Visiting American magician

William Rader the mentalist, and me

A few weeks ago, I got a Facebook friend request from someone I did not know. Quickly checking his profile, I learned that he was a magician so I figured that was why he wanted to connect. He then sent me a message saying: "I am going to Japan! Can we meet up?" Since I live in Sapporo and most people that come to "Japan" go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, or some of the famous places in the south, I was a bit surprised. A few messages later, I learned that he was going to stay in Sapporo for three weeks or so, because his wife is from Sapporo and they would be here to visit relatives over the New Year.

何週間前に、フェイスブックでメッセージが来た。知らない人から「友達になって下さい」。プロフィールを見たら、マジシャンだったからそういう話とかしたいかなと思った。その後もメッセージで「日本に行くから会おう！」って。大体、日本の来る人が東京や京都に行くから、札幌に来ないんじゃないと思っていたが何回かメッセージをしたら、実は札幌に3週間くらい泊まると言っていた。奥さんが札幌出身なので、年越しは札幌の家族と。

Me, doing a Christmas magic show at Bottom Cafe

He said that he had been in Sapporo before, but that he had not managed to find any magic to watch at that time. This time, they had found my blog. When I told him there are at least six magic bars in Sapporo (and many many more in Tokyo etc.) he was very surprised.

前にも札幌に来たことがあるがその時にマジックの関係のことが何も見つからなかったそうだ。今回、僕のブログを見つけたから連絡とってくれた。札幌にマジックバー6つもあるよと言ったら、かなり驚かれた。

The university magic club performers of this years Christmas show

This time, his timing was very good and there were many other things related to magic to see too. He came to our magic bar (Magic Bar Twister) when I was working, and we went to the other magic bar in our chain (Trick Bar Twister) together too. He also came to see my Christmas Magic Show at Bottom Cafe, and he came to see the Hokudai Kijutsu Kenkyuukai (the university magic club) at the Christmas show. We also went together to the magic bar Hey Pola and to Cocktail Bar Harada and saw lots of magic there too.

今回のタイミングも良かった。マジックバー以外のマジックのイベントも色々あった。僕が出ていた日に彼がうちのマジックバー（マジックバーツイスター）にきてくれたし、一緒にもう一店舗（トリックバーツイスター）にも行ったし、僕がボトムカフェでやったクリスマスマジックショーも見に来てくれたし、北大の奇術研究会（部活のサークル）のクリスマスショーも見に来てくれたし、一緒にマジックバーヘイ・ポーラに行ったし、一緒にカクテルバー原田でマジックを見せて貰ったし、今回マジック沢山見れたね。

Hey Pola (magician Nihei)

Once we went out for soup curry (a Sapporo specialty) and discussed magic for a few hours too. He showed me a lot of things that he does when he performs, and I showed some things that I had not done when he saw me in the magic bar.

2人でスープカレー（札幌の名物）を食べに行って、マジックの話を何時間したこともあった。彼がアメリカでやるマジックを色々見せてくれたし、僕がマジックバーでやらなかったネタ何個かを見せたし。

The fluent in English magician Harada in Cocktail Bar Harada

He was very nice, and it was interesting to talk to someone from abroad about magic. I learned magic in Sapporo, and though I talk to my Sapporo friends about magic it was very interesting to hear what is "hot" in the U.S. now etc. I also got some gifts; American playing cards of different types. So blogging does pay off sometimes.

面白い人だった。海外の人とマジックの話をするのも面白かった。僕が札幌に来てからマジックを勉強し始めたので、海外ではやっているマジックとか、知らない。札幌のマジシャン友達とマジックの話をするが、海外の人とそういう話をするのがほとんどない（1回スウェーデンに帰っていた時にマジックバーストックホルムで会ったマジシャンと話したことがある）。プレゼントでアメリカのトランプを貰ったし。やっぱりブログをしたら、いいこともあるんだね。

Presents (and a heating pack the post office gave me for buying stamps)

Christmas Magic Show at Bottom Cafe

A Santa DJ, me, my funny t-shirt, and some Christmas chicken.

On Christmas Eve I did a magic show at the bar "Bottom Cafe" (a strange name for a bar, by the way). They had a Christmas Eve party featuring roasted chicken (which is what Japanese people think is Western Christmas food), my magic show, and different DJs performing.

クリスマスイブにボトムカフェというバーでマジックショーをした。クリスマスパーティーがあって、ローストチキンとかもあったし、DJもいたし。

I did a 20 minutes parlor show, in front of a lot of people who seemed to enjoy the show very much. They laughed at the supposedly funny bits (and did not laugh when I was not trying to be funny). I started with a magic coloring book, which I like to open with because it is a very quick trick, very visual (people who cannot hear what you are saying still notice something strange happened), and is quite magical. I then did a card effect where I mind read the chosen card from the spectator's brain, with a little help of a nail (antenna) hammered into my nose.

僕は20分くらいのサロンマジックのパフォーマンスをした。人が結構いて、皆楽しんでくれたみたい。笑って欲しい時に笑ってくれたり、笑って欲しくない時に笑わなかった。最初は魔法の絵本を使った。ビジュアルで、何って言っているか聞き取れなくても不思議に見えるマジックで、1分もかからないマジックなので、始まる時のネタにいいと思うなぁ。その後、トランプ1枚引いて貰って、エスパ的に何のカードだったかを当てた。電波が悪くて、鼻に釘（アンテナ）を刺す必要もあったけど。

Me trying to mind read what the chosen card is (if only I had checked Facebook and seen this photo showing the card!).

Hammering a nail (antenna) into my nose.

With the help of the nail (antenna), the mind reading succeeded.

I then did a trick I have that uses pictures of famous people to determine the "perfect match" for a female spectator. If Brad Pit shows up, her best match would be people similar to Brad Pit (i.e. "cool" people) and if Einstein showed up her best match would be intelligent people, etc. She was unlucky, and the picture that kept showing up over and over again was a photo of me... But when she decided to change her mind and go a bit farther down the pack, the one she changed away from turned out to be Tom Cruise, etc. A trick I have made myself, that I like quite a lot.

その後、有名人のトランプを使った相性占いみたいなマジックをした。女の子がカード1枚選ぶ。例えばブラピになったら、ブラピみたいな人（格好いい系人の代表）が一番相性いいということ。アインシュタインになったら、頭のいい人との相性がいい。引きが弱い女の子だったね。毎回毎回僕の写真しか出なかった。悩んで、やっぱりこのカードではなくて、変えると言った時に、まさかトム・クルーズだったし。変えないほうが良かった。自作のマジックで、結構好きだ。

I did a mentalism type card effect, predicting which cards people would yell out at me from the audience, and then did a joke with a silk-to-panda toy with a Christmas theme (which I shamelessly stole/borrowed from the owner of our magic bar).

その後メンタリズムっぽいカードマジック（予言）もしたし、シルクとパンダのおもちゃを使ったギャグマジックもしたし。個人的に超好きで、マジックバーのオーナーが考えたマジックをそのまんまぱくった（道具も貸して貰ったし）。

Finally, I had people shuffle a deck of Japanese alphabet cards and then we flipped over cards to reveal them spelling out a Japanese phrase recently popular on TV. After that, I had a card signed and it ended up inside an un-opened (factory sealed) PET-bottle from the convenience store below.

最後にお客さんが混ぜたひらがな付きトランプを出してみたら、最近の流行の「おもてなし」が出てきた。最後の最後、トランプ1枚にサインして貰って、そのカードが新品のペットボトルに入った。

A signed card appeared inside this un-opened PET-bottle.

The food was great. The audience was great. The DJs were good. Many friends of mine showed up (two friends visiting from Sweden, a colleague from Hokudai, an American magician visiting Sapporo, a girl who dressed up as a zombie for Halloween with me, and more). My magic show seemed to go over well, and  I was fairly happy with the performance myself too.

食べ物がかなり美味しかった。お客さんが皆いい人だった。DJも良かった。友達いっぱい来てくれた。スウェーデンからの後輩2人・北大の同僚1人・アメリカからのマジシャン（札幌に遊びに来ている）・ハロウィンに一緒にゾンビになった女の子、色々な知り合いがきた。マジックもうけたみたいで、僕も自分で割りと満足した。

One girl came up to me after my show and said that it was the first time she saw me do magic and that I looked "500 times cooler" when doing magic. I said 500 times 0 is still 0, but she said "ah, you are not a 0, you are more like 0.2"... An idea for a New Year resolution is perhaps to try to crawl my way up to a 1 on a a scale from 1 to 10...

ショーの後、女の人が寄ってきて、「初めてヨーナスのマジックを見た。500倍くらい格好良く見えた！」と言われた。「500掛ける0はまだ0だけど」と言ったら、「あ、ヨーナスが０ではないよ。0.2くらいあるんじゃない？」と言われた…低っ！（笑）来年の目標は1から10で、1を目指そうか…

Roasted chicken, stuffed with rice.

Fried potatoes, hashed potatoes, and chicken salad sandwiches.

DJ Santa had a present bag. When I asked what was inside, he gave me a piece of candy from the bag.

The rice inside the chicken was very good.

There was a small Christmas tree in front of the DJ booth.

The Christmas tree kind of worked as a disco light too, and would shine strongly and blink from time to time.