Below the belt magic

I saw this painting on the wall in Magic Bar Stockholm. If you look close enough, it turns out this magician is using an unusual method to levitate the woman.

この絵がマジックバーストックホルムにあった。よく見たら、美女が浮くイリュージョンにだいぶ珍しいやり方を使っているんだね！ｗ

The Akkey Theater illusion show

Today I went to see Akkey Theater. This was a 90 minute illusion and magic show. It was a lot of fun, as always when Akkey is performing. There were live doves, sponge doves, cards, shoes set on fire, illusions with scantily clad girls, and an alpaca challenge.

今日Akkey Theaterというマジックショーを見に行った。90分のイリュージョンとかの面白いマジックショーだった。本物の鳩・スポンジの鳩・トランプ・燃えている靴・イリュージョン・露出度の高い女の子・アルパカチャレンジ、色々あった。

Akkey, his assistants, and me

The challenge was a "Akkey can entertain anyone" vs. "these alpacas are not interested in anything" battle where Akkey had to do magic in front of a group of alpacas and if they remained uninterested he would lose. They first completely ignored some very nice card magic, but some production type effects caught their interest, haha.

アルパカチャレンジは「アッキーが誰にも楽しませる」と「うちのアルパカ、何も興味持たない」みたいな作戦だった。アッキーがアルパカにマジックを見せて、特に興味なかったらアッキーの負け。結構面白いトランプマジックを見せてもアルパカは興味なかったが出現のマジックで結構食いついたから、結果はアッキーの勝ちだった。笑ったなぁ。

You could buy stuffed alpacas after the show

I liked the dancing handkerchief best, but everything at the show was nice. It was also funny that when some assistant was wheeling a huge table with a girl that just appeared by magic out of the room, Akkey said: "Wait!". "Yesterday's questionnaires had lots of people saying 'we want to see more of Miyu-chan', so lets just leave her in view a little bit longer. OK, you can go. .... She is going to be angry with me later". There were lots of funny in-jokes that most people would not understand too.

踊っているハンカチが一番好きだったが全部面白かった。アシスタントがマジックで出現した女の子が乗っている台を部屋から出す時にアッキーが突然「ちょっと待って！」と言った「昨日のアンケートで『みゆちゃんをもっと見たい』という意見があったから、もうちょっと見せよう」と言った。「後でみゆちゃんに怒られるんだろう」って。色々な知り合いしか分からないギャグも沢山あった。面白かった。

Making the groom disappear at a wedding

I walked around downtown with a huge carpet and a strange looking book while waiting for the wedding guests to clear the lobby, and I got some pretty weird looks.

On Saturday I did some magic at a wedding. The bride and groom wanted to surprise all the guests with a magician, and they also wanted to participate in some illusion magic themselves. We met and practiced in secret twice before the wedding, and on Saturday the groom disappeared. First the couple took the stage and showed a big piece of cloth, which was then wrapped around the groom. When the bride unwrapped this, the groom was gone and instead, I was there. From my place, I could not see anything until I appeared out of the cloth, so I could not really tell if things went well, but I was told later that the illusion went great.

土曜日に結婚披露宴でマジックショーをやった。新郎新婦はゲストのサプライズでマジックを用意した。一緒にイリュージョンやりたいと言っていたし。結婚披露宴で、新郎さんが（マジックで）消えた。披露宴の前にも2回会って、一緒に練習した。新郎新婦さんが披露宴でステージに上がって、デカい布を広げて見せた。新郎さんが布の中に隠れて、新婦さんが後でその布をとったら、新郎さんがもういなかったが代わりに僕がそこにいた。僕の隠れていた場所から最後まで何も見えなかったから、どうなったか分からなかったが後で「大成功だった！」と言われた。

After that I ran around between the different tables and did table magic while the bride and groom where away changing clothes. I covered 11 tables in 30 minutes, and everyone was very happy. Weddings are nice in this way, everyone is happy to start with so you get great reactions.

その後、新郎新婦さんがお色直しに行っている間に僕がテーブルを回って、テーブルマジックを見せた。30分で11テーブルを回った。皆喜んでくれた。結婚式とか、皆がやる前からもう喜んでいるから、リアクションが良いんだよね。

After the bride and groom came back, they had me produce a present for one of the guests who had his birthday very close to this day (if not exactly on Saturday). I produced a bottle of wine from a balloon, which is probably the most common magic trick when it comes to this type of  "produce a present in front of lots of people".

新郎新婦さんが帰って来てから、その日の近い日のお誕生日の人にプレゼントを渡すこともあったから、僕がマジックでプレゼントを出すこともあった。風船からワインを出すマジックをした。大人数の前でプレゼントを出すマジックなら、一番よくあるマジックだと思う。

My training bottle, and the remains of the surprisingly sturdy balloon.

A few months back, one of my magician colleagues did exactly this trick in our magic bar, and managed to hurt himself very badly. The floor was covered in blood, the bottle was covered in blood, and he had to be rushed to a hospital in the middle of night to be stitched up. He could not do magic (or wash the dishes in the bar etc.) for several weeks, and he spent his vacation in Korea with a huge bandage around his finger and lots of stitches. He recovered just fine in the end though.

何ヶ月前に、マジシャン同僚が同じマジックをやって大怪我した。床が血まみれになった。ボトルも血まみれ。救急車は呼ばなかったがタクシーですぐ夜中もやっているクリニックに行かないと行けないことになった。その後もしばらくマジックも洗い物も出来なかったし。韓国旅行でずっと指が大変なことに見えていたし。結局きれいに治ったけどね。

Ever since that incident, people in our magic bar have been reticent about using that method for producing bottles or presents, haha. I have done that trick many times before, but this time was the first time after the blood bath incident. I think I was a bit nervous, and for the first time I had the dreaded "boooiiing" [sound of balloon not exploding] happen to me (the balloon not breaking when you want it to)... It broke very soon afterwards, and I was told later that there were at least some people who were still very much fooled, haha. While the execution was not perfect, at least I finished with a bottle that had not even one drop of blood on it, which is good.

その時から、うちのマジックバーで誰もそのマジックやりたくなくなった（笑）。僕もそのマジック何回もやったことがあるが血まみれの事件の後の初めてのパフォーマンスになった。やっぱりその血まみれのボトルを思い出して、ちょっと緊張していたみたい。僕の初めての「ば～いん」ってなった（割れて欲しいタイミングに風船が割れないってこと）。手が速くて、その後すぐ割れたけど。後で話を聞いたら、全然分からなかった人も結構いたみたい。ボトルに血、一滴も付いていなかったし（笑）。

Magic and other strange things at the Sapporo festival

Thursday to Friday we had the "Hokkaido Shrine Festival" and the "Sapporo Festival" here in Sapporo. At these, you can get lots of interesting food, and you can see some performances of different kinds. I enjoyed a performance with a monkey doing tricks.

木・金・土曜日に北海道神宮祭と札幌祭りがあった。色々なパフォーマンスがあった。猿が漫才みたいなことをやったパフォーマンスが凄く良かった。

Woman standing on a box

There was also a tent that said it sported a mysterious show. It included a woman eating a live snake, and another woman doing a magic trick. A woman with huge boobs floated in the air.

Woman floating in the air

他に不思議なパフォーマンスが色々あると書いてあったテントにも入った。まだ生きている蛇をそのまんま食べる女の人がいたし、イリュージョンをやる女の人もいたし（巨乳の女の人が空中に浮いていた）、面白かった。

Woman biting into a live snake

The woman who ate parts of a snake also threw something into the audience after she was finished. It looked like she threw the leftovers from the snake, but was in fact a rubber toy snake. Very nice reaction from the people standing next to me that got hit by the "snake".

Woman eating parts of a snake that was no longer alive

蛇を食べた女の人が食べ終わった時に蛇の残り物っぽいものをお客さんに投げた。うまいタイミングでほんとの蛇とおもちゃの蛇を入れ替えたので、投げたのはガムの蛇だったが僕の隣に立っていて、投げた蛇あたった女の子たちのリアクションが凄かったね、笑。

Making the Sapporo TV Tower disappear ・ 札幌のテレビ塔を消す

I was bored during the weekend and decided to try to make the Sapporo TV tower disappear. Not even one of my friends had time to help me take pictures so I had to use the timer on the camera and take all the pictures myself. So the camera angles etc. are not great.

週末の昼間は退屈になって、大通公園に行って、札幌テレビ塔を消そうかなと思った。カメラマンやってくれる友達が１人もいんかったから、タイマーとかを使って、自分全部やらないと行けないことになった。なので、写真の撮り方がうまくなかった。

This is the Sapporo TV tower.

Now the TV tower is covered by a handkerchief.

And now it is gone!

This is a silly trick. I cover the TV tower with a handkerchief and it disappears! There were some people staring and wondering what on Earth the crazy foreigner was doing in the park...

ふざけたマジックなんだね。テレビ塔をハンカチで隠して、テレビ塔が消える！何人かに「あの外人何しているか！？」って、変な人だと思われた、笑。