Carnegie Magic -Full Magic Special - At The National Theatre

 

Excited to announce my first magic special on Youtube! It's a full show that I did a number of years ago at the famed National Theatre in Washington DC. I was in the Helen Hayes Gallery as part of an ongoing program called "Monday At The National". I did a 50 minute show on stage in front of a crowd of around 100 people. I know we sold out. Whether or not that was due to me, or just because Monday At The National has a built in audience is something I can't answer. I know I had about ten really well known magicians in the audience. Everyone else were lay people.

The day of the show, The Washington Post had a piece to promote the show that included this quote, "Take Howie Mandel's Boyish Bald Charm, mix it with David Copperfield's magical charisma, and POOF! You get Carnegie: Artist of Mystery!"

One thing I will say about the Helen Hayes Gallery Stage, there is a stage and there is a platform in front of the stage. I chose to do the entire show on the platform in front of the curtain. It had better visibility and  worked fairly well overall. I think the only routine that I had a tiny bit of trouble with was the Hula Hoops because of the tiny platform. Other than that, it was all good. 

The funniest part of the show for me now is watching those older routines. Some of them have changed drastically over time, a lot are no longer done. The opening routine, The Lesson in Magic, has more comedy, and is tighter, and a bit faster in it today. It's also not used as an opening anymore. I generally open with the Hula Hoops for stage shows, why I changed for this, I don't know. The Sack Escape, today, has a new sack. I wasn't thrilled with the purple sack to be honest. It just looked odd to me. And Im the one who had it made, lol. The Steel Straitjacket which was built by Mark Cannon and the Plexiglass Escape Box which was built by Richard Sherry, made for an interesting ending. But that may have been one of the last times I used either of them. Both men were excellent builders of escape props. 

Please watch the video and enjoy. I will be posting another full length show soon. The next time will be from the Underground Magic Theatre which was a theatre in Sterling VA that I shared with two of my performing buddies. We had a 50 seat venue and did the wildest stuff there, a full illusion show 2 feet from the first row! That will be on the NEXT video, once I finish the edits.

Magicians For Ukraine Project

I'm taking part in a project called MagicforUkraine.com

"Magic For Ukraine" is a community of magical entertainers who are deeply concerned about the plight of the Ukrainian people, millions of whom have been displaced, maimed, and killed in the Russian invasion of their country.

Magicians in good standing with recognized local, state, national, or international magic organizations share their talents through their recorded performances for free use by Ukrainian families and those agencies who are supporting them.

I submitted a number of my videos from my Magic 365 series. I picked just a few that has music only so they were easy to understand. All visual magic! Here are a few below...

 

The Virtual Seance

Well, it appears that the Astonify Show WILL be back in 2020 after all. The one difference is this version will be VIRTUAL. It will still be presented LIVE and it will be INTERACTIVE. I'm currently working out the various details.  The shows will be for fairly small groups, but I haven't decided how small yet. When you purchase a ticket you will receive in the mail, a package with some props needed for the show. These are the same items you'd receive if you were part of the show in person. AND not everyone gets the same package! Some items are duplicated, but some items are unique, this allows a slightly different experience among the attendees.

I am expanding the SEANCE portion of the show this year and it will be more interactive. That means there is the potential for very spooky/creepy things to happen in your own home! We have been beta-testing much of the material and so far the responses have been beyond my expectations. I honestly never envisioned doing the show this way, but circumstances being what they are, this way is safe and frankly MORE people will be able to see the show than could in a typical season.

Dates and Ticketing information will go online in Early September. Dates for the show will run from Mid September till the end of October! If you go to Astonify.com right now and sign-up for the newsletter updates, you'll find out about the dates before everyone!!!

ASTONIFY Back At the Old Jail

I was quite proud to bring version of my Astonify Show back to The Old Jail in Warrenton, VA. The shows are presented within the cells and it is all out good fun. We only have room for a few people, tonight it was 19 people and I'm not sure they could have squeezed in one more person.

I added some new material in this show. One of my favorite new routines involves a story about John Wilkes Booth the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. I would say, as much as I like it, I feel it is more a 'work in progress'.

The clear favorite of the night was Spiritus, a routine I created and scripted and based on a wonderful Woody Aragon routine. Also new this night was The Coins in Glass routine. Now, I must admit, I think my blocking on this was such that it might not have been visible to everyone. So that will need some adjustment.  But overall the audience was very into the show. They were a lively crowd which was fun.

OH, and I was finally able to do the Rope Tie in conjunction with the Harry Cooke Story, without fear of health issues later. For those who don't know, I've been on blood thinning medication for a while, but was finally taken off of it recently. So I decided to bring my escapes BACK into the show. And the two gentlemen who tied me tonight, OMG, did they ever do a GREAT JOB. I think it was the tightest wrap and tie that anyone has ever done. Of course, I escaped in about 10 seconds without untying the knots. And that is the point of it. It felt sooooo good to do that routine and my wrists are still red from the timing, but I love it!

All in all, it was a fun crowd tonight and I believe they thoroughly enjoyed the show. Thanks again to The Fauquier History Museum for bringing me back for a second time!

ASTONIFY at The Secret Parlor Theatre Completed

I have finished my run of shows at The Secret Parlor Theatre in Chantilly. The Secret Parlor Theatre is now gone, vanished into the night. That was the plan all along. It was an experiment  and was not planned to run more than the month.  Will the SPT ever appear again? I'd say the chances are quite good, but in a different location(s).

My final performance at the theatre was great fun. I got to share more of the light seance routine, but as with other nights, I did not do the full seance. We had a small audience and I held some things back. Also, on this night, we had ZERO actual spirit interference. What does that mean? The building we were in is haunted. Every night we were there, something unusual would happen. People heard footsteps, people felt a presence, things would not work, it was crazy. But on the final night, not a peep out of our ghost. Now, that isn't to say there weren't manifestations during the seance, because there were. But as I mentioned in the show, this was an example of Spiritualism without the aid of Spirits! By the way, that line comes from a handbill belonging to Professor Harry Cooke, which I now have in my collection, and which is part of The Astonify Show. (see below the article)

The straight magic from the show included: Hofzinser's Everywhere & Nowhere, A Surprising Rope Mystery, and a Classic Ring in Nest of Boxes. There were other pieces, but those were the main ones. The seance part of my program begins with my Spirit Photo routine, which is so much fun to do. The Spirit Dial, which is shown at the top of the page is presented during the seance portion, and it concludes with the Spirit Horn. Missing from the seance was the new slate routine, and one other routine that I'm forgetting at the moment. Because this was the smaller seance, it does not include the Spirit Cabinet.

The Astonify Show is a work in progress. I wanted it to be a smaller venue show, but it seems that it will be growing in size very quickly. I plan to  add a couple true Victorian routines to the show, and then some adaptations of modern routines. Kind of like when I steampunked some props in my other show. I'll Victorianize props, lol. to make them work in this show.  Then of course, there is another option and that is recreating actual forgotten Victorian era magic. And I have two routines in mind, the bad part, no one knows how they're done today (thus the forgotten part). One routine, The Devils Cage, is a routine I've had my heart set on for a long time. I sense it's in my very near future.

I continue to write routines for the show, so expect amazing things to debut in next years version of the show!

Astonify At The Old Jail Museum in Warrenton VA

The Astonify Show was presented August 11th at the Old Jail Museum in Warrenton VA as part of their Sleepover at the Jail Event. I presented an hour long version of the show which was kind of customized to the venue. Due to the small performing area, I created a show that utilized many audience members, in fact, all but two routines were audience participation.

I began by sharing a couple 'ghost-like' stories from my travels. And then told them about the incident that already took place at the jail. My brand new iPhone X stopped working. I was in the midst of taking photos and it just locked up. I tried to reboot it, but no matter what I did, the phone would not turn off. (when I left the building after the show, the phone worked fine)

Two audience members told me they heard a voice say, "get out" during my show. All the jail cells are haunted apparently. In fact, there was a mannequin inside of a glass cabinet at the back of the room whose head had moved directions DURING my show!!!!

This version of ASTONIFY had several card routines, a wonderful rope routine that looks impossible, a very surprising effect with a borrowed ring, a routine using Spirit Photographs, the 19th  Century classic The Spirit Dial, and finally I bring out an actual Spirit Trumpet which can be examined and then we use it to contact a spirit.

As with every show I've done at a haunted location, there were issues with things. These, thankfully, were minor, but it did cause me to drop two routines from the show. As it turned out, I didn't need them, as I still went slightly over an hour according to my clock.

I will admit to being a little nervous during the Spirit Trumpet routine as I feared a voice other than Anna Eva Fay's would be speaking through the trumpet. That did not happen, but damn if the spirit didn't decipher and reveal something that no one in the room was aware of. Crazy!

The folks who attended my show, were going to partake in a paranormal tour following the show, so I can't imagine what happened during that activity! Then they all were sleeping over at the jail. I don't think I could have done it!!!!

Magician Doing Magic In Jail!

The Astonify Show will be one of the features of an upcoming Sleepover At The Old Jail, in Warrenton VA, on August 11th. This event is a fundraiser for the Jail, and my portion, The Astonify Show is only part of the overall festivities. There is also a paranormal tour, and of course the actual sleepover at the jail!

My show, ASTONIFY, is a perfect fit to get things started off. If you're at all familiar with the show, we end with a light seance. Given the fact that this jail is already known to have paranormal activity, this should be really interesting!

I am told that they expect this event to sell out, and I'm not even sure how many tickets are left. But I wanted to mention it here on my blog! Here is the information on tickets https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-night-at-the-old-jail-a-sleepover-for-adults-tickets-46850348654

I hope to see you there!!!

The Astonify Show is Moving Full Steam Ahead!

Here is another update on my new show called ASTONIFY. Today, the rack cards arrived. These are the first pieces of printed marketing to help promote the show. I was very happy with the way these turned out.

If you go over to the website Astonify.com, you'll notice a number of changes. I have resisted adding more pages to the site, but I do have a menu that takes you to the various sections on the first page. There is no video, yet. But keep watching.

New Show, Astonify!

I have been working diligently on a new show.  The show that I speak of is called The Astonify Show, or simply, ASTONIFY. It is a theatrical recreation of a Victorian Parlor Magic Show and Victorian Seance. You might think, "this is perfect for Halloween." And that would be true, but this was was designed to play ALL YEAR LONG.

Originally, this show was meant to be a small venue show, like a parlor show. But I discovered along the way, that this show could play small and it could also play LARGE! In other words, I had a theatre show on my hands, and it didn't matter the size of the audience due to the nature of the material. But for starters we are planning on a more intimate size, so around 50 or so.

The show is divided into three parts. Part 1 Conjuring. Part 2 Clairvoyance. Part 3 Spirit Phenomenon. The show will include a short intermission as well.

This is a two person show, so I'll be doing the bulk of the Conjuring, while my performing partner will be featured during much of the Clairvoyant section and she will be the 'medium' in the Spirit section when we present The Cabinet of Spirits.

When will the show debut?  Right now, my target is Spring 2018, but I don't have an exact date. I'll probably set up some trial runs of the show with test audiences. Once it's ready, watch out!!!! It's going to be a hot show, that much I am sure of!

You can find out more about the show by going to Astonify.com and please, sign-up to get on the list for ticket notification and upcoming performance info!

Loosing My Mentors

Over the weekend, I lost a dear friend and my mentor in all things escape related. My friend was Steve Baker, known professionally as Mr. Escape. He was a unique individual. He was one of only a couple of people who really kept the art of escape alive and in the eye of the public during his lifetime.

The first time encountered Mr. Escape was watching him on a TV show many years ago. I saw him do a recreation of Houdini's Water Torture Cell. I was not impressed. My thoughts at the time were, "Who does this guy think he is doing Houdini's tricks?" And then I would see him again, and again on TV over the years. I guess my attitude softened over time. Eventually, I got to meet Steve and get to know him. We hit it off right from the start and unlike many others, our friendship lasted for 17 years. Let me just add, that when I watched the footage of his Water Torture Cell years later, I was more than impressed. It was breathtaking. And a little known fact, Steve never presented the Water Torture Cell on TV the same way twice. He always added a unique moment to the escape.

In his life, he had only three students that I am aware of. The first was Tony Clark, the second was me, and the third was Andrew Basso. Steve was very guarded about his secrets and didn't share them with many folks. Even when he would have things built, he would often change the method so even the builder was unaware of how a device worked.

Our meeting came about over a very small escape he did called The Tug of War Rope Tie. I saw a video of Steve doing this thing and wondered how it worked.  The truth was there was no trick to it. No fake knots, no fake tying, all 100% legit. And I could do it. Steve was impressed, actually now that I recall, he was more than impressed. We spoke of the effect for many hours and he sent me numerous videos of his performances of the escape. I loved performing it and did so for many years. In fact, I've recently put it back in my show. See the video below for a very impromptu presentation.

Steve and I had plans to do a TV Special together. There were negotiations going on with Steve and Dick Clark productions. Everything was looking like it would happen and then Dick Clark had a stroke. All projects got shelved and so did our special. We worked out many cool original escapes to feature on the special, but with the cancellation, they were never performed. Who knows, perhaps I will dig out those notes and do one before I get to the point where even I can no longer do escapes, lol!

Steve died Saturday September 16th, 2017 at 11:11pm. His final escape was leaving this world. May You Rest In Peace Old Friend.

My other mentor, was very different from Steve. His name was Cesareo Pelaez and he was the creator and performer of a show called Le Grand David and His Own Spectacular Magic Company. Cesareo and I had an odd connection. We got along quite well, and were very similar in many ways. But unlike a mentor who might spent countless hours teaching you, Cesareo and I only had a few meetings together, a couple phone calls and numerous email exchanges. But because I understood his way of things, he would still influence me without being here. I would often ask myself, "What would Cesareo do in a case like this?" and the answer would soon come.

Cesareo was a college professor of Psychology by profession, but his heart and soul were both stuck in the world of theatre and magic. He was influenced by magical artists like FuManchu, Chang, Richiardi Sr and Jr and many others. His style of performance was very different from what is seen today. I think it could be best described as Broadway meets Vaudeville. It was grand and full of spectacle. And as a performer he was exceedingly charasmatic and charming. I learned so much from Cesareo and still do. Because I am friends with many of the cast members from Le Grand David, they often share stories of Cesareo and these stories always resonate with me.

I have written quite a lot about Cesareo over on my other blog, which can be found here: http://www.themagicdetective.com/search/label/Cesareo%20Pelaez

Cesareo passed away March 24th, 2012 (Houdini's birthday, btw). He was also 79.

RIP Cesareo You Are Missed!

Carnegie's Magic Fish Illusion

 

I love doing tricks with fish, goldfish to be exact. I have presented a LOT of different effects with goldfish. One of my favorites was filling a 10 gallon aquarium FULL of fish, magically! But today's routine is a little less spectacular as it only uses 2 fish. However, it's no less amazing! I hope you enjoy it!

Dean Carnegie Gives a TED Talk

It was such an honor to be asked to speak at the TEDx Foggybottom Conference this year. They wanted me to talk on magic history and they wanted me to present some magic. The only issue was the 8 minute time frame in which to do it all!

If you've never listened to or watched a TED Talk, you really should go over to Youtube and check
out a few of them. They are excellent and on many different topics. In the past, other magicians have talked or performed at various TED events across the globe, so I'm in good company.

My talk was about 5 minutes with the rest of the time taken up with the magic routine I selected. Because I was speaking on history, I chose to present it in my Victorian garb and that also meant the magic routine had a bit of that style with it as well.

The organizers at the TEDx Foggybottom event were fantastic during every step of the process. They helped me take my speech from an ok talk to a TED Talk. I was very happy with the final result.....HOWEVER, I really wish I had gone ahead and delivered the final paragraph of the talk that I had just edited out to make the whole thing fit the timeframe. I noticed that many of the speakers went over their allotted time. In fact, some went VERY far past the time constraints. I would have probably gone over by 2 minutes at the most. Would it have made things any better? In my mind, I think it would have made the talk a tad stronger. But alas, I was happy with what I delivered.

If you'd like to see the speech for yourself, you can view it below!

Atlas Obscura, Houdini, and Carnegie

For the second year in a row, the folks at Atlas Obscura in DC asked me to be part of their HOUDINI In DC event. This year was a little different from last year. In my performance last year (2016) I performed outside in McPhearson Park, and then gave the walking tour to the Old Keith's Vaudeville Theater on 15th and G St.

This year, we were indoors. Like last year, they also brought in my friend Ken Trombly to share some of his incredible collection of Houdini posters and photos. He then gave a 35 minute talk on the life of Houdini which was great! Then there was a short break and it was my turn.


I was going to do a recreation of more Houdini magic. But what happened was I did sort of a mix of lecture/talk and performance.What happened was this, when Ken gave his talk, there were all these spots where I just wanted to jump in and fill in some areas he missed. But truth was, Ken didn't miss anything, he was just having to fit a lot of information in a short period of time. I tried to fill in all gaps that Ken left in his talk. Make no mistake, Ken's talk was GREAT. My talk acted as an enhancement of the information he gave. For example, Ken had brought his King of Cards poster and my talk actually began with a Card Trick that I discovered from Houdini's own notes. At the time I hadn't fully researched Houdini's Card Act and I wish I had. Because, later in the year I did and I wrote about it on my Magic History blog. The article can be found here: http://www.themagicdetective.com/2017/05/an-expose-on-king-of-card-act-of-harry.html

After my first card trick I went right into some of his classic escapes and brought out several pair of cuffs to display. Then I chose one and had an audience member examine it and then put it on me. I then proceeded to escape right in front of the crowd. They really got a kick out of the escape. I forget, that people don't see that sort of thing everyday. Me, I'm used to it.

Houdini and Harry Cooke

I wanted to give people a feeling for Houdini beyond just the regular stories, so I threw in the story of Harry Cooke, and how they were associated. I always thought their connection was because they were both escape artists. But I now believe that their connection was, #1 because of Cooke's Anti-spiritualist crusade years before Houdini was born, and #2, Cooke's connection to Abe Lincoln, who was Houdini's boyhood idol.

I shared the story about Cooke being summoned to Washington to demonstrate his ability to free himself from ropes. And here, I took the opportunity to present a rope escape.  I chose to use a technique found in Houdini's book, Magical Rope Ties & Escapes. The technique allows for an almost instantaneous escape from the bonds. In truth, Cooke had been tied up with 100 ft of rope and still escapes in seconds. I had 100 ft of rope on hand, but was saving it for later but ran out of time.

The closing routine was a Spirit Slate routine with a story. A true story? Sort of. Aspects of the story are true, but I do take liberties, it is a show after-all. The story is an emotional one, and I use it to help people understand the deep connection that people have when they see mediums....and also WHY Houdini was so angered by the whole thing because he knew the mediums were fake and playing off the emotions of the grieving.

After this, I answered a host of questions from the very attentive audience. I really love speaking on magic history, so it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. Plus, I love to do routines that Houdini had done. It's all history and it's great fun.

 

Carnegie Magic Videos, Videos and MORE!

2017 has proven to by quite the year and I've done a most terrible job of keeping you up to date. Actually, that's only partially true. I've not done a good job on this blog, but if you look at Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, I'm ALL OVER THERE! And I'll soon be on other platforms as well.

I started a project earlier this year called Weekly Wizardry. It was on Facebook and the plan was to do a weekly magic video every week in 2017. It was going along splendidly when, out of the blue, I came down with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in March. At that point I fell behind and didn't resume the videos until June. In order to get caught up I was doing daily videos for a while, and I'm happy to report that I am all caught up and current.

The video above is episode 37, the latest, and in the video I demonstrate a routine that I've performed for many many years in my live shows. It's a great routine, though I must admit, if you see my LIVE show, you'll see a different presentation....same effect, but the presentation is very different.

I'll be posting quite a bit over the next few days so I hope you enjoy the content and the news and please, feel free to make a comment. AND anyone looking for LIVE magic for an event, contact me through my website at CarnegieMagic.com

Escape Act Going Into The Steampunk Illusionist Show

This past weekend, my assistant Denise and I presented a sort of recreation of Houdini's act for the ObscuraDay 2016 event called Houdini Escapes DC. We gave it a sort of modern spin, in that the escapes were done quicker than Houdini might have presented them. But we used music from the era and even one track that Houdini himself used. We had our Victorian garb on and plenty of handcuffs to delight the audiences.

The whole idea of an escape act really comes out of the Victorian era. Some of the first folk to present escapes were the fake mediums/spiritualists. Magicians then took the methods they used and adopted them to the world of magic. The first person to ever present a handcuff escape was a man named Samri Baldwin who was known as The White Mahatma. Harry Kellar the greatest magician in America at the dawn of the 20th Century, was known for his ability to be tied up, free himself and then return to the tied up state. Kellar learned this technique while being employed by the famous Davenport Brothers. Harry Houdini of course took the escape act in directions it had not known by taking on pretty much any sort of restraint available.

The Escape Act is now part of our Steampunk/Victorian show. We will also include the multi-cuff escape which uses 6,7,8, or 9 different handcuffs and a pair of thumbscrews. Escape looks impossible! This is right out of Houdini's act and it's something that is almost never seen today.

In addition, we will feature the escape from 100 feet of rope and one or two of the following: The Steel Straitjacket, The Challenge Belt, The Glass Head Box, Sack Escape, Escape from Old World Stocks, and more. 

We are searching for a 'dangerous' escape to add as well. Right now, the Glass Head Box is probably the most dangerous. This box fits over my head and can either be filled with water or left air-tight. The water fill has been problematic in the past because of the way it has to be filled.

Keep watching for more updates on the escape act!