Hello everyone!
Today’s topics are: Las jornadas cartomágicas de San Lorenzo de El Escorial 2024
These are The Magic Memories 201, gone online Sunday, November 3, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.
All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.
As you are reading this I’m back from what many call the “Escorial Card Conference”, but the correct title of which is…
Las jornadas cartomágicas de San Lorenzo de El Escorial 2024
I have reported about this recurring event several times in The Magic Memories, and those who are new to these posts, may want to check last year’s report by CLICKING HERE. There are more…
Generalities & Short History
This meeting, which brings together some of the world’s leading card experts for three days of full-immersive studies (actually TWO loooong nights), talks and performances, used to be part of the famous Escuela Mágica de Madrid (EMM), the Spanish school of thought founded in Madrid by Juan Antón, Arturo de Ascanio, Ricardo Marré, José Puchol, Juan Tamariz, Ramón Varela and Camilo Vázquez in June 1971.
(Those interested may CLICK HERE to read the English version of the manifest setup by Juan Tamariz, and signed by all founding members.)
The first “Jornadas” took place exactly fifty years ago in San Lorenzo de El Escorial (more info about the village with less than 20’000 inhabitants HERE), enabling the members of the EMM, who did not live in Madrid, to meet, share and study magic for three days.
This was the time Spain was still under the dictatorship of Franco, and it affected the way the first meetings were organized and conducted. I hope that one day someone will tell us more about the historical details.
For years the meetings took place in the same hotel, the Hotel Victoria Palace, then and now considered the hotel #1 in Escorial, with the little difference that before the ownership changed in 2010, the hotel was very affordable (I remember paying ca. $ 60 for a night with breakfast, and we got the conference room for free, or for very little money). Now the room rates have doubled, and the fee for the conference room blows our budget.
As a consequence, for the past ten years or so the meeting has been taking place in the Hotel Lanceros, the hotel just next door to the Victoria Palace.
For nostalgic reasons, however, this year I decided to book my room at the Victoria Palace, which although 30% dearer than the Lanceros, had 100% nicer rooms and overall feeling. This math makes sense to me…
When Juan Tamariz first invited me to attend, in 1980, at age twenty-one, we were less than twenty attendants: I remember Ascanio, Tamariz, Camilo, Pepe Carroll, Toni Cachadina, Alfonso Moliné, Reinhard Müller, Dieter Ebel, Joan Font, Vanni Bossi, plus occasional visitors, such as Bilis, Zarrow, Elmsley, etc.
A few years later the number of attendants increased to sixty plus, too many, and now the peak is at about fifty… still, too many people just sitting there without contributing. Obviously, this is just my friendly opinion.
The Topics
The idea of the meeting is that the year before, we define four topics, which will then be studied throughout the year by various groups, who will then present their findings at the conference.
That’s the theory.
In practice many start their work only shortly before the meeting, and the various people contributing to a specific topic do not talk to each other, or only insufficiently, which shows in the presentations.
However, I should add, that because of the incredible talent most of the attendants and presenters have, the result is still far above average. It reminds me of having read somewhere that in India only about 30% of the water in the water supply system reaches its destination…
If the presenters were able to organize their contributions as this is done in academia, and then present their findings professionally (unfortunately another shortcoming…), then the result would be a magical atomic bomb (forgive the bellicose simile, but I couldn’t find a better one).
Instead, it is simply a very interesting meeting, which is still better than most magic gatherings I have witnessed in my magic life of now over fifty years.
Here are the 2024 topics:
- Jumbo Cards
- Jean Hugard – Life & Work
- Three Card Monte
- Card Cases
Before commenting on some of the presentations, let me state that one of the unspoken laws of the meeting is that we do not publish the individual ideas, unless the creator himself (there were only men at the meeting, not a single woman…) says the word. Therefore, more often than not I will not be too specific in my statements, but I assure you that you will still find enough information to make it worthwhile.
Jean Hugard
The first session went from 7pm to 9:20pm, and the subject was Jean Hugard.
Aitor Marcilla was the first presenter who did a “Magician vs. Gambler” (similar to Vernon’s “Matching the Cards”) routine from Hugard’s Magic Annual for 1937, and which can be found there on p. 43. It requires great clarity of exposition, but brings in an original twist that stages the prediction card and its final transformation in a very interesting way.
Tamariz made a very useful remark – what else? – concerning the revelation of the three cards at the end of the routine, where the magician “corrects” the apparent mistake: Do not make too long a pause before revealing the triplet to have changed to the prediction card, just a beat is enough. This is very good advice, not just for this one trick. I have seen so many inexperienced performers – and also some experienced ones – who go on far too long before revealing the climax. Don’t.
Sometimes the topics lead us to discussing lateral thoughts that come up as we move on.
In this respect Aitor, who has a great collection of magic books and is historically well-versed, made us a great gift, which I will forward to you with his blessings: He discovered and managed to get an old instructional video by John Scarne. This alone made this first session outstanding. CLICK HERE to watch.
Among several other presenters was Paul Wilson, who has an excellent delivery when he lectures. He talked about a cheap reprinted work of Jean Hugard’s with which he started learning card magic in his young years.
The book is called 165 Card Tricks & Stunts and should still be available as a paperback, however, do not buy it, as it is simply haphazard, uninspired and ignorant extraction of tricks and techniques from Hugard’s Card Manipulation series (get that one, though!).
Paul took the book as a point of departure to run us through some of the interesting entries of Hugard’s original booklets (still available in a Dover paperback edition for very little money). The reason his presentation was so good, was not only because of the excellent choice of material and its impeccable execution, but because the book that made the infant and expert was a great emotional hook.
When the first session ended, the beginning of the second session was announced at 11pm, after dinner.
It started at 00.30… (and went on until ca. 5am…)
This is of course a typical case where the difference between practice and theory is even bigger in practice than it is in theory.
I am sometimes asked by first-time attendants – there are always some – what the schedule is. My answer is that you have to simply follow the sun. And when they answer, “But at night there is no sun…”, my reply is, “Exactly!”
Of course the big secret to not missing any official action – the “unofficial” action is a different kettle of fish – is to dine with the Maestro, without whose presence the presentations do no start (don’t tell anyone).
The photo below shows a practical implementation of the concept:
If you are interested to learn more about Jean Hugard’s life, I recommend getting James B. Alfredson’s monograph Jean Hugard (David Meyer Magic Books, USA 1997).
In all brevity: It can be said that Jean Hugard (1871-1959), albeit having made a living as a professional performer for a large part of his life, was not that influential as a performer. But later in life, when he moved to New York and started to be a teacher (Orson Wells and Dr. Jacob Daley took lessons from him), and then a writer, he became one of the most influential authors of things magical.
Besides publishing twenty-seven books, chief among them, together with Fred Braue, whom he never met personally, but with whom he just corresponded, Royal Road to Card Magic and Expert Card Technique (one of my favorite ten magic books), he co-edited and ghost-wrote several important works that have become classics, such as Keith Clark’s Encyclopedia of Cigarette Tricks, the Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, Kaplan’s The Fine Art of Magic, Bill Simon’s Effective Card Magic, and, of course, the big Greater Magic.
Plus he translated one of France’s most important works, Camille Gaultier’s La Prestidigitation sans Appareils.
Not to forget is his magazine, Hugard’s Magic Monthly, which is fortunately still available as a multi-volume bound reprint, and certainly would qualify as the proverbial “book(s) for the desert island”.
Three Card Monte
Besides the contributions on the topic of “Card Cases”, this one about Three Card Monte had the most interesting and original presentations, in my opinion.
The photo below shows my dear friend Toni Cachadiña from Barcelona, who together with Juan Tamariz and Camilo Vazquez (also present) – all three born within the timespan of a year – has been attending each and every Escorial Card Conference from the very beginning!
Of the many contributions, I would like to mention Miguel Ajo’s monte routine, where as a finale the back of each of the three cards changes color. Miguel is one of the most talented students of Ascanio who found his own style, and his magic is original, and his skill a joy to watch.
The other gentleman I need to mention in this context is my dear friend Christian Engblom, whose creativity and virtuosity leaves me speechless every time he shows me something. This is usually so good, that I don’t even think, “Why did I not think of that?” No chance to come even close.
Time limitations won’t allow me to go into more details of other presentations, but I’ll say that in my opinion – and also in the opinion of many others – Juan Tamariz’s version of Three Card Monte is by far the best of them all.
If you had the fortune of seeing Tamariz perform this live, I’m almost sure that he fooled you badly, as he did fool me when I first saw him in 1978, as a nineteen-year-old at a German convention.
You can find several recordings online, but perhaps the best is the one he did on The Magic Comedy Strip (a TV series directed by John Fisher 1991–1992) – CLICK HERE to watch.
After its performance, Tamariz dissected the technique and presentation, and it became evident why this is one of the great works of art in the world of magic.
As Antoine Lavoisier used to say: “Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme”. In this sense it is interesting to note that Tamariz’s routine, as he revealed in his discussion, was inspired by Frank Lane’s Grandfather’s Card Trick, published in 1952 as a three-page manuscript (you may still be able to find it).
Apparently Juan changed only a few things… maybe, but he certainly added something nobody else will ever be able to add… that’s JT himself!
Jumbo Cards
Various attendants presented their personal version of classic tricks, that are usually done with giant cards, such as the Three Card Monte with the fake indices, the only three card trick using four cards, sidewalk shuffle, etc. All these tricks go by different names, depending who claims to have invented it (…), but it was certainly enlightening to see talented full-time professionals do their version.
Woody Aragon did his version of Elmsley’s “Ghost Card Trick”, and it was interesting to see how some of the tricks that were thought up to be used with normal cards can be adapted to jumbo cards.
Robert Jägerhorn from Sweden had learned the patter for Shigeo Takagi’s Monte Routine in Spanish and ran us through this exceptional routine. However, due to the nature of the gimmicked cards, he admitted not having performed it professionally, as it is very sensible to angles. Still, it can be interesting and rewarding to study certain tricks, even though you will never use them. A subject for some other time…
Juan Tamariz then did the “classic” four ace trick, Hofzinser/McDonald style, with jumbo cards and lots of subtleties. I hope he will discuss this in one of his upcoming Letters to Juan, or in a video project (maybe it is on one of his older videos?).
The photo below shows Magic Christian from Vienna, Austria, who is a regular attendant, with his presentation on historical jumbo cards.
It is remarkable to note, that Christian has something to contribute to virtually any subject, due to his extensive experience and studies as a historian (he wrote the huge Hofzinser books, after all…). Also, I’m always impressed that he is the only person among the ca. fifty attendants who is invariably impeccably dressed and wears a tie. This is certainly very practical as a magician. I especially envy him for his tie with the diagonal pattern; Fred Kaps used to make a mini-topit out of it…
Magic With Card Cases
This was by far the topic with the most contributions, and very original ones at that.
Juan Luis Rubiales is one of our great creators (and performers!) who every year comes up with some excellent ideas.
This year he took the plastic box that holds some brands of the Fournier cards and fooled us several times with the innate characteristics of the box: penetrations, additions, subtractions, color changes, controls, etc. He made a real study out of it, and I hope that he will share his ideas in one of his upcoming projects.
There were so many contributions on this subject, that it would justify an entire edition of The Magic Memories, but I’ll have to keep this short.
Lionel Gallardo, another creative professional, did an entire routine, where the selection travels to the cards case, and at the end the whole deck.
Michael Close, who came all the way from the USA, as did Richard Green and habitué Steve Beam, performed several bits where the card case came into play as a method or as part of the effect.
Once again it was Juan Tamariz who took the cake with his “cardoscope”. First he did a few short tricks, which fooled us badly, then he revealed the modus operandi, which was hilarious, and which he called a “cardoscope”.
All I can say is that he had this sitting between his legs on the chair, not visible from where we were sitting, and he used its mirror to secretly glimpse selections, a half-case to switch individual cards and packets, etc.
And this seems to be a fitting end to an incomplete report, but I still hope you found something to amuse and to inspire you… you’re welcome 🙂
The New Topics for 2025
Below is a photo of what the Maestro wrote on the board for next year – I leave it as a Koan… to be commented upon sometime in the future:
Transcription & brief comment:
- Jimmy Grippo – Work & Life
- Memorizing Cards (with focus on memorizing colors and set-ups, especially on the spot)
- Gags With Cards (anything funny using or related to playing cards)
- Flat Palm and Tenkai Palm (techniques & tricks)
Although most of you, who are reading this, will not be part of the event, you could still challenge yourself, pick one (or all!) of the subjects, and try to make up a little study, which you could then present in front of a group.
Yes, why not do this for a group of kindred spirits, live or online, or for your magic club? That would be an honorable and worthy contribution.
Wish you all a successful and happy week,
Roberto Giobbi
