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

Doug McKenzie Rolls on the "Fringe"

Tannen's Magic friend and NYC magician Doug McKenzie's stellar coin skills can be seen on the new television show the "Fringe". In the shows first season, the tenth episode titled "Safe", McKenzie's hands are shown rolling and vanishing a coin.

McKenzie is an internationally recognized magician, magic consultant, and magic television producer based in New York City. His innovative style of magic often merges classical sleight of hand techniques with new technologies. He specializes in both close-up magic and pickpocketing.

The "Fringe" from J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the team behind "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Alias," comes a new series that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between the possible and the impossible. Fringe follows the exploits of FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, scientist Walter Bishop, and his son Peter as they investigate aspects of fringe science (telepathy, levitation, invisibility, reanimation, genetic mutation, etc). All over the world, a series of apparent experiments collectively referred to as "the Pattern" (e.g., a newborn baby who rapidly ages and dies within a few hours, a bus full of passengers trapped in a strange substance like mosquitoes in amber) are occurring for reasons unknown. Olivia, Peter (Joshua Jackson), and Walter are in charge of investigating these strange events to determine their source. Connected to the Pattern is a company called Massive Dynamic, which is a leading global research company that holds the patents for a number of new and important technologies.

After a number of years of close-guarding his secrets, Doug released two of his pet effects for the magic world to learn:

Phoneomenon: A prediction appears on a stranger's cell phone in a number of ways. Featured both in Marco Tempest and David Blaine's television specials and most recently a Nokia mobile phone commercial.

The Juan Hundred Dollar Bill Switch: A $1 bill visibly transforms into a $100 bill.


Doug McKenzie performing coin rolls and a vanish for Joshua Jackson

Steve Valentine Hosts Estate of Panic

The Show:

There's no place like this home. Estate of Panic turns nightmares into reality and pushes phobias to the limit.

Each week, a new group of contestants enter the estate searching for money hidden inside of booby-trapped rooms. The walls in one cave in, creating a hopelessly small space. Can the contestants survive it? Then thousands of creepy, crawling bugs line the walls and floor of another room, and flooding water rises by the second in another.

Throughout it all, contestants must remain calm because if they panic, they won't get paid.

The game begins with seven contestants who compete in three nerve-wracking challenges. After each challenge two are eliminated and their winnings are added back into the prize pot. The last person standing faces a final challenge in the Vault Room.

In Estate of Panic it's winner-take-all — if players can overcome their fears.

It is aired on the Sci Fi Channel, USA Network, and on the Chiller Network

The Host:

Steve Valentine, a Tannen's Magic customer, has done it all, from playing a child Prince in The King and I in London theater at the age of 7, to starring in the hit TV series Crossing Jordan and appearing in various other TV shows, a dozen movies and countless commercials.

Always the performer, Valentine has DJ'd in Europe, run a club at the age of 18 in the former Yugoslavia, traveled the world on a cruise ship performing stand-up comedy, headlined in Las Vegas and became known as one of the top close-up magicians in the world.

"I had a chance to stay in Vegas with my own illusion show," says Valentine. "But I'm an actor at heart and needed to stay in L.A. to follow that dream."

While in L.A., he still dabbled in magic, winning the coveted Close Up Magician of the Year Award, two years in a row, from Hollywood's world-famous Magic Castle. Valentine then auditioned for a movie role and the producer was a past magic client who had hired him for his child's bar mitzvah. But the producer didn't take Valentine seriously as a trained actor. Yet the next day Valentine dropped his magic act and the rest is history.

One year later, he appeared in The Nikki Show for the WB, followed by six years on NBC's Crossing Jordan. "While he is unorthodox in his approaches to his work and the people he works with, there is something amusing and charming about him," says Valentine of Dr. Nigel Townsend, his Crossing Jordan character.

Valentine's guest-starring role on NBC's Just Shoot Me, in which he played a flamboyant magician who has an affair with Nina (Wendie Malick), was a showstopper that gained him rave reviews. He's also guest starred on shows such as NBC's Will & Grace, The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, Middleman, Dharma and Greg and The Hughleys to name a few.

Valentine's feature-film credits include co-starring roles in the upcoming Spiderman III, Albert Brooks's The Muse, with Jeff Bridges and Sharon Stone; Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, Return to the Secret Garden and George Huang's Trojan War.

Valentine's performances on the stage in both Los Angeles and London have ranged from stand-up comedy to Shakespeare. Among his favorite roles are as Stanley in Run for Your Wife!, Mozart in Amadeus, and Sidney in Deathtrap, for which he received a Best Actor Falcon Award from the Curtis Theater.

He is currently developing four drama projects and three reality concepts with producers and networks throughout Hollywood. A native of London, England, Valentine currently resides in Los Angeles with his dog Ziggy and two ghosts. And yes, if you ask nicely, he will still blow you away with an amazing trick!