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New-age magicians embrace tablets and smartphones…

New-age magicians embrace tablets and smartphones…

Gadgets tend to bring out the worst in Atul Patil. The Vakola-based magician pours milk over iPads, breaks new smartphones in two and makes apples and coins roll off from tablet PCs. His favourite trick has him flinging two phones in the air and watching jaws drop as one phone morphs into another midflight.

Warranty does not cover any of this yet curiously, every time he hurts a device, Patil gets richer. You could argue–as writer Arthur Clarke once did–that any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

This is perhaps why magicians all over the world are feeling the pressure to up their game. Like sci-fi superheroes, they started by wiping off their lipstick and shedding their capes. Then they got rid of the hackneyed card tricks and gaudy special effects and embraced chrome screens and CGI.

Now, taking a cue from internationally renowned magicians such as US-based Marco Tempest, who choreographs elaborate card tricks through animation, and Germany’s Simon Pierro, who makes beer flow from Ipads, city-based magicians have also started introducing elements of technology in their endangered bag of tricks.  Read more..

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/New-age-magicians-embrace-tablets-and-smartphones/articleshow/51278809.cms

A CON MAN REINVENTS HIMSELF…AS A REALITY TV MAGICIAN..

A CON MAN REINVENTS HIMSELF…AS A REALITY TV MAGICIAN..

On a July episode of the primetime competition show America’s Got Talent, a compact, graying man in ripped jeans and a vest and tie took the stage.

Holding up a pack of cards, he announced: “I’m not real proud of this, but about ten years ago I found this pack of cards in a federal prison.”

He was a con man, he explained to the hosts, “all about fast cars and fancy clothes”—but the love of a good woman transformed him. “I met an amazing girl and I had some amazing friends and I walked into the U.S. Marshals’ office and said ‘I retire.’ I turned myself in,” he said. “You can’t look a woman in the eye, say ‘I love you,’ and lie about who you are.” His five-year incarceration, he told the audience, allowed him to reinvent himself as a legal kind of con man: a stage magician. “The day I got there,” he said, “I picked up a deck of cards, and I picked up a book about how to do card tricks, and I taught myself how to perform, and I’ve been doing magic ever since.”

That’s Aiden Sinclair’s shtick, the con man magician. “Aiden Sinclair is America’s preeminent grifter turned professional magician,” boasts his website. “Rather than face a future as a recidivism statistic, Aiden chose to spend his time adapting the skills that served him so well as a confidence artist to a new calling.” TheAmerica’s Got Talent crowd ate it right up. “You turned your life around, and now you’re here to entertain and put smiles on people’s faces rather than taking things away from people,” competition judge Howie Mandel enthused to Sinclair on the show. Read more….

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-con-man-reinvents-himself-as-a-reality-tv-magician

Perform Awesome Card Illusions With A Homemade Magic Trick Deck..

Perform Awesome Card Illusions With A Homemade Magic Trick Deck..

No matter what anyone says about performing magic tricks, everyone’s jaws drop when they see an amazing illusion. Here’s how you can turn a regular deck of cards into a custom deck that makes doing magic tricks easy.

Over at Make, Gareth Branwyn has a guide — based on a how-to in Mark Frauenfelder’s ebook Trick Decks— for turning a standard deck of cards into what’s known as a “stripper deck.” The cards in this kind of deck are tapered so that even beginner magicians can quickly pull certain cards from the deck with ease. You can see an example of a stripper deck trick in this video from Mark Frauenfelder’s YouTube channel.

To make your own, you just need a way to trim each of the cards accurately. Branwyn uses an office paper trimmer with a jig setup that ensures each card gets cut the exact same way. Once you’ve cut the cards properly, your deck is ready to perform several illusions you can find in various magic books or online. Check out the complete guide at the link below for more tips and places to find magic tricks.

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/10/perform-awesome-card-illusions-with-a-homemade-magic-trick-deck/

David Blaine Performs Magic For Baltimore Protesters After Underwater Stunt [PHOTOS]

David Blaine Performs Magic For Baltimore Protesters After Underwater Stunt [PHOTOS]

After apparently holding his breath underwater for 10 minutes, magician David Blaine took to the streets of Baltimore to perform tricks for protesters Wednesday. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered there in the wake of the Monday funeral of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died from injuries sustained during an arrest.

Blaine’s trip to the city was apparently spontaneous, as he hadn’t tweeted or promoted his appearance in advance. His last message on his official Twitter account showed him submerged in a tank of water with several fish swimming around him

Protesters generally seemed excited by Blaine’s free performance and shared pictures on Twitter. “It’s a little bit awesome to imagine the moment David Blaine saw the news and thought, ‘Gotta get down there and do some magic,’ ” one person wrote. “David Blaine is here in Baltimore, drawing a bigger crowd of youths with each trick,” another added. Read more and watch videos at:

http://www.ibtimes.com/david-blaine-performs-magic-baltimore-protesters-after-underwater-stunt-photos-1902476