Rich the Clown

His driver's license might read, George Garrett, but whatever you call him, you'll certainly consider him to be talented! I visited the Tyler Fellowship of Christian Magicians chapter a couple of weeks back, and George did a mini-workshop on gospel clowning. I've never hidden my general disdain for most forms of gospel magic, but his was classy, poignant, well-considered and tasteful all the way around......very nice!! What might you say if I told you this guy designed and built Kirby Van Burch's appearing helicopter?!  ......that's no clowning around, either!

Johnny Magic

Last night, the Tyler magic club had, what started out as a "regular" meeting. We had a couple of past members come, one of whom was Jonathan Havier (aka Johnny Magic). He discussed some of his performing days in great detail.....and led a huge work session on setting up/doing the traditional Anderson Newspaper tear. I took some photos, but I'm not sure I caught any of him! It was a great session.....heck it was worth it just to know how to make the gimmick. I'll post some photos later.

As I like to document the history of magic performance all over Texas, I thought this was proper: in February, our club, IBM Ring 266 in Tyler, awarded a certificate of appreciation to Gene and Neta Colteaux for their many years of service to our magic club. Gene served as our Ring's President for 3 straight years and Neta was our Ring's secretary for more years than anyone can count (about 7, I think, but could be longer!), she also spent the last two years as our Ring's Treasurer. They both were excellent as officers for our Ring! (Far right is our Ring's new President, Jerry Abercrombie.)

Parade (January 2007)

I'd noted some time back that I was going to post some reviews/comments re: some Parades from various issues of The Linking Ring magazine..................so, I just happened to pick up an issue from January 2007. The Parade features The British Ring (Ring 25)...............admittedly, I've not read the whole thing, but heck, it spans over 20 pages! What I've read looks pretty darned good! .....those Brits, they always make for heavy reading.....................but it's good stuff! Some very performable stuff.....there's a little bit that involves a diary and a deck of cards..........worth my time!

Cube-Cube-Cubio!

A few nights ago, about 2 hours before our Ring's November meeting, an idea struck me for a bit using a Tenyo "Cubio".........I'm going to try to throw up a video here soon!

I'm a bit confused, if not annoyed that it's been so long since I last posted here!! Any-hoo, I stumbled upon a truly clever little trick in an old copy of the Linking Ring that I absolutely MUST start performing....uses only an Ali Bongo hat and a deck of large cards!

Gregory Wilson!

Holy Mother Magnus in a buttermilk biscuit........Gregory Wilson is AAAAA-------WWWWWWESOME!!!!!!!

This guy has re-awakened a love for performing magic in me that I just can't describe!! A bunch of us from the Tyler IBM Ring saw him lecture in Longview, Texas a few weeks back........words cannot describe this man's thinking! Absolute brilliance!!

Aldo and Rachel

First things first: Aldo and Rachel Colombini are NOT moving to the UK!!  That was a weird little rumor.....who knows how it got started!!  HOWEVER, this photo was taken when they lectured in Longview, Texas last month..........as a part of their VERY LAST BIG LECTURE TOUR EVER.  They won't do another big tour like this one again.  Yes, the photo's a bit blurry....sorry!  It was, without a doubt, the best magic lecture I've ever attended....and I won a DVD!

Wow!!

I wrote some ad copy for a web site my buddy, Jeff Stone designed (not a magic related site, but a site nonetheless)........and he paid me with product!  A big box of Stone Cold Magic DVD's! Wow! What a guy!  I just like looking at them all stacked up and shrinkwrapped!

Jump over to Jeff's site......he's a real creative guy!

Aldo Colombini

Very very soon......Aldo Colombini is coming to East Texas on his last big US lecture tour.  (I'd wrongly posted that Aldo and his wife were moving back to the UK.......that was false......they're staying in the US!!) [I'm correcting this post on January 19, 2013].

...and a photo to boot!

Check out Nathan Kranzo's site to order this cool DVD on the Mene Tekel deck!!

Mene Tekel

I felt it only right and proper to include a link to Nathan's cool DVD on uses for the Mene Tekel deck:

"Mene Tekel Miracles" by Nathan Kranzo

Kranzilla!!

Nathan Kranzo! Kranzilla!!  That dude is talented!  He lectured for Ring 266 last night in Tyler, Texas....awesome! Cool stuff with a Mene Tekel deck!

In Memoriam:Tim Conover

Although I never saw him in-person, I have seen a few video clips of mentalist Tim Conover online.  Great stage persona!  Fantastic!  Sadly, found out via Carl Jones' send-outs and Genii's forums that he took his own life a few days ago. Profoundly sad.......one great entertainer, man.

I had the great privilege of having dinner a few nights ago with Richard Hatch. He was at Discovery Science Place in Tyler performing and our Ring's V.P. (Mark Kilsby) and I went out to dinner with him and his friend, Joe (from Houston). Richard is a smart guy!  Recently sold H&R Magic Books to a former employee.

Nathan Kranzo is coming to Tyler

The East Texas Court of Magic (IBM Ring 266) will soon host Nathan Kranzo.....originator of numerous close-up and mentalism effects. Nathan is slated to lecture for our Ring on February 7th in the beautiful city of Tyler, Texas. I'll try to get a photo up soon.

Instant Radio

Such a cool device!! Love it!! Buy one now!

I did a show!

A couple of Sundays ago....I performed at the Holiday Inn Express (located on S. Broadway in Tyler, Texas)...for my church's 3-year anniversary party. Fifteen minutes.....and only two flub-ups! It was fun!

Labor Day 2010

Great Labor Day event at our Ring V.P.'s house! We had a short performance session in the back yard....here's a photo of Gene Colteaux and Terry Teene looking on as David Gish performs.

Mark Kilsby and Gene Colteaux

Here's a photo I stumbled across tonight......Ring 266's current President, Gene Colteaux and our current Vice President, Mark Kilsby talking outside Lindo Mexico in Tyler one Saturday morning (sometime last Fall).

Tyler Junior College Magic Class

In July, our Ring taught a 2-day magic class at Tyler Junior College. Here's a little photo of board member, Terry Teene and Secretary/Treasurer Neta Colteaux (sorry, Terry got chopped out slightly!).

Andy Hickman

Well, I was on vacation with the fam earlier this month (in Galveston, Texas.......fun!)......Andy Hickman, motivational speaker and magician (who's also a new member of our club in Tyler) spoke/lectured. But, alas, I missed it. Bummer. It received great comments, though!

Anyway, I also got some sort of 12-hour flu thing a few nights ago and missed a walk-around performance our Ring did in downtown Tyler........I hated missing that.

Coming along..........

Visited with my good friend, Mark Kilsby a few nights ago........spent some time working on my new effect, "Salem's Lottery". I also recently purchased a Ryobi band saw which will be instrumental in creating the wooden tiles needed for that effect.

"Reel Magic"

That's the title of a little book I picked up via an eBay auction a few weeks back. It's one of those old sadle-stapled books from the 50's........written by "Albenice". Haven't used many reels myself.....but they look like clever little items.

Hocus Pocus Parade: R.C. Buff (February 1978)

Once again, a true gem found within the pages of The Linking Ring. Mr. Buff was enamored with rope, string and ribbon effects and there're some top notch items in this contribution. The first effect entitled, "Ancient Ropes, Oops, Rope" is quite intriguing. I like quirky off-beat effects and this one focuses on different colored ropes and even using a self-made gimmick to gimmick a length of rope.....reads kind of HARD but I actually think once you got your mojo working on this one, it'd be worth the effort. I will re-visit this bad boy at a later date.

The Linking Ring magazine annotated index

I spend a'lot of time reading magic-related magazines (not to mention books). Sometimes, it just seems kind of purposeless (I know, I could practice!!)...so I decided that I'd start a bit of an annotated index of tricks found in The Linking Ring. What magician doesn't know about the monthly publication of the IBM? I've ammased quite a collection of those mags!! So, keep a lookout on what's going on here.....especially if you have access to a'lot of Linking Rings!!

Just to be nice

Just so ya know where I found that little hit counter below there...........

you can grab one at:

http://gobblerhosting.com



Enjoy!!