The Guest:
• Eric Ross
What does David Blaine’s street magic marathon in Times Square to benefit the Haitian earthquake relief do for his legacy? What are the pros and cons of taking a long-term gig? Is storytelling the most important element of magic? In our lifetime, will Houdini ever be less important than he is now?
- Trick Shop Magic Get $10 off The Dracula Book Test 2.0 if you buy now!
Magician, Escape Artist and King Skeptic James Randi describes his bout with intestinal cancer, his experience with chemotherapy and his recent completion of his treatment at the end of 2009. It is truly inspiring stuff.
We’ve mentioned here before, and will again now, that both the publisher and editor of iTricks have ties to the James Randi Educational Foundation and are proud to call themselves friends of the man himself. We can say with first hand experience that during his recovery, both were consistently shocked by how spry the man was during what is supposed to be such a taxing process.
He is a great man and thanks to the relentlessly self-improving miracle of modern medicine, he stands to continue that trend much longer.
Watch Andrew Mayne and Justin Robert Young as they cover Carl Sagan Day featuring a talk from The Amazing James Randi.
The Guest:
• Andrew Mayne
How prestigious is performing at the White House? Who is the oddest celebrity you’ve ever seen perform magic? How hard is it to open a show in Las Vegas? Why do all the networks love the idea of magicians solving mysteries?
- Trick Shop Magic Get $10 off The Dracula Book Test 2.0 if you buy now!
For those who might have missed it live…
Thanks to everyone who helped make this a reality including David Nott, Barry & Stuart, Michael Shermer, Phil Plait, Penn Jillette, Teller and David Copperfield. Very special thanks to Brandon of the JREF for making sure this happened and, of course, to James Randi for allowing us the space and making a very special cameo at the beginning.
Before Houdini’s death, he famously gave his wife a code word. This was to prevent mediums and psychics from coming to her door, breathlessly confirming that they had spoken with Harry after his passing. With the word, she could immediately double check their work by asking if he’d passed along the secret message.
As time passed, the word (”believe”) slipped out. And even Criss Angel would agree that the word has officially outlived its usefulness.
So for our Houdini Seance, THIS SATURDAY at 9 p.m. EST LIVE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF iTRICKS.COM, we needed new words. Thankfully, we have some friends to help us out…
Author, speaker and editor of Skeptic Magazine Michael Shermer will help us with a word.
President of the Reason foundation, David Nott has agreed to contribute.
Magicians, BS artists and soon-to-be TV detectives Penn & Teller will EACH give us a word suitable for Harry Houdini himself to divine from beyond the grave.
All of those listed above are sending their words to James Randi who will seal them in envelopes and challenge us to discover their contents with the help of Houdini’s spirit.
But that is not all, expect more announcements today and tomorrow!
NBC orders their own magic detective series. A magician gets sued for not paying his advertising company, find out who. Tommy Wind has his show delayed.
Newsmaker Interview:
• Milt Larsen Magic Castle legend and organizer of the It’s Magic! show talks about the big performance at the Kodak Theater on November 8th.
