The Mystic Circle of Magicians held their President's Dinner back on the 21st of January and a great turnout were welcomed by current President Fred Corvenio.  Magi in attendance were treated to a superb lecture from  Roy Davenport.  Roy comes form a dynasty of performers, the Davenport family, and his respect, love and appreciation of our craft shines through.  His lecture consisted mostly of manipulation techniques, and while much of it will most likely be beyond the technical grasp of many present, it was a joy to watch.  All explained in the beautiful comedic hilarious nature that Roy exudes. 

Lecture over and time for tea.  Over 45 sat for dinner.  Outside of conventions it is very rare for our community to gather and catch up in the way we did this night, as mentioned by  Mystic Circle President Fred Corvenio in his address.  Fred also informed us that the Mystic's one day bi-annual convention will again take place this year in Drogheda around October / November time.  Keep an eye on IrishMagicNews for details when they become available.

We laughed and joked our way through our soup, chicken and dessert.  Paddy Ward even managed to sneak a kiss from our very attentive and attractive Romanian waitress.  Well sneak might be too mild a word ... but I digress.  Dinner over and on to our cabaret show.  Against a spider backdrop we lapped up entertaining spots from Roy, Fred Corvenio and Ruairi O'Connor with Roy returning to close to show to thunderous applause.  Roy's stagecraft is an utter joy to watch and a lesson to us all. 

Your editor knows only too well the challenges and hardships one endures when organising an event like this.  Plaudits must go to Fred and all the guys at the Mystics for putting together a great night.  Kudos also to those who turned up, many travelling from far flung places such as Belfast, Limerick and Arnott Street, Dublin 8.  It was the perfect tonic to those January blues.

You can view our flickr photo stream of the night below.  By clicking on the photo stream as it is playing you will be brought to our flick page where you can view full size versions of the photo's. 

Speaking of flickr.  We have decided to add a flickr Gallery page to our website.  This will document any and all events we attend.  If you attend Irish magic events that we are not present at please consider taking a few snaps and sending them to us.  We will upload them to our flickr page for all to see.  You can access our flickr page at any time by clicking on our flickr gallery image in the right panel.

MagicMart is the new buy & sell service for the Irish Magic Community by IrishMagicNews.  Whether you are looking for a particular item or wish to sell some effects, costume, AV or sound equipment this is the place to let the entire community know.  For the moment we intend to work this on an honours system.  We let the seller advertise your goods for sale.  We will include the sellers contact details.  Prospective buyers may contact the seller directly.  We ask buyers to let the seller know they found them through IrishMagicNews.  We hope the seller will keep an accurate record of the goods sold through IrishMagicNews.  All we ask for is a very reasonable 10% from the seller.  We hope this sounds fair to all of you.  Obviously this system is wide open to be abused but we hope our good will, open minded trust and good standing within the community here will make it work for all concerned. 

This offer is only open to private individuals and not intended to be used by dealers to offload stock.  IrishMagicNews will bear no responsibility as to the condition of items and encourages the seller to carry out due diligence.  Any transaction conducted is between the buyer and seller only.  IrishMagicNews is simply a vehicle for connecting you.

Read installment 6 of the wonderful world of Vandonini by Neville Wiltshire here.  The story of Vandonini is © of Neville and may not be reproduced in any form without his prior consent. You can contact Neville through his e-mail here 

That's it for another fortnight.  Remember if you have any news let us know.  Also please consider taking some pics at events you attend for our flickr page.  Till next time, take care, Brendan.

  Special Update - Tuesday 19th January 2010

SPONSORED POST

DesignMeSite.com (best said in a strong Dublin accent) is the new website design service for magicians &entertainers.  
DesignMeSite is brought to you by the same person who brings you IrishMagicNews.  Currently working on a couple of projects for friends, Brendan is now opening up this service for the wider entertainment communty.  "I have designed all my own performing-career sites in addition to IrishMagicNews and at this stage feel well positioned to provide an affordable web design service to the community here.  As I am a gigging entertainer myself I do feel that I have a good understanding of  what is required for a smart web presence that promotes our unique capabilities", Brendan tells us. 

The starting price point for a unique and smart looking site is remarkably good value and with a host of packages available we encourage you to check out www.designmesite.com

David Penn lectured at the SIM the first Tuesday of Febuary and Nevin Cody reviewed it for IrishMagicNews.

I was not sure what to expect from David, I have seen a few of his DVD’s, some bits on you tube and over the years saw him demo effects on his stand at convention.  If I was to be honest it was a January night with snow and ice all over and I was tempted not to take the journey from Kilkenny to Dublin. But boy, am I glad I took that journey?

David delivered a very polished lecture and all real-world workers. He believed and speaks about how we need to deliver top quality magic when performing. Our art requires it and one comment he made stuck with me when we perform magic we “change people’s memories forever."  Wow, think about it.  That’s what we do and that goes too for a bad performance. We still change their memory but not for the good of our art. The first half of his lecture took us through a number of effects starting with the production of a glass of water one we have seen before from Pat Page and David took us through some changes he worked on with Pat. He then moved on to the production of an eight ball and his full routine around this. He had some lovely thoughts and effects for business cards especially his business card transpo. I would be very surprised if some of these ideas did not make it into some of the member’s sets.  

It was very clear David regularly works for lay audiences and was able to answer all question put to him with some of he’s real life experiences. One very good example for me was when he was looking for his coinvexed coins and as he searched and struggled to find them he was explaining if we were a real audience he would be doing another trick. Its always nice to see when you get someone who is thinking and not just going through the motions of their lecture. 

The second half was mainly about the topit and how to work with it and reset between tables. This was fantastic and very magical.  In the days after, talking to a few who had attended, all conversation was about the topit. It reminded me of a story from Paul Daniel’s when doing his chop cup around different locations in the early days and Ken Brooke would always know where he had been. When Paul asked him one day how he knew Ken told him that’s where the orders for the chop cup would come from. I can see an order for some topits going some dealers way after seeing David perform. David also discussed approaching tables and how to get everyone at the table involved. He finished with his coinvexed routine and a very nice fork bending routine for reception walk around work. Over all it was a fantastic lecture lots to think about for all of us tempted to say IT WILL DO and learn an effect this week and are out doing it the next. Remember we “CHANGE THEIR MINDS FOREVER” so we have a huge responsibility to deliver the best the audience deserves it our art deserves it and your fellow magicians deserve it. For those of us who were there we will all remember the rose trick, an amazing mind reading effect, one I am sure everyone will do at some stage in the future... but lets leave that one for ourselves. 

“The world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed” (Sean O’Casey)

Keith Barry brought his Asylum show to the Olympia for an almost sold out run of 5 nights earlier this month and IrishMagicNews were invited along to report on proceedings for you. 

The first show of Keith's five night stand in Dublin fell on probably the coldest and most closed-roaded night in living memory in the capital.  Despite this a crowd of almost 900 people, including Danny from The Script and girlfriend Irma, turned out to witness a show that they lapped up from beginning to end.

Based loosely on the crazy and mad goings on in Asylums, with many of the routines referencing actual events that have been recorded in such institutions, Keith weaves his way through predicitons, premonitions, memory and savant demonstraions.  Of particular interest to magicians will be a very nice & original presentation for MM's Kurotsuke which allowed plenty of scope for comedy and a nice touch on a gumball prediction popuralised by another well known American mentalist.

In the second half of the show Keith induces manifsations in audience members to illustrate the typical disorders that patients in asylums suffer from.  It is in essense a stage hypnosis bit.  The is the first tour Keith has performed a full stage hypnosis segment in.  While he certainly knows what he is doing a little more experience will add tons of business to this segment. 

Keith has huge rapport with the audience, is very likeable and personable on stage and since the last time your editor saw Keith live, on his very first tour, has come to feel very comfotable on a big stage. 

Keith has had a few nay-sayers in the magic business over the years.  What you can't knock is that the guy is doing the business, putting bums on seats in tough economic times and is now a big star to who it matters, the paying punter.  Keith is a man who is not afraid to work hard either.  Early morning radio shows, paper interviews, TV spots, turning up to this and that, are all part of the job description.  Most people don't realise the sacrifices one makes.  Therefore any rewards are well justified. 

Keith did hint he will return in the summer for some more shows so if you missed it this time round you don't have too long to wait for round two.  For all tour information see www.keithbarry.com

IBM convetnion Update. Steve Dela, who is headlining the IBM Ring 85 Irish Magic  Convention, was the subject of a three page article in the January 2010 issue of Magicsen magazine.  He lectures tonight (Monday 18th January) at The Magic Circle and currently presents his own monthly show with guest artistes in London and Brighton. 

With just over 100 days to the Convention organisers had hoped to have online registration details available for you today. Unfortunately that is not possible but do keep an eye on the convention page on the USM website http://www.online-usm.com/Convention.htmlwhere the forms will appear soon.

In the mean time you can register by post. Just click on the embedded pdf below, print it out and send it off.  A jam packed weekend of magic in a wonderful location awaits. Full registrsation is great value (see below for the various rates) and full details on the entire convention are on our Convention 2010 page.

Full Registration £85
Saturday (excluding Banquet) £30
Saturday (including Banquet) £65
Banquet only £35
Sunday (excluding Gala) £30
Sunday (including Gala) £40
Gala Show only £10

Anyone who buys a Full Registration for the convention by Monday 1^st March 2010 will be entered into a prize draw to win back the cost of their registration.

Sad news filtered through since our last issue.  Joan Raffles, wife of Mark, sadly passed away on St. Stephens' Day at the age of 84.  Irish magic was repersented at the funeral service in Blackpool by Quentin Reynolds & Pat Fallon.  Joan was friends with many Irish magicians and was no stranger to Ireland having performed a run of shows here with Mark earlier in their career.

You can view footage of the act on Youtube below.

Read installment 5 of the wonderful world of Vandonini by Neville Wiltshire here.  The story of Vandonini is © of Neville and may not be reproduced in any form without his prior consent. You can contact Neville through his e-mail here 

Another issue under our belts.  Hope you are all enjoying all the latest news.  Remember this site is possible because of the donations we recieve.  If you have been considering throwing some money in our tip jar please do so.  Or alternatively drop us a mail or send us a twitter or facebook and let us kno what you think.  See some of you at the Mystic's dinner on Thursday 21st and thanks to Quentin for spotting some awful spelling mistakes,  Brendan.

While doing some last minute Christmas shopping on the 21st December your editor bumped into Owen Lean back busking on Grafton Street.  Owen told us that he was back in Dublin for a Trinity College event celebrating the intriguing careers graduates of their Drama faculty have gone on to persue.

Owen was slightly dissapointed as his audience weren't in the most generous of moods. His passing of the hat was only generating around a quater of what it would normally.  Owen went on to tell IrishMagicNews that "anything from €60 ish and upwards would be a decent hat." 

Perhaps the lack of generosity was down to the cold weather or saving for Christmas persents or perhaps what Owen really needed was to be in the company of Glen Hansard & Mundy who were busing later that day for The Simon Communities Longest Day.  In 45 minutes they earned close to €1000 for the homless.

Two days later Mssrs. Hansard & Mundy were joined by other musicans including Bono for more fundraising activities.  A video of this ad hoc event can be seen below.

Read installment 4 of the wonderful world of Vandonini by Neville Wiltshire here.  The story of Vandonini is © of Neville and may not be reproduced in any form without his prior consent. You can contact Neville through his e-mail here 

Slow news issue this time round given the time of the year.  Happy New Year to one and all and see some of you at the David Penn Lecture in Dublin - Brendan