Yea, I'm late posting this, EMT class has been a bear. What can you do?

This last weekend I was at Weekend of Wonder, a festival for magicians. A local magician in Hot Springs, Maxwell Blade and another magician from Australia had this idea and co-produced something that hasn't been done before. Up until now, modern magic the people had to come to, giant venues in the largest cities, massive auditoriums where only the largest of stage illusions could actually be seen. This Weekend of Wonder was different, with some of the top world class magicians coming to a relatively small town in the midwest of Hot Springs AR, they performed in a small intimate theater where we could see the close up magic and the true skills of sleight of hand. Blade had said he didn't know how it was going to go, he wasn't sure if it would be big enough to do again when he was looking at the pre-sales. Then the weekend came.

I arrived late Friday to catch the All-Stars Gala. This was the big performance that had all the magicians up on the stage: Jeff McBride, a Vegas magician who holds multiple Guinness World Records for his sleight of hand work; Dirk Losander, a German magician who's performance has labeled him the Master of Levitation; Michael Ammar, a close up magic extraordinaire who has won every award one can have in magic; Jay Scott Berry, Australian magician and co-producer for the weekend and had performed the single most beautiful trick I've seen during this show; and Maxwell Blade, in his own theater performed an amazing show and one of my favorite performances with no words said, just moving to the music as one trick after another was shown. At the end of the show all of them came out on stage where pictures were taken, a first time for these magicians to be together in one place for such. After it I had a card which McBride threw into the audience which I took to have all the magicians sign.

During the weekend was an incredible series of shows that followed. Between the big shows with the big names other performers did shows in the street and in restaurants. We caught two in a busy bar doing acts, one running side show magic, the other showing off reptiles and doing small tricks. Nothing quite gets the attention of a bar full of drunks than pulling a rattlesnake out of a box and that only being the third smallest box. Other street performances included one of the magicians who helps Maxwell Blade, a magician from Lithuania, even Jay Scott Berry entertaining a whole pancake house.

And the shows, after the gala on Friday, Saturday the guest magicians each had a solo show to perform. Jeff McBride had everyone rolling with laughter, Michael Ammar had magicians jaws on the floor and scratching their heads on how he did something, and Dirk Losander had the wizard feel down. And after their shows, each of them also had a lecture, which I attended McBrides. The first thing McBride did was show a finale he uses for his card act where I was the one called up to be the one to demonstrate how! While he showed a few tricks and how to do them he also talked heavily about the theory of performance. That night the magicians performed another Gala, and I had a rare opportunity to see McBride before with his solo show and after with the Gala with the lecture in between to see the act and how he put all the elements together.

Sunday was when I caught most of the strolling magicians. As I am out of practice I didn't go to the workshops that the magicians were putting on which were heavy hands on teaching sessions, but my dad did so I was able to get some of the information passed on. But because I was out of those I was able to see many of the local magicians, and catch Jay Scott Berry's solo performance, as well as the Rising Stars of Magic which is the younger magicians showing the up and coming talent. That night the final show was Maxwell Blade, and as it was the end of the festival the other magicians were able to watch. Where I was seated off in the aisle, before the show I got to meet the magician from Lithuania and talk to him and during the show, next to him was Berry, McBride, and Losander.

This was an incredible weekend and an amazing opportunity. I first saw Jeff McBride when I was 9 years old on World's Greatest Magic II, and 18 years later I finally was able to see him live and in my home state even! Each of the magicians were gracious and friendly, speaking to individuals in the public happily and answering questions. I heard Maxwell Blade say before he was worried about the numbers on the presales that it wouldn't go over that well, but during the weekend every show was completely sold out and they said next year they will have it again, and even have a five year plan now! So if anyone can be in Hot Springs AR next year on the weekend of Sept 19, I would highly recommend being there to see the likes of which you haven't seen before. I know I will be there.