Cellist Sean Grissom’s ‘Holiday Vaudeville’ show at the Kennedy Center is now in its tenth year. I have been on it, together with the Alexandria Kleztet, for five of those years. It is such a fun show. We perform for two nights together and always have a packed house. Our day off is usually spent sightseeing in our nation’s capital. This year, we visited the Washington Monument.
Just managed to get a copy of this picture taken at the Galerie Gmurzynska party in Miami. This is the moment when Sylvester Stallone discovers that the signed and ripped-up photo of Rambo in his hand is now restored and mismatched, like a David Smith sculpture. That’s his lovely wife Jennifer beside him in the black dress. Peter Stevens of the David Smith Estate is looking on in the left of the picture.
Photo by Joe Schildhorn of the Patrick McMullan Company.
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Ben Davis said the kindest thing at the end of his review of Art Basel Miami:
“If you had to ask me the best thing I saw in Miami… I would say that it was the close-up magic of the amazing Mark Mitton, world-class magician who had been flown in from NYC to perform at some special events for the weekend! Seriously, if you ever get a chance, go see Mark Mitton. Very few artists are as good at their craft as Mark is at what he does. He has some interesting things to say about art too.”
As you can imagine, my mom was overjoyed. Me too. Ben is a fascinating guy. Check out the article that he wrote about art and craft.
My mother, Cay Mitton, turned 80 on December 7th. We celebrated this joyous occasion with the family in Superior, WI, and the ladies at Mom’s church worked hard to put on a lovely reception for friends and neighbors. Thank you to all the people who turned out for the festivities! Mom really enjoyed her special day.
Mom as a young girl – Church ladies – Unwrapping gifts
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Two nights later, I found myself working at Michael Capponi’s home on Sunset Island, at a benefit for hip hop producer Russell Simmons’ Diamond Empowerment Fund.
Here I am doing a trick for Russell – if you look carefully you’ll see that the magic wand is actually a diamond bracelet (specially created for the D.E.F. event) in the hand of the woman on the right.
Photo by Christopher Fay.
Art Basel Miami was amazing this year. I am so grateful to the Galerie Gmurzynska for bringing me down to perform at their party for Sylvester Stallone and Princess Michael of Kent at the Setai. What a night it was. There were mermaids in the pool, and fabulous people all around.
I did a trick for Mr. Stallone where I had him sign a photograph of himself, ripped it up, and asked Peter Stevens – the Executive Director of the David Smith Estate – to hold the pieces in his hand. Then I had three women, including Jennifer Flavin (Mrs. Stallone), “weld” the pieces back together in Peter’s hand in a “new unity” (a tribute to David Smith), and when he opened his hand, Sylvester’s signed photo was restored but all the pieces were mismatched.
Sylvester Stallone was a delight to spend time with. He told me stories about growing up in Hell’s Kitchen in New York, the neighborhood where I studied magic with Slydini. Princess Michael was lovely and charming, and told me all about her new book.
