Day 4 - 11. 6. 2015

[Ondřej Pšenička]

We had our first warm-up session this morning. It was guided by Johan and involved some imaginary vanishes and productions - all to music.

Then we individually talked about our progress with routines for tomorrow and reported on problems we are facing. I mentioned not knowing how to make tic tacs not make sound while shaken.

Then Tom did a lecture on Structure. He showed on The Little Riding Hood how a story can be interesting when you establish the main character, then leave it to follow a different one and then get back to the main one. The same structure can be applied to magic.

Then of course we got an assignment to work in groups and use such structure where you leave the main theme and then get back to it. Our group was me, Carl, Edith and newly coming Mikael. Edith came up with escapes as a routine. Mikael provided Jonathan Pendragon’s method and then we brainstormed on the structure coming up with time being the secondary character. Her trying to break the world’s record and one minute to be a lot of time to do a lot of things. And after the timer counting one minute bringing attention back to her escaping the deadly ropes on time.

After a little feedback session was time to get lunch.

There and after I got some advice on how to make tictacs sound switchable on and off so during the after lunch time dedicated to the routine work, I changed the method. We’ll see how it’s going to work tomorrow.

Then we had three mini lectures from students. Marcus on puzzles and problem solving, Axel on seeing magic acts or any acts in images, making it so if the press photographer enters the room at any time, he has an opportunity to capture a great picture. And Simon on microprocessors and little electronics that can be used in magic. Arduino.cc. And then we went back to our individual work.

It also seems that I helped Marcus out of his misery by giving him an idea for interesting routine with headphones. Cards are chosen and retrieved. Cards are shuffled and placed on the table next to the headphones with a little player. A spectator is chosen in random. She comes to the table, sits down, puts headphones on and begins revealing the cards in a magical manner according to the instructions given to her in the headphones.

To mention more about my work on my routine... I made two rattles - one tictac and one matches - square shaped and covered in black velvet thinking of having them in my lap the entire time. One problem I had was how am I going to load them after the introduction when I come to sit behind the table. Tom suggested to have the rattles the entire time on the mat, that they shouldn’t be actually seen at all in a good light. Great solution. Hope it works. We’ll see tomorrow.