Ye Olde Magick Blogge

Here’s Gazzo. Got 40 minutes?
I know instinctively that this video will not be to everybody’s tastes. Regardless, the only thing I can say is this: this video is important. It’s similar to Penn and Teller — you can like it or hate, but you can’t ignore it, because in all likelihood more people have [...]

So much study has been done on this routine that only an arrogant twit would attempt to add to it.
Thus, without further ado…
There are so many specific lessons that can be taken away from this routine. Granted, some of these lessons could be taken away from any thorough study of the cups and balls as [...]

This is an absolute treat. Master Payne (known as “Payne” on the Magic Cafe) is here performing a really robust cups and balls routine. Payne’s a master at presentation — aside from the gift of gab that you can see in the video here, and the wide array of motifs he’s able to adapt his [...]

Well, try as I could, I was unable to pester the ever-elusive Lance Pierce into getting his performance video up of his take on the Benson Bowl plot, so here’s Earl South (a member of Lance’s forum) doing it for a competition in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a commercially available routine which you can purchase [...]

This sort of thing humbles me, if only because it reminds me of my ignorance when it comes to magic outside of the Western world. There’s an amazingly rich culture of street magic performance in India, for instance, and a recent Magic Cafe thread highlighted some great cups and balls videos and the background of [...]

I don’t know how many of you care which sort of routine I’d actually do myself, but if there was one from everything else this month, even given all the great stuff from Daniels, Regal, Carney, etc., this routine from Mark Jenest would be it. I’d probably modify it a little, and I might drop [...]

It had to be done at some point. Here’s Penn and Teller exposing the cups and balls. I’ve gone back and forth on the way I feel about this video. On the one hand, I was outraged that they’d expose this classic. On the other, so many magicians who like this routine claim that regular [...]

Because of Michael Ammar’s contributions to magic in this regard, I’m going to be including both his routine and a review of his 2 DVD set on the subject, the Complete Cups and Balls. First, the routine. It’s got a lot of nice stuff going on in it, including that great open load, and the [...]

It’s a real shame to me that I wasn’t able to find a fuller version of this routine online. I could have sworn that such a clip existed, but alas, I was only able to find this edited version that made it onto the 50 Greatest Magic Tricks special. Despite that, it’s still easy to [...]

I’ve got a personal pet peeve — magicians who embrace the fallacy that just because we might be good with sleight-of-hand that we somehow can cash in on the intrigue and fascination that people have with cheaters. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had spectators ask if I can use what I do in Casinos, and [...]

  Having magic on a daytime TV talk show isn't new, but it appears that Ellen DeGeneres has shown more interest than most in getting magicians who aren't ...

Here's a sobering quote from John Carney's Carneycopia. It's in the middle of some commentary aimed at the current magic scene. There also exist collectors of secrets who hoard ...

Some guys in my local circle of magician buddies have been getting the damp jeans over Paul Vigil's trick Diplopia. I don't want to refer to them directly ...