KVVU’s coverage of Mat Franco’s upcoming free live streamed magic show leads off our week. Might as well head over to Mat’s Facebook page now.
Unfortunately, we also have some sad news to report.
Retired school superintendent Dennis Wilson, who was a performing professional magician originally scheduled to perform at a Kansas City pop culture convention this weekend, was the first coronavirus related death in Johnson County, Kansas. You can rad more on the Kansas City Star website.
In California, the Magic Castle has laid off almost 200 employees during their coronavirus forced closure according to Variety.
MAGICIANS: if you are posting magic videos, please let us know. I would very much like to ratchet up the amount of videos we are posting every day during all of this and even if they are too long for our normal posts we will pass along links! Performances, advice, lessons, collector’s pieces… if it is magic video we want it! Email me at brownbagmagic AT swell DOT net.
Hey, look, I am uncomfortable with this last bit of news but if it was anyone else connected to the magic community I would pass it along. I try not to talk about it much on iTricks but I have published a couple of science fiction and fantasy books. The second book in my Black Sky Rangers sci fi series comes out on the 25th so until then its prequel, The Heist, is available as a free Kindle download. Be warned: the Black Sky Rangers are about first responders in space and my fantasy books are basically kung fu movies in print; they have nothing to do with magic. But if you are running out of things to do check it out.
David Blaine is not social distancing from Odell Beckham Jr in his latest viral video…
The boys at Vanishing Inc, (aka Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay) have announced ShareMagic Live, a 4+ hour livestream magic lecture/event featuring Daniel Garcia, Caroline Ravn, Jim Krenz, Harapan Ong, Morgan & West and more on Sunday, April 5, 2020. It is free but you have to sign up over on the Vanishing Inc. website. All I know about this is what is on the Vanishing Inc website, but to me it sounds like a free, mini-Essential Magic Conference.
Finally, the Santa Maria Sun talks to Mark Barbere about how he learned the skills necessary to become a professional magician in th day before YouTube.
This is a bad time for performers but there are folks trying to keep things positive for the performing magicians out there. SansMinds sent out an email encouraging people to use any downtime from cancelled shows to practice, catch up on neglected work and generally stay positive as did JC Sum and the Kids Entertainer Hub starting streaming some of their popular web seminars for free on their FaceBook page. These are just two examples off the top of my head of the magic community trying to help its members through this rough patch… If you know of anything else out there please pass it along to us or just post it as a comment!
Aidan’s Magic Corner, the newest web series from Ellen Degeneres which features ten year old Aidan McCann, premiered with the Ireland’s Got Talent alum performing up close and personal for the Jonas Brothers.
Finally, Ickle Pickle Magic has moved to Park Hills, Missouri. Steve Bender has retired but DJ Edwards has taken over the company so this great dealer will not disappear!
The latest video from Dreamworks’ TV series Junk Drawer Magic opens our week. Why? Because young hosts Akira Sky and Walker Satterwhite are introducing a new generation to the joys of magic. Akira has been with the show since it began in 2015, filming over 200 episodes so far. Frankly, we think she should get way more credit for bringing girls into magic!
The Jerusalem Post has the details on Uri Geller’s latest attempt to make headlines: championing the conspiracy theory the coronavirus is a manmade bioweapon on the loose.
