The Thursday night show started at 9.00 with some spectacular keyboard playing from Michael close, and was compered by John Archer who chose not to do any magic, but warmed the audience up expertly, and filled in his compere spots by talking hilariously about his life as a magician.

Oscar Munoz was on first with a rope routine, a change bag effect with a silk and rubber bird, and he closed with his linking ring routine that he showed in his lecture.

Michael Weber opened with a number prediction and then his version of Bob Kohlers Human Phone Number the number when totalled was the same as the number in the first trick.

Mark Mitton was a crazy act! His las-vegas card manipulation involved him wretching up cards, using the cards from mouth gag, the punch line being “he was sick of card tricks!” He then tried to recreate the Blue Man Group finale by pulling out yards of streamers from his bag getting more entangled in it as he rolled on the floor, to the sounds of thumping music, finally cutting himself free he dumped the whole mess onto Mandy Davis who was sat in the front row! Lastly he finished with a rap accompaniment to something that resembled troublewit but done with a straw mat. It was a great act don’t get me wrong, but one I think you need to see to appreciate!

Lastly on the bill was Levent again a hard act to describe, quite fast paced and lots of little detail, with funny call-backs, lots of sight and prop gags, he raced through lots of material including a camouflage card gag, a spoon bend, card manipulation, swallowing razor blades to be then strung onto dental floss, a great sympathetic silks routine, a salt pour and for his finale a fantastically skillful billard ball manipulation which he said was invisible juggling, and a quick trick where he pretended to snort a pot plant up his nose! A crazy end to a crazy show!

Finally for Thursday was the late night show. Compered by Jeff Hobson who did a few gags and Kerry Pollack’s Stan, Kate and Edith, introduced Nick Einhorn who performed a very clean card at any number, Paul Gertners Unshuffled and finished with a baffling newspaper prediction, where his prediction matched a word on a freely chosen torn scrap.

Jon Armstrong performed his blank monte routine that involves a card with a spectators name signed on it as the money card, and an ending using stickers. He finished with a poker chip card prediction. John Lovick performed a version of Alex Elmsley’s Point of Departure using the Aces and a signed selection, but the twist was the aces were down a ladies blouse, she added the signed selection, were on he supposedly made the signed selection vanish and reproduced it from his Fly.

Finally Oscar Munoz closed the show with coins through the table, his twist on the McClintock Twist, and Paul Harris’s Las Vegas Leaper.

Tomorrow Geoffrey Durham, Derek DelGuadio, Jason England and Juan Tamariz!

There were ten competitors in the close-up competition I will report them in the order they appeared in the room I was in.

Paul Ray from Shrewsbury combined his magic with impressions, he started off with a rope routine and included impressions of Paul Daniels and Billy Connolly, he had a signed card that appeared trapped between two pieces of perspex and finally he performed a sponge ball and three-hat routine as a del-boy character with a finale of producing a giant nut.

Andrew Melia from Amsterdam, had some solid card work, a four card mind reading effect was a strong opener, along with having any card named which appeared in an envelope in his pocket. He produced a royal flush and then proceeded into a poker deal using flashy spinout productions for each card dealt. He finished with a flash ace production, and a version of the Hummer whirling card.

John Van Der Put from London opened with a great sponge rabbit routine with some novel and original touches, he then tore a card, and used the pieces in a visual pieces across in the style of 3-fly, ending by restoring three quarters of the card which matched a receipt corner. A video on his laptop produced a selected card, but the wrong way round, John apparently ran outside to fix this and appeared in the video, he brought back the correct signed card, which he then changed to match his prediction using his VDP trick, where quarter by quarter the card changes, with the signature still intact.

Ali Shelley from New York had a themed act, she was an Air Stewardess on Thin Air, some very funny lines and well themed magic, including cigarette manipulation as a no-smoking announcement, an inflight snack prediction, a very funny take on the story-deck using boarding passes and place names, ending with a prediction of a chosen destination with multiple revelations.

Michael Jordan from Huddersfield has a very warm and confident style, his act was themed around different art forms, he started with a song on his guitar which led into a prediction with esp cards, a coins to glass was accompanied by poetry, David Regals Sudden Deck production was used to illustrate the art of origami, and finally for painting Michael performed a version of the Chris Kenner Paint by Numbers but rather than producing a royal flush, he used it to paint a giant version of a selected card onto his close-up mat.

Dave Allen from Houghton Regis started off with a Fusion card effect in the style of Doc Eason’s Anniversary Waltz. He then performed Karrell Fox’s Signa-Tare torn and restored card and finished with Richard Sanders Interlace ring on shoelace.

Will Gray opened with a flash fire coin production, a coin flurry ended with a jumbo coin climax. He then performed an ambitious card sequence using a blank deck and a card with a rabbit drawn on by a spectator. A real card then appeared in the blank deck, and the rabbit card appeared in that cards position in a new sealed deck. Finally Will had a version of the Phil trick with objects written on the cards that magicians might produce, this finished with his production of a glass of water containing two goldfish.

Don Simpson from Rayleigh performed a silent matrix routine using silver rings, including a standard matrix, a translocation sequence and a production of a giant ring, he then used the ring and a rainbow streamer for a sequence of ring and rope moves, and finished with a d’lite and thimble routine.

Rob James from Bristol, said he had been given some advice to open with something flashy, and close with something skillful. He certainly did that! He opened with Richard Sanders Extreme Burn, which looks like a trick photography change of magazine clippings to money and back again. On his laptop he had a gag meter, which he said recorded a hit for every old cliche gag that he did, he then proceeded into a card trick managing to fit in 15 standard magicians gags each time registering a hit on the gag meter, and found a chosen card at that number in the deck. Lastly Rob closed with a flashy multiple selection routine, having several cards chosen, and lost in the deck Rob found them in increasingly impossible ways, finishing with a spin out revelation.

Mark Shortland from Northampton was last in our room opening with a funny matching cards gag, he moved into a version of Larry Beckers Sneak Thief, with business cards, Mark managed to devine who had drawn what picture. He finished with a strong Ambitious card routine which ended with a folded selection found in the card box.

Bob Kohler’s lecture was loosely themed around emotional hooks and framing an effect and creating a memorable picture. He started with an international coins across routine using half dollars and chinese coins. His Knifed effect was a visual ending for three card monte where he tore the corner off the money card and stabbed the rest of the card into the card box with a knife, and then mixed them around, finally showing that the money card had changed into a joker, along with the torn corner, leaving a very nice end picture in the minds of the spectator.

Bob then showed a little of his new work on Aces in their Faces, his take on the ace assembly plot. He has brought out a DVD to accompany the gaffs which has several different routines on, the vanishes that the cards allow look incredibly clean and magical, and part of the routine allows a hands-off nature allowing the spectator to seemingly pick which pile the aces end up in.

Bob then showed his take on the Jack Kent Tillar blister trick, with a neat way to get the blister in the act of supposedly doing a coin bend. Finally Bob showed us a routine called Flasher which was a way to cue the audience into a card that had been selected by the onstage volunteer without him knowing, so then the audience could apparently read the spectators mind. The prop is a new vinyl scroll that you pin inside your jacket, and you can pull out and retract with ease, Bob had these printed with card names and ‘Applause’ and he said there will be a whole line appearing soon on his new website BobKohlerMagic.com. Some fantastic ideas and solid thinking combined for a great lecture.

Bill Herz started his lecture entitled “The Business of Magic” by talking about the state of the economy and how you can use this time to re-evaluate your promotional material. He talked about how you have to know about the business market and find other avenues to sell your show that might not be used by other entertainers. He touched on his thoughts on business cards, saying that they need to be specialised to what you do, and he advocated a good DVD over brochures or video on your website. Most of all as in the title of his book “Leave your Ego at the door” he said it was important to be flexible and easy to work with.

There followed the Star Workshop - which was a panel discussion between Bill Herz, Seth Kramer, Jeff Hobson & Michael Weber. They talked about the kind of venues they worked, Seth talked a little about trade shows, and Bill about having magic at corporate meetings. Also about the content of your show and how to tailor it to the level of your audience. Lastly the secrets they wished they had known at the start included, you should never stop learning, and always to be dependable, flexible and professional.

The lecture ended with a some show horror stories and practical jokes that Bill Herz had pulled on other magicians. A fun way to wrap up a thouroughly informative session from the best in the business.

The British Ring Shield was as always a very mixed bag, which I guess is supposed to be part of the fun!

Club Magic from The Netherlands was on first with a club style act, lots of smoke, bass music and lights, and he comes riding in on a skateboard. After that its all quite pedestrian, standard stage magic, Cyril Takayama’s Heads-off illusion, The Lean, costume changes and a long sequence of card manipulation ends with his radio changing back into the skateboard as the magician wheels off stage.

The second act Vision was Alex Lodge with his illusions. Unfortunately Alex suffered some technical issues with missed cues to open and close the right curtains, and also some of his magic let him down, he started off with a smoke filled tube production of himself, and a box production of his assistants, Jim Steinmeyers modern art was nicely done, there was an attempt at Kevin James floating rose, and he finished with an Asrah levitation with the vanished assistant appearing at the back of the hall.

Su Jayne performed her very pretty rose act, featuring a Snowstorm, Mutilated Parasol, a blendo, and a new addition of multiplying rose buds. This is always a very clean well rehearsed and themed act which did make it stand out.

Joe Ray performed a technically polished manipulation act, card manipulation was interspersed with coin productions where all the coins where poured into an ice bucket. A short linking ring sequence followed, appearing cane and a bottle production completed the act.

Dave Allen performed a vent act with a lady puppet who took a shine to Angelo Carbone. Dave handed the puppet to Angelo who was seated and they both levitated into the air in a chair suspension illusion. As part of the puppets song a glass smashed of its own accord, and to finish Dave and the puppet underwent a patriotic costume change.

Last in the first half was another young manipulator, Edward Hilsum from Kent, who worked with dove productions, a colourful silk fountain, candles and ball manipulation with a dove cage vanish as his finale.

The second half started with Rev-Illusion who produced a motorbike in a box, and continued the bike theme with a head sliding illusion using the motorcycle helmet clad magician. A nice variation on the Cardiographic trick produced a full glass of red wine, and he finished his spot with an illusion where certain items e.g a bottle and lollipop,were put in a box with a girl and made to grow larger finally the machine was turned to smaller and the girl was made into a doll figure and then restored.

Maestro Leonardo was one of those particularly bad acts where you are not quite sure if its meant to be serious or not. With small ring and rope tricks he finished with a cups and balls done with metal cones and larger balls, which went on forever, so much so he ran over time and was disqualified.

Laura London had an act themed around looking for a magicians assistant, she was dressed as a stereotypical male magician, and auditioned a girl for the part, with drink in newspaper, floating rose, misers dream, and finally a cabinet penetration illusion after which a quick change so that Laura was now wearing a matching outfit to her assistant.

Rikki T played a tramp character sat on a park bench where magic seemed to happen to him. A coathanger from a purse, bottle suspension on a piece of rope, along with a rope routine that finished with the rope growing to twice its size. A nice misers dream routine was follwed by gypsy thread, and finally a production of spring flowers.

Mindwriter was again one of these acts that makes this competition like watching a car crash (its so bad you know you should look away but you can’t!) Using the theme of influence he gave two spectators no-tear paper and asked one to tear and one to cut it, as though he had made them forget how, although one spectator did in the end manage to tear his piece! The last spectator was used for a light/heavy box and the losander floating table.

The last act and possible predicted favourite was Jonathan Shotton, with an act themed around time and clocks, he had some really nice pieces, bubble productions into clear billiard ball manips, an hour glass full of sand, turning into a carriage clock, and manipulation with clock faces, finally he used a losander floating table, and finished with a bird cage production and the vanish of a cuckoo clock.

The compere for the evening was Steve Evans, Chair of Judges was Ali Bongo, with Joan Caesar, John Palfreyman, Merson Grant, Harry Reeves and Amethyst (Danny and Annette).

To make things more interesting we had a sweep stake between twelve of us, I got Rev-Illusion, so will have to wait till Friday’s results to see if I win any money!

The Late night magic took place in The Floral Hall, where Paul stone had arranged for some well known names to do a spot. First on was Michael Close who told some very funny jokes from his book That Reminds Me and performed his shuffles routine from Closely Guarded Secrets. Seth Kramer followed with a cards across routine. Paul Wilson performed his version of 3-Fly and his Predator Wallet. Denny Haney performed Ken Brookes Sidewalk Shuffle. Michael Weber after a funny opening production showed us his linking rubber bands and how he could transfer the dfferent flavours of gum from one chewed ball to another. Finally to close John Archer showed us his Nana’s box a divination of objects randomly selected from the box by three spectators, accompanied with John’s barrage of humourous gags, a great end to the first day.

Due to weather and traffic delays we had to miss the opening show but I talked to a few people about it and they all seemed to have enjoyed it.

Mike Close compered with jokes from his new book. Gene Anderson had his newspaper tear along with newspaper origami. Mel Mellers was by all accounts on top put-down form and Safire closed the show with a twist on the sub trunk and ended by producing non other than Ali Bongo.

Next for me was a lecture by Oscar Munoz entitled “It’s all about the entertainment” Oscar certainly entertained with lots of novel ideas. He started by talking about how he works his childrens parties, and showed us his Cut and Restored Rope routine, and also used this to talk a little bit about how to handle spectators.

He showed us his linking ring routine that he uses for children including a spinning dismount unlink that looked very magical. He then demonstrated a brilliant idea of using modelling balloons as rings and proceeded to do the same routine using modelling balloons twisted into rings.

Oscar then moved onto cards and showed us his stand up face-level version of the McClintock Twist, followed by Bob Carnegie’s Torn and Restored card which reminded me very much of a Ben Harris idea. Oscar proved he could do the Twist move with jumbo cards using happy and sad faces, and then used the same cards in a quick wild card routine once again suitable for children.

Finally he ran through a host of novel ideas, including a great idea to make a bang wand, an easy way to prepare for the snowstorm effect, a spinning vanish which was a novel take on the old silk vanish, a way to make a Nielsen bottle sound real, and a cheap way to make a silk winder. Oscar finished his lecture with his take on Billiard Ball manipulation using colourful fakini balls.

The second lecture I attended was by Michael Finney and was entitled “The Secrets of a Professional Comedy Magician“. Sadly just before the lecture Michael’s wife had an accident and had to be rushed to hospital so understandably Michael wasn’t on top form, yet he talked about how he approached becoming a professional comedy magician, showed some ideas for making cheap tables, his idea for a finale for the six-card repeat, a portion of his cut and restored rope routine and he finished the lecture with a portion from his stand up act. Under the circumstances this was still a great lecture from a true pro and I look forward to seeing him in the gala show on Saturday.

Tonight is the stage competition, more on that later

We’ll be reporting live from this years IBM convention, Eastbourne this week. Richard Morrell will be on site writing up as he goes.

Richard has been a keen amateur magician for over twenty years, starting as a Humberside Young Magician, he now runs the workshop, teaching 10-16 year olds, as well as being an active member of Hull Magicians’ Circle. Specialising in card magic, but he likes to watch any form of the art, and will have a go at performing most things.

Richard writings appear quarterly in The Oracle (the magazine of Hull Magicians’ Circle), and have also been featured in Abracadabra and Genii magazine. He is most at home combining his love of the Internet with his love of Magic, over eight years ago he started what may have been the world’s first Magic themed blog. Now among the new crop of magic blogs, The Magician is still going strong, and recently it gained a sister-blog Watching Magic.

Richard can be found at most of the major conventions either hunched over a pack of cards, or a laptop! So if you see him at Eastbourne… be sure to say hello!!

Check out the ‘IBM Eastbourne LIVE!‘ link on the left for all the latest as it happens news (providing we can keep the internet link!!)

We must also thank the British Ring for their permission and help with reporting this week..