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The North West Commercial Close Up
Forum
Sunday 12th November 2006
Reviewed by
Jan
Culshaw
On Sunday November 12 2006 the day began with each of the lecturers performing a
fifteen-minute show, presented by Mark Leveridge, Martin Sanderson and Nicholas
Einhorn. These were as they would have been presented to a lay audience in terms
of content, but the presence of a magical audience was acknowledged during the
presentation of some items.
Mark was on first. A selected card was divined and then extracted from the
closed card box as it was spun in the air. A borrowed ring was vanished and
cloned, finally reappearing in a box. This was followed by a coin and
handkerchief sequence and finally an envelope effect. Who would have thought
Mark heveridge would use an envelope hick?
Then it was Martin's turn. An excellent Think-a-Card with sucker ending was
followed by his Ambitious Card routine, ending with Card to Sealed Envelope in
Wallet and the Omni Deck transformation. Next a selected card appeared in
Martin's hands on his photograph on a laminated ID Card, followed by the
appearance of a coin beneath the spectator's watch strap. He finished with the
signature Bill in Kiwi.
Nick began his show with the cleanest Oil & Water I can remember, including a
faceup final phase. Coins appeared from a ribbon-spread for use in a very direct
Matrix routine. Ring Flight (using a carabiner-type keyring) led into a ring and
string routine (borrowing ever so slightly from Mark Leveridge). The four Aces
were used to locate three selected cards, the Aces vanishing one by one from the
top of the deck to sandwich the selections in the centre. This led to a four Ace
location and a multiple card revelation to finish.
The day continued with lectures by each of the three to small groups: Mark on
Tableside magic, Nick on Mix & Mingle and Martin on the business side of the
profession. They were uniformly excellent, each presenting a wealth of valuable
advice, guidance and practical information, all more than generous with
explanation, demonstration and useful information. There were products on sale,
of course, but the lectures were not sales pitches. I have attended many
lectures at conventions and never felt that I was getting personal tuition.
Here, I had that feeling in spades.
The day finished with a one-hour Q & A session. I cannot praise this event
highly enough. The format provides exactly what is missing at conventions i.e.
the chance to talk to the lecturers both in small groups and on a one-to-one
basis in the bar, or over a coffee. Also, resisting the temptation to cram ever
more into the event results in a relaxed atmosphere that makes it easy to absorb
the information on offer. If this event takes place again, my advice is - don't
miss it!
© Jan Culshaw, November 2006.