More Magic

Magic updates! Hey! Well, I just performed at the DVD release gala for the new documentary of deaf entertainers, See What I’m Saying, which Universal just took on. So the show was at Universal Studios, Hollywood, in the Globe Theatre (right by the Terminator 3D attraction), and it was a royal blast! I’ve worked within the deaf community previously with the GLAD Association, and it was an honour to be back. Working with the amazing and talented people who were part of this film was inspiring and a lot of fun. I hope you’re able to watch the film at some point, or at least take a peak at the trailer. And working at Universal was just surreal! We had to go through the “backstage” of the park in order to get to the theatre for tech rehearsal, and it was bizarre seeing costumed characters wandering around without their heads on, or Marilyn and Frankenstein’s monster on a coffee break together. On the day of the show, we had to enter through the loading dock, but got in the wrong elevator… Instead of going into the theatre, we went into the monster house! Super trippy. It’s four layers, which I didn’t realize, so every time we’d press a button hoping to get off, we’d just be on another layer of creepy set pieces and screaming teenage girls. Eventually, we found the right spot, but that’s just a taste of the experience.

Make Believe! Let’s talk about that! Super exciting. First of all, we have the first official public screening this Monday at the World Magic Seminar, after which there will be a director/producer/stars Q&A. (I’m flying out to Vegas on Sunday to participate, and am really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I have to fly home immediately afterward for a linguistics quiz. Blehh.) Aallso, the film has been picked up by Showtime! It’ll premiere on April 12^th. Here’s the official release about it, and here’s a piece with a bit more detail. After that, probably around Spring or Summer, there will be a theatrical release, as well, but I’ll have to let you know more about that once I know more about it. ;)

In the meantime, I’ve been working on some new pieces, especially through various local open mic nights and campus events. They’ve provided a great environment for me to practice and showcase consistently, beyond when I’m performing at formal gigs. I’ve been having a ball! Again, I’ll keep you updated with such things as they come up. I will add, though, that I’m really pumped for Future Stars this year!

KLOnline?

Yes, she is... Mainly with press from her documentary "Make Believe," take a look... We've got...

The LA Times article...

Variety's review...

A Malibu Times article...

Highlights from the opening night Q&A...

And more to follow...

Future Stars '10

KLOnline

And to answer your question, Mark... What’s new with muh Internet life?

1. Not much. See previous post, i.e., where has the time gone?

2. But with what time I have had, this has been my new life soundtrack. (Seriously, click on the link.) I think my suitemates want to kill me, but it’s so fabulous.

3. Oh, what? A new TeamKrystyn upload?! Finally.

4. Aaand a new article! Chickity-check it out, yo!

What's new?

A truckload. This quarter at UCLA has been quite the... Well, my classes have been such the chore. Not much academically has been at all creative, but rather just a lot of work, which hasn’t allowed much time for creativity even outside of school. (Not even with internet nonsense: no blogs, no videos, few facebook dot com updates, and I've hardly remembered to tweet. (Ha.)) It’s driving me sane. I mean, I’ve been working on the ResReport, which is the UCLA television news program. (You can watch those episodes here, if you’d like.) And that's been super fun, but not exactly oozing with imagination. However, a couple of us have been developing a scripted comedy talk show that may be in production next quarter, so that’s pretty sweet. We’ll see what happens.

Magically, I’ve been working on a new rope routine as well as a new version of my flying ring routine. Both of these have been keeping me plenty busy, although it’s fairly difficult to balance school with magic. I’m finding this to be particularly frustrating, but what is there to do? I know a few people who aren’t attending college in order to focus on magic, but so much of why I’m involved with magic is because of its emphasis on intellect. Without continuing school I feel like I’d be depriving myself of that sort of development, which I just couldn’t stand. Thus here I am, and loving (just about) every minute of it. (:

Flying Rings

"Check Her Out"

When I founded this blog, I received a number of requests for video blogs. When school picked up, and I started blogging less, I received even more requests for video blogs. So I decided, why not? And thus YouTube.com/TeamKrystyn was born.

On this page I, along with other members of the team, will post various video blogs, videos we've taken that you might find interesting, and probably some magic clips.

I think I'm also creating this as a sort of response to all of the Krystyn videos that have already been posted on YouTube. I'm amused by how much has been uploaded, but at times somewhat embarrassed, because not everything up there is what I would have selected.

Though you know, those videos remind me of where I used to be. It's all part of the learning process, and I'm growing so quickly that what's satisfying to me one day may not be the next. But I'm doing what I love, expanding my horizons, and having a blast. Awww!

By the way, how thrilling is this?

Masters of Illusion Delusions

Masters of Illusion Season I has been off the air for a few weeks now, so in this century of instant gratification, it's been a long time. So I figured it’s now admissible for me to reveal some of the inside scoop of my experiences, at least. 

A few interesting tidbits: When I filmed the stage portions I had my appendix removed a about a week before. I mean, I was just out of the hospital, and filming under those conditions marked the first time I had gone against a doctor’s recommendation. 'Well, I can stand up, so I'm okay,' I decided. I had this intense abdominal brace on at all times, except when I was on stage, and it was still difficult for me to walk. It was such a bizarre experience. I’m still not quite sure how I pulled that off. It was totally worth it, though. I mean, those craft table gummy bears were good.

I filmed the street magic segments in three sessions. For the first one, I was called the day before, and told that I’d need a few tricks that did not use a deck of cards or a table. I had just enough material, so no sweat, I thought. We film, no problem. I was with about four other magicians. We’d rotate to keep the crowd present, and so we could set up our next effects in between performances. I came in with all of my scripts, etc., but the directors explained that in order to maintain the MTV Generation’s viewership, I’d have to scrap my lines in exchange for pure narration of my actions. Anyway, it wasn’t clear if FOX was even going to like the street magic bits, so the first session was sort of a test. However, MOI street magic was a hit.

Within a couple of weeks I was called again, and was told that FOX liked “that blonde magician” and wanted me on every episode. Um, well, it just so happened that that week I had the stomach flu. 'No big deal, whatev’s,' I figured, and I went ahead to shoot. Oh my. When I got to the studio to do the prelim camera rehearsal (which they started doing after the network decided that they wanted to air more street magic) I was told that I needed ten tricks to perform. “Um, uh, I’m sick, and I only have so many more effects that you haven’t already seen,” I felt like saying. Regardless, I was informed that I had an hour break, which, I was assured, would be plenty enough time to find four additional performance pieces. Haha, sure. But I did. Somehow. A couple of weeks later, the same process repeated itself, minus illness, and the rest is now, well, history. 

Adventures to/in Buffalo

  It's really hard to believe I've only been out of Los Angeles for two days. It seems like a week. 

  My mother and I left for Buffalo, New York, for the Society of American Magicians convention banquet Friday, July 17th, at 9:46am. Our flight was at 11:48am, and we got to the airport without any issue, checked our bag, went through security (making sure to take all knives out of my purse first), got on board the Boeing 747, and waited. I mean, waited... Two hours. There was a mechanical problem with the plane, so we sat until it was fixed. (It's a good thing French Existentialism is interesting, because that's pretty much all I had to occupy my time.) 

  So, of course, we missed our connection to Buffalo from Chicago. It was about 10:30pm Central Time then. There were three flights to Buffalo the next day, two of which were filled, and one of which would put us into town too late for the banquet. After having a spontaneous Dixieland dance party waiting in line for customer service, we were put on stand-by for the 7:45am flight, and had tickets reserved for a flight to Rochester from which we could drive into Buffalo. American Airlines put us up in a near-by hotel, and sent us away.

  By this time the baggage impoundment had closed, so we were out of luck there. We were driven to the hotel with nothing but our carry-ons. "Aloft" is where we stayed, which is very chic, modern, and mildly ridiculous lodging. The house music was bumping, people crowded around small tables in the lobby, talking excitedly. A pool game was in full swing, and then the pool itself was in full swing, losing much water owing to so many swimmers, or rather, splashers. 

  When we got to our room, which was in the height of fashion, I'm sure, I tried to start this entry, and this is as far as I got, "I think I'm in Chicago. I'm not entirely sure." I ended up reading Bukowski's Post Office in its entirety. It's an amazing read, and I highly, highly recommend it. (I guess something good did come out of a terrible lay-over.)

  I didn't sleep too well, but at 5am it didn't matter. A strawberry yogurt lite later we were on the shuttle, off to the airport. 

  Only one seat was available on the 7:45am flight, which I took. Poor Mother, on the other hand, flew to Rochester, and then drove into Buffalo. She just managed to wrangle the last rental car the airport had to offer.

  The reason why I was brought to the banquet, as I have yet to reveal, was owing to the fact that I was the recipient of the Melbourne Christopher Most Promising Newcomer Award, which was a true honour. It is so special how magicians envelop youth into the community, and I feel like the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" is largely true. 

  Anyway, it's late over here on the East Coast, or very early morning, as the case may be, and I think that for once in what seems like three weeks, I'm going to sleep at a decent hour. Tomorrow morning before our flight, which hopefully won't cause us any problems, we're going to drive up to Niagara Falls to go on the Maid of the Mist. I'll keep you posted.

Apparently I'm Fit

So there's this European fitness channel, LA Muscle TV, and they're online, too...

Well, on one of their latest webisodes I'm sure you can guess who's featured, especially since the theme of the week on this blog seems to be shameless self-promotion. Haha. 

Regardless, here's the link.

Autographs

Frequently I field requests for autographs. Thanks to the interweb and the U.S. postal service, Team Krystyn has created a handy-dandy way to facilitate this. Now all one has to do is click this link, follow the instructions, and tah-dah: a signed photograph can be coming in no time! Hurray!

"Did ya' hear?"

Get this, I just heard (and credit to Max for telling me) that Krystyn Lambert got some form of plastic surgery in the last year (but we're not sure what), that there are two Krystyn Lamberts in magic (one who does street magic and one who does stage magic), and that Krystyn Lambert really is a married adult with a teenage daughter. 

Who knew?

What a riot. Magic forum rumors can be so entertaining!

Masters of Illusion: Impossible Magic

Since some of you have been asking about my appearances on FOX's series "Masters of Illusion", here's the scoop.

The season started in January, and is still going. I've been on all of the episodes so far, and will continue to be as the season progresses (primarily performing close-up/street magic with my stage portions scattered throughout). And yes, there will be new episodes aired uber soon!

The show is on every Monday night at 8pm on FOX MyNetwork.

Thanks so much for all of your support! Please stay tuned!