Rhett reveals: “The image of the magician getting the “secrets” from these underworld demi-devils apparently started with Harry Kellar (on his 1894 poster)” and goes on to say “Leon Hermann (nephew of Alexander) who overlapped the career of Kellar seems to be the first who copied the whispering imps. Not only did the Great Hermann include them, he used more imps!”

The collection is quite exhaustive with posters ranging from Kellar to Derren Brown, Herrmann the Great to Banachek. He even includes scans from badges and sheets of music.

It’s a great resource for scholars of the magical arts, I just wish he would organise them a little better: they are presented as one great long list that takes some scrolling through. Despite this, head over and take a look at this interesting facet of magical history.

Glorious Deception: The Double Life Of William Robinson, Aka Chung Ling Soo, The

Current Price: £16.34 Ends: Feb 23, 2012 Bid Now

© Sanders The Great, 2008. | Permalink

Banachek, Derren Brown, Vintage Magic

In the first episode of the series, four of the contenders took to the stage to perform their acts: Ehud Segev, Jim Karol, Eran Raven and Gerry McCambridge. Along with the studio audience were three celebrities that would be used in the acts where required: Carmen Electra, Rachel Hunter and Ross Matthews.

First onto the stage was Ehud Segev who was runner up in the Israeli version of the show. Ehud claims that “his routines are unique because they have to do with spirituality and connections”. Is he claiming paranormal powers? If so the trick he chose to perform will surely “out” him. He used a variation of Banacheks Psychokinetic Touches, an effect I’ve always liked that has also appeared in Derren Brown’s shows in the past. The effect is that while Ehud claims to be touching Carmen, he is in fact touching himself, but Carmen feels the touches irrespectively. I must say that I felt that Ehud performed the trick very well, with Gellar seeming to believe the effect was paranormal. Criss brought us all back to earth mentioning that he knew the trick well due to Banachek being a consultant on Mind Freak.

Next up was Jim Karol. This was a very disappointing act, with Jim performing a stunt with hunting traps that wouldn’t even convince children’s party. It involved a lot of fooling around, shouting and grunting and finally trapping his hand in a clearly gimmicked hunting trap. The culmination of the trick being that he correctly determined that Rachel Hunter had written Jeff Goldblum on a piece of card. Terribly disjointed, and really quite pointless. The judges were remarkably restrained in their comments, but you could tell by the look on Criss’s face that he was far from impressed.

Third to take to the stage was Eran Raven who performed a pretty accomplished Russian Roulette style act using nail guns as the weapon of choice. The correct level of tension was maintained through the performance, and I think he did a great job.

Finally Gerry McCambridge began his very traditional phone book act. Now these sort of effects do seem a little old fashioned these days, particularly after following the excitement of Eran Ravens death defying stunt. That said the trick was performed effortlessly and I feel Criss was perhaps a little hard in his comments on the act.

Between the acts Uri Gellar did a viewer participation stunt that was so banal I’m not going to bother commenting further.

Judging by the first four acts, I would say Jim Carrol should be packing his top hat, as he will do well to survive into the next round. All in all I enjoyed the show and look forward to seeing the next episode next week.

African Bush Adventures John Hunter & Dan Mannix Big Game Hunting Kenya 1St D/W

Current Price: £7.99 Ends: Feb 18, 2012 Bid Now

© Sanders The Great, 2007. | Permalink

Banachek, Criss Angel, Phenomenon