Postby Eric DeCamps » May 24th, 2015, 9:36 pm
PEBBLEPLOOZA 3 - DAY 1 RECAP
DAY 1 of PEBBLEPLOOZA 3 is in the history books. The camaraderie and fun started at breakfast where we shared performance stories and some magic. Then it was back to the hotel to see our first speaker, Curtis Kam. Curtis' talk was about his procedure of analyzing sleight of hand magic and presenting it to a lay audience. As examples Curtis performed a wonderful interpretation of the classic three ball routine, color changing knives, and the signed card trick. He also presented a very interesting analogy between the the performance of magic and pro-wrestling. A fascinating talk and Curtis received a well deserved standing ovation.
Between speakers we had ample time to visit with friends and breakout into session groups to share more magic. Attendees like Bob White, Presley Guitar, Howard Hamberg, Bill Malone, Tony Chang, Jared Khof and many others just sitting down and performing for everyone. What a bonus that is.
After dinner we assembled back in the lecture room to see our second speaker, Allen Okawa. Simply put Allen Okawa is a living magic legend. He studied under two greats in our art, Dai Vernon and Mike Skinner. His magic was classical in approach and it was devastating. Just beautiful work combined with a sincere presentations, soft spoken manner, charming wit and devastating construction and technique/execution. He shared advice from his two mentors and other magic legends. In his talk he addressed and presented classics of close up magic, such as thimbles, coins, cigarettes, sea shells, and his masterpiece... THE ROCK. The Rock is an original piece of magic of Allen's that I've heard about for decades and the piece did not fail to live up to its reputation. At the end of the lecture, the Pebblers had no choice but to jump up and give this man the standing ovation he so richly deserved for his work.
