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JoeHohman Special user Erie 706 Posts |
Hello, Michael.
I wanted to tell you (and the rest of the Café community) how much I appreciate a very unique DVD of yours. It is a DVD that you made with my friend Rich Gensheimer about four years ago for Erie Insurance Group, designed to promote a new policy system for the company. For those of you that have never seen it, it was set up in a very professional way with two (actually, three) menus showing Michael talking about the advantages of this new system and illustrating his speech with a series of magical effects, 99% of which involved sleight of hand. (I think there were maybe one or two apparatus effects in there.) Then at the end of the insurance sales pitch, there was a special "magic show" menu that featured Michael doing Professor's Nightmare, Crazy Man's Handcuffs, Mis-Made Dollar Bill, a neat card trick whose name I do not know, and Cups and Balls! (You had to wade through the insurance presentation to get to this special, hidden menu.) Pretty cool! But as cool as the "special treat magic show" was, the REALLY cool work is embedded in the presentation of the new policy system, as Michael does a large number of coin and card effects. Just last week, I popped it in again and watched it with my son. At one point in the presentation, Michael is seen talking, and then the camera pans away to reveal that you are looking at his head talking to the camera on a laptop -- the real Michael appears on stage right, walks over to the computer and pops out the DVD of him that is playing, holds it up, and suggests to the audience that there are only a limited number of these DVDs, so hurry before they all vanish. And of course the DVD promptly vanishes in his hand. Then Michael smiles and says, "Don't worry, we'll make more." The DVD returns! My son has not watched this in over two years, and he turns to me and says, a little startled, "Hey, how did he DO that?" I don't mind revealing some stuff to my son, because he is the one who got ME back into magic, so I rewind (Is that the correct term for DVD?) about thirty seconds, and as we watch it again, I explain that Michael is using a D**n's p**m. "Holy CRAP!" My son is even more excited now that he knows the technique. "Holy crap, with a D--V--D???" Michael also did a magic show for our company, to promote the DVD release. If you have his videos but have never seen Michael perform in person, you really don't know what you are missing -- Michael, please don't take this the wrong way, but you are so much, much, much funnier, charming, and engaging when you perform in person than when you perform for the ETM instructional videos. As other posters have noted, Michael is also a very gracious gentleman. In addition to the show in our company auditorium, Michael walked around the Caféteria at lunch time and performed for the various tables. When he came to my table, he was nice enough to sit down with me and chat, even though we had only met earlier that morning through my friend Rich. He was gracious enough to sit with me, talk for a bit, and teach my son a card trick. That was a pretty good day. Michael, I don't know if you remember any of that or not, but it sure did make a good impression on me and my family. Good luck in all your future endeavors! |
daffydoug Eternal Order Look mom! I've got 14077 Posts |
I really enjoyed reading that post! Thanks for sharing that!
The difficult must become easy, the easy beautiful and the beautiful magical.
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RevJohn Inner circle Oregon City Oregon, Oregon 2473 Posts |
I agree. Very moving.
John |
TannerJade Veteran user Canada 307 Posts |
Indeed! Thanks for that...wow!
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Michael Ammar Creative Spotlight Guest 83 Posts |
Hello Joe,
Wow, what a small world! Yeah, I remember that day very well! The guys at Erie took good care of me, and I was proud to be part of that event. There is a bit more to the story -- when you see the whole thing, you realize that the person who wrote this would have to be a magician to integrate the magic into the message so well. I did not write the script, but it was written by a well known writer/magician. Anyone know who that was? |
Agathon Regular user 161 Posts |
I would take a guess that it was Paul Harris who wrote the script, knowing that he is also a writer.
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JoeHohman Special user Erie 706 Posts |
If no one guesses by the end of the day, I will post it.
There is a little more to the story on my end, as well. I think I told you that day that I would be leaving for Russia that weekend to begin the process to adopt my daughter. So Elizabeth is four years old now; as a toddler, I used to rock her to sleep by watching a Simon Aronson video clip on my PDA. She still asks to watch Simon and Ginny sometimes! |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The April 2006 entrée: Michael Ammar » » I own a very unique Ammar DVD... » » TOPIC IS LOCKED (0 Likes) |
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