Magic bar Surprise

After doing some work in Kawasaki, I also had time to stop by the Magic Bar Surprise in Akasaka (Tokyo). There were four magicians there, three that I had seen there before, and a girl who I had never seen before. They all showed me magic.

川崎の研究の打ち合わせの後、東京に泊まることになったからマジックバーサプライズにも行けた。マジシャンが4人もいた。3人は前にも見たことがあったが見たことのない女の子もいた。4人ともマジックを見せてくれた。

First, the magician Izumi showed me her deck of cards that was hand drawn by kids with crayons, which then turned into a normal deck of cards. The hand drawn cards were cuter, though, haha. She did some more card magic, and then she did some magic with a ring and a rope.

最初にマジックを見せてくれたマジシャンがマジシャンイズミだった。子供がクレヨンで描いたトランプを出して、本物（普通）のトランプに変わった。子供が描いたトランプの方が可愛かったけど、笑。他のカードマジックも色々やったし、ロープと輪っかのマジックも見せてくれたし。

Next, the magician Akimoto, who I have met several times and who is also one of the few people connected to me on Google+ that actually updates anything there (actually, he is one of the few people connected to me on Google+ period, haha), showed me more magic. He did magic with different coins, with three green balls, and with cards. He has a very good second deal.

次は秋本というマジシャンが色々見せてくれた。前にも何回か会っている。Google+で繋がっているし。Google+で友達になっている人の中の一番アップしている人かも。まぁ、繋がっている人があまりいないし、誰もアップしないし…今回コインマジックも小さなボールを使ったマジックもカードマジックも見せてくれた。毎回思うんだけど、セカンドディールがきれいなんだよね。

Then the magician Suzumu came and showed me magic. He did a cup and balls routine, the traditional coins and ring trick where the coins travel, some magic with a string and the ring, and then various card tricks.

3人目のマジシャンがマジシャン進夢が来た。カップ＆ボール・コインと指輪・指輪とロープ・カードのマジックを見せてくれた。

Finally, Ryusei Kamiguchi also did some magic requested by the other guests sitting next to me at the counter. He is always funny, and this time he was crazier or in a higher gear than normal, haha. He did a funny card to forehead routine, and had a "marked card" where the marking (drawn with a sharpie) moved around on the card. He did many other card tricks too.

最後に上口龍生も、カウンタの隣のお客さんのリクエストで、マジックを披露した。いつも面白いが普段よりもテンションが高かった。カード・トゥー・額とか、マッキーで書いたマークがカードの裏で動いたとか、色々なカードマジックを見せてくれた。

Toto's Bar

I had to go on a quick trip to Kawasaki, which is close to Tokyo, and I found an hour or so to stop by Toto's bar and see some magic. There are two very cute owls there now. I also noticed that they had changed the color of the Toto's bar playing cards they have in the bar. Their logo is green, so they have started printing their playing cards in green now. Toto's bar is always great, and this time was no exception.

仕事で川崎に行くことがあって、東京で1泊した。ちょっとだけ「都々's Bar」に顔を出す時間もとれた。最近、フクロウ2羽いる。可愛い。他に、都々's Barトランプが今緑色のなっている。都々's Barのロゴが緑色なので、トランプも緑色にしたそうだ。都々's Barがいつも凄く楽しい。今回もそうだった。

Magic bar Stockholm visit 4 of 4

My last visit to Magic Bar Stockholm during my vacation in Sweden was also on a day with a stage show. I got to see the very young magician Carl Stanley and the mentalist Micke Askernäs. I saw Carl Stanley walk around the tables and do some card magic. Micke Askernäs did some fork bending at some tables.

スウェーデン旅行の最後のマジックバーストックホルムの時にまたステージショー見れた。若手マジシャンカール・スタンリーとメンタリストのミケ・アスケルネースがステージマジックもテーブルマジックもやった。

Carl Stanley

Carl Stanley was the first to go on stage. He was very funny. He kept saying things like: "Hi, I am a magician. But I would have preferred to have a girlfriend instead." He did a lot of gags. I liked it when he brought forth a wooden duck that picks one card from a deck of cards (a pretty expensive prop) and had a spectator shuffle a deck of cards. He then put the cards in the duck prop and had the duck take one card. He then asked a spectator to "name any card you want". They named the nine of clubs or something, and he looked at the card the duck had picked and said: "Amazing! This is the same card." Then he never showed that card to anyone, and put away the duck.

最初にステージを出たのがカール・スタンリーだった。面白い人だった。「カールと申します。マジシャンです。マジック出来るより彼女出来るといいけどなぁ…」とか、ギャグいっぱい言っていた。ギャグネタのマジックも多かった。カード当ての木製のアヒルを出して、観客にカードを混ぜて貰った。カードをアヒルの前に置いて、アヒルが1枚だけ取った。「好きなカード何でもいい、言って下さい」と観客に言って「クラブの９」と言われた。「アヒルのカードと同じだ！すげー！」と言って、カードを見せないでアヒルとトランプを閉めた。

He had a very nice presentation for the magic trick where two spectators each hold 10 cards but then 3 cards mysteriously disappear from one spectator, who ends up with seven, and appears with the other spectator, who thus has 13. The idea was to determine who was the coolest person. Do you know how to measure how cool someone is? No? When I was in elementary school, the guy with the most Pokemon cards was the coolest. So he gave the spectators Pokemon cards to hold on to, and the one that ended up with the most Pokemon cards was obviously the coolest.

喋りが基本的に面白かった。観客2人がトランプ10枚づつを持っているのに、1人のトランプから3枚が消えて、もう1人のトランプが13枚になる有名なマジックの話が面白かった。2人の観客をステージに呼んで、「誰が一番かっこいい？」と聞いた。「人のかっこよさ、どうやってはかるか、知っている？小学生の時に、ポケモンを一番沢山持っている人が一番かっこいいと分かった」って説明して、ポケモンカードを20枚取り出した。その有名なマジックをやって、13枚を持っている人が一番かっこいい人だという結果になった。

Micke Askernäs

Micke Askernäs did mostly classical mentalism things. He started with some spoon bending, and had a woman come up on stage with him since the spoon was too small for people in the back to see, so she was there to confirm that nothing suspicious was going on. He was also funny, and asked her to hit him on the forehead with the spoon to confirm that it was a hard normal spoon. He also said that since many people tell him they think he has some special chemicals on his hands to help make the spoon soft, she should lick his hands to check that there were no suspicious chemicals there.

メンタリストのミケ・アスケルネースが割とクラシックなメンタリズムを沢山見せてくれた。最初はスプーン曲げをやった。小さくて、遠いテーブルまで見れないから女の人をステージにあがってもらった。「怪しいことしていないのを他の人の為に確認してくださいね」って。マジシャンのおでこをスプーンで強く叩いて下さいって。曲がりやすいスプーンではないよねって。他に「手に何かの化学的なのを付けて、スプーンを柔らかくしているでしょう？」とよく言われるから、科学的なものが手に付いていないかを確認する為に私の手を舐めて下さいって言ったが女の人が舐めなかった（笑）。

He also did a tossed out deck routine, the John Archer version of Kolossal killer, and a lot of billet work. I liked his idea of what to do when blindfolded. He taped his face with duct tape so he could not see, and had someone grab a bunch of cards from a deck. He then proceeded to name all the cards they were holding. When thanking the spectator and helping them off the stage, he also stuck all the tape he removed from his face on their back, which was pretty funny. He ended with a Russian Roulette routine with huge staplers.

他にTossed out deckやKolossal Killerもやっていた。小さな紙に地名や人の名前を書いて貰って、当てるマジックも沢山やっていた。目隠しの使い方が面白かった。顔にテープを沢山はって、見えない様にしてからカードを何枚か取って貰った。観客が持っているカードを全部言い当てた。一緒にやっていた観客がステージから降りた時に「ありがとーね」と言って、観客の背中に使っていたテープを全部つけちゃったし、笑。最後にでかいホチキスみたいなものでロシアン・ルーレットをやった。

After the show, I bought a bunch of bookmarks to use as gifts. They look either like normal old photos or like monsters, depending on the angle. I also talked a bit to the owner of Magic Bar Stockholm, who thought it was funny that I was there 4 days in one week. He asked me if I wanted to do magic there the next time I am in Sweden, and suggested perhaps doing table hopping on a Tuesday or something. That would be great fun, I think, since I have done almost no magic in front of Swedish people.

ショーの後、お土産も買った。角度によって絵が変わるものを沢山買った。マジックバーストックホルムのオーナーと話したら、1週間に4回も来るのがうけたみたい。またスウェーデンに来たら、ここで2日間とか働いてくれない？って誘われたし。楽しそうだね。スウェーデン人にあまりマジック見せたことがない。どういう見方するか、気になるね。

Magic bar Stockholm visit 3 of 4

My third visit to Magic Bar Stockholm during my brief vacation in Sweden was on a Wednesday. There was no stage show, but there was a special close up show in one of the smaller rooms (and of course there was magic at the tables too, as always).

スウェーデン旅行の3回目のマジックバーストックホルムは水曜日になった。ステージショーがなかったが小さな部屋にクローズアップショーがあった。テーブルでテーブルマジックも毎日あるから、それも勿論あった。

Fredrik Ahlbertz was the magician of the night. He showed me some very nice versions of "matrix" (4 coins under 4 cards magically move to different places). He did some card magic too. I especially liked when he dealt 4 cards and then suddenly there turned out to be a big coin under each card.

Fredrik Ahlbertzというマジシャンがクローズアップマジックを色々見せてくれた。テーブルでコインマジックのマトリックスの色々なバージョンを披露した。カードマジックも見せてくれた。例えば、4枚配って、配ったカードの下にでかいコイン4つ現れた。

At the close up show, I got a seat towards the back, but since the chairs had different heights that was not a problem. Again, there was quite a lot of very nice coin magic. There was also card magic, including a color changing deck and an invisible palm routine.

クローズアップショーの時に後ろの方の席になったが段差があるから、全然大丈夫だった。色々なコインマジックがあった。結構凄かった。カードマジックもあった。デックのカラチェーンジやインビジブルパーム。

I noticed a straitjacket on the wall together with a flyer for a guy I know as Magic Brian. I once saw him do a straitjacket escape in Stockholm, and he was hysterically funny in general.

I also saw Anders Moden, a Swedish magician who is most well known in Japan for inventing a was to make an empty and crushed can of CocaCola come back to normal shape and be full of soda again. He recognized me since we met twice in Magic Bar Stockholm in 2011. He invited me to sit with him and another magician and eat my food at their table. Later, even more magicians showed up and I got to hear a lot of stories from the magic community in Sweden, which was interesting (since I learned magic after moving to Japan, I know almost nothing about magic from a Swedish perspective).

他に、コーラの復活のマジックを考えたクリエーターのマジシャンのAnders Modenさんにも会えた。2011年にもマジックバーストックホルムで会った。覚えてくれた。Modenさんのテーブルに誘われて、そこにいたマジシャンたちと一緒に食べることになった。遅い時間にマジシャンがさらに増えてきた。スウェーデンのマジシャンの話を色々聞いて、楽しかった。日本に来てからマジックを覚えたから、スウェーデンのマジックに関して、何も知らない。

Magic bar Stockholm visit 2 of 4

On my second visit to Magic Bar Stockholm this trip, I had my brother and his wife with me. They had been there once before, but that was a long long time ago. This evening, Tom Stone was doing a stage show, and he had mentioned the day before that he was working on a new routine that seemed fun.

今回の2回目のマジックバーストックホルムの時に弟夫婦と3人で行った。弟たちも昔1回行ったことある。トムストーンがステージショーをやる予定だった。前の日に新しいマジックを今作っていて、ステージでやるって言っていた。

Before adding the soup

After adding the soup

We got there in time to have dinner, and I ordered different food this evening and it was great again. I also got a spoon that looked like someone had used it in a spoon bending routine and then tried to straighten it out.

晩御飯を食べる余裕がある時間に来たから前回と違うものを頼んだ。美味しかった。僕が貰ったスプーンはどう見ても誰かがスプーン曲げに使って、適当に戻した感じだった、笑。

A spoon that has probably been used in magic

Robert Ace

While we were waiting, I saw a young guy playing with a deck of cards. He looked very much like a guy I saw do magic on the street in Stockholm on another visit to Sweden. I spoke to him at that time and he mentioned that he was going to go to Japan to train some Japanese martial art. Looking closer, it did indeed seem to be Robert Ace this time too.

テーブルで待っている時に奥の部屋に若いお兄さんがカードで遊んでいた。前にスウェーデンに来た時にストリートマジックをやっていたお兄さんと似ているねと思った。その時にちょっと話して、日本に格闘技を習いに行くって言われた。よく見たら、同じロバート・エイスだった。

Fish

Grilled lamb and potatoes

While we were waiting for our food, Tom Stone came to our table and did some magic. He also talked to us for a bit. He did a nice routine with a coin and a pen, and a trick with a deck of cards with names written on the backs. He also said that he was nervous about his new thing that he planned to do on stage that he had only performed two or three times before.

食べ物を待っている時にトムストーンがテーブルマジックを見せてくれた。コインとペンのマジックが面白いなぁ。裏に色々な人の名前が書いてあるトランプを使ったマジックもやった。マジック以外の話も色々してくれた。ステージで新ネタをやるから緊張しているって。

Chocolate mousse and blueberries

Later, Robert Ace came by our table too, and I said that I remembered meeting him. He also said: "Ah, and you are the one from Japan?", so I guess maybe someone in the Magic Bar Stockholm staff had tipped him off that the strange guy from Japan who comes every night was here again. But he turned and looked at my sister in law, and directed the question at her. She is also from Japan, so he was not wrong. Then he said something like: "I can speak a little bit of Japanese, but I am not very good at it", in Japanese to her. Well, so can my brother, and I can speak a bit too, haha.

その後、ロバートエイスもうちのテーブルに来た。僕が前に会っているよと言った。彼が「あ、日本から来た人だよね」と言い出したから、マジックバーのスタッフに毎晩来ている日本に住んでいる変な人があそこにいるよって言われたかなと思ったが僕ではなく、弟の嫁に言っていた。まぁ、確かに弟の嫁も日本から来ている（日本人なんだ）。その後、ちょっと下手な日本語で「日本語ちょっと話せる。上手ではないけど」と言ったし。うん、うちのテーブルの人も、皆話せるよ、ｗ。

Me and Tom Stone

Tom Stone did some of his famous routines on stage. He did a coin routine ending with the production of a bottle, he asked a spectator to join him on stage and did his cups and balls routine for her, he did a "pretentious rope routine" (very funny), and he did his new thing. He also used the "select a random way to greet the spectator" which ended up having him hug her, which is a trick that was also used by other people on stage in Magic Bar Stockholm. I was also completely fooled by the cups and balls and did not see the shoe appear on the table, even though I have seen this routine (on video) many times, haha.

ステージでトムストーンが自分の有名なネタを色々見せた。コインのマジックで最後にボトルが出てくるやつとか、ステージにお客さん1人呼んで、カップ＆ボールもやった。最後に面白いロープマジックもやった。新ネタのマジックも面白かった。お客さんにどうやって挨拶するか、サイコロで決めるマジックもトムストーンの本に載っているネタもやった。そのネタは他のマジシャンもよく使っていた。カップ＆ボールを何回も動画で見ているのに、靴がテーブルに来た時全然気づかなかった、気持ち良く引っかかった、ｗ。

An old poster that was very funny. Advertising "On of the worst magicians in Sweden" and mentioning many bad things about him.

His new routine was very funny. He had two spectators on stage with him and everyone of them had a cigar box with something in it. One spectator had a deck of cards, one had a book, and Tom Stone had an empty box. The were also marked with colored squares, so you could tell which box belonged to whom. Then he put a Post-It sticker over this square on his own box, and said that now since we cannot see the color, we cannot be sure whom this box belongs to. Which in some sense makes sense, but since the spectators were holding on to their boxes and no one had touched the box after he covered the color, it might be reasonable to suspect that the box was still the red box belonging to Tom Stone... He said things like: "So, as far as we know, this could be the blue box. That was your box. And it had a deck of cards in it", and when opening the box it did indeed have cards in it. There were lots of other things going on, and a very mysterious ending. It used many different things, like something like the "Pegasus Page" trick, to achieve some very entertaining.

新ネタのマジックも面白かった。お客さん2人とシガーボックスを使ったマジックだった。シュールな喋りで、僕が凄い好きだった。色々な有名なネタを使って面白いルーティンを作ったって感じだった。

An envelope that later turned out to contain an iPhone 

After Tom Stone finished, the mentalist Ray Matson also did a stage show. This was pretty much the same as the night before (that I also saw).

トムストーンの後、メンタリストのレイ・マットソンもステージショーをやった。前の日と同じだった。

A painting of an original way to perform levitations

After all the magic, the owner of Magic Bar Stockholm also took us on a tour of the places, pointing out interesting details. There were chairs bought from some antique shop that had been sat on by famous people, there were lots of optical illusions and trick art, and much much more.

ショーが終わってから、マジックバーのオーナーが店のツアーみたいに、色々な面白いところも見せてくれた。目の錯覚やトリックアートがいっぱいある。有名人も使っていたアンティークの椅子とかもあるみたい。ツアーも面白かった。

A levitating ball

A levitating bottle

A levitating deck of cards

A levitating card

Magic bar Stockholm visit 1 of 4

The bar is full of optical illusions and trick art decorations, as this painting in the toilet.

In October I went to Sweden and I managed to visit the Magic Bar Stockholm several times. There is no house magician in Magic Bar Stockholm, so you can go there pretty much every week and get to see a new magician every time. They invite many different magicians to do magic at the tables and on the weekends they have stage shows too.

10月にスウェーデンに帰った。マジックバーストックホルムに何回も行けた。毎週新しいマジシャンを呼んでいるから、何回も行っても毎回違うマジシャンのマジック見れる。テーブルマジックもあるし、週末にステージマジックショーもある。

There is a room full of hats in the bar

The first night I went there, it was Thursday and there was to be a stage show. I was there alone and decided to have dinner. The food is really good, and by Swedish standards not very expensive (compared to Japan, all restaurants in Sweden are very expensive, though).

最初行った時に木曜日だった。木金土にステージショーがあるから、晩御飯を食べて、ステージショー見ようと思った。食べ物も美味しい。サービスがめちゃくちゃ遅いがそれ以外がいい店だ。スウェーデンのレストランにしたら、別に高くもないし。日本と比べたら、スウェーデンの普通なレストランが結構高いけど。

The food was great

A fairly young magician called Gaston came to my table and showed me some closeup magic. He did a version of the triumph card trick and then made the whole deck disappear from inside the card box, leaving only my signed card. He was very funny. And very nice.

若いマジシャンのガストンさんがテーブルに来て、クローズアップマジックを見せてくれた。有名なカードマジックのトライアンフとか、トランプを箱に入れて、僕のカード以外全部箱から消えるマジックとか。かなり面白い人だった。優しかったし。

Me and Gaston

While I was eating, I also saw the magician Tom Stone sitting at another table. The first time I visited Magic Bar Stockholm, Tom Stone was doing magic at the tables. He is also pretty famous in Japan, after having been featured on a New Year magic special. All my magician friends know of him. They do not read English, so they have not read his books, though. Which is convenient for me, because I can read English and then learn tricks that none of the other magicians around here are performing (and in our magic bar we don't do the same tricks as the other magicians, since the guests will see both my magic and the other peoples' magic), haha.

食べていた時に近くのテーブルにスウェーデン人のマジシャンのトム・ストーンもいた。初めてマジックバーストックホルムに行った時にトムストーンがテーブルホッピングをしていた。日本のテレビにも出たことある。トムストーンの本を2冊買って、日本人の友達のマジシャンが英語を読まないから他の人とかぶらないネタの勉強になるね、ｗ。

Anyway, when he was ordering a beer in the bar, and my table was close to the bar counter, he looked at me and then said: "Jonas?" I said that indeed I am Jonas, and he continued: "I am sorry I did not make the connection quicker". I am still not clear on how he made the connection at all, so I do not think he has anything to apologize for, haha. I have seen him twice before, once when he was giving a guest lecture at my old university (and I had not started doing magic), and once before in Magic Bar Stockholm, but I never told him my name (or talked to him). I once sent him an e-mail asking about something in a book he wrote that I was reading, and he sent a very polite and helpful reply. In the e-mail I of course wrote my name, but there was no photo or anything like that.

僕のテーブルがバーのカウンターの近くだった。トムストーンがバーでビールを頼んで待たされた時に、よく僕の方見ているなぁと思った。目を合わせたら「ヨーナス？」って聞かれた。「はい、ヨーナスですけど…」と答えたら、「すぐ分からなくてごめんね」と言われた。どうやって分かったか、未だに分からないから謝らなくても全然いいと思うけど、笑。トムストーンを2回見たことがあった。マジックバーストックホルムでテーブルホッピングしていた時と僕がスウェーデンの大学に通っていた時に1回トムストーンが心理とマジックのかぶるところの発表をゲストとしてしていた時にも見にいった（僕がまだマジックをやっていなかった時）。2回とも、僕は名前を言っていない。1回メールでトムストーンに質問したことがある。丁寧に返信してくれた。メールに名前が勿論書いてあったが写真とかがなかった。

I guess he may have made the connection after seeing this blog, which has both my name and photos (he did write a comment here once). It is still quite impressive to make the connection, though. He also talked to me a bit and mentioned things that other people in the magic bar (who I have told my name) probably do not know, so he did indeed seem to know that I was the one that sent that e-mail etc. That might be the thing that surprised me most in Magic Bar Stockholm this trip, haha.

まぁ、このブログで写真も名前も見たと思うがそれでよく分かったね！１回確かにブログにコメントをしたことがある。ちょっと話したら、日本で何をやっているとか、名前以外も色々覚えていたんだ。マジックバーストックホルムのスタッフで僕の名前を知っている人がいたかもしれないがトムストーンの話の中の内容はメールやブログにしかない話が多かった。今回のマジックバーストックホルムの一番驚いたことはトムストーンの「ヨーナス？」だったかも、ｗ。

Me and Ray Matson

After I finished my dinner, the stage show started. Gaston did some funny things on stage. He did some optical illusions (the shrinking head illusion), some magic, and some juggling. It was all good, but I laughed most during the juggling segments were he was eating the apples he was juggling with and getting lots of sticky apple parts all over the place.

晩御飯を食べ終わったら、ステージショーの時間だった。最初はガストンさんが笑えるパフォーマンスで色々やった。面白い目の錯覚も使っていたし、面白いマジックもやっていたし、ジャグリングもやっていたし、色々出来る人だね。一番笑ったのが最後にりんご3個でジャグリングしながらりんごを全部食べる。汚～い感じだった。

Next, the mentalist Ray Matson also did a stage show. He did a card trick that I sometimes do here in Japan, he had a very nice presentation using a blank deck of cards, he did the torn and restored newspaper in a mentalist way, and did a Russian Roulette thing with a spectator's iPhone, and much more.

その後、メンタリストのレイ・マットソンさんもステージショーをやってくれた。僕もたまにやっている予言のカードマジックをやっている！って見てちょっと興奮した。他にブランクカードをきれいに使ったマジックもあったし、メンタリストの破いた新聞の復活のマジックもやっていたし、最後にお客さんのアイフォーンでロシアンルーレットもやった。

Magic Bar Review: Osmand

The sign outside Osmand

I went to Tokyo for some university work really really early in the morning of Sunday August 10, 2014. I was going to be busy from early in the morning until around 22:00 or so, but would stay the night in Tokyo. When I am in Tokyo I try to find time to visit magic bars or something similar. I looked around but most such places are closed on Sundays. I did find one magic bar/restaurant open on Sundays, though.

2014年8月10日（日）にめちゃくちゃ早起きして、大学の仕事の出張で東京に行った。朝から22時まで仕事で忙しそうだったが夜は特に予定がなかった。東京に行くとだいたいどこかのマジックバーや似た様な店に行ってみる。色々検索してみたがやっぱり日曜日もやっている店が少ない。１つがあったけど。

View of the stage from the back seats

Magic Bar Osmand in Roppongi, Tokyo, is open from 16:00 to 22:00 on Sundays. They have a stage show at 18:00. As luck would have it, the higher ups decided that we should have a break in the meetings from around 16:30 to 19:00. I navigated the Tokyo subway net as fast as I could and spent the time from 17:00 to 18:30 in magic bar Osmand.

六本木にあるOsmandというマジックバー（レストラン？）が16時～22時、日曜日にも営業している。運が良くて、16時半～19時、仕事の休憩になった。必死に六本木まで地下鉄に乗った。17時～18時半、Osmandで色々なマジックを見せて貰った。

Since there was a typhoon passing near Tokyo, the weather was pretty bad. Very strong winds and from time to time it rained. When it rained, it rained extremely hard. This may have been the reason why the place was empty. In fact, I was the only customer there.

台風がまあまあ近くに通っていたから台風の影響で天気が酷かった。そのせいで、お客さんが僕しかいなかった。

They asked me if I would prefer them to speak to me (and do magic) in English, but I said that Japanese would be fine. They asked if I also wanted to see the stage show, and I said that if they were up for doing a stage show even if I was the only one watching, I would indeed be very happy.

英語でやったほうが良いかって聞かれたが日本語でも大丈夫だと言った。ステージショーも見ますか？って聞かれて、僕しかいないのにやってくれれば、是非観たいと言って、ステージショーも見せて貰った。

Butler's business card, with all the important information

First the butler Kenzie produced his business card from a flaming wallet. He also later plucked lights from the walls and threw them in his mouth. He said he was not really a magician and only did small things like this, though. A girl who introduced herself as Aileen the maid served me drinks and food and talked to me for a while. She is also from the northern parts of Japan, though not as far north as where I live.

最初はバトラーのKenzieさんが燃えている財布から名刺を出してくれて、システムの説明してくれた。後で壁の光っているところから光を取って口に投げたりしたし。でも、マジシャンではないと言っていた。メイドのAileenさんが飲み物や食べ物を持ってきた。色々話してくれたし。東北出身で僕みたいに東北や北海道からお客さんがくると嬉しいって。

Me, a previously very animated drawing, and the magician Al

The magician Al came to my table and did some tale magic for me. There was a series of travelling the world related predictions where he had a card key from a hotel selected from me in an envelope locked with a code lock that happened to unlock only with the room number I had picked etc. He also did a card trick where he drew what he thought was my selected card in a small sketchbook. When this turned out to be wrong, he filled in the drawing to look like a whole deck of cards, and then the drawing became animated and one card (my card) rose out of the deck, and then he gave me the resulting drawing (no longer animated).

マジシャンのAlさんがテーブルに来て、色々なクローズアップマジックを見せてくれた。旅行のテーマの予言のマジックで、僕が選んだホテルのカードキーが南京錠で閉まっていた封筒に入っていた。南京錠の開く番号が僕が選んだ部屋番号だったし。他にカード当てのマジックも見せられた。僕の選んだカードを小さなスケッチブックで描いて当てるって言ったが絵のカードが違った。絵を描き直して、トランプの束の絵になった。その絵がマジックで動き出して、選んだカードが絵の束から浮き上がった。絵が落ち着いてから、スケッチブックから取り出して、お土産みたいにくれた。勿論、普通の絵になっていた。

He then also did a stage show for me. It started with a lot of fire and some heavy music, and then a torch turned into a magician's stick, a dove came out of a book and was put in a cage that then disappeared (including the dove), etc. There were some interactive moments, he for instance turned my 10,000 yen bill into two 1000 yen bills, which he later turned into lots and lots of 10,000 yen bills (and he gave me one of them back). He had me up on stage to do a floating table thing, and he did some rope tricks too.

その後、Alさんがステージマジックショーもやってくれた。最初は火を沢山使ったりしていた。ステッキが出てきたし、本から鳩が出てきたし。鳩が籠に入れられて、鳩も籠も消えた。お客さん（僕）とのやり取りのマジックもあった。僕の１万円札が1000円札2枚になった。その2枚が大量の１万円札なったから結果良かったけど（笑）。1枚返して貰った。フローティングテーブルも一緒にやった。ロープマジックもあった。

The butler, me, the maid, and the magician

When I was leaving, a guy came out from the kitchen and told me "Tack så mycket!" ("Thank you very much", in Swedish), which was also quite surprising. One guy who was the boss of the place also helped in taking a photo of me together with the performers, and then commented that he owned an older model of the same camera and had been thinking of buying the model I have, so we talked a little bit about the camera too.

僕が帰る時に、キッチンからスタッフ1人が出て来て、スウェーデン語で「有難う御座いました」と言った。スウェーデン語で言われることにもびっくり、ｗ。別の人（店長？）にパフォーマーと一緒の写真を撮って貰った時に、同じカメラの古いモデルを持っているがこの新しいモデル買おうかなって考えていると言われたから、カメラの話もちょっとした。

The place had an interesting decor, and the big menu book also had several pages of "back story" explaining what the place was meant to be. They also have a very extensive menu of drinks, and a large selection of food that you can order. Since I was going to have lots of food with the work related people, I only ordered some snacks, though. They were all very nice and talked a lot to me, and they also gave me an umbrella when I left, since it was raining very heavily. I also got a printed photo of myself that they took between the table magic and the stage show, to keep as a souvenir.

インテリアも結構不思議な感じだった。魔法の国のイメージで作ってあるとか、色々な設定のストーリーがメニューの本に書かれてた。飲み物の種類が沢山あって、食べ物も結構本格的なメニューだった。僕は仕事の付き合いで食べに行かないと行けない予定だったから、おつまみしか頼まなかったが美味しそうだった。スタッフ全員優しくて色々話してくれた。帰る時に大雨になっていたから、傘もくれたし。テーブルマジックとステージショーの間に撮られた写真もお土産として貰った。

Snacks

There was a 2000 yen charge to watch the stage show, and I think there is a 1000 yen charge if you want to see only the table magic. Then drinks were between 500 yen and 1500 yen, and the food was not that much more expensive than normal restaurants in Tokyo. I ended up paying slightly less than 5000 yen, which is cheap for a magic bar in Tokyo.

ステージショーを見ると2000円のチャージがある。テーブルマジックだけなら、1000円のチャージだったと思う。飲み物は500～1500円で、食べ物の値段が東京の普通なレストランと変わらない感じだった。僕が5000円くらい払った。東京のマジックバーにしたら、安い。

Souvenir photo

Summary:
Location: Very close to the Roppongi station
Type of magic: Close up and stage magic (fixed show times for the stage shows)
Quality of magic: Good
Cost: Variable, but fairly cheap
Interior: Nice
Staff: Very nice
Food & drinks: Large variety of drinks, good selection of food.
Overall impression: Nice staff. Did a full stage show despite there only being one guy in the audience (me)!
Of special note: Open on Sundays. Serve meals. Stage show.

まとめ：

場所：六本木駅のすぐ近く

マジックの種類：クローズアップもステージもある（ステージショーは決まった時間のショータイムのみ）

マジックの質：良かった

値段：頼むものによるが割と安い

インテリア：きれい・不思議

スタッフ：優しい

特典：日曜日もやっている。ステージショーあり。フードあり。

全体的な印象：お客さんが僕1人しかなくてもステージショーもやってくれたから優しい！

Trick bar Twister and me in the newspaper

There was a newspaper article about our magic bar here in Sapporo in the Hokkaido Shinbun. I wrote about it on my other blog.

先週うちのマジックバーの話が新聞に載っていた。僕の写真も載っていた。英語で僕の別のブログで色々説明を書いたが日本語の分かる方なら、上の写真をクリックして自分で読めば一番良いよね。

Visiting Toto's Bar in Tokyo

When in Tokyo, I almost always visit Toto's Bar, a magic bar in Ginza. Toto is very very entertaining, and the other magicians there are good too. This time too, I found some time to stop by (which resulted in me getting a severe lack of sleep, since I had to get up early for work every day, but it was worth it).

東京に行く時にほぼ毎回銀座にある都々's Barに行く。都々さんが大変盛り上げ上手だ。めちゃくちゃ楽しい店なんだ。他のマジシャンも上手だし。今回もちょっと時間作っていった（そのせいで仕事中で寝不足で大変だったけどね）。

Toto did a parlor magic show and there were doves and bowling balls produced, fascinating cigarette magic, rope tricks, and much much more. I also saw Toto do a colored sand in a bowl of water type of magic trick for the first time, which was nice. Toto also did some very nice close up magic. Apart from doves and canaries that I have seen before, Toto's bar now also has an owl that helps out with the magic show.

都々さんがサロンマジックのショーを見せてくれた。鳩やボーリングボールが出現した。タバコの不思議なマジックがあった。笑えるロープマジックも良かった。色々あった。初めて都々さんの水に色々な色の砂を入れるマジックを観れた。きれいだった。最近、フクロウも都々's Barにいるし。可愛い。

I also saw the magician Yamato, who showed off a very impressive bottom deal and some mental magic.

他に大都（やまと）さんがきれいなボトムディールを見せてくれたし。メンタルのネタも色々やった。

One thing that surprised me a lot was that another guest there started speaking Swedish to me (he was Japanese)! It turned out that one of his relatives had married a Swede and now lives in Sweden, so this guy had also lived one year in Stockholm. I also ended up talking to an older and very drunk Japanese businessman who had been to Sweden several times for work.

一番驚いたのが、他のお客さん（日本人のお兄さん）が急にスウェーデン語で喋ってくれた！家族の誰かがスウェーデン人と結婚し、スウェーデンに住んでいるそうだ。お兄さんも1年間ストックホルムに住んでいたからちょっと話せる様になった。他に日本人の酔っ払っていたおじさんとスウェーデンの話もした。おじさんが何回も仕事でスウェーデンに行ったそうだ。

There was also a woman there who I have talked to at other times in Toto's bar. She remembered me (and I her), and she gave me a slice of apple pie that she had brought because of someone's birthday. It was a very good apple pie. Ginza is one of the expensive high class districts of Tokyo, and this pie had that kind of feel to it.

前に都々's Barで何回か会ったことがあるお姉さんにもまた会えた。僕のことを覚えてくれた。誰かの誕生日の為にアップルパイを持ってきていたから、僕も高級なアップルパイをいただいた。美味しかった。さすが銀座、レベル高いなと思った（笑）。

I also met a young Russian girl, who originally came from a place where my brother spent 6 months. She seemed nice, but had to leave fairly quickly.

他にロシア人のお姉さんにもあった。うちの弟が半年くらい住んでいたところから来たそうだ。面白い人だったが割りとすぐ帰ることになった。

Visiting Magic Bar Issey in Tokyo

The huge fish tank of magic bar Issei

During my Tokyo trip I also had time to stop by the magic bar Issey in Roppongi. They do a stage show three times per night, and they show you close up magic at your table or at the counter too. There are not that many places with stage shows, so I like visiting Issey for this reason.

東京の出張の夜にマジックバーイッセイにも行けた。毎晩ステージショー3回もやる店なので、テーブルマジック以外のマジックも観れて、結構好きな店だ。

I had to work much later than I had expected and I had to run from the subway station to the bar (which is a very short run, but still) to make it in time for the 21:00 stage show. As it turned out, I did not actually need to run. When I entered, I was the only customer there. The weather was really bad, which may be why the place was empty (the previous times I have been there it was packed).

仕事が思ったより遅くまで続いていたから、21時のステージショーに間に合う為に地下鉄から店まで走ることになった。大した距離ではないけど。店に着いたら、結局走らなくても大丈夫って感じだった。他にお客さんがいなかったから貸切状態になった。他の人がいないから、ステージショーは今やらないと言われた。その代わりに、カウンターで普段より長くやって貰ったし、普段やらないクローズアップも見せて貰ったし。行った日は大雨だったせいで人がいなかったかな？前に行った時に毎回混んでいた。

Since it was only me, they explained that they would not do the stage show. Instead, they did a "counter show", where they did more close up magic than they normally do, and different magic than the standard close up things.

There were two magicians there, Shun and K-suke. There was also two non-magicians working, and one of them remembered me from my last visit. The first time I visited magic bar Issey, Shun performed both stage magic and table magic for me and my friend. I had never met K-suke before.

マジシャン2人がいた、シュンとケイスケ。初めてマジックバーイッセイに行った時にもシュンのマジックを観た（ステージもクローズアップも）。ケイスケは初めてだった。

First K-suke showed me some magic. He did some nice card tricks and quite a bit of coin magic. He also made a crushed can of CocaCola return to its unopened and uncrushed state full of soda, and he made a signed card appear inside an unopened PET-bottle. The things I liked the best was when his booklet thingy that had a cover text saying "K-Suke" changed into a booklet saying "magic show" instead, and a trick where a cocktail shaker (that had a signed card appear out of it before) suddenly stopped being empty and instead contained a cocktail of the color I had selected from a menu earlier.

最初はK-SUKEさんのマジックだった。カードマジックもコインマジックも見せてくれた。他にコーラの復活もしたし、サインカードが新品のペットボトルに入ったし。僕の一番好きなマジックはメニュー表みたいなものに「K-SUKE」と書いてあって、「Magic Show」に変わったマジックとシェーカーから僕が選んだ色のカクテルが出てきたマジック。その前にシェーカーが空だったし、サインカードなども前にシェーカーから出てきたし。

Shun, with a nail in his nose

The Shun did a counter show for me, including some Tom Mullica style cigarette magic. He also did some card magic, including a signed card appearing inside a kiwi, a chop cup routine (where the kiwi appeared), fork bending, and some levitations with one of my credit cards. I was also quite happy to see him produce three big nails from his nose. I have never seen anyone do the nail in nose stuff live (apart from seeing myself do it). The first nail seemed to have been there more or less the whole time he did the rest of the magic, but I do not think I could pull out three nails that size from my nose (and his nose was smaller than mine), so that was nice.

SHUNさんも長くカウンターショーをやってくれた。トム・マリカ風なタバコのマジックが凄い。他にカードマジック（キウイからサインカードが出た）やチョップカップ（カップからキウイが出てきた）やフォーク曲げとかも見せてくれた。僕のクレジットカードが浮いてきたし。一番面白いと思ったのは鼻からでかい釘を3本も出した。鼻からの釘は初めて生で観た（僕がやっている以外ｗ）。最初の釘は他のマジックをやっている時から入れっぱなしっぽくて、ウケると思った。僕の鼻に3本が入らないと思う（僕の鼻の方が大きいと思うし）から3本も出るのが不思議だね、笑。

Presents for me

After the magic was finished, we sat around talking about Swedish magicians and other things for a long time, and the owner (?) who did not do magic also joined in. They also gave me two business card size magic tricks as a gift, and both tricks are pretty cute. Last time I was in Tokyo I considered buying one of them (in a magic shop in Ikebukuro), but in the end I did not.

マジックが終わってからも長く皆でスウェーデン人のマジシャンの話とかしていた。マジシャンではない店長（？）も面白い話色々してくれた。名刺サイズのマジック２つをプレゼントで貰ったし。前回東京に行った時に池袋のマジックショップで買おうかなって悩んでいたネタだった。

Visiting magic bar Surprise in Tokyo

Kamiguchi Ryusei folding cards

I went on a business trip to Tokyo for my non-magic related work. I managed to sneak away at around 21:00 in the evening and decided to visit the magic bar "Surprise". I have been there four or five times.

北大の仕事の出張で東京に行ってきた。夜にちょっと逃げれて、東京のマジックバーもいけた。最初は赤坂にあるマジックバーサプライズに行った。4回目か5回目だった。

When I got there, Kamiguchi Ryusei (magician and the owner of the place) was sitting next to a customer and they were talking magic. The other customer was also a magician (though perhaps not a pro-magician). There was also a young girl standing behind the counter, and she later introduced herself as the magician Ko-ume (which would translate as "small plum").

店に入ったら、上口龍生さん（マジシャン・オーナー）がお客さん1人とカウンターに座ってマジックの話をしていた。お客さんもマジックをやっている人だった。カウンターの中に若い女の子のマジシャン小梅さんもいた。

I had never met Ko-ume before, but I have met Kamiguchi several times and he always remembers me. We talked about various magic related things for awhile, and later the magician Sacchi also showed up. Even later, Kamiguchi Ryusei said: "Maybe someone should show Jonas some magic". The girls said that since I was a magician, maybe I already know all the tricks they do, or perhaps it should even be me showing other them magic. He said that even so, it would be strange if you come to a magic bar and no one shows you magic.

上口龍生さんに何回かも会っているが小梅さんに会うのが初めてだった。上口龍生さんにいつも「あ、北海道からのスウェーデン人」と覚えて貰える。皆でマジックの話をした。サッチーというマジシャンも後で入ってきた。もうちょっと後、「そろそろ誰かがヨーナスにマジックを見せないのか？」って上口龍生さんが言った。女の子たちが「マジシャンなら、全部知っているから何もしなくてもいいかな？と思って。逆に見せて欲しい」と言ったが「マジックバーに来て、マジック見せて貰わないとおかしいでしょう」って。

Ko-ume and a Rubik's Cube

So Ko-ume showed me magic. She did a nice routine with three ropes that changed lengths and also used a ring that kept going on or off the ropes in mysterious ways. I also saw a card trick where she used lie detector skills to determine which card was my card. Finally she did a set of Rubik's Cube tricks. A cube I mixed up turned up to be mixed up exactly like a cube she had in a bag. She put the big cube back in the bag and then solved my mixed up cube. When I opened the bag that I had been holding the whole time, the cube inside the bag was also solved.

小梅さんがマジックを見せ始めた。ロープ3本を使って、ロープの長さが変わるマジックや輪っかが不思議な様にロープと繋がったり外れたりした。カードマジックで、嘘発見器みたいなやり方で僕の引いたカードを当てた。最後にルービックキューブを使ったマジックも色々見せてくれた。僕がグチャグチャにしたキューブが元々予言みたに袋に入っていたキューブと同じになった。袋のキューブを袋に戻してから、小梅さんが僕のキューブを解いた。僕が袋を持っていたのに、僕が袋を開けてみると袋の中のキューブも揃っていた。

Sacchi then showed me one card trick. She said that since I had seen her perform twice before, she did not have any new tricks to show, but this one was a bit special. I picked a card, and she shuffled the cards perfectly, to "unshuffle" them. There was something written on the side of the deck and as she shuffled the text became clearer. It said the name of the card I picked. The cards were also in new deck order. After that I picked another card, this time from a face up deck. She then showed that not only were there letters on the side of the deck, there were drawings on the backs too. These were an animated cartoon, and when she riffled through the deck it showed an animation of a guy picking a card and holding it up. The cartoon guy held up the same card that I had picked. She said: "The really surprising thing about this is that I actually drew all the pictures myself. This is only impressive to magicians." I was impressed, haha.

サッチーさんが「前にも2回も私のマジックを見ているから、新ネタがない」と言ったがカードマジック１つ見せてくれた。僕が1枚を引いて、戻した。サッチーさんがパーフェクトの切り方でトランプを混ぜたというか、トランプがどんどん揃っていった。トランプの束の横に文字が書いてあった。パーフェクトな切り方でやっていけば、どんどん読み易くなった。僕の選んだカードは何のカードだったから、書いてあった。その後、表向きのカードから、また1枚を選んだ。今回、トランプの横だけではなく、裏面にも何かが書いてあるって見せられた。ぱらぱら漫画みたいなもんだった。そのぱらぱら漫画をみたら、小さなおじさんがトランプから1枚を出す漫画だった。出したカードが僕の選んだカードと同じだった。「これの一番凄いことは、横の文字もぱらぱら漫画も自分で描いたんだよね」と言われた。「その凄さはマジックをやっている人にしか伝わらない」って。僕が凄いと思った（笑）。

Sacchi also told me that recently another guy from Sapporo had been to magic bar Surprise. He was a student at my university, doing magic. I said that then there was a high likelihood that I know him, and it turned out he was one of the guys in the magic club I was also a member of. Small world.

ちょっと前に北海道からの別のマジックをやっている人も店に来たとサッチーさんが言った。学生だって。学生なら、知っているかもしれないと僕が言ったら、名前を思い出してもらった。北大のサークルの後輩だった。狭いね。

A tiny origami book

Another magician looking guy also showed up. He showed us how to take a single sheet of paper and fold it into a book. The book was tiny, but was a perfectly book-like object with pages you could browse through etc. Impressive.

後でマジックをやっているお客さんもう1人も来た。紙1枚で折り紙で本を作ってきれた。ちっちゃな本になったが本当に本だった。凄かった。

We kept talking magic for awhile more, and Kamiguchi Ryusei kept folding playing cards with a one handed card fold that I have also practiced. When he was pretty much through his whole deck, it was time for me to go back to my hotel, and I left.

もうちょっとマジックの話を皆でした。上口龍生さんが片手のカードの折り方をずっと練習していた。僕も同じやり方の練習したことがある。ちょうど52枚折り終わったら、僕がホテルに帰らないと行けない時間になった。