No its not some kind of word puzzle, I just thought id write a few lines following my trip over the pond at the end of June where I spent a week in Miami at the USA International Brotherhood of Magicians Convention before then going onto Vegas…but I will tell you more about that part later. First of all I didn’t know what to expect. Despite asking the question by submitting various postings on magic forums, the only answer I seemed to get was that it was going to be fantastic. Was I disappointed? Well in some ways yes but mostly no. Starting with Miami itself, as a place I thought it was really nice, that is once you saw through the enormous amount of construction that was going on. I don’t think I have ever been anywhere that had so many building sites and cranes! One thing that did surprise me was that the people weren’t as helpful and friendly as id expected. On a previous trip to the USA I thought the American people couldn’t do enough for you and this time I got the impression they couldn’t be bothered helping…..or was it just me they didn’t like?  Anyway onto the convention itself. This was held in the Radisson Hotel in downtown Miami, although it wasn’t quite as downtown as I would have liked. Apart from a Burger King and another burger place next to it there really wasn’t much around it and I definitely wouldn’t have felt safe walking around at night. The hotel as you would expect from such a reputable chain was very nice and the staff in it were very nice in comparison the people I had spoken to on South Beach. As it was my birthday whilst I was out there (thanks for the cards everyone) I even splashed out and stayed there for the week. There is a lot to be said about just walking into the elevator …sorry it’s a lift now, and going to your room when you’re tired. The convention was held in the basement all on the same level with various rooms for dealers, shows, competitions, lectures and the usual IBM events.
The first thing that I found different about the convention, even the day before it began, was the friendliness of the convention organisers. They seemed to make a real effort of introducing themselves and asking if everything was ok. This also continued throughout the week and was probably the biggest difference that I noticed between the UK IBM and the USA IBM. The majority of the UK committee tend in my opinion to keep themselves to themselves and don’t make a lot of effort especially to newcomers. That brings me nicely onto the first event on the Tuesday evening at 2100hrs. This was the get together for those attending their first IBM Convention. Now whilst I have attended many IBM’s in the UK I figured that as I had travelled several hundred miles to my first overseas IBM, that I qualified for this and so went along. Basically it was nothing more than a get together where we were told about the format of the convention and who was responsible for organising what. There were several copies of past Linking Ring magazines on all the tables available for us to take. It was then game time. We all had stickers put on our backs that had names of famous magicians on them. The idea was to then walk around the group and ask questions about who yours could be (with only a yes & no answer) until you guessed correctly the name of the one on your back. Those of you that know me well enough will know that I don’t ‘DO’ names and half the people I had never heard of! Nevertheless it was fun and it broke the ice especially when i couldn’t guess mine.. somebody called Lance Burton.. who ever he is! All our names (real ones) were then put into a box and drawn out one at a time and we were all given a gift that was either donated by the IBM or the dealers. I did quite nicely out of it with a bitten coin even if it was a US quarter! From 10pm the dealers were open for business until midnight where Mark Mason of JBMagic was by far the busiest stand of all. The Americans absolutely loved his stuff and money couldn’t change hands quick enough, he really was missing his wife who unfortunately had to fly home at short notice! Also on at this time was a lecture by Joshua Jay which I attended for only about 30 minutes as I had seen him do this same lecture when he was at Blackpool. After a further stroll around the dealers hall in which some stands hadn’t opened yet I called it a day and went to my room and had an early night but not before reading the ‘Daily Prophet’. This was the daily newsletter put together by the committee telling you of any changes etc to the convention. It was at this point that I read that due to the large number of entrants in the stage competition, the event would now be starting at 7.30AM… yes AM, rather than 8am the following morning. Could I make it …of course I could! So that was my first evening at the IBM, what was it going to be like tomorrow? Would it be swarming with registrants? would another ‘secret’ dealers hall be opened? I’d just have to wait and see. Guess what …I made it! I was there at 7.30am prompt with my toasted bagel and cream cheese along with a cup of coffee to see the first of 36 acts! Ok I confess I didn’t manage all 36, after the first 12 or so my backside felt like it didn’t belong to me so I had to leave.  The quality of the acts though were excellent, there was only one guy that I saw that really shouldn’t have been there, although he did make Stevie B look quite good! (only joking Stevie, I meant Steve Naylor!) It turned out that the competitors were in the preliminary rounds of the competition and that the top 6 acts would then go forward to the final the following evening in a theatre in front of a full house. I was pleased to hear that out of the 6 that got through to the ‘final’ I had actually seen 4 of them in the preliminaries. One young man to watch out for the future goes by the name of Eli Portala. He performed a classical act set to a what I would call a Fred Astaire theme. This involved tap dancing, cane productions, silk magic, and also a nice little section with a dancing cane ….. my favourite, not!...again those of you that know me will know that I don’t like this effect although throughout the course of the convention my opinion of it has slightly changed, I will elaborate later. He finished of with a tuxedo change and a very nice and unexpected production of his little sister. His act brought the house down and got an immediate standing ovation. Oh did I forget to mention this young man was only 10 years old!! I was very pleased that he went on to perform his act in front of a full house in the final of the competition and once again got a full standing ovation, how proud must his parents have been! Talking to his father the previous day he told me at 18months old he was able to do a one handed fan and that he had been performing this act for the last 4 years.  Another young man that I remember was a chap called Christian Compton. The reason I remember him was because he too performed the dancing cane and because he did something a little different I actually quite liked it. He wore a hat and gloves throughout his act and incorporated them into his dancing cane by juggling his hat and taking his gloves off whilst keeping the cane moving. The dancing cane is still not one of my favourite effects but this act certainly made me see it in a different way. The quality of the acts in both the stage and close-up competitions was very high and in my opinion much better than the UK competitions.
Anyway back to my questions, was it now swarming with registrants and was there another secret dealers hall?….well the simple answer is no which to be honest surprised me. Don’t get me wrong there were probably around 800 registrants but for some reason being America I expected a lot more. What I did find quite interesting from talking to people was that fact that whenever the IBM is held on the West Coast it is much better attended than on the East Coast. This has similarities with the UK IBM and the North and South venues. Then it was onto the dealers room. I think in total there were approximately 30 dealers mainly from the US although there were stands from Japan (Fukai) and the UK (JBMagic). One stand that did stand out as being a little different was a cosmetics stand (too many stands in this sentence I think..oh well!) where 2 young ladies were selling and demonstrating different types of make-up suitable for both stage and close-up workers. They were also doing free makeovers but I didn’t think they’d have enough make-up or time to help me! Every evening throughout the week shows were put on in an absolutely gorgeous theatre in downtown Miami called the Gusman Theatre. A convoy of 5 coaches transferred registrants to and from the theatre each night and when we got there we were not let down. Before each show began we were treat to the fantastic keyboard skills of close-up magician Michael Close. I have never heard him play before but I can assure you he is just as good a musician as he is a magician.  Then came the show. Two acts in particular spring to mind and they were Farrah Siegel and David & Dania. Farrah Siegel was last years youth stage champion and this year at 17yrs old she was on the main show demonstrating her skills. Once again the dancing cane came into force but this time not one but two 2 dancing canes and on top of that all performed at an amazing speed. As an ex world YOYO champion she then did some amazing tricks with YOYOs. Also included was a lovely linking ring routine using hula hoops. This act was perfection at its best and I’ll look forward to seeing her perform again in the future.
For those of you that don’t know the other act of David & Dania, really don’t know what you are missing. This act takes quick change to the limits. The speed of the costume changes was absolutely incredible and later on in the week we were given a lecture revealing some of their methods. A first class act who we were told that have on more than one occasion performed for the president. For those who are interested part of their act is available to see on their website www.costumechange.com  One other highlight of being at the show for me personally was that I got to meet Gay Blackstone in the foyer of the theatre. I got introduced to her by one of the convention committee during conversation and it was a privilege to be able to speak to her. Ironically when we all took our seats it turned out that I was actually sat next to her and a certain Mr Ali Bongo. On a side note I didn’t know until speaking to Ali that his real name is William Wallace and that he got the name Ali Bongo when he performed in a pantomime in 1947 and it has stuck ever since.
The rest of the convention was pretty much like the UK ‘version’, including lectures, close-up sessions, workshops and seminars. On the last day of the convention there was part of the proceedings dedicated to ‘An Autograph with the Stars’ which was held in the main hallway where stars of past and present were signing autographs (did you guess that bit?) I was pleased to see sat at the very end of the tables, Eli who was also there signing his autograph and having his picture taken. The final event of the convention was the ‘Strolling Olympics’ where entrants basically had to get around as many tables as they could with limited time at each one and entertain the people with their close-up magic. I wasn’t 100% sure how this was being judged or whether it even was but it was a much more laid back affair and everyone just enjoyed themselves at what was a fantastic end to an enjoyable and tiring week. All in all I enjoyed the convention even though it was a much smaller affair than I had anticipated but I think IBM organisers both sides of the pond could learn a lot from each other. I also think that if some of the registrants I spoke to whilst there came over to the Blackpool convention they would know exactly what a ‘big’ convention would be like. I made a lot of new friends whilst there and I hope to see some of them again in the future. The following day it was time for me to drive across Alligator Alley and then north to Sarrasota for a few days to visit Bob & Karin Drury, some friends that I had met at the IBM in Eastbourne 9yrs ago. Bob at the time was working on an effect that David Copperfield had become very interested in him developing for him. He did this over a period of a few years but unfortunately due to ill health was never able to finish it off fully. I did enjoy though looking through the photos of him at Copperfields house and warehouse where he has had the privilege of staying for the day. Finally it was then a 250mile drive back down to Miami for my flight to Las Vegas. I’ll tell you about that next time. | 
