BLOG OF AN ESCAMOTEUR

Blackpool

First I have to state, I love Blackpool. In the last months there were a lot of discussions about  if Blackpool is the right place for FISM 2012 and someone wrote quite bad things about the town itself e.g. Blackpool is trashy, the Winter Gardens Complex almost a ruin and so on.

I would agree with him so far with the trashy, but I would use other words to characterize it. Blackpool at the moment is an old sea bath from the end of the 19^th century that has its best days already seen. BUT for me that makes most of its charm. Especially the Winter Garden Complex is a place you won’t find at any other place of the world. There you actually can experience still some of the atmosphere of the golden age of magic. You always expect to see the ghosts of Devant or Cardini just round the corner. I’m always thankful that this convention is not held in one of the uniform modern congress centers you can find in any bigger town.
Also, right at the moment there is a lot of work going on in Blackpool. The whole seaside promenade is under reconstruction as is Church Street, the main shopping street.  So till FISM, Blackpool will be in good shape.

As to the rumors about the Winter Gardens I only can say I found it in a surprisingly good shape. I couldn’t find any place where the reported paint would fall off the walls and this enormous Opera House is just breathtaking and most important, every one of its 3000 seats has a good view onto the stage.  So for me I don’t have any doubt that Blackpool is the right place for FISM 2012.

If you come to this convention next year for the first time I recommend not to book one of the bigger hotels but to take one of the hundreds of small family run hotels or Bed & Breakfasts. First, they are quite cheap and if you are not from the isle you will experience a real British institution. Sometimes it’s a bit of an adventure but for me this is connected with Blackpool as much as eating at least once fish and chips at the sea side. Btw. The huge amount of affordable places to stay is for me another big plus for Blackpool as a FISM place as it will allow also people with a smaller budget to be there.

Oh before I forget it, if you decide to get here for the first time, be prepared to spend almost more time on a local train than on the flight to the nearest airport. The good fact on the other side is, if you travel from Europe, cheap airlines like flybe, eaysjet and others offer flights to this smaller airport for very reasonable rates.

So if you have never been to this convention, go for it next year there is no other convention in my opinion where you get more worth for your money and you really don’t need a big budget. And at last, to be at a place with over 3500 magicians almost give you a Hogward’s feeling

The Winter Gardens

Als already said above, the convention takes place in a wonderful old theater and exhibition complex that was opened 1887.

Here are some impressions of the venue:

The Convention

I will only talk about my personal highlights as it was just too much going on and I could not see everything. As in numbers Blackpool 2010 again broke its records: 3600 Magician from 36 countries and 125 international dealers.

If you want to know all the events that were offered during the 2010 convention, please have a look here:

Blackpool Friday

Lecture Levent

Experiencing Levent life after seeing him on a lot of DVDs and emailing with him was terrific. If you own his Roy Benson Book or his Miser’s Dream DVDs most of the lecture was already familiar to you especially Levent’s 12 Rules. But it was something completely different reading them and getting them demonstrated.  In one hour you got a crash course in advanced stage magic and manipulation that contained the most important parts of the Miser’s dream DVD and his Salt Pour.

What really impressed me was to actually experience the sound of is Miser’s Dream techniques in a real theater. The effect is really great! You get the feeling that real coins must be falling into his bucket all the time. Watching the DVDs was already great, but the live experience was even better.

If you get the chance of take part in one of Levent’s lectures go for it. Hopefully you will have more than just an hour to absorb all this information. Whereupon were get to one of the downsides of Blackpool convention: Offering so many events results in packing everything in a very small timeframe. To communicate all Levent has to say would normally take at least 2 hours. In Blackpool every lecture has only one hour.

Lecture Juan Mayoral

I didn’t know this performer at all before, but in the convention brochure his lecture was titled “On electronic magic”. As I myself am very interested in electronic I was curious what he would tell.

Wow! This small Spanish guy is a creative, crazy, electronic inventor.  When I entered the lecture room (a bit late) he was on stage levitating a small tissue paper ball completely free over his head. Later he explained that this astonishing effect is achieved by a stream of CO₂ that comes from a small gas cylinder fixed on his lower leg and controlled by the movement of his wrist.

Next came an ingenious apparatus to be fixed to you forearm that allows you to shoot one flash paper flash and one silk up in the air. Both functions are activated by the angle of your forearm after the device is armed. Very clever, with a great optical effect.

Another great example of what you can achieve by the means of electronic devices was a beautiful routine in which he first transformed a burning candle into a red silk. Waving the silk suddenly a burning candle appeared in a stand.

Most of the people were waiting for his newest effect “METEORS”. To be honest I wasn’t impressed that much. Sure it looks pretty, but I was immediately asking myself: “Is this magical?” In a technology age as our’s high performance LEDs are widely known, so it’s clear from the beginning that it must be something electronic. Although, the crowd went wild.  If you haven’t seen the effect, here is a clip from YouTube:

What I liked much more was his lights from mouth routine. Although still electronic it looked more magical. A light that appeared in his mouth is plugged away with the fingers and places in a bag made of a black cloth. He repeated this several times at the and unfolding the cloth he showed that now a myriad of small lights appeared on the cloth that instantly changed to form the words “Thank You”. Although not magical, but pure eye candy.

My personal highlight was his “Peeing Rabbit” He introduced a little stuffed rabbit and explained that it could calculate small numbers. He asked a spectator to name to two small numbers.  Juan stated that the rabbit would react if the correct sum was named. The rabbit was handed to the spectatr and when the correct sum was named suddenly the rabbit started to pee in a wide arch into the audience. What a great reaction!   The peeing could be started by a small remote control in Juan’s pants pocket and I’m sure you can image more funny applications if it fits your persona.

The rest of the day I spend in the dealer’s fair and enjoyed the company of Levent and his lovely wife Vicky for dinner.

More to come….

Related posts:

1. Blackpool Convention 2010 – Part II
2. Blackpool Convention 2010 – Part III
3. On the way to Blackpool
4. Welcome in 2010! What’s coming up?
5. Review: Levent’s Ultimate Guide to the MISER‘S DREAM