and willkommen inside our very personal change bag
full of 1,000 things magical!
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By establishing this English and German blog called ZZZAUBER (meaning MMMagic) we have set ourselves on a multi-purpose magic mission to entertain and enlighten you:
to advance the art of magic by sharing valuable insights, fresh ideas, great magic and pieces of art related to conjuring and deception and by connecting the past, present and future (Hint: This is signified by our minimalistic, homemade logo, <<>>>)
to poke some good-natured fun at magic’s top brass and everything that may be wrong with amateur majishuns and the majic community today (at least according to our own questionable standards)
to share some pieces of interest from magic’s vast history and from our own collection, like magic postage stamps, magic programs, magic in advertising, etc. (more to follow)
to showcase, and sometimes show-off, some of our own meager attempts in the arts, be they in written form or even rhymed, drawn or painted, photographed or photoshopped. (Note: Please respect the copyright on all our original materials, even the cheap, risqué and shallow ones. Thank you!)
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Since this site is all about the friendly art of deception, you will encounter the occasional trick or misdirection being played on you. We hope you have some fun exploring these little hints and secrets.
Just scroll down endlessly on this main page to get all the latest magic news and tidbits! For special interests, like MAGIC & ART, POSTAGE STAMPS or INTERVIEWS, you may find the main chapters helpful. Just click them in the bar above.
As for your comments and opinions, frankly, we don’t care much. This is a blog, after all, and not another forum. And since most of our musings are purely based on personal opinions, tastes and observations, what would be the point in telling us your dissenting views and start quarreling here?
We deeply appreciate your occasional visit, read, link, nod or smile, though.
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P.S. This blog is not apt for beginners in magic. You may find the link section helpful, but then move on, please. The same goes for secret-seeking dumbwits. Thank you!
Mitten in der Mainzer Altstadt gibt es seit wenigen Monaten eine neue Adresse für Freunde gepflegter Zauberkunst und zauberhafter Torten: den “Zaubersalon” von Oliver de Luca und Bianca Koch. “Café und Kultursalon” lautet der Untertitel der Unternehmung und beschreibt damit auch perfekt die Arbeitsteilung der Gastgeber: Gastronomin und Herrin der Torten ist Bianca Koch, de Luca spielt im kleinen Bühnensaal des Lokals jeden Monat seine abendfüllende Zaubershow “Galerie der Wunder”. Auch für gelegentliche andere kulturelle Veranstaltungen bietet er im Café Zaubersalon den entsprechenden Rahmen, etwa für Lesungen in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Buchwissenschaft der Universität Mainz.
Die nächsten Termine der “Galerie der Wunder”: 25. Mai, 1. Juni, 23. & 24. August, 6. & 7. September, 20. & 21. September, 11. & 12. Oktober, 18. Oktober. Tickets kosten 38 Euro.
Die Show beginnt bereits um 18 Uhr. Der Grund ist ärgerlich für die Betreiber und könnte sich noch als Geschäftsrisiko erweisen: Aufgrund seiner Konzession muss das Café bereits um Punkt 20 Uhr schließen. Trotz zahlreicher Bemühungen konnte bisher keine Verlängerung bei der Stadt erwirkt werden. Auch sei es den Betreibern derzeit nicht erlaubt, Tische im kleinen Innenhof sowie vor dem Lokal aufzustellen. Nicht einmal ein Werbeaufsteller in der belebten Augustinerstraße sei bislang möglich, um Passanten von dort die wenigen Meter bis zum etwas unscheinbaren Lokal in der Badergasse 18-22 zu lotsen, beklagt Bianca Koch, will aber den Kampf nicht aufgeben und weitere Verbündete finden.
Kurioserweise – oder sollte man sagen: bedauerlicherweise? – liegt bei der Stadt Mainz die Verantwortung für das Bauen wie auch für die Kultur in ein und demselben Dezernat (VI). Wer auch der Meinung ist, dass oft bräsige Stadtverwaltungen einer kleinen Kulturstätte in bester Lage doch eher Starthilfe leisten sollten, statt ihr houdinieske Fesseln anzulegen, findet hier die Kontaktdaten des Dezernats!
Hat man erst einmal den Weg ins Café gefunden, kann man sich an frischem Filterkaffee und tollen Torten laben (die es auch als halbe Stücke gibt, damit man gleich mehrere probieren kann!), ein ausgiebiges Frühstück oder herzhafte Leckereien genießen. Die “Frühstückszauber”-Angebote tragen allesamt bekannte Namen von Robert-Houdin und Hofzinser bis zu Siegfried & Roy. Passender Blickfang im Lokal sind einige großformatige Reproduktionen von Zaubermotiven und -plakaten. Auch der Prachtband “MAGIC” des Taschen Verlags lädt auf einer Staffelei zum Blättern ein.
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Fun Fact: Nur wenige Straßen weiter laufe ich auf dem Weg zum Rhein unvermittelt an einem weiteren “Zaubersalon” vorbei. Hier bietet allerdings ein Frisör seine Dienste an, vermutlich ganz ohne Torten und magisches Beiwerk…
Den sicher schwierigen Spagat zwischen historischer Judenverfolgung und Zauberkunst wagt ab heute das Theaterstück “Ein Stück Illusion – Stolpersteine” von Alice Asper und Ildiko Bognar im Berliner Theater im Palais. Wobei der Zusammenhang natürlich nicht aus der Luft gegriffen ist: Die Inspiration für die künstlerisch freie Umsetzung lieferte die Bartl-Enkelin und Autorin Birgit Bartl-Engelhardt mit ihrer biografischen Aufarbeitung der Familien Bartl, Leichtmann und Kroner. Als tricktechnischer Berater wirkt der Schauspieler und Zauberkünstler Pius Maria Cüppers.
Premiere ist heute Abend [23.03.] um 19:30 Uhr, weitere Spieltermine sind der 24.03., 03.04., 13.04., 09.05., 26.05. und 15.06.
Die Presse berichtete bereits im Vorfeld. So skizzierte die B.Z. am 12. März den aktuellen Tagesablauf von Birgit Bartl-Engelhardt, die die Proben eng begleitet hat, der Tagesspiegel brachte am 20. März einen ausführlichen Artikel (hier online abrufbar/Paywall).
Am 23. März zeigte schließlich die rbb Abendschaueinen schönen Beitrag zum Stück, für den Bartl-Engelhardt vier Stunden lang bei den Proben, zu den Stolpersteinen der Kroners in der Friedrichstraße und anschließend zum heutigen Standort des „Zauberkönigs“ begleitet wurde.
Die 79-jährige Chronistin weiß auch schon, was sie nach der hoffentlich erfolgreichen Premiere tun wird: Wie sie der B.Z. verriet, gehen dann die Recherchen für ihr drittes Buch weiter. Es widmet sich der Enkelin von Charlotte und Arthur Kroner und soll 2028 erscheinen.
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Aus dem Begleittext zum Stück:
Angenommen, das jüdische Ehepaar Charlotte und Arthur Kroner, von 1906 bis 1942 Eigentümer des Ladens „Zauberkönig“ in der Friedrichstraße, hätte Nazi-Deutschland rechtzeitig verlassen. Angenommen, Arthur Kroner und Tochter Hilde hätten sich in New York um ein Engagement als Magier beworben. Und angenommen, sie begegnen dort einem Charlie Chaplin Imitator… So fängt die Uraufführung „EIN STÜCK ILLUSION Stolpersteine“ an. Es wird gezaubert, es wird geprobt und gestolpert, die drei ringen um einen Auftritt in der großen Show am Abend. Dann wird man jäh ins Berlin der NS-Diktatur katapultiert. Die noch verbleibenden Juden fürchten um ihr Leben, es herrscht eine Atmosphäre von Gewalt und Unterdrückung. Mittendrin: Maria von Maltzan, auch die „Löwin von Berlin“ genannt. In halsbrecherischen Aktionen kämpft sie zusammen mit anderen Fluchthelfern darum, Verfolgten das Leben zu retten. Charlotte und Arthur Kroner wurden nicht gerettet. Ihnen und ihrer Tochter Meta sind in der Friedrichstraße 55, wo einst der „Zauberkönig“ stand, drei Stolpersteine gewidmet. Ausgehend von ihrem Schicksal fragt Regisseurin Alice Asper in unserer Uraufführung nach dem unfassbaren Verlust – verursacht durch das Nazi-Regime. Carl Martin Spengler, Alina Lieske, und Jens-Uwe Bogadtke schlüpfen abwechselnd in die Rolle von Unterdrückten und Unterdrückern, von Verfolgten und Rettern. Die Frage, was einen Menschen zum Mitläufer und den anderen zum Helden macht, schwebt im Raum. Kompositionen von Alina Lieske werden von den drei Darstellenden a cappella gesungen. Eine Uraufführung über Angst, Widerstand und „the trickiest hands in magic“.
An einem Samstag im November trafen sich bei Kaiserwetter rund 100 Zauberfreunde im einzigartigen Zauberschloss Schönfeld, um den 100. Geburtstag des Magischen Zirkels Dresden gebührend zu feiern. Nach dem Festvortrag von Dr. Steffen Taut zur örtlichen Zaubergeschichte gab es reichlich Grüße, Glückwünsche und Geschenke zum Jubiläum. Ehrungen verdienter Mitglieder und Christoph Borers neues Seminar “Inventum” schlossen sich an, bevor dann die große Zaubergala des Zirkels kurzweilig über die Bühne ging. Mit leckerem Essen, mehreren formalen Close-up-Shows und gemütlichem Eckenzauber klang der vielseitige und perfekt organisierte Tag erst nachts aus.
Nachstehend eine kleine Bildergalerie:
Das deutsche “Magic Castle”: Schloss Schönfeld bei Dresden - eine wundervolle Heimstätte der Zauberkunst, die es ohne den unermüdlichen Einsatz von Karl-Heinz Kaiser und zahlreichen weiteren fleißigen Zauberhelfern nicht seit nunmehr 20 Jahren geben würde!
Zirkel-Vorsitzender Dr. Steffen Taut war als Gastgeber, Referent und Zauberkünstler gefragt
Großzügiges Geschenk zum Jubiläum: Büste des Hoftaschenspielers Joseph Fröhlich aus Meißner Porzellan, übergeben von Christina Huber
Mental-Seminar mit Christoph Borer und zahlreiche Ehrungen für verdiente Zirkelmitglieder
Zwei Anlässe, ein Buch: Im April 2023 richtete der Magische Zirkel von Hamburg das 30. Symposium zur Geschichte der Zauberkunst aus und beging zugleich sein 111-jähriges Jubiläum. Das Werk Hamburgisches und magische Misszellen aus Anlass zweier Jubiläen führt beide Themen zusammen und bietet reichlich neuen Lesestoff für Zauberhistoriker und Sammler.
Die Redaktion des großformatigen Buches lag in den Händen von Thomas E. Gundlach, seines Zeichens Erster Vorsitzender des Magischen Zirkels Hamburg, und Peter Rawert, ausgewiesener Zauberhistoriker und produktiver Autor. Die ansprechende Gestaltung übernahm Georg Walter. Dass dieser Band mit rund 160 Seiten nun gerade einmal vier (!) Monate nach dem besagten Zauberhistoriker-Treffen in der Hansestadt fertig vorliegt, ist eine bewundernswerte Leistung der Macher wie Autoren; in der Zauberbranche sind ja bisweilen auch Verspätungen von vier Jahren keine Überraschung.
Entsprechend ist der Inhalt zweigeteilt. Hamburgische Beiträge zur Zaubergeschichte werden in zwei Artikeln ausführlich vorgestellt: Thomas Gundlach zeichnet Akteure und Aktivitäten des Magischen Zirkels in der Hansestadt nach, während Peter Rawert den Zauberfachhandel, das Geschäft mit den käuflichen Wundern, Revue passieren lässt, bei dem Hamburger Händler historisch eine bedeutende Rolle gespielt haben. Beide Beiträge waren ursprünglich für Wittus Witts Werk Zauberstadt Hamburg (2021) eingeplant. Sie erscheinen nun hier in Erstveröffentlichung.
Im zweiten Teil des Buches sind neun sehr unterschiediche Beiträge des Symposium versammelt (siehe nebenstehendes Inhaltsverzeichnis). Besonders verweisen möchte ich auf Hans-Christian Solkas faszinierenden Beitrag über den mysteriösen Mr. Charlier und warum dieser womöglich nur das Hirngespinst einer Londoner Zauberclique war. Jörg Willich hat sich in seinem umfassend bebilderten Beitrag eines oft schmerzhaften weißen Fleckes der Zauberkunst angenommen: dem Grafik-Design von und für Zauberer. Nach Lektüre dieses Fachbeitrages gibt es nun überhaupt keine Ausreden mehr für quietschbunte, überladene und konzeptlose Zauber-Webseiten und Werbematerialien! Gespannt sein auf mehr darf man bei Altmeister Reinhard Müller: Seine Forschungsarbeiten über den jungen Mozart und die Kartenkunst (!) laufen noch, in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Spielforschung in Salzburg, und harren im Detail einer späteren Veröffentlichung.
Ich selbst hatte die Ehre, Fredo Marvellis zweite Karriere als Hotelier und Fotograf im spanischen Benidorm nachzuzeichnen und dabei auch den Mythos kritisch zu überprüfen, wonach er der unbeabsichtigte Erfinder des Massentourismus am Mittelmeer gewesen sein soll.
Als Extras zum Buch gibt es eine Beschreibung eines Original-Kartentricks von J. C. Schultheiß (vermutlich aus den 1950er-Jahren) und als Beilage den bekannten “Kongress-Trick” (auch bekannt als “Zehn Magier und zehn Hüte”), nach einer Idee von Paul Curry und mit freundlicher Unterstützung von Detlef Hartung.
Die Auflage ist auf 111 Exemplare limitiert und sicher auch deshalb für Sammler attraktiv. Der Preis beträgt 45 Euro. Interessenten wenden sich am besten zügig per Mail an Thomas Gundlach, thomas.gundlach [at] wtnet [.] de.
Dealers and collectors are preparing for the release of the 2024 line-up: a visual wallet trick, an also very visual card trick, a tiny book test, and a typical Tenyo plastic trick. They should be available around mid-October, with prices ranging approximately between 18 and 27 Euros over here. So here are the trick names and the PR blurb for dealers:
Shocking Pass Case
“The magician shows the transparent compartment of a wallet and inside it puts a white piece of paper after having folded it. He gives the transparent compartment a “snap” and takes out the piece of paper that will now magically have writing on it! The same can be done with a playing card of hearts, for example, which will turn into a spades, and for many more transformations in full sight!”
Magical Picture Cards
“The magician asks a spectator to select a card. Then he shows a deck of blank cards except for a couple of drawn cards. He places these two cards on the table and brushes the white deck across the table four times as if he were painting, and each time releasing a “stripe” of cards. There will be four rows of cards on the table, vertically placed side by side, which will magically compose a drawing (they were white before!) representing a Japanese person who predicts the chosen card!”
Mentalist’s Animal Photo Book
“The mentalist hands the spectator a booklet that has different pictures of animals on each page and asks him to choose two pages at random. On the two adjacent pages the spectator will see three animals. The mentalist asks the spectator to place his hand on the pictures one at a time while trying to visualise the pictures in his mind and mentally transmitting them to him. The mentalist then writes three animals down: they will be the exact names of the animals thought of by the spectator!”
Mistery Showcase
“The magician shows a small pedestal surmounted by a transparent case. He removes it and, from the pedestal, takes away and shows a stand with a slit in the center. He puts this stand back on the pedestal and puts the case back in position by blocking the pedestal and case with an elastic band. He covers everything with a rectangular tube and after a moment, he removes it and a coin will have magically appeared in the case, displayed vertically on the stand!”
Let’s see if the latter comes close to this year’s Mister Danger in terms of genuine Tenyo plastic ingenuity!
Er war einer der großen Sprechzauberer Deutschlands, aber keiner der lauten, wenn auch weithin bekannt und durchaus meinungsfreudig: Bruno Hennig alias Joro, der plaudernde Zauberer.
Altmeister Joro 2006 bei einem Zauberkongress
Wahrscheinlich “begegnete” ich ihm zum ersten Mal in Alfred Kellerhofs großem Zauberkatalog unter “Freunde unseres Hauses”. Bald darauf erwarb ich “Joros Kreidekelle” und seine “Punktewanderung”, viel später auch das bizarr-chaotische “Ringdurcheinander” und seine “Grandiose Münzwanderung”, einen der wohl besten auditiven Effekte der Zauberkunst überhaupt (basierend auf einer Idee von Patrick Page). In Kellerhofs Zaubertrichter las ich “Joros hundertprozentige Vorhersage” (ein wirklich einfach-genialer Kartentrick!), später verschlang ich begeistert Das Joro-Buch von Uwe Schenk und Michael Sondermeyer, das der Altmeister mir 2008 dann freundlich signierte.
Ich lernte, dass er internationale Anerkennung für den “Joro Switch” (den Austausch einer gefalteten Spielkarte) und den “Tanzenden Korken” genoss, der durch Fred Kaps weltbekannt gemacht worden war. In Deutschland kam er als erster Zauberer auf die Idee, aus der kleinen Plastik-Fingerguillotine ein bühnentaugliches Modell für den Arm einer Dame aus dem Publikum zu entwickeln. Seine Routine hierzu wurde zu einer der meistkopierten Deutschlands. Und als Humorist und Sprachspieler fiel mir Joro spätestens auf, als ich die Anekdote las, wonach er ebenso erstaunt wie treffend ausrief, als ihm Werry, der notorische Plastik-Trick-Produzent, seine damalige Freundin vorstellte: “Die ist ja gar nicht aus Plastik!”
Eine kleine Sprachspielerei war es dann auch, die mir Jahre später unverhofft Post aus Oldenburg einbrachte: In einer Kongressrezension hatte ich über eine besonders geschmacklose Wettbewerbsdarbietung geschrieben, dass diese bei Joro (in dessen Nähe ich zufällig saß) “topittiefe Zornesfalten” hervorgerufen hatte. Das fand er irgendwie gelungen und gratulierte mir sehr lieb mit dieser selbstgebastelten Urkunde, für die ich mich herzlich bedankte und die ich immer in Ehren halten werde!
Vor ein, zwei Jahren kontaktierte ich Joro dann telefonisch im Rahmen einer Kalanag-Recherche. Da war er schon recht schwerhörig, aber sein Gedächtnis arbeitete auf Hochtouren, als er sehr lebhaft einige Erinnerungen mit mir teilte. Lachend schilderte er etwa, wie Kalanags Stooges einst in Köln im halbleeren Saal ziemlich auffällig umherhuschten, um von verschiedenen Plätzen aus Getränkewünsche für die “Wunder-Bar” in Richtung Bühne zu rufen…
Bis zuletzt hat Joro in der magie regelmäßig Kunststückbeschreibungen veröffentlicht, und sie folgten fast immer demselben Schema: klare, kurze Effekte, sehr knapp beschrieben, mit zumeist einfacher Handhabung bei maximalem Effekt – so knapp, dass man manchmal Gefahr lief, diese Kleinode zu übersehen oder zu überblättern. Ein großer Fehler, denn bei aller Kürze waren beinahe alle mir bekannten Joro-Effekte immer zwei Dinge zugleich: praxisnah und effektvoll, und damit ideal für den durchschnittlichen Zauberadepten.
Am 6. September 2023 hat Joro, Jahrgang 1928, im gesegneten 96. Lebensjahr nun den Zauberstab für immer aus der Hand gelegt, wie wir so schön sagen. Sein Name und seine Routinen werden noch lange an unserem magischen Firmament leuchten, und wie viele andere Zauberfreunde bin auch ich dankbar dafür, wie er mein Zauberleben und unsere schöne Kunst bereichert hat. Ruhe in Frieden, großer Joro, und danke für deine magischen Spielereien!
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Addendum I: Ich habe auch einen kurzen Nachruf im Genii Forum gepostet.
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Addendum II: Wie ich mittlerweile erfahren habe, ist kürzlich leider auch Dieter Daniel – Ravelli verstorben (02.09.1948-03.08.2023). Ich kannte ihn nicht besonders gut, aber wir waren einige Male zu zauberhistorischen Themen im Austausch. Er war stets freundlich und hilfsbereit und von ausgesuchter Höflichkeit – ein Mensch und Zauberer alter Schule im besten Wortsinn, der vor allem die Klassiker schätzte. Immer in guter Erinnerung bleiben wird mir der Marvelli-Abend, den Dieter Daniel 2016 im Ortszirkel Frankfurt gestaltete (siehe unten) und in dem er zahlreiche Routinen von Olof Becher-Marvelli, mit dem er wohl gut befreundet war, souverän und effekvoll vorführte, inklusive der geschliffenen Originaltexte. Möge auch er in Frieden beim Allergrößten Zauberer ruhen!
It’s been four years since the last EMHC 2019 in Vienna, four long years, thanks to COVID, its creators, superspreaders, and ignoramuses (yes, that’s a regular word!), but finally the community of European magic historians and hobbyists has managed to reassemble! Thanks to the joint effort of Herman Dufraing, Nikolaas Maartens, Luc Poppe and Kobe Van Herwegen, 120 of us were invited to the beautiful city of Ghent (or Gent, in local writing) in Belgium and treated to four wonderful days of magic and mirth. As a positive side effect of COVID, many magic fellows had used this forced hiatus of business and public life for completing their recent studies and books, and it showed in the abundant program.
The venue for our community’s sold-out reunion was well chosen. We lodged and met at Monasterium PoortAckere, a neo-gothic former monastery, to reflect quietly, but enthusiastically, and safely removed from the craziness of the bustling world outside, on characters and tricks from times long gone. The conference was held inside its inhouse chapel, giving it an impressive framework so much nicer than your average hotel’s demure conference hall.
The link between religion, belief and make-believe echoing in the chapel was inspiring, and it was nicely symbolized by some photos of happy nuns at the hotel‘s reception area: On closer inspection, we found that the nuns were deceptively composed of hundreds of tiny images of buns and other female body parts!
The conference took off on Thursday afternoon with registration and welcome words of the hosts at the House of Mysteries, a small charming magic theater, located just a few minutes walk away from the hotel. The first presentation by Jack Cooper featured legendary Italian quick change artist, impersonator and conjurer LeopoldoFregoli (1867-1936) both with a talk and a nice exhibition. Jack has spent 25 years collecting and researching Fregoliana, and it showed. How about these figures: Fregoli played a three-hour show with a full orchestra, and went through more than 100 changes per night. He performed 300 shows per year and thus advertised, unlike others, when he did not perform: on Mondays. His show took 23 assistants and 30 tons of props and clothing in four wagons several times around the world. In his prime, he earned twelve times more than a French minister. He also dabbled early in cinema and presented films with his very own “fregoligraph”. As some video clips revealed, Fregoli also performed “slow changes” by undressing layer after layer of clothes, a variation of the art that has apparently (and thankfully) been lost over time.
Friday and Saturday offered a full schedule of more than 20 lectures (which I will not cover to full extent, both for your and my sake) plus varied evening entertainment. Francois Bost had the honor of opening the great line-up of speakers, and he dedicated his presentation to the memory of Jacques Voignier (1936-2022), eminent magic historian and first initiator of EMHC in Paris (2008 and 2015). Bost traced the influence of 18th century magic on Robert-Houdin, who continued the Enlightenment and embraced it fully, both as an inventor and performer. His “integration into the upper echolons of society of his time had no equivalent for the magicians of his time”, Bost said. According to him, Robert-Houdin made “brilliant use of the legacy of the Enlightenment” and never denied these influences – but his biographers did.
Also dealing with the “father of modern magic” was Georges Naudet. He has discovered three previously unknown playbills for Robert-Houdin in Belgium, performing in Mons near Ghent (actually, most Belgian cities are pretty close to one another, when you think about it) on his route back from England to France, and he wove a loong story around them.
Adventures and anecdotes
More than a few speakers chose a biographical approach and renarrated some performers‘ lives along the linear timelime, often drawing on their already published books and colorfully illustrated with scores of Powerpoint slides.
Charles Greene III gave a very engaging presentation on Ionia a.k.a. Clementine de Vere (1888-1973). She lived a full live despite the fact that her magic career only lasted from 1910 to 1913. (Her last performance actually took place on the stage of Berlin’s Palast am Zoo.) Drawing on his book on Ionia and more recent research, Greene told us how she survived the Russian Revolution (rather comfortably, not locked) in the basement of her Moscow luxury hotel right across the Kremlin, married a rich nobleman, owned a restaurant in Paris for ten years and had her own perfume brand that was sold globally (a feat that not even David Copperfield has matched yet!).
Greene also connected with Ionia’s family and found, to his surprise, that her granddaughter didn’t know about her magic career at all! Due to his tireless research and charming gate-crashing we finally learned that Ionia’s bedroom at her last home at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat even had two windows with a spectacular view on the Mediterranean Sea. Whew! (BTW, Charles has a new booklet out on The Complete History of Friedländer Lithography.)
Speaking of extensive travelling, Fergus Roy measured the breath-taking life and travels of Murray (1901-1988) in terms of miles rather than of achievements (although it was him, and not Houdini, who made the word “escapologist” universally known). At the age of 17, the escape-artist-to-be left his native Australia for Vancouver, Canada. The fact that he had never seen snow before in his life did not prevent him from a roundtrip up and down the Yukon river in Alaska in the wintertime. For a climate change, he joined an Amazon expedition next and had already concluded his first world tour by 1920. What surely helped him was the benign fact that, unlike his co-travellers, he never contracted a tropical disease.
In August 1939, Murray performed in Berlin at the Wintergarten, and when the war broke out shortly after, he barely made his escape to Copenhagen. Throughout his career, Fergus measured, Murray must have visited 95 countries and travelled more than 600,000 kilometers – about 15 times more than what Marco Polo, the godfather of all world travelers, had ever managed!
In contrast, James ‘Jim’ Hagy’s topic was limited in terms of geography, but not in depth. He has extensively researched the life and times of John Grdina (1885-1975), “The Instant Illusionist”, and his Cleveland bunch, a group of aspiring magicians dreaming of vaudeville fame. Names like Pereira, Scheidler and Wagner flew by, then Freund and Hartz and Kalma (who popularized the Floating Ball long before Okito) – “working class magicians for working class audiences”, as Jim labeled them. Fortunately, he’s written a whole book about this group (327 pages and 1,350 footnotes!) , and he graciously handed out a free copy to every attendant. Wow! (By the way, Jim started his career as a magic publisher at the age of eleven (!). Currently, he puts out a fine periodical on magic history called Perennial Mystics Squared, and if you are seriously interested, you should get in touch with him. And yes, it’s also free!)
Kobe Van Herwegen dealt with the life and work of Jean Lambert Pickman (1857-1925), a Belgian magician, card manipulator, hypnotist, mindreader and impostor. Most attendees (including me) had never heard of him before, although he was big in his time. He traveled many countries and performed in over 500 venues. Pickman was a master of publicity stunts and rumoured to have real magical powers, but, alas, before his death he admitted that it all had been just “quackery and imagination”…
Mike Caveney brought Turkish illusionist Zati Sungur (1898-1984) to the attention of the audience and shared some of his illusions, drawing on many unpublished photos he had obtained through correspondence with Sungur’s daughter, Aynur. According to Mike, this master illusionist was “years ahead of his time” and must be credited, among other things, with the invention of the Thin Model Sawing a Lady in Half illusion in 1932. As a young man, Sungur had studied submarine engineering in Flensburg, Germany. In Cologne, Alois Kassner encouraged him to pursue a magic career instead of his factory job. He also invented “Shooting a Cannon Ball Through a Lady” and became friends with Kalanag. You can find more about him in Mike’s most recent books One Hundred Years of Sawing and The Final Conference Illusions. Fun fact: By now, Mike has spent over 50 years of research on sawing ladies, starting with a term paper back at college!
I’m not sure if Dick Koornwinder came by Kar (please pardon the pun), but he certainly came to Ghent in order to share some anecdotes about the late, great Fred Kaps, whom he had befriended early in his life. Besides catching a glimpse of Kaps’s early notebooks, we learned that
the short and snappy stage name KAPS was apparently inspired by an ad for suits of the brand DAKS
the famous press photo showing Kaps balancing some dice on top of a cup and defying gravity did not come about by the use of glue or trick photography; in fact, the picture was taken with Kaps standing upright, and then it was simply cut out diagonally to great effect
Fred’s famous Endless Salt Pour routine was probably triggered by an ad for Cerebos salt with the slogan “See how it runs” and an appropriate image.
Ali Bongo (1929-2009), another magic legend, received his tribute by his “adopted nephew”, Rafael. He had brought a table full of original props from the zany “shriek of Araby”, performed some of them and shared with us a selection of Bongo’s lovely art work, including the hand-drawn original draft of the now famous folded and growing Bongo Hat.
For those of you who might argue that presentations like the latter two are probably a bit too much “above the surface” to be discussed at a venerable magic history conference, allow me to disagree. First, I wouldn’t enjoy a full conference that only stacks heavily footnoted academic presentations onto one another; I’d be dead by noon of the second day, at the latest! Second, I feel that oral history, and that includes anecdotes and bits and pieces not found in books and footnotes, is also an important part of the historian’s arsenal. Third, a lighter approach serves as a nice and most welcome break between heavier topics and may sometimes remind us that we are in the entertainment business, after all!
But there was more academic and more topical stuff to come! Ian Keable tackled a phenomenon most of us will have encountered at one point or another: the mixing and confusing of the Cups and Balls (as entertainment) with Thimble Rigging (as a money-making con game) in public imagery. While never hiding his comedy magician pedigree (and why should he?), Ian guided us through a lovely collection of old prints to prove his points. According to him, Thimble Rigging took off in 19th century England at the races and is well documented both in racing prints and cartoons, including 20 mentions in Punch magazine. French imagery of the time, however, showed the „exact opposite“ and made heavy use of the Cups and Balls as a symbol for political and other tricksters, as can be studied in Volker Huber’s edition of Bob Read’s famous collection of prints, The Oldest Trick in the Book. Finally, Ian shared that he had worked over Bob’s own manuscript during two COVID years, and he hopes to get it published as an appendix to the Huber book in the future.
Academic excellence
A favorite topic of mine is the intersection of magic and photography/film, so I was delighted to hear the presentation of Frédéric Tabet and Pierre Taillefer who looked at “Magicians facing photography” in the second half of the 19th century. Clever magi quickly embraced the technical advances in photography and exploited them in various ways. The once unique and irreproducible portrait photographs developed further into visiting cards and cabinet cards which could suddenly be printed in dozens and thus be used for promotion purposes. Joseph Velle became the probably most photographed (or “copied”, rather) magician of his time, as he enjoyed propelling loads of his photo cards into the audience. By spreading their images, magicians also helped in spreading photography.
Other interesting examples of this talk included early trickery with photography; staging the short “frozen” moment of a magic effect with actors who had to stay in pose for up to 20 minutes; and early stereoscopic images which the EMHC audience eyed through 3-D glasses with red and cyan filters. To accompany their compelling presentation, Frédéric and Pierre have diligently produced two booklets which I highly recommend.
Noted magic historian Steffen Taut was the only German fellow who had made it onto the agenda (There were far more applications than speaker slots, I was told by one of our hosts.) He has spent more than 20 years meticulously researching the Westcar Papyrus and the context of Djedi’s (not Dedi’s) famous performance described in it, which has brought him the recognition and acclaim of leading egyptololologists. His conclusions have recently been published in much detail (see Gibecière 35, Winter 2023), so I can be brief here: The Djedi story is not a report, but a piece of fiction. Djedi was not a conjurer, but a high-ranking heka priest. As known from other sources, these priests did, in fact, perform tricks. So this may actually be where magic took its starting point: in religious rituals and wonder-making for a greater purpose than a laugh and a dime.
Conclusion: “The court conjurer Dedi” is finally another magic myth busted. May he rest in peace in the tomb of Beni Hasan, together with those cups-and-balls-fakin‘ bakers!
An excerpt from the Westcar Papyrus (Hint: Read it from right to left!)
Speaking of strictly academic approaches, the Saturday morning session was dedicated to two interdisciplinary projects that are up and running at the University of Antwerpen. Two professors and five PhD/postdoc researchers presented snapshots of their ongoing research on “SciFair – Magic, science and the otherworldly” and “B-Magic: Magic, technology and showmanship”.
A brief overview must do (see web links above for more): Hannah Welslau looked for spirits at Belgian fairgrounds; Tim Overkempe showed that X-ray imagery enjoyed a short career as magical science and fairground entertainment; Evelien Jonckheere traced the shadows on the enigmatic performer Mélidès, who might actually have been young George Méliès (just skip the “d” in the name!), but this is pending confirmation. Professors Kurt Vanhoutte and Nele Wynants looked at the many faces of Henri Robin and at Vanishing Ladies on stage and in magic’s history, respectively; Eleonora Paklons enlighted us on the magic lantern performances of George R. Tweedie, while Thibaut Rioult closed the session by tracing the foundation of modern illusionism from the concept of mannerism.
Though partly strict on academic habits, I found this session most rewarding, as it proved again the value of looking at magic phenomena through the lens of neighboring disciplines and with (a different) academic background and specific hypotheses. If only we collaborated more among like-minded people, I’m sure many of our findings would be so much richer!
Serving Servais
The final speaker slot of the conference was appropriately dedicated to Belgium’s “monarch of magic”, Servais Le Roy (1865-1953). He personified the Golden Age of magic and had, according to Houdini, “the greatest magical act in the history.” (Incidentally, the Potter&Potter auction on that same Saturday presented no other than Le Roy on the cover of their catalogue!) Paul Kieve, global magic consultant and creator of stage illusions, chose a few significant Le Roy objects to shine a spotlight on some interesting aspects of this inventor’s and performer’s life and promised to reveal some “amazing new information.” And he did!
To start with trivia: Did you know that the elegant magician shown on rock band Blue Öyster Cult’s 1976 album “Agents of Fortune” was painted by artist Lynn Curlee after a photograph of Le Roy? There you go!
From left to right: EMHC co-hosts Herman Dufraing, Kobe Van Herwegen, Nikolaas Martens; Abigail Grater, Paul Kieve
But slightly more relevant in magic’s history are his inventions of the Asrah principle, the horizontal stripes on illusion tables in order to camouflage their depth and using doubles and switches in illusions, as Paul pointed out. He also showed some previously unseen images from Le Roy’s scrapbooks (courtesy David Copperfield) and created a truly magical moment when he finally made Abigail Grater, a great granddaughter of the illusionist, appear (although she only walked up to the stage) to great applause! Through his research and persistence, he had actually brought the descendants from Servais Le Roy’s two families (with his wife and with his partner, Talma) together. Another example of how rewarding it can be to track down today’s family members of the late and great! Sometimes they even have a hitherto unknown poster in their attic…
Finally, the location of the next EMHC 2025 was revealed: It will be held in Riga, Latvia and hosted by the energetic Italian Enrico Pezzoli, a long-term expat in Riga, and his wife and partner, Dace. They run their own magic theater and museum called MYSTERO there. It was fun to see how enthusiastic both were in promoting their city and venue and welcoming our curious bunch there in two years time. I’m sure they’ll do great, and I will certainly try to be there! Dates will be August 21-24, 2025, and registrations are already open.
Entertainment nightly
The three evenings of the conference were also well organized and offered varied entertainments. Opening night on Thursday gave us a nice welcome barbecue in the courtyard of the Huis van Alijn museum, followed by a charming Laterna Magica show ably performed three times for small groups of us by Ditmar Bollaert and Els Prevenier, who were also accompanied by a spot-on two-man band for piano and sound effects behind the curtain. If you sat near the double magic lantern projector, you could see and hear the hard work, drill and timing of the performers that goes into inserting, animating and exchanging the magic slides at appropriate speed. Truly magical, though likely not as scary as centuries ago when the first ghosts floated over the screen and when innocent people suddenly exchanged their heads with animals or turned into skeletons!
Friday night saw the attendees back in the House of Mysteries, after a reception at the City Hall (with an interesting labyrinth design on the marble floor) and a joint dinner over spare ribs and king prawns, for a magic history quiz set up by Hermann Dufraing and hosted by Marco Pusterla. In groups of five, the teams had to answer a few dozen questions (some really tricky!), had to identify magic posters from which the names had been removed and had to connect performers‘ birth names with their stage names. Fun and beer were had by all.
Not surprisingly, “Team America” (Steve Beam, Mike Caveney, John Gaughan, Charles Greene III, Jim Hagy) took first prize with aplomb; but then, these heavyweights of magic brought about 400 years of experience to the game (I may be exaggerating)! Excuse me for proudly documenting for posterity here that our very own Anglo-Belgian-German team, “Kalanag’s Mystery Girls” (Jonathan Allen, Jan Isenbart, Rafael, Uwe Schenk, Convin Splettsen), came in second, and we were very happy to receive a signed copy each of the brand-new book Magical Minard: Evenings of Wonder (see below), produced by Mystery Lab and co-written by many of the Belgian EMHC speakers. – I do hope and predict that magic quizzes will appear more often on the bill of future conferences!
Team AmericaTeam Kalanag’s Mystery Girls
Saturday night is traditional gala night, so we were invited to the wonderful Minard theater that took us back 150 years in time, red curtain, golden decorum and high balconies included! Rafael with his many props and zany ideas took us swiftly through a varied all-male (!) program featuring Belgian and Dutch performers Jack Cooper, Jonas De Bruyn, Fritz (Alkemade), Gili, Kevin Laurens and Tim Oelbrandt, who covered a wide magic range from comedy, mentalism and shadowgraphy to manipulation and illusions.
Now you might argue that cutting playing card symbols from a newspaper, vanishing a 1970s stereo system and sawing through a lady who was rope-tied around her neck and ankles is not quite in line with our present time and taste anymore; but then, isn’t most of magic? Can‘t we take it as a nod to magic’s rich history, especially in this venerable venue? I’ve heard mixed opinions about this issue, but I enjoyed the show as much as the laymen (and laywomen, I’m told to write) seated behind and above us, the magic experts and critics, did.
Worldly Business
Sunday morning saw the chapel bustling with wordly business, participants worshipping the artefacts and ephemara of magic history, wheeling and dealing in the endless cycle of BOSS (buying, owning, swapping, selling). After two days of quietly sitting and listening, it was finally time to bring out your elbows in the crowd, speed-leaf through folders and rummage through boxes on the hunt for that rare program, print or autograph. It was here that grown men and serious scholars turned into frenzied collectors and happy children, and I think both buyers and sellers enjoyed the jolly dance around at least one truckload of magic wonders.
And then it was time for good-byes and another big thank you to our four hosts Nikolaas, Herman, Kobe and Luc, who had run such a smooth and varied conference and who had gone out of their way to make everyone happy and comfortable over the course of four days!
Some concluding thoughts and observations
The (same) time allotted to each speaker does not necessarily correlate with the number of relevant bits of information in each talk. However, one must compliment almost all speakers for their strict time management.
Some speakers seemed to struggle more with the English language (or their computers) than with their research topic. Blessed are our British and American friends who shall never worry about such matters!
Cheesy Powerpoint animations are okay for a laugh here and there, but they rarely do justice to the topic nor do they elevate the art.
As documented above, the program was a bit heavy on the biographical side. Therefore, what I did miss were two or three topics for collectors and the occasional off-beat topic or interview or discussion on stage.
Quite a few speakers dwelled on their previously published books and articles (and, to be fair, sometimes enhanced them with more recent findings). That’s fine, but if you had already read a few of these, the news value was limited here. I think many listeners would prefer it the other way round: speakers giving an exclusive preview of their upcoming works and then using the collective intelligence of the audience (their wisdom and collections) to take things further.
Of course, we are a secretive bunch and like to fiddle with our topic on our own before we step on stage. Therefore, collaborations seem far and few, but they can harvest big rewards. (In all modesty, please check out Jonathan Allen’s and my co-work on Kalanag’s marvelous Polaroid trick as an example; it can certainly pay off to examine a topic across cultures and language barriers.) So maybe it’s time to add “collaborate” to Eddie Dawes’s famous dictum “to collect – collate – communiciate”?!
Curtain
Leaving the secluded spot happily after a few days, I suddenly realized that there are more ties to the non-magic world outside than you probably would have imagined: Putin made Prigoschin vanish without flashing; in Gabun, president Ali Bongo (sic!) Ondimba was struggling with his reelection; and just as I was driving out of town, the radio started playing “Could It Be Magic” by Barry Manilow (a song I had actually never heard before). Well, it could, couldn’t it?
Following up on our research on Kalanag’s innovative Polaroid trick (see last post below), I thought I’d also join in the ChatGPT hype and jeer and see what this supposedly smart internet vacuum cleaner would claim to “know”…
Question:
What magic trick did Kalanag (Helmut Schreiber, 1903-1963) perform with the Polaroid Land 95 camera after 1948?
ChatGPT answer:
“Kalanag was a renowned German magician and illusionist known for his extravagant stage shows and daring feats. One of his most famous tricks involved the Polaroid Land 95 camera, which he began using after 1948.
The trick involved taking a photograph of a person or object, then immediately producing a fully formed, 3D version of that object on stage. The camera was mounted on a special rig that allowed it to take two photographs simultaneously, one on a normal negative and one on a special film developed by Polaroid.
Kalanag would then pull the developed Polaroid film from the camera and expose it to a special solution, causing the image to develop into a miniature, fully formed replica of the original object. The replica would then be pulled from the solution and presented to the audience.
This trick was a sensation at the time, and Kalanag’s use of the Polaroid Land 95 camera helped to popularize the camera and its innovative instant development technology.”
Uh-huh, yeah, well, umm… no, not at all! But you have to admire the chutzpa and nonchalance with which this tricky tool presents its “knowledge”! And granted, there may actually be a good idea hidden in this historical muddle…
After more than two years of joint research, I am very happy to report that Jonathan Allen‘s and my article has just been published in the ambitious Cabinet magazine!
In it, we trace the story of a rather fascinating yet mostly overlooked magic trick created in 1948 by German magician Helmut Schreiber (1903-1963), known to the world as ‘Kalanag’ in his time. By secretly employing the brandnew Polaroid Land camera, which was still unknown to the public, he added an extra “kicker” to an already astonishing trick, the Broken and Restored Watch, by handing the helping spectator a souvenir photo that had been taken on stage only a moment ago.
Until now, Kalanag’s pioneering role as a creative Polaroid artist seems to have gone unnoticed amongst historians of both photography and magic. This is even more surprising, as some early programs of his magic revue “Simsalabim” indicate that Kalanag already had a Polaroid camera in secret use several months before its official market launch in the U.S.!
Nach jahrelanger Arbeit ist nun das definitive Werk rund um zauberhafte Exlibris erschienen. Magic Bookplates von Jim Alfredson und Bernhard Schmitz präsentiert etwa 1.300 Exemplare von mehr als 900 Zauberern und Zaubersammlern. Das großformatige Hardcover-Buch mit über 480 Seiten Umfang wurde in 300 Exemplaren aufgelegt. Mehr Infos dazu und die Bestellmöglichkeit finden sich hier.
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Wittus Witt steht vor der Eröffnung seines eigenen Zaubermuseums in Hamburg. Offizielle Eröffnung ist am 18. Dezember um 12 Uhr. Die Adresse lautet Hansaplatz 8 in 20099 Hamburg.
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Peter Rawert hat seine juristische Laufbahn beendet und ist in den Ruhestand eingetreten. Wie seine neue Webseite zeigt, verfolgt er mit dem Projekt der Bibliotheca Magica seine Forschungen und Veröffentlichungen rund um die Geschichte der Zauberkunst weiter. Wir dürfen uns also auf zahlreiche weitere spannende Artikel aus seiner Feder freuen!
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Unser britischer Zauberfreund Jonathan Allen hat vor einigen Jahren in den Tiefen des Archivs des Magic Circle ein rares, handgemaltes Tarot-Deck von Austin Osman Spare entdeckt. Das seinerzeit dazu erschienene und längst vergriffene Buch wird nun in erweiterter Fassung neu aufgelegt und zusammen mit einem Nachdruck des Spiels veröffentlicht. Das bereits erfolgreiche Kickstarter-Projekt hierzu läuft noch ein paar Tage und dürfte für Freunde des Tarot wie auch für Zauberer und Mentalisten, die mit diesen Karten arbeiten, von Interesse sein.
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Thomas Gundlach lädt vom 13. bis 16. April 2023 zum 30. Treffen der Zauberhistoriker und -sammler nach Hamburg. Die Anzahl der Plätze ist begrenzt. Informationen und Anmeldung per Mail unter thomasgundlach (at) wtnet (.) de.
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International treffen sich die Zauberhistoriker und -sammler im August 2023 zur 9. European Magic History Conference im belgischen Ghent. Die Organisatoren sind Herman Dufraing, Nikolaas Martens, Luc Poppe und Kobe Van Herwegen. Mehr Informationen und Anmeldung hier.
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Das Vanish Magazine von Paul Romhany feiert seine 100. Ausgabe, und diese ist hier kostenlos anzusehen.
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Debbie McGhee bringt dieser Tage fast 800 Stücke aus dem Nachlass von Paul Daniels unter den Hammer, darunter fast 400 Poster. Die Auktion findet am 23. und 24. November bei Special Auction Services (SAS) statt und kann online hier betrachtet werden. Erwartet wird ein Erlös von bis zu 200.000 brit. Pfund.
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Thus quoth the Maven, “Nevermore…” – Die Zauberwelt trauert um einen ihrer Größten: Max Maven ist am 1. November verstorben. Wie schön, dass er jüngst bei der FISM noch auf großer Bühne für seine immensen Verdienste um die magische Kunst emotional gefeiert wurde! Wittus Witt hat flugs ein Sonderheft in deutscher und englischer Version produziert, das hier kostenlos heruntergeladen werden kann.
ZZZAUBER 