The Magic Newswire - Magic News

Steve Wyrick wrapped up Ellen's Magic Week with this effect:

In an email widely circulated to the magic community after Steve Wyrick's recent appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show, Franz accused Steve of ripping off the tank illusion. In the email Franz ztated "I sued him for this.He went bankrupt, and is now ripping me off again. If I can not stop him, at least I can let the magic community know what's going on."

It appears that there is more to the story than is revealed in that email and that Harary had in fact sold the rights to that illusion to Wyrick and that sale is the subject of a lawsuit that is in stasis (Case No. 08-A-561018, Harary v. Wyrick, filed in Clark County District Court, NV) after Mr. Harary’s attorney, Phillip Varricchio filed a motion to withdraw as counsel in the case against Mr. Wyrick on June 23, 2010, due to Mr. Harary’s failure to pay his legal bills in the lawsuit. Mr. Harary’s former attorney also filed an “attorney’s lien” against Mr. Harary due to non-payment.

You can read the complete text of the email after the jump.

From: Franz Harary <*******@aol.com>

To: *******@aol.com

Sent: Wed, Oct 6, 2010 11:10 pm

Subject: Get the word out please.

Al,

So,..... I just heard that Steve Wyrick is planning to do my water tank illusion on the ELLEN show tomorrow.

I'm in Shanghai and it's pretty hard to do much from here. But I'll try my damnedest!

In the mean time, Please spread the word to any magic blogs you can or just start emailing magicians.. Get the word out there that Wyrick ripped off the tank illusion!

I sued him for this. He went bankrupt, and is now ripping me off again.

If I can not stop him, at least I can let the magic community know what's going on.

Thank you for this..

From Shanghai

Your friend.. Franz.