LIKE MANY BOYS, I was obsessed with magic as a 12-year-old. I was that kid who would make your quarter vanish, then pull it from the crook of your elbow. Guests who came over to my family’s house for dinner were an involuntary audience to my 20-minute magic routine during dessert. It ended, dramatically, with a daring escape from a pair of thumbcuffs.
At some point, though, self-consciousness kicked in, and embarrassment barred me from asking friends if they wanted to see a card trick. Instead of becoming the next Doug Henning or David Copperfield, I grew up to be an editor of personal-technology articles.
Luckily, the worlds of magic and gadgets have converged to provide an ideal hobby for me: illusions that require neither a cape nor a wand and instead rely on a prop I always carry with me: a smartphone. Read more…..
This arithmetical stunt is not difficult when you know how, says Jason England.
Magicians often include acts that are not strictly magic, but leave their audiences feeling that they have witnessed something impossible. Memory stunts, unusual scientific demonstrations, playing chess blindfolded and rapid mental mathematics are some examples.
Successful stunts of this kind suggest the performer has an enhanced talent. In some cases, this is true – they may have an extraordinary memory or be a chess grandmaster. But in most cases the performer is using a system. These systems can be simple, or can require tremendous skill – but they are still easier than doing the stunt without any system at all. Read more..
Syfy and Universal Cable Productions (UCP) are excited to present the new scripted drama series, THE MAGICIANS. The series kicks off with a special two episode premiere beginning on Monday, January 25 at 9/8c on Syfy.
Starring Jason Ralph (Quentin Coldwater), Stella Maeve (Julia), Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice), Hale Appleman (Eliot), Arjun Gupta (Penny) and Summer Bishil (Margo), THE MAGICIANS is based on Lev Grossman’s best-selling novels. The series centers on Quentin, a brilliant grad student chosen to attend Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York university specializing in magic. He and his 20-something friends soon discover that the magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real – and poses grave danger to humanity.
In the season premiere, titled “Unauthorized Magic,” airing January 25 at 9/8c, Quentin Coldwater – a brilliant, but depressed college student from Brooklyn, NY – learns that magic is real when he is offered admission at Brakebills University, an exclusive graduate school for magicians. Once ensconced in school, he quickly discovers, firsthand, the darker and terrifying side of magic.
The drama continues at 10/9c, in “The Source of Magic,” where the Brakebills students struggle to deal with the aftermath of a catastrophe that befalls the university. Back in Brooklyn, Julia makes her first foray into the mysterious world of Hedge Witches.
New episodes will air in the series’ regular timeslot on Mondays at 9/8c.
Recurring guest stars this season include Rick Worthy as Dean Fogg, Anne Dudek as Professor Sunderland, Jade Tailor as Kady and Esme Bianco as Eliza.
Groundswell Productions’ Michael London and Janice Williams (Milk) will executive produce THE MAGICIANS. John McNamara (Aquarius) and Sera Gamble (Supernatural), writers of the pilot, will serve as executive producers. Mike Cahill (I Origins) directed the pilot. Universal Cable Productions will serve as the studio.
Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians” trilogy is an international sensation, published and widely praised in more than twenty countries. The epic conclusion to the series, “The Magician’s Land,” opened at #1 last summer on the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller’s list, and was widely acclaimed as one of the best books of the year.
THE MAGICIANS joins other high profile upcoming Syfy originals, including the December 2015 premieres of epic space drama THE EXPANSE, starring Thomas Jane, Steven Strait and Shohreh Aghdashloo; CHILDHOOD’S END the first-ever adaptation of ARTHUR C. Clarke’s iconic novel starring Charles Dance, Mike Vogel and Julian McMahon; the acclaimed time travel thriller 12 MONKEYS, returning for its second season in early 2016; and HUNTERS, a 13-episode thriller from THE WALKING DEAD executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, set to premiere in 2016. CHILDHOOD’S END, 12 MONKEYS and HUNTERS are also from Universal Cable Productions.
About Syfy: Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic Science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site (www.Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business (Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to LIMITLESSpossibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in 96 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. (Syfy. Imagine Greater.)
