The International Brotherhood of Magicians 81st Convention -Greenock
Eeek! This was quite a big one for me! I’ve performed at magic conventions before but the the International Brotherhood (IBM) is a pretty prestigious convention and I knew that the gala show meant not only performing in front of my peers (fellow magicians) but also alongside a line up of potential ‘magic gods’, I hadn’t looked at the other acts list before I got there but it didn’t fail to disappoint! There was endless talent at the convention and I’m incredibly proud to have been invited to perform.
The show took place on the Saturday night in the Greenock theatre, I had to perform two acts per show and two shows in that evening. Originally I had been booked to perform my magical bar act but at the last minute things changed so I was performing the Contortion box and the Yorkshire Magnet. As it turned out this worked much better as collecting and cleaning all the glass and resetting the bar act would have been difficult in the turnaround time!
The box act felt fantastic to perform that night to an amazingly responsive audience, an act I know inside out and back to front, one that always gets a great reaction and gets the audience talking. The Yorkshire Magnet kept me on my toes, since I usually performed this piece to a smaller group of spectators on a more casual level or had a fellow performer to help me, so performing it solo on a huge theatre stage was a nerve wracking seven minutes! The first performance I managed to even joke about my nerves and it seemed to go as well as I could hope for! The next audience for the second show were the convention attendees (magicians and their partners) so it was time to reset and do it all again!
I performed alongside some fantastic entertainers including the Belgian Illusionist Rafael, juggler Matt Ricardo and the awesome dutch magician Fritz and more! It was great fun performing in the lovely theatre and had some great feedback from the attendees! I even had two writers contact me for more information and both wrote articles on my presentation of the Yorkshire Magnet act and its history- I will probably post more about these later. Its been a blast, long live the British Ring of the IBM.
Katie x
