Rudy Coby and The Magic Castle

Hello Everyone,

I was very fortunate to visit the Academy of Magical Arts last night  partly for business and yet had a great time. The 1st act I saw was in the close-up room. Johan Stahl from Sweden He did his Awarding Winning Act. There's just something charming about a foreigner speaking english and mystifying the guests in the room.

here is his Link:  http://www.johanstahl.se/

The other Act I saw was this guy: http://revision3.com/scamschool

Brian Brushwood He actually scared me with during a part of his act and it fooled.  He had the entire audience screaming and just freaking out. In all my years of doing magic I have never seen a room freak out. That my friends says something.  He is a magician that has found his niche and I say run with it Brian…

The Main Event Rudy Coby aka LAB MAN Here is his Website: http://www.rudycoby.net/

Me and Rudy go back way back… I mean when I was just starting out performing magic for real people and getting paid for it. This guy hit upon an act that kIds and adults just loved. It was unique and just darn Clever. So Darn Clever that he got Two TV specials out of it, and toured the world… Then he disappeared. When I say he disappeared he literally left the Magic World.  In 2008 he resurfaced and has been slowly performing here and there. Last night was my 1st chance to meet the legend live. I even got to go back stage and say hello.  The Show it's self had a few glitches but over all it was a good show. The Stage it's self was a bit small for him in my opine. But do yourself a favor and try try try to see this guy perform, you wont be disappointed. 

Here is The Magic Castle Link The Magic Castle

The IPad and being a Magician

So the Ipad from Apple has now been out for 12 days…

So today I am going to talk about the business side of Magic.

I had the chance to play around with one for a little while. What does this have to do with magic? Tons!!

1st  Off I want to make it clear, It is not a computer nor is it an Iphone. 

2nd. I'm and not the worlds most computer savvy guy… However I do know my way around a computer and I never took  a class.

Well as a performing magician and or a magician who travels a lot. This device can and will help you in many ways. I can see this device replacing my hand written note book that I keep for all my brilliant ideas thats with me at all times. When I have had to do a presentation to get hired for a job even though I've already sent them a video they still want to see me in person. When this happen theirs usually three or four people in the room.  What better way then to pull out your Ipad and have them watch a video of you performing while you get ready, or wait for someone to come into the room. I would definitely use a 45 second commercial format.  Also if your demo-ing close-up magic I would show them your stage stuff via the pad. 

There are many more things I can mention such as having MapQuest up while your driving to your next gig. But that's a given. That everything is about the presentation. If you show them that you are in the forefront of technology. They will remember you trust me, it's just good business sense. Lastly just for the sheer coolness of the device, I'd much rather be caring this device on a plane then a computer but that just me. 

To bring this full circle I want to add that when I picked up the device for the 1st time I found it very intuitive and within minutes I was sending an email to my wife.

I hope you liked this post, it is a bit of a departure from my normal Blogs. But I thought what the heck… Please feel free to add a comment or if you own the Ipad let me know what you found most useful or just tell me what you use it mostly for (in the field of Magic). Cheers Chris  

the IPad

Playing Cards

Hello Folks,
Another installment of my blog... Today we are going to talk about Playing Cards. If you've been at my home you will know that I collect Playing Cards from around the world (it started as gifts people will give me and then I started buying them myself). Funny, in my Stage show I only do one card trick in my act, and in my Stand-up show I do 3 card tricks in my show, that's it. Odd for a Magician because you think that there should be more. But I feel that their are so many great Card Magicians out there and well if the Trick doesn't fuel my story that I am conveying why bother doing the card trick. So for folks that have not seen my Card Collection. Here are two links that I frequent and yes I buy their line of playing cards.
Why? I really like to look of them, to me they are... Art. Particularly the Face Cards, the Joker and obviously the Backs of the Cards.
Enjoy
Theory11

Ellusionist

Both Sites are great for magicians as well to learn magic. But I stick with just the Playing Cards.

The Above image is a very difficult Card display that not to many magicians do now a days Created by the great Card Magician Harry Lorayne. FYI Yes that is a whole deck of cards that I am holding up.