Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Discuss the latest news and rumors in the magic world.
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Steve Bryant
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Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Steve Bryant » December 21st, 2012, 8:27 pm


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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Max Maven » December 21st, 2012, 10:03 pm

It's magical. The creepy part is that the idea belongs to someone else.

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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 22nd, 2012, 9:33 am

And who is that?
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Dustin Stinett
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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Dustin Stinett » December 22nd, 2012, 10:56 am

Evgeni Schmarlovski is my guess, though it's possible he learned it from someone else. As far as I know, he was doing his magical animal act--snakes, rabbits, birds, foxes, and ferrets--since the late '80s.

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Dustin Stinett
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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Dustin Stinett » December 22nd, 2012, 11:00 am


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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Dustin Stinett » December 22nd, 2012, 11:01 am

And here's his act on Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrDDESCS7m0

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Michael Kamen
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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Michael Kamen » December 22nd, 2012, 3:31 pm

Clever, creepy, and magical.
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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Jonathan Townsend » December 22nd, 2012, 3:43 pm

Thanks for finding the link.
one of the critters looked like it was twitching on the ground - (gold hue lower toward the right and front)
any clues on that?
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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Tom Moore » December 22nd, 2012, 3:48 pm

"Ownership" of acts in Russian circus is a tricky issue; the state/schools circus system means that once an act or routine is successful it's then taught to many different people, sometimes by the originator who's now a teacher and sometimes simply "taken" by the state (remember individuals ownership of copyright ideas is a post communism invention in Russia so anyone who was trained pre 90's was taught under the old system) which means the more you delve in to Russian circus the more you find that there's actually only 70-80 "acts" with multiple people doing them. If you see a Russian circus act doing a routine you've seen someone else do you shouldn't automatically assume its been "stolen" in the "western" sense.

There's a similar problem with the modern Chinese circus schools; it's virtually impossible to tell their students apart as the acts that have been developed and honed are then taught widely with the individual performers largely interchangeable. It could even be said that Cirque duSoleil are guilty of this as well although they do apply western sensibilities and royalties to the original creative process
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Dustin Stinett
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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Dustin Stinett » December 22nd, 2012, 5:05 pm

Jonathan Townsend wrote:Thanks for finding the link.
one of the critters looked like it was twitching on the ground - (gold hue lower toward the right and front)
any clues on that?

My wife used to keep ferrets. She agrees with the comment that says it looks like he's just sneezing after thumping his nose on the stage.

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Re: Is this magical ... or just creepy?

Postby Richard Hatch » December 22nd, 2012, 11:39 pm

Unless I'm badly mistaken (and I may well be!), Schmarlovski is the performer in both videos and the "spectator" assisting him is also the same (his wife, I presume). The first video is from the Circus Roncalli and among the German press clippings on his website is one showing him with that circus. The website history seems to end with 2001 and the second video is from New Year's Eve 2008, so is probably later than the first.
So is Schmarlovski not the originator of this act?


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