Clog friends everywhere, it’s your buddy Luke Dancy stopping in to make a post. It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted last so off we go!

A few weeks ago I made my way out west for the first time and it was a fantastic experience. Not only was I experiencing CA and all the great things there, such as In-N-Out Burger, but I had a chance to visit the one place I’ve wanted to visit for at least 15 years…The Magic Castle. This place is everything you hope for and then some. From the secret doors to the other hidden surprises it’s just an enjoyable experience. The place is full of history and it’s hard not to smile when walking through and checking everything out. I was also very impressed with the talent they had that week in the close-up room..a Mr. Paul Vigil. I’m now proud to call that guy a friend and if he’s back at the Castle performing do yourself a favor and check him out.

Even just hanging out by the main bar you are surrounded by some of the greatest minds (and hands) in magic. It was a privilege spending a couple of hours with Bill Goodwin and being introduced to all of his many friends..and fans. There is talk of the place being bought out so let’s all keep our fingers crossed while doing second deals and hope that the Castle is around for years to come.

Clog on my friends..

Luke

It’s a great feeling when attending a magic or mentalism show to turn around and see all of the seats filled. Not with pensioners, children and notebook-wielding magicians as one would typically expect but with a savvy, theatre-going audience. For Gary Kurtz’s English language premier of his show “Just An Illusion?” he sold out all 1450 seats of Montreal’s Theatre Maisonneuve. Kurtz has been performing his show in French for the past four years but this was his first attempt to crack the Anglophone market.

As the audience filtered in to the theatre a few people were offered a ‘free upgrade’ which meant seats on the stage. The seating formed part of the larger set. On the stage itself stood a large bookcase and a lectern and a globe and huge eye hung down from the ceiling. All plenty to arouse curiosity before the show started.

Kurtz’s influence on the magic community is still very much evident. If you watch a close-up competition it is very likely you will see one of the acts do a Flurious style routine and with the reissue of his old videos on DVD, he looks set within our world to remain frozen in time in the early Nineties as the guy with the tall hair and amazingly visual coin magic. In 2007 the coin tricks are gone (and the hair too – more of a crew cut now) but fortunately the charismatic and poetic presentational style that he was equally as well known for is still very much in evidence.

The audience’s attention was held for two hours with largely classic effects with novel twists and excellent routining. A tossed out deck routine opened the show where eight people were used and finishing with someone being given the cards to keep, a great book test sequence, a very tense Russian roulette with four lethal looking knives and a confabulation style trick which had been designed to play much bigger all formed part of the show. To dwell on the tricks seems fairly redundant when the focus of the show was Kurtz and his abilities. A few theatrical monologues that peppered the performance apparently gave an insight into how we was able to achieve what he did. He told how as a child he took a ride on a merry-go-round but fell off, then repeatedly hit his head on the wooden horses as he tried to stand up! Believable? Not really – but good fun and thankfully light years apart from the pseudo explanations that the current wave of mini-Derrens would choose to offer.

Kurtz is planning more English language shows in the future so make sure you don’t miss out if he comes anywhere near you!

February 2007, Theatre Maisonneuve, Montreal, Quebec

Hi guys, well I’m back from the SCAM (yes, I said scam!) convention in Columbia, South Carolina and I have some cool stuff to share with you. First of all, if you see Arthur Trace on a lineup anywhere near you do yourself a favor and see this guy. Not only did Arthur do an absolutely amazing manipulation act but his closeup magic is unbelievable as well. He has a booklet out that showcases his Relativity Change which is one of the best color changes I’ve ever seen in person. Speaking of color changes I finally saw the Masuda item WOW in person and damn did it look good. I need to jump on a waiting list to pick this up because it really does look like real magic.

I also saw David Regal and Paul Cummins at the convention and they were great as usual. Paul does the best side steal I’ve ever seen and it’s always great to see him do the multiple selection routine. David performed multilple times during the weekend and he rocked the place. It was a real treat to see him host the stage gala show where he really handled himself like a pro and kept the audience entertained. The other fun thing for me was watching Sylvester the Jester do his stage act. It really is a breath of fresh air to see a magic act that really doesn’t have any magic in it. The stuff he does looks absolutely amazing and the fact that he makes his own props is as equally impressive. The rest of the time I was either working or spending time with friends Robert Moreland and Rich Aviles. Overall it was a great weekend and really got me pumped up for the Session Convention which takes place in just a few days. I hope to see some of you there!

Clog on!

Luke

It was a last minute decision to hop onto a train to attend London’s International Magic convention this weekend, but was a decision that I’m glad I made.

I spent most of the weekend hanging out with Rob James, Noel Qualter, Al Hudson, Jon Allen and Jon Armstrong; who all had some fantastic magic. I also got to meet lots of brilliant magicians and sessioned a lot, which meant that I didn’t get to see too many of the featured events. However, I will briefly comment on the close-up competition and then share some photos of the events that I did see.

The winners were all from the UK:

1st Marc Oberon
2nd James Brown
3rd Dynamo

Marc Oberon performed his very well thought-out Midas routine that has won him almost every award under the sun. It’s perfectly timed to music and has some fantastic magical moments that almost always allow the camera and audience to focus in on Marc’s face.

James Brown performed his usual style of magic including loading coins under a participant’s watch, on their shoulder and even stealing someone’s watch and loading it on their shoulder too. It’s a fun routine and was refreshing to see someone perform a genuine close-up routine and not a typical competition act.

Dynamo was also on form and was definitely the best I’ve seen him perform in this situation. His style is unique and charming; I’m glad that the judges made a bold decision to award him a place.

Coincidently, all three were featured performers at my Session convention last January! The judges also gave three merit awards:

Eric Leblon (France)
James James (UK)
Szabó Gábor (Hungary)

There were two surprises here: James James performed quite a basic routine with far too much patter and very little magic. He’s certainly an experienced performer, but I really didn’t feel that he had the right content in his act to be honoured in a competition of this standard. I think he could do really well in a competition like this, but I’d love to see him perform something stronger.

Secondly, Eric Leblon had a fantastic act. While I noticed that his exaggerated French personality grated on a few people, I certainly felt that he deserved to be placed in the competition. His act features some phenomenal card sequences, some really great non-card magic. The whole thing was really well structured and I certainly hope that we get to see more of Eric’s magic.

One thing to note was that I was incredibly surprised at the blatant plagiarism shown by some of the performers. Copying someone’s unpublished trick or presentation is a very bad thing, but to openly perform it at a magic convention is ludicrous and shameless. While it would be difficult to police, I certainly think those performers should be given an instant disqualification (not that any of them were in the top six anyway).

Other than the acts mentioned, there were not really too many highlights of the competition. Many people said that the standard was lower than in other years, but I certainly enjoyed watching all of the acts … good and bad!

Instead of giving you my other highlights, I’ll share them in the form of photos from the weekend. Click on them to see bigger versions.

Update: Erik posted a comment asking for more photographs of the weekend. So, courtesy of my friend Noel Qualter, here are a few more.

In my teens, I religiously attended my local magic club on a monthly basis and attended other clubs as often as possible. Three years ago, I let every club membership expire and haven’t attended a meeting since. Why?

I, like many magicians I know, have five main reasons for attending a magic club:

• To learn from other magicians.
• To be around likeminded magicians.
• To gain performance experience in different environments.
• To share my magic and ideas.
• To be inspired.

I believe that most magic clubs (at least the ones that I’ve attended) fail to fully provide most of those points. Here’s why:

1. Magic is not a generalised art - there are many different genres and subsections in magic, yet clubs still try to cater for everyone. Why not have a club that is specifically aimed at close-up magicians, one for stage artists and another that is aimed at children’s entertainers? Of course there would be an overlap, allowing members to attend more than one genre and while membership numbers would be much lower, the learning experience would be far greater.

2. There are too many lectures – with books, DVDs and personal tutors available everywhere you turn, magic clubs shouldn’t feel that they have to constantly feed their members with information. Having fewer lectures and more evenings where members can perform will allow everyone to learn a lot more. I believe that a magician (particularly a beginner) learns more from performing for five minutes than they do watching an hour long lecture.

3. The performance atmosphere and layouts are wrong – how many magicians regularly perform to fifty of their peers sat in rows directly in front of them? Very few! I feel that performance nights should involve lay people (such as member’s family) and be in real world style conditions with restaurant or comedy club style table layouts.

4. Skills levels are too varied – from seasoned pros to absolute beginners. How can a lecturer possibly teach everyone with such a varied skill level? Perhaps clubs could have teach-in sessions based on skill and more importantly, I think they should stop aiming at the lowest common denominator and occasionally book lecturers that aim at the more knowledgeable members to keep those members interested.

5. The venues are uninspiring – I’ve not once attended a magic club that wasn’t in a small, dark and rundown building. Club rooms should be bright, comfortable, warm and inspiring. The back room of a pub, bar or restaurant usually doesn’t cut it.

6. There’s always just one attraction – what if I don’t want to see a lecture by The Not-So Great Fartdini? Simple – I don’t turn up to that particular club meeting. I think that attitude is wrong and believe that magic clubs should introduce some kind of comfortable environment where people who don’t want to attend the main event can sit back, relax, session and talk business. This would entice members to attend on a more regular basis and allow them to always get something out of the experience.

Of course, magic clubs could be improved in many other ways, but these points outline the main reason that I no longer attend clubs on a regular basis. As soon as I find one that meets even one or two of these needs, I’ll be joining in less time than it takes Tyler to shave his back.