Thursday, July 15, 1999
Magic in the air at downtown's Omni
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
And this for people with quarters in their ears: Visit the Omni. There are close to 1,500 magicians over there dying to pull something out.
Occasion is the Society of American Magicians' (SAM) 71st annual convention, here through Saturday.
Except for shows 8 p.m. today through Saturday at the Aronoff's Procter & Gamble Theater, most events are private — lectures such as stage comedy and accounting for magicians, dealers hawking wares.
Hawking. Even now the Hall of Mirrors is a magical mystery tour of classic and newfangled tricks, with dealers selling everything from wands ($20 and up), to $1,300 backdrops, vanishing coins, bottles, flowers, feathers, ladders and brooms from a few bucks to $1,200 for deluxe jobs.
SOMETHING OLD: One sale item, a classic with a twist, was born here. Tom Frank, owner of Carew Tower Magic Shop, spent three weeks with manufacturers in China last year working on an improved shell game — the war horse dating to 2500 B.C., where the magician puts a pea under one shell and somehow gets it beneath another.
His $199 Phoenix Cups & Balls is a far cry from shells and peas: Hammered copper cups, knitted balls (they won't roll), polished wand. Lots of interest early Wednesday but no sales.
BY THE NUMBERS: Local magician Paul Swinford is selling a spiral-bound pamphlet called The Wondrous World of Numberplay and Worlplay ($10).
This one's all baffling number games where randomly selected numbers come to a predicted total; word games — excisions (take a word, remove a letter at a time to make a new word — Startling/ starting/ staring/ string/ sting/ sing/ sin/ in/ I) and palindromes, a phrase that reads the same both ways (Dennis and Edna sinned).
PARTY CHATTER: Lest there be any doubt about how heavy the hitters are here, consider the crowd of 30 at Ken and Judy Klosterman's Clermont County home Tuesday to tour his collection of antique magic paraphernalia and mingle over cocktails and dinner.
• There's John Gaughan of Los Angeles, considered the world's top illusion builder. “People like to keep me hidden away, you know.”
He's been doing it 35 years in films (Forrest Gump), Broadway (all illusions in Beauty and the Beast), parks (all Disney parks) and for magicians — David Copperfield, Blackstone and Siegfried and Roy are past and present clients.
• There's Michael Bailey of London, president of the Magic Circle (“the most prestigious magic group in the world,” Klosterman says) talking about relevant magic.
“It's "corporate' magic. Companies hire me to do a presentation that makes a point, launch a product, motivate the sales force. I developed the idea 28 years ago.
“Now I do it for American Express, Dupont, Shell, Esso, BMW, Mercedes, British Airways, TWA.”
But for now he's under the spell of Klosterman's collection: “Entranced. It's historical, creative, beautiful. And entertaining.”
• Thom Dunlap of Norwalk, Conn., summed it up differently: “I'm in love. Will he adopt me?”
• New Yorker Craig Dixon had the same take when he saw six Houdini autographs: “It's everything I ever wanted. Do you think if I work long enough ... ?”
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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