Report on lectures and members business
THE DAN GARRETT LECTURE 22/10/09
On Thurs.22nd Oct some members of the Bath Circle met up at the Globe Pub. Our honoured guest was Dan Garrett. A convivial meal was enjoyed by everyone. And so on to the lecture.
It is about thirteen years since I saw Dan perform for us at Bath. He hasn’t changed much, maybe a few more pounds in weight! He is still a warm person, weaving wonderful magic. One of the Bristol members turned to me after his lecture and said, ‘All of his magic I could use.’ Praise indeed!
These are some of the high lights of Dan’s useable magic. He opened by showing us a short sponge routine using a shimada gimmick. This was followed by an effect using one of his signature props, the sponge tooth. This was vanished, via a thumb tip, and a coin took its place. The tooth fairy had been at work again.
Dan presented his Linking Safety Pin Routine which I liked. Consequently I bought the DVD and pins. It has gone straight into my ‘table’ repertoire.
Card men were not forgotten. There was a card routine that happened twice. A kind of torn and restored routine using a fiendishly clever gimmick of Gaeton Bloom to tear the corner of a card the same way each time.
Dan’s lecture would not be complete without the appearance of Judy the Mouse. I just love his mouse moves. They go straight into my mouse routine.
The enthusiastic applause at the end of Dan’s Lecture said it all. A lecture enjoyed by everyone.
By Dominic
Steve Beam lecture 7th May 09
Thursday 7th May saw Steve Beam come to the Bath Circle as part of his 2009 UK lecture tour. This wasn't the first time Steve had been to Bath, but it was the first time I had a chance to see him so I didn't really know what to expect, as it turned out, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Steve is of course famous for his self working or 'semi-automatic' card tricks on which he has written 7 books with an 8th to come. Steve's tricks though are a far cry from the 'add up the values of these cards and deal as many in a pile' tricks that so easily bore even the most hardened magic enthusiast, they are genuinely baffling mysteries.
Steve opened the lecture with a gag effect that turned out to be the only non-card item in the lecture. Despite the remainder of the evening being focused on cards, there was definitely something for everyone, with Steve covering just about everything from storytelling to mentalism, and completely self-working tricks to more complicated sleight of hand tricks.
Even those not interested in card magic were able to learn something from the way Steve presented his magic. The patter he gave was both engaging and entertaining, and everything was well motivated.
A fine example was a trick that Steve actually sells separately called 'The Gift'. He tells an amusing story about his daughter making him a marked pack of cards by simply writing card names that didn't match the faces all over the back of a deck. Two cards are then selected in a very fair manner and though they don't match, the name of each card is written on the back of the other. To finish Steve rubbed the markings completely off the whole deck, magically restoring it to normal.
All in all it was a great evening with something for everyone, and thanks must go to Tony for both organising the lecture and for looking after Steve while he was in Bath.
By Tom Begley
John B Born "A modern magician"
Thursday 23rd October 2008
My knowledge off other magicians around the world has grown last night, after meeting John B Born in his lecture "A Modern Magician".
John from Kansas came in to magic at a young age inspired by his Grandfather; he now lives in New York making a living from performing magic.
As part of a two month lecture tour taking in Europe and a large part of England, John visited Bath. After setting up John did some fantastic contact juggling while waiting for the evening to begin.
Dominic opened the well attended evening and introduced John who started by putting on his lap a ridged close up tray to perform an amazing coin routine where empting a small purse of four coins showed his skill in manipulation as the coins moved around the improvised table in a magical way, John then went on to explain not only the mechanics, but also the thinking behind the performance.
John went on to share so much during his entertaining lecture, he came across as a professional and charismatic performing the most amazing magic from coins to cards, giving everyone something to go away with, finishing on a beautiful performance, dedicated to his Grandfather, using ninja rings.
Paul Mcleavy closed the evening by giving John a well deserved vote of thanks.
I would also like to thank Simon Lane for looking after John on his visit to Bath.
Dave 24/10/08
New shop in Bath!
Walking in Bath the other day and I came upon a new shop selling games, puzzles, juggling and magic. Normally a shop in Bath selling magic I think cheap "Mervin Magic" type tricks but he has got some more professional props as well plus a good range of Juggling equipment and some magic dvds and books.
His website is http://www.hoylesonline.com/p363.htm. I'll post location soon.
I have put his web site address on the link page as well.
Dave Alexander
18/08/08
Sorry to say the shop is no more 6/11/09
A Good Talk About Tricks
Joshua Jay Bewilders
On Friday 11th April, Joshua Jay presented a lecture for the
Josh opened the lecture by performing a selection of card effects from his close-up set. These were of the Triumph and Oil & Water variety, each highly polished and well-routined to build to a surprising finale. Josh performed this set 'in the round'; surrounded on all sides by a standing audience.
Whereas lesser performers might have been intimidated by this prospect, Josh's apparent ease and enthusiasm in performing this kind of material transformed our resilient band of cynics into something just short of the L&L invited audience. This performance served as both a good introduction and an example to aspiring close-up workers.
The lecture that followed tipped an array of strong and versatile close-up material: all well-within the reach of the intermediate performer. My favourite item was Josh's handling of Troy Hooser's Chinese coin effect. Each phase was direct, magical and presentationally more impressive than the last. Whilst all of the effects were essentially close-up, the size of the audience didn't seem to reduce any of their impact.
I was impressed by Josh's ability to stick to a well-structured script whilst maintaining an air of informality. Explanations were broken up by the occasional ad-lib and the odd difficult question was smoothly answered and, more importantly, easy to ask in the first place.
The focus of the lecture was pure methodology. In addition to performing and explaining each of his effects, Josh outlined the creative process behind their development. Throughout the lecture, it was clear that Josh had put a lot of time and thought into both developing and explaining his material. At such a sickeningly young age, Joshua Jay's reputation as a world-class teacher of world-class magic is certainly well-deserved if his performance for our little gathering is anything to go by…
Oli Foster April 2008
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Presednt: Dominic Mansi
01761 235136
Secratery: Oli Foster
01179 340061 / 07817 726785
Tresure: Paul Macleavy
01275 463355 paulmacleavy@hotmail.com
Committee member: Simon Lane
01225 313551 / 07941848042
Committee member: John Isaacs