PCAM day 4

The final day at the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians (PCAM) convention was a show day for me. I skipped the card clinic in the morning to prep my show for the afternoon. Here’s what I look like before showtime (I’ll add the after later in this post)!

magician

The show went well, it took a few minutes to warm up the audience, but they were great!

magic show
magic show
magic show
magic show

A lot of magicians are nervous about performing for magicians. One way to look at it is that they are just people, and in theory, if they’re at a magic convention, they are magic fans. That should give you a head start, as they’ll likely appreciate what you’re doing, unlike a dentist convention.

Here I am after the show, a sweaty mess!

magician

After my show, it was a dinner break, then wrapping up the evening was the One Handed Cut A Thon and the Bag of Tricks contest.

The One-Handed Cut-A-Thon was for whoever could do the most charlier cuts in a minute for the first round and the most in 90 seconds for the final round.

I made it to the final round, but unfortunately, I didn’t win. I did win the Slickest One-Hand Cut award!


Then it was the Bag of Tricks contest. In this contest you get a paper bag with about 14 items and you have to come up with an routine using only those items. You have to use all 14 items or you get a deduction. All the bags were the same, except that each bag had one wild card item, that was different in each bag.

I entered as a team with Mike Norden. Our wildcard item was a tiny smock.

We ended up getting second place, but it was a ton of fun!

The PCAM convention was a ton of fun, and it’s really a family there. Everyone is cool and open to hang out with anyone! I highly recommend this convention to anyone!

-Louie

PCAM Magic Convention Day 3

The third day of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians Convention started with the Teach a Trick workshops.

magic workshop

These are hands on workshops which ran about 20 minutes each. There were several stations that the magicians rotated through. It was a lot of fun and a great way to make sure everyone took away something new!

After lunch we had the contest awards presentation. You can see the full list with pictures on the PCAM’s facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pcam.magic/permalink/10162386689637266/

The next event was one of the things I was really looking forward to, and that was Peter Samelson’s show. I’ve heard a lot about him, read his book Theatrical Close Up.

peter samelson

His show wasn’t what I was expecting. That’s not bad, in fact, I really loved his show. I thought it was going to be a more “artsy” show, but his show was amazing and FUN! I chatted with him about this, and he said that he used to do a more artsy show, but wanted to do a more fun show, and he definitely succeeded in that!

After the show it was a happy hour magic jam in one of the ship’s bars.

magic jam

Later that night we had Peter Samelson’s lecture. It’s a great lecture on a 12 minute act that has a lot of texture to it. His Ashes on Palm stuff is amazing!

The evening wrapped up with some late night BS’ing and magic jam

It was a super fun day! Tomorrow, the ship stops at Santa Barbara, CA, which is the ship’s only stop on this short run. Tomorrow is also my show day; I have an afternoon show at 3:30 pm, so I need to go through my gear and make sure I have everything I need for it.

-Louie