My brother Mike • Don't Ask

Happy Birthday Hope!!!

pic taken 12/05

Yesterday was Hope's 7th birthday!! I sent her a gift and a card as well as a necklace and earings that my mom had got her before she died. I sure would have loved to seen her on her birthday and given her the presents in person. I tried calling her but was unable to reach her. I'm sure they were out having fun celebrating her birthday. No worries.

It would have been fun to introduce Polly to the little kids. Some other time perhaps.

Wednesday Night Honky Tonk

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Always a great time! Nice having Polly there by my side, dancing cheek to cheek. We're taking a dance lesson together on Sunday. Our visit has been as good or even better than last time. . . if that's possible. Just when I thought I would never love again, BLAM!

Cupid, draw back your bow
and let your arrow go
straight to my lovers heart
for me.

Tuesday Night Jam Session

It was Cups and Balls night at the Alki Beach Magic Studio this week.


Jose busted out the Gazzo routine complete with patter! He said that he had practiced it 1000 times at home and was finally ready to do it for people. It came off great. Nice Job Jose!


watching Jose perform



Tim Flynn was up next. Also performing the Gazzo routine. Nice job as well Mr. Flynn


Mark Storms followed. He opened his routine by accidently exposing the ______ ball. Oops. Other than that, for only having a couple of weeks in on working with the cups and balls, he showed a lot of progress.



Some of the Alki Beach Magic Posse

JR Hughson and Aye Jaye

I've met Aye Jaye a few times over the years and always found him to be a funny and interesting guy. I was glad that JR brought him down to the market and bought us all lunch. Thanks JR!



Aye Jaye is an acclaimed magician, author and bonafied whack job. As always it was fun hanging out with these guys.

Some more pics from Jeff Edmonds visit

Here are some pics I just received from Mr. Edmonds


Jeff took this pic on session night at the Alki Beach Magic Studio


On my Seattle Tour I took him to the Hotel Maxx to look at the photographs on the hotel room doors. He took this interesting shot in the elevator.

Off the web • A Review of Smoke & Mirrors

There was a lot to like in the Smoke and Mirrors show. It was an AWESOME cause, some good magic, the performers were obviously eager to please, the crowd was cool.

I wanted to share some observations in the spirit of friendly feedback, hoping only for positive energy: please don't interpret anything I say as a slam.

Tom Frank was energetic and passionate.

The first act was very visual and smooth. Only one exposure (black suspension of glass) and the crowd was more than willing to forget it. The second act was amusing if a little slow. (Vaudevillian origami was cute, though not really magic... no one minded.)

The third act was Vaclav, I think-- my wife's and my favourite. His set-up and slow build was very cool, great staging... turned the chair suspension into a very cool experience for the crowd. I think the next act was Philemon:

Now this is the set that had the most room for improvement. He had the audience in great anticipation with his smoky entrance and striking appearance... and some amusing patter about death and taxes. Then the audience members up for a... "psychometry reading." I don't think the audience knew the word, and there was some detachment as he "read" things about the specs that they would not acknowledge. The crowd was not with him. The African-American gentleman on the far end, he described him as being fearful based on his sunglasses, and he responded very negatively to that characterization. Rapport was not there. Then the long read on one girl's shoe... he didn't bring her along with the journey. He obviously had some preshow knowledge or is an excellent cold reader, but she timidly acknowledged when he hit and vehemently denied when he missed. It fell flat. Then the credit card / 1040 effect. I suppose that he chose the effect because of the date: April 15. But, the workings were pretty easy: they were given credit cards and randomly offered the selections. It wouldn't take much math skill to realize that no matter what order they provided these columnar integers, the result would be the same. There wasn't enough misdirection as you might get with Ultimate Matrix, the rings on a lock as distraction. As Bob Cassidy said on "Mental Miracles," people are not stupid. If they can get to the method through logic, it's not worth doing. There was a little reaction but the college grads in the audience applauded out of politeness. Sad, because he is capable of SO much more -- his knowledge. Most in the crowd had probably never seen good mentalism. Missed opportunity.

Tom Frank's stuff was great: the rope box was downright excellent.

Then Bruce Meyers. I don't know. Elegant, yet tepid response. The standing rope. The hankie on said standing rope. The floating table, with the tablecloth held. Then he brought up a volunteer WHO HAD ALREADY BEEN UP, (oops) and floated it with her.

Jeff Dial. A slip at the beginning didn't rattle him, which was very very impressive. But, The prop. The coke bottles looked nothing like any coke bottle anyone had ever seen. They screamed nested props. He did a good routine, but the whole thing was so prop-based... my wife thought his patter was too prolix, loquacious, and garrulous. As well as a little obscurantist and obfuscatory.

Then. Brian Cook. Definitely talented at productions. The trench coat was distracting, but he made the ballet of the balls and scarves work. The linking rings, well, the audience seemed to enjoy it and he did it superbly. I have never enjoyed the effect personally but to each his own. Oh, and his assistant while cute, was a bit too demonstrative.

Then the box vanish. Great prop, couldn't see the sub at all. His choreography on it worked. Still I was wanting more connection with the audience, I wanted him to engage us, include us, invite me in with more than mugging and smiles...

Cheers were all about. I don't know if there was were many moments of astonishment. I don't think many were shocked, amazed, or left in wonder by really much of anything they saw (maybe Vaclav - he really engaged the audience fantastically).

I don't mean to knock anyone. I also don't mean to judge it as a magician but as a spectator. I think the audience was entertained, so mission accomplished. I just think the magic could have been stronger overall.

Polly back in town for a week!!

Cellini

I got a phone call from my old friend and mentor, Cellini, this morning. I hadn't talked to him since before he moved back to Switzerland a year or so ago. It was great to hear his voice. What a trip life is and how time flies. It was 22 years ago that he took me under his wing in the French Quarter of New Orleans and schooled me in a lifestyle of the magical arts. Strange to think now I'm almost as old as he was when that went down. As an impressionable 19 year old, I was far from green even at that point in my life. I had already spent a year in New York City working the streets and had been financially self sufficient from the age if 15 when I worked Kings Island Amusement Park performing 6 shows a day.

He refined my approach and taught me more than tricks. He taught me how to live a magical life and how to explore the avenues of human interaction that would take me on the most fantastic Maliniesque adventures of my life.

We talked about our memories of New Orleans in 1984. It was fun to reminisce about the many mornings we ate breakfast at the Artist Cafe down the street from Jackson Square. Rockmore the artist (a strange, brooding but brilliant painter), Cellini, Sebastiano (the Sicilian balloon man) and myself would meet at 7:30 or 8:00AM. In my minds eye I can taste the texture of the eggs and grits, smell the coffee, cigarettes and cigar smoke the rose from our table and hear the mindless chit chat that seemed so relevant so many year ago.

Cellini, is booked to work FISM this year. He'll perform and lecture to an international audience of fuck heads. I asked him about that. When I met him, he hated magicians. I asked him about his more recent years of lecturing for magicians and if his feelings had changed much. I guess they had and they hadn't . An means to an end, perhaps.

I asked him about his health and that seemed questionable. He's had some problems with his feet and legs and said he can't stand for much more than an hour at a time.

Before we ended a lengthy phone call, I told him that I loved him and could never really show him the thanks that I felt in my heart. If you can keep your head when those around you are losing theirs. . . If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you. . . I'm a little man. . . He's a great man. I should have been a pair ragged claws scuttling across silent seas. . . . .