Among the many wonderful experiences at the 7th EG conference last week was an unexpected little bonus at the end. At about 2am on the final night, I sat down in a hotel room with Jon Luni (videographer), Phillip Shepard (cellist), Charles Yang (violinist), Eric Mead (magician), and about fifteen other assorted friends, volunteers and …

Last week I was performing at the EG conference in Monterey, California. I wasn’t presenting per se this time, but instead doing something a little unusual. Mike (the organiser) had asked a few magician “friends of EG” to present a series of close-up magic shows in between the main conference sessions. One of the core …

In two days I’m going to be in Monterey, California to attend the upcoming 7th EG conference. While not presenting per se, I’m going to be part of a group of people performing some short close-up shows between the main sessions. I’m in Los Angeles at the moment, getting over jet lag and doing some …

Epiphanies can come from very unexpected places. A recent one came courtesy of Meetup.com, a website that enables groups of like minded people to get together and do interesting activities. During my recent four months in Germany, it occurred to me that a site like Meetup could be a good way to, well, meet people. The …

Friend, colleague, and frequent collaborator Dave Lee is working on a new show. It’s about time. It’s also called “It’s about time.” As the title may imply, it will be a time-themed show with a very high pun density. The show will be premiering at the upcoming Melbourne Magic Festival in July this year. It’s …

Now that the Hansa Theatre season is over, one of the many follow-up tasks has been to archive a video of the act. Luckily due to my video-everything-all-the-time policy there was plenty to work with. The act as a whole goes for 15 minutes though, which is far too long to put up online. The …

As I checked out of my hotel in Leipzig, Germany, the girl behind the counter asked me where I was heading next. “Bad Oeynhausen,” I replied. She looked at me with a mixture of surprise and faint horror. “Why…?” she replied. It was a good question. Bad Oeynhausen is a small town (population 48,000) in …

“Often ideas come from two things coming together that haven’t come together before. (‘If a person bitten by a werewolf turns into a wolf what would happen if a goldfish was bitten by a werewolf? What would happen if a chair was bitten by a werewolf?’)” -Neil Gaiman I frequently think of the creative part …

I’m on a mission in Germany, and Google maps is helping significantly. With a couple of weeks free between finishing up at the Hansa Theatre and heading back home, I want to check out as much of the thriving German variety theatre scene as I can. After a few weeks of research (mostly by asking the …

I’m sitting on the empty stage at the Hansa Theatre. The final show finished an hour ago. After four months and 147 shows, It’s over. For the first time ever, I’m the only person here. The stage and house are completely empty now. Some of the performers have already left; packed up the minute the …