The Devils Picturebook

Its been two full days since I got back home from the Blackpool convention and despite the fact I’m not fully recovered, its probably about time I wrote down something about it. This was my first time at Blackpool, and I have to say that I had mixed feelings about spending 3 days with 3,500 magicians. It was however, one of the best weekends I’ve had in a very long time. I met up with some great people, did some serious magic and more importantly some serious drinking. I didn’t get to bed before 5.00 on each of the nights and as a result I got a total of maybe 12 hours sleep throughout the convention but it was definately worth it. So now that I’m partialy recovered here are some of my personal highs and lows of Blackpool 2007.

Competitions
Didn’t see much of the close up competition, so no comment really. I did see a large part of the stage competition and despite the fact that I don’t particularly like big stage illusions it was almost enjoyable. It over ran by about two hours, so most of us dodged out during the second half and ran off to the bar. Why do manipulators always wear tails and illusionists wear leather pants? Worse still, why are young kids encouraged to dress in a similar fashion.

We’ve all seen some very bad magicians doing some very bad d-lite acts, infact I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good d-lite act. That was until I saw one of the acts from the childrens section. D-lites, entertaining, who would of thunk it. Hilight of the night had to be the X-Factor style judges comments that came after each act. Derek Lever was heard to say to one manipulation act that he should loose weight and he would be a more convincing manipulator. As you would expect this type of personal comment didn’t go down well with the audience and became a running joke at the convention. I could do that effect better, if only I lost a bit of weight. In my case that may actually be true.

Dealers
Usual crap, but at least there was a lot of it. Good range of books on display (hurrah!), and I managed to grab the Vernon Touch and one of Derek Dingles tombs. The effect of the convention was a thing called “Wow”, which is a piece of semi-transparent plastic into which you place a card and it transforms into another card. The transformation looked really nice, but £37, for a gaff the speccy will just want to grab!!! Especially since during the bar crawl I saw a colour change that allowed the same effect without the need for a chunk of plastic (more of that later). Best dealer for me was Eddie Gibson. He not only took time to speak to me, but gave me some free stuff as I was about to walk away. Thanks Eddie, your a gent.

Lectures
The lectures this year focussed on close-up, so there was a good range of close-up guys. I didn’t see the Greg Wilson lecture but he did touch my hair (more of that later). I also missed the Simon Lovell lecture, it was on, it was off, it was on again. I did however see the Sankey Lecture, which was … wait for it … excellent. Now I’m not a fan of Sankey, or for that matter American magic in general. Table hopping, instant reset stuff is not my thang, but give Sankey his due, he can work a room. Whats more, he was throwing out references left, right and centre. I met up with him at his stand and he’s a decent sort. He did comment, that I looked kinda wild. Still not sure how to take that.

Saw some of David Roth and Aldo Columbini, too little to comment though. I thought there would be plenty of time to see all the lectures, but the scheduling was very tight, and by the Sunday, the late nights were taking their toll.

Best lecture for me was the Aaron Fisher, and his Paper Engine lecture. Nice tips on the bluff pass, the tilt and his gravity half pass. He also had a very nice double colour change, which I didn’t like at first, but he then did it as part of a colour changing deck routine. It looked awesome.

Personalities (widest possible sense of word)
Dynamo was helping out at the International Magic stand. Paul R. Gordon was hanging about, not talking to anyone (nay pals). Joe Pascale was wondering about being squeaky, as was John Thompson, not being squeaky but trying his best not to make eye contact with anyone.

Drinking
As you can imagine there was significant opportunity to drink and generally make merry within the convention and of course at the Ruskin. I met up with some very interesting people.

On the last night it is traditional at the hotel we were staying at to hold a small magic competition (by traditional I mean this was the third year). There is nothing like watching a group of pissed magicians screwing up their well honed material. We must have been loud as hell, because we attracted the attention of Greg Wilson, who was standing outside with his nose to the window. He came in and entered with his Hotshot kick routine, but failed miserably, as I suspect he’d been enjoying a few pints as well. Much beer and fun was had by all. If your interested Greg came 17th out of 17 and our club president won. He can now say he won a competition against a FISM World Champion. Oh yes, and Greg touched my hair. Hey no big deal or anything, its not like I’m not going to wash it for weeks. But everyone has a thing about my hair at the moment. I think I need a haircut.

When we moved onto the Ruskin, as I said before we met some really nice guys (and some interesting looking girls). On the Saturday night we were about to come away (4.00am) when we saw a crowd forming around this American Kid called Jordan. He was performing a colour change and there was much oooing and aaaing by the crowd. I have to admit it was very, very pretty. The kid took a face up pack in biddle grip, and with a shake of the pack (left hand nowhere near the deck) he changed the top card. He said it was an unpublished move by Chad Nelson and refused to show us the technique. Although, the method is fairly obvious, I was amazed at how many there we’re confused and bemused. I’m not taking anything away from Jordon or Chad, its a very pretty move. Perhaps, I’m wrong about Chads method, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see when its published.

On the final night, I met up with some French magicians who were the best I’d ever seen. This was the hilight of the whole three days for me. We sat in the hotel bar until the early hours talking about card work and technique. These guys had great technique and a really understated presentation. This is what I mean when I talk about European magic versus American magic. I didn’t catch there names (the evil drink again), but when I woke up I made copious notes on the tips they had given me. This is the type of magic I want to do. Onward and upward.