Interesting People Archives - Chamber Magic

Barack And Michelle in my showroom at the Waldorf Astoria

Steve Cohen — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 13:51:30 +0000

I’ve always dreamed of performing magic in the White House.

While that dream has yet to come true (and I’m willing to wait), I was giddy to find this photo capturing Barack and Michelle Obama in the same private suite where I used to perform Chamber Magic!

The photo above is from the official White House website (now archived) and the caption read:

Sept. 21, 2011 “The First Lady reacts to something the President whispered to her at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in between events related to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.” — Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Here is a photo I took in exactly the same spot, in the same room, one week later. Notice the chairs all set up for my show in the living room:

The Obamas’ whispering photo reminded me of a picture I took with Warren Buffett after a private show in Omaha, Nebraska. I’ll never reveal the secret he shared…!

My performance suite at the Waldorf Astoria New York was room 35H, in the Waldorf Towers, down the hall from the Presidential Suite. On October 4, 1965, Pope Paul VI met President Lyndon Johnson in that same room. Also pictured is First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.

Pope Paul was visiting New York to address the United Nations. It marked the first visit of the head of the Roman Catholic Church to the United States.

Here are some performance photos of me in that same room, suite 35H. Notice the same fireplace, and the same oil painting on the rear wall.

The Waldorf Astoria New York is closed but these wonderful memories remain. I was inspired to post this — albeit years later — since it corresponds with the current United Nations General Assembly being held in midtown Manhattan. When I came across the Obama photos, it reminded me of that formative stage in my life.

Looking back on my old showroom at the Waldorf, it seems so intimate and dainty. At that time, I never could have imagined that Chamber Magic would graduate to its grand showroom at the Lotte New York Palace (see below). I love my new venue even more, and am thrilled at the solid partnership with The Palace. We will be releasing 2020 tickets soon, in anticipation of the 20th Anniversary show. I look forward to meeting you at The Palace sometime in the near future!

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Think-a-Drink

Steve Cohen — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 05:01:24 +0000

Just as singers have their favorite songs, magicians have our favorite tricks.

One of my all-time favorites is Think-a-Drink. The proper title of this routine is Any Drink Called For, and has also been known as The Bar Act. I’ve been performing this routine in my shows for the past fifteen years, but it has existed in various forms for over a century. The trick is so old, it’s new again.

The father of modern conjuring, JEAN EUGENE ROBERT-HOUDIN performed its precursor, The Inexhaustible Bottle at his intimate theater shows in 19th century Paris.

In this early version of the trick, the magician poured a large volume of liquors from a single bottle – much greater than the bottle’s capacity.

I found the following historic details regarding The Inexhaustible Bottle on a lovely blog called Victorian Magic:

(quoted from Scribner’s Monthly, December 1880)

The Inexhaustible Bottle, which produces different liquors, and apparently in endless quantity, was first made popular in this country by Professor Anderson (JOHN HENRY ANDERSON, “The Great Wizard of the North”), and since his day has been exhibited by very many magicians. Of late years, it has been sold in the toy shops, and the public have learned that its effect is due in part to a well-known principle in physics, and in part to the wine glasses used, which are made so as to contain, at most, not more than a thimbleful.

The trick having become common and generally understood, conjurers began to look about for a means whereby something similar in effect might be produced, but by altogether dissimilar means. The result is a bottle-trick in which lager-beer is furnished in sufficient quantity to satisfy the thirst of a large audience. It is a very effective trick, and to it one well-known performer almost entirely owes his success.

It is only suitable for public exhibition, however, as the beer is pumped up from beneath the stage, and passes through rubber tubing, concealed in the dress of the performer, to the bottle held in the hand. The connection with the stage is made by means of a hollow boot-heel, and during the progress of the trick, the performer is unable to move.

This methodology is reminiscent of the traditional Japanese performance of mizugei (translated: “water art”), in which streams of water are sprayed into the air from specific parts of the stage, as well as from the tip of a sword, and even from an assistant’s head.

—

The British magician ROBERT HELLER was so enamored by Robert-Houdin that he changed his name from William Henry Palmer to Robert Heller, since they both begin with the initials “R.H.,” and performed many of Robert-Houdin’s routines in his act. In the following poster (circa 1860s), Heller is depicted performing The Inexhaustible Bottle in the upper right corner.

—

Here are some images of famous magicians who performed Any Drink Called For, and I’ll follow these images with more historic stories of the characters involved.

DAVID DEVANT, the great English illusionist and first president of The Magic Circle (in London) performed with a teakettle instead of a bottle. The teakettle was apparently used (in place of a bottle) at the suggestion of Devant’s wife. Here is a publicity poster (circa 1890s) advertising his performances at Maskelyne & Cooke’s Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly.

The following studio photograph depicts British magician OWEN CLARK, who performed at St. George’s Hall in London (and later toured America), and is included here with thanks to David Hibberd of the Magic Circle, London. I’m not certain which of these two similar images came first, but I suspect that it was Devant, who had a much higher profile than Clark.

I don’t know much about the following two poster images, which depict the Any Drink Called For act in a similar fashion to each other – with split streams of multi-colored liquids.

I modeled my own promotional photo on the “split stream” concept in these two posters. (Photo by Clay Patrick McBride)

—

CHARLES HOFFMAN (1895-1965), known professionally as “THINK-A-DRINK” HOFFMAN, performed Any Drink Called For in American vaudeville houses and circuit theaters as a popular variety act.

Hoffman was sometimes promoted as “The Highest Paid Bartender in the World.” His main props included a small bar and several cocktail shakers, from which he poured any drink you could imagine – up to 80 in total during a single performance. There is a nice write-up of Hoffman in the highly detailed book Vaudeville, Old & New, An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America, Vol. 1.

Since his act was based on the theme of “prohibition,” a law at that time, audiences loved the fact that they were receiving alcoholic beverages, for free no less! He poured straight or mixed drinks, such as high balls, cocktails, liquors, zombies, coffee and ice cream sodas from metal cocktail shakers which were shown to be empty and from beakers filled with water. These were drinks that were merely thought of by his audience members.

Charles “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman

Charles “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman, on You Asked For It television show

In the December 1951 issue of The Sphinx, a trade magazine for magicians, an article by Jay Palmer entitled “From Keg to Kettle” described the progression of Hoffman’s career:

“Hoffmann’s reason for adding the peculiar prefix “Think A Drink” to his name is the following. When he first introduced his bar act, he used to ask the spectators to call for any drinks they wanted. This, as always occurs in performances of similar nature, caused an uproar in the theatre, scores of thirsty individual’s shouting their “orders”. Hoffman did not like the pandemonium created, and Dr. Tarbell (HARLAN TARBELL) suggested that instead of getting drinks called for, he should ask the spectators to think of any cocktail they fancied. As the idea appealed to him, he immediately adopted it, and added the “Think A Drink” to his surname.”

Bill Palmer (no relation to the author of the Sphinx article) claims that it was BURLING HULL, not Harlan Tarbell, who suggested the name “Think-a-Drink” to Hoffman. Hull’s name will resurface later in the story, as you will see below.

According to historian Milbourne Christopher, a rival Swiss magician named DE ROZE poured martinis, manhattans, beer, milk and soda from pitchers of crystal-clear water. And in fact, several other contemporaries of Hoffman (including VAL VOLTAINE, MYSTIC CRAIG, DELL O’DELL, DANNY DEW, and the Australian LES LEVANTE) performed similar acts, some which spurred high-profile legal battles.

—

In the July 3, 1943 issue of Billboard magazine, the following article appeared:

DRINK-ACT PROGRAM GETS 4-WAY HOOK-UP

Hoffman, Volta, Maurice and Joan Brandon

NEW YORK, July 3 – The attempt of “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman to prevent alleged imitators from working has developed into a hour-cornered fight among magicians for the right to do the call-out-a-drink routine.

Latest development is the Great Volta retaining an attorney, David Godwin, to protect him against further onslaughts from Hoffman. Volta claims he lost two weeks’ work in Florida because Hoffman’s attorney had warned employers that only Hoffman had the legal right to do the drink act. (Hoffman won an injunction against Maurice Glazer in the Florida courts recently. Glazer also does a drink turn.)

Volta (BURLING VOLTA HULL) has dug up a June 1921 issue of a magicians’ magazine containing an ad of Boole Bros. Magic Shop, owned 60 percent by Volta, and which listed for sale a magic bar act. The ad describes the drink routine in detail and offers for sale the necessary equipment. Volta also claims that DeRosa revived the act in 1932 in Europe and brought it here after Prohibition.

Meanwhile, Maurice’s attorney, Simon Feinstein, says he is preparing suit against Hoffman, and Joan Brandon has entered the fight by having her attorney warn Hoffman that he will be sued if he causes Miss Brandon to lose work.

If you wish to read the legal case and its ruling, I’ve tracked it down on the web. Click here for the Dade County, Florida circuit court ruling, dated November 26, 1943.

—

Any Drink Called For has been performed more recently on television by British celebrity magician Paul Daniels, and by Las Vegas magician Lance Burton.

The trick has enjoyed a rich history, and I am doing my best to honor the past masters of magic by including it in my Chamber Magic^® shows at the Waldorf-Astoria. To date, I’ve performed this trick over one thousand times. I don’t think that I, or my audiences, will ever tire of participating in this “magical cocktail party.”

David Devant mural painting courtesy The Magic Circle, London

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Peter Sagal – “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” Visits Chamber Magic®

Steve Cohen — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:46:27 +0000

As you may know, I stay at the Waldorf Astoria from Thursday through Sunday every week. After my shows are over, I take off my tuxedo, put on my pajamas, and go to sleep. One of the benefits of performing in a hotel suite is that there is an adjoining bedroom! Aside from Mac King, I may have the best gig in magic (though my commute is shorter!).

One of my weekend rituals is to listen to the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me podcast from NPR. Peter Sagal is the genial host, and his voice has an all-access pass to my ears every Sunday morning. I follow Peter on Twitter, and like millions of his fans, feel like I “know” him through his clever barbs and on-air quips. Last week, however, I actually did get to “know” Peter when he visited Chamber Magic^® to celebrate his parents’ birthdays. He is a tremendous guy.

After the show we talked for about 20 minutes, and snapped the photo above. A couple of days later, Peter sent the following endorsement:

“What Steve Cohen does is flatly impossible. Cannot be happening, and probably didn’t, really. I just hallucinated being in a hotel suite filled with well-dressed people, watching chamber-scale miracles. Seriously: not only could he not really have done any of that, but people don’t dress up anymore. Don’t believe me? Well, go — and don’t believe him yourself.” – Peter Sagal

We are now members of a mutual fan club. His show on NPR is always razor-sharp and often leaves me grinning so much my face hurts. (Especially when Paula Poundstone is on.) It would be a great honor to be asked to appear on the “Not My Job” segment — one can only dream?!

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90th Birthday Party for HARRY LORAYNE

Steve Cohen — Wed, 11 May 2016 23:42:49 +0000

(May 1, 2016) Over the course of his decades-long career as an author and performer, Harry Lorayne has connected with millions of people. For his ninetieth birthday, he was reminded of how many lives he’s touched. Nearly one hundred people gathered in New York City to celebrate Harry’s birthday, and it was a joyous occasion.

At the party, Michael Vincent turned to Harry and said, “You were my best friend long before you knew I existed.”

This sentiment resonated with many, because we all felt close to Harry long before meeting in person, through reading his books. Harry’s writing style is so conversational it reads as if a friend is chatting with you, offering private lessons.

To my knowledge, Harry currently gives actual private lessons to only one person, his accountant Alan Frankel. Alan and I have struck up a friendship over the past few years, and together we decided to co-sponsor Harry’s ninetieth party as a way of thanking him for his friendship and inspiration.

Too often we wait too long to tell people how much they’ve meant to us.

Not this time. People traveled from England, France, Finland, China, and all over the United States to attend.

The guest list read like a Who’s Who of New York City’s magic scene, and beyond. Many told me that it was the greatest “three-hour magic convention” they’ve ever attended.

Among the notables who attended:

Adam Rubin, Allan Kronzek, Andrew Pinard, Barbara Greenfader, Belinda Sinclair, Ben Nemzer, Bill Kalush, Christian Engblom, David Kaye, David Regal, David Roth, Denny Corby, Doug Edwards, Gabe Fajuri, Gary Weissman, George Schindler, Herb Scher, Jay Sabatino, Jean-Jacques Sanvert, Jed Smith, Jeff Moche, Jeffrey Dobbins, Jerry Deutsch, Joe Monti, John Graham, Jon Racherbaumer, Joseph Gabriel, Joshua Jay, Ken Weber, Mahdi Gilbert, Mark Levy, Mark Mitton, Mark Setteducati, Michael Chaut, Michael Vincent, Nick Conticello, Noah Levine, Paul Gertner, Paul Ginsberg, Paul Gordon, Peter Kougasian, Peter Samelson, Raj Madhok, Regina Reynolds, Rene Clement, Richard Kaufman, Rick Silberman, Ricky Smith, Roger Dryer, Roger Seiler, Rudy Tinoco, Sandy Marshall, Scott Mero, Seth Kramer, Sol Stone, Stanley Hersch, Steve Cuiffo, Steven Conner, Stuart Slotnick, Tang Daly, Ted Greenberg, Thomas Churchwell, Victor Sendax, Vinny DePonto, Wesley James

• • •

When I conceived of the party six months ago, my first instinct was to hold it in my suite at the Waldorf Astoria. But Mark Levy had a better suggestion – find a Jewish deli, reminiscent of Reuben’s, and hold the party there. For twenty years, Harry spent every Saturday in Reuben’s, meeting magicians who were eager to get their ideas published in Apocalypse magazine. His birthday party needed to be held someplace with a similar vibe to Reuben’s, somewhere that Harry would feel “at home.” Mark suggested Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen. They have the same type of food as Reuben’s, a similar color scheme, and identical wise-cracking waiters. Perfect.

Harry now lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts so we drove him and his family down to Manhattan, and put him up in a midtown hotel for the weekend. He got, and deserved, the royal treatment. Ever the showman, Harry decided that he wanted to make “an entrance” so he arrived fashionably late. When he walked through the revolving door into Ben’s, the place erupted.

After cocktails and appetizers, we settled down at tables to eat lunch. Following the meal, we watched a video tribute to Harry Lorayne, projected onto a large screen. He received birthday greetings from some of the greatest magicians and entertainers in the world:

David Williamson, Juan Tamariz, Mel Brooks, David Copperfield, Alan Alda & Arlene Alda, Dick Cavett, Eugene Burger, Mac King, Penn & Teller, Johnny Thompson & Bob Massey, Derren Brown, David Blaine, David Berglas, Dynamo, Max Maven, Dani DaOrtiz, Boris Wild, Eric DeCamps, Meir Yedid, Richard Osterlind, Pop Haydn, Jeff McBride, Bill Malone, Charles Greene, Darwin Ortiz, David Ben, John Carney, Michael Ammar, Rafael Benatar, Simon Aronson, Gaetan Bloom, Sammy Smith, Stephen Minch, Allan Ackerman, Allen Okawa, Andi Gladwin, Martin Lewis, Bernard Bilis, Curtis Kam, Timothy Wenk, Michael Rubinstein, and Steve Valentine

(Click HERE to watch this incredible video)

• • •

Three live performances followed, by Michael Vincent, Jean-Jacques Sanvert, and David Regal. Each of these gentlemen flew in from great distances to attend the party (England, France, and Los Angeles, respectively). Michael Vincent performed his refined handlings of two Harry Lorayne tricks: Controlled Spelling, and Foursome.

Jean-Jacques Sanvert performed a Cannibal Cards routine that brought great laughter.

David Regal claimed that he had hired a team of private investigators to track down the original deck of cards used by Harry Lorayne to create all of his classic card tricks. That deck, he claimed, should be in the Smithsonian. The investigators “found” Harry’s deck, dog-eared and water damaged, stuck in the back pocket of his jeans. David returned the crappy deck to Harry, and presented him with a brand-new deck of Bicycle cards as an upgrade.

Regal then performed a hilarious piece of magic in which a sheet of Karl Fulves postage stamps transformed into a sheet of Harry Lorayne postage stamps.

Karl Fulves postage stamps…

…change to Harry Lorayne postage stamps

President Barack Obama sent a letter of congratulations on official White House stationery, which I read aloud to the group.

Finally we celebrated by singing “Happy Birthday” to Harry. The song was led by Paul Gordon, who aside from being a major fan of Harry’s card magic, is also a professional singer. Paul flew from England to New York City for just one night, to attend this party, before flying home. That’s dedication!

The birthday cake was decorated with Harry’s Al Hirschfeld caricature, and two candles spelling out “90.” With the help of his adorable granddaughter Vivi, Harry blew out the candles to much fanfare. The waiter handed him a knife to make the first cut. One wiseguy in the crowd yelled out, “It’s a HaLo cut!”

“A HaLo Cut”!

At one point during the party I stopped by Harry’s table to check in with him. “Are you enjoying yourself?” I asked. He replied, “With this cast of characters, how could I not enjoy myself?!”

Everyone was given a souvenir deck of Tycoon playing cards, wrapped with an off-white paper sleeve imprinted with the Hirschfeld drawing, and the words “Lorayne 90.”

Many people have told me that this was a perfect party. I’m pleased to hear that so many people had a meaningful time gathering for a common goal and purpose. I could not have possibly run the party alone. Alan Frankel brought in his team: Karen & Robert Martinez, Samuel Mitrani, Jeff Dobbins, and Lynn Frankel. I am grateful to Andrew Pinard for designing the party invitation, and Jonathan Bayme for editing the video greetings. This party was truly a labor of love.

Two days later, the New York Post ran an article about Harry’s party in the gossip column, Page Six, written by Cindy Adams:

“One hundred magicians sandwiched into Ben’s Kosher Deli for card magician Harry Lorayne’s 90th birthday. David Copperfield, Penn & Teller and assorted wizards sent video messages. Obama, who has nothing else to do, wrote a congratulations note. One kazam/shazam trick that didn’t happen was pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The deli’s kosher. They should’ve schlepped out a pastrami.”

Dai Vernon’s 90^th birthday was celebrated with great fanfare at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. Now we east coast magicians have a similar cherished memory – celebrating the 90^th birthday of another giant in the world of card magic: Harry Lorayne.

Rudy Tinoco, Paul Gordon, Jon Racherbaumer, Michael Vincent

Stan Hersch, Rudy Tinoco, Alan Frankel, Jerry Deutsch, Rene Clement, Paul Gordon, Jon Racherbaumer, Michael Vincent, Andrew Pinard, Ken Weber

Wesley James, Jon Racherbaumer

Robert Lorayne, Elizabeth Lorayne, Vivi Lorayne, Harry Lorayne

Sandy Marshall, Susan Marshall, Jon Racherbaumer

Seth Kramer, Mark Setteducati, Jon Racherbaumer

Alan Frankel, Richard Kaufman, Jean-Jacques Sanvert, Doug Edwards

Michael Vincent, David Regal, Peter Kougasian

David Roth, Harry Lorayne, Steve Cohen, Alan Frankel

Harry Lorayne, David Regal

David Regal, Harry Lorayne

Michael Vincent, Harry Lorayne

Jon Racherbaumer, Paul Gordon, Jean-Jacques Sanvert, Harry Lorayne

Steve Cuiffo, Tony Chang, Paul Gordon, John Graham, Harry Lorayne, Doug Edwards

Harry Lorayne, Ted Greenberg

Bill Kalush, Mark Setteducati

Christian Engblom, Sol Stone, Harry Lorayne, Victor Sendax

Han Feng, Steve Cohen, Harry Lorayne, Rudy Tinoco, Ken Weber, Sandy Marshall, David Kaye

Joseph Gabriel, Harry Lorayne

Sol Stone, Michael Vincent

Michael Vincent, Joshua Jay, Vinny DePonto, Steve Cohen

Stu Slotnick & wife, Harry Lorayne

Roger Seiler, David Kaye, Harry Lorayne

Tang Daly, Mahdi Gilbert, Christian Engblom

Sign-in board

Adam Rubin, Ricky Smith, Steve Cohen, Bill Kalush, Christian Engblom

Harry Lorayne “holding court”

George Schindler, Scott Mero, Mark Setteducati, Gabe Fajuri, Joshua Jay, Doug Edwards, Rene Clement

Bill Kalush, Michael Vincent

Richard Kaufman, Harry Lorayne

Lynn Frankel, Alan Frankel, Robert Martinez, Jeff Dobbins, Karen Martinez

Bill Kalush, Harry Lorayne, Han Feng

Lynn Frankel, Alan Frankel, Sam Mitrani, Karen Martinez, Harry Lorayne

Michael Chaut, Jeff Moche, Harry Lorayne, Rene Clement

Crime scene: Jean-Jacques Sanvert, David Regal, Paul Gordon, Peter Kougasian

Wesley James, Rick Silberman, Stan Hersch, Nick Conticello

Co-hosts: Alan Frankel, Steve Cohen

Adam Rubin, Joshua Jay, Steve Cuiffo, Tony Chang

Mark Mitton, Harry Lorayne

Harry Lorayne, Belinda Sinclair

David Kaye, Andrew Pinard, Richard Kaufman

Christian Engblom fooling the pants off Paul Ginsberg, Jerry Deutsch, Sol Stone, Rudy Tinoco, Echo, David Roth, Mahdi Gilbert

Joe Monti, Steve Cohen, George Schindler

Nina Schindler, Joe Monti, George Schindler

Carrington Greenfader, Barbara Greenfader (daughter of Lenny Greenfader), Harry Lorayne

Harry Lorayne, Vivi, Robert Lorayne

David Regal, Peter Kougasian, Jean-Jacques Sanvert, Richard Kaufman

Steve Cohen, Harry Lorayne, Vivi, Robert Lorayne

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90th Birthday Video for HARRY LORAYNE

Steve Cohen — Sun, 01 May 2016 11:38:41 +0000

On the occasion of Harry Lorayne’s 90th birthday, magicians and entertainers from around the world sent video greetings to celebrate his extraordinary life. I’ve compiled them into one film that is breathtaking in scope. When viewed together, these “Happy Birthday” videos demonstrate the impact that Harry Lorayne has had on the most influential magicians alive.

Appearances by: Steve Cohen, David Williamson, Juan Tamariz, Mel Brooks, David Copperfield, Alan Alda & Arlene Alda, Dick Cavett, Eugene Burger, Mac King, Penn & Teller, Johnny Thompson & Fielding West, Derren Brown, David Blaine, David Berglas, Dynamo, Max Maven, Dani DaOrtiz, Boris Wild, Eric DeCamps, Meir Yedid, Richard Osterlind, Pop Haydn, Jeff McBride, Bill Malone, Charles Greene, Darwin Ortiz, David Ben, John Carney, Michael Ammar, Rafael Benatar, Simon Aronson, Sammy Smith, Stephen Minch, Allan Ackerman, Allen Okawa, Andi Gladwin, Martin Lewis, Bernard Bilis, Curtis Kam, Timothy Wenk, Michael Rubinstein, Steve Valentine.

This film was shown to Harry Lorayne at his 90th birthday party on May 1, 2016 in New York City. Nearly 100 guests flew in from around the world to celebrate the life of this legendary man.

Be sure to stick around to the very end – there is a great surprise ending!

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MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Mark Sicher

Steve Cohen — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 05:01:08 +0000

Welcome to MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY. In this series, I introduce you to my magic mentors – people who have inspired me to become a better magician. Each Monday you’ll meet someone who has offered advice, or acted by example, to help steer my career.

Some of these people are alive, others no longer with us. Some are famous, others not so much. The beauty of mentorship is that you don’t necessarily have to meet your mentor face-to-face, nor even live during the same time in history. Many of the people who motivated me were alive a century before I was born! By reading classic books, old newspapers, and magazine articles, I’ve tracked down stories about their lives and work that continue to inspire me to become a better entertainer.

My “big three” mentors are Max Malini, Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, and Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Each of these giants has been featured in previous weeks. You’ll also read about more contemporary figures like Harry Lorayne and Albert Goshman, non-magicians Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis, Jr. and even fictional characters like Willy Wonka.

How do mentors inspire? They set examples, helping us imagine how we too might solve a particular problem. By seeing the world through a mentor’s lens, we can learn more about them, and about ourselves, at the same time.

This week we’ll focus on one of my close friends and mentors, Mark Sicher, a brilliant young magician who tragically passed away at the age of 23 after battling cancer. In my eyes he was one of the greats, and he left us far too soon.

MARK SICHER

I met Mark Sicher at Tannen’s Magic Camp in the summer of 1985. I was 14, he was 15, and we were serious about our magic. Throughout high school, we phoned each other three to four times a week to exchange ideas, challenge each other, and develop our acts.

Steve Cohen (14), Harry Lorayne, Mark Sicher (15) at Tannen’s Magic Camp

Long before the age of Facetime and Skype, it was difficult to share the intricacies of sleight of hand over the telephone, but we prevailed. The minutiae had to be described rather than demonstrated, and we became pretty good at breaking down steps to their smallest components in order to teach each other: “As your right hand reaches across to pick up the glass, relax your left hand and ditch the coin. But keep your left fingers curled with your middle knuckle raised slightly, to give the impression that the hand is still holding a coin!”

Since Mark and I lived 45 miles apart, we arranged meetings every couple of months to share our magic in person. I hopped on a Metro North train in Chappaqua, NY and met Mark at Grand Central Station in Manhattan. From there we strolled to Tannen’s Magic shop, and then circled over to Reuben’s, the kosher deli where all the “heavies” in magic met every Saturday.

Mark Sicher learning coin magic from Sol Stone at Reuben’s

Mark knew the regular members at Reuben’s better than I because, as a Manhattanite, he attended their weekly gatherings. He was on a first-name basis with the legends of the New York magic scene, people I had only read about in magazines: Harry Lorayne, Ken Krenzel, Gene Maze, Frank Garcia, Sol Stone, among others.

In Mark’s early days attending these sessions, Harry Lorayne recalls that Mark acted like a puppy dog, following him, learning from him, and emulating him. Eventually, after observing and learning from the sidelines, Mark began to create his own magic, and was eager to show it to Harry for possible publication in his magazine about magic, Apocalypse. Mark’s creative output was so impressive that Harry eventually published 22 of Mark’s tricks in the magazine, including a one-man issue in 1990.

As Mark grew as a performer, he developed a comical character for his competition act. The character was named Dr. Mark Nathans, and he performed – not “mental” magic – but dental magic. Donning a white doctor’s lab coat, he performed tricks with items found in a dentist’s office: toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, and rubber dental dams. Although the theme was quite contrived, Mark knew his act would help him stand out from other competitors who entered magic contests.

He was right.

Mark places a dental bib on his “patient”

By combining original methods with a unique performing character, Mark won numerous high-profile competitions including the International Brotherhood of Magicians Close Up contest (1^st place, St. Louis, 1990) and Ron MacMillan’s International Close Up Magic contest (1^st place, London, 1990).

Due to our close collaboration on his act, I felt the joy of his victories when he returned home with trophies. Although Mark didn’t place in the 1991 FISM competition in Lausanne, Switzerland, we had a great time meeting our heroes at that convention. Regardless of the competition results, his strong performance drew the attention of European bookers who hired him to perform at conventions in England, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. While I lived in Japan, I arranged a lecture tour for Mark to perform and teach in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya.

All the while, Mark was studying as an undergrad student at Connecticut College. Throughout his college years he continued to grow as a magician, organizing frequent on-campus shows that allowed him to perform regularly in small auditoriums. As these showcases grew in popularity, he tapped some of his friends to join him. These “friends” happened to be the finest comedy magicians in the world: Juan Tamariz, Mac King, David Williamson, and Tom Mullica. He flew them in to Connecticut College, put them up in a dorm room, fed them, and hung out for a day or two. Onstage Mark served as their opening act, and the visiting performer headlined. In addition to presenting world-class talent to his fellow students, Mark received a real education by sharing the bill with these exceptional entertainers.

David Williamson and Mark Sicher at Connecticut College

Mark Sicher and Juan Tamariz at Connecticut College

After graduating college in 1992 with a degree in Philosophy, Mark jumped feet-first into the world of professional show business. He was booked by the magician and agent, Bill Herz at corporate events and private functions, and made enough money to support his bachelor lifestyle – shooting billiards during the day, sharing a walk-up apartment in Chelsea with three roommates, and eating Thai food takeout nightly. I was still buttoning up my senior year in college at Cornell, and Mark’s freestyle career was both alluring and terrifying to me. He was making good money, following nobody’s rules but his own, and building up a reputation as one of the best young magicians in New York. Would I follow in his footsteps after I graduated from college?

In January 1993, Mark and his family received shocking news. Mark had developed a form of pediatric bone marrow cancer (osteogenic sarcoma) in his left arm.

Although he was 22 years old, Mark was admitted to the pediatric branch of the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Surrounded by small kids who were suffering from cancer, he did his best to brighten up the cancer ward by cracking jokes and performing zany tricks (for example, cutting and restoring his own intravenous drip tube!). By keeping the staff and other patients entertained, I believe that Mark was able to help manage his own pain over the coming year.

Struck by the courage of the children who were fellow patients, Mark decided to produce a benefit show that would raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Childhood Cancer Program. The event was titled: “Share the Magic: Miracles for a New Generation.” Honorary chairmen for the event were Harry Anderson, Alan “Ace” Greenberg, and Dustin Hoffman. Mark’s close friend Hiawatha Johnson Jr. was chosen to produce the show.

Mark organized the following stellar line-up by making calls from his hospital bed: Stan Allen, Mike Caveney, John Carney, Eric Dockery, Mike Douglas, Charles Green III, Bill Herz, Seth Kramer, Mac King, Norm Nielsen, Ryan Oakes, Ashley Springer, and David Williamson. With a cast that reads like a who’s who of magic, all were certain that this was to be an extraordinary event. Mark even planned to perform something on stage himself.

Sadly, however, sometimes even the best laid plans go awry, and that was the case here.

Continuous experimental treatments reduced the cancer’s growth, but when Mark’s frail bone broke, the cancer spread quickly to the rest of his body. He died on April 29^th, just one week before the scheduled show date on May 6^th.

The show went on, as scheduled, not as a somber memorial but a celebration of the extraordinary life of Mark Sicher, a young man who had brought joy and astonishment to people around the world. The event raised over $100,000 for the American Cancer Society, and Mark’s family helped produce two more Share the Magic events in later years to commemorate Mark’s love for life and his spirit of giving.

A memory from actor Dustin Hoffman…

“What I remember most vividly about my friend Mark Sicher was the intensity of his stare. He would not merely look at things, but seemingly looked around things, into things, so that his stare encompassed, embraced whatever he was looking at. Mark was an astonishing young man. I am forever grateful for having spent so many wonderful hours with him.” – Dustin Hoffman, 1/31/1996

What lessons have I learned from Mark Sicher?

**IT’S NOT WHAT YOU DO, OR HOW YOU DO IT. IT’S WHO DOES IT. IF THE WHO IS RIGHT, THE WHAT AND HOW MUST BE RIGHT.**

This lesson was handwritten on the front cover of Mark’s notebook.

As a philosophy student, Mark thought deeply about the relationship between a performer and his audience. After turning pro and working in the real world for non-ideal and occasionally unruly audiences, he changed his approach. In 1991 he sent me a letter that explained:

“I used to go into a show with the attitude that I have to win my audiences over. Now I go in thinking that I already have them… that they’re already with me. I don’t have to win them over. But if I’m not careful, I could lose them.”

He created a positive environment by shifting his mindset. Instead of overcoming the hurdle: “Will they like me?” he assumed: “They already love me. And since they love me, they will love what I have to share with them.”

BE BOLD

In his teenage years Mark developed excellent sleight of hand skills. He had learned coin technique from Sol Stone, card moves from Ken Krenzel, and misdirection from legendary magician Slydini. (Mark was Slydini’s last student, having taken lessons at his Hell’s Kitchen studio for two years.)

However, despite Mark’s ability to flawlessly execute challenging technique, he would often take a bolder approach. If he needed to vanish an object, he would simply lower his hand to the edge of a table, and drop the object to the floor! Of course he had preset a pillow or rolled-up towel in exactly the right location to absorb the sound of the falling object.

He took bold risks and when they paid off, they were sensational. For instance, Mark would secretly toss a coin into a spectator’s shirt pocket from a distance. He distracted them with a funny line, and when their guard dropped, he shot. I saw Mark do this countless times, noiselessly “swishing” a coin into someone’s pocket. Later he would vanish a duplicate coin (maybe dropping it to the floor as described above), and point to the spectator’s pocket for them to discover.

PEOPLE BOTH LOVE TO LAUGH AND FEEL AWE

I remember spending a summer with Mark at a private sleepaway camp in Avon, Connecticut. We were college students, and had been hired to teach magic classes to non-magicians for 6 weeks. One night in our cabin, Mark chastised me for being too in love with magic! I was startled and asked him to explain. He told me that he had been watching me perform for the campers and counselors. According to him, I had been focusing too much on the magic effect, but not enough on the audience’s experience. People walked away from my performances fooled, but not entertained.

Mark taught me by example. He rounded up an audience and performed one of my tricks, but in his own style. The reaction that MY OWN TRICK received was much stronger than I had ever experienced. He had infused the trick with funny asides, sight gags, and byplay with the audience to cover all of the necessary procedure. When it was time to deliver the magical effect, he switched off the humor and focused entirely on the trick’s climax. The reaction was miles beyond what I had ever experienced.

The magician’s goal, he explained, is to mystify, but the journey itself must also be interesting for the audience. Mark had amassed a supply of one-liners, sight gags, and physical comedy that had his audiences rolling in laughter. Right up to the moment of magic. One lesson I learned that summer is to never overshadow the magical effect with a gag. No matter how funny the joke or how hysterical the crowd has become, when it is time to deliver the magic – switch off the humor.

People love to laugh, and they also love to feel awe. Give them both.

PERFORM “LIVE”

That summer Mark also critiqued the way I delivered my patter. He said it sounded memorized and my jokes felt forced.

When Mark performed, he performed “live.” He was immersed in the moment, and riffed with his audience in a seemingly off-the-cuff manner. He treated the audience as real people, and aimed to share a fun experience with them.

This was a revelation to me. When I practiced magic, I recited my lines to an imaginary audience, and assumed that they would respond in a uniform way each time. Mark taught me otherwise. He would never perform his magic exactly the same way twice. Yes, he would use the same canned line that he’d said 100 times before, but it was always a little different because the audience was different. He listened to his audience and related to them like real, living people. His performances felt fresh because they were fresh. He performed “live.”

By listening to the audience, he let them guide him toward what works. Each performance provided him with more market research to learn what the audience enjoys. Over time, he included what had worked historically to create a tight and thoroughly entertaining act.

MARK SICHER’S DENTAL ACT

MARK SICHER’S FINAL PERFORMANCE

This performance was entirely improvised by Mark at the 1993 Tannen’s Magic Camp. He stopped into a convenience store an hour before showtime, bought a few random props, and put on a masterful performance.

Conclusion:

I feel fortunate to have had Mark Sicher in my life. He helped me break out from my own limitations as a performer, and appreciate the “flow” of a live performance. During the seven years that we knew each other, Mark became my best friend. Little did I know, but many others also considered him their best friend. He was a special young man who left us far too soon. As Harry Lorayne once wrote: “He was loved. He was a comet. And Mark, we hardly knew ya!”

Special thanks:

Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer assisted me in clarifying Mark’s lessons for this article. Brian is a mutual friend who performed a two-person act with Mark at children’s birthday parties in Manhattan throughout the 1980s. Their joint business card read: “Nobody Knows Kids Like Kids,” an apropos slogan as they entertained young children while still in middle school themselves. Brian has taken the showmanship and performance skills he learned by being in the trenches with Mark, and now applies them to the religious and spiritual seminars he gives today.

The post MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Mark Sicher appeared first on Chamber Magic.

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Albert Goshman

Steve Cohen — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 05:01:26 +0000

Illustration by Juan Luis Rubiales

Welcome to MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY. In this weekly series, I introduce you to my magic mentors – people who have inspired me to become a better magician. Each Monday you’ll meet someone who has offered advice, or acted by example, to help steer my career.

My “big three” mentors are Max Malini, Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, and Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Each of these giants has been featured in previous weeks. You’ll also read about more contemporary figures like Harry Lorayne, non-magicians Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis, Jr. and even fictional characters like Willy Wonka.

This week we’ll discuss lessons I learned from a man known for his avuncular charm:

ALBERT GOSHMAN

Before the internet made it easy to watch videos of any performer imaginable, the only way to find a certain act was to go see it in person. I had heard of Albert Goshman’s close-up magic act for years before finally watching him live, at Tannen’s Jubilee in 1986. At this point in his life he was severely overweight, had dark rings under his eyes, and a scraggly white moustache. He wore a silly-looking ruffled tuxedo shirt and moved slower than I had imagined, but his health was poor and sadly, he would only live five more years.

Regardless of his appearance, Goshman came alive with a fresh twinkle in his eye as he recited his opening lines: “My name is Albert. What’s yours? Betsy, I’m going to magish for you.”

Tannen’s Jubilee, 1986 (photo by Steve Cohen)

Goshman performed his entire 21-minute act that day: the Salt & Pepper Shaker, Copper/Silver, Sponge Balls, Chink-a-Chink with bottle caps, Winged Silver, Nudist Deck, and the Rising Cards. It was poetry in motion. Over the course of his career, he claimed to have performed this act more than 60,000 times, and it showed. His timing was impeccable, his jokes were adorable (“Do you hear the money, honey?” as he jingled a coin purse), and his magic was suitably baffling. It was everything I could have hoped for. Coins vanished from his closed hand, and reappeared beneath a pepper shaker. Nobody saw him touch it – even the lady sitting right next to him! But damned if the coin didn’t keep appearing where it shouldn’t, over and over, and over again.

Magie Montreal convention (photo courtesy Phil Matlin)

Lou Derman, a comedy writer who often took harsh shots at Goshman in the pages of Genii magazine, once wrote the following genuine praise: “We are indeed fortunate to have lived in an era that spawned three geniuses: Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer and ALBERT GOSHMAN. It should make us all humble.”

Goshman was previously a professional baker who ate too many cream puffs on the side. He was a “big, soft butter ball of a man” according to Frances Ireland Marshall, who had to shut down the family bakery in Brooklyn due to a large bakery store chain opening in the area. He decided to convert magic from a hobby to his career, and relocated with his wife and family to Los Angeles. Goshman became one of the original resident magicians in the newly-opened Magic Castle.

Magie Montreal convention (photo courtesy Phil Matlin)

He performed professionally at trade shows, and was the featured entertainment at Samuel Goldwyn’s 84th birthday party in Los Angeles. “The World’s Fair” magazine, England’s equivalent to Variety wrote: “Al Goshman is phenomenal; no wonder his reputation has rocketed in recent years. We knew he was going to be good, but never imagined any human being could be this good.”

Here is a sensational video that I saw on television as a young boy – Albert Goshman entertaining the Harlem Globetrotters at the Magic Castle. You can see the light touch he had for all of his props, as well as enjoy his playful, nebbishy style of interacting with the athletes. He reduces them all to giggling little boys.

In this brief clip, you don’t see much of the multiple appearance of coins under the salt and pepper shakers. But this was Goshman’s schtick – the coins kept on appearing under the shakers, and you never saw him load them under. It helped create a theme to the show – a running gag that provided punctuation at regular intervals. Each time a coin appeared under an empty shaker, you became more and more exasperated.

Other items also appeared under the shakers – sponge balls, and jumbo coins. The consistent return to the two familiar shakers helped make the show feel like a solid, cohesive performance, not merely a collection of unrelated tricks.

(Photo courtesy Dominique Duvivier)

What lessons have I learned from Albert Goshman?

THE CLASSICS NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE

Goshman did not perform any revolutionary new tricks. His repertoire consisted of tried-and-true classics, including several dealer items available in any magic shop in the world. Using tools that were available to all magicians, he created a unique act by infusing his unique personality into the material.

Goshman on The Tonight Show performing for Johnny Carson & Ed McMahon 8/20/69

Magicians often enter a fruitless hunt for “new tricks” because they need to satisfy a growing tolerance toward the power of the classics. After having studied magic for years, magicians begin to crave novelty: “What haven’t I seen before?” “That fooled me!” Yet professional magicians like Albert Goshman believe that magic is not intended for the magician’s gratification, it is meant to entertain the audience.

Just as all chefs have similar ingredients available in their kitchens, magicians all have the classics available when creating our acts. There is nothing wrong with presenting the classics. Nay, these tricks have become classics for a reason. Why fight with what works?

Albert Goshman took classic effects and added his own immense skill of misdirection and sleight of hand, and raised the tricks to a new level. By adding the latest methodology and advancements in magic to classic plots, he proved that it is possible to construct a routine that satisfies the magician as an artist, and entertains widespread audiences.

DO FIVE THINGS BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE

When Albert Goshman met Dai Vernon during his formative years in New York, the Professor advised him: “Albert, if you learn to do ANY of the known tricks better than anyone else, all magicians will remark if they see the trick performed by someone else, ‘You should see Goshman do that.’”

Goshman took the Professor’s advice to heart, and practiced hundreds of hours to perfect a trick named Spellbound. In this classic trick created by Vernon, a copper coin turns silver at the magician’s fingertips. Goshman perfected the routine and made it a thing of beauty. A New York Times reporter attended the Abbott’s magic convention in Colon, Michigan, and wrote an editorial about his experience. Of all the magical wonders on display that weekend, the reporter singled out one as the highlight: a baker who did magic, changing a copper coin into silver.

When people discuss Goshman today, decades after his death, the first trick mentioned is invariably “the Salt and Pepper Shakers.” Goshman studied the classic T. Nelson Downs routine – FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE OF SILVER, first published in The Art of Magic and further detailed by Lewis Ganson in The Dai Vernon Book of Magic. Goshman experimented every night during his six year tenure as the Magic Castle’s house magician, discovering how to make this trick his own. He worked single-mindedly on this theatrical plot until it because synonymous with his name. Today, nobody can perform Goshman’s Salt and Pepper Shakers without acknowledging the originator. He created a “category of one.”

Throughout his professional career, Goshman only performed a limited number of tricks. He did not aim to build an unlimited repertoire. I often see young magicians trying to learn every sleight under the sun, but when it comes time to actually performing a single trick, they freeze up. Their enthusiasm for knowledge overshadows their ability to perform. It is better to master five tricks than to shakily know one hundred.

In my own show, I’ve taken Goshman’s approach and worked on a handful of tricks that I continue to refine over the years. The only way to improve is to keep performing – constantly – and pay attention to your audiences’ reactions. Even after fifteen years of performing certain tricks, I still learn ways to refine the language or handling to improve the overall routine.

Performing at the Columbus Magi-Fest, February 1982 (photo courtesy Gary Plants)

YOU ARE THE MAGIC

Many magicians agree that Goshman had one of the best close-up magic acts of all time, hands down. What made him unique?

If, as we’ve discussed, he was performing traditional magic (coins across, sponge balls, a Benson Bowl routine), what was it that made him stand out? Yes, he had refined his manipulative skill and misdirection timing to immense heights, but it was more than that.

Caricature by Ted Salter

In his lectures to magicians, Goshman taught: “YOU ARE THE MAGIC.” The size or number of props does not define the size of your show. (His entire act fit inside of a briefcase, incidentally.) Rather, audiences are compelled to like a performer when they connect with him on a human level.

Goshman had overcome many personal obstacles in his life, and earned everything he had the hard way. Magic kept his mind off his misery, and he eventually flourished at it. However, he learned to identify with his audience by looking at them, and wondering what kind of trouble each of them was having. “They became individuals to me instead of an audience,” he said.

This is a revelatory statement that explains why audiences liked him back. According to Goshman, “YOU ARE THE MAGIC. The props only come along for the ride. If you are a strong enough performer it doesn’t matter what you do. You’re selling ‘you.’ That was the greatest discovery I ever made.”

Conclusion:

Goshman’s name continues to live on in the magic vernacular through the company he founded, “Magic By Gosh,” the world’s leading manufacturer of sponge balls. All of the product packaging contains Albert’s caricature, as if he personally is giving his blessing for you to entertain with his eponymous props. While Albert is now gone, our only memory for this larger-than-life artist remains through a sampling of YouTube videos and his beloved trademark lines:

“Like a mirage that shimmers on the desert’s dust…”

“Say go…. Gone.”

“You expected rubies?”

Next week: MARK SICHER

For further study, I recommend the following books and magazines:

The World’s Greatest Magic, by Hyla M. Clark, 1976, pp. 32-35

Magic By Gosh: The Life and Times of Albert Goshman, by Patrick Page and Albert Goshman, 1985

“King of the Salt and Pepper Shakers,” by John Booth, Linking Ring magazine, September 1990, pp. 69-71

The Albert Goshman Lecture: Live at the Kennedy, DVD, International Magic, 1985

The post MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Albert Goshman appeared first on Chamber Magic.

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Harry Lorayne

Steve Cohen — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 05:01:49 +0000

My “big three” mentors are Max Malini, Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, and Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Each of these giants has been featured in previous weeks. You’ll also read about more contemporary figures like Albert Goshman, non-magicians Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis, Jr. and even fictional characters like Willy Wonka.

Imagine this:

I once read an article about an imaginary magician’s contest. Exactly one hundred of the world’s most talented close-up magicians would be invited to compete. Each magician must stand at his own table, and a thousand laymen would freely wander the hall, gravitating toward the most gifted performer. The table with the biggest crowds at the end of the night, wins.

By the end of the night, a thousand laymen, plus the other 99 magicians, would all be standing at one table. The magician they’d be watching:

HARRY LORAYNE

Harry Lorayne performing at Tannen’s Jubilee, Brown’s Hotel, 1986 (Steve Cohen collection)

Harry is and always has been a dynamo – give him a deck of cards and an audience, and it’s off to the races. When he was younger Harry presented lectures to magicians that were legendary for lasting 6, 7, even 8 hours. His audiences got wrapped up in his crisp and punchy voice, his sly humor, and his rat-a-tat machine gun delivery.

If you’ve never heard Harry speak, his voice sounds like a mix between Regis Philbin and physicist Richard Feynman. It has a gravelly, old-New York quality that contrasts handsomely with his overly crisp enunciation. He speaks with a quick authoritative cadence that jumps out and grabs you by the collar. Or as he would say, “by the coll-ah.” You can take the kid out of the Lower East Side, but you can’t take the Lower East Side out of Harry.

Dick Cavett, Steve Cohen (age 12), Harry Lorayne, too early in the morning at Tannen’s Jubilee 1983

I first met him when I was 12 – thirty-two years ago – at the Tannen’s Magic Jubilee in Loch Sheldrake, NY. Harry was a guest performer at the close-up show on Saturday morning, and I thought he was “putting us on” when he announced that he could memorize the order of a shuffled deck of cards. At the time I didn’t know about his reputation as the world’s foremost memory expert. He had been on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson over 20 times, and written many instructional books on memory techniques. In the show I watched, he not only memorized the deck but knew which cards had been secretly moved to different spots while his back was turned. It was a pretty incredible feat that made an indelible impression.

Later that night, I spoke to Harry briefly and he mentioned that all of the “good guys” who did magic in New York City met every Saturday afternoon. “You oughtta come the next time you’re in town,” he said.

My parents were supportive of my passion for magic, and gave me permission to take the Metro North train into Manhattan once a month. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s I regularly met up with my best friend Mark Sicher, a city kid who I met at Tannen’s Magic Camp. (Mark also became a mentor to me, and will be the subject of a future article.) We’d meet at Tannen’s Magic Shop, and then walked up Madison to 38^th Street to the weekly magician hang-out: Reuben’s Delicatessen.

Move past the counter, beyond the booths and through a thick waft of pastrami steam and pickle juice, and you’d enter a large back room. Its inhabitants were a hodgepodge of middle-aged men dressed in unfashionable suit jackets. At their vortex was Harry Lorayne. You could hear his distinct voice the moment you entered the back room, and he was surrounded by other magicians who hung on his every word. They called this “holding court,” and Harry was clearly the king.

Mark Sicher and I watched Harry hold court at Reuben’s week after week, and eventually got up enough courage to show him some of our own original tricks. Harry encouraged young magicians to explain their tricks so that he could publish them in his monthly magazine, Apocalypse. It was a way for no-name magicians like us to become “known” in the community. We were fortunate to brainstorm our ideas with Harry, and other giants in the New York magic scene like Ken Krenzel, Sol Stone, and Bob Elliott.

In addition to being an Apocalypse subscriber, I bought every magic book that Harry published, and devoured them throughout my formative teenage years. I consider myself a student of Harry’s both through his writings, and through the hours of personal time we have spent together. He generously invited me to his home at 62 Jane Street in the West Village many times. And after he moved out of Manhattan we continued to correspond and meet periodically at his new home and other mutually-convenient spots.

I’ll always remember an afternoon that we spent together in his house, swapping card tricks. After a few hours, Harry’s wife Renee popped her head into the office to check in. Harry looked up and said, “Hey Renee, he’s almost as good as me!”

Harry Lorayne performing “Powerful Powers,” July 2015

What lessons have I learned from Harry Lorayne?

MISTAKES DON’T EXIST

One of Harry’s doctrines is: “Never admit that something has gone wrong!” When you make a mistake, keep moving forward as if the outcome was what you had originally intended. Although you may be panicking internally, most audiences won’t realize that you’ve flubbed. Always end the trick in some way, and move on to the next.

Conversely, he believed a positive “accident” might occur — something great could happen that was entirely unexpected. His rather irreverent attitude is: always take credit for lucky hits! Why not? The audience never knew what the outcome was supposed to be, so why not take credit for possessing incredible skill?

My own interpretation of this doctrine is that you must acknowledge everything the audience sees and experiences during a performance. If something unexpected occurs, don’t ignore or pretend it didn’t happen. Simply acknowledge the disturbance, and try to weave it back into your original presentation in a clever or pleasing way.

Harry Lorayne performing at Tannen’s Jubilee, Brown’s Hotel, 1986 (Steve Cohen collection)

THINK THREE STEPS AHEAD

Harry doesn’t perform discreetly. While performing one card trick, he secretly sets up for another trick he plans to perform ten minutes later. Of course the audience is never aware of his forward planning, nor should they be. This is behind-the-curtain stuff, the structural framework that makes for a seamless audience experience. One routine glides breezily into the next, and into the next one after that. The audience goes along for the ride since there are no sawhorses for them to climb over, or duck under.

This “thinking ahead” requires a mental process known as Situational Awareness – the awareness of yourself in both 3-dimensional space and time. You must watch yourself as a third person, and see yourself in the future. While Harry has never used the term Situational Awareness, he has embodied it in his performances. Planning for something that won’t be needed until ten minutes from now, while performing a complex trick at the present moment, requires a quick and agile mind. Harry has one of the quickest minds of anyone I’ve ever met. (See the video below for a glimpse at his mental capabilities.)

Cover of Tannen’s Magic Manuscript Feb/March 1983

SELL IT LIKE NOBODY’S BUSINESS

There is an old saying among Vaudeville performers: “Hit ‘em over the head, tie ‘em in a knot, and get off.” In layman terms: have a strong opening, an engaging middle, and an ending that leaves people wanting more.

Harry’s performances are an excellent example of this philosophy. He often starts his card magic sessions with a quick and powerful effect. While shuffling the deck he says, “I’ve practiced for years, going all over the world, and found that cards are different – different weights, sizes, and textures – so I’ve had to practice taking any deck, to learn how to do this. My dream is to cut a shuffled deck into four piles, and cut to all four kings. Wow! My dream just came true.”

As he speaks the final words, the audience is shocked to find all four kings staring them in the eye. A quick and startling opener that “hits ‘em over the head.”

This Al Hirschfeld illustration hangs on the wall in Harry’s house

Harry is best at “tying ‘em in a knot.” Though he has spoken his lines (or patter) thousands of times for thousands of audiences, it always feels fresh. You feel that he is talking directly to you, responding to you personally. I’ve heard Harry say the identical lines dozens of times with virtually no variation in word choice. But it always seems spontaneous. He doesn’t recite his lines, he manifests them.

When he tells a story, even if it’s full of odd-sounding characters (with names like “Big Fella, Little Fella,” and “Two Shuffles Harry”) you can’t help but get wrapped up in his performance. Harry is so genuinely committed to his story that it feels important. He emphasizes the key points with clarity so there is no confusion. At the end of the day, it’s just a card trick, but Harry imbues his personality and infectious enthusiasm into the trick so it feels like you are participating in an event.

The final part of the Vaudevillian saying, “…and get off” may not exactly apply to Harry Lorayne. Once Harry gets started, it’s hard for him to stop. At some point, the audience’s minds begin to melt, and as they wipe away tears of laughter and exasperation from their cheeks, Harry puts down the cards, calling it a day.

THE PINKY CHECK

Harry and I shared a laugh when he shared this practical lesson for male performers. Immediately before stepping on stage, he suggests using the tip of your right pinky finger to find the upper end of your trousers zipper. If your fingernail clicks against the zipper’s metal pull-tab, then you are safe and ready to make your entrance. If your pinky slides in up to your knuckle, however, then you have to XYZ PDQ (eXamine Your Zipper, Pretty Darn Quick)!

Harry told me that it would be more than embarrassing for him to accidentally walk onstage with his fly open, because of who he is. For decades he has been billed as “the world’s foremost memory expert,” and “the Yoda of memory training.” If the memory expert can’t even remember to zip up his zipper, he loses all credibility! The pinky check has served him well throughout his career.

As an aside, I was once caught with my zipper open during my Chamber Magic show. At one point in the show, I make a solid red brick appear inside a previously empty hat. It’s a crowd-pleaser. On one particular night, a man in the second row unexpectedly stood up, walked to the front of the room, and handed me a folded paper. It was impossible to ignore him, so I unfolded his note, read it silently (“Your zipper is open!”), and laughingly explained the situation to my audience. After turning my back to correct the situation, I ad-libbed: “At least now you know where the brick came from!”

From that night forward, the Pinky Check has become the last action I take before walking on stage. Every time.

Conclusion:

Harry Lorayne is now 89 years old, and considered a living legend in the world of card magic. Since he moved away from New York, we have seen each other less frequently, but still try to meet bi-monthly at his accountant’s office (Alan Frankel, also a magician). On several occasions I’ve driven four hours each way to spend an afternoon in the Hamptons with Harry, returning to Manhattan after dark. Each time, it gets harder to say goodbye. I love this guy. He makes me feel like a teenager again, sitting around the table at Reuben’s, watching him “hold court.”

The members of his court have dispersed, and his frantic performance pace has slowed down due to his arthritic fingers. (See photos below.) But his mind is as sharp as ever. Leave it to a memory expert to remember everything like it was yesterday.

Harry Lorayne and Steve Cohen, July 2015

Harry Lorayne’s hands, 2014

Finally, watch this great episode of “I’ve Got A Secret” to see Harry (age 32) dramatically memorize the name and face of every person in the 500 seat theater!

Next Week: ALBERT GOSHMAN

For further study, read:

Magic Books written by Harry Lorayne:

Close-Up Card Magic • Personal Secrets • My Favorite Card Tricks • Deck-Sterity • Best of Bill-Fooled

The Hundred Dollar Book • Dingle’s Deceptions • Reputation-Makers • The Great Divide

Tarbell #7 • Rim Shots • Afterthoughts • The Epitome Location • The Magic Book • Finger Fantasies

The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel • Quantum Leaps • Best of Friends, Volume I • Best of Friends, Volume II

Best of Friends, Volume III • Star Quality • Trend Setters • Doug Edwards Packs a Wallop • The Himber Wallet Book

Personal Collection • Lorayne : The Classic Collection Volume 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 • Mathematical Wizardry

Special Effects • Before I Forget • Jaw Droppers

Monthly magic magazine: Apocalypse

Memory Books:

How to Develop A Super-Power Memory • Secrets of Mind Power • Instant Mind Power • Miracle Math

Memory Isometrics Course • Mental Magnetism Course • Good Memory – Good Student!

Good Memory – Successful Student! • The Memory Book • Remember People (The Key to Success)

The Page-A-Minute Memory Book • Memory Makes Money • Super Memory – Super Student • Ageless Memory

The MEMORY POWER Package (sold on national infomercials)

The post MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Harry Lorayne appeared first on Chamber Magic.

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin

Steve Cohen — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 05:01:25 +0000

My “big three” mentors are Max Malini, Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, and Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Each of these giants will be featured in coming weeks. You’ll also read about more contemporary figures like Harry Lorayne and Albert Goshman, non-magicians Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis, Jr. and even fictional characters like Willy Wonka.

This week we’ll focus on the father of modern conjuring:

JEAN EUGÈNE ROBERT-HOUDIN (1805-1871)

Volumes have been written on the extraordinary life and career of Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. And justly so – he revolutionized the way theatrical magic is performed in the modern age. So influential was Robert-Houdin to the advancement of the craft that Erich Weiss later modeled his own stage name – HOUDINI – after him.

First, a general note that needs to be addressed. It is incorrect to refer to this seminal figure simply as “Houdin.” His last name is hyphenated, and pronounced “roBEHR-ooDAN.” (French pronunciation dictates a silent H.)

Robert-Houdin was trained as a clockmaker, and used his mechanical expertise to create intricate wind-up automaton devices that could also perform magic. He combined these artistic machines with his own prodigious technical skill, and presented shows that baffled Europe in the nineteenth century.

Original Robert-Houdin props, in Ken Klosterman collection

According to Christian Fechner, author of The Magic of Robert-Houdin – An Artist’s Life, “It’s important to understand what magic was like before Robert-Houdin. Not only that, but you must understand how audiences viewed a magic show before Robert-Houdin. Magic was not considered an art. When people went to a magic show it was to have fun. The magicians often pulled pranks on their neighbors. They were not big mysteries. There was nothing classy about it – popular yes, but it was a low level of entertainment, like performing animals. Robert-Houdin changed all of that and made magic a high form of entertainment. Probably not only because of his repertoire, but also because of his charm and personality on stage, his elegance, his education. He was able to make magic acceptable to France’s high society because he knew them very well from selling them his mechanical clocks and automata. When you entered into the Théâtre Robert-Houdin you did not enter into a theater, but into a living room, and your host was on stage. And he talked to you like a host, and magically offered you food, drinks, and gifts.”

Holding an original Robert-Houdin souvenir fan, at David Copperfield’s museum

Souvenir fans were distributed to guests so they could cool themselves during the hot summer months. These delicate, decorative fans depicted the theater entrance, as well as vignettes of Robert-Houdin’s most famous tricks including the Orange Tree and the Light & Heavy Chest.

Picture this:

You’re seated in a small theater in Paris, dressed in your finest attire. Instead of visiting the opera or a ballet, you chose to attend Soirées Fantastiques, the hottest ticket in town. Robert-Houdin, the show’s elegant star, has baffled you repeatedly throughout the evening, and it’s time for his big finale.

A gilded Louis XV style table sits center stage. Atop the table is a dollhouse, decorated to look like a miniature bakery. Inside, the magician explains, is an obedient little “pastry chef” who can bake any type of dessert you wish. Robert-Houdin offers a lady in the front row a pastry menu containing all the classics: brioche, macaron, profiterole, opera cake, crème brûlée, and so on. She chooses clafoutis, a popular black cherry tart.

Robert-Houdin turns a mechanical crank on the side of the bakery, and summons the pastry chef to come to the bakery door. To everyone’s delight, a charming automaton figure, about eight inches tall, appears at the front door, dressed in chef whites. He greets the audience, takes the lady’s order, and mechanically returns into the bakery. As soon as the doors close, a light switches on in the left window, and you see two more automaton figures rolling pastry dough and crushing almonds. A few moments later, the front door re-opens, and the pastry chef appears, holding a dessert on a tray. Incredibly, it is a black cherry tart!

Robert-Houdin asks another lady to place her finger ring into a small box, lock the latch, and hold the box in her hands. Instantly the pastry chef reemerges from the bakery holding a warm brioche. The magician tears the bun open to show that her ring has appeared inside! The box is, of course, now completely empty.

David Copperfield performed Robert-Houdin’s “Pastrycook of Palais Royale” for me, during a midnight tour of his museum

Finally, Robert-Houdin asks a gentleman to loan him a 20 franc gold coin. He explains that the pastry chef is such an intelligent businessman that he can provide change for the borrowed coin, in francs and centimes. The patron suggests three 5 franc coins, four 1 franc coins, nine 10 centimes, and two 5 centimes. No matter how difficult the mathematics, the pastry chef returns to his bakery, and emerges with the requested coins on a tray!

What lessons have I learned from Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin?

DRESS THE PART

Psychologist Carl Jung believed that universal, mythic characters called archetypes reside within the collective unconscious of people the world over. To most, the “magician” archetype is symbolized by a bow-tied man, wearing a top hat and tuxedo. But this was not always the case.

Prior to Robert-Houdin, the traditional magician’s costume was an elaborate robe decorated with stars and half moons. These magicians played the part of a wizard, and peppered their performances with mystical mumbo-jumbo. Another costume popular among street performers was an ill-fitting, raggedy suit with bright colors and baggy pockets.

Robert-Houdin is credited as being the first “modern” magician. He eschewed the rough and tumble garb of other conjurers, and instead dressed in normal evening attire. His patrons wore finely tailored tailcoats, vests and bowties, and therefore, so did he. He wasn’t trying to dress like the stereotype of “a magician” — he was simply matching his attire to that of his audience. His demeanor and appearance made them think that he belonged to the same social sphere as well.

Incidentally, the sewing machine had recently been invented, and it became easier for prosperous Europeans to obtain ready-to-wear, high quality clothing. Robert-Houdin lived in the cosmopolitan city of Paris, where he could easily shop in the same department stores as his clients.

Flash forward 150 years. When I began my own performance career in New York, I invested my early earnings in my wardrobe. I began shopping at Barneys and asked the sales clerks to help me pick out some distinctive suits. For several years I wore “off-the-peg” clothing, but later graduated to a custom tailor. But as much as I enjoyed these custom-made suits, they made me look like a well-dressed businessman, not “a magician.”

So I turned back to examine the magician archetype embodied by Robert-Houdin, and decided to alter my course. My new “look” would in fact be quite old, harkening back to nineteenth century European fashion. On a trip to London’s Saville Row I snapped up several morning coats, waistcoats, cravats, and a silk top hat.

The reaction of my audiences changed immediately, for the best. As I walked on stage, I once heard a front-row patron whisper, “This is going to be good. Look at this guy – he even looks like a magician!”

INCLUDE YOUR FAMILY

Robert-Houdin’s wife died at the age of 32, leaving the magician, at age 38, a single father of three. In order to assist in raising the children, he remarried less than a year later to a woman ten years younger who was willing to take over the household.

One son in particular, Emile, took a special interest in his father’s shows. Together they practiced challenging memory stunts, and Robert-Houdin eventually realized that Emile had surpassed him in his ability to remember large volumes of detailed information.

When Emile turned fourteen, Robert-Houdin invited him to perform a two-person act on stage. The act was titled Second Sight, and it took advantage of Emile’s prodigious mental agility. The boy was thoroughly blindfolded, and his father walked through the audience borrowing random personal objects. Mysteriously, Emile could divine each object, despite being completely blindfolded. Their early attempts at this act were met with skepticism. Audiences suspected that they were communicating with a secret verbal code, so Robert-Houdin changed their presentation. Instead of speaking aloud to his blindfolded son, he simply rang a tea service bell. At each ring, Emile announced each object that his father had borrowed: “a pocket watch, a hair pin, a carving knife,” and so on.

The father-son act was a true novelty, and attracted masses of people who wanted to try and decipher how young Emile could know so much. Robert-Houdin’s 200-seat theater was consistently sold-out, and their show became the talk of Paris.

Based on this success, Emile participated in later additions to the show, including the Portfolio, and the Ethereal Suspension. These became signature illusions in Soirées Fantastiques.

I was always taken by how many of these illustrations depicted Robert-Houdin performing with his son. As a father myself, I envisioned how much effort and patience must have been required to train Emile to perform at a professional caliber in front of paying audiences. No parent wants to crush their child’s enthusiasm, nor selfishly steal away a childhood for professional gain. But being on stage in a high-pressure environment could easily create a rift between father and son. Working side by side with a child requires a delicate balance that boosts the child’s confidence while still maintaining the respect required by the parent. Over time, both father and son must form a mutual trust that extends past the footlights to daily life offstage.

When my own children were small, I played memory games with them, similar to those described by Robert-Houdin in his memoirs. “Walk past this shop window, look away, and describe how many items you remember!” Or, “Here are twenty-five objects printed on a grid. I’ll name one item, and you tell me every other object, starting from that spot, in order!” These fun games were meant to develop their observational skills, and sharpen their memory for life, in general. But I had another motive – namely, Robert-Houdin’s Second Sight act.

My daughter, June, was more inclined to practice than my son, and by the age of five, she could perform a unique version that I created. At family gatherings, I handed June a box of Crayola crayons and a pad of paper. “Go sit in the corner, and draw a few pictures. Daddy is going to show the adults some card tricks,” I said.

June retreated to the end of the room, and kept herself busy by coloring on the pad.

After a card trick or two, I said to one of the guests, “Think of any object you like. Something that a small child would know how to draw.” I pointed over to June, still coloring away on her pad. The adult secretly drew a picture on a piece of paper – let’s say a fishbowl with a fish swimming inside – and hid that paper so nobody could see it.

I turned to June and asked her to bring over her last crayon drawing. Miraculously, it was of a fishbowl with a fish swimming inside!

This routine was a big hit for us at family parties, and NY Times reporter N.R. Kleinfield even wrote about it in his feature story about my life:

At preschool, Steve steered June and a dozen classmates to a hallway and did a few tricks. Card stuff, a glass of orange juice emerging from beneath a handkerchief, an orange turning up inside a girl’s hat. Giggles, bug-eyed looks.

June wanted to do her trick. A school worker was drafted to covertly draw something simple a child would recognize. June came up blank once, twice. She was rusty. One more time. The worker drew a heart. June drew a heart.

We have had a lot of fun performing this Second Sight act. One year, my children agreed to perform together with me at the Waldorf Astoria for a Father’s Day edition of Chamber Magic. This performance was their Father’s Day gift to me.

Here are some photos of that special day:

June walks off to the left side of the room with a pen and paper

A random volunteer draws any picture he likes at the opposite end of the room

Forty feet away, June starts drawing a picture too

The drawings match! Look at the surprised expression on the man’s face. Love it!

A clear photo of their drawings – they each drew a tree.

The proportion, angle, and size of her drawing perfectly matched the tree drawn by the random gentleman. The audience reaction was a collective gasp that I’ll always remember with pride. Sharing the stage with my children was the best Father’s Day gift this magician has ever received.

All dressed up for their debut

LIGHT & HEAVY CHEST

For my television special Lost Magic Decoded, I decided to recreate one of Robert-Houdin’s most iconic tricks, the Light & Heavy Chest. While he performed this routine in his theater shows in Paris to great acclaim, the routine is legendary for its role in stopping a rebellion in northern Africa. In 1856, the French government summoned Robert-Houdin out of retirement to put down an incipient revolt in the French colony of Algeria, by demonstrating that he could easily achieve total control over the strongest rebelling warriors.

The strongest Marabout warrior was suddenly unable to lift a small, light, wooden chest. It appeared as if Robert-Houdin had stripped away his strength. The magician successfully showed the Marabout rebels that the French “magic” was more powerful than their own, and caused them to retreat in fear.

In my own show, I developed my own method to turn a modern-day strongman from a crushing bodybuilder into a weakling with the strength of a 3-year-old child.

Here’s how it looked:

At a CrossFit gym in Brooklyn, NY, I asked a strong bodybuilder to lift a 225-pound barbell. He lifted it with ease. After returning it to the ground, I tapped the center of his forehead with two fingers. A moment later, he was unable to lift the barbell off of the ground. It simply wouldn’t budge.

I tapped his forehead, and he was suddenly able to lift the weight again.

Next I handed the bodybuilder a hinged wooden box. He opened the lid to confirm it was empty, and held it at eye level by the top handle. I tapped his forehead, and the box began to sink. To him, the empty box seemed to become heavier and heavier, as if filling with liquid metal. The box became so heavy that it sank to the ground. He was no longer able to lift it.

I casually picked up the box to show that it was indeed still empty, and put it aside.

Finally, I asked the bodybuilder if he wanted some water to cool off. I handed him a 16 ounce bottle of Poland Spring. Before he took a drink from the bottle, however, I tapped him on the forehead. He became exasperated when he suddenly couldn’t unscrew the plastic cap! For a guy who could bench press 350 pounds, this was an embarrassing moment, and the other bodybuilders chuckled at his dilemma. I tapped his forehead once more, and the bodybuilder could unscrew the bottle cap at last. He was relieved to take a well-deserved chug of water.

This routine required no stooges or paid actors. While the methodology we devised was entirely different from Robert-Houdin’s original version, the impact on the audience in Brooklyn was just as mesmerizing.

Holding Robert-Houdin’s Light & Heavy chest at Ken Klosterman’s Salon de Magie

Conclusion

Most people who visit museums glide past lesser-known artifacts, making a bee-line to the most famous pieces of art. How many beautiful paintings in the Louvre have been ignored as visitors hunt for the Mona Lisa? If you have a specific area of interest, however, certain artifacts speak to you – they call your attention from afar. You may see these special objects in a glowing light, visible only to you.

I felt this way when visiting the collection of Robert-Houdin apparatus in David Copperfield’s museum. David kindly let me hold and examine many of the original props created by the master, including the “Inexhaustible Bottle” – a trick that I perform under the title “Think-a-Drink” in my own shows. As I held Robert-Houdin’s bottle, I felt a profound connection to him. It was nothing more than a prop, a physical object. But to me it was an invisible link that connected a mind from the nineteenth century with one from the twenty-first. I smiled as I held that glowing bottle in my hands.

Next week: HARRY LORAYNE

For further study, I recommend the following books and magazines.

Essential Robert-Houdin, edited by Todd Karr, The Miracle Factory, 2006
The Magic of Robert-Houdin: “An Artist’s Life,” by Christian Fechner
Genii Magazine, Volume 65, No. 11, November 2002
Annals of Conjuring, by Sidney W. Clark, Chapter 9
Robert-Houdin, A Magician’s Life, DVD, Talia Films, Paris, 2005

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MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman

Steve Cohen — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 04:01:06 +0000

My “big three” mentors are Max Malini, Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, and Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. Each of these giants is being featured in this series. You’ll also read about more contemporary figures like Harry Lorayne and Albert Goshman, non-magicians Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis, Jr. and even fictional characters like Willy Wonka.

This week, let’s turn our attention to a forgotten master:

CHARLES “THINK-A-DRINK” HOFFMAN (1896-1966)

At the peak of his career, Charles Hoffman was the highest paid magician in the United States. This is a remarkable accomplishment considering he had almost died just a few years earlier.

After serving in World War I, Hoffman returned to America and, like many vets during that era, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was sent to the Sunmount Veterans Administration hospital in Tupper Lake, NY to recover, but was so ill that “his doctors [had] instructed that his coffin be ordered.” (The Sphinx, Vol 40, No 2) During his stay at the hospital, Hoffman gave his first serious consideration to magic. He made up his mind that he didn’t want to die, and used magic as a shining beacon to lift himself back to good health. He created a rigorous personal recovery plan that required patience, attention to detail, and painstaking effort. Later he would apply the same principles to his magic act: upon his release, he created a highly polished and meticulous routine that set him apart from all other magicians.

Imagine this:

It’s 1939. After a decade of depression, Americans are feeling upbeat about economic growth and prosperity. You’re seated in the swankiest supper club in town, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra plays their newest hit, “In The Middle of a Dream.” As the musicians hit their final notes, tonight’s MC introduces the headliner act: “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the highest paid bartender in town, the doctor of deception — Think-a-Drink Hoffman!” A handsomely tuxedoed gentleman walks to center stage, claps his hands loudly several times, and shows them undeniably empty. He brings both hands together, and magically produces a large fan of real bills from the U.S. mint. What an entrance!

Hoffman walks to the standing microphone and introduces himself. He instructs everyone in the audience to think of their favorite drink. Any beverage at all. He points to a woman in the front row, and seems to “read” her thoughts. Hoffman lifts a cocktail shaker and martini glass from the table. He concentrates for a moment, and then fills the martini glass with a Pink Lady cocktail (gin, egg white, and grenadine). As he hands her the drink to taste, he asks, “Is that a genuine Pink Lady? More importantly, is that the exact drink you were thinking of?” She answers “Yes!” to both questions, bringing the first big applause of the night.

One after the next, Hoffman proceeds to pour more drinks from the same cocktail shaker: beer, whiskey, peach dacari, Coca-Cola! Each drink looks different from the previous one — some are clear, others colored; some are carbonated and others are not. Even more important, each drink tastes different from the last. Hoffman’s two female assistants walk into the audience with serving trays, distributing the beverages to each spectator who had requested a drink. They taste and confirm that these are, indeed, their favorite drinks.

Someone yells out, “How about a Zombie!” Hoffman picks up a large glass and asks, “Sir, do you know what goes into a Zombie?” He rattles off a long list of ingredients: “White rum, golden rum, dark rum, apricot brandy, lime juice, pineapple juice, papaya juice!” Despite the challenge, Hoffman immediately pours the complex drink, garnishing it with a paper cocktail umbrella. This unexpected flourish earns a huge laugh.

Someone asks for coffee. Hoffman immediately pours hot coffee from his magic shaker, then reaches into the air to produce sugar cubes and a creamer.

Finally, he walks to a young man in the front row and says, “Young fella, you look like you’re ready for dessert.” Hoffman then pours the final drink: a chocolate soda with ice cream. He produces a spoon from his bare hands, drops it in the drink, and takes a final bow.

What lessons have I learned from “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman?

SPECIALIZE TO STAND OUT

Early in his career, Charles Hoffman performed a relatively generic magic act. In his first public engagement at the Astor Hotel in New York, he presented standard tricks often seen in the acts of his peers: card fan productions, a rope trick, lit cigarette productions, and the well-worn Chinese Sticks. In the midst of these old standbys, he inserted an abbreviated “bar” act, pouring various fancy drinks from an apparently empty shaker.

At the behest of his often haughty colleague, Burling Hull (snarkily nicknamed “Hurling Bull”), Hoffman dropped the standard fare and focused exclusively on developing a bar act.

Hoffman spent three years preparing the props and refining his presentation before rebranding himself as “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman. His new act focused on one theme only — to pour any drink that spectators could imagine. Although the act was only twelve minutes long, his career began to take off. He found steady work in the top venues in every major American city.

A table tent advertising Hoffman’s act (Steve Cohen collection)

Before specializing in a narrow field, Hoffman was indistinguishable from other working professionals in his market. Talent bookers could price-shop for magicians, since they all presented roughly the same material. Once he narrowed his focus to one specialty, however, Hoffman created his own category. The novelty of his act stimulated demand, and the lack of competition meant that he could command higher fees.

TACKLE SOMETHING OTHERS WON’T

Charles Hoffman traveled with 225 pounds of equipment, packed into five crates. For a 12-minute act, he had a lot of stuff! Before each show he required a 30-minute orchestra rehearsal, and after the show he needed to clean all of the glasses so they’d sparkle for his next venue. All told, he needed to mold his life around his act. In addition to his splendid showmanship onstage, he required dogged determination offstage to schlep his props to each show.

By tackling something that others would not, Hoffman stood out in the competitive field of legitimate show business. He was cast in the Broadway revue, “The Streets of Paris” at the Broadhurst Theater, starring Abbott & Costello, Carmen Miranda, and Gower Champion.

I was fortunate to meet lyricist Stephen Sondheim on several occasions, and he told me that he saw “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman perform his act in “The Streets of Paris.” Although he was only 9 years old at the time, Hoffman’s magic made such an impact on the young Sondheim that he still remembers it to this day.

As Hoffman’s fame and success grew, so came the imitators. In 1943, he battled someone nicknamed “Have-a-Drink” Count Maurice in court, and won an injunction against the copycat act. For more about this fascinating case of trade secrets as applied to show business, click HERE.

By dedicating his life to something unique and difficult that would deter most others, Hoffman ultimately reaped the benefits of his hard work.

Interior of Loew’s State Theater

MAKE THE SMALL PLAY BIG

In 1941 “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman played the Loew’s State Theater, located at 1540 Broadway, a building that later became the home of Tannen’s Magic shop. Despite being in one of New York’s largest theaters (3,327 seats), Hoffman confidently held the huge audience in the palm of his hand. People seated in the rear seats were unable to see the small glasses that Hoffman held, but they didn’t care because of his superb showmanship. (Other famous magic acts who performed at the Loew’s State include Paul LePaul, Ade Duvall, Dunninger, and Cardini.)

When Houdini performed in New York’s Hippodrome theater (5,300 seats), people seated in the balcony were unable to see the sewing needles he pulled threaded from his mouth. The audience could readily understand what was happening on stage, however, due to Houdini’s confidence, energy and sheer personality. I believe that Charles Hoffman did the same.

Conclusion

Charles Hoffman became a star by specializing in a unique branch of magic that most others found cumbersome. He worked extremely hard, and discovered how to dovetail both his skill and his charming personality into a commercial act.

While the “Think-a-Drink” act is rarely performed by modern-day magicians, I have made it a feature item in my own weekly show, Chamber Magic, which plays every weekend at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. If you’d like to see “Think-a-Drink” in person, come visit soon, and be sure to have your favorite drink in mind! Thanks to Charles Hoffman, “Think-a-Drink” is magic that’s as close to real wizardry as you may ever see.

Next week: JEAN EUGENE ROBERT-HOUDIN

Steve Cohen performing “Think-a-Drink” (photo by David Linsell, courtesy of Magicana)

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Interesting People Archives - Chamber Magic

Barack And Michelle in my showroom at the Waldorf Astoria

Think-a-Drink

Peter Sagal – “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” Visits Chamber Magic®

90th Birthday Party for HARRY LORAYNE

Too often we wait too long to tell people how much they’ve meant to us.

90th Birthday Video for HARRY LORAYNE

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Mark Sicher

MARK SICHER

A memory from actor Dustin Hoffman…

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU DO, OR HOW YOU DO IT. IT’S WHO DOES IT. IF THE WHO IS RIGHT, THE WHAT AND HOW MUST BE RIGHT.

BE BOLD

PEOPLE BOTH LOVE TO LAUGH AND FEEL AWE

PERFORM “LIVE”

MARK SICHER’S DENTAL ACT

MARK SICHER’S FINAL PERFORMANCE

Conclusion:

Further Reading:

Special thanks:

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Albert Goshman

Illustration by Juan Luis Rubiales

ALBERT GOSHMAN

THE CLASSICS NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE

DO FIVE THINGS BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE

YOU ARE THE MAGIC

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Harry Lorayne

HARRY LORAYNE

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin

JEAN EUGÈNE ROBERT-HOUDIN (1805-1871)

What lessons have I learned from Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin?

MAGIC MENTOR MONDAY: “Think-a-Drink” Hoffman

CHARLES “THINK-A-DRINK” HOFFMAN (1896-1966)

**IT’S NOT WHAT YOU DO, OR HOW YOU DO IT. IT’S WHO DOES IT. IF THE WHO IS RIGHT, THE WHAT AND HOW MUST BE RIGHT.**