Tuesday, November 27, 2007

SONNY HOLLIDAY








there are masters and there are gods.

when the masters hang out with Sonny, they know who their master is and they all chatter like giddy school girls.

in the U.S. there is no one higher, the pecking order starts and ends with SONNY HOLLIDAY.

EVEN THE MOST CONCEITED , WITH DILLUSSIONS OF GRANDUER KNOW THEIR PLACE STARTS UNDER SONNY HOLLIDAY.

NO ONE HAS PAID THAT MANY DUES.

NOBODY HAS THOSE KINDA CHOPS.

NOBODY HAS THAT KINDA CLASS, STLYE, OR BALLS.

IN THE U.S. NO OTHER PERFORMER HAS THAT MUCH STREET IN THEM....NOBODY.

LASTLY, NOBODY IN THE WORLD CAN TOUCH HIS 15 MIN. MANIP. ACT, ON THE STREET.

YOU WANT TO HEAR THE POETRY OF THE STREET?

WATCH SONNY HOLLIDAY.

















as Americans we produced 2 busker legends for the international world to see,

Cellini

and his #1 student

Sonny Holliday.

I modeled myself after sonny, he is my hero, and in my mind, there is no one better.

I’d like to add one more thing, it goes without saying that the rest of the world has a huge, nay, gigantic amount of greats that puts our country at the bottom of the list for busking....a shameful thing.

but Cellini and Sonny Holliday put us on the map and they belong to us and we should do everything we can to show our thanks and undying respect any where we can.

.....ask yourself where would we be right now if they hadn't showed us how.

when I travel the world, doors open for me because of them. the world expects the same greatness from me. unfortunately, i of course fall short, but i think it should be our goal to exceed the world's expectations of us.

i think we should try and achieve the same greatness as these TWO, no matter how impossible it may seem.

Sonny has no students, I am the closest thing. he has taken me under his wing many times and as a street magician that is the thing I’m most proud of.

and with Sonny Holliday, you know I’m either telling the truth here, or I got a death wish.



Sonny Holliday at Venice Beach CA






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This is from the Cellini instructional dvd

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BUT HERE'S MY FAVORITE YOUTUBE FOOTAGE OF HIM.
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WHAT IS A STREET MAGICIAN? { BY CELLINI }


WHAT IS A STREET MAGICIAN?

when asked this is what cellini says,

"Exactly who or what is a street magician?

In my humble opinion he is a wanderer who believes he is the inheritor of all he surveys.

Someone who goes from place to place with or without a settled route or destination.

He is a boundary crosser; his purpose is to discover new places, meet new people, make new friends and preserve a way of life while perfecting his craft.

He is a person who is both loved and envied for his way of life which appears to the untrained eye as jolly-good, and fancy-free. But in fact it is a life of unremitting toil and unfailing persistence.

He must be willing to stake his future on his ability to persist no matter how hard the going gets. He must have an unshakable faith in himself and in his specialized knowledge to resist all the temptation; to buckle under the weight of society, to refuse to be herded like sheep into a pen and to be told when, where, and how long he can stay.

He is the first Church of the Street Theater and claims the same rights as any religion. To stand on any street corner and gather a crowd. To say and do as he wants whenever he wishes as long as it is within the bounds of propriety and good taste. And lastly, ask for support.

He is adventurous, persistent and courageous. Along with those characteristics, he has the determination to survive, the tongue to persuade, and the hand to execute any mischief called for.

He is a man possessing a touch of the earth with a warm and sincere interest in his fellow human beings. His heart, soul and thoughts are those of a king. He is a man blessed with the Royal Touch."

-- Cellini excerpt from "The Royal Touch"


here's some clips of cellini doin some magic indoors;






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here is some very rare footage of our late famous master working the street, thanks to tom frank.
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DANNY HUSTLE





on my journey to meet the best sidewalk men danny was on my list i made it my business to meet him.

i heard alot about him and saw him on the cellini dvd.

when i was travelling kozmo was helpin me on the phone find good pitches and i asked him if he could make it happen for me to meet danny.

so i rolled into boston in my 88 dodge caravan{gun metal grey with rust spots}.

danny gave me directions on the phone and i met him at his house.

i met his wife and kid they were charming.

we got to talkin his family are the real deal vaudville and general entertainers, for generations.

he's got archive footage of everything and an encyclopedia mind of entertainment history and knowledge.

we went and shared the pitch at quincy market and there was a bucket drummer there and he decided he was gonna set up on us.

danny had other plans for him.

danny cranked his amp and blew him out....i wanted to be helpful so i did my silent act while he was drumming and hatted the people and walked over to the drummer and gave him a dollar the only one he would be makin there. this pissed the drummer off but before he could do any thing about it the cops came and shut him down...it was a touching momment.

danny was humble about his show, but his show was the quitisental sidewalk act.

the tricks were original and genius.

its the way his mind works its in his blood in his families blood he's pure show business.

the thing about danny is he's loyal to his family, friends, and his art and its tradition. he's protective.

if you cross that line....its well...bad.

i wish everybody was like that, you know where you stand!

danny once told me a story that happenned in his life that changed mine.

it really moved me.

it was about a guy who was picked on in school and danny saved him then something happenned years later that will blow your mind if he'll tell it for you.

i've told some people the story but i think it would be more appropriate if he told it to you and he might if you go on his forum and ask him.

anyway the thing we should understand is how important danny is for our art.... he has saved us alot of time and money, by giving his own.

danny believes in our tradition. you can tell by his actions.

he's different than alot of other guys in the industry part of magic, for danny its about the art not about danny.

thanks danny

really thanks.


and now can i have that $20 dollars you owe me?

Here’s some footage of him workin indoors;





Danny Hustle has done more to promote busking for magician's then anyone else in the u.s.

infact he has set up a forum dedicated to helping buskers and here's the link.

http://buskerscafe.com/

KEITH { BALLOONATIC }





He also goes by, "THE GREAT WILSONI".

This guy is incredible he’s been out there a long time workin new york city and New Orleans.

A real veteran the old timers all know him. Good friends with sonny holliday.

His show is real new york style. He does stage stuff like passe passe bottles, linking rings and finales with a interesting finale where he ties up a man and a woman who don’t know each other and plays music to them trying to get out, it’s a sort of a puzzle thing. When they can’t get out he tells the audience he’s gonna show everybody how to get them out but before he does this finale, he hats them with a plastic grocery bag.

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The guy looks and sounds like sammy davis jr. and literally reaks of class, he definatley has the royal touch, holds himself like a gentleman but there is no one on the street with more street smarts.

He is a circle show performer, but can do sidewalks. He used to get me to open his show with my show then he’d give me a cut at the end.

I watched him once build a crowd, was the coolest thing ever, he would anounce his show on an amp walking around telling his intro with vegas style music in the background then all of a sudden the music got interrupted by Chinese music and he would look like he went into a trance and using a lota bowl he would pour out water the full length of the edge saying, “water from china ladies and gentleman water from china.” the music would change back to vegas and he would go back to his show then through out the show the music would go Chinese again and he would do it again pouring water from china with a hypnotic voice and face, over and over……and that’s gotta be the best use of a lotta bowl I’d ever seen.


Here’s some clips of him doin a little sidewalk work. these are some clips I got of him off the you tube. but they in no way do him the justice he deserves.

He's right at the end of this one.





here's the tail end of his ring routine;




Keith is a good friend, a real magician, a veteran busker, and most of all the most stand up guy I know on the street.



Here's what Keith says about his teacher;

Hi there, this is for Albert Owens.
I brushed shoulders with a genius a linguistic genius of words,wits and comedy. Some considered him the king of the park(Washington Square Pk), I know I did. He was a great entertainer, a comedian with no match. Everybody copied him and his comic humor. who at a drop of a dime could play the blues , R & B, or classical music on his guitar, harmonica or piano (who knew). He was the Lenny Bruce of the 80s 90s. Washington Square Pk had a few great acts, his was tops, He loved life and hated few, always had a bad word for someone but meant no harm, I am very much indebted the the man Albert George Owens, He took me under his wings and taught the ropes I owe much to this man larger than life. God Bless

WARPO





warpo is like a brother to me,


i learned comedy, throw away magic, and novelty magic, from Warpo. we have a long history going back many years.

one of the most valuable things he taught me about magic comedy is that it's much more appealing if the joke is on the performer.

i'm really intimidated writing this because i look up to him so much and i think this may have to be a work in progress.

he has a long and successful history as a pitchman. his teacher was sir david walker.

almost everyone i've talked to in the business has told me he's the best and i've never seen any one as good as him at it.

recently warpo has gone to the street and it fits him like a glove. so much so that it makes all wonder why he never did it before.

he is an icon in the french quarter and has been since he arrived in new orleans many years ago at the worlds fair. i think he should be mentioned here because he is also now a sidewalk performer. i'm gonna write more about later.

heres a clip of him in alaska;




he's gotta myspace that does him better justice then i have here so far,

y'all should check it out.

http://www.myspace.com/Warpomagic

here's another

TOM FRANK



student of cellini, master in his own right.

TOM FRANK is the one of the least talked about, but is the most important american street magician.

everyone of cellini's students took one of cellini's traits and tom frank took cellini's most powerful trait.

when my wife left me and i felt like killing myself i was asking everyone what i should do and no one could gimme the right answer till i asked cellini and he told me. and all the circumstances surrounding his life came together and fixed my problems it was spooky... a real mystery.

i went on a journey for a couple of years and at the end was when i met tom frank and he gave me the final answers to my remaining questions.

asking them even tho i didn't know them seemed natural and i just knew they had the answer, i had faith in their authority as the real deal.

tom frank understands who we are as street magicians. he understands our true nature. out of all the guys i've met he gets it, he really gets it.

his student BLACK MAGIC JAMES told me he's followed him for years for the grounding and the knowledge.

BLACK MAGIC JAMES would say about tom frank,"you gotta follow the master"

his student is an incredible magician but of course he would be with tom teaching him.

doug conn ran with him back in the day but lost track of him for years.about a year or 2 ago he fell into a big low he found tom's blog and it saved him.

http://tomfrank.blogspot.com/


this blog is incredible for finding yourself as a magi and how we should be living our lives.




my favorite cups and balls routine by anyone is by tom frank you can see footage of it here;

http://buskercentral.com/video.php#magic



here's his site;

http://www.industrialstrengthmagic.com/


as far as magic goes there is NO ONE doing magic at the level he's doin it.

important because he's pure artist but makes good money.

he's gotta be the best example to us.

the fact is the guy's all pro and has been for years and i could only hope to achieve that kinda greatness one day.

here's a great auto-bio clip of him;

ERIC EVANS



Student of Cellini and master in his own rite. he wrote the secret art of magic, has dvds on coin manipulation, a product line of busking equipment he hand makes of the finest, most practical and durable on the market.

he painstakingly finds the hardest and best woods to make his wands they are incredible so's all his other stuff.

he busks and lectures around the world.

if there is one man out there i could say i respected the most as a street magician it would be eric evans.

the fact is he is the closest thing to the next cellini we got right now. and don't get me wrong, there is a lot of other guys who are Cellinesque out there and i thank god for them. further there is a lot more guys out there who are better then eric with certain things in their own ways, but when i read the definition cellini gave of a street magician, only a few magi come to mind and when i think of cellini,

eric is all that is left.

he's gotta spiritual side thats genuine and wise but not hokey or made up.

when people are watching him they know they're watching a real magician.

he's loyal to his teachers, students, friends, and the art, to a point that some might say is fanantical, but i wouldn't because in order for me to respect someone thats the qualities i look for.

i chose to be instructed by him [ yeh, i begged him] and it was the wisest decision i ever made. i have been working with him for the past few years and learning from him and it has been the most productive in my life as a entertainer.

the thing about Eric is he's sort of a recluse around other magicians, i think he likes other performers better then magicians some times because i've noticed he's more apt to socialize with a busking piano player or other busker more then a magician if he can help it.

he does lectures, so if you know your local magic society guys you should tell them to book him so you can have the luxury of learning from him.

i not trying to "sell" his lecture, i really think he improves street performers and this might be the only way you "up and comming" guys might have a chance to meet him.

i got to meet him through doug conn and i made it my business to try and get around him to learn from him.

years ago when Cellini told the american magicians that he had a school in europe Eric was one of the wise ones who did what ever it took to get to switzerland to learn from the master.....and as we can all see it was a wise decision.

i would suggest y'all try and do the same.

try and catch one of his lectures.

ELLIOT GORTON - PARANORMALIST, STREET MAGI.



this is a picture of elliot

so there was the time that elliot scared a cop so bad he started crying...bad.

back when i was a mentalist me and elliot were always lookin for spirtualist work.

well one holloween we got a good one it was a large house that had been sectioned of for different theme rooms and we had the joint rigged to the hilt.

people would come to our room at their leisure and we would spook em with mind reading spirit manifestations etc.

now understand elliot looks like an average proffessional in a suit which makes him all the more clinically scary looking....he looks real not like a guy in a cape.

well at the end of the nite elliot had em on the ouija board but i asked if he could do something else cuz i don't like those boards.

so heres what he did, best i can remember it was @12 years ago i think any way,

he asks the owner lady if she's got any eggs in the house and for her to fetch em and a large glass bowl.

he does a short scan of the people reading them with his eyes to find the proper victim then he picks this one guy who looked average to me.

he asks the guy to pick an egg and that they were gonna try an experiment.

so the guy does and elliot takes the egg and starts rubbing it all over the guy and as he does this he's saying to the guy "some thing has happened i know! and we're gonna rub this egg all over you and we're are gonna try and take these bad things out of you we're gone change these things"

"this has effected some one close to you someone here to today and we're gonna take out the bad"

when he was done rubbin the egg he cracked it and open in the bowl and there was blood chunks of meat and hair....lots of hair.

the guy and the girl next to him started wailing like like some thing was hurtin them and the guy burst into tears you could barely make out the story he was tellin.

but the jist of it was that he was a cop and he would ordinarly get emotional but he had cheated on the girl next to him and their relationship was really on the rocks because of it and they needed something to make it better and then they came to party and then this happened.

of course the couple left happy that nite but i still feel dirty inside even as i write this.

elliot is another student of dougs.

a brilliant man well read and versed on human nature.

he's loyal to his and has chops few could stand up to especially with a deck of cards.

elliot is one of my closest friends and one of those icredible human beings you would usually only get to read about.....but it's his mind that should have you looking him and his work up.

good sidewalk man.


here's his myspace.


http://www.myspace.com/elliotgorton

DOUG CONN


@17 yrs ago i met doug i was working at magic masters and after work a bunch of us magicians were meeting up and we ended up at his house. i didn't know him and when i first saw him i thought he was quiet and unsure of himself even clumsy.we were all sitting in his living room and he was in another room and i really thought that i was amazing at that time.

he came in to our room and asked if some one could help him with a trick everyone urged me and my ego got the best of me.

i went into the kitchen with him to "help" and he began....he was showing me a trick w/ a coin and a scarf and asking advice after the end of 5 mins. i realized i didn't have a clue what he was doing 2 mins. later i realized he knew this too and was doing these amazing things to me on purpose,i confronted him but he claimed innocence to the end as we walked back into the living room together the other magi were waiting and laughed at my confused face.....i said "he's good huh" and they responded "yeh thats doug conn"

i knew then they had all taken that little walk with him.


it was at that moment i knew i wanted him to teach me magic because i obviously didn't know it yet.

doug is not only the most analitical,diabolical,and devious magician i have ever met he's also the most giving and kind hearted genius.

he is my teacher.

HERE IS HIS SITE;

http://www.dougconn.com/


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here's some better footage;



here's about ten minutes after that trick.

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TOOT (Riki Palmer)

This is a picture of him in Atlantic City. Toot is talked about in cellini's dreamer's highway.
I met him when I heard Sonny Holliday and Gazzo were working Atlantic City and they were on my must meet list. When I got there I saw an older fellah in all black with a fedora walking the boards and pulling a rig. I asked him if he was a magician he said yeah and we got to talking, he said he was a Cellini student, so I asked him if he knew Sonny and I told him about how Sonny was my idol. Toot laughed and said, yeah I'll take you right to him. Anyway that's a different story.

I met him as Riki. He took me under his wing and he told me stories about the old days. He had a brilliant show, Jeff Sheridan-esque. Mixed a animal balloon show with a magic act. Used a warbler (whistling device you keep in your mouth) did the whole show whistling, never spoke but you'd swear you heard him talk through the whole show.


Another thing about Toot was for years he just worked with a small bag over his shoulder. He could stop and work anywhere with that warbler any country. Hes 60 yrs old and I couldn't keep up with him he taught me to be young and live every day.

Cellini was so impressed with him he wrote about him in his Dreamer's Highway book, I was lucky to meet him.

A great teacher.
A good friend.
A genius.

Here's another Atlantic City picture

Jimmy Talksalot, Sonny Holliday, Stuartini, Eric Evans, and Toot with his arms open.

THE CELLINI STORY


when i was learning to street perform in new orleans.

i remember standing on my pitch for hours with nobody stopping to watch and wondering, if that was normal, if the other guys went through this {by the way if your on a bad pitch yes its normal but stick to it}

i was having trouble getting people to stop {new orleans is tough} so i asked people doug conn, elliot gordon,kozmo, johnny balloons,jugglers, crack head statues, and any body who had seen cellini work, how it was that he stopped people and everybody said the same he taps the wand.

now one of my mentors dante i knew was a sceptic of just about everything so asked him cuz i thought this was a case of heroe worship.....so i asked dante he said," oh, right he taps his wand like this." tap tap. " and they just stop and crowd around."

i got mad i said "no he don't, not here he don't, not in new orleans, i been workin here months and they don't do that."

so dante said, "what ever, you asked a question!"

couple of months later cellini came and watched my show it took about 10-20 mins to build a crowd.

when i was done with my show,he said,"that was the most original show i've seen....but you don't look at the people! you have to look at the people!" so when he was done bitching me out i said,"would you do somthin now?"


he wasn't in costume he looked like an average person and told me,"well i wasn't really prepared"

so i urged him, i almost insisted, thinkin i had em.

so he says, "alright but i'll need to borrow a stick"

at that moment i knew i didn't have em.

he was kinda up in age and years of the street had takin its toll so he slowly bent to the ground tapped the stick twice slowly rose and there was 40 people waiting for him.

i was dumb founded.

he did some stuff and they looked at him like he was a real magician.

you see thats the thing about him the people in there heads say,"wait honey we have to see this guy he's a real magician, we'll never get a chance to see a real one in our whole life we gotta see this" "don't worry its not that cheese guy we saw at the bar the other day."

and then cellini delivers.

PAUL NATHAN


i first met paul in covent garden i didn't like em.

he had 2 strikes against him he was american [i was sick of my country at the time] and he was from california,frisco....yankee.

when the english guys aked me if he was alright i was suspicious.

i became competitive with him. he'd do a show, i'd do a better one.

on and on this went until he did "the show" i was furious it was so good i couldn't stop laughing i didn't want to it was just that good the magic was impeccable and all the other performers were there laughing and amazed and when it was over i knew i had nothin better then that left up my sleeves.

so i walked up to him and told him i surrender and he told me it wasn't a compatition, i told him it wasn't any more.

i found out later he was hangin around cellini and tom frank back in the day they were room mates.

paul gave me my first email address, expensive hotel rooms when his house was too full and many more things i'm ashamed to tell i accepted.

he booked me in his cabaret and his friend's cabarets he's done so much for me i could never repay him. he treated me like royaty,treatment i never deseved but i'm really grateful.

he's educated,talented,successful and respected.

i'm not suckin up to him because i know he probably isn't reading this cuz he usually doesn't get involved in magic affairs or hang with magicians except his close friends.

the reason i'm writing this is i think other guys should know that there is such a thing as a real magician.

he reminds me of orson wells.

look for him or his friend frank olivier on the internet.

for all you close up card guys he even does that good he's gotta show called "the devil in the deck" he does it in his cabaret with a monitor above him... i think the show is on one off his many sites so you can see for yourself.

he works the street, corprate, and cabaret, and anybody that can afford him he's pricey but you can be pricey when you deliver the way he does.

all his friends call him unkle paul cause he takes care of us and he's like family to alot of us disfunctionals.

HERE IS HIS SITE;

http://www.firemagic.com/

here's promo for his famous "DEVIL IN THE DECK" cabaret show.