talkmagic.co.uk

Now, I don't know much about French magicians. However I've been exposed to a few over the last few months (fortunately I've not yet been prosecuted for any of the exposures) and from what I've seen they have a truly outstanding line of entertaining flashy visual close up.

I saw the relatively well known David Stone lecture on wednesday night, I've met Etienne Pradier a few times and saw a lecture by a young chap who I'd never heard of before called Eric Le Blond about 5 months ago. Personally I thought Eric was the best of the bunch but anyway, these guys have real skill in all areas of close up both in technical ability and really superb misdirection. I've never yet seen a magician manage to pick up a glass of orange juice from a table in full view of a room of vigilant fellow wizards, produce it from his shoe (I mean actually pull it out of the shoe, not from behind it) then get met with silence when they ask who saw the move.

In the pub I saw David Stone at he was chatting to the barman who asked him to show him a trick. On the spur of the moment he pulled out a silk, vanished a coin into it, produced the coin from elsewhere on the bar, then produced another guy's bottle of beer from beneath the silk, then mumbled something incoherent at which point we realised he'd got his bloody shoe in his mouth. Honestly.

Has anyone else had any first hand experience with these gallic wondermen? From what I've seen they'll be taking over the world soon. If you put any of the three mentioned above in front of a camera next to Blaine, Dynamo et al then gave them nowt more than an ordinary coin and told them to perform the public would have a real benchmark to compare with.

I don't have any firsthand experience...but Jean Jacques Sanvert - if you ever get a chance to check him out, do so! Wonderfully talented in every respect.