It’s the Thursday night before the convention and everyone who’s anyone has gathered here in the HQ hotel, the Ruskin.

Even through it’s fairly packed tonight, it will be getting a lot busier over the weekend. Most of the artists are now in town, We wandered up the the Blackpool Magicians Club HQ earlier and heard Jeff McBride’s Master Class was going well.

This evening we’ve been privileged to see both James Randi and Eugene Burger, both happy to pose for photos and talk with the attendees. It’s a great atmosphere, with everyone chatting, famous or not.

Andi Gladwin, and Joshua Jay, Jeff McBride, and Rafael, all getting ready for what might be one of the best Blackpools yet, and at 1am the hotels still very busy with more people arriving.

Tomorrow is registration at 10am, and the first look at the final schedule for the weekend.

Our photo feed is also being shown and picked up live over at www.itricks.com for anyone wanting absolutely up-to-the-minute images..

We’re now on route to Blackpool, along with the population of a small city for the 2009 Blackpool Magicians Convention that starts tomorrow (Friday).

We’ll be bringing you all the news, rumor, gossip, and we hope some extra special bits all weekend. Our live blog will get updated as it happens, and we will add photos and extra information to previous posts as we can.

To follow it just hit our front page here, or click on the link on the right – In Depth Blackpool Magicians Convention 2009.

It’s going to be a fantastic weekend, and before you go, dont forget to check out our Guide To Blackpool 2009, and we’ll see you at the Winter Gardens.

The Daily Mail today let slip (although very low key) that David Blaine would be visiting The Blackpool Magic Convention this year. Blaine is over to look for venues for his 2011 tour, and has been visiting venues in and around London.

Although David won’t be appearing at the convention as an artist, he’ll be “catching up with old friends and brushing up on new tricks”, and we assume, mingling with the amazing who’s who of magic already booked to perform, or just attend.

Tickets for the Blackpool Magic Convention itself are still available directly from the Blackpool Magicians Club Site, and the convention takes place on 20th 21st and 22nd February 2009.

We’ll be bringing you all the news in the run up to the convention, and check out our guide to the Blackpool convention.

Labman is Back!! The worlds Coolest Magician, Rudy Coby is heading to Blackpool Magic Convention later this week.

We talk with Rudy about what he’s been up to, his new lecture, Gala Act, and Close-up show for Blackpool, why he came back to magic, and why you should come to see his lecture this weekend, why David Copperfield and David Blaine tracked him down, and just how excited he is about appearing at Blackpool.

You can listen to the interview below

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Tickets for the Blackpool Magic Convention itself are still available directly from the Blackpool Magicians Club Site, and the convention takes place on 20th 21st and 22nd February 2009.

We’ll be bringing you all the news in the run up to the convention, and check out our guide to the Blackpool convention.

You can also follow Rudy Coby through his website – www.rudycoby.net

photo (c) bob mussell

Magic Sam and Andrew James are organising an event for Blackpool with kind permission by Derek Lever

Beat the Wand! is a competition that anybody, with any sort of act may enter. Magic, juggling, mentalism, contortionists, ventriloquists, comedy, balloons, Basically as long as you have a five minute act you can enter.

Each contestant has to attempt to entertain the audience for five minutes without being voted off. When a judge becomes bored or has had enough of the act, they will raise their wand in the air. As soon as there are three wands in the air the act is stopped. The contestants that do “Beat the Wand” and last five minutes will return to the stage and a winner will be decided by ‘Clap-o-meter’.

The raw, informal and intimate event will take place in the Theatre Bar, Winter Gardens (The rear room of the Galleon Bar) Saturday night straight after the Saturday Night Intercontinental stage show. 11pm – 1am

The big prize is pride, honour and the glory of being able to say that you were the one who “Beat the Wand”, trophy, t-shirt, and a gold ticket for next years convention.

If you would like to be a part of this brand new convention event, send an email with a bit about yourself and a link to youtube footage of you in action to beatthewand@hotmail.co.uk, and if we can pin the boys down, we’ll have a chat with them on the podcast..

Tickets for the Blackpool Magic Convention itself are still available directly from the Blackpool Magicians Club Site, and the convention takes place immediately after the master class on 20th 21st and 22nd February 2009.

We’ll be bringing you all the news in the run up to the convention.

Jeff McBride took some time to talk to us about his up coming Master Class at Blackpool this year.

The secret session will be held at the new Blackpool Magicians Theatre Club, 17th,18th and 19th February 2009. Attendees have the option to book for all three days or separate individual days. Full details can be found on the Blackpool Magicians Club Site.

You can listen to the interview below

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For further information, availability or to book your place on this exclusive Masterclass, contact Arthur Casson by email at arthurcasson@aol.com

Tickets for the Blackpool Magic Convention itself are still available directly from the Blackpool Magicians Club Site, and the convention takes place immediately after the master class on 20th 21st and 22nd February 2009.

We’ll be bringing you all the news in the run up to the convention.

You can also follow Jeff McBride through his website – www.mcbridemagic.com and www.secretartjournal.com for access to all the sites mentioned in the interview.