A charming issue of Magic this month! (March 2007) Springtime is here, and if you are planning a vacation this year, your annual magic convention schedule is in this issue to help plan your route! Featured this month is Tony Clark. The routine that made him famous was only a springboard for an illustrious career in the magic world. Consulting, lecturing, and performing are only a few of facets flowing from Tony Clark's passion for magic.
Check Your Basement!
In October of 2006, two lithographed Houdini posters from the Christian Fechner collection were sold at auction. When the gavel fell, the winning bid was an astonishing $65,000 each. Posters have not always been so valuable, and today, not all vintage conjuring lithos fetch stratospheric prices.
In the last 27 years, however, prices of vintage magic posters have, almost universally, gone one direction: up. Whether posters are purchased as investments or simply as authentic, artistic relics of magic's golden age, they were and are meant for one thing: display. At one time, that meant the sides of barns; today, many grace living-room walls. But what if a vintage poster shows its age unfavorably? What if time and mistreatment has stained, damaged, or torn the lithograph?
Talk About Tricks
This month's "Talk about Tricks" is a special feature on Luke Jermay and his original brand of mentalism. Jermay's controversial approach uses words and influence far more than gaffs or sleights. In this issue, he'll explore how to stop a spectator's pulse and how to read the minds of three audience volunteers. The best part? All the pieces in this issue play well in a close-up setting or a large, cabaret crowd.
Marketplace- Twelve items are reviewed this month by Gabe Fajuri, Brad Henderson, Peter Duffie, and John Lovick:
• Designing Miracles by Darwin Ortiz
• Suits You! by Steve Bates
• Magic of Ascanio, Volume Two: Studies of Card Magic by Jesus Etcheverry
• Gobsmacked by Costas Damianou & Simon Lovell
• Nothing by Max Maven
• The Reprobate by Jay Lee
• The Original Wizard PK Ring and The Wiz
• A Modern Trade Show Handbook by Seth Kramer
• Classic Palming with Coins DVD by Reed McClintock
The Art of Escape
In the final installment of this series, Mark Cannon explains the real deal. If you dare to call yourself an escape artist, someday, someone will call you on it. Mark explains how to escape from a pair of genuine regulation police handcuffs under challenge conditions. You will be able to show your hands empty throughout, and you will be able to wrap tape around the lock case and keyhole to prove you are not using a key! Not only do you prove yourself to be an escape artist, but you also create mystery. This is where you inject magic into your escape act.
The Magic Word
Some years ago, the author was preparing a solo show that was to be part of an annual theatre festival. He had planned to include a new presentation for the Broken-and-Restored Thread about midway through the show. He put hours of work into constructing a story to accompany the effect. It ended up being a mythical tale in the Arthurian mode, an allegory featuring a Merlin-like wizard. On the night before the show opened, as he was rehearsing the routine in front of a mirror, David experienced a sudden shift of awareness. "I was struck by the simple beauty and clarity of the Broken-and-Restored Thread. It was almost as if I was seeing the effect for the first time, seeing it the way an audience might see it."
