Random

These are the answers to the quiz questions printed on the “Simply Magic” promotional marketing card.

1. TRUE: Tom’s rabbit’s name is “Trixie”. Some people may remember “Twinkles” from a few years ago, but the bunny he has now is named “Trixie”.
2. TRUE: Tom has made over 85,000 balloon animals in the last 10 years. Several years ago Tom was promoting his balloon twisting skills widely and was working up to 30 hours a week making balloon animals at a variety of places: birthdays, store openings, product launches, etc. He clocked up over 7000 hours of balloon twisting since 2001. Some shapes can be made in less than half a minute, and Tom rarely it take more than 4 minutes to create a balloon sculpture. The maximum amount of balloon animals Tom has made in one hour is 160, but on average Tom makes 50 balloons per hour. Using this estimate Tom has made closer to 350,000 balloons over the last 10 years.
3. TRUE: Tom speaks English, French, some Italian, some Romanian, some German, and a few words of Russian. English was spoken at home as a child, while living in France, Italy and Germany. Tom did 2 years of volunteer work in Romania 1991 to 1993 and learned to speak Romanian during that time. He also spent 1996 in Ukraine, also as a volunteer worker, where he picked up some Russian which was still widely used there at the time, though Ukrainian was regaining a foothold.
4. TRUE: Tom’s grandfather was a magician in Chicago. Richard James Stevens or “Jim” as he was known was very good at card tricks other magic tricks. He’d been into magic since his childhood, though never made it his profession (he was a lawyer).
5. TRUE: Tom was born in Germany. Yes, West Germany, as it was known then. He’s not fluent in German, but still speaks a little and can put on a convincing German accent.
6. TRUE: Tom spent 5 years of his childhood in France. Briefly in 1980, then 1981 to 1985. And again briefly in 1986.
7. TRUE: Tom spent 8 months learning and working on a trick The Cups and Balls which became his favourite trick, and for which he won an award in 2007. This was the August 2007 “Magic to Music” competition at the Australian Society of Magicians.
8. TRUE: Tom has performed his magic show at over 1000 parties. As of April 2011 it was over 1,200 magic shows.

I recently read a book about the rise of the amateur on the internet. The basic premise being that the prevalence of opinionated voices of the uninformed and non-specialist is cause for concern.
This was an interesting thought. Just as I was planning to start my own blog, and add my opinions to the millions already out there.
While I will not let this stop me I will be sure to defer to those who may have committed a greater deal of time to a particular subject by linking to books written on subjects I write about.
This also gave me cause to think about the quality of information available. Due to the ease with which information can be published, it may be easy to say something without much checking. This is why I tell my kids to not neglect using the library for homework assignments, as not all information is accessible on the internet. Some stuff is still hidden away in books and takes research to uncover.
This is also becoming the case with the prevalence of supposed how-to videos. You can spend an awful lot of time searching through the non-sensical amateurish home movies of magic tricks or take the effort to find some quality product that has passed the approval of the publisher.
As a magician this is an interesting point. Magic naturally relies on secrecy, which is a key element in a particular magic trick retaining interest. Exposure is not welcome, though there are some particular types of magic which a so difficult to perform that exposure, while reducing the amount of astonishment it produces, still allows for some admiration due to its difficulty. However it then becomes classified more as a juggling act, not bad in itself but still if it is “sold” as a magic act may conjure up a slight feeling of disappointment.