I may not personally believe in spiritualism, but I can still appreciate good magic, regardless of where it’s performed. Take the above video from David Lion, who recently performed at a gathering of the Legendary Souls members in California. Lion keeps one hand in his pocket during the entire trick, yet ends up pulling out the exact card the spectator picked out with their mind. \
For more of what David Lion calls “Lionism”, check out his YouTube channel for his take on hypnotism, mentalism, and magic.
YouTube magician Chris Ramsay isn’t doing magic tutorials any more after accidentally plagiarizing another performer’s trick, among other reasons. The move has been met with some consternation from Ramsay’s subscribers, many of whom initially followed him for the tutorials.
In the spirit of teaching a man to fish, Ramsay has begun this new chapter of his channel with a video about creating your own tricks. The advice isn’t ground-breaking by any means – association is the oldest creative trick in the book – but it’s interesting to see how principles developed mostly for writing can be applied to something as physical as performance magic.
Dovid Robatnick was diagnosed with Atypical Parkinson’s disease back in 2013, and he thought his career in magic was over. Rather than let it destroy his dreams, he buckled down, rethought his approach to his work, and has continued to practice magic despite his debilitating condition. He created Slow-Motion Magic as a way to chronicle his journey in living Parkinson’s and to bring awareness to a wider audience. In his latest video, he’s teamed up with a youngster named Seth to perform a neat card trick after opening with some updates on a recent Parkinson’s fun run he took part in.
For updates on Dovid’s work, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel for his latest exploits, check out Dovid’s Patreon to see more information about his project, and visit the Michael J. Fox Foundation to learn more about Parkinson’s and what you can do to help.
Looks like there was a half-off discount on haircuts at Showtime at the Apollo, because Jay Mattioli found himself in pieces during a performance of his salon routine on the second episode of the rebooted Fox show.
The episode featured a variety of talents, including seven-year-old rapper Yung Hunnid, singer Sarah Ikumu, and more alongside the 36-year-old magician. While Ikumu ultimately won the evening’s competition, the notoriously difficult crowd dug Mattioli’s electrifying performance enough to wave him on to the final judging round of the episode.
While his performance on Showtime at the Apollo hasn’t made it onto YouTube yet, you can watch a recording of his Hair Salon routine from a live recording made back in 2013 in the video below. You can also watch the full episode here on fox.com – his performance begins at around the 30 minute mark. We’ll update this post with the official clip of his routine from the show once it’s uploaded.
This actually isn’t the first time Mattioli has tried his hand at the variety show circuit. Back in 2009, he actually made it onto season 4 of America’s Got Talent, climbing all the way to the Las Vegas semi-finals before being eliminated. You can check out his performance from that show in the video below.
To see more of Mattioli’s work, and for more information on upcoming gigs, check out his website here.
The phrase “better late than never” is no truer than when it refers to birthday presents; doubly so when that present is a magic trick.
Ex-Philadelphia Eagle Jon Dorenbos stopped by the set of Ellen yesterday to talk about being awarded a Super Bowl ring in honor of the team’s recent win, and he brought with him a special magic trick to honor Ellen’s birthday. The two go through a deck of cards and throw them around wildly, chucking them into a box, dumping them out of the box, until only one card remains – but there’s another prize in store. Check out the full performance below:
He also performs a second bonus trick, involving a deck of cards and two wine glasses (no wine, unfortunately).
Dorenbos also briefly mentions that a film about his life is currently in the works. The pro-football player was forced into retirement due to a heart condition, and made the leap into professional magic shortly thereafter, making a few other appearances on Ellen, as well as making it all the way to the America’s Got Talent season 11 finals.
Who does Dorenbos hope to play him in the movie version of his life? Oh, only Zac Efron or Chris Pratt. You and me both, dude.
You know what the best thing about dogs is? No, it isn’t their innate compassion, their propensity for unconditional love, their undying loyalty or any of that sappy crap. The best thing about dogs is they have teeny tiny brains and are thus the perfect audience for magic tricks. Your garden variety doggo, you see, has enough gray matter to comprehend that the ball is in your hand, but not quite enough to grasp that despite appearances to the contrary you have not thrown it. That mix of raw stupidity and innocent trust is catnip to a good magician. Or dognip. Whatever. Here’s some dogs getting their tiny minds blown by magic tricks.
Dumle here seems to have almost figured out he’s been set up by the way he knowingly stares into the camera, but sadly his trusting nature and inability to comprehend the concept of deception has cost him a treat.
Despite his initial confusion, this little guy has obviously had some experience with shell games. Securing one hand while getting the deceitful human to turn over the other is a strong but ultimately fruitless move.
Unable to grasp the cunning secret at the core of this deceitful trick, this poor canine is reduced to madness.
This isn’t even a good trick, dog.
Lassie here is having no part in this witchcraft. Take your haunted wiener and leave this place.
Tico, on the other hand, has a far more relaxed attitude towards the supernatural. A haunted wiener is still a wiener.
Magic is the mastery of deception, but I’m not sure if you have to master anything when your audience is this dumb. IT’S RIGHT THERE, DOG. RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.
Finally, for the sake of balance, here’s a cat reacting to a magic trick.
If you’ve been eyeing that deck of Memento Mori cards and haven’t quite been able to pull the trigger, now might be the time to do it. Online magic retailer 52Kards just launched a 48-hour flash sale that’ll get you 20% off a handful of some of the store’s most popular goodies.
The sale page over at 52Kards lists 14 different items, offering a nice mix of beautiful decks perfect for cardistry, like these Banshees for card throwing ($9.58, normally $11.97), or the elegant geometric lines of Tangram ($7.96, normally $9.95). Or fill out your repertoire with some new tricks or gimmicks, like Real Man’s Wallet, a fully-functional billfold that hides a few secrets of its own ($31.97, normally $39.97), or Cold Case, a deck switcher that comes with 10 original routines with over three hours of instruction ($31.96, normally $39.95)
If any these catch your fancy, make sure you act fast: this flash sale starts now and lasts until March 1 at 9am PST.
The Blackpool Magic convention isn’t just a great place to watch and meet other magicians; it’s a place where you can see inventors test out the cutting-edge of illusion. Alakazam Magic UK scoured the show floor over the past weekend looking for some of the best items there, and has rounded up a few of their favorites to sell in their online shop.
Perhaps the coolest one is a trick called RPG. Take a deck of cards, have an observer sign and replace a card, give the deck of shuffle, and place it on the table. Then, flick a ring, coin, or other object and watch as the top half of the deck explodes off the pile, leaving their card right on the top of the other half. You can see it for yourself in the video below for a demonstration, and you can pick it up for £34.99. Act fast, though – quantities are very limited, and they’re already 14% through their stock as of press time.
They also picked up a prop called the mental vase, which allows you to pour out any one of the four colored balls currently held by a spectator. It’s a beautiful-looking prop, which is probably why it’s currently out of stock, unfortunately. Still, keep an eye on the Alakazam Magic UK store page in case they ever get resupplied, as these £124.99 beauties will probably run out again just as quickly
Theory11 teased “something crazy” for last night’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, but I don’t think anyone expected something like the video embedded above.
In the nine minute trick, Dan White plays a little game with Jimmy Fallon and Questlove, making the two of them reach into a box, feeling around for the object inside, and describing what they think it is. White then reveals the object to be something completely different, like a soup ladle or a ball of yarn. This continues until White places Questlove’s phone in the box. Things get weird from there.
You can see it in Questlove’s face at the end. He knows what’s coming but doesn’t want to believe it.
You can check out more of Dan White’s work, including information on upcoming shows, on his website, nomadupstairs.com.
It must be exhausting to be related to a magician—they’re always trying to saw you in half while you’re taking a nap. Like magician Justin Flom in the above video, who takes his precious sleeping baby girl and “saws” her in half with two books. She even wakes up mid-trick, probably wondering what the heck is going on. Get used to it, kid—you’re going to be at high school graduation and your dad will pull your diploma out of your mortarboard, guaranteed.