The Great Martini's ........Magic Blog Page

The Algarve Magic 2012

Well I'm just off to the sunny Algarve for a month or 2, so my next Blog will be from over there. I'll be performing close up, stage and kids magic at all my usual venues and a few new ones as well. I'll be flying back to the UK to do some Corporate jobs in between and this year I've a few other countries to visit too.

Also we're expanding into selling magic as well and if all goes to plan there will be a new magic shop in the Algarve.....watch this space for further details.

Belated Xmas party

Just come back from performing close up magic at a Christmas party in Leeds, not bad to say it is the 21st January, I think it is the latest one I've aver done. It was for the Yorkshire Bank.......what a great set of people !!! My job was to keep the guests entertained for the first hour down in the contails lounge and then for the last hour up in the party room itself. Usual thing...a bit too dark and a bit too loud for magic, but over the years you have to make sure you have magic to perform in all the different scenarios you come across and still be seen and heard. They assure me they are not the ones who keep getting all the Bank bonuses !!!! I know Karen and Sima would not tell a lie ?? I left them all in a magical mood with the disco just about to turn up the volume until the early hours.

Christmas Extravaganzas

Once again my company "Caspro Entertainment Limited" has organised the fun casinos for the J D Parties Christmas Extravaganzas. They had 3 sites this year at Tatton Park, Knowsley Safari park and The ICC in Birmingham. Overall they were all fantastic events and well organised as usual by Andrew, Emma and their team, they really are the best parties in town and a real Party Extravaganza. ..... Roll on next years events !!!!

Magic at the Palace

I was performing for the British and Portuguese Chamber of Commerce recently at the Palacia de Porto Covo da Balendario which is in Lisbon. I have been to  Lisbon now many times and it is just the same as working in any capital city. The jobs themselves are normally great, but getting in and out to the venue and parking can be a problem. Although I always get the full address of the venue and phone numbers just in case of a problem it can still be a challenge.  “Tom Tom” over here in Portugal isn’t bad, but it does not get it right all the time. Many times I have heard “you have now arrived at your destination” and although it should be some fancy company offices it will be a tatty restaurant in the middle of nowhere, you have to have a backup plan, maps are ok, but a lot of streets don’t have name plaques. The roads can be very bad at times and very narrow, especially the back streets of Lisbon. In the end you just have to ask. I’ve found up to now if you study your route well and know where you are going things work out fairly well. Travelling around Portugal on the toll roads can be expensive, for instance on the A2 motorway it cost me €72 and another €5.20 for the suspension bridge. The alternative is the free IC1 road which isn’t cobbled, but it feels like it is. It would probably do more damage to the car than you paid in tolls. Someone once told me “ if you don’t know where you are going then all roads lead there”, it’s certainly true in Lisbon.

The event was an annual garden party with lots of company bosses there and an ideal opportunity to get to know some key people from Lisbon. It was a 50/50 mix of British and Portuguese, all English speaking, which helps. I do have lots of visual close up tricks now and can get by in “magical Portuguese banter”, so it’s never a problem. Sometimes they chatter back to me in very quick  Portuguese, thinking I can understand and I just “wing it” and pretend I know what they are saying. Anyway the party was a great success and plenty of business cards passed out. It finished about 11.00pm, just in time to get to my next job on the same night.

I was staying at a lovely Themed Hotel that has only 19 rooms, but it is still in the “Best luxury small hotels of the world” book. The theme is all about schools and the managers are dressed as old style teachers and the staff as school girls and boys. The signs on the walls are chalk boards etc and the reception like a Head masters study. ( I know it might sound like a  dodgy fetish party , but there was no bondage involved !!)  They were having a special party for 200 Lisbon business men and women and I was to perform from 11pm to 1am, a bit later than normal, but I was staying there so didn’t mind. Due to the loud disco and excess alcohol it is hardly the ideal scenario for close up magic, but I’ve done it many times now and you just have to adapt to the surrounding conditions. I wouldn’t want to do these kind of gigs every night, but I do like a challenge and this certainly was. Anyway we all had a great time and I stayed until the end, which was 2am.

Again lots of business cards were passed out and new magical bookings look promising. I make sure every person gets a card, whether they think they want it or not, since seeing Martin Sanderson’s thought’s on business cards  on his DVD and I started doing this myself I’ve definitely noticed getting more booking from each job that I do. Obviously if the job is booked through an agent then this can’t be done, unless you have special cards printed with your picture and magical details, but the agents phone number. In this way when they call the agent they are not just asking for a magician, they are asking for you. It’s best to have all events covered. These days business cards are not expensive and make sure you have a great looking card, we are in show business. Don’t be tempted to do your own on the computer and cut them out… it looks terrible !!

Anyway the Hotel manager was very pleased and has booked me for another job next month, which I’ll do if my ears have stopped ringing from the Disco.

That’s all for now from the Algarve.

Todo o melhor .... O Martini Grande

                             (a qualquer hora, em qualquer lugar, em qualquer lugar.)

 

Psychic Night

I was booked to perform at a birthday party at an old castle down in Northampton. With it being his 40th he invited 40 of his closest friends. They had been quad biking, practising archery, clay pigeon shooting etc in the castle grounds all afternoon and then they retired to get ready for the evening banquet, which was to be held in the Great Hall of the Castle. Now I’ve performed in quite a few Stately homes and Castles before but non as grand as this one.

Although I had been booked to do comedy close up magic, the atmosphere was absolutely perfect for my Psychic night, so I had a word with the birthday boy and he agreed. I had been speaking with the butler earlier, who looked very much like “Lurch” off the Adams family and he told me various tales about the ghosts who haunted the Castle, there were four of them apparently and I brought these into play later in the night.

The 40 guests came down for pre dinner drinks at 7 pm and I was to read Tarot cards and palms for the first hour. I only gave 5 minutes to each person but still only got through about 12 of them, the rest were to be done later. It’s surprising what people divulge to you over the tarot table. Sometimes very intimate details regarding problems with their sex lives, marital affairs etc are told, hoping that the answers will be in the cards. The problem normally is that what’s in their pants is bigger than what’s between their ears !!!

In the Great Hall they were seated around one large wooden table, dating back to the 16th century, always the worst scenario for a close upper I find. I performed the Psychic experiments at both ends and at two places part way down the long table. As usual you always get people who have seen it once, following you around to see it again and again. All of the experiments can be watched several times without them having a clue how they are done and most have different endings when watched again, to throw them off the scent.

All was going too well really, it was an excellent venue, the people were rather “posh” but very nice with it, they had given me a lovely meal and I was approaching the end of my session at 10 pm. Then it happened! The birthday boy asked if I could do a séance. I said I could, but I didn’t have a separate room and I had a two and a half hour drive home and didn’t have time to do it. No problem he said I’ll arrange it. Within five minutes “ Lurch” came to see me and ushered me up stairs to a really spooky room that he had prepared for the séance. “ You’ll have to stay the night now Sir, and I’ve put you in the Octagonal Tudor room”. What could I say, we discussed briefly what my extra fee would be and off I went to the top room in the East wing. For the next two hours I did the same Psychic séance for five groups of eight guests. With this kind of magic having the right atmosphere is half the battle and this room was perfect.

After the seance I read some more palms and Tarot cards into the early hours. It was a very long night but I enjoyed it immensely and from the very nice comments that the guests gave, so did they. Lurch eventually showed up about 3 am and took me off to my Tudor bedroom, it was on the end of a series of very long corridors, again it was a very spooky room with a four poster bed and an unusual octagonal shape. Just as he was closing the large squeaky bedroom door,  he said “ oh, by the way sir, out of all the rooms in the castle, this is the one where most of the ghosts have been seen”. I didn’t get much sleep that night !!!!!!!

Lots of magic this month all over the UK. There was a Stage magic gig in Birmingham for 400 guests, the venue had a proper elevated stage and musical pit which was a pleasure to work on. It just adds to the experience for the guests when seating, lighting, sound and stage are all perfect. Too often we are expected to perform at the end of a large conference suite with no stage as such and accoustics not at it's best. The show must go on of course, but artists from the past who worked the theatres certainly had it easier.

I did a few close up magic London gigs and also even more close magic jobs Manchester. They were various venues for private parties, weddings and corporate magic functions.

We did a large Halloween party for a council in the Midlands. This was outside in a park and there was lots of scary performers and stalls for the public to enjoy. There was 1200 people turned up and we all had a great Halloween magic party. I played the part of "Max Raven" psychic performer, there's no doubt that magic is more impressive when it is presented in this way and all built around great stories. Ordinary magic tricks can be elevated to miracles when they are performed in this way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.................Part of the Halloween magical performers......................

 

Once again my Corporate Entertainment Company Caspro Entertainment Limited are helping to organise the entertainment at the Tatton Park, Knowsley Park and Edgebaston C.C. Christmas Party Extravaganzas 2010. There are nearly 40 nights in total for literally tens of 1000's of guests. We helped organise the entertainment on the very first one back in 1994 and here we are 16 years later still going strong. Check out the J D Parties website for further details, they really are "the best party in Town". Also we have raised literally £1,000's for various charities with the help of the public from Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and surrounding areas. Thanks for all your support over the years!!

 

Having been in The Algarve for most of the summer performing all kinds of Magic for all kinds of people, I have to say" it's a lot more fun in the sun". There have been so many parties in the UK over the years that should have been fantastic outside events, but due tothe UK weather turned out to be a bit of a "damp squid". Not so in the Algarve, I'm pleased to say it did not rain in the 6 months that I was there. I did pop back to the UK a few times for various magic jobs and I have to say it was nice to be flown back for some veryprestigeous corporate work. It's not all easy though and some of the flights and waiting about at airports can be quite tedious. All in all though I had a great time and met some fantastic people from all walks of life. Check out my "stories on the road" page to see some funny stories... all true, I promise.

 

 

....................The Great Martini performing at the "Better Living in Portugal" exhibition

(B.L.I.P) in the Algarve .....................

 

I remember when I first started magic, trying to get magic tricks wasn't easy, there was no internet then and only a few proper magic shops in the country and you had to be part of a magic society to get into the serious magic section. The first rule of magic has always been "never reveal your secrets" Unfortunately these days this doesn't seem to apply. There has been the masked Magician on the tele, doing his bit to reveal all, but the tricks he used were a bit "old hat" so it wasn't too bad. I think there's a lot of double standards even in the Magic Circle and other societies that rave on about keeping secrets, but some of their commitee members have magic shops or websites openly selling to anybody who has a credit card. Even the famous Blackpool Magic Convention , which is a fantastic event, has started letting in too many non magicians and their families, presumably because it bolsters numbers and profits. Lots of exposure is done accidently by people not really dedicated to magic performing tricks for their mates down at the pub and doing it so badly that everyone sees the method. I could "twitter" on for ever about this topic, but all I'll finally say is " It's time the magic powers that be in all magical Socities finally started backing the first rule of magic and anybody who breaks that rule should be expelled from the society.......I don't live in hope that this will happen of course, but you never know.