They sure do it right in Texas! The TAOM magic convention was a blast…..
The great Tex-Mex singer Doug Sahm wrote a song ‘At the Crossroads’ where he stated , “To live in Texas, you gotta have a lot of soul….” Well, he sure got that one right! The TAOM Convention had soul and was a bunch of fun. I flew in from Istanbul and spent 36 hours at the convention and head a blast! Of course I only got about 5 hours sleep–but it didn’t seem to matter.
During my short/sweet visit, I appeared on the Gala show with David Kapner, Ivan Pecel, John Archer, Nathan Kepner and The incomparable Gaetan Bloom. It was a great show and beautifully MC’d by David Hira. Watching the genius blend of pantomime and cool magic presented by Gaetan was priceless and the comedy magic and ukulele (yes, ukulele!) playing of John Archer was a new and very pleasant surprise to me. I had never seen him perform before and he made me laugh a lot. However, it would be unfair to say that the show had any low points at all–it was superbly planned, executed and presented in a very classy theatre. Talent co-ordinator Alex Gutierrez must be commended for a first-rate job in putting the show together.
Keeping things together on the tech side backstage were my fellow cohorts from ‘Magic New
Zealand’ Kyle and Kelly Peron. There attention to detail was extremely reassuring to all of us. We three had never met before in person and it was very nice to get together. My performance of the multiplying bottles was made possible by the kind loan of a table by Doug Gorman. I used a very historic set of bottles that belonged to Ken Brooke and were given to me by Ken when he retired. I hadn’t used them in decades and it reminded me of how well made Ken’s props used to be.
After the show there was the usual fun of catching up with friends old and new in the bar at the Hilton Hotel nestled on the bank of San Antonio’s unique Riverwalk. I caught up with friends old and new, got to say, “Hi” in person for the first time to Wayne Dodson, Bev Bergeron and Quentin Reynolds and reacquaint myself with Tim Glander who was one of the very first magicians I met in the US back in 1974. It was a huge pleasure to spend some time with Gaetan Bloom whose acquaintance I have made all to briefly over the years!
My lecture on the Monday morning was extremely well received and I was delighted to have so many flattering comments on not only the tricks I taught but my philosophy behind the presentation of commercial magic. I am looking forward to my other upcoming conventions that my quasi-retirement is allowing me to introduce to my schedule. To make the occasion even more special Susan and I even got to make the occasional foray onto the Riverwalk and enjoy this very special attraction. I had a blast and want to thank everyone involved for allowing me to take part in this highly enjoyable experience. Oh, I even got to visit the Alamo–but never made it into the basement–there is one for the Pee Wee Herman fans!
REMARKABLE MAGIC 