Magicians Penn and Teller Celebrate 40 Years in Magic..
You might think that having a silent co-host is every performers dream, and it’s certainly worked out for magicians Penn and Teller.
Robot TED Talk Will Make You Believe in Magic..
By Lance Ulanoff for Mashable..
Magician’s assistants may soon be out of work. Robots are not only ready to take their place, but they’re doing it live and on a TED stage.
After months of development, training and practice, self-styled “techno illusionist” Marco Tempest took a Baxter robot, renamed him EDI (pronounced “Eddie”) and put him on stage doing magic tricks at the recent TED2014 conference in Vancouver.
Tempest’s six-minute TED talk, seen below, is a testament to what’s possible with modern robots. As he told Mashable last July, “It’s time for magicians and technologists to collaborate.”
Ricky Jay, Buying Books and Telling Secrets..
By John Jurgensen for the Wall Street Journal..
As one of the world’s most respected sleight-of-hand artists, Ricky Jay has amassed a peer group of top magicians and cardsharps, and a stable of famous pals, from Bob Dylan to David Mamet. These days, however, he probably spends more time hanging out with book dealers, he says. “I like them. They live by their wits and their knowledge.”
They also live off their earnings from insatiable collectors like him. At the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, held recently in the cavernous Park Avenue Armory, he wandered the booths with some new acquisitions in hand, two books about hand shadows, and greeted many dealers by first name.
One seller asked his advice about a book whose blank pages reveal images when you blow on them, a specialty of Mr. Jay’s…
The secret of magic is not a secret..
Jon Carroll for SFGate….
My friend Reed Kirk Rahlmann is an actor, a street performer, a writer, a tour guide and a magician. We have lunch together occasionally, and we often talk about magic. He does it; I watch it; we have a lot in common.
He doesn’t tell me the secrets of the tricks he does onstage, but he will talk enthusiastically and well about magic in general. I really don’t know how the tricks are done (save for a few gimmicks I’ve learned over the years), but I do appreciate hearing about them from an expert.
I suppose I could have learned some magic secrets. I once bought a rubber thumb, a slightly larger version designed to fit over a real thumb. Nobody looks at thumbs, I was told. I could stuff some scarves (sold separately) into the thumb and then appear to draw them magically from my hand.
I couldn’t do it. ….. Read More