Hello Wizards, Those of you who have Sky TV may have been watching former BMC member Alistair Cook along with Pete Firman in The Secret World of Magic. I've been watching them and have been enjoying the series (only seen episodes so far) far more than the Monkey Magic programme, which had elements in the programme that I felt, was beneath the performers. This series however, which may come onto terrestrial TV eventually, has Ali and Peter visiting various cities around the world to meet the finest and foremost magicians thereabouts. In the first programme, they went to Las Vegas and as well as performing with the Showgirls, met up with the hilarious Mac King, Apollo – renowned pick pocket, and Jeff McBride. The second programme had them visiting Madrid and other parts of Spain in search of Juan Tamariz. During the programme, we were given an insight into a magic convention with particular focus on the dealer hall. No magic was revealed, in fact I felt it was quite a clever move to intrigue the viewers into the magic arts many secrets. They went to a magic school founded by Juan and had a great time with again, no secrets being revealed. Eventually, they met Juan who showed some magic that clearly knocked their socks off. The most recent episode saw the two of them visiting Los Angeles in search of John Gaughn. Along the way, they met up with Dean Dil at his hairdressing studio and Max Maven. When they got to meet John, it was at his workshop and we were able to see some wonderful restorations and recreations of the automatons for which he is universally recognised. There was plenty of magic to watch from small effects to big illusions with some from Ali Pete coming across as though the miracles were done impromptu. While some elements were not totally to my liking, I'll always be a bit of a traditionalist with my preferred kind of TV magic being in a theatre setting with the exception of Derren Brown, the programmes are well put together, with material written and narrated by Ali and Pete. It reaches out to a younger audience but has the right elements to hold the attention of anybody else. Produced by Anthony Owen and Andrew O'Connor, this well made programme for the general viewing public is flying the magical banner on the small screen keeping magic in the media, without adult material, innuendo or revelations of the secrets of magic. I'm hoping to catalogue the series and if I don't miss any of the episodes, will not mind sharing them with you if you provide me with a VHS cassette. I'll leave you with this story that was brought to my attention. A Charlotte, a NC lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, and then insured them against fire, among other things. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost in a series of small fires. The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The lawyer sued... and WON! (Stay with me.) In delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer "held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire" and was obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the "fires". NOW FOR THE BEST PART...After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine. This is a true story and was the First Place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest. ONLY IN AMERICA! NO WONDER THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES THINK US WESTERNERS ARE NUTS! |
