Author Archives: Jack Shalom

The Real Jersey Boys

21 Monday Oct 2019

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Monday morning, Big Girls Don’t Cry.

Last week I saw an excellent revival of the musical Jersey Boys, the play about the rise and fall of The Four Seasons, but I don’t think even the amazing Aaron DeJesus as Frankie Valli sang in as high a key as Frankie does in this clip. In this live performance (voices are live, music pre-recorded) Frankie falters on one of the notes, but it’s still great.

Thanks to YouTuber onepapa2

Back In Business

18 Friday Oct 2019

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Beverly Watkins died last week at the age of 80. I wasn’t aware of her before, but a friend told me about her. Watkins played with James Brown, Ray Charles, and B.B. King. As you can see from the clip, she was quite a blues guitar player and singer.

Thanks to YouTuber TEXANOBLUES, and Marilyn Vogt-Downey for the suggestion.

Three Secrets

16 Wednesday Oct 2019

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Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com

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The wonderful Mary Murphy reveals Three Secrets, a cat and mouse game, a radio play I wrote for Arts Express on the Pacifica Affiliates across the country.

Click on the triangle above to hear it as broadcast today.

Ooh Baby Baby

14 Monday Oct 2019

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Monday morning, loosen your tie with the man, besides Berry Gordy,  most responsible for the success of Motown, the brilliant singer and songwriter Smokey Robinson.

Gotta love the swivel 1.0 choreography for the Miracles, too.

Thanks to Youtuber QuentinCoxBOI

Contest Update

12 Saturday Oct 2019

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bookcase bookshelves chairs empty

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I came home after four days of being away and The Horror, The Horror!

Whole shelves of my magic items were completely empty.

“Stop, thief!” I cried. “Someone’s stolen my very best magic books, DVDs and tricks.”

Just then my wife appeared. “Jack, stop having a cow. Everything’s all right. You’re having a magic contest, right?”

“Uh, yes,” I said confused.

“Well, I know how much you respect the readers of your blog, so I put the best stuff aside for your contest.”

“But, but, but…” I stuttered. “That’s my favorite…best…”

“No complaining. I’ve got your prize grab bag set up for you. And who knows there may be even more to come. Now tell everyone to enter soon, timeliness counts and the contest is ending soon. And make sure you tell them that they can find out all the details here:

https://jackshalom.net/2019/09/29/the-fifth-annual-shalom-blog-magic-contest/

Anyone can enter. See, I’ve done you a great favor.”

I nodded half giddy, as I went through the list. Bye, bye, favorite magic items, it’s been good to know ye.

The contest magic prize grab bag includes:

Books

Milo & Roger
The Vernon Touch
Blomberg Laboratories
The Collected Almanac
John Luka’s L.I.N.T
Korem Without Limits

Tricks and DVDs

Charlie Justice’s Prohibition
Sanders’ Tagged
Jon Allen’s The Vanishing
Duvivier’s Magic Vol 3
Striving’s Sight Unseen Case
Scott Alexander’s The Needles
Peter Eggink’s Phantom

with more to come!

Enter now at https://jackshalom.net/2019/09/29/the-fifth-annual-shalom-blog-magic-contest/

I Dream of Genii…

10 Thursday Oct 2019

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I was happy last week to spend four days in Orlando, Florida, attending the 2019 Genii Convention. For a comprehensive, contemporaneous, blow-by-blow audio account, click on the triangles below.

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Day One: Intro, Tom Gagnon, Paul Vigil, Sara Crasson, Jonathan Neal


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Day Two: Michael Chaitlin, Hector Mancha, Jim Steinmeyer, Paul Vigil, Nick Diffate, Lucy Darling, Hector Mancha, Raymond Crowe, Eric Jones


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Day Three: Gaeten Bloom, Bill Cheung, Michael Vincent, Hector Mancha, Alexandra Duvivier, Terry Ward, Hannibal, Penn & Teller, Pat Hazell, Jonathan Neal, Gaeten Bloom, Read Chang, Piff the Magic Dragon


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Day Four: 49 Boxes, Eric Jones, Gaeten Bloom, Dominique and Alexandra Duvivier, Nick Diffate, Lucy Darling, Romany, David Kovac, Jay Johnson, John Archer, Summing up


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That Musical About The Two Rival NYC Gangs…

09 Wednesday Oct 2019

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A delicious parody of West Side Story with Will Ferrell and his SNL compatriots.

Thanks to YouTuber

Permanent Record: Edward Snowden

01 Tuesday Oct 2019

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“My name is Edward Joseph Snowden, I used to work for the government but now I work for the public. It took me nearly three decades to recognize that there was a distinction, and when I did it got me into a bit of trouble at the office.”

That’s the opening to Edward Snowden’s thrilling new memoir. You can listen here to my commentary on the book, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI 99.5 FM NYC, by clicking on the triangle above.

Quintet

30 Monday Sep 2019

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Monday morning, The Jets, The Sharks, Tony, Maria, and Anita get ready for the big night. Lucky them to have the Bernstein/Sondheim music to prepare to. Still the best score from an American musical in my opinion.

Thanks to YouTuber John Long

***The Fifth Annual Shalom Blog Magic Contest***

29 Sunday Sep 2019

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It’s a magic contest.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again, and I have to admit I never thought I’d be seeing yet another year of this. But it’s always been a lot of fun for all involved, and it gives me a chance to connect with magic fans directly.

I thought since this is now the fifth year, I’m going to repeat the theme of the very first contest. Here it is:

Explain three actions or ideas that you think were the most helpful in the improvement of your magic or mentalism. Your explanations don’t have to be profound, although profound is fine, too. But if you just want to talk about how your little pinky sticking out this way instead of that way made everything a lot better, that’s okay, too.

You don’t need to be a professional or anything like that, hobbyists are welcome to participate as well. And feel free to participate again, even if you were a past winner, as long as you were not a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place winner last year. And if you contributed to that very first contest, you’re still welcome to participate, but please don’t submit the same entry, let’s see how you’ve changed over the years.

No criteria for winning here other than what strikes me as interesting and useful.  Details and specifics are key. Extra points for humor and entertainment value. It would be especially helpful if you could analyze why the actions or ideas were important to you.

And wonderful prizes, as always, will be awarded:

First prize is first choice from the grab bag of magic books and DVDs I’ve put together; second prize is second choice from the grab bag, and third prize, in a pleasingly parallel harmonic consecutive manner, is third choice from the grab bag. The items in the grab bag are all commercial books or DVDs, at least one of which, I guarantee, you will be happy to have.

And, as always, in the spirit of everyone being a winner, I’ll ask all entrants to allow me to make up a pdf file which includes their entry. This pdf will NOT BE SOLD, but will be distributed to everyone who entered.

Send your entries please to jshalom@worldshare.net

Make sure to put the word CONTEST in the subject line

Deadline Sunday, November 3, 11:59 PM.  In case of a tie, earlier entries get preference.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you!