The boys at Vanishing Inc are launching a free magic course to help everyone get through this current rough spot… the video pretty much explains it all and you can sign up here. They have also announced the live schedule for their free April 5th online magic conference ShareMagic: Live. Check out the 5+ hours of schedules lectures here.
Dynamo talks about how terrible it is for a magician to get arthritis over on the UK version of Yahoo News. Between you and me, that is why I stopped performing. I went from coin manipulation while wearing gloves to barely being able to hold a pencil!
South African website IOL spoke with Mo Magic about his ten years as a magician since quitting a job as an engineer and the current Cover-19 situation in South Africa. You can see more of Mo Magic’s lockdown magic on his YouTube page.
There is no new April Fool’s Day Penn & Teller: Fool Us special this year but The CW is airing the 2018 and 2019 specials tonight, so check the local TV listings. If you are lucky they will both air before the Blaine special on ABC in your market!
You will also want to check out A Live Magic Show presented by the Greg Frewin Theatre. It is a benefit for the Niagara SPCA Humane Society featuring Greg, Ryan Joyce, Jon Dorenbos, David DaVinci, Kevin James and others. It is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern time (4 PM Pacific) and streams over on YouTube.
To pass the rest of the day:
Andrew Mayne is a magician, entrepreneur, magic creator, author, TV star, inventor (and in the interest of full disclosure, owner of this website but he doesn’t know I am publishing this)… I think if he can just release a hit pop song he will be the undisputed king of all media, at least in the magic world. His new novel is not quite out yet, but it can be pre-ordered and if you are an Amazon Prime member you can get a free Kindle copy this month. Go to Amazon (logged into your Prime account) and search for The Girl Beneath The Sea by Andrew Mayne.
Finally, Karan Singh was the featured guest on the first Instagram streamed “lockdown” episode of The MJ Show. It is a little over 20 minutes and can be found over on The MJ Show’s YouTube page.
Lance Rich’s first place performance at the 2020 IBM Ring 129 Stage Competition kicks off the day. Ring 129, of course, has been particularly hard hit by the Coronavirus.
So, lot’s a good news today. That new David Blaine special is on ABC tomorrow night!
Also tomorrow, Mat Franco is doing another free magic show on Facebook Live tomorrow; you can read all about it on Vegas News.
TriCity News talked to Alex Zander about his position in the IBM and some of the magic they are promoting online.
This actually isn’t magic, but Coach Billingslea’s online lesson yesterday for the Parkland PE students was a class on juggling… something I still can’t do! But Coach B seems like a pretty cool gym teacher!
Dean Apple and Pinky’s magic show from last Friday kicks off our week. You can see more over on Dean’s YouTube page.
I logged on to the special magic hangout organized by SansMinds Magic over the weekend. For about 90 minutes some of the familiar faces from SansMinds split a YouTube screen teaching magic and answering questions. Then at the end they gave everyone in attendance a downloadable “goodie bag” that included two books and a couple videos so folks would have some new magic to practice. For me, though, the best thing about it was near the beginning when one of the guys from SansMinds, I am sorry to say I can not remember who, admitted that the whole thing was hastily thrown together but really they just wanted to know their fans and customers were doing alright. Sorry if you missed out on this but Vanishing Inc is putting together something in April.
If you are organizing an online magic show, convention, hangout or jam session we want to know! Email me at brownbagmagic AT swell DOT net!
Need something to read? The new issue of Vanish Magazine is out and available to download for free. Check it out over on their website.
The Oklahoman has a piece on Joe Coover, a magician who is using his downtime and his 3D printer to make free masks for healthcare workers. Learn more about Joe or donate a little money to keep him in 3D printer filaments by visiting his Facebook.
Don’t forget the David Blaine’s new special David Blaine: The Magic Way airs this Wednesday on ABC. Guests will include Emily Blunt, Tom Brady, Dave Chappelle, Bryan Cranston, Michael Jordan.
If you are in the UK Now TV will start airing Dynamo Beyond Belief on April 9.
The latest video from America’s Got Talent is an entry from their AGT University series featuring Shin Lim teaching a little magic.
Ellusionist is now offering free tutorials on their MagicStream service and, at least for the first one, on their YouTube page. You got time, learn some new skills!
If you are in the mood to watch magic, Carisa Hendrix has posted Indulgence, an hour long, partially improvised show featuring her good friend Lucy Darling. You can stream it free on Carisa’s YouTube page and, of course, be sure to check out Carisa’s website to keep up with everything going on with her and Lucy Darling.
Sad news on the Covid-19 front. We recently reported the first Covid-19 related death in Johnson County, Kansas was retired school superintendent and magic Dennis Wilson.The Kansas City Star is new reporting two magicians from Ring 129, the Kansas City IBM local have tested positive as well. We hope they are on the path to recovery.
Stay in, stay safe, stay smart and wash your hands! We will get through all of this.
David Blaine is shown above performing for the cast of New York City Harry Potter and the Cursed Child a week or so ago. He’ll be performing for us all next week when his new special The Magic Way premieres on ABC on April 1. Read more about the special, including a list of guest stars, on Broadway World.
Our video is a look at the Magic Castle from Zagat’s Eating Outside The Box webseries. We are bringing you this to kick off the day because MovieMaker reports filmmaker Alexis Spraic has begun work on M For Magic a documentary on the Castle and the people who built it.
We are posting more video today but here is something too long for us to embed from Boris Wild. It is an entire half hour show from the Close Up Room in Paris shot just last month free to watch over on YouTube. Another way to fill a little time with magic is the latest edition of Unplugged from Murphy’s Magic. It is about an hour and more a show about magic than a magic show (ie not for the casual fan of magic). You can catch it streaming over on Murphy’s YouTube page.
