PARADISE FOUND - THE ESSENTIAL MAGIC CONFERENCE

7/27/2019 PARADISE FOUND - THE ESSENTIAL MAGIC CONFERENCE

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A Hasty Postscript to the

Essential Magic ConferenceWords by Jon Racherbaumer Photos by Paulo Abrantes

Paradise

Found?

When it comes to the uture, there are three kinds o people: those who let ithappen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.

John M. Richardson, Jr.


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It was an experiment worth doing, a game worth playing, a risk worthtaking, and a dance worth dancing. There was plenty o worthiness to go

around. The dancers and players numbered 33, not including the cracker-jack technical crew that was there and not there, beautiully behindthe scenes, in the shadows. (Here is an aside worth interjecting: Remem-ber the historic, ree Woodstock concert rom the summer o 1969? Itwas also a three-day aair and, yes, there were 33 perormers.)

Over teen years ago, MAGIC published an article I wrote, titledMagic Networks: Hype or Hope [April 1995]. Its opening sentencewas: Most magicians desire access. They always have. This has notchanged. The same article added: Today the access-adventurers dewi-est dream can be realized. Total access is practically at hand, as close asthe nearest computer keyboard and mouse as long as they are con-nected to a computer thats connected to the Internet or, better yet, toone o the magic networks.

Flash orward to July 2010. The 1,408 registrants o the EssentialMagic Conerence watched rom home bases, and together they expe-rienced in high denition 32 denitive talks. They also watched25 perormances strategically interspersed between the rhetoricaltalks, invigorating attention spans. All and all, they were categoricallyenlivened by variable visual rhythms. Even the talks were divided intohistory and theory and practice. Pure, act-laden histories (like MikeCaveneys The American Zig-Zag Scandal and Max Mavens WhoWas the First Close-up Magician?) were accompanied by interesting,

relevant visuals photos, documents, clips giving registrants a fvorul taste o invitation-only magic history conerences.

To meticulously report the good and bad things that happened duing the nine sessions is impractical in a single article. However, as arI was concerned, the positives ar outweighed the negatives. In lieu olengthy recital, consider the ollowing scattershot impressions.

Gazzo foundering at rst and then rallying at the end to win relutant hearts and minds. In all airness, he is out o his element atStudio 33. Gazzo needs an audience o street people to radiate thenergy. Perorming or only the 32 other presenters is like auditioing or a ocus group rom Fechters Finger Flicking Frolic. As JaMarshall used to say about such spectators: Lots o deep breathand an occasional intellectual nod.

Ponta the Smith, current purveyor o WTF moments, pushing the liwith coin moves and magic too outlandish to try. How is it possibleinvisibly catapult a coin rom a thumb palm to the back o the hand

Wondering where Antn Lopez spent his childhood. Neverthelesbaby rogs weigh less than a cage ull o doves or an overed rabb

Feeling elation that Penn & Teller are not the only ones to gure outnovel ways to present unny, irreverent, and mysterious entertainme

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without being clones. Barry & Stuart are weird and wonderul withoutdumbing down or trivializing magical traditions. Their contrapuntal

patter, as they perormed a brilliant, redemptive, and truly unny adap-tation o the geeky nail-into-nostril stunt, was spot on. Also, there wasno oreshadowing o the tricks nature or intrinsic geekiness.

Enjoying the silly running gag involving Richard Wisemans trou-sers, courtesy o pickpocket Apollo Robbins.

O-camera dgeting and ddling with decks o cards by veterancard workers William Kalush, Carlos Vaquera, and Jason Englandproves that practicing the diagonal palm shit never ends!

Thrilling to see two tricks that oten underwhelm magicians thesedays: the Egg Bag, and the Sands o the Desert. Mike Caveneyproduces, rom an examinable bag, dozens o eggs and a ull-sizedchicken, which causes even the most jaded viewer to have a changeo heart. And our charming host Luis de Matos dazzles and deceiveswith an artistic perormance o the sandy stunt.

Jason England, a dedicated gambling expert, standing alone without a deck and telling a heartelt, illustrative story involvinga small boy and Santa Claus. The Man Who Could Play Erdnaseplayed Walt Disney to a tee.

David Britland taking us behind the scenes oThe Mind o Dr.Frostwhile reviving T.A. Waters beore he became a ghost and

a memory.

Rocking and Rolling to the irresistible beat o Topas emulating thestrains o Queens We Will Rock You, rifing a deck o cards nexto a microphone.

Hearing Palino Gil rom Spain explain how to produce successul,public magic estivals, proving they are possible and protable.American producers o magic conventions should take note.

Carlos Vaquera validating Hozinsers epigram that playing cardsare the poetry o magic.

Listening to Devo without ever seeing his ace talk about TheHoly Shit Factor without executing a single fourish with cards!

Learning, courtesy o Paul Kieve, that Jay Marshall was a well-paidperormer in a 1948 stage production called Love Light, yet wasonstage or only ve minutes every perormance. A guilty pleasure iprovided by Kieves explanation o stage vomiting. Forewarned isorearmed! On a drier note, he reveals how to inversely perorm theDeKolta Chair.

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The advisement that allnine sessions will be available as downloadsto every registrant or one year, and a boxed DVD set o the entire

conerence will be mailed to everyone. This replay unction isnever supplied by other conventions.

Being wowed by veteran stage perormer and godather o invisiblethread, Finn Jon. His speed-dialed explanations looked as good ashis leisurely executed act. Who else perorms to the haunting trum-pet sounds o Miles Davis?

An appreciation why Cyril Takayama is at the top o his game, sur-passing his accomplished precursors. His diction in English rivalsMax Mavens FM-radio articulations, and Cyrils heartelt tribute tohis mentor, Mahka Tendo, is a humanizing highlight.

Gene Matsuuras lecture on what exists between the lines oLewis Gansons textual rendition o Slydinis methods is like seeinghis published annotations in living color.

Richard Wisemans jocular, incisive explanations o under-explainedpsychological principles, as related to deception, amuse and illu-minate. His energetic delivery is a cross between Woody Allen andBritish psychologist Richard Gregory. In short, he puts the agogin pedagogy.

Max Mavens investigative talk on how he tracked and dened therst close-up magician in history, a presentation he debuted at t

Chicago Magic History Conerence in 2008, evinces as he convinc

Being energized by Marco Tempests dulcet erudition. Because heis so upbeat and generously knowledgeable, you wish he was BilGates psychotherapist. He is the unrivaled avatar o 21st-centurillusory engineering.

Encouraged by Dani DaOrtizs idiosyncratic approach to cardmagic. Clearly infuenced by Juan Tamarizs careree, zany aecthomage to Dai Vernons Triumph reveals how to preserve a classmoti while improving the method.

Miguel Angel Gea salvages the underlying aspects o the Okito CBox without using one. His Coins & Glass routine truly updatesthis classic, adding ping to Han Ping Chien.

As stated at the outset, most magicians desire access. They still dIn todays whirl o magic, digital natives remain restless and are voracious consumers o words and images, text and context. As I wroteteen years ago, we should be thrilled but circumspect about uturetechnological advances. Our task and responsibility are the same. Yomust discover what is good and what is missing. Things have now


It was like watching freworks: wonderul, exotic designs o streaming light,accompanied by explosions, streamed across a dark sky. Then they vanished.Then another display burst across the sky. Then another. And another.


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evolved to a point where magic conventions can be supplemented andcomplemented by unconventionalconventions such as the Essential

Magic Conerence. They will be designed to service the wanderlust ocybernauts and Net-heads who passionately seek anything new, imme-diate, downloadable, and visually alluring. In this regard, EMC wastailor-made. It was a virtual romper room where participants mentallypaced, emotionally romped, and intellectually connected.

Luis de Matos, Marco Tempest, David Britland, and their teamhad a rm nger on the pulse o the Next Big Thing. They brought tolie concepts digital natives hold dear: connectivity, identity, quality,activism, innovation, and access to quick-x content. Consider too theword conerence, a yawn-inducing word suggesting something stodgyand musty. Badges, boredom, and uzzy amiliarity come to mind.Think about it. Dont old-style magic conventions resemble amilyreunions? Arent they characterized by the our Ss shows, shop-ping, schmoozing, and snoozing?

The Essential Magic Conerence, thank the gods o Google, was di-erent. Beaming content to registrants in 42 countries, they stayed onit or 3 days, or 16 hours, or 960 minutes, or 57,600 seconds. In short,they relentlessly ed the insatiable. Aterward, registrants were polled.Ninety-eight percent approved. Figurative conetti was thrown. Chipswere stacked as high as possible. Buzzheads buzzed. Buzzards circled.Celebrants celebrated until their magic x wore o. Lists o plussesand minuses were made. True believers will now preach and planners

will plan. Know this: EMC is a work-in-progress. It is an open system.It does not end; it evolves.

At this point you may be saying, All o this is ne and dandy, butwill all this so-called connectivity and communication usher in a newage? Is rational optimism possible?

I think so.EMC was imperect. Keep in mind, however, that it was a rst

eort. Luis, Marco, and David were beta-testing a resh approach tothe modern magic convention, and they were reasonably successul more successul than, say, Magic-Con especially considering that orthe modest registration ee o $75, EMC registrants got lots o bangor their buck. Being promised a orthcoming DVD set o the sessions,including behind-the-scenes material and explanations o individualtricks, is a plus. William Kalush oered all registrants another perk: hegave each a ree months access to Ask Alexander, his research website.

There will o course be naysayers and grumblers. Some will see onlyfaws. Some will insist that an electronic convention can never be theequal o a ace-to-ace gathering. Nevertheless, time marches on. As wemarch orward, EMC will be part o the our uture magic landscape. Butknow this: they are not interested in replacing, displacing, or usurpingconventional conventions. Theyre interested in doing their own thing.

So what is in store? Few magicians seem optimistic about the uture omagic as we know it. We read too many remorseul obituaries about dyingtraditions. We hear repetitious lamentations about ewer club members and

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disappearing brick-and-mortar magic shops. We are told that conventionsare becoming too pricey. EMC may not be a panacea, but they, using the

unprecedented power o technology, are oering an aordable alternativeexperience. Perhaps the time is ripe to make new traditions.

EMC 1.0 demonstrated that the e-conerence structure is workable; itssize, scope, and operational logistics are manageable. The team ocused oninnovation, and they adapted and responded on the spot. The eedbackloop was vivacious. In the uture, they will improve and urther streamlinehow content will be delivered. As it stands, they provided more content inless time than any other conerence, past or present.

At rst, I elt a bit like a captive in my viewing bunker. But despitethe blitzkriego memes that soared into my brain, I never elt over-stimulated. It was like watching reworks: wonderul, exotic designso streaming light, accompanied by explosions, streamed across a darksky. Then they vanished. Then another display burst across the sky.Then another. And another. I eventually elt immersed in the virtualspace connected, a member o a tribe. When the conerence nallyended, I elt as though I had beenthere with the others in the studio. Wehad asked questions, responded to polls, and chatted with one another.We wereparticipants, truly participating all connected by computersand never having to leave home.

This brings us ull circle. In the 1995 article in MAGIC, I wrote:Many o us eel like nas, standing at the edge o a scary rontier.Out here on the borderline o what is possible, were all strangers in

a strange land. Maybe thats why, or the access-adventurers amongus, it is exciting rather than scary. This new territory is ours to explore

and were in it together. When EMC aded to black, I remembered whthought magic networks seemed like a paradise ound. EMC truly hparadisiacal moments. We may be strangers to this new world, but I slook both ways beore crossing any threshold.

The Essential Magic Conerence took place rom Studio 33 in Ansio,Portugal on July 1517, 2010 and was attended by registrants across th

globe. The 33 presenters were, in order o appearance: Luis de Matos (tugal), Eric Mead (USA), Ponta the Smith (Japan), Dani DaOrtiz (SpainTopas (Germany), Gaetan Bloom (France), Helder Guimaraes (PortugaStan Allen (USA), Marco Tempest (USA), Barry Jones & Stuart Macleo(UK), Richard Wiseman (UK), Cyril Takayama (Japan), David Britland(UK), Max Maven (USA), Gazzo (UK), Mike Caveney (USA), JamesFreeedman (UK), Apollo Robbins (USA), Richard McDougall (UK), PaKieve (UK), Lennart Green (Sweden), Miguel Angel Gea (Spain), PaulinGil (Spain), Antn Lopez (Spain), Jason England (USA), Carlos Vaquer(Belgium), Devo vom Schattenreich (Germany), Eric Eswin (NetherlanGuy Hollingworth (UK), Finn Jon (Norway), Gene Matsuura (USA), TOnosaka (Japan), and William Kalush (USA).

The dates or the second EMC are July 711, 2011.


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PARADISE FOUND - THE ESSENTIAL MAGIC CONFERENCE