Quick update

Since I had the flu for a week or so, I have not had time or energy to do much interesting stuff, but I have had plenty of time to watch old TV series. I noticed that BBC has started the second season of "The Magicians". My favorites Barry & Stuart are still on the show, but the other magicians have been replaced. The boring concept of the "forfeit" for the losing team is still in the show (and has at least been made slightly more exciting), and they also added phone voting by viewers (which leads to endless "and these are the numbers to call" announcements boring you during the show). On the plus side, all teams now do 4 tricks instead of 3, and during the tallying of the votes there is a guest performance by some unrelated magician. All the celebrities so far have been very funny, and the show is definitely recommended.

最近インフルエンザにやられてて、特に何もしていない。映画やドラマを観る機会だったけど。イギリスのテレビ局のBBCで、"The Magicians"のシーズン２が始まった。僕の好きなBarry&Stuartというマジシャン組がまだ参加している。他のマジシャンが変わった。つまらない罰ゲームがまだショーにあるし、電話で一般人が負けるチームを選ぶことになって、電話に関しての面倒なところがいっぱいあるし、ちょっと悪いほうに変わったことがある。でも、皆が今4回マジックすることになったし（前に3回だった）、毎週ゲストマジシャン1人が自由にパフォーマンスするし、いい変更もある。見たほうがいい。

Another thing I watched lately is this very funny clip from another magic TV show:

It is from the hidden camera show "T.H.E.M." and shows a quick change artist. She asks shoppers in a clothing store for advice on what clothes look good on her, and changes her whole outfit in a few seconds every time. "Was that really fast?!" etc. "How can you do that so fast?!" "I guess I just shop a lot". I like hidden camera when as here the premise is really funny and everyone is still having fun.

他にも色々な動画を観ている。アメリカにあったT.H.E.M.というショーからの動画も好きだ。服屋さんで買い物している一般人に「この服の中、どれが私に一番似合うと思う？」と聞いて、数秒で服を変える女性マジシャン。かなり面白い、笑。「何でこんなに早いの？！」「え…買い物し過ぎかな？」って。うける。

Sunday Magic ・ 日曜日にもマジック

A fairly full counter, even on a Sunday.

Yesterday I went out to the coutry side and when I was coming back through pouring rain I passed by one of our magic bars (the one I usually do not do magic in). It is normally closed on Sundays, but I had overheard our owner mention that he would be there on Sunday and keep it open at least during the early hours. So I decided to drop in to get a short break from the cold and rain.

昨日田舎に行って、帰る時に冷たい雨がかなり降ってきた。帰る途中にうちのマジックバー（僕がいない方だけど）を通るので、ちょっと雨から逃げて、リラックスしながらオーナーとマジックの話しようと思った。日曜日は普段休みなんだが今日オーナーが店に行ってやる予定だった。

An empty counter, what I expected on a Sunday.

I was expecting the place to be more or less empty, but in fact it was almost full when I got there. And our boss had just gotten off the phone with someone saying that a group of three and another group of four people were also coming soon... That would have been very difficult for him to handle alone, so he was happy to see me. And I ended up behind the counter doing magic until after midnight instead of resting in a comfortable chair and going home early to sleep.

日曜日だったので、暇だろうと思ったが入ったら、結構混んでいた。電話で後3人と4人の2組も来るって予約も入ったし。1人でなかなか出来ない感じになっていたので、オーナーが僕を見て大喜びだった、笑。結局休まず、カウンターに入って24時過ぎまでマジックをやっていた。早く寝るつもりだったのに。

It was however quite a lot of fun. People though it was funny that I could put a pen in my ear and keep it there no matter how much it looked like it would fall out.

楽しかったけど。いいお客さんばかりだった。ボールペンを耳に入れて、どうしてもペンが落ちないのが結構うけた。

Cake!

Our part time bartender Aya was also there with her friends during the early hours. She had to leave and could not help out, but since she works in a cake shop during the days she had brought cake! Very nice cake.

アルバイトのあやちゃんも友達と来ていたが早く帰った。手伝って貰えなかったが本業はケーキ屋さんなので、ケーキを持って来た。美味しかった。

My boss told me that "by the way", the place will be open next Sunday too. Hint hint.

ちなみに、来週の日曜日もやるよってオーナーに言われた、笑。

Curry and magic ・ カレーとマジック

Two magicians wading into the sea of customers to do magic.

Last Thursday I went over to our magic bar to visit my colleagues. It turned out that the whole place was reserved for a special event, but I figured I count as staff and went in anyway.

木曜日にマジックバーの友達に会いに行ったら、「貸切なう」って書いてあった。僕はスタッフだと思って、入ったけど。

Our very loyal customer (on the left), our owner, and the boss of my magic bar trying to block the whole picture when he saw me holding a camera...

Sapporo is famous for the dish "soup curry", a spicy soup, invented here. People from the more famous soup curry restaurants in town apparently have a get together once per month, and this month they were in our magic bar. One of them is one of our most frequent customers.

札幌にスープカレーという名物料理がある。スパイシーなスープだ（カレーの味とはちょっと違う）。有名なスープカレー屋の人が月に1回集まるらしい。今月、うちのマジックバーで飲んでいた。その1人がうちの常連さんだから。

Once my boss got out of the way, another colleague also happened to enter the frame "by chance".

It was quite busy, with them drinking very large quantities of alcohol compared to our usual customers. It was quite a lot of fun, though, and I ended up doing a little bit of magic too, even though it was my off day.

忙しかった。皆、普段のお客さんより飲んでいた。楽しかったけど。僕もちょっとマジックした。休みの日だったのに。

Magician's blog

The guy who I met at the faculty party who also does magic has a blog, and he found my blog and linked here :-)

His blog is here (though it is only in Japanese): http://floor13.sblo.jp/

His report about the new year party is here: http://floor13.sblo.jp/article/52874163.html
and his report about finding my blog is here: http://floor13.sblo.jp/article/53024748.html

新年会で会ったマジシャンもブログを書いている。僕のブログを見つけたみたい。
彼のブログ（日本語）はこちら：http://floor13.sblo.jp/

新年会の話：http://floor13.sblo.jp/article/52874163.html
僕のブログを見つけた話：http://floor13.sblo.jp/article/53024748.html

New Year Party Magic ・ 新年会マジック

On Friday I went to a "start of the new year"-party (Shinnenkai) with my boss, and we did table hopping there for an hour. The party was held at the Art Hotel in Sapporo, which has a very fancy party hall. We had our own room for changing etc. that also looked very impressive.

金曜日に店長と新年会でマジックをしに行った。アートホテルのお洒落なところでテーブルホッピングした。

The magic went fine, and we had 6 tables to perform for, both of us doing magic at each table, but not at the same time. Some people also started coming over to the next table to see more magic which made it more difficult for me, since I had not brought that much stuff along in my pockets since I expected every person to see only about 5 minutes of magic. I had enough so that I did not have to do the same magic at two neighboring tables, but not so much more than that.


マジックはうまくいった。6卓を回って、僕も店長も各テーブルでマジックをやった（同時にはやっていなかってけどね）。最後の方、隣のテーブルにも見に行く人も結構あったけど。1人に5分くらいのマジックしか見せないと思ったので、そんなに道具を持って行っていなかったから、2～3回見る人ならちょっときついと思った。毎回次のテーブルで前のテーブルと同じマジックしないようにしていたがそれくらいしか持っていなかった。

We had lots of fun, and got some sandwiches from the hotel too.

楽しかった。ホテルからパンも貰ったし。

Surprise magic ・ マジックにビックリ

Today we had the "start of a new year"-party for the university staff. 90 minutes of eating and drinking copious amounts. I was talking to an old friend there, and he mentioned to some other professor that I was a magician. It turned out that this other person has recently started practicing magic, and he wanted me to show him something.

I said I did not have anything with me to do magic with, but he ran off to get his bag and produced a (Bicycle) deck of cards! I did a short trick, and he did some tricks himself. Later he asked me to do other tricks over and over, so I ended up doing quite a few during the course of the evening. I also ended up running out of business cards by handing out cards to everyone who expressed an interest in coming to our magic bar... I was quite surprised at finding a magician (in training) at the faculty dinner.

今日北大職員新年会に行って来た。90分の食べ飲み放題だった。友達と喋ったら、友達の知り合いの先生に紹介されて、「この外人さんがマジシャンなんだ」って。その先生も最近マジックの練習をし始めたそうだ！びっくり。何か見せてって言われた。

何も持って来てないと言ったがその先生が自分のバッグからまさかのバイシクルのトランプを取り出した、笑。僕が適当にトランプのマジックをして、彼も色々見せた。その後も何回もまた何か見せてと言われたので、結局色々やった。結局名刺も配りまくって、名刺切れた、笑。マジックバーが札幌にあること知らない人が多くて、マジック見たらもっとみたい人も多くて、名刺をもっと沢山持って行けば良かった。大学の職員の新年会でマジシャンに出会えると思わなかった。

Magic in Saitama ・ 埼玉でマジックショー

Magic bag (top) and bag with clothes (bottom)

I went to Saitama for New Years. My brother and his girlfriend came to Saitama (from Sweden) too, so we met up there.  I was asked to do magic when I was there, so half of my bags where just magic props.

お正月に埼玉に行って来た。弟も彼女と一緒に埼玉に来たので、そこで会えた。埼玉でマジックショーをやって下さいと頼まれたので、バッグ半分くらいがマジック道具だった。

I did three magic shows, one for my brother's girlfriend's younger brother who was only home for one day (the rest of the time he had to work), and two shows at a party where lots of friends and other guests also showed up, apart from the family living in the house we were staying.

マジックショーを3回した。一回目は弟の彼女の弟さんの為だった。1日の休みしかなかったので、他の人がまだ来ていなかったのに、その時しかなかった。他の6人くらいも見ていたけど。他の時は10人くらいのお客さんがいた。

Some people had seen me do magic last year too, and some saw several (or all) of this years shows too, so I was running low on new material to show. Especially since there are some things you cannot fly with (fire magic stuff) or would prefer not to lug around when travelling (illusions).

去年のお正月も埼玉で過ごして、その時もマジックやったし、今年のマジックを毎回見ていた人もいたし、ネタ切れになりそうだった、笑。持って行ける道具も限られているし（ファイヤーのマジックとか、飛行機で厳しい・イリュージョンが重くて持って行きたくない）。

Not my FRISK, but still funny

Everything went fine, though. I produced lots of ball pens, did some card tricks, etc. One very popular trick was using a pack of FRISK breath mints, changing in size, changing the text on it, etc. Later, a girl showed up late and she had a tiny FRISK box attached to her phone, which was funny for everyone who had seen the FRISK magic, and which surprised me :-)

全然大丈夫だったけど。ペンを沢山出したり、カードマジックもしたり、ギャグネタ色々見せたりした。FRISKを使ったマジックが凄くうけた。大きさや書いてあることが変わるマジックだ。その後来た女の子が携帯にちっちゃなFRISK付けてあって、それもうけた、笑。僕もビックリした。

Some of the very popular rabbits.

The most popular trick was using a bunch of sponge rabbits. Last year was the year of the rabbit, so it was quite fitting. Rabbits are easy to talk about in Japan too, since Japanese people have some interesting beliefs about rabbits. The rabbits were so popular so that people who had seen it last year wanted to see it again, and people who had seen it before dinner wanted to see it after dinner too, etc. So a rabbit encore was called for, and though I declined at first, everyone was VERY persistent, so in the end I gave in and did the trick once more (should prepare for this and pack a different ending to the trick too, next time...). It seemed that surprisingly enough, most people did still not catch on, and everyone were happy.

一番うけたのはスポンジのウサギのマジックだった。去年ウサギ年だったから、いい繋がりもあった。日本人のうさぎに関しての考え方も、喋りしやすくなるところがあるので、よく使う道具だ。去年もやったけど。でも、去年や今年見た人でも、またアンコールで観たいって、頼んだ人何人もいた。断ったが皆がかなりしつこかったので、結局もう一回やった。それでも、ほとんど誰もわからなかったみたい。また大うけ。又今度別のオチも持って行こう…