Farewell, Black­pool …

Does going to the Black­pool Con­ven­tion, drink­ing in the Ruskins, social­iz­ing, mak­ing one’s ego big in front of oth­ers, chat­ting bull­shit to oth­er guys, hanging around and shar­ing use­less card moves really improve your magic?

Or maybe does it only charge up the ego?

When you attend the Black­pool Con­ven­tion, year after year, are all the ‘Black­pool­ers’ bet­ter magi­cians than after­wards? After see­ing all these great lec­tures and exhib­i­tions, did they improve after that convention?

I doubt it.

How is that feel­ing, sit­ting cozy in the dark back of the theat­er and wit­ness­ing shows, oth­er per­formers try­ing their best, and then laugh­ing and whist­ling at them at your will?

Many times most Black­pool vis­it­ors (who in the major­ity could­n’t even do only a frac­tion of what these people are offer­ing on stage) have the right to demol­ish oth­ers on the stage–those who try to enter­tain them. Where is the mutu­al respect for oth­er people?

How do these cow­ardly creeps in the secur­ity of the theat­er feel boo­ing a per­former (a human being try­ing his/​her best to please you on stage) from the secur­ity of your lousy anonym­ous seat in the theatre? Does it feel as com­fort­able as bash­ing oth­er people in Social Media – with an anonym­ous account, no name, no face?

And after­wards they write in the for­ums (anonym­ously) how bad it was. Show­ing their expert­ise and ‘exper­i­ence’? Telling oth­ers what they found bad, knew bet­ter, etc.? Where is the respect of you magi­cians and broth­ers? And, by the way, these humans you are whist­ling and boo­ing at are human beings like you. They try their best, and nobody is per­fect. They are onstage and deserve respect. Not one in that bas­tard theat­er audi­ence has the right to boo and whistle. They are not opera or theat­er experts. They are con­ven­tion­eers; pass­ive con­sumers who could­n’t do what the oth­ers are actu­ally doing onstage.

How would you feel if you were to stand on this stage in front of 3,000 people, present your act and then be whistled and booed of by a bunch of 2,000 crude and thought­less people lack­ing any respect for a per­former (no mat­ter how bad he/​she may be)? How would you feel?

Is it now the time of the stu­pid foot­ball rat-pack, some nasty and ego-driv­en people, who think they know about magic, because they know the Win­ter­gar­dens and which of the hotels in Black­pool is best, who think book­ing a cheap flight to Manchester and then buy­ing entrance tick­ets to a magic event qual­i­fies them to be magicians?

It is like this, unfor­tu­nately, but I per­son­ally don’t think that this rat-pack under­stands what magic really is about–the his­tory, the per­formers, the the­ory. Sadly, more and more really nice people stay away from con­ven­tions and also don’t want to mingle with that oth­er people.

But then – we have all rights, we want fun, we have the right to be enter­tained, we want all the know­ledge because we are someone and we are worth it. We have the right to own and have everything. Because we are. And if we decide to take up magic, then it is our right to do so. Tal­ent, ded­ic­a­tion and prac­tice do not matter.

I don’t think so.

This is no longer a magic con­ven­tion. It went even worse than the ancient Roman gla­di­at­or’s games. The Black­pool Con­ven­tion sadly mutated into a thing for the pub­lic, for the ‘fans of magic’. For a pub­lic that pays travel and entrance, to ulti­mately boo out per­formers (fel­lows) onstage. Pan­em et circenses.

I under­stand magic these days is an assembly of mostly ‘fans of magic’. People, inter­ested and curi­ous about magic, gath­er­ing to have a good time and learn some secrets. OK. Being togeth­er to show and exper­i­ence their being and belong­ing togeth­er. I can­not share that view of a magic con­ven­tion because I am old fash­ioned. In these days, it simply was­n’t pos­sible for every­body to attend a magic con­ven­tion. You had to be a magician.

Is there any respect left for magic from these audi­ences? The major­ity of the attendees in Black­pool is not what you would call full fledged magi­cians. Many back­pack­ers are run­ning around search­ing for the next emo­tion­al kick. It is an assembly of fans, which is OK if it were a beer fest­iv­al or con­cert … a thing for the masses.

But it was sup­posed to be an exclus­ive magic con­ven­tion. Nowadays, the biggest shouters and scream­ers get the atten­tion of the pay­ing pub­lic. But sadly not the exper­i­enced and cap­able magi­cians. Lay­men rule the world of a magic con­ven­tion; not the real magi­cians anymore.

I was really hop­ing to see a nice and excit­ing magic con­ven­tion in Black­pool because they said it is the biggest and greatest one there is.

I don’t think so any­more. I don’t believe that I will see a magic con­ven­tion that moves my heart. I do fear I will see a sort of football/​masses event, where stu­pid people without any know­ledge about the art of magic live out their lat­ent ego-aggres­sions against oth­ers, boast­ing around with pseudo-know­ledge, show­ing off stuff and ideas that are not their own. Just to try to shine bet­ter and light­er than the oth­er. Mor­ons shout­ing out. Real magic and art gets quieter and quieter .…

For me, the concept of that fab­ulous ‘Black­pool magic con­ven­tion’ has died. Sadly. This cer­tainly is a sort of con­ven­tion, but then, for me, the magic and the spir­it faded out.

Good­bye, Black­pool, farewell. You were won­der­ful many, many years ago. But now, I can­not recog­nize you anymore.

Now you are dead. The real nice people, which made you what you were, died or stay away.

Pass it on.