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.
How should Derren Brown handle the “magic fail” label? Would you work at Todd Robbins’ Fun House? Is a network TV tame Barry and Stuart the Barry and Stuart we want to see? How do momentary lapses in memory help a magician make their living?
This weekend James Randi’s TAM London takes place in the UK, Randi joined the conference via a Skype Video Call, and in an after coffee Q&A session he spoke about many things including his respect for Derren Brown, but commenting on how he thought Derren was unwise to offer an explanation on the lottery prediction.
Commenting on the $1 Million Challenge, he stated that it would continue, and that suspending it was considered not ‘profitable’.
Also magic has been represented with Richard Wiseman performing an invisible deck routine, and a performance from Chris Cox
Today, we offer a hearty happy birthday to a legend in magic and beyond, “The Amazing” James Randi.
Escape artist, magician and most notably a leading critical thinker and skeptic advocate. He also knows everyone on the planet, which we talked about a lot on the podcast series we produced for him.
However, this birthday is different. As Randi publicly announced at his The Amazing Meeting conference last month and posted on his website yesterday, he is currently undergoing medical treatment for “a most unwelcome guest.”
We implore the magic community to flood Randi with well wishes today, not only for another birthday milestone reached but also to let him know that his complete and speedy recovery is in your hopes and prayers. Actually, let’s just stick with hopes.
Blogger John Huntington had a great time at the big SAM 100th annual Salute To Magic this weekend. So much so, he wrote about it so those who were not there could enjoy it as well.
• As if moving casinos wasn’t stressful enough, Gerry McCambridge gets into a heated altercation over a stolen iPhone. All of the clenched-fisted action is lovingly recreated in his blog. Gerry rules. [The Mentalist]
• John Sturk recommends Is Anybody There? with Michael Caine. [Fun Inc.]
This weekend James Randi’s 
