OCTOBER 2013 DOC SWAN Page 36 OCTOBER 2013 - M-U-M Magazine 3 MAGIC - UNITY - MIGHT Editor Michael Close Editor Emeritus David Goodsell Associate Editor W.S. Duncan Proofreader & Copy Editor Lindsay Smith Art Director Lisa Close Publisher Society of American Magicians, 6838 N. Alpine Dr. Parker, CO 80134 Copyright © 2012 Subscription is through membership in the Society and annual dues of $65, of which $40 is for 12 issues of M-U-M. All inquiries concerning membership, change of address, and missing or replacement issues should be addressed to: Manon Rodriguez, National Administrator P.O. Box 505, Parker, CO 80134 [email protected] Skype: manonadmin Phone: 303-362-0575 Fax: 303-362-0424 Send assembly reports to: [email protected] For advertising information, reservations, and placement contact: Cinde Sanders M-U-M Advertising Manager Email: [email protected] Telephone: 214-902-9200 Editorial contributions and correspondence concerning all content and advertising should be addressed to the editor: Michael Close - Email: [email protected] Phone: 317-456-7234 Submissions for the magazine will only be accepted by email or fax. VISIT THE S.A.M. WEB SITE www.magicsam.com To access “Members Only” pages: Enter your Name and Membership number exactly as it appears on your membership card. 4 M-U-M Magazine - OCTOBER 2013 M-U-M OCTOBER 2013 MAGAZINE Volume 103 • Number 5 COVER STORY PAGE 36 42 S.A.M. NEWS 6 From the Editor’s Desk 32 8 From the President’s Desk 10 Good Cheer List 11 M-U-M Assembly News 22 Broken Wands 69 S.A.M. Spotlight 69 Our Advertisers THIS MONTH’S FEATURES 24 Convention Photos (Part Two) 55 28 I Left My Cards at Home • by Steve Marshall 30 The High Road • by Mick Ayres 50 32 Nielsen Gallery • by Tom Ewing 34 Illusions of Grandeur • by David Seebach 36 COVER STORY • by Marc DeSouza 40 Focus on Funny • by Norm Barnhart 68 42 On the Shoulders of Giants • by Scott Alexander 46 Stage 101 • by Levent 50 Ebook Nook: The Commerical Magic of J.C. Wagner 54 Building a Show • by Larry Hass 55 Tech Tricks • Bruce Kalver 56 Informed Opinion • New Product Reviews 68 Salon de Magie • by Ken Klosterman 69 Inside Straight • by Norman Beck 27 70 The Dean’s Diary • by George Schindler 70 Basil the Baffling • by Alan Wassilak M-U-M (ISSN 00475300 USPS 323580) is published monthly for $40 per year by The Society of American Magicians, 6838 N. Alpine Dr., Parker, CO 80134 . Periodical postage paid at Parker, CO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to M-U-M, c/o Manon Rodriguez, P.O. Box 505, Parker, CO 80134. OCTOBER 2013 - M-U-M Magazine 5 Penn said, “Mike, this is Tim. He’s from San Antonio.” “You flew in a game machine repairman from Texas?” “Tim’s repairing the machine as a favor. He’s the founder of NewTek, the company that came out with the Video Toaster for the Commodore Amiga.” Editor’s Desk “The guy who invented the Video Toaster is repairing your game machine?” I asked. “Who cleans your pool, Jacques Michael Close Cousteau?” It turned out that Tim Jenison and I had a mutual acquain- tance; the guy who shot and edited my Power of Palming video There was some great talent at the S.A.M. convention this back in 1994 had edited it using Video Toaster. He must have summer (including a juggler who stopped the Saturday night been a good customer, because Tim remembered him from the show dead), but the guy who completely caught me by surprise very vague description I gave of him. was Doc Swan, who performed on the Wednesday night variety Tim Jenison is a genius who has an eclectic range of interests. show. I had met Doc years ago when I performed at the Houdini One of these interests is the subject of a documentary called Lounge, but I had no idea that he was such a strong performer. Tim’s Vermeer. In it, Tim attempts to discover if Dutch painter Doc’s set featured juggling, escapes, and a hysterical stunt in Johaness Vermeer may have used optical devices to create his which he carried Celeste DeCamps on his back while walking masterpieces. Over the course of several years, Tim painstak- over broken glass. All I could think was, “This guy is great! More ingly researched Vermeer, discovered what may have been the people should know about him.” secret to Vermeer’s photorealistic style, recreated the setting of I spoke with several people after that show and all agreed Vermeer’s “The Music Lesson,” ground his own lenses, mixed his that a cover story on Doc was in order. Marc DeSouza, who has own paints, and, using only optical tools available in Vermeer’s worked with Doc on various shows, agreed to write the story. time, painted his own version of Vermeer’s painting. This was Turn to page 36 and find out how an introverted kid became the a grueling, backbreaking process, as Tim sat hunched over his most interesting guy in the room. canvas, working on tiny portions of the scene each day, including Also in this issue, you’ll find the second half of our photo the individual stitches on the carpet that is draped over a fore- coverage of the S.A.M. national convention (covering the four ground table. stage shows) on page twenty-four. The photos were taken by Dale Penn Jillette produced and narrates Tim’s Vermeer; Teller Farris. Last month, the typo gremlins crept in and Dale’s name directed it. This is an extraordinary and wonderful documentary, was misspelled. My apologies to Dale, and my thanks for all his part magic trick, part detective story. The amazing thing is that hard work. even though the audience is privy to the “magic” secret from the In his column this month, MI Dal Sanders mentions using very beginning, knowledge of this secret in no way diminishes M-U-M as a resource for assembly meetings. The archives of the magnitude of Tim’s accomplishment. It is a story of enormous M-U-M are filled with great material and articles, all which ingenuity and enormous perseverance. The movie was a huge hit could springboard discussions, presentations, demonstrations, at both the Telluride and the Toronto film festivals. When it is and further explorations. To implement this would require a bit released to general distribution (and it will be), do not miss it. of hard work and some initiative. Someone would have to be in Those of you who love jazz and who long for the type of jazz charge of assigning topics, and those who were assigned topics piano that nobody plays these days should head over to www. would have to do their homework. But I think the effort would jonesjazz.com and buy/download a copy of Mike Jones’s new trio produce some valuable and enriching assembly meetings. I hope CD Plays Well with Others. You will be happy you did. Mike you’ll give this a try. is joined by Jeff Hamilton (who played with Oscar Peterson, During the last week of August, Lisa, Ava, and I attended Monty Alexander, Diana Krall, and many others) on drums the Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp. We had visited the camp last and young virtuoso Mike Gurrola (a student of the great John year, but this year we were full participants. I very much enjoyed Clayton) on bass. The CD features great tunes, masterfully hanging with old pals Lee Asher, Aaron Fisher, Shawn Farquhar, performed – what more could you want? Buy it now. (Inciden- and Steve Kline, and I especially enjoyed the interaction with tally, Mike is the music director for the Penn & Teller show, so the campers. They had good questions and they accepted the many of you have probably heard him live. In the liner notes ideas I presented with enthusiasm. Everyone learned something, of the CD, Penn mentions that he met Jonesy when a friend including me. I can hardly wait for next year. dragged him to a fancy restaurant in Vegas to hear him play. Back when I wrote the product reviews for MAGIC magazine, That friend was me.) I started a section called “It’s Not Magic, But...” that covered in- teresting items that were not specifically magic related. In the spirit of that, I’d like to draw to your attention to a documentary film and a jazz CD. Read on. About a dozen years ago, I was over at Penn Jillette’s home (known affectionately as The Slammer). There was a bearded fellow there whom I had not seen before; this guy had opened up the back of a vintage, electronic game machine Penn owned and was working on the innards. (It was a horseshoe game in which you spun a wheel in order to toss a simulated horseshoe – lights lit up and electronic noises accompanied the “pitch.”) I thought it was pretty amazing that Penn had found someone in Vegas to repair that old machine. 6 M-U-M Magazine - OCTOBER 2013 OCTOBER 2013 - M-U-M Magazine 7 Nook” or “Tech Tricks.” It is clear to me that you can enhance your monthly meetings by using the magazine you already receive. I would love to see more assembly reports discussing how they have used M-U-M in their monthly meetings. President’s Desk SPEAKING OF ASSEMBLY REPORTS Dal Sanders I received an email from Dave Eisler recently that makes a lot of sense.