INTERNATIONAL MAGIC MAGAZINE
AUGUST /SEPTEMBER 2015
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
The inside story on FISM champion Shin Lim
FEATURING
INTERACTIVE MAGIC TRICKS
GUEST CONTRIBUTORS NICK LEWIN RANDY WAKEMAN
REVIEWS
JEFF HOBSON
magic tricks, books, downloads and DVDs
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SOCIAL MEDIA & MAGIC
What the professionals REALLY think
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Top Tricks & Picks Magic Bargains From World Champion Shin Lim! As the newest FISM World Champion in Card Magic, and after a jaw-dropping performance on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us, magician Shin Lim has our attention! The good news is he has already been sharing some of his original magic. You can get a sample with a FREE DOWNLOAD from his live lecture, or get the entire lecture video for just $7.95.
MagicTrick.com/shinlim
Luxury Table
The Vault David Penn takes the classic “coin in nest of boxes” to the next level with this solid close-up worker from the creator of FOB and Mystery Solved. The best part; the box is in full view on the table before the coin is signed! A quick miracle that you carry with you on your keychain!
MagicTrick.com/vault
MagicTrick.com/luxury
And The Award For Best Mind Reading Goes To... Give your spectator a packet of postcards, each showing a real movie poster. They look through, they pick any one, all while your back is turned. Everything seems so fair, but you will just know which movie they picked without any guessing. That is Screen Test!
MagicTrick.com/screentest
Now with 9 0 3 9 magic items 9 ready to ship worldwide. 3
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June/July 2015
VA N ISH
Internatonal Magic Magazine
CONTENTS
FROM THE EDITOR PAUL ROMHANY
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BAMBOOZLERS DIAMOND JIM TYLER
8
SD CARD MYSTERY BUTZI
10
QUIZ SHOW DANNY ARCHER
14
CONFUSED ABOUT COUNTS? RANDY WAKEMAN
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BUSINESS CARDS RICHARD WEBSTER
20
BAND THRU FINGER
22
THROWING SHADE JONATHAN FRIEDMAN
24
ESPROGNOSTICATION PABLO AMIRA
27
ART DIRECTOR and LAYOUT Paul Romhany
FARM FRESH LOUIE FOXX
30
PROOF READERS Richard Webster, Mick Peck
NEWS
36
PLAYING CARD GLUT? AARON FISHER
40
FEATURE STORY - SHIN LIM INTERVIEW PAUL ROMHANY
44
CARD ARTISTRY OF LEE ALLEN PAUL ROMHANY
58
MAGIC & SOCIAL MEDIA NICK LEWIN
60
TEN LITTLE SECRETS TIMOTHY HYDE
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RED HOT ACTS - ALEXX ALEXXANDER NICK LEWIN
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THE BASH - SAVE THIS DATE NICOLE LEE
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EDITOR Paul Romhany CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Ben Robinson CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Nick Lewin PRODUCT REVIEWERS Paul Romhany & Friends COVER PHOTO
Namzey Gentso ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Paul Romhany/Sydnie Anderson SENIOR MARKETING SPECIALIST Steve Hocevar EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Paul Romhany
E-READER VERSION www.revizzit.com TO ADVERTISE IN MAGAZINE Contact Paul Romhany for more information at: editor@vanishmagazine.com
JOSH JANOUSKY
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ALEXX ALEXANDER A passion for magic
SHin lim
The inside story on Shin’s recent FiSm win and on fooling Penn & Teller
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CHAMBER OF SECRETS MATTHEW WRIGHT
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PLATEAUS
86
ADVENTURES OF A ROMANY - DIVA OF MAGIC ROMANY
90
TELEVISION - MAGIC’S FRIEND OR FOE? JEFF HOBSON
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BIZZARO
STORIES FROM THE ROAD TED OUTERBRIDGE
100
THE ILLUSION FABRICATION SERIES RAY LUM
108
BRAINSTORMING WITH MAJINX LAWRENCE LAROUCHE
120
MARRIED IN MAGIC - JOE GIVAN & CAROL MASSIE MATTHEW FALLON
126
EPIC FAILS IN MAGIC PART 3 CHARLES BACH
132
MAGIC REVIEWS
140
108
120
MAGIC & SOCIAL MEDIA
The Pros & Cons by Nick Lewin
ILLUSION FABRICATION Interview with Mike MIchaels
BRAINSTORMING
Interactive look at creating large scale magic by Majinx
FROM THE EDITOR Paul Romhany
editor@vanishmagazine.com www.vanishmagazine.com
FSIM has come and gone and a lot of controversy yet again about the organisation and the use of television to pay for sponsorship. It was very interesting to watch it all unfold via Facebook and prompted the start of an article by Nick Lewin on the use of social media and magic. Nick has done an amazing job interviewing a wide range of top performers who vary in age and opinion on using social media and how it affects our business. Personally I feel the Internet and social media are so young that there are no rules or boundaries put in place yet. How can I teach my son the etiquette on using social media when there is none. It has certainly changed the world and there are positive and negative aspects of it, which you can read about and come to your own conclusions. Thank you to everybody who took part in the survey and the results were very interesting indeed. It is a great honor to get an exclusive interview with Shin Lim who is the current world champion card magician. After watching Shin perform live in Brazil last year and then again on Fool Us with Penn & 6
Teller I feel card magic has finally become something more than a trick you see your Uncle do after dinner. The positive comments and millions of views on Shin’s YouTube channel is proof that he has taken card magic and turned it in to an art. His act reminds me of Cardini’s in the sense he has created something using a deck of cards that is more than just doing card tricks or card manipulation. It is a piece of theatre, a story and as Penn said, a movie using a deck of cards. I sit with excitement as I eagerly await Shin’s new projects and performances as he changes the way the public view card magic and magic in general. It has always been a dream of mine to have my own little magic theatre. With so much going on in my life it’s hard to even think about that dream at times, however, I am pleased others are starting to realise their dreams and follow through. Over the past year I’ve been collecting stories and talking to people who have done just that. They have started a theatre and are putting bums on seats nightly. This issue I chat to FISM champion Matthew Wright. I have long been a big fan
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of Matthew and he was featured in an earlier issue of VANISH. Matthew - along with his partner Alarna have worked extremely hard to put together their own theatre and the interview shows the years of dedication and planning to make this dream a reality. In future issues I will be looking at other performers who have also followed their dreams, in different ways, and opened their own intimate theatres. In an age of downloads, Youtube and television I feel the time is right for live shows to make a comeback. As you will discover you don’t need to have a 1500 seat theatre to have a successful show that gives your audience a theatrical experience. Remember to check out our website where you can get all of the back issues of VANISH as well as the Franz Harary Special Feature, which now has over 160,000 downloads and continues to build. Franz’s new theatre opens early October and everybody is there now ready to start. The next issue we will feature one of the biggest magic stars in the world, and will be hitting a new market of readers that will certainly increase our readership and launch us in to an area I’ve been trying for some time. Exciting times ahead.
Paul Romhany
HOCUS POCUS www.hocus-pocus.com
TAYLOR’S MAGIC www.taylorsmagic.com.au
THE MAGIC EMPORIUM www.themagicemporium.net
TIENDA MAGIA www.tiendamagia.com
MAGIC TRICK STORE www.magictrickstore.com
HIMITSU MAGIC
www.himitsumagic.com.tw
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BAMBOOZLERS DIAMOND JIM TYLER ABOUT FACE BET: Prop up a $10 bill against a salt-shaker sitting on a table so that the portrait faces outward. Everyone can see that the profile faces to the left or west (Fig. 1). Bet that you can make the profile look the opposite direction without touching the bill. SECRET: Fill a clear glass with water and place it about four inches in front of the bill. Now when your audience looks through the glass all can see the portrait is looking the opposite direction (Fig. 2). The image may be distorted for some depending on their angle when looking at this optical illusion. If they see a blurred or double-image, then have them close one of their eyes to witness the mirror reflection of the bill through the glass of water.
bill?”, as I cover up his name printed below his portrait. If they guess Alexander Hamilton, then they are surprisingly incorrect, because it is a trick question. Hamilton was a founding father and the Secretary of the Treasury but was never President. It is best to borrow the bill when performing a money trick like this. I always borrow money from a pessimist, because they don’t expect it back.
You can also start with the bill flush against the glass so all can see that the profile still faces the same direction. Then slowly pull the bill back and have them look at the portrait through the glass so they can see the exact moment the head turns the opposite direction. As a follow-up I’ll ask them “Which President is on the $10 8
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SD CARD MYSTERY
SD CARD MYSTERY By Butzi, Magicien Effect:
The magician asks the audience to think of a country to go to where he could play a certain instrument. After they decided, a SD card is removed from a that was held by a spectator the whole time. Someone checks that this is the only movie on the SD card… and the short video it’s shown: it’s the magician in a country the audience chose playing the instrument a spectator thought of.
Overview explanation:
This is a combination of three methods: a multiple outs index, a simple card trick force and a switch first developed by Bruno Henning. You prepare several SD cards on which a video of you playing the same instrument in different places in the world is copied and hidden them in different places on stage or in an index. The country is freely selected and the instrument is forced in a pre-show. So as soon as you will know the country, you would be able to take the right SD card in your index and switch it to the one that was in plain view.
2 solutions to get your movie ready:
First solution: if you travelling extensively, you can really do a movie in each country you go to and play the same instrument every time. You can add a message to
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the camera saying: “Hey there I am travelling again! In the country you’ve selected! What’s that? You want me to prove it?” [on the video, enter a typical place/famous monument there and sing a song with the forced instrument that talks about the country]. If you can’t play properly it’s even funnier. Second solution: if you don’t plan to travel that much, borrow or buy a green screen and film yourself enough times playing the same instrument with a similar song as above. Be careful not to wear green! Then place a different country in the background on post-production. If you don’t know how to do it, find a friend or hire a freelancer on e-lance (or fivver.com) to do it for you, it will be cheap and easy.
The SD cards
Because the trick is impressive if people have a wide range of countries to select (15 at least I would say), you might want to save money to look for cheap SD cards. My advice: look for low storage cards in cheap electronic dealers or online (no need to buy a 8Go cards, 1 to 2Go is more than enough!) and convert your movie in Mp4, it’s a very light format (the free software “handbrake” is good to convert videos). You can buy micro SD card if you want to play the video on a cellphone in a close-up situation.
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