Hello everyone!
Today’s topics are: John Carney Visit; Magialdia 2024; Update on Unexpected Agenda
These are The Magic Memories 198, gone online Sunday, October 13, 2024, exceptionally and just for once at 01:07h sharp.
All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.
I promised that I would finally report on the Magialdia magic convention, but must first tell you a few things about John Carney’s visit.
John Carney Visit
John Carney, whom I had already met at Magialdia ten days before, for a few days was our house guest in Muttenz, Switzerland.
Because he had also been booked by the German convention in Nordisch-Nobel in Lübeck, near Hamburg (OCT 9-12, 2024), I had suggested to John to stay in Europe and visit with friends.
This he did with a little “Tour of Europe” that took him from Barcelona (visiting our friend Toni Cachadiña), over Avignon, to Vigevano-Milan (visiting our friend Aurelio Paviato), and finally staying with us for a few days, before embarking on more travels that would take him to Göttingen, over Hamburg to his final destination, the magic convention in Lübeck.
John and I talked a lot of magic, did a couple of extensive walks among the vineyards close to my house – the Greek philosophers would have called these peripatetic walks – had some great gastronomical moments I had carefully prepared, including fine wines… and we even managed to smoke a cigar 🙂
Below a snap shot of a session in the small library downstairs.
On the back wall of the photo notice the three card-themed prints – what else? – by Alois Finsterer, Subirach and Gustavo Otero. On top of the windows a facsimile of the famous Goethe magic box.
A highlight for all of us, I believe, was Saturday, October 5th, when I organized a Magic Meeting in honor of John, and later a copious dinner with Frank Garcia’s “Super Meatloaf” from his Super Subtle Card Miracles, as the main course, a recipe that is at least as good as the rest of the book (you must try that out, it is very easy to do, or ask your partner to do it…).
Comments on the “company”: Nicolas, a friend of many years and almost as many talents, among other things, he’s a great chef, superb wine connoisseur, talented pianist and a magic buff. Lorenz and Tino I have mentioned several times before in my The Magic Memories, both professional performers, and in my opinion possibly Switzerland’s most promising magic talents – You’ll hear from them as time goes by…
One more thing about this “Magic Meeting”: Whenever I get a chance to invite a few magicians to my house, I try to make a mini-magic-convention out of it.
The idea then is that each participant will give some kind of presentation from 20 to 30 minutes about any topic that relates to magic.
This can be a performance and subsequent discussion, a book or convention review, a talk on a specific subject, etc. In the past this has proven a great idea that gives the meeting substance and makes it a superb learning-teaching experience for everyone attending.
On this occasion I started out by presenting half a dozen items from my upcoming Unexpected Agenda, which already generated a lively discussion about the topics touched upon.
Tino gave a talk and demonstration of some very unusual gimmicked cards he had created (he is REALLY good at that), plus a short performance of his signature piece where a selected card appears inside a closed transparent glass jar – looks like trick-photography but isn’t. I hope you get a chance to see this one day.
Lorenz gave a talk delving into the history and various techniques of the Overhand Shuffle, considering its developments until the 1980s (it’s a work in progress). I love this typ of historical and technical talks that focus on one subject, and in my opinion it is the way to study magic: by instrument and by topic. As Ascanio used to say: Be broad and be deep.
Finally, John, our star, did and discussed what only he can, and his inimitable way, pure sleight-of -hand, with cards, coins, balls, etc., done at the highest level imaginable, with great panache and originality.
Each presenter would deserve a much longer comment, of course.
I simply wished to give you a brief sneak-peek into this event, because I hope that it will inspire you to do the same the next time you meet up with two or three of your magic friends.
I can assure you that informing your friends upfront about the idea, and asking them to prepare a more or less “formal” presentation, will yield great results, much more than if you meet without a plan.
In any case I strongly suggest to extend this “formal” part by an informal part, and the very best way to do it, is to organize a great dinner.
Talking shop in a formal round, and then socializing will create a special bond, and the experience resulting from it will go far beyond a learning experience.
If you are the president of a small local magic club, you could even think about doing such a thing once or twice a year with your members, but only those may participate who also give a presentation… and don’t forget to go to a good restaurant afterwards (no hot dogs, no burgers, no sandwiches, but real food!). (Do a public show to raise the necessary money…)
Magialdia 2024
For past reports on other facets of the Magialdia three-week festival see The Magic Memories 38, 41, 146, 177, all available HERE.
This years magic convention, which like every year took place within the larger three-week festival, had 420 conventioneers attending and enjoying a many-faceted program – I shall comment on just a few.
Window Display Magic
One of the curiosities of Magialdia, and something I have never seen anywhere else, is that on Thursday evening, from 7 to 10 pm, they get seven shops in the commercial center Vitoria, to empty one of their windows, which is then fitted like a small stage, with loudspeakers outside on the street, chairs for an audience, and then has a magician perform his or her act, mostly of a visual nature inside the window.
This is very popular with the people from Vitoria, and a most original way for the shops to present themselves in the context of an original cultural happening.
The past editions of Magialdia have seen stars like Otto Wessely, Sylvester the Jester, Armando Lucero and many other perform their magic under the peculiar conditions
It should be mentioned that this event, like several others, are completely free for the public, and the other shows are heavily subsidized by the city.
I don’t know of any other city that has a comparable magic festival, and this for now over thirty years!
Close-up Gala (Friday night)
Friday evening, 8pm, is the usual call for the close-up gala, which takes place in the same theatre the daily presentations are held, and which really offers optimal viewing conditions from practically each of the ca. 400 seats.
This is supplemented by three screens, two smaller ones on the side and a big one on the back and overhead.
All performers had something of interest to show, but it was the last act, John Carney, who out stood them all – and I’m not the only one to say that.
I mention this because all the other acts, more “modern” than Carney’s, had a lot of talk, too much for my taste, and something I myself am guilty of, whereas Carney, with his super-classic sleight-of-hand magic does what few seem to do nowadays, especially in close-up, namely, magic-magic-magic, bam-bam-bam.
Carney’s magic is a paramount example that a very good trick, executed with ethos and virtuosity, speaks for itself, and the success he had proved this is so.
A most magical performance, and a lesson how magic can be.
This said, all other acts had something of interest to show and did this well.
There were a few young performers we had never seen before, who were promising, and with a few years more experience, and if they are willing to listen to their audience and to some elders, will get far.
I would also like to mention the lady presenter Dania Diaz from Venezuela, whom I didn’t know and who did an excellent job as an MC: it is certainly not easy to act in this role in a still male-dominated world, but she had the audience in the palm of her hand from the outset, and did so with great charm and magical savoir-faire.
Stage Gala (Saturday evening)
Due to renovations, which will go on for the next two years at least, Magialdia hat to move their Saturday night gala from the old (and beautiful!) theatre to another more modern one. The old one was located in the heart of historical downtown, so you had to walk a bit to get to it, which is something everyone always enjoyed doing.
The advantage, if you will, of the move, was that the new theatre was located inside the convention building, which of course is not so bad either. And as a special guest I got a great seat 🙂
The drawback of this theatre – so says organizer José Ángel Suarez – is that, first, the stage is too small for certain acts.
So, unfortunately they could not book David Copperfield to make his Lear Jet appear, let alone disappear… Second, the new theatre holds 200 seats less that the old theatre, so in two shows they lose 400 tickets, ouch!
Outstanding performers were the initial act, Vegas from Italy, who did some original, never-before-seen effects with a rope, all done to music.
Another act that surprised and pleased me was 18-year-old Maurice Grange, as well as Nicolais Striebel, both from Germany, with a superb act using paper airplanes.
Lectures
Too many lectures to report, so just a few I particularly liked.
Matt Pritchard form the UK did an atypical lecture for a magic convention with a focus on unusual and original optical illusions and cognitive psychology. Matt has an interesting site, and you can learn more about his approach HERE.
I though the lecture was excellent in all aspects, and every magic convention should think about having one or two of these off-beat lectures, that are not only informative and interdisciplinary, but also teach how to present a talk professionally, something most “lecturers” do not know how to do… (as many seem to concentrate on quickly running through tricks and their technical explanation, with the main purpose to sell their wares thereafter).
I also like Lorenz Schär’s (Switzerland) lecture enormously: every bit was informative, original, interesting. And one could sense it all came from his passionate study of the art and science of magic, as well as from his real performing repertoire. I was a bit sad to hear comments like, “Yes, a nice lecture,” coming from hobbyists who just seek novelty and want to be fooled, instead of seeking a true professional’s advice on how to study magic and become better, something Lorenz taught admirably well.
Not everyone seemed to like Hugues Protat’s act in the Saturday evening stage gala, where he acted as Edmond, but his lecture on acting, presentation and finding a stage persona was very good in my opinion and a true winner for the convention. Although I do not agree on everything he says about acting and magic, I could have listened to him for another hour (we actually continued our conversation over a few drinks later at night).
Slydini by Slydini
The collector’s box Slydini by Slydini published by the Georges Proust’s Académie de Magie is now available for shipping, and you can find more infos HERE. If you are interested, hurry up, as the pre-sales offer will soon run out, as will the sets themselves.
George, who should have given a presentational talk at Magialdia, unfortunately had to cancel due to health issues.
But fortunately our mutual friend Yves Carbonnier, who was also involved in the pre-works of the production, as were Juan Tamariz, Gaëtan Bloom and others, was more than an adequate substitute: In twenty minutes he gave an engaging presentation, not only commenting on the genesis of the set and showing its contents, but also showed some yet unseen video material contained on the five-hour-plus USB-stick that forms the centerpiece of the set.
At this point I should mention that all talks, lectures, shows presented by non-spanish speaking performers, were very ably translated by my good friend Luigi Iglesias, in the most professional way. Luigi has also translated some of my books into Spanish. He was an important part of the success of this year’s convention, and beside this he is super-nice guy 🙂
Final Gala on the Plaza España (Sunday evening)
The Festival traditionally closes with a final show of ca. 75 minutes on the beautiful Plaza España in the heart of the historical center of Vitoria. The photo below shows a view of the (yet) empty plaza, with the big stage.
If the weather is good – and this year it was beautiful on all four days – the plaza fills to capacity, with ca. 800 people, and is a worthy closure to another great Magialdia year.
The Basques and the Gaules
The Basques do as the Gauls do (Asterix and Obelix): They end every adventure with a fine meal.
So much more to recount, so little time to do so…
Update on Unexpected Agenda
Francesco Mugnai – of Florence Art Edizioni – sent in the photo below showing the first printed pages of Unexpected Agenda coming hot off the press.
You can see a single sheet with sixteen book-pages; this is then folded and bound-sown into the book-block, which then will be glued to the end-papers, which in turn stick to the hardcover.
Two different companies are doing this, besides the material (paper, cardboard, etc.) coming again from other companies.
The reading band and the cellophaning are again outsources to two different companies before the finished book – stapled on palettes – goes to the shipper (there are three shippers until the books reach me in Switzerland, and at least five for all of you outside of Europe).
And this is only a short-cut through the genesis of the book from the point it has been written and layouted – there are so many steps before that, which I hinted at in the past.
Considering that ALL these companies have raised their prices for labor AND materials for at least 30% since Covid and the Russian-Ukraine war, you may agree that the sales price of €/$ 75 per book is not much, but you can get it now at 20% off at the pre-publication offer by CLICKING HERE.
Wish you all a successful and happy week,
Roberto Giobbi
