The 38th Annual International Magic Convention is now over, and what a convention it was.. Performances by the legendary Rene Lavand, an hours Q&A session with David Copperfield live form Las Vegas, a talk and questions with Arturo Brachetti, seeing some of the best performances by some of the best in magic..

Of course if you missed it, you can read all our coverage by clicking here and by clicking play in the video above to see some of the highlights of the weekend.

Many thanks to the MacMillan family / International Magic for their help with photos, permission to video and organising the event, also thank you to Mandy Davis for helping with some of the photos in the video and the gala show report, and of course you, for reading and supporting us.

We always list the gala show after the Sunday, as the show is repeated, and its never nice going to a show knowing what’s going to happen!

As the last of the audience filed into the sold out 600 seater Mermaid Theatre, Tina Lenert, in her classic cleaners outfit shuffled through the front row, before heading up on stage as the lights dimmed to bring us her wonder act. Her mop slowly coming to life as a classic gentleman in top hat, wooing her with diamonds and flowers. Always one of my favorite acts.

Noel Britten was the compere for the evening, always a favorite of mine, sharp, witty, and always able to interact with the audience, and any mishaps that arise during the show. (more…)

If you saw Armando Lucero at this weekends International Magic Convention you may wish to know that you can still attend his workshops that are running in London.

The two workshops run December 2-3, 2009 (2-days) from 11AM to 4PM each day and December 4-8, 2009 (5-days) again from 11AM to 4PM each day.

The first of these workshops is on Cards, concentrating on two special sleights. Participants have the opportunity to witness Armando executing these sleights within original compositions of legerdemain. The routines are structured with artistic and theatrical considerations. The emphasis is on theory, application, and performance.

The second of these dates is for The Coin Menagerie, which is considered to be Armando’s quintessential work in magic. This workshop will reveal all of its techniques. Although the secrets are only part of the teaching; what is most important is the philosophy behind the magic. The objective is to gain insight into theory and composition, with Coin Menagerie as its most formidable model.

You can get full details on Armand Lucero’s website – www.armandolucero.com and clicking on ‘Workshops’

This was always going to be one of the highlights of the weekend. The Bridewell Theatre is a intimate 135 seater theatre, and for those lucky enough to have got tickets for the show, Rene performed his full show.

We’d seen some aspects of the show during the weekend, but this was a wonderful experience for a select few to watch the full show, and see just why Rene Lavand is so well respected.

It was a awe inspiring hour as Rene slowly drank his wine, talked to the audience, and worked the cards for two extremely lucky spectators.

Expertly translated by Tina Lenert when Rene wasn’t naming the cards or colours in English. Almost every turn of the cards was met with thunderous applause or gasps of amazement.

You cannot do justice to the performance of Rene by describing the tricks, they are more than that. Rene’s show was everything you imaging about true magic, a captivating experience of emotion, skill and entertainment.

And if you ever need a lesson is showmanship and stage craft, you need only watch the show, to appreciate just how Rene can hold an audience, with just 52 cards.. reds.. and blacks..

David Berglas awarded the international award for promoting the art of magic to David Copperfield via a live video link from Las Vegas.

David Copperfield joined us at The International Magic via the link to receive the award and chat with the convention attendees.

David Berglas presented the award to David by vanishing it from London, for it to appear with David in Las Vegas.

After the presentation of the award David took open questions from the audience, talking openly and informally.

Questions ranged from advice for young magicians, on which David talked for a while, giving some wonderful insights from his career, through to asking when he would be returning to the UK.

On returning to the UK, David said that he may be nearby in a few years, possibly Manchester.

It was amazing to hear David talk so openly, almost as if we were sat down having dinner and chatting.

An amazing and funny session and again proves what a great convention International Magic is!!

We have seen some amazing performances from Armando Lucero during the weekend.

Each performance showing exactly how much work and effect he has put into his performance.

His lecture was very much on the constructs of magic and performance, using effects to explain his points.

Working though both sponge balls and cards to illustrate points of things such as affermation.

Armando uses everything possible to further his magic and performance, and during the questions that came up in the lecture his answers showed that, looking at art, and the comprehension of an audience to creat a performance as opposed to a trick

The lecture turned mainly into a QA session, before turning back to watching Armando playing and demonstrating more effects.

It was a wonderful insight into Armandos magic and thinking