Every February Blackpool magicians' club host an annual convention at the winter gardens complex where magicians from all over the world come to perform, lecture and sell their magical creations.
This was my third convention and I decided to write a blog about the experience my wife and I had.
Most people who read this blog wont be magicians so I will explain who certain people are for the benefit of the uninitiated.
So...
Thursday 19th february we headed off to sunny Blackpool... ahem
We arrived in the evening and asked for directions to our hotel from some of the locals, bit weird arent they?
Early next day (okay 11am) we headed to the winter gardens complex to register and receive our free book 'A trip down magical memory lane by Derek Lever MIMC' for purchasing a gold card which is the ticket you buy that gives you access to all the lectures, close up shows, dealers area, competitions and evening stage shows. a gold card costs £70 per person and for what you get I'd say it's a bargain.
The dealers area opened at 1pm so after lunch we headed over to have a 'browse' but not to buy anything yet as I'm going to be very careful with my money this year.
The dealers are literaly from all over the world including Slovenia, South africa, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, France, Sweden, USA, Serbia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hungary, China, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Latvia, Ireland, Venezuela, Israel and UK. Pretty cool eh?
Look at all the shiney things.
At one point I was talking to a dealer and Lana started frantically tugging on my sleeve and when I turned round she was saying "look quick, it's Jeff McBride!".
For the uninitiated Jeff McBride is arguably the best card manipulator alive today and I have learnt a lot of my material from his teaching dvd's, he's also in my top ten fav magician list.
So theres Jeff Mcbride standing right behind me in the dealers area, so I got my photo taken with him woohoo!!!
Next, the very first lecture of the convention was starting so we moved up to the 'spanish hall' area to watch 'Latko' from Argentina give his lecture which was on creating themes for your act. The example he gave for this was instead of just doing a coin trick he had a coin collectors set and played the part of a coin collector who magic happens to whilst examining his coins. It was a coin matrix routine he was performing and I have to admit that the theme did give the routine something more than just a quick trick feel to it.
All very good advice on creating a bit of theatre with your magic but not always practical when table hopping, it was still good advice though as I also do stage shows which gives me more creative space.
Latko during his lecture above and below.
After that we went back to the dealers area and I bought a dvd, some slush powder, PK magnets and Andrew Normansell's book. (so much for just browsing).
Here's me with Andrew Normansell (below).
Andrew Normansell is a comedy magician who works the comedy club circuit and has recently started working the cruise ships, I thought his book was likely to contain some good advice.
The great thing about this convention is theres so many experts of magic around that you cant fail to come away inspired by them.
Wow, theres Eugene Burger (pic below) just sitting around.
Eugene Burger is the author of 16 best selling magic books and is well known as one of the finest close up magicians in the world and he was/is Jeff Mcbrides magic teacher. Wow!
Next, it was off to the spanish hall again for the Magical close up championships.
The contestants were...
1. Marcus Taylor
2. Craig Petty
3. Jean Emma Nuel Franzis
4. Rob James
5. Dai Hewga
6. Andrew James
7. Michael Jordan
8. Giacomo De Carlo
9. Gary Williams
The winners were...
3rd Place = Jean Emma Nuel Franzis
2nd Place = Giacomo De Carlo
1st Place = Dai Hewga
I enjoyed the performances but I dont really like magic competitions as unlike a race or any other type of competition the results are only the judges opinions and as a result it is open to interpretation as to who is the best.
In my opinion Rob James was the best by far but sadly I wasnt shocked when the results came in as this is what always happens at magic competitions... remind me of that if I ever talk about entering one.
Dont get me wrong, Dai Hewga did a very nice performance and I'm happy for him. Here is a pic of Dai Hewga (below) receiving his trophy and £1000 prize presented by Harry Robson president of Blackpool magicians club.
Next day (Saturday 21st feb) Jeff Mcbride is lecturing in the spanish hall at 10.45am and there's no way I'm missing that...
WAHEY! Front row seat aswell.
Jeff talked about improvising when performing to a large room when theres no stage (below).
He talked about invloving the audience in the magic and giving them a sense of helping to create the magic with you so they feel part of the show rather than just spectators.
He also demonstrated his twin light up dancing canes, they looked very nice in the evening show with the house lights down. I didnt get the chance to ask him where I can buy a set tho :-(
After that we went to the 'International Close up sessions' in the horse shoe area.
This is where the professional close up magicians perform their close up magic shows, but there is no teaching here... its just for entertainment.
Here is Latko performing his cups and balls (remember him from the first lecture?).
He is practising what he was preaching in his lecture, notice the set he has created for performing in e.g the lamp, the side table etc.
Next up was Eugene Burger telling his dark story with magic.
and he got Lana up to help him (the lucky git lol).
He was actually very funny too, Lana said I was laughing the loudest.
Next was Rudy Coby who until recently was touring with Marilyn Manson, He has a real wacky style of performing and to be honest I didnt want him anywhere near me the first time I saw him...
He hammered a nail into his face, that was his act.
But he was very funny and you certainly couldnt ignore him if he came up to your table in a restaurant to entertain you.
... and yes it was a real nail, he hammered it into a wooden board straight after and gave it to the poor girl he got to help him.
Another lecture was next by Joshua Jay who writes a regular column in "Magic" magazine and has recently done a lecture tour of the UK which was very successful.
His lecture was about magic with money, He explained a number of routines in great detail. Personally I would struggle to learn a routine from watching it being explained just once so I went away slightly under the impression that the purpose of his lecture was to push sales of his dvd. I might be wrong, maybe other people were able to learn the routine from running through it once but I was not.
His dvd was available for £10 which is very reasonable but I didnt buy one.
After that we had another look around the dealers area and I bought some more stuff, sword swallowing, a suitcase table, Beach memeories and cool coils.
The beach memories is a small beach ball which floats around bouncing but clinging to your body or it rolls up and down a chain or a silk. I thought it looked cool and I may be able to use it in a show sometime.
I bought the beach memories and the cool coils from Michael P Lair and he very kindly gave me an extra beach ball free of charge. Michael P Lair is a stage magician and inventor, he is well known for his candles dvd which I bought from him along with some Fantasio candles the last time I went to the Blackpool convention.
with Michael P Lair (below).
Daniel Garcia had a stand selling his various magical inventions which are mainly explained on dvd's which he was selling.
If any of you have seen me perform the torn and restored card trick where I rip your signed card up into 4 pieces and then one piece at a time put it back together again, then you have seen me perform the trick which Daniel Garcia is most famous for creating.
with Daniel Garcia (below).
7pm that evening was the $10,000 Intercontinental Stage Magic Championships in the opera house.
This was the evenings entertainment and what a fantastic show it was, I would have paid to have seen any of these acts on their own. there really is some amazing talent out there.
The Running order was...
1. Kenris Murat - France
2. Kyoko - Japan
3. Rolf Reiner - Spain
4. Dirk Losander - USA
20 min interval
5. Marc Oberon - UK
6. Yumi - Japan
7. Adrian Soler - Venezuela
8. Han Seol-Hee - Korea
Any of these acts were good enough to win and I still dont like magic competitions but without a shadow of a doubt the winner did get the biggest reactions from the audience so I have to agree with the results this time...
1st Han Seol-Hee $10,000 and Intercontinental Stage Magic Champion
2nd Yumi
3rd Marc Oberon
With the originallity award going to: Han Seol-Hee
'Unfortunately we werent allowed to take photo's during the show'
Sunday 22nd feb, the last day :-(
We're having such a great time but we're both completely exhausted, theres so much stuff going on all day that you dont want to stop to eat incase you miss anything. Imagine if you were a singer/guitarist/drummer or whatever and you had the chance to spend a weekend with all the musicians you really admired and could talk to them, get advice, lessons etc, would you want to miss any of it just to eat food? of course not!!! and neither do I.
10.45am in the spanish hall there is 'An audience with Jeff Mcbride and Eugene Burger'. (see below)
This is basically an interview conducted by Hank Moorehouse and the audience get to ask Jeff and Eugene questions at the end.
The interview was very interesting for people who are interested in hearing about the lives of Jeff and Eugene and how they came to work together etc.
I was a bit embarrassed at the question and answer bit at the end. Dont people understand what a question is? you know, a sentence starting with words such as who, what, when, where, why or how... people stood up and droned on and on about themselves without actually asking a question to the point where Jeff just had to assume what the question was going to be and start talking.
In Jeff and Eugenes favour was the professionalism with which they handled these "questions" and moved on as quickly as possible to the next person, well done guys!
Oh yeah, front row seat again.. spakey git eh?
Next was a lecture by Rudy Coby (the nail in the face guy) now remember initially I didnt want this guy anywhere near me. I thought he was off his head on drugs or something despite the fact I did find him very funny in the close up section yesterday, but it turns out he has some cracking advice to offer...
His lecture was based on creating a character for your shows to help give you direction and be original. He also showed how to make prosthetic arms, legs and even a head using just cellotape and cling film.
I was so impressed by him I bought his book.
He came across as a really nice guy too, even offering to give his book away to anyone who genuinly could not afford to buy it because they had spent too much money at the convention already, and I did see him give some away afterwards.
I paid for mine but I did get him to sign it for me and he gave me a free comic book starring him.
Rudy Coby wrapping cling film around a volunteers arm (below)
Now it was time for more of the 'International Close Up Magic' in the horseshoe area.
I really wanted to see Daryl perform as he was the first person who I learnt more advanced card moves from on his 'encyclopedia of card sleights' dvd set, In fact most of the flashy card moves you see me do are from that series.
Here is Daryl performing his 'Coin's across' routine.
This next one was really good. Two spectators signatures apparently jump from one card to another.This next one was really good. Two spectators signatures apparently jump from one card to another.
Next we watched Daniel Garcia (the torn and restored card guy) he got Lana up to help aswell, how lucky can you get?
He stole her wedding ring while doing this trick... but he gave it back lol.
Daniel Garcia performing 'Torn' His Torn and restored card routine (below).
Another look around the dealers area and then we went back to the hotel to get changed for the evening international gala show.
The runnning order was...
1. Ervan Bodiou - France
2. Arthur Trace - USA
3. Rudy Coby - USA
4. Jerome Murat - France
5. Tony Chapek - USA
6 Jeff McBride - USA
20 minute interval
7. Presentation of the murray award to Duncan Trillo and Eric Eswin
8 Presentation of the Ken Dodd comedy award
9. An Ha-Lim - Korea
10. Tony Frebourg - France
11. Oscar, Renzon & Mara: Magic Unlimited - Holland
Another fantastic evenings entertainment which left both of us feeling great.
I couldnt help but grin from ear to ear when Jeff McBride was performing his 'King of Cards' routine, what a great show!!!
Oh and I managed to grab one of Jeff McBrides playing cards off the stage, here is a scan of the back (below).
So what did I buy? How much did I spend?
Here's a list...
Andrew Normansell - The man who would be king (Book) = £20
Michael P Lair - Beach memories = £20 (I might be wrong about the price)
Michael P Lair - Cool Coils = £20
Close up pad with 'thank you' written on the bottom = £5
Sword Swallowing = £12
Slush Powder X2 = £8
Ian Davis from Magictrix house of magic - suitcase table = £260
Reel Magic feat Johnny Thompson (dvd) = £3
Magic Wallets X6 = £3
Large PK magnets = £9
Rudy Coby - How to become a world famous magician... or just look like one. (book) = £10
Stephen Tucker - Mind Power (spoon bending) = £12
George McBride (dvd) = £10
Cameron Francis - Rehab (dvd) = £10
Jupiter - Zebra Silk = £10
total = £412
Not bad! and I should be able to get a new show together with the items I purchased along with other props I already own.
I really wanted to buy Enrico Pezzoli of Brinum X's 'Comedy costume change' which was £220 and also Jos Denys of Select magic's 'Liquid Stop' which was £29 but I felt I had already spent more than I had originally intended so I will maybe order these at a later date.
All in all we both had a great weekend at the convention, I would say this one was the best one yet and Blackpool magicians club do a fantastic job organising it every year,
it is organised to perfection (no exaggeration) I cannot see how they could improve on it.
Thank you for reading my blog and if you have any thoughts please feel free to leave a comment.
All the best
Flash
We arrived in the evening and asked for directions to our hotel from some of the locals, bit weird arent they?
Early next day (okay 11am) we headed to the winter gardens complex to register and receive our free book 'A trip down magical memory lane by Derek Lever MIMC' for purchasing a gold card which is the ticket you buy that gives you access to all the lectures, close up shows, dealers area, competitions and evening stage shows. a gold card costs £70 per person and for what you get I'd say it's a bargain.
The dealers area opened at 1pm so after lunch we headed over to have a 'browse' but not to buy anything yet as I'm going to be very careful with my money this year.
The dealers are literaly from all over the world including Slovenia, South africa, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, France, Sweden, USA, Serbia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hungary, China, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Latvia, Ireland, Venezuela, Israel and UK. Pretty cool eh?
Look at all the shiney things.
At one point I was talking to a dealer and Lana started frantically tugging on my sleeve and when I turned round she was saying "look quick, it's Jeff McBride!".
For the uninitiated Jeff McBride is arguably the best card manipulator alive today and I have learnt a lot of my material from his teaching dvd's, he's also in my top ten fav magician list.
So theres Jeff Mcbride standing right behind me in the dealers area, so I got my photo taken with him woohoo!!!
Next, the very first lecture of the convention was starting so we moved up to the 'spanish hall' area to watch 'Latko' from Argentina give his lecture which was on creating themes for your act. The example he gave for this was instead of just doing a coin trick he had a coin collectors set and played the part of a coin collector who magic happens to whilst examining his coins. It was a coin matrix routine he was performing and I have to admit that the theme did give the routine something more than just a quick trick feel to it.
All very good advice on creating a bit of theatre with your magic but not always practical when table hopping, it was still good advice though as I also do stage shows which gives me more creative space.
Latko during his lecture above and below.
After that we went back to the dealers area and I bought a dvd, some slush powder, PK magnets and Andrew Normansell's book. (so much for just browsing).
Here's me with Andrew Normansell (below).
Andrew Normansell is a comedy magician who works the comedy club circuit and has recently started working the cruise ships, I thought his book was likely to contain some good advice.
The great thing about this convention is theres so many experts of magic around that you cant fail to come away inspired by them.
Wow, theres Eugene Burger (pic below) just sitting around.
Eugene Burger is the author of 16 best selling magic books and is well known as one of the finest close up magicians in the world and he was/is Jeff Mcbrides magic teacher. Wow!
Next, it was off to the spanish hall again for the Magical close up championships.
The contestants were...
1. Marcus Taylor
2. Craig Petty
3. Jean Emma Nuel Franzis
4. Rob James
5. Dai Hewga
6. Andrew James
7. Michael Jordan
8. Giacomo De Carlo
9. Gary Williams
The winners were...
3rd Place = Jean Emma Nuel Franzis
2nd Place = Giacomo De Carlo
1st Place = Dai Hewga
I enjoyed the performances but I dont really like magic competitions as unlike a race or any other type of competition the results are only the judges opinions and as a result it is open to interpretation as to who is the best.
In my opinion Rob James was the best by far but sadly I wasnt shocked when the results came in as this is what always happens at magic competitions... remind me of that if I ever talk about entering one.
Dont get me wrong, Dai Hewga did a very nice performance and I'm happy for him. Here is a pic of Dai Hewga (below) receiving his trophy and £1000 prize presented by Harry Robson president of Blackpool magicians club.
Next day (Saturday 21st feb) Jeff Mcbride is lecturing in the spanish hall at 10.45am and there's no way I'm missing that...
WAHEY! Front row seat aswell.
Jeff talked about improvising when performing to a large room when theres no stage (below).
He talked about invloving the audience in the magic and giving them a sense of helping to create the magic with you so they feel part of the show rather than just spectators.
He also demonstrated his twin light up dancing canes, they looked very nice in the evening show with the house lights down. I didnt get the chance to ask him where I can buy a set tho :-(
After that we went to the 'International Close up sessions' in the horse shoe area.
This is where the professional close up magicians perform their close up magic shows, but there is no teaching here... its just for entertainment.
Here is Latko performing his cups and balls (remember him from the first lecture?).
He is practising what he was preaching in his lecture, notice the set he has created for performing in e.g the lamp, the side table etc.
Next up was Eugene Burger telling his dark story with magic.
and he got Lana up to help him (the lucky git lol).
He was actually very funny too, Lana said I was laughing the loudest.
Next was Rudy Coby who until recently was touring with Marilyn Manson, He has a real wacky style of performing and to be honest I didnt want him anywhere near me the first time I saw him...
He hammered a nail into his face, that was his act.
But he was very funny and you certainly couldnt ignore him if he came up to your table in a restaurant to entertain you.
... and yes it was a real nail, he hammered it into a wooden board straight after and gave it to the poor girl he got to help him.
Another lecture was next by Joshua Jay who writes a regular column in "Magic" magazine and has recently done a lecture tour of the UK which was very successful.
His lecture was about magic with money, He explained a number of routines in great detail. Personally I would struggle to learn a routine from watching it being explained just once so I went away slightly under the impression that the purpose of his lecture was to push sales of his dvd. I might be wrong, maybe other people were able to learn the routine from running through it once but I was not.
His dvd was available for £10 which is very reasonable but I didnt buy one.
After that we had another look around the dealers area and I bought some more stuff, sword swallowing, a suitcase table, Beach memeories and cool coils.
The beach memories is a small beach ball which floats around bouncing but clinging to your body or it rolls up and down a chain or a silk. I thought it looked cool and I may be able to use it in a show sometime.
I bought the beach memories and the cool coils from Michael P Lair and he very kindly gave me an extra beach ball free of charge. Michael P Lair is a stage magician and inventor, he is well known for his candles dvd which I bought from him along with some Fantasio candles the last time I went to the Blackpool convention.
with Michael P Lair (below).
Daniel Garcia had a stand selling his various magical inventions which are mainly explained on dvd's which he was selling.
If any of you have seen me perform the torn and restored card trick where I rip your signed card up into 4 pieces and then one piece at a time put it back together again, then you have seen me perform the trick which Daniel Garcia is most famous for creating.
with Daniel Garcia (below).
7pm that evening was the $10,000 Intercontinental Stage Magic Championships in the opera house.
This was the evenings entertainment and what a fantastic show it was, I would have paid to have seen any of these acts on their own. there really is some amazing talent out there.
The Running order was...
1. Kenris Murat - France
2. Kyoko - Japan
3. Rolf Reiner - Spain
4. Dirk Losander - USA
20 min interval
5. Marc Oberon - UK
6. Yumi - Japan
7. Adrian Soler - Venezuela
8. Han Seol-Hee - Korea
Any of these acts were good enough to win and I still dont like magic competitions but without a shadow of a doubt the winner did get the biggest reactions from the audience so I have to agree with the results this time...
1st Han Seol-Hee $10,000 and Intercontinental Stage Magic Champion
2nd Yumi
3rd Marc Oberon
With the originallity award going to: Han Seol-Hee
'Unfortunately we werent allowed to take photo's during the show'
Sunday 22nd feb, the last day :-(
We're having such a great time but we're both completely exhausted, theres so much stuff going on all day that you dont want to stop to eat incase you miss anything. Imagine if you were a singer/guitarist/drummer or whatever and you had the chance to spend a weekend with all the musicians you really admired and could talk to them, get advice, lessons etc, would you want to miss any of it just to eat food? of course not!!! and neither do I.
10.45am in the spanish hall there is 'An audience with Jeff Mcbride and Eugene Burger'. (see below)
This is basically an interview conducted by Hank Moorehouse and the audience get to ask Jeff and Eugene questions at the end.
The interview was very interesting for people who are interested in hearing about the lives of Jeff and Eugene and how they came to work together etc.
I was a bit embarrassed at the question and answer bit at the end. Dont people understand what a question is? you know, a sentence starting with words such as who, what, when, where, why or how... people stood up and droned on and on about themselves without actually asking a question to the point where Jeff just had to assume what the question was going to be and start talking.
In Jeff and Eugenes favour was the professionalism with which they handled these "questions" and moved on as quickly as possible to the next person, well done guys!
Oh yeah, front row seat again.. spakey git eh?
Next was a lecture by Rudy Coby (the nail in the face guy) now remember initially I didnt want this guy anywhere near me. I thought he was off his head on drugs or something despite the fact I did find him very funny in the close up section yesterday, but it turns out he has some cracking advice to offer...
His lecture was based on creating a character for your shows to help give you direction and be original. He also showed how to make prosthetic arms, legs and even a head using just cellotape and cling film.
I was so impressed by him I bought his book.
He came across as a really nice guy too, even offering to give his book away to anyone who genuinly could not afford to buy it because they had spent too much money at the convention already, and I did see him give some away afterwards.
I paid for mine but I did get him to sign it for me and he gave me a free comic book starring him.
Rudy Coby wrapping cling film around a volunteers arm (below)
Now it was time for more of the 'International Close Up Magic' in the horseshoe area.
I really wanted to see Daryl perform as he was the first person who I learnt more advanced card moves from on his 'encyclopedia of card sleights' dvd set, In fact most of the flashy card moves you see me do are from that series.
Here is Daryl performing his 'Coin's across' routine.
This next one was really good. Two spectators signatures apparently jump from one card to another.This next one was really good. Two spectators signatures apparently jump from one card to another.
Next we watched Daniel Garcia (the torn and restored card guy) he got Lana up to help aswell, how lucky can you get?
He stole her wedding ring while doing this trick... but he gave it back lol.
Daniel Garcia performing 'Torn' His Torn and restored card routine (below).
Another look around the dealers area and then we went back to the hotel to get changed for the evening international gala show.
The runnning order was...
1. Ervan Bodiou - France
2. Arthur Trace - USA
3. Rudy Coby - USA
4. Jerome Murat - France
5. Tony Chapek - USA
6 Jeff McBride - USA
20 minute interval
7. Presentation of the murray award to Duncan Trillo and Eric Eswin
8 Presentation of the Ken Dodd comedy award
9. An Ha-Lim - Korea
10. Tony Frebourg - France
11. Oscar, Renzon & Mara: Magic Unlimited - Holland
Another fantastic evenings entertainment which left both of us feeling great.
I couldnt help but grin from ear to ear when Jeff McBride was performing his 'King of Cards' routine, what a great show!!!
Oh and I managed to grab one of Jeff McBrides playing cards off the stage, here is a scan of the back (below).
So what did I buy? How much did I spend?
Here's a list...
Andrew Normansell - The man who would be king (Book) = £20
Michael P Lair - Beach memories = £20 (I might be wrong about the price)
Michael P Lair - Cool Coils = £20
Close up pad with 'thank you' written on the bottom = £5
Sword Swallowing = £12
Slush Powder X2 = £8
Ian Davis from Magictrix house of magic - suitcase table = £260
Reel Magic feat Johnny Thompson (dvd) = £3
Magic Wallets X6 = £3
Large PK magnets = £9
Rudy Coby - How to become a world famous magician... or just look like one. (book) = £10
Stephen Tucker - Mind Power (spoon bending) = £12
George McBride (dvd) = £10
Cameron Francis - Rehab (dvd) = £10
Jupiter - Zebra Silk = £10
total = £412
Not bad! and I should be able to get a new show together with the items I purchased along with other props I already own.
I really wanted to buy Enrico Pezzoli of Brinum X's 'Comedy costume change' which was £220 and also Jos Denys of Select magic's 'Liquid Stop' which was £29 but I felt I had already spent more than I had originally intended so I will maybe order these at a later date.
All in all we both had a great weekend at the convention, I would say this one was the best one yet and Blackpool magicians club do a fantastic job organising it every year,
it is organised to perfection (no exaggeration) I cannot see how they could improve on it.
Thank you for reading my blog and if you have any thoughts please feel free to leave a comment.
All the best
Flash
