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Starrpower Inner circle 4070 Posts |
I don't recall him doing a vanish in the segment I saw.
Yeah, I saw him open with the smoke chamber several times. Once it was on a TINY stage, and he had assistants cover the chamber with a large curtain wrap before the appearance (must have been angle problems.) This theatre was also on the third floor of an old building, and it must have been a real pain to bring in the show. I don't recall a tower illusion. If you describe it, it may jog my memory. |
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Illusion77 New user 75 Posts |
I only had the opportunity to see the Alcatraz stage routine once, around 1989, but after escaping from the jail cell, he stood on a table and covered himself with a cardboard box, like in the special. The box fell apart and he was gone - and reappeared in the audience.
I never saw the Smoke Chamber live. What was it like? I know he used "Sunglasses at Night" for the music. Was the routine much different from what appeared on the China special? (did he, by chance, appear wearing sunglasses...?) I wonder if the cloth was wrapped around the prop because there was a problem in a small theater using a thick amount of smoke. The Tower illusion was from the 1979 special - it basically is a routine that take place on an elevated platform where hands reach out from a curtained enclosure that was shown empty. DC gets pulled inside and vanishes - and he reappears in the audience. I think this was used before the Alcatraz routine was done. |
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Starrpower Inner circle 4070 Posts |
I don't think he did the vanish after the Alcatraz jail escape when I helped, but I could be wrong.
I know the tower illusion you mean. Yes, he did use that in the early 80's show I saw (staircase vanish if I remember correctly.) As for the smoke chamber, they all wore sunglasses as I recall, and there was LOTS of smoke, but I don't know if that was the reason for the cover. |
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RSteele New user 99 Posts |
Didn't see it in here yet but during one of his live shows he performed Jumbo B-wave when his t----d broke for the floating rose routine. He told the audience "let's move this to the stage so you can see better". He had the Jumbo B-Wave behind a set of speakers on stage left. The audience never new anything went wrong. It was seamless!
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Illusion77 New user 75 Posts |
Wow - very interesting. Was it a B-Wave with 4 cards - or was it a large Invisible Deck? Did he have the audience volunteer (Who was going to be used for the rose) help him?
At what point in the rose did the gimmick break? |
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Michael J. Douglas Inner circle WV, USA 1645 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-01-29 19:04, Starrpower wrote: That was nice of you; the same reason many magicians can't stand other magicians as volunteers.
Michael J.
�Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things.� --from Shakespeare�s �As You Like It� |
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Mattillusion Regular user 170 Posts |
On 2007-01-29 19:04, Starrpower wrote:
I purposely reached where I thought a "gimmick" would be, but I was quickly redirected toward other bars... I always think it's a great experience for a magician to be on the other side -- the audience volunteer. *************** Yeah, why would you do that? We're all supposed to be on the same team. |
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Banester Special user 669 Posts |
Illusion77, here is a great link to most of everything David has ever performed weather it be on the stage or TV.
http://www.tonyko.com/_TheIllusions/illusions_tour.asp Almost forgot, also on this website there are still pictures of all his performances of his specials: http://www.tonyko.com/_TheIllusions/illusions_tv.asp
The art of a magician is to create wonder.
If we live with a sense of wonder, our lives become filled with joy -Doug Henning- |
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The Mac Inner circle 1982 Posts |
I'm very interested in reading about how he manages mess ups. Any more stories?
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Josh Chaikin Inner circle Kansas City 1430 Posts |
Quote:
I always think it's a great experience for a magician to be on the other side -- the audience volunteer. Slightly off topic for the thread, but it relates here. I was subject to a rather aggressive riffle force, and subsequent belittlement from the performer when he was "failing" to find my card. There were other parts of the show too that I found just atrocious. Anyway, back on topic. |
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Christopher Starr Inner circle Heart of America 1850 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-03-13 11:17, Banester wrote: Great link, Banester. It was interesting to see how the current show has been downsized. The current show, An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion (2003-present) consists of 9 routines. The previous tour, Portal(2001 - 2002), boasted 20 routines! I guess that Intimate mut be code for small...? |
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magicmanfrank Inner circle 1127 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-01-30 22:42, Starrpower wrote: The cover or curtain was simply used if there was a problem. Be it with the illusion, smoke, etc..., it was just a way of being prepared for the unknown. You must know that there are SEVERAL "Just in case" things that David and his crew have in place for when things go wrong! THAT is what makes David & his crew, THE BEST!!! =Frank=
The Early Bird may get the Worm, but it's the SECOND Mouse that gets the CHEESE!!!
Frank Thurston www.FrankThurstonMagic.com https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Magic-of-Frank-Thurston/116625117910?ref=nf |
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Eugene Chekhov Elite user ~Magic~ 453 Posts |
Great topic! After so many years - someone else can add memories? Thank you!
I love the magic & history of magic! My favorites magicians - Dai Vernon, Max Malini, Fielding West, Michael Finney, Jeff Hobson, Bob Sheets, Nick Lewin, Harry Murphy, Dick Oslund- great showmen of magic!
* Eugene_Chekhov@yahoo.com |
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Ray Pierce Inner circle Los Angeles, CA 2607 Posts |
Quote:
On Mar 17, 2007, magicmanfrank wrote: Yes and if you tour a lot there are ALWAYS problems! I got a call from him when he was in Santa Barbara to see if I could come in and fix the smoke chamber for him. There were 2 smoke devices inside the outer chamber (either one of which would have been enough to fill the chamber and provide plenty of cover.) that got placed in there by the assistants. They connected to the controller in the base by 1/4" audio plugs built into the prop. The smoke is a constant corrosive so after enough time, they would sometimes not function and he had no way of knowing when that would happen (Hence always having the large cloth in the wings). I redesigned it and hooked up a more standard pyro controller that had a continuity light showing that they were making contact so he could be assured that it would work. While I was there, he also asked me if I could be in the audience to come on stage for the Jail cell examination. Evidently he learned from his Starrpower experience!
Ray Pierce
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Gerry Walkowski Inner circle 1450 Posts |
I did see the torn & restored traffic ticket bit. It was sort of a throw-away effect.
Either 1 or 2 different ladies came out on stage, each holding a pieces of plastic with handles on each end. As best as I recall, the pieces of plastic were shaped in the style of aviator sunglasses, but of course much bigger. Attached to the plastic were windshield wipers and one of them had a parking ticket. I know he tore the ticket up and restored it, but I can't remember much more. I only saw him do this once in the late Seventies or very early Eighties. Gerry |
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thomasR Inner circle 1189 Posts |
On his Journey of a Lifetime tour he did a Cardiographic style card rise with the moon. "you chose the full moon... you didn't... well that's not the full moon... that's the sun before it sets" - full moon sets and crescent moon rises. He also did Test Conditions on that tour which isn't crazy obscure.. but not one of the more well known.
The Portal Tour had ALOT of unique tricks - Through Steel (andre kole illusion) Back Crack (variation of andre kole no feet) Binky the Clown (a weird variation of andre kole's head mover.. only the head vanished in this routine I think). ESPN - a prediction trick with envelopes. I really don't remember much about it.. I think it was celebrities photos in the envelope) Baby Trick - David "has a baby" with an audience member and the baby selects the ladies chosen card on an ultrasound. and the "Anthrax" routine where he had a scorpion pick a chosen card. |
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TaylorReed Special user Branson, MO 743 Posts |
I haven't had time to read all of this, but these are some of the things I have seen him do live.
Smoke Chamber live in Vegas in 1985 or 1986. With Joanie Spina and another woman.. They were faced back to back wearing glasses as they came out of the chamber and danced a bit as it filled up with smoke. No cloth was needed unless there was a problem with the smoke machines. I saw him perform kind of a mind reading type of illusion with Marilyn Monroe and GUMBY and others. A dancer or person appeared wearing different body parts. I can't remember it in full. Really cool looking illusion though.. IT never made it to TV> I saw him perform at a Joe Stevens convention it seems that Joe was heading it up. Remember him opening with Back stage with the magician and doing card manipulation. Others on that show.. Crystal casket, Dancing with the ZZ Levitation where the curtain went up. Closer was the lion's Bride with two shaggy dogs that he rented. I was setting next to the people that rented him the dogs. I watched him In Tahoe in around 1981 and he did the big TOWER>> Closer Opened that show with the levitating Ferrari. This was a great show with the dancing hanky and some in one bits like ROOM service and Albums. My friend Gary Bartlett worked with David for awhile and said that if David got down to doing the SPOT Card that some heads were bound to roll. HA In Vegas I saw him do walking thru a steel wall which was the same steps etc as walking thru CHINA wall. Going thru the jail cell as well. Never saw him do the table vanish and appear in the audience live.. From that special.. One of my favorite live shows he did in Vegas was jammed pack with the greatest hits of DC Elevator, Head mover, Origami, Interlude, Pole lev, SLicer he did Snowing and Flying.. Cargo MOTO and more.. David is the Best! I feel pretty lucky to call him a friend. Thanks guys, This has been a good read. I will need to read it all sometime.. Taylor Reed
www.taylorreed.com
www.usedmagicillusions.com taylor@taylorreed.com (979)482-0714 See: The Magic and Comedy of Taylor Reed, Live in Branson, Mo |
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makeupguy Inner circle 1411 Posts |
The table from the Alactraz special where is vanished from the cardboard box was a MONSTER of a prop. The table and the shelf of janitorial props were both HUNDREDS of pounds... and noisy. I'm sure he didn't do them in smaller venues.
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Frank Simpson Special user SW Montana 883 Posts |
I remember seeing him do an arena show at a state fair, probably late 80s. We saw both the afternoon and evening shows which opened with Smoke Chamber. The afternoon show worked perfectly, although the cloth was lying in the floor in front of the prop. During the evening show there was no smoke and up came the cloth, which as I recall had poles sewn into its outer hems. I do remember that when the girls slapped it across the front of the chamber it made a very loud noise, which I immediately interpreted as a "go" cue for David.
Other recollections: He did What's Next at both performances. Very much performed as an afterthought and I was astonished to see that when he finished he openly reset the prop as he was walking it to the edge of the stage to hand it off to an assistant. Before he had done Impaled on his special, he was doing it in a very different way, using the girl, as most do, but with a very lurid voyeuristic/revenge theme. I remember not caring for the presentation at all. He did perform The Tower to close the first act, and it was a very entertaining presentation. (Incidentally, this was the last time I saw him do a two-act show.) Walking Through the Steel Wall (a la Great Wall of China) I thought was an effective presentation even though the props really seemed overkill in their scale to the "wall". Seeing Through a Woman I thought was always a great prop and a great presentation. I remember it played as well live as it did on TV. Years later a friend of mine was on the local crew and told me that the show loaded in in the morning and set up fairly quickly. The rest of the day was spent rehearsing Flying. This would have been about a year or more before it debuted in TV. They put in soooo much work beforehand that when it made its way to the stage it was a well-oiled machine. Contrast this to a few years ago when the show came through and did not even load in until 2:00 in the afternoon for a 5:00 show (their previous stop was only a 2 hour drive away). The show started fifty minutes late and he didn't perform 13 in the early show because it wasn't ready. My layman friend who came to the show with me was very unimpressed with the entire show. Anyhoo, just some things I remember. |
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GlennLawrence Veteran user Randolph NJ 319 Posts |
I saw him twice in the early 80's. The first time he opened with a very entertaining "Backstage with the magician" type routine where he appears at the end. His closer for that show was the Tower illusion. I hadn't seen the TV special with it so it was a really great surprise. After the show he came out on stage and signed stuff for people. I got him to sign my Tannen's catalogue with him on the cover.
The second show I saw which may have been his very next tour (was around 1985) was the escape from Alcatraz as the closer. I had seen the TV special so it was pretty cool to see live! Glenn |
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