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Midwest Magic Jubilee 2009

Reviewed by Jim Cox

Midwest Magic Jubilee is a great 2 1/2 day convention held every year in August at the St Louis Airport Hilton.

Shows were held each night Thursday through Saturday. The talent ranged from local magicians, who were very good, to Award Winners, such as Arthur Trace, and authors, John Mendoza and David Regal. One of the local performers, “The Amazing Alexa” is 10 years old and has been performing since she was 4.

Other well known performers such as Maria Ibanez, Tom Burgoon, Arian Black, Hide Kimoto, Marty Kopp, Aldo and Rachel Colombini and Murray were exciting additions to each of the shows. There was also “Death by Tickle” a variety acti with juggling and escape with a little humor thrown in.

A stage contest was held on Friday with several acts including 1 junior act who had to compete with the adults since there were not enough junior contestants. Winners were:

1st Place-Matt Grisham

1st Place (tie)-David Casas
2nd Place-Jesus Rios

On Saturday a Close up contest was held. The Melito family had 3 junior contestants so a Junior contest was held. Winner for Junior Close up:

1st Place-Jarod Melito
(only 3 contestants for junior, therefore only 1st place was awarded)

Winners for Senior Close up:

1st Place-Eric Jones

2nd Place-Marc Rayle
3rd Place-Jesus Rios

Dealers included Tom Burgoon, John “Andy” Greget, RFA Productions, Ickle Pickle Products, Blackbird Magic, Michael Lair Magic, East Coast Magic, JB Magic (Mark Mason, Colombini/Wild Magic and Terry Elton.

10 lectures were held over the 2 ½ days. Each lecture was on different subjects from Magic theory and creativity by Arthur Trace, storytelling magic from Maria Ibanez, marketing from Arian Black, dealer presentation from Steve Bender of Ickle Pickle, tricks and dealer information from Aldo and Rachel Colombini, presentation ideas from Terry Elton, close up with John Mendoza and David Regal. Other lectures were by Hide Kimoto and Murray.

Great close up shows were held on Friday and Saturday with performers John Mendoza, Aldo Columbini, Hide Kimoto, Arthur Trace, David Regal, Rachel Colombini, Eric Jones, and Jimmy “Cards” Molinari who was an associate of Ed Marlo.

The 2010 Jubilee will be August 12 – 14.

Information can be found at www.mmjubilee.com. All in all a great little convention held in the heartland.

Jim Cox is a member of the Magic Castle and has been interested in Magic since he was 8 years old. His son, Dave Cox is also a Magic Castle Member and has been on Masters of Illusions. His interests are learning about Magic and seeing as many performers as he can. He’s already signed up for next year’s Midwest Magic Jubilee and will be reporting again from there in 2010, as well the IBM International Convention in San Diego and the Central Illinois Get Together in Champaign next year.