests. This is part of the challenge really. If someone speaks up and says, "can you do something with a candy bar, or do something with tissue paper" or whatever, I'll see what I can come up with. Granted, there may be existing material to choose from, so in those cases, why re-invent the wheel? But in other cases, why not create something new, or some new variation of an older routine.

So my friends, please enjoy, Magic 365 this year and beyond!