Germany? Eastbourne? Where am I??? (Long post!)

Before I get into this post, let me warn you that it is a big 'un! Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it.

As regular readers (greetings!) may know, I love going away to Magic Conventions and I love going to Germany to visit Sonja. On my latest trip, I managed to do both - go to Germany for a few days to visit Sonja, then travel to Eastbourne for what turned out to be an excellent magic convention.

The problem with the start of this trip was the start time - I was getting picked up to get taken to the airport at 5:15AM! Yes, A.M.!!! It was still dark! Still, I was on my way and after an uneventful flight and a series of train journeys, I finally made it to the city of Osnabruck where Sonja was waiting on the train station platform for my train to arrive. After some pottering about and a few bits and pieces in town we met up with Sonja's friend Sascha, whom I had met when last in Germany, at one of the best Ice Cream parlours in the city. Of course, the "Ice Cream Headache" - aka "Brain Freeze" - hit before too long, but it was well worth the pain.

Sascha and Sonja messing about in the ice cream parlour

For a good time call... Unfortunately for Sascha,
he decided to strike this pose outside a sex shop!

On the way back to Sonja's apartment, we stopped off at the school that she teaches at where a school disco was taking place. She showed me around a couple of parts of the school - the parts that hadn't be locked due to the disco going on! - then, as we were about to leave, a group of Sonja's students came up and started talking to her. They were wanting to know who the strange guy walking with their teacher was. After a brief introduction and me talking to them (which scared them!), Sonja asked the immortal question - "have you got your cards with you?" Of course I did, and thanks to Roy Walton's ever-brilliant trick "The Smiling Mule" I can guarantee you that one girl will never forget the English for "7 of Hearts".

The rest of the weekend was spent going around Osnabruck city centre, going out to dinner (you should try Greek food if you've never tried it before - excellent stuff!) and generally chilling out. Well, I spent time chilling out - Sonja had to prepare and plan her lessons and mark her students' school work. Saturday evening was spent in the company of Sonja and a few of her friends. It was a fun evening with food, drink, stories being told and magic being done. Sonja was even good enough to take me to one of Osnabruck's pool halls on the Sunday so I could knock some balls about a table for a short time (thank you Sonja!).

A view from Sonja's balcony with Murphy, Sonja's car, just below

A HUGE model of the International Space Station
that hangs from the ceiling of Bremen Airport

As always when I'm with Sonja, the time passed too quickly and, before I knew it, it was time to move onto the second part of my holiday. My journey took me from Osnabruck to Bremen to London and finally to Eastbourne. While in Bremen Airport, I happened to stumble upon a HUGE model of the International Space Station hanging from the ceiling of the airport. For a few moments, I turned into a tourist taking a ton of pictures of it. Pretty cool stuff.

Another uneventful flight followed by a fairly easy journey from the airport down to Eastbourne and I was set for the Convention. As always at Conventions, it was a chance to catch up with friends that you only get to see at these sorts of events. It was also a chance to get to see some great magic performed by those considered to be some of the best at what they do. This year, I took some notes on what I thought of the different shows and lectures I saw at the Convention. Let's start off with the Opening Show.

Wednesday
The Opening Show
I knew that the show would be in safe hands with Michael Close MCing the show. He told stories and gags that can be found in his wonderful book "That Reminds Me: Finding The Funny In A Serious World" which had everyone laughing. My other highlight in this show was Gene Anderson who, with a whole load of sheets of newspaper, performed a bunch of great effects including his world-famous Torn and Restored Newspaper and an effect in which he openly cut a circular hole into a piece of paper only for it to become a square-shaped hole! This one had Paul Wilson and I looking at each other in disbelief. Brilliant stuff. Of course, there was a down side to this show and, for me, it was Mel Mellors. He had a lot of the audience laughing but, personally, I do not find very much funny in continuously making fun of members of the audience just so others can get a cheap laugh. I never have and doubt I ever will.

Michael Finney Lecture
I had seen Finney lecture at the Irish Magicians Convention in Limerick just over 2 years ago and it was fascinating. This was equally so, if for no other reason than being a lesson in being a true professional. He admitted from the start that his head wasn't "on the game" as his wife had just had a fall and been taken to the local hospital, but that did not stop him from sharing stories, effects and advice on all aspects of Comedy Magic. He was also good enough to finish off the lecture with some of his stand up comedy (I can recommend his CD "No Tricks" - some funny stuff on there!).

The IBM British Ring Stage Competition
This turned out to be one of the funniest Stage Competitions I had seen in years, but for all the wrong reasons! A few of the acts were polished while a few looked like they had been thrown together at the last minute as if to say "let's enter for the hell of it". Here's what I thought of the acts. From an act that started off by skateboarding on stage, through a series of major errors and technical difficulties and finishing with an act which was obviously going to win the competition there were some highs and lows. In no particular order, here are a few of them, along with some random thoughts:-

• Surely if you are 16 years old and performing a silent magic act, your music should reflect who you are. Why is it that there was a kid magician on stage performing a (technically brilliant) manipulation act to the music of Glenn Miller? Surely he should be doing it to some of the modern-day beat combos.
• Why do so many magic acts (especially illusion acts) use "Children" by Robert Miles as their music? After many years of this, it's beyond annoying!
• One act had a nightmare time when, after performing the first illusion of their set the main curtain came down as the performer started to perform his second illusion. Sadly things got worse as music cues failed, and his rose failed to float - not once, but 3 times!
• Another act, which was meant to be a serious act, almost won the Comedy Award! A few minutes into the act, the performer realised that the audience were laughing their way through his act and so seemed to decide to go with it. He came out with 2 of the best lines of the competition - part way through a routine, he stopped and said "...where are we? This was great in our lounge!" This gained what was possibly the biggest laugh of the night. Sadly, he over-ran on time to such an extent that he was disqualified. A shame, really.
• If an illusion act is doing a large production of, say a motorbike (read "scooter"), then it should be fairly fast and slick. Sadly, the production of said motorbike (read "scooter") took what felt like an age - somewhere around 45-60 seconds. However, this act did do a great piece with a drawing of a wineglass into which he "poured" red wine, only for it all to be a pen and ink picture. Very very clever.
• We had a tramp doing magic - and quoting Billy Connolly's "Wellie Boot Song" at times.
• Why do I get the feeling that some acts are purely on stage to say "look at all the toys I've been buying!"?

After the competition, I had a read through my notes and made the following predictions for the awards:-

1st - Jonathan Shotton
2nd - Edward Hilsum
3rd - Joe Ray

Originality Award - Rikki T
Manipulation - Jonathon Shotton
Comedy Award - Not awarded

Thursday
Close Up Competition
In the run up to the Convention, I had volunteered to be a "runner" for this year's Close Up Competition. This meant making sure each performer got from the set up area to the room that I was in and back again. It also meant that I had a good seat from which to watch each performance. Sadly, the room that I was the runner for ended up being called "The Morgue" by the performers and with good reason. It was probably the smallest room out of the 4 that the performers had to perform in and, as such had no more than 25 people in it at any one time. This meant that it was difficult to create any sort of "atmosphere" within the room, so the audience was "cold" for each new performer. Here's how everyone performed in "The Morgue".

Michael Jordan

Michael started by playing a song on his guitar that lead into a nice ESP prediction effect. The rest of the act was all good but his finishing effect - where he uses his deck of cards to "paint" a previously selected card had great potential. Sadly, it was very difficult to see what was being "painted". My personal opinion would be to angle the performance area so that the audience could see what had been painted.

Don Simpson

Don performed his act silently to music and performed variations on the Matrix theme, using rings and cloth "cards" as his props. Sadly, from where i was sitting, a little more than I am sure Don would have liked was seen during one of his routines. He also performed an unusual lights from fist routine. Each light produced was placed into his mouth when then caused his ears to light up and finished with him producing a string of lights from his mouth.

Will Gray

Will Gray is a very competent performer but who was visually nervous when performing in the room I was in. He opened with a nice wee coin production routine that ended with the production of a jumbo coin then moved into an Ambitious Card routine using a blank deck of cards. His finish to this part of his act was excellent with the signed card appearing inside a sealed deck of cards (there was more to that but I won't spoil it for you). My one criticism is purely technical - his palming requires both stronger misdirection and a little more work on technique.

Rob James

Rob is one of the organisers of The Session Convention, which is a Close Up Convention that takes place each January, but in the couple of years that I've known him I had never seen him perform - not even in the informal setting of a "session" during a convention - so I was interested to see what Rob had to offer. What he gave us was an excellent performance which included a computer gag counter (very funny!) and a very good multiple selection routine.

Mark Shortland

As always with Mark, there were too many gags in his act to be able to scribble down! Always a very funny performer who is able to handle most situations, Mark was thrown slightly when performing his Ambitious Card routine - he started to try to explain a little of what was "supposedly" going on when one of his spectators turned to him and said "I don't like chemistry!" Where that came from, I have no idea (or recollection!) but it was somewhat out of the blue and very funny to watch Mark's brain nearly explode trying to find a funny come-back like.

Paul Ray

Paul mixed magic with some impressions. The magic alright - he had an excellent trick here a signed card appeared between 2 sheets of clear plastic bound together with rubber bands - but his impressions were a little "hit and miss" so while his Billy Connolly went down as one of the worst I've heard, his Paul Daniels was one of the best I've heard. He also did an impression of "Del Boy" Trotter whilst performing a routine with hats and balls (ala Cups and Balls).

Ali Shelley

I count Ali as one of my best friends, both within and outwith magic, so this review might come across as a little biased. Ali's act was based upon her being cabin crew in a magical airline, "Thin Air", and the audience being the passengers. From the safety briefing through to a killer effect where she had multiple ways of showing that she knew what destination the spectators were going to pick, Ali performed a great act (I warned you it was biased). What I will tell you without any form of bias is that she completely fooled me with her destination prediction. Great stuff.

John Van Der Put

John's act was great fun, warming the audience up (well, as much as this audience could be warmed up!) with a really funny Sponge Bunnies routine (yes, I said Sponge Bunnies). The main part of his routine was a really entertaining way of discovering a selected card. When he wanted to find the card, he opened his laptop and sprung the cards at the screen. When the cards cleared, there was a card stuck to the other side of the screen - only it was the image of a card that was stuck onto the other side of the screen. Realising what had happened, John ran out of the room. A few moments later, John was seen running up towards the card on the screen, which he peeled off and ran back into the room. All very, very funny. Good stuff.

Andrew Melia

Andrew performed a card-only act opening with a nice mental effect that caught me out. He did, however, he did spend too much time flicking cards out of the deck as he was dealing poker hands. Just my opinion, though.

Dave Allen

Dave came out and did a nice card fusion effect in which 2 signed cards fused back-to-back to create a single card with a signed face on each side. He seemed to fumble a ring vanish but I was not aware of the finish. After the vanish, he performed another card effect then climbed up on top of the table and showed that the previously vanished ring was now tied to his own shoelace.

After the competition was over, I read over my notes and made the following predictions:-

1st - Rob James
2nd - John Van Der Put
3rd - Will Gray (I would have put Ali Shelley in this spot, but because she is such a good friend decided that I could not let personal bias enter into the predictions)

Rovi Award (for exhibiting a high level of skill with playing cards in an entertaining manner) - Rob James

Most of the rest of Thursday was spent hanging out with friends old and new. People I had not seen in many years, such as Neil Smith whowas the top Close Up guy of Paisley Magic Circle when I first joined and Bill Seagreaves, originally from Aberdeen but now of New Zealand. The last time I had seen Bill was in 2002 while standing in the queue to get into the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

Neil Smith ponders the qualities of a deck of cards

Catching up with Bill Seagreaves

The Micro Magic Marathon
This was the idea of Ali Bongo, the new President of The Magic Circle, and was created to try to have a fun competition for Close Up Magicians in "real world" surroundings. This turned out to be a brilliant idea where everyone - both performers and spectators - fun, allowing us to see some excellent magic done by some excellent magicians.

The Thursday Night Show
The show that takes place on a Thursday night has a heavy emphasis on comedy. After a brilliant musical introduction by Michael Close (is there anything this guy can't do???), compere John Archer arrived on stage and caused his usual fun amount of mayhem. Sight gags, one liners and puns galore. Mark Mitton did some crazy sight gags galore, including some gags that, sadly, went over the heads of a lot of the audience. Michael Weber gave us a taster of what was to come in his lecture a couple of days later and Levent proved that he can handle technical manipulative sleight of hand along with side-slitting funny comedy.

Friday
Geoffrey Durham Lecture
With me being a close up guy and Mr Durham being primarily a stage magicians, I knew that I wasn't going to get any new tricks from this lecture. I did, however, know that I was going to learn a lot about the most important part of magic - presentation. He called his lecture "Finding The Magic Ingredient" and he gave us 7 steps to allow those of us that attended his lecture to find that magic ingredient to make our presentations and our magic better. I'm not going to give you those 7 ingredients here, but what I will tell you is to make sure you go see him lecture if he is somewhere near you. You will not regret it, I promise.

As part of this lecture (and, I believe, this lecture only) he even allowed his old alter-ego "The Great Suprendo" to make an appearance. It really took me back to watching him performing as Suprendo on "Crackerjack" (thank you those that shouted the response). Great stuff.

Meeting Geoffrey Durham

Juan Tamariz Close Up Show
I've been a fan of Tamariz since I first saw him on "The Best Of Magic" at the start of the '90s. His manic performance persona, his phenominal magic and his crazy comedy all added up to create a real impression on me. This one-hour show was nothing short of amazing. Looking at my notes from this show, they mostly consist of "look up [insert routine here] from [insert magazine name here]". At the end of the show, he received a well-deserved standing ovation from the audience.

After the Tamariz show, I went to see 2 of my best friends - Paul and Mhairi Nardini - performing their "The Great Nardini" act in the Eddie Dawes Show, which traditionally takes place on the Friday afternoon. As always, their act was great fun and a huge hit. The last couple of times that they have been performing their act, I have been backstage helping out so I had completely forgotten a couple of the gags in their show. It was great to be able to laugh as loudly as the rest of the audience whilst watching one of my all-time favourite acts (and that is my unbiased opinion!).

Hard Core Card Session
This did exactly what it said on the tin - 2 of the top card men on the planet doing some of the most technical material I've seen in lectures. From false shuffles to false deals and so much more, I was very impressed by both Jason England and Derek Del Guado's handling of a deck of cards. I left this lecture with serious brain melt-down but it was worth it.

From left, Jason England, Derek Del Guado (standing)
and John Lovick in the Hard Core Card Session

The Presentation of Awards and The Late Gala
So, earlier on I gave you my predictions of who I thought would win what. Here's what really happened. First, the Close Up Competition:-

1st place (£1000 and the Zina Bennett Trophy) - John Van Der Put
2nd place (£500) - Rob James
3rd place (£250) - Will Gray

Rovi Award (for exhibiting a high level of skill with playing cards in an entertaining manner) - Rob James

And now, the results for the Stage Competition

1st (The New British Ring Sheild and £1000) - Jonathan Shotton
2nd (The Theo Speaker Cup and £500) - Rev-Illusion
3rd (The Alastair Wand and £250) - Joe Ray

Originality (The Conventioneers Trophy) - Rikki T
Manipulation (The Dittia Shield) - Joe Ray
Comedy (The Tom Harris Cup) - Not awarded

So, from my predictions, I managed to get 5 correct. I even managed to get the top 3 in the Close Up Competition, allbeit with first and second in the opposite order. Personally, I think Ali Shelley should have been awarded third place in the Close Up, but then I could be called biased since she is such a good friend.

After the Awards Ceremony came The Late Gala. My personal highlight was seeing Richard McDougall performed his wonderful cigarette mime act, which I had seen before, and his equally wonderful piece with a goose, which I had not. Another highlight was Guy Holloway on the xylophone. Trust me, you had to be there to see it! Actually, thanks you the magic of YouTube, you can! Click on this link to see some of his performance.

Paul Wilson - The Way Of The Con
Paul's midnight show was a combination show, lecture and question and answer session. In the last few years, Paul has become well known in the UK due to his BBC-TV show "The Real Hustle". Paul was entertaining and informative, performing some great magic and telling some fascinating stories about the behind the scenes goings on the show.

Paul Wilson performing in his midnight show

Friday wasn't finished yet as after Paul's show, a select band got together for the 2008 edition of the IBM Poker Championships. I got knocked out in about 11th place and was too tired to stick around this year to find out who won. Sadly, I don't even remember the name of the guy who did win! Still, it was good to see everyone take part in both the pre-game formalities and the game itself.

TV's Paul Wilson is wondering what TV's Alex Conran
is talking about while Paul Nardini tries to concentrate
on the poker game at hand

Saturday
Michael Weber Lecture
For many years, Michael Weber's name had always been just that - a name on the pages of books and magazines. At this Convention, I finally found out why he was rated as one of magic's most innovative thinkers. His lecture was fantastic with brilliantly clever ideas ranging from a brilliantly easy memorised stack to a method for bending cut-out pictures of spoons in pieces of card. Really, really clever stuff that lived up to all expectations.

International Close Up Gala
As a thank you for being a runner during the Close Up Competition a couple of days earlier, I was given a reserved seat in the front row of one of the rooms of the International Close Up Gala. This had a really strong line-up. Here's what I saw:-

Brad Henderson

For some time, I only knew Brad's name from the pages of Genii and Magic magazines. Well, it turns out he's an excellent performer too. He opened with one of my favourite pieces, John Bannon's "Play It Straight Triumph" and continued on with some coin stuff and more cards before ending with a nice single miniature cup and ball routine.

Jason England

I had seen footage of Jason performing previously and was impressed with the phenominal stuff that he could do with a deck of cards. He can handle the toughest gambling moves and make them look easy. A couple of my favourites from his short spot were his ability to be able to cut the aces from a deck of cards - in the order that they were asked for by his spectator - and a great effect where he shuffled some face up cards into some face down ones and then tried to deal all the face up cards out of the deck. He succeeded, but made 5 mistakes along the way - those mistakes turned out to be a Royal Flush in Spades! Very nice stuff.

Bob Kholer

Bob Kholer came out and started telling us about John Ramsay, the shop keeper from Ayr who became a legend within the world of magic. He performed one of Ramsay's greatest routines, "The Cylinder And Coins" but made the mistake of forgetting to put the little piece of cork inside the cylinder before he vanished the coins. He also performed an excellent Rising Card effect with the deck being more and more isolated from the outside world before each card rose from the deck.

Derek Del Guado

Derek did a few card discoveries, including a version of Roy Walton's "The Smiling Mule", and followed up with an amazing demonstration of false dealing, dealing from the second position, the bottom and from the middle of the deck. He finished his act by dealing the deck out to show that it was now in order! I hate this guy! He's too good!

Jon Armstrong

Armstrong's main strength is his ability to discover cards that have only been thought of. Not selected and removed from the deck, but thought of my a spectator. Here, he showed his ability with this, along with getting a spectator to name the card someone else had only thought of - and all with no stooges!

Nicholas Einhorn

The only UK performer was the last in the room that I was seated in and he performed a whole load of magic in his allocated slot. Coins moving about a table and gathering at one corner, coins vanishing and aces being produced from a deck of cards. He finished with a great version of "Ring Flite" in which the vanished ring re-appeared on a key chain, instead of inside the usual key case. I liked that one a lot.

Juan Tamariz Lecture
The Tamariz lecture started at 2pm and was due to last one hour. He ended up doing 1¾ hours! He spent some time talking about a couple of the effects he had performed in his one-hour show the previous day and using them to illustrate the principles outlined in his seminal book "The Five Points In Magic" which is his study of physical and psychological secrets that use the body to fool the mind by using the eyes, voice, hands, feet and body to create seemingly impossible happenings. Sadly, I had to leave some 15 minutes before the end as my brain could not handle any more theoretical information!

International Gala Show
On paper, this year's Gala Show was one of the strongest line-ups I had seen. In reality, it surpassed it with act after act amazing us all with their brilliance. MC Jeff Hobson held the show together brilliantly with his wonderfully camp persona and outfits (including his "Liberace Starter Kit") and some stunning magic. Jason Byrne opened the show with his dove act which caught me out on a number of occasions, including his finish (I won't spoil it, its too good!). Raymond Crowe, last seen in the UK in the 2007 Royal Variety Performance, was next with his various talents, including making a suit jacket dance around the stage with him and his wonderful hand shadows routine.

Raymond Crowe performing his Hand Shadows
routine at the 2007 Royal Variety Performance

Next on was the hysterical Michael Finney who had the audience roaring with laughter. He was followed by the suave sophistication of Norm Nielsen who had been talked out of retirement to give one last performance.

After the interval, Tony Chapek performed his TV act which sees him interact with a character on a telelvision - taking objects from teh picture as well as putting objects into the screen. You have to see this to appreciate just how good the act is. Juggler Claudius Specht was the show's variety act and he blew everyone away with his amazing abilities.

The show finished with Kalin & Jinger who performed for some 45 minutes and I enjoyed every moment. There was a bit of a scare at the start of the act when Mark Kalin fell backwards off of an illusion but being the true professional he is, he got up, brushed himself off and continued with the show as if nothing happened. The only mention made of it was when he made a joke about it with his wife, Jinger. My personal highlight of the show came from Kalin and Jinger when he performed the Wakeling Sawing Through A Woman which fooled me all the more live than it did when I saw it on TV.

Kalin and Jinger perform the Wakeling Sawing

Meeting Raymond Crowe

And so, that was the end of the convention for another year. Most folk, myself included, went back to the headquarters hotel and chatted until the wee hours. The following day, it was time to go to London for a few hours until I had to go catch my flight. I had 2 options - either sit around St Pancras Station for a few hours bored out of my skull or pay a few pounds to have my luggage kept in left luggage and go around London. I took the latter option and I was glad I did. I stopped off at Covent Garden, saw some of the street entertainers and looked round the market. I even stopped off at one point to listen to a brilliant group of classical musicians. The girls of the group had been joined by the bassist from a group called "Grafitti Classics" whom I first encountered at my first Irish Convention in Dublin back in 2002. Why did this guy stick in my head? Put simply, the boy's a nutter! He dances with his double bass, jumps around with it! He is the funny bone of the whole operation and was on this occasion, too.

The group of classical musicians entertaining a huge crowd at
Covent Garden. Wish I could remember the group's name!

And to round the trip off, as I was walking from Covent Garden back to St. Pancras I reached the top of Tottenham Court Road. A few moments later, I hear a voice (no, not the ones inside my head - for once!). I thought I recongnised this voice and was amazed to see JJ (one half of the Opus Magazine Editorial Team™) standing there. Of all the people I could bump into in London, I bumped into a good friend! It turns out he was going to be meeting up with Chris Power (the other half of the Opus Magazine Editorial Team™) in a Burger King a few minutes later. I had a fun hour or so talking and catching up with Chris and JJ and giving them some of the news from the Convention.

Would you buy a magic magazine from these 2?
Yeah, I would too! Chris Power (left) and JJ,
the Opus Magazine Editorial Team™

And so, it was off home. It had been a crazy 10 days and I had loved every moment of it. I wouldn't mind doing it all again!

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

Lynette Horsburgh Fundraising Pool Exhibition

Hi folks

Just a quick post to let you know that my friend, who also happens to be the 2008 WEPF Ladies World 8-Ball Champion, Lynette Horsburgh, will be doing a fundraising exhibition at Braehead Shopping Centre this weekend in aid of "Hearing Dogs For Deaf People". The dates and times are:-

Friday 3rd October 2008 from 10am till 9pm
Saturday 4th October 2008 from 9am till 6:30pm
Sunday 5th October 2008 from 10am till 6pm

Also, for your information, here's a little information about the work "Hearing Dogs For Deaf People" do.

"Nearly nine million of the UK population experience some degree of hearing loss. That's one person in every seven. Over 650,000 of these people are severely or profoundly deaf and could benefit from a hearing dog.

Hearing dogs change lives. They alert their deaf owners to sounds we take for granted, providing greater independence, confidence and security. Most are selected from rescue centres or donated as unwanted pets.

We rely totally on the generosity of individuals and organisations to continue transforming the lives of deaf people and unwanted puppies. Thank you for your interest in our work."

Lynette will be available to play between 10am and 9pm in return for a donation of £3 or more. At intervals during the day, trick shots will be performed, and lucky members of the audience will be invited to have a go.

If you can, get yourselves down there and help raise a ton of cash for a very worthy cause.

Speak soon

The Cardman :-)

The Jill Deck - updated with more information

Hi folks

Thought I'd do a brief post about an item a friend of mine has launched in time for the IBM British Ring Convention taking place in Eastbourne next week.

Annabel De Vetten is a Birmingham-based artist who has designed a poker size deck of cards that I think looks pretty amazing. Now I am normally the first to denounce the use of the likes of "Viper" or "Tiger" playing cards which have black faces and white and/or red pips but these, in my eyes look really cool. The picture cards are actually pictures that Anna has designed and drawn herself. And the "Jacks" are what give the deck its name - all the Jacks are Jills, hence The Jill Deck.

The Jill Deck poster showing all the faces of all the cards

The cards cost £10 for the limited edition "Art Deck" which comes with a hand-signed Ace of Hearts and a free poster. There is also a "Magic Deck" which will sell for £12.

A closer view of a scattering of cards from The Jill Deck

The "Magic Deck" contains 60 cards, including 7 gaffed cards and has marked backs. The extra cards include some unquie gaffs. Included in the deck are some of the most important gaffed cards in card magic while others have been specifically created for the Jill Deck. As tricks are not included in this deck, how you use these gaff cards is entirely up to the owner of the deck. Included are:-

• A duplicate Joker with a punched out bullet hole
• A duplicate topless Queen of Clubs
• A misindexed Ace of Diamonds/3 of Clubs
• A misindexed 3 of Clubs/Ace of Diamonds
• A double faced card
• A double backed card.
• A white Queen of Hearts

There will also be something called "The Jill Deck Community", which will allow users of the Jill Deck to share videos of effects using the cards and gaffs via YouTube. This part is still in development and is due to be launched on the Jill Deck website but to join, send an e-mail to info@card-shark.de with the link and a short introduction to your trick, if you like. There will also be a password-protected part of the Community where methods can be discussed. All the manufacturers request is that the explanation of the method (which would be appreciated) are kept separate from the performance.

For full details, go see Anna in the Dealers' Hall at the IBM Convention in Eastbourne.

Speak soon

The Cardman :-)

The London Trip - long post!

Hi folks

Well, it took a while to arrive but in what feels like the blink of an eye, my trip to London has been and gone. It was a great few days. I just wish I had a little more time to enjoy it all!

Thursday
I arrived at my hotel - the Wardonia Hotel in King's Cross - and quickly unpacked as I had a few things to get done before I presenting my magic lecture for International Magic that evening. Let me get this bit out of the way first. I liked the hotel. OK, so they don't serve food and the room was small, but it was comfortable, had everything I needed and there are loads of places to eat in the immediate area. I'll certainly stay there again.

I visited International Magic to make sure everything was arranged for that evening and a brief conversation with Jerry Sadowitz, who had not long returned from performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. When I returned a couple of hours later to get myself ready for the lecture, I couldn't help but continually think "who's going to turn up to see an unknown Scottish card magician?" Well, I only had to wait until people started arriving to realise that there would be a good crowd there to hear what I had to say and what I could do. In all, just over 30 people came along and they made for an excellent audience. My thanks to all of you for coming along and being interested in what I had to say.

Friday
I had arranged to meet up with my good pal Julie and her eldest son, Peter, at the Science Museum. While we were there, Julie wanted to find out some information, so while she was speaking to the people involved, Peter and I went and acted like big kids with some of the interactive stuff that is located on the 3rd floor of the Museum. Great fun, too! I even had my first experience of an IMAX movie. A fascinating film about dinosaurs that looked pretty cool in 3D.

Afterwards, we went walkabout for a wee bit. First of all to try to find a Pizza Hut for lunch, which we found, then to go to Covent Garden to see what was going on there. We stood for a wee while watching one of the buskers performing his slackrope walking routine - the exact opposite of a tightrope walker. Pretty entertaining stuff.

Julie and Peter (foreground) watch the slackrope
walking Busker in Covent Garden

After Julie and Peter left to head back home, I wandered about London a little more then decided to go back to my hotel. I was full of good intentions for the Friday night - go out to a show and enjoy myself. The truth, however, was that I was really tired and so decided just to stay in my hotel room, watch some TV and have an early night so I could ready myself for the following day.

Saturday
Finally, the day had arrived. REM at Twickenham. When I woke, I wasn't as hyper-excited as I thought I would be, but that soon disappeared as I made my way towards Twickenham. On the way, I decided to make a slight detour and go look at a couple of London landmarks that aren't that well known - some clock and a big wheel that sits on the banks of the Thames.

Some big clock I'm sure I've seen on the TV somewhere!

The only ride at the London Amusement park -
it doesn't go that fast, but it's really tall!

Even though I had my REM Fan Club wristband, that allowed holders access to the stadium about half-an-hour before the rest of the crowd, I still wanted to get to there early so I could soak up some of the atmosphere, the surroundings and a little sun. I was, by no means, the first to arrive. From what I could gather, Fan Club members had been gathering since breakfast time so they could try to get a spot at the very front-centre of the barrier - right in front of Michael Stipe.

The wristband

REM Fan Club members sit inside the stadium
and discuss the tour so far

As it was, I got a good spot just one person back from the barrier and to the left centre stage, right in front of Mike Mills. Conversations that had started in the queue outside were continued inside the stadium and new ones started with the new Fan Club members sitting waiting on the first band on - Guillemots. Some of the others who had been to REM's other UK gigs during the week had said that they were not that impressed with them. However, it turns out that this happened to be the day they played a blinding set and where everything was perfect. Mike Mills even made a surprise appearance playing percussion during the last track of their set. Afterwards, more than one person was heard to say "they were a different band!" Very enjoyable and I'm going to have a wee listen to their albums.

Guillemots on stage

Next up were Editors, a band whom I've heard some of, but not a great deal. A lot of us had heard REM cover their song "Munich" on Radio 1 a few months ago, but other than that I didn't really know a lot of their songs. Like Guillemots, they played a great set and I'll certainly be sitting down and listening to their albums in due course.

Editors playing at Twickenham

Then, finally, REM made their way to the stage. They played songs from pretty much their entire history - from their current album "Accelerate" going all the way back to their first album, "Murmur", from 1983.

Michael practices his T-Rex moves during "The Wake Up Bomb"

Michael even came down to the front of the crowd - twice. Once during "The One I Love" and again during "Losing My Religion". The first time he came down, I managed to grab his hand for a second or so. Don't ask me why I did it, I felt it was something I had to do at that exact moment in time. When he came back down during "Losing My Religion", however, he was less than 3 feet from me. I held the sleeve of his suit jacket. Then I offered him my hand to shake and he did so! I shook hands with Michael Stipe!!! I couldn't believe it - I still can't! I got to shake hands with the lead singer of my all-time favourite band! I'm not going to be stupid and say "I'm never washing my hand again". The important thing is I have the memory of that moment when Michael Stipe shook my hand while singing "Losing My Religion". Fan-smegging-tastic!!!

OK, so it's a little blurry, but this is how close I got to
Michael Stipe. The blur near the bottom of the picture is
my left hand holding onto his sleeve.

Then, almost as soon as it had started, it was all over. The band were saying goodnight and I was working out how to get back to my hotel. But what a concert! What a day! Great weather (I got sunburned!), good company (thanks to Sarah, Samantha, Charlie, Ros and the others who's names I did not catch for your company during the day) and a phenominal concert.

It's the end of the gig as we know it (and we feel great!)

Set List
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
These Days
The Wake-Up Bomb
What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
Drive
Man-Sized Wreath
Disturbance At The Heron House
Ignoreland
Walk Unafraid
Hollow Man
Fall On Me
Electrolite
The Great Beyond
I’m Gonna DJ
Exhuming McCarthy
The One I Love
I’ve Been High
Let Me In
Horse To Water
Bad Day
Orange Crush
Imitation Of Life

Encore
Supernatural Superserious
Losing My Religion
Perfect Circle
Country Feedback
It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Man On The Moon

Before I go, however, I do have one amusing story for you from the concert. While waiting in the Fan Club queue to get in, one of the guys in front of me dug something out of his bag and started to inflate it. It turned out it was a 3-foot tall blow-up doll but he had been made up to look like Michael Stipe. When he was inflated and dressed, he really looked like Stipe in miniature - a "Mini Stipe" if you will. Best of all was that "Mini Stipe" managed to get into the gig with no problems from the security people and survived at the front until REM came on.

Mini Stipe being held up by his owner

During full-size Micheal's visit to the front of the crowd during "The One I Love", Michael shook hands with Mini Stipe and continued on his way along the front. At the end of the set, after REM had left the stage, one of the stage crew came running round from backstage and said that Michael had requested Mini Stipe for the encore. The owner duly gave Mini Stipe over and the next time he was seen was being carried on by Mike Mills and placed beside the piano. At the end of the concert, after taking their final bows, Michael walked over, picked up Mini Stipe and placed him in front of his microphone at centre stage.

What a great few days! What a great concert! I want to do it all again! I'll just need to wait for the next tour to come along.

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

P.S. Did I tell you I shook hands with Micheal Stipe? No? Let me tell you about it...!

#remlondon

London, Here I Come!

Hi folks

Just a quick post to remind you that I am presenting my card magic lecture for International Magic. The lecture will be taking place on Thursday 28th August at their usual venue - 'Casa Italiana', 136 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5DL (click here for a map). If you are interested in coming along, please e-mail or telephone Martin MacMillan on martin@internationalmagic.com or 020 7405 7324. Times are 7:15pm for a prompt 7:30pm start, and it will be finishing around 9.45pm. The cost is £10 per person.

Once I have presented my lecture, I will be able to relax and start properly looking forward to the R.E.M. concert at Twickenham on Saturday. I have been looking at the setlists for all the previous shows on the tour and am hoping that they will play one or 3 of my all-time favourites. Songs like "Pretty Persuasion", "Driver 8" and "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville". I don't ask much! Please?! And with me being in posession of an R.E.M. Fan Club early entry wristband, I am looking forward to hopefully having a prime spot at the front of the crowd.

Now, roll on Thursday morning! I want to get to London!

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008

Hi folks

Regular readers (Greee-tings!) may know that I enjoy going to Edinburgh at least once each August to see what's on at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This year, I managed to go through for a few days in a row, and great fun it was too. This was thanks to my good friend Julie, who had decided to travel up to Edinburgh from Watford for a few days to see what it was all about.

We were staying at Pollok Halls, part of Edinburgh University's student accommodation which is taken over by tourists and some groups taking part in shows at the Fringe. I thought the accommodation was great. OK so there wasn't a TV in the room, but they were clean, comfortable and spacious and the breakfast was excellent.

So what did we go and see? Well, that's a fairly extensive list but one that I am willing to type for you, dear reader, along with my own personal thoughts of each show. So, here goes...

Monday
"Britishness" :: Shelley Cooper :: Laughing Horse @ Espionage
We decided to start our trip to the Fringe by going to this show for 2 simple reasons. First, the venue was easy to get to and second, it was free. It was part of the Laughing Horse Free Festival, which you'll hear a wee bit about in the next wee while as we did a few of their shows. The venue was a pub just off the High Street and the room was pretty packed for the show. Sadly, the show wasn't really up to much. After a bit of time with the age-old "hi, where are you from?" start to a comedy show, Ms Cooper started to give us her definition of what being British was. There was an interesting part of the show that dealt with the history of Britain, but the show itself was pretty disappointing from the comedy side of things.

Tuesday
"Devlin's Daily" :: Bruce Devlin :: The Stand 1
After our first trip to the High Street (aka The Royal Mile) where all the street performers gather and do their shows, we made our way to The Stand for what is a regular weekday show that takes place at lunchtime and takes the form of a live talkshow giving people wee previews of things that are on at the Fringe. The first thing that needs to be mentioned here is that it is free. And before anyone thinks "free = crap", this is the show that goes against that rule. It might be free, but it is excellent. Each lunchtime Bruce Devlin introduces a few of the performers from around the Fringe who then talk about, or perform a little bit of, their show. On this particular day, a packed house was treated to Jason Cook and Kate Robbins talking about their respective shows and Jarlath Regan performing a few minutes from his. On the strength of what we saw, Julie and I decided to go see Jarlath the following day but more on that later.

A crowd in Parliament Square watching one of
the many street performers

"The Expert At The Card Table" :: Guy Hollingworth :: Assembly Rooms @ George Street
OK, biased review alert. This is for a couple of reasons. First, I've known Guy Hollingworth for a good number of years. Second, it is a show about the first book to really fully explain the methods of card cheats. So, of course I was going to like it before I went in! I just didn't realise how good the show would be or how packed out the theatre would be. The room holds 120 people and all but some 10 or 20 seats were filled. The show revolves around the story of the book "The Expert At The Card Table", its author and his best friend who came together through a mutual love of playing cards. Peppered throughout this story are some brilliant pieces of card magic (these go beyond being simply card "tricks") which had the audience gasping in amazement. Regular readers (hello!) may remember me saying in an earlier post that I had seen this show in London back in November. Well, it is the same show, but there are some differences to it. It is also a lot "tighter" as a theatre piece, mostly due to Guy working on the show with a Director. Excellent show and highly recommended.

Kreisler '08 :: Jeff Kreisler :: The Stand 4
Next up was American Stand Up Comedian Jeff Kreisler who's name had intrigued me as the 2006 recipient of the "Bill Hicks Spirit Award for Thought-Provoking Comedy". Being a fan of Hicks, I thought I would give the show a go. Before I go any further, let me give you this advice. If you are not up to speed on your American politics or what is going on in the American Election, then this show is not for you. If you have some knowledge of what is going on, then you will get a number of the references that are given. Kreisler will make you think about what is going on. It seems like the set that was performed on the day I attended required a lot of knowledge of what is currently going on in American politics and from what I've read, this could have been the show that he is referring to on his Blog as "my one i’ve-barely-slept-and-am-taking-it-out-on-the-audience show." I'd be interested in seeing a well-rested Kreisler performing to a more responsive audience.

RJ of "All-Star Magic and Comedy - Direct from San Francisco!"
resplendent in his kilt

Ali Cook - A Touch Of Vegas :: Ali Cook :: Gilded Balloon Teviot
Ali Cook is another in the "I've known this guy for years" crowd who are performing at this year's Fringe, so again this might be considered a biased review. I had seen Ali performing Close Up in the past, as well as lecturing for magicians, but had never seen him perform a one-hour magic show for the general public. This show was a lot of fun. Good magic well executed. He was also increadibly funny as well. He had some great reactions from the audience with a lot of his magic, especially when he was messing about with a dove. A great bit of mind reading with a magazine had me scratching my head with multiple theories, none of which I think are right. He also managed to get the perfect spectator up for his Finger Ring in Walnut routine. If I wrote what happened, it wouldn't seem funny. You just had to be there. Another excellent show that you should try to get to see before the run finishes next week.

Wednesday
The Piper's Trail :: The Army in Scotland, in Association With ImpAct Universal (Scotland) :: Musical Theatre @ George Square
One of the great things about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is that you can arrive in the city without any real plans of what you are going to see and decide while you are there. We got given a flyer for this show about 10-15 minutes before it was due to start and, with about an hour-and-a-half to kill before our first planned show of the day, we went along. Personally, I was ready for this to be terrible, but it was actually an excellent family show which went down very well with the wide-ranging audience. The idea was that two tenneagers with troubles at home discover themselves as they face a series of challenges while they journey across the country. The final scene does actually move you, at which point you realise it has been building up, although the shortbread tin tartant finale is a litle cliched. On the whole, surprisingly enjoyable, and free too!

"Devlin's Daily" :: Bruce Devlin :: The Stand 1
We enjoyed this the day before so much that we decided to go again. The room was only about half-full today but what we saw was still enjoyable. We had to leave early to go to our next show.

Electric Mouse - A La Carte :: Electric Mouse :: Laughing Horse @ Espionage
A show that consisted of 3 comedians - 2 male and one female - and a comedy singer-songwriter and that had the feel of a show that was put together at the last minute. People forgot who was coming on stage next to perform. Some even forgot their fellow performer's names! As for the performances themselves, the first comedian on looked like he was on stage for the very first time, another tried doing edgy/contraversial material that was mostly unfunny, the female comedian had a few good lines (and was rather cute, too!) but the strongest performer was the singer-songwriter. He had some really sick songs which were also quite funny. Sadly, however, overall I found it to be a fairly weak show.

Jarlath Regan - "Relax The Cax" :: Jarlath Regan :: Guilded Balloon Teviot
Jarlath Regan was the guy that we had seen do a few minutes of his show at the previous day's "Devlin's Daily". I was impressed by those few short minutes and I was equally impressed by his one-hour show. The whole show stems from a wee story about him and a car clamper. From such humble beginnings, Jarlath opens his world up to the audience and what a world it is. I won't quote any of the gags that were used in the show, you'll have to go and see him yourself! The one thing I will tell you is watch out for his greetings cards! Great stuff and I recommend you go and see him the next time he is in your area.

London Underground and Yet More Ballads :: The Amateur Transplants :: Medina & Negociants
The Amateur Transplants are 2 doctors who put rude and very un-PC words to well know (mostly pop) tunes. Julie found this one hidden away in the Fringe Brouchure. She suggested that we tried to get tickets and I was more than happy to do so. My good friends Carol and Emz had introduced me to their stuff with their first CD, "Fitness To Practice", so I knew what I was in for. Well, they did a ton of stuff from that album, along with new tracks that I had not heard before. Suffice to say, the whole room was rocking with laughter throughout the entire show. If you ever get the chance to see these guys live, and are not easily offended, then beg, borrow or steal to get a ticket. Just don't say I didn't warn you about how offensive it can be!!! This was probably the funniest thing I saw the whole week.

The Golden Age Of Magic :: Ian Kendall :: The Zoo
Ian Kendall is a long-time (I won't say old!) friend. He's also a long-time performer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - this was his 17th straight year performing at the Fringe. During that time, Ian has built up a bit of a following and his shows have now started selling out. Always great to see a friend doing so well. This year's show's theme was about magic from the turn of the 20th century with stories about some of the performers of that time. Technically, Ian performed the material perfectly (I knew there was a reason I disliked Ian!) and presented it with his usual droll sense of humour. On the night we attended, there was a Spanish couple in the front row. When he asked the girl to help with the last trick of the evening, it turned out she spoke very little English, but then Ian's professionalism (also helped by the fact that his wife is Spanish!) came to the fore and he performed list last routine in Spanish with an in-running English translation as the routine progressed. Great stuff and I would recommend this show if it hadn't finished the weekend after we saw it! Seriously, though, if you get a chance to see Ian perform next year, do so.

Magicians gossip - Kevin McMahon (left), Ian Kendall (centre)
and Julie in mid-discussion about all things magic. "Big Al" Catraz
of "All-Star Magic and Comedy - Direct from San Francisco!"
checks his e-mail in the background

Thursday
In The Mouth :: Laughing Horse @ Espionage
This was the first of 4 shows that we saw at the one venue. We had left our digs in the morning and had several hours to kill before getting Julie to the airport and me back to Stewarton so instead of trying to walk around Edinburgh with our cases in tow, we decided to go to Espionage and see a bunch of free shows. (And before anyone asks, we were going to put our cases into the left luggage at Edinburgh Waverley Station, but the queue was miles too long!) The first show we saw was a 3-person sketch show was more miss than hit. A lot more. There were a couple of good sketches in it (my personal favouite involving a DVD shop), but upon reflection the whole show felt like a series of sketches, each of which had been written in a very short space of time.

Julie's obviously enjoying the show

Angel Delight Is A Dog's Best Friend :: Ben Brown :: Laughing Horse @ Espionage
How funny can a baby-faced teenage stand up comic be? Answer - very. Ben Brown is a young and confident stand up comedian who held the audience's attention for around 40 minutes. And had us laghing, too. I say that without trying to sound surprised but you need to remember that this was one of the "Free Festival" shows and, generally, Free Festival show = good chance of it being crap. This was the show that broke that rule. Watch out for this young man in the future. He could be big.

(James Mason Is Not) Bill Hicks & (Bobby Carroll Ain't No) Richard Pryor :: James Mason and Bobby Carroll :: Laughing Horse @ Espionage
OK, so we're gluttons for punishment. Three shows in a row at Espionage and this one, for some of it, was back to the usual Free Festival level. James Mason came on in a black lether jacket and pretty much mumbled his way through his set. Sadly, I didn't find him particularly funny. It came across as if it was this young man's first show. Bobby Carroll, however, came across as someone who does stand up comedy for a living and who, by his own admission, was trying out new material. His material was not-too-bad and he got a few good laughs from around the room.

Dog Day King :: Snorri Kristjansson :: Laughing Horse @ Espionage
Another show to brake the Free Festival rule. Snorri is an Icelandic stand up comedian (no, I didn't know there were any either!) who's name sounds like a bunch of unfortunate words in different languages. For me, this was the best show of the day. Sadly, his microphone decided to play up and so had to make do without. This meant that Julie and I had to try very hard to be able to hear him as we were sitting right underneath the air vent that was bringing cool air in from the outside world (Julie gave up after a few minutes of struggling). I enjoyed his set and, given the chance, would try to go to see him again.

And so, it was time to leave Espionage. After a walk around a few wee bits of Edinburgh (with cases in tow - not exactly fun!) it was time to get Julie to the airport and me back to Stewarton. We both had a great time and we both saw the sorts of shows that we wanted to see - the good and the bad. Luckily, we saw more good than bad and didn't have to pay too much for the bad.

This year's Fringe is nearly finished, but mark a weekend in your diary for next August and try to get to Edinburgh. You won't regret it!

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

Lecturing in London and other bits

Hi folks

Regular readers (hi there!) may know that I am a huge REM fan and since their only Scottish concert of the current tour was at T In The Park (which I refuse to go to due to the high "Ned factor"), I had to choose one of their concerts elsewhere. Since I like visiting London, I chose the concert scheduled for Twickenham on August 30th (I'll be blogging about this nearer the time).

Well, since booking the tickets, I have been asked if I would present my magic lecture for International Magic. The lecture will be taking place on Thursday 28th August at their usual venue - 'Casa Italiana', 136 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5DL (click here for a map). If you are interested in coming along, please e-mail or telephone Martin MacMillan on martin@internationalmagic.com or 020 7405 7324. Times are 7:15pm for a prompt 7:30pm start, and it will be finishing around 9.45pm. The cost is £10 per person.

Staying with International Magic, and a little closer to the present, David Regal is also lecturing for them. This lecture takes place on Friday 1st August at the same venue and times as my own at the end of the month. David is a great magician and one who has really, really clever ideas and effects. Considering his background in writing and performing comedy, it isn't any surprise that his presentations are top-notch, too.

And one last bit of news from International Magic is that they have started announcing names for their Convention in November. OK, so they've announced one name so far (officially!) - that of Richard Turner, The Cheat. He will be presenting a one-man show on the Friday night and lecturing on the Saturday. I saw Mr Turner lecture a good number of years ago in Glasgow and it was amazing. Even when he told you how he was performing the cheating moves that he was using, you still couldn't see him do the move! Utterly amazing and someone I urge anyone with even the sleightest interest in cheating moves with cards to go and see.

And finally, and rounding things off, if your Magic Club or Organisation are interested in getting details about my lecture, you can drop me an e-mail at peter@thecardman.co.uk

I look forward to hopefully seeing some of you at my lecture at the end of August.

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

Friends at The Fringe

Hi folks

Regular readers (greetings!) may remember that I love the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and that I try to get through at least once during August to see some of the mayhem that goes on there. Well, this year is going to be no different and I'm going to be going in Edinburgh for a few days - something I am very much looking forward to.

However, before August arrives there is the now annual search of the Edinburgh Fringe programme to find what shows I would like to see. As always there are the shows done by those I have heard of or seen on TV, the shows done by those that I've never heard of and then there are the shows by the people I know. These are the ones that I'd like to point you in the direction of just now.

Before I get into the shows and the descriptions, the links that you will see as the show's title takes you directly to that show's particular page on the Edinburgh Fringe website where you can book tickets for each show.

The first is "Ali Cook - A Touch Of Vegas" at the Gilded Balloon Teviot (13 Bistro Square - 0131 668 1633). This is Ali's first show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Here's what the Fringe programme has to say about the show:-
Award winning magician, Ali Cook Live! Star of Channel 4’s "Dirty Tricks" and Five’s "Monkey Magic". "Immensely Funny" (Daily Telegraph). "Entertains with wit, skill and intelligence" (Evening Standard).
Preview: Jul 30-Aug 2: 21:15 (1hr) £5.00
Aug 3-7,12-14,18-21,25: 21:15 (1hr) £9.00 (£8.00)
Aug 8-10, 15-17,22-24: 21:15 (1hr) £10.00 (£9.00)

Next up comes Ian Kendall's "The Golden Age of Magic" (www.goldenageofmagic.com) which will be at The Zoo (140 The Pleasance – 0131 662 6892). I'm not allowed to tell you how long Ian has been performing at the Fringe for (apparently it is covered by the Official Secrets Act!), but I can tell you what it says in the Fringe programme:-
Ian Kendall returns with a brand-new magic show. Be astonished by classic effects and stories from a time before camera tricks and creative editing took away the wonder. Sell-out show 2006 and 2007.
Aug 1-16: 21:00 (1hr) £8.00

After Ian finishes his run, Magic To Get Girls By with Kevin McMahon and Alan Hudson will be entering the fray at The Zoo (140 The Pleasance – 0131 662 6892). Here's what the Fringe programme says about the show, which sounds like a lot of fun.
Magician geeks Kevin and Alan try, but ultimately fail, to impress the ladies with magic. Magic is cool, and there’s nothing sexier than a card trick. “Funny and, at the same time, baffling.” (Paul Daniels)
Aug 17-25: 21:00 (1hr) £8.00 (£7.00)

And last, but in no means least, is The Expert At The Card Table by Guy Hollingworth, being performed at Assembly @ George Street (Assembly Rooms, 54 George Street – 0131 623 3030). I wrote about this show after seeing it at last year's International Magic Convention in London (you can find what I said in the paragraph under the last of the pictures of the Apollo space capsule). Here's what the Fringe programme says:-
Contains deception, betrayal and cheating at cards. Renowned conjurer Guy Hollingworth performs dazzling exhibitions of card chicanery and incomparable legerdemain whist unravelling the mystery of its enigmatic author. “Extraordinary talent! I love this show!” (David Blaine)
Preview: Jul 31-Aug 2: 15:35 (1hr) £5.00
Aug 3,5-7,12-14,19-20,25: 15:35 (1hr) £11.00 (£10.00)
Aug 8-10,15-17,21-24: 15:35 (1hr) £12.00 (£11.00)

Some excellent performers doing what I am certain will be excellent shows. Sure, there are a bunch of other magicians on at the Fringe (and don't forget the Street Performers!) but I wanted to make a point of highlighting these shows in particular.

Whether you go to any of these shows or not, if you can get to Edinburgh in August, go! You won't regret it - even if it's raining!

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

Dad

Hi folks

Two years ago today, right about the time that I am writing this, my Dad, Alexander Campbell McLanachan, died. He'd taken seriously ill a few days previously and never regained consciousness.

I was trying to think of a funny story about Dad to put on this post but couldn't think of any. Blogger's block? I don't know. I'll probably think of one as soon as I click "publish post"! All I really wanted to do was post a little something to mark the time.

Dad, we all love you and miss you as much now as then. There's not a day that goes by where we don't think of you - even if just to say "can you imagine what Dad would say if he was here?" That's one of the most common thoughts I have these days! Wherever you are, Dad, take care of yourself. We'll see you somewhere, sometime, down the road.

Possibly the last picture taken of Dad
in front of the Para Handy's Vital Spark

Folks, as ever at this time, I ask that you all let those that you love know exactly how they feel before its too late. Take care.

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-(

Norman Beck lecturing in Scotland

Hi folks

"Smart, funny and cunning ... Miss him at your peril!" - R. Paul Wilson
"Norman Beck will fool you very badly. His lecture is an absolute delight." - Marc DeSouza

These are just a few of the things people in the know are saying about Texas-based Close Up Magician Norman Beck who will be lecturing in Paisley and Aberdeen in the next couple of weeks.

The lecture in Paisley is taking place in the Function Room of Suzy Q's Pool Club, 58 Stock Street, Paisley (wonder who organised that venue?) on Sunday 6th July starting at 2pm. The cost is £10 per person. You can download a flyer regarding this lecture by clicking here. If you have any questions or queries, you can drop me an e-mail.

Aberdeen Magic Society will be hosting the second lecture, being held on Tuesday 8th July at The Sportsmans Club, Queens Road, Aberdeen. The lecture is scheduled to start at 8pm and the cost is £5 for Aberdeen Magic Society members and £10 for non-members. More details regarding the Aberdeen lecture can be obtained by visiting the Aberdeen Magic Society website.

Rather than tell what the lecture is and spoil it, Mr Beck would like to point out what the lecture is not:-
• It is not a dealer lecture.
• It is not a lecture you need to buy the notes to get value from it.
• It is not a lecture of magic theory
• It is not a lecture of variations of other people’s tricks.
• It is not a lecture of finger flinging.

I hope you can make it along as it sounds like a fascinating, and very entertaining, lecture.

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

Terrorvision in Glasgow!

Hi folks

Readers of my blog (hi again and thanks for reading!) may remember a post I made a while ago pleading (OK, begging!) for Terrorvision to play in Scotland. Well, that plea was answered earlier this week when the mighty Terrorvision announced that they will be playing at Glasgow's ABC1 on Thursday 23rd October.

The tickets, priced at £16 plus booking and handling fees, are available from the usual outlets. My tickets have been ordered and so I will be there along with my sister, brother in law and best mate, Peter. It will be a chance for Peter and I to re-live days gone by when we both had more hair! Can you guess I'm looking forward to it? You bet I am!

As a little warm up - 4 months early! - here's Terrorvision in action in May performing an unplugged version of "Some People Say".

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

John Carney lecturing in Glasgow (Catch Up Continued)

Regular readers (hi there!) will probably remember that I mentioned a short time ago that John Carney was going to be presenting his lecture in Glasgow. Well the day is now a memory, but what a memory it is. After finishing work, I arrived at Tam Shepherd's to see about picking up any magazines that I had waiting for me. It was a nice surprise to see Mr Carney standing there with a couple of the local magicians. Before I knew what was happening, I was being included in the numbers for dinner! I'm not going to complain about that!

After dinner at Sloan's - Glasgow's oldest pub - we all made our way to the venue for lecture, the Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre. A great wee venue with a cracking little, intimate theatre where the lecture was to be presented. And what a lecture it was!

Simply put, I feel that Mr Carney's lecture is one of the most important magic lectures being presented today. Sure, I am biased as I am a big fan of Mr Carney's work, but this lecture is about more than just tricks. This was about the "why" behind a trick, not just the "how". It was about the inner workings that can make all our magic more amazing to our audiences. He also talked, albeit briefly, about the 3 modes of practice. I won't discuss them here, but if he is ever in your neck of the woods, make a point of going to see him and ask him about the 3 modes of practice and the 12 lemons.

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)

Convention Catch Up

There’s a lot to catch up on, so let’s start with the Magic Conventions. The start of April saw me in Scarborough to lecture at the Northern Magic Circle’s “Spring Parade”. A small convention, about the same size as the Scottish SAMS Convention, but very, very friendly. There were a lot of familiar faces there from my other trips to Conventions in England and it was good to be able to catch up with people I don’t usually get to see too often.

Me lecturing at the Northern Magic Circle's Spring Parade
(Photo courtesy of Walt Lees)

My lecture was the first thing in the programme, after the Official Opening, and it was well attended by a fairly enthusiastic crowd. After my lecture, I had been asked to judge the Close Up Competition – never an easy task, especially if you are friends with one or more of the performers! Overall, it was a pretty decent show with some strong magic. In the end, it was judged by that Alex Moffat had won the competition with Steve Gore second and Alan Duncan third.

The rest of the time was spent hanging out and enjoying myself. I checked out the new Riley's American Pool and Snooker Club there, and was very impressed by it. Since it was Grand National weekend, I popped into the local betting shop and put some money on a couple of horses, and one of them won it! I had £2 each-way on “Comply Or Die” at odds of 9-1 and I walked away with about £24 (brilliant stuff!). I also need to mention the guys from "Burning Card Magic" which is a relatively new company specialising in Close Up. They might be worth checking out.

Let’s fast-forward to the start of May for the 58th Annual Convention of The Irish Ring - Ring 85 – of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (aka The Irish Magic Convention). This Convention is always a lot of fun and this year was no different. There were lectures and performances from, amongst others, Joshua Jay, Alan Shaxon, Trevor Lewis, Jack Wise and Quentin Reynolds. Friday gave me a chance to go walkabout around Dublin city centre for a few hours, something I had not done for some 6 years! It looks as fascinating now as it did then, but then that’s why I like being in a different city from time-to-time.

As for the Convention itself, it was the usual laid-back Irish affair - any more laid back and it's horizontal! Most Conventions are just an excuse to get together and hang out with friends that you don't get to see too often and this one was no different.

The Friday evening saw lectures by Trevor Lewis and Keith Bennet, as well as what was billed as a show by Joshua Jay. This ended up being a show come lecture come workshop that had nearly everybody in the room following Josh's lead as he took them through the finer points of a couple of his effects.

I had to miss Tony Sadari's lecture on the Saturday morning as I was performing in the Close Up Show that afternoon and did not have an act! The Close Up Show was, from what I saw of it, excellent with highlight after highlight - Jack Wise brilliantly opening the show, Alan Shaxon proving that he can do any form of magic asked for, Keith Bennet's brilliant gag about a ghost in a box, sing-a-long-a-Quentin Reynolds' "5 Minutes With A Pocket Handkerchief" and Joshua Jay stealing the show again (I'm starting to dislike this kid - he's too damn talented for his own good!). Heck, even I was happy with my performance! That just shows how much fun everyone - performers and audience - were having.

One of my favourite parts of the Irish Convention is the Banquet. It means one less meal to worry about buying! (typical Scotsman, eh?!) Traditionally, this is the point in time when the Irish IBM Ring hold their stage competition but, sadly, there were not enough performers for this to take place. In place of the Competition, this year's post-banquet entertainment was a genuine highlight for me. I have known Quentin Reynolds for a good number of years but have hardly ever seen him perform. Quentin owned the Saturday night of the Convention as he presented his "Psychic Game Show". About an hour (I'm not too sure as the time went so quickly) of well presented, well performed and well received Mentalism that had a room full of magicians scratching their heads (I was too as he caught me on several occasions).

Quentin Reynolds during his Psycic Game Show

The Sunday morning saw Josh Jay present his formal lecture. The lecture itself was brilliant with everyone finding stuff they could learn and use. The most impressive thing about the lecture was that Josh was able to present it at all. You see, a group of the "young ones" at the Convention (that makes me sound REALLY old!), including Josh, made their way to the Nightclub that is part of the hotel after the previous night's banquet was over. (please note that I decided not to join them for 3 reasons - first, I HATE dance music, second I was in my kilt and didn't want to go into an Irish Nightclub in a kilt and third I HATE dance music! Now, I realise that the first and third are technically the same but it is so important that it had to be said twice.) According to all reports, they came back to the hotel and got the guitars out for a sing-song session that lasted until around 5am.

Joshua Jay presenting his lecture in Dublin

Josh's lecture was scheduled for 11:15am and not long before 11am, a somewhat hungover and extremely tired young American magician arrived in the room where he was going to lecture. Josh proceeded to charm, baffle and entertain everyone that was there to see his lecture. He earned a well-deserved, and rare, standing ovation from the Irish audience. For me, the next event I attended was Max Marshall's lecture, which he had entitled "Silent Patter". This was excellent and I highly recommend it to all.

Max Marshall presenting his "Silent Patter" lecture

Not your typical "sit down and watch" style of lecture, Max had us meditating, playing hand slapping games with each other and trying out examples of non-verbal communication that, in my eyes, took this from being simply a lecture to a workshop where we could all participate, and where those that chose to (most of the room in this case!) got at least one or 2 things from the talk.

The Irish Convention Gala Show is always a highlight, which is helped a great deal by, in my opinion, one of the best Gala Show Comperes I have seen - Aonghus McNally. Aonghus is a TV and radio personality and radio producer for RTE in Ireland who is also pretty handy with a guitar. As ever, there were more gags and stories than I could remember (I really need to remember a notepad next time I'm there!) and a couple of songs thrown in for good measure.

Convention Organiser Nevin Cody (left) and Gala Show Compere
Aonghus McNally give us a song during the Gala Show

Pat Fallon opened the Gala Show with his excellent dove act and closed with a couple of well-presented illusions. Alan Shaxon fooled me - again! - with his Human Gasometer and Airial Fishing and Max Marshall, in the guise of Congo, caused mayhem with members of the audience. Max's lecture earlier in the day were able to see the theories that he had explained to us put into practice. Great fun!

Max Marshall as Congo during the Irish Convention Gala Show

Typically after the Gala Show, everyone gathers in the bar to chat the night away and this year was no different. One group of people were exchanging stories of times gone by, another were sharing tricks and techniques they had learned over the weekend. As always, the sad part came when people started saying their goodbyes and went to bed. That is generally the point when I realise that I need to back to reality.

A couple of pictures from late on the Sunday
night - drinks, coversations and card tricks

It was a great weekend. Lots of great magic, lots of fun and loads of chances to catch up with friends that I had not seen in quite some time.

Speak soon

The Cardman :-)