By David Charvet

Ade Duval was one of the great specialty magic/variety acts that flourished during the transitional entertainment era between 1925 and 1955. It was a pivotal time when show business evolved from vaudeville to revue shows, nightclubs, and then television. Duval achieved success in all of those mediums. He was as famous as Cardini, and they played the same top spots around the world, even twice working on the same bill together for the public. Duval even went on to make innumerable guest appearances on network television, a medium that Cardini effectively shunned. So why today has the name Duval slipped through the cracks and become little more than a footnote in magic history?
There is no good reason.

Words by Alan Howard, Photos by Damon Webster

The eleventh Los Angeles Conference on Magic History is now history itself.

Held as in the past at Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn in North Hollywood, the November 5–7 event marked twenty years since the first of the biennial conferences. Organizers Mike Caveney, John Gaughan, Frankie Glass, and Jim Steinmeyer hosted 250 conjuring enthusiasts for three days of historical presentations, performances, and viewings of collectibles, including those for sale in the dealer rooms.

By Kevin Burke

The Magic Cabaret, a show that can be seen every Wednesday night at the Greenhouse Theater Center in Chicago, is full of surprises. The show opened two years ago at the Biograph Theater, before moving a few blocks away to the Greenhouse last year. At The Magic Cabaret, the sense of wonder is conjured up in a way that is fun and frequently funny, but with an undercurrent of something dark and mysterious, and possibly dangerous. There is talk of zombies and incantations. A meal of sewing needles is washed down with a whiskey chaser. Even a pleasant visit to the World’s Fair has a dark side.

By Pete McCabe

At this year’s MAGIC Live!, Pete McCabe presented a one-hour Elective on “Scripting Magic.” For this, he prepared the exact opposite of a traditional magic lecture: a series of creative exercises that included a brief explanation and an example, after which all the participants started writing, followed by sharing in small groups. With only sixty minutes to present a wealth of material, Pete was unable to get to all of the exercises he had planned, including  “MIT” a fun way to generate ideas for presenting magic.”

Television Magic at the Falls
Greg Frewin will star in a new television magic special to be broadcast in Canada on the CBC, December 9 at 9 p.m. Titled Greg Frewin, Magic Man: Home for the Holidays, the show combines stage illusions and street magic, and follows Greg as he creates and builds a large illusion for the finale of the program. Frewin describes the latter segments as being “like American Choppers meets magic.”

Magical Kenya
This past October, Jorge Blass led a group of magicians in performing more than twenty shows in Kenya. The project was organized by the Abracadabra Foundation, a nonprofit foundation that brings magic to children’s hospitals, care centers, and elsewhere.

Radnevsky’s Real Magic
While Anton Radnevsky never really existed, he was brought to life last fall in a new theatrical production, Radnevsky’s Real Magic, staged in New York City at La MaMa E.T.C., a theater company known for experimental works. Peter Samelson inhabited the title character, showcasing his magic within the play. “The goal was not to create a play with ancillary magic,” says Samelson, “and not to stage a magic show using a plot as a wrapper,” but to merge the two into a theatrical evening filled with magic.

It’s Magic 2009
The 53rd edition of Milt Larsen & Terry Hill’s It’s Magic took place in Hollywood’s Kodak Theater on Sunday, November 8. Milt served as host for the two-and-a-quarter hour show, which played to a crowd of 1,900.

Ringling’s Illuscination
Like last year’s production of Zing Zang Zoom [see MAGIC, February 2009], the latest show from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey again turns the circus’ attention to magic. Titled Illuscination, the 2009 Gold Unit brings magician David DaVinci into the starring role.

Carl Ballantine, 1917 – 2009
The Amazing Ballantine, “The World’s Greatest Magician,” amazed them all by living to the ripe old age of 92 and by being an icon to generations of fans. On November 3, he died peacefully in his sleep and with a smile on his face

Fourteen products are covered this month by Peter Duffie, Gabe Fajuri, Brad Henderson, and John Lovick:

Magic by Design: Study, Practice, and Presentation by John Carney.
Guru by Jay Crowe.
The Book of Forgotten Secrets by Stephen Minch
Lunch Date by Paul Romhany
Animal Bands by Liam Montier
Technique & Understanding by Jim Steinmeyer
The Magic of Michael Ammar, Volumes 1–4 
You Don’t Have to be Crazy But it Helps! by Frances Ireland
Annemann: The Life and Times of a Legend
Twist3 by Michael Paul
The Davenport Story Vol. 1: The Life and Times of a Magical Family 1881–1939 by Fergus Roy
Symphony starring Daniel Garcia
Crooked by Kevin Parker
Stain/Shiv by Andrew Mayne

Andrew Mayne takes over “Talk About Tricks” this month. You’ll learn a close-up self-levitation (that’s a first for this department), a card trick involving mice, how to eat pocket change, and a bowling ball production.

It’s absolutely true: in watching other performers, we can see ourselves. We sometimes make the same mistakes or the same brilliant choices, but don’t recognize them until we observe them in someone else. Through this series of articles, enhanced by the accompanying videos you can find at www.MAGICmagazine.com, you can learn from watching other performers as I gently point out ways that their material can be improved, as well as the aspects of their acts that are working well. Although they refer directly to the video in question, these points also carry over as general principles of performing. There are many right ways of doing things, and these are a few options.