WAGIC WORDS :: GERALD KOLPAN

Here's some info on a new novel featuring magician Alexander Hermann:

In a riveting novel of love and adventure, young Julius Meyer comes to the New World to find himself acting as translator for the famed Indian chief Standing Bear

 

Young Jewish immigrant Julius comes of age surrounded by the wild world of 1867 Nebraska. He befriends the mysterious Prophet John, who saves his life when the two are captured by the Ponca Indian tribe. Living as a slave, Julius meets the noble chief Standing Bear and his young daughter, Prairie Flower, with whom he falls in love. Becoming the tribe’s interpreter—its “speaker”—his life seems safe and settled.

 

But Julius has reckoned without the arrival of his older cousin, Alexander—who, as the Great Herrmann, is the most famous young magician in America. Nor does he suspect the ultimate consequences of Alex’s affair with Lady-Jane Little Feather, a glamorous—and murderous—prostitute destined to become the most scandalous woman on two continents.

 

Filled with adventure, humor, and colorful characters, Magic Words is a riveting adventure about the nature of prejudice, the horror of genocide, and a courageous young man who straddles two worlds to fight for love and freedom.

Get More info from Amazon.com

GILDED AGE OF MAGIC ON DISPLAY

We've talked a lot about Howard Thurston here on the Magic Newsswire, and now many outside of the magic community will have an opportunity to do the same. On May 26th, the collection of Rory Felman will go on display at the Husdon River Museum. The New York Times reports:

Mr. Feldman is trying to set up a Museum of Magic in New York, to house the collection. The project feels predestined, he said; he has found references in correspondence from Thurston’s daughter, Jane, that she too had hoped to establish a Museum of Magic.

The other major lender to the Yonkers show, Mr. Hanson, started collecting in the 1970s and has hung tiers of magician posters on his Manhattan apartment walls. The museum has borrowed his rare ads with scenes of Thurston peering into skull props, Kellar seemingly decapitating himself and Chung Ling Soo flaunting his “10 assistants” (his fingers).

ADAMADA HELPS EARN STANDING OVATION ON AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT

Magic Newswire friend Adamada consulted with the Ev & Bow Dance company and the result is a standing ovation in the semi-finals of Australia's Got Talent.

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