BEEN WORKING AWAY RECENTLY AND LAST WEEKEND I went to the International Convention organised by the MacMillan family. A great weekend of magic both close-up and stage with the accent on international. This is a trend that was started by Ron MacMillan who was well in touch with magic and magicians all over Europe and other parts of the world which makes a change from mass imports from the US. At the last IBM Convention at Eastbourne I went to the close-up show which had around five or more top card workers from Las Vegas all doing poker deals, gambling demos and the like. All excellent but hooray for our own Nick Einhorn who presented a magic show with variety with coins, ropes, and a few cards. How refreshing.

The stage show at the International was very good but I was particularly taken with an act from Holland –  Robert and Emiel who presented a mental telepathy act. I’ve seen some great ones over the years – “What have I here?” “A comb” “And here?” “A long balloon” “Well, near enough!” and so on. A sheer demonstration of skill and speed with a pace and pzazz.

But Robert and Emiel took their act to a different level. The curtains opened with no announcement and seen centre stage is a young man, dressed in what appeared to be white pyjamas, sitting on a stool by a microphone and fidgeting with his hands. An off stage announcement told that here was a five year old boy in the body of a grown man who nevertheless has amazing powers beyond the ken of others. He was then blindfolded  and demonstrated some quite amazing revelations about items held up by members of the audience and numbers of banknotes, sometimes without any apparent oral prompting.

All the time the boy on stage was fidgeting with his clothing as perhaps a young child would and engaging in a brother to brother conversation as if seeking approval. The act finished to great applause and even as the young Emiel walked off stage holding his brother’s hand he did not drop the persona of a handicapped child. And all his impaired mannerisms were minimal and did not create any embarrassment with the audience. It was a masterful presentation that left the audience wondering, with echoes of Raymond in the film “Rain Man” - was this really  a handicapped man with special powers?

It was a different presentation that for me was excellent in it’s concept. Even as the two walked off stage the young “savant” was heard to quietly say to his brother “Can I have the ice cream now” Sheer theatre.

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