Snippets of News

Well, last week the mysterious white box that controls my access to the internet died in a puff of smoke and so my access to my own website and work has been limited. All was fixed yesterday thanks to the speedy response of my internet provider. You might think that a week was a long time to achieve that but with some internet providers people can end up waiting months. I am grateful it was only a week.

That, of course, means the work on my website is a week behind. Apologies to those waiting for the two remaining sections to completed.

Anyway, the news that should have been in my blog last week (if I was able to connect to the internet) is that there is an interview of me regarding my artwork in the latest issue of Magicseen. The article includes some samples of my portraits. A better reason to buy the magazine is the other articles; there are some really interesting ones. There is an interview with magical inventor Ben Harris, Craig Petty writing about gaffed coins and a feature on David Copperfield – which is something we do not see often in British Magic Magazines.

Those of you who have visited my updated website have asked questions on my new art project The Dead. Here are the answers to the two most frequently asked questions. Firstly, no, it does not mean that the Magicians project is finished; that will continue along side this new project. Secondly, The Dead is timed for Remembrance Day next year, not this year.

A piece of news regarding the Magicians project is that the client, after reflecting on the matter for some time, decided that the portrait of Noel Britten should not be included in the project. The basis of his decision is that Britten’s public image is connected more to comedy than it is to magic. Various arguments against the decision could not counter two points on which the client remains firm. Firstly, although the magic which forms an integral part of The Bizarre Bath Comedy Walk has been performed for eighteen years or so now (by Noel Britten and JJ) and has a world wide reputation, the outward image is still focused on comedy. Secondly, while Britten is respected for his work by the magic community, the general public see him as a comedian and not a magician. For that reason, the portrait is offered for sale to the general public in a ‘sealed’ or ‘blind’ bid auction. The full details are on my website in the art section.

One final piece of news is that the paperback A Briefe And Pleasaunt Treatise, Entituled, Naturall and Artificiall Conclusions by Thomas Hill, the text of 1581, is now on sale. You can buy a copy on my website (using the link on the Home page) or from my Ebay shop John Helvin's Books.

A Bit Busy

I’ve been more than a bit busy recently and so I haven’t much to report in terms of travel or entertainment. In fact, I’ve been so busy I haven’t kept up with my correspondence and so I publicly apologise to those who haven’t heard from me in a while. Hopefully, August will bring some ease to my schedule and I can relax a bit.

I am able to relate a few titbits of interest.

In reply to those who have asked, yes I will be uploading another video of artwork soon - an oil painting of an iconic magician of yesteryear. There will be no more pen drawings for quite a while. The project has more than enough of them. There will be some pencil drawings but mostly, from now on, the portraits will be in paint of one kind or another. The bad news is that client has told me that the UK is not going to be one of the exhibition's venues. Not entirely unexpected considering he lives in Italy. Once again, I would like to remind everyone that the videos of the artwork will be removed from the internet once the exhibition begins. The portraits are to be published in a book. I will give more details on that when I know them.

Dr. Richard Wiseman’s latest book seems to be doing well. You can learn more at http://59seconds.wordpress.com/
I’ve ordered my copy. I enjoy reading myth busting books. I can recommend an out of print book by another psychologist, R. D. Rosen, called Psychobabble (not to be confused with a new religious book using the same title). Rosen coined the phrase psychobabble when studying the trend for new psychotherapies that swept the western world during the Sixties and Seventies. Another psychologist who took a practical look at things that do and don’t work was Robert Cialdini, whose book was simply called Influence. Both are very interesting books.

R. Paul Wilson, of BBC3's The Real Hustle, now has blog you can follow.
http://rpaulwilson.wordpress.com/beijing-bound/
You can also read a good interview of Wilson in the recent issue of Magicseen. For more details on that:
http://www.magicseen.co.uk/

I recently received the first issue of Gambit published by Benjamin Earl. It’s always difficult to judge the quality of a magazine from its first issue because there has been no reader response to guide the editor. It’s good but considering its high price and the promise made regarding the magazine’s proposed content I hope that the second issue, which will be on sale soon, has fewer gags filling dead space and more articles on card magic.

Don’t forget The LaBaL Competition is still running and the closing date is not until the 15th September so there is plenty of time to get a copy of the latest issue of The LaBaL from its editor and publisher, Al Smith, and enter the competition. For details on ordering a copy look for the advertisement on the left hand side of this page.

The LaBaL Competition

In the July issue of the The LaBaL I am sponsoring a competition where one of the readers can win a paperback copy of A Briefe and Pleasaunt Treatise Entituled Naturall and Artificiall Conclusions by Thomas Hill, the text of 1581. For those who do not know, The LaBaL is one of a handful of British magic magazines which are independent of any magic club. With the demise of Abra in March of this year and The Magician Magazine last year, we are left with only four such magazines in the UK (I would be glad to hear from anyone that can name more British based magic magazines which are independent of any magic club). They are Jerry Sadowitz’s The Crimp, Mark Leveridge’s Magicseen, Benjamin Earl’s Gambit Magazine and Al Smith’s The LaBaL.

Each magazine is very different. Magicseen deals with the subject of magic in a general way touching on all or any news items, interviews, reviews, etc. Gambit’s sole concern is card magic. Both Magicseen and Gambit have their own websites where copies can be bought. The Crimp is filled with Sadowitz’s caustic humour. It is only for sale to people whom Sadowitz considers to be trusted magicians. The LaBaL is the creation of magician Al Smith.

Al Smith was the editor and publisher of Abacus, a magic magazine that went out monthly for ten years. After finishing his time with Abacus he wanted to edit a less demanding periodical and so he created what he calls a “now and then quarterly”, The LaBaL, which is now in its sixth year. He calls The LaBaL a ‘Magzine’; note that it is not a magazine with an ‘a’ but a ‘Magzine’ with the letter ‘a’ missing. Al Smith has taken the words magazine and fanzine and crushed them into one word: Magzine. It is a good description for The LaBaL. It has some of the qualities of a fanzine, a no frills spiral bound A4 periodical published for and contributed to by those who share a love of a particular interest; at the same time it has the editorial standards and number of pages of a magazine, along with the fact that some of the contributors are professional practitioners of that shared interest. Each issue contains news, reviews, tricks, etc.

If you are a subscriber to The LaBal then be sure to look for the competition in the July issue. If you are not a subscriber but are interested in The LaBaL, then you can buy a single issue or take out a subscription directly from Al Smith. He can be contacted by writing to A. Smith, 17 Osbert Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S60 3LD, UK.

Abracadabra Magazine, the last incantation.

Davenports, the owners of Abracadabra magazine.

Abracadabra, 2nd February 1946 to 28th March 2009.

This week sees the publication of the last ever issue of the longest running British national magic magazine, independent of any magic club or magic society, Abracadabra; it was hailed as the only magical weekly in the world, its contributors were diverse in character ranging from Ali Bongo to Jerry Sadowitz, and its readers fondly nicknamed it Abra. After 63 years and 3,296 issues the weekly magazine came to an abrupt end with little warning to its loyal readers. In the previous week’s issue it was announced that the magazine was being bought by entrepreneur Stephen Martin. Then there was gossip on internet discussion boards that the business deal collapsed on the evening of Sunday 22nd March, one day after the announcement of a buy-out. They were all asking would Abra cease publication and in a last minute change to the magazine’s editorial, this week’s issue contained the sad announcement that it would indeed be the last one. Word quickly spread on discussion boards on the internet; the reaction is one of disappointment and has been described by one magician as “a tragic loss to the magical community.”

The magazine was the creation of Charles Goodliffe Neale and the first issue went on sale on February 2nd, 1946. He successfully maintained the weekly magazine until his death in 1980, after which the famous magic dealers of London, Davenports, bought the business from the Goodliffe family. Established in 1898, Davenports is a family business that has had four generations of magicians and dealers of magic apparatus and books. Their shop once had a prestigious location opposite the British Museum. It is now located in the Charing Cross Underground Arcade.

Magic is about secrets and it is unfortunate that one secret that Daveneports kept in the past number of years was that Abra was in trouble. When magician and Magic Circle member Walt Lees was made editor, he was given a year and then a second year to change the fortunes of the magazine. In this week’s final issue Walt wrote in his editorial that the publishers had “placed their trust in me and I did my best. Sadly my best wasn’t good enough.” Noble as it is for Walt Lees to take some responsibility for the magazine’s demise, the truth is that no blame should be put his way. An editor of magic magazines with nearly thirty years experience, he ensured that Abra maintained a high standard of style and content whilst meeting the needs of the readers, who often let him know what that was and being a good editor he listened.

Richard Kaufman, magician and publisher of the American magic magazine The Genii, has expressed the opinion that the internet contributed to Abra’s reduction in sales, citing Duncan Trillo’s website MagicWeek as a competitor for weekly news of magic in Britain. Others have expressed the opinion that Abra is another periodical which has become victim to the recession.

So what happened? Was it the recession? Was it the internet? Well, personally, I think not; for once, it was not entirely those bugbears. The Goodliffe website, property of Davenports, consisted of three pages, none of which was particularly informative about Abra. It was also very out of date; it still named Donald Bevan as editor, even though he had handed over the reins of Abra to Walt Lees some time before. The only weblink on the site for inquiries about Abra was to the Davenports website. If that link was followed it led to Davenports main page, where a less than noticeable link (now removed) could be found regarding subscriptions to Abra.

Neither website followed the standard advertising and sales methods used by other publishers of magic magazines such as The Genii, Magic Magazine or Magicseen. There was no description of the magazine, no details of the latest issue and its contents, no sample articles or photos, nothing that would entice new readers to subscribe. A free copy of Abra could be sent on request for perusal but such a sales technique is never cost effective and very behind the times in comparison with the online methods used by the above named rivals of Abra. Could it be that Davenports were relying on Abra’s reputation to bring sales? If so, it is a sales approach that has brought many a good product to an end. Every week brings a new generation of readers for periodicals and they tend to make their choices of what to buy based on what is advertised and advertised well.

Last year I met mentalist Chris Cox at one of his shows and said I was submitting a review to Abra, which was later published; subsequently, in an exchange of emails with me, he asked how to get a copy. It speaks volumes in regard to Davenports' advertising of Abra that a successful performer from a new generation of magicians, who has won awards, performed on radio and television, who has undoubtedly researched magic in building an act, has heard of the name but does not know the details of a magic magazine in its sixty second year of publication or where to buy a copy.

And the true shame of it all is that Abra was probably the best magic magazine in existence. It contained a minimum of advertising and a maximum of news. On news subjects that internet sites would only give a paragraph, Abra gave pages, sometimes a whole issue. While magic societies have occasional newsletters available only to its members, Abra connected all the magic societies in regards to weekly news and events. There was also up to date, sound advice from experienced performers on the small but nevertheless very relevant topics overlooked by other magazines. If one thing has to be chosen as iconic of Abra it was the debates that were thrashed out in articles and letters that appeared in its pages. Strong opinions, controversy and arguments on all aspects of magic had always been an ingredient of Abra.

Now it is all gone. The secrecy surrounding Abra’s financial health stole any opportunity from its readers of finding a way to save it. I am sure that if a small number of like-minded subscribers banded together and pooled their resources early enough, Abracadabra could have been saved. It was the one time in the history of magic that keeping secrets was a bad idea.