AMA HONORS MAGICIANS

Johnny Thompson Presents Lance Burton with "Masters Fellowship"On April 10th, 2011, the Academy of Magical Arts honors some of the top names in the art during the awards ceremony held at the Avalon Hollywood Theater. This year's awards were emcee'd by Jonathan Levit (Form ABC's Flash Forward, Fox's Master of Illusions and VH1's Celebracadabra).

According to Broadway World:

Celebrity presenters included Rico Rodriguez (Modern Family), Keith David (The Cape), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean) as well as a star studded audience that included Debby Ryan, Kate Linder, Tippi Hedren , Raini Rodriguez, Alison Arngrim, Romi Dames, Quentin Aaron, Josh Moore, Dawn Olivier, Richard Sherman and Fred Willard.

Selected honorees and nominees for 13 categories were on hand to receive accolades from their peers. Tonight's winners included: Dana Daniels (Stage Magician of the Year); Andrew Goldenhersh (Parlour Magician of the Year); David Regal (Lecturer of the Year), and the first female nomination and winner of Close-up Magician of the year, Suzanne. Other coveted awards went to -- eight time TONY award winner from "Liza" to "LA Cage," Jules Fisher, who received the Special Fellowship Award; for entertaining US Troops and Iraqi/Afghani children in Army hospitals, William Scott Anderson received the Award of Merit; Bob White (Performing Fellowship Award); Franz Harary (Performing Fellowship Award); Stan Allen (Literary Fellowship Award); Jeff Black (Junior Achievement Award); Dean Dill (Creative Fellowship Award); Topas (Magician of the Year); John Daniel (Lifetime Achievement Award) and, following in the steps of greats such as Sigfried & Roy and Harry Blackstone, Lance Burton was this years recipient of the Masters Fellowship Award.

THE SIMPSONS MAKE MAGIC

UPDATE: Now that the show has aired, here's my favorite screenshot. Ricky Jay, David Copperfield, Penn & Teller line up to prevent Lisa from rescuinh "Cregg Demon" from Houdini's Milk Can.

The new issue of Magic Magazine should have hit your mailbox by now. In case you haven't seen it, subscribe now so that you can read the cover story about the magic themed episode of the Simpson's which will air on Fox TV in the US on Sunday night.

Magic explains the plot as follows: 

The Simpsons has turned to magic as a plot device for an episode titled “The Great Simpsina.” When Lisa is forced to run into what appears to be an empty old house, she is startled when the owner shows up. When the old man is revealed to be The Great Raymondo, a famous magician, Lisa begs to be taught the tricks of the trade. At first, Raymondo scoffs at the idea of a girl magician — “Ladies are what you saw in half and throw knives at; they never wear the hat!” But when Lisa manages to quickly link a set of rings, Raymondo relents, admitting, “If magic is not passed on, it dies.” Thus, Lisa Simpson becomes The Great Simpsina.

According to Gather.com:

The guest voices are Martin Landau as the Great Raymondo, Jack McBrayer as Ewell Freestone, Ricky Jay as himself, Penn & Teller as themselves, and David Copperfield as himself.

The episode will be airing at on Saturday April 10th at 8:00 PM ET/PT.

MNW #312 :: MAGIC*CON 2011

Brothers Dan & Dave Buck launched an all new magic conference in 2010 and called it Magic-Con. Their vision was to produce an interactive conference for those serious about the art of magic, where you can share ideas, insight, and a common experiences. The stated goal of the annual Magic-Con is to provide a platform for magic’s smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries, and top performers and to introduce an intellectual mentality behind the art, science and technology of magic. The Magic Newswire was very fortunate to have two roving reporters on site to being us a taste of the experience. Thanks to Alejandro Portela, aka "The Cuso" and Doug McKenzie for helping with this episode of the podcast!

Magic-Con 2011:


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AMA PRESIDENT RESIGNS

Robert Lamoureux with Milt LarsenAnnouncement From The Academy of Magical Arts Apr 05, 2011 It is with regret that the Academy of Magical Arts announces that, effective April 3, 2011, the Board of Directors has accepted Robert Lamoureux's resignation from not only his office as President of the Academy, but also from his seat on its Board of Directors.

Robert has served the Academy as a Director for several years, and been its President for the past three.  His leadership, guidance and wisdom has helped the Academy not only weather some challenging times in the past, but also helped it grow into the world-renowned club it is today.

The Board of Directors speaks for the entire Academy when it thanks Robert for all his years of dedication and service, and wishes him well in all his future endeavors, both within and outside the Academy.

Per the Academy's ByLaws (Article IV, Section 5), the Board of Directors will be naming a new Director at its next regular meeting on April 12, 2011.

HAPPY "OTHER" BIRTHDAY HOUDINI

Thanks to Kevin Connolly from HoudiniHimself.com and John Cox from WldAboutHoudini.com for reminding us that today is Houdini's "Other" birthday.  Houdini was actually born on March 24th, 1874 but always claimed April 6th as his birthday. It will be fun to see how many news outlets make this mistake other than the Associated Press.  In celebration of this date, enjoy the following time lapse video of a Houdini in Chains photo restoration by artist M.A. Ludwig:

WHY THE WORLD NEEDS MAGICIANS

In an article from the Christian Science Monitor about Houdini, the author, whose mother has worked as a professional stage magician for most of his life, tells us why the world needs magicians:

But the magician community probably won't object to me noting that the success of most illusions has much more to do with being able to manipulate the attention of your audience than it does with the mechanics of the trick itself.

And, boy, how our attention is manipulated these days, particularly by the media. Understanding the patter, misdirection, legerdemain, and unseen mechanisms that make up the stock in trade of magicians will get you a long way toward becoming a better media consumer. In a country where sizable minorities accept the existence of ghosts, curses, fortune-tellers, UFOs, and astrology, it's important to keep in mind that the hand is often quicker than the eye.

T11 INSIDER #13 :: THE FINAL EPISODE

MAGIC CIRCLE TO SUE EU OVER FORCED CHANGES TO PLAYING CARDS

While researching the info in the post below this one, we discovered a press release from the prestigious UK Magic Organization which read as follows: 

THE MAGIC CIRCLE TO MOUNT LEGAL CHALLENGE

The Magic Circle is considering mounting a legal challenge to proposals which would see the composition of packs of playing cards dramatically altered from April 2012. 

Click to read more ...

MAGIC CIRCLE ANNOUNCES 2011 CLOSE-UP MAGICIAN OF THE YEAR

Direct from the Magic Circle:

"This year’s competition for the Devano Trophy, and the title of The Magic Circle Close-up Magician of the Year 2011, was a very close battle between eight top magicians, some of whom had won the title previously.

"The deserving and popular winner was John van der Put who lit up the room when he came on to perform his vibrant act.

"Second place went to Marc Spelmann, who was also awarded the Originality Prize, whilst James Freedman came third.

"Other competitors included Tim Sutton, Jon Allen, Joe Stone, Chris Wood and Andrew Murray - all displaying their admirable skills in front of the magical judges, Geoffrey Durham, Alan Shaxon and Rajan, as well as three members of the public, who were also judging the competitors."

READ MORE

GENII APPEARS ON THE IPAD

Richard Kaufman and I have been talking about the digital version of Genii and when it was coming to the iPad for months. Today I received the following email from the Chief Genii:

The Genii iPad app has finally been approved! All Genii subscribers can go to the app store on their iPads and download the app, which is FREE.

Then, subscribers to Genii can log in using the same user name and password they've created in activating their iGenii accounts and you will find that we have the most recent six issues available, which all Genii subscribers can download FOR FREE. We are the only magazine in the field of magic which offers its digital version across all platforms for FREE to subscribers.

Our iPad app offers complete functionality for our audio and video supplements. We already have one five-star review for our app ... please add your reviews!

Download it HERE and let us know what you think!