Duplicity Named Among Best Tricks of 2008

Wayne Kawamoto over at Magic.About.com has named Duplicity as one of his top tricks of 2008.

The man has taste, that's for sure.

Thanks for the kudos, Wayne, and I'll be sure to pass them along to Mr. John Bannon as well!

Back to our regular program

Wow, it was really nice to have 4 days off from my trip to Las Vegas, then come back to work for 2 days before our Christmas break.

While in Vegas, I saw:

• Steve Wyrick's Real Magic
• The Mac King Comedy Magic Show
• Dana Daniels
• Criss Angel BeLIEve

I had also intended on seeing The Amazing Johnathan, but his show was cancelled due to Johnathan's not feeling well. A big disappointment, to say the least.

I also got a chance to visit the Gary Darwin Magic Club and deliver my lecture. Naturally, the night of my lecture, a lecture I had been planning for months, Las Vegas has to receive the largest snowfall in history. Let's just say, the weather negatively affected the attendence. Nonetheless, those who were there had a great time, and Darwin himself called my lecture a "welcome surprise."

2009 is set to bring a lot of great innovations from us. We'll remain focused on bringing high-quality, affordable magic to the masses. I think we've got some very nice items coming down the pipeline, so stay tuned!

Happy Holidays

From all your Fun Inc friends, have a happy holiday. We'll be back on Monday!

Inferno Card launches Wednesday!

The Inferno Card will be available beginning this Wednesday, Dec. 17th! Be the first to obtain the hottest card revelation in your town. Never before has this item been as widely available in the U.S. as we're making it now!

View the video, and prepare to be wowed.

NBC's The Office: Exposure!

For those long-time readers of the blog, you may know that I'm a fan of NBC's "The Office." The annoying boss, played by Steve Carell, is alluded to in the show as being a magician. One scene even featured him attempting a straitjacket escape ending, predictably, in failure.

But was I shocked when I happened to glance at a few of the Web Exclusives from a recent episode, and saw flagrant exposure of the Thumb Tip! Warning: Some of you may cringe while viewing this. Not just because of the exposure, but because you probably know someone who actually performs it like this!



If only he had our Thumb Tip DVD or our 101 Tricks with a Thumb Tip booklet, this could have been avoided.

Expert at the Dinner Table

I'm excited to announce that Tomas Medina’s At the Table, the latest DVD release from Fun Incorporated is set to arrive at the Fun factory early next week. This hour+ long instructional DVD serves up a complete menu of astonishments -- each one perfectly suited to drop of the hat circumstances: in bars, at restaurants, and even the family dinner table. Learn tricks with sugar packets, coins, watches, the human body, and much more!

Here's a sneak preview of the artwork.

FUN around the Internet

We'll start off today's post by mentioning that FUN Inc. has taken another giant leap forward into the 21st Century. Our very own spokeself, Hokus J. Pokus, has gotten himself a Twitter page. You can follow him here: http://twitter.com/funinc. I put a Twitter badge on the sidebar, too.

Second, our friends over at iTricks.com (who, for some reason, are really nice to us) have posted the review of John Bannon's Spin Doctor. Also of note is the awesome shout-out Derek gave to me.

W00t!

New products from Alakazam USA!

We recently became a distributor for Alakazam USA. The company, established first in the UK by Peter Nardi, expanded into the U.S. market not too long ago. Peter himself is a stitch; I have overheard a few phone conversations where he had Tomas laughing pretty hard.

We started out with a few products, and I have little doubt that we'll be expanding the number of Alakazam products we carry before too long! Here's what we have so far:

Z6 by Wayne Dobson: This booklet includes six fantastic routines hatched from Wayne Dobson's slightly Z wallet obsessed brain. Wayne has come up with a host of effects designed for the extremely versatile "Z wallet." Each effect is explained thoroughly, detailing; materials required, Set Up, and Performance.

Celebrity Deck by Wayne Dobson: A utility principle with a variety of applications. Once again, a devious deception from the mind of Wayne Dobson.

Erazer: This is one trick you will want to get your hands on. Adrian Gower has taken the Brainwave effect to new and exciting limits. Make sure your spectators wear a helmet; so they don't make a mess when you blow their minds!

The Grail by Mike Rose: A Card At Any Number effect for the real world. No sleight-of-hand? No equivoque? No switches? No extra props? No problem!

Zenner-Tech: Alakazam's Zenner-Tech is a very direct and commercial ESP test. No extraneous props, no 'sticky' cards and no sleights. It is perfect for a formal close-up or mentalism performance or as an encore piece when you need to perform a killer closer. The spectator makes all the decisions and yet the outcome is guaranteed, every time!

The podcast is up!

You can hear Gabe, Tomas, and I on iTricks online now!

Click here, or subscribe via iTunes!

FUN Crew on iTricks!

Yes, it finally happened.

Justin Robert Young of iTricks.com has taken leave of common sense and invited Gabe, Tomas, and I back to the podcast.

Keep an eye on iTricks.com on Monday when the podcast goes live!

New Product: Inferno Card!

Just when you couldn't get enough pyro effects, FUN Incorporated is proud to announce the upcoming release of Inferno Card!

We have obtained a source at last that can print a card onto a piece of flash paper. Imagine the awesome transformations as a card burns and transforms into a spectator's signed selection! The possibilites are only limited by the imagination.

Tomas and I will be heading out tonight to film some live performances using these, and we'll have them up on our website and on YouTube before long!

FUN featured in Pittsburgh

Our good friends Tom and Linda of The Cuckoo's Nest were recently profiled in their local newspaper. In addition to being a great article, the online version includes a video of Tom and of some demonstrations.

What's the very first trick shown in the video? A classic maybe, like coin in bottle or sponge balls?

All those moldy oldies took a back seat to the new kid on the block: John Bannon's Spin Doctor!

Click here to read the article!

Lance and Royal Magic

iTricks.com recently spotted an article published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Mike Weatherford. Weatherford compares Criss Angel's new school of magic to Lance Burton's old school. Readers of this blog know where I stand on that. In fact, so does iTricks!


Anyway... along with clips from the article, iTricks.com also posted a photo taken, presumably, inside the Lance Burton magic shop in the Monte Carlo. Recognize anything?

You can clearly see the Royal Magic logo on our "Amazing Magic Tricks with Rope" DVD and our "25 Amazing Tricks with Scotch and Soda" DVD (I know it's the Scotch and Soda DVD because it's orange).

If Royal Magic is good enough for World Champion Magician Lance Burton, then it's good enough for you! Ask for it by name at your favorite magic dealer.

And speaking of Lance, I just found out he's going to be on hiatus when I'm in Las Vegas. Oh, the cruel irony!