Saturdays Schedule, which is subject to change is:

8:30am – 5pm Registration Desk open
9am – 5:30pm Dealers Showcase open in the Empress Ballroom, balcony and the Arena

9:15am – 10:15am Star Lecture by David Kaplan – Spanish Hall
10am – 11:45am The Childrens Entertainer International Championships – Opera House
10:45am – 11:45am Star Lecture – Mr Tango – Spanish Hall

12:30am – 1:30pm An Audience with “The Comedians” – Spanish Hall (David Williamson, Clive Webb, Danny Adams, David Kaplan)
1pm – 2pm International Close-up: First Session – Horseshoe Area – Yigal Mesika, David Penn, John Bannon, Ed Ellis, Banachek, Harry Robson.

2pm – 3pm Star Lecture by David & Dania – Spanish Hall
2:15pm – 4:30pm Two “Kidz R Us” Lectures – Ice Room (Quentin Reynolds, Pat Fallon)
3pm – 4pm International Close-up: Second Session – Horseshoe Area (as session one)
3:30pm – 4:30pm Star Lecture – Sandy Marshall will talk about Jay Marshall – Spanish Hall

4:30pm – 5:30pm International Close-up: Third Session – Horseshoe Area (as session one)
5pm – 6pm Star Lecture by Henry Evans – Spanish Hall

5pm Registration Desk Closes
5:30pm Dealers close

7pm – 10:30pm International Stage Magic Championships – Opera House followed by Cirque Du Magie – Clive Webb and Danny Adams, Banachek, David Wiliamson, David & Dania and David Kaplan

11pm – 12am Star Lecture by Shoot Ogawa – Spanish Hall
11pm – 12:30am Andrew James and Magic Sam present ‘Beat The Wand’ competition – Theatre Bar

The late night lecture on the Friday is always a tough spot, and it takes a good strong lecture to keep the crowd, so the Spanish hall was full for Jims lecture.

Jim presented some great effects, starting with a lovely effect with a Red Bull energy drink, a twist on the hydrostatic bottle, before moving onto some good card effects.

There was a great ring on string effect, giving the audience a good mix of types of magic.

All of the effects were extremely workable, including a lovely three card monty, inspired by the genius of Pat Page, allowing you to finish clean. One that really was genius.

A fantastic close to the days lectures.

Mark Mason always presents fantastic workable magic, and is a real character of magic, you never forget seeing Mark Mason performing magic for you.

In one of the two late night slots, its a tough audience to keep entertained, however Mark, presented some wonderfully strong, and entertaining effects.

Great reactions from the audience, and those on stage, this was a wonderful close to the evenings lectures before heading back to put some of the effects into practise at the Ruskin.

The winners of the British magical closeup championships are:

First place – Min Hyung Kim (Korea)
Second place – Johan Stahl (Sweden)
Third – John Van Der Putt (UK)

Presented by Michael J. Fitch, an interview with Wayne Dobson started with a moving tribute to Patrick Page and a huge list of television introductions of our star performer. Some fantastic personal messages from International Illusionist Rick Thomas and TV comedian Joe Pasquale, really demonstrate the popularity of one of Britains best loved magicians. Fitch discussed Wayne’s early career, showing footage of his first TV performances on ‘Blue Peter’ and ‘Search for a Star’.

An amazing comedy performer, we moved onto the presentation and tutorial of Wayne’s signature effect ‘The Five Card Repeat’ performed at great pace, every magician left the theatre as an expert including Michael J. Fitch. More great stories, jokes and video clips of Wayne’s magical life kept the audience laughing. The show built further with clips of Wayne’s vent work doing the funny voices for his stage assistants.  Pure comedy gold.

Further teach-ins of ‘Nailed’ , ‘Do as I Do’ and some great shadow-play from Wayne behind the projector screen really made this event a one to remember. Well produced by Michael J. Fitch I am sure this will be a convention highlight for many people.

As if that wasn’t enough, we then rounded things off with outstanding comedy with Freddie Starr and a floating piano, followed by Wayne’s world famous ‘Voices’ routine.  And that is why we all stood and joined Alan Coventry in applause as he presented ‘The Lifetime Achievement Award’ .

A popular event for Blackpool, this event was a huge success. Three very talented performers battled it out for the title of Junior British Magical Close-up Champion. We witnessed a  fantastic standard of presentation from all performers.

Alex Hansford, Billy Debu and Joe Harper all performed to a capacity crowd in the Spanish Hall under what can only be described as perfect working conditions to an appreciative, encouraging audience. The future is very bright for magic with magic like this.

After much deliberation the President of Blackpool Magicians club, Alan Coventry, awarded 1st prize to Alex Hansford, 2nd prize to Joe Harper and 3rd prize to Billy Debu.