A Thought for the Day...

It is not the fact that you have been on national television that counts.

What counts is who saw you...

Brick Upon Brick The Wall is Being Built...

Some of our esteemed readers might have noticed that the frequency of the posts to the Opus site rather depends on the internet access that the editor and co-owner JJ has at the time.

Opus is now delighted to announce that following a series of festivals for which he was paid more than he is worth JJ has finally decided to invest some cash in his internet access.

As from today and for at least a year he has direct broadband access to the internet in the back (or front) of his Wagon (or anywhere else in Portugal he might be at the time...)

Anyone who knows him well will realise that this technological breakthrough has made him as happy as a dog with three tails and a lot of sausages to eat...

More soon but a celebratory drink is called for...

Will They Let Him Out?

A rare performing venue... JJ in Coimbra's high security prison....

A very appreciative audience...

(photos by Paulo Abrantes and published with permission of Luis de Matos Productions LDA.)

Get Out of Jail Free...

Well, I was involved in three shows today. Two were on the street but one was in the high security prison here in Coimbra.

It was a strange feeling entering the prison, being searched by the guards and having all those doors locked behind you after you have passed through them.

It is all part of the Festival that is partially sponsored by the City and in return, the Festival organisers make sure that the entertainment reaches as many of the locals as possible. Hence the street shows, the hospital shows and the one in the prison. On Sunday all the street acts do their stuff in the final show on a grassed area on the edge of town when people of all ages gather from all the apartments nearby.

The prison show went really well (indeed the audience gave us a standing ovation) and you definitely felt that the reponse was much stronger than usual. In order to qualify to watch the show the inmates had to put in a sustained period of good behaviour otherwise they were banned from watching.

Mago Dabo from Argentina had a very funny spot of bother as he went into the watch steal with two volunteers! One knew nothing and his watch was duly placed secretly in the top hat on Dabo's table but when he went for the second one the "victim" felt something was up and let it be known. This brought a huge laugh from the audience, some of whom might well have been caught stealing watches themselves in their younger days!

A warm response from the audience didn't actually ease my reaction when, after the show, I learnt that one of my helpers was in there for pouring petrol over his former girlfriend and setting fire to her... scary stuff. (She survived...)

I hope there will be pictures to follow...

Day Four of this Year's Encontros Magicos Festival...

Things are settling down now and Day Four starts, obviously, with breakfast...

...not every day that I dine with such stars as Antonio, Kevin James and Mahka Tendo.

The back stage preparation area for the early morning (10.30am!) show...

...with Malin Nilsson...

...and Jean Phillippe...

...and Nick Nickolas...

...with Lennert Green watching on.

...and Jean Phillippe gathers the crowd.

At three o'clock this afternoon we go to the high security prison and do as show for the inmates.

The Stars of Encontros Magicos 2007...

The participants in the six day Festival of Magic this year are...

Kevin James from the USA, Brando and Silvana from Argentina, JJ from Europe, Marka Tendo from Japan, Mago Daba from Argentina, Malin Nilsson from Sweden, Jean Philippe Atchoum from France, Lennert Green from Sweden, Bob Sheets from the USA and Nick Nickolas from Australia.

The Festival includes street shows, hospital shows, a show in the local prison and two grand Gala shows in the Teatro Academico Gil Vincente on Friday and Saturday night.

Encontros Magicos (Magical Gathering) in Coimbra, Portugal.

Lunch not breakfast...

Nick Nickolas from Australia via New Zealand via Woolwich strutts his stuff...

Jean Phillippe from France via Spain gathers a crowd...

The stars of magic gather for the six day Festival... Opus's favourite manipulator Mahka Tendo with "Japanese Technology"...

Sonia and Patricia check JJ into his favourite hotel... Hotel Astoria in Coimbra where he has his "usual room" 209...

Shiv Duggal brings the sunglasses JJ left in his car on the way back from Southport to the cab he is in on the way back to Portugal...

The Boys (Chris and Bill the Cab) deliver JJ to Victoria Station for the Gatwick Express...

The World Champion in a Different Mode...

Lennert Green is in Coimbra taking part in the Encontros Magicos Festival of Magic.

Opus caught him playing with an interesting box...

Some of the Summing Up of Southport

High Spots…

Johnny Thompson’s lecture with anecdotes.

Johnny Thompson’s performance with anecdotes in the Late Night Magic spot.

Bill Malone’s lecture and performances.

Paul Zenon’s spot on the Gala Show.

David Williamson’s Lecture.

The two juggling barmen despite being rather too long.

Everything done by Lennert Green.

Low Points

Gaeton Bloom wasting six minutes of a man's life by having him stand on stage winding a handle of a "thing" for no reason what so ever during his "Salad" card trick.

Ben Stone knocking JJ out of the IBM Poker Championship by pure luck!

Some Opus Prize Winners...

Winner of the Opus's "Compere of the Convention" award Jack Gleadow and his nominator Bizarre Bath's Noel Britten (seconded by John Archer)

12 year old Jack Gleadow, compere of the convention...

Michelle, Opus's Best Catering Staff Member of the Year...

Playing At A Different Level...

Opus facilatates the first meeting ever of two living legends, Scotland's Gordon Bruce and one of our favourite Yanks, David Williamson. Those lucky enough to witness this awesome display as they exchanged thoughts and ideas will never forget it. The only interlude in the three hour session was when a member of a wedding party at the convention hotel asked, "Show us a trick mate..." and witnessed a masterful, impromptu display of sleight of hand by David that left them reeling.


Opus's First Clip of Video...
We are proud it is this man...

Remember. Shoot the cameraman not the magician when you can't actually see the move...but check out the reaction!

Southport Gala Show 2007

The first thing to report is that the advertised compere, Robert Baxt, was asked to step down and was replaced by Kevin King. Opus sources tell us it is rumoured that other people were invited to take over but the offer was turned down.

Why Robert was replaced is a mystery so far and he told Opus he had no idea why. Obviously the team are trying to find out.

While Kevin did a fine job on the opening show, his offering here revealed that he did not have enough material with him to fill two compere roles (which is totally understandable) and hence had to use stuff that the majority of the audience had already seen only a couple of days before. This did not help the show...

The general opinion was that the show was too long.

I think the show would not have been lessened had some of the acts not done so long. This did not affect seasoned acts such as Vic and Fabrini or Eric Borgman but others could have done less without reducing their impact.

One act could have done more and not reduced his impact and that was Paul Zenon who was excellent. His swinging of the beer glass full of beer on the snooker/pool triangle fastened to a dog lead has built over the years into a tension filled piece performed here. He even climbed down off the stage and through some the audience still swinging away! I don't know how many of the audience were aware that Paul had made the national newspapers a little time ago when a spectator had been injured during the course of this stunt but no one moved a muscle as he passed by...

The Shield winners, High Jinx, opened the show after a musical introduction by a six to ten (?) piece band. Whether they were worthy winners or not I don't know as I missed the competition this year but they were a touch lightweight on a show of this calibre.

Eric Borgman did his football juggle as seen at the International Magic Weekend a couple of years ago... Vik and Fabrini did their robot act as smoothly as always and the first half closed with a painter Dan Dunn who did a large portrait of Elvis. Given that a large majority of the audience had already seen him do two other paintings (Ray Charles and John Lennon) on and earlier show, his impact here was reduced...

The second half opened with the band again and then String Fever, a string quartet with a difference. At one point they play Bolero on the cello... four musicians on one instrument. An excellent act but did they need to do four pieces rather than, say, two?

The Great Tomsoni and Co were as smooth and funny as always, Les Bubb was highly skilled with his mime and physical comedy but too long and the box jumpers Murry Hatfield and Teresa (why are the assistants so often better performers than the magicians?) closed with boxes...

Disaster...No Breakfast...

The man making the bacon butties in the Floral Hall complex is not here today.
Opus had planned breakfast while blogging but is now just blogging without sustanance...

Opus Correct Again...

Steve Della wins the close up contest...

Alex Moffat comes second...

Headlines Prior to more complete reviews...

Paul Kieve presents a great talk on his work advising and creating magic in stage plays and films...

Lennert Green does a great lecture on card magic and includes some self working principles...

Daniel Hochsteiner throws up a great number of things very fast and catches them again...

The country hick "Larry" dies attempting a water escape from his bath while being held down by a David Williamson Lookalike...

Some more SOTACASADN pictures...

"Assistant of the Year" Jordon with Chris...

I say, I say, I say, what's going on here?

Dave Jones and Diane

John Archer and Romany...

Julie with an old bloke...

Paul Zenon and Diane...

Peter McLanachan and Julie

An Very Pleasant Evening...

After the late Gala (late because of the banquet) , most of which I missed because of the first curry of the convention we moved to the Art Centre and watched the midnight magic show. We did this unusually from the front row.

David Williamson compered in the place of John Fealy who wasn't feeling well and there was some good, fun stuff from Lennert Green, Kevin King, Gaeton Bloom (with his card manips set) Tim Gabrielson and Johnny Thompson and Pam. The latter two were really great and told stories of dog smuggling and Dai Vernon at the Castle and Johnny did a couple of card tricks as well.

Then it was off to the IBM (unofficial) poker championship were JJ lost out early on to Ben Stone. He is devastated!

Very Disappointing Breakfast...

Random walking found JJ here looking for breakfast

The breakfast was so POOR he left this much on his plate....

Some of Some of the Lectures...

Bill Malone quickly proved what a consummate entertainer he is in his lecture.

Bill showed a “standard” type sponge ball routine and then explained absolutely everything. By everything I mean all the thoughts and reasons behind each motion and line and such like. To the casual observer he was showing a routine that a large percentage of the audience would already have a version of in their repertoire. On closer examination he was giving a lesson in the performance of magic learnt from thousands upon thousands of performances. I always enjoy watching work of this calibre.

It is stating the obvious that different people want different things from attending lectures. If you are the type who wants to learn exactly how certain card effects are done and then want to buy the necessary stuff then Boris Wild from France is your man.

Frankly I don’t really want to learn any more tricks and therefore the complete, total and often repeated explanations of the (strong) card effects offered up by Boris here did nothing for me...

…but at the opposite end of my own “Lecture Spectrum” was David Williamson’s lecture.

As Noel Britten said, David’s lecture is a “complete package.” In it is everything one could ever want from a lecture, great entertainment, flawlessly smooth sleight of hand and handling and really strong magic. Performing several of his now classic effects he explained the method together with the thinking behind it and while doing so often added in an anecdote to help explain a point. Totally superb…

Some more SOTACASADN pictures...

Diane and Rob Torres

Julie and her Mum

Diane and John Fealy

Head Lines from Southport.

Nowhere near a full report yet but headlines timed at 7.30pm on Thursday are as follows...

Bill Malone's first lecture a smash hit...

David Williamson once again proves to be a huge, massive and entertaining star lecturer...

Bob Sheets wows them with his practical, do-able effects...

Close Up Contest includes more enjoyable acts than Magic Live Close-Up Gala...

The Close Up Contest...

Time is running out and I don't have time before this evening's show to do a full report right now. Let me say right here and now that I enjoyed these performances more than I did those that were presented at the Magic Live.

Also Opus predict that the winner will be Steve Dela and that Alex Moffat will be one of the prize winners. Alex had to over come the slight problem of missing his toppit with the pack right at the beginning of his set in the room I saw him in. He did pretty well given this opening disaster and had a great effect with two signed cards magically melding together...

Some of these people are couples and some are definitely not...

Bill and Michelle who provided the breakfasts at the Floral Hall Complex

Mr and Mrs Bob Sheets

Mr and Mrs Steve Evans

Bill Malone and Diane

Rob James and Diane

The Opening Show...

After the usual speechs by people wearing strange chains and baubles around their necks (what IS that all about?) there came the opening show which featured Paul Dabek who did his act and went down ok. I don't quite know what this act is all about but Paul does it with energy. Gaetan Bloom did his salad card trick. If you want you can read what I think about this in the review of the Magic Live Gala (below.) At least this performance proved that it wasn't just a bad night at Las Vegas. It just as bad here...
Murry Hatfield and Teresa did box tricks (why so often do the assistants of box jumpers appear so much more talented than the "magician"?) and the show was compered by Kevin King from the USA who appeared comfortable on stage although Opus sources reported that he was a little worried just prior to going onstage.

For an IBM British Ring opening show it wasn't bad...

Arriving at Southport Opus meet....

...some Southport "Bench People."

First Things First...Breakfast!

A bacon bap and a sausage bap supplied by Noel for JJ...

National Express too popular...

Because the National Express coach to Bath was full, JJ had to rearrange his travel arrangements to the IBM Convention in Southport.

Instead of spending the night in his local pub in the centre of Bath and travelling up to the convention in Noel's car he is spending the night in the airport and catching a train at 5.15am.

Having flown in from performing 15 (nearly one hour) street shows in the inaugral Sico Festival in north central Portugal (more later) and having to return on monday for six days of performing in the Encontros Magicos Festival in Coimbra Portugal, a night in Gatwick airport is just what the doctor ordered. See what he does? Immediately sets up an Opus Office and starts blogging....

A Very Generous Birthday Present.

Noel Britten broke the rules and got me a birthday present...

The day before the start of the Magic Live Convention in Las Vegas (a Saturday) he took me to see Mac King, Ron Lucas, Lance Burton and David Copperfield in an orgy of Vegas entertainment starting at one o'clock in the afternoon and ending around midnight.

I have to confess that the only Vegas magicians I had seen prior to this great day was Siegfried and Roy (over fifteen years ago) Mac King (twice) and Penn and Tellar (last Magic Live Convention.)

Mac King was even better than expected given that he has included in the already excellent show the tent illusion which was intelligently presented and fooled the hell out of me as well as giving the "cool" kid on stage the fright of his life! The structure of the show tied in with Mac's highly likeable (nay, loveable) stage character and really strong, well thought out magic made this my favourite show of the four.

A brisk stroll down The Strip from Harrah's to the Luxor (in the heat of the day!) took us to Ron Lucas's show which, for a huge fan like me, turned out to be rather disappointing. The material was all "as known" so it wasn't that that disappointed me. It was the low energy of the whole thing coupled with quite a lot of "adult" humour which obviously got little reaction from the many kids in the audience and led to an overall impression of a rather flat production.

On to the Lance Burton Show. I only knew his FISM winning act which is still, and I suspect always will be, one of my most favourite pieces of magic ever. So his stage personna of the guy from Kentucky with it's strange, jerky bowing style and it's humility took me completely by surprise. I felt it clashed with his label "Master Magician." All his magic was really brilliantly executed but the stage sets looked rather Am Dram to me and what was that flying "car" all about at the end?

Next stop David Copperfield and in the gap before the show started I posed the question,

"Who is the current king of the box jumpers in Vegas, DC or LB?"

Within seconds of the start of the Copperfield Show I decided it was DC.

As the steel plate was lowered down by the (brilliant) stage crew and hit with hammers there was absolutely nothing "am dram" about these props...

Mr Copperfield looked pretty seedy, ogled the girls when they came up on stage and made several asides pertaining to his attractiveness to women. From my vantage point of the front row (leaning on the stage itself) I looked around and noted that the girls/women were loving it!

My lack of research into the current state of the big shows in Vegas meant it was mostly new to me and when that Packard Car appeared less than two metres from my head I was totally blown away.

A great, unforgettable day and I know you shouldn't judge one act against the other so just let me say that the next time I am in Vegas and chosing one of the above shows to go see (at my own expense) there is no doubt it will be Mac King.

Question. Is this the Future?

Art Director and co-owner of Opus Magazine Chris Power in discussion with super tech and Opus Friend, Dan Smith. The word on the street is that there are exciting things ahead in the Opus World...

Some Magic Live Thoughts

Magic Live’s Third Convention was without doubt a success.

Based on the opinions of the people who attended this event I am sure even more people will want to be at the next one and I have little doubt that there will, indeed, be another one. Originally there was only ever going to be one Magic Live convention but you know how things are apt to change and there’s nothing like success to change things…

I have been to all three of them and I would be lying if I stated that the only reason I have been to all three of them was because of the events on at the convention. There are other reasons I went to all three. Rather like the Magic Hands’ conventions of old, Magic Live has developed a reputation of being the classiest, most fashionable convention going and being a huge magical snob I like to be at these conventions. They attract all the big names in the world of magic. I like “the vibe.”

Also it is held in Las Vegas and as long as it is only for a few days I love Las Vegas. The huge amounts of very affordable (but no doubt largely genetically modified) food. The twenty-four hour life. The shows. The gambling…

(This year for the Uk visitors the dollar to pound exchange rate made the trip even more reasonable than before.)

Of course it is possible to enjoy all the above bar the convention events without registering for the convention. A great deal of the “hanging out” takes place in the bars and surrounding areas rather than in the area set aside for the registrants only. This is true for many conventions all over the world and generally I thoroughly disapprove of magicians who hang out around the convention hotel without registering.

My huge problem with Magic Live is that it is policy that no one should know in advance what is on the schedule. Everything is a secret. The morning session starts at 9.30am and continues until 11.30am. The afternoon session starts at 2.00pm and ends at 5.00pm. These sessions contain lectures, talks, discussions and interviews but no one is told in advance who is on and doing what. I guess you are expected to turn up on time and sit through everything. The trouble is I have no interest what so ever is learning how to arrange to have a good publicity photo taken or in getting my “branding” right but I would like to hear what Cyril has to say in an interview.

You’ve guessed it. The one I missed by leaving the hall was the Cyril interview. People tell me is was one of the highlights of all the sessions.

This year it seemed to me that the numbers were up on last time but all three have been sold out. More peop[le this year could only mean that more people were allowed into the same space. This certainly seemed to be the case as the hall was packed more densely this time than I remember it being on the previous two occasions. An act told me that there was a full dress rehearsal of the Gala show in front of two hundred “selected friends” a little while before the actual Gala show. Surely “a full dress rehearsal in front of two hundred people” is a second show?

I have no problem in paying for and attending a convention of the standard of Magic Live without knowing who is actually booked to lecture and/or perform at it but I do want to know in advance (even if only at the start of each session) who and what is going to be on that actual day. Then I can pick and choose who and what I want to watch without having to sit through stuff which is of no interest to me.
A wise convention goer pointed out that Magic Live is meant to be a convention where Magic magazine “comes alive.” In other words the convention is meant to represent the magazine in three dimensional real life. But surely every reader, on receipt of his or her latest copy picks and chooses which articles to read first and which to miss? Surely only a very few, if any, magicians read it from the very first page to the very last, in order and without skipping anything!

No. When I learn there is going to be another Magic Live convention I will think carefully before registering. If it is going to be in the same format as the last three together with the “secrecy policy” I might well not bother or then again, I might register early, wait until it is sold out, and then flog my place on Ebay for twelve hundred dollars!

I bet you any money you like that the organisers put a stop to that little game…

The Gala Show of Magic Live 2007

I must state from the outset that my enjoyment of this show was severely hampered by the situation with my seat.

I was sitting in the front row but only three seats in from the side of the theatre. Rarely do I get to see magic performed from this angle. Indeed I saw quite a lot more than I should have while at the same time seeing much less than I would have had I been seated in a more central position.

Added to the seat position was the fact that next to me was a man of considerable size. Now I am no stick insect myself so I shouldn’t cast stones but this (nice) man, while less tall, was seriously wider than me. Hence, no matter how each of us positioned ourselves, we seemed to be invading each other’s space (and please understand that I am being diplomatic here.)

So bearing that in mind, here I go…

I was disappointed with this year’s gala show although it did have some stand out moments.

Raymond Crowe was again sensational with his levitating of a member of the audience’s jacket. Even taking into consideration the late, great Tommy Wonder’s birdcage I reckon this jacket levitation is simply the best zombie effect ever. The best ever. Add his charming, short but high impact hand shadow routine and you end up with a standing ovation. True, standing ovations are much more common in the USA than over here in Europe but never the less, this was the only “unforced” standing ovation of the show. After raving about this guy after the International Show last Christmas it gives me great pleasure to do so again here.

Another favourite on this show was David Sousa from Portugal (the people’s FISM Grand Prix winner.) His haunting music, stage presence and unique manipulation routine went down very well again in general but my seating situation reduced my enjoyment of it for
me.

The MC, Mark Kornhauser was superb. Smooth, confident, efficient and very, very funny. Excellent.

Gaeton Bloom had a nightmare. What ever he was trying to do with the chosen card and a salad simply didn’t do anything at all for me. The fact that a “volunteer” member of the audience, who was on stage for ages and had nothing to do except turn a handle of a device that did nothing and had no reason for being used, was blocking my view of the (in)action didn’t help. The very poor routine was not saved by Mr Bloom’s signature piece of card manips wearing boxing gloves which was “stuck” on at the end of the “act”.

Antony Reed, the illusionist, did various box tricks in between the other acts. Each was ok for what it was and done well and the idea of thus splitting the illusions speeded up the show but two things really won me over. Firstly Antony appeared at the end of the comedy act’s set dressed stupidly in a dress with a showgirl type headdress on (behaviour which displayed an inner depth of confidence) and then he closed the show with a great water chamber escape.

The Evansons did their “mindreading” stuff…Jason Byrne pulled out a lot of birds (the birds didn’t appear to be that happy with their part in the procedure) and Les and Drizzle did a comedy act.

Being the third Magic Live Gala show there are those who think that it will be compared unfavourably with the other ones but I just judge it as another show and as you can tell I only enjoyed it in parts.