Number
118 - 28th September 2002
Comedy came out
on top at this year's British Ring Convention
with The Great Nardini winning the stage competition (together with
his excellent "assistant") and the brilliant Mark Shortland (photo)
winning the close-up (Mark
won the stage competition last year and is a real natural). In fact the close-up competition was of a higher standard then
normal with five or six acts worthy of the top prizes... Andy Martin
really stood out for me as well. Other highlights were: Fielding
West doing a great job emceeing the Saturday night Gala show (more comedy), and John
Fisher's lecture, the first Jeffery Atkins Memorial Lecture, "Lives of Illusion" recalling in vivid detail many
great magic moments and ending with a well deserved standing ovation. Antje Pode's act on
the Late Late Gala (Thursday night) was perfect in both its conception and
execution, and Bin Lin's (China) card production act great fun. Convention
organising secretary Tony Shelley and the entire team got it
right, as did the technical team lead by stage director Neil Roberts.
Here are the competition results, congratulations to all the winners:
Stage Competition Results:
First - The Great Nardini,
Second - Loki,
Third - Martin Cox,
Comedy - The Great Nardini,
Originality - Loki, Manipulation - James Parker
Close-up Competition Results: First - Mark Shortland, Second - Frederic Shark, Third - Rob Mollien 28.9.02
This year's International Magic
Convention has a new venue and a new format. The Holiday Inn, King
Cross, London, will host the entire convention which will be devoted to
close-up magic and feature some of the
world's finest, together with the close-up competition. The dates: Saturday November 30th and Sunday December 1st.
More details soon. Also, from International, The Magic of John Ramsey Volume 1
performed by Andrew Galloway has just been
released - 90 minutes of
magical excellence, available now (not yet on their website, but you can
order it nevertheless).
www.internationalmagic.com 28.9.02
Cardiff's International Festival of Music
in October stages the European premier of Ragtime the Musical featuring Harry
Houdini as one of its central characters, and it's nearly sold out:
www.cardiffmusicals.com
28.9.02
Pentagramus
is a new release from Black Artefacts, an effect that demonstrates the
latent power of one of magic's most widely known symbols - the pentagram.
Involving no sleight of hand, and an 'instant reset' - it should prove to
be popular with close-up workers who want to inject a little mind magic
into their presentations. Full details on the website:
www.blackhart.co.uk.
There's an article from Black Hart in MagicWeek this week:
Claaaaaaaaang! 28.9.02
Daryl
does the Full Monte! on both video and DVD and it's reviewed by Kevin Gallagher in MagicWeek
this week
Click Here
28.9.02
Tom Lyon will re-enact a real-life escape
from a 1980's hostage situation on BBC's Blue Peter this Monday afternoon.
Tom writes "I am trying to push my style of escape forward and concentrate
on escaping from real life situations rather than from the
abstract/artificial contraptions so many escapists find themselves in. I
hope this escape will be the first of many theatrical reality escapes I
perform - I believe they are where the future of my art lies." Tom
appeared on Blue Peter last year with a very accomplished escape sequence.
Blue Peter, BBC1, Monday 30th at 5pm.
28.9.02
Two
British magicians, Glyn Coy and
Rob James
(photo) fly out
to Egypt on October 4th to perform in a number of shows in Hurghada on the
Red Sea as part of a festival organised by
Papas Bar. Glyn will be performing his mind reading act and Rob
close-up magic.
28.9.02
The Alakazam.co.uk
stand at Eastbourne was certainly one of the busiest, with constant
demonstrations of all the latest releases. Knock 'em Dead!, the
company's all-time best seller was knocking 'em all dead, and Run Away
Joker a new card effect released at the convention, was also proving
to be very popular. More details on the website:
www.alakazam.co.uk 28.9.02
On October 15th Paul Gordon will be
presenting his card lecture to members of The Coventry Magic Circle,
magician guests are welcome at a cost of £4.00 each. Please contact The
Secretary, Trevor Curtis, on 024 7637 5832 or email
trevor@magicalentertainment.co.uk to reserve your place.
28.9.02
Ian
Rowland emails the news that Larry Becker is about to release
Stunners Plus, an expanded edition of his 1992 publication Stunners
which hasn't been available for years. A special 'one page website' offering a pre-publication 15%
discount is now online: www.stunnersplus.com
• Don't miss this week's
Review and
Article • Next week I've got
something new for all users of the MagicWeek For
Sale ads... • Your magic news is
always welcomed, that's it for this week, see you next week, Duncan.
28.9.02