Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Today's Video Link

A week or three ago here, we showed you a couple of approaches to the classic illusion, "Metamorphosis." I should have tossed this one in because it's in some ways, the most impressive.

The magician is Mark Wilson, a real champion of his art form. An awful lot of guys my age got interested in magic because of a TV show he had on from 1960 to 1964 called The Magic Land of Allakazam. I'm not sure if we were more impressed by how amazing his tricks were, how clever he was about teaching the essentials of magic to us, or by his lovely assistant (and spouse), Nani Darnell. I see Mark and Nani around the Magic Castle when I'm up there. He's still a legend and she's still lovely.

This is from one of the first HBO specials back in the early eighties...a thing called Mumbo Jumbo, It's Magic! It's one of those tricks that's impressive even if you know how it's done.

• Posted at 2:10 PM · LINK

Answering Machine Messages of the Stars

...and by that, I mean the stars recorded the messages, not that these messages appeared on stars' machines.

You may remember answering machine messages. Nowadays, it's unfashionable and downright geeky to have your voice mail say anything more than "Hi, I'm not in right now. Leave a message." It's insulting to the caller if you even say "wait for the beep" because everyone with a third of a brain in their heads knows you're supposed to wait for the beep.

But back when we all first got answering machines, we were all producing these elaborate, amusing outgoing messages to put on them. Cecil B. DeMille did not work as hard on some of his movies as acquaintances of mine did on their outgoing announcements...and frankly, some of what Mr. DeMille produced was not as entertaining. I wrote an intricate poem for my first machine, and I knew people who recorded songs or incorporated sound effects. Occasionally, professional recording studios were even involved. It was almost a sign of achievement to be able to say, "My friends just call to hear the message. They're disappointed if I'm home and I answer."

My current message is as bland and quick as can be...but back in the eighties, I had a series of messages recorded by the great voices of the cartoon business. Since I consider these some of their greatest performances, I'm going to share them with the world — one every week or so. Here's the first one...

• Posted at 1:35 AM · LINK