Naquada

So the first days been pretty good so far, after a chinese in china town we headed back to the Shaw Theatre and the Novotel to wait for 7:30pm and the start of the weekend..

We ran into (or past) depending on how you see it a few people on the way, JJ was obviously upgrading the van with technology as we saw him shopping in some of the electrical shops on Tottenham Court road, we even passed the old venue, which seems to now be a spearmint rhino!!

I met up with Andy Nyman again, and we had a brief chat whilst Derren Brown was getting his registration details and badge sorted, again I didn’t have the books to get him to sign!

After the standard delayed opening of the doors (given the program said 6:30, the registration desk said 7 and the theatre announced 7:30) we headed in and sat ready for the evenings line up.

First up was Guy Hollowingworth, Guy was presenting his ‘Expert at the card table‘ a 75 minute play and performance based around the book by S.W Erdnase. I didn’t quite know what to expect, given that it was billed as a play, as opposed to a lecture, but it was very enjoyable. Guy started with a demonstration of traveling aces, talking about the history of two gentlemen, SW Erdnase, and Milton Franklin Andrews, following their lives and disagreements, whilst showing some of the methods and techniques used by Erdnase and Andrews in their card cons.

Guy, as always presented the part beautifully, whilst also showing just why he is one of the most respected card technicians of today. As he talked about Andrews ability to stack and cull cards, he slowly took a shuffled deck back to new deck order, dealing cards from the top, bottom and ‘middle’ of the deck, and dealing called for numbers of red, or black cards. Ultimately revealing the mystery that still surrounds S.W Erdnase, and the book, Expert at the card table.

After Guy, Anthony Owen took to the stage, presenting ’some tricks’ which was mainly around the material in his previous books, ‘some tricks’ and ’some more tricks’ . He said it was touching for him to lecture at international, given his history with it, and remembering sitting at the back in his youth shuffling cards. It does seem like not that long ago I saw him there, in the days of the Dungeon and before.

Anthony covered some good material, although most of which I’ve got already, it was nice to see it as a reminder for me to hunt it out from the loft when I get back next week. The lecture could really have been called ‘various ways to stick cards together’ as a lot of material was based around that wonderful blue glue we all have laying about. ‘Holy Sh*t’ was explained in detail, and is actually a very nice trick, but my favorite was his (and I think I have the name right) Son of a bitch oil and water. This is probably the most clean and visual oil and water effect, and I remember him showing it to me years ago at I think a southport IBM convention, even then it was so clean, and ultimately, simple.

Dynamo was next to lecture, and you could tell he was nervous, he worked through a number of items he uses in his professional routine, and given this was his first lecture, ever, anywhere, I think he did pretty well. If the material didn’t come across as new or cutting edge, what did come across was that he has a great personality and enthusiasm, coupled with having some big names behind him. He was honest, and fresh in how he talked to the audience (if not slightly disjointed on some stuff). It was a pleasant end to the lectures.

Afterwards I caught up with a few more people, and I also had an extremely pleasant chat with David Berglas. I’d brought my Mind and Magic of David Berglas in the hope that he’s be here to sign it for me. I darted back to the hotel and got it and David was kind enough to inscribe it for me. We had a chat about the book, and how much I was enjoying reading it, and he seemed genuinely pleased that I’d brought the book and managed to find him. It was a great end to a long day.

DavidBerglas, InternationalMagic, Magic, mindandmagic, GuyHollingworth, Dynamo, AnthonyOwen, erdnase, ExpertAtTheCardTable

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