talkmagic.co.uk

Just waiting for the calendar to roll around to 2009 now but until then, I was wondering what were your highs and lows from this years convention and what did you buy?

HIGHS

Not in any particular order

1. David Stone lecture - a marvelous hour that was thoroughly entertaining.
2. An audience with Geoffrey Durham and Wayne Dobson - I could have watched and listened for hours.
3. Shoot Ogawa lecture. I hadn't realised before just how good a magician Shoot is and a nice guy too having talked to him on his stand. BTW, although not as extenvsive, his coin magic was as good as Mr Stones IMO which was very surprising.
4. Lennart Green lecture - a truly awesome display of card skills from a man who makes you think that he has no skill at all. A Casino owners nightmare!
5. Jeffrey Durham lecture - nice to have a lecture about entertaining and where magic comes from, instead of a routine and explanation session.
6. Jon Archer on Saturday night - you had to be there to experience it - side splitting.
7. Rafael on Saturday night - the best stage act over both evenings in my opinion.
8. Seeing a Losander floating table 'in the flesh' and being demo'd by Mr Losander himself.
9. All of the people that I bumped into (Lawrence - your contact juggling was fascinating to watch and talk about). Always nice to see Mike Danata and after a brief hello on Friday evening I kept missing him until finally catching up with him on Sunday. Good to see you Mike.
10. Talking to Henry Evans about some of the finer points of his coin routines - I'm a big fan of his coin routines

DISAPPOINTMENTS

1. Richard Sanders Lecture - out of all the lectures I saw, this was a glorified dealer dem rather than a lecture. I know that everyone plugged their products but none more so than Mr Sanders.
2. The weekend just passed too quickly.
3. Martin Sanderson's little sausage dog routine (ring flight) - I just hated it but it appeared to sell by the bucket load. I could see no magic in this and it just shouted 'trick' (if you know what I mean).

PURCHASES

I still haven't unpacked the bags to have a real look at everything but the main ones were.....

1. Trilogy - bought from the Alakazam stand after a demo. This looked really impressive.
2. Shoot Ogawa DVD - I bought this just to learn his card under close up mat routine which he lectured on. I think that nearly everyone watching took a large gasp of air when he lifted the mat to reveal the selected card.
3. Jerry O'Connell wallet - about time that I started to do a card to wallet.
4. Smokey Magic

How was your weekend?

Nice post and an enjoyable read for those who couldn't make it this year.

Sounds like a swell time was had. I am certainly gutted that I didn't get to see the David Stone lecture.

Highlights for me -

1. David Stone lecture Friday
2. Lennart Green on Friday
3. Raphael's Vampire set.
4. Grahem Jolly' act
5. Seeing Helder Gummares FISM act - very very good.
6 Audience with Wayne Dobson , complete class act.
7. Michael Close lecture
8 Richard Sanders lecture
9. Juggler on Sunday
10 Raphael (again)


Low lights
1. Stu Francis building tension during water escape.
2. Scott and Muriel
3. Toilets stank - floor soaking...

While you guys were enjoying yourselves I spent the weekend here….

http://www.euroshop.de/

It's a job and someone has to do it 4.00am start saturday got home 10.30 Sunday....

John Wrote:

Toilets stank - floor soaking...

Why were they all closed with the exception of the one block by the Spanish bar?

Half the cubicles were out of action for one reason or another

Did Henry Evans make it there this year?

Yes he did

Henry was one of the dealer highlights for me. A really nice guy who seemed to make time and personal space for just about everyone that wanted it.

I saw one guy who took a product back that he obviosuly bought some time ago and said that it didn't work. Henry explained how it worked, proving there was no fault but still went out of his way to give him a free exchange for a new one and demo'd it. A nice touch I thought.

Crud David Stone was there.
S*** Next year I will be there.

Stone is so awesome!

highs and lows for me in no partic order as well

1. Shawn Faqohour in general but mainly his Cups and Balls routine
2. David Stone lecture and close up shows
3. Rafael on Saturday
4. Topaz - I've never seen him before
5. having supper with Ali Bongo and getting a 1 on 1 lesson in the hindu thread
6. Lennart Greens close up in the VIP as jsut so funny
7. Extreme Burn by Sanders
8. Juggler in the Gala show

Low Lights

1. Fukai on the Saturday night - 20 mins of my life I'd never get back
2. Rude people in the dealers hall shoving you around
3. Not really many to speak of

Purchases

1. Coinvexed
2. Kaps Style Fire wallet
3. Everything from Sanders - most exciting of which is Extreme Burn
4. Cell from David Stone

Nice thread. I wasn't able to make it to Blackpool so it's good to be able to read about peoples experiences. (A vicarious thrill, if you will).

At least I'll get to see Michael Jay et al. on Saturday.

dat8962: I know there is already a review for The Trilogy (and very extensive it is, too), but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, once you've had a chance to sit down and watch it; sounds like you have enough to keep you busy for a good while yet! I've been meaning to get this for a while but the price is proving to be a bit of a hurdle.

I had a great, and VERY BUSY, time performing/demming at my dealer stand. It was nice to meet so many "TalkMagic" members, too. Performing in the Ruskin Hotel most nights was fun, too. All in all, GREAT - but I'm now VERY tired!

Best - Paul Gordon

It was my first Blackpool Convention and I met some very friendly people. I enjoyed the 2 shows, the childrens entertainer competition and Geoffrey Durham,Wayne Dobson interviewed by Terry Seabrooke excellent and very funny. It was good to meet dat8962 and of course Mike Danata.

I'm a bit frustrated that I just couldn't spare the cash to come to the whole thing Would have loved to see some heroes (David Stone and Lennart Green in particular) and just taken in the whole experience. Also gutted not to have another chance to see John Archer - best comedy magician bar none I think.

I almost stuck around for the Ruskin on sunday evening but just couldn't face getting back any later than 2.30am... still, it was worth the journey if only to catch the tail end of the whole thing, so I could get an idea of what I'm missing and why I MUST go next year!

Still, I might as well join in for what I can:

Highs: the suitcase leg juggling woman... bloody hell!

Lows: The close-up magic bit of the aftershow party just not happening. Apparently that's a regular occurrence because everyone prefers the cabaret, but having not seen anything over the weekend I was looking forward to just a few hours of close-up, but sadly no

In case anyone was wondering who Eric, the little man who "wrecked" John Archer's crayon routine on the Saturday night was, this from http://nfo.net/brit/bd.html

Eric Delaney was born in London in 1924, and played to his first live audience at the age of six. In his early teens he was acclaimed as a "Drum Genius" taking command of the Royal Kiltie Junior Band and the Hughie Green Roadshow. By the time he was 16, he was voted Britain's Best Young Swing Drummer, and in 1941 at the age of 17, Eric joined George Shearing of the famous Ambrose Octet touring the variety theatres of that time.... etc etc etc

Eric is genuinely confused - I shared a table with him for the hotpot at last years's Gala party and he was just as confused as he was on Saturday. All those years of drumming have taken their toll but he's still a nice guy! Apparently John Archer didn't recognise him until he was on stage and it would have looked bad to send him back to his seat.