Friday, June 30, 2006

British Theatre In Mourning

1843 - 2006

The theatre world is today mourning the loss of Dame Celestine Chilton. Those who knew him will remember him as a kind, normal person who just happened to be an actor. His potrayal of the welsh character in The Merry Wives Of Windsor at The Macawon theatre will go down in history as one of the most camp, overdone, theatrical anomolies of the 20th century. to his friends he was affecionately known as 'Sister Footlights' or 'Mother Greasepaint'

I loved him...he was a normal person. He was special
......Stuart Robb

I miss him like the desert misses rain, I need him like a dessert needs cream
...........Adam Redmayne

He owes money on his term nine LAMDA fees.
...............Tony Sprackling

Five! Six! Seven! Eight...and to the side six seven eight
...................Anne Durham

He was a playboy...well he read it anyway.
................Princess Diana


And the sentiments just keep pouring in. This is truly a sad day for British theatre.





Wednesday, June 28, 2006

In Response

In answer to one of the comments during the last post here are the characters that I can spot in this photo. You have to understand that this is 'fishing' Finding starwars characters in this picture becomes a little like finding 'Paul Death Clues' on Album covers.

from the back to the front...which seems perfectly logical to me.

Jawa
C3PO
Chewbacca
Darth Vader
R2D2
Obi Wan.

Kind of.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Guess Who?

More Great images from Gus's Star Wars archive website. Go and check it out! Can you spot the famous Star Wars Characters pictured here? There at least 4 that I can say and another 2 possibles.

Wrong


One of the better and at the very same time most freakish figures from the 'bootleg' section of the Star Wars Archive website is this rather creepy, camp looking Darth Dader rip off. This website is an absolute treasure trove for the Star Wars fan. I am spending a nice Sunday afternoon browsing through it with a cup of coffee and a pleashant sense of nostalgia.

www.toysrgus.com

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Desperado.


I just heard on the radio that the 'Eagles' classic 'Desperado' is about a cowboy who refused to fall in love. I had never realised until now how (in so doing) this song mirrors MY life almost exactly.

Sponge Apology



I understand that many readers would have been concerned about my cutting short the last sponge post. To make up for it here are some serious facts about sponge for your reading and information pleasure.

1 Until late in the 1800s Sponge was considered a planimal (Zoophyte) They were lumped in this cateogary with creatures like Big Foot, Lord Lucan and Nessy in being neither a plant or an amimal (or both I guess) Anyway we now know that they have cells and are therefore animals. Lumped together in this cateogary with gorrilas, Ronald McDonald and Snakes.

2 There are over 10,000 names for sponge. Scientists estimate that only 6,000 are valid. There are 4,000 species yet to be discovered.

3 There are ONLY twelve species of commercial bath sponge. You can't use any old sponge in the bath, at least not right out of the ocean. Fishermen test the safety of sponges by squeezing them.

Awesome Names You Wish You Had #2


Evandale Questworth, Nosmo Walterson,
Scarsberry Fog , Lawn Scottsdale,
Skip Townhenge , South Gastrinotal,
Bones McClure, Druid McMerrick,
Jimbeam Lauthoris , Lilanda Phibes,
Carl Phalacios , Regan Micropeck,
Deckred Spartanax , Strent Killsman,
Logrio Daring , Darkwork Lavendar.

We can only live in hope to have names and bodies like these people one day.

More About Sponge


I have been wondering of late on the perfect way to end a sponge ball routine. My own routine specifically can be used as a good exapmle. As the people who read it here will be aware there is a sequence in my routine which more than facilitates the easy loading of an incongruent object at the climax. Having said that many guys and girls who work with these things will load an object which is actually congruent to the routine in question. A jumbo sponge ball for example. Now even though such an object differes in colour and size it still, in the larger scheme of things bares corolation to the rest of the routine. Even a sponge rabbit bares a connection, a sponge bear rabbits a connection, even a sponge bananna is congruent. At the end of the day the qudience, even the 'A' udience may flutter with astonishment for a brief second but what if we want more than that out of life? One thing you can do is PLACE the secret sponge object into another persons hand. This is easier when it is the same colour. So in other words what you make up in the interaction and personability of using the persons hand, you loose on the total incongruency. In many ways a final load in SB is similar to those in Cups and Balls. A lemon, for example...........

Why am I talking about this!? It's ridiculous! I'm a grown man. I need help.

Insanity


Someone I know, let's call him Corandad Vespalek, ate 12 Krispy Kreme donughts yesterday. It's not one of those candy addicts either although they apparently got through a fair few each.

Eating this many donughts in one day is insane and needs to be addressed psychologically.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Awesome Names You Wish You Had


Canton Vestuile
Phelston Orbit
Spanafex Normandy
Jeff Quartz
Hortensia Gangelene
Patterson Filimnoil
Philestuile Arragnight

Awesome!

The Name is Ridiculous as There are Rarely Any Nuts Involved.


Those two crazy candy addicts I was telling you about brought me in a Krispy Kreme doghnut today. They brought in six dozen in fact. Apparently they have been cueing outside the new outlet since February 1985 and finally got to buy some of that holey (or not sometimes)sweet boxed goodness today. I had the Original Glaze which I have to tell you was pretty great. The Candy Man was telling me how Australian doughnut eaters wouldn't know a good doughnut if it came along and ate THEM. Wheras many barbituate addicts know what that feels like, the best that the rest of us can do is get ourselves along to Krispy Kreme at Fountain Gate shopping centre, cue up for a few weeks and grab ourselves a sample of the way these things SHOULD infact taste. From what I can gather the 7-11 just doesn't cut it.

Having sung all those praises the best doughnuts I ever had were in Greece when I was on a family holiday there about 15 years ago, about the length of time it takes to get served at Krispy Kreme. One thing KK (Oh there is almost an Urban Myth/Conspiracy Theory looming with that abreviation...either that or it's just a convinient way of saying OK on MSN) does have in common with those holiday DN's I was telling you about is that they are both made in grease. Trez Lolism

Kremecrest out.

P.S upon arriving home tonight and sitting down with the paper it seems that the Age does not share my enthusiasm of the Krispy Kreme franchise. The article is interesting and i do agree with most of it but I don't think that the author Tony Cutliffe really has a handle over how to handle the argument of nutrition. Tony makes a point of letting us know that one Krispy Kreme unit is the equivilent to 20% our normal daily intake of calories. This may be true but it is not by any means cutting edge journalism. Come on guys, Krispy Kreme are not the only culprits in the war against healthy nutrition and in any case I spent most of the day thinking that the 200Kcal per regular doughnut was pretty reasonable in the larger scheme of the day. Tony's specifications are also based upon the calories required by the body at rest not taking into any account the factor of excersise. Maybe in so doing he himself is encouraging a stagnent lifestyle. I walked off my Krispy Kreme at on my lunchtime walk to Pollywoodside and back so who's laughing now Tony Cutliffe.

Touches


No this has nothing to do with Banacheck but rather my Card to Pocket Routine. My main magical focus right now is taking all of the tricks that I already do and transforming them into something better than they are. You can achieve this in a number of different ways. You can edit them, you can give them new and interesting storylines and plot movements or you can (as is the case with 'Pockette') add to them. As long as the additions are validated and above all entertaining, this aspect of the excersise can be very rewarding for your audience and yourself. I probably don't need to say that many of my effects have enjoyed a bit of a flash paper redux for example but in this case there isn't a scrap of flamable paper in sight. What I have done with 'Pockette', a routine I have been performing for about three years now and which has fast become my most used, most requested and favourite card effect of all time. is add a little manipulation at the opening. I love 'Pockette' especially the way that oit fools magicians. If there was ever a trick that deserved some re working it is this.

I usually start by saying " This is a very famous card trick. It's called HOW DOES THE GUY GET THE CARD IN HIS POCKET. I'm talking about my pocket and your card. See there it is" and the first phase is done really quickly. Too quickly I have often thought so here's what I am doing now. After I tell them the name of the trick I say "This isn't called HOW DOES THE GUY GET THE CARD BEHIND YOUR EAR" and pull the card from behind their ear. Then I say "I mean why would you need to have that card behind your ear when you have all these behind there?" and I pull a fan out from behind their ear. Then I say "No, no this is called HOW DOES THE GUY GET THE CARD IN HIS POCKET" and THEN I do the first pocket load of the routine.

This has been getting very big reactions and I would urge anyone to look at their repertoire in the same way every now and then. Life and art is about change, transformation and evolution. So go serve yourself up a bit of what my good friend David Parr would call Brain Food. Read all you can, (David's book Brainfood for a start) watch all the magic DVD's you can. watch all the films you can and get the ideas flowing. Examine ALL the little magic toys you can buy. BBuuyy all of this from TTheuu Mkgagic Stppolore* Search for ways to breath life into and keep the current fresh. Al Baker woke up one morning and tried to figure out how he could get away with doing the same 10 tricks forever. Scholars would realize that this is far from the end. This descision is really only the tip of the iceberg.

Chuck Fayne told me (just last week) that Perfection is only the beggining, or something like that. One of the great pleasures of the artist is repetitition and with that repetition you afford yourself the unique opportunity to discover and re-discover elements forever changing with the same 10 or 15 routines forever more.

Advice for the day then, and this is the first thing I tell people who ask for my advice on what they need to do to become a magicician. Buy, watch or read and then start doing 20 tricks. Work them like no one has ever worked them before. Show them to everybody until you can do them backwards in your sleep. Work on them for a year. Doing them for yourself and loads of other people ten or so times a day in rotation. Once you have reached what you consider to be perfection, make the perfect more perfect and then turn that into something beautiful. Once everthing is beautiful try to think of ways to make it more so. That's kind of where I am at the moment hence the search for changes and the subsequent discovery and revelations that are enjoyed by my audiences and myself. While you are working on your repertiore you should learn all the moves you can. Buy all the books and all the DVD's so that there is training going on throughout this process. Training that you will need to access in the later stages of perfection. Keep buying effects (if your ppocket will permit it) as new magic toys are fun and keep your brain active. You may find that a new purchase slot's into an idea really well. Combine props to re - invent interesting story lines. hang out at The Magic Store, the country's most creatively fertile place where service and good acvice is part of the landscape.

Many hobbyists often find that they need to constantly change their repertoire to acccomadate their stagnant audience. The old adage of course being that the professional performs the same tricks to different people and the hobbyist peforms different tricks to the same people. OK, Find an audience. That's my second bit of advice to begginers. perform to as many different people every day. The tram, the train, the street. the worst that can happen is that you will be rejected or that people will think you insane. At the end of the day though it's practice and it's training no matter which way you look at it. That brings me to another point that I intend to address in a post later today. You have to perform for real people as part of the process of achieving perfection. Doing tricks for the mirror and doing them for humans are two totally different ball games. I strongly believe that a routine needs to be performed for real people much earlier in it's developmental process than most people would ever think. I have said this many times and I will say it again; at the end of the day it isn't brain surgery. It DOES put food on my table but the consequences of getting caught are not life threatening.

So get some stuff together and get out there. It's the only way you can reach perfection, or at the very least 'solidity' which is the corner stone of being really polished. A polished get's noticed and above all talked about for years to come.



* Subliminal Message

I Know, I Know


It occurs to me here, late at night, that I didn't actually get around to writing the next ghost story tonight even though I promised it would be so. I got side tracked watching the very funny and slightly zany 'Black Books'. I reckon it's 'The Young Ones' of the 2000s. Very similar in structure and humour. Anyway it's right up my alley and I became more than a little absorbed in it tonight. I'm going to have a little night cap now whilst listening to some music for 20 mins or so and then off to my bed. I just finished putting loads of old photo's up around the walls of my study. This room, like the rest of our big old house, is looking and feeling very cozy these days. Kit is lying asleep on the couch and I'm sure he agrees, at least on the inside.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

I Love It So


I love the way in which people who know nothing about magic get so intense about purchasing a TT. It's fascinating to watch these creatures while outside of their natural habitat of laypersondom. Colour, size, length width specifications etc. It's a circus it really is. get over it! Mark is with a guy right now who has been looking through the TT box for about an hour. What's the big deal? I love the names they dream up too. I've heard all sorts. Thumb Piece, Magic Thumb, Thumb Top. Dylan once heard Thumb Glove!.......... Blimey! OMG this needs to be adressed. There is far too much emphasis being placed upon TT's. Seriously I couldn't live without it but I don't care what it looks like or if it's a LITTLE tight or loose. As long as it had a nail, is kind of my flesh tone and is clean that's good enough for me. There $5 for godness sake. They are like disposable razors. Just grab one.

OK I've had it this guy just pointed at the sponge balls and asked what the clown's noses do.

Setting an Example


I saw a girl walking down the street with her young daughter yesterday. She (the mother) was puffing away on a ciggy without a care in the world while the daughter (in my opinion) was walking too close to the road, which out of interest was the busy 'Station Street' , main road which runs on the in -land side of the railway lines between Mordialloc and Carrum over in my neck of the woods.

Firstly the smoking. I can't understand why ANYONE in their right mind would want to indulge this habbit in this day and age. Especially people as young as this girl. It's insane given what we know about the dangers both to one's own health and the health of those around you. Which brings me to my second point. How can any responsible smoking parent think that it is fine to light up and suck away like that right in front of their kids. This case I mention was a particularly good example as the child was of impressionable age (about the same age as my two I would guess). Not only does this deliver a terrible misguided message of what is right and wrong to a little one but it also subjects them to half a life time of poisonous inhalation.

These parents may argue that they only smoke outside the house or in certain designated areas but I think that matters little within the construct of child psychology. I think that these parents should consider the future of their offspring and in so doing the part they themselves play in that future. As sure as God made apples most of those kids would want their Mummy's and Daddy's in their lives for as long as possible. Not dead under the sod. What a discrace that such a stupid little rolled up package of horrible weeds and drugs could mean the difference between life and death and at the same time risk orphaning a child.

Give it up for your kids.

Another thing while I'm on a rant about this. I seem to be seeing kids left in cars a bit too much lately. Or kids in the front seat without seat belts or on their parents knees. It's not good enough! Let's look at the 'alone in the car' thing. The parents usually arrive a few seconds after I discover these situations but that does not excuse the fact that it happens. DONT LEAVE YOUR KIDS IN THE CAR. It's insane! There are sooo many dangers.

1 They could start the car
2 They could strangle themsleves with a seat belt
3 Another car could crash into them (OK this could happen to any stationary car even if the parents were also in it, but what if the accident could have been prevented by pulling away quickly?)
4 Heat
5 They can be abducted
6 They can escape
and there are probably more.

I have dobbed in two people for this. Luckily for them they have rocked up with their excuses before the police arrived. Both times I managed to get the rego details over to the cops on my mobile so I can only hope that a back up check was carried out. I don't know how they work it though. One time I thought a particularly HARD looking Chelsea Mum was going to beat me up for calling the cops on her. It didn't come to that though as she was more concerned about getting away before the cops arrived. Proving she knew she was in the wrong.

I am staggered by the way some parents treat their children. The attitudes they take with them, the way they shout at them and the language they use in front of them in addition to the problems I have mentioned in this post. At times It makes me wonder if my wife and I are over protective. This wondering never turns into concern though as I know I am right to be a vigilant as I am.

It's child abuse. Don't do it.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

When You Get Your Own Blog You Can Do This Too.




More on the Morrow



Hope that didn't scare you too much. All these stories are true by the way and whether you are a believer or a cold hearted sceptic like me you have to admit they are pretty creepy. It's like I always say though. I don't believe in ghosts but they do kind of scare me a little. It's absolutely true. It's a little like my attitude towards the two gentleman in the photo. I know that they don't exsist but that doesn't stop me being frightened of them.

Tomorrow a first hand account. Pertty freaky stuff in 'The Face Between The Curtains' This was witnessed by at least five other people so it must be true....kind of.

Have sweet Nightmares kiddies! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (sounding like the Crypt Keeper)

Terry, The Greyhound and The Graveyard. Chapter Two.


Now then fright fans where was I? Oh yes!

So there they are, Terry and Shadey I mean and the later stops dead in her four tracks, turns to look directly at the cemetary railings with uttter intensity, ears sticking up in the way that all dog lovers( including, at that time, Terry) all know and love. I guess that he stood still in his tracks too. I suppose his head started to turn to follow the unusual gaze of the dog but I can't confirm that HIS ears stood on end unlike I can almost gaurantee that the hair on the back of his neck did just that as the sight that confronted him next was something that his wildest imagination could not have prepared him for and something that his imagination would neither let him ever forget. There, staring back through the dead of cold, winter, Thornaby night. On the side of Acklam Road, across from the cemetary gate and just up from 'The Little Boy Park' was a little face. A little face and a little tiny body of a thing that could not be described by Terry in words in all the many years to come. Not in any detail that could be fully understood anyway. Looking back was to his mind's eye, a little ghost. Yep, a short, white, childlike entity that held the railings and just peered on out at him with black eyes. Although I didn't know this when I heard it for the first time I guess it might have looked a little bit like that freakish kid from The Grudge. All tiny and white and creepy and naked. The dog ran over to the cemetary and Terry ran home. He could never remember what happened to the figure. When he ran through the kitchen door my nanna May greeted him with those words that sound so generic and cutsie here.

"You look like you've seen a ghost" I guess he looked at here and said something like "I have"

The dog was pretty smart and If memory serves found it's OWN way home a little while later. To this day no- one knows if she caught the thing or not. Greyhounds are trained to chase you see. Trained to chase food around a track. Whatever it was that night, be it real or imaginary, was indeed real enough to be chased, on a completely primary level, by an animal and at the same time was terrifying anough to send Uncle Terry home in a hurry. In the years that past I often found myself walking past the cemetary railings after dark and I can honestly say (because the human psyche is such a fascinating thing) I never once got passed (even though I was usualy going very quickly) without sparing a thought for Terry's little friend and getting more than my own fair share of goosebumps in the process. I tell you this story as I have heard it more than once from Terry although nor I, or anyone else I ever met, ever saw anything like it themselves either before or after that night.

Oh It's Getting Colder AND Darker Already!


I know you can't wait to find out what happens to Uncle Terry and his Greyhound but it's just not quite dark enough for the punchline of a ghost story yet. Patients my Ghost Pet's (Tenyo), patients. It's pretty spooky though even though it is second hand.

The Library is Not as Dismal as I Thought. The DVD's Are Not as Black as The Books Anyway

Actually scratch that title. I don't think that the Library is a dismal place at all, I just wanted to cleverly work a Black Books reference in there. The Library is in fact an extra cool place full of wonder, colour and enchantment. The childrens section that is. The rest of the books all seem very boring to me. When we got to the library we walked in on the tail end of some School Holiday activities and were able to join in. There had obviously been a Pirate theme as the girls were given hats and feathers and we got to make a telescope each and eat Chocolate treasure. All in all it would seem I have underestimated the Library however. Underestimated, at least, the DVD selection. there I was thinking that it was lame and then there I am borowwing the ENTIRE season of the hit British sit com 'Black Books' starring that guy (left) who came into The Magic Store one day when he was over here for the comedy festival and bought a DC (Dynamic Coins in laypersons terms) for his daughter.

I have heard ohhhh soooo many good reviews of this show from the critics and my friends alike but I never saw any of them when they shown on Australian TV. The reason for this is that back at that time, ER (Emergency Room in laypersons terms) was on the other channel and Joanne was watching that. Jo will always win a TV watching competition hands down. It just stands to reason that the females in this household (any many I would imagine) have control over this aspect of domesticated family living, hence the reason why Kit and myself spend most of our time in here (the study) these days....on the computer and practicing the $100 Bill Switch and napkin rose making. Well I suppose that Kits just sits.

Anyway to slice a long story into little bite sized breakfast bits. the DVD range at Chelsea Library is EXPANDING. Even though I have no interest in karaoke discs.

Library


We are off to the Library in a sec. The thing I like best about the Library is that they have some,quite a fair few infact, DVD's. You get to borrow two DVD's for a week. The cool thing about this is that they are the sort of movies you wouldn't rent from the video store. To be honst they are the sort of movies you wouldn't even watch if they were on TV. Oh I tell a lie you MIGHT watch them if they were on the ABC but it just wouldn't be worth sitting through them if they were littered with ad breaks. I'm talking about films like, Jumanj, Return to OZ, Star Trek 2, Flubber, etc etc.

The point is it's cool to be able to sit back and enjoy movies like that every now and then. Especially when they are so free and easy. By the time you get to the end credits you may know something you didn't know at the beggining. Like maybe, just maybe it wasn't half as bad as you always thought it was in the years you spent as someone who had reached that descision without ever having watched it......or something like that.

#2 Terry, The Greyhound and The Graveyard


Years ago my Uncle Terry used to race Greyhounds. In my lifetime I can remember two separate dogs At two sparate times in my history. One was called Timmy and the other who is part of our story was called Shadey. They both lived in the same pen in the back garden at different intervals in Terry's youth. The pen is now a cubby house called Orchard Cottage but that's another story. One Saturday night, one late saturday night as it must have been after 12am, Terry rolled in from the Queens Club after several pints and decided to walk the dog. As i said Shadey was here name and she was beautiful and silvery. You have to understand that a greyhound needs plenty of excersise and Terry had probably already walked her several times that day. One thing I remember about my Uncle Terry from my childhood, apart from the fact that he had( and I guess still has) lot's of tattos and used to watch cartoons with me well in to his late teens whilst slumbering on my Nannas couch was the fact that he was totally devoted to animals, especially the ones he kept as pets. At one time or another he had owned everything from fish to ferrets.

So there he was (Terry) I guess walking Shadey around Thornaby on Tees late at night eventually finding himself about half a mile away from home, alone, in the dark and cold...... just outside the railings of Thornaby Cemetary. Thornaby Cemetary is a very large place. It's also a very spooky place and supplied us with many scarily happy hours in our youth. One Halloween night we all went for a scare in there only to be greeted by a voice from the dark which said "please get out" It scared the shit out of us at the time because we thought it was a Satanist. In retrospect it was probably the caretaker but a noise in the dark is a noise in the dark. A face in the dark or rather a face AND a body in the dark is a totally different kettle of Kettle Chips though and it is that which brings us to what happened next.

The terrifying moments that followed started with The dog staring over (to the other side of the road) at the cemetary gates, standing dead still with her ears pricked up.

TBC.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Goodnight.


I'm off to walk the dog now. When I get back I'm going to turn the TV around so I can sit closer to the fire, pour myself a glass of red and watch Good Night and Good luck on DVD. More true life ghost stories tomorrow. I have some corkers that are sure to get your goose bumps bumping. Tomorrow night a story titled 'Terry, The Greyhound and The Graveyard'

Having got all excited about scaring you with that story. I am now going to go out into the dark and walk the dog. That's a pretty un- savoury thought considering that I already know what happens in that story. Why did I implant that idea in my own head?

Goodnight and wish me good luck I guess.

Winter Ghost Stories


Oh how it's so,so cold and dark outside. A chill is in the air and an icy breeze wafts through clicking and cracking the blinds in this spooky old study. Actually this study is cozy, warm and inviting. Especially since I put some cushions on the nice couch and reduced the wattage of the globe in the big old cozy lamp. That's not the point though. It's still cold and dark outside and it is fast becoming the season for spooky stories late at night (even though it IS only 7.45pm). So Mull up the wine, turn up the heater and get yurself all rugged into your lovely jim jams. The real life ghost adventures of Dean Atkinson are about to begin.




#1 BINGO BOO

When my Nanna Babs was alive she always enjoyed going to the bingo. Most Saturday nights ( if I remember correctly) my Dad would drive her over to Stockton town centre and drop her off right outside the big old door of the MECCA bingo Hall just up from the Odeon cinema and Leslie Brown Toys. There was a short window here as Nanna would quickly open the door and jump out just before my Dad pulled away. It saved a park and was convinient as long as it took only a second as there were cars creeping up his tail end. This story takes place about two years after my Nanna died of lung cancer ( You may think it bold for me to come out and say that but it's reason enough for any smokers who are reading this to drop that filthy, horrible, stinking habbit. If it hadn't been for smoking she would probably still be alive) and my Dad found himself driving the same way past the MECCA complex in Stockton highstreet on his way home from training or football or some such thing. Upon driving past the bingo hall and with every door in the car closed and I might add LOCKED.......in that very moment of passing the MECCA, the passenger door.........................................opened.

Sounds cute doesn't it? I don't care...it happened.

Valiant


The girls and I rented 'Valiant' today. I have to say I enjoyed this cartoon about pidgeons a lot. Although being an animation from the Dreamworks Studios they have made it look and feel like an old Ealing Studios war movie from the 50s. Very entertaining. I also have George Clooney's 'Goodnight and Good Luck' to look foward too tonight.

We also stuck loads of stickers all over the girls bedroom wall today. This is a custom they have gotten into lately. You may be forgiven for thinking that this would look like a' right mess' but it was actually authorised by Joanne and looks pretty cool against the light cotton tail that my Dad slapped on the walls just after Christmas. We also made Jo some paper napkin flowers for when she gets in from work. These are my latest fad BTW and I have even invested in odering some Michael Mode custom coloured napkins. I have an idea worked out for how to give them away at gigs as part of a trick. In many ways the napkin rose/flower is a more a sophisticated giveaway than a balloon doggie in my humble opinion. They are also dead easy to carry and don't have to be blown up. More about these later.

Life!


When you post on blogspot the option you go to is called 'Create' It sounds all super scientific doesn't it? Like I'm 'creating'. ha ha ha ha ha ha. Creating life ha ha ha ha ha It's alive don't you see ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!! ha ha ha ha ha. This post is ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh The War just doesn't ever go away.

Solid Sponge


Because of all the fan mail I have been getting in relation to the sponge ball routine I mentioned in an earlier post I have decided to describe it for your own performing pleasure. You only need two balls and a piece of wrapped candy. I use a minty.

1 Put everything, including your parole card, your right pants pocket
2 At some point in the moments before you want to start this sensation of sponge reach into your pocket and secretly take one of the balls out in the famous 'Sponge Ball Palm'
3 Produce it from behind someone's ear.
4 Really place it from your right hand into your left and say "Do you know what happens when you put a ball in your and and squeeze?" Everyone says "It vanishes" or words to that effect. At this point you open the hand to show that it is still there and say "no it stays there...It's called reality" Everyone laughs and you seize the moment to perform a false transfer from the right to the left again.
5 Position check then is that the ball is in the right when everyone thinks it is in the left.
6 Reach into your pocket with the palmed ball and pretend to take another two out. One of these is the second ball and the other is simply the one you had palmed already.
7 What follows is something I have fooled loads of magicians with (including, I might add Mr Sponge Ball himself, Glenn Hamilton). You say "Another two in the pocket that makes three. OK one on the table and two in the hand" You put one of the two balls on the table and place the other on the back of knuckel that they think the 'First?' ball is in.
8 You grab this ball with the right hand and snatch the hand away to the side but in the same action you place and leave the sponge in the LEFT hand. You have to do this really quickly so that it does not register that there is actually only one ball in play. At this point (and this is a real nice psychological ruse) the audience should believe that you have a ball in each hand. Especially when you point to the left fist with a suspicious closed right fist and say "OK two balls here"
9 The point is that they have MISSED the ruse completely. Thi is because of Time Misdirection. More about this in a second. You actually only have one ball in the hands. You now say "One ball will jump from my left to my right" make a gesture with the closed fists and then open your left hand to reveal one ball. Most people will think theya are on to you (including Glenn Hamilton) and assume you just have another ball in the left. I open the left and say "Look empty. Did that confuse you?" they usually say yes.
10 False transfer the ball in the hand from the right to left again and then hand the spec two as one to hold.
11 I do a bit of a delay here. Most people who know me and know that I love to play around with the psychology of magic will tell you of the importance I place on Time Misdirection. This is a classic example of this theory at work.
12 Instead of vanishing my ball and having them find it in their hands straight away I add an extra frame to the video tape. Open your hand and say that the ball is invisible. pretend to take it with right hand and place it behind their ear (this is a throw back from producing it behind their ear at the top) reach into your pocket and say. "This third ball, the one from before that vanished, is the one that I will use. Quickly pretend to place a ball from your right into your laft. say "You don't believe I have a ball here do you? your right (open your empty left hand) it's actually in your hand" They open their hand and discover two. the delay on this is just long enough for it to sell and sell big.
13 You say "Ok let's finish with a quick observation test. One in the hand" false transfer a ball. One in the pocket. take the next ball, add the palmed one to it and dump them both in the pocket grabbing the candy at the same time. the hand comes out secretly palming the minty. "and one behind your ear" You pretend to grab the invisible ball from behind their ear and put that in the left hand too. What you really do is secretly drop the candy in there. "How many balls in the hand?"
14 Whatever they say open the hand to reveal the candy. You say "wrong you pathetic idiot. But here's some awful, month old candy for you to chew on while you think about what you are doing with your life watching a guy ij a cheap suit play with balls made out of foam"

as an alternative to candy you could of course use a large sponge load or even a poisonous insect.

Comments


A lot of people have been asking why I disabled comments on the blog. The truth is I didn't have the time to read, reply or even keep track of them all. Since I have better control over my time managment these days I have decided to allow comments again. Please feel free to tell me how crap I am on a regular basis.

Sweet Lady C



I have these two friends, let's call them Trent Core and Jeff Quartz. It sounds really strange, kind of like I'm making it up for the sensation of it all, but it's actually true. These guys are addicted to chocolate. Candy in general to be frank. As part of their SA (Sugar Annonymous) 'Steps' , they have to write about their past experiences of this horrible addiction on the internet. Please take a look at their fantastic blog at this address.

www.thesugarrevolution.com

It is a complete insight into the dangers of candy addiction. At some points they even make a sensation of the risks, encouraging you to "Try it for yourself" or giving certain evil chocolate bars "10 out of 10" etc etc. Please don't be lulled into a false sense of security by these guys. They are predators. Candy will make you unpopular, fat and very ugly. Even though these guys look buffed and beautiful on the outside on the inside their souls are black and I guess they must be using the supernatural to disguise it.

All joking aside lovers of candy should look in on a regular basis. a lot of great work has gone into this blog and I'm sure we are all aware of how hard it is to sit around eating candy all day in order to write about it.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Any Friend of Dorothy is a Friend of Pink Floyd


Here's a bit of classic Man in a Boys World fluff. I love that Dark Side of the Rainbow stuff. You know what I mean right? Where you play Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at the same time as you watch The Wizard of Oz you get these strange coincidences. I just watched some of it on You Tube and it's pretty creepy. I don't believe it for a second but that does not change the fact that it's cool. Apparantly to do the test properly you have to start the album after the MGM lion roars for the third time on the movie. You also have to make sure you turn the sound right down on your TV. Anyone with enough spare time on their hands to do this should give it a go....... I guess.

How's this for a coincidence though? After I watched the news clip about it on You Tube I went over to turn the radio up and The Wall was playing. Creepy.

How Does a Clown Smell Without A Nose?


He can't, he doesn't have a nose. That's not the point though. The point is this. Why, in my life , have I seen Three rogue sponge balls lying around on the floor. I guess that these incidents may have been five or so years apart but the point is they happened and It's very strange. A sponge ball is NOT the sort of thing you expect to see discarded at the side of the road. Not three times not one time. There they were though. Totally at random. In three seperate locations that were totally unrelated to each other and similarly unrelated to magic in genaral. Neither was there ANY evidence of a magician or a magic show either at the time or in the immediate past. Strange? Well it seems maybe not. You see something happened to me whilst I was walking from South Yarra train station to The Magic Store this morning. I glanbed down in to the gutter and saw another one. OMG I screamed (on the inside) Not another one! In this moment I seriously began to consider whether there was some pattern here, some message, some hidden meaning. That my whole life was working towards this moment. That Sponge balls were only fit for the gutter and that I should abandon all together my rock solid 1min routine that I do all the time both as a demo and also in the real world. A tiny voice was beggining to whisper. Yes they are garbage and they look camp as hell. Whenever someone sees you pull one out from your pocket or even behind their ear they want to actually kill you. But then the dust begain to settle. I ate the metaphoric sugar( so to speak) at the end of a metaphoric three hour pot smoking extravaganza and calm begain to pass over me in a wave of joy and peace. This wasn't a magician's sponge ball! It was a clown's sponge nose! For all I know the previous three incidents could have very well been exactly the same as this I just didn't know it then. A clown's nose discarded upon the road. Nothing to see here ladies and gentleman, noting at all unusual about that, especially in Melbourne where clowns go missing all the time. In Melbourne finding a discarded clown's nose on the floor is like finding a lost footy scarf. I picked up my step, I arrived at The Magic Store and grabbed those little absorbant spheres from the shelf and belted them out to the first person who walked through the door. It was OK. I had walked through the darkness and the universe was not actually speaking it's dark tones of foam to me. I had beaten the sponge kraken who is usually 6 times larger than he should be as he spends 24 hours a day under water. Taking a breather every now and then to eat a maiden or clash with a titan. The point was,I was alive.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Magic Store 50% Tenyo Sale


The Magic Store is currently offering 50% off selected Tenyo items (that's those crazy half toy, half magic trick instalations from Japan) and I have to say you don't really appreciate how good Tenyo is until you really play around with it. In all of the many hours that I have enjoyed behind the counter at work I have never demonstrated Tenyo's 'Ghost Pet'. I always thought it was a little lame and a bit too much like a toy. OHHHHH how wrong I have been. This trick is impossibly cute. It is also very stylish looking and is a prop which would not look out of place in the magic boxes of most proffessionals. For those that don't know too much about it it's a nice cross between a haunted match box (except it's a nice stylish looking black box) and a magic drawer box. In other words (and to keep a long story short) the box is empty, it moves around on it's own before finally OPENING on it's own to reveal something inside. You can use anything that fits but they give you a piece of rolled up paper with a picture of a ghost and the words 'I love' printed on it. Oh those zany, random Japanese people.

The 50% sale atThe Magic Store is all but over now but many of these great Tenyo items are still available. If your like me (A closet Tenyo fan that is) Give someone a call at The Magic Store today.

Not 'Fayne ing' disappointment.


I'm totally bollocked that I missed Chuck Fayne's workshop at The Swiss Club today. I love Chuck Fayne and I am proud to be able to call him a friend. I won't harp on about him as I know he blushes easily but I will say this. Chuck Fayne is just about the most solid performer I have ever seen. Watching Chuck perform is a true lesson in timing and showmanship. It's just as simple as that.

many apologies to Chuck for my not being able to be there today but I had a quick gig to do out my way and the timing was just off.

I would love to hear back from some of the Melbourne guys who attended.

Cash Flash


I have been performing a trick for about three months now that I call 'Cash Flash'

I developed it about a year ago and have been finely tuning it on a regular basis for most of that time. Performing it every now and then for the first nine months and currently belting it out all the time. It is Trez commercial and visual. That's kind of where I am at with my magic right now.

It's a great routine. Flash Paper, borrowed money, loosing borrowed money, comedy, a plastic thumb, a plastic tube, a nice silver Zippo....Ohhh lovely.

The thing is I always figured that 'The $100 Bill' switch would go great guns in there somewhere. Trouble was, up until about a week ago I had never bothered to learn it. Well the time finally came and I have to tell you that I am SOOOO glad that I have added this move to my repertoire. How dod I ever live without this move for so long. What I am very surprised about however is how easy it was to perfect. I thought it was going to be dead hard, expecially with our wonderful plastic currency.

I won't be explaining 'Cash Flash' here. It's just too good. I have shown it to a couple of magicians but luckily for me there not the sort of bloodsuckers who would lift anything.

Interestingly enough the routione also has an extended version which climaxes with a Knife through coat. Along the way there is also the vanish of a watch. I have been using this version in my stand up act recently. The most recent time being at a gig last saturday night. BTW speaking of that gig it was one of the best times I have had performing magic for ages. For a lovely lad named Aarron who was celebrating his 21st Birthday. I had been booked by his charming girlfriend Rae. They had a great bunch of young friends who were a terrific audience. I know that the two of them have looked in on this blog from time to time so if your reading this, thanks for a great night you two.

As fro the rest of you. LEARN THE $100 BILL SWITCH!!! It's your friend! Actually you know what DON'T learn it. Forget you ever read this.

Monday, June 12, 2006

weekend


I realized something over the weekend (At some gigs). I can't live without flash paper and palming. I have already expressed my passion for flamable paper here before so let's talk about palming. Palming is my friend. It's actually my best friend. Seriously no one should have to live without 'The One Hand Top Palm. I can't begin to describe how many of my routined use it in one way or another.

Do yourself a favour....Try palming today. Don't worry if you get caught it's not life threatening. You have to get caught once in a while in order to ultimately get away with it.

Dean

Excuses and Tootsie



Well to be honest there isn't one, at least not a plausible one. I was going to report back in after my fast and how difficult it was. The truth is I got a little side tracked with work, family and Magic Store commitments. I am pleased to say that I am now back.

The fast WAS hard. I still think David Blaine is an exceptional entertainer. I have to say though that I think he is someone who has gotten better over time. I happened to catch his very first special a while back and he's much better later on. I recommend fasting to anyone who wants to shed a few pounds and feel an over all sense of betterness. It has changed me back into the sort of pwrson who gives careful consideration to what he eats.

It's good to be back here and I hope you all start reading again.

BTW do yourselves a favour. Grab a copy of 'Tootsie' on DVD. I had completely forgotten how good this movie was. After seeing it again last week I put it right on to my ten best films of all time list. Every aspect of this picture is sensational. It's one of those movies you enjoy when your a kid but do not really understand the true comedy of until you are an adult. I LOVE this film. It is OHHHH so funny without sacrificing endearment. The characters are filled with love and empathy and played exceptionaly well. Please watch it again tonight.

I have always thought that Duistin Hoffman was a fantastic actor but one really needs to see a film like Tootsie to appreciate that he may actually be the best actor of all time.