Neil Patrick Harris' Mind Magic!

Every time Neil Patrick Harris stops by the Ellen Degeneres Show, he brings a new magic trick with him that never disappoints! Watch as Neil uses his mental strength to bend a spoon and make a light bulb break -- all on its own!

The effect is light bulb effect is a combination of two effects Lightning and Big Bang and are best sellers!

Neil Patrick Harris, 35, is an American Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated actor and magician. Prominent roles in his career include the title character of Doogie Howser, M.D., the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, Col. Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, Dr. Horrible of the original web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and as a fictionalized version of himself in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its sequel Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

Harris is a fan of magic, and a magician himself, like his character on How I Met Your Mother. He serves on the Board of Directors of Hollywood's Magic Castle. Harris won the Tannen's Magic Louis Award in 2006 and hosted the 2008 World Magic Awards on October 11, 2008.

Boxing with Royal Vale Heath

Royal Vale Heath was an American Magician and puzzle enthusiast. Every effect he performed or taught utilized mathematical properties. Tricks with serial numbers, Magic Squares and dice were his specialty.

He contributed a full chapter to Hilliards' Greater Magic book (out of print) in 1938 on various number oddities. His own book Mathemagic: Magic, Puzzles and Games with Numbers is considered a classic.

Here he is shown performing his own favorite rendition of the Magic Square in which all numbers add to the same number even when turned upside down!

Photo courtesy of the Doug Edwards Collection.

Blaine Infuses Chelsea with Magic

While in London last week Magician David Blaine treated English Premier League Chelsea to close-up magic after their practice session. Blaine’s trick included card effects, a 20p coin bend, rotating his wrist 360 degrees, and taking a bite and eating a portion of a wine glass. The team invited Blaine as break from their regular practice and game routines.

Blaine is shown working some close-up on Chelsea's Frank Lampard. Lampard, 30, is an English football midfielder and member of  England's National Team. He plays most often as a box-to-box midfielder and has also enjoyed spells in a more advanced attacking midfield role. Lampard is Chelsea's top active goalscorer with 121 goals, the most in club history for a midfielder, and is the second midfielder in Premier League history to score 100 goals, after Matthew Le Tissier.

Frank Lampard 2008/09 Season

Tarantula

Tarantula 
by Yigal Mesika 

Check this out: You’re in a normal setting – maybe a coffee shop, a classroom, even a party. You borrow a friend’s ring and hold it very fairly – nothing to hide. Suddenly, you give it a gentle horizontal spin and slowly move your hands away – the ring is now floating. Imagine that it continues to spin – without you touching it! The ring hovers up and down above your hand, from one hand to another, and slowly lands on your own finger! Now get this: You instantly repeat it, and end up with the ring floating onto the spectator’s own finger! Sounds impossible? Believe it or not, it’s easy to master! This levitation has it all. It’s fun, mysterious, edgy, and leaves a strong emotional impact. Check it out HERE.

The Tarantula is a unique gimmick that has shattered the conventional wisdom of what reels look like and accomplish. This stealth utility allows you to easily master levitation and animation for any situation. You can fearlessly perform completely surrounded with the Tarantula, and the preparation only takes a second. Literally, you have the power at your fingertips, and can show your hands empty at any time. The Tarantula allows you to perform countless effects that have never been seen or done before. The Tarantula comes with an explanation DVD, and everything you need to get started right away. 

Every detail of the Tarantula Motorized Reel will be taught step-by-step. 
You will learn new, incredible effects, including: 

• Hovering 
• New Haunted Pack 
• Magnetic Money 
• Magic Pen 
• Floating Dollar Bill 

“The Tarantula is magically genius. I highly recommend it.” 
-Cyril 

“This is the best levitation I have ever seen” 
-Whit “Pop” Haydn 
(6 time Magic Castle Winner of the year) 

See live performances of the Tarantula in action. 

Subtleties that will teach you how to perform with the Tarantula FLAWLESSLY! 

You will receive in-depth detail on exactly how your Tarantula works and how it can work for you. 

By seeing first-hand exactly how Yigal Mesika works with the amazing Tarantula, you will feel as though you are receiving a live, personal lesson. 

• Easy to master 
• Unlike any other reel 
• Versatile 
• Perform sleeveless 
• No assistants 
• Perform completely surrounded!!! 

Ok, I am sure you have heard the word on the street about this new item from Mr. Mesika called the Tarantula. 

So what is the Tarantula? Tarantulas are a group of hairy and often very large spiders belonging to the family Theraphosidae. But that’s not important here. 

The Tarantula is a new electric invisible thread reel device. 

It is very stealthy, let’s say you can have it in the palm of your hands and no one will see it. (not like the picture) See the video demo 

It is designed not to tangle, easy to fix and replace the thread spool and battery, it is virtually invisible and you can do some extraordinary levitating or floating of objects with it. 

You have complete control of the thread management (reel in and out) 

Some things you can do with the Tarantula: 

• Spin cards in air and come back to your hands (like boomerang) 
• Levitate money or other paper items 
• Card rise (even under glass) 
• Floating ring 
• Haunted deck 
• And many, many more! 

The Tarantula uses the same spider pen spooler thread and a common button cell battery. 

If you use the spider pen, loops, Invisible thread or ITR then you will use and love the Tarantula. 

ORDER HERE NOW: AVAILABLE ON MARCH 1ST.

THE REGULAR RETAIL PRICE IS $75.00, YOU CAN PRE-ORDER THIS ITEM FOR ONLY $69.95. 

FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE: All pre-orders will receive a package of Invisible Thread: Loops by Yigal Mesika, a $10.00 value, FREE!

Patrick Redford Lecture: Report

Despite the miserable snowy weather there was a good turnout for the Patrick Redford. Those who braved the weather were not disappointed by the quality of lecture. He opened the lecture with an intriguing bill divination. The highlight of the lecture was the Prevarication piece. The routine is based on two spectators concealing a hidden object amongst one of them. One spectator lies and one tells the truth. By asking one question Mr. Redford is able to locate the hidden object. A DVD on this routine produced by Joshua Jay will soon be released in a few months.

The other routine worthy of mention was Glemme. It’s a clever routine designed to cause momentary amnesia in an onstage spectator. All of the pieces presented by Patrick were products of long hours of hard work and research. He could easily gone into tiny details of the routines. Redford closed the lecture with a performance piece involving a prediction in a box.

The Magician: Bill Bixby

The Magician was an American television series that ran during the 1973–74 season. It starred Bill Bixby as stage illusionist Anthony "Tony" Blake, a playboy philanthropist who used his skills to solve difficult crimes as needed. In the series pilot, the character was instead named Anthony Dorian. The name change was due to a conflict with the name of a real life stage magician.

Bill Bixby, born Wilfred Bailey Bixby, (January 22, 1934 – November 21, 1993) was an American film and television actor, director and frequent game show panelist. His career spanned over three decades, appearing on stage, in motion pictures and starring in five TV series, such as My Favorite Martian and The Incredible Hulk.

In The Magician Bixby's character Blake was a professional stage magician who used his skills to solve crimes and help the helpless. Years earlier, Blake had been unjustly confined in a prison in an unnamed country in South America. He discovered a way to escape with his cellmate, which began his interest in escapology. The cellmate died and left him a fortune. The escape led to a career in stage magic which made him famous. He never forgot his imprisonment, and it motivated him to seek justice for others.

The show is noteworthy in that Bixby insisted on doing all of the magic himself, without any trick photography, although this was not the case in the TV-movie/pilot. He was instructed in these performances by the program's technical adviser, Mark Wilson. Once the format changed to have the hero based in a magic club, Wilson could occasionally be seen on the stage there, as well. In addition to escapes, Bixby performed feats of sleight of hand, mentalism, and stage illusions.

Photo above from the Doug Edwards Collection.


Bill Bixby as Anthony Dorian in the pilot for "The Magician" 1973 TV series. Guest starring Elizabeth Ashley, Signe Hasso and Barry Sullivan: Scene features wine production in a stemmed glass.

Magic: The Complete Course by Joshua Jay

Magic is everywhere, from the big spectacle celebrity of David Copperfield and Siegfried and Roy to the quirky Penn and Teller to the spooky David Blaine and Criss Angel to the endless material on YouTube. But until now, learning it has never been easy—that's all about to change with "Magic: The Complete Course", a book that does for close-up magic what How to Grill does for barbecue. Written by charismatic young magician Joshua Jay, Magic combines expertise, photographs, step-by-step directions showing how to perform 100 tricks, and a DVD that demonstrates 35 of them.

Joshua Jay took home the top prize at the World Magic Seminar (the Olympics of magic) when he was just 16 years old. Ten years later, he continues to perform magic, write about magic, eat, sleep, and breathe magic. Here, he brings all his passion and knowledge to teaching magic. Each trick is broken down into the Effect, the Secret, the Set-up, and, most important, the Performance, with lessons on what to say, how to direct the audience's attention, where to keep your hands, and so on. (In other words, how to be smart about the things your audience is surprisingly clueless about.)

Here are the Ten Greatest Card Tricks; tricks to dazzle a dinner date; tricks to perform for the boss (poke a hole through his shirt, then magically mend it); tricks especially for kids; and even tricks for an audience in another state—with "Australian Self-Help," you can find a participant's chosen card over the phone. It's the Aha! book for a subject whose time has come.

Joshua will be on NBC's the Today Show on Wednesday, December 17th during the 10 o'clock hour.

Joshua Jay is one of America's finest young magicians. He is a past Tannen's Magic Camper. He's performed and lectured in over 50 countries, is a headliner at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and writes a monthly column in MAGIC, the leading magazine for magicians. He lives in New York City.

Order Magic: The Complete Course by Joshua Jay, 288 pages, Paperback here from Tannen's Magic Store Online.


Magic by Joshua Jay, Book Trailer