We’re big fans of David Berglas and Mark Elsdon here. So when Murphy’s Magic and Craig Petty released promo for a seemingly perfect version of ACAAN, with a glowing endorsement from Mr. Elsdon, we were very excited! There’s just one tiny problem…

That’s not just once, either. The entire page was loaded with this typo. Great quality control as always, Murphy’s. (Hey, at least we’re beating up on Murphy’s and not Petty this time, right?) I really love how you put the word ass in the name of one of the greatest magicians to ever do it.
Alright, I know how this looks. We abandoned the schedule and almost as quickly abandoned the site, right? Why else would we have no posts for you for almost a month?
Not so, my friends. We’ve been sticking to our word and working on non-post things. We’re also working on some posts that are taking longer to percolate than usual (Finish. Taking longer to finish than usual, for the non-native English speakers in the audience. Percolate doesn’t even actually mean finish, to boot. Sometimes we really throw you guys for a loop with our word choices, and I perfunctorily apologize.), and simply taking advantage of the new structure rather than rushing something out.
Speaking of disappearances, there have been three of these as of late that have now been resolved, coincidentally all within the past month.
There’s no need to dwell on who specifically, but it’s nice to see them all doing right by their customers after being gone for so long. This shows that sometimes, in a world of Mr. Blondes, you can get a few… who’s a likable character from Reservoir Dogs? I’m drawing a blank.
Come to think of it, wasn’t Mr. Blonde the fucking torture artist in that movie? The anonymous magician Mr. Blonde named himself after a character known for torture? How did we not see the scam coming?
We could go on about the details, but that would feel a bit harsh when the stories for all of them can be summed up pretty much as follows: They bit off a bit more than they could chew, combined with life getting in the way, and they are now on the rebound. Albeit after months and months of absence or delays.
In his new book The Particle System, Joshua Jay says this:
Throughout these pages I use the word “spectator” to refer to someone who’s watching and “participant” for anyone who’s actually involved in the trick.
Clearly he’s a reader of The Magic Oval! We can’t possibly just think similarly, this is clearly proof that Joshua Jay is a reader of The Magic Oval. We are overjoyed to know this with certainty.
(Less satisfying is that he calls SarahElla Phant “Sarah Trustman” in the book. She hasn’t gone by that name for years, Josh. She’s happily married to Dan Harlan now, and we wish them all the best.)
Why are the Green Latrine results mostly still missing from Google? Did the site go down even more recently than I thought? (For newer readers, the Green Latrine is… well, can’t you guess?)
I’ll freely admit that I almost entirely brought this up to re-introduce people to the moniker “The Green Latrine”. That’s something that I’m willing to do.
At the same time, even Bing doesn’t seem to bring up most Magic Café results anymore. (It used to for a while, after Google fell.) I know that the Internet is near death, but the Green Latrine is a cornerstone that could live on long after the foundations have mostly crumbled. It would be a shame if we were no longer able to use that cornerstone.
Is Penguin short on cash? I only ask because, well, they suggested that you buy five of their new “Magic for Everyone” kits. Now, I understand what the implication here is, but that assumes that your average magician reading the ad copy has more than four friends.
And according to this reviewer, the floating toothpick sucks. Also, according to someone who totally isn’t a Penguin plant trying to get every last penny they can, you should buy it to find out what’s wrong with it.
