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Both Volumes of The Little Egypt Gazette are now available on CD for only $24. Click The Bookstore for ordering details. |
    
The Delta Queen heads to St. Louis 
Bodine gets fancy DEALING FROM THE CENTER -- The May 2001 issue of American Heritage features "The Magician and the Cardsharp," by Karl Johnson, by far the most complete account I've ever read on Dai Vernon's quest for the elusive center deal. Rather than replay the mythology that has surrounded this tale, Johnson has tracked down incredible detail via Allan Kennedy's relatives, and he has produced delightful photos of the Professor and his wife that are new to me. Also included is a fine mini-treatise on the controversy surrounding Erdnase. TWO CHEESEBURGERS TO GO -- The recent David Mamet comedy, State and Main, finally made it to here in the sticks. Ricky Jay is once again present as part of Mamet's stock company, this time playing a short-order cook and dad of hot-to-trot (with Alec Baldwin) daughter Julia Stiles. The movie is a delightful door-slamming farce, and Ricky is excellent as usual. ALOHA, RICHARD ROSS -- The word just arrived that Richard Ross died May 19 from a major heart attack at age 55. He won contests with his watch routine, but it was his incredible, silent, slow-motion Linking Ring routine that made him a magician's magician. Watching it, you could believe that steel really could melt through steel. Richard Ross pulled the Linking Rings out of disfavor and into a state of grace. He shall be missed. |
One of the highlights of growing up in Little Egypt was seeing the paddle-wheel steamboats as they cruised up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Last July, I had the pleasure of boarding the Delta Queen (and its sister, the Mississippi Queen) for the first time, to interview the man who is keeping the legend of the riverboat gambler alive, Bodine Jackson Balasco. My notes on my visit with Bodine will appear in the June issue of Genii, and I encourage you to read it. Last year's Great Steamboat Race 2000 marked Bodine's 25th year with the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, and his is quite a story. Also this month: a new look at the Vernon center deal quest, a new Ricky Jay movie, and the loss of one of magic's greats.
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| Little Egypt Magic is the erratically updated web site of Steve Bryant, spawned (the site, not Steve) by a former internet magazine known as The Little Egypt Gazette/for magicians only.
Steve Bryant is an obscure magician and writer who generates this site from a computer in Bloomington, Indiana. He frequently journeys to and performs magic in Little Egypt, the local name for extreme southern Illinois, where the towns bear such names as Cairo, Thebes, and Karnak. Past issues of this web site: April 01 | March 01 | January 01 | December 00 | November 00 | October 00 | September 00 | August 00 | July 00 | June 00 | May 00 | April 00 | March 00 | February 00 | January 00 | December 99 | November 99 | October 99 | September 99 | August 99 | July 99 | June 99 | May 99 | April 99 | March 99 | February 99 | January 99 | December 98 | November 98 | October 98 | September 98 | August 98 | June 98 | May 98 | April 98 | February 98 | December 97 |