Craig Petty from Wolverhampton was first on in the competition, his skill with coins was evident in his opening routine which combined elements of the Visual Coins Across with various vanishes and changes, the dollar coins changing into Chinese Coins which eventually completely vanished and appeared back under the card box. As way of explanation Craig said he had a fruit machine built into his hand, he demonstrated using a magic wand as a lever, and caused his coins to vanish one by one, finally he hit the jackpot with a stream of coins appearing from his hand. Next Craig moved onto cards with a multi-phase sandwich trick using the queens as camera cards, they ended up taking pictures of the entire deck, and caused all the cards to turn blank. Finally Craig demonstrated his latest release Quarantine where the deck and card case end up hermetically sealed in shrink-wrap.

Alan Mylecrane from Blackpool opened with a card case changing to his mobile phone when he tapped it with a jumbo card. A Diary trick followed where cards had been written against the dates. Any date was chosen and a card selected from the deck and it matched the card against the date. Next a funny Finger Chopper routine saw Alan being blindfolded and putting his own digit at risk, all was well when the spectator slammed the blade down he came out of it unharmed. A two in the hand one in the pocket routine using Chinese coins lead into a coin matrix finale, culminating with the production of some giant Chinese coins.

Henning Kohlert from Germany had a cracking start with a quick trick producing a geiger counter effect from a piece of paper. He then went on to demonstrate that colour reacts to sound having a member of the audience produce a sound on a toy horn, whilst performing an Oil and Water routine using blue and red backed cards that magically separate. Henning next performed a very slick Ring and Rope routine and finally his own version of the Mobieus Loops where the bands ended up joined in the shape of two hearts.

Clive Moore from Derby had lots of quick fire jokes to accompany his magic, you get the idea that he could do the entire show without us being there. A signed card was found folded in a box, then a card routine including Larry Jennings Close-up Illusion, Card Warp and Harry Loraynes Gosh Darn Linking Cards. Lastly he had a quick routine involving a small flick book whose pages changed from letters to music, to pictures to blank all set to Clives fast and funny script.

Last in the competition was Steve Bellerby from Bradford, he performed a novel twist on the six-card-repeat and a coins across using eight coins. Steve, a member of the NMC council, graciously shortened his set to allow time for everyone to get to the junior show.

The idea was that each dealer had five minutes to show what they had for sale. Adrian Sullivan was on first, with a quick dice trick, a version of Kurotsuke and a simple card control using some daub that you added to the card. Kaymar Magic presented Wayne Rogers In Your Face, a drawing duplication of emoticon pictures and Billy McCombs, Mcombical Deck.

Andrew Normansell presented a drawing duplication called Doodlebug and his Cards Across routine both taken from his new book The Man Who Would be King. Magicians Cave was represented by Mr Twister who presented their range of balloons and colourful change bags. Lastly Magic Books by Post presented their range of books with some humorous tricks from co-owner Steve Short, a funny gag with their sign, and a comedy mind reading stunt illustrated their wide range of books.

Gregory Wilson started his lecture with a demonstration of his pitch and ditch coin trick, a pound coin changed to a dollar coin in front of our eyes, and the dollar coin multiplied into two. Something from Nothing was the appearance of an invisible poker chip which materialised on the back of Gregs hand and then appeared on the spectators shoulder. Greg very funnily repeated this to some late-comers and allowed us to watch the immaculate timing and misdirection at work.

Recap and Pointless where two pen effects. The nib of the pen kept vanishing and magically appearing on the other end of the pen, the cap repeatedly vanished along with the pen, which was eventually found in the cap.

Foreign Affair was a multiple currency change which is Gregs addition to the regular bill switch. Next Greg demonstrated several impromptu coffee tricks that you can do on a visit to Starbucks. Vanish 5000 was the vanish of the contents of a sugar packet, and a broken and restored coffee stirrer in a paper bag was wonderful modern update on an old trick.

Next Greg broke out the pasteboards and treated us to his card spinning, cards where spun in the air and boomeranged back to be caught expertly by Greg. He had two selections made and another card spun up and was caught in the middle of the deck between the two selections. He then demonstrated that anyone could do this by randomly asking a member of the audience to come up and demonstrate, it does help if you have Dynamo sat in the first few rows!

Greg then demonstrated his version of Phoenix Aces, and finally Garrett Thomass Ring Thing move along with his own additions finishing with the gag of supposedly throwing the ladies ring, but switching it for a coin. A great lecture and a fantastic opening to the convention. I also happen to have a golden ticket for the masterclass so watch this space for a report!

We are here for two days of magic in a gloriously sunny Southport with a jam-packed Northern Spring Parade ahead.

Around 150 people have registered for the full weekend, and several more day registrants expected today, the programme is back to back with some great names lined up; Greg Wilson, Dynamo, John Archer, James Brown, Alana and many more.

Don’t forget the Northern Magic Circle Spring Parade is this weekend in Southport. Online registration closes TODAY, or contact them to get your tickets for the weekend.

On Saturday 4th April, you’ll find the Children’s Show, Junior Show, Close up Competition, Stage Competitions, History of Mystery, all day Dealers along with the return of the Dealer Dem and lectures from Russ Brown and Greg Wilson, along with Greg’s exclusive Masterclass.

Sunday 5th April brings lectures from James Brown, Dynamo, John Archer and Steve Naylor, a non-magic event, The Dealers, the installation of the new President and finally the all star Gala Show, featuring John Archer, Alana, Greg Wilson, Michael Jordan and Amethyst.

Recently added to the line up is Tony Parx. Tony has travelled around the world with his manipulation act and is also a winner of the “North of England Tournament of Magic”.

Dynamo, who is now one of the stars in the new Adidas commercials, is performing close up in the bar / auditorium before the Gala Show and during the interval.

You can check out all our news here or click on the left under Northern Magic Circle Convention.

So head over and check out why you should be there. and if you really cannot attend, we’ll be there reporting live on what you missed. Richard Morrell will be LiveBlogging the weekend, so check out his updates here

The Northern Magic Circle Spring Parade convention has added Tony Parx to the Gala Show. The Convention takes place on 4th & 5th April 2009 in Southport, and can be booked via post or online at www.northernmagic.co.uk.

Tony Parx is recognised as one of the Country’s finest manipulator of cards and will join Gregory Wilson, John Archer, Alana, Dynamo, James Brown, Russ Brown, John Palfryman, Amethyst, Michael Jordan and Steve Naylor.

Full weekend pass only £50 or £30 for 1 day, Book now - www.northernmagic.co.uk