The Frisk that disappeared and the magician that changed

On Monday, my magic maniac friends e-mailed me and said they were meeting at one of our magic bars in the evening again. I went to our other magic bar first, to hand over some souvenirs from Poland, and then went to the magic bar they said they would come to. They were not there, but three girls that said they know one of my friends were.

月曜日にマジックマニアの友達からメールが来て、うちのマジックバーの２号店で夜にマニア会やるって。僕が最初に１号店にポーランドからのお土産を渡しに行った。そして、２号店に行った。２号店に友達がいなかったが女の子お客さんはそのマニア友達知っているって言ってた。

I e-mailed my friend and said "you are not here, but someone who knows you is". He replied that they were instead in the other magic bar (the one I had just left) and would come in a little bit... It took them about 2.5 hours before they got to the magic bar where I was (walking fast, you can go between these places in 5 minutes, and walking slowly it might take 10 minutes).

友達に「知り合いが２号店にいるみたいよ」とメールしたら、「今マニア皆１号店にいる」って返信が来た…もうちょっとで２号店に行くって。もうちょっとって、結局２時間半くらい経った（速く歩けば、５分で着く、遅く歩けば、１０分掛かるかもしれない）。

Anyway, we still had fun without them. Two of the girls had met my friend, and they had also met our boss of the magic bar. They said they had met someone from our magic bar and that he had showed them a magic trick. Our boss said it was probably him, but they said no. They described the magic trick, and everyone kept thinking "Yes, sounds like our boss". After a few minutes of them adding more information and everyone still saying "Yes, this guy here in front of you!" and them not believing it, they finally said "And his name was something like 'Uchi ... ...'". Yes, our boss, Uchiyama-san. Apparently, he has gained so much weight in these two years that they refused to believe it was him, haha. We (the rest of the staff) laughed a lot at this, though it is not the first time this has happened. People come with a pamphlet with a picture of him doing magic and say to his face: "We want to see this guy!", "Yes, that is me", "Nono, THIS guy" (again pointing at a picture of him), haha.

まぁ、マニア友達がいなくても結構楽しかった。お客さん２人が僕のマニア友達に会ったことがあったそうだ。うちの店長も会ったことがあった。「このマジックバーの人も会ったことある」って。店長が「うん、多分私だ」って。「ううん、違う人だった」。どんなマジックを見せて貰ったとか、色々教えて貰ったら、スタッフ全員「うん、店長だよね」と思った。毎回そう言っても「違う」と言われたけど（笑）。「名前はうち○○、だったかな？」って。「内山だよね」（店長の名前）。それで、やっと認めた。２年間で結構太ったみたいで、同じ人だと気付かれていなかった（笑）。他の時にもそういうことがあった。雑誌を持ってきたお客さんが店長の写真を指差して
「この人に会いたい」って。
「私ですけど」
「違う！この人！」（また店長の写真を指差す、笑）

When my friend showed up from the other magic bar, he also had to do some magic for the girls. It turned out that the person who he gave his "huge Frisk breathmint" magic prop to was one of these girls. He complained a lot about giving that away, since it is a great and funny prop, and since it is no longer sold except in one very expensive shop... for about twice the price he originally paid. I finally got to meet the person who received (and apparently only used a few times) his Frisk. She was interested in learning some magic tricks, though, and even showed us a trick where she made a coin disappear and a card trick. I taught her how to make a business card levitate, kind of, which is what she is doing in the picture above.

友達が来たら、彼も女の子たちにマジックを見せることになった。彼が前に誰かの女の人にデカいフリスクのマジック道具をあげたってずっと言ってた。後悔してたみたい。新しいフリスクはどこでも売っていなかったし、やっととこかで売っている店を見つけたら、自分で買った時より倍高くなっていたし。僕がやっとそのフリスクを貰った女の人に会えた、笑。フリスクほとんど使ったことないと言ったし。マジックに興味があるけど。コインを消すマジックも、まあまあレベル高いトランプのマジックも見せてくれた。僕が名刺を浮かすマジックを教えてあげた。

After the regular guests left, we had a very entertaining mania meeting too. To decide who had to perform for the others, instead of drawing cards like we often do, everyone had to vanish a coin. Then the people watching had to guess where it went, and the person who fooled the least number of people had to perform magic for everyone. In a similar vein, everyone had to do the three card monte, and the person with the most people correctly guessing where the ace went had to do magic, and the person who fooled the least number of people with where the two sponges went had to perform etc. This was a great way to decide!

普通なお客さんが帰ってから、楽しいマニア会もあった。普段、カードを引いて負けた人がマジック見せないと行けないシステムでやっているが今回はコインをバニッシュして、他の人に一番ばれた人がマジックを見せないと行けないことだった。カードのモンテをやって、エースがどこにあるか、一番当てられた人がマジックを見せる。スポンジはどこに行ったか、一番ばれた人がマジックを見せる。このやり方で結構盛り上がった。