Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Do it again, Larry!
I have to include part-two of Larry Soffer's performance here at the Peak offices last week Wednesday.
Having watched it a couple of time's, I think it's such a great little advert for Larry's abilities. I was also amazed at how shocked 'into silence' both Bronwin & Nicole were! I had to ask for a reaction - and that has never happened before... truely shocking!
There were no tricks. Nothing at all was planned, and it was Larry's first meeting with the girls. He was really spot on every single time he tested himself against the busy minds of Peak.
What is really cool about Larry's show, is that although he gave us a close up private viewing, his stage shows in front of live audiences make him all the more effective - there is alot more that can be done!
" I witnessed the next Doug Henning or David Copperfield, I knew immediately I had to get him to the
Stan Gerson
"Master of Magic"
Not a bad quote to be able to bandy around... so here's Larry again.
Labels: Larry Soffer, magic, mentalist
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Larry Soffer - Reading your mind!
I am sure more people would like to have business meetings like we do at Peak! In fact people pay good money to see some of the things we get to enjoy from our desks, but even then are never as up close and personal as we are.Wednesday we were first visited by Magician Ryan Sharp & Scoobie Doo, and then we saw Larry Soffer, South Africa’s only Illusionist & Magician who uses the technique of Mentalism to totally freak your mind. All three of them came to the office to introduce themselves to Bronwin and Nicole (Scoobie couldn't stay long though as he was on to another show).
I have known Larry for many years, from his early days as a student at the College of Magic in Cape Town, when he was only just starting out; he used to hang out at the V&A Waterfront, with another good friend of ours, Jacques Le Sueur – incidently the only Magician in the world to have stolen Nelson Mandela’s Rolex twice in a row (with permission from his bodyguards of course!)
Larry does some mind-boggling mind-reading; he told the girls to each think of a person, and then he provided their names correctly; he ‘saw’ the cards Nicole was holding in her hand, and even knew which order they were in without even coming near the pack; and he felt the energy of objects they were holding in their hands while being totally blind-folded - a two-prong adapter & an old brick Motorola 5200!We used him earlier this year as a table-hopping magi for the Götheborg welcome day, and our client was so impressed with his close-up magic that they requested him for another show that evening at their gala event.
Larry has even made spoons bend during a talk radio show, and he was very pleased to meet Bronwin, as she was one of the audience listening in to the show on 567 Cape Talk who witnessed this from her own home!So this was no average meeting! But it was just another exciting day at Peak!
I have included some of his card tricks in this next short film, and you can see from the censored sound-clip that Bron and Nicole were flabbergasted!
I will follow this up soon with more mind-reading - isn't that what you were thinking you would like to see?
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Wolfgang Riebe - Master Magician
One of Peak's old friends, the Master Magician Wolfgang Riebe, came to visit us this morning, presenting us with some more videos of his work. I first met Wolfgang about 10 years ago, and his reputation at that stage was already impressive! Wolfgang has toured the world extensively, having visited some 117 countries from running aground near the North Pole to walking with the penguins on Antarctica. He watched Krakatoa erupt, has dived the Cayman fault and even been through the Bermuda Triangle... and that's not including all his Magical appearances!
He has lectured at all the top magic societies internationally, from the London Magic Circle to the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and this is where his degree in Communication & Psychology certainly helps. But its not just magic.
In the corporate market, Wolfgang developed shows around Motivation & Memory Retention, where he offers workshops and seminars where he teaches his audience ways and means of improving their memory by a minimum of 200%.And we had quite a chuckle just before Wolfgang arrived this morning; Nicole got all excited about meeting him, as she has watched his television shows for a number of years, as he has appeared regularly on Top Billing, Pasella, Kwela, Die Casper Rasper Show amongst others.
So here's a small presentation video giving some more insight - I am looking forward to presenting some more snippets that he is working on with Soli Philander, but more on that later.
