The Magic & Illusion Show Monthly Newsletter

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1 Wes Iseli & Party Magic The Magic & Illusion Show Monthly Newsletter Volume 2,Issue 4 Special points of interest: Our public show schedule A magic show review Magic news Trick of the month Entertainment news Party Magic news We re back Well it is officially tax season and while most people are only worrying about taxes and where they re going to come up with enough cash to cover the bill, I also have my wife's birthday to take care of. Natalie s birthday is on tax day April 15th and she is turning 25 this year. I'm just not sure what else she could want, she already has me. On second thought, she may just have a list. As always we have a lot of private shows scheduled. Schools, churches, family shows and more. April 2009 Inside this issue: Who are these guys? 1 We don t have any upcoming public shows but our schedule changes daily. Since this is Natalie's birthday month I let her pick the Quote, and if you know her this is very fitting since she is not a morning person. Quote of the month I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. Theodore Roosevelt Natalie with General Grant. He is an amazing dove worker who took her under his wing and told her some secrets in magic that he said he had never told anyone else; not even his wife. She met him at (MAES) or Magicians Alliance of Eastern States convention in Pennsylvania last fall. Springtime with Party Magic Magic News / Congrats Kevin James Entertainment News / Goodbye Follies Wes & Nat at career day 3 Wes & Nat on TV 4 Wes s Lecture review Who are these guys? Penn & Teller are a huge name in magic nowadays. They are very original and are very funny. I have been a fan of theirs since I saw P&T go public on PBS in They are known as the bad boys of magic. They performed a cups and balls routine with clear plastic cups so everyone could see how the trick was done, but to the amazement of everyone they were somehow still able to fool you. They have guest starred on several TV shows such as The Simpson's, Hollywood Squares, Fear Factor, and many more. I got to meet P&T for the first time in 2003 while they were performing in Richmond VA and I was beside myself with excitement. The

2 Who are these guys? (cont.) show did not start until 7:30 pm, but I got to the theatre with my then girlfriend around 3:00 pm. We had dinner at a restaurant nearby, but I could not eat because I was too excited. Then when they opened the doors to the theatre to let people into the lobby I was surprised how many people still did not know who P&T were. The people we were sitting beside were just coming to see a show because they had season tickets to that theatre. The show was great and even though they are anti religion and a little over the top they put on a great show. This is not a show for the children! P&T s signature effects are pretty gross usually involving blood, huge Madagascar hissing cockroaches, or something violent happening to Teller. As far as originality it is hard to beat P&T. They have run over Teller with an 18 wheeler, Teller s straight jacket escape over a bed of nails, and their Casey at the Bat is not only very dangerous but very funny also. Their newest and most dangerous trick is a classic of magic, the bullet catch. They have a signed bullet shot from a gun only to be caught across stage in Penn's mouth. This is the most dangerous trick in all of magic because this trick has killed more than 13 magicians. If you are ever in Vegas and you get a moment alone without the kids go check out this show, you won t regret it. You will definitely see amazing magic and have some belly laughs in the process. PAGE 2 Pictures are of Penn & me, me & Teller, and Penn & Teller in front of their hotel The RIO in Las Vegas posing with their new wrap on the building Springtime with Party Magic You know it is officially springtime when some of the staff here at Party Magic start nesting. Every spring like clockwork the ducks are laying on eggs and the bunnies are allowed to breed. This is a fun time of year for me & Natalie because we are both such animal lovers. The pictures below are of our batch of bunnies from last spring and one of our ducks from around the same time. The bunnies in the picture below are only 2 days old and the duck is a week old. We now have a mom bunny ready to pop and we are waiting on our new ducks to start nesting. When you see us this summer at a show near you, be sure to ask about our new baby bunnies. They will probably be magically produced sometime during the show. As far as the ducks, we only use them in some county fair shows and a few of our larger stage shows. Enjoy your spring and remember to take time to smell the flowers!! Magic News / Congratulations Kevin James! The Magic Castle s Academy of Magical Arts held its 41st annual awards banquet at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood on March 8th. The event was hosted and co-produced by Neil Patrick Harris. Although there are several categories, probably the most coveted is Stage Magician of the year and this year that award went to Kevin James. Congratulations Kevin, you deserve it! In other news: Kevin was interviewed by a magic magazine about being on America s Got Talent. Kevin performed on America s Got Talent several years ago and was doing a great job until Simon Cowell from American Idol called him up and asked him to do an effect he had not planned on doing. Kevin said, he owns the show you kind of have to do what he tells you to. The next week he did the trick Simon asked and the judges tore him apart and he was voted off of the show. All in all the experience was bitter sweet, his magic was seen on a national level but the end was embarrassing and he was kicked off and edited out without being able to explain his side. Reality shows can kill you in editing, take it from Kevin!

3 PAGE 3 Entertainment News / longest running show in Vegas ends The Las Vegas show, The Follies Bergere at the Tropicana hotel & casino ended on March 28th 2009 after a 49 year run. The Tropicana billed themselves as the home of the most beautiful women in the world. Why is this so significant in a magic newsletter? Because the Follies featured magic during the show and was the starting point for a lot of today's big name magicians such as; Dirk Arthur, Carl Ballantine, Harry Blackstone Jr., Lance Burton, Jason Byrne, Paul Daniels, Charlie Frye & co, Christopher Hart, Kevin James, Mark Kalin & Jinger, Mark Kornhauser, Channing Pollock, Peter Reveen, Marvyn Roy, Siegfried & Roy, Silvan, Johnny Thompson, Fielding West & more. The list of names mentioned above are some of the best names in magic today, although some have since passed. This just goes to show you that the Follies show was good to the magic community and only employed the best. The Follies was the longest running show on the Vegas strip and employed a cast of nearly fifty with thirty plus stage hands. The replacement for the 950 seat theater has not yet been announced, but a Tropicana spokesperson said It will be contracted to an outside producer. It truly is an end of an era! Career day at William Monroe Middle School Natalie & I were asked to come and speak with the 7th & 8th graders at William Monroe Middle School about being full time performers. We were told by the guidance counselor, Lori Richardson, that a large number of kids this year showed an interest in becoming an entertainer. I spoke with them about the advantages and disadvantages of being on the road so much & the fact that it is not as easy as it looks on TV. We also went over the importance of a business back ground as well as drama experience. Natalie & I had three groups in 25 minute sessions. Once we gave our speech and showed them our demo tape, we took questions and then I performed a few quick tricks for them. I performed my sponge ball routine, a signed torn & restored card effect, & last but not least, my cards across. Everyone seemed to have a good time and I hope I taught them a few things during our short visit. Natalie & I had fun but a 7:30 am arrival time is never easy, especially for Natalie. I also mentioned to the kids that when we were not on the road we usually slept in and made our own hours, which is a definite advantage for us. We are both night owls and with this line of work 99% of shows are in the evening. Good luck kids! Our new web site is now up & running It is official! wesiseli.com launched and it looks great! We worked with a guy named Ken Kotarski with Web O Matics. Ken met with me & Natalie, he asked us a few questions, and designed us a new site beyond anything we could have imagined. The new site has our 6 minute commercial on it, an archival page to read our old newsletters, a full description of the different kinds of shows we do, my bio page, The Magic & Illusion show info page, a list of our current and past corporate clients, a magic shop and much, much more. The cool thing is he was not done there, he is also going to add the new newsletters to the site each month and also host my site for me. Ken is a super nice guy and I would recommend him highly to anyone wanting to put together a professional web site. Thanks again Ken! Check out wesiseli.com

4 Wes Iseli on Virginia Living Television On March 17th, I was invited to Virginia Living Television to be interviewed. Natalie & I showed up around 1:00 pm and I was interviewed for about 15 minutes then I did 10 minutes of magic. All together we were there for a little over an hour. This is for their community television channel, they said the segment would be around 30 minutes with commercials and would air a couple of times a month for around 6 months. We went over a lot in the 15 minute interview from how I got started in magic, to what it is like traveling around the East Coast performing our Illusion show, to promoting our new web site wesiseli.com. I felt like I did my magic fast paced because I had a lot to show in 10 minutes. I have been interviewed for TV several times in the past & I never know what I m getting into when I agree to these, but this crew was very professional. PAGE 4 we Thanks again Virginia Living Television for having us, had a lot of fun. Our lecture for the International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring 320 On Thursday March 26th Natalie & I performed our Real World Restaurant Lecture for the local members of the IBM. We started the lecture at 7:00 pm and lectured till 9:00 pm, teaching them the ins & outs of performing magic in a restaurant as well as office secrets and last but not least some of my favorite restaurant magic. Everyone seemed to have a great time and they told me they learned a lot. Natalie not only helped keep me on schedule but she also sold lecture notes and magic during the break and after the lecture. This was our first lecture on magic for magicians and this lecture will provide us with referrals and feedback that will help us perform more lectures in the future. We had a great time with this lecture but afterward we unfortunately could not hang around as is usual; we had a show at James Madison University that evening from 10:00 pm -12:00 midnight. Thanks again Ring 320 we had a great time! What are Magicians saying about our Illusion show? On March 26th the International Brotherhood of Magicians newsletter came out. This month s issue had a 2 page review of our full evening illusion show that took place on February 21st. They were full of kind words. Here are some excerpts: The other night I had the pleasure of attending Wes & Natalie Iseli s Magic & Illusion show. This was their 3rd season together and 1st season as husband and wife. They went over each effect and the great audience reactions. When Natalie did her doves and silk routine they said she received thunderous applause. When I performed the 100 foot rope escape it was to great laughter and applause as I escaped in record time. The finale came with Natalie convincing Wes that he needed to get in the mini cube. She hand cuffed him and placed him into the box. When the audience realized Natalie tricked him, giggles were heard throughout the audience. The tubes were pushed through and the blades slammed into place. Miraculously the cuffs were found to be laying inside each tube. You could almost feel the intake of air as each tube hit home and the following silence was almost eerie, then the explosion of applause. The tubes were removed and Wes stepped out, there was clapping, whistling and a standing ovation. There is something about sitting in the audience of a full stage magic show. I hope there is one kid in the audience who goes on to be as great a magician as Wes AND Natalie have become. Greene County had again seen Magic! All I can say is you should have been there. You Missed a great show.

5 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4 THE MAGIC &ILLUSION SHOW PAGE 5 WES ISELI & PARTY MAGIC Wes Iseli & Party Magic 580 Locust Lane Ruckersville, VA Phone: Fax: wesiseli@gmail.com We want your next event to be Magical! We re on the web visit us at wesiseli.com & Partymagic.us You can also see our commercial on youtube.com & myspace.com Just search Wes Iseli Jim Pace's "The Web" will out-impact any other effect in your repertoire. For those that want to go for the jugular and take no prisoners, the Web gets a more visceral reaction than any card effect ever created! In fact, there are some people you simply should not do this effect for because it starts out so innocently, yet ends with such a startling reaction! The effect, this makes 'em jump up and scream! Four blank cards are counted onto the spectator's palm up hand. Then pictures of spider webs appear and disappear from the faces of the cards. To conclude, the spectator is asked to wave his hands over the cards. As he does, he discovers a large, realistic spider on the back of his hand. The spider is undetectable, and you are way ahead! At the right time, in the right place, this receives an unprecedented response! Teach a Trick / Packet of cards levitation Effect: The magician puts 1 or 4 cards under his hand. He slowly lifts his hand and the cards float with his hand. Holding his hand above the table, the magician pulls the cards of his hand and drops them on the table. You will need: A ring, matchstick, card(s) Secret: 1. Put the ring on your middle finger. Then put the matchstick under the ring so that both sides of the match stick out. 2. Place your hand palms down on the table and place a card under your palm but above the matchstick. You need to practice this move to make it look like your just placing a card under your palm not above a matchstick. 3. Now you can lift your hand from the table. Press your fingers down a little on the back of the cards, they will remain in position and appear to be levitating.. Clean up: After the trick is over stand back from the cards and relax as you put your hands into your pocket. As the audience is looking at the cards on the table you are removing the match and dropping it into your pocket.