talkmagic.co.uk

if i'd been there i'd have mentioned you, but work and finantial comitments ment not this year next one maybey.

even though i wasn't there a special thankyou to the tm member who offered to help me out.

Magic Mark wrote:Nobody has mentioned me once...

I did mention you!
(I just called you Chris... hmmmmmm...)

Corrected all that now. I can be terrible with names, but then again, you might have been inarticulated when we shook hands

I even called Bananafish: Bananarama, (once, only once!).

gunnarkr wrote:I even called Bananafish: Bananarama, (once, only once!).

Hhmmmmm. I suppose that makes up for me getting your name wrong when I first added you to the list...

It was great meeting all of you. Especially the Icelandic contingent. There will be some photo's published on TM sometime, it has just been an awfully busy week so far.

The Blackpool Flu...

Hello, everyone! I do not even know where to begin. It was such a long, magnificant journey for me. I finally arrived home yesterday with a sleight touch of the Blackpool Flu. Of course, most of it was "self-induced" for sure.

Jay, Richie, and I arrived in Blackpool Thursday afternoon and spent the remainder of that day unloading a c*** (not the best) load of boxes. This was my first trip to the U.K. and it was better than I imagined. The hotel we stayed at was crawling with old people smoking and red velvet draps. It was like a time machine, but without Michael J. Fox. Everyone was so damn nice to us. I truly appreciate England's sense of manners for sure.

We went down to the Winter Gardens and I was truly amazed. It was huge! I've never seen so many dealers in my life! It was like heaven (but with a price tag). After we set up, we walked around the "fine" downtown of Blackpool a bit. It reminded me of Coney Island in the States...you could get a real sense of history and imagine what it may of been like in it's heyday.

Friday was the beginning of the mad rush. As we were ready in the dealer's room, rumors were spreading that people were already lining up for the doors to open 2 hours ahead of time. You could just tell how excited everyone was. The unsung hero's of the conventions, the volunteers, were absolutely unbelievable. They would do anything for you and I can easily see why the convention is a success every year.

After the gates opened it was a mad rush. It was difficult to even walk thru the dealer's areas some times. I got to meet some TM buddies: Flash (got a photo with him), Jeric, Gunnar, Magic mark, and others. Flash did invite me to the Ruskin Friday night, but he couldn't call my phone due to it being a US number. I went out with a couple of guys after the dealer's area closed and we had fish and chips downed with plenty of Guiness. It was great...what I remember! We got stopped by a homeless guy selling dirty joke books for 2 pounds. I bought one as my souvenior of Blackpool.

The next day it was tough getting up for sure. Between jetlag and the pints, I was starting to feel like a tourist after all. This was the morning of Jay's lecture so we had to be there early to set up. His lecture was standing room only (500+) and he did an excellent job. He is a great teacher of magic. After the lecture, there was a mob of people trying to buy his merch. It almost completely sold out in 15 minutes! It was crazy! After the lecture, it was back to the dealer room to help Richard Sanders sell his new trick "Interlace". It's a great trick and he sold out completely.

I had no idea how tiring it is to be a "dealer". Standing behind a table all day is crazy! I have a new respect for the people who do it full time because it is a lot of work. I met another young TM magi (sorry, I forgot your name) who invited me to the Ruskin and I told him I would try to come. I want to apologize to him because I never made it. I was just drop dead tired and I had to get up early for a train for London on Sunday morning.

So, I did not get to see a lot of TM magi's. Hopefully, this was just the beginning of many trips to the U.K. for me. I wish you all the best and I want to thank everyone for being so damn nice to me.

Now, If I could only get rid of this Blackpool flu...

PS. I will have some pictures of my trip posted on my website (www.planetskutt.com) soon! Look for the heading: Blackpool 2007!

my blackpool flu was the result of only sleeping for 3 hours each night and having drunk a shed load of beer throughout the day/evening/night/early morning.

the welsh people are funny magicians. i think dai loved the cobain too much though!

other memorable quotes from the weekend:
"er... is that al bongo?".."no... it's ali bongo" - some random
"ah, yellow ball man".."Lawrence" - a few randoms
"it's like a zombie table" - about dirk losander
"i wish i had a name like Oberon" - myself
"i think mikey g is hitting on me" - me again
"if you want to earn £1mil in magic start with £2mil" - a lecture, i forget who
"ooo, how little is dyanmo" - one of the welsh folk i think
"what the hell are you doing here?" - an old friend of mine who didn't know i was a magician now
"icelandic people are cool" - majortom
i'll post up other ones as they come to me

mike skutt wrote:We got stopped by a homeless guy selling dirty joke books for 2 pounds

I got stopped by the same guy and bought two copies of his 'RagMag' book, Dunno why, the jokes were the same in each !

and just think, only 51 more weeks til the next one!

"...we know majortom's a junkie!"

As promised here are some of the TM guys at Blackpool. I know there were more about but trying to organise everyone to be in the same place at the same time wasn't easy. I espcially apologise to Darren at Magic Attic but I guess it just wasnt to be. Maybe next year.

From left to right we have...


Flashy, Magic Mark, Midas Kid, Gunnarkr (at the back) Chris Cowly, Madrake (sans beard), Lawrence (sans ball) Major Tom, Jericbilo, and Jonni (directly from a tube of Pringles).

A motley crew - but a great bunch of guys. I am glad I met you all.

bananafish wrote:Lawrence (sans ball)

although i am actually holding my ball, it's just not on my head. I'm sure one of the pictures had the ball on my head.
and while i am sans ball, i am avec/mit/con manbag
(and finally, a picture that i don't look fat in, woohoo)

I look like ive seen someone sneezing in the distance......

and curtesy of Gunnar, one that includes me (although I think I need lessons on how to smile)

Jericbilo has clearly just been photoshoped onto both of those, either that of he just didnt move an inch between pictures.

whoever has the one of me with a ball on my head, put that up

Lawrence wrote:Jericbilo has clearly just been photoshoped onto both of those...

Bananafish was also added to this one from a lonely one man photo

What a great convention it was and so nice to meet many of the TM members. Let's see... Whom did I meet from the list?

Bananafish met him
Mandrake met him
The Last Deck on the Left didn't meet him
Lawrence met him
Major Tom met him
Tony Hyams didn't meet him
Saxmad didn't meet him
Lady of Mystery didn't meet her
Card-Shark met him
Jericbilo met him
IanGee didn't meet him
Magic Mark met him
Lozey didn't meet him
King of Keighley didn't meet him
Midas Kid met him
Soren Riis met him
Jonni met him
Tomo didn't meet him
syoung didn't meet him
Timlic didn't meet him
Chris Cowly met him
Flash met him

Well... this is according to my memory and knowledge. Although I'm not sure if Chris has a different nick name here.
If I met you and you're not listed as such above, please PM me!
But I think this is quite good, though I only met a few of you very briefly, some others I was chatting with for a long time, seeing magic tricks and performing a few too.

Lawrence wrote:whoever has the one of me with a ball on my head, put that up

OK, by popular demand, I closed my eyes and... this is what I remember: