Blackpool 2024 Day Three

[CraigMitchell]

Blackpool Day Three 2024

The sun is shining on day three of the world’s largest magic convention in Blackpool.

LUCA VOLPE LECTURE

Luca Volpe looks the part. Elegantly attired. Solid commercial mentalism. And most critically - material achievable by his Blackpool audience.

His performance was high energy ( an impressive feat for 930 am ) featuring some ingenious methods: his bulldog clip two way out prediction on the pocket drew gasps whilst his forcing of four cards using a dictionary as cover was clean, simple and oh so sly.

Luca is a great practitioner of the “method doesn’t matter - it’s all about the effect” approach …

And his back of room sales no doubt rewarded him accordingly.

CLOSEUP GALA SHOW 2

*PAUL RICHARDS
This is my first time seeing Paul - and he’s a great entertainer. Relaxed, confident and knows how to put an audience immediately at ease.

Coins across, three fly, triumph, bank night (Vinny and Vito’s bank of broken knees) - all solid material presented well.

*CAMERON FRANCIS
Vanishing and re-appearing name tag, deck transpo, visual ring on string and a great finale with a spectator counting to the chosen card with kicker on kicker ending in a royal flush and rest of deck revealed to be all blanks.

*DAVID REGAL
A consummate pro - dry wit, clever humor and powerful magic. Entertaining and mystifying.

*ANNA DE GUZMAN
We are finding ourselves in a new era where performers are achieving “celebrity status” and impressive success on TV and online - but ask them to perform a closeup show and the results don’t always match the slick highlights reel unfortunately.

Whilst Anna has a wonderful charm about her, she is out of her depth at an international closeup gala show at the world’s largest magic convention.

Performing David Regal’s Sudden deck in such a performance - when you just followed Regal - is terribly naive. When you announce to the audience- that you only just found out it was Regal’s effect doesn’t help.

A drawer box made from a cardboard shoe box looks amateurish, throw in a Svengali pad for a force and end with a Toxic style calculator number reveal - and you have a routine nowhere near the level it needs to be for such an occasion. Hopefully with the right guidance and support - she can find her own authentic voice (rather than the use of standard commercial Murphy’s items) and return to BMC in the near future.

HARRISON GREENBAUM LECTURE

Harrison is simply sublime. His “you are all terrible” lecture is a love letter to the art … and his earnest desire for us all to improve.

A line that resonates … “Most magic isn’t art. Art is about expressing your point of view - which means opinion - which means people will disagree.”

INTERVIEW WITH THE CLAIRVOYANTS

Hosted by David Regal, this was a fascinating behind the scenes look into the career of The Clairvoyants, their time on AGT, Vegas and how their latest touring stage show mixes magic, mentalism, second sight and more.

Two nuggets worth sharing …

*the day before the finals of AGT - a producer suggested that if Thommy proposed to Amelie live on air that would no doubt guarantee a win for them (Thommy declined the suggestion )!

*David had a beautiful line during the interview: “When an entertainer has been adopted by the audience - they want to protect the entertainer” It’s not what you do - it’s who you are that it is so important.

A MOMENT TO PAUSE - CREDIT TO THE UNSUNG HEROES

As we run between presentations - it strikes me once again just how much incredible content the organizers have lined up this year. It’s a veritable feast whichever way you look. And yet again - I marvel as to how smoothly things have been running. Kudos to all those unsung heroes and BMC volunteers responsible for working your magic behind the scenes.

SUHANI SHAH

Suhani Shah is an Indian performer whose bio advises that she is “the world’s most viewed Mind Reader on Youtube … Her on-stage presence is a harmonious fusion of style, sophistication, and charisma, complemented by a healthy sprinkling of wit, intelligence, and humor.”

The initial start of the show held promise. Great lighting. Sleek stage set. Ominous music.

Things, however, went downhill fast.

12 minutes in we still had seen no magic - instead we are treated to talking after talking after talking.

A spectator was eventually found and a ring borrowed.

Suhani asks: “Go back to the day you got this ring” The spectator replied, “ I can’t remember”. Visibly irritated - she tells the scolded volunteer to simply make up a date.

With lots of backwards and forwards she eventually goes to the envelope suspiciously attached to the curtain - and then spends the next three minutes struggling to extract the load from behind the “sealed envelope”

Choice lines included:
“I’m waiting for a music cue”
“You are not doing your job well” to the spectator. “Do your job well”

Unhappy with the lackluster response to the mediocre miracle - she promptly tells the audience off: “I’m good at what I do - I know it”

I’m sorry Suhani but you were not good. Your disdain for your audience was simply horrible.

The ring eventually vanished and was met with muted silence.

That healthy sprinkling of wit, intelligence, and humor we were promised:

“This is all [censored]”
“I have to train my audience - my god”

She missed the corollary to David Regal’s earlier mentioned point “When an entertainer has been adopted by the audience - they want to protect the entertainer” Conversely - when the performer antagonizes the audience, they quickly feel nothing for you.

At this stage there was blood in the water. The tension was palpable and the audience was not happy.

An audience is a gift. As a performer you treat them with love and respect. They give you their most precious commodity - their time.

Eventually the ring was found in an apple. But not before we were treated to a lesson in basic props management “Where’s my knife? Will someone find my knife”

Or lines completely forgotten: “What was I supposed to say” … awkward silence … “Oh I remembered”

The animosity continues to grow as a further two spectators are brought up - the one volunteering a handkerchief to be used as a blindfold to be combined with cookie dough over her eyes.

After an arduous tying process - Suhani exclaims that the hank is too small and we must start again and find another one. Once again she is visibly irritated with her spectators. Why not just supply your own handkerchief like every other mentalist rather then taking out your frustrations on the audience ?

Eventually another blindfold is found - and her eyes sealed. A giant white board is wheeled on stage. Our admonished spectators are told to write a number on the board. Suhani then promptly stares straight at the board (blindfold on) and duplicates the number. This is repeated three more times.

Generally when someone wears a blindfold - claims not to be able to see - but then intently stares at the board and knows exactly what is written there - I’m not going to credit that to your third eye but instead to the realization that you can simply see through the blindfold. Lay people know this. Let’s credit them with some intelligence.

We digress.

Five more volunteers are brought on stage and given a very odd looking wooden box to glimpse at in a “tossed out deck” style format. The box contains “cue cards” instructing them on how to direct their thoughts. Not suspicious at all.

We are then given a disclaimer - a first for any mentalist performance that I’ve attended - that the next mind reading sequence will take over ten minutes.

Someone is clearly punishing us.

After an arduous journey - all five “thoughts” are divined in unison with the spectators to take their seats if she was successful in mentioning one of them. I think they were only but too happy to finally escape being on stage.

For the grand finale - Suhani requires yet another volunteer. “Someone who is rich”

Lior Manor ran onstage. Either a terrible plant or hoping for the agony to end sooner rather than later.

His bill is borrowed and sealed in an envelope. Of course the tape was forgotten:
“I need some tape” Suhani shouts backstage.

Numbers are called from the audience and added on the calculator on her phone. She messed the numbers up (naturally the audience’s fault we are reminded) so we must start the entire process again.

Eventually we reach the forced number of 362024 … which conveniently matches the serial number of Lior’s supplied banknote in that not suspiciously taped envelope …

And finally the not appreciative audience are reminded that it took three decades (3) for that six (6) year old performer to reach the pinnacle of their performing career Blackpool 2024.

The traumatized audience are finally allowed to leave.

Just the gala show to go.

To be continued …

[Tarotist]

Bloody hell! Anyone would think you weren't impressed! I imagine there are loads of disgruntled magicians making wax dolls of you and sticking pins into it! I do know how to put psychic hexes on people but I promise not to tell them all how to do it! I nearly went to Blackpool myself and from the sound of it missed all the alleged crappy acts. What I would have found most discouraging would not have been the bad acts since most magicians are bloody awful anyway and there is nothing new about that. It is the very idea of being stuck outside in the cold and rain for 30 minutes waiting to register. That sounds more horrific than all the bad acts put together!

[CraigMitchell]

BLACKPOOL 2024 - DAY THREE CONTINUED

FINAL GALA SHOW

After what has been a whirlwind three days, the house lights dimmed and the final gala show begins with a slick highlights reel from this year’s convention. It’s well produced and a fantastic touch!

*Ikeda Yosuke: this is an act that is so difficult to describe - a fusion of magic, mime and music where the lyrics of songs ( think Hello Goodbye from the Beatles ) appear and vanish on signs in the most unexpected way. It’s the very definition of variety and oh so much fun.

*Mel Mellers: our host for the evening. Reminiscent of old school Blackpool, he reminds me of that aging relative - someone everyone loves but sometimes over stays his welcome. He is harmless enough but hosting a magic convention gala show is quite possibly the most difficult of all engagements and needed someone stronger.

*Trigg Watson: presenting his AGT act with giant cellphone screen - this looked amazing in person. Trigg interacts with the screen - pulling objects in and out of the device. The kicker touch is seeing the emojis literally fly off the edges of the screen into his waiting hand. Such a clever combination of technology and magic. Congrats.

*Axel Adler: a performer with three legs (think Rudy Coby style) seated on a chair in a routine that becomes more and more puzzling as it progresses resulting in him impossibly detaching all three legs at the very end. It’s a great closing visual.

*Phil Hitchcock: a floating fireball presented as a short homage to a performer by the name of Steve Walsh. Fire magic always draws oohs and aahs and it was an interesting interlude ending with an eruption of flames.

*Celia Munoz: our singing ventriloquist returns this time under the guise of summoning the dead at a seance. She drinks, smokes and eats whilst singing what sounds like “Ave Maria” - the name of our dearly departed. I much prefer my ventriloquists to have actual physical characters - without them, it’s nothing more than a technical skill of singing with your mouth shut. With them - you give life to something … and what is more powerful than that.

*Shoot Ogawa: presenting closeup on one of England’s biggest stages isn’t ideal. Even with camera projection - small objects such as coins and spoons can still look small from the back of the venue. For those upfront, however, Shoot demonstrated incredible skill as the simple objects of a coin and spoon morphed, vanished and appeared at will - even freezing in time as the spoon became suspended in midair. Shoot has an effortless quality about him that is just a joy to watch. Magic literally happens at his finger tips.

*Raymond Crowe: another master of his art, Ray treated the crowd to his now classic act of physical mime and magic with feather boa and dancing jacket. I’ve been fortunate to see this performance many times over the years and it never fails to impress.

*Alain Simonov: this act confuses me. A tortured soul with ominous red back lighting writhing on stage doing card manipulation - contemplating suicide - with pained expressions of intensity. And let’s not forget the smoke. Lots of smoke. Add some blood. And I feel I’ve watched a drama student trying to demonstrate the fragility of life (or some other very high brow concept) without success. Alain has some amazing chops but this was a classic example of meaning being lost in the execution.

*Montreal Trio: this act wins the prize for magic novelty for magicians. A giant covering is on the stage floor on which all three performers are lying on their backs looking upwards to the overhead camera - displaying the scene on the giant screens. Viewed from that vantage - our performers are now free from the confines of gravity and able to do all manner of illusion - broomstick suspension, Floating canes, zombie, cards falling in slow motion, asrah - even the snake basket. The scene is hilarious as three grown men are shuffling and crawling - backs to the floor - producing these comical miracles.

*Raymond Crowe closed out proceedings (or so we thought) with his ever-beautiful Shadows routine. As Raymond finished - Wayne Dobson was wheeled on stage. Tonight’s performance was ostensibly in Wayne’s honour. This, however, was mentioned not once during proceedings (a single line in the highlights video) and seemed like an afterthought. Wayne is certainly an outstanding performer - but if you are going to dedicate a show to someone - then you need to run with the theme throughout. Wheeling him out on stage “for the sake of” ( especially when this has been done so many times over the years ) just feels manipulative. I understand the intent comes from a good place but the execution just didn’t work.

So rather than end with a bang and a high- the closing gala of Blackpool 2024 ended on a bit of a whimper which is a shame.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Blackpool 2024 offered more magic per minute than any other magic event I’ve attended. There was so much on offer in three days that one is going to need a vacation after this just to recover.

Ever since Voldemort was deposed - and the new team took over - BMC has got better and better year after year.

Two areas for improvement that immediately come to mind:

*Registration needs attention. It shouldn’t be a pain-point. Open earlier. Move it to a hall. Provide lots of (indoor) space, plenty of stanchion, multiple staff and clear delineated lines for each registration type. The goal should be in and out within 10 minutes. Registration needs active management and monitoring.

*VIP: add value - don’t take away. Reinstate the reserved seating / early access across all events. Communicate this clearly to all staff and attendees. Signage is critical.

Relative to the overall picture - these are small (but meaningful) changes.

The overall production quality, design, app and the like - very professional. The number of talent booked - unmatched. The variety of events available - amazing. Dealers room unlike anything else imaginable. The tech was seamless. Events were punctual. And overall - everything just “happened” That in itself is a logistical miracle and the entire BMC team can be rightly proud of what they achieved.

There is a cautionary tale here, however. BMC runs the risk of becoming victims of their own success. As numbers continue to swell - the convention can become almost unmanageable. Continued investment in resources, people and planning are going to be critical to manage this growth.

For me - this was one of the best Blackpools yet. To everyone who helped make that happen - thank you!

[Dustin Stinett]

Thanks for your terrific and honest reporting. Well done.

[Tom Frame]

Great job! Thanks, Craig.

[Richard Stokes]

Steve Valentine's evening show was outstanding!

[Tom Frame]

There are some some stunning tricks in this video from Blackpool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZCnmJaoBVM

[Richard Stokes]

Craig, you've been blacklisted by Mark Waddington, a Blackpool organiser, from their Facebook group. I tried to defend your reviews, so now they've cut me out as well.
Waddington was upset by your allegedly misogynist body image comments. I thought his stance was inconsistent given Harrison Greenbaum's jokes about Wayne Dobson.

[CraigMitchell]

I believe I was blocked from the FB group. I’m sorry to hear you were too.

There honestly was no intent to deliberately offend in trying to describe the performers apparel. When seated in the front row - as I was - this can be problematic for an audience … irrespective of the performers gender.

Sadly this caused upset in the FB group which was never the intent. I can only but apologize for that. It detracted from the overall message that this Blackpool was actually very good. There are always cultural sensitivities which one needs to be cognizant of when trying to describe a scene. We are dealing with a global audience.

Ascribing ill-intent behind them, though, is unfortunate. Unlike a publication where one has the benefit of multiple revisions and weeks of editing - these are on the fly reports typed up late at night, for no reward, after an exhausting day and often assembled from snippets written in the dark - in realtime - as an event was experienced. They are never going to be perfect. We live and learn, and hope we can continue to do better in future.

[Brad Henderson]

Craig Mitchell: “*Celia Munoz: our singing ventriloquist returns this time under the guise of summoning the dead at a seance. She drinks, smokes and eats whilst singing what sounds like “Ave Maria” - the name of our dearly departed. I much prefer my ventriloquists to have actual physical characters - without them, it’s nothing more than a technical skill of singing with your mouth shut. With them - you give life to something … and what is more powerful than that. “

It’s a manip act with the tongue.
It’s a perfectly fine flavor. And offsets the character work in a longer show perfectly.

[CraigMitchell]

“ It’s a manip act with the tongue.”

That’s a great description.

I would be interested to see her character work to see how it compares.

[katterfelt0]

“ It’s a manip act with the tongue.”

That’s a great description.

I would be interested to see her character work to see how it compares.

Here she is in a duet with Terry Fator.
And another duet with him.

[Q. Kumber]

Over twenty years ago I attended an afternoon with motivational speaker Brian Tracy. The one thing that I clearly rememberers him saying, "No matter who you are or how good you are 5% of your audience won't like you or what you do."

[Tarotist]

If it is an audience of magicians then I would say 50% is more accurate.