More pics from the Max Hotel

Houdini Produces an Elephant on Stage!!

Harry Houdini

Preparing for my lecture

A lifetime in magic I've seen the ups and downs. I've made great money at times but show business is primarily hand to mouth. . . at least for me. Feast or famine, it's not for the meek or the weak at heart. The ups are up and the downs can go WAY down.

I'm doing this magic lecture on Saturday and I'd like to convey the whole picture of being a magician. Not just the tricks and performance ; but some ideas on How to book gigs, The World of PROMO in 2005, Self Employed Means Self Motivated, Secrets, and a retrospective of my experiences over the last 25 years in the biz.

I will also be presenting a generous portion of Street Performing 101 "Get the crowd, Keep The Crowd, Get The MONEY. . . . turn it over, do it again." From the perspective of a street corner act (as opposed to an intersection act performing in the round).

One of the things I'll be selling after the lecture is a pack that contains examples of various promo pieces through the years. From my earliest postcards (under the company name of The American Fun Co.) to the Slick, 4 color, Magic Coloring Book I printed as a give away piece for the corporate market. To my first attempt at mail order magic with a Houdini Poster printed on the inside of the folded piece. All rare gems and keepers. Lot's of other 8x10's, Business Cards, Postcards and Flyers. I'm only bringing 5 of these packs and they will sell for the cheap price of $30.

Here's some of the stuff in the pack.


I will also be bringing some of the last remaining sets of Phoenix Cups and Balls, Tricky Wallet's and Video's, & Linking Ring DVD's

Thursday Night

This evening I treated Buster and myself to dinner and a movie. We rarely ever eat out so even going to McDonald's seems like a big deal. We enjoyed our dinner and Buster told me all about his day at school. He asked me about my evening at Curriculum Night and If I liked his teachers and classes. We shot the shit and decided to go to a movie. We ended up downtown with an hour to kill before the flick. At Nordstrom Rack we bought Buster a new pillow for his bed. A freaky pillow with a bizarre texture and at 75% off a killer price. We looked at some trench coats. The one Buster liked I didn't have enough money to get tonight, but I think I'll get it for him in the near future. Can't go wrong with a good rain coat in this city, this time of year.



After Dinner Buster and I went to see Lord of War at Pacific Place. Cool Movie.


Here is the New Your Times Review I snagged off the web:

Guns Are Evil. Everybody Should Have One.

By MANOHLA DARGIS

"Lord of War," a misfire of a political satire about the international gun market, opens with a killer scene: Nicolas Cage standing on a veritable carpet of bullet casings. Mr. Cage's character, Yuri Orlov, is a gunrunner who has placed untold weapons in untold numbers of hands. Now, surrounded by gutted buildings and dressed to impress, a cigarette burning between his fingers, Yuri looks straight into the camera and wonders aloud how he can furnish everyone in the world with a gun to call his very own.

This carpet of casings also serves as a launching pad for a subsequent and even more outlandish opening credit sequence that tracks a bullet from its manufacture in Russia to its final resting place in the skull of a young African. A bullet in the head always seizes the imagination or at least the audience's attention, but because the African is merely cinematic collateral damage, the image registers both as showboating and as a warning shot for the problems to come. The screenwriter for "Lord of War," Andrew Niccol, lavishes a great deal of time and many words building a case against guns; unfortunately, the film's director, who also happens to be Mr. Niccol, enjoys playing with toy guns. His words may say no, but his overworked, overslick visual style says lock and load, baby.

The problem, of course, is that violence is so inherently cinematic, so visually and aurally captivating. Loud pops, big bangs and the sights and sounds of bodies seizing up and spurting blood have long been the stock in trade of certain movies, which partly explains why the bangs are getting ever louder, the bloodletting more spectacular. The noise in these films has grown so deafening that it can be hard to hear the message (if there even is one), especially when that message carries a familiar, been-there, done-that, eat-your-oatmeal-because-it's-good-for-you moralism. Like: guns are bad, corporations are soulless, and some first world governments traffic in third world misery. To which any reasonably informed viewer might be expected to wonder, And your point is what, exactly?

Mr. Niccol's point here, it appears, is both to entertain and to instruct with the story of Yuri, a Russian émigré who rises from humble Brooklyn to become a globe-trotting gunrunner with all the moral reasoning of a flea. Guided by Mr. Cage's intermittent voice-over, the story tracks Yuri's decades-long evolution as a merchant of death saddled with a few familiar distractions: a beautiful model wife played by Bridget Moynahan and a drug-addled brother played by Jared Leto.

Yuri gets his break in the early 1990's when he snaps up materiel in the recently imploded Ukraine that he subsequently offloads in war-ravaged Africa. Like everything else in this film, Mr. Cage's performance is watchable if never credible because his director never resolves the disconnect between this star's function (to entertain) and that of his character (to repel).

In my "In Box"

I am also a daily user of your bong.....Did I say bong? Well....I....I ment blog. Why do think I read your blog? Every day I come home from school, and I am all like "Hey dad, what peice of shit hit you today?" the only response from you is "Oh.....go read my blog, and send me an email about what you think." We live in the same house.....Can't we talk like regular human beings? So, that is why I read your blog.

Just kidding

Busta John

On my computer screen

Buster didn't log out of his account on our computer last night. I was logging him out when I saw this on an open Instant Messege window. . . . I love it.


"Well school is going well. I am finally learning things that seem like they are relevant, rather than things they teach you, that you feel you'll never use in your own life. social life is going o.k., my dad is trying to be a pissy bitch, so he won't let me hang with friends after school, but besides that it's going o.k.

iParent

As a result of the last court date, I am having to take the Apple Parenting Class. This was ordered when we got divorced a year and a half ago. I blew it off as I felt it was stupid. For some reason I see these mandatory obligations as Court Ordered Extortion. For the next 7 Tuesday nights from 6:30 - 8:30PM I will be found sitting in a room with six other people watching reruns of Oprah & Dr. Phil. We'll be learning about not beating the fuck out of your screaming kids at Target. I'm sure that after spending my $50 on this wonderful honor, I'm gonna be a much better parent. Shit I might just join the PTA!

Went to Buster's School last night for Curriculum Night. This has been the first opportunity to meet his teachers and hear from them what their classes are about. His school, "The Nova Project" is as progressive an educational concept as I have ever run across in the Public School System.

Here is a blurb from their site

"Nova is a small alternative high school in the Seattle Public School District, created in 1970 by students and teachers. Nova is an alternative school whose mission is to be a democratically governed learning community of broadly educated, diverse, creative and independent thinkers who work collaboratively and demonstrate a high degree of individual and social responsibility.

Far out huh? A school that has no grades (pretty much pass fail, however; has to meet the same state requirements [WASL] that every other school in the district does). Open campus, kids come and go as they please. No security. Students call their teachers by their first names. Most classrooms have a bunch of couches (in a semicircle inside an outer rim of school desks and tables) And an exciting feeling that the kids are engaged and learning in an environment that is clearly unconventional. Proof is in the pudding, this school boasts some of the highest SAT scores in the district.

I'm glad Buster is in this program, and more importantly. . . so is he.

In my "In Box"

Tom,

I have been reading you blog for longer than I remember. I'm embarrased that I haven't e-mailed you to tell, how much I enjoy it. I'm going to paste in my Magic Profile and then I'll comment on your content.
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Magical Entertainer for 30 years (Close up as well as Comedy Magic Stand up show)

I started in 1972 as a purely sleight of hand performer. John Mendoza was my favorite as well as talented sleight of hand performer. John was very well read in magic and expected the same from me, if I were to be his student. In 1978 my employment required me to go to Chicago very week. I forced my introduction to Ed Marlo the premier card magic genius. After about a year I was a member of the Chicago Round table. The Table at this time was fantastic the members were:

Steve Draun
Simon Aronson
David Soloman
Randy Wakeman
Bill Malone
Jack Pyle
Frank Shank
Tommy Edwards
And myself

I was at the table every Saturday for the next 10 years. This group was dialed in to the finest sleight of hand performers in the world. I must also mention that the table was guests to magicians that were in Chicago lecturing or on personal business. The ones that I remember were:

Tommy Wonder
Ricky Jay
Martin Nash
Don England
Mike Skinner
Bob Stencil
And probably at least a dozen that I’ve forgotten to mention:

This was the start of my sleight of hand education. I also attended almost every lecture at Magic Inc. I also was a member of FFFF group for 10 years where I also saw every magic idol, I could ever imagine meeting. At the 1984 Magic Symposium, In San Francisco I met Shigeo Takagi. Mr. Takagi was Japan’s greatest magic influence; he was a master of stand up as well as close up magic. Mr. Takagi loved my magic and promoted my Lecture tour of Japan in 1992. In 1997 I went to Boca Raton to work at Malone’s Magic Bar in the Boca Raton Resort. Doing magic for a career 5 days a week would hone anyone’s
skill. The Bar employed Bill Malone’s hand picked magicians; we worked theMagic Bar as well as Bill’s lucrative corp. shows.

I started doing Comedy Stand up the 80’s. The money was much better as well as easier than sleight of hand. I had the same passion to search out the best exponents of the specialized art.

Mark Yeager April 7, 2003
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Frank,

The first thing that I was impressed with was your passion for magic as well as your love for your children. I am divorced as well, I got divorced when my son was 9 years old. It was hard but I had to do it. My son hated me at the time I did it, his exact comment as I left was " You ruined my life forever". It felt like a knife twisting into my heart. That was 12 years ago, and with honesty and commitment from me. We have a great relationship today. My point is that things will change with commitment and passion. You are a shining example of this!!! Bravo!!

I feel that your honesty about life's challenges, also is fantastic. I must applaud you for discussing to the world, your feelings and vices. Everyone including myself try to hide these from friends and family, you allow the world to look into your inner most thoughts and feeling.

I love the images that you add to your blog. I am a student of the history of the art of Magic. I'm in the process of converting my 25 years of magic video to DVD. I appreciate your sharing of your performances and interesting video. I know that this was long, but I felt that I had to show my appreciation for your blog.

Best,

Mark Yeager

In my "In Box"

I received this email from my old friend Chris Richardson. We go back at least 25 years. He used to play bass in high school in a rock band with my brother. We still talk. I was excited to hear the he and his wife Melanie are expecting a BABY!!!! Congrats guys!


Why are people fascinated with your blog? Perhaps because you document your life in such a naked and completely unvarnished manner. Given the unreal modern world we live in – endless hype and political spin, fake tits and botox, total artifice advertised as “reality television” (even reality shows have writers), a completely staged presidency, too many artists chasing the buck and too few willing to lay their hearts on the line – your candor and fearlessness is an increasingly rare commodity these days. Image is everything, and I suspect people are amazed you’re willing to show your warts. Seeing you go through difficult times also might make others feel better about their lives. Who else is doing what you’re doing? Also, don’t forget – most people are voyeurs.

By the way, I’ve been meaning to tell you that you have a gift for bringing people together and not just through your backroom magic sessions. Your love for magic and knowledge of its history is inspiring – your enthusiasm is contagious. How to translate all this into a money-making enterprise – outside of performing – is beyond me. But as the old guard passes, somebody needs to pick up the baton, and you surely seem like a great candidate. I assume you still have your massive library of magic books and publications. Any way of digitizing some of these materials (at least the older ones for which the copyright has timed out) and creating a magic history web database? Fee-based, of course. Is there a market that would make such an enterprise worthwhile? Beats me. But a quick Google search suggests there is a void. I dig the fact that magicians belong to a ‘secret society,’ but in this age of Penn & Teller, some of the mystique has been blown. You help to restore the magic of magic. Perhaps all that information you’re sitting on could become active and put to use among those in your community. In some ways you’re more scholarly than you might realize. Maybe this is all far fetched, but in case it isn’t…

Curious

Over the last year or so, I have received many emails from people who say they are regular readers of my blog. This has always puzzled me. I'd like to ask YOU, who you are, do I know you and why would anyone be a regular reader of my never ending saga of real life ups and downs?

Do me a favor write a brief comment and help me understand.

Thanks

your pal in blogdom

Tom

NFL & The Genitorturers

Watched some good football games Sunday. The Sea-Hawks were strong! Payton Manning and the Colts won big on Monday Night Football. Buster and I made chicken wings for the game.

The weekend of performing went well at the Hotel Max gig, as well as the Fenix Underground. Saturday night on the main stage were the Genitorturers. Another evening of near total disconnect between me and my audience. Sometimes I wonder what the hell I'm doing there at all. But it goes well enough that the owner keeps bringing me back week after week.





Performed Ball and Cone, A couple of Mike Gallo Routines including his Ball Vase Routine with no shell. Did my version of the Hong Kong Coin as well as my regular stuff. For the second week in a row, a tall beautiful blond with huge tits named Amy watched me perform for a good half hour. She has incredible powers of perception and the mind of an engineer. She figures out some of what I doing but not a lot. I watch guys hitting on her and trying to pick her up. I can tell that this must get old. I don't play that game. . . and that's why I go home alone every weekend. Oh well, I guess when I ready to pursue some pussy I will. What's wrong with me, why don't I want to get back in the dating game. It's been over two years. Is something wrong with me?

Some pics from the Hotel Max gig on Sat. Night

My Dad

My Dad, what a kidder. I have no idea what made him think he could walk into a biker bar in Atlanta half drunk on a bottle of scotch and declare that anyone who rides a Harley is a pussy. He then tried to pick up this guys girlfriend and and convince her that only real men drive Goldwings. You think his face looks bad. . . you should have seen the other guys fist.



On a lighter note. He sent me a much needed care package. A beautiful box full of cigars came today that over filled my humidor!! He really knows how to keep the shot gun out of my mouth. I love my Dad.