スウェーデン生まれの札幌市民のマジシャンの「ヨーナス」で～す。直訳したら、名字は「湖山」になる。Jonasはヘブライ語の名前で、平和の象徴の「鳩」という意味だ。湖山・鳩と申します。週末にマジックバーツイスターという店でマジックを披露している。僕のマジックに関しての考えてることのブログだ。
Originally from Sweden, I now live in Sapporo (Japan). My name is Jonas, and my last name which seems to be unpronounceable to both Japanese speakers and English speakers, means Lake-Mountain. Jonas means "Dove". I do magic in the Magic Bar Twister in Sapporo during the weekends, and this is my blog about magic things.
On my way back after doing a magic show as the "kuchi sake onna" ("slit mouthed woman" urban legend monster), I stopped by Ropossa. The mama of Ropossa had requested that I stop by when in this costume. I ended up doing some table magic for some other guests there. It was a lot of fun.
Last year at Halloween I dressed up as a zombie and visited the magic "snack bar" Ropossa here in Sapporo. They asked me to hammer a nail into my nose (and to drink tomato juice, bite people, eat gooey stuff, etc. etc.) so I ended up doing a card trick.
I had a card selected. Then I tried to determine what card was selected through mind reading. Sadly, the reception was not that great, so an antenna was needed. I took out an antenna that looked quite a lot like a normal nail. Since mind reading is done with the brain, the antenna had to be hammered into the head to reach the brain. Once the antenna was attached, the reception became clearer and I could correctly determine the selected card.
The card parts are completely missing from the movie, however, so it just looks like a weird person hammering a nail into their nose for no reason. With blood all over them... But there was a completely logical reason for all of this!
Recently we have not had any "magic mania" meetings. I have been busy at work (and sick) so I have not practiced much new stuff. The most "mania" of the staff in our magic bar quit a few months ago and now works in a "normal" bar, so we do not meet as much anymore. My most "mania" friend found himself a girlfriend, so now we see each other only once every two months or so. So everyone coming together at the same time for magic mania meetings do not happen very much anymore.
People sometimes tell me they liked our magic clips on YouTube and want me to upload new stuff. These complaints have increased lately, so I went over to one of our magic bars at a time when they did not have anything to do, and asked a friend to record me doing some new silly tricks that I recently have become fond of. These are not of the "mania" type, but more of a "joke" type. Still, I felt I should upload something, so here they are.
The first clip here is a trick I practiced quite a long time ago and like very much. I have not been performing it very much (not at all, more or less), though. Recently I have started performing it in our magic bar. After we relocated, we now have a very low counter, so people can actually see my legs. I like the trick, but it is very short, so I usually play it off as a joke about optical illusions, and how a trick of your eyes makes the pen look rubbery and in a less known trick of your eyes also makes the pen look like a coin.
The next clip is my version of spoon bending. When I showed it to the "mama" at the "magic snack bar" Ropossa, who is very very good at "normal" spoon bending (she has bent tens of thousands of spoons), she thought it was very funny. She even gave me some spoons to play with. It is a very very quick trick. I tried to go for a heart shape of the bent spoon, but that turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined, so in the end I gave up and the spoon is not really that heart shaped.
Another optical illusion type of magic trick is showing a pen (or cigarette, or anything, really, but pens and cigarettes are the most common) and covering it with your hand so it looks shorter. Using this as a setup, I made a joke trick where a pen (and a spoon) "looks smaller". I think it is pretty funny, but I have not really used it other than as a joke for other magicians.
Finally, the "mama" of Ropossa also gave me a magic prop that makes a pen shrink. The normal (intended) way of using it is completely different. If I understand correctly you use a handkerchief and make a pen small. I use the prop to illustrate the same optical illusion as above, where a pen looks shorter. Then I explain that I actually used a trick pen, and how you can make it long again. I only got the pen, no instructions and no handkerchief (and possibly there was one more tool included that I also did not get).
I went to the the "snack bar" Ropossa, where the mama does magic. They also have endless amounts of interesting toys. Both things they have bought and things that some of their regulars have made themselves.
This time I was shown a very interesting handkerchief. You can crumble it up and the just shake it in your hand or throw it in the air, and it returns to its origami crane shape. Apparently only made using two layers of stretchable cloth stuck together in a certain way.
Last year I dressed up as a zombie for the Sapporo Zombie Walk. I also visited our local magic shop on my way home, still dressed as a zombie. The mama of a "snack bar" who does magic was upset with me for visiting our common friend but not coming to her place looking like a zombie.
Zombie Jonas showing a nail to be used as an ESP antenna to find a chosen card.
On Tuesday I was dressed up as a zombie for a Halloween party, so I also visited her place this time. They had me pose in different situations, and also requested that I do a magic trick where I hammer a nail into my nose. Hopefully I can get my hands on a video of that magic trick, since there was quite a lot of screaming, which is always nice.
On Monday it was the 24 year anniversary of the "snack pub" Ropossa here in Sapporo. The mama of the Ropossa magic snack pub does magic but says she is not a magician. She is very good at spoon bending, balloon swallowing, and producing sponge rabbits, and would probably be called a magician by most people.
She also does a lot of magic tricks with penis shaped sponges and balloons (she also loves poo-shaped toys, sponges, and balloons). My boss in our magic bar also loves tricks with penis shaped objects, so the Ropossa mama had bought a penis shaped balloon that she wanted to give to him.
Since I went to Ropossa to congratulate them on the 24 year anniversary but my boss did not have time to go (both our magic bar and Ropossa are open more or less the same hours, so he had to work), the Ropossa mama asked me to take this huge penis shaped balloon and give it to my boss when I met him next.
In Sapporo, I often get stopped by the police and they want to see my alien registration card (my Japanese ID) and they ask me what I am doing etc. Sometimes they ask me to empty my pockets and show them everything I have on me. I am not sure why this happens to me all the time (my foreigner friends tell me it never happens to them), but my Japanese friends tell me it is because I look suspicious.
Anyway, walking around with a huge penis in my pocket would not be the best time to be stopped by the police, so I walked straight to our magic bar and handed over the balloon that same night, haha. My boss was very happy.
Yesterday I went to the magic "snack bar" Ropossa (Sapporo read in reverse, in Japanese, sa-double consonant-po-ro --> ro-po-double consonant-sa). A snack bar is basically a bar with a high entry fee or high prices that also includes the "mama" and the other staff talking to you and entertaining you. So it could be for instance a bar with flirty waitresses. Ropossa is a bar where the mama does magic for you. She does not call herself a magician, and says that the place is not a magic bar, though.
It costs 3000 yen to visit Ropossa, and this also gets you some food, and free drinks for your whole visit. If you are a magician, mama will generally not do magic for you (she thinks she is not good enough, which is not true), but they will pepper you with strange toys, puzzle boxes that just wont open no matter what you try, intellectual puzzles, novelty items, and lots more. Very exhausting! And very entertaining. You can also watch as mama performs magic to other customers, including lots of sponge rabbits, sponge penises, balloon swallowing, and spoon bending.
They have lots of strange games and interesting novelty items to play with too. Yesterday they showed me some toys made from old used milk cartons. You fold the carton and put it on a table and after awhile it will jump into the air. They also had a box full of these toys, that when opened spewed out a fountain of milk carton pieces jumping wildly into the air.
