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The London Festival of Magic 2013
11th - 15th November 2013
Reported by Roberto Forzoni
The Magic of Magic Monday 11th November
Street & Alfresco Magic Tuesday 12th November
Mentalism Wednesday 13th November
Card & Coin Magic Thursday 14th November
Characterisation & Stagecraft Friday 15th November
Day Four: Card & Coin Magic
A full theatre again, this time with card and coin enthusiasts, who were
rewarded with a first class display of technical and entertaining performance
from no less than nine performers. The quality of the day shone through.
Session One: Fat Chance: Peter Woerde (Holland)
A really good start to the card day to get everyone uplifted, Peter demonstrated
some really good card and gambling type effects. He opened with some demos on
various and extensive shuffling techniques ending by showing the deck was still
in new deck order! He went on to give a number of great poker demonstrations
with various spectators whereby the spectator seemingly always made the choices
yet still lost. A coins-across routine with coloured poker chips, carried on the
casino/gambling theme. Peter then continued with some delightfully skilful
displays of a variety of gambling effects with cards including a Darwin Ortiz
Triumph effect. The demonstrations were skillfully executed, as you would have
expected, and with a real nice manner to boot! His explanations had the whole
theatre in total attention mode. For more information check out
www.peterwoerde.nl
Session Two: Christian Engblom
Christian showed three real strong ‘workers’. He opened with an original and
extremely clever bill switch effect with a spectator using a lovely utility
device that didn’t go on any fingers! The device (which can easily be made by
anyone and Christian was not selling it!) could be used with coin changes and
really did give the feel of real magic before your eyes. He followed with a real
neat card effect with a Pablo Picaso story line he called ‘The Near Perfect
Circle’ (based on a Paul Curry original) – find it on the Fat Brothers DVD - it
was a real audience pleaser as its premise and technical handling was really
straightforward; an excellent one to take away!
He finished with an extremely clever and visual rubber band routine based on Dan
Harman’s Travelling Cash.
For more information see:
www.christianengblom.com
Session Three:: Andy Gladwin
Andy demonstrated his Master Push off technique with a variety of effects -
because of time constraints he demoed 5 moves in 5 minutes! And offered a free
download from vanishing inc if he didn’t achieve this and asked for distractions
– which he received in plenty – I will never look at Time Sutton the same way
again (you need to ask someone who was there!)
Check the web site and if you’ve not seen or used this, technique, buy the DVD –
it really is good.
www.vanishingincmagic.com
Session Four: Miguel Angel Gea
Andy demonstrated some really neat card and coin magic with some excellent
explanations; he especially got lots of attention for his method of transferring
coins in a clever way - disguised from a closed hand to another. (I missed the
first part of the demo – sorry Miquel) check
www.miguelangelgea.com for more info
Session Five: Close up magic of an Eccentric Nature: Charlie Frye
Charlie showed some coin magic to start and used poker chips (quite topical at
moment with gambling routines) as an alternative to regular coins – starting
with a neat balance and spin on his finger tip (a dealer item!). He then showed
a delightful mixture of matrix-based effects including an ingenious gimmick
device (you can easily make) for ‘dice’ matrix (the audience loved this one).
Charlie followed with coin transfers and ‘three-fly’ type effects with small and
large coins. Really entertaining, lots of stuff to take away. Well done Charlie
Frye
Check out
www.charliefrye.com
Session Six: The Ultimate Travellers: Michael Vincent
Michael Vincent is a real thinker in magic (and one of my inspirations - I used
his cards across routine for my audition for the Magic Circle); today he shared
his journey for a study of a classic effect - Dai Vernon’s ‘Travellers’. From
the Vernon Touch (“use your head and be natural” from Dr Elliot), he spoke about
having an authentic self-expression and gave some great insight and quotations
along the way; he spoke of Vernon's quote about “learning one trick so well
..that everyone would talk about you” and continued quite eloquently of his
journey whilst learning the travellers effect. He referred to an earlier version
in his development of the routine posted on You Tube - Masterpiece of modern
card magic
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lHRWjVAf0s
If you are interested in how to really develop a routine, and one way of really
researching the history behind the process you/ effect you wish to use, go see
this lecture by Michael Vincent if you can. Further information
www.michaelvincentmagic.com
Session Seven: Misdirection, punctuation and relaxation: John Carney
Another masterclass of magic performance; John is one of the most respected
magicians around. He posed the question “What kind of magic are you trying to
portray?” and offered his respected opinion on performance – “do you want to be
perceived as a skilled performer or someone doing magic?” John gave an in depth
look at what misdirection is and how to use it – he spoke about the manipulation
of interest and focus, the psychology and timing involved, not just misdirection
of the eye but your entire faculties. John explained the importance of doing
your ‘move’ in the context and flow of performance and spoke of how he lost some
technique but his moves became better because of it e.g. the pass; he quoted
Erdnase “it is most crucial that the observer would not suspect let alone detect
a move”
John finished an excellent lecture with this quote – “Misdirection is the art of
concealing the art of magic”
Session Eight: Mandi Gilbert
Mandi gave an informative talk on how and why he uses certain techniques,
referring to economy of emotion and being as natural as possible. His ways of
forcing cards was superb and looked so innocent as to fool the most accomplished
magician let alone lay person; he also demonstrated a neat techniques to switch
cards, again using economy of motion. Mandi spoke about taking standard
techniques and adapting them (e.g. double or triple lifts) with ability to move
the double freely after the ‘dirty work’ had been done. He observed how so many
‘get ready’ moves are bad and look pretty obvious, so used time misdirection to
avoid similar problems – it was about picking your time with an awareness of
tension and relaxation. Mandi would extensively use jogged cards (and random
spreads) for some innovative forces and misdirection – especially taking the
heat of a set up – very clever! He finished with a neat Oil and water routine.
If you see him around this weekend ask him to fool you!
Session Nine: Danny DaOrtiz
I have mentioned a few ‘masterclasses’ we have already had the pleasure of
seeing this week. This really was a case of finishing the day with a bang. It
was the first evening that there was not a formal show but for the full house
who witnessed Danny’s performance tonight he did things we will NEVER forget.
The lecture, demonstrations and explanations highlighted the reasons we do
magic. A privilege to be there.
© Roberto Forzoni, November 2013