Rebuilding A Mystery

McBride Mystery and Magic School

A behind the scenes snapshot from this week's broadcast. Remember, monday is a school night. See McBride TV for into about tuning into the hour-long sessions that features magicians broadcasting from, quite literally, all over the globe.

Review: Flaunt

My review of Flaunt is now available at "My Lovely Assistant."

A book about The Jinx

Craig Conley, Fredrick Turner, and I have recently published what is best described as a reader's guide to THE JINX. I know that many of you have read all of The Jinx, but if you haven't, our book hopes to entice you and guide your exploration of the legendary publication.

You can browse our book for free on the web, or purchase a PDF or printed copy for offline perusal at The Jinx Companion page.

(For anyone who was at Magic & Meaning 2010 conference, this is a spinoff of our "One Jinxed Year" collaborative reading project.)

Chicago Magicians for hire

My friend Dan Mindo is a busy performer, but if you're throwing a children's party and want a Chicago birthday magician, you should give him some serious consideration.

I've also been impressed with the library magic shows that my friend William Pack has been busily scheduling. He has several programs that are carefully crafted just for that market, and I've had the pleasure of seeing his spooky show; it's full of Chicago lore and thoughtful scary stories. I recently read his book about Houdini, which you can pick up at any of Houdini: Life and Legend shows, or a library near you.

Magic and Medicine in Chicago

Chicago-based Dr. Ricardo Rosenkranz is a physician and magician. The Chicago Tribune article Mixing magic and medicine to help relate to patients describes the crossover.

Addendum to Giobbi's Packing List

In Roberto Giobbi's Secret Agenda, the entry for January 12 discusses methods for ensuring that you've packed, and set-up, all the props necessary for each piece in your show. One of the tips is to record a setup walk-thru that you can play for yourself, using your iPod, at the venue.

Sounds like a good idea, and you could enhance it further by putting your setup list on your iPod in text or structured format. For details, see my article, Creating an iPad Cue Sheet, at Secret Art Journal.

I'm really enjoying Secret Agenda, by the way. The day book format is a fun idea. If you're reading it too, don't miss Ruben Padilla's blog where he's writing about his reactions to the book's contents on a regular basis.

The Christmas Magic Shop Miracle

I spent over a decade working in a magic shop, and have visited countless others over the last 30 or so years. Last weekend, while attending a holiday party at Midwest Magic I spotted something behind the counter that completely took my breath away. In fact, I could barely believe me eyes. Here, I snapped a photograph because I know you'll be skeptical too:

Yes, that's an actual cleaning implement. A carpet sweeper, to be precise. In all my years I have scarcely seen evidence of such a thing, let along an actual device, in a magic shop. Proving, unreservedly, that Midwest Magic is indeed a very special place.

iPod for Magicians

My article about how to turn your iPod into a self-contained cue sheet for your show is now available at Secret Art Journal.

A sea of sameness

Magician Rob James writes about a number of magicians who, apparently, just lift website copy from each other without regard for honesty or respect for the creator. See his post for details..

Sadly, this MP3 audio file of a voicemail message that Rob received in response further demonstrates the sad amoral state of affairs.

Wikipedia can't keep a secret

In the New York Times, Spoiler Alert: Whodunit? Wikipedia Will Tell You discusses how the popular website discourteously reveals the endings of movies, books, and plays. Even those that have a long cultural history of preserving a surprise, such as The Mousetrap.

In my view, this is a reflection of the culture of entitlement, where the aphorism "information wants to be free" has been twisted into "I deserve to know everything without any effort or expense." Another offender is, of course, the Wikileaks website.