COPPERFIELD SUES MUSHA CAY CONTRACTOR

According to several reports, Copperfield is suing a Vegas company that was contratced to develop special effects for the resort's Secret Village Entryway, the Village Tunnel. According the suit that was filed, the work has proven defective and "Splashes" has failed to correct the problem. Also named is Robert North whom it is alleged  walked off the job in April after 13 months of work. Copperfield's company seeks  an injunction barring North from working for competing magicians during the balance of his three-year employment agreement with Copperfield’s company and seeks a court order confirming that North is required not to disclose trade secrets.

Read more from the Las Vegas Sun

MAGIC ISLAND RETURNING IN 2012?

In an article from the Houston Chronicle, Magic Island owner Mohammad Athari says that he hopes to reopen the magic & comedy club by Christmas. The theater was forced to close after suffering water and fire damage during a hurricane in 2008. 

“My heart still is in it,” said Athari, who is also a neurologist. “It’s a highlight of Houston.”

The concept will be the same, he said, with dining, comedy and magic, but there will be improvements made to the structure.

“We want to make sure it’s first class."

Read the complete article here.

JONATHAN PENDRAGON AND THE SEARCH FOR THE GRAIL :: PART 12

Year in Review :: By Jonathan Pendragon

Herodotus, albeit an important historian, is someone I often refer to as "the Wikipedia of the ancient world" because he believed everything that he was told. He was famously gullible when it came to the sensational. Dan Brown often follows a similar tack in his novels, such as Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. As a child of Tycho Brahe, I can tell you with absolute certainty that Galileo and Isaac Newton were not members of the Illuminati, and you won’t find Mary Magdalene’s bones in the pyramid at the Louvre ("Spoilers!").

I am pictured sitting in front of the aforementioned pyramid. I thought it was as good a place as any to reflect upon the past year, as this is the 12th column on my Grail quest for Magic Newswire.

1.   I finalized my divorce. Contrary to what you may have heard elsewhere, this was an action I initiated and pursued unilaterally. I will always be proud of the magic I created with Charlotte. We brought a new style to the world of magic: Physical Grand Illusion, but now it’s a time for chang
2.   Chip Romero and Gregory Chin now have the illusions that were sold to them by my ex-wife, despite the fact that she had left them in Trinidad. It took me a year to recover them, and I neither received (nor asked for) compensation, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
3. Jim Steinmeyer has continued to define what it means to be a good friend, with generous advice and help in reconstructing my life and my career. I am currently rehearsing Puppet Horror, Jim’s new illusion, which I will present at the Genii 75th Anniversary Bash in Orlando. Puppet Horror is quite a departure from anything I’ve done (or even seen) in the past. To be able to collaborate with Jim is always a privilege.
4.   While teaching in Sweden, I made a new friend, Tom Stone, whose magic is brilliant. More importantly, he helped me deal with my struggle to understand the pandemonium that my life had become over the previous several years. This is a rare friendship that carries a magic all its own. He gave me a dremel; with it, I have constructed a Hindu basket (!) and a floating table, while rediscovering my knack for bringing form to fantasy.
5.   Trying to define myself as a hyphenated magician... I remembered my dislike for hyphens. I am an Illusionist, and always will be. And yet, I have been able to integrate my work on “savant” mentalism into that character. I spent too much time trying to explain my work, instead of letting it speak for itself. Neil Gaiman, upon receiving a Necronomicon I created for him, described me as a “magical person,” a comment that resonated deeply in me. It is a simple image, and yet one that contains a world of possibility; it speaks to the whole, and not the parts. It does not define me by the style of my work, but encompasses an existential image of who I am.
6.  I fell in love.
7. West and I have set a date for our marriage: appropriately, on the first day of Autumn. Change can be a good thing... and, for an artist, essential. 

MORE EMC SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED

In addition to the already stellar 2012 speaker line-up of Armando Lucero, Denis Behr, Paul Harris, Bill Malone, Graham Jolley, Tom Stone, Chris Kenner, Marco Tempest and Yigal Mesika, we learned today that at this year's EMC we will also be hearing from Daniel Madison, Eric Mead and Woody Aragón at the next EMC beginning on July 27th.  Also, in case you hadn't heard, the EMC will begin whetting your appetite for this year's conference with free screenings of content from 2010 & 2011. Click here to register today if you haven't alredy done so!

GARY ROSS MEETS HOUDINI

After it was announced that Hunger Games director Gary Ross had declined to direct the sequel, we were happy to learn that he was in discussions to direct the film adaptation of the Kalush/Stolman book "The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Super Hero." This is a project that we have reported on as early as March of 2009 and interest within the community has been strong. 

Read More From Hollywood Reporter "Heat Vision"

MIDNIGHT MYSTERIES :: HAUNTED HOUDINI

Thanks to a review posted by Joseph Szadkowski at WashingtonTimes.com, we leard of the appearance of Houdini on the iPad via the hidden object challenge game "Midnight Mysteries : Haunted Houdini."

Developers honor the master magician with reasonably complex action mixing gorgeous animation and backdrops that tap into an early-20th-century period and adding a variety of concealed-item quests, minigames, riddles and puzzles to flex the player’s ocular muscles and noggin.

The ghost of Houdini’s wife, Bess, first appears and asks the player help her find her dead husband (in spirit or body) while eventually touching on key moments of his life and career.

Read the complete review here or find it in the iTunes Store.

MAGICIAN RIPPED OFF... NOT BY MAGIC DEALER

This time it was a house keeper and the victim was Derren Brown.  According to an article published by the Daily Mail in the UK:

The cleaner of illusionist Derren Brown has appeared in court, accused of stealing thousands of pounds from the television star through bogus cheques.

Rocio Pavon-Navarrete, 46, is alleged to have taken two signed blank cheques from Mr Brown’s central London home while he was away.

 Mr Brown, who is currently touring his Svengali show, is expected to give evidence at the two-day trial.

Read the complete article at DailyMail.co.uk

MAKING FAME VANISH

Johnny Ace Palmer is a name well know within the magic community, but outside of it, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who has any idea who he is or what he does. The Orange Couty Register profiles the man that says:

"I was put on earth to do magic," says Palmer, 51, who twice won the Magic Castle's prestigious "Close Up Magician of the Year."

What he seeks is more valuable than celebrity, he says. It is balance – with family, church and work.

"He's one of the top magicians in the world," says magician, author and magic instructor Mark Wilson, 83, of Valencia. "He's also an extremely nice guy."

Read the complete artice from OCRegister.com

View their complete photo gallery. 

SAWCHUCK OPENS NEW SHOW AT TROPICANA

From Weatherford's column in the LVRJ we learn that Murray Sawchuck is opeing a new show at the Tropicana's Laugh Factory.

It has been an odd 10 years for Murray (SawChuck), the peroxide-headed magician who on Monday launches an early evening residency at the new satellite location of The Laugh Factory inside the Tropicana.

"You can't screw it up. You only get a couple of shots in Vegas," he says. "That's why I went away for 10 years."

Find out what Murray has been doing for 10 years by reading the complete article.

BLAINE AS SCIENTIST

From the New Yorker Culture Desk: 

If you’re a middle-school student on a field trip to the Liberty Science Center—a New Jersey rite of passage—you might get interrupted in the middle of exploring the high-speed wind tunnel or taunting the poisonous dart frogs and be quietly pulled aside by one of the museum’s employees. You’ll be escorted, with your class, to the basement, past the Global Microscope, and through a door marked “Authorized Employees Only.” Down a warehouse-like corridor lined with crates of cafeteria-bound imperishables, you’ll reach a secluded back room that is flooded with fluorescent light and dominated by a large glass tank of water. Inside the tank will be David Blaine. He’ll explain that you’re about to see a dress rehearsal for a show he’s developing in which he submerges himself under water for several minutes—holding his breath, of course—and performs a series of debonair tricks that, to the naïf, would seem to require air.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

It sounds a bit like the Dressed for Dinner video that we posted some months ago. In case you missed it, watch it here: