Shane Gillen Lays the Cards Down for Kelsey Grammer

Shane Gillen, 22, is an Irish entertainer with his expertise lying in card and mind magic. Shane is in New York City this summer to perform his street magic.

He visited us at the shop last week stocking up on some supplies and said that he was going to perform magic for the actor Kelsey Grammer, famous from TV sitcoms such as Cheers and Frasier, at his home. Well he did!

Shane specializes in close-up table-to-table magic, and has dabbled in stage work. He is progressively getting more-and-

more into the mind control mentalism area. He has

done magic for some very prestigious clients - most recently performing magic both backstage at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards and at the afterparty, as well as in the VIP section and backstage at Lady Gaga's show in The O2 in London.

Dove from iPad: Uchida Shinya

Uchida Shinya, a Japanese magician, started using the Apple iPad in his street magic show has become a huge online hit.

Shinya uses a mix of pre-programmed clips and props in his tricks which include producing a dove out the the tablet device. You see a picture of the bird on the screen then, after a tilt, it flies out and lands on his hand. How'd he do it?

Filmed outside a Apple store in Tokyo, he also creates smoke from the screen and then 'connects' with a friend who bends a fork via the power of the iPad.

A video of his his tricks - based around a theme of communication - has already been viewed over 1 million times online. But no matter how hard he tries, Shinya will have not be able to improve on the Steve Jobs trick of getting people to pay $500 for an iPad.

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.

Magic on the L Train

Tannen's Magic friend and NYC magician Doug McKenzie posted this video "Magic on the L Train".  See the power of the Drawer Box and Tannen's Magic's Change Bag in action!

Busking it

BBC News Magazine: Friday, September 18th, 2009

Busking it
By Jolyon Jenkins

David Blaine seems confident enough doing it, but how terrifying is it to try and make it as a street magician?

"What's your name?" barks the short, pugnacious man, addressing a member of his audience, who mumbles something back.

"You've got to speak up," he retorts, "you're not buying condoms." The man is Gazzo, a legend among street magicians, and at Cardiff's "School of Busking" he's teaching 20 would-be performers the arcane arts of attracting a crowd.

He marshals us, his spectators, moving us around to fill gaps in the crowd, while haranguing and bullying us. "Everyone take two steps backwards! Hands out of pockets: that's another game!"

Most of us here are amateur magicians, and some are captivated by the idea of making a living as a street performer. Gazzo tells us that you can make twice the average income from street magic but most people just love the thought of earning money from their hobby.

Read the rest of the article here.