I’ve finally got around to posting a couple more pictures on Flickr.
They are from a gig I did a couple of weeks ago for Leonard Simmonds Associates in Worcester. It was their company Birthday party and I performed close-up magic and my stand-up magic act at the end of the night.
A magical night was had by all!
I went to see The Prestige earlier in the week and thought it was excellent.
It is a film about two magicians in the late 19th century, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, who develop a fierce and obsessive rivalry. They are driven by the need to out do each other and the lust for revenge, which leads them to sabotage, violence and murder. Most of this rivalry surrounds one particularly amazing illusion called ‘The Transported Man’ which is developed by Bale’s character.
I have seen it described as a ‘twist’ film - like Sixth Sense - but this really doesn’t do it justice. It doesn’t have one twist that the whole film leads up to, it has a complicated and interesting plot with multiple ‘twists’ all the way through. It is presented in a non-linear way with flashbacks from the memories of the two main characters as well as a time-line in the present, which draws you into the story and really helps you to relate to the characters.
Perhaps the only negative thing you could say about it is that you have to concentrate throughout. Every scene and every line has meaning. For me, this is what made it so enjoyable, it engages your mind instead of just overloading your senses with bangs and flashes.
And it is not just a film for magicians. It’s just that the secretive world of magic and illusion is a such great backdrop for a story about obsession and twisting reality. You don’t have to be a magician to understand what is going on, in fact it reveals some old magical methods, some of them gruesome (it didn’t pay to be a budgerigar in those days) and some of them Hollywood artistic license.
The biggest secret it reveals? The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Well, most of the time…
Go and see it!
A big thank you to all the members at Coventry Magic Circle who gave me a really warm welcome last night. Performing to magicians can be difficult because they generally don’t react like ‘normal’ people - but the guys at Coventry responded and reacted in all the right places. 
It’s also nerve wracking explaining your ideas and pet magic tricks to other magicians, what if they think your stuff is rubbish!? Thankfully, I think everyone took away some new idea or technique last night.
I am hoping to present my lecture ‘High Impact Magic’ at a few other magic clubs and societies over the next year. The lecture is a mixture of close-up magic, stand-up magic and mentalism effects with an emphasis on strong, direct magical effects. When I have confirmed a few more dates I’ll post some information up here.
If anyone is interested, drop me an email: dan@planetstrange.co.uk
I get quite a bit of spam submitted to the guestbook on my website (people hopeing entries are automatically published so they get a link to their dodgy site from yours), but this one is a classic.
Hallo! I’m Bob Stuart programmer.I know that all spam it’s biggest trouble of WWW. My site.: ****SPAM BLOCKER*****
(URL removed, obviously)
Spam offering a spam blocker! Usually it’s boring old drugs.
Maybe it’s actually a very clever ploy, because people are more likely to accept it in their guestbooks? Anyway, it works. I did a search for the email address supplied and found several guestbooks which have published this entry.
Why don’t people just monitor their guestbooks?
Magicforge have finally published their updated magic blog tracker
This is a great idea as it shows you which magic blogs are up to date at the moment. It isn’t a completely exhaustive list of magic blogs but there are about 40 on there at the moment.
Worth checking out.