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London Festival Of Magic 2013

I only had tickets for three of the 5 days of this festival, so I’ll write about that, and if anyone can fill in the rest...

I took quite a lot of notes, so I’ll write it up as best I can to give you an idea of what was talked about. (That said, there's a lot I'm not going to mention as well... really, you should have been there!)

The festival is held at Bridewell Theatre, just off Fleet St. It’s a lovely little place, well located and with a great bar downstairs!

The first day for me was the second of the festival, and was themed “Street and Alfresco Magic” The line up for the Lectures was Paul Zenon, Andy Reay, Duncan Trillo, Pete Wardell, Noel Britten and Terry Ward. Before I the magic bug took me as an adult, I did a fair few street shows as a juggler, so I was really looking forward to all this, even though it’s maybe not really where my magic is anymore.


Paul Zenon “On Street Magic”

Paul Zenon is one of the reasons I got into magic! His book “Street Magic” was one of the first I bought, and if it hadn’t had Out Of This World in, then maybe I wouldn’t be sat here typing this now!

Paul talked about his early experiences busking on the squares and bars in Crete, and what a learning experience it was. He was performing the professors nightmare, linking rings, and fire eating, and said there are three important things about busking. Getting a crowd (noise, height and appealing to people sense of curiosity), keeping a crowd (involve them, borrow objects and get volunteers), and lastly, getting money! (Don’t be like all the other street entertainers... get some new lines!)

His life changed when he changed his image. He decided that when he performed he was going to wear a black leather jacket! And from there TV stardom beckoned, and he made some hour long street magic specials with a camera man who could capture the audience reactions. Paul performed on these with a sense of integrity, and feels that the viewing public can spot a stooge!

Paul came across as a very nice guy, very knowledgeable and extremely experienced. It was a pleasure to listen to him being interviewed by Noel about all this... And he signed the afore mentioned book for me!


Andy Reay “The Secrets Of The Svengali”

This was a different type of street magic. Andy was talking about the art of selling magic! Of persuading members of the public to part with their hard earned cash for a previously unheard of thing like a Svengali deck! Like Paul, he broke it down into three parts... The Build, The Show and The Close.

There was a lot of information here, but for me the most applicable things were about engaging with the crowd. These are things I already know and try and do, but it’s good to hear them again, and to become more conscious of them. So... connect with people at the rear of the crowd, and bring them into the show... and a technique he called “Light housing,” You imagine that you have a strong torch on the top of your head, and use it to scan the crowd with. Look at least four rows back, and if you see someone new, invite them in!

He talked about the tone of your voice (bright, welcoming, and breath deeply before you talk), manner (energetic, gentlemanly, and warm), your vocal rhythm (silent beats to hook the crowd and the iambic pentameter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter" target="_blank) and also about signalling... the use of your body language to keep your audience interested.

Next up...


Duncan Trillo “Silence On The Streets”

Duncans talk was for me, another very inspiring one. He has performed a silent magic internationally and is also the editor of Magic Week. As with the previous speakers, he didn’t teach any tricks, but was talking about performing. It was great to hear how he used eye contact in his silent shows to engage with people and to bring them into his world of magic!
He also talked extensively about music. This was naturally a large part of his silent show, and he feels something that is undervalued and misused by magicians. After hearing him talk, I have to agree with him and will certainly reconsider how I do any future stage performances!

One thing that stuck out for me was a section about timing. With manipulating cards he would hold out his arm and fan cards. Hopefully my punctuation here will illustrate how he did this to maximum effect...

Arm out.

Look at hand.

Pause...



Fan.


After lunch we had...


Pete Wardell “The Corporate Showman – Coming In From The Cold”

Pete was a street performing magician who now does trade shows. He has used the experience from the street shows to become excellent at working crowds, and a fine exponent of trade show magic, and goes so far as to say that a trade show performer is a street performer in a suit! (If you’re interested in doing street performances, he recommends the book “Drawing a circle in the Square”)

As with the other speakers today, a cornerstone of this talk was about engaging with people. Pete works event, and says that events happen regardless, but what he gives people is experience!

There was a fair amount of this talk that was very corporate, in style, language and presentation... and his professionalism is certainly to be admired! And also how this ties in with a more, for want of a better word, a more artistic pursuit! As far as objectives go, Pete’s first is, for the trade show attendee, and in turn, for the client hiring him, to make a difference. This is a paramount objective.

He also talked about things such as performance timings, set creation (brand driven is an excellent way of doing things!) and scripting your set.


The next speaker was the compare and organiser of the festival, Noel Britten.


Noel Britten “Walking The Streets”

For over 20 years, Noel has lead a walk through the city of Bath called “Bizarre Bath – The Comedy Walk” http://www.bizarrebath.co.uk/

The walk is a tour round Bath, with much comedy, and a lot of magic too! (It seems that I’m going to be booking myself a trip to Bath in the next few months!)

There are, according to Noel, many up sides and down sides about performing on the streets. The good things are doing shows whenever you want, being your own boss, no waiting for cheques, few costs, and performing in front of the Cathedral there is one heck of an office to work in!

It was a great talk about doing what you really want to do, what you’re passionate about, and turning it into a successful business! Key things learnt include... Use your downtime. Be persistent. Be creative. Experience as many performances as you can (watching and performing). This talk certainly inspired me, and gave me so much to think about as far as furthering my magic career! I appreciated it hugely.

Lastly for the day we had...


Terry Ward “Making The Streets Legit”

Terry works at the big theme parks, entertaining on the streets there. There was a large amount of magic here, a great pea and shell game, and a superb 3 phase Chicago opener!

This was another great talk, reinforcing what had been said earlier, and providing some great magic to back it up!

All in all, a great day. I learnt so much. To be honest, I don’t feel that I need lots of new tricks. Like most of us here, I have so many magic books, DVDs and tricks tucked away... What I need is to be as good at performing what I do as possible, and this has really been invaluable!


The show that night was also quite amazing... and with Noel as host, extremely funny! Plus, I found that I was sat right next to Andy Nyman! Could I ask for a better person to chat to before the show? It was good to talk to him about some of his work, and also to someone of such success and experience and my own magical/artistic struggles! (Solution... stay true to your own vision, and keep doing what you love!)


Wednesday the 13th Mentalism.

This was the day I had been looking forward to the most. It’s what I love doing. So there I was sat in the theatre, Noel opened up the day saying that mentalism is the new rock and roll! And then he introduced Peter Turner...


Peter Turner “Inside The Minds Eye”

I couldn’t wait for this! And really, it was completely worth waiting for!

I love Peters attitude to his mentalism. “I like helping people,” and using magic to give people a sense of wonder. (This is really what I try and do with my magic, but Peter takes it to a whole new level!)

So the first piece of magic is a simple Any Card At Any Number... but it’s so pure, perfect and also... so achievable! I would, and will, make use of this!

There was so much in this talk, and so much magic. An amazing way of doing things, of getting names, star signs, professions... and also a performance of the incredible Isobella’s Star! And even a PIN code divination!

This is intensely personal mentalism, and completely performance driven (as opposed to method driven).

If there’s one thing that Peter said that sums it all up, it’s this... “Don’t compromise,”


Next Noel introduced a juggler for us on the mentalism day!


Charlie Frye “Mentalism Of An Eccentrick Nature”

Charlie performed for us to start. Spoon bending, a numbered billiard ball prediction, a version of B’wave.

Charlie is clearly an experience performer, and gave us more advice on working with people and engaging, aswell as a beautiful spoon bend where the (un gimmicked) spoon sits in the palm of your hand and then gently bends upwards!


Patrik Kuffs “Kufference”

We came back into the theatre hall to find pieces of tin foil on our seats. It gave the place a certain anticipatory atmosphere!

Patrik is a French/Canadian mentalist, and also happens to be rather bloody good!

He started of performing for us, doing a tossed out deck (with darts thrown to show which cards have been picked!), a drawing duplication, an amazing worn imp pad (really!) and... sorry, there’s no way I’m telling you what happened with the tin foil! But it’s one of those incredible pieces of knowledge that I am sure will prove invaluable!


Morgan and West “The Transmission Of Information”

This was two person mentalism and was just amazing! They performed a piece where one of them dropped a volunteers coins one at a time into a glass and the other, just by the sound the coin made in the glass, could tell the value... even if it’s a handful of coins!) It’s a truly beautiful routine, both in conception and production!

Their theory of mentalism is, in a crude nutshell, is about information being transmitted from one person to another, and then being revealed.

Without wanting to give too much away, this is, as stated, two person mentailsm. That should give you some clues as to how they work. But the intelligence needed to do it, and the mental acrobatics are just unbelievable!

There are two bits of advice they give that I want to share here though.

1: Ignore Corindas chapter! (Develop your own codes and ways of doing things)
2: Code in base 13. (The more you think about this, the more sense it makes!)

Code work is deeply personal, and can only be done at this level with someone else equally as dedicated, passionate and trusted as yourself. They had some advice that seems relevant to all mentalism, not just a two person coded act. Don’t blame. Don’t excuse. Acknowledge both strengths and weaknesses. Do what is best for the act. And, when producing new things, write like you’re a psychic... then script it. Be natural. Mix methods. Be natural.


Florian Severin “Mind Reading From The Country Without Humour”

I like Florians way of thinking about his work. He asks difficult questions of the audience. He says his performances are like a car crash... in that you might feel uncomfortable, but you can’t help but keep looking!

He also asks questions of himself. Why am I doing this? Why should an audience sit through it?

And in contrast to some mentalists, he likes to use props. He wants to make the magic visual, so that everyone can see it. (Derren Brown said something similar... why deny the audience the visual aspect?)

Once a year he does a free show, hires out a theatre, and gets everyone he knows, and their friends too, and performs for them. And then gives them a nice big questionnaire to fill in anonymously. This way he gets 50 – 100 bits of honest feedback!

One of the festival highlights was, whilst performing his crystal ball piece, Florian ended up teaching Ian Rowland to read minds!!!


And then, to finish this amazing day of talks, there was a panel discussion, with all the speakers answering audience questions, and chaired by Noel Britten.
They answered questions about audience reactions to their performances, how they would describe what they do (Florian – Entertainer, Patrik – Entertainer, Morgan and West – Magicians, Peter Turner – it’s hard to explain, let me show you...), and on creating magic and mentalism for use by others.


As if all this wasn’t enough, there was the evening show! And I was joined for this by TM’s very own Fiftytwo! (Marcus, to everyone else!)
It was an amazing night of Mentalism!

Peter Turner started it all off, and was, unsurprisingly, quite amazing! (Although, sadly heckled by rather harshly and a bit rudely... I felt he dealt with it rather well!)
Also performing, who has spoke during the day, were Florian and Patrik. They were both superb, and I loved Florians screws in the eye trick!!!


Thursday the 14th – Cards and Coins

I’m not really a card or coin magician, but it’s magic... so of course I love it! I do stuff with both, but coin bends and “The Hand Of Destiny” didn’t really fit into the day...
So, although I know I’d enjoy the day, I didn’t realise just how much, nor how much I’d get from it!


Pete Woerde “Fat Chance”

From Holland, to kick the day off in fine style, was Pete Woerde. He did a gambling themed performance “I’m not skilled, but I’ll win because I’m just very lucky!!!)
He taught us the whole routine, including false shuffles and a multiple phased poker deal where, despite the volunteers best efforts, you always win!


Christian Engblom Lecture

The first of the fat brothers was next! This was just awesome! Really!

There have been problems with “Pulls” that have stopped me from using them, but Christian provided all the solutions, so it seems that I’ll be making my own from now on! He pointed out, and I remember doing this myself, how he used to make magic tricks as a kid, and also why do we now expect everything to be ready in a box for us?

With this pull in place, Christian gave some advice on using it, especially with regard to timing... having a delay between the “dirty work” and the magic happening (echoed later in the day by John Carney)

He also showed us an amazing Paul Curry trick that he’s taken a step further (If you were at the talk and want to look it up, I’ve just spent 5 minutes with “Worlds Beyond,” and it’s Houdini’s Legacy on page 96. If you weren’t there, I haven’t got a clue what the trick was called!)


Andy Gladwin “The Push Off”

I struggled with Andy’s Master Push Off DVD, so it was great to have Andy talk about it. Plus... he did a great 5 tricks in 5 minutes piece, and thanks to Tom Sutton, all of us that were there now have a free download heading to us!  (Cheers both Tom and Andy!)


During the lunch break Andy was kind enough to give me a one on one master class in the master push off! And it was so appreciated! I still haven’t quite got it, but a huge leap forward! It’s just down to practice now... What can I say? Top bloke!

And then I was lucky enough to chat to Patrik Kuff for half an hour about mentalism, branding what you do when you perform, and about not having an ego... An extremely worthwhile conversation... another top bloke!!!


The Miguel Gea Lecture

The next fat brother!

My poor tiny brain was starting to grind to a halt now... three days and so much information, and none of it put to any use yet! So what does Miguel do? He gives us a stunning coin through glass/hand/table routine that’s just so performable! He then backs it up by discussing the rhythm of the magic, which makes it even stronger, creating different sensations... we feel the magic!

There was so much more to... by the time he moved on to the catapult, I stopped learning! It was too much! But just amazing too! In my note book it just says “Catapult (wow!) – phenomenal skill!”


Charlie Frye “Close Up Magic Of An Eccentrick Nature”

Charlie’s talk was great! It’s not magic that I’d perform (odd in some ways – we followed a similar path, juggling to mentalism!) but it is just so watchable!
He did an amazing matrix routine with dice!

And one of my favourite lines of the festival...” Anything that comes out of your nose is funny!”


Michael Vincent “The Ultimate Travellers – The Evolution Of A Classic”

I felt this was one of the best lectures of the festival. The guy sat next to me said it was almost a TED talk!

This was about how Michael first discovered Dai Vernons “Travellers” routine and how he explored all he could about it and it’s development in order to make it his own! When he read Vernons description of the routine, he felt it was how Vernon performed it. However, we can think for ourselves! So we aim for “Authentic Self Expression,” We have to ask how does a trick come alive when we do it ourselves?

One thing that Michael mentioned was that feeling when you learn a new piece, take it out for the first time full of enthusiasm, and the reaction is far less than expected. His advice? Very simply... Don’t give up!

Michael talked about his research for the Travellers routine, and showed videos of famous magicians performing that illustrated his points about how it has been changed and adapted. His says to start with a good trick, learn as much about it as you can, then relax! Your brain will do the rest!

He gave us 7 steps to mastery!
1 PASSION (passion is everything!)
2 HERO’S (who are you hero’s to excellence?)
3 AUTHENTICITY (your own creativity)
4 STAND (what’s your stand on magic?)
5 THE EXPERIENCE (for the audience)
6 THE MESSAGE
7 C.S.D.

And notes on the above...
1 Listen to Steve Jobs Stanford speech about passion
3 How do you want your magic to leave your audience?
5 It’s a privilege to be a magician, and to give the moment of astonishment!
7 Contribute, Serve, make a Difference.

And I need to add here... point 5... WOW!


John Carney – Misdirection, Punctuation and relaxation.

John talked about his views on magic, and that you have to ask yourself are your performing magic, or just a skilful guy? He seems to feel that skill destroys the illusion of magic! He tries to encourage the audience to believe in magic at least until the end of the trick. And that trying to hide skill is harder than displaying it.

So we have to engage people with our presentation, we give them something! It’s not a “look at me,” thing, but we offer them something.

There were many tips on misdirection, such as... The familiar isn’t really very interesting, the shift in the audiences focus is your window of opportunity, attitude is part of misdirection, and rather importantly, confusion is not magic! You want a crystal clear effect! To do this, we must de-emphasise the technique and emphasise the effect.

And for all the theory (and some amazing performance!) John pointed out that he can give us the ideas, but to really learn it, we have to go out and do it!


The Mahdi Gilbert Lecture.

If you don’t know Mahdi Gilbert, I would encourage you to do a little research on him. He has challenges to his magic that are quite remarkable, and has overcome these to make his magic unique and stunning! He had to learn to make the magic and the moves look natural, and he learnt that he couldn’t pretend that he couldn’t handle cards, because sometimes people became angry at him when they found that he could...

And his Oil and Water routine is just amazing!


The Dani Daortiz Lecture

It had been a long day, packed full of magic and inspiration... and to be honest, I wasn’t sure I could do another talk on cards... but this was amazing!

Dani performed, and then explained, and both were faultless! His attitude to performing is such a lesson in how to be! That the person is more important than the trick, and that the magic is never improvised! Spontaneous, but never improvised! Magic is your whole body, face and person... What you do is a mirror of who you are.

This was a perfect finale to a long day of lectures!


So what have I taken from all this? There’s a huge amount... I’ve been working with the idea that I should limit the number of tricks I do, but perform the few that I do as well as I can. But after all this, I realise that I can, if I put the work in, perform them all even better... It’s the pursuit of excellence!

And it is, of course, a privilege to be a magician!

A superb Review, thank you!!!

Thanks for the write up, Chris.
I'm glad you got so much from it.

Really pleased to see that Morgan & West are lecturing what they're lecturing, having seen them use it to such great effect and utterly invisibly, too! Might have to suggest them to Psycrets!

Nice review Chris

I saw the Pete Turner lecture at Bromsgrove, some fantastic stuff in it, and yes the ACAAN is fantastic!

Thanks for the kinds words guys!

I hope this inspires even more people to head to next years festival!

Just so you all know, here's a link for the 2014 festival...

I can't wait for this!

http://www.internationalmagic.com/festival-info.shtml