News from Mark Mitton

Susanna and I just got back from visiting friends on an island in Maine called Vinalhaven. It was wonderful… No cellphone reception, no e-mails… just pure relaxation! We hiked, we picknicked, we swam in an old quarry and simply enjoyed great conversations, excellent seafood and looking at the stars at night. The mud flats and the lobster rolls really reminded me of the area where I was born in Eastern Canada.

Here are some photos from our trip and a short video clip of our landing in a Cessna at the Vinalhaven landing strip in the woods:

Thank you to everyone who pointed out that my picture was in the New York Times last weekend. It’s true, I was pictured in the Style section, performing at the Harvard Law School Association annual summer party at Sotheby’s. Here is a scan of the article:

(click image to enlarge)

At the same time, my friend Russell Steinberg made Page Six of the New York Post on August 8th, by swinging from a chandelier and dropping into Sting and Trudie Styler’s laps, when we were working at the after-party for the last Police concert at The Box. It was hilarious!

Here’s Sting with a beard at Madison Square Garden. By the time he reached The Box he had shaven it off. 

Designer Marc Ecko hosted a fabulous benefit for the Tikva Children’s Home at Cipriani 23rd Street last night. Tikva is an orphanage in Odessa, Ukraine, and Marc is one of its trustees. It was a star-studded event with a casino theme and I performed magic for the guests. Supermodel Marisa Miller was there, and Tony Sirico (a.k.a. Paulie Walnuts from the Sopranos), as well as boxer Miguel Cotto, the Jets Flight Crew, the New Jersey Nets Dancers and the Olympic figure skater Oksana Baiul. Oksana, herself an orphan from the Ukraine, spoke very movingly about how much Tikva meant to her. We all had a fantastic evening and a lot of money was raised to help the children in Odessa.

Here are some pictures from the party. (To see a larger version of the slide show, with captions, click here.)

I am doing a promotion for Dos Equis beer all around the country this month with comedian Russell Steinberg. This weekend we’re performing in Houston.

Last night, at about 2 in the morning, while our production crew was packing our car, Russell and I decided to walk over to the nearest restaurant for a snack. It happened to be a Jack in the Box. A friendly woman named Tiffany from Clear Lake, TX, took these pictures of us walking through the drive-thru. When she drove by I did a couple of card tricks for her and her boyfriend.

Thanks for sending the photos, Tiffany!

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Tim Ferriss at a friend’s house in East Hampton, and then seeing him speak a week later at a conference I was attending. Tim wrote a bestselling book called The 4-Hour Workweek, which is about finding the right balance between your work and your life. He is a very tech-savvy guy who is all about efficiency and productivity, and a real expert on social media marketing, blogging, etc. I enjoyed learning about his ideas and am already starting to put some of them into practice.

Thanks, Tim!