DESPITE THE CREDIT CRUNCH, SOME DEALERS AT EASTBOURNE scored with the one thousand conventioneers. They were those who demonstrated their wares rather than just standing behind a array of polythene packets with coloured graphics and watching the money walk by. Notably Bob Swadling who works hard to show you what real magic is like by demonstrating all [...]
Posted on October 6th, 2008 by John
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RECEIVED SOME VERY NICE COMMENTS FROM MAGICIANS AT EASTBOURNE who had downloaded the KISS lecture from this web site. Art Parry who had taken on board many of the features outlined in the book, turned up at the gala show looking a million dollars in a white tuxedo (one of the many recommendations he had adopted). [...]
Posted on October 4th, 2008 by John
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THE IBM HAVE HAD SOME GREAT AND DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS at this highlight event - John Fisher, John Calvert, Michael Bailey, Gay Blackstone, Alan Shaxon and others. This presentation commemorates their former secretary Jeffrey Atkins and this year’s lecture was outstanding and one of the best. Geoffrey Durham, superb actor, director and long standing professional magician gave a masterly lecture with an [...]
Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by John
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YEARS AGO I USED TO GO TO CONVENTIONS AND BREAK A LEG trying to get to see everything. Every show, every lecture, every dealer item. No more. As a semi-retired magus, floating down the river and drifting towards the waterfall, I now pace myself somewhat and visit just the things that immediately interest me. Which [...]
Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by John
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I’VE BEEN A GREAT ADMIRER OF NICK EINHORN for many years and have seen him grow in his magic and stature until today, when I believe he is amongst the top half dozen professional magicians in the country. In his performance, his thinking, his professionalism and his sheer imagination in presenting magic that goes far beyond the everyday. [...]
Posted on October 2nd, 2008 by John
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JUST BACK FROM THE EASTBOURNE CONVENTION and down to earth with a million emails to check out. There were many great highlights at Eastbourne and so I think to give justice to them I’ll blog news day by day rather than give you a whole book of reviews. Big, big on the wow factor was the [...]
Posted on September 30th, 2008 by John
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FOLLOWING MY ENTHUSIASTIC BLOG YESTERDAY about the outstanding lecture I saw on Tuesday by Pat Page, I had a sudden thought. Some time ago Matt Field, Editor of The Magic Circle magazine and one of magic’s most experienced and prolific writers, told me that he was in the process of writing a new book with Pat Page. [...]
Posted on September 18th, 2008 by John
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LAST NIGHT WAS VERY SPECIAL I went to a lecture by Patrick Page organised by International Magic and it was one of the great evenings in magic. I have known and admired Pat’s work for many years and in his previous lectures he has always shown many good ideas – a stunning vanish of a coin in a silk, [...]
Posted on September 17th, 2008 by John
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I WAS BROUGHT UP IN THE DAYS OF VARIETY from the stages of the music halls in and around London. It is a genre that died at the hands of television and with it the bills that included a menu of singers, dancers, comedians, speciality acts, magicians and the like that compounded into the title – variety. [...]
Posted on September 15th, 2008 by John
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AS HAS BEEN STATED IN EARLIER BLOGS I have given the KISS lecture for over four years at magic clubs throughout Britain and overseas. I was encouraged by many magicians to make this available in an extended edition online which was launched just a few weeks ago. And truthfully the response has been quite astounding [...]
Posted on September 14th, 2008 by John
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