This year the Jeffrey Atkins Memorial Lecture was given by Derek Lever who has long been an admirer and collector of the Magical Apparatus of Jack Hughes, the ingenious craftsman who was such an important part of the magic dealing scene for over four decades.

Derek had assembled a stage full of apparatus and assisted by Mike Shepherd showed the clever thinking and design that went into Jack’s tricks. It was interesting to see the progression of ideas as Jack improved and refined principles over the years.

Many of Jack Hughes tricks have become standard items still in production around the world often without credit to the originator.

There were Block Penetrations, a Spirit Bell, the Sucker Beaker vanish, and Derek’s favourite Penetro
Spheres, a brilliant effect where the working is in some ways more amazing than the trick, this resulted in an exposure by Gaetan Bloom on British Television in the programme The Good Old Days.

We saw versions of the Visible Coins in Glass, and a whole series of Card Frames. Finally his multi-faceted Snake Basket and Silken Lady illusion.

Jack also designed and built illusions and many one off props for star performers and television shows.

A fascinating talk from someone who came to know Jack Hughes well when in his last few years Jack moved to Blackpool.

Danny Hunt and Annette Claire are Illusion and escapology act Amethyst. They have worked with some of the countries top performers including Ken Dodd, Joe Pasquale, Freddie Starr and the Grumbleweeds.

Having advised on the recent BBC Sherlock Holmes TV series on escapology Danny assisted by Annette and Stuart Harley presented a fascinating insight and workshop on this subject.

Danny started the workshop performing several different escapes which he then went on to explain very clearly and thoroughly their methods.

Popularized by Harry Houdini up first was the Siberian Chain Escape, which was to be followed by a figure of eight escape. The method for the figure of eight could be applied to rope and also padlock and chain being used as a wrist tie or as a chair restraint for the spirit cabinet. The Shanghai Shackle was next and a Thumb Tie using a plastic cable tie to finish. Rope, tube, chain, padlocks and cable ties were then passed out to the audience to have a go themselves whilst Danny, Annette and Stuart looked on for advice.

The last fifteen minutes of the workshop were dedicated to Lock picking. Danny demonstrated various picks and tools used to escape from handcuffs and and different types of padlocks

A very informative and brilliant insight into a subject overlooked by most magicians.

My thanks to Andy Lewis for reporting this event.

Mike Stokes of Playtime Balloons once again held a very popular and well attended balloon workshop. Assisted by his wife Marjorie, and fellow twisters Gerry Luff, Rob Gaffney and Mel Moore, attendees were taught the creative art of balloon modelling.

Monkeys climbing trees and flower bracelets were some of the models taught during the workshop with enough balloons for all provided to practice and take the completed models home at the end.

Hopefully this ever popular workshop will carry on as a regular event at this convention.

My thanks to Andy Lewis for reporting this event.

Wayne Dobson along with Michael Fitch presented Choice Cuts. The format was that Michael would show some old TV Footage, and teach one or two tricks along the way, with Wayne interjecting stories and anecdotes.

The format worked exceptionally well, and it turned out to be a brilliantly funny hour, and a fitting tribute to Wayne’s career, both past and present.

Michael started by showing some of the different Television Introductions that Wayne has recieved, showing just how much TV work Wayne has done. Michael showed Wayne’s very first TV clip on Blue Peter, from there he appeared on Search for a Star, just missing out winning to Jimmy Cricket.

Michael then showed a clip of Wayne performing 5-card Repeat and taught this to us, by replaying the clip and trying to keep up with Wayne on the video, whilst performing it live. This routine as Michael pointed out, was a great lesson in timing.

Several other TV clips followed along with Michael teaching tricks, including Card from Fly, Nailed, which was a simple take on the card stab, Pat Page’s Do-as-I-Do and finally Wayne’s take on the Invisible Deck.

When you look at all the TV clips and see what Wayne has achieved you come to realise what a career he had, and continues to have. With Wayne’s illness it has forced him to become creative, to come up with tricks that have self-working methods, that can almost be done hands-off, without losing any of their impact.

At the end of the lecture he was also selling what was probably the bargain of the convention, £90 of material for £10!

A great, funny and fantastic lecture.

Rich Bloch’s lecture was entitled Things You’ll Actually Use and lived up to the title by offering workable,

practical and commercial ideas with a variety of objects.

He started out with a brainwave style prediction, that involved just one minature deck of normal cards, and a slight modification to your clothing, to create a very simple but effective card trick.

A Spectator Cuts to the Aces routine followed, and then a couple of really nice ideas with business cards, including a torn and restored mismade card, and a telekinetic demonstration where he knocked a card down just by pointing at it.

Rich talked about the importance of being prepared to do impromptu magic, and shared his touches on the Hoy Book Test. He then taugh a very simple way to force and vanish a card, and make it appear underneath a spectator. Finally he closed with his take on the Card to Box, but using a chosen Cereal Packet, where the signed selection appeared amidst the cereal.

A great lecture full of things that I’ll actually use!

09.15
Annual General Meetibg
Floral Hall

09.30 – 17.30
Dealers open
Exhibition Halls

10.30
Atkins Memorial Lecture: Derek Lever
Congress Theatre

12.00
Lecture: Rich Bloch
Floral Hall

14.00
Lecture: Wayne Dobson
Congress Theatre

15.15
History of Mystery
Congress Theatre

15.30
Workshops: Balloon & Escapology
Congress Suite & Floral Hall

18.30 for 19.00
Gala Dinner
Gold Room

20.00
Films
Floral Hall

22.00
Awards and Late Gala
Congress Theatre