I’ve been to LA five or six times before … but never left the airport. This time though, we hired a car and drove across the desert to see it for real. Our first stop, like true tourists, was to take a tour of celebrity houses and hang-out points. There was a problem though - our tourist guide made stuff up. Yup, he was just making stuff up throughout the entire tour. He lied about some of the places that movies were shot and then even worse, he lied about magic. He pulled up outside of the Magic Castle and gave us the history for it. “The Magic Castle was built for Houdini who performed there several times during his life. It’s where the rich and famous go to see magic.” Well, unless the seances actually worked, I’m pretty sure that Houdini hasn’t been around to perform at the Castle since it opened in the early 1960’s.

We were lucky though; Aaron Fisher had invited us to visit the Castle and find out the real history. He was the perfect host and arranged for his friend Josh Saks to give us a tour of the place while he performed his parlour act. We got to see Aaron’s act too and I have to say, he was on top form with a great act and some really creative magic. I’ve seen Aaron perform several times before and it was really great to see him work for lay people.

I also managed to hang out with a few magicians while I was there, but as this was a social visit with my girlfriend more than an opportunity to session, I kept it to a minimum! Along with Aaron and Josh, Tom Frank, John Lovick and Dan Sylvester were all around to hang out. Dan showed me some really creative magic, including some of his card work which I’ve never seen before.

The day after the night before, we continued with the magic! Tom Frank and Aaron Fisher took us to Malibu for a day at the beach, including sun, sea, food and magic! We sessioned on various ideas including some moves, poker deals, presentations and other effects. I’ve not had a session on a beach for a long time, so this was definitely fun! Tom and Aaron are both great magicians, so it was a lot of fun discussing ideas with them.

After Malibu, we made a start on the long drive to Lake Tahoe, where we stayed for a couple of days. I’m afraid to say though L&L fans that I didn’t get to see John or Dave. Sorry to disappoint.

And finally, we visited San Francisco. The city itself was nice, but didn’t appeal as much as I had hoped. However, I did notice something interesting: the homeless people and charity workers had way better introductions than most magicians I’ve seen! For example, I was happy to see the famous “Bush Man” who apparently earns $60k a year (tax free!) by jumping up on people from behind a bush that he crafted himself and then asking for tips. Another guy stopped me in the street wanted me to bet him $10 that he could tell me where I bought my shoes. And my favourite told me he was a member of the “Fun Police” and gave me a full rundown of what he and his team do … then he asked me to donate to homeless people. I’d love to see magicians apply some creative introductions in this kind of way. It’s been a long and tiring three weeks. What was originally a fun holiday turned into a magical one too.

That’s the end of this series of posts. Things are back to normal now and I’m firmly back into my normal life … but not for long hopefully! I’ll be posting twice more this week so be sure to come back!

What happened in Vegas stays in Vegas … and on the Clog.

After an exhaustingly early start that followed at stupidly late at the IBM - SAM convention, I found myself en route to Las Vegas to meet my girlfriend who was flying in from the UK. We’ve been to Vegas a few times together (this was my ninth time and her third), so we’d pretty much seen all of the magic shows out there before. However, we did see two non-magic shows that have interesting content that applies to magic.

The Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian is Andrew Lloyd Weber’s shortened adaptation of his classic musical. The singing and acting were great and as far as the set goes, this was the most unsubtle show I’ve ever seen: they know they have great scenery and they’re keen to show it off. I wasn’t expecting to see any stage illusions, so it was a nice surprise to see the Phantom vanish from a De Kolta Chair and appear in a flash (which, by the way, looked amazing). The illusions were designed by Jim Steinmeyer and fitted well into the show. The fact that the illusions were used as part of the story and never actually focused on created an interesting reaction from the audience who looked at each other in confusion as to what just happened. It seems that when magic happens without announcement, it creates a totally different (and perhaps stronger) reaction.

The other show also followed the “we’ve got great scenery and we want to show it off” rule. KA at the MGM Grand is a Circ Du Soleil production and in my opinion comes only second to O; their show at the Belagio. There’s no magic in the show, but there is a lot than a magician can learn from this and all the other Circ shows. I’d like to delve deeper into one of the things I came out with in another post, but there was something else that got me thinking too: I realised that in Circ Du Soleil’s world, the show doesn’t start and end; it’s going on right from the moment you enter the theatre and continues until you leave. The ushers are in character, the theatre is congruent with the show and special effects are going off everywhere and that’s before you’ve even found your seat. Most magicians on the other hand are either on or off and they tend to only turn it on when the show has started. I wonder whether there’s something to learn from that. I’m not sure how yet (although I have a few ideas bouncing around), but I have always thought that it was an interesting structure for a show.

That’s just the magic run down. We went to the Grand Canyon twice (after our first helicopter had to make an emergency landing), beat the system by winning $42 on the slots (take that Steve Wynn … you’re going down!), eating far too many buffets and realising that the National Lampoons lied (there isn’t a door in the middle of Hoover Dam afterall). Then we moved onto LA. I’ll post about that tomorrow - stay posted as this is going to be a busy week on the Clog.

Sometimes things just work out. I hadn’t planned to attend the IBM – SAM convention in Louisville, but things fell into place a few weeks ago. I had booked a two-week holiday on the west coast of America, but at the last minute, a number of things fell into place that allowed me the time to fly ahead a week early.

As I have reviewed the entire convention for MAGIC Magazine (more on that in a future post), I wasn’t intending on posting a great deal on the Clog about the convention, but after reminiscing, I realised that I had a lot of stories to share and most importantly people to thank so I had to write something.

With a large British contingent flying over to Vegas, being one of the few in my group of friends that couldn’t originally make it, I decided not to tell them of my attendance and instead surprise them when I got to Louisville! They were (luckily) happy to see me and along with my roommate Joshua Jay and good friends Rune Klan and Karl Hein (who, despite the name, isn’t actually German), they made the whole convention incredibly worthwhile.

There was plenty of time between events at the convention, which gave me the opportunity to spend time with friends. My closest friends in magic come from all over the globe, so this convention meant a lot in that respect: for some, it’s the first time I’ve seen them for over a year. Others live on my doorstep (it’s not too comfortable, but they manage), but it was still a lot of fun hanging out with them.

Richard Hatch and Charlie Randall of H&R stocked my books at the convention and did an incredibly good job as I met a lot of people who had purchased them and wanted to see some of the items performed. 52 Memories was the most popular of the books and I was thrilled to be able to perform Jack’s magic for people who wanted to get a sneak preview. One night, I had a two-hour long session on magic from the book and that was a lot of fun.

Weirdly for me, I didn’t perform as much magic as I normally do at a convention. The social aspect took over and I relished the time with my friends. The whole convention felt a lot more social and with just a few events each day it made it easier to just hang out without having to worry about what you may be missing.

The magic was great too though. With lectures on close-up magic from Jim Steinmeyer, Jon Racherbaumer, David Ben, David Williamson and more, all close-up guys had a great time! I’ll be covering all of that in great depth in MAGIC Magazine, so I think it’s time to address some of the real scoop* that’s not fit to print in a magazine convention review.

- Rune and I had noticed that magicians can’t stand in an elevator without making a joke about something. So, I decided to get my own back and do a one-man stand-up routine every time I used the elevator. “Just to let you know, the button for floor six is broke, so you need to hit three twice.” “Wow, are we in an elevator or is gravity failing again?” Yup, I got my own back with those; potentially the worst gags of all time.

- Like many people at the convention, my name badge had a misprint. Mine, however had a 6,000 mile misprint as it said that I was from Nevada. I, of course, kept up with my new identity and convinced half of the magic world that I now live in Vegas. So, if you’re coming to see me there, I’m afraid you won’t find me.

- I needed to use the bathroom and so did Karl (still not German) and Rune. They’d finished before me and were talking about false shuffles. I could hear the riffles, but being in a stall made it difficult for me to see the actual move. So Karl obliged and reached under the door to show me the move. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t see it; it turned out that he got the wrong stall and someone else got to see the show instead! Sorry; whoever you were.

That’s all for now. I was away from home for over three weeks and am just settling back in. I hope to be posting more about the magical portions of my holiday soon.

* Shame on you if you thought that was the interesting stuff. That stuff just ain’t fit to print!

Having friends from afar over to stay for a few days is the perfect excuse to be a tourist in your own back yard. That’s exactly what has been happening over the last few weeks while Joshua Jay has been staying with me at various intervals on his two-month long UK lecture tour.

Amongst all the castles and museums that we have visited, Joshua was keen to see the Bizarre Bath Walk – an evening show by magician and comedian Noel Britten. I’ve always wanted to see the show too, but that’s the problem when such great things are on your doorstep; everyday life takes over and you never get round to doing them. But I’m so glad that Joshua wanted to see this show – it’s fantastic.

There’s plenty that makes the Bizarre Bath Walk interesting and unique. Firstly, “magic” is not once mentioned throughout the entire two-hour show. There are five or six pieces of captivating and well-considered magic, but Noel presents them in such a way that leaves the audience thinking (and often saying to each other), “What just happened there?!” It’s a fascinating tactic that really works well in this context. The effect of this is that the one hundred or so audience members that were on the same walk as us didn’t appear to see Noel as a magician but instead as a hysterically funny tour guide that probably didn’t pay too much attention in his history lessons at school. This makes everything he does feel so much more magical and unexpected.

To my knowledge, the show is the only of its kind: a street comedy magic show where the audience join in by walking around a city with the performer. There’s no real historical content about the city of Bath - just plenty of anecdotes, tricks/stunts and comedy. Noel Britten is the perfect host and makes the whole event feel fresh and original, even though he told me that has been performing the show (in an almost identical format) for seventeen years. Everything seems spontaneous, yet polished – even when Noel is interacting with random passers-by who have absolutely no idea what is going on! He’s truly got the show down to an art and has managed to avoid that gruff feel that many street entertainers have: the whole thing feels much more like a welcoming show instead of a tour, or piece of street entertainment.

I could write for pages on the content of the show, but I’m reminded of the time I tried to explain the Blue Man Group to some friends: there’s no way of summarising it. The only way to understand such a show is to experience it for yourself. And I highly recommend that you make the effort to do so.

So, to Josh – thanks for giving me an excuse to see the show. Last weekend we saw Mark Shortland and Tim Vine at the Cheltenham Town Hall which I enjoyed equally as much. It’s great to experience so much great magic as a layman in disguise; it’s the perfect opportunity to see what really makes audience’s tick.

Every January I organise The Session - a magic convention in the UK. This means that I probably spend more time thinking about magic conventions than most people! The subject of my thoughts recently have been how magicians can take the most away from a magic convention and learn the optimum amount of magic. I estimate that at least 90% of magicians don’t actually perform any of the tricks they learn or buy at a convention and think that with The Session, I can help to change that.

We’ve made some great changes to the convention format for The Session 2008 that I think will really help, but unfortunately most magic convention organisers don’t consider this kind of thing. So, given that not everyone on my mailing list will be able to make it to The Session 2008, I have put together a list of my top five tips for learning the most at a magic convention:

1. Make a list of the tricks and moves that you’d like to learn
I estimate that at The Session 2008, approximately 100 tricks will be performed and taught. You’re never going to learn that many tricks, so during each lecture, why not take note of the tricks that you would eventually like to learn? That way, you won’t get home and slip back into your daily regime and totally forget about the tricks that you wanted to learn.

2. Introduce yourself to the performers
When I lecture at a magic club or convention, I make myself available for as much time as possible. I know many of my friends do the same too. So, if you saw something in a lecture that you’d like to learn, why not hunt down the performer and discuss the trick in more detail with them? This is especially useful if you’re at a smaller convention, where you normally get to learn more anyway.

3. Buy any gimmicks that you need while at the convention
If you don’t own a double-backer, but need one to perform one of the tricks from a lecture, why not buy the gimmicks at that very convention so that you’ve got everything you need to learn the trick as soon as you’re ready. This is the prime reason that I like to have a few dealers at The Session - so that people can get exactly what they need without any hassle.

4. Don’t wait until you get home
Everyone has the good intention to learn certain tricks when they get home from the convention, but eventually time goes on and you forget important details, or entire tricks! So, why not use the breaks, or evenings at a convention to spend ten minutes running through a routine to make sure you know everything you need. And if you don’t, go back and familiarise yourself with the second item on my list!

5. Make notes, or buy them
At magic conventions, you get so much information pushed into your brain that you will definitely forget the details. Why not take your own notes so that you remember the important details? And of course, you can support the lecturers by purchasing their lecture notes too.

Come to The Session 2008
The Session 2008 is the magic convention that I co-organise. It’s held in Gloucester (South West UK) on Jan 26th / 27th 2008. We have a long list of performers, including Chad Long, Aaron Fisher, Tom Stone, Michael Vincent, Matthew Dowden, Dave Forrest, Will Houstoun and many more. More info available at: http://www.sessionconvention.com.