Recently I went to Osaka for a business trip and I had a chance to visit the magic bar "
A - majide" on the night before our meeting. The guy running A-majide is the same guy that ran the magic bar
A-omoro when I was in Osaka last time, and these bars are very similar. I wore a t-shirt saying "I am not Japanese" in Japanese, which they kindly enough commented on a lot (most people in Japan do, since they think it is obvious that I am not Japanese even without that shirt).
最近出張で大阪に行ってきた。「
エーマジで」というマジックバーにもいけた。エーマジでの店長は前に行った「
あーおもろ」の店長だった。その店とよく似ている店なんだ。僕が「日本人ではありません」と書いてあるティシャツを着て入ったから、大阪の人が勿論皆突っ込んでくれた。見た目がかなり外国人なので、ティシャツが必要ないって言われる。
The interior design was nice. There was one show area, with a crescent shaped table with 7 or 8 seats, good lighting, a sound system, a good mat, and good line of sights for everyone watching. There was also a bar counter where they also did some magic, and where they served drinks and let you sit and chat when they were not doing magic.
店のインテリアがきれいだ。マジックショー用の半月のテーブルがあって、７～８人が座れる。そこはライト・サウンド・マットとか、色々ショーに良いことが出来る。バーのカウンターもあって、そこでもマジックを見せてくれる。飲み物作ったり喋りしたりするところだ。
When I entered, a magician called Korogi was in the middle of a magic show for four Japanese men at the bar counter. I was asked to sit next to them and watch the rest of the performance with them. Korogi did some fork bending, with some ideas I had not seen before, he did a card trick were a beef patty (not real, but looking real and the same size as a real edible one) shows up in a deck of cards without you noticing how it got there (one of my friends in Sapporo also used to do this trick a lot), and he managed to make a deck of cards that I had shuffled end up in order from Ace to King in each suit through some magical means. He was pretty good and quite funny.
僕が入った時にバーのカウンターでコオロギというマジシャンがお客さん４人にマジックを見せていた。僕が隣に座って一緒に観た。フォーク曲げ（僕が観たことない技も入ってた）・トランプからハンバーグが出てくる（僕の札幌の友達もよくやっていた）・僕が切ったトランプが全部不思議なように揃ったマジックを見せてくれた。上手だったし、面白かったし。
Next, "master Kubo" ("master" as in the boss of the place, indicating the owner) did a magic show for us after we had moved to the crescent shaped table. He did some rubber band magic, some card tricks where selected cards ended up under the glass of a spectator, mystically moving out of the deck without anyone touching it, ended up stuck to the arm of another spectator far up under his suit sleeve, etc. He also did a mentalist trick were each spectator in order got to pick either a cell phone, a wallet, or a watch that were all borrowed from different spectators. Despite having his back to us, master Kubo always managed to guess which object we took. Another mentalist effect was were he asked each of for some information, such as "Where would you go if you were to abroad tomorrow? What will you have for lunch tomorrow? What is the name of some girl you like now?" etc. When we all had answered one question each, he showed us a fan letter he had received this morning. When opening this and taking out the letter, it contained a huge letter (like 1 meter wide huge) with huge lettering stating: "Hi, this is [name of girl someone had mentioned]. I am writing to you from [country I mentioned] to thank you for the [food someone mentioned] dinner we had" and so on. Finally there were some levitating effects and a rose made from tissue turned into a real rose. A very nice show.
次、マスター久保が半月のショーテーブルでマジックショーをやってくれた。輪ゴムのマジック・トランプマジック（グラスの下・触っていないのカードが動く・お客さんの袖の中に選んだカードが張り付いているとか）色々見せてくれた。メンタリズムもあった。お客さんから借りた財布・携帯・時計があって、マジシャンが見ていないのに、お客さんが好きなものを持つとマジシャンが何を取ったか分かるマジック。他にも、皆に質問して、「明日旅行すれば、どこに行く？明日何を食べる？最近気になった女の子の名前は？」、手紙を出した。封筒から手紙を出すと意外にでかい（１メートルくらい）手紙に「○○ちゃんです（お客さんの気になっている女の子の名前）。今中国（僕が選んだ国）に来てて、この間一緒に食べたオムライス（お客さんが言った食べ物）が美味しかったね！」とか…全部当てた。最後に浮く系マジックがあって、ティッシュのバラが本物になった。凄かった。面白かった。
Osaka is famous in Japan for having many comedians, and every citizen of Osaka is expected to be funny. The staff of A - majide were all pretty funny, and after the magic was finished it was a lot of fun just listening to them talking too.
大阪は勿論お笑いも有名だ。大阪人皆お笑い芸人みたいなイメージがある。エーマジでのスタッフがその通り。マジックをやっていない時にほとんど漫才みたいになっている。面白かった。
Summary:
Location: In the middle of the Osaka entertainment district.
Type of magic: Close up.
Quality of magic: Good.
Cost: Very cheap, 2000 yen charge and then you pay for what you drink. I paid about 4000 yen total.
Interior: Nice, especially liked the magic show area.
Staff: Very funny and friendly.
Of special note: When not doing magic, the staff is constantly doing stand up comedy, which was funny.
Overall impression: Very funny. Cheap. Good magic. Open late. Highly recommended.
まとめ：
場所：大阪の遊ぶところの真ん中で良かった
マジックの種類：クローズアップ
マジックの質：良かった
値段：安かった。チャージ2000円、そして飲んだ分の飲み物払う。僕は4000円で終わった。
インテリア：きれいだ。特にマジックショー用のエリア。
スタッフ：面白い！
得点：マジックをやっていない時に漫才になっているから面白い
全体的な印象：面白い！安い。マジックも良い。遅くまでやっている。かなりおすすめする。
