Opus Stansted Office...

More expense on wi-fi access but the wait at the airport can be put to good use by tweeking the site a bit.

Opus is delighted with the International Weekend Judges (indeed we shall name them in due course) given that they almost (I said almost) agreed with us rather than your more usual set of Judges' results...

Whoops... how did pictures of JJ's planned new house get on here?

More Atmosphere from 36th International Magic Weekend...

Ali Bongo and Magicweek's Duncan Trillo (www.magicweek.co.uk)

More Atmosphere...

The Nyman Family...

Macie, Sophie and Preston.

The First Berglas International Magic Award...

...presented by David Berglas...goes to

the MacMillan Family.


When the audience heard of this award they gave Martin, Georgie and Teresa the only standing ovation of the weekend...


One of the most deserved award winners ever.

Satoru Triumphs!

The Winner...

carried off stage by Mahka Tendo

The Official Results...

1st. Satoru (Japan)

2nd. Pattrick Przysiecki (USA)

3rd. Gainfranco Preverino (Italy)

awards to Francis Menotti, John van der Put and Troy Von Scheibner.

Opus Predicts The Winners...

Opus Predicts the judges awards will be as follows.

1st. Patrick Previno.
2nd. Satoru
3rd. Jerome Bourgeon

Awards to Lior Manor, Gianfranco Preverino and Francis Menotti.

The Opus Winners...

If Opus was the sole judge the winners would be as follows...

1st. Satoru
2nd. John van der Put
3rd. Gianfranco Preverino
Awards to Jerome Bourgeon, Troy Von Scheibner and Francis Menotti with a special award to Patrick Prysiecki as the act most likely to win a magic competition

The COMPETITION (Acts below in reverse order...)

Jon Gordon from the UK...

Standing... no table... coin in glass... a trick with a piece of cord and spectator's ring. A gentle manner and style but I doubt he will be a prize winner.

Francis Menotti from the USA...

Smoothly and confidently explains why he is so casually dressed... his luggage has been lost by the airline... as he shuffles the cards his words get (fluently) out of order. Brilliantly done. It's half way through his act and I feel a prize winner coming up.

He moves on to coin magic, again great patter re "nothing" of various sizes. Well mannered and good audience handling. I feel Francis and this act deserve a livelier audience... I would give him something...

Troy Von Scheibner from England...

Young (18), cool, black, funny and talented.
A coin trick in the style of Michael Jackson...
A rope trick in the style of a Bolloywood star...
A Gung Foo fighter piece...
A card trick with charm and humour...

Unhoned but with huge prospects.

Remember the name....

Gianfranco Preverino from Italy...

Smooth, Italian accent...cool...
Printed faces and backs on a blank pack and changed the deck colour and the box colour too.
Wins loads of Brownie points by doing one of JJ's favourite rountines "Roll Over Aces." Doesn't use JJ's clumsy style, chooses very smooth handling style instead! Great dealing dem... a touch theatrical but hey... he's Italian. Should win something in my opinion.

Patrick Przysiecki from the USA...

Confident, professional, sharp competition act with gags and a globe "theme." Another act to lose Opus "Brownie" points, this one by doing the shell game to rhyming (can't spelt it) patter but judges without my prejudices will give this act an award...

Lior Manor from Israel...

Very good start with an hilarious explanation for his "poor" English. Several "in" magician jokes which always go down well at these sort of events. He did a Nap Hand type routine with giant cards and even a mentalist routine with a laptop which included the first "Knob Gag" of the convention! Patchy but I've seen acts like this come away with something...

Alex Moffat...another from the Southport contest...

I liked this guy's style at Southport and in my room he missed his toppit with a pack and still continued... quiet and easy going he snuck in a broken and restored pair of (spectators) glasses in between card work (including flashiness.) Sadly he lost quite a few Brownie points with me when he used the "I usually get a round of applause here" line as he did some Lennert Green style dealing... this audience didn't fall for that one. But, despite quite a lot of "fiddling about" not all bad.

Shorty from Switzerland...

I can save having to write anything harsh here by saying that this street style clown act with a dustbin on stage simply isn't a close-up and therefore shouldn't win anything.

Peter McLanachan from Scotland does card tricks...

When Peter competed in Southport he had a misfortune in the room I saw him in but no such trouble here. Card magic at a technical level beyond me with no flashiness. He is a friend so I would love him to be a prize winner but I fear he might not be...

Satoru...simply sensational...

I love it when there is an embarrassed and uncomfortable silence in an audience while a totally unknown artist starts work and the people aren't sure whether it's going to be good or awful and then they slowly realise it going to be great.

Satoru from Japan warmed and then lit up this audience with his delightful personality, his fresh approach and some very funny and entertaining magic. My current winner...

John van der Put...

Slowly becoming an Opus favourite.

He has cut his hair. He did a sponge rabbit routine. He did a card restoration (to taped music). He did a multi card selection with a variety of revelations and a great bit with a video screen. It doesn't read much but every thing was done with gags and "impromptu" asides that just appeal to my sense of humour. He would win something if I was the only judge...

Kolos Tarkanyi from Poland maintains the standard...

Kolos did good card magic, spoke good English and had a pleasant personality. He too used taped music to add production value to a solid act. Sticking my neck out I predict he is'nt a prize winner though...

Jerome Bourgeon from France opens the competition...

Jerome from France opened the contest with a character based performance of the cups and balls using a taped commentary (with music at one point). I think it will be a good level this year. It's hard to get much response from this audience at this time of day with the cups and balls but Jerome got strong applause at the end. He has put in a lot of work.

Editor's Meeting...

Editor of Abra, the World's Only Magic Weekly, Walt Less joins the Opus Team in discussing the bloody suscribers!

Atmosphere...

John Lenahan and Andy "Diamond Geezer" Nyman sort out some troubles of the world.

The Boys (Group One)

Anthony Owen proves it wasn't luck..

Anthony Owen repeated his success at the Magic Live convention here at the International Magic Weekend.

Tilted towards the mentalist, but including material for the close up people, Anthony professionally and entertainly demonstated how to give a lecture to magicians. If, like me, you enjoy watching an experienced performer who knows exactly what he is doing and why, you got it with this lecture. If you want to learn strong effects that are not too difficult to do, you got it here and if you wanted to buy tricks, dvds or books you could do it here too. Excellent stuff...

Nothing Unexpected From Guy Hollingworth

Friend of Opus, the learned one, Guy Hollingworth opened the 36th International Magic Weekend with his unique, one man show "Expert at the Card Table."

No surprises for me in this performance.

Over the years I have seen Guy perform many times so I expected him to be calmly and assuredly brilliant and he was. More than that there were moments of comedy, dramatic tension and release which not only drew you into the tale he told but also demonstrated just how much work he had put into the production of this play.

Using the enthralling tale of SW Erdnase and ES Andrews Guy performed a series of routines and demonstrations of cheating techniques with a pack of cards. Any layperson (for whom this play is designed), and, I suspect a considerable percentage of magicians, will be completed stunned by the effects and techniques on display in this excellent production.

As they say "Extremely Highly Recommended."

I believe Guy will be performing this play at The Chocolate Factory. Details to follow...

It All Starts This Evening

The International Magic weekend starts this evening in the Novhotel at 7.30.

My day started at the Cally Cafe.

Brothers in Leather Lane

If you want a quick bite while visiting the International Magic Studio Opus recommends Brothers Restaurant.

Smooth Trip Part Two

The smoothness of my trip continued at Stansted. The plane touched down twenty minutes early at 11.20am. I was first off the aircraft having sat in the front row and been able to stretch out my legs fully.

Just as I got to the crowd of people queuing up at passport control they opened a new line and waved me forward and straight to the window! Then my bag was sixth or seventh on the carousel.

I tell you all I double checked my watch and I was on the Stansted Express to London at five minutes to twelve. Magic!

I dropped in at the International Magic Studio to say hello and then went for lunch.

International Weekend Starts Here

What a superb start to the weekend.

I arrive at the ultra modern Porto airport to check in almost instantly, travel smoothly through security with really pleasant staff (unlike Gatwick), get to the gate and find free internet access.

Strangely this is by cable and the one cable I don't have with me is that one.

Never mind, I have my own connection (as long as I am in Portugal...)

I am really excited at the prospect of a great convention...

JJ Confesses...

Having just spent a couple of weeks putting large piles of magic magazines in order and listing both the missing ones and the duplicates, I feel a little depressed at discovering how little I know about the history of magic.

Of course my excuse has always been (and still is) that I am only really interested in the performance of magic but I do realise that is a bit of a cop out.

Working through the first hundred volumes of Abracadabra magazine I found myself dipping into various issues really to see if there is anything in there about me or my friends but often finding myself drawn into the discussions and arguments of the day.

I was amused to find Ali Bongo referring to a young John Fisher as a “magical leech” at the height of an “exposure” argument and reading all the letters from magicians condemning Mr Fisher for his programme(s). I don’t recall any of the letter writers appearing on the Paul Daniels Magic Show many years later!

It is also pretty embarrassing to discover my ignorance runs into my opinion of performers as well.
While at Magic Live this July I had the great pleasure of watching Antony Owen present a lecture.

Now up until then, apart from meeting Antony many times socially, I had always judged his performance of magic on the short bits I had seen him do many years ago. Keen and competent but young and a little loud. I mean, he was a demonstrator at Hamleys toy shop for goodness sake…

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since those days and at Las Vegas, after his ingenious and excellently presented lecture/performance, it gave me great pleasure to apologise to him for my ignorant, inappropriate opinion of his performing ability formed so many years ago. (Even though I am not aware of him knowing anything about it.)

Bearing this in mind, when I saw an article about him in the Magic Circular, I took time out to read it.
I was/am impressed (and not just because of the sale of Objective Productions!!!)

Now I will check him out again as he lectures at the up and coming International Weekend. I will be watching through a different set of spectacles.

Of course I also realise that, having been forced to review my opinion of Antony, there must be a whole load of other people I must check out again…

Incidentally, once I have got permission from Opus partner and art director Chris Power, I will be posting up all the magazines we are looking for to complete the collection and also a list of our duplicates in case they are of use to you…

A Corporate Day Out (from the library)

Up at eight am for a nine o’clock start to Lisbon for a corporate show tonight. Four of us travel down by people carrier, two have gone ahead in the truck which carries the props while the stage and lighting guys travel in another truck. At first I thought it was going to be a small scale show but things have changed and actually it is going to include several of the many illusions in Luis’s repertoire. One of these is the Smoke Chamber Production and this is one of the few props that I know how to assemble. That is what I do when we arrive.

We are working with a major corporate catering company, one that we have worked for many times before. I always prefer it when we know the people (and in this case the venue) we are working with (and in.)

It is great watching the Team go about their business. It has all been done many times before and each member gets on with his or her own bit of the set up. The longest time of all is spent setting the lights.

By half past four most of the preparation has been done. There are odds and ends to complete but everyone is pretty relaxed.

Our part in the evening is due to start at ten o’clock so it comes as a little shock when at twenty past eight we learn that everything has been moved forward an hour, especially as three of us are in a restaurant in the Vasco da Gama shopping centre a little walk away from the venue. No problem. I don’t have anything to do in this show so the other two (younger and fitter) guys rush back and I eventually join them in plenty of time for the off.

In then end, the dinner takes so long to serve that the show actually starts half an hour later than the original start time…such is the way of the corporate world.

Once underway, everything went according to plan. I was a little surprised to find that Luis was working in English and wasn’t getting the response I was used to in some of his patter pieces and I started to speculate that maybe the audience were mostly foreign and thus Luis didn’t have the “star” appeal that is normal in Portugal. Wrong (as usual)! He was asked to present the show in English by one of the bosses who wanted to show consideration to a visiting (and I guess, bigger) boss who spoke English. The fact that the vast majority of the audience didn’t fully understand what was being said didn’t seem to be of concern to the decision taker. Such is the way of the corporate world…

Anyhow the whole thing went well and a smooth strip down and packing of all the props saw us all back in the (very nice) hotel by 3.30am.
Using a small video camera and a big screen card manipulations are visible to large audiences and surely one of the best ever versions of sawing through...