This is Ridiculous...

Not sure if I was sulking or something, but it got me down that my techno-incompetence left me unclear how to respond to your comments. So there seemed little point writing a blog - as opposed to a good old fashioned pen and paper journal. However time heals all wounds, and flushed with my recent success creating a Group on Farcebook, I am returning to the fray. So yes - I went to Vegas. It was hot. It was great. So much so, heck - I might even write a blog entry about it...

BEER & MYSTICAL CONVERGENCE

So there we are as per, in the Velo Lounge: me and my mate Jon, self-professed Genius. As previously, it turns out - he actually IS.

Both my readers will already know, this Churchill Trust Award means I'm off to Las Vegas soon, to learn about magic, and - crucially - teaching magic. Vector One. (Well, I do have a Maths Magic show...).

Vector Two: I have a Maths Magic show. (Did I mention that already?)

Vector Three: I'm performing recently for a very nice lady and her equally charming friends. She, and several of the friends too, are Maths Teachers. They love the magic, hear about the - well, you know which Show - and wonder if there is anything I can teach them, to liven up a rainy Friday afternoon double maths class with the bottom set year nines? Or indeed any others. Obviously, I say that I could come in and perform the - yup, that. They're very interested, but also want something more personal and permanent, which they can continue to do after I've disapparated again.

Vector Four (is four allowed? Hey - I just do the tricks, it's not like I'm Einstein, OK?): On return from the US, I will be actively looking to teach magic more as well as perform it. Some of this will be gratis, for charity, some of it more along the lines of professional Training, for adults, using magic.

Vector Five (this is getting WAY out of control now, surely? Ed.): I was inspired not long ago at a Corporate Magic seminar, to consider the use of magic for corporate team-building days etc.

So. Still only on his first Leffe, Jon says here's an idea: why don't you offer Teacher Training in Maths Magic? I realise - I don't know. Why don't I? So - I am. Cool eh? In a Mystically Convergent kind of way...

PHENOMENON-AL

What could be more International, than an American TV show presided over by an Israeli who lives in England, being filmed in Germany for a Dutch station, featuring a Dutch magician performing Indian Magic? Ah, warms the cockles of your heart to see our art bringing people together.

Well - kind of. Actually 'Phenomenon' is more of a televisual fight to the death (Wands at Dawn?) between contenders for the crown of Top Mind Magician. It originally ran in the US, on primetime but to mixed reception. Seems like they've learned a lot along the way, as the German/Dutch version looks good and features some truly talented performers.


So why am I banging on about this? Well - it's Magic obviously, but there's a more specific reason. One of those performers is my dear Amsterdam chum Wouter, aka Ramana, who has taken his supercool take on Indian Magic all the way to the FINAL!! I'm really excited - as is Uri Geller, who has been championing him all the way.

Wouter and I are both alumni of the International Magic Masterclass, and it's thrilling to see him do so well. For those of you interested in what this is all about, visit http://www.denieuweurigeller.nl/ and click on the video clip links for Ramana...

Winston & Me

We go back a long way, me and the Great Man. When I was first getting into magic, age 13, my favourite book was 'Magician's Magic', which describes how Churchill was repeatedly fooled, one wartime evening, by a trick called Out of This World. It's such a classic that magicians still perform it regularly, and no less than Derren Brown featured a version not long ago. I've been a Churchill fan for as long as I can remember, so it was both a surprise and a total delight, when his Memorial Trust agreed to include Moi, in their annual round of Travel Fellowships.

What this means, is that I can fulfil a long cherished aim of visiting Las Vegas, and studying there with the world's best magic teachers! I'll be attending an extended Masterclass with the astounding Jeff McBride (recently featured on Criss Angel's shows among others) and the remarkable Eugene Burger (ditto the Beeb's recent series on magic, and a zillion others). Then since they know everyone who's anyone, hopefully I will get to meet them too, and suck their brains dry. In a nice way, of course. Previously I only experienced Jeff & Eugene's teaching in Amsterdam, for a visiting Masterclass. For a magician, it's life-changing. In an age when Magic, like everything, is increasingly commodified, (ie made into something you can supposedly buy), it's amazing to have the experience of learning it the 'old-fashioned' way - aka the ONLY way, until about 100 years ago. Thank you, Winston.

FAME AT LAST!

Made it to the dizzy heights of the Bath Chronicle today, all to do with this Travel Fellowship thingy I have just been awarded. Of which more anon, but now, in the absence of a hot Valentine date (though the night is young), time to pack for Center Parcs tomorrow...

New website and blog launched

The new website and blog has been launched, round of applause if you please!