Jason Escape: Bound To Amaze

Jason Escape (Jason Gardner) visited the shop yesterday and hung with the staff along with his friend NYC magician Magic Brian. Jason is getting married in a few weeks. Congratulations!

Getting tied in endless amounts of rope and chain, escaping from tiny locked boxes, and suspending himself upside-down while high in the air in a straightjacket are but a few of the many talents of Jason Escape. Everything he does is designed to make you laugh, if not freak you right out. His live performances never fail to render his audiences truly awestruck.

Growing up right outside of NYC afforded Jason the opportunity to see many of the great modern magicians, such as David Copperfield, Doug Henning and Penn & Teller. Jason's grandfather would take him to see these awesome magicians, and after would present him with a simple magic trick to learn. Jason studied and practiced constantly. Magic and escape required not only manual dexterity but a challenge to his mind as well. Jason spent his days bound by rope to chairs, making objects vanish, and even reading his cat's mind.

Now as an adult, his passion has never waned; it's even matured and grown. He shares his art and has brought smiles, laughter, thrills and amazement to audiences all over the world.

Jason Escape is currently a performer part of the street theater program at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA.

Two Primo Italian Magicians

This week at our store in New York City we had a visit by two famous Italians magicians Andrew Basso and Alessandro Politi. Both stopped by and did some serious shopping before heading out to the World Magic Seminar starting this Sunday in Las Vegas.

The WMS is the premier convention for both professional and amateur magicians sponsored by world famous magicians Siegfried and Roy. The WMS began 32 years ago as the Desert Magic Seminar and is held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to the seminar, Lance Burton hosts a special week-end event is held for teen magicians.

Andrew Basso, 24, is from Trento, Italy is considered "One of the younger and most successful escape artist in the world". 

Engaged in over 120 live shows every year, Andrew is currently leading the Italian television programme "Street Magic" where he puts his abilities to the test, in real settings, "on the road", improvising with the public his incredible magic and illusion experiments and his breathtaking escapes.

Andrew has already accomplished dozens of stunts, including:
THE COFFIN OF DEATH: Andrew has only seconds to free himself from a coffin with explosives before a car drives into it at 80 mile per hour.
THE UNDERWATER CELL: Andrew is chained and locked in a cell that is lowered underwater and has to hold his breath and escape before drowning.
ESCAPE AT 40 METERS HEIGHT: hanging head-down from a crane, 130 feet away from the ground, bound in a real straight-jacket, Andrew performed this air escape in record time!

Alessandro Politi, 33, from Savignano sul Rubicon, Italy is a comedian, cabaret artist and actor. He was named Italian Magician and Comic of the Year in 2006.

He is most famous for his portrayal of a weird Scottish magician Martin Scozzese, that calls himself the "Grande Mago" (Big Magician).  Alessandro holds the Guinness Book of World Record for the greatest number of  magic tricks presented underwater for an audience. Check out this hysterical video.

The Man Behind the Magic: Carles Ferrandiz

When the Portuguese magician Luis de Matos made an elephant and a Ferrari disappear in front of 12,000 people in a Lisbon sports stadium for the Expo '98, when the Spaniard Mag Lari cut a person in eight pieces in his 2007 show Secrets, and when a magical chest spat fire, smoke and objects during a recent production at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Carles Ferrandiz was never far away.

Read the rest of this article by By Kati Krause from the Wall Street Journal here.

Charlie Caper: How Swede It Is

Swedish Magician Charlie Caper is the winner of Sweden's Got Talent 2009 and the $65,000 dollar first prize. He performed Richard Sanders "Interlace" in the video below.

Here is his very funny bio:

"I was born in Sweden at the age of 0 and it wasn't long until my stage debut. 1 years old I was seen on cult Swedish TV show Drömplanket. On my eighth birthday my wellmeaning parents gave me a unicycle with complete disregard for the influence it would have on my young brain

Tricked into magic at the age of 9 I was 14 at my first paid gig as a magician. I was also juggling and fire eating (cleverly given up after a scary burn).

In the last six years I have toured Europe, Asia, Central America, Oceania and North America with a magic show that swings.

The summer of 2007 I was invited to perform at the Street Performers World Championship in Dublin. I was invited back for 2008 and am proud to be one of only three performers ever to be booked twice.

In the summer of 2006 I was asked to perform and organize street magic at the World Championship Of Magic and it ended up being the largest gathering of street magicians in modern times."


Magican Charlie Caper: The winner of Sweden's Got Talent 2009

Dynamo Levitates British Comedian

Dynamo, known in the UK as the Hip Hop magician, is proving why he's one of the world's best magicians.

The Bradford-born trickster levitated UK funnyman Matt Lucus 4ft above the ground at Arsenal's soccer teams north London stadium.

One minute the Little Britain comic was standing on the side of the field, the next he was hovering horizontally.

Dynamo's repertoire includes being able to move a girl's tan line up her arm and pulling a mint through his neck. He also has a neat color changing shoelace commercial effect as well avavilable here. 

Steve Frayne (Dynamo) grew up on Bradford's notorious Delph Hill Estate, one of the most violent and deprived estates in the north of England. Steve Frayne first learned magic tricks from his grandfather and developed them during trips to New Orleans. Wanting to innovate, Steve Frayne combined elements of dance and hip hop culture into his magic routines.

As word spread about his magic tricks he soon found himself performing on the celebrity circuit for stars like Paris Hilton and Busta Rhymes. He released an independent DVD called 'Underground Magic' featuring celebrities such as Coldplay, Gwenyth Paltrow and Snoop Dogg. The DVD generated considerable press in the UK and lead to appearances on shows such as Richard and Judy and a Channel 4 special 'Dynamo's Estate Of Mind'. Soon notoriety of his magic garnered enough attention to release a DVD called Concrete Playground.

Dynamo has since appeared on TV shows including Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Snoop Doggs Fatherhood and the MTV EMA's where he performed for The Foo Fighters, Nelly Furtado and Joss Stone. He has fronted commercials for Adidas and Nokia and recently appeared on the catwalk for Naomi Campbells Fashion For Relief.

Mahka Tendo: Broken Wand

It is with much sadness that we report the passing of Japan’s Mahka Tendo from cancer early this morning at the age of 49. He was known for his stage act of card manipulation. He performed many styles of stage, parlour and close-up tricks.

Awards:
1999 Foster Baird Prize
1998 Best Technique Magician Of The Year
1992 Grand Prix in Monte Carlo
1985 Top place of Manipulation category at FISM'85 in Madrid

Hans Klok Levitates Pamela Anderson

Dutch magician and actor Hans Klok, 39, has been working for some time using actress Pamela Anderson, 40, as an assistant.

In June 2007 Klok opened a 90-minute production in Las Vegas at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino called the The Beauty of Magic. Actress Carmen Electra was his assistant at the onset, but had to step down due to claustrophobia. Pamela Anderson replaced her.

Lately magicians seem to attracting the world's most beautiful ladies. Criss Angel has been seen with Pamela Anderson as well as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Cameron Diaz. David Blaine has dated Madonna, Daryl Hannah and Fiona Apple.

Earlier this week Anderson was in Berlin performing as Klok's assistant once again. Anderson is in the midst of a divorce from Rick Salomon her third husband. The talk in Hollywood is that Anderson and Klok are now an item.


Hans Klok Levitates Pamela Anderson on German TV