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!

Magic Posters with a Steampunk Feel

As I get more involved in the world of Steampunk, I've found one particular thing kind of funny, or actually ironic. Many people involved in steampunk had almost an instinctive interest in this genre without ever knowing it had a name. I suppose for me it should come as no surprise. I've been surrounded by items related to the Victorian era for ages. But I still recall the first time I made what would now be considered a 'steampunk' drawing (for the record it was the late 1980s). The drawing was an idea for a cool design on a magic prop, but I had no idea about the world of steampunk at the time. So my interest in steampunk stuff began long ago. If you're wondering what these Victorian era things are that I'm surrounded by, they are magic posters.

I thought I'd share a couple magic posters with you that to me have a decidedly steampunk feel to

them. The first is of David Devant the great British Magician and one time partner of John Nevil Maskelyne. The poster was actually painted by a famous artist of the time whose name escapes me. Devant had several posters created by the same artist. This one with the goggles strikes me as the most 'steampunk' of the bunch!

David Devant was the most popular English magician of his day and frankly throughout most of the 20th Century. He was also a genius. He saw the Lumiere Brothers invention called The Cinematograph and recognized the importance and potential for popularity of this machine. Though he was unable to obtain a projector from the Lumiere Brothers, he did find someone who could build one for him and he was soon showing movies at the Egyptian Hall Theatre. There is actually film footage that exists of David Devant from that time. The footage is brief, only 32 seconds but captures a joyful Devant pretending to do magic but actually relying upon camera tricks.

The next poster belongs to The Great Herrmann, Alexander Herrmann. One of the wonderful aspects popular in the Victorian Era and thus popular with steampunkers is facial hair. This poster captures that quality quite well.

Alexander Herrmann was from a family of magicians. His father Samuel and older brother Compars were both magicians. In fact, Compars was extremely popular all over Europe and according to legend, kidnapped his younger brother Alexander to make him part of his show.

When Compars decided to leave America and return to Europe, Alexander stayed behind and eventually became the pre-eminent magician in the US.  Alexander would die on a train while on tour in 1896. His wife Adelaide took over the show and along with her nephew Leon Herrmann, began to tour again. She and Leon did not stay together long and they eventually went their separate ways. Last year, Adelaide Herrmann's memoirs were located and published and they are an exciting record of performing in the Victorian Age.

Now, some of the best posters for the Victorian flare have to come from Servais LeRoy. These are his troupe, LeRoy-Talma-Bosco, known as the Monarchs of Magic. They have it all, crazy mustaches, tuxedos, great gowns, hot air balloons and just the overall steampunk feel. Servais LeRoy was a genius when it came to magic. Many of his effects are still performed today, though I doubt many remember that he was the creator. The last years of his life were rather tragic unfortunately. You can read about it here.

Our final set of posters come from another iconic magic figure from the Golden Age of Magic. He was Harry Kellar and he assumed the role as #1 Magician in America after Herrmann died. He was actually first nationally famous magician who was American born. So popular was Harry Kellar that it is said he was the inspiration for the character of the Wizard in L.Frank Baum's novel The Wizard of Oz.

Harry Kellar became famous for his posters with pictures of the Devil or devilish imps. Though he was not the first to use this imagery. His predecessors Robert Heller and Alexander Herrmann both used devils in their advertising. In fact, Robert Heller was known to promote his appearances with the slogan, 'Go To Hell-ers'. Harry Kellar had a long prosperous career and then sold his show to up and comer Howard Thurston who continued the tradition of the big traveling illusion show for many years.

I have written about all of the above performers on my magic history blog TheMagicDetective.com so if you're interested, go over there and take a look.

The Steampunk Illusionist is Taking Shape!

Carnegie: Steampunk Illusionist

This venture into magic + Victorian Futurism has certainly been fun and challenging. But the effort is beginning to pay off. I've been covertly sneaking magic routines for the Steampunk magic show into my regular performances in an effort to get the pieces audience tested. So far, the items that I've been able to work out have gone over incredibly well.

My creative team and I have been brainstorming ideas for this venture and we've actually come up with some crazy ideas that might just turn out to be super cool. The only one I'm willing to reveal is that Carnegie the Steampunk Wizard will be making appearances on The Magic Detective Youtube Show and will be demonstrating Victorian Era magic effects.

When will the Steampunk Illusionist Show debut? It will be a couple months yet until everything is ready. Right now, we're trying to find a new flock of girls to be in the show. They have the unusual position of not only acting as magician's assistants but also minor characters in the show. I think that is one thing that will set this whole venture apart from a typical magic show.

If you like, please go visit www.steampunkillusionist.com. It's still basically a work in progress. I've not made the official announcement about the site yet. There is quite a bit more content to add. But I hope you like what you see.

My First Top Hat

Who knew purchasing a decent top hat would be so difficult. Yes, I know, they are NOT in style. Yes, I know that magicians have worked hard over the last 50 years to break away from the top hat image of a magician. I know. And yet, in the world of Steampunk and Time Travel, a top hat becomes a very important fashion item.

It kind of makes me laugh that after all this time I would be in the market for a top hat. One of my best friends in the whole world used to wear a big colorful Mad Hatter style top hat for years. It was part of his costuming that most identified him to his audiences. I'm not really looking for that kind of hat however. I do want to top hat, but not Mad Hatter style.

Unfortunately I'm having difficulty finding exactly what I'm looking for exactly. I know I've seen some pretty cheap looking hats which I won't go near. I've also seen some terribly over priced hats as well. I imagine I'll be going through several before I find the one that works perfectly. I'm looking for a hat like the one above, but in better condition. Sadly, I've found that the larger size hats come with a large price tag!

For years I avoided the Magician/TopHat connection mainly because it was dated and because it was associated with rabbits. But then the U.S. Federal Government got involved, specifically, the USDA, and they have made it extremely difficult for a magician to even use a rabbit today because of tons of RIDICULOUS REGULATIONS. I know some folks are still using rabbits, some with a liscense from the govt and some without. I don't have the time to cater to the whims of drunk with power regulators, so for me, no rabbits.

But rabbits aside, the top hat has many wonderful benefits for magic beyond our furry friends. For example, the Misers Dream was once presented with the hat. Given the large size of the hat, it makes an ideal prop to produce things from. There are hat juggling moves that can be done with the hat.  But in the end I think it best serves magic when a magician keeps the top hat in it's proper context, as a period piece. It is really not proper attire for the 21st Century. But again, framed within the right context, it can still work quite well. My friend who I mentioned above used a hat quite successfully because he was more of a parody of a magician rather than a serious magician. His hat then fit him perfectly, no pun intended.

UPDATE: I have put an order in for a Victorian Style Wool Top Hat. It will serve the purpose initially. It's all part of the 'Steampunk Wizard' character that I'm developing. My frock coat also arrived today. I'm proud of myself because I used a very steam punk sensibility in the purchase of the coat. I found a used tux in a trench coat style and had it altered to become a 19th Century Frock. So I'm moving full steam punk ahead!

My First Steampunked Prop

I guess you could say I started out easy. I took a Ring Grinder made by Wolf's Magic and repainted it and altered the front slightly to give more of a steampunk genre look. I had actually purchased a gauge to mount on the top of it but it was too heavy and bulky. So instead I hand made the gauge that is now mounted where the old black knob used to be.

I have to give the majority of the credit to the folks at Wolfs Magic though because the prop already had somewhat of a steampunk look to start with. I sure admire their workmanship because I had to take the entire thing apart to do the work I wanted to do. What a well thought out and designed prop. My contribution was altering the original paint job, so that included painted the top, sides and front metal pieces bronze, changing the front faceplate color from yellow to brown, and removing the knob on the front and putting in the gauge. I also repainted the red knob on the side brown.

I'm posting this for people to see, NOT so that they can copy what I just did. :)

By the way, if you're interested in what the effect is, in my version it is a teleportation device and any small object placed inside the box can be teleported to a different location, and for the sake of magical performance, it's an 'impossible location'. The original prop was made for borrowing rings, however I use something different in my presentation that allows for a slight twist on the end of the trick.