The First Timers

Two young amateur magicians were invited to be in the big show… what was it like for them? Presenting The First Timers (Magic Show) a photo documentary about newcomers to a Magic Show, by Ashton Vazquez. The interviews were held while preparing for Cavalcade of Magic, Nov. 15, 08, in Columbia, SC. It features Bauer Westeren, a young Mind Reader, and Cameron Burks, a young Escape Artist....

How Magicians Can Make the News – A Journalist’s Perspective

As a working journalist with several year’s experience in national newspapers I thought I may be able to present some useful working knowledge for my fellow students. A point of note – this piece is about at how to get news coverage. Areas such as attracting reviews are not delved into. What is news? There are several varieties of news stories, coming under a wide range of genres....

Magical Moments

Look around you – I mean it- look around. Did you see anything magical going on? Is anything happening that is unexplainable? Maybe not, but if you pay attention, real moments of magic will happen right in front of you. Even though I have been performing magic for three years now, it took me those entire three years to experience a moment of real magic. I experienced a moment like this...

Principles: The Three Laws of Perception®

In this second part on The Magic of Creating we will explore my Three Laws of Perception®. I had already written this essay but decided to rewrite it together with my good friend Tom Meseroll, the Martial Magician. He brought the physics of perception into the mix. As a result the Laws are even more inescapable than before. So fasten your seatbelts because, paraphrasing Niels Bohr -the famous...

Focus & Finish

My magic mentor Jeff McBride, wrote me a letter. “It’s great Romany, that you’ve lots of creative new ideas but it seems to me that you avoid finishing projects and don’t spend your time to polish the piece until it’s really finished.” Deep in denial, I ignored Jeff and I ignored his letter. Except that I did pin it on my notice board where I could see it every day. Each time it caught my eye, I...

A Practical Magician’s Case-Table, Part 2

AFFORDABLE OPTONS $50 A number of years ago on AllMagic.com Richard Robinson wrote some interesting articles on affordable stage tables. In one article he suggested getting a cube-like fibre musician’s case for about $50. I think it could be an 18-24” cube. You will want all the corners to be reinforced with metal for durability. This case is like a sample case. It consists of two boxes, which...

Dear Abbi, A Word from the Wife

“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.” — Virginia Woolf Recently, one of Jeff’s students was sharing how he really hates to show his wife any magic.  He said he feels like she’s his worst critic; she’s not enthusiastic about watching his...

Beyond Bizarre

The 2005 “Beyond Bizarre” magic workshop in Las Vegas defies easy description, because the sages who organized the event sought out to transcend limiting terminology. It was a workshop about magic, certainly, since there were indeed lessons on the mechanics of tricks, but more than half the routines pushed the envelope of traditional definitions of “bizarre magic.” It was...

Magic of a Great Wizard

I know a Great Wizard. He has great powers that could boggle the mind. His abilities and agility are so great that human eyes will never see the subtleties of his magic. He can read minds; but he does not. He can foretell the future, but he does not. He can make things appear and disappear, of course; but does not. What kind of wizard is he? He is a wizard of possibilities. In his world he is...

To Be A Magician

“Magicians are born, not made.” — Carl Herrman, Personal Recollections It’s an experience most of us have in common. My first recollection of understanding of the uses of magic was many years ago on an exploratory walk through the east side ghetto of my hometown of Newburgh, New York. A child of maybe six was sitting on a dirty stoop in the middle of a deserted block,...