Photos from this years 2010 International Magic Convention

Many thanks to Mandy Davis for allowing us to use her wonderful photos.

Sunday was the final day of the convention and started out in a great way, with the second of the Flicking Fingers lectures. Again this was a joint lecture between Pit Hartling and Manuel Muerte. Manuel performed and explained a Coin and Marker routine that saw the coin and the marker magically grow in size. Pit performed his Cupid routine, and along with a great spectator and Pit’s well scripted trick it made for a great performance piece. Essentially it is a matching card effect in three phases, the final phase is where all the cards pair up, helped by the Joker who plays the part of Cupid. Manuel was back with a very clever impromptu card-in-shoe idea, that incorporates a glass from shoe production. Pit then performed Unforgettable, a memory effect where the properties of Orange Juice allow him to remember the order of the cards. Finally Manuel performed and explained a bill in cigarette. A fantastic lecture, and its just a shame it had to be a bit rushed because of time constraints.

Before the Close-up Gala came the Awards Ceremony, as has already been reported the Awards of Merit went to Andost, Rene Jensen and Paul Sommersguter. The results in reverse order were 3rd - Alexander Hansford, 2nd - Kim Min Hung and 1st - Matthew Wright.

First on the Close-up Gala Show was Tyler Wilson, he bounded on with his usual ebullience and launched straight into a Story Deck with a borrowed pack, I won’t spoil it for you but if you ever see Tyler ask him to show you! A trick and gag with an iPhone turned out to actually be a low-tech prediction and finally Tyler showed us his version of Anniversary Waltz combined with Card-on-Ceiling not an easy trick in the Mermaid, and Tyler had to climb up a very precarious looking ladder to retrieve the card, and bring the trick to it’s successful conclusion. (more…)

Saturday started out with a quick trip to the dealers, and then into the 27th Annual Close-up Competition. As a warm up they showed footage of last years winner Johan Stahl.

The first competitor was Will Gray from the UK, he performed a Splash Bottle gag, a Glass of Water production complete with Goldfish, and a signed card to sealed deck. Second was Rene Jensen from Denmark, he performed a quick bit of thimble manipulation, followed by a double beer bottle production. The main part of his routine involved an Electric Deck that could be controlled with a computer mouse. He performed an Ambitious sequence, produced batteries out of the deck and card case, and even at one point showed the electronic inner workings of the deck, before riffling it to show it was normal. He finished with a card appearing in the mouse, and the production of a Giant Battery. (more…)

I arrived at Kings Cross after an horrendous train journey, my train having broken down, however that was all soon forgotten, after checking into our digs, we made the short journey to China Town to grab some food, and then onto the Mermaid for the first night of the convention.

After registration, which was quick and smooth, we filed into the theatre for the first of the two Friday Night events, The Flicking Fingers Show.

The Flicking Fingers consist of ten professional magicians that come from all over Germany and now perform and lecture together. What a treat we were in for, they were the highlight of the entire weekend, their performance started with a full group costume change from typical European dress to them all dressed as Flight Attendants. They then took to the aisles of the theatre and proceeded with a safety announcement, with each member simultaneously performing a rope trick. This was coupled with what was to become a running gag of Guy Hollingworth trying to join the group.

The backstory of the show was they wanted to bring a little bit of Las Vegas to London and this allowed Manuel Muerte to perform his comic parody of good humoured digs at the expense of established magical entertainment. Performing as though he were an ageing magician in Las Vegas, in some kind of weird dream-like act where Goldfish Bowls materialise, rubber doves are shot, his hands keep falling off, and finally a tiger is shot down from the roof. I saw this just a few months ago at the IBM where for some reason it didn’t quite click, but here I think in the context of the show, and in a more intimate theatre it really did work, very funny and very weird! (more…)

The results for this years 27th International Close-Up Competition & Kevin Reay Trophy that took place at the International Magic Convention at The Mermaid Theatre, London from November 26th to 28th 2010 have been announced.

1st Prize Mathew Wright - UK
2nd Prize Kim Min Hyung - Korea
3rd Prize Alexander Hansford - UK

Merit Awards:

Paul Sommerguter - Austria
Rene Jensen - Denmark
Andost - USA

Many thanks to Peter McLanachan for the update on the result.

Ricky Smith (USA) & Ben Whiting (USA) will be joining the amazing line up at this years International Magic Convention at The Mermaid Theatre, London from November 26th to 28th 2010

The convention is again set to be a wonderful weekend, with the Saturday night gala show now sold out, although the Sunday evening Gala and convention tickets are still currently available.

Joining the line up will be a host of dealers including; Angelo Carbone (UK), Astor Magic Bt. (Hungary), Bob Little (USA), Card Shark (Germany), Cups & Balls (Netherlands), Domenico Dante (Italy), Five of Hearts Magic (UK), Gycklaren Magic (Sweden), Hank Moorehouse (USA), Hocus-Pocus (UK), International Magic (UK), Tyler Wilson (Canada), Joker Magic (Hungary), Jupiter (Hungary), Kreis Magic (Japan/USA), The Magic Circle (UK), Magic Victoria (Belgium), Magicaplanet (France), Magix Effect (France), Patrick Page Magic (UK), Pelican stagewear (UK), Progretto Magia (Italy), SEO Magic USA (Japan/USA), Stephen Tucker Magic (UK), Wayne Dobson (UK), Wladimir (Slovenia)

Further details on the International Magic Convention Page, and we will be bringing you all the news as it’s released as well as a brand new guide, hotel info and if you want to see what happened last year, check out our live coverage to see why this is such a great convention.