Last night I went to see a great lecture by Hoebi Kull from Switzerland. Hoebi was a student of the great Cellini. For those who are aware of Cellini's work he was the God Father of street magic, and busking. I did not know that he was also a singer, and so would perform in bars singing and doing magic in his early days.  I'm not a street performer but found this a great lecture, and Hoebi was very entertaining and such a joy to watch. One of my pet peeves with street performers is that they are often agressive, and rely on putting their audience down. It's very old school humor that seems to turn people off today rather than keep them. Hoebi was certainly a lesson in that you should treat your audience with respect, and they will in turn respect you as a performer. Today if I see a street performer abusing their audience I will just walk away. I understand that on the street you need to get a crowd, but the idea of having to resort to a deogratory style of humor is very old school. 

Hoebi was charming, and his magic was very strong. Time went by very quickly. His use of the pouch was fantastic, and proved his point that the buskers pouch goes unnoticed by the audience. While he shared tricks with us all, I think the main point of the lecture was making your magic make sense. All of the moves to 'do the dirty' work went unnoticed by the audience simply because every action made sense. There was nothing out of place if he would reach in to the pouch to put something away, then he could come back out ready for the next trick. His lecture finished off with a fantastic cups and balls routine that floored everybody. He acknowledged the impact Cellini had on him and his magic. A real joy to see such a charming performer.

The Real Deal - Survival Guide For Magicians

What started off as a small 80 page booklet has grown in to a whopping 450 pages!! It's got a huge range of contributors, from close-up magicians to stage show to kids performers. There are hints and tips, stories and advice from seasoned pros. I would say this is easily the best book I have put together. It is jam packed with golden nuggets of information that can help save a lot of time and money for every type of performer. The book is still a work in progress, but I can tell you is ALMOST finished. Just waiting on some cartoons I've had done for the book, plus a few essays and hints and tips from others.

Ventriloquism

Some of you may be aware that I started my career off as a ventriloquist. It's something I really enjoy doing and getting back in to again. Here is a photo of my puppets.

ROMHANY'S PICKS OF THE WEEK

Flash by Chad Long

This is one of my favorite color changing knife routines out there. What makes it so great is that it doesn't use a knife, but rather a small flash drive. It's one of those things you thinkg, "Why didn't I think of this?". Chad has done an amazing job producing such a professional prop. This really makes sense to me, more so than a color changing knife for today's audiences. 

 A classic trick, brought up-to-date with modern technology! Two USB flash drives, one red and one black are freely shown. They switch places several times, each more visual than the last, and then the black drive stretches to three times it's normal size!

EASY TO DO!
FUN TO PERFORM!
EYE-POPPING MAGIC!
GREAT CLIMAX!
PERFECT FOR STROLLING!

Includes: 2 small flash drives, 1 long flash drive and full-color instructions with photographs.

* These custom-designed flash drives do not contain memory.

Jumping Bow Tie by Guan Da Wu
 It is very rare to get such a visual effect, that can play well for many different performing situations. This would be perfect for close-up, parlor or stage. This reminds me of Daryl's Jumping Knot of Pakistan - but with a tie. There is ALOT of magic that happens in this routine you should check out the video.

his is a STRONG, MULTI-PHASE, HIGHLY VISIBLE routine. We strongly urge you to watch the video as the description cannot do justice to this effect.

The performer is wearing a black necktie which is removed from his collar and then wrapped around his neck; then the necktie VISIBLY PENETRATES THE NECK.

Next, he ties a bow on one end of the necktie, then introduces a white necktie, the two neckties are then intertwined and when separated the black bow is now seen tied to the white necktie.

When the black bow is untied, that segment of the white necktie is now shown to be BLACK. This can be tugged on to show it is still one necktie.

The performer stands on one end of the white necktie (displaying the black segment) and stretches it out; he then runs his hand up the black segment and it INSTANTLY & VISIBLY JUMPS OFF THE TIE and TURNS INTO A BLACK SILK.

The white tie can now be shown to be completely white again.

The Black silk is then transformed into a black bowtie which the performer can attach to his collar if he wishes.

This bow tie easily matches any of your favorite shirts and achieves a simple perfect design effect. There is no set-up required before performing. Create an amazing and fantastic show for stage, private and corporate venues!

Comes complete with black tie, white tie, bow tie, scarf and instrutional DVD.

To view a Windows Media clip of Jumping Bow Tie, click HERE!