I have been rather inactive on this blog since Sunday. I've had a bad cold, which has not helped, but I'm also having problems of a different sort.
I have conceived a new trick called 'Buzzing Roulette',which I want to demonstrate on this site and show you how to do it yourselves, but I am having trouble filming and practising it, and have not yet produced a video of the performance suitable for submission. For example, this afternoon, I botched the performance of the trick That was being filmed. If I had been performing that trick with a spike as most magicians do, I would be in hospital right now (But I am making and filming a totally safe version, so only my pride has been hurt)
I will Refilm the trick. If it goes to plan. I should have the video and means of doing it up by the middle of next week. If it doesn't I will create and film a different trick for you to try yourselves, but hopefully I won't need to do this.
All activity on the blog will now continue as normal
I wish all my followers the best, and thank you for continuing to visit the site despite all the disruption.
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Penn and Teller: Fool Us - Episode 2
Yesterday's episode of Penn and Teller: Fool Us, featured more magicians and better magic than last week's. The magicians trying to win a trip to Vegas by fooling Penn and Teller today were...
Mark Shortland - Comedy Mentalist
Mark did a trick involving luck. He had Jonathan Ross (as irritating a host as ever) put his phone into an envelope, which were mixed up with five other envelopes, each with prop phones in. Jonathan rolled a dice, and Mark destroyed the phone in the corresponding envelope with a hammer. The surviving phone was Jonathans's.
The trick was amusing and well presented, but it did not fool Penn and Teller, who theorised that the dice was rigged, though that still doesn't explain how the dice avoided landing at the random number Jonathan had given his envelopes
Mathieu Bich- Close-up magician
Mathieu did a pick-a-card trick, but one with two novel aspects. First of all, the details of the card (colour, suit, value, etc) were each randomly chosen by different members of the audience. Secondly, Mathieu revealed the chosen card by fanning the deck out in such a way the cards details showed in the fan. Due to these two aspects, Mathieu fooled Penn and Teller and won the trip to Vegas
Young and Strange- Comedy Illusionist Duo
Young and Strange performed a novel version of the Metamorphosis illusion. One of the members was locked in a trunk, and the other went behind a screen. However, from there, the trick differed from convention. The member in the trunk walked out of the other side of the screen, timing this perfectly, then opened the trunk to reveal a female assistant in the trunk. The first member who was supposed to now be in the trunk emerged at the back of the studio. They didn't fool Penn and Teller, but, in terms of entertainment value, presentation, and fooling ME, it was probably one of my favourite performances of the evening
Daniel Madison- Card-Counting Magician
Daniel delivered a technically excellent, but slightly boring card-counting trick as he counted a Royal Flush of Diamonds from the deck whilst blindfolded. I thought that he would fool Penn and Teller like so many cardsharps before him, but he didn't.
As ever, Penn and Teller finished the show with a performance of their own, involving A blindfolded Teller finding a chosen card by stabbing at the deck with a knife, and accidentally embedding both into Penn's hand. The trick was not wow, but it was clever and funny. All in all, it was an excellent episode with some excellent magic.
Mark Shortland - Comedy Mentalist
Mark did a trick involving luck. He had Jonathan Ross (as irritating a host as ever) put his phone into an envelope, which were mixed up with five other envelopes, each with prop phones in. Jonathan rolled a dice, and Mark destroyed the phone in the corresponding envelope with a hammer. The surviving phone was Jonathans's.
The trick was amusing and well presented, but it did not fool Penn and Teller, who theorised that the dice was rigged, though that still doesn't explain how the dice avoided landing at the random number Jonathan had given his envelopes
Mathieu Bich- Close-up magician
Mathieu did a pick-a-card trick, but one with two novel aspects. First of all, the details of the card (colour, suit, value, etc) were each randomly chosen by different members of the audience. Secondly, Mathieu revealed the chosen card by fanning the deck out in such a way the cards details showed in the fan. Due to these two aspects, Mathieu fooled Penn and Teller and won the trip to Vegas
Young and Strange- Comedy Illusionist Duo
Young and Strange performed a novel version of the Metamorphosis illusion. One of the members was locked in a trunk, and the other went behind a screen. However, from there, the trick differed from convention. The member in the trunk walked out of the other side of the screen, timing this perfectly, then opened the trunk to reveal a female assistant in the trunk. The first member who was supposed to now be in the trunk emerged at the back of the studio. They didn't fool Penn and Teller, but, in terms of entertainment value, presentation, and fooling ME, it was probably one of my favourite performances of the evening
Daniel Madison- Card-Counting Magician
Daniel delivered a technically excellent, but slightly boring card-counting trick as he counted a Royal Flush of Diamonds from the deck whilst blindfolded. I thought that he would fool Penn and Teller like so many cardsharps before him, but he didn't.
As ever, Penn and Teller finished the show with a performance of their own, involving A blindfolded Teller finding a chosen card by stabbing at the deck with a knife, and accidentally embedding both into Penn's hand. The trick was not wow, but it was clever and funny. All in all, it was an excellent episode with some excellent magic.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Penn and Teller: Fool Us. Episode 1
Yesterday saw the first proper episode of Penn And Teller: Fool Us after January's pilot. Three magicians competed to fool The American duo and win a trip to Vegas. How did they fare?
High Jinx-Illusionist Duo
Trick: High Jinx did a trick involving dividing the female member into fifths. It was well presented for that shopworn type of illusion, but it didn't fool Penn and Teller.
John Allen-Danger Magician
Jon performed a very dangerous trick, but one it have seen a thousand times before. 4 bags, which one has the nail in? It was fairly well presented, but unsurprisingly, did not fool Penn and Teller
Graham P.Jolley-Comedy Mentalist
Graham performed two tricks. First, he guessed where host Jonathan Ross had hidden five billiard balls around his person, then did a set of card tricks for Penn and Teller.Just like Benjamin Earl's card sleights in the pilot, Graham's were hard to figure out, and he fooled Penn and Teller to win the trip to Vegas
The episode finished with Penn and Teller performing a trick involving Teller getting out of a Bin liner filled with helium. It was probably the best trick of the day.
Come to this blog next week for more coverage on Penn and Teller: Fool Us
High Jinx-Illusionist Duo
Trick: High Jinx did a trick involving dividing the female member into fifths. It was well presented for that shopworn type of illusion, but it didn't fool Penn and Teller.
John Allen-Danger Magician
Jon performed a very dangerous trick, but one it have seen a thousand times before. 4 bags, which one has the nail in? It was fairly well presented, but unsurprisingly, did not fool Penn and Teller
Graham P.Jolley-Comedy Mentalist
Graham performed two tricks. First, he guessed where host Jonathan Ross had hidden five billiard balls around his person, then did a set of card tricks for Penn and Teller.Just like Benjamin Earl's card sleights in the pilot, Graham's were hard to figure out, and he fooled Penn and Teller to win the trip to Vegas
The episode finished with Penn and Teller performing a trick involving Teller getting out of a Bin liner filled with helium. It was probably the best trick of the day.
Come to this blog next week for more coverage on Penn and Teller: Fool Us
Friday, 17 June 2011
GlitterArty Illusion- How to do It
The effect: You make a stream of glitter appear from your fist and from a tissue. You then show a sheet of paper, pour glitter into it, and then reveal a message of choice made with glitter
You Need
1 Thumbtip (Availible from all good magic shops)
3 Sheets A4 paper
Pritt stick
1 tissue
A few tubes of glitter
Preparation
Pour a little glitter into the thumbtip (A little goes a long way!)
Pour a little glitter into the tissue, and fold the tissue to hold the glitter in
On 1 of the sheets of paper, write your message with pencill. Using the Pritt-Stick, fill the letters of the message with glue. cover it with Glitter, then shake off the excess.
Fold that sheet of paper and another sheet. Glue one side of each together, so that you can flip down the sheet with the message on to reveal it.
Glue the two attached sheets to the third, but leave the side above the message unglued. Fold the empty sheet on top of the one with the message. This gives the impression that you have 1 sheet of empty paper.
Put the tissue in your pocket, the thumbtip over your thumb, and the paper and a tube of glitter the same colour as the message, to one side. You are ready to begin.
Performance
Show your hands as empty from the front, with both thumbs pressed against the second fingers. From this position, the thumbtip looks like your normal thumb.
Close your other hand over the thumb with the thumbtip on and transfer it to inside your fist. Move the hand without the thumbtip away and show it clean. This will divert attention from the fist with the thumbtip on.
Turn the fist with the thumbtip in slowly upside down. the glitter in it will cascade to the floor.
Take the empty hand and put the thumb into the fist. Here it collects the thumbtip. Move the now empty fist around and show it as empty. This distracts the viewer from the fact that the thumbtip is now on the thumb of the other hand.
Announce that you need to sneeze. Put the hand with the thumbtip on into your pocket to get the tissue. Release the thumbtip into the pocket, and take out the tissue. The quicker you do this, the less it looks like you are putting something into your pocket as well.
Bring the tissue to your nose and mime sneezing. As you do, tear the tissue up. The glitter in it will cascade to the floor. Throw the peices of tissue down with it.
Pick up the gimmicked paper with the message folded in. Show both sides blank.
Take the glitter and pour it into the unglued side.
Turn the paper around to show the non-Gimmicked side as blank. As you do so, fold the section of the gimmick with the message on out so it shows. Do this front on, so (unlike my performance) you can't see the paper being folded down.
Turn it around to reveal the message written in glitter!
Take a bow!
Note: Glitter is very messy indeed. Perform the effect over old newspaper, try not to get any glitter on your clothes, and clean up afterwards!
You Need
1 Thumbtip (Availible from all good magic shops)
3 Sheets A4 paper
Pritt stick
1 tissue
A few tubes of glitter
Preparation
Pour a little glitter into the thumbtip (A little goes a long way!)
Pour a little glitter into the tissue, and fold the tissue to hold the glitter in
On 1 of the sheets of paper, write your message with pencill. Using the Pritt-Stick, fill the letters of the message with glue. cover it with Glitter, then shake off the excess.
Fold that sheet of paper and another sheet. Glue one side of each together, so that you can flip down the sheet with the message on to reveal it.
Glue the two attached sheets to the third, but leave the side above the message unglued. Fold the empty sheet on top of the one with the message. This gives the impression that you have 1 sheet of empty paper.
Put the tissue in your pocket, the thumbtip over your thumb, and the paper and a tube of glitter the same colour as the message, to one side. You are ready to begin.
Performance
Show your hands as empty from the front, with both thumbs pressed against the second fingers. From this position, the thumbtip looks like your normal thumb.
Close your other hand over the thumb with the thumbtip on and transfer it to inside your fist. Move the hand without the thumbtip away and show it clean. This will divert attention from the fist with the thumbtip on.
Turn the fist with the thumbtip in slowly upside down. the glitter in it will cascade to the floor.
Take the empty hand and put the thumb into the fist. Here it collects the thumbtip. Move the now empty fist around and show it as empty. This distracts the viewer from the fact that the thumbtip is now on the thumb of the other hand.
Announce that you need to sneeze. Put the hand with the thumbtip on into your pocket to get the tissue. Release the thumbtip into the pocket, and take out the tissue. The quicker you do this, the less it looks like you are putting something into your pocket as well.
Bring the tissue to your nose and mime sneezing. As you do, tear the tissue up. The glitter in it will cascade to the floor. Throw the peices of tissue down with it.
Pick up the gimmicked paper with the message folded in. Show both sides blank.
Take the glitter and pour it into the unglued side.
Turn the paper around to show the non-Gimmicked side as blank. As you do so, fold the section of the gimmick with the message on out so it shows. Do this front on, so (unlike my performance) you can't see the paper being folded down.
Turn it around to reveal the message written in glitter!
Take a bow!
Note: Glitter is very messy indeed. Perform the effect over old newspaper, try not to get any glitter on your clothes, and clean up afterwards!
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
A note on Americas Got Talent
Americas got Talent is now airing on ITV2, premiereing for the british viewer. However I followed this series on youtube last year, and I can confirm that British magic fans should watch out for these US magicians during the following episodes...
Episode 3(Tonight 10:00): Antonio Restivio
Episode 4(tomorrow 9:00): Michael Grasso
Episode 6(Friday 10:00): Frankie Elliston, Murray Sawchuck
Episode 7 (Tuesday 9:00): William Scott Anderson
Happy Magic-Watching!
Episode 3(Tonight 10:00): Antonio Restivio
Episode 4(tomorrow 9:00): Michael Grasso
Episode 6(Friday 10:00): Frankie Elliston, Murray Sawchuck
Episode 7 (Tuesday 9:00): William Scott Anderson
Happy Magic-Watching!
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Welcome to Total Magic!
Welcome to Total Magic!
This is the blog to go to for all you magicians and magic fans.
Here, you will find coverage of Magic on television, filom, and other media all over the world, as well as amazing Magic tricks for you to make and learn, some of which are exclusive to this site.
I hope you enjoy it.
This is the blog to go to for all you magicians and magic fans.
Here, you will find coverage of Magic on television, filom, and other media all over the world, as well as amazing Magic tricks for you to make and learn, some of which are exclusive to this site.
I hope you enjoy it.
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