The Billet Article - Presidential

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 440 - Nov 2008, Authored by Nicholas Mohammed

Presidential

I hope that you are all very well and surviving this cold weather! Brrrr. (I don't have a decent heater down in London which is irritating - to say the least!) Fortunately, I'm up in Leeds for the weekend (having just attended a Northern Magic Circle Council meeting) though I would argue it's even colder up here! Luckily my parents keep the house quite tropical - climate-wise - and so that's nice. I may even develop a(nother) tan!! I do like the north though, over the south - the accent's much better even if the weather's a bit harsher!

I treated myself to a new magic book the other day as I was passing through Charing Cross and so thought would stop in at Davenports. I got Try The Impossible, Simon Aronson's latest book on card magic and I can thoroughly recommend it whether you're a card fan or not. It's packed full of some superb principles, ideas and routines for cards and other close-up items. But the best thing, is a lot of the seeming control happens automatically (whether it be for 'stacked' reasons, or 'key card' reasons) leaving you to really focus on the presentation, and there's some mightily deceptive self-working stuff in there. I genuinely don't know how he's come up with a lot of it. Some of the thinking that must go into writing up the methods is extraordinary! Anyway, that's my monthly plug taken care of! (Wasn't it The Art of Astonishment books I was going on about last Billet! They're good too still!)

I'm genuinely excited about the forthcoming dinner, I do hope that many of you can make it, sounds like it's going to be a smashing night. And I'll FINALLY get to meet you all - it's been quite some time! - which am very much looking forward to. Harry Nicholls will be up performing as part of the after-dinner cabaret, who tutored me when I was a youngster, and so am very much looking forward to that. Plus my parents are coming along too. It's been ages since they've attended a magical event, but in the past they've thoroughly enjoyed them and so I'm sure there'll love this one too. (Imagine if they hated it?!)

Without letting my NMC duties exploit the use of this page, can I just do another quick plug for those of who are thinking (or maybe haven't even yet considered) attending the NMC's Spring Parade (4th and 5th April 2009). It's going to be a wonderful, well-priced, action-packed weekend and would be wonderful to see you there if possible. It clashes with the Grand National and is in Southport and so well worth booking early if you can. For more information, please visit the website at: www.northernmagic.co.uk

Right everyone, look after yourselves and look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Until then, best magical wishes.

P.S I'm already getting a bit nervous about the walk in to the room, with everyone starting off with that slow clap... It's a President's nightmare!

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