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Derren Brown: ‘I love technology, but I don’t know if it’s improved my life’..

Derren Brown: ‘I love technology, but I don’t know if it’s improved my life’..

Good interview by Tim Lewis for the Observer…

How much does technology play a part in your illusions? Or would that be cheating?

There’s a whole area in the magic world of clever, electronic props, but if you are a professional performer, doing it every night, six months on tour, there’s just no way you can work with things like that. Sometimes they won’t work; they’ll break and then you’re stuck in front of 3,000 people. Also the reason I do what I do is because is because I love the process of having to make it work, so it takes the fun out of it to have some gadget that does it for you.

How have other magicians incorporated it?

There’s always been technology that is just ahead of what the public are aware of. Way back when, one of the performers I really like was an early mind-reader called Alexander; that exotic image of the turbaned mind-reader comes from him. But the reason he had a big turban was that he had a massive electronic headpiece underneath it that would allow somebody to feed him information…

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NEWS/ Heidi Klum’s Bra Was Stolen by a Magician on America’s Got Talent: “I Was a Little Droopy!”..

NEWS/ Heidi Klum’s Bra Was Stolen by a Magician on America’s Got Talent: “I Was a Little Droopy!”..

f you had the opportunity to steal a world-renowned supermodel’s bra, would you take it?

On the new season of America’s Got Talent, one gutsy magician did just that! Victoria’s Secret model-turned-judge Heidi Klumrevealed that during the audition process for the reality series’ upcoming ninth season, one performer charmed the bra right off of her. Literally.

“There was a magician, and one minute I was wearing a bra, and then next minute he was holding my bra and I have no idea how he did that!” Heidi exposed to a room full of reporters at the NBCUniversal Summer Press Tour on Tuesday…

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Photos: Teller’s ‘Tempest’ premiere is ‘pure brilliance’ and Broadway bound; more Shakespeare to come?

Photos: Teller’s ‘Tempest’ premiere is ‘pure brilliance’ and Broadway bound; more Shakespeare to come?

If The Bard of Stratford-on-Avon was alive today, he would be making big bucks writing episodes of Kevin Spacey’s “House of Cards” or Las Vegas writer Anthony Zuiker’s various “CSI” series with Laurence Fishburne and Ted Danson.

Shakespeare’s last play, “The Tempest,” was filled with mystery, crime and intrigue, but he also added wizardry and wonder. So when our silent Rio headliner magician Teller decided to produce his vision, you knew that there’d be magic — and what incredible illusions he has created to weave naturally into the story that England’s preeminent dramatist envisioned in the 1600s.

Shakespeare’s works — among them “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Taming of the Shrew,” “Othello,” “Much Ado About Nothing” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor” — are known throughout the world. The greatest writer in the English language — yes, every one of us had to study him in school — created comedy, history, tragedy and poetry in his works.

Teller read him while at school. Then for 30 years, he literally dreamed of telling the tale of “The Tempest.” Five years ago, the dream started taking shape, and two years ago our Smith Center for the Performing Arts agreed to partner with Harvard’s American Repertory Theater to present Teller’s vision…   ( Nice article by Robin Leach for Las Vegas Sun. Be sure to check out the slide shows..)

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On The Art Of Misdirection In Literature..

On The Art Of Misdirection In Literature..

Christopher Priest for the Huff Post… 

While I was researching my novel The Prestige, I came across a technique that was sometimes used by stage magicians. In the present day television has largely made it unworkable, because it is difficult to distract the unblinking stare of the electronic lens. But like all magical methods it remains part of the silent armory of techniques at the disposal of illusionists.

It is the kind of misdirection which makes use of distraction: The magician allows something to happen which grabs the attention of the audience. It might be something funny or unexpected, something seeming to go wrong or making a sudden loud noise, something ridiculous or shocking. But during those few seconds of distraction, the magician is briefly invisible to the audience and makes good use of it – the next stage of the trick is made ready.

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