An image from the Talk Like a Pirate Day event held at the Atkinson in Southport.
Pirates at the Atkinson in Southport
Mersey Dee Competition
There are lots of different magic societies all over the country. The Mersey Dee Competition is an inter-society competition, held every two years.
This year’s competition was held in Liverpool, hosted by the Liverpool Magic Circle. The other societies taking part were the Chester Guild of Magicians, the Liverpool Mahatma Magic Circle, and the North Wales Magic Circle.
Together with David Baker, Jay represented the North Wales Magic Circle in this year’s competition.
Although they didn’t win, they had a great time, and were proud to represent the NWMC.
This year’s winner was the Chester Guild of Magicians, represented by Stephen Cooil and Scott Prior.
Halloween Show, End of Season Party, and the Welshfactor Final
We’ve been up to quite a bit over the last few weeks, so here’s a quick look at some of the things we’ve been doing.
First was a Halloween show at a garden centre. We were with HTC Entertainments & Events, as well as a giant pirate!
Then we were at Craiglwyd Hall for their end of season party:
And yesterday evening we were a guest act at the North Wales Welshfactor final, at the Pavilion Theatre in Rhyl. (We didn’t get any photographs of our performance, but thought you might like to see some backstage views instead.)
Don’t forget to visit our Where To See Us page to find out about our next public performances!
2011 – A look back at our magical year
January and February were quiet months, mostly spent going over our stage routines and polishing them up. In March rehearsals for the summer season started, and continued into April,
May was when things really started to get busy. We performed at the Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza for the fourth consecutive year, and the summer season at Llandudno Town Hall started. On the 18th of June, we performed our 100th stage show. We also launched this blog.
In June we took part in a show at Venue Cymru, as well as the ongoing summer shows. July saw our first medieval street performances in Rhos on Sea, and the continuation of the summer season. In August we did several days of medieval street magic in Conwy, and our new website went online.
September saw the end of the summer season, and our trip to the the International Brotherhood of Magicians convention in Southport. It was the highlight of our year, taking part in the British Ring Shield competition, and being awarded both the Dittia Shield and the Theo Speaker Cup.
We got our first look at the refurbished Theatr Colwyn in October when we took part in the Summer Spectacular show. We also visited London, to take part in J-Day and perform at the world famous Magic Circle.
November saw us performing medieval magic at the Wales Rally in Conwy, as well as enjoying the North Wales Magic Circle annual dinner. We also put our new video online.
And finally, December. We did some Harry Potter themed magic in Asda, and were back there again soon afterwards doing Christmas magic for the Llandudno Lions. We finished up the year with two wonderful weddings, for some lovely people.
2012 is already looking like it will be another great year, and we hope that your year will be just as great. Happy New Year!
Elemental at the IBM Convention in Southport
Every year the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians holds a convention, and this years’ was in Southport. At the convention they hold their annual stage competition, and we decided to take part.
This was Jay’s first IBM convention, and Amelia’s first for ten years, so it was a whole new experience for us. On Thursday we picked up our registration packs. There was a very relaxed pace to the convention, leaving lots of time to catch up with friends. We enjoyed the Thursday night micro marathon and the cabaret show. Friday was fun, and we saw some good magic in close up competition.
Saturday was taken up with the stage competition. All the acts were given twenty minutes in the afternoon to go through their sound and lighting, and we had just enough time to do a run through of our routine. We got talking to another of the competitors, Jason & Joanne and had a lovely chat with them.
The evening was spent backstage, getting into costume and setting up all the props. There were ten competitors in all, and we were sixth, which meant that we were the first act after the interval. It was a strange feeling, partly nervous at going on stage in front of hundreds of magicians, but partly calm, knowing that we would just get up there and do our best. The ten minutes we were on stage seemed to pass very quickly. The routine went well, and we could just about hear the audience clapping at the relevant points. We came offstage exhausted, but happy that we had done a good performance.
We were backstage with the other acts as the winners were announced. The first stage competition result to be announced was the Dittia Shield for Manipulation, and we were absolutely stunned when the name read out was Elemental! We went up and collected our trophy, and waited as the other trophies were presented. We could hardly believe it when we heard our name called out again; we had been awarded the Theo Speaker Cup for second place in the competition.
