Last weekend I had the exhausting, but rewarding task of manning the Vanishing Inc. dealer stand at the Blackpool Magic Convention. I met dozens and dozens of customers who all had very nice things to say about our products and website. My fiancee Sarah and friends Kerry and Fritz helped out behind the stand over the weekend as we all had a lot of fun.

I thought it might be interesting for those who couldn’t make it to the convention, so here goes:

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the stand! Our next stand in the UK will be at the Bristol Day of Magic in May.

Hi friends!

Just a quick update on what we’ve got in store for you.

As always, we’re hard at work on the Complete Sankey. This trilogy will be over 500 tricks and a very, very important work by the most prolific creator of our times. Sankey has created SO MUCH MAGIC that we forget how many stellar routines he has devised. We all do a few great Sankey tricks, but what we’re realizing as we chip away at this project is that WE ALL DO DIFFERENT GREAT SANKEY TRICKS. Look for this trilogy to drop in early 2011.

Rune Klan Book and DVD. The Rune Klan book is at the printers and the first ever, exclusive reprint of Three Pieces of Silver, his underground coin magic video, has been transferred to DVD. We’ll have a downloadable sample up soon, and we’ll be able to accept preorders on these items in the near future. We’ve spent three years on this project (almost daily), and it will be our biggest release to date.

John Guasteferro Book. We’re massive fans of John G’s work, and we’re so proud to announce the completion of his first-ever hardcover book. It is NOT a rehash of his stellar DVDs you already have and love. Instead, it’s a new collection and, we think, a new vibe. This book will arrive in a few months, and we’re so excited to publish it.

Brett Bishop DVD: Brett Bishop was one of the hits of The Session 2010 and one of our favorite new talents. We’re proud to be the producer of his new DVD. Terrific material for bar and strolling magic.

Downloads: We’ve got new downloads coming, too: Ken Niinuma of Japan and Chris Mayhew both offer up practical, offbeat card material. It’s all coming your way soon!

Having such an enthusiastic reader base, we thought it would be interesting to generate some interesting statistics on the world’s strongest card tricks. Hugard’s Magic Monthly did something like this over fifty years ago but to my knowledge, there hasn’t been such a survey since.

The results so far are interesting, but it can only really work if we get enough people involved. So, we would really appreciate it if you could help out by completing the (short) survey here:

http://www.vanishingincmagic.com/surveys/best-card-tricks/

We’ll be reporting on the results of the survey in a special event hosted by Joshua Jay at The Session 2010 (of which only 14 tickets remain at the time of writing) and will also send the results to everyone that participates.

Hey everyone! Please send congratulations to Andi Gladwin for making the cover of Magic Circular Magazine. And then please make fun of his facial expression on said cover.

I’m very happy that my good friend received this deserved honor, and it’s a very interesting interview with Matt Field.

Hello everyone! I just got back from a southern tour—thanks to everyone who spent time with me and saw the new lecture. This was a particularly touching tour for me, because it felt so good to be entertaining again after my accident. Man, I did miss performing.

On my stop in New Orleans, I got to see two great friends: Jon Racherbaumer and Steve Reynolds. Racherbaumer is always an inspiration, and he is hard at work editing a book by one of my favorite card workers…more on that in the future.

I also spent time with Steve Reynolds, who showed me some of the material from his upcoming Vanishing Inc. release, Route 52 and an accompanying DVD, Seek 52. Wow! This stuff looks astounding. Steve has studied Marlo and Hamman very closely, but now makes his living performing for the public. This has given him a good balance of academic card magic with a healthy dose of practicality. I cannot wait until his book is printed, and for people to get their hands on his material.

G’Day Mates!

I’m in England right now on a month-long lecture tour, throwing shrimps on barbies everywhere I go. If I happen to be coming near your town (such as London, Southport, Blackpool, Manchester, etc.), come out and learn a card trick or ten; I’d love to meet you.

While I’m over here, I am doing something quite suicidal:

A 10k run.

Yes; all at once.

Now, I’m not a runner by any stretch of the imagination, so there is a deeper purpose to this event other than a need to collapse in the streets, while wearing knee-high socks and a ripped Poison t-shirt. That deeper purpose is to help researchers find a much needed cure for cancer. I’ve sadly had a few people in my life go to war against this despicable disease, and I would hate to see even one more person fall victim to its disgustingly insatiable appetite. So short of putting on a labcoat myself, some super-tight spandex shorts will have to do for now.

And that’s where you come in.

I would love to raise as much money as I can for this event, but I can’t do it alone. So I am turning to you – my good people online – to help me out. Please head over to http://www.run10ksponsorme.org/tylerwilson and donate whatever you can. No amount is too little. I would VERY much appreciate any and all donations.

So while I know a bunch of you will donate because you, too, want to stop cancer, some of you may need further prodding. So here is what I am going to do: if you make a donation via the website within the next week, and somehow find a way to put the word “Kangaroo” into the comments section, I will send you a free trick that I haven’t published anywhere before. It’s a video download, and it’s a trick I perform a LOT (which recent attendees of MAGIC Live will certainly be able to verify) so here’s your chance to get some magic that simply will not be available anywhere else.

Help cure cancer. Get a free trick.

Win-Win

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I see a dingo eating a baby. And it looks mighty tasty.

Tyler Wilson

1980-2009

“Stunning effects and jaw-dropping magic!”
—Jeff McBride, Creator of the Magic & Mystery School

For the first time ever, Jon Allen (creator of “The Silent Treatment” and one of the busiest magicians in the UK) is tipping his most prized routines, and ideas—fifty effects packed into more than 200 pages of polished, performance-ready magic. More than 400 photos are included to make your learning experience a pleasurable one. Written with the inimitable style and wit of John Lovick, this important book contains amazing magic that will fit directly into your real-world repertoire.

This beautiful book is now available exclusively from our website. You can even download three tricks from the book absolutely free.

Win $100’s worth of free magic
To celebrate the launch of this great book, we’re giving you a chance to win $100’s worth of great magic.

Enter to win here.

Whether you are new or old friends, we thought it would be appropriate to update you on two items of interest.

On a happy note, last Friday Andi Gladwin proposed to longtime girlfriend Sarah atop the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel, Las Vegas (and, to our surprise, she said yes).

Joshua Jay has been spending a lot of time in bed as well, but for altogether different reasons. As many of you have heard, Joshua was in a serious boating accident and suffered a major injury to his left arm and wrist. Early prognosis is that Josh will have a rigorous 6-month recovery, with hopes of regaining mobility.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated of the progress of both co-founders (including Andi’s crazy initial idea of running a magic convention as a stag party). And it goes without saying that Vanishing Inc. customers will still receive the same excellent level of customer service and speedy delivery that you have come to expect while Josh is recovering.