Ricky Jay Trapped in an Elevator! With Girls!
Watch as Ricky Jay faces his greatest challenge ever! In this video, he is forced into the harrowing position of having to fend off two vapid women while trapped in an elevator. Do a trick Mr. Jay!
Conjuring Arts on NPR!
Our director, Bill Kalush, was recently interviewed by NPR’s Scott Simon with regard to the Conjuring Arts Research Center and the relevance of magic today. It is a good opportunity to learn more about the library’s collection and where we are going with many of our projects. Enjoy!
Download the podcast here, or listen to it now via the player below.
Ricky Jay on Funny or Die
Ricky Jay is featured in David Mamet’s “Lost Masterpieces of Pornography”, a video on the Funny or Die website. It features June Crenshaw (Kristen Bell) “known as the ‘sex kitten’ of the Supreme Court”. This video may not be safe for work. Cheers!
Impossible Motion
An optical treat! Watch the above video to experience the joy of defying gravity without actually having to do so. Perhaps this would make an interesting large scale playground illusion?
Ed Marlo in France!
Recently, here at Conjuring Arts, we have been working on transcribing a large file of letters from Ed Marlo to Mel Brown. They span from 1954 to 1991 and are quite fascinating, containing gossip, reviews of books and videos, tricks and sleights, tips and finesses, etc. While the work on these is not finished, we thought we would whet the appetite by offering a small gallery of photos of Ed Marlo that we have in the archives. We believe that these were taken during his trip to Paris for Pierre Mayer’s convention. There is also video footage of Marlo that was taken during the trip which is available through Stevens Magic Emporium (Ed Marlo – A Private Lesson number 1 and number 2), if you want to see him in action during this period of his life.
Visit the Gallery
For those that do not know much about Marlo and would like to know more you should definitely check out the new collections being put out by Magic Inc. in Chicago; these are a trilogy of books, two of which have been published so far, Revolutionary Card Technique and Cardially Yours. There are also some video resources, most notably, Prime Time Marlo and It’s all in the Cards. Also I have assembled some interesting articles and tricks, with the help of Ask Alexander, which may be of value to the enthusiast:
One of Marlo’s first publishing efforts was to enter into Tops magazine’s “It’s a Pip” contest. He entered three ideas into the contest, which is not surprising considering the vast creativity he would demonstrate for the rest of his career. Note that he was still using his given name Edward Malkowski with a nickname, “Marko”, which his friends had given him.
It’s a Pip Contest Announcement; Tops Vol. 02 No. 11, November 1937
Entries:
- “Pip Sucker Gag” by Edward (Marko) Malkowski; Tops Vol. 02 No. 12, December 1937
- “Pip Card to Wallet” by Edward (Marko) Malkowski; Tops Vol. 03 No. 03, March 1938
- “Before Your Eyes” by Edward (Marko) Malkowski; Tops Vol. 03 No. 05, May 1938
The following ads represent Marlo’s first attempts to market his material to magician’s. Both of them feature Marlo’s “Double Vanish and Recovery” which is an effect wherein two cards vanish from the deck, then one reappears face up in the middle, and then the face up card is used to locate the other card. Additionally the effect included “Theory of Change, Disappearance and Reappearance” which was an essay featuring the idea that any standard color change could be used to create the effect of a change, a vanish, or a production. The “Casanova Card Trick” utilized the mechanics 
behind the vanish in “Double Vanish and Recovery” to produce the four Queens. Finally we see “Poor Man’s Trick” in which the performer made a penny travel through his head into a glass and then the penny was placed in the right sleeve only to travel out the left sleeve and into the glass. “Double Vanish and Recovery” and “Casanova Card Trick” are available in Marlo’s book Deck Deception, and the “Poor Man’s Trick” is explained in Bull’s-Eye Coin Tricks. I did not find “Theory of Change, Disappearance and Reappearance” reprinted anywhere, but Sid Lorraine had a copy of it in his files which are available at Conjuring Arts.
Finally, here are some biographical pieces about Marlo.
- “Eddie Marlo as I Know Him” by Frances Ireland; The Linking Ring Vol. 25, No. 11 January 1946.
- “Cardician Marlo” by Frances Ireland; The Linking Ring Vol. 37, No. 4 June 1957.
- “The Amazing Mr. Marlo” by Bill Simon; MUM October 1978.
- “Some Notes on Edward Marlo” by Jon Racherbaumer; MUM October 1978.
- MAGIC Magazine Obituary; MAGIC Magazine Vol. 1, No. 4 1991.
- Linking Ring Obituary; The Linking Ring Vol. 72, No. 01 January 1992.
- MUM Obituary; MUM Vol. 81, No. 09 February 1992.
Michael Moschen at the Skirball Center
Some of the Conjuring Arts staff and volunteers were very privileged to witness a performance by Michael Moschen last Saturday when he performed at the NYU Skirball Center. For those that don’t know him, he is a stupendously creative juggler and artist. We were very impressed with the show which featured a number of juggling feats and visual surprises combined with insight from Mr. Moschen into his creative process and other aspects of his unique performance.
He began his routine by juggling some white balls in a variety of forms and fashions, switching to colored balls so the audience could participate and watch certain colors and ascertain the balls progress as they traveled. It was fun to try and keep up with the various colors. Then he had us perform a dexterous motion with our fingers, which transformed into a demonstration of contact juggling, and we were all thrilled when the motion we had been making proved to be part of the routine.
One of the highlights was his routine with sticks. He started out manipulating a single shining stick. It was marvelous how the light bounced off the stick as it went through its routine. The piece progressed with more sticks and more stunning feats, etc. Mr. Moschen also included a performance of the Triangle which is a fascinating sequence of juggling utilizing a giant triangle in the center of the stage. It was used as a surface to develop a myriad of paths for the balls to take before returning to his hands and also as a sounding board; creating a rich routine both visually and audibly.
One of the pieces was on balance and cheating. He related that balance is a conversation between you and the top of the object demonstrating this with a long stick. When the top moved one way or the other, he had a certain amount of time to respond and regain balance in order to continue the conversation. Of course, the conversation plays out much faster with shorter objects, so Mr. Moschen demonstrated his ability to balance a pencil on his head! This led to a discussion of cheating wherein he explained how gripping the object in any way when learning to balance stifles your ability when you try to balance an object elsewhere on the body. Like magic, for the most part, in juggling you are on your own, and it is up to you to decide whether to learn it the right way or take shortcuts which may hamper your ability in the future.
The performance was fascinating, and Mr. Moschen’s skill is astounding, however, some of the best parts were his thoughts on the different routines he was doing. He seemed quite candid and, at the end of the show, allowed some time for a question and answer session. We were quite pleased that someone asked him about his practice regimen and he said, “I practice four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening”. That is eight hours of practice a day! We had better get to work.
Learn more at Michael Moschen’s website and also check out his TED talk.
3 Year Old Tightrope Walker
A 3 year old girl walks across a tightrope stretched over an enclosure containing six Siberian tigers. When asked if she likes tightrope walking, she said, “Yes, because I started at a very young age”. Rumor has it that next year they will be featuring a 4 year old tightrope walker.
Robot Magicians?
This is amazing! A robot hand that can grab, throw, catch, dribble, tie knots, spin pens, etc. How long will it be before we can watch a robot expertly perform the whole calendar of sleights in Erdnase? Will sleights of the future be developed on the computer and available for download onto our robot hands? Will practice become obsolete? Exciting and interesting times are at hand, literally.
Learn more about this here.
Ask Alexander 2.0 Beta!
Those of you who have logged in to Alexander recently may have noticed the new look and some new features. We are calling it Ask Alexander 2.0, and, although we are still working on many neat ideas, it is coming along nicely.
The first thing you will notice is the new design which was elegantly conceived and created by Dave Buck. Second, you will notice a number of improved functions with regard to the search. These include thumbnail pictures of the book covers next to the results, more results, and, this is the big one, a much faster search! Try it and see, even a search for “Houdini” or other big search term returns the results almost immediately. 
Third, we have expanded upon the collections idea with a page feature called “My Alex”. Here you can assemble a bookshelf of your favorite books and give them ratings so you can locate them instantly. Additionally, there is a button to repeat your last search or to look at all of your previous searches.
Hopefully these new features will help you find some wonderful new knowledge and improve your magic! Thank you very much to Dan Smith, Dave Buck, and Dan Smith for all of their help in this and future iterations of Alexander. Also, if you have computer skills that may be of help to us, please consider volunteering as we could certainly use the help in making a great tool even better. Happy searching!
Magic-Con 2010!
We are back from Magic-Con and are still trying to wrap our heads around how awesome it was. Dan Buck, Dave Buck, and Syd Segal really did a great job assembling an amazing line up of performers and organizing events that would get the most out of their presence.
Two members of our Board of Directors, Bill Kalush and David Blaine, were presenters at the event and our student in residence, Ricky Smith, did his best to help out from time to time. David Blaine was on stage for a special question and answer session hosted by Dan and Dave with some very interesting and insightful questions and responses. 
Mr. Kalush did a lecture on the importance of studying magic history and some of the benefits he has received through his own studies. He also did a talk on Ask Alexander where he explained the basics of the project and also some of the new features available in Ask Alexander 2.0. Additionally he spoke about his vision for Ask Alexander in the future and how we need help from computer savvy people to make it a reality. We were quite pleased that several people offered to volunteer some of their time and expertise, so, perhaps, Alexander will be unveiling some extra cool features in the near future. As a bonus for attendees, we also donated one month of free Ask Alexander membership (or a one month upgrade to a higher level for current members at the convention) at Charlier level to all the attendees.
In addition to the convention, the organizers also knew the importance of giving back to the community. Taking advantage of the fact that they had assembled all of these great performers, they organized a performance and teaching session for the kids at the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Center. There were a number of very talented magicians working for about 60 kids, and it was a really fantastic event.
Congratulations to Dan and Dave and Syd on their success, and we are very excited about next year!
