Magic Festival - Day 13

It's over...

We just got back from the final day of The Melbourne Magic Festival and what a day! All five of the shows had big audiences - people seemed to be coming out of nowhere eager to see the magic.

The third (7.30pm) performance of 'The Wizards of Aus' was the funniest of all 24 performances with hilarious volunteers and lots of unexpected surprises. I really think 'The Wizards of Aus' is a kids show that adults enjoy on a whole different level!

MagiComedy was great too with Lee Cohen and Al Cappuccino as guest artists while Mat Unwin hosted superbly. It's always a pleasure to see Enzo Ficco's magical gangster in action.

Finally we had the 9.30pm performance of 'Something About Needles & Razorblades' (which Mat videoed for it so Sue-Anne could finally get to watch. She does the tech for show blind, from behind a curtain, so she can never ever see it live). Again, we had some extreme reactions. One lady found it incredibly hard to cope as I sliced my finger in her lap, and a young boy refused point blank to slam his hand down on what could have been a broken beer bottle - his mother was laughing saying "I knew you couldn't do it", so I made her switch places with him and slam her hand down instead!  ;)

Then it was bump out. Lee Cohen returned to help, and Brendan's daughter Hannah did her bit, but I must give extra special thanks to Sue-Anne, Brendan, and Enzo who all jumped in and worked extremely professionally to bump virtually everything from the theatre in record time. We just have to stop by tomorrow to pick up one big illusion and all of our rigging stuff. Then, after a few weeks of paperwork and post mortems, the Melbourne Magic Festival will be over until June next year.

It's been a great two weeks. Exhausting, but energising and inspiring at the same time. It's just such a buzz to brainstorm with colleagues and watch them try out ideas the next night. I think this Festival has generated at least five new shows that can really be taken anywhere, and I know we've got several new routines that are going to be added to our corporate repertoire.

Best of all though, has been the fact that well over two thousand people have come and enjoyed the magic, and left the shows thoroughly amazed and eager to see more.