The Magic University Journal

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Wizards, remember the cover story of the November issue of 2016?
It was about a Summer Magic course at the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm led by Johan Stahl and Tom Stone.
I was very lucky to be one of the students and it changed my life.
I just finished transcribing my journal from the three weeks of magic, inspiration and time spent among some incredibly passionate humans.
I'll post Day 0 early next week and I'll be happy if you join me with questions, thoughts and ideas.

Talk soon,
Ondrej

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Welcome to the University Summer Course Journal, but before we begin, here is a little bit of context.

Tom Stone and Johan Ståhl announced the course via Facebook and email newsletter and anyone from the European Union could apply. The course was free for EU citizens. If admitted we'd only have to cover expenses - accommodation, travel, and meals.

As an audition we had to send an unedited video of our magic performance, a bio, a motivational letter, and letters of recommendation.

They were opening 2 classes - Magi1 for new students (international), and Magi2 for those who attended a previous course which happened the prior Fall and was open to Swedish magicians only.

To the 16 admitted students, Tom Stone sent the following introductory letter on the Star Wars day - May 4th, 2015.
_______________________

Hello!

Days
The course is three weeks long, 5 days a week, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00
With the exception of Friday June 19, which is the date for the traditional midsummer festivities. We’ll try to arrange something fun for that day.
June 8-12,
June 15-18,
June 22-26.

Basic format
The main format of the course is:
Each morning begins with a 5 minute physical warm-up exercise.
Then there is a short lecture, followed by hands-on exercises where the ideas & theories are tested out in practice, followed by group discussions.
Each afternoon will consist of more free work, with the starting point in an abstract theme. A new theme each week. For now, let’s say the themes are ”Motion and stillness”, ”Light and dark”, ”Sound and silence”.
We will also have a couple of guest lectures over Skype.
The final examination is on June 26.

Living arrangements
Finding apartment or room to rent is likely the most pressing matter. Make maximal use of social media, and get all your friends to help out.
Rooms and student apartments can also be found at the following sites. Some of them might need the use of Google Translate.

http://www.akademiskkvart.se/en
http://kvalster.se/Stockholm
http://www.blocket.se/bostad/uthyres/la ... /stockholm
https://www.airbnb.com/

Literature
We are going to use some texts from Tommy Wonder’s ”Books of Wonder Vol. 1”.
http://www.hermeticpress.com/product_in ... ucts_id=46
There are 5 copies at the university library, and while it is recommended to obtain your own personal copy, it is fully possible to rely solely on the library copies.
We will also refer to texts in the free ebook ”Magic in Mind”:
https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic ... c-in-mind/

Finding the way
The closest subway station is ”Tekniska Högskolan”.
It is just a few steps from the closest commuter train & bus station ”Stockholm Östra Station”.
The university is about 10 minutes by foot from those stations.

What to bring
Bring props that inspire you, whatever that might be. Doesn’t necessarily have to be magic props, but just something you feel is inspirational to you.
Also universal props you feel comfortable with or are curious about (thumbtip, topit, pull…). And your standard kit of useful things (magnets, thread, wires, various kinds of glues and tapes… the things you usually have nearby).

-Tom Stone
_______________________

Later he added us to a Facebook group dedicated to the course where we talked about some details, accommodation possibilities, and how excited we all are.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

We received another email about 3 weeks later.
________________________

Dear students,
it is only 11 days until we start Magi 1 and Magi 2 at DOCH in Stockholm Sweden.

Registration
Monday 8th of june, 09.00,
Address: Brinellvägen 58, Stockholm

Student lecture
Every single one of you is a specialist within one area or another. That is the beneficiary side effect of being self-taught.
Since we have so much experience and knowledge within the group we would like you to share your unique knowledge in TED-talk inspired mini lectures.
Tom and I would like you to prepare an 8 minute talk about something from ’your’ area of knowledge.
Former Magi 1 students have talked about 3D-printing, microprocessors, how to make performances into viable marketable concepts, how to ensure good performance circumstances, movement, clowning, theatre…
You have knowledge and experience others lack, so just pick one aspect - theoretical, practical... etc. This is not a big thing, and nothing that will be evaluated. We just want the whole group to share and benefit from your collective knowledge.

Stuff to bring
If you can fit it in your luggage, please bring:
* Your favorite props and kits. The stuff you use most of the time. (hold out, pulls, gaffs, strings, magnets etc).
* 10 different songs that you find interesting. (on iPod/iPad/smartphone/computer or CD).
* 5 objects you find inspiring. It can be a music box, a medallion, a goblet, a false beard, an old watch, a smooth stone from the beach, a baby shoe, a scroll... etc.

Schedule
8th - 12th of June, 09.00 - 17.00
15th - 18th of June, 09.00 - 17.00 (Friday June 19 is free)
22nd - 26th of June, 09.00 - 17.00
Final examination 26th of June, 11.30-15.00.

Best wishes,
/Johan & Tom
________________________

For me personally, I couldn't wait. It was exciting beyond belief.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
The first one is short - Flying from Prague to Stockholm, meeting some classmates, and a magic talk over a dinner with a friend. (calm before the storm)

Journal entry:
Packing was crazy. First I underpacked, then I overpacked. Stuffed my computer with magic, brought a lot of gimmicks and versatile props and I’m really curious how much of it will I really use. It’ll be very interesting.

I started reading the third chapter of Books of Wonder Vol. I at the airport which appears to be about a wild card routine which I will probably want to learn. I also watched a short part of Henry Evans’s Daredevil deck instructions but not enough to conclude anything yet.

When I got to Stockholm, Per Johan was waiting for me at the central train station. Then he helped me to find my accommodation where we met with two of the other students - both from Norway. Hans and Jonas I think. We’ll go to school tomorrow at 8:30 together.

Then we went with Per Johan to grab something to eat. Most of the places were either closing or already closed. We found a place next to McDonald’s called Falafel where we got some kebab and talked magic. Johan Ståhl organizes some comedy festival in Stockholm in April. That could be a nice thing to visit. Then we talked about Jorge Garcia and his metal bending and hypnosis and what a strong impact it has. I also showed him my deck which he liked very much. We talked Všichni jste šašci and how we all went in different directions. And my marketing and how successful I’m gonna be. Well, we’ll see.

Now let’s get some sleep.

Notes:
The accommodation was the cheapest possible option. We called it Baracken. It was a temporary accommodation/offices for builders. But the construction had been probably finished and they were about to take it down soon after our course. So we were lucky we had the opportunity to take advantage of it. How lucky we actually were was going to become clearer within the next week.

The comedy festival is called Uppsala Magic and Comedy Festival and takes place in - surprisingly - Uppsala, a university city which my friend Per Johan Råsmark and Johan Ståhl call home. I attended the festival every year since the course and I strongly recommend to everyone to attend. https://uppsalamagicandcomedy.se/

Jorge Garcia also known as “The Jack” was an Argentinian mentalist who lectured in Prague earlier that year.

The deck I showed Per Johan was a hand-made prototype of something that didn’t have a name at that time. It was a deck of Texan Palmettos which was one-way bevel-edge marked with a razor blade, so it was possible to identify the value and the suit of any end-for-end reversed card in the deck.

Všichni jste šašci was a name of a comedy magic group that I was a part of. A few years before the Summer course, Per Johan booked us for a magic convention in Uppsala to perform our 5 person comedy sub-trunk illusion in their gala show. The name means “You are all clowns” in Czech. We took a great pleasure in teaching the MC how to pronounce the name. We also enjoyed when the MC’s last words before the curtain opened were: Ladies and gentlemen, you are all clowns!

If you have any questions or comments about anything mentioned in this text, please hit reply and post them below.
Thank you so much for joining me on this life changing journey.

[Richard Hatch]

Ondrej, thanks for sharing this. Looking forward to the future installments!

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Ondrej, thanks for sharing this. Looking forward to the future installments!

Thank you for the encouragement, Richard!

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
The first day of the dream school. The first exercises, introduction to the first week’s topic, some brainstorming and a lot of thinking on fresh air.

Journal entry:
The school is really very close. 2 minutes on foot. We met in the school café, Johan Ståhl took our group to Hall 10 where he told us how excited he is and how much we can be proud that we are here because they got many applications. - Well, I think it was 32. Anyway, then he took us for a tour around the school, there is a sauna, showers, a kitchen with about 8 microwaves - it looks like students live there. My shower time will definitely happen in school. The bathroom at Baracken is not very appealing. Johan then showed us the workshop room where is everything I could dream of. All kinds of gimmicks, thumb tips, magnets, reels, balls, silks, ropes, toys, tapes, glues, drills, tools, screws, raw wood, saws, sewing machine, fabrics, threads, cards, gaffs, science friction spray, electronics, and of course a 3D printer.

Then we went to Auditorium G where we introduced ourselves one by one to the group. It’s a very interesting bunch of humans. Then we were put into 4 groups and each group had to come up with as many possible applications for a brick as possible. We came up with 24. The time limit was 10 minutes and my favorite was Edith’s nail file.

Then we got three objects. Our group got a globe, a picture, and a padlock with three keys. We had to come up with an effect that uses one of the objects, then two of them, and finally all three objects. We came up with putting a seed inside the globe and then have the plant grow out of it in a crazy visual manner.

And we were off to lunch. Good. Healthy and tasty. Charlie Caper arrived and he slightly remembered me from Lund.

Tom had a lecture on What Is Magic right after lunch. He asked us if we have any definition that applies just to magic and encouraged us to come up with one. One of the things he talked about was that there has to be some kind of drama. If I see a leaf suspended in the air below a branch, it is not magic - it is just hanging by something I can’t see. Or if the observer doesn’t know I’m a magician then again it doesn’t have to be and probably isn’t magic (as in Carbonaro Effect). Magician to cause magic has to do a lot of proving first to create a different perception of reality. One of interesting discussions was if an observer can at the same time be the performer. If I can not only fool myself but also entertain myself.

After the lecture we were divided into three new groups in which we were supposed to brainstorm our individual ideas on the week’s topic ‘sound & silence’. We set 30 minutes for individual thinking and then 10 minutes each for group brainstorm. I came up with about 5 ideas from which I liked 2 a lot and only one chose to brainstorm. It was a transposition of two objects. But not their physique, but just the sound they make. The most useful brainstormer overall for me was Hans from Norway. Erik’s comments felt a little unrelated or irrelevant, but made me think of it in different directions. And the other guys seemed a little bit lost. Especially with their own routines.

I later came up with some ideas about how to structure the routine, so this 14 km walk around Stockholm hasn’t been worthless. I am also the first one doing the mini lecture tomorrow. I decided to talk about relaxation so hopefully it will be interesting and useful. I should go over it a couple more times. I also need to go over Tommy Wonder’s Mind Movie in Books of Wonder Vol.I before I go to sleep and that’s in five minutes so that’s it for now.

Notes:
You will soon discover that one of the main specifics of this magic course was, that we weren’t learning any tricks. We were taught how to come up with our own with the main focus being presentation and psychology of misdirection. We learned some technique during the course but we mostly learned about magic theory, and then we worked together to test the theories using methods/magic effects we already knew.

Charlie Caper was one of the celebrities of the course for me. He is the first magician ever to win a Got Talent show (Sweden 2009). Lund is a University town in the South of Sweden where Swedish magician and magic dealer El Duco organized a wonderful convention Magic Weekend. It was the first magic convention outside of Czech Republic I attended in 2000 and then many times after. It is now organised by Swedish magician, magic dealer, and the stage manager of FISM competitions Gay Ljungberg.

If you are looking for a great piece to read on creating your own magic effects, read The Mind Movie in the Books of Wonder Vol. I.

I know that Tom, Johan and the classmates are reading this so I’d be very grateful if you could add comments, correct me if you feel something is inaccurate or something asks for more details, clarification or another point of view.

[Tom Stone]

I know that Tom, Johan and the classmates are reading this so I’d be very grateful if you could add comments, correct me if you feel something is inaccurate or something asks for more details, clarification or another point of view.

It is very intriguing to compare your notes with the intentions Johan and I had, so I am following this thread with great interest.

[Stefan Eriksson]

I began doing a journal like this for the same course but I'm happy I did not finish it since yours are going to outshine it big time

Looking forward reliving these weeks as it was life and career-changing for me as well <3

[Zig Zagger]

A promising project, Ondrej!

This feels like watching a class in replay plus backstage view plus audio comment.

Thank you for sharing, I look forward to reading more!

[Ondrej Psenicka]

I began doing a journal like this for the same course but I'm happy I did not finish it since yours are going to outshine it big time
Looking forward reliving these weeks as it was life and career-changing for me as well <3

Stefan! If you find your journal, it would be amazing if you could share your experience from the exercises as well!
Otherwise it will be a very one sided story. And be sure that I'll get opinionated very soon.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

A promising project, Ondrej!

This feels like watching a class in replay plus backstage view plus audio comment.

Thank you for sharing, I look forward to reading more!

I am happy you think so, Zig. Hopefully it will stay an interesting backstage tour of the course.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
Tom’s lecture on What is Effect, exercises on Subtext, lecture on What is Music, our first mini Ted talks, and a friendly dinner with lapping (of not only food).

Notes:
This time I’ll write the notes directly in the journal entry so it’s easier to follow what they relate to.

Journal entry:
I got to school a little early to think about the ‘sound & silence’ routine for Friday. I didn't really come up with much, I just confirmed that Tic Tacs are possible to collapse into the size of a matchbox. I haven’t come up with anything else.

Tom’s lecture started at 9. It was on Magical Effect. He gave us an imaginary coin. “Make it vanish” he said giving it to me first. I had it on my palm for a moment and then I said "it’s gone" and he asked what happened? "It faded away, did a plop sound and was gone." He gave another imaginary coin to someone else to make it vanish and they did. “See?, both effects were different” he gave a coin to everyone to make it vanish, then asked them what happened. Then he said "Some more, some less, but all the effects were different. I disagree with Fitzkee’s list of magical effects. There are many more.”

Then he introduced a game. Everyone is going to come up on stage and randomly select a little paper with a certain subtext written on it. Then performs an ambitious card routine with that subtext in mind. I went up first. My subtext was ‘I can communicate only with questions.’ Then everyone followed. I’m going to ask Tom for the list of subtexts so we can use them in KIM-club or at Škola Magie.

KIM-club is a magic club in Prague that I’ve belonged to since 2001. We are a group of about 20 aspiring magicians who want to get better in magic performance. Škola Magie is meeting of Czech Magic Association which used to occur quarterly and where its members learned new magic, bought new tricks, and learned of news from the world of magic.

Then we were put in groups. This time me, Lauri and Stefan. We were sent to Studio 1 to create a routine in which we’d use one or two subtexts. After a while we created a pretty funny ‘last wish’ performance for ‘our dear friends’ who would choose three cards from us and we’d find them as ‘the happiest moment of our life’. First part being a Wedding subtext, and the second part Funeral. Then all the others performed and we were off to lunch.

I don’t remember how we got the subtext. If we were to freely choose it or we were given the subtext and the title - Last Wish, The Happiest Moment of Our Lives… maybe Tom would remember?

With the kind permission of Stefan and Lauri, here is our exercise.

After lunch we brainstormed our sound & silence routines in new groups. One thing I got out of it was Stefan’s observation that we trust our eye sight more than any other sense, because hearing can easily deceive us and often does.

Then we went for a sound lecture by Sebastian Prinz - the head of the music part of the school who gave us a crash course on what is music. He showed us a video clip of John Cage playing 4’33” with which he proved several points. Then we watched clips of Yu Ho-Jin and Marco Karvo whose music he considered quite boring for the act, because it doesn’t add anything to the act, it just matches it too well with nothing on top. Then we ended the discussion with the conclusion that the best way is to hire a good composer who ideally writes music for a live performer willing to travel around with the magician.

You can watch John Cage’s 4’33” here.
It is performed by William Marx - for those who like The Marx Brothers - Harpo Marx’s son.

If you are interested in reading about what points it proves, ask Google. I’ll do it as well since I don’t remember, but I am sure we all can come up with our own inspiring conclusions as well.

Then I still had more than a half an hour to get ready for my little TED talk. I added some little details and decided to start by sitting in a chair in front of everybody doing my relaxation. The talk itself then was OK. I had to stop two or three times to look into my phone to make sure I didn’t forget anything, looking for more things to say. I got a nice applause after I finished and quite a few relevant questions and people seemed to be genuinely interested.

It seems like we haven’t recorded my talk, but it was based on my Method acting training. The main point is that muscle tension inhibits expression. Therefore for an actor/performer to express themselves freely - especially emotionally, their muscles have to be relaxed. Lee Strasberg’s relaxation is an exercise that strives to do just that.

Charlie then talked about 3D printing which was very fascinating. He prints all sorts of props, servantas/loading devices using a very simple web based CAD program called tinkercad in which he can design anything. The material is cheap and very strong. One kilo costs about 50 euros and the printer that he landed to the course about 1000 euros.

When he was done I went to the basement and got an excellent shower. Water super hot, pressure - massage quality, pure bliss.

Then I met with Hans, René, Jerome, Jonas at the Baracks and we went to Prime Burger to get dinner. I will have to start counting a little to make sure I will have enough of my own money so I won’t have to use much of the money dad gave me.

At the time my budget was pretty tight so I had to economise. My parents were generous with their help, but I didn’t want to use it if I really didn’t have to.

Lionel joined us later and him and Jerome particularly were interested in more details about relaxation. So I talked about it and then I did some classic Lennart Green lapping and then some of what Yann Frisch taught me and they really liked it.

I went home right after and wrote a first plausible concept of the script I could use for my 'sound & silence' routine on Friday.

Now it’s time to meditate, tomorrow is all day workshop with Tim Star.

[Tom Stone]

I don’t remember how we got the subtext. If we were to freely choose it or we were given the subtext and the title - Last Wish, The Happiest Moment of Our Lives… maybe Tom would remember?

I believe you were given the subtext, but that your group came up with the title.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

DAY1: The School of Dance and Circus (Swedish: Dans- och cirkushögskolan, DOCH) is a Swedish institution offering higher education in the fields of dance education, folk dance, dance, dance therapy, historical dance, choreography and contemporary circus.


DAY2: Right before the mini TED talk on relaxation.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Tim Star was the star of the day.

First he told us a little bit about himself and his career as a magic builder. He lived in the US for 30 years. He made candle holders for Lance Burton and some stuff for Penn & Teller and then he told us about different materials and their features and characteristics. He showed us how the cups for Cups & Balls are made, how he worked for Harries (a Swedish top quality magic builder company) and how he’s got all Conradi books. Then he showed us different tools and techniques and finishes and paints, and then he showed us some of his creations.
The highlights were:

• a prediction chest - it is great for publicity stunts when you send the chest to someone (TV/radio host) in advance, then you come (for an interview), unlock the box… and a prediction is loaded in by the key
• a finger ring polisher - it throws sparks which is really funny
• an amazing chop cup that may or may not be a chop cup with a delay of six seconds.

After this really cool and amazing presentation came lunch and then we met in workshop.

The first thing we made was a high quality match lighter. Works every time - 100 percent. No backup necessary. Before making it, we would just solder copper paper clips together. That was much harder for me than making the actual clip for the match.

The second project was even more exciting - two ends for a magic wand. Piece of a brass tube, small brass plate, tin and some tools. It took Tim about 90 seconds to make one. It was a little bit longer in our hands - about ten times. That was quite awesome.

I asked him what to use to cut plastic. Dremel. Tim uses dremel for everything. His prediction chest is made using dremel only.

Then he showed us a glue that he found being the most effective. It’s called Lactile, and number 431 is the universal one.

Another very useful tip was that the best way to cut glass is under water.

Then we started talking in groups about our individual projects and slowly most of the people left. The school changed their opening hours until 11pm and till 8pm on the weekends so I decided to stay and work on my project. It will work. Tonight’s discovery - Tic tacs are hard to glue together. I stayed until 10pm and then went to get more Tic tacs.

This was a truly awesome day.

[Dave Le Fevre]

Lactile, and number 431 is the universal one

I think that that's a typo for Loctite 431. My apologies if I'm wrong.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

I believe you are 100% correct, Dave.
Maybe I was just checking if anyone reads the posts. Maybe I was trying to provoke a discussion.
And maybe it just didn't occur to me to check. I've actually never used the glue.
Thank you!

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Here is a couple of short videos to give you a peak into Tim's presentation.

In this walk through Tim's creations you can see the prediction chest, a reusable mold for the Cups (someone please help me how this is really called), and a reel for a card spread suspension.
https://youtu.be/stJm5aRK_eg
You can read more about The Prediction Chest here.

In this short video Tim talks about his Master Chop Cup that may or may not be a chop cup.
https://youtu.be/DPOWMFysv9M
You can read more about The Master Chop Cup here.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

You can read more about The Master Chop Cup here.

Sorry for the Master Chop Cup link not working - here it is up and running!
You can read more about The Master Chop Cup here.

[Tom Stone]

a reusable mold for the Cups (someone please help me how this is really called)

The mold used for metal spinning is called "mandrel" or "chuck".
Jim Riser have a very good CD-rom on the topic.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
Today we learned about Structure of a story/magic routine, and came up with a Penn & Teller fooler.

Journal entry:
We had our first warm-up session this morning. It was guided by Johan and involved some imaginary vanishes and productions - all to music.

Then we talked about our progress with routines for tomorrow and reported on problems we are facing. I mentioned not knowing how to make Tic tacs silent when shaken.

Then Tom did a lecture on Structure. He showed us how a story can be interesting when you establish the main character, then leave it to follow a different one and then get back to the main one - as an example using The Little Riding Hood. The same structure can be applied to magic.

Then of course we got an assignment to work in groups and use such structure where you leave the main theme and then get back to it. Our group was me, Carl, Edith and newly coming Mikael. Edith came up with escapes as the routine. Mikael provided Jonathan Pendragon’s method and then we brainstormed on the structure. We came up with ‘time’ as the secondary character. So Edith trying to break the World’s record was the main character and ‘one minute to be a lot of time to do a lot of things’ was the secondary. And when the alarm went off we brought the attention back to her escaping the deadly ropes on time.

Here is our presentation:
https://youtu.be/pjzQ7EHEsuU

We were 4 groups and I’d like to share with you another exercise which I think was really good.
I should mention that we usually had about 45 to 60 minutes between the assignment of the exercise and its presentation.
Here is what Joni, Balazs, Jerome and Erik came up with:
https://youtu.be/q1QakBXNBb0

After a little feedback session was time to get lunch.

At lunch and after I got some ideas from class mates on how to make Tic tacs sound switchable on and off so I changed the method during the after lunch time dedicated to the routine work. We’ll see how it’s going to work tomorrow.

Then we had three mini lectures from students. Markus on puzzles and problem solving, Axel on seeing magic acts or any acts in images, so if the press photographer enters the room at any time, he has an opportunity to capture a great picture. And Simon on microprocessors and little electronics that can be used in magic using equipment from Arduino.cc. And then we went back to our individual work.

While working on my project Markus approached me asking about tips on his routine as he felt stuck. I came up with an idea with headphones. Cards are chosen and retrieved. Cards are shuffled and placed on the table next to the headphones with a little player. A spectator is chosen in random. She comes to the table, sits down, puts headphones on, presses a button, and begins revealing the cards in a magical manner according to the instructions given to her in the headphones.

This was the first spark of a routine which you might have seen on Season 4 of Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Thank you Tom, Johan, and Markus for providing me with all the necessary stimuli to make it happen. If you haven’t seen the Fool Us act, you can watch it here.

Back to my ‘Sound & Silence’ routine... The following paragraph describes the method I used in my graduation routine which I’ll show you a recording of in the end of this journal. If you don’t want to know how it’s done before watching the act, wait for the end of the series and then come back if you still want to know. If you want to know already, just select the space between this text and the picture below to reveal the paragraph. Tomorrow we'll pay a visit to The Magic Bar.

I made two rattles - one for Tic tacs and one for Matches. They are square shaped and covered in black velvet. I am thinking of having them in my lap the entire time. One problem I had was how I’m going to load them after the introduction when I come to sit behind the table. Tom suggested to have the rattles the entire time on the mat, that they shouldn’t be actually seen at all in a good light. Great solution. Hope it works. We’ll see tomorrow.


Johan taking a picture of Carl assisting Tom during his lecture on Structure.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
This is a long day. We begin with the 'Sound & Silence' performances, then we'll have a lecture with Anthony Owen, we'll visit The Library of The Swedish Magic Circle, and end with a stage show at the Magic Bar where I judged everyone.

Notes:
I felt like it was a clever idea with hiding the spoiler, but this following entry and some others in the future will talk about the method quite a bit. I think that it might be better for you to read it and just follow the creative process in and out until the graduation performance.

Journal entry:
I got to school before 9. Presentations started at 11:30 so I had some time to prepare.

I went over the script a few times and solved some logistic issues with the velvet rattles on the table. I fixed some last details and went to Studio 10 about an hour before the performance. I got a table and a chair, set up my props and realised that the black art idea won't probably work. So I tried to go back to lapping. And it seemed like that’s going to work. So I had to figure out some more misdirection for the part when I'm taking the rattles from my lap and when I'm putting them back, especially for the moment of transition from introduction in front of the table and when I sit down behind the table.

I wasn’t nervous at all.

The running order was already on the board. I was going sometime in the second half.

I won’t talk about all the acts. Just that I think that Markus’s headphone trick has a very good potential, Stefan is a funny man, Carl is a talented musician, Balasz came up with a very original concept, David Sousa has a very good sense of rhythm and he’s not a bad actor, and Erik is very skilled.

I went first after lunch so I got to prepare even a little longer. Everything went pretty smoothly even with a full tummy.

Then we moved to Studio 6 for feedback. What I should work on for the next time would be the load of the rattles to my lap. I will explore the possibility of changing the matchbox into Tic tacs. And then it deserves a little more script work to make sure that everything is in order and logical.

After that we had a lecture over Skype with Anthony Owen who was very nice. In his early twenties he already consulted magic for some TV shows - helped on Paul Daniels’s last show and many more. The talk was split into a 30 minute talk and 30 minutes of questions.

Anthony had some wisdom on post-it papers and these were the main points:

• Magicians spend too much time with magicians.
• We must learn the magic history, not live in it.
• We stand on the shoulders of giants.
• Go against the flow - be the rebel.
• Set your constrains.
• Write, rehearse, review, then publish.
• The best magicians have teams.
• Do the things you love.
• It’s SHOW business.
• “Nobody knows anything.” - William Goldman

Then in the Q&A part I asked him what his rehearsal process with a new live show is. - He brainstorms in 3 people which seems to be the perfect amount, then gives it a week incubation time and then he works from the point where they left off. It was a very nice lecture.

That was the end of the school day and we were headed to the SMC library.

Unwillingly I bought the subway card and went by subway. The library is very nice. They have many deluxe editions of many books and pamphlets and they are also giving away Geniis and Magic magazines. So me and Mikael spent a lot of time splitting those into the magazines we want to leave there and those we want to keep. And since we would go directly to the Magic Bar from there we would leave our piles in the library waiting for us to come back.

Magic Bar is actually a very nice place. There is one main room, two medium ones and two little ones. It’s filled with different optical illusions and magic posters and decorations. The prices are high but that’s expected given the country, city and style. We had free entrance and a room just for the students of the university. Johan seems to be almost something like the manager. Arne, the owner, greeted us at the entrance, but Johan paid the performers, hosted the show, and even set up places and brought food for the performers.

The first magician on the bill was Simon - a theme act of an employee of a retro store with an old gramophone player and an old lamp doing quite a lot of nice ball manipulations and surprising productions. He seemed to struggle a bit technically, but of course he had the nicely programmed LED light in the store that did some of the magic.

Then there was a break when we shared some card magic especially with Jerome.

Next performer was Håkan doing invisible deck with a purse frame, in the end removing the chosen card folded from the purse.

Then there was another break and then Jacob who was also doing close-up during the evening. Jacob did a very interesting cups & balls routine with 2 brass cups and a glass. The routine had multiple kicker endings that were quite unusual. The misdirection I thought was mostly very good.

Then there was this wardrobe old man who looked very nice but spoke only in Swedish so I left for his act.

Then Håkan came again and did his comedy stage act. It had some very funny moments. We’ll see what Rimini thinks about it.

David Sousa came right after. The act is very good. I feel like that level though is totally reachable. But the flow was great, the visuals are very good - it’s a very good act.

The custom of comparing myself to FISM winners is nothing I’d be proud of, but it’s a personal journal after all - so here I am - comparing myself to my officially more successful friends.

Tom Stone did a linking finger rings routine among the audience and to be honest, it wasn’t that awesome. It was obvious that he manipulated with the rings in a way he does not want anyone to know about. That routine would deserve some refinements.

The custom of criticising my officially more successful friends/mentors is nothing I’d be proud of, but it’s a personal journal after all - so here I am - publicly saying that I didn’t like Tom Stone’s performance.

During the evening I showed the guys some tricks and demonstrations of clocking and it was killing them. I asked Erik about the routine where the magician and the spectator choose a card and the spectator tries to find the magician's and the magician tries to find the spectator's that involves clocking. He told me it’s a trick by Paul Cummins called Tap a Lack and Jerome knew of a similar one that is supposedly an improved Tap a Lack and it is by Paul Vigil called Diplopia. Jonas complimented me on my misdirection skills which means that I have to try hard to keep improving them.

Johan asked me to do some tricks for a little kid that he brought with his parents so I showed him two card tricks not underestimating his intellectual skills. I also met Robert - a strange magician/pickpocket who had a weirder humor than I do.

Tomorrow is Saturday - long sleep and then David's lecture at the Magic Bar.

[Richard Kaufman]

The quote from William Goldman refers to a successful Hollywood film. No one knows for sure what the ingredients are, and they screw up all the time even with the best intentions.

But it has many ingredients, few if any of which are related to magic.

[Leo Garet]

The quote from William Goldman refers to a successful Hollywood film. No one knows for sure what the ingredients are, and they screw up all the time even with the best intentions.

But it has many ingredients, few if any of which are related to magic.

If memory serves the full statement/quote included Hollywood.

[Joe Lyons]

The quote from William Goldman refers to a successful Hollywood film. No one knows for sure what the ingredients are, and they screw up all the time even with the best intentions.

But it has many ingredients, few if any of which are related to magic.

If memory serves the full statement/quote included Hollywood.

Specifically the movie industry, from the book "Adventures in the Screen Trade".

The best book on Hollywood from a writer's perspective, written by the best screenwriter of all time.

[Leo Garet]

The quote from William Goldman refers to a successful Hollywood film. No one knows for sure what the ingredients are, and they screw up all the time even with the best intentions.

But it has many ingredients, few if any of which are related to magic.

If memory serves the full statement/quote included Hollywood.

Specifically the movie industry, from the book "Adventures in the Screen Trade".

The best book on Hollywood from a writer's perspective, written by the best screenwriter of all time.

Thanks Joe. It's a (very) long time since I read the book

[Jack Shalom]

Goldman also wrote a book called The Season, about the Broadway stage. And though it's been a long time also since I've read that book, he makes essentially the same point about hit plays as well--no one really has THE formula for success. Even the best fail.

[Richard Kaufman]

The Season is worth rereading!

[Max Maven]

The Season is the lowest point in William Goldman’s writing career. Worth avoiding.

[Joe Mckay]

The quote from William Goldman refers to a successful Hollywood film. No one knows for sure what the ingredients are, and they screw up all the time even with the best intentions.

But it has many ingredients, few if any of which are related to magic.

If memory serves the full statement/quote included Hollywood.

Specifically the movie industry, from the book "Adventures in the Screen Trade".

The best book on Hollywood from a writer's perspective, written by the best screenwriter of all time.

That is the best book I have ever read. It is so much fun!

[Stefan Eriksson]

Stefan is a funny man

I'm honoured by that one-sentence review! Keep it up! I like your honesty and to relive these weeks through you!

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
Thinking about new topic for the next week, making new acquaintances, and learning new things from David Sousa and others.

Journal entry:
The first Saturday in Stockholm. I got up at 10:30, and got to school at 11:00.

We were given the next weeks topic yesterday. Motion & Stillness. We had 6 days to come up with a routine and present it to the class on Friday. My first idea was to stand completely still and have my glasses or parts of my costume move. But today on the way to school I came up with a different but technically similar idea which I liked more. I’m going to be laying on the table on my back not moving the entire time, having a doll or a toy jumping all over me performing Christoph Borer’s Get Sharky with the final revelation being in my mouth. There is a nice doll at DOCH that could possibly work, but I’d rather get a hand-puppet.

I haven’t done much practical stuff at the school, just extended our stay at Rimini for one day so we’ll be there in time for Aleš’s rehearsal.

We were just one month from the FISM World’s Championships in Magic in Rimini, Italy, where my friend from Prague, Aleš Hrdlička competed in general magic category.

Then I walked to the Magic Bar where Arne (the owner) and Robert (the one with strange humor) were having coffee in front of the Bar. It turned out that Robert is the host of the lecture and that he has traveled Europe busking with a rope routine, something that I don’t remember, and a bill in lemon.

Then another Swedish magician came, his name was Per and I immediately suspected that he was the one trying to find out information about this Louis magician from Prague performing in Sweden.

Per Eklund emailed me a couple of months before our meeting in Stockholm looking for information about a magician from Prague who spent a good deal of time performing in Sweden. I don’t remember any details and I can’t track our conversation, but if Per is reading this, maybe he can give us some more information.

It was indeed him. So we chatted about history and I started talking about the Epitome Location and Harry Lorayne and Karl Fulves and James Randi and he pointed me toward conjuringcredits.com which I didn’t know about. It’s also created by Denis Behr just like the conjuringarchive.com.

The Conjuring Credits say that Luca Pacioli described the idea of clocking the deck as problem 21 in his Perugia manuscript in 1478. The first mention in English was in 1630 in a book by Thomas Johnson called Dainty Conceits.

I also met Rickard and Lennart there - the brothers we met at Magic Weekend in Lund so many years ago with Martin (my brother). Lennart even remembered me doing clocking - I barely remembered HIM! Anyway, that was nice.

Then David Sousa’s lecture started. It was very interesting. The way he uses black art seems to be very useful.
I made these notes:

• I liked how he didn’t pay attention to a false transfer, but to the moment when he shows his hand empty.
• Magnets are great to attach loads to the costume in servantas. Could someone please educate me how to properly use this word? Is it used in English as well? What is the plural? My google skills failed me this time. 'Servanta' in Czech magic jargon means a special pocket (made of fabric/plastic/wood) mainly used to unload gimmicks/cards/birds.
  
• I got an idea when he talked about blackening the edges of playing cards - when preparing Paul Gertner's Unshuffled to write on the edge with pencil first and then - one by one - mark the cards with Sharpie over the pencil marks.

- David Sousa by the way can be genuinely funny.

Then I went home and thought about the ‘Motion and Stillness’ routine some more. Later I went to a toy store with Erik, but they didn’t have any hand puppets and I didn’t really like any of the animals they had so I decided to make one myself.

Back home I watched Science Friction DVD2, and found most of the effects weak in design. Some could be probably improved. I feel like Denis Behr’s idea how to spray cards for the invisible deck routine might be the best thing on the DVD.


David Sousa's lecture at the Magic Bar

[Joe Lyons]

Magnets are great to attach loads to the costume in servantas.Could someone please educate me how to properly use this word? Is it used in English as well? What is the plural? My google skills failed me this time. 'Servanta' in Czech magic jargon means a special pocket (made of fabric/plastic/wood) mainly used to unload gimmicks/cards/birds.

Hello Ondrej,
Your journal is interesting and informative.
I believe the English correlation would be Topit.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Hello Ondrej,
Your journal is interesting and informative.
I believe the English correlation would be Topit.

Thank you so much for the feedback, Joe. I am happy you find it interesting.
Topit is certainly a servanta, but I think that not all servantas are Topit. Servanta can be a pocket attached to the back of the table as well. All the Topits I know are a part of a magician's costume.

[Joe Lyons]

Hello Ondrej,
Your journal is interesting and informative.
I believe the English correlation would be Topit.

Thank you so much for the feedback, Joe. I am happy you find it interesting.
Topit is certainly a servanta, but I think that not all servantas are Topit. Servanta can be a pocket attached to the back of the table as well. All the Topits I know are a part of a magician's costume.

Ah, we use "Servante" for tables, although i did find references to vest Servantes.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Ah, we use "Servante" for tables.

Fantastic! That's it! Thanks to your help I found this entry in Wikipedia.
And look at this!
Thank you, Joe.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
This one is short. Lazy Sunday - preparing for my appearance at The Magic Bar and watching more magic videos.

Journal entry:
I watched Dani DaOrtiz’s and Yann Frisch’s conversation about lapping this morning right when I woke up. It’s not even 40 minutes long. It seems that they actually shot it in those 40 minutes and it’s the best video I’ve seen in a long time.

Then I went to school where I took a nice shower and dusted off my Organised Chaos trick. It took a while, but I was able to fix some tiny errors in my description in the journal and I’ll be hopefully able to perform it at the Magic Bar on Wednesday.

Organised Chaos is something I came up with on September 21st 2013 and started this journal with. It is based on Pit Hartling’s Chaos published in his The Little Green LECTURE notes. Pit’s effect is a fun presentation of a surprising revelation effect that also works as a setup for another effect. My version is more suitable as a closer because the deck ends up in the new deck order.

I went to pizzeria Corleone with the guys, got lasagne and it’s the best and most food for the least amount of money I’ve had around here.

Then I went back to school and worked on my close-up act for Wednesday. The methods still need some polishing.

Johan Ståhl reached out to us international students before we came to Sweden to help us lower our expenses by booking us at The Magic Bar. I got to Stockholm with the assumption that I’ll be doing table hopping once. And yes, I was supposed to do table hopping once, but also a 30 minute close-up show. Which I didn’t have. There is no better motivation to create than a deadline. And now I had one. And I found myself in the best possible circumstances to create a show. Surrounded by magic, passionate magicians, and having all the time reserved for thinking, writing, creating magic. And I loved it.

I went back to Baracken before 8 and got to show René, Jerome, and Mikael my version of Chaos and they liked the kicker. I showed them the original as well and they said that they liked mine better, but you know magicians…

Then I watched some more magic before I went to sleep - Henry Evans’ Opening Doors produced by Vernet. I pretty much disliked the English voice-over though. I watched just a very small part because of it.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Summary:
Ramsay, foreshadowing, Movement & Stillness, and Pit Hartling

Journal entry:
I overslept, so I woke up at 8:46 which was still enough for me to get to school on time.

We started with a warmup and then received a lecture from Tom about Ramsay’s theory of gaze management. Or that’s at least how someone on The Magic Cafe called it. It doesn’t have a name according to Tom. If someone talks about 'Ramsay’s postulate', that’s When you want the audience to look at something, look at it yourself; If you want them to look at you, look at them.

Then he talked about foreshadowing and gave us an assignment to make two simple tricks and foreshadow the second one in the first one. My group was I, Carl, Hans and Markus. Hans again was very good with ideas, Carl had some as well, Markus questioned other ideas, but rarely had a better counter idea. Instead of YES AND, it was BUT NO. Anyway, in the end he got convinced and agreed upon what the other three agreed upon and had fun doing it.

Then we had a lecture by Ulrika (DOCH’s dancer, choreographer, and teacher) on this week’s topic ‘Movement and Stillness’. She talked about the importance of pauses that help the performance being clearer and therefore more interesting for an eye of the viewer.
She also played a video of an old choreographer whose name was Haye I think, who said he automatically sees in which direction the audience is. But what if the audience is all around us? - Interesting idea for a show - magic from all sides.

Here is a short video of a part of the lecture.

After lunch we presented our assignment which was a pick-a-card trick and a cut & restored rope trick. We did the foreshadowing by introducing an executioner with a rope to hang anyone who would mess up the card trick, and then one of the magicians would cut the loop as a revenge and provocation.

Here is our cute little exercise in it's glory.

After a little feedback session we went to brain storm on our ‘Motion & Stillness’ projects. I came up with a very clear idea about how my routine should look so I was a little sceptical about what kind of input I can get and I was nicely surprised. Carl, and again Hans had very good ideas for the presentation.

Later we had student lectures again. Edith talking about sewing, Jacob talking about his problem solving process with his cups & balls routine and finally David T. about his 100 day project when he would create, shoot and upload a video of a little trick every day.

Afterward I went to the centre to buy a hand puppet to the store that Johan recommended to me. The puppet’s not great, but for 30 SEK ($4) sufficient.

Then I got back to school and tried the method that I envisioned for my trick. It turned out that a card folded in quarters can’t stay in one’s mouth for very long to remain presentable. Especially when there is 6 of them. So I have to try a new method. I already have one in mind that I will try tomorrow in school. I have to sew a bag that can be put over my head.

And I’m doing table-hopping at the Magic Bar tomorrow! Very exciting. And a close-up show on Wednesday. That’s a little bit scary, but I think I’ll somehow manage. I have to figure out this triathlon routine I have in mind tomorrow though.

Triathlon is a name of another great effect of Pit Hartling’s. This time I borrowed just the name for my personal reference. The effect I was going to present at The Magic Bar had very little in common with Pit’s trick. You can see that I’ve been strongly influenced by Pit Hartling. The clocking thing I’ve been writing about is something I initially learned from Pit at The Magic Weekend in Lund in 2002. It is a part of a trick of his called ...wait for it… Triathlon (published in The Little Green Lecture). That lead me to an idea I later presented on Season 6 of Penn & Teller Fool Us. It seems like everything relates to everything.

Tomorrow we'll learn about Crossing the Gaze and visit The Magic Bar again.



Amazing workshop full of all the tools a magician may need. Available even on Sunday.

[Ondrej Psenicka]

Today we started with a warmup held by Martin.

Then we had a lecture with Tom on Slydini’s theory who added to Ramsay’s “…unless you don’t want them to look at something, then look at something else.” Slydini didn’t have a name for it, but Juan Tamariz later called it ‘crossing the gaze’. Ideally the gaze and movement should both go in different directions. And the motion of both should start and end at the same time. Then we got an assignment to use that in a routine with creepy attitude. We had one hour. This time it was me, Joni and David S. And it was great. No rejections in the brainstorm process, just ideas pouring in. Mostly David’s. He would always add something to the effect that would make it a little more special. Then we were supposed to perform the same routine right after, just with a wrong application of the gaze. That, we didn’t rehearse at all. It was great fun.

These might be offensive to some people. I apologize in advance for the low quality of humor.
VIDEO of our exercise of mostly correct application of the theory of crossing the gaze.
VIDEO of our exercise of definitely incorrect application of the theory of crossing the gaze.

Then we had lunch. We went to Don Corleone which we found out is actually cheaper than the University restaurant. I think I’ll be going there more often. On the way back I stopped by Baracken and packed my costume and props so I could go to the Magic Bar directly from school.

The afternoon time was scheduled for our individual work on the projects of the week and I spent it entirely preparing for tonight’s and tomorrow’s show at the Magic Bar. I didn’t go to see the student lectures today. I went to the bar right when they started because I didn’t want any stress on my first day.

I got there at about 5pm, just catching the bartender Anna writing my name on blackboard on the stage. Then she took me to the kitchen where was Arne - the owner, who took me to the dressing room. I got ready, got something to eat, and then the first guests arrived. Anna took orders and I went ahead to perform some magic for them.

Later Tom Stone, Fredrik and Astrid came, and Fredrik had an interesting note to the Ninja rings routine. It appears that when I’m connecting a ring on another one that a spectator holds in their hands, initial failure enhances the effect.

Just a quick note: Ninja rings - and all I do is basically Shoot Ogawa’s routine with very little modifications - is my favorite effect for strolling magic.

Another fantastic discovery of that night was the power of the Promystic app. Arne said that it was the best trick he has ever seen. And more people liked it a lot. David Acer’s Triumph was also a lot of fun to perform.

The app I am talking about here is Morph by ProMystic.
The David Acer’s Triumph is ‘Overtime’ from his book More Power to You.

Then later, when Stefan and Hanna came, I did a little impromptu close-up show for the magicians where I performed my Chaos and Triathlon which I had a lot of trouble with. In Chaos I misplaced some cards, in Triathlon I forgot to add the chosen cards to the clocking sequence and then I had to go through the deck several times. So I learned my lesson and it’s going to be great tomorrow. There were about 5 groups that came that evening and everything there went great and I had a lot of fun performing.

I went home with Lionel and Hans. Hans told me about his mini lecture I missed about branding. When he talked about John-Henry being an amazing character - his hair so easy to remember, it struck me that I could use my glasses in my logo. I sent my picture with glasses to Linda that evening.

I struggled to get work as a magician at that time and Linda was a graphic designer who worked on my logo/business cards.

He also talked about his chips and magnets and website and that he puts one quarter of his revenue into his marketing. It inspired me as something I could learn a little more about.

I learned nothing. I feel like I stopped marketing myself completely - just look at my website.

Then back home I got into a long conversation with gently drunk David. We would talk about FISM, Merlin Awards, Tony Hassini, Helder, Alana, and Adriana. It was a very nice and personal conversation. Then I went to sleep. Tomorrow’s my close-up show.

(Hans also told me about this idea of a breast badge for walkaround magic which lets everyone know that you’re working and here for them.)
This is a fantastic idea - a similar one to that which is described in Jamie D. Grant’s book Approach - highly recommended.

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR IDEAS ABOUT ANYTHING, please post them below.


Crossing the gaze lecture with Tom Stone