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Month: November 2014

Q+A: Murray Sawchuck’s blind drive leads to 21 escapes, TV appearances galore..

Q+A: Murray Sawchuck’s blind drive leads to 21 escapes, TV appearances galore..

By Robin Leach for Las Vegas Sun

There’s no denying that magician Murray Sawchuck is on a roll as he gets ready to take on a new run at Sin City Theater in Planet Hollywood after nearly three years at the Tropicana’s Laugh Factory.

He’s just completed four months of filming “Extreme Escapes,” which starts broadcasting on Reelz for 26 weeks as of this Saturday. He was asked to do the “Blind Drive” illusion and wound up being invited to do more than 21 “escapes” for the series.

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Keith Barry’s coming home for Christmas..

Keith Barry’s coming home for Christmas..

By Marjorie Brennan for the Irish Examiner

ILLUSIONIST, magician, mentalist, hypnotist — Keith Barry has been described as all of these. 

However, above all, he says he is an entertainer. But he certainly has a magical way with audiences, whether on TV or the stage.

This year, Barry will perform to his home city of Waterford for its annual Christmas festival, Winterval. The illusion will be staged on the city’s Mall on Saturday.

Its top-secret details have been written down and will be stored in a tamper-proof exhibition case at the Waterford Museum of Treasures, at Bishop’s Palace. Members of the public are being invited to guess the illusion in advance, to win a family VIP package for the festival.

Barry was happy to take time out of his hectic schedule for the festival. “They approached me a while back and asked me to get involved, and, of course, I’m delighted to help with anything positive for Waterford. I was born and bred down there, so it’s a no-brainer for me, it’s a great festival for families and kids..

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Art and Science Team Up To Steal Your Attention With Magic..

Art and Science Team Up To Steal Your Attention With Magic..

 By Susana Martinez-Conde for Scientific American

When we focus our attention, we sometimes fail to detect changes–even spectacular, seemingly impossible-to-miss changes—that have taken place right in front of us. Cognitive scientists call this “change blindness”.

Change blindness is so prevalent in our perception that Hollywood movie producers often employ a continuity editor: someone whose job is to make sure that impossible things don’t accidentally occur during and between scenes, due to the editing process..

This is not so different from what happens in your brain when card tricks fool you. Whenever you pay attention to something, your brain automatically and powerfully suppresses other information that is not relevant to the task. Magicians don’t distract us in a literal sense, but create attentional points that our perceptual and cognitive systems are helplessly drawn to…

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Magicians labor in shadow of big names, but they’re tenacious..

Magicians labor in shadow of big names, but they’re tenacious..

By Mike Weatherford for the Las Vegas Review-Journal

“Welcome to my new stage,” Jan Rouven says. Then, as he steps down from it to a folding chair that serves as the halfway point to the floor, “It’s not a step, it’s a leap.”

Nice one. But it’s not even the best metaphor of the conversation.

I’ve come to talk to Rouven about his step/leap to the Tropicana. The new show opens Friday at a relaunched property with promise so far unfulfilled. It also puts him on the same intersection with David Copperfield and Criss Angel, two more famous magicians with bigger marketing budgets.

To make things even more interesting, Rouven’s old room at the Rivera has been taken over by Dirk Arthur, who opens there Dec. 1. Arthur is calling his show “Wild Illusions,” while Rouven’s is still called “Illusions.”

Arthur is “a clever marketing guy, obviously,” Rouven says.

“Don’t be nice,” chastises his manager and show producer, Frank Alfter. Then he adds, “Everything is good, but they could have avoided this one. It’s confusing for the customer.”

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