Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Saturday, Sunday, Monday
Saturday night I had a strolling gig. Polly’s friend Darla, who she worked with on Scrubs & Dirty Sexy Money hired me to work her birthday party. Lots of industry types and a few actors I recognized from TV.
Lots of fun and nice to put on a suit for a change. My sets were well received and she said I got great feedback. Darla is a trip, She’s got Polly on the Pussy Trapping Amway Program. We trap neighborhood stray cats, take them to a place where they are neutered, washed, flea dipped, given shots, then we release them back where they were trapped. It’s fun, good for the cats and the community. Darla is also Neil Diamonds’ personal hair and make-up person when he tours.
Sunday I met Dan Sylvester “The Jester” at the Castle for a late evening of discussion. Always a pleasure to spend time with my old soul brother. He showed me his latest completed comic book about ugly little critters called “Tater Bugs”. We ran into Max Maven who is the new Entertainment Director at the Magic Castle. He said that he would be happy to look my promo tape. I wouldn’t mind booking a week at the Castle.
Monday I had lunch with Aaron Fisher, his girlfriend Amy and Todd Karr. We were celebrating Aaron’s 32nd birthday!!! Happy B’day Pal!! After lunch Aaron, Amy and I to a nice hike in Bronson Canyon (up near the Hollywood Sign).
The nice weather is back, it’s been in the upper 70’s. Loving life, trying to eat right, exercise and sharing all the love in my heart. It’s a good life.
Lots of fun and nice to put on a suit for a change. My sets were well received and she said I got great feedback. Darla is a trip, She’s got Polly on the Pussy Trapping Amway Program. We trap neighborhood stray cats, take them to a place where they are neutered, washed, flea dipped, given shots, then we release them back where they were trapped. It’s fun, good for the cats and the community. Darla is also Neil Diamonds’ personal hair and make-up person when he tours.
Sunday I met Dan Sylvester “The Jester” at the Castle for a late evening of discussion. Always a pleasure to spend time with my old soul brother. He showed me his latest completed comic book about ugly little critters called “Tater Bugs”. We ran into Max Maven who is the new Entertainment Director at the Magic Castle. He said that he would be happy to look my promo tape. I wouldn’t mind booking a week at the Castle.
Monday I had lunch with Aaron Fisher, his girlfriend Amy and Todd Karr. We were celebrating Aaron’s 32nd birthday!!! Happy B’day Pal!! After lunch Aaron, Amy and I to a nice hike in Bronson Canyon (up near the Hollywood Sign).The nice weather is back, it’s been in the upper 70’s. Loving life, trying to eat right, exercise and sharing all the love in my heart. It’s a good life.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Wednesday Afternoon Session @ Dean Dill's Barber Shop
Always a good time. Click pics to enlarge. Highlights included a woman with a mind reading dog. She was workshopping the act. Never seen a dog do "Out of this world".
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Aunt Jonnie & Uncle Stewart Burke
My mothers' sister and her husband are in town. Cruised in, in a big RV, complete with car in tow, grill, wine refrigerator, washer/dryer and two VERY LARGE DOGS. I love these guys. We drove down to Seal Beach and met them at the Navel Weapons Station / RV Campground. Stewart is ex military (Airforce, flew 204 missions in Viet Nam). He gets the hook up at any military campground. We spent some time hanging out and catching up in the RV. Then we headed out for a while. They treated us to a nice lunch where the conversation continued. We talked to about my mom and my grand parents.
We talked about my siblings and their kids (my cousins). We all lived in Europe at the same time and used to spend Thanksgivings with them on the Air Force Base. Feels like a lifetime ago. We were all so young and innocent. I remember one holiday, all the kids were sent away so that the grown ups could chill, have a cocktail and listen to the latest George Carlin album, "Occupation: Foole". I must have been 7 or 8 years old. Our ears pressed up against the door as we heard our parents laughing loudly at the "7 words you cant say on TV". Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits! This was an eye opening exposure to my first taste of professional comedy. Aaaahhh those were the days. Now we're all grown up. Nice visit, nice people. . . nice to have family. Funny, they were in San Diego last week and ran into Jimmy Talksalot. 
From the archives: I put this pic up here because I just found out that my Aunt reads my blog and she might get a kick out of it. I love you. Great seeing you both! Click Pics to Enlarge
Friday, February 22, 2008
Quote du Jour
"I used to want to change the world. . . . now I just want to be able to leave the room with a little dignity"
- From the Movie Short Bus
- From the Movie Short Bus
Thursday, February 21, 2008
In my "In Box"
I'm enjoying your stuff, especially the Houdini stuff...
I'm from Houdini's hometown, Appleton, Wisconsin. Houdini's greatest escape was getting out of Appleton...
When I was a kid, grandma would just point out the Zuelske Insurance building and say "That's where Houdini lived when he was a kid" and that's all we knew. Sometime in the 80s I guess Sidney Radner, a very aged assistant to Houdini, loaned for years a whole lot of Houdini's stuff to the Outagamie County Historical Society (later, some controversy over was it a gift or on loan for a long term???)... The Houdini Historical Center was created. Also, there are bronze plaques throughout the downtown area, and a map to help people find them all, sort of like doing the Stations of the Cross I thougt! -- which greatly enhanced the experience as someone who grew up there. We all knew that the world's first commercially practical hydroelectric station was down by the river (a copy of it can be seen at the site) but did not know that Houdini nearly drowned near there when he was playing as a kid, and supposedly that is some kind of psychological thing about his escapes, especially the getting-tossed-in-water-in-a-packing-case stuff... There really is a lot of terrific stuff in Appleton, I'll try to restrain myself...
In recent years, Temple Zion, which was long out of business as a synagogue and was being used to store stuff by the Historical Society, now has a bronze plaque that tells about Houdini's dad being the rabbi there, Appleton's first rabbi. The story always was that Houdini's dad got fired because the congregation wanted a younger man, but the plaque says the congregation was trying to raise funds to build the synagogue and the whole community contributed and got involved, and they wanted to get a rabbi who could speak English to help with this project. Houdini's parents only spoke Yiddish and Hungarian, I guess, being immigrants.
I was back there when my Grandfather was dying in 1993. I got stranded there when my Canadian lawyer, who was supposed to be doing my divorce, abandoned me. I was left high and dry by my dysfunctional local relatives, too. I'd left my kid back in Canada with her father telling her this can't take forever and I'll come back after great grandpa dies, but then for reasons of poverty I was stuck. As it was sinking in on me the horrible situation I was in, one day that fall I was doing my daily meditation, and doing it kitty corner from the Houdini Historical Center -- I was in a flower garden on the beautiful campus of Lawrence University. As I walked among the flowers and sunshine, praying the rosary, suddenly I heard in my left ear (I'm left handed, so I figured that's positive for me) "Near you" -- clear as a bell... I had just been thinking about how Houdini could ESCAPE, and I wished I could escape and get back to my kid who was crying in school every day because I couldn't get back to her. Of course, such an experience is subjective and I can't prove it, but swear to God that happened while I was praying. Whether it was my angel, Houdini, my imagination, etc., it was very consoling and I started to cry, which made me feel better. I did get back to Canada over a year later. I don't know whether they still have the annual seances on Halloween for Houdini (I'm sure you know he died on Halloween)... of course, that was officially only to be done for ten years after his death, but in Appleton they still did it for fun on Halloween, and I think the seances were at Lawrence University! Well, I wonder... They never did "hear from" Houdini, and that's a GOOD thing, you know. Houdini would NOT have approved... But I wonder: DID I HEAR FROM Houdini?? Can't prove it and maybe I'm just plain nuts. The effect is the important thing, and the effect was calming and consoling, like I felt comforted and moved to tears. So that helped me. Besides, if I was praying the rosary at the time, I guess it's ok.
Enjoying your pics. I'd never seen the one of Houdini with the kids evidently in a hospital. A couple of my relatives were entertainers, too, but in Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, which was headquartered in Wisconsin. Lots of young Wisconsinites joined the circus way long ago....
I'm from Houdini's hometown, Appleton, Wisconsin. Houdini's greatest escape was getting out of Appleton...
When I was a kid, grandma would just point out the Zuelske Insurance building and say "That's where Houdini lived when he was a kid" and that's all we knew. Sometime in the 80s I guess Sidney Radner, a very aged assistant to Houdini, loaned for years a whole lot of Houdini's stuff to the Outagamie County Historical Society (later, some controversy over was it a gift or on loan for a long term???)... The Houdini Historical Center was created. Also, there are bronze plaques throughout the downtown area, and a map to help people find them all, sort of like doing the Stations of the Cross I thougt! -- which greatly enhanced the experience as someone who grew up there. We all knew that the world's first commercially practical hydroelectric station was down by the river (a copy of it can be seen at the site) but did not know that Houdini nearly drowned near there when he was playing as a kid, and supposedly that is some kind of psychological thing about his escapes, especially the getting-tossed-in-water-in-a-packing-case stuff... There really is a lot of terrific stuff in Appleton, I'll try to restrain myself...
In recent years, Temple Zion, which was long out of business as a synagogue and was being used to store stuff by the Historical Society, now has a bronze plaque that tells about Houdini's dad being the rabbi there, Appleton's first rabbi. The story always was that Houdini's dad got fired because the congregation wanted a younger man, but the plaque says the congregation was trying to raise funds to build the synagogue and the whole community contributed and got involved, and they wanted to get a rabbi who could speak English to help with this project. Houdini's parents only spoke Yiddish and Hungarian, I guess, being immigrants.
I was back there when my Grandfather was dying in 1993. I got stranded there when my Canadian lawyer, who was supposed to be doing my divorce, abandoned me. I was left high and dry by my dysfunctional local relatives, too. I'd left my kid back in Canada with her father telling her this can't take forever and I'll come back after great grandpa dies, but then for reasons of poverty I was stuck. As it was sinking in on me the horrible situation I was in, one day that fall I was doing my daily meditation, and doing it kitty corner from the Houdini Historical Center -- I was in a flower garden on the beautiful campus of Lawrence University. As I walked among the flowers and sunshine, praying the rosary, suddenly I heard in my left ear (I'm left handed, so I figured that's positive for me) "Near you" -- clear as a bell... I had just been thinking about how Houdini could ESCAPE, and I wished I could escape and get back to my kid who was crying in school every day because I couldn't get back to her. Of course, such an experience is subjective and I can't prove it, but swear to God that happened while I was praying. Whether it was my angel, Houdini, my imagination, etc., it was very consoling and I started to cry, which made me feel better. I did get back to Canada over a year later. I don't know whether they still have the annual seances on Halloween for Houdini (I'm sure you know he died on Halloween)... of course, that was officially only to be done for ten years after his death, but in Appleton they still did it for fun on Halloween, and I think the seances were at Lawrence University! Well, I wonder... They never did "hear from" Houdini, and that's a GOOD thing, you know. Houdini would NOT have approved... But I wonder: DID I HEAR FROM Houdini?? Can't prove it and maybe I'm just plain nuts. The effect is the important thing, and the effect was calming and consoling, like I felt comforted and moved to tears. So that helped me. Besides, if I was praying the rosary at the time, I guess it's ok.
Enjoying your pics. I'd never seen the one of Houdini with the kids evidently in a hospital. A couple of my relatives were entertainers, too, but in Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, which was headquartered in Wisconsin. Lots of young Wisconsinites joined the circus way long ago....
One of the strangest movies I've ever seen
Polly and I saw this movie tonight. Way out there in an avant garde sort way. Crazy movie, crazy special features. . . the making of and so on. Fascinating really, that a movie like this gets made at all. Muff said. . . sorry I mean nuff said.
Last night at work was a waste of time. It had been chilly and overcast all day and looked like rain. Coming home early allowed me to see the lunar eclipse. As I was pulling in at home, the moon was almost fully eclipsed. I called Polly and told her to come outside and see it.
We kissed under the dark side of the moon.
In my "In Box"
Hey Tom, This is Sebastian we saw each other again at Dean's today. After looking at your site I am now sure that I have seen your cups. Since you mentioned today that you are a cup collector I figured I would send you a picture of the cups I am looking for and if you have any leads or anybody that wants to get rid of them please let me know. I look forward to seeing you again some time I am in LA.
Regards,
Sebastian
sebastian@magicofsebastian.com
http://www.magicofsebastian.com
If anyone knows where he can get a set of these, please contact him and make him a happy camper.
TF
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My Response
Sebastian,
Great seeing you again. I'll have to stay longer some Wednesday and hang until closing time to chum with you guys a bit longer. I do have a set of the cups you are looking for, but have no interest in selling them. After checking them out a bit I might comment that their pretty light and would most likely dent with regular use. (making them hard to get apart after time. . . unless you are always very nice to them. Here is a pic of a portion of my collection with the cups in question in it.
Again, nice seeing you again.
Sincerely,
Tom Frank
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Yeah I didn't leave until 9 last night. Yes those are the cups that I have been looking for. I am really nice and gentle with my props. I checked out the RNT website and I found a couple of sets that I liked but I want them in a chrome finish and if they are a real precision cup then the thickness of the plating makes it difficult to stack them. That is what I found out when I got the Riser Minis chrome plated. Keep in touch.
Regards,
Sebastian
Wednesday Afternoon Session @ Dean Dill's Barber Shop
Spent a couple of hours at Dean Dill’s Barber Shop, Magic Session yesterday. Dean with a big welcoming smile on his face and some of the usual suspects. Pete Biro was there, a fellow from San Diego named Sebastian, who I met before. Another fellow from Columbus, Georgia named Steve Travis, who I had also met at a previous session. A lawyer / magi and a computer animation guy from Chicago.
Always an interesting group of guys. I love that Dean is cutting and styling hair while a magic session surrounds. I know I’ve said this before, I think it’s worth saying again; Dean Dill hosts the best weekly session in LA. It’s old school, a bunch of guys hanging out doing magic tricks. Anyone is welcome, regardless of skill level, and everybody seems to get something out of the session. I was asked to do my Mental Photography Pitch for the guys. They liked it. Next thing you know, Dean is doing his routine for me. His addition of a single blank both sides card was very clever. This small variation certainly sells the spectator on the fact that the deck is blank, as they examine a selected card from the blank deck. This launched into a discussion about various magicians who liked this classic trick deck as much as us. We talked briefly about Don Alan and Goshman and the routines they performed with the Mental Photo Deck. Trivia Question: What was the older name for the Mental Photography Deck?
Pete Biro scored two bonus points this session. He correctly identified an obscure back design (happened to be a Palmetto Back / Texan Deck). I was impressed that he identified them quickly without having to think too much. I don’t know why, but that’s definitely a bonus point.
The second was his performance of a new card trick called, “Trilogy” by Brian Caswell. I had never seen or heard about this trick. Very clever and streamlined in handling. It was interesting to hear how Dean, Pete and Steve Travis had been playing with the effect and trying to improve upon it and make it their own. Pete added the use of a prediction for the final card revelation. Good thinking. Another personal benefit to attending these sessions, I’m exposed to some new tricks on the market. Otherwise, I’m basically out of the loop.
Steve busted out a nice version of Flash Cash, where 5 one dollar bills instantly change to 5 hundred dollar bills. Very visual effect, with a nice emotional hook. Can’t go wrong with hundred dollar bills. . . ever. I am so impressed with with quality of advice that is given at these sessions. Simple variations that help strengthen the magic. What a great way to spend a Wednesday afternoon. I simply must do this more often, I always have a good time.
Always an interesting group of guys. I love that Dean is cutting and styling hair while a magic session surrounds. I know I’ve said this before, I think it’s worth saying again; Dean Dill hosts the best weekly session in LA. It’s old school, a bunch of guys hanging out doing magic tricks. Anyone is welcome, regardless of skill level, and everybody seems to get something out of the session. I was asked to do my Mental Photography Pitch for the guys. They liked it. Next thing you know, Dean is doing his routine for me. His addition of a single blank both sides card was very clever. This small variation certainly sells the spectator on the fact that the deck is blank, as they examine a selected card from the blank deck. This launched into a discussion about various magicians who liked this classic trick deck as much as us. We talked briefly about Don Alan and Goshman and the routines they performed with the Mental Photo Deck. Trivia Question: What was the older name for the Mental Photography Deck?
Pete Biro scored two bonus points this session. He correctly identified an obscure back design (happened to be a Palmetto Back / Texan Deck). I was impressed that he identified them quickly without having to think too much. I don’t know why, but that’s definitely a bonus point.
The second was his performance of a new card trick called, “Trilogy” by Brian Caswell. I had never seen or heard about this trick. Very clever and streamlined in handling. It was interesting to hear how Dean, Pete and Steve Travis had been playing with the effect and trying to improve upon it and make it their own. Pete added the use of a prediction for the final card revelation. Good thinking. Another personal benefit to attending these sessions, I’m exposed to some new tricks on the market. Otherwise, I’m basically out of the loop.Steve busted out a nice version of Flash Cash, where 5 one dollar bills instantly change to 5 hundred dollar bills. Very visual effect, with a nice emotional hook. Can’t go wrong with hundred dollar bills. . . ever. I am so impressed with with quality of advice that is given at these sessions. Simple variations that help strengthen the magic. What a great way to spend a Wednesday afternoon. I simply must do this more often, I always have a good time.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
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