Belinda Sinclair?

[Jeff Haas]

Belinda Sinclair mention in Time Out New York

This is the link to the article that names her as the "Best Female Magician." They also talk to Silly Billy and visited Monday Night Magic.

[Richard Kaufman]

Wittus Witt had been heavily promoting Belinda and even put her on the cover of Magishiwelt (I've probably misspelled that).

I thought Stan Allen's idea of interviewing her was an interesting one. I won't reveal what she said to Josh--you'll have to wait for the September issue of MAGIC for that!

I will tell you that she and her dancer/singers swore at the audience away from their microphones and it could be heard by the people sitting in the front row. It wasn't "Thank you for coming," either. Think F-bomb.

[Pete Biro]

sweet... argh... :whack:

[Guest]

Originally posted by Mike Walsh II:
Her academic credentials are something else though.

The MC who introduced her at FISM (at least on the first night) said that she was a doctor three time over: a doctor of theology, a doctor of anthropology (I believe that was the second category), and a doctor of medecine. Her website does say that she has a PH. D. in theology and is a certified paramedic who has studied anthropology, but no mention of doctoral degrees in those fields. Wonder if the MC misunderstood the introductory material he was given? Ironically, Lennart Green, who deservedly received a tremendous audience response on the same program, is an MD, but no mention was made of that fact in introducing him.

[Guest]

Me thinks a bit of truth stretching is being used in her "promotional" materials. While Time Out New York named her Best Female Magician nowhere does it say that she is the WORLDS best female magician as she claims on her bio page. Also, I have worked on the Academy Awards for the past 10 years and I can unequivocably say that we do not use any performers during commercial breaks. Maybe she was working an Academy Awards party somewhere but that is completely different from saying you worked the Awards show themselves.

And Dustin, if you think that Belinda is "stunning" then you really must get out more. You live in SoCal where there are women 1000 times more stunning than her and those are just the ones that most people call "plain." :p

[Guest]

Originally posted by Jeff Haas:
Belinda Sinclair mention in Time Out New York

The article also calls Coinman Sol Stone by the name Sal.

[Guest]

Cant speak to her performance abilities (havent seen her perform), but I can say shes working on a history of female magicians, which sounds like it will be rather comprehensive. Clay

[Ian Kendall]

For someone so educated her grammar sucks.

Take care, Ian

[Guest]

Belinda appeared on the close-up show at last year's Magic Circle Centenary in London.

It is very likely that if she lived in Ireland or England she would get large grants of money from the arts councils.

The arts councils are allocated funds from the government and national lotteries to pass on to 'suitable' performers and groups.

The criteria for getting a grant seems to be that if can prove you have an act or show no one in their right mind would pay to see, you qualify.

The less likely anyone is to pay, the higher the grant.

Belinda could do very well.

[Guest]

Tough crowd....

I agree that some liberties with the facts were taken on Belindas website (e.g., being elected to AIMC status in The Magic Circle is not the highest honor one can get in that society). The slips of the pen are especially regrettable because she doesnt need to pad her life accomplishments to document a life full of achievements.

Candid assessments of her performance at FISM aside (which is fair game, but preferably if made constructively or without rancor), isnt it rather harsh to opine so viciously about her looks? Ive met and spoken with Belinda on a few occasions, and IMHO she is a beautiful woman. In any event, my personal taste aside, Belinda is far from homely looking, and I agree with Dustin that the images on her website dont do her justice. Maybe the negative digs about her looks were intended to be more in jest than anything else, but who would want to hear someone making those kinds of comments about his or her wife, girlfriend, sister, mother, etc?

Maybe her act is justly subject to criticism, maybe it is not appreciated by many folks, maybe it wasnt right for the FISM crowd or maybe its just plain bad. But Id rather see someone experimenting with creativity, vision and fidelity to ones self and sticking to it than following the road of the thousands of clones we call magicians.

Clay

[Guest]

To play devil's advocate for a minute can I start out by commenting on how unbeliveably rude some magicians were throughout the whole of FISM not just through Belinda's act, several times through lectures, presentations, close-up, gala etc. you could audibly hear people talking away, and making comments etc. come on people learn some manners, it seems fellow magicians are the worst for this, would you like it if I came into your show and starting talking to my friends or laughing at what you were doing? Lots of times there had to be people loudly shushing the offenders, its just not on!

As to Belinda, I can say that I met her and told her how much I enjoyed her act, which was genuine, I enjoyed the setting and the premise, if I had one criticism it may be that the magic itself wasn't strong enough to hold up to the rest of it, but again that was personal preference.

Just thinking aloud maybe it was the fact the act wasn't in any kind of context, if you pay to see her evening show then you know what you are getting, to put this on first on a close-up gala may have been a mistake.

I certainly believe that as Magicians we need to be advancing not only our methods, but for me the most important part the presentations, and fine what Belinda did may not be to everyone's taste but I certainly appreciated the time she had taken in putting it together, and writing the script and making it into a show... we don't all have to go up to people deck in hand and utter 'watch this' and proceed to do the trick with no other presentation.

What Belinda did was what most of us should struggle to do with our magic, tell the audience more about who we are, what we do, why we do magic and how that effects us and the people around us, I for one applaud her for doing that.

Discuss!

[Guest]

Originally posted by Magicam:
But Id rather see someone experimenting with creativity, vision and fidelity to ones self and sticking to it than following the road of the thousands of clones we call magicians.

Hi Clay, you beat me too it whilst I was writing, but said what I wanted to so much better and shorter :)

[Guest]

Well said Clay & Rich

Some of you others need to learn some manners- you know who you are.....

I cannot imagine what this woman (who I also agree looks rather attractive from what I can see of her in pics and video - though no pneumatic Californian beach blonde, admittedly (thank God!)) has done to you all personally to earn such damning criticism, but the puerile level of the posts would not be out of place on myspace.com

I did not see her act at FISM, so cannot comment, but it sounds like the audience there showed the same level of respect to fellow professionals as shown here in this thread.

This thread is one of those which I would not dare show my wife or muggle friends for fear they might think the world of magic is something pathetic and childish, and wonder at my sanity for frequenting such a forum.

[Guest]

I had the pleasure of performing with Belinda for the Oreo cookie promotion in the late 80's. The try-outs were in the atrium of Grand Central Station if my memory serves me.
This was a very challenging venue because there was constant pedestrian traffic while the performers were on.
From the hundreds of magicians who tried out, seven were selected for the NY, NJ and Conn markets.
I asked the Nabisco executives whom they thought was the best of all. They replied that Avatar was the best. However, they explained that he was not selected for the promotion because he had a silent act. The best performer out of those that were selected according to the judges was Belinda Sinclair.

[Brian Marks]

I have seen Belinda perform for laypeople. She is well received.

[John Bowden]

I had the pleasure of meeting Belinda Sinclair and thought very highly of her. She exudes charm, intelligence and personality. She is also a pleasant looking woman and doesn't deserve the critism levelled at her appearence.

However...................... her act in the Close-Up Gala which was the closing act on the first of the two nights was not suitable for a Close-Up Gala. It was demoted to the opening act the following night.

This is an act that might......(hmmmmmmmm)... succeed at a fringe festival for the arts. It has singing, music, magic and poetry but the magic content was the weakest of the four.

For FISM, is was as described by Richard Kaufman, horrible and bad.

BUT lets not judge this lovely person by her act, she deserves better and we belittle ourselves by doing so.

I wish her well,

Cheers from the Emerald Isle,
John Bowden................the Irish magician.

[Guest]

I understood there were some backstage problems, no rehearsal time and "other problems" don't know which, but the second day (there were three close up galas)it was better and the third much better...
Same was for all the close-up performers, only on the last close-up gala the video was kind of ok... they "rehearsed" on the two other galas...

The first presentator was "fired"... and each day we had another presentator....

jacky
www.magicbooks.be

[Richard Kaufman]

Who cares what she looks like?

Was Derek Dingle a beauty?

Is Juan Tamariz going to be on the cover of GQ?

She gave an abysmal performance and was contemptuous of her audience.

The idea that a performance of "Matrix" or "McDonald's Aces" is somehow enhanced by four additional people on stage singing and dancing and otherwise trying to distract the audience from the poor performance and technical abilities of the magician just didn't fly with the audience at FISM and with good reason!

[Guest]

I vaguely remember Belinda as a regular at the New York Magic Symposiums in the 80s. Dont remember seeing her perform but I believe she may have been involved as part of the production crew. She was very pleasant and likable. Too bad about the FISM misfortune. Id love to see her act. Does anyone know if she performs regularly?

[Guest]

I saw her at both the Magic Circle 100 Anniversary Celebration and at FISM and I will never see her again. Her magic was bad and her treatment of people on stage and the audeince was offensive. There was much to enjoy at FISM so this one performance will be tossed away and forgotten.

[Guest]

Originally posted by John Bowden:

BUT lets not judge this lovely person by her act,

If we have never met her, how else are we to judge her? If she is in a performing art and her performance is not good, that in itsself tells us something aboout her character.
In fact, we judge people by their act all of the time. I've never met Tom Cruise, but I can tell quite a bit about him by the parts he choses to play. Same goes with pretty much anyone in a performing art.
If she is a wonderful person, fine and dandy, but unless she is going to go out of her way to meet and greet everyone who was at FISM, then her act is what she is judged by. It may not be perfect, but it is the best many can go by.

Gord

[Guest]

I was at FISM and did see Belinda's act and did not like it. I found it to be pretentious, overblown and preachy. Belinda had a whole troupe of off-off Broadway perfomers with her that are impossible to describe, but let me say that their connection to the magic was uncertain. One young lady appeared to be under the influence of some unkown substance. And the bottom line is, the magic wasn't very good.

This was supposed to be a close-up show and Belinda presented some kind of strange performance art. My girlfriend is not a magician and she did not like it and didn't "get" it either, so it wasn't just magicians who didn't react well.

Thank goodness for Lennart Green who performed later in the show and absolutely slayed the audience. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

[Guest]

Checked out the video on her website - any chick that can do a top shot is OK in my book.

Interesting thoughts from Rick Morrell (congrats on your victory at FISM - love your sharpie act)

[Pete Biro]

Enough.

[Ian Kendall]

If Belinda ever looks at this, in the spirit of niceness I'll offer this tidbit;

The reason you are not getting much distance with your topshot is a common error - if you put your little finger too far up the edge of the deck the card that is propelled tends to flip more about its long axis, which makes it spin down towards the table/floor/wooded area (delete as necessary). To get the card to spin about the centre one should put the little finger across the very corner of the card, almost diagonally. Then, with a sharp downward and outward flick, the card will spin away from the deck. It is possible to get several feet of horizontal travel with practice.

Take care, Ian

[Richard Kaufman]

Derek Performance: Rick Morrell is not Rick Merrill. The former lives in the UK according to his profile. The latter lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan!

[Guest]

Gentlemen:
Of course MY off-hand obnoxious comment was made in jest.
I had no idea such a thing could give all magic and magicians a bad name so fast.

It was a knee-jerk reaction to the full-length portrait on the splash-page of her website which happens to remind me of a few Hell's Angels I've known in the past. If that's NOT the impression she's trying to convey, I appologize.

P.S. One may not want to take things one reads on the internet (particularly in gabby/chatty forums) so seriously to heart. Consider the source. ;)

--Sincerely,
A Brutally Insensitive Ass, trying to destroy all of magic and, tangentially all magicians, one web-post at a time.

:rolleyes:

[Guest]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
Derek Performance: Rick Morrell is not Rick Merrill. The former lives in the UK according to his profile. The latter lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan!

Richard, I don't think for a minute he was being serious or anyone would have confused us, despite Stephen Mulhearn pronouncing Rick's name as my last name sounds (which was soon corrected by shouts from the audience!)

And I doubt that Derek Performance is a real user anyway, no location and if you look at the content of his 5 posts he seems to have a fixation with Brad Henderson, maybe you should look at deleting anonymous users who look to come on here stirring things up, at least I give my name and credentials before doing that :D

[Brian Marks]

If we have never met her, how else are we to judge her? If she is in a performing art and her performance is not good, that in itsself tells us something aboout her character.
Gord [/QB]

By your logic she must be a horrible person. She isn't. Far from it. Judging magicians by performances at magic conventions is not a good idea as it often proves wrong. Judging character of the performers is worse.

[Richard Kaufman]

We don't know if she's a horrible person or not, and that's irrelevant.

She IS an arrogant person, full of pretension that laymen "get" her act and we don't.

If she wants to engage in pretentious performance art, she should do that in front of an audience which expects and appreciates that sort of thing.

Magicians are not that audience and anyone with any theatrical experience that crosses over into the magic world could've told you that in advance.

[Tom Stone]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
If she wants to engage in pretentious performance art, she should do that in front of an audience which expects and appreciates that sort of thing.

I do not know if she was bad or just too different, as I didn't see it. But it seems like this is her "thing", and have been for some time. Maybe pretentious, maybe not, but if she was asked and booked to do her "thing", should not the one who booked her get more critizism then her? Like; if someone book an experimental deathmetal band for a family reunion, and no one likes the music, whose fault is it?
I asked originally, because I found her highly intelligent with a magnetic personality and over the top credentials... and got a bit worried due to previous bad experiences with someone with similar traits, where it later turned out that not a single word had been true. So I was re-assured to hear that she has been active since the 80's.

[Matthew Field]

Originally posted by Pete Biro:
Enough.

Amen.

I don't see the point of bashing a performer. Some didn't like her act. OK. I've seen Belinda perform at Monday Night Magic and do very well. I saw her at The Magic Circle Centenary and not do well. The same might be said, in similar circumstances, of many performers.

Basta.

Matt Field

[Guest]

I saw the performance, and I also met Belinda. The act is unique and I actually enjoy the idea of something original and that appealed to me. I also chatted wirh Belinda and she's very nice in person.

Ok, so we're not used to seeing magic in this format, but we weren't used to seeing two men like Penn and Teller perform magic when they first appeared on television to so their style of magic, either. Today, we respect Penn and Teller's talents.

If Belinda's way of performing magic with a group of interesting dancers and musicians has an appeal for laymen, let's see that as a plus for us all.

Personally, I enjoyed her performance and I'm looking forward to seeing her again in Newe York. Judging from her warm and friendly attitude, it's no wonder she's been as successful as a magician, She offers a lot to others, too.

[Andrew Martin Portala]

"Keep so busy improving your own act that you won't have time to criticize the other guys( or girls)"
-Karrell Fox

[Brian Marks]

Originally posted by andrew martin:
"Keep so busy improving your own act that you won't have time to criticize the other guys( or girls)"
-Karrell Fox

I second that.

[Richard Kaufman]

And what are we supposed to make of the last two posts ... that someone can get up, do a show that is terrible in both concept and execution, show contempt for the audience, and then be exempted from commentary about it?

[Guest]

I think the foxy one was paraphrasing...

How did that go? Let he among you who is without sin, cast the first stone? Something like that, I'm sure.

[Brian Marks]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
And what are we supposed to make of the last two posts ... that someone can get up, do a show that is terrible in both concept and execution, show contempt for the audience, and then be exempted from commentary about it?

No. Shows at magic conventions are usually the worst way to judge a magician. You call it arrogant if a performer does an act laymen get but magicians don't. I call it reality. Magicians do not react to acts the way laypeople. Its a fact. How many people did sponge balls at FISM? But it plays well for laypeople. Maybe Belinda was a poor act for FISM..no it was definately the wrong act for FISM.

[Richard Kaufman]

Well, what does that mean? That only performers can discuss and criticize what performers do? That makes no sense.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Richard Hatch:
Ironically, Lennart Green, who deservedly received a tremendous audience response on the same program, is an MD, but no mention was made of that fact in introducing him.

As MC of the last close-up show I must tell everyone that Lennart doesn't want to brag about it. He lets his magic talk instead.

When I introduced myself as MC to Belinda she looked me stright in my eyes and with a forceful voice said "Reverent, doctor, Belinda Sinclair with Magical Beast... That's what I want you to say".

See it this way: She's one of the most talked about acts at FISM, and that is a good measure when it comes to PR.
Everybody knows her name by now... And boy are you all interested in seeing her act now.

I give her all credits for performing a very theatrical and original act.