Friday, September 12, 2008

31 Faces North 2008

Our sixth 31 Faces North conference – produced in association with Allan Slaight – was held August 14 to 17, 2008. Participants generate programming and this year, we saw unprecedented levels of sharing and collaboration in the art of magic. Honoured guests were Herb Zarrow and Ton Onosaka.

David Ben gave a tribute lecture in honour of Herb and Herb’s tremendous contribution to magic. David also highlighted Herb's vast body of work, sharing some wonderful touches, thoughts and subtleties of Herb's trademark style. David also commented on his research for the forthcoming volume, Zarrow: A Lifetime of Magic. For our second guest of honour, Max Maven interviewed Ton Onosaka, and drew out (bilingually) highlights of Ton's fascinating life for participants to discover. Most interesting was Ton’s lifetime commitment of bridging magic communities between the Eastern and Western worlds.

Another time-honoured tradition at 31 is the presentation of the Marshall Award, (in honour of Jay Marshall). Attendees voted Jim Steinmeyer as the 31er who contributed the most towards the conference’s success. Past winners of the Marshall Award are: Tommy Wonder (2003), Michael Close (2004), Billy McComb (2005), William Goodwin (2006), and David Ben (2007).

Also, thanks to the gathering of 31, Magicana as able to produce two special lectures for the greater Toronto magic community by Roberto Giobbi and Eric Mead. (See our previous post on the seminars and the Tony Eng Youth Challenge.) As promised, Eric brought friends to his lecture and had an all-star magic team, including Jason England, Michael Weber and Jamy Ian Swiss share pet secrets with the enthusiastic audience.

As a surprise for all our participants, Magicana released two new publications, How Gamblers Win and Spins & Needles: The Magic of Allan Slaight. Even as the co-host of this event, we were able to surprise Allan at our Farewell Dinner with the presentation of his collected work. Both volumes are now available from our website or from your favourite magic shop.

No comments:

Post a Comment