DUELING MAGICIANS TO APPEAR AT SYDNEY STATE THEATER

I just got word from Adam Mada that his show with Richard Vegas is about to appear at Australia's most prestigious venue, the Sidney State Theater. 

According to the press release:

 MADA vs VEGAS – The Dueling Magicians will bring their fiery brand of magic  and dynamic machismo to star alongside international superstars of Burlesque,  including; Europeʼs undisputed showgirl queen Immodesty Blaize, Kalani Kokonuts, Michelle LʼAmour and Perle Noire. 

After a sell-out feature debut season at The 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival,  exclusive sell-out performances for The Melbourne Magic Festival 2010 and an  Australian tour with The Gangsters Ball, Mada vs Vegas - The Dueling Magicians  will kick off 2011 in Sydney and Melbourne with Burlesque Royale, set to be the biggest feather and rhinestone filled burlesque tour de force to date; a never before  seen spectacular not to be missed! 

   

Richard Vegas has been entertaining at Star City Casino in Sydney for the last 10 years;  Adam Mada can be seen, starring in Channel Nineʼs new series hosted by Gyton Grantly – The Real Hustle.

JOE M TURNER NAMED 2010 ATLANTA MAGICIAN OF THE YEAR

Joe M. Turner has been voted “2010 Greater Atlanta Magician of the Year” by the combined memberships of IBM Ring 9 (The Georgia Magic Club) and SAM Assembly 30 (The Atlanta Society of Magicians), as announced tonight at the clubs’ joint banquet. 

 

The award dates back to 1971 and is based on excellence in seven categories including performance skill, use of talent for charitable efforts, and creativity.  The accompanying “Duke Stern Memorial Trophy” is engraved with the names of all the previous winners.  The winner is honored to keep the trophy for a year, and then receives a commemorative plaque to keep after passing the trophy to the next winner.

 

Turner is now a two-time Greater Atlanta Magician of the Year, having also received the award in 2000.  He is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Society of American Magicians, the London Magic Circle (AIMC with Silver Star), and the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood.  He serves as the IBM Territorial Vice President for Georgia, as well as the Global TVP Counselor.  He is currently serving a three-year term on the IBM Board of Directors.  He writes a bi-monthly review column for Genii Magazine.

BROKEN WAND :: TERRY SEABROOKE

By Scott Wells:

The laughter has died. It is a sad day when a funny man passes. And so it is that we must pause to remember a man who has brought smiles to the faces of everyone from us common men to royalty all over the world. Terry Seabrooke passed early this morning, January 11, 2011 after his long bout with cancer. The picture here is of Terry and his wife, Hilda that I took when I visited their home in Watford in March 2000. The other picture below was taken in front of Terry’s home on Beechcroft Road as he welcomed us when we drove up his drive which was ironically just off of Vernon Street.

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MAGIC FOR MILLIONS ON BBC1

From the Guardian we learn the the BBC1 show written about earlier by our friend Brendan of IrishMagicNews.com, continues to engage the UK Viewing public with millions tuning in week to week.  According to their report:

The Magicians: BBC1, 7pm – ratings for the second instalment of the Saturday night entertainment show held up well, with 5.4 million viewers and a 23.1% audience share. Last weekend's opener had 5.569 million/21.1%.

The Magicians also proved more popular than Friday night's one-off ITV1 magic show, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, which attracted 4.1 million/16.3%.

 

UK TV GOES MAGIC WILD :: BY BRENDAN

Between BBC’s The Magicians, ITV’s Fool US with Penn & Teller and Ch4’s Derren night there has never been so much magic on TV this side of the pond.  Luckily for me I caught most of these shows on TV here in Ireland as for some bizarre reason we pick up UK TV but are blocked on their online catch-up services.

 

BBC’s Magician’s programme promised a huge amount.  Big production, star names within our industry and guest celebrities.  It is perhaps the guest celebrities (many of whom I haven’t the foggiest who they are or what they do) and TV executives’ insistence on their use in programmes that was it’s downfall.  Try and try as Luis de Matos, Chris Korn and Barry & Stewart might, and they did, little could compensate for the ambivalent attitude of

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JOHN ARCHER FOOLS PENN & TELLER

We'd already gotten the word from the internets, but the British Comedy Guide does a nice job of summing up John Archer's successful performance on Penn & Teller's UK television show "Fool Us."

Archer, who is from Stockton-on-Tees, was one of several magicians taking part on last night's prime-time ITV1 programme Penn and Teller: Fool Us, a TV pilot hosted by Jonathan Ross in which several magicians, most of whom were not comic, attempted to perform tricks so good that US comedians and magic experts Penn Jillette and Raymond Teller would not be able to work out how their trick was done. 

Archer's routine successfully fooled the duo, meaning he won an all-expenses paid trip to open Penn and Teller's Las Vegas show. Penn Jillette took a guess, but did not get the correct method. Clearly baffled, he said: "it's a funny routine, it's just silly... it's not supposed to fool us!"

TRICK PLAYS OFF THE FIELD

Philadelphia Eagles snapper Jon Dorenbos gets some space in the Los Angeles Times, but in this case it is for his skills off of the field as a magician and not for what he gets paid $1 MIL per year to do on the gridiron. 

A dozen men are huddled around him, transfixed. That's not because he's Jon Dorenbos, long snapper for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's that he's holding a deck of playing cards, effortlessly riffling them with one hand, sometimes shooting them to the other in a graceful arch.

Fanning the cards, Dorenbos has one of the men select one, sign it with a felt-tip marker, then put it back in the deck. More shuffles, a few flourishes, and the card disappears — only to wind up tucked in the watchband of a perplexed spectator.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE 

THE MYSTERIOUS MCCOMB

I just got word from our friend Brendan of IrishMagicNews.com that the much anticipated radio documentary on the Legendary Billy McComb has finally aired on Ireland's 4FM and has been made available to the international magic community by the producers. The show is narrated by Keith Barry and featured commentary by Magic Castle representatives Max Maven and Whit Hayden. Original recordings of Billy were also provided by Martin Breece.

LISTEN TO IT HERE AT THE IREISH MAGIC NEWS SITE, or if you are using any device that doesn't recognize Flash players, use the HTML 5 player below.

Thanks again to Brendan for passing this along!

HTML 5 PLAYER ::

SURRELISTIC MAGIC CLUB VIDEO

Via the remarkable Tom Stone, I found this amazing promotional video for the Swedish Magic Circle. Now this is thinking outside of the box! Who wouldn't want to join that club! Credit goes to Axel Adlercreutz for creation of the piece!

ANNIE DUKE KICKS OF THE NEW YEAR WITH AN ACTOR AND A MAGICIAN

Poker icon and Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice Annie Duke starts off her 2011 season on the WebTV Network with Jamy Ian Swiss and Actor Steven Weber: