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…
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…
posted by JJ at 3:24 PM
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