A magician's diary

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Nine hundred and ninety eight, nine hundred and ninety nine, one thousand...coming ready or not.

So in the last few weeks I have performed in the Gilbert Rooms at Somerset House, a boat trip along thr Thames in a paddle steamer, a wedding in Berkshire and a private party in Bromley, Kent.

Last night I was at 88 James Street, SW1 which is a great venue. I hadn't been there before but it's dead nice. On the celeb radar Gary Lineker was there last night.

When I finished I dashed off to the pub to meet the magicians who had gone to the magic club. Pubs didn't close till 12 which is always well received. The last train home is traditionally full of code red nutters but there was soem nice folk on there last night. A lady asked me if I was a DJ because I had the ubiquitous metal assasins case that all magicians carry. Anyhoo, I got talking to her and she said she was a big magic fan and in particulalr a magician called Max Somerset. Oddly, about 20 minutes before Max had given me a lift to the station so I did the full on Tarby thing of calling Max and getting him to say hello to her.

A couple of weeks ago I won the London Society of Magicians Stage Magician of the Year. I'll get a photo up on the news page in a few weeks.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Sorry for the massive delay in this post so I am sorry to all those who hang on my every word. Been a weird couple of months, I had to go into hospital for some tests which was miserable so I went dwell on it.

A couple of weeks ago I filmed the second part of my new showreel. It had been snowballing for weeks with additional ideas and bits being added and was quickly turning into the Waterworld of magic videos. I don't want to give away too much as it'll ruin it for the world premiere...but here is a few snippets. Me, the second director and a cast member were picked up at 11 am and brought to a secret venue in Kent and we attempted to set up unfortunately it was teaming with rain which hampered our progress.

The second unit and camera crew arrived about 1pm to see us taking shelter in the van. Without giving too much away we needed dry weather to film so rain was a killer. Several yorkie bars later we were still sitting in the van as my emotional strength was tested. So much effort had been put into making this happen by many people. Inside the secret venue we also had 8 extras taking shelter all in costume. Time was running out and the light was fading so we decided to take a chance.

We drove a few hundred yards to the *$@# we were going to be doing it in and quickly erected the set. Rain kept pouting down but we braved the icy conditions. Everything was against us so we made many compromises in the hope of pulling it off. We managed 3 takes of which I was reasonably happy with how it went considering all that was against us. We then decamped to the pub to dry off and warm by the roaring fire which was definitely the highlight of the day. After an hour or so we set off back.

Then the phone call came...the totally devastating news that the footage had corrupted, completely screwed. It was nobdoy's fault as these things happen, water got into the camera and the tapes were ruined. At first I was so gutted I couldn't imagine going through all this effort again but after a few hours thinking about it I decided it was worth it. After speaking to the camera folks they convinced me even further because the compromises would only have weakened what will "hopefully" be a treat..

Thanks very much to all who made it work "almost" www.simoncoronel.com, www.lukejermay.com, www.monstercreations.co.uk, van driver bloke, ade and Rob's mate (sorry forgot your name),Linda and her gang, the people who kindly let us use the venue and Ailis. Sorry if I have missed you out.

Anyway now I have got that off my chest I can announce that the shoot will take place again about a month. More news on that nearer the time.

Last weekend I went to the Blackpool magic convention and drank a lot, watched some great magic and some terrible magic hanging out with friends and sharing tricks/ideas back and forth till the early hours. I got 7 hours sleep in 3 days which is never good.

Tune in next week to find out who shot dirty den.

P.s Dave I am dedicating this post to you.

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