Me Performing In Takamatsu
This weekend I have some magic things coming up. One is the monthly meeting of the Shikoku Magic Friends Club, which is always good. This month we will be working on some card magic from the Japanese Encyclopedia of Card magic, then some creative exercises to help our performances. Also This weekend I want to start making some videos that introduce magic related things here in Japan. I hope while I am in Takamatsu to record some video for this project of mine. I want to introduce some things that people outside of Japan may not get see. For example I will to introduce some magic bars, Japanese magicians, and magic events. Of course I will introduce these to the English speaking world. So let’s hope I can start these. I have been wanting to work on them for a while. There are also some other magic projects I will confer on with some of my magic buddies when I am in Takamatsu. I also need to send out my registration for the Shikoku Magic Convention in May. I want to make some videos while I am there as well if I can. Also in June there will be another magic bar competition at Bar Intiki Magician in June I believe, I will get more information about this on Saturday night and post the information on my site. Tomorrow I should have a magic related blog or magic AudioBoo posted, not sure which one will make it first!
Aaron
The Society of American Magicians
Today I want to blog about two of the biggest magic organizations I belong to, which are The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M) and The International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.) I first joined the S.A.M. 22 years ago around 1988 as a Society of Young Magicians (S.Y.M) member then when I was 16 changed to an adult member. In Victoria where I grew up at that time Tony Eng, Jack Poulter, and Donald Dunphy helped to run the S.Y.M. They had meetings one a month which was a great place for young magicians to learn and grow. This club still exists today and is run by The Victoria Magician Circle however now I believe the club is linked to the I.B.M junior members club. In Victoria when I was involved in this club there were very few S.A.M members in Victoria and no assembly but I have kept my membership active all these years. When I was 16 I joined the Victoria Magic Circle which is an I.B.M. Ring. So at that time in 1991 I joined the I.B.M. and I am also still a member to this day. So why I am writing about these two organizations? Well after to moving to Japan, I found there are only a few Magic Clubs here in Japan that are affiliated with these two organizations and none near where I live on Shikoku. There are probably two main reasons for this, one, it’s expensive and second the publications for both these organizations are in English which makes it hard for a non-English speaker to get use out of. Anyways I am still proud to be a part of both these organizations. What I like is now in the age of the Internet is that I can get their publications on-line. I have the hardcopy versions sent to my mother back in Canada because it’s to expensive to have them shipped here. This your I changed my S.A.M membership to just the online version. I would like to see some more social networking features on the websites of these clubs but I am sure that they will soon come. I have to say over the years as being members of both organizations has been beneficial for me and I would recommend them to to anyone looking for a way to show they are really interested in magic. I know politics has caused problems for people in both but that is kind of normal for any organization. Just remember what you are there for to share and learn magic and I will find that they can be very beneficial for you.
Aaron
Magic Friends Show
Yesterday March 21, 2010 in Takamatsu the Shikoku Magic Friends club held their annual public magic show. I was also very glad to be a part of this event. We had 10 performers with both a close-up magic show and a small stage show. We had a good turn out of spectators and the event went very well. I have a feeling this was the best attended one so far. One of the great things of this event was the variety of magic styles and performers in our small club. Each person has their own unique style and permanence personalities which I think kept the show moving and entertaining. No two acts were similar. It seems that in May we will start doing a public show each month. We still have to work out some things to make the show better mostly the technical details etc. I have some video of the show and I will get some more video from Shinnotsuke and over the next few weeks when I have time, try to make a small video with clips of each performer. Over all a great event and below I will share a few pictures from the event! You can also see more photos here.
Aaron
Doing "The Duplex Mind"
Last month at the Shikoku Magic Friends Magic Club we decided to give everyone “homework” from the book The Encyclopedia of Card Magic which is different from the magic book of the same name in English. One of the members choose randomly pages from the book and assigned each of us an effect . Then last night we all performed then taught the effects we studied from the book. It was a great success and really showed how many great effects are contained in books that many of us overlook. So we decided to do it again for next month. The effect that I leaned and performed is something that I will keep doing and will add to my close-up show. It is a great effect half magic half mentalism. Next month as well we will have our annual public magic show. I am looking forward to next month!
Aaron
Terushita Is the Terminator
Last Saturday (Jan. 16, 2010) I had to goto Takamatsu and it gave me a chance to get involved in the Shikoku Magic Friends Magic Club again. Back in Canada I was involved and enjoyed going to the Victoria Magic Circle since I was 16 years old. Before that I was in the SYM group in Victoria. It was great to be and involved in a magic club. We planned out activies and goals that we want to achieve over this year. One of our main goals is to help motivate and mentor some of the younger members. As well as work on increasing our creative and performance skills. In March we will hold our public show and that should be fun. After the meeting we headed out to my friend Terushita’s magic bar Intiki Magician. When we arrived Terushita showed us his true identity as the Terminator. We relaxed there for a while and then Shinnosuke and I headed back to Ehime where we live. During our drive back Shinnosuke talked about some magic projects we will work on during this year and arrived home. It is always great to connected and work with other magicians. I am looking forward to the next meeting in February where I am conducting the main part of the meeting. Should be great! Once Shinnotsuke and I work out details for one of our projects I will be posting about it on here . More details to come!
Aaron
