GOBERNANZA Y LEGISLACIÓN URBANA

that point I had

never liked to

take applause. ...

applause just for

the sake of my ego.

any better but don’t copy my path! Two months before the date of the competition, I booked a week at the Magic Castle AND a private session with Jeff McBride in Las Vegas. A week at the Castle to do 20 shows in the main Palace theatre would have been a very good idea IF my act had been ready. However… due to my aforementioned championship abilities of procrasti- nation, my act was NOT ready by the time I got to the Castle. In my defence, at the time, I was renting just one room in a house and the only space to rehearse was in the little space between my bed and the window with a giant mirror balanced on my bed and a video camera stuck in the doorway. I was trying out new ideas such as using the Sitta silk to change a black plain silk to one that had real diamond jewellery on it that I then stuck with magnets onto clips on my ears. It was all very experimental in a ‘this will never work in a billion years’ experimental sense.. If you can call to mind my current act…(see www.romanymagic.com for clip) imagine instead me trying to produce that pink streamer from a pocket in my skirt rather than from a magic table and also attempting to produce a diamond necklace from my glove rather than again from the table as i do now. It was super chunky and clunky to say the least. In fact, lets face it, it was crap.

Time evaporated faster than that weird milk in the mag- ic milk jug and I never got to the point of video practice before leaving for the Castle. When I did get there I

truly realised why video practice is so important. As you all probably know, if you’ve only practised in the mirror you will be depending on the mirror to find whatever it is you’re producing. Video-ing yourself is the ONLY way to see if you’re flashing, closing your eyes during a switch or flapping your arms about in a odd way. Luckily (and rather strangely), the audience at the Castle thought I was doing everything wrong on purpose and apparently found it hilarious. Every show was an adven- ture. If I could manufacture such a level of cack-handed magic every night, I could have a brilliant brand new act. I spent every day all day working out the many kinks and after 20 shows at the Castle, I hotfooted it to Vegas to show Jeff the video. The really good thing about McBride is that he doesn’t pull his punches. After watching the film, he asked, “Did no-one tell you that you can see that you have stuff already in the Sitta silk? I had asked EVERY magician that said hallo after the show if they had any notes for me. Not one had pointed this out. They probably didn’t want to hurt my feelings. NB: If your magic mates fail to point out any mistakes in your act, that DOESN’T mean that there aren’t any mistakes in your act!

I also remember that up to that point I had never liked to take applause. I figured that I was on stage to enter- tain the audience rather than to waste their time receiv- ing applause just for the sake of my ego. Jeff almost had to physically shake me to get me to understand that graciously receiving applause is the end deal of the

giving and receiving on stage. “Ok Jeff, I get it. Can you stop shaking me now? Thank you.”

Back home, it was time for The Magic Circle Stage Com- petition. The Magic Circle has a wonderful theatre, small but perfectly formed and that night the audience were responsive and kind. I had no aspiration of even get- ting placed and once the third and second prizes were given out, I remember looking along the line of entrants and wondering who they would pick for the winner. When I heard my name, no-one could have been more surprised, I literally nearly dropped the heavy brass trophy on Alan Shaxon’s foot.

However…! However, when I saw the video of that night I wasn’t happy. Yes, the comedy parts of the act with volunteers were funny but the silent act magic bit was rubbish. RUBBISH!!!! And that’s always what I had wanted to achieve… beautiful magic. So back to the drawing board.

Next competition, the IBM Stage 2008. The good thing about magic competitions is the tight timeframe. Limitations encourage creativity. 8 mins max of strong magic. It’s a great challenge. That year I bought my Sequin Starship house. I built a home theatre (see Van- ish issue 22 p 90). Finally I had a place to rehearse, to film progress and to limit weird arm flapping activities. The difference made by a permanent rehearsal space, video camera and a no-nonsense speaking not in the

business boyfriend was enormous. After watching me fritter each day away, my chap Walkabout (Walkabout is a professional dog-walker and ex Buddhist monk. There is not a sequin about his person.) He said sternly, “Everyone morning, you can have coffee and breakfast. Then you get into full costume and run the act 3 times through to the video camera. Only then, ONLY THEN can you go out on your bike.” What am I, five??? I was FURIOUS. What the HELL did he know? But of course he was right. I started 3 months of getting up early each day, into costume and doing the birdcage /rings routine to the camera. I’m not a trained dancer and there was a lot of weird and unattractive movements going on that had to be slowly trained out of the routine. Doing a 8 min routine with all those props, watching it back each time, making notes, re-loading and pulling all the blinking props out again took 2.5 hrs to do. At the end of 3 months, my waist was literally one inch less simply by wearing the corset for so long and I HATED that hat. The postman got quite used to me opening the door to him in feathers. Bongo the Dog got bored of watching and stopped being surprised at anything at all.

That IBM 2008 competition went well and the act was much better. Rehearsal and practice actually work, who knew???

Then… and this is the big one….. Then came the 2011 Las Vegas World Seminar. I have always been a

I also remem-

ber that up to

that point I had

never liked to

take applause. ...

applause just for

the sake of my ego.

any better but don’t copy my path! Two months before the date of the competition, I booked a week at the Magic Castle AND a private session with Jeff McBride in Las Vegas. A week at the Castle to do 20 shows in the main Palace theatre would have been a very good idea IF my act had been ready. However… due to my aforementioned championship abilities of procrasti- nation, my act was NOT ready by the time I got to the Castle. In my defence, at the time, I was renting just one room in a house and the only space to rehearse was in the little space between my bed and the window with a giant mirror balanced on my bed and a video camera stuck in the doorway. I was trying out new ideas such as using the Sitta silk to change a black plain silk to one that had real diamond jewellery on it that I then stuck with magnets onto clips on my ears. It was all very experimental in a ‘this will never work in a billion years’ experimental sense.. If you can call to mind my current act…(see www.romanymagic.com for clip) imagine instead me trying to produce that pink streamer from a pocket in my skirt rather than from a magic table and also attempting to produce a diamond necklace from my glove rather than again from the table as i do now. It was super chunky and clunky to say the least. In fact, lets face it, it was crap.

Time evaporated faster than that weird milk in the mag- ic milk jug and I never got to the point of video practice before leaving for the Castle. When I did get there I

truly realised why video practice is so important. As you all probably know, if you’ve only practised in the mirror you will be depending on the mirror to find whatever it is you’re producing. Video-ing yourself is the ONLY way to see if you’re flashing, closing your eyes during a switch or flapping your arms about in a odd way. Luckily (and rather strangely), the audience at the Castle thought I was doing everything wrong on purpose and apparently found it hilarious. Every show was an adven- ture. If I could manufacture such a level of cack-handed magic every night, I could have a brilliant brand new act. I spent every day all day working out the many kinks and after 20 shows at the Castle, I hotfooted it to Vegas to show Jeff the video. The really good thing about McBride is that he doesn’t pull his punches. After watching the film, he asked, “Did no-one tell you that you can see that you have stuff already in the Sitta silk? I had asked EVERY magician that said hallo after the show if they had any notes for me. Not one had pointed this out. They probably didn’t want to hurt my feelings. NB: If your magic mates fail to point out any mistakes in your act, that DOESN’T mean that there aren’t any mistakes in your act!

I also remember that up to that point I had never liked to take applause. I figured that I was on stage to enter- tain the audience rather than to waste their time receiv- ing applause just for the sake of my ego. Jeff almost had to physically shake me to get me to understand that graciously receiving applause is the end deal of the

giving and receiving on stage. “Ok Jeff, I get it. Can you stop shaking me now? Thank you.”

Back home, it was time for The Magic Circle Stage Com- petition. The Magic Circle has a wonderful theatre, small but perfectly formed and that night the audience were responsive and kind. I had no aspiration of even get- ting placed and once the third and second prizes were given out, I remember looking along the line of entrants and wondering who they would pick for the winner. When I heard my name, no-one could have been more surprised, I literally nearly dropped the heavy brass trophy on Alan Shaxon’s foot.

However…! However, when I saw the video of that night I wasn’t happy. Yes, the comedy parts of the act with volunteers were funny but the silent act magic bit was rubbish. RUBBISH!!!! And that’s always what I had wanted to achieve… beautiful magic. So back to the drawing board.

Next competition, the IBM Stage 2008. The good thing about magic competitions is the tight timeframe. Limitations encourage creativity. 8 mins max of strong magic. It’s a great challenge. That year I bought my Sequin Starship house. I built a home theatre (see Van- ish issue 22 p 90). Finally I had a place to rehearse, to film progress and to limit weird arm flapping activities. The difference made by a permanent rehearsal space, video camera and a no-nonsense speaking not in the

business boyfriend was enormous. After watching me fritter each day away, my chap Walkabout (Walkabout is a professional dog-walker and ex Buddhist monk. There is not a sequin about his person.) He said sternly, “Everyone morning, you can have coffee and breakfast. Then you get into full costume and run the act 3 times through to the video camera. Only then, ONLY THEN can you go out on your bike.” What am I, five??? I was FURIOUS. What the HELL did he know? But of course he was right. I started 3 months of getting up early each day, into costume and doing the birdcage /rings routine to the camera. I’m not a trained dancer and there was a lot of weird and unattractive movements going on that had to be slowly trained out of the routine. Doing a 8 min routine with all those props, watching it back each time, making notes, re-loading and pulling all the blinking props out again took 2.5 hrs to do. At the end of 3 months, my waist was literally one inch less simply by wearing the corset for so long and I HATED that hat. The postman got quite used to me opening the door to him in feathers. Bongo the Dog got bored of watching and stopped being surprised at anything at all.

That IBM 2008 competition went well and the act was much better. Rehearsal and practice actually work, who knew???

Then… and this is the big one….. Then came the 2011 Las Vegas World Seminar. I have always been a

huge fan of Siegfried and Roy. Siegfried & Roy became Masters of the Impossible and the biggest headliners in Las Vegas. I felt that if I could just meet them, maybe, just maybe, some of this magical mastery would rub off on me. Call me a dreamer but I believe in magic! I do. But how could I meet them in person? I thought if I entered their stage competition they would probably come and say hallo no matter how good or bad I was. I merrily wrote in to ask if I could enter. I thought that it would be like FISM and have lots of entrants, so I was surprised when Bill Smith wrote back saying I could have the last of 7 places and $500 expenses. Surprise turned to horror when I looked the Youtube clips of the other competitors. Jason, Circe (get names of others), I then googled past winners and saw Timo Marc, Rafeal (get names of others) sandwiched between Siegfried and Roy happily holding their giant winners’ cheques. So just like you would have done, I photoshopped my face onto those photos and put them up around my magic studio. Every day when I walked Bongo the Dog through the forest, I pretended that I was holding that cheque and saying to my friends, “Yes, I can’t believe it either but look, magic!” I would literally say this out loud and Bongo would look back wondering what the hell I doing. It comes to something when you’re an em- barrassment to your own dog.

I practised. I affirmed. I walked in the woods with my imaginary cheque. I biked and lifted weights and didn’t eat so many donuts. Everything was going well. Un- til. Until 2 weeks before the competition, I got a brief email from the organiser letting me know that due to new fire regulations, no pyro of any type was allowed in the theatre without a licence. Not a lighter, not a teeny bit of flash paper, nothing. Apart from my favourite

flash string to diamonds, I had intended to perform a 5 minute routine with fire. “We quite understand if you want to pull out”, the organisers said, but I had bought my ticket and my main motivation anyway was shake a little stardust from Siegfried & Roy.

In order to pull the extra 5 mins out of the bag, my only option was to put in my standard comedy Coins Across bit with 2 volunteers. Risky for a competition. Not strong magic. In fact, it was the first trick I ever learnt. I had no choice.

Stepping out onto the big stage in the New Orleans hotel in front of 1000 magicians including Siegfried & Roy, Lance Burton, Marvin Roy, Silvan, Hans Klok and many many other heroes was both terrifying and very exciting. The silent act bit went fine and then I picked two men from the crowd to be my volunteers. They were meant to follow me, cavorting like Vegas mountain goats onto the stage to the sound of ‘There’s no business like showbusiness’ and one guy was do- ing just fine. The other however, faltered on the steps and by the time he got to the stage, he collapsed on all fours gasping for air. Something was obviously very wrong and about 8 guys jumped up to see if he was ok. Silence in the auditorium as this guy fought for breath. The rest of the audience holding their breath too. I didn’t give a damn about the act or the competi- tion anymore, I was stood on stage thinking, “Great, I’ve come to Vegas and now I’ve killed my volunteer.”

After what seemed like forever, he slowly got to his feet,

breathing heavily. Still in character, I said sternly, “Well, you’ve caused a lot of trouble! However, I will give you a choice I don’t usually give to my volunteers. Do you want to return to your seat or do you want to stay?” He gasped, “I’ll stay!”. A big cheer went up and the rest of the act was comedy gold.

When I left the stage, I knew that even though the other entrants had much better technical skills than me, I had a very good chance of winning. And all on the chance of that poor man collapsing on the steps. I never saw him again, but if you are reading this, THANK YOU! You totally saved my bacon. And yes, I did collect that big cheque, I touched the royal cloaks of Siegfried & Roy and here is the proof. No, it’s not photoshopped. And the moral of this story?? KEEP BELIEVING!!! You never know how things are going to turn out and even if you’re not the best at something, even if what you desire seems impossible, magic has a way of bringing it to you. After all, what are we magicians for if we don’t believe in magic???

Magic competitions are a great way to get as good as you can be in a definite time-frame and one thing I can tell you…. They’re never dull.

Romany won The Magic Circle Stage Magician of the Year 2006

IBM Stage Trophy 2008

Las Vegas World Seminar 1st Prize Golden Lion 2011 and finally Vitoria Magialdia First Prize 2011

huge fan of Siegfried and Roy. Siegfried & Roy became Masters of the Impossible and the biggest headliners in Las Vegas. I felt that if I could just meet them, maybe, just maybe, some of this magical mastery would rub off on me. Call me a dreamer but I believe in magic! I do. But how could I meet them in person? I thought if I entered their stage competition they would probably come and say hallo no matter how good or bad I was. I merrily wrote in to ask if I could enter. I thought that it would be like FISM and have lots of entrants, so I was surprised when Bill Smith wrote back saying I could have the last of 7 places and $500 expenses. Surprise turned to horror when I looked the Youtube clips of the