talkmagic.co.uk

http://www.soulandspiritmagazine.com/

Expect a two page "spread" on the event in the above magazine!

Woot.

Not that winning was what mattered, but Wellsy won his belt. Which has more notches in it than it used to.

The crowd was pretty much 50/50 believer/skeptic, which was appropo. Donna Stewart had a rough opening but managed some hits by the end of it. Peter had a great opening, wobbly middle (though maybe not as wobbly as he thinks) and a strong ending. Bay City Rollers eh? Who knew?

Cracking fun, and can't wait for a rematch.

Yes, great fun. It's not the winning, it's the taking part! But Pete did eveyone proud. Thoroughly enjoyed it, although I must admit to finding my shoes extremly interesting when Donna kept getting a barrage of "no's" when she was trying to make contact. I did feel for the poor woman. Maybe she sould hand out some billets next time.

Nearly forgot Ciarán showing off his PK abilities, too - knocking a bin off of a footstool from ten paces.

wish i could have made this

I would love to have seen this! Can anyone give us a run through of proceedings and what happened?

Craig.

cragglecat wrote:I would love to have seen this! Can anyone give us a run through of proceedings and what happened?

Craig.

I would love to give a full run through, but as I've had a few glasses of red tonight and as I was the organiser, perhaps it would be better if someone else more impartial gave a run through. Mr. Grue?? Where are you??

I do however have some pics that I'll try to post tomorrow.

Piccies! Marvellous!

I'm also the worst one to give a running commentary, because I'm my own worst critic. But I did amaze myself at my own luck on more than one occasion... who am I kidding, it was psychological godliness!

Pete

I too have succumbed to the grape - will rattle off a few inches tomorrow if I can find the time.

The Dragon Hall has a long and illustrious association with the magic fraternity and so it was a rare delight to be able to go through its hallowed doors for such a unique event.

Ciarán O' Keeffe hosted the show, setting the tone very early on as one of demonstration, rather than a battle to the death. The highlight here was a bin toppling over just as Ciarán said the word "psychic" which he promptly declared as proof of his PK ability. A show of hands suggested that half of the audience believed in the paranormal, a little less than half in mediumship, and that nearly everyone there had received a reading at some point.

Peter Campbell-Wells was first to take to the floor, and as chits were handed out, he got a couple of direct hits on the possible embarrassing secrets we'd been asked to submit. There followed a non-tedious Zener card effect, and what I understand was Peter's first performance of Bob Cassidy's 4D Telepathy, an effect I'd not seen before but, if my hunches were correct, was an incredibly cheeky and powerful bit of work, despite a miss in the final phase.

Peter finished up with the embarrassig secrets, which covered everything from a secret taste for Celine Dion to having lied to schoolchums that you'd had one of the Bay City Rollers.

Before discussing Donna, I ought to say that I am a hopeful skeptic. I think most mediums believe they have a genuine ability, but are mistaken. I say that more to put the below into context, so you can make up your own mind, than to open up an attack, which is not what I want to do.

Donna had the unenviable task of following the bouncing entertainment of Peter with an earnest attempt to relay messages from the spirit world. My recollection may not be perfect but I'm sure there was really only one fairly certain hit during Donna's forty-five minutes. That followed on from about fifteen minutes of Donna failing to find a home for two messages. It was painful and awkward and testament to Donna's bravery that she stuck with it. As Mr Bell has said previously, just accepting the booking alone was brave for any medium, knowing that they'd not necessarily be playing to as receptive an audience as they're used to.

I doubt anyone's skepticism was shaken by Donna's demonstration (though I mean that in the "absence of proof does not equal proof of absence" sense). There was no real moment of bold and powerful connections being made with peculiar unguessable information. I think Donna is sincere, but felt that much of what she was doing was cold reading whether she is aware of that or not. I may be wrong, but that's what I walked away with, and I'm sure Donna would appreciate my honesty in saying that.

What Donna did not do, and is to her credit, was to allow herself to be swayed into placing messages with the wrong people, or to openly take on information that was volunteered by the audience.

The afternoon was rounded off with a question and answer session, which covered such diverse topics as "how does mentalism work", advice on picking people to read, the existence of common experiences that we believe are unique to us (the old "scar on the knee" ploy), whether or not mediums use "back-up", and how easily can mediums distinguish between receiving messages and "just guessing" (something I could have heard more on!).

Overall it was an enjoyable afternoon. It's a shame the event didn't take place at the Magic Circle, but I do feel that was the MC's loss and the Dragon Hall's gain.

The afternoon was rounded off with a question and answer session, which covered such diverse topics as "how does mentalism work", advice on picking people to read, the existence of common experiences that we believe are unique to us (the old "scar on the knee" ploy), whether or not mediums use "back-up", and how easily can mediums distinguish between receiving messages and "just guessing" (something I could have heard more on!).

funny that came up at the round table at Tabular eh?

Thanks for that Mr Grue. Very good and accurate account of the afternoon. But you forgot to mention the burlesque girls. Bless their feather-laden, beret wearing cotton socks.

Photos below:


Pete with Ciaran O'Keefe and Donna Stewart.


Pete being harassed by some idiot.

themagicwand wrote:you forgot to mention the burlesque girls. Bless their feather-laden, beret wearing cotton socks.

That was my embarrassing secret.

I WAS SOBER! HONEST GUV'NER!
and that's not my real hair either!