Anyone Wantto Tell Us What Happened at Magic Live?

[Richard Kaufman]

Nobody has written anything about Magic Live ... how come? Any Genii Forum members go?

[Tabman]

Here's part of Merlina's Email Newsletter from today.

================

Greetings, it is 6:45 in sunny Las Vegas, the temperature is in the low 80's according to the TV and I've been up for almost an hour with the final packing and making sure all is in place for my return trip home. It has been a good convention, I've had some fun in spite of having been sick with a nasty cold and cough which followed me from St Louis; I'm ready to go home and rest.

Yesterday was a mix of schools of thought, personal opinions, lighting information, fireside tales and an evening show. The final Eric Mead rhetorical question brought a full house "oooh", we have enjoyed and found them to be not just fun but also thought provoking and I've overheard several people discussing them during the convention.

The close-up experience was divided into two groups and my ticket was for yesterday's sitting at 12:30. The presenter was among the best I've ever seen, he had one of those acts that are not just memorable, but is also one of those that once seen is talked about for years to come. Guy Hollingworth is a charming, artistic, personable and approachable man who has an unbelievable amount of talent. He and his performance are the highlight show of the convention, at least for me.

Hotel keys come and go and they are often taken for granted but this year everyone will be taking theirs home....this one is not your regular run of the mill plastic card key, this one is a combination of magic tricks which were revealed, one at a time, throughout the convention. Fortunately, the information of the tricks which may be performed with the key were printed up and distributed with the afternoon lecture notes.

We were asked last evening not to talk about the Tales of Terror segment so as not to spoil it for those in the second sitting but since that has already taken place, we can now share the story. Facilitated by a familiar yellow poncho wearing Mac King and an out of a "tent" boy scout uniformed Max Maven, you can imagine that the presentation had the audience roaring with laughter that only intensified with the terror tales of things that have happened to performers who were in the audience. Tale tellers included Tom Burgoon, Franz Harrary, and several others including David Williamson who walked through the "forrest" to the campground fireside to tell his. The stories were hilarious and all agreed it was a terrific event.

From there the group went to the Live Onstage 2nd seating; a show that included large illusions, juggling, comedy magic and closed with Joseph Gabriel's show. Details and names of this and all the other shows and events will be forthcoming in the full review this week.

In what seemed all too soon, Wednesday came to an end and it was time to head back upstairs for the "Finally Party" for one last walk around and final good byes to friends old and new. Flashes were commonplace as everyone took their rounds of photos to preserve as much of the memories as they could. The party lasted until after midnight but I couldn't tell you how long, I was exhausted by then after fighting this cold and cough for over a week now, I bid the last of my farewells and took the escalator down for the last time to enjoy a cup of coffee before going off to sleep and resting up for this repot and the trip home.

Until next time, keep a dream in the making for you create your tomorrows by what you dream today.

Maria Ibanez
_______________________________________________
Magicians mailing list
Magicians@merlina.com

[Magic Newswire]

We should have sent Craig! Fortunately, I had some great volunteers doing interviews and providing a peek behind the scenes.

We grabbed short chats with such guests as Chashetta, Ed Alonzo, Jeff McBride, Tobias Beckwith, Joey Juliano, Ron Seward, Elliot Zimet, Brian Daniel, Maria Ibanez, Jonathan Levit, Oscar Munoz, Marco Tempest, Franz Hararry, Trixie Bond, SAM President Mike Miller, Mike Bent, Chris Randall, Mike Michaels, Jason Andrews, Kevin James, Noel Britten, David Kaye, Dan Sperry, Dean Carnegie, Martin Lewis, Brian Daniel, Franz Harary and Richaed McDougal.

Here are links to the stories and the associated audio for anyone that is interested:

MAGIC LIVE REPORT #1
MAGIC LIVE REPORT #2
MAGIC LIVE REPORT #3
MAGIC LIVE REPORT #4
MAGIC LIVE REPORT #5

In addition, Mike Guisti did a nice job of blogging daily from Magic Live with photos and text. You can read what he had to say HERE

[CraigMitchell]

Thanks Dodd ;-) You have a knack of bringing a smile to my face ... rumour has it that working for The Magic Newswire allows you to avail yourself of its very extensive travel budget. Just so you know, I only fly First Class :)

[Dave Mithaca]

Thanks for the updates!

By the way, the Mike Giusti blog in the link above was from the 2004 Magic Live, not this year's event. It was fun to read anyways.

[IrishMagicNews]

Dodd,

That link goes to a review of the 2004 Magic Live. There is a picture of Billy McComb behind a dealer table which, seeing as I thought I was looking at 2009 pictures, gave me the fright of my life. Although having met Billy a few times, he's probably finding that quite amusing.

Brendan

[Magic Newswire]

Ha Craig! If the budget was that generous, I'd have been there in person! ;-)

[Magic Newswire]

Sorry about that.. you are right. Here's the Hocus Pocus blog:
http://hocuspoc.wordpress.com/

[Magic Newswire]

Rob james was also doing some reporting for Magic Convention Guide at :
http://www.magicconventionguide.com/cat ... live-2009/

[John Signa]

The full conference schedule, along with presenter bios, dealer info, etc., is available at www.magiclive09.info.

[Frank Dudgeon]

Magic Live! was superb, in my opinion. Guy Hollingworth was indeed marvelous in his one man show on Erdnase. Johnny and Pam Thompson with Tom Mullica were hilarious, as was David Williamson with his videos shot on site. I have no idea how they turned them around that quickly. The material and presenters in the sessions and "electives" came through big time from what I saw. I loved it.

I'm sure the rundowns on the Magic Newswire and other sources sited will give a nice recap of what went on. I'm still a tad too tired to get to them yet.

[Pete McCabe]

There was a great variety of events, presenters, and presentations. My personal favorite was Bill Schmeelk who spoke about the true masters of deception, the people who wrote and illustrated magic catalogs. Luis De Matos gave an incredibly detailed talk about how TV executive use ratings (which are now available) and how to keep them up. Marco Tempest talked about how to make -- and make money from -- internet magic. Eric Mead came through every show with a single little bit of something different every time, including his wonderful false shuffle, which gave me just the kick I needed to start learning it. Michael Weber interviewed Jules Fisher at length. Jules is maybe the world's ranking expert at lighting live performances and has endless fascinating and illuminating stories.

Guy Hollingworth performed his one-man show called The Expert at the Card Table, telling the story of Erdnase. (In his version, by the way, it's Milton Franklin Andrews.) This was the most compelling magic performance I have ever seen. It's 90 minutes long and tells Andrews' story from birth to death, using magic and cheating demonstrations to brilliant dramatic effect. This production integrates magic and story in a way that is unmatched in my experience.

I gave two hour-long scripting workshops, and both times the response was remarkably enthusiastic. It was nothing like a typical magic lecture -- we did creative exercises for an hour. People came -- I had about 350 people over two sessions -- and they worked for an hour without any hope of learning a new trick. It was extremely gratifying.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend any of the other electives.

The dealer's room seemed nice -- lots of unusual stuff rather than just dealers all selling the same current tricks. Best bargain at the show -- Random Magic was selling Bicycle factory-cut stripper decks for two dollars. Two dollars! The biggest disappointment was that all four of Paul Harris new products, which were going to premier at the convention, were delayed in production. One of them, called "Little Man," sounds like the greatest trick in the history of the world. I am not kidding.

The obligatory juggler who is the best act in any of the shows was Greg Kennedy. If you don't know him, google away. The cone is even more impressive in person, if possible, because the sound reverberates through the theater in a powerful way. Especially noteworthy was Noel Britten, who MCed the final show and was hilarious.

At one of the events, somebody won a free registration to the next Magic Live, so it looks like there's going to be another won.

This was my first Magic Live, and my first convention in 13 years, so I'm not an expert. But I had a blast.

[Steve Bryant]

Overall review: awesome. Loved Hollingworth, loved seeing Simon Aronson and Ginny do their mindreading impromptu in the hallway.

Second Tales of Terror included Michael Weber, Mark Kornhouser, David Sandy, and Chris Kenner, along with Mac and Max (in their hilarious costumes). All very funny, but David Sandy's story killed.

Really need some sleep ...

[Pete McCabe]

One more great thing I forgot to mention: meeting people I'd only met online, like Steve Bryant, or people I hadn't seen in 13 years, like John Bannon. This is always the best part of the convention, and Magic Live was very well attended. I brought my own copy of Scripting Magic to get it signed by as many of the "26 other guys" as I could. I got Burger, Close, Hollingworth, Levit, Lovick, Maven, Mead, Teller, and Turner. Had a nice chat with Franz Harary, who is the nicest guy in the world. His two tales of terror were incredible, and while we were on line for the evening show he shared another non-show-related story that was equally amazing.

[Charlie Chang]

Just wanted to publicly say "Thank You" to Harry Allen.

A friend and I were in town and were not registered for the convention. We stopped by hoping we might be able to check out the dealer room (or see if they offered dealer room passes). They didn't, but Harry went out of his way to see what he could do for two strangers.

So again, thank you Harry, it made my day even though we couldn't get in.

[Doug Brewer]

I'll point out some highlights for me, in addition to the evening shows and the overall feel of the convention that have already been covered. First, though, I'd like to say I thought the convention was very well organized and had a nice mix of business oriented topics as well as technical. Anyway, here are some highlights:

* Paul Gertner's presentation on Day 1 with two other tradeshow magicians giving a pitch using Professor's Nightmare. Paul's pitch of "IHOP" with the trick to conclude was hilarious and very clever.

* Tim Conover's Monday night Mentalism Show. I think this may have been dismissed by some of the magician's in the audience because Tim was doing his commercial show and wasn't aiming it to fool magicians. His choice of material, how he presented it and the rapid assault of impossibilities was a real lesson.

* Tim Conover's impromptu close-up show on Tuesday afternoon. This wasn't scheduled and because I happened to be in the right place at the right time and knew it was coming, I saw one of the best close-up shows of my life. I saw Tim's version of the Goshman salt shaker trick, his Cylinder & Coins, his bent coin routine, his version of flash bills where the bills change from 1's to 5's to 10's to 20's to 50's to 100's and kicks the heiny of any other bill change routine I've witnessed. He ended with the production of a full shot glass of liquid under a hank. I'll never forget this show.

* Simon Aronson and wife Ginny's impromptu performance of their mindreading act out in the hallway on Tuesday afternoon. Great, great stuff.

* Eric Mead's "rhetorical questions" sets. Eric's selection of material and his easy-going style were nice segue's into the longer presentations during the morning sessions.

* The professionalism of the dealer room. I saw some of the nicest backdrops and booth designs for a magic convention. More like booth designs for higher end trade shows, MagicSmith and Losander's booths looked outstanding and were very eye-catching.

* Finally, the Guy Hollingworth show, which he presented last year at the Edinburgh Festival and recently at the Magic Castle (and which I missed) was incredible in how well it was presented, the writing, and the production values. This really added value to the whole experience at the convention and reminded all of us that "art" is still happening in our field.

[Curtis Kam]

Doug, I heard a rumor that someone was there showing off entirely new and really cool coin box stuff, and that there were even a few copies of a noir-ish book on the stuff floating around. "The Coin Box Killers" or something like that.

Can you confirm?

[MaxNY]

Got stuck in the Vegas airport for 10 hours, waiting for a repair on a smoking plane, arrived in New Jersey to a car that would not start, due to an light that was left on...My report will be delayed a day or two...hang in there folks.

[Jamie D. Grant]

Hiya Gang,

I had an amazing time! Even stuck at my booth, I was able to have some conversations with some of the greatest people I have ever met.

As for the convention events- I didn't get to see all of them, but what I did see were equally fantastic. 2 highlights off the top of my head were:

Guy Hollingworth's show

and

Simon Aronson and his wife's impromtu mindreading piece performed in the looby outside the dealers' room. That will be talked about for a very long time. She got "Zimbabwe Currency" for Pete's sake!

jamie

[Pete McCabe]

Just a note that my September issue arrived and what did I see but an article by Bill Schmeelk. This is basically the presentation Bill gave, which I mentioned above was one of my favorites, in article form. Glad to see Genii readers can see it.

[Richard Kaufman]

Bill gave the lecture at the Los Angeles Conference on Magic History years ago and I've had it in the file since then.

[Pete McCabe]

I had a conversation after Bill's presentation and the guy -- can't remember who -- had the idea to make a T-shirt with one of the old graphics. This would be great. There was one picture in the presentation that didn't make it into the article, of the spectator reacting to a trick, which was both of our first choice. The facial expression is priceless.

To see the best part of the show, though, you have to go see Bill at a convention. During the presentation he reads the catalog ad of a trick, and for a climax, he performs the trick to the accompaniment of emcee Jonathan Levit reading the ad. Levit did a great job as emcee, including doing his outstanding magazine test in which he showed that he has completely memorized every page of the current Magic magazine, a unique performance in that probably a quarter of the audience had their copy with them (it was handed out at the convention) and could follow along.

By the way, Bill also did the flashing eyes and it works fantastically well. It's a great secret and well worth 50 cents.

[Doug Thornton]

Bill Schmeelks presentation Catalog Treasures - was a gem. Funny and true. He said it was ten years ago when he first presented it as Richard mentioned. It was absolutely hysterical. Also of note is that Bill receives the first thank you from John Harrison in Spellbound, his biography of Doug Henning.

Speaking of books, Richard Hatch and Charlie Randall of H & R Books had a great deal of excitement at their MAGIC Live booth because they had book signings throughout the four days, including Mr. Harrison. It was a classy touch. Thank you, gentlemen.

And special thanks to Stan Allen and his (seemingly) staff of hundreds who put together a fantastic convention once again!

Rob James (as well as those in the above posts) did a fine job of summing things up. Thanks, Dodd for posting the link:

http://www.magicconventionguide.com/cat ... live-2009/

MaxNY, where are you?

[MaxNY]

Doug, I'm here, just left my brain back at the Vegas airport. Man, that cancelled flight gave me jet-lag X2. Let me shake the weasels and get you guys my full report. Let me just wet your appetites and say that my "19th trading card" gag was topped the last day by "ReLIEve" urinal cakes in the men's urinals.

[MaxNY]

Yea! Stan's Magic Live was another big hit. I have attended all four of the Magic Live conventions, so I have a good baseline to voice an opinion. Lets just start at the beginning...

I don't do Buffalo. Don't care to ever be up there again, ever. I do Las Vegas, not to gamble, but to enjoy the crazy randomness of the city. South Point was located so far from the strip, a cab ride cost around $30, one way! Saving money by having a convention on a rather unknown property was a poor judgement call. I visit Vegas to get onto the strip once or twice to see the spectacles, the shows, the great people watching. Magic Live has always kept you so busy that you didn't dare leave, otherwise you would miss a "Jason Alexander", as none of the activities were ever announced. (This year was different, but still the schedule was jammed.)

It appears that when they built this casino, they wanted no windows looking at the strip...It was as if the strip didn't exist. A $10 fee did get you a "view" of the strip. I have a better view of Russia , and I live in New York. There was no free shuttle to the strip, and the one time I took the bus, I was blatantly ripped off a $20 by perhaps a con artist bus driver. Everyone in Vegas is hurting, and the city of sin will steal from you if you aren't as smart as the thugs that inhabit the crappiest city in America. At least I wasn't cold-cocked by a total stranger, for NO REASON as I was riding a city bus during my 1st visit to Magic Live.

The rooms were nice, big and clean. Clerks were all nice. The pool tasted like piss. There is a small group of us who like to swim laps at 6am, and the Orleans had the decency to run the filters all night long, so a morning swim used to be pleasant.

So, why have a convention in Las Vegas when the hotel is located in New Mexico?
I bet the answer is... because it saves enough money by hiring a desired AV crew without paying for union monkeys that don't answer to anyone, and work for peanuts. Once again the AV crew provided seamless entertainment.

The Opening Night party was done right. 18 trading cards with pics of young colleagues. Half the fun was trying to figure out who was on the pics. The only person I could say for sure was Caveney, and Blaine. The backs of the cards had places for autographs. I got caught up in the whole "race". In fact, the great thing about Magic Live is all of our stars, are everywhere, willing to give you 5 minutes. I even got to ask Franz Harary if he tagged that chick he posed in Playboy with (1986?) "No". But, he did let me in on a great Michael Jackson story. First let me set up the stage. We just happened to be at the same booth during the Opening Night party, when a Michael Jackson song comes on. The DJ was smoking, playing all the hits from every era, I mean oddball stuff like the Dead's "Fire on the Mountain", yeah, DJ Redbeard was King of the Cups. Sooooo, Michael Jackson's big hit comes over the rooms, and slams us with his wonderful hooks, and I'm standing right next to Franz Harary, and I'm like..."God has put me next to you at this very instant so you can tell me a Michael Jackson story..." And he says, " What do you want to hear?" and I'm like "Anything, just tell me a story you have never told anyone before."

I don't want to quote him, but he seems like a pretty straight forward guy, (except for that PB trim, I beLIEve he got some), anyway Michael Jackson hires him to teach him birds, now he doesn't do birds, but it is Michael Jackson....About three months go by, and Franz meets up with Jackson several times, and they are sessioning....and one day Franz has his back turned away from Michael, he turns around....and he tells me that Jackson is shoving a dove down the front of his pants! 2 hours into the convention, and I am reminded why come back every two years.

There was a great game helping you spend your money at the dealers that night. I'm not really one to spend money at the dealer's room. I would say that the dealers room was the largest I have ever seen at any magic convention, and I don't mean just the size of the room, but the quantity, and quality of dealers. Handmade wands, to handmade helicopters. Cheers to all who showed. I bought a great pic of Earl Ray Wilcox, perhaps a quadruple exposure of his hands, face, and cards being worked, sublime. There is an art that will be lost due to this digital era. Someone needs to invent a double exposure digital camera. The photo was shot by perhaps the best photographer of magicians ever, Maurice Seymore. I spent the rest of the evening trying to get the magic book powers to be to get a book out on just Seymore's portfolio. I heard from Todd that the son is alive, and claims the negatives don't exist, and another author said it would be an endless labor of love.
Hank Morehouse had some great old glossies, and just for kicks I purchased one of Stan Allen, from maybe the late 60's or early 70's, big fro, mustache, a great shot that worked well into my "19th trading card prank" the next night.

Too much free ice-cream! They never took the ice-cream away. I've worked more parties than you can imagine, and the ice-cream visits the ballroom for maybe a half hour....I had three heaping bowls of ice-cream. Let me get a bowl now, and try to get back to the damn convention...

... I'm back. That night I get up to my room and crack open the free mags to see what shows are in town, and in each mag there is an ad for Steven Best and Cassandra "Superstars of Magic"....It is not fair of me to judge an act without seeing it, but please just let me judge the ad. Steve has an outsretched arm with an oversized bird, he appears also to be oversized....and she...suicide blonde. Jesus can one of you guys find this ad for me and post it here. One of the dealers was offering a "Show makeover", man this ad needs to loose a few pounds. Think..an overweight Anna Nicole meets an overweight Elvis.

Day One. Already! Richard McDougall had a wonderful analogy about how his dad taught him soccer, and how we should stop the ball from rolling, concentrate on the goal, then proceed to the goal, knowing the position of all opposition. I love the "theory" crap, and this was full of it. Eric Mead had two letters written by the same kid asking for help. Night and day. His encouragement to mentor kids by having them learn the classics from the books, probably really helpful in this computer age. Danny Garcia is a rock star! Simple useful stuff with a straw and a dollar. Hope this kid is making money. Rune Klan, speedy fast paced Danish Superstar, reminds me of Tom Arnold coming off blow, invisible bugs on his face, recently lost 100 pounds, wonder how? He had the best joke, after dropping a coin, he paused... apologized, turned to the MC and said "Well, I didn't get the Living Legends intro...."

Tom Mullica and Tompsoni and Co. with a parody of Kuda Bux, no laughs. Not one punch, dumb ending. This would be the first of two or three eye-socket holes covered, waxed, gauzed, aluminum foiled, routines we would see at Magic Live. I'm not sure if the parody should have been first, probably should have been last. Luis De Matos gave a great explaination of how the ratings system works. Eric Mead tried to get magicians not to download illegables. I have never done so, but spare the guilt for the chatrooms. Nobody wants to pay to be lectured about how irresponsible these computer geeks are towards starving artists. Adam Rubin did some Johnny Carson style Physical Puzzle, with a rope, a giant knife, it sold big, geeky thing. Just how do you insure this trick? John Gaughan was great. There is a DVD of him walking around his old warehouse with some Local PBS dude, that is better. Find it, buy it, if you are into him. People were walking out, I guess just not their cup of tea. I could listen to him forever!

I spent that evening's dinner at the copy centers getting together the elusive "19th trading card"...I placed that really old picture of Stan Allen into the same frame as the Opening Night Cards...Went from table to table trying to get guys to trade their last night's cards for a "Stan Allen"....would you believe that I had many tables say...."Who?" I reproduced around 90, and spread them around tables all during the convention. Consider yourself lucky if you got one. Guys were even going up to the Pres. asking for his autograph!

The first nights shows were divided into two. We all caught a show, then switched to see another. Tim Conover fooled me...fooled me silly. I'm not familar with Mentalist techniques. Many said that they were not fooled. I go to magic conventions to be fooled, as I was. But, Tim was not entertaining. I came away from his show thinking that he doesn't like to perform. It was 90 minutes of scripted crap. The only bit of buisness was his little yelp, and clap when he received the "message" from the volunteer. I believe that it isn't fresh anymore, and maybe he needs to retire. The audience was also tired and didn't give him anything back.. Marc Salem has bits, barbs, asides....Tim's act needs a makeover.

The other evening's show was perfect. Elliot Zimet's street music was far too loud. He comes out with wheelies, and a boom box the size of....of...well a boom box. I heard a great comment that night..."I haven't seen a boom box like that since Ed Koch was Mayor." And the way he placed it down, I swear there was a girl inside...nope. Elliot produces the 2nd Big Bird faster than anyone else. Ed Alonzo was the highlight. House alarms went off for about 4 minutes before we were told not to panic, and everything was fine. 4 minutes! I was the only person who was eyeing the door. The biggest lesson my wife ever gave me.."know your exits". Hazers tripped the Feds, fire was shut down for the rest of the gigs.

Day two AM sessions...Marco Tempest had some new softwary thingy that was interactive, funny, inventive, a real gem. Richard Garriott's tales from space were fun, and yet promised that bitter pill called human destiny. It was good to hear it from a regular million dollar Joe. He had pics of Earth, like I have never seen from NASA....? They holding back? That Spacelab theater thing is rotating a lot closer than I ever imagined. I gonna think twice now before I wee wee in the woods.

Then we danced around in an afternoon of sessions, choreographed by ourselves. This was the 2nd best part of Magic Live. I didn't have to attend the only lecture by some Czar selling stuffed puppets, because it was the only thing on the bill. I would design my own death. Joanie Spina was wonderful. She had some Vegas youth named Jason volunteer for her workshop, she showed a video of his "before" and did a start/stop schtick that is usually a tool for television directors. Then brought out Jason, live "fixed"...that my funny forum friends was magic! Balls to the kid. Read her, and go online to see how she flushes the bugs.

I also got Bent with Mike, and learned to think outside the "magic" box, with Mode and Trace. Simple brainstorming with a paper clip. (kept thinking it could be used as an abortion device for a knocked-up Barbie)...I don't need to be thinking outside the box, maybe, my thoughts need a little harnessing. Then Jeffrey Cowan kept promising us that he wasn't allowed to practice law in the State of Las Vegas. 8 times. How do you cover any law or laws in 60 minutes?

Bill Schmeelk (Wellington) lives the closest to me than anyone else at any convention, but whenever I tell him that, he never seems to remember me... Anyway... he killed. There was so much nervous laughter throughout the audience, but we were all laughing with Bill, as he re-visited our late night visions thumbing through those old pulp catalogs of the past. Dead on funny. I howled! Haven't laughed so much since the Kaplan bowling ball a year ago. Another convention hit, as lightning bolts shot from his eyes. This was some of the first of "inside" humor that has always engulfed Live. Two days late, but worth the wait. And there was more after that with Weber doing the news. Maven was retired as most barbed, giving way to Criss and The Pendragon.

Jules Fisher was delightful. Stan threw a curve with him. It was one of those unexpected delights...right up there with ice-cream all night.

The reviewers had set such a high bar two years ago....they tried, but failed. Still full of insight, laughs. Jason is a better mime!

The best part of the convention was Guy Hollingworth's "The Expert At The Card Table". I fail at praise, let me just say that this alone was worth the price of the convention! I believe they were shooting this for the two days after. Anyone care to let us know for who, or what? This was strong magic. Only complaint was the overhead camera. They should have mounted it 10 feet away, 10 feet above the table. Hopefully they re-mounted the camera for the shoot.

Wednesday evening's show started out with Tim and Andre Kole slicing and dicing chixs the way those dirty little GF's need to be punished, short of spanking. Does anyone else think Christians shouldn't be armed with blades of death? Even for our entertainment? Too many sharp objects. Andre talked about how he tries to think up three new illusions a day....I'd hate to see the ones that didn't make it to the shop. Luis De Matos had the best Sands of Sensomea that I've ever seen. Splashed water everywhere, sand all over the stage. Top star! Joseph Gabriel get a little tuck? He looks younger than he did in the early 80's.

Topped the evening (after another big switch) with Tales of Terror. Great fun. Missing a Marshmellow shooter. Max Maven as a Boy Scout! Great gags, jokes. Mad fun.

Oh yeah, and Urinal cakes with Criss Angel's ReLIEve. That practical joke far topped my "19th trading card"!

And another $30 cab ride.

[CraigMitchell]

Max,

Thanks for taking the trouble to write this up & share it with us. Really do appreciate it - along with everyone else who shared 'the Magic Live' experience with us from afar ...

[Joe Pecore]

Is this the ad for Steven Best and Cassandra "Superstars of Magic" you wanted Max?

[MaxNY]

Thanks Joe, that's the one!

Oh yeah, there was a coupon book for dealer discounts, maybe 80 or 90 coupons. the entire "Marketplace" had insightful ideas.

[Donal Chayce]

I spent that evening's dinner at the copy centers getting together the elusive "19th trading card"...I placed that really old picture of Stan Allen into the same frame as the Opening Night Cards...Went from table to table trying to get guys to trade their last night's cards for a "Stan Allen"....would you believe that I had many tables say...."Who?" I reproduced around 90, and spread them around tables all during the convention. Consider yourself lucky if you got one. Guys were even going up to the Pres. asking for his autograph!

LOL...I wondered who was behind that. Thanks, Max.

[Steve Bryant]

I just posted my complete notes, with a few photos, at Little Egypt Magic.