What do Penguins eat?


Above: Acar insists that his fish be prepared "Penguin Style".

For Acar's birthday dinner we ventured back to Anne and Jean Pierre Giron's incredible Ambiance Bakery & Bistro. The cheese platter they started us off with would have been enough food, but somehow we managed to finish our enormous dinners (as you might expect at a Penguin party, everyone had seafood). After dinner Chef Jean Pierre brought out an incredible selection of fresh baked deserts on the house!


Left to right: Acar Altinsel, Chef Jean Pierre Giron, Maxwell Murphy, Tyas Frantz.

It's Acar's Birthday!

Acar turns 26 today. Here's a surprise photo of him walking into work today with a birthday present under his arm. As he opened the door we burst into song.



Happy Birthday Acar!

Magic historian Paul Draper and I had lunch today with the legendary Gazzo and Canadian street performer Billy Kid. Gazzo is headed out of town later today for an exciting gig on the other side of the country.

We ate Thai Food. Some of the best in town.

Gazzo ordered his meal at an impressive 8 of 10 on the spicyness meter. The waiter tried for several minutes to talk him out of it. Gazzo wouldn't budge.

Here's a photo of us after lunch:



From left to right: Maxwell Murphy, Gazzo, Billy Kid, Paul Draper.

The Black Deck is HERE!

Get your shopping carts ready... We'll be starting our "Free Black Deck with ALL Orders over $49" promotion at midnight tonight!

We've got a very limited supply of these decks, so please get your orders in quickly. And yes, for a limited time you CAN get your free Black Deck on top of your SUPER BOWL BONUS!

"The Black Deck from US Playing Card" is on its way to Penguin! We expect to have the deck "in stock" on Wednesday. We're also planning a two-day promotion during which you'll be able to get "The Black Deck" absolutely free with your order.

We were excited to learn that US Playing Card Company (manufacturer of Bicycle brand playing cards) has teamed up with Magic Makers to bring "The Black Deck" to magicians around the world. "The Black Deck" is a specially designed Bicycle Deck comprised of boldly contrasting black cards in an unexpected reverse-image style that many magicians say heightens the impact of their visual card magic.

Card workers are especially excited about "The Black Deck" because it has full-color court cards "sporting red and white pips," a white border (allowing the worker to secretly reverse a card in the deck), and 4 specially printed magic cards (allowing the worker to perform additional effects).

The "Black Deck" is the latest in a series of eye-popping Bicycle decks the US Playing Card Company has been manufacturing since early last year.

I'm very excited about our new Magic History and Performance Theory section (coming soon).

We're working on the section with magic historian and anthropologist Paul Draper. Our mutual goal is to put together a fascinating and unique section on the Penguin site that will inspire performers to take their art to the next level through an enriched understanding of magic history and performance theory.

Paul Draper is the house Magician at the Venetian Hotel and has also performed at Caesars Palace. Paul has taught at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and has lectured at several international anthropological conferences.

From this month's TLR:

"On Halloween, Paul appeared alongside David Copperfield, Lance Burton, and Teller on the History Channel as a magic historian in conjunction with the History Channel's definitive work on Harry Houdini."

We just went live with the new Criss Angel store at Penguin! The demo video links should be working by the end of the week.

The Super Bowl Bonus has officially begun. The demo video for The Comedy Two Card Monte should go live later today. The official email announcing this year's Super Bowl Bonus will go out to the "Penguin USA Promos and Discounts" list early Thursday morning.

A side note for Vegas Locals:

I liked my lunch today so much that I convinced the gang to have dinner at the same place. I had lunch with Erik and Noblezada (before they went out to shoot some new demo videos). Lunch was so good that I convinced Paul, Sam, and Acar to have dinner with me a few hours later at that same incredible new restaurant.

The restaurant is called Ambiance Bakery Bistro. If you live in Las Vegas this place is a must. It's the kind of restaurant you'd find in a small town in France. Plus, the chef likes magic so much he's hired Stephane Vanel to teach magic lessons at the restaurant three days a week.

The Promo Says:

"Magician Stephane Vanel is The 2001 European Magic Champion, and The World's Greatest Card Manipulator. He Currently performs at The MGM Grand's "La Femme", where he nightly seduces audiences with his good looks, natural charm, and incredible dexterity.

Learn from the Master in intimate groups of about a dozen students. Separate youth and adult classes are provided: Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday as many classes as you like."

Stephane's Manipulation Video can be found in the SOC.

Just got done with a conference call with Acar, Noblezada, and Sam. We're firming up details on the Penguin Super Bowl Bonus. The Super Bowl Bonus starts Wednesday, January 18th, and runs through Super Bowl Sunday (February 5th, 2006). We're excited! This is one of our biggest giveaways of the year. PLUS, Detroit is hosting this year's super bowl. That means the big game takes place just 40.24 miles from Willowtree, the birthplace of Penguin Magic.

It seems that hundreds of Penguin Customers would have been justified in making claims against our shipping guarantee thanks to a subtlety I was unaware of until now. I've updated the Penguin Magic Shipping Guarantee (the strongest in all of magic, if not all of eCommerce) to close the loophole.

I received the following in an interesting Private Message from Wynn:

Hi Maxwell,

Just thought I'd point something out that may seem minor but technically might be a thorn in your side later. [edited] like me will try to exploit it. Sorry, I've been trained to isolate and exploit weaknesses (legally), so I was gonna cash in off it.

I thought Penguin Magic was a huge company, but I read a post saying that you are only a few people and that you started it in your apt while in school.... well, you know the story.... so I didn't. I like small business and admire entrepreneurs. Big companies on the other hand... well, if I get one up on them.... good for me.

So let me point out a potential problem:

---------------------------------------------------------------
We guarantee that your order will leave our warehouse the same business day. If your order is placed before 4:00pm Eastern Standard Time and doesn't ship out the same business day, you'll receive a Penguin Magic store credit in the amount of your purchase. bla.. bla.. bla... ----------------------------------------------------------------

I sent an order on 09/14/2005 16:56:00 ET. Now I noticed it didn't get shipped till the next day. I did this as a test. I was going to put in bigger orders around the same time and let the same thing happen. Then I could cash in on the offer (for lots of $$$).

How? Even though it was placed at 16:56 ET Eastern (Daylight) Time, it was only 15:56 EST (Eastern Standard Time) EST is defined as GMT -5 hrs EDT is defined as EST +1 hr

You should change your offer to say that if you put it in by 4:00pm Eastern Time.... this implies local time (daylight or standard depending which is active...) Keep in mind GMT never changes. British time does. I forget what it's called but it's another daylight time shift of an hour. Their standard time is GMT but they go to GMT +1 hr for summer. You might want to check your UK site out as well.

I know this because I used to work for a couple internet companies (Genuity/Level 3) and we had servers all over the world. I was constantly trying to keep track of timezones, (they didn't all use GMT... which was stupid). Hope this helps.

In close, I guess I should say "Kudos!" I don't know how big your company is right now, but your service is so good you had me fooled into thinking you were many times your size.

Keep up the good work!

Peace, Wynn

Some people think that mixing penguins and performing arts is a strange combination. Actually, there are some penguins who are extraordinarily talented.

Technology is getting crazy!!! The other day I was at one of those huge electronic stores, you know, the kind that has everything from MP3 players to plasma screen televisions. I can spend at least 3 hours in one of those things. Anyway, I saw one of the most ridiculous things ever. A refridgerator with a TV on it. What!? A fridge with a flat screen 23 inch LCD screen right next to the water fountain and ice maker. Wow, are people really that obsessed with watching the tube? Will TV's soon be everywhere we go?

The crazy fridge/TV combo got me thinking. Visual images are so high in demand these days and in order to keep people interested in what we do as live entertainers, I think it's important to try to keep up with technology. Does that mean that we should strap an iPOD to our card boxes (hhhmmmmm, fun...) no, that's not what I mean. Whether you're doing visual color changes, card productions, or strictly mentalism, you should remember what people have waiting for them at home, in the car, and on the fridge. Television: An endless stream of visual images in high definition and surround sound. People eat up technology. Do you think there should be a hunger for magic?

Your magic will stand a better chance in your spectators' minds if you know what you're up against. Remember that your magic tells a story. It may tell the story of the Gospel, or it may celebrate a child's birthday. It may pitch a company service or product, or it could tell the story of you and how unique and special you are. No matter what your story is, tell it with enough a passion and power to make technology look like second place and Magic the thing to talk about. You could even poke fun at technology. Joshua Jay does one of the coolest routines with a TV remote. So cool. You could even use technology to your advantage. Eric Allen created an effect in which a selected playing card calls your cell phone! How smart to get people to relate to your magic through technology. Hats off to Josh and Eric.
Magic is special and cooler than a TV on an ice box, so give it all you've got and let your own energy flow through your performances in the highest definition possible. We'll talk more about this soon...

As I have said on the podcast “My listeners are the greatest.” And I mean it. The emails I get are one of the most rewarding elements in my life. I also love all the questions. You can see a future superstar in advance just by finding those who are not afraid to ask questions. They are the ones who will get the answers.

Now that we have a Blog up for everyone to read, I figured we could share some of the better questions and answers with all of you. So below is one of the more recent emails I received and my answer to it. I hope you find the information useful.

If you have any questions you would like me to respond to, please email them to me at Tyas@penguinmagic.com.

Question:
Can you tell me how to come up with patter? I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Answer:
That is a great question. I am so glad you asked it because I would have never thought to bring it up on a future podcast. Before I start, I should tell you that I hardly ever use the term Patter. Magicians have a habit of calling things by what they are not. Maybe they do this to increase the mystery of it. For example they call "magic" a "trick" and vice versa without distinguishing the difference.

They use the term "misdirection" instead of "direction." You can direct someone away from what you are trying to hide. If you missed on your direction, then they would look at what you don't want them to see. This is how it is with the term Patter. The real word would be scripting. I never use the word patter and so for the rest of this document I will talk about scripting without mention of the word patter.

There are hundreds of different ways to develop scripts. I will tell you what my process is. The first thing I’ll do is decide on a message that I want to leave my audience with. For example "Anything is possible" or "Believe in the power of dreams." To me the message is the most important part of my routine. It sets to tone and provides a strong reason for the routine. I find the message in many different places, often by surprise. Movies, music, and books are usually the place I find my inspiration for the message of the routine.

The next step is to create a story that conveys that message. Often I have an experience in my life that, when told right, gets a message across. Sometimes the story is funny and sometimes it is sad. Try your best not to get stuck with only telling stories that make people laugh. Laughter is great but don't forget about all of the other emotions that humans can experience.

Once I have decided on a story I start telling it to my friends and family. Each time I tell it, I change different elements of it. If any part of the story doesn't get the response that I am looking for then I work on changing that part of the story. I also make sure that I have a reason for telling the story. I continue to tell the story until I feel that I have a strong delivery for it.

Now I take out the pen and paper and start writing out the story that I've been telling. I'm not great at spelling, and so I use spell check a lot. I also have a few people on my team who are professional writers. I will always send them my scripting and have them read over it. I take some of their suggestions and pass on others. In the end the script is my responsibility and so it is my opinion that counts.

Once I have it written out to my liking I start cutting. I cut every word that I can. I take out any words that are overused or unnecessary. You would be amazed at how much text you can cut from a script without hurting the message or delivery of the routine at all. The rule is, if it can be cut it should be cut.

Next I write in my actions on the script. This is where I put in the movements such as slights. I write them in on a different line and in a different color font. I make sure that my blocking is discussed in detail in the script. I even choreograph the movement of assistance and audience members. I add the pauses and notes on delivery in this step too.

Finally I put in all the technical notes. This is where I add lighting and sound cues. These cues are useful in many ways. They make it possible to imagine exactly what the routine will look like when performed and it gives anyone reading the script a strong idea of the outcome. I can also use these cues to teach my sound and lighting person when and where to use my cues in the show.

That is the process that I go through but keep in mind that just because this process works for me, it does not mean it will work for everyone. There are a lot of online resources for writing scripts. You would also be wise check out some books from the library on script writing. I hope that this gave you at least an idea of how to put together a script. I wish you great success.

At Your Service
Tyas Frantz
Tyas@Penguinmagic.com

The simpler tricks are often overlooked. That's a shame, because they often have more to offer than one may think at first glance.

Buddha Money Mystery is a very versatile trick, and can work with many small and/or flat objects. In this routine, something is wrapped up inside several layers of paper, and when the paper is unfolded, the object has either vanished or changed into something else, depending on the presentation.

One classic routine for the Buddha Money Mystery is to wrap a dollar bill up in the papers, make your magic motions, and then unfold to show that the bill has changed into four quarters. On it's own, it is a simple routine that can get potentially powerful reactions.

Nickels to Dimes, is another simple trick in which four nickels are covered with a brass cap, and then changed to four dimes. It doesn't require any skill, but the effect is often amazing.

While I can't go into the methods behind them, as these are effects we sell here at Penguin Magic, I can show you how to turn them into an entirely new effect that neither could do alone!

Here's the new effect: You take four dimes, and wrap them up in four layers of paper. Once the dimes are secure inside the folded papers, you put a stack of four nickels on top of the papers. You then cover the four nickels with a brass cap, make a magic wave of the hands, and then lift up the brass cap to show the four dimes that were wrapped up in the paper earlier! When you unfold the paper, there are the four nickels that were on top just moments ago! The nickels and dimes have somehow changed places.

If you own both of these effects, the method isn't hard to work out. If you don't, clicking on the above links and pictures will take you to where you can purchase them.

There are many presentations you can use for this routine. For example, you can say you're working on a smaller version of "Metamorphosis", the classic stage routine in which a magician, standing on a crate, instantly switches places with an assistant who is locked and shackled inside the crate.

If you already have a number of magic tricks that you don't perform any more, you might want to look through them again, and see which ones may create entirely new tricks when combined.

We were a bit surprised when our Penguin UK office got a call from Brian Tudor in Los Angeles. He said he had just met a guy from the UK that "does my stuff better than I do".

If you know Tudor, you know that he doesn't normally say things like that. Fans of XCM will remember the Tudor Challenge (which incidentally is still open as of 1/13/06).

Tudor was in LA hanging out with Chris Burton. Chris is an up and coming pro from London. He works restaurants and private parties, and he's got a style so visual even Tudor has to step back and admire his work.

Tudor just kept saying, "I'm telling you, you've got to get this guy on film... I'm telling you, you've got to get this guy on film."

We took Tudor's advice, and we're excited to wecome Chris Burton to the Penguin team!

From Penguin UK comes an Instant Download that makes looking in the mirror even more fun. Check out the demo video:

Penguin UK: The King's Cross Transpo by Chris Burton
Penguin USA: The King's Cross Transpo by Chris Burton

You can expect to see a lot more Chris Burton on the Penguin sites in the coming months.

Alex Elmsley

March 2, 1929 – January 8, 2006

Penguin magic is saddened by the loss of UK magical legend and computer scientist Alex Elmsley. Elmsley is most widely known to magicians for inventing the Ghost Count or Elmsley Count. However, he has long been recognized as one of the most brilliant innovators of card and close-up magic in the 20th century. Having invented several utility sleights and hundreds of effects, Alex Elmsley gave so freely to our art that he has changed our vision of close up magic forever. Elmsley lived his life as a lover of magic, mathematics and technology and added greatly to our understanding of the Faro Shuffle. As a magic community we know that no one can ever fill his shoes, but we must always be grateful that he left us his legacy through his books, videos, DVDs and through his remarkable magic. Alex, you will not be forgotten. Peace be with you.

Penguin Magic

Here's a sneak peek at a letter from Penguin Magic that's being published in one of the magic mags this coming month. In it we announce our new CEO and our new advisory committee!

Dear Magic Community:

Ever since we founded Penguin Magic in June 2002, we’ve worked hard to meet the needs of our customers. Whether you have been a loyal customer or our strongest critic, your feedback has made a difference. We recognize an opportunity for Penguin Magic to better meet your needs, and we’ve taken immediate steps that we think will put Penguin Magic at the forefront of the magic community in terms of customer satisfaction, product development, and ethics:

- Eliminating Knock Offs - We are currently working to eliminate all knock offs from our product selection. Our experience has shown us that magicians, magic inventors, and members of the magic community all benefit when magic manufacturers, distributors, and retailers insist on innovation and make a constant effort to eliminate knock offs from their product offering. In so doing, all participants are following a special code of ethics designed to encourage innovation and provide opportunities for members of our community. We agree with many of our most outspoken critics that some of the items we’ve carried in the past were questionable. We’re actively eliminating those items from our lineup. We encourage all other magic companies that are not currently doing so to adopt a similar stance, and we will lead by example.

- The Penguin Advisory Committee - We are forming an advisory committee which will be made up of professionals in our industry such as George Robinson from Viking Magic / Collector’s Workshop, legendary magician Gary Darwin, and other leading thinkers in the magic field. These advisory committee members will give us guidance in ethics, magical history, and new product development.

Leading the Penguin Advisory Committee will be our new CEO, Sam Blankenship. Sam has experience running his own successful magic shop in Temecula, CA (positioned conveniently on the outskirts of San Diego and Los Angeles). Besides his background in magic, Sam brings Penguin Magic significant business experience in the fields of personnel management, product development and marketing. As CEO, Sam will work closely with us to meet the needs of our customers and help Penguin become the world’s most helpful and inspiring magic organization.

- The Best Magicians in the World - We will continue to bring you exclusive material from world-class magicians. This year’s lineup includes exciting releases from Gary Darwin, Gregory Wilson, Morgan Strebler, Oz Pearlman, Tom Krzystof, Tyas Frantz, Jason Dean, John Born, Chris Kepple, and Jay Noblezada. If you’ve been to our website lately, you will see that Penguin Magic is now the official home for Gazzo’s line of products. We are proud to be working with Gazzo to offer a range of new products specifically tailored for working professionals. Gazzo says, “Professionals can’t afford cheap props,” and we couldn’t agree more.

- The Penguin Magic Family - Our employees are like family to us, and without them we would be nowhere. We are looking for skilled professionals to add to our team of 25 associates. Together, we’re the Penguin Magic family. We love the work we do, and the customers we serve. We’re excited to announce that we’ve recently added personnel to provide you with faster and more frequent updates to our website.

This is an exciting time for us, and we look forward to proving ourselves to you one day at a time with innovative products, attentive service, and meaningful contribution to the magic community. Thank you for your support.

Maxwell Murphy & Acar Altinsel
Penguin Magic: born to perform.

This is the first post in the new Penguin Magic Blog. If you're reading this, you're in at the very beginning.

We're starting this blog because we want a better way to communicate with our community. Emails are great for letting people know about new products and special deals, but there's a lot more we want to share. There's a lot more on our minds than just what's the newest product and how much can you save buying it at Penguin.

We're not sure where this blog will lead, but we promise one thing--it'll be real the whole way. You won't find us reluctant to comment on important community issues. You won't find us afraid to give you the inside story.

We're opening this blog up to posts from a number of different contributors, all part of the Penguin Magic team. We think that'll make it more interesting... more of a free-for-all. If you've got a link, story, or bit of information you think we should post, just email it to one of our contributors. If we think it's interesting we'll post it.