Sundry Drive No. 9

Congratulations to Joshua Jay and his lovely new wife, Anna, on their marriage yesterday. 

A photo posted by Amanda Kloots (@ackloots) on

I think Josh is one of the smartest, most talented, and most generous people in magic. I feel fortunate to have him as a fan, friend, and supporter of the stuff I've done online for 10 years. From what I know about his wife, which primarily comes from her delightful blog which she wrote about their travels during Josh's lecture tour last year, she is a sweet, smart, and charming woman. I have no doubt that this is just the beginning of a truly enchanted life together and I wish them both the absolute best.

It's rare for me to have a 100% genuine sentiment on this site, so I'm putting this block of text here to ease you into the rest of this blog post so you don't get whiplash from the shift in tone.

Alright, you fucking dodos, let's see what bullshit you're going on about at the Magic Cafe. Ah, look what's back on the front page of Latest and Greatest. You know how there's usually a "summer song" that blows up each year and kind of defines music for that summer? Well the Summer Thread over at the Magic Cafe is definitely the one on the Ellusionist trick "Change." It's got everything: chumps who bought a trick based solely on some of the most blatantly bullshit hype in magic advertising, sketchy product spokespeople who hype up the product and then vanish after its released, claims of false advertising, suckers who know they got swindled but can't admit it so they try and defend the product, people losing their shit over $30, and what looks like complete indifference on the part of the company who released the product. That's a good snapshot of magic marketing and consumerism as of the summer of 2015.

Okay, now I'm back in the flow.

One of my friends who helps out with the running of this site was talking to a woman the other day. They were talking about bad gigs she had picked up off of Craigslist.  She mentioned that she had once worked for a magician who needed silhouette's cut out of business cards and he paid her 20 cents per card. My friend asked if she remembered the name of this magician (so he could come running back to me, of course) and she said, "Yes. Oz Pearlman."

Oz, you magnificent son of a bitch! 20 cents? You're an animal! You couldn't swing a quarter?

You know how magicians always talk about what they'd do if the airline lost their luggage and they had to perform with whatever they could find or buy in the immediate vicinity? Well, Oz would just root around in the ashtray of his rental car to see if he could scrounge up enough change to have some locals hand-craft something quick for him to use on stage. 

Getting close!

Here's your one warning. That female magician you're sending the creepy and embarrassing PMs to on the Magic Cafe might just be me. So maybe don't be such a cretin when you're dealing with a woman there (hey, or anywhere, for that matter). Unless you want this to get blown up, Ashley Madison style. Put your dick back in your pants.