Day 5 - Morning & Afternoon

So the final day has arrived. The morning lecture started a little later than the activities on the other days, thank goodness. For this lecture the IBM had invited Jack Kodell, a magician from the golden age of magic, to sit down and be interviewed (by John Ekin of Orlando). Jack had a number of firsts, some of them were: he was the first magician to work with birds, the first to perform on ice and the first to work in Vegas. In addition to all that he married a lovely english lady, Mary Naylor, who also participated in the discussion with some wise words of wisdom about stagecraft. Jack's stories, backed up with video clips of himself and other key performers from that era, were a fascinating insight into a time when magicians scorned bookings less than six months, and interesting characters owned Las Vegas. John Ekin did a great job of leading the discussion along, and all present agreed that the time allotted was far too short.

In the afternoon I attended the final of the "Big Three" sessions. This was a simulated TV program a la Letterman & Leno, in which a number of magicians were interviewed. Apparently the sessions were also streamed live across the Internet, and can also be downloaded from the IBM website. In this session the first interview was with Andrew Payne and Keith Barber, who run a website where you can download podcasts (audio files) to listen to on your computer or MP3 player (IPod, etc.). These are weekly "broadcasts", and as they are approaching their first anniversary, there are almost 50 out there to listen to. Normally about 30 minutes long, they are just the thing to have in your car on the way to work or a gig.
Next we heard from Fantasio, about how he got started in the cane and candle business. The Texas based magician, Scott Wells, played the late night host role, and the interviews were interspersed with magic related commercials, just like a real show. Other guests were the three Germans from Junge, Junge!, and Michael Ammar, who had arrived at the convention to attend the Order of Merlin breakfast. The final of the day activities was an autograph session with the stars, and the Grand Banquet, at which the official change of IBM leadership is celebrated.

Look for a final posting later tomorrow, with details of the Closing Gala Show.