December update - International close up magic competition

December is always a crazy time for close-up magicians. The office party is still going strong and every year about this time myself and my colleagues brave the world of balloons, streamers and party poppers to do our thing.

Last weekend I took part in the International Magic Competition at the Mermaid Theatre in London. This is a close-up magic competition that has a great heritage and generally very high standards. As a kid I would buy the videos of the competitions and watch the performances to get inspiration. A youngish Derren Brown can be seen on one of them, as can Stephen Mulhern. So, it was quite a surreal experience to be part of it for the first time. Standing backstage about to go on before 400 of your peers is to be quiet honest, absolutely terrifying. This year there were entrants from all over the world including Sweden, Korea, Russia and France and in the green room everyone seemed to be doing their best to psych each other out!
The performance went amazingly well and was well received. At the time the awards were announced I was driving on the M1 and a friend called me so I could listen live and I am pleased to say I came 3rd overall (and was the top ranked UK magician in the contest). A great result that I was very happy with.

The next Christmas party I do, if anyone looks like they are going to fire a party popper at me I am not sure that me telling them I was voted in the top 3 close-up magicians in an international contest is going to help me avoid getting covered in streamers though.