The Session 2022. Day 3 Review (Ramble)

Hi, welcome to Real Magic Review. My name is Steve Faulkner and this is day three of the session 2022. Before I do this ramble review and stream of consciousness about the session 2022, let me tell you about my membership site. It's onlinemagic.co over 600 videos from complete beginner to advanced with all manner of magic and adding to it every single month, at least four hours a month. I'm adding to the course and I've just uploaded or just about to upload the new chapter of my Royal Road to Car Magic course, which is every single thing from that book, which is just one of the courses you get in that lovely, lovely package. Right, let's get on with it and like and subscribe if you want. Um, so this is that you'll notice I'm, I'm so hot. I've driven back from Heathrow today, which is about four hours to my house. So I'll do this quickly because this is a bit of a ramble. Nobody's probably interested, but I've got, I can't not mention the fact that I'm just looking hideous and feeling very, very tired because I've just driven back four hours from Heathrow. I've got the smallest and hottest office in the world, which I may have mentioned before. And, uh, after this, I very much need to leave this room. So I'll do my best not to think of the door and running out of it because it is quite, quite remarkable. So, uh, the day three, well, let me just first say by saying, thanks very much to all of you. These are very long rambly videos and I've had some lovely, lovely feedback. I really appreciate it because I know they're kind of real, you know, they're not very relaxed. They're just whistle stop tours. So do remember, remember that you can ask any questions. I do know that, uh, you've got comments on these two videos. I'm not ignoring them. I will get to them and we'll, I'll talk about them in the next live session on Thursday as well, which is five o'clock, uh, comments on comments come to that five UK on the channel. But so I just want to say thank you very much. Um, so the session started with me belting down from my room very quickly after editing the, um, uh, the second day. I'm getting confused already. Cause I really want to see Christian grace and Andy frost doing a lecture. Um, slightly obsessed being Andy frost. That's right. Isn't it? Probably if not, sorry. I think it is. Um, and Christian, they were doing half an hour each. So do an hour between them, which you probably would have worked out clarified that for you, but I hope it helps Christian. I was kind of, you know, as many of you know, big fan of level one. And I liked it. Inevitable choice. Um, I really liked switch one and he was doing, I thought he was going to do a lot of that sort of stuff and his new trick, which is called miracle one, which he did do at the end, but I thought it was all going to be about that. And it wasn't, he did a trick from his membership site, which was a nice sandwich trick. And he did a trick based on Kenton Nepper's colossal killer, which was called the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I've just, uh, I've got no working memory whatsoever. So bear with me. It was called colossal killed. And it was basically a kind of a quiver. K or equivoke, um, process. Uh, very fair sounding one that went to a name card in the pocket and lots of psychology behind that. And then he performed, uh, his miracle one trick, uh, but didn't, if I remember rightly explain it, but there we go. And that's good. And that's the kind of card at a number. And it seemed very fair for me. I didn't know it was done and very good. Uh, I will say enjoyed it. I struggle. I can't review card magic, pure card magic lectures very well, because I can't really talk about the tricks and the tricks that I learned because I don't think I've ever learned a trick from a lecture other than watching it on the screen and pressing pause and going through with the cards in my hand. I just don't have the brain to learn card magic in a live situation. If someone talking me through it, even a lot of the time when I've got the cards in my hand, I really have to go off and it's, it's the way my head works. So I can't, I did kind of with the explanations struggle to kind of comprehend them. The tricks themselves I thought were good. If I'm being totally honest, I liked a miracle one, but the others were good tricks. Maybe I'm getting jaded, but I wasn't really blown away by any of them, but Christian's energy was good. It was an enjoyable lecture. Um, and it was great, but, but I just want to see level one again and again and again, learn loads more about that all the time, but that was years ago, wasn't it? So that's just me. Uh, and Andy Frost did some, he's, he's got this book on the double lift, which had on them on him, which he bought to the session and sold out. I believe I'm looking forward to reviewing that because I love deep diving into one move and you've got a beautiful double lift and he did a load of routines, but he did a one phase ambitious card routine, which is really interesting, you know, just doing one phase of it, but building that up and making that a magical moment. Then he did, uh, a sandwich trick based on an L L Nelson routine, which was really lovely. And with two people standing apart from each other, it's like a card across ends up in the sandwich. And he said this lovely thing about, you know, oddly enough, when you perform the further, even though the magic's already happened, you know, behind the scenes, the further the people are away, the better the reaction, which I thought was really nice. And, you know, both of Christian and Andy were really nice to watch. I did enjoy the lectures. Did I learn loads of card magic? No, because it can't, but I'm sure many of you did, but I would love to, for your comments below and for you to tell me what you thought, but just, just solid stuff next was Tina Leonard's talk, which I, I just thought was utterly stunning and I was so inspired. It was more inspired than I felt in a very, very long time. And not because I've seen a load of really good magic tricks because I'd listened to someone's story, which is really the stuff that gets me. Tina's talk was like someone coming out and just having a conversation with you, which is exactly as it should be. It was just so flowing and nice and, and, and just her. And that's important because that's kind of what the talk was about. She spoke about originality and quoted, um, this, this really famous quote by Benjamin Franklin, I think. Oh my gosh. I'm going to be terrible and get that wrong. But anyway, um, originality is concealing your sources and that's what she was saying. It's originality, not being that idea of doing something that's never been done before, but actually doing something that's, that's you, that comes from you and what's your originality and your voice and your way of being and doing. And it really stuck with me because it's something I've been thinking about a lot at the age of 48 and being really honest to myself about how many times have I made concessions? Have I not done that? Have I not listened to what I really want to do and done the thing that will get the gig or, or make my career kind of work or the tricks that will work in a commercial situation, not stuck to what I've been doing. And this year I've been doing a little bit more of that, so I'm not stuck to what I've really wanted to do. And this year I've done a little bit more of that. And it is absolutely terrifying to kind of take, take a step out of that comfort of the known and go into what is unknown and, and working on material that comes not from the book or the other person, but you know, that's where the bits and pieces may come from. But what, what do you put into it? How do you perform it? And I'm, I'm telling you this because I think it's so important and I know a lot of people say be original, but what does that actually mean? And she talks about, okay, so we're going to, we're going to use sources. So we've got the physical sources. We've got the, the sources of the stuff we want to do, which we can adapt to make our own, but also the emotional sources, the, the, the, the other bit, the bit that kind of, the bits that kind of move us. And there, a lot of the time we'll be outside of magic. So that's the kind of art of it. And, and then again, for me, it was wonderful talking about being an introvert and that being your source. So, okay, so how do you perform as an introvert? And people say, no, yeah, of course not an introvert, you're a performer and something that I can relate to so much. Then going into her story about being a street performer, which we, which of course on a selfish level, I could really relate to because that was kind of my journey as well and finding your voice, doing that and then adapting that into, into an act, which was truly something that came from, from sourcing, you know, she talked about watching Rocky and this wonderful scene between Rocky and Adrian in the first Rocky movie, when they first get together and she played that. And then you, you saw the sort of Mr. Mottman, the similarities. And it was like, I think it is in ET, isn't there, where there's a scene where that keeps cutting from an old film into Elliot and, and somebody else out on a balcony and it keeps kind of showing you the mirror image of that happening. And it was kind of like that. And I had real goosebumps and, and it reminded me of how so, so seldom have I done that thing of going, let's really delve deep into what I want to communicate. And, and it left me that talk feeling slightly saddened, which is a good thing of going, right, how many, much time have I wasted, you know, doing the thing I should do rather than the thing I really want to do. And I just, it was, that's what a talk like that should leave you with. And it was, and everybody felt the same. And I was just, everybody's just gone. This is, that was just beautiful. And that was amazing. Or most people, I should say, I can't speak for everybody, but anyway, well, gushing, rambling that morning. Sorry about that. But, um, yeah, get, get to see that if you get a chance. And I didn't pick up the lecture notes because they were only taking cash. And I didn't have cash. So again, the lecture notes I'm really looking forward to getting somehow I shall get them. Then there was Mike Caveney's talk on soaring in half illusion. Um, the soaring in half illusion. I'm thinking about his book, which has soaring written all over it, which is about the story. Uh, and it is a great story. The story of, I'm not going to do it justice. I'm not going to go into that cause that's his job. Uh, because I'm rubbish at the history of magic. I'm going to be totally honest about it. I try my hardest. I read about it. I try and learn about it, but I just, it just isn't something I find it easy to connect to and get stimulated by. But if anybody's going to tell me and give me a history lesson, it's going to be Mike Caveney. And it was quite funny. He started it. All the kids on the front row, he started putting his hands together. We go, I'm right kids putting cards away. It's a history lesson. And that's what it was. And it was great. I preferred it when he went into sort of storytelling modes rather than the facts and the figures. Again, my brain doesn't really compute that stuff in that setting, but I so wanted to take his book away with me and read up because he just had some, there's some great stuff in it. He, uh, he had some lovely stories about when people used to do sewing half illusion and try and make it really realistic, just basically convince, convince the audience that the person was actually dead in the box, which I just think is brilliant. And there were people that would leave the theater thinking, you know, there would be no putting, it would be like, Oh, did she die? Is she dead? Was that murder? I just, so it was great. Really, really funny. Um, and like I said, if you want your magic history, any of Mike Caveney's books, Mike, Mike, see man, just brilliant. Couple of things I forgot to mention very importantly, um, on day two, when I went into the kid session and at the beginning of the day for the main session, Harry D'Cruz and Gaia Elisa Rossi. I do hope I've got that name right. Pronunciation apologies. If I haven't, uh, did a great job, uh, presenting and also presenting the kid session and introducing the kid session, which I think is very important, uh, to mention. And the other thing, because I was just talking about Mike Caveney, anything that made me realize was that after Mike's talk, Andy and Josh came on and presented them with the guest of honor award every year, they have a guest of honor award and very well deserves, deserved for Mike and Tina Leonard. And it was Mario Lopez. I, this was really my inspiration day. The first 45 minutes of Mario's lecture was, I was completely transfixed. He came on stage and it was very apt that I'd seen Tina's talk on being you, because he also spoke about this, but you can just see someone that's just in his own skin. He comes on in that kind of, you know, pair of shorts, pair of sandals doing incredible magic, lovely gags. You know, anybody does noises with their mouth sounds with their mouth. I'm fascinated by that. He does amazing guys. We didn't know he was making sounds. This thing about high fiving people and getting like an echo and then it being out of sync, um, was wonderful. And then little, not throw away tricks, but like the cups and balls without any cups, just with your hand with tomatoes coming from apparently nowhere and then turning into a block of ice. And I, I love all those little bits and pieces. You can, you can pepper routines with, and, and with that, he was again talking about, you know, you can do a magic trick. It's great. But I do this and he would do this beautiful, um, version of the almost like the Chinese charming challenge thing, you know, with the, with the ribbon and the coins and him taking that and, and making it look as magical as possible and giving himself restraint. So the hand's not going to move from here. That's the rule. So I've got the coins here. How can I make it look that they melt onto their very magical, very beautiful. But as he says, he doesn't really perform it much because he doesn't feel like he can communicate much to it. And I can see that it's still restrained. And when he, when he sort of cuts loose and he's doing all this stuff, he's just very, very funny as he was in the Gala show, which we'll talk about in a minute. But, but delightful stuff. I did feel like it was an hour and a half lecture. I thought an hour would have been great. Uh, the last half hour was sort of Q and A and it went into people asking questions about the tricks and things like that, which again were absolutely brilliant. Nothing wrong with that, but I was a little bit less, um, less interested by that point, but just to get a chance to see him, he's absolutely brilliant. And I'm just going to run through the Gala show just to tell you who was on really. I'm not going to say much about it, just a, just a quick thought. Um, Mike Cadeny hosting is such a professional, such a brilliant MC. I'd say one of the best MCs I've seen host a magic show. Uh, and people like David Williamson, of course, which I don't think I've seen MC, but I think I just imagined it. Um, but yeah, so, cause I haven't been to hundreds and hundreds of conventions, but anyway, I'm waffling cause I'm getting hot and starting to lose it. So the first act he bought on was Tina Leonard. And I've talked about the act. The act was brilliant. It's wonderful. I loved it. And it was a delight to watch it again. Um, I won't say much more about that, but if you get the chance to see it, watch that fleeting gone like that, that proper magical moment, it's like seeing real magic and not because of the magic tricks, lovely magic tricks in it, but it's, it creates something very, very different. And then Mike's set, uh, which was his toilet roll routine, which is gypsy thread for stage that followed by his, um, William tell, uh, which is so good. Someone out of the audience, um, with, he gets them to hold a deck of cards. This is a trick. And the idea is he's going to fire the arrow out of the bow, 26 cards in and land on one card, which is going to be their chosen card. There's no, there's not a word wasted in that, in any of these routines. And that's what I mean. He's got that lovely ability, which good MCs and good performers have got where it's so scripted, but it feels like it isn't. It just feels like a chat and, and improvising around that. You know, the, the woman that came up on stage was just brilliant. She said, yeah, I've been drinking wine and cocktails all afternoon. And just the way he worked with that, just not going too into it, not really hammering it, but just the odd line that just did way more than kind of trying to improvise for half an hour around the situation. Wonderful. And I forgot to mention, he did this centrifugal force routine. You know, I can't remember what it's called with a hoop where you've got the wooden hoop, which I've actually got my friend Mark Windsor sent me one little cup of coffee in it and you swing it around basically. But again, loads of jokes, loads of gags and incredibly funny. And always forget how exciting that routine is when that drink is getting chucked around. Fernando Figueiras, I think I've pronounced that right, was next. I found, and I think a lot of people, I think there was something lost in translation in the action. And when it came together, it was, it was a great idea, but it, it, I think people kind of lost what was happening in the routine. The routine was basically, um, he got three people out, which he knew. And then, and then he, he, he basically set up all this stuff that telling the audience how he was doing it. But then there was a real reveal and a real, um, uh, prediction in the end. It took too long to get there. And again, I think it all got a bit muddled and people are a bit confused because it didn't quite translate. And he is someone that really knows his stuff. If you look at his, um, his at the table lecture and all that stuff, he's, he's a very, very established Spanish mentalist. And it was a shame. I didn't really get to see him at his best. I don't think. Harry D Cruz did a load of party tricks from his Edinburgh show, I think. Um, and it was like someone showing you a load of party tricks. It was brilliant. I really, really enjoyed it. I really, you know, and just building up the difficulty of them. I think my favorite was it getting a kid out and, um, and a whole, a whole reel of, of, uh, measuring tape. Get him standing kind of on the weather, where the sound guys were or whether the visual audio stuff was. And again, the kid right on the stage and rolling, rolling an M&M or something down the whole thing into the kid's mouth. God, that took a long time to explain. It's too hard. I'm losing it. We'll get there in the end. Right. You still with us? Let's carry on. And Mario Lopez, uh, finished with again, you know, complete mastery of the space. His physicality was wonderful. And he finished with this salt pool that goes on for a long time. It was very funny. And there was a moment when, even though the whole idea of a salt pool is to go on for a long time. That it felt like it was maybe going on, but that's kind of the joke in it. But there was a moment where I kind of, okay, but then he bought it back by the salt coming out of his elbow, come out of his trousers, all this sort of stuff. And it just finished just really beautifully. And, uh, and it was a great show. It was a really good show. That was a rubbish review of it. Wasn't it? I don't mean a rubbish, terrible review, but I'm just not very good today. So, but you get the idea. Maybe I'll do it again on Thursday live. And you can ask me questions because I've probably covered pretty much nothing. Uh, highlights of the convention for me. There you go. Um, and Tobias, Tobias Dostal, those two were just so, and Luke's, yeah, there's some loads of great stuff. Luke's talk was brilliant as well. And of course, Marianne's, I did feel it. I came away, I've got home and I want to start working on stuff. And that's, I don't feel like that after all conventions. And I do feel like that now. I'm going to have a little sleep first and a glass of water and just compose myself because, uh, yeah, it's been, it's been a convention and that's how we feel after a convention. It's always a bit of a downer. And then we go, I wish I was back there again. Um, but I just want to thank all of you that were there that came and said, hello, uh, had a lovely evening last night. Me and Noel Court, we just sat down and chatted and had a laugh and it was great. And for those people that kind of, um, just come and introduce themselves and members of onlinemagic.co and, uh, and people that watch the channel as well. So I really, every, anybody that came and said, thanks very much. And those of you that have said thanks in the comments, I really appreciate it. Have a great one. Let's do this properly again one day, go and see onlinemagic.co if you want like and subscribe, take care. Bye bye.