The Essential Magic Conference, the first digital magic conference, was held from July 15 to the 17 2010. When I first saw this advertised I knew I had to be apart of this event and I signed up right away. I was not wrong this was a wonderful event. Over those 3 days I had almost no sleep. The live event was held from 12am Japan time until about 7:30am because of the time zone. The event was organized by Luis de Matos, Marco Tempest and David Britland. They did a brilliant job bringing a big and new project like this to life. It had 33 speakers and they all where at the Studio in Portugal, and the participants watched live from the Internet. Participants also get 1 year access to the website which will have all the sessions as on demand viewing after the event and as well receive the event on DVD. The cost for this event was about 75$US which was well worth it. Below the break I will talk about what I enjoyed about the conference.
This weekend I will probably get almost no sleep! Lucky it is a long weekend here in Japan. Why is this? well, with the Essential Magic Conference and Shikoku Magic Friends activities in Takamatsu I will be doing magic all day and all night. Most of the Essential Magic Conference live broadcasts start after 12:00AM Japan time so that means no sleep. Then driving to Takamatsu on Saturday coming home at around 12:00AM then online for the conference. Going to be a great time and hopefully it will motivate me even more. Today is just a short blog so below enjoy a video of Lance Burton from the Essential Magic Conference site.
Aaron
As I mentioned before I have already signed up for the Essential Magic Conference that is being held on-line this July. I am so interested in this not only for the magic but how they are integrating magic with technology, the internet, and Social Networking. They have a lot of great videos already posted that are open for public viewing. So far they are excellent and shows what will come this July. Below is their most recent video of Apollo Robbins. Check this one out then head the their site and check out the other ones.
Aaron
So far this year I have plans to attend only one magic convention and that is the Shikoku Magic Convention which will be held in Takamatsu on May 8th and 9th, 2010. Last year it was a great convention. Some of the performers this year are Bravo Nakatani and Hikari. Looking forward to this convention.
There is also another convention I would like to attend and that is the which will be held on the Internet in July. This is the Essential Magic Conference. This is a cool concept and I hope that I can attend it should be easy because I can attend at home. I like it because living in Japan it’s hard to visit any other conventions outside of Japan. This convention can give me the opportunity to attend from the comfort of my MackBookPro. Also Dodd Vickers from the Magic Newswire did a This Week In Magic episode on this convention which can be found here.
As I mentioned I have only plan to attend the one convention and will probably attend the online convention but I sure hope that I can go to at least one more during the summer. During the Shikoku Magic Convention I hope to send updates by Audioboo, and some video via YouTube from the convention as well as blogging from it.
The picture to the left here is from when I went to the Vancouver Magic Weekend in 2005. It is one of the pictures I rescued from my old drive last week. As you can see in the picture I was having fun. I forget what event this was I was performing for I don’t think it was the stage show. This picture reminded me how fun magic can be to perform. And this is very important that we do have fun when we perform magic. Most all of us start magic because it is fun, but when you start to do it full time you can forget the fun parts, while working on the business and other aspects of making a living in magic. If you are new to magic have FUN doing it. When we as performers enjoy doing the magic OUR audiences are sure to enjoy the magic as well. Let your personality shine through when you perform. Have fun with the magic effects and have fun with the people whom your performing for. Enjoy your magic! It it something I try not to forget, but I really enjoy performing for both small and large audiences.
I have an interesting war story about being at this Vancouver weekend of Magic in 2000. I was asked a few months before it to perform in the close-up show. So I worked on my close-up routine for the weekend. However when I arrived to the mini convention from Victoria I found out I was now scheduled to perform at the stage show. However, I didn’t bring any of my stage stuff. But thanks to my friends Shawn Farquhar and Graeme Kingston I was able to perform. Shawn let me use his Jumbo Sidekick and Lori agreed to be my assistant and Graeme lent me his straight jacket. The straight jacket is a regular part of my act, however I have never used a Jumbo Sidekick before. So on that day Shawn walked me through how to perform Jumbo Side kick and I worked on a routine for it. Now I don’t condone performing an effect on the day you learn it but this day I did. The only reason I could kind of pull it off is from my performing experience and the help of my friends. The show went fine with no problems and I was so nervous when I performed Jumbo Sidekick. But thanks to good magic friends I was able to pull off an fun performance. I’ll never forget them for their great help that day. So one good thing make lots of good friends with your fellow magicians because you never know when you will need their help or they will need yours.
PS If anyone has a video of my performance that that Weekend Of Magic Please let me know!
That is enough of my rambling for today but if you have any comments please post them!
Aaron
The Shikoku Magic Convention held on May 9 and 10th 2009 in Takamatsu Kagawa Prefecture was great! I have not be able to attend a Magic Convention for almost 3 years. I enjoyed my time to see old friends and meet some new ones. It is always great to connect with people of the same interests. I must apologize for the bad photos as forgot to bring my regular digital camera so I had to use my iPhone. Anyways after the break I will explain about the 2 day convention!
THIS WEEK IN MAGIC :: LARRY CLARK http://bit.ly/c3aPwn from @thewizard 9 hours ago
It's Friday here time to reflect on what I did during the week. ???????????????????? 20 hours ago
RT @LeeAsherMagic: The magic #EMConference was worth every penny....& receiving a 30 day trial membership to #AskAlexander makes it even ... 20 hours ago
Thanks to @wkalush and the @EMConference for the fee 30 day membership to CARC. Love it! http://bit.ly/apLi7X2010/07/29
