引言：After reading this article, visit our collection of amazing photos captured during Magic-Con 2014.
“Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler” and “Details make for perfection, but perfection is no detail” are quotes from Einstein and DaVinci/Michaelangelo that The Professor, Dai Vernon, used to use regularly. I have used them regularly ever since, most often as a hook to get school professors interested in my essays, but I figured I could use both of them to get you extra interested. Hope it worked!
This is my experience at Magic-Con 2014 and I need to work on my openings.
The Woodwork…that is what this article wanted to be called. Everyone came out of the woodwork for this one, brought their E (as in Erdnase and better than A, that is why they skipped E in the grading system and went straight to F, E was too good.) game, and it was Epic!
Looking at the lineup, I was certain that a large number of the names would simply not be familiar to people and that attendance would be lacking. One of the best parts of any convention are the groups that congregate outside of the scheduled events, so it is important to draw people out of their chest of drawers, tables, desks, bed frames and other wooden objects that reside in their homes and offices and get them to come out. It may have been on strength of reputation alone, but somehow the little Buckers did it…The Woodwork!
Preliminaries
I flew in on Wednesday from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and arrived in San Diego early that very evening. After my safe arrival (you’re welcome other passengers!), I confidently informed Dan Buck that I had arrived and that he should be picking me up shortly. He, subsequently, informed me that R. Paul Wilson would be picking me up. I knew this much: things were happening! I traveled out to the baggage claim and found Mr. Wilson sessioning with none other than the superlative card man, Bebel! I could tell that Paul secretly wished that my flight was 3 or 4 months late, but he did his best to look happy about my arrival. Thanks Paul!
We went directly to the convention hotel and sat down for some coffee and miracles. Things were going well for me. I was sitting with two of the best card men on the planet, meeting up with Dan Buck later, when lo and behold, John Bodine informed me that he was cutting his Los Angeles trip short to come to San Diego early! The day had taken a turn for the unbelievably glorious!
We had quite a nice evening of delicious food and cocktails before settling to bed at Dan Buck’s Lady Friend’s house in San Diego. There was only one bed, so we…well, Elliott Terrall took the couch and I had a blow up mattress. I woke up shortly after the explosion, and Thursday was happening!
Thursday (April 10th)
I awoke promptly at near dawn due to being on East Coast of America time and knew that I was in charge of waking everyone up in the most obnoxious way possible. Unbeknownst to me, this would include injuring my shin on Dan and His Lady Friend’s bed frame while taking the least straightforward and most imposing route through their room as possible. You can’t win them all!
Luckily my waking up tactics worked and soon everyone was awake and someone was making me coffee, I hope it was Elliott, because he has amazing skills.
We followed the waking by doing lots of things to get the convention ready. For those that have not prepared a convention, this includes carrying many things, pretending to carry many things and offering supportive language (“Way to go, Tim! Lift with your back, not your knees!), or just referring to how much work you did already and that you are now on break.
With most of the convention set up by other people, I decided it was time to go see what activities were occurring. My Mom was at the registration booth, and I took this opportunity to get my convention program and my glorious deck of Magic-Con 2014 playing cards and hat. I managed to keep the tag on my hat and was desperately hoping to find one of the brim stickers that cool people always leave on their hats to stick on the brim of my hat and increase my coolness by a significant factor. This did not come to pass, although a lot of passing would be going on the whole convention. Maybe Gandalf was around.
That evening I was on my way to the opening reception and met with Dan and Dave’s intern, David Yanik, and he gave me an awesome present! The most glorious stripper deck ever made. Then I found out that he was also a part of the cool kids room at the hotel. This is the room at every convention where they had the foresight to acquire strong drink. I would make many trips to this delightful location and even get one of my most prized possessions: an old deck of Stud Playing Cards from Kasen Rumpf. I have been getting these ready for many weeks now in preparation for Elliott Terral and I’s Dan & Dave’s Book Club Book of the Month, Drawing Room Deceptions! These decks are sadly no longer available, but were once Guy Hollingworth’s favorite playing cards and the ones he used in all of his early and astounding video tapes.
After getting distracted, I went to the reception which featured a spectacular show by David & Leeman. Very entertaining, fooling magic and excellent humor, plus there was a nice bar, so I took the opportunity to have a few excellent scotches with my colleague, the most fantastic coin man in the universe, David Roth. I was very spoiled!
Alex Pandrea had the great idea to do an epic Oscar-style selfie at this point, which you should find and like and tweet and share. You’re welcome Alex!
Later that evening, I went out to the pool/lounge area only to find none other than Jim Patton! A good friend of The Professor’s and Bruce Cervon’s and a fountain of knowledge and stories, Jim is one of the great people to spend time with in the whole history of the world. I was with Mahdi Gilbert and we realized quite quickly, by hearing all of these excellent stories and tips, that we were doing so without having a cigar in honor of The Professor. We lamented our lack of preparation, and our inability to figure out how to acquire such a thing, and got back to the conversation. Moments later though Mahdi appeared with, of all things, a cigar! Where could he have acquired this? What witchcraft must have taken place? Nobody knows, but it was amazing and capped the end of a truly exemplary first day for any convention!
Friday (April 11th)
I decided to once again use my East Coast of America time travel powers to wake up early and go and see Coffee with Dan & Dave after a quick breakfast. It is always good to catch these interactions, since those guys are always doing all kinds of activities and have upcoming products and stuff that you want desperately as soon as they tell you about them. My favorite part of this event though was R. Paul Wilson’s foolish display of coffee prowess. Elliott offered to make him a delicious coffee to replace his Starbucks. Mr. Wilson played it off as though he had the real coffee, but the audience knew that he was the guy eating McDonald’s at the steak house.
Shortly after Coffee, the morning session was about to begin, starting with one of my true heroes and idols, John Bodine, so I made sure to get a seat in the front row. Photographer of Exceptional Talent and secret superhuman, Bryce Craig, thought it would be acceptable to have me help take photos, of what was sure to be one of the most glorious events to occur in all of mankind, due to my excellent seat situation, but he forgot that I am also the world’s worst photographer. None of my photos ended up fit for human consumption.
Despite my lack of photographic contribution, the session was an astounding success! Michael Weber hosted and brought on John Bodine to start. John thought that a good opening would be to purposefully light one of the audience members on fire. This resulted in no injuries and was reminiscent of some stories I read in the world’s most popular book. He continued by relating some insightful stories and thoughts that had us all looking at our magic and lives in new ways (Cute speech John, do you want to go get a hot dog?). His ending though was a provocative cliff hanger: we were invited to meet with him at any time during the convention and he would guide us through a miraculous experience…more on this later! The session also included Blake Vogt, speaking on his recent experiences with every famous magician ever (David Copperfield, David Blaine, and Dynamo) and what he learned from the opportunity to really study with these individuals. Of the rest, I think that Kim Silverman was the real standout of this session! He came on dressed as a wizard, which is actually a standard outfit for this delightful gentleman, and proceeded to really give a good lesson on what it takes to keep your magic from becoming trivial, along with some excellent performances and stories. A really inspiring session!
Managed to fit in a tasty lunch before going to the Afternoon Session, this was hosted by John Lovick and was a real treat. Calen Morelli had excellent thoughts on setting goals and achieving them. Brett Loudermilk, one of my favorite people, did an exceptional sword swallowing routine, the last of which is probably still going through his digestive system. BJ Bueno was the next person to bring the rain. He is one of the smartest and most talented genius people in the universe and gave us an excellent presentation on his area of expertise, cult branding. The session ended with Jon Armstrong who was assisted by, Mike Costa, a comic book artist and they explored the super hero and how it applies to magic.
Later that evening we were very privileged to experience Woody Aragon, Darwin Ortiz, and Bebel in an evening of some of the most astounding card magic the world has ever known. The session was called Experts at the Card Table, and it was quite an event. Darwin Ortiz did an excellent show and Woody Aragon wowed the audience with many unexplainable miracles (I heard many people speaking later about one of Mr. Aragon’s tricks which had them exceptionally puzzled). Bebel closed this session with a most fascinating display of skill, originality, aplomb…I don’t even know. His hands work miracles and he is 400 steps ahead of everyone. Just a delight!
Asi Wind, one of the world’s best magicians and performers, gave a lecture that was chock full of the inexplicable. There is no way to figure out many of his effects and you just have to believe that he has supernatural powers, yet he teaches and sells these things at his lectures, and the methods are sometimes just as amazing. He really spoils us by divulging these things.
Our last event of the day was Between Two Bucks. This was hosted by Justin Willman and was a fun filled extravaganza of banter between him and his guests. The Buck Twins had seats on either side of the stage and were wearing cute antler hats. It was soooo deer!
Also, I got to see part of John Bodine taking people on a little tour through the miraculous as a number of people out by the pool/firepit area were eating the best lemons that they ever had. Pretty intriguing. He followed it up by having members of the audience read their favorite sleights from a first edition of The Expert at the Card Table. I was lucky and got to listen to the Diagonal Palm Shift, one of my favorites!
That evening was one of the more exciting late night episodes as there was an Oculus Rift that Mahdi Gilbert tried out, before defeating everyone at wrestling, a plethora of drinks, and numerous shenanigans. I hope that I went to bed early…
Saturday (April 12th)
…because I had Dan & Dave’s Book Club first thing on Saturday! Made it in time, but I may or may not have been fully prepared. Elliott Terral, delightful human being, was my co-host, and Dan Buck joined us on stage to perform what may be one of the most intriguing tricks, method wise, of all time, as well as one of the most fooling. We were discussing the book of the month, Mathematics, Magic and Mystery by Martin Gardner, and I performed a version of “Belchou’s Aces” and Elliott did a few miracles with rubber bands. Dan Buck did the good stuff though with “Hummer’s Three-Object Divination”. This brought back memories for me, since Dan and Dave and I were all horribly fooled by this trick when we first saw it, and it was the reason we came to know and love this excellent little book. Our progress through this event continued precariously, however, until Michael Weber chimed in and informed us that the co-author of Magical Mathematics with Persi Diaconis, and all around brilliant man, Ron Graham, was in the audience. Having a mathematical genius and colleague of Mr. Gardner’s lended a semblage of credibility to our presentation and allowed us to end the presentation on a high note!
Shortly after Book Club, the Morning Session started with Max Maven hosting a number of talented individuals. Darwin Ortiz and David Roth did some of the excellent and ably performed miracles that they are known for. David Kwong told us about crossword puzzles and Gary Plants really surprised everyone in the room with a video presentation, of all things. It turns out he has been amassing quite the storehouse of video footage of magicians past and present and he assembled an impressive collection for our viewing pleasure! Often I was surprised that footage even existed of some of the performers and there were many clips that were unknown to me. It was a lot to take in, and I would love to see it again!
Following lunch, the Afternoon Lectures featured Steve Valentine doing the most in depth discussion of the Cards to Pocket of all time. Fascinating with some really clever strategies and about 40 different palms discussed. I was riveted! Then Jon Armstrong took over. This guy is very clever and quite in tune with the chicanery. Some great techniques and effects were divulged in this session!
One of THE major events of the convention was up next, the premier of Our Magic! This started as a KickStarter project with the goal of giving regular people insight into our art from the magician’s perspective. Everyone was captivated as we watched our art discussed by some of its best and most thoughtful practitioners. The filmmakers did an extraordinary job capturing some of the most powerful discussions and visuals of our art extant! After the film there was a discussion panel with Dan Buck, Dave Buck, R. Paul Wilson, and Jason England (played by his stunt double: Cheetos and Diet Soda). We learned some interesting details about the making of the film and what they hoped for the future, as well as some of the things they had to miss because of time and budget issues. I hope that the Unreal Work 3 tips the real work on holding two dinners together as one!
That evening I somehow insinuated myself into the organizers dinner and actually got to spend a few moments with Dan and Dave! They are always busy at Magic-Con, so it was a miracle to see them sit down and eat food. During dinner, Rodney Buck, the Twins’ nephew, had an important question, and he kept waiting to make sure he had Dave’s full attention. It turns out that Dave, and his glorious wife Colie, had hand crafted and curated a magic set for Rodney as a Christmas present, and he was ready for his debut!
That evening at an event called Mindful Mysteries, hosted by Max Maven, we witnessed a performance by David Kwong who was followed by Arthur Benjamin. Arthur Benjamin brought down the house and got a rousing ovation for his lightning calculations and entertaining and jovial performance. Asi Wind was next and, ever the showman, made a show of not being able to follow such an extraordinary act, before also bringing down the house! Asi was assisted in this by none other than Rodney Buck! Rodney’s debut performance featured a vanishing coin and a changing card, and he could not have asked for a better or more helpful person to help him with his act than Asi.
Woody Aragon capped off the night with an excellent lecture of very fooling, entertaining, and practical magic. If you have not gotten his A Book in English, you are behind the times. Great stuff!
We finished the evening with many drinks, great magic and revelry. Elliott Terral and I had a little celebration of finishing our event (Book Club) and were now free to do many activities, which had to be followed up by a lot of pizza and water. I was very privileged to spend a little time hearing stories from Chris Kenner, which was a real treat. Even when you are staying at this man’s house you don’t get to see very much of him because of his busy schedule. Mahdi Gilbert won the prize for having the most fun this evening though. Congratulations to everyone that participated!
Sunday (April 13th)
The next morning was a real treat! Elliott was alive! Mahdi was alive! The Morning Session was to be hosted by one of the funniest individuals on the planet and one of the great card men, Jeff Altman. I was all ready to spectate at this event, when I was called in for duty. Raahul Srinivasan and I were in charge of the stage and getting everything the performers required ready in between acts. Stress levels were high, and it all came down to us! Failure was not an option, and it happened to sleep in that morning anyway, so we made it through without embarrassing ourselves. We had the privilege of changing tables for Steve Valentine, Alex Pandrea (who did some very interesting passes and a new skateboard move that was a variation of a Calen Morelli skateboard move), Andrew Mayne and Woody Aragon. Jamie D. Grant taught us all how to memorize a deck of cards in mere moments (I’ve already memorized all 52 factorial orders, so I am always in stack, thanks Jamie!), and David Roth took the opportunity to tell us all about the El Cerrito 7. A lucky occurrence wherein David, Jeff Altman, Steve Freeman, Michael Skinner, T.A. Waters, Earl Nelson, and Ray Grismer all ended up living in the same apartment building near the Magic Castle.
The last event of Magic-Con was a trio of lectures by three people I hold in very high regard. Michael Weber did absolute miracles and let us in on a number of diabolical secrets. David Roth did a fantastic lecture, and I followed along coins in hand for his explanation of “Shelled Coins Across”. This trick is a miracle and expertly constructed. Someday I will be able to do it, I hope! Bebel did an exceptional lecture on his expert work with the playing cards. I was very happy that he had some notes available in English for sale and even happier when I got him to sign them!
Cardistry-Con
Following Magic-Con, I got to briefly attend the beginnings of a new and exceptional event, Cardistry-Con! I had to leave for my flight shortly after the beginning, but it was interesting to hear R. Paul Wilson’s flourish lecture, and I learned a fancy flourish with the faro shuffle from Tobias and Oliver, before absconding to the airport. I felt very lucky to miss the Padiddle competition, as I certainly would have won.
Magic-Con 2014 was a rousing success in my book! Dan and Dave had the most amazing dealers space of all time, there was action and adventure around every corner, I learned some awesome new things, and met a great many people who I either knew to be glorious or turned out to be glorious!
“Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler” and “Details make for perfection, but perfection is no detail” are quotes from Einstein and DaVinci/Michaelangelo that The Professor, Dai Vernon, used to use regularly. I have used them regularly ever since, most often as a hook to get school professors interested in my essays, but I figured I could use both of them to get you extra interested. Hope it worked!
This is my experience at Magic-Con 2014 and I need to work on my openings.
The Woodwork…that is what this article wanted to be called. Everyone came out of the woodwork for this one, brought their E (as in Erdnase and better than A, that is why they skipped E in the grading system and went straight to F, E was too good.) game, and it was Epic!
Looking at the lineup, I was certain that a large number of the names would simply not be familiar to people and that attendance would be lacking. One of the best parts of any convention are the groups that congregate outside of the scheduled events, so it is important to draw people out of their chest of drawers, tables, desks, bed frames and other wooden objects that reside in their homes and offices and get them to come out. It may have been on strength of reputation alone, but somehow the little Buckers did it…The Woodwork!
Preliminaries
I flew in on Wednesday from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and arrived in San Diego early that very evening. After my safe arrival (you’re welcome other passengers!), I confidently informed Dan Buck that I had arrived and that he should be picking me up shortly. He, subsequently, informed me that R. Paul Wilson would be picking me up. I knew this much: things were happening! I traveled out to the baggage claim and found Mr. Wilson sessioning with none other than the superlative card man, Bebel! I could tell that Paul secretly wished that my flight was 3 or 4 months late, but he did his best to look happy about my arrival. Thanks Paul!
We went directly to the convention hotel and sat down for some coffee and miracles. Things were going well for me. I was sitting with two of the best card men on the planet, meeting up with Dan Buck later, when lo and behold, John Bodine informed me that he was cutting his Los Angeles trip short to come to San Diego early! The day had taken a turn for the unbelievably glorious!
We had quite a nice evening of delicious food and cocktails before settling to bed at Dan Buck’s Lady Friend’s house in San Diego. There was only one bed, so we…well, Elliott Terrall took the couch and I had a blow up mattress. I woke up shortly after the explosion, and Thursday was happening!
Thursday (April 10th)
I awoke promptly at near dawn due to being on East Coast of America time and knew that I was in charge of waking everyone up in the most obnoxious way possible. Unbeknownst to me, this would include injuring my shin on Dan and His Lady Friend’s bed frame while taking the least straightforward and most imposing route through their room as possible. You can’t win them all!
Luckily my waking up tactics worked and soon everyone was awake and someone was making me coffee, I hope it was Elliott, because he has amazing skills.
We followed the waking by doing lots of things to get the convention ready. For those that have not prepared a convention, this includes carrying many things, pretending to carry many things and offering supportive language (“Way to go, Tim! Lift with your back, not your knees!), or just referring to how much work you did already and that you are now on break.
With most of the convention set up by other people, I decided it was time to go see what activities were occurring. My Mom was at the registration booth, and I took this opportunity to get my convention program and my glorious deck of Magic-Con 2014 playing cards and hat. I managed to keep the tag on my hat and was desperately hoping to find one of the brim stickers that cool people always leave on their hats to stick on the brim of my hat and increase my coolness by a significant factor. This did not come to pass, although a lot of passing would be going on the whole convention. Maybe Gandalf was around.
That evening I was on my way to the opening reception and met with Dan and Dave’s intern, David Yanik, and he gave me an awesome present! The most glorious stripper deck ever made. Then I found out that he was also a part of the cool kids room at the hotel. This is the room at every convention where they had the foresight to acquire strong drink. I would make many trips to this delightful location and even get one of my most prized possessions: an old deck of Stud Playing Cards from Kasen Rumpf. I have been getting these ready for many weeks now in preparation for Elliott Terral and I’s Dan & Dave’s Book Club Book of the Month, Drawing Room Deceptions! These decks are sadly no longer available, but were once Guy Hollingworth’s favorite playing cards and the ones he used in all of his early and astounding video tapes.
After getting distracted, I went to the reception which featured a spectacular show by David & Leeman. Very entertaining, fooling magic and excellent humor, plus there was a nice bar, so I took the opportunity to have a few excellent scotches with my colleague, the most fantastic coin man in the universe, David Roth. I was very spoiled!
Alex Pandrea had the great idea to do an epic Oscar-style selfie at this point, which you should find and like and tweet and share. You’re welcome Alex!
Later that evening, I went out to the pool/lounge area only to find none other than Jim Patton! A good friend of The Professor’s and Bruce Cervon’s and a fountain of knowledge and stories, Jim is one of the great people to spend time with in the whole history of the world. I was with Mahdi Gilbert and we realized quite quickly, by hearing all of these excellent stories and tips, that we were doing so without having a cigar in honor of The Professor. We lamented our lack of preparation, and our inability to figure out how to acquire such a thing, and got back to the conversation. Moments later though Mahdi appeared with, of all things, a cigar! Where could he have acquired this? What witchcraft must have taken place? Nobody knows, but it was amazing and capped the end of a truly exemplary first day for any convention!
Friday (April 11th)
I decided to once again use my East Coast of America time travel powers to wake up early and go and see Coffee with Dan & Dave after a quick breakfast. It is always good to catch these interactions, since those guys are always doing all kinds of activities and have upcoming products and stuff that you want desperately as soon as they tell you about them. My favorite part of this event though was R. Paul Wilson’s foolish display of coffee prowess. Elliott offered to make him a delicious coffee to replace his Starbucks. Mr. Wilson played it off as though he had the real coffee, but the audience knew that he was the guy eating McDonald’s at the steak house.
Shortly after Coffee, the morning session was about to begin, starting with one of my true heroes and idols, John Bodine, so I made sure to get a seat in the front row. Photographer of Exceptional Talent and secret superhuman, Bryce Craig, thought it would be acceptable to have me help take photos, of what was sure to be one of the most glorious events to occur in all of mankind, due to my excellent seat situation, but he forgot that I am also the world’s worst photographer. None of my photos ended up fit for human consumption.
Despite my lack of photographic contribution, the session was an astounding success! Michael Weber hosted and brought on John Bodine to start. John thought that a good opening would be to purposefully light one of the audience members on fire. This resulted in no injuries and was reminiscent of some stories I read in the world’s most popular book. He continued by relating some insightful stories and thoughts that had us all looking at our magic and lives in new ways (Cute speech John, do you want to go get a hot dog?). His ending though was a provocative cliff hanger: we were invited to meet with him at any time during the convention and he would guide us through a miraculous experience…more on this later! The session also included Blake Vogt, speaking on his recent experiences with every famous magician ever (David Copperfield, David Blaine, and Dynamo) and what he learned from the opportunity to really study with these individuals. Of the rest, I think that Kim Silverman was the real standout of this session! He came on dressed as a wizard, which is actually a standard outfit for this delightful gentleman, and proceeded to really give a good lesson on what it takes to keep your magic from becoming trivial, along with some excellent performances and stories. A really inspiring session!
Managed to fit in a tasty lunch before going to the Afternoon Session, this was hosted by John Lovick and was a real treat. Calen Morelli had excellent thoughts on setting goals and achieving them. Brett Loudermilk, one of my favorite people, did an exceptional sword swallowing routine, the last of which is probably still going through his digestive system. BJ Bueno was the next person to bring the rain. He is one of the smartest and most talented genius people in the universe and gave us an excellent presentation on his area of expertise, cult branding. The session ended with Jon Armstrong who was assisted by, Mike Costa, a comic book artist and they explored the super hero and how it applies to magic.
Later that evening we were very privileged to experience Woody Aragon, Darwin Ortiz, and Bebel in an evening of some of the most astounding card magic the world has ever known. The session was called Experts at the Card Table, and it was quite an event. Darwin Ortiz did an excellent show and Woody Aragon wowed the audience with many unexplainable miracles (I heard many people speaking later about one of Mr. Aragon’s tricks which had them exceptionally puzzled). Bebel closed this session with a most fascinating display of skill, originality, aplomb…I don’t even know. His hands work miracles and he is 400 steps ahead of everyone. Just a delight!
Asi Wind, one of the world’s best magicians and performers, gave a lecture that was chock full of the inexplicable. There is no way to figure out many of his effects and you just have to believe that he has supernatural powers, yet he teaches and sells these things at his lectures, and the methods are sometimes just as amazing. He really spoils us by divulging these things.
Our last event of the day was Between Two Bucks. This was hosted by Justin Willman and was a fun filled extravaganza of banter between him and his guests. The Buck Twins had seats on either side of the stage and were wearing cute antler hats. It was soooo deer!
Also, I got to see part of John Bodine taking people on a little tour through the miraculous as a number of people out by the pool/firepit area were eating the best lemons that they ever had. Pretty intriguing. He followed it up by having members of the audience read their favorite sleights from a first edition of The Expert at the Card Table. I was lucky and got to listen to the Diagonal Palm Shift, one of my favorites!
That evening was one of the more exciting late night episodes as there was an Oculus Rift that Mahdi Gilbert tried out, before defeating everyone at wrestling, a plethora of drinks, and numerous shenanigans. I hope that I went to bed early…
Saturday (April 12th)
…because I had Dan & Dave’s Book Club first thing on Saturday! Made it in time, but I may or may not have been fully prepared. Elliott Terral, delightful human being, was my co-host, and Dan Buck joined us on stage to perform what may be one of the most intriguing tricks, method wise, of all time, as well as one of the most fooling. We were discussing the book of the month, Mathematics, Magic and Mystery by Martin Gardner, and I performed a version of “Belchou’s Aces” and Elliott did a few miracles with rubber bands. Dan Buck did the good stuff though with “Hummer’s Three-Object Divination”. This brought back memories for me, since Dan and Dave and I were all horribly fooled by this trick when we first saw it, and it was the reason we came to know and love this excellent little book. Our progress through this event continued precariously, however, until Michael Weber chimed in and informed us that the co-author of Magical Mathematics with Persi Diaconis, and all around brilliant man, Ron Graham, was in the audience. Having a mathematical genius and colleague of Mr. Gardner’s lended a semblage of credibility to our presentation and allowed us to end the presentation on a high note!
Shortly after Book Club, the Morning Session started with Max Maven hosting a number of talented individuals. Darwin Ortiz and David Roth did some of the excellent and ably performed miracles that they are known for. David Kwong told us about crossword puzzles and Gary Plants really surprised everyone in the room with a video presentation, of all things. It turns out he has been amassing quite the storehouse of video footage of magicians past and present and he assembled an impressive collection for our viewing pleasure! Often I was surprised that footage even existed of some of the performers and there were many clips that were unknown to me. It was a lot to take in, and I would love to see it again!
Following lunch, the Afternoon Lectures featured Steve Valentine doing the most in depth discussion of the Cards to Pocket of all time. Fascinating with some really clever strategies and about 40 different palms discussed. I was riveted! Then Jon Armstrong took over. This guy is very clever and quite in tune with the chicanery. Some great techniques and effects were divulged in this session!
One of THE major events of the convention was up next, the premier of Our Magic! This started as a KickStarter project with the goal of giving regular people insight into our art from the magician’s perspective. Everyone was captivated as we watched our art discussed by some of its best and most thoughtful practitioners. The filmmakers did an extraordinary job capturing some of the most powerful discussions and visuals of our art extant! After the film there was a discussion panel with Dan Buck, Dave Buck, R. Paul Wilson, and Jason England (played by his stunt double: Cheetos and Diet Soda). We learned some interesting details about the making of the film and what they hoped for the future, as well as some of the things they had to miss because of time and budget issues. I hope that the Unreal Work 3 tips the real work on holding two dinners together as one!
That evening I somehow insinuated myself into the organizers dinner and actually got to spend a few moments with Dan and Dave! They are always busy at Magic-Con, so it was a miracle to see them sit down and eat food. During dinner, Rodney Buck, the Twins’ nephew, had an important question, and he kept waiting to make sure he had Dave’s full attention. It turns out that Dave, and his glorious wife Colie, had hand crafted and curated a magic set for Rodney as a Christmas present, and he was ready for his debut!
That evening at an event called Mindful Mysteries, hosted by Max Maven, we witnessed a performance by David Kwong who was followed by Arthur Benjamin. Arthur Benjamin brought down the house and got a rousing ovation for his lightning calculations and entertaining and jovial performance. Asi Wind was next and, ever the showman, made a show of not being able to follow such an extraordinary act, before also bringing down the house! Asi was assisted in this by none other than Rodney Buck! Rodney’s debut performance featured a vanishing coin and a changing card, and he could not have asked for a better or more helpful person to help him with his act than Asi.
Woody Aragon capped off the night with an excellent lecture of very fooling, entertaining, and practical magic. If you have not gotten his A Book in English, you are behind the times. Great stuff!
We finished the evening with many drinks, great magic and revelry. Elliott Terral and I had a little celebration of finishing our event (Book Club) and were now free to do many activities, which had to be followed up by a lot of pizza and water. I was very privileged to spend a little time hearing stories from Chris Kenner, which was a real treat. Even when you are staying at this man’s house you don’t get to see very much of him because of his busy schedule. Mahdi Gilbert won the prize for having the most fun this evening though. Congratulations to everyone that participated!
Sunday (April 13th)
The next morning was a real treat! Elliott was alive! Mahdi was alive! The Morning Session was to be hosted by one of the funniest individuals on the planet and one of the great card men, Jeff Altman. I was all ready to spectate at this event, when I was called in for duty. Raahul Srinivasan and I were in charge of the stage and getting everything the performers required ready in between acts. Stress levels were high, and it all came down to us! Failure was not an option, and it happened to sleep in that morning anyway, so we made it through without embarrassing ourselves. We had the privilege of changing tables for Steve Valentine, Alex Pandrea (who did some very interesting passes and a new skateboard move that was a variation of a Calen Morelli skateboard move), Andrew Mayne and Woody Aragon. Jamie D. Grant taught us all how to memorize a deck of cards in mere moments (I’ve already memorized all 52 factorial orders, so I am always in stack, thanks Jamie!), and David Roth took the opportunity to tell us all about the El Cerrito 7. A lucky occurrence wherein David, Jeff Altman, Steve Freeman, Michael Skinner, T.A. Waters, Earl Nelson, and Ray Grismer all ended up living in the same apartment building near the Magic Castle.
The last event of Magic-Con was a trio of lectures by three people I hold in very high regard. Michael Weber did absolute miracles and let us in on a number of diabolical secrets. David Roth did a fantastic lecture, and I followed along coins in hand for his explanation of “Shelled Coins Across”. This trick is a miracle and expertly constructed. Someday I will be able to do it, I hope! Bebel did an exceptional lecture on his expert work with the playing cards. I was very happy that he had some notes available in English for sale and even happier when I got him to sign them!
Cardistry-Con
Following Magic-Con, I got to briefly attend the beginnings of a new and exceptional event, Cardistry-Con! I had to leave for my flight shortly after the beginning, but it was interesting to hear R. Paul Wilson’s flourish lecture, and I learned a fancy flourish with the faro shuffle from Tobias and Oliver, before absconding to the airport. I felt very lucky to miss the Padiddle competition, as I certainly would have won.
Magic-Con 2014 was a rousing success in my book! Dan and Dave had the most amazing dealers space of all time, there was action and adventure around every corner, I learned some awesome new things, and met a great many people who I either knew to be glorious or turned out to be glorious!
