Trying to find really tiny panites

Inspired by the brilliant performance by Ursula Martinez, and by a commercial for a cheap magic prop I saw in a toy store in France, I have come up with a funny idea for a magic trick. For that trick, it would be great to have a pair of panties to make disappear. They would however need to be very small.

Ursula Martinezの素晴らしいパフォーマンスに感動して、フランスでテンヨーみたいなメーカーのCMで見た演技も考えて、新しいマジックのアイデアが思い浮かべた。そのマジックにちいっちゃなパンティを消したい。かなり小さくないと無理だけど。

I have been all over town looking for panties that fold down to very small pieces of cloth that my magician friends have told me about, but they are no longer sold. At least not in Sapporo. I instead bought a pair of panties in a "normal" (actually kind of weird) shop for underwear. I picked a pair that seemed to have very little cloth, but they are still too big for my magic trick. Mainly the stretchy part that goes around your hips is too thick.

札幌の色々なところに行って、マジシャン友達のお勧めのパンティを探したがもう札幌では売っていない。普通（まぁ、ちょっと怪しい）の下着屋さんに行って、一番布が少ないパンティを買ってみた。それでもマジック用として、大きすぎる。腰の周りの分が太くて駄目なんだ。

Magician's birthday

My boss in the magic bar has his birthday in August, so right after midnight the rest of the staff produced a birthday cake for him. There were only four of us in the bar at the time (3 staff and one of our regulars) and the cake delivery service had ran late so they had upgraded the cake to a larger size for free. There seemed to be so much cake that there were doubts as to whether we could finish all of it...

8月にうちの店長の誕生日がある。日にちが変わった時に、他のスタッフがケーキを出した。男4人（スタッフ3人と常連さん1人）しかいなかったけど。そして、ケーキ屋の人が遅れたから、無料でケーキをもっと大きいサイズにしてくれた。4人で食べきれるか、ちょっと心配だった。

Magic at ECC Juniors

The day after the Susukino Festival, I was scheduled to do some magic in English to 50 kids at the ECC Juniors English conversation practice school. It was very far, and very much uphill, to go to the place of the event, but once there it was a lot of fun. The kids were nice, and we also played some games in English etc. for 90 minutes or so. I did 30 minutes of magic, and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

すすきの祭の次の日にマジックショーの予定もあった。ECCジュニアーの英会話スクールのイベントで英語でマジックをやる予定だった。イベントの会場までがかなり遠かった。凄い坂道だったし。やっと着いたら、楽しかったけど、笑。子供50人くらいがいて、最初90分くらい色々なゲームを英語でしたりした。僕が30分のマジックショーもした。皆喜んでくれたみたい。

Magic at the Susukino Festival

The first weekend of August saw the Susukino festival. The Susukino festival consists of lots of food stalls that sell Japanese festival food and alcohol in the streets. The hostess clubs and other places like that put up tables in the streets (that are closed for traffic from 16:30 to midnight or so). This year, Magic Bar Twister also had a yakitori place at the Susukino festival.

8月にすすきの祭があった。ニュークラやキャバクラとかが出店を出して、道路にテーブルを置く。16時半から24時まですすきの中心は車が通れなくなる。今年、マジックバーツイスターが初めて出店をやった。

Me in my playing card yukata

I helped out after work, and showed up in a yukata with playing card designs the first day. Doing magic in a yukata is not that great, but what is even worse is when you have only one hour to remove all the heavy stuff (tables, beer kegs, etc.) and all the dirty stuff (the oil drenched barbecue equipment) from the street and put it somewhere else. From day two, I worked in a t-shirt instead.

僕も本職の後毎日手伝いに行った。初日はトランプ柄の浴衣で行った。浴衣でマジックをやるのが面倒だがそれより、後の片付けが浴衣で大変だった。重いもの（テーブルやビールサーバーとか）を運んだり、汚いもの（焼き台とか）も運んだりして、下駄や浴衣はちょっと駄目だなと思った。次の日からティシャツでやった。

The yakitori place of Magic Bar Twister

We had a lot of fun, but not so many customers. The clean up after each day was very very tiring. My boss even screamed out in pain so badly when doing some of the heavy lifting that random people passing by stopped to ask us if everything was OK.

A lot of heavy lifting

楽しいことがいっぱいあったがお客さんがそんなに来なかった。毎晩片付けが大変だったし。ある日、店長が重い荷物を持ち上げた時にかなりの悲鳴を出して、全然知らない人も何人か「大丈夫ですか？」って聞いてきた。

A religious thingy passing through the festival area.

Magic props at the Sapporo Beer Garden!

When I went to the Sapporo Beer Garden with two friends from Sweden, the queue numbers they were using in one of the food stalls was actually playing cards. Not only were they playing cards, they were the exact same brand of playing cards that I use when I do parlor magic!

スウェーデン人の友達2人と札幌ビヤガーデンに行った時に、出店の番号札がトランプだった。僕がサロンマジックをやっている時に使っているブランドのトランプだった！

Magic shop in Montpellier, France

In the middle of July, I went to Montpellier for work (not my magic job). I had an evening off, and asked the tourist information center if there was anywhere in Montpellier where people showed you magic. They did not really know, but they found a place with "magic" in the name.

It turned out to be a magic shop that also gave lots of magic classes to kids and grownups. The owner seemed busy with teaching, but I did manage to find 20 minutes or so when he was between classes, and he kindly showed me lots of the stuff he sells.

7月に出張で（マジックの仕事ではないほうだったけど）フランスに行ってきた。仕事だったがある夜は予定がなかったから観光案内のところでマジックを見せてくれるところがあるかを聞いてみた。スタッフもよく分からなかったが検索してくれて、マジックって名前に入っている店を教えてくれた。

マジックショップだった。マジック教室も凄くやっているみたい。オーナーさんがずっと教室からの次の教室で忙しかったが20分くらい話せた。その時に店の色々なものも見せて貰った。

7 days in a row

The customer who called and asked for me in particular had a playing card stuffed  toy strapped to her  phone

Last week I was of course in the magic bar on Friday and Saturday as usual. Then, there was a wedding celebration party that made our magic bar open on Sunday (normally, it is closed on Sundays) too, and since I had nothing planned I also went there and performed for them.

先週の金・土曜日に勿論マジックバーにいた。日曜日は基本的に店が開いていないが結婚式の二次会の団体の予約があったから、日曜日もやっていた。僕も特に予定がなかったから、僕もその団体にマジックを見せた。

On Monday, I was out eating with a magician friend, and our last stop was our magic bar, so I was there on Monday too. On Tuesday, one of my colleagues in the magic bar was home with a fever, and when suddenly lots of customers appeared, the remaining magician called me and asked if I could come and help out. Which I could and did.

月曜日にマジシャン友達と出かけていた。最後にうちのマジックバーにも寄ったから、金・土・日・月曜日に毎日行った。火曜日に同僚1人が熱出して、休んだ。急にお客さんが沢山入ったので、店長が1人で大変になって、僕に電話した。「暇じゃない？遊びに来ない？」って、笑。僕がまた手伝いに行った。

On Wednesday, some girl called the magic bar and asked if I was there, which since it was Wednesday I was not. But they said that if called, I would probably come. So she said she would go to the magic bar, and one of my colleagues told me to go too. I had no idea what girl this could be, but when she showed up I recognized her (I hand out business cards to lots of people and tell them to come to our magic bar if they want to see more magic, and like this girl some of them do come).

水曜日に店に「ヨーナスが今日いる？」って女の子からの電話が来たそうだ。僕が週末しか出ていないが電話したら多分来ると思うと返したそうだ。女の子が「じゃぁ、行く」って言ったから、僕も同僚に呼ばれた。誰なんだろ、全然分からなかったがお客さんが店に入った時にすぐ分かった。色々な人に店の名刺を配っている（マジックもっと観たかったら、ここでやっているよって感じ）からたまに来るんだ。

My boss told me that I should come to the magic bar on Thursday too, since then I would have been there every day for 7 consecutive days. So I did go yesterday too, and had a lot of fun with some very nice customers.

店長に、「木曜日も来たほうがいい」と言われた。そうしたら、一週間の毎日マジックバー出てたってことになるね。昨日も行って、面白いお客さんにマジックを見せたから、毎日出た！

Since I am going to be in the magic bar this weekend too, I guess I will have 9 consecutive days in the end, but one week is the big milestone I guess.

今日も明日も出る予定なので、結局9日連続出ていることになると思うが大きな数字は７だよね。