In Magic, Everything Old is New

It seems to me that certain things become popular all at once. At one time Doves were the rage. Almost every act had doves in it. Then it was over.  Perhaps it was because of animal rights, who knows.  So it was a surprise when I got an order for Dove Apparatus a few weeks ago. It was a bigger surprise when the manufacturer told me he stopped making them as the demand died down. I did manage to get some for the customer.

But if you want to do Dove Magic and are concerned about the doves, fret not, for we have Rubber Doves, and they look good.

The same thing with Cups and Balls. We used to sell tons of them. Now not so much. They start at  $4.95 for a plastic set and go up to more than $100.00 for brass, etc. They all work pretty much the same. So now is a good time to take them out and start practising, because its a classic and this new generation hasn’t seen it.

Linking Rings is another one. If you do it right, there is nothing like it. I remember when Jeff McBride  was in town, blowing everyone away with the rings in his night club act, and then several magicians came into the shop wanting a set like he had. I pointed to an ordinary set that was on display, and they said “No, no, we want the same set that Jeff has.”  As fate would have it, guess who came into the shop at that moment. You got it. Jeff. I asked him if he would do his routine for the magicians that were there. I handed him the rings I had and he did it. The magicians were flabbergasted that he didn’t use special rings.

We had Albert Goshman, king of the sponge balls, as a guest and

when we went out to eat he’d start doing his Sponge Balls for the waitresses. No one got served. The staff all gathered around our table.

We have a set of books in the shop,

Hugard’s Magic Monthly http://bit.ly/2Dk9puS that has a fantastic amount of routines with different props, a compilation of tricks from the masters. They will open your eyes.

The classics aren’t called the classics for nothing. So get yours out and practice. If you don’t have them, we do. Come and get them. We’ll be happy to advise you on the best methods of learning. Everything old is new, to those who haven’t seen it.

Here’s a little quiz. How many of you can identify all these magicians who did dove magic at Magie Montreal?

            

 

 

 

 

Magic and the Mind

I’m not a performing magician. I do demo certain tricks in the shop that I really like. The new ones coming out are way over my head, but there are some oldies and goodies. At my age you get a certain respect for the oldies.

One of my favorites is Cardtoon. http://bit.ly/2KsWXxD. I used to demo it all the time and every demo was a sale.  It has such appeal. It’s irresistible.

As most of you know, I was treated for cancer, and had Chemo and a robotic operation and now I’m back and so far so good. I was anxious to get back to the shop. A new customer came in and I picked up Cardtoon to demo it and I had no idea how it worked. I asked Phil. He said, “I never did it. You always demo it.”  I put it aside.

When he left I sat down with the deck and for the life of me, I could not remember how to do it. I opened a new pack to read the instructions and it was so complicated I couldn’t understand it. Then I remembered that whoever bought it, I showed them how it worked because the instructions were so complicated I felt they would take it home and never use it. It’s such a simple trick so I took a few minutes and showed them the secret so they would never have to look at the instructions. Still I couldn’t remember it or follow the instructions.

When the next person came in I asked if they had Cardtoon. They said yes. I was so relieved. “Can you show me how to do it?” I asked. “Sorry, I forget how it works.” was the reply.

Finally someone came in who had it, and knew how it worked, showed me the simple move and it all came back to me.

I’m afraid to pick up a Svengali for fear I won’t remember that either! Believe it or not, I just went to get a Svengali and I remembered it. Whew!