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South Tyneside convention 2010

Surprisingly, fewer people came to the South Tyneside convention this year, although the line-up was, in my opinion, excellent.

Some of the highlights for me were:

Lennart Green, the Swedish world-champion close-up/card magician. This man is amazing. He is famous for his careless and chaotic handling of cards, which is amusingly convincing yet covers a frighteningly sharp awareness of exactly what is going on at all times. I was lucky enough to be involved twice: once in his lecture and the second time for the close-up. The trick I helped with in the lecture turned out to be self-working (!), although the presentation was so engaging that I doubt anyone would have guessed this. Lennart’s close-up act was fabulous and, as well as the cards, I enjoyed his version of the three-shell game, done with scarab beetles.

Lennart Green

Brad Manuel, the Australian comedy magician. Far too many people seem to think that ‘comedy’ is an easy way into magic and that standing around telling dirty, corny jokes - and/or insulting the audience - passes for entertainment. Brad, however, understands both comedy and magic and does loads of clever tricks as well as being (genuinely) funny. His trademark running gag is producing a shot-glass of drink from his shoe, over and over again.

Richard McDougall, the wonderful close-up magician I saw at Simon Drake’s House of Magic last Hallowe’en (see my review on this blog). Sadly, he wasn’t doing close-up at this convention but he has a great stage act too, which we did get to see. Richard also gave a lecture, though by no means of the usual sort. It was an analysis of the state of the magical art. I found this riveting and will be writing more about it in subsequent posts.

Simon Drake, who attended only virtually. Martin Duffy, one of the convention organisers, interviewed this legend via Skype, which worked surprisingly well. I’m a huge fan of Simon’s and it was cool to hear his news and find out more of his views on magic how to create it.

The gala shows were of a very high standard. The first was compèred by Brad Manuel and the second by John Archer. Our friend Matthew J Dowden did an impressive manipulation act and Shahid Malik, whom I’d never seen before but certainly want to see again, showed us some fantastic illusions. Jeton, the gentleman juggler from Germany, presented an extraordinary series of feats, including balancing an enormous mirror on his forehead, making it turn a revolution in mid-air and then catching it back on his forehead.

This is a well thought-out and well organised convention, different and stimulating. I always enjoy it and I’m looking forward to the next one already.

Blackpool convention 2010

I greatly enjoyed Blackpool, as always. It was a different shape for me this year because I didn’t go to many lectures and spent far more time than usual socialising. I met lots of interesting people I had never actually spoken to before, although I’ve known who they were and admired their magic. Among these were Gary Jones from Exeter and John Bannon from Chicago, both of whom I liked enormously.

For me, the Friday evening was dominated by the British Magical Close-Up Championships. Here’s what happened:

First prize was won by Min Hyung Kim from Korea, who didn’t seem to me to be the best but was certainly very good and I liked the way his bottle cap kept reappearing on the bottle.

Second prize was won by Johan Stahl from Sweden, who was fantastic. He set the scene for coffee and cake, and made cups, pens and coffee pots appear, disappear and float in the air with graceful skill and aplomb.

Third prize went to our friend John van der Put. His act was the usual cleverly organised chaos, witty and different.

The other contestants all also put in performances of a very high standard. They were:

Iain Moran, who showed us traditional, skilful close-up magic with cards, coins and ballbearings
Will Gray, who did a great trick with a sealed pack of cards as well as his famous goldfish production
Craig Petty, who did clever close-up to snippets of appropriate songs
Russell Leeds, who revived my soundly dormant interest in elastic bands
Rob James, who gave us high-tech magic and a comedy insight into his thinking, via a voiceover
Stephen Ablett, who remained admirably unfazed after he was interrupted and had to start his act again because the camera battery went dead.

Well done to everyone who took part. It was great fun to watch.


The Saturday evening show was excellent – and more so for being compèred by the marvellous Tony Stevens. The first half was the Intercontinental Stage Magic Championships, five very good acts from Korea, Austria and the UK. I particularly appreciated Dave Allen and Carl Charlesworth’s spoof on an American private-eye sketch. Dave played a ‘magic dick’ and Carl dressed up as the mysterious woman who always appears in such stories.

The second half was Cirque du Magie, an eclectic mixture of acts, mostly from America. I especially enjoyed David Kaplan’s juggling and comedy magic and David & Dania’s incredible quick-change act. I’ve seen David & Dania perform many times now but they’re so good I’m always happy to watch them again.


Those were the main events, for me. It all went very quickly and I’m now looking forward to the South Tyneside convention in the middle of March.