Magic bar review: Magic Bar Joker ・ マジックバージョーカー

My friend U-san, the master, me, and the young magician.

In April 2011 I went to the magic bar "Joker" with a magician friend from Sapporo. We entered right at the opening time, and we were the only customers at that early hour. The bar is quite small, with mainly a small counter that we sat at. Joker is the most expensive magic bar I have been to so far, with 7000 yen for one hour (Half Moon, that I wrote about before (and coincidentally lies 23 seconds walk away from Joker), costs 8000 yen but for a longer show). It includes unlimited drinks, and more or less unlimited snacks like peanuts, chocolate, etc. The snacks included strawberries, and were quite impressive.

2011年の4月にマジックバージョーカーに札幌のマジシャン友達と一緒に行った。早い時間に入ったので、まだ他のお客さんがいなかった。店が結構狭くて、小さなカウンターがメインできれいだった。1時間7000円で今まで行ったマジックバーの中の一番高かった。（前のブログネタになったハーフムーンが8000円だが時間がもっと長い。）飲み放題とお菓子食べ放題付きだった。お菓子の中イチゴもあったからちょっと感動した。

Snacks included in the price (free refills!) and a fork that ended up looking weird.

First, a young magician did a fairly long performance for us. He was very good and also very funny. My friends 1000 yen bill ended up inside a green pepper fruit for instance. He also produced lots of strange things like rubber corn out of our armpits. The funniest thing was when he produced lots of things out of a coin purse that was just the metal frame (so it would seem to contain nothing), and a small very fancy looking bottle appeared. We marveled at this beautiful bottle, probably containing Champagne. He said: "Actually, it is a bottle of body soap which just looks like an expensive bottle of Champagne". Which was true. While we marveled at the genius of designing a bottle of shower gel to look like expensive Champagne, another bottle also appeared out of the purse frame without us noticing it. That first bottle was quite possibly the funniest thing I have seen produced by magic. 

最初に若いマジシャンが結構長いパフォーマンスをしてくれた。上手だったし、面白かったし。例えば、友達の1000円札がピーマンの中から出てきた。うちらの脇の下からトウモロコシとかを出したりしたし。一番面白かったのは、がま口というか口金だけからコインとかを出したりして、突然瓶も出てきた。お洒落なシャンパンの瓶に見えたが、「実はこれがボディーソープなんだよ」と言われた。よく見たら、そうだった！その瓶に感動した。感動しながら、口金から本当のシャンパンの瓶も出てきた。全く気付かなかった。マジックで現れたものの中で、あのボディーソープが多分今までの一番面白かったと思う。

Not only was the magician quite skilled (though he flashed from time to time during the coin magic), he was also very funny to talk to. He did lots of coin and card magic and bent a fork. I also liked a trick where a cut open card box (very 2D) turned into a 3D card box actually containing a full deck of cards. Probably very angle sensitive, but still funny. 

上手だった（たまにコインがフラッシュしたけど）だけではなく、喋りや見せ方も結構面白かった。コイン・カード・フォーク曲げがあった。切られた（2次元）トランプの箱が突然普通の箱（3次元）になって、トランプ52枚が出てきたネタも結構面白かった。角度厳しそうだな、笑。

Other things we received: an unopened PET-bottle with my signature, a card signed by my friend cut out from a lemon, the owners business card, a photo taken when we did not notice.

Then the master/owner of the bar also did a fairly long performance for us. He did an unbelievable number of tricks that could all be closing tricks in any magic bar. My friends 50 yen coin ended up in a glass bottle after being signed (switching a signed coin was impressive) despite being too large to insert; a crushed and empty can of Coca Cola was returned to unopened and full status by magic; a signed card ended up in an unopened PET-bottle, another signed card ended up inside a lemon; and more. He was good, though sometimes you could see for instance his break when doing the ambitious card with an omni-deck. The trick I liked most was when he showed a photo of a bunch of fruits, put the photo into a book/album, and when he reopened the book, lots of fruits fell out. Including a grapefruit that would be impossible to fit inside a closed book, to say the least, haha.

その後、店のマスターも長いパフォーマンスしてくれた。レベル高くて、〆にしてもいいネタを信じられないほど沢山やっちゃった。友達の50円にサインして、そのコインが物理的に無理なのに、グラスの瓶に入った（サインコインのスイッチ、初めて見たと思う、笑）。コーラの缶の復活。サインカードが新品のペットボトルに入った。別のサインカードが本物のレモンに入った。色々あった。上手だった（たまに、アンビシャスのオムニデックの時のブレーキが見えたりしたけど）。一番好きだったマジックは、果物が写っている写真を見せて、本（アルバム？）に入れて、本閉じて、本開くと本物の果物が沢山出てきた！グレープフルーツとか。本にどう考えても入らないものだった、笑。

We also received a photo taken of us when we were watching magic, that we did not notice when they took. All in all, we got to see a lot of high level magic, and a lot of it was not only high level but also very entertaining. While it was expensive, it was probably worth the money.

気付いていない時に撮られた写真とかも貰った。レベル高いマジックを沢山生で見ることになって、楽しかった。ちょっと高かったがその値段でもいいと思う。

My friends 1000 yen bill ended up inside a green pepper and thus smelling strange so he got a new one, which was folded like a shirt (also a word play joke in Japanese, were bill is "satsu" and shirt is "shatsu").

Summary:

Location: good, near Shinbashi and Ginza stations, where there are many magic bars (only a 23 second walk from the magic bar Half Moon, according to Google maps)

Type of magic: close up

Quality of magic: generally very high, lots of very high level magic done in a short time

Cost: 7000 yen (for 60 minutes)

Interior: small, but clean and nice

Staff: nice. Apart from the two magicians there was also a female bartender. Especially the young magician was nice and funny.

Overall impression: the most expensive magic bar so far, but a lot of high level magic. Maybe too many closing level strength effects done right after each other, which lessens the impact of the individual effects.

まとめ：

場所：いい、新橋や銀座の近く。他のマジックバーが回りに沢山あるところ（ハーフムーンが歩いて23秒だそうだ（Google Mapsによれば、細かいなぁ））

マジックの種類：クローズアップ

マジック：レベル高い。上手。

値段：1時間7000円

インテリア：狭いがきれい

スタッフ：マジシャン2人以外に女の人のバーテンもいた。皆優しかった。特に若いマジシャンが面白かった

全体的な印象：今まで一番値段高かったがレベル高いマジックを沢山やる。もしかしたら、レベル高いネタを出しすぎ、1個1個のネタのインパクトが弱くなっているかもしれない。