New Reels For My Collection!

One of the things in magic that I collect are reels. Specifically locking reels, not so much plain reels like the Paul Diamond Reel or a P&L Fingertip Reel. I have those, but don’t actively hunt them down.

Recently Mike Caveney sent out an email and one of the things he was selling were some reels. It was a set to two reels, and I jumped on it!

I’m more interested in the locking reel on the left than the reel on the right. These reels were used more to reposition the cage after the vanish that for the actual vanish of a birdcage. I hope it looks a cool in person as it does in the pic!

-Louie

French Pasteboards…

A while ago when I performed at the Moisture Festival I was in shows with Mike Caveney and Tina Lenert. Tina has an amazing act (read about it here) and so does Mike.

Backstage I was talking to Mike about how he got into writing magic books. He was asked to write a book by Bernard Bilis called French Pasteboards. There’s a really cool move in that book called the Bilis Spread. This is a one handed display of three cards, but you really have four cards.

When Mike mentioned that book, I told him I learned to do the Bilis Spread when I was a teenager and he commented that I’m probably the only other person that does the move (aside from Bernard Bilis).

Personally I love little booklets like this, they tend to be overlooked and usually have some fun little nuggets in them!
-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Mike Caveney

The Moisture Festival podcast is joined by Magician and raconteur Mike Caveney for an over the phone chat. Mike tells us some amazing stories from his 40+ years in show business.

We discuss how he got into magic, how he married a fellow magician, how hard it is to go on the road with a chicken and how after 50 years of research he is finally releasing a book on the history of sawing a woman in half. Lots of great stories, laughs with a fantastic performer and magician.