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Month: May 2014

Penn Jillette – 24 Tricks of the Trade..

Penn Jillette – 24 Tricks of the Trade..

  By Mike Andrelczyk for Fly Magazine..

Penn & Teller have been performing magic together for nearly 40 years. You know their act – Penn does all the talking, and his partner, Teller, remains silent during the duo’s performances.

Their show is a postmodern take on magic; it’s both about how magic tricks work and a “screw-you” (Penn would use the F-word) to hack magicians who try to fool the audiences into believing in the supernatural. Penn & Teller perform their comedy and magic at the Strand-Capitol this month, so we called Penn at his Las Vegas home, nicknamed “The Slammer.”

In this interview, we made the questions disappear and let Penn do what he does best – all the talking. Here, he pulls back the curtain to reveal some of the secrets of magic and life…

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Tricks up his sleeve..

Tricks up his sleeve..

K. Jeshi for The Hindu…

Magician Vasanth was recently honoured with an international honour — the Award for Excellence in the Art of Illusions. “I consider it as a matter of pride as I received it along with several personalities who won it for excellence in their respective fields. One of the awardees was chess champion and Grandmaster Gary Kasparov,” he recalls.

The Global Leadership Awards was hosted at The Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Malaysia. It is recognised by the Malaysian Government. He also performed an eight-minute magic act on the stage before taking home the award.

“Except in Australia, Africa and the U.S., we have performed shows across the globe. We have a long association with Kuala Lampur, Singapore, Malaysia and the West Asian countries. One of the jury members has seen us perform many times and that’s how the recognition came to us. It motivates us to perform better,” he says..

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For Artistic Criminal, Breaking Rules Is Key To ‘Creativity’..

For Artistic Criminal, Breaking Rules Is Key To ‘Creativity’..

Compiled by the NPR staff..

Philippe Petit says he hates books on creativity.

So his new book, Creativity: The Perfect Crime, isn’t a compilation of ideas from great philosophers or creators.

The wirewalker, magician, street performer and artist breaks that mold with a book full of sketches and personal dialogue that captures his personal creative process.

And because it’s so personal, he says, it will be more useful. “I’m not doing any rules. This is not a thesis on creativity. This is a kind of an outlaw confession,” he tells NPR’s Arun Rath.

The “Man on Wire” says he has broken rules and made his own path throughout his life — most notably on Aug. 7, 1974, when he walked on a thin cable between the towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

Read the article and Listen to the NPR broadcast  HERE

Looking at a life full of tricks..

Looking at a life full of tricks..

  In-depth interview by Akila Kannadasan for The Hindu..

I slump into a chair in the empty auditorium with nothing but a droning AC at the far end for company. Suddenly, an elderly man appears before me. How did he get in? I didn’t hear him approaching. Did I fall asleep? Or maybe he took the rear entrance? Perhaps he appeared out of thin air? With magician P.C. Sorcar, anything is possible. The senior magician, with over 40 years of experience in entertaining people, sets out to tell me his story:

“A mela was on on either sides of the canal in that small town in East Bengal. There was food, games, and so on. My father went there every day. He must have been in IV or V standard. He was particularly attracted to a small group of Marwaris who sat on the ground performing magic tricks. Father keenly observed them, and tried out the tricks back home. He showed them what he could do the next day. At first they brushed him off saying ‘No, no, you got it all wrong’. But when they realised that he wouldn’t give up, they taught him the tricks themselves.

“This is how father learned magic. He read a lot, practised hard…he trained himself to be a magician at a time when he had no one to look up to…

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