Hello All,

The Essential Magic Conference 2011 was just announced for July 7-9th 2011. Registrations are now available on their website http://essentialmagicconference.com/news/43. Just thought all of you would be interested in this.

For those of you that don't know, the Essential Magic Conference is an internet based series of lectures over 3 days. Last year, famous magicians such as Max Maven, Apollo Robbins, Helder Guimarães, and many others (complete list: http://essentialmagicconference.com/speakers/2010) spoke about their craft and how they thought we could improve it. Each speaker brought their unique ideas and performances to the conference. Some secrets were discussed; however, the large part of the conference was lecture based concepts.

Also, everybody that registers for EMC will get a free DVD recording of all of the lectures (that are usually available later at a higher price than the lecture was). These DVDs are all very high quality as well.

Just something to look into,
Jordan

Not that anyone from the EMC checks in here, but I thought I'd post to this thread to ask what people would most like to see different with this year's EMC. I liked last year's a lot and will be joining again, but there's always room for improvement. One thing I was hoping to see was HTML5 video so as to allow for iPad viewing. I don't know that they won't be doing this, but since the site design seems the same and existing videos are Flash, I'm not holding my breath. It would be nice also if there could be some changes to chartroom technology. Last year with so many people watching the comments just flew by. Would be cool if there was a way to set up sub chartrooms. Finally, it'd be nice to see just a few more tricks taught like Max's Res-Cue" was -- performed live but then explained in a separate video. What was great is that the explanation didn't take up the conference time.

All of that said, the best thing for me about the EMC was discovering the work of people I didn't know much about. I'm happy that a few of these discoveries, like Dani Di Ortiz and Gaetan Bloom, are back, and I'm also glad to see several names I don't know too well.

Question for anyone who attended last year? I never received my DVD's from last years conference. I sent several email's of which they kept agreeing to replying and even once said I would have them in a week. Now they have stopped responding to my requests all together. Am I the unfortunate recipient of all things gone bad or have others had this same problem? I'm the president of the local IBM club and others that I talked into attending this conference did get their dvd's.

I've been meaning to bump up this thread as EMC is starting tomorrow. Just read on Rudy Coby's Twitter (which is turning out to be the best place for EMC news, as he's tweeting a lot), that there will be a free preview today at 5:00 ET. Check it out at http://www.essentialmagicconference.com.

Correction: Coby's tweet said 5PM ET, but if I'm doing the math correctly, it's actually at 3:00PM today ET.

The live stream seems to be working pretty well. Looks good on the iPad. Nice to see David Berglas tipping his talk: two "Thought of Card" methods, and a discussion of magician's choice. As someone who is most likely not going to be plunking down the $140 on "The Berglas Effects," nice to get a taste.

I'm in, let's go to the EMC!


:)

Quick report on Session 1: On his birthday, Eric Mead gave a kind of brief history of his life in magic, performed three tricks he did as kids, and talked about how he rejuvenated his interested in mid-life. Akira Fuji performed his linking cigs and quick three-fly. Rudy Coby closed with an excellent talk on creativity and creating your own character. This is a talk I'd really recommend to young magicians who want to do stage work and are trying to figure it all out. He really broke down the process of learning to be original.

Session one was great. High hopes for the rest of EMC.

Nice to see that sessions one and two are already uploaded for streaming. A lot faster than last year.

I'm really enjoying the sessions.


:)



Helder

I work nights, so I was alseep during the first (and second) session. Thanks to the iPhone cababilities, I'm watching them at the office right now. Marco Tempest's presentation was very inspiring. Onward!

Lu Chen just fried them all!

Yes!

It is certain that it's hard to please everyone and there is always something you can do better, but this conference has proved to be a good bet of Luis de Matos, his crew, David Britland and Marco Tempest. First has the advantage of anywhere in the world without having to leave home, pay travels, hotel, any magician can enjoy, learn magic. Second, what we see it's not a demonstration of magic dealer as it happens in many conferences but opinions, reflections on psychology, great advices, issues that can change the way we see the magic and help us grow as magicians. Something much better than the last trick. Now my opinion about the first day:

It started badly with some lagging in sound as you can see in the vids I upload but that has not stopped it was a fantastic day. Every speaker did a great job but there are some highlights. The performance of Rene Lavand with a stand ovation from everyone, the performance of Lu Chen, his version of ACAAN and Dani Daortiz with his card magic. Simple amazing. The first can't be done any better than that, the second fool everyone and the third, que raro!!! But I take my hat for all. Topas talking and Apollo Robins genius, Stan Allen too, Rudy Coby was great and did I mention Lennart Green?! No? Right, I don't finish yet, he was brilliant as always. And Max Maven , oh boy what a great performance. I would like read your opinions too.

Hope you enjoy the conference much as I.

ps:in the chat room : Jason England, Doc Eason, RP Wilson, Devo, Helder Guimarães, Lee Asher ...just to name few


Helder

Very strong Friday morning session. Paul Daniels demonstrated why he has had such longevity in the business with an inspiring talk on seizing opportunities, both in performing moments but also promotion and business ones. David Britland showed film clips of Chan Canasta and walked us through his presentational strategies. I also liked Peter Lamont's talk on "Defining the Effect" -- simple thoughts on how verbal definition can change the way people actually watch your tricks. I had to do some work in the middle, so I missed Jordan Gomez and Marvin Berglas, but everybody I saw had well prepared, thoughtful presentations.

...yes! So far it has been truly phenomenal.

Highlights for me so far include:

#1 Lu Chen melting the faces of everyone there in the studio with his ACAAN. Dedicating it to Berglas himself, well done!
#2 Peter Lamont's talk. Loved his T & R story!
#3 David Britland on Chan Canasta.

...so far...looking forward to the rest!

I registered on the site, where can I watch the videos???

It's live streaming only?? Gosh I missed the first two days...

Log in, go to Videos, then on the next screen click Members Videos. I think all of the sessions so far are there. You might not want to start with Session One, Part One because there is a sync problem. All the others are fine, I think.

LuChen's performance is great!
Performing Berglas effect in front of David Berglas is the coolest experience in the world especially it works perfectly.
Good job!

YuYen