2013 Bristol Day of Magic

Looking out toward the Bristol Channel during twilight at Weston Super Mare - site of the Bristol Day of Magic

I attended the 53rd Bristol Day of Magic on May 12th along with about 400 other magicians from across the U.K.; however, I was one of the few (maybe two) from the U.S. along with Joshua Jay who was another one of the performers on this outstanding bill. I was brought in as the "compere" or Master of Ceremonies for the evening gala show.

This podcast features some sounds of the convention and chats with some of the organizers, attendees and performers.

00:02:36 - Mandy Davis, organizer, starts us off by giving us some history of the Bristol Day of Magic and laying out what we can expect over the next 24 hours.

00:11:00 - Eric Roumestan, from France, talks about his upcoming workshop on coin magic and his inspirations for creating his way of loading coins on the volunteer.

00:26:30 - John Billett, winner of the first Bristol Bucket Award, talks about mentalism and his path into the art.

00:34:00 - Danny (somebody) talks about the new book "Frankly Disillusioned" by Dean Metcalfe.

00:41:15 - Dean Metcalfe joined us to talk about some of his life experiences that are in the new book (available from http://FranlyDisillusioned.com/)

00:50:06 - Soma, from Hungary, talked about the importance and use of music in your act. He also talked about his :road to fame: through contests from his first win in the Junior Stage Competition in Hungary to his first place win at the 2009 FISM context in Beijing.

01:12:42 - Arthur Benjamin, the MathMagician, talked about the way he came about to incorporate math into his magic performances and the similarities of logic, puzzles and math.

01:36:47 - Colin McLeod, from Scotland, along Tim Stacy, from Bristol, and Mandy Davis, from London, talked in the bar after the convention about all the fun everyone had during the event.

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Scott Wells, Eric Roumestan, Arthur Benjamin, Soma, and seated are  Martin & Kerry Jo Gardiner (from "Celtic Storm")

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John Shryock, Magical Captain of Land & Sea

John Shryock is a "favorite son" and good friend of Houston magicians. He and wife, Mari, regularly performed at The Magic Island for many years in its "hey day". But today when John is not with his wife and two daughters, he is either entertaining aboard cruise ships or performing at Warren & Annabelle's in Maui, Hawaii. While recently touring the continental U.S. with a somewhat abbreviated lecture schedule, John stopped through Houston for a couple nights. He and Fred Becker put on a show for Top Talent Productions on Saturday night that brought down the house. Well, they actually brought the audience to their feet not once but twice for standing ovations. A local veteran magician reported that it was the best magic show he had seen in years. On Sunday, John traveled to Lake Charles, Louisiana to lecture for Chip Romero and their magician's group. He then returned to Houston on Tuesday where he had a gala "welcome home" reception with many of the old Magic Island magicians coming out to rekindle old friendships and enjoy his lecture.

in this podcast, John talks about his work at sea and on land including Warren & Annabelle's and the now defunct Caesar's Magical Empire in Las Vegas. He also talks about character development and the importance of music in one's act. Some of this material is from his lecture so podcast listeners get a sneak peek at some of his lecture material.

As a bonus for this episode, local magician and multiple award winner,, Ben Jackson joined us. He also talked about character development and some "behind the scenes" preparation for his recent appearance as a contestant on NBC's Today Show with David Copperfield. He also gave us an overview of his T.E.D. talk he presented on "Simplicity vs. Complexity" using magic to demonstrate his points. That interesting talk is all on the video link below in this blog.

This podcast turned out to be quite enlightening and lots of fun well into the wee hours of the morning.

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Some of the "old crew" who worked together when John was a frequent visitor to The Magic Island. From left to right, Scott Hollingsworth (former Entertainment Director), Scott Wells, Phil Kampf, John Shryock, Frank Price and Jamie Salinas.

Random Photos from 2013 F.F.F.F.

A wink is as good as a force to a horse, of course, of course. Geoff Williams finds a willing (?) volunteer who would stand still long enough to pick a card.

Anson from Taiwan blew us away with his manipulation skills. producing colorful cards both small and large.

Ines from Spain delighted the audience with her masterful skills of sleight-of-hand and misdirection as part of the Saturday afternoon kickoff show.

2013 F.F.F.F. Day Four

The 43rd Annual Fechter's Finger Flicking Frolic is now history and what a year it was. Everyone I talked with seemed to agree that this year was filled with excitement, mystery, energy and creativity unlike some past conventions. It was in no small measure attributable to our Guest of Honor, Steve Bargatze. In this final podcast from Batavia (just outside Buffalo, New York) we start with a nice chat with Stephen who talks about his work in Las Vegas substituting for Mac King plus his family including his professional comedian son, Nate.

00:29:15 - Chris Hannibal talked about his restaurant/bar work and how he turns it into corporate work. He also gave us his viewpoint of the convention as a participant this year rather than having to prepare for being on one of the scheduled performances.

00:38:45 - Enjoy a cigar and a glass of scotch with Jason Juliano and Roland Meister as they gave a rundown of what impressed them at this year's convention.

00:52:00 - Ali Shelley and Katalina Absolon gave us a view of magic from the distaff side with tips and encouragement for your women who want to go into magic.

01:04:45 - More insight from the perspectives of long time attendees George Silverman, Donald Voltz and Steven Duperre.

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Obie O'Brien presents the official award to Stephen Bargatze as the 2013 Guest of Honor.

The final night show always reads like a "Who's Who" of magic. Tonight was no different. The photos below  features (in order) those who entertained us for three hours of magic, mystery and mayhem: Michael Dardant (from the U.S.A.) assisted by Ed Ripley, Bebel (from France), Red Tsai (from Taiwan), David Stone (from France), Willy Monroe (from Spain), William Watt (from France), Angel San Martin (from Spain), Shawn Farquhar (from Canada), Dani DaOrtiz (from Spain), Paul Gertner (from the U.S.A.), Woody Aragon (from Spain), and Rick Merrill (from the U.S.A.) assisted by Geoff Williams.