picture missingThis blog has been set-up to provide daily information about the 2006 IBM National Convention to members of Ring 170.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Day 3 Morning and Afternoon

This morning was primarily reserved for the Gold Cups Close up competition, although the IBM Board business meeting was also conducted. As in the stage competition, there were some very good performances, as well as some very bad ones. It will be interesting to see what the judges decide. In addition, Kevin Spencer held a session encourgaing magicians to participate in his 'Healing of Magic' program, information is also available on the program's website MagicTherapy.com

In the picture at left, Bev Bergeron is catching up with some of his buddies between sessions. Bev is presenting in one of the three concurrent lectures, which will be repeated again tomorrow and Saturday. The participant ID cards have been color coded in three colors, and that determines which of the concurrent lectures you visit each day. My color pointed me towards the "Close Up Sessions" today. We were treated to close up magic from a number of top magicians, who rotated through three close up rooms. The three close up rooms were equipped with amphitheater style raised seating so that everyone had a good view of the front, although the best seats were still in the first couple of rows.

My room's set started off with Joshua Jay, who presented some other material than shown in his lecture yesterday. Best was a thought of card at a thought of number routine. It appears to fail when Joshua cannot find the card at the right point in the deck, but the kicker is that the card is in a book on the table, at the the thought of page.


The next two perfomers both have Ring 170 connections, Terry Ward (upper left) and John Ekin (lower left). Terry appeared as Jack Diamond, and performed a series of clever and funny effects. John continued the comedy, but in a different style and just as successful.












They were followed by Jim Molinari, known as "Jimmy Cards" who showed a series of gambling, and cheating, routines. The final performer was Ivan Amodei, who has won both the IBM and SAM Close-up awards, as well as being Close-up Magician of the Year at the Magic Castle. His performance did meet the expectations set by all those awards, so that I can say all of the performances were well worth watching.

In the afternoon two lectures were held, one by John McLaughlin, a former CIA Director, on the similarities between magic and espionage, as well as how his hobby has helped occasionally in international relations. I would tell you more but then I would have to........

The second part of the afternoon was a presentation by Bill Spooner who collects magic wands, specifically mechanical and trick wands. It is fascinating to see how old some wands are, and all the different effects that have been developed over thye years.


Tonight's International Gala will be covered in a separate posting.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home