School festival rehearsals

Today was the first day of the school festival at our university. Every year, the magician club of our university has a "magic cafe" at the school festival. There you can see stage magic and table magic. I used to perform there, but now I have been retired (you can only be in the club for 3 years). I did go to see the rehearsals of the new people, though. Some of them seemed fine, some still needed more work.

今日からうちの大学の学園祭なんだ。毎年、大学のマジッククラブ（部活）が学園祭でマジック喫茶店をやる。ステージマジックも、テーブルマジックも見れる。僕は今まで毎年パフォーマンスしたがもうOBになった（3年間しか出来ない）。今日後輩のリハーサルを見に行ったけど。パフォーマンスのきれいな人もいたし、まだ練習が必要な人もいた。

Benson Burner at the Christmas show ・ クリスマスショーのパフォーマンス

 

I finally got a copy of my performance at Hokudai university magic club's Christmas show 2011. I did a routine from Tom Stone's book "Vortex", though I did not do it very well... The beginning looks OK I think, but towards the end I messed up, haha. Well, it is embarrassing to see yourself make mistakes, but I guess it is also a learning experience. The photos look good, though.

やっと北大奇術研究会のクリスマスショーの動画や写真が手に入った！Tom Stoneの「Vortex」という本からのマジックをやったがうまく出来なかった。最初の方が割と大丈夫だと思うが最後の方に失敗…自分の失敗を動画で見るのが恥ずかしいよね、笑。まぁ、勉強になるかなぁ？写真で見たら、いい感じだけど。

The end of an era ・ 手品卒業

Me in the cold winter Sapporo.

After our big stage magic show with the university magic club, there was a lot of clean up to do, but after that there was also a party. Every year, you have to make a promise ("I will not spill a single drop of juice from the glass of juice that I am going to make disappear") and if you cannot fulfil that promise you have to do something unpleasant ("I will eat the spiciest food they serve at the spiciest Indian restaurant in town").

大学のサークルの大きなステージショーの後、片付けとか色々あったが後で打ち上げもあった。毎年、罰ゲームみたいに、自分で決めたこと（「消すグラスからジュース1滴も溢さない」）が出来なかったら、自分で決めた罰あたる（「札幌の一番辛いカレー屋で一番辛いものを食べる」）の習慣があった。今年はなかったみたいが僕が自分で自分のパフォーマンスがちょっと足りなかったなぁと思って、去年の罰のようにした（去年うまく行ったので、やらなかった）。基本的に、三年目の人（僕が三年目なんだ）が「1位になる」の約束にしないと行けない習慣だったらしい（ってことは、だいたい三年生皆罰だったね）し。

This year it seemed this tradition had been removed, but I though my performance did not really live up to expectations so I decided to punish myself with my chosen punishment from last year (when everything went fine and I did not have to do anything). Traditionally, all the last year magicians (this is my last year) have to promise that they will be the number one performer of the year (which of course means most last year magicians cannot fulfil their promise...) So I spent the party (well, parties) and time between the parties wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Since Sapporo is fairly cold this time of year (minus 5 degrees Celsius on the night in question) I also put on a muffler.

僕の罰は、打ち上げは短パン・半袖で行くってことだったから、まあまあ寒いすすきのにその感じで行った。マイナス5℃だったらしい。ちょっと寒かったので、マフラーもして行った。

The place where I spent two hours in shorts and a t-shirt (notice other people wearing jackets and coats since there are no walls, only plastic film...)

When we were waiting at the subway station (I got there by walking, but everyone was to gather at the subway station) for some people who were late, one of the other guys asked me: "What is up with your clothing?!". At the same time, he adjusted his own muffler, which I took as a sign that he wondered why I had a muffler. I answered: "I thought it was is a bit cold today, so I put on a muffler". Another guy standing next to us thought that was hysterically funny, so when other people came up and asked things like "What the hell is wrong with Jonas?" he would jump in and say "Ah, Jonas thinks it is cold outside today so he put on a muffler". One of the few times irony has been appreciated in Japan :-)

地下鉄駅集合だった。僕が歩いて行ったが遅れた人を待っていた時に皆で地下鉄駅で待っていた。その時に、先輩に「今日の格好、どうした？！」って聞かれた。聞きながら、自分のマフラーを触っていたので、「何でマフラーしている？」という意味の質問のように受け取った。「外がちょっと寒いので、マフラーしてきたよ」と言った。隣にいた（別の）先輩、大うけ。後で他の人も何人か似たような質問した。その先輩がだいたい「あ、ヨーナスは寒いと思っているから、マフラーしてきたって」と言い出した。珍しくて、日本で皮肉が伝わった、笑。

I chose a seat next to the gas burner.

Speaking of irony, it turned out that unlike last year when we were in a very hot restaurant, this year our party took place on top of the Norubesa building. On top, and not inside. There were plastic film making something like walls so it was at least no windy, but it was cold. The other people in general kept their coats and jackets on... This came as quite a(n unpleasant) surprise to me :-) I found a chair close to the gas burner keeping the staff vaguely warm, and sat there.

1次会の店に着いたら、ちょっとしたショックになったけど。去年、暖かい居酒屋でやっていたのに、今年は札幌にあるノルベサという建物の上でやっていた。建物の中ではなく、建物の上。壁みたいにプラスチックのフィルムが張ってあったので、風が通らないことにはなっていたが寒かった。他の人がだいたいコートやジャケットのまんまで食べていた。僕がストーブの一番近い椅子に座った、笑。

Flowers and a present.

In the magic club of our university you graduate after three years. This was my third year, so I was one of the people getting kicked out. At this final big party, we were all given flowers and a small present. The present turned out to be a small towel that when rolled up in a nice way looks like a piece of strawberry cake.

北大の奇術研究会では、三年間で卒業になる。僕が今年で三年目だったので、他の三年目の人と一緒、打ち上げでプレゼントやお花を貰った。プレゼントは巻いたらショーとケーキに見えるタオルだった。来年4月からもうマジックのサークルのメンバーではなくなる。

The 40th Magic Festival ・ 2011年12月17日「第40回Magic Festival」

The magicians that were on stage this year.

On December 17, the magic club of the university (which I am a member of) had its yearly big stage magic show. This year it was the 40th time for this event, which is called the "Magic Festival". We rented the Sapporo Kyouiku Bunka Kaikan, which has a nice stage, with lighting, sound, curtains etc.

2011年12月17日に北大奇術研究会（僕が入っている部活のマジッククラブ）の大きなステージマジックショーがあった。今年第40回目の「Magic Festival」だった。札幌の教育文化会館を借りて、ちゃんとしたステージでやった。

This is what pictures from my camera look like now...

Sadly, my camera decided that this was a good day to die, so I could take approximately 0 pictures back stage... It made a short recovery for two minutes, so I did get a few pictures of things I was not that interested in, but now I am using my super old camera until I have time to go buy a new one. Other people took pictures, though, so I will try to get their pictures later. And the whole thing was recorded with video cameras too, so I will put up a movie of my performance when those guys get finished with processing the videos.

残念ながら、僕のカメラがちょうど17日の朝に死んだ。裏で面白い写真撮りたかったが出来なかった。一瞬、カメラがちょっと復活したがその時に撮りたいことが特に何もなかった。カメラが又すぐ駄目になった。ステージショーが終わってから、家に置いてあった6年前に買ったカメラを取りに行ったが新しいカメラを買いに行かなきゃ。他の人が結構写真撮ったので、後で写真貰おう。勿論、ステージショー全部動画も撮ってあるから、動画関係の人の処理が終わったら、ユーチューブに僕のパフォーマンスの動画をアップする。

Magicians waiting back stage, when my camera was still working.

The show started at 13:00 and went on for two hours with a short 10 minutes break. We had been working since 8:30 with preparations, though, and I had to do some stuff for my own performance too so I had been up since 6:30.

13時開演で、2時間くらい（10分の休憩を含めて）のステージショーだった。我々が8時半からずっと色々な準備していたけど。僕が自分のパフォーマンスの為の色々な準備もあって、家で6時半から色々やっていた。

This year, the whole hall was sold out, so it was packed with people. I am told. When I was on stage, I had a very strong spotlight on me and no light on the audience, so I could not see anything at all.

今年満席になった。と言われた。僕のパフォーマンスの時に客席が真っ暗で、僕に強いスポットがあったので、何も見えなかった。

Me producing lots of balls from a flower pot.

My performance went so-so. Several things could have been performed better, but the audience seemed happy enough. Every year there is a questionnaire where the audience members can vote on which performance they liked best. Last year the juggling group were number 1, the MCs where number 2, and I was number 3. This year I only made it to number 5 (of 18), but that is not bad I guess.

僕のパフォーマンスがまあまあになった。大失敗はなかったが自分で見たら、色々なところでもうちょっとうまく行けば良かったなぁと思う。毎年、アンケートもある。観客が誰のパフォーマンスが一番良かったかを書くんだ。去年、一位はジャッグリング組で、2位は司会で、3位が僕だった。今年は18演目の中の5位しかなれなかったがそれでも悪くないかもしれない。

And some more balls.

I performed a routine from Tom Stone's book "Vortex". I like it a lot myself, though there is quite a lot of work for me to do before the performance even starts. People who came up to me later during the night said they liked it too but thought it was too short. They wanted to see more (this year everyone had been told to make their performances short, since there are too many active members, but not so many other people actually did...).

僕がTom Stoneの「Vortex」という本に載っているネタをやった。自分で見た時に大好きなネタだ。準備が結構大変だけど。ショーの後で話してくれた人がだいたい面白いと言ってくれたが「短かったね！」とか「早く終わっちゃったね」と言われた。もっと見たかったそうだ。今年演者が多すぎて、皆自分のパフォーマンスを短くして下さいと言われたからだったけど（他の人があまりしていなかったみたい、笑）。

Apart from me, there were about 30 other magicians that performed all kinds of magic. There were illusions; flowers, CD:s, balls, parasolls, etc. being produced; juggling; rope tricks, and much more.

僕の他に、30人くらいのマジシャンも色々なパフォーマンスした。イリュージョン・花やCDや玉や傘の出現・ロープのマジック・色々あった。

I will be back with more pictures and a movie clip when I get my hands on them.

写真や動画が手に入ると又ブログに書くね。

Suspicious looking pants ・ 怪しいズボン

Yesterday we had the "full routine" rehearsal of our magic performances for the Christmas show of the university magic club. My rehearsal went OK I think, and there is still more than a month left to practice.

昨日、大学のサークルのクリスマスショーの「フル手順リハーサル」があった。僕のパフォーマンスがまあまあ大丈夫だったと思う。まだ1カ月以上あるしね。

One other magician had some really suspicious looking pants, so I took a picture.

後輩のズボンが超怪しかったから、写真撮った。

Magic Auction again ･2回目のマジック道具のオークション

While I was busy with things related to my Osaka trip, the magic club at the university had an auction selling off the rest of the stuff left over from the first auction. I wanted some stuff but could not attend... But I had stuck notes to some things before saying things like "Jonas will pay 1000 yen for this", so yesterday our accountant came up to me and said I owed her 6800 yen. After paying, she gave me a bag of stuff from the auction! As usual, the students have no money so no one had outbid me on anything that I had tagged. There was one thing I wanted that I had forgotten to tag though, so someone else got it cheaply I believe.

大阪旅行の何かで忙しかった時に大学のサークルの人がまたオークションをやった。前のオークションから残っていたものを全部オークションした。買いたいものが色々あったが参加出来なかった。出来なかったが、前からテープで「ヨーナスが１０００円出す」とか、色々なものに付けたから、昨日会計の人に「６８００円頂戴」と言われた。払ったら、オークションからの手品道具が入っているバッグを貰った。学生たちが相変わらずお金ないので、テープを付けたもの全部ゲットしたと思う。他に欲しいものも何かあったがテープを付けるの忘れたから誰かが安く買えたんだろね。

My cut from the auction

I ended up going home with a Svengali style deck that becomes completely white, a handkerchief looking like a 10000 yen bill, a rose on a reel, an English penny triple shell kind of thing, a few sponge eggs, 10 jumbo cards with half naked women, and a "milk becomes a die" illusion thingy. Who decided that "milk becomes a die" was a good idea? Why on earth would it become a die, instead of say icecream, a stuffed cow, or tomato juice? I mean, what does dice and milk have to do with each other? Maybe I am missing some Japanese word play thing, or cultural thing? Who knows...

貰ったものは：スウェンガリタイプの白くなるトランプ・１万円札に見えるハンカチ・リール付きのバラ・イギリスのペニーのシェル・スポンジ玉子・上半身裸の女の人のジャンボカード１０枚・ミルクがサイコロになる道具。だけど、ミルクがサイコロになるって、誰が考えたの？何でミルクがサイコロになるか、わけ分からないね。アイスや牛のぬいぐるみやトマトジュースとかになったら、何とか分かるが、サイコロ？僕が分かっていない日本語の言葉遊びや日本の文化の知らないところ、何かあるかな？よく分からない。

Sapporo UniFes 2011

On Saturday 2011-10-15 I got up a little bit earlier than normal after coming home late from doing magic in Magic Bar Twister. On Saturday the Magic Circle of my university (which I am a member of) was scheduled to do magic at the Sapporo UniFes 2011 event in the Odori-koen park in the middle of Sapporo.

２０１１年１０月１５日に割と早起き（金曜日の夜にマジックバーツイスターでマジックをしていた）して、札幌の大通公園に行って札幌ユニフェスでマジックした。北大のサークル（奇術研究会、僕も入っている）がユニフェスで一般人にマジックを見せていた。

We had our own little tent and any passerby that wanted to see magic could see up to 7 different magicians do their best to entertain them. I mainly targeted small children and produced 19 rabbits out of thin air, and pulled lots of playing cards out of my mouth to get people to notice us. We were there from 10.00 to 16.00 (I was there from 13.15 or so...) and it was a lot of fun.

小さなテントがあって、マジック観たい人がきたら、７人のマジシャンもいた！僕が通っていた子供をメインにして、ウサギ１９羽を出していた。口からトランプを出すマジックもよくやった。遠くから見られても目立つマジックなので、呼び込みみたいに良い。サークルが１０時から１６時マジックをやっていた（僕が１３時１５分から）。

There were also other things going on at Sapporo UniFes 2011, such as dancing. Here are some cheer girls from Otaru.

ユニフェスに他にも色々あった。例えば、小樽からのチアガール。

Magic Auction ･マジック道具のオークション

4 big bags of stuff up for auction!

Since Friday last week, the university magic club has returned to evening sessions. During the summer the meetings are in the afternoon, when I have to work, so I cannot attend. Fridays are impossible for me even when the meetings are in the evening, but today I went to the club for the first time in months. And today there was an auction of old magic stuff!

先週金曜日から大学のサークル（奇術研究会）がまた夜例会になっているからやっとまた参加出来る。金曜日には普段行けないけど。今日久し振りにサークルに行って、手品道具のオークションがあった！

Since the others are all students, they apparently have no money at all. This meant that most things went for really really low prices. I bought lots of interesting stuff! So much so that it was a bit difficult to lug everything home. And still there were lots of things I wanted to buy but we ran out of time so the auction will continue "next time". Which seems to be a Friday, sadly. Maybe I can still go? I hope so.

学生達は基本的にお金ないみたいで、激安い感じだった。面白い物を沢山買って、帰りは結構大変だった。持てないくらい。まだまだ欲しいもの沢山あったが時間が遅すぎて、また今度に続くって…また今度ってことは金曜日だそうだけど。行けないのかなぁ…行けたら、また沢山買おう！笑

Today's shopping result

Today I bought: a compressible silk hat (which I already own, but it was super cheap), a vanishing beer bottle, a really weird looking color-changing-necktie (that nobody wanted so I said I would buy it for 100 yen (about 1 dollar), and which was apparently 8300 yen originally), some form of mental trick with for jumbo sized kings, some jumbo card trick with Japanese words, a sponge ball that felt weird to the touch, a huge handkerchief or small table cloth that you can "make a plate vanish" with, a dove book, a yellow box where you put in a dove and then disassemble the whole box and the dove is gone, a purse with a tiny purse to go with it (and with tiny 500 yen coins that are super cute). And all of this for only 10550 yen (105 dollars)! If you buy them new, just the purse set and the silk hat would cost that much.

My favorite buy today: a purse and a tiny purse set, with tiny 500 yen coins inside!

今日買ったものは：折りたたみ式シルクハット（持っているが激安かった）・消える瓶ビール・訳分からない柄のカラーチェンジネクタイ（誰も欲しくないもので、100円で一応買った。原価が8300円らしい）・メンタルネタの4枚のキングのジャンボカード・よく分からない「松」「竹」「梅」のカード・手触りが変なスポンジ・皿も消せるそうなデカイハンカチというかテーブルクロスというか・鳩出てくる本・鳩が消える（黄色い）箱・普通サイズとちっちゃいがま口、ちっちゃくて可愛い500円付き。全部で10550円しか出していない。普通な値段だったら、シルクハットとがま口だけでその値段だ。

Apart from the things I bought, I also wanted some gimmick coins, jumbo cards with naked women, sponge eggs, and some other stuff.

他に欲しいのは仕掛けのあるコイン・シモネタ系ジャンボカード・スポンジのたまご、色々。