Category: Pictures

JOHN MARTIN: The Master Magical Mechanic, A Genius at Work

john martin book

I finished reading the book JOHN MARTIN. The Master Magical Mechanic. A Genius at Work. It was an interesting book, full of history. Personally I would have liked a little bit more details about the props that John Martin made. There was a lot about what would be the “dealer description” but a lot less about how it actually functioned or what little touches he added.

The book was written by Granville Taylor and it talks a lot about him and how he used Martin’s props (still not much technical detail). I’m glad I read it, it gave me a much more solid background on John Martin and his contributions to the vanishing birdcage!

Here’s what’s in the book:

JOHN MARTIN. The Master Magical Mechanic. A Genius at Work.

Book written and published by Granville Taylor (Faust the Magician).

New. A limited edition of 250 copies, each one numbered and signed by the author. 105 pages, including 24 pages in full colour, with over 100 colour photographs, plus 10 detailed workshop plans of some of the Martin replicas made by Granville Taylor. Preface by Peter Diamond. Introduction by Professor Edwin A.Dawes. The book, A4 size, is stapled and bound with red Rexine cardboard covers.

Chapters: Martin’s Early Days, Magical Equipment Made by Martin, My Introduction to Martin, My Turn to Shake Hands with a Legend, More Visits to Martin, Touring the World, Taylor-Made Magic & Martin Replicas, My Martin Equipment, Is it a Martin?, Granville Taylor assisted by Martin, Memories of Jan Martin Recalled by Prof.Guy Higgins, Leo Burns, Photographs of My Martin Equipment, Photographs of Taylor-Made Replicas of some of Martin’s Equipment, Photographs of Martin Equipment from the John & Anne Davenport Collection, Photographs of some Martin Equipment from the Peter Nicol Collection. Plus 10 Workshop Plans for Taylor-Made Martin Replicas: Poker size Rising Cards, The Coin Shooter, Release Clip for Lines for Coin Shooter and Holdout, Vanishing Birdcage Clip, The Martin “Butterfly” & Improvements, Small Butterfly Production, The Handkerchief Vanisher, Lit Cigarette Vanisher, Gadget for Cutting Rope Ends, The Cigarette Dropper.

Granville Taylor (Faust the Magician) knew Martin in the last few years of Martin’s life, watched him at work, and ordered several items for his show. He owned and presented the only illusion Martin ever built (The Aerial Suspension), and, over the years he has bought more rare Martin equipment, which he has used in his shows around the world. This book is a fitting tribute to The World’s Master Magical Mechanic.

John Martin Book…

Several years ago when I started working on my Take Up Reel, someone told me to contact Granville Taylor as he knew a lot of about them. The person mentioned that Granville was pretty secretive about magic methods. I found his website and notice he had a book about John Martin who was a magic builder. I send him an email asking about the book, and also seeing if he wanted to chat reels.

I never heard back.

Then about a week ago a copy of his book John Martin: The Master Magical Mechanic – A Genius at Work popped up on ebay at and extremely high price. I messaged the seller and we agreed upon a much more reasonable price.

The book just showed up and I’m waiting to read it as I’ve got a few things ahead of it. Just flipping through it, it’s an interesting book. Starting with it looking like a home printed and bound book. All of the pages are printed on one side…I have a feeling it’s going to be an interesting read!

Here’s the blurb of the book:

JOHN MARTIN. The Master Magical Mechanic. A Genius at Work. Book written and published by Granville Taylor (Faust the Magician).

New. A limited edition of 250 copies, each one numbered and signed by the author. 105 pages, including 24 pages in full colour, with over 100 colour photographs, plus 10 detailed workshop plans of some of the Martin replicas made by Granville Taylor.

Preface by Peter Diamond. Introduction by Professor Edwin A.Dawes. The book, A4 size, is stapled and bound with red Rexine cardboard covers.

Chapters: Martin’s Early Days, Magical Equipment Made by Martin, My Introduction to Martin, My Turn to Shake Hands with a Legend, More Visits to Martin, Touring the World, Taylor-Made Magic & Martin Replicas, My Martin Equipment, Is it a Martin?, Granville Taylor assisted by Martin, Memories of Jan Martin Recalled by Prof.Guy Higgins, Leo Burns, Photographs of My Martin Equipment, Photographs of Taylor-Made Replicas of some of Martin’s Equipment, Photographs of Martin Equipment from the John & Anne Davenport Collection, Photographs of some Martin Equipment from the Peter Nicol Collection. Plus 10 Workshop Plans for Taylor-Made Martin Replicas: Poker size Rising Cards, The Coin Shooter, Release Clip for Lines for Coin Shooter and Holdout, Vanishing Birdcage Clip, The Martin “Butterfly” & Improvements, Small Butterfly Production, The Handkerchief Vanisher, Lit Cigarette Vanisher, Gadget for Cutting Rope Ends, The Cigarette Dropper.

Granville Taylor (Faust the Magician) knew Martin in the last few years of Martin’s life, watched him at work, and ordered several items for his show. He owned and presented the only illusion Martin ever built (The Aerial Suspension), and, over the years he has bought more rare Martin equipment, which he has used in his shows around the world. This book is a fitting tribute to The World’s Master Magical Mechanic.

Birdcage Clips…

Yesterday I posted about finally being able to find the clips that I use on my personal Vanishing Birdcage. They just showed up and here’s what they look like:

Here’s it in comparison to the one that’s on my personal Take Up Reel that I use for the Vanishing Birdcage:

Before the clip is usable, I have to cut off the swivel. I could leave it on, but that’s just extra bulk that’s not needed. The cord allow any rotation needed for the effect.

A side by side comparison of the two is that my old one is a bit wider than the new ones and the new ones are a bit shorter than old one.

Now that I have these, I’m going to start including them with all future take up reels that I make. I’m not sure that I’ll be selling these separately, as I may not be able to get them again in the future.

Interactive Coin Magic

Yesterday’s post I wrote about someone looking for interactive coin magic. Seeing their post, I created an original trick that would fit their requirements. It’s a coin trick, it’s interactive, in that everyone could follow along from home and it has a magical payout. It’s a “touch the screen” type effect, but the magic ending takes it beyond a math puzzle.

here’s how the effect plays, you have three pieces of paper, one has coins written on it, one credit and the final bills:

Someone touches one of the pieces of paper. They spell the word on it, jumping one space per letter.

You tell the you know they aren’t on the word “Bills” so you eliminate that one and throw that piece of paper away.

Now they spell money (starting on the word they ended on), jumping one space per letter.

You tell them you know they aren’t on the Credit, that means they picked the Coins! You then pick up the paper with coins written on it, light it on fire and produce coins!

In my head this coin production would look like this Tommy Wonder picture:

There you go and original, interactive magic trick that had a magical payoff!

While I personally don’t like the the “touch the screen” type effects, I do think that knowing them and understanding how they work make you a more well rounded magician. It’s just another tool in your toolbox that will help you solve a problem.

Interactive Virtual Magic…

A few days ago this post came through my social media feed:

The huge thing is the original poster didn’t define what they meant by “interactive”, it leaves a lot up to interpretation. Do them mean that they interact with people verbally, or is it a Touch The Screen type effect?

The next poster tries to get clarification:

My assertion that any trick can be interactive with a bit of thought, seem a bit outlandish, so they gave me a challenge of a trick that based on how the instructions are written, you really shouldn’t be able to do it virtually.

However I immediately knew how to make it interactive:

I stand by my assertion that any trick can be “interactive” in a virtual show if you put some brain power on the problem, instead of blindly doing what everyone else is doing.

Straight Outta Tarbell…

Way back in 2014 or 2015 the was a trend of shirts that were a play on the NWA graphic which said Straight Outta Compton, but instead of Compton they had different cities, like Straight Outta Miami. I wanted one that said “Straight Outta Tarbell” and one that said, “Straight Outta Erdnase“. I went out and had one of each for me made.

I happened to wear the shirt after a show in Canada while having a drink with the local magicians and my buddy Mike Norden took the picture below:

He posted it and it got shared around a bunch on social media, which eventually led to people asking me if I would sell them one of the shirts. I had a batch made and sold them all very quickly. However I didn’t and still don’t want to be in the T shirt business, so I haven’t had them in a long time. A magic convention asked me if they could use it on their T Shirt and of course I said yes, so that put more of them out there.

It’s been years since you could get one, then someone told me that Square Circle Printing has started making them. They said they were using my idea. First of all, while I think I’m the first person to do it, it’s a play on the NWA graphic and it’s not a huge creative leap to get to Tarbell. I think it’s a case of someone coming up with an idea that I already had independently. If I was still making these or had a garage full of them, I might be a bit upset. However that’s not the situation, so if you want one, hit up Square Circle Printing!

This brings me to how pretty much all of magic tricks have hit the market. I never has sold a magic trick with the intention of selling the trick. I’ve always made things that I wanted, the people start asking me if I’d sell them. So I end up making a batch of whatever it is.

Hybrid Events…

Lately I’m getting more and more requests for hybrid events. These are live, in person shows, that also have a virtual component. I think we’re going to have more and more of these. Last week I did four school assemblies that were hybrid, with some of the kids in the room with me and some at home. I just hosted a charity auction that was a hybrid event:

Here’s what I’m noticing about these, you can’t easily stage it for both audiences. Most event planners think you can just plunk up a camera, and that’s not the case.

For example the event in the picture above, they had me set up for the camera, but didn’t think about the in person audience. First of all I’m sitting at a table on the opposite side of the room, so I’m losing connection with a huge chunk of the in person audience. The didn’t have a monitor, so I couldn’t see the gallery view of the virtual audience, so I didn’t have any connection with them.

The gig went well, it was a hosting gig, so it wasn’t a show and we ended up raising more money than the charity’s goal for the evening, so it was a success…but it could have been soo much better for both audiences!!!

Working With a Mask

As we move forward and out of the COVID pandemic and venues start to reopen and live, in person entertainment begins to come back, we’re going to have to follow some rules. There are tons of magicians that are saying, “I’ll never do a show with a mask on” or whatever, and that’s fine…it’s their personal choice. The venue’s don’t get a choice, they are given guidelines to follow by the state/county/city and must follow those. So your personal choice will affect your ability to perform.

I think that the fear of performing with a mask, or a no contact show comes from a place of laziness. Why wouldn’t you want to figure out how to do your show no contact? The answer you hear is, “My comedy comes from interacting with people”. Great! you can still do that without someone physically onstage…or onstage 6 feet from you. It just takes some work.

I’ve had to recently reblock my show so that couple things I still do with someone onstage can have the person six feet from me…and we both can be masked. I’ve had to reexamine my show and figure out how to make it work…but that’s something you should be doing every now and then anyway.

Max and Salli Hapner…

Last week I bought a vanishing birdcage on ebay (apparently I collect cages now?) from a seller that wasn’t a magician. I’ll talk a bit more about the cage in another post when I get a chance to do some research on it, but it’s a less common one. The seller included this Doug Henning autographed Playbill in the box that came with the cage:

I’m assuming the Max and Salli it’s signed to are Max and Salli Hapner. I’m not very familiar with their work, but remember seeing them on the cover of a couple of magic magazines, or mentioned in them. From my research this week, Max had a collection of Vanishing Birdcages, so it would make sense that the autograph coming with the cage would reinforce the idea that the autograph was to the Hapners.

It appears Max passed about 10 years ago, and I only found one video of him online, which is him doing The Multiplying Bottles for Stevens Magic Emporium:

One of the fun things about knowing some magic history is that I was immediately able to connect the name on the program to the magic act. One the cover of the Genii Magazine above they are doing their bubble appearance, which according some of the people I’ve talked to the last week was a really amazing trick!

Catching Myself on TV…

The other night I was travelling with my family and flipping channels in the hotel room and saw myself on TV! It was very surprising to stumble upon myself on a rerun of Masters of Illusion.

The nice thing about these is whenever they air I get emails from people who have used me in the past saying they saw me on TV. This show has been a great way passively stay in front of people who want to book me!

You can watch my whole appearance above:

Now let’s chat about how magicians seem to feel about this show. Most magicians talk bad about it. The reality is that most of the magicians who talk bad about the show would take it in a heartbeat if they were offered. That same group of magicians don’t have what it takes from simply a material perspective to perform on this show.

The first thing to consider is that this show has been on TV for over 8 seasons, so it’s doing something right. The next and bigger thing to consider is that this show isn’t for magicians. What a magician wants to see on a TV magic show and what a non-magician wants to see is totally different.

Now let’s get to why this show is great, it’s fun to perform on TV. The whole experience is a good time. It’s great networking with other magicians at the studio and hotel. It’s gets my “art” out there for more people to see. On top of that there’s the marketing angle as a bonus!