Food from fans ・ ファンからの食べ物

On Saturday, a girl who comes to our magic bar a lot (the same girl who judged our magic contest last week) showed up bringing food for all the staff. She works as a chef in a Chinese restaurant, so she had made gyoza and spring rolls for us. Very nice.

土曜日に店の常連さんの女の子（先週のマジックコンテストの審査員になった女の子）が手作り料理を持って来てくれた。中華のレストランで働いているので、中華が上手に作れる！餃子と春巻きをいただいた。

Magic Clip: Offensive magic trick ・ マジック動画：酷いマジック

http://5secondfilms.com/watch/magic_show_volunteer

I laughed at this magic trick.

このマジック、酷すぎて、爆笑した。

New Ideas ・ 新しいアイデア

Yesterday I went to talk to one of my friends who is not a magician. His father was a magician, though, so he knows quite a lot about magic, and we often have fruitful discussions on new ideas for magic tricks, or interesting presentation ideas/stories for tricks I come up with.

Yesterday I showed him a trick I made myself. It has four cards that says "Win" in Japanese, and one that says "Lose". You can present it as a gambling trick, where you give the spectator 1000 yen for selecting any "Win" card, and have them pay you 50 yen if by some chance they happen to take the "Lose" card. You can shuffle the cards very cleanly, and then tell them that you will take cards from the top to the bottom, and whenever they want they say stop, and they get whatever card is on top. Really clean, very fair (or at least looks that way :-). Every time, they stop on the "Lose" card, even though the odds are greatly in favor of winning.

My friend, who knows much about magic and thus is rarely completely fooled (he usually has some idea of how you could do most tricks) thought it was very very strange and seemed to have no idea what was going on. We then discussed better presentation ideas than "Win" and "Lose". I will try to make a set of photos of popular actors (Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, etc.) and myself. Using this as "what is your ideal type of man", people will end up with me, every time. I also think "Slap me" vs. "Kiss me" cards could be fun.

Magic Maniac Competition ・ マジックマニアの勝負

Yesterday we once again had one of our pretty much weekly "magic maniac" meetings. The regular members consisting of me (computer science researcher), U (barber), and O (udon chef) were of course there. Since we were in the magic bar I go to during the weekends, two of the magicians there were also available, though one left early. There was also a farmer who I have met once or twice before who does mental magic.

昨日、またマジックマニア会の日だった。レギュラーの僕・う～さん・オさんが参加した、マジックバーのスタッフ2人もいたし、農家をやっているメンタリストも参加したし、楽しかった。

At around 1 a.m. all regular customers had left, except one young girl. She has been in our magic bar several times before, and I guess she likes magic quite a lot. We were having the maniac meeting, but since she was all alone we invited her to our table. Normally, we do some kind of game were you have 10 seconds to make a coin disappear, and then the others guess were it is. The person who fools the least number of people has do perform some high level magic trick for the others.

午前1時頃に、一般人のお客さんが1人以外皆帰ったので、本格的なマニア会が始まった。その一般人の女の子1人がちょっと寂しく見えたので、うちらのテーブルに誘った。それで、付いて行けない話とかもあったんだろが色々な面白いマジックもあった。店長がちょっと早めに帰らないといけない予定があったからその後マジシャン5人になった。普段罰ゲームみたいに、10秒でコインを消して、一番あてられる人が他の人にマジックを見せないと行けないゲームとかする。

This time, we decided to instead do competition rounds were everyone did one magic trick for the girl (and the other magicians), and she then decided which performance she liked the best. I had brought some new things aimed at maniacs, and had left all my "works really well on young women" stuff at home... And I had already done most of my normal repertoire for her the two times she had seen me perform in the magic bar before.

今回、勝負にしようって話になった。皆が1人づつその女の子にマジックを見せて、女の子がどのパフォーマンスが一番良かったかを決めることになった。僕がマニア会にマニア向けのネタしか持って行けなかったし、前にもマジックバーでその女の子が僕のパフォーマンスを2回見たし、見せていないネタがそんなになかった。

The competitors were me, my young magic bar colleague (our boss had to leave before the competition got going, though he was part of the normal maniac stuff we did first), U, O, and the farmer.

他に、僕のマジックバーの若い同僚1人・床屋さんの友達・うどん屋のマニア友達・農家のメンタリストも参加した。

The first round had lots of different types of magic. This was true for all the first three rounds. For example, the farmer did various mind reading/prediction effects; U did his one coin routine, a ring and rope routine ending with a huge (fake) diamond appearing on the ring on the spectators finger, a card trick were all cards were white but then turned into normal cards except one card from which a hamburger appeared; my colleague did a card effect with a strange lens, a "do as I do" thing with a sea lion, a "cut off finger in a box" thing, etc.; I did a card effect were all cards except the chosen one turned into the 9 of hearts, switched out a 0 yen fake bill for a 1000 yen bill that the girl had brought herself that she held in her hand, and something else; O did a card trick were lots of udon appeared, made Frisk breathmints turn big in several ways, and much more.

最初の１ラウンドに幅広くて、色々なマジックがあった。他のラウンドもそうだった。例えば、農家で予言や心理を読むマジックをした。う～さんがワン・コインも、指輪と紐（最後に女の子の指にあった指輪にでかい宝石が出てきた！）、白いトランプが普通のトランプに変わってトランプからハンバーガーが出てきた。同僚が変なレンズを使ったカード当て・アシカの可愛い絵を使ったマジックなどをした。オさんがトランプからうどん・フリスクが色々な意味で大きくなったとか、色々なカードマジックもした。僕が選んだカード以外全部ハートの9にしたし、お客さんの1000円札と僕の0円札っぽい名刺をお客さんの手の中で入れ替えたし。

The first round was won by a mental effect by the farmer. The second round I won, with my new 0 yen/1000 yen changing places in the spectator's hand trick. The third round was won by O with his udon produced from a deck of card trick.

最初のラウンドは農家のメンタルマジックの優勝になった。2回目は僕の手の中の変わる札のマジックになった。3回目はオさんのうどんのマジックが一番うけた。

For the fourth round, people were running out of new material. O suggested the girl could make a request, and then everyone had to do that trick in their own way. She said she wanted to see something disappear. This was a very fun challenge. The mentalist went first and had her write something down that she dislikes. He then divined what she disliked without looking, and told her that he had psychically made those bad things disappear. My colleague and O both made a whole deck of cards disappear. U made some coins disappear. I first made a rubber band disappear, but that did not go over well, so I took out a handkerchief and made a lighter, a box of cigarettes, and a 2 liter bottle of tea disappear. The tea won some appreciation by it being really big, but the other magicians disputed that that should mean I won, haha. I claimed victory by way of having the sense to pick the best trick to impress with, even if the actual disappearing may or may not have happened elsewhere.

4回目になった時に、結構ネタ切れって感じだったからオさんが「女の子からリクエストを聞いて、皆同じマジックをすれば？」と提案した。「何かが消えるマジック見たい」って。こういうチャレンジが超楽しかった！順番で、メンタルシトが紙に嫌なものを書いてもらって、見ないで何の嫌なことだったかをあてて、嫌なものが消えるマジックをした。同僚もオさんもトランプ1個丸ごと消した。う～さんが何を消したか、ちょっと不明だったがコインとか消えたと思う。僕が最初にうけ狙いで輪ゴムを消したがかなり滑った…皆が僕のすべりに爆笑（笑）。その後ハンカチを出して、ライタ・タバコの箱・2リトルのペットボトルを消した。2リトルのボトルがでかいから印象が一番強かったみたい。それで、ヨーナスの優勝になるか、不明だと他のマジシャンが言い出した（笑）。ネタを選ぶセンスが良かったから僕の優勝だと僕が答えたけど。僕が本当に自分で消したかもしかしたら誰か他の人が消したか、関係ないね！笑

The girl was probably very happy with having several hours of private magic show. I left at around 6:20 a.m. (I have to work during the days) but some people were still left then (more customers showed up around 4 a.m. too).

その女の子が普段のマジックのパフォーマンスを見てから、何時間もプライベートのマジックショー観れたのが多分ラッキーだったと思うね。僕が6時20分に帰った（昼の仕事しているから…）。何人かがまだやっていたけど。4時ごろに他のお客さんも入ったし。

Magic Mania Movie ・ 久し振りのマニア会動画

Today I went to one of our magic bars to talk about The Walking Dead (which just finished its second season here in Japan yesterday) with one of my colleagues there. There were lots of magic maniacs there, though, so we did not have much chance to talk about TV shows. Instead, I managed to get a nice clip showing one of my friends doing a funny routine with flies.

今日、「ウォーキングデッド」というドラマのどシーズン２がちょうど今日本で終わったので、うちのマジックバーの1号店に同僚とドラマの話をしに行った。マジックのマニアの人がもういっぱい入っていたから、結局ドラマの話できなかったが楽しかった。マニア友達のハエ叩きのパドルの演技の動画も撮れた。

The night when the sushi I produced from my T-shirt became real! ・ ティシャツから出てきた寿司が本物になった！

My fake salmon sushi, on top of some other magic props, looking more real than usual.

Yesterday I was wearing my "salmon eating salmon sushi" T-shirt and whenever a customer in our magic bar asked me about the shirt, I would produce one or two pieces of sushi from the shirt. These are not real sushi, though. Later, at around 1 A.M. when all customers had left to catch the last subway and the next wave of customers that turn up at around 3 or 4 A.M. (when many other places close) showed up, we were sitting down watching clips on YouTube etc. My boss told me: "Jonas, could you hand me those sushi you use."

昨日も鮭がサーモンの寿司を食べているティシャツを来ていた。お客さんがティシャツの話したら、僕がティシャツから寿司1個か2個を出した。本物ではないけど。午前1時に、皆終電で帰るから、マジックバーが暇になっていた。他の店が閉めてうちに来るお客さんが3～4時頃に来るので、その間ユーチューブとか観たりしていた。店長が「ヨーナス、その寿司渡して」って言い出した。

I reached over to my bag, on top of which I have some cards, a matchbox that used to be a lighter, some other magic props that I used during the night, and my fake sushi. When I touched the sushi, I noticed that something was off; it felt cold... I was very surprised and pulled back my arm quickly, much to the delight of everyone else... My boss was laughing like crazy. Upon closer inspection, my fake sushi seemed to have turned into real sushi! It was placed exactly where I had left my sushi, and was the same type, size, etc. Except, it was real. I was very surprised.

僕のバッグの上にトランプやマッチやマジック道具が置いてあって、そこに偽物の寿司も置いてあったから、取ろうとした。寿司触ったら、「あれ？感触違う！」って気付いて、ビックリした！驚いた姿に、他のスタッフ皆笑っていた。店長爆笑していた。よく見たら、本物のサーモン寿司だった。僕が偽物寿司を置いたところに置いてあったし、大きさも、形も、色もほぼ一緒だった。だけど、本物だった。ビックリした（笑）。

Apparently, while I was seeing some customers off at the elevator, my boss had pocketed my fake sushi and replaced them with real sushi. During the early hours before the big rush of customers showed up, he had gone to the convenience store to by more cigarettes or whatnot, and there he had seen salmons sushi. He then thought: "This is it! What a great chance!", and bought a 10 piece sushi set just to trick me 5 hours later. It is great to have colleagues like that, haha. Though I did have to wipe off some of my other props that had become sticky from the rice of the real sushi placed on top of them, haha.

店長が早い時間の暇な時にコンビニにタバコか何かを買いに行った時にサーモンが入った寿司のセットを見て、「これだ～！チャンスだ！」と思って、買ったらしい。5時間後に、僕がエレベータまで見送りした時に店長が僕のマジック道具寿司をどこかで隠して、本物の寿司を出した。全然気付かなかった。こういうことをやるだけの為に寿司10巻買って来る同僚が素晴らしいよね！（笑）。後でトランプの箱とか、結構拭かないと行けないこともあったけど、笑。

Disappearing nose!

My boss in the magic bar can make his nose disappear, which looks weird.

マジックバーの店長は、鼻を消すことが出来る。おかしく見える。