Magic Bar Review: French Drop ・ マジックバーフレンチドロップ

Me holding a (fake) goya and posing with the four French Drop magicians that were there when we visited.

In 2011, I went to Osaka with a friend with one of the goals being to visit some of Osaka's famous magic bars. Our first stop was the magic bar "French Drop", which is co-located with the web shop of the same name that is one of the more famous shops for magic props in Japan.

2011年に友達と2人で大阪に行った。有名なマジックバーを回る目的がメインだった。最初のマジックバーは「フレンチドロップ」になった。有名なマジックショップ「フレンチドロップ」も同じ建物にある。

We went there on a Monday, right at the opening hour. That meant that there were no other customers, just me and my friend so we got a private show. There were however more magicians than normal. Usually there are two magicians each day that will perform for you, but when we were there there
were four magicians and they all decided to do shows for us so we were quite lucky.

行ったのが月曜日の早い時間だったから、他にお客さんがいなかった。貸切状態でプライベートのマジックショーを見せて貰った、笑。マジシャンが普段毎日2人がいるそうだがその日がたまたま4人だった。暇で、皆うちらにマジックを見せてくれた。

French drop has a half moon shaped performance area with several rows of seats available for the spectators. After all the magic shows ended we moved to some seats at the bar counter instead and sat there talking shop for more than an hour.

フレンチドロップのパフォーマンスエリアが半月の形できれいだった。お客さん席が2～3段もあった。マジックショーが終わってから、別の席（カウンター）に移って、マジシャン同士の話を1時間以上した。

We got to see Takemiya, Loki, David Chinsuko, and Johnny. At French drop they have a nice sound system and apparently one magician is assigned to do the sound stuff for the performing magician, so they did stuff were they performed magic in sync with music. The performance area was very nice, and it was big enough to do some stage type (or at least parlor) effects too. Mostly they showed us close up magic, though. There were also some juggling type performances, and some fire magic that seemed fairly close to setting the curtains on fire, haha.

観たマジシャンはTakemiya・ロキ・デビッドしんすこう・とりあえずジョニーだ。フレンチドロップの音・音楽のシステムが良かった。マジシャンがパフォーマンス中の時に別のマジシャンに音や音楽の色々やって貰えるそうだ。音楽に合わせてマジックをやるとか、色々ないい使い方にしていた。パフォーマンスエリアが割りと広くてステージっぽいマジックやジャグリングも出来る。主にクローズアップを見せて貰ったがサロン系のマジックもジャグリングも見せて貰った。

Taking the magicians in turn, Johnny did a lot of card flourish style things, for instance a flashy 4 ace production. He also did a funny coin trick with a coin that defied gravity and flew upwards which he explained was possible because it had a huge spring welded to it. Though I am fairly sure that there was no such spring there at first, haha. Also, the spring seemed to be on the wrong side of the coin to actually help with flying. He also impressed us by producing a very large number of Oreo cookies from his mouth.

出た順番で行けば、最初はジョニーだった。フラリッシュ系カードマジックを色々見せてくれた。エース4枚が派手なように出てくるとか。コインが飛ぶマジックで、解説みたいに「実はここにバネが付いているんだ」って言い出した。またコイン見たら、かなりでかいバネが確かに付いていたが最初はなかったと思う、笑。そして、またコインを飛ばす時に、バネが役立たない側にあったし！うけた。口から沢山のOreoクッキーを出した時も良かった。

Loki did some fire magic, some beautiful contact juggling with rings, some magic with hamburger, and did a lot of funny card magic where your expectations were betrayed over and over. He also did the coin muscle pass with a jumbo coin, which was pretty funny. He did a very nice version of the "thumb time" magic trick, some fork bending, and more.

ロキが火を使ったマジックでスタートした。最後に大きなリングを使ったジャグリングっぽいパフォーマンスした。その間、色々なクローズアップマジックを見せてくれた。ハンバーガーが出てきた。うちらが何回も裏切られたカード当てしたり、ジャンボコインでマッスルパスをしたりして、面白かった。フォーク曲げやサムタイムとか、色々やっていた。

David Chinsuko said he was from Okinawa so he had an Okinawan theme to his magic. This meant producing goya fruits (an Okinawan plant) and wearing goya shaped glasses. He was very funny, with lots of below the belt jokes, and most of his magic were of the "haha, funny" kind. He produced a bottle from inside a balloon, and after producing sliced goya from a handkerchief, the same bottle once again appeared out of the handkerchief. I also liked his production of large amount of sponge balls from his mouth. He also swallowed a huge balloon.

デビッドしんすこうが沖縄から来たって言って沖縄をテーマとしたマジックをした。ゴーヤが出てくるとか。ゴーヤのメガネもしていた。ふざけてて面白いマジックが多かった。シモネタも多かった。凄いマジックも色々あったけど。風船から瓶が出てきて、ハンカチからゴーヤスライスが沢山出てきてから、またハンカチから同じ瓶が出てきた。口からスポンジを沢山出したのも好きだった。長い風船も飲んだ。

Takemiya did some contact juggling with a crystal ball, snorted a match up his nose and then produced a lot of sparks from the nose, and quite a lot of card magic. There was a trick were the two jokers melted closer and closer to the middle of a deck of cards and finally surrounded only one card, which turned out to be the card only thought of by one of us spectators.

Takemiyaがクリスタルボールのコンタクトジャグリングを音楽に合わせてした。一番笑った時は、鼻でマッチを吸って、鼻から火が出た。カードマジックも色々見せてくれた。ジョーカーがどんどんトランプの真ん中のほうに来て、最後に一枚だけはさんで、その一枚がうちらが頭の中で考えたカードだった。

Summary:
Location: Not near anything else of interest in Osaka except the magic shop French Drop which is in the same building. Not that difficult to get to by subway, though.
Type of magic: Mainly close up, with some parlor and juggling.
Quality of magic: high
Cost: around 5000 yen
Interior: Quite beautiful performance area, cozy interior overall
Staff: Very nice
Of special note: The sound system was good, the use of sound was good, and the music was nice.
Overall impression: Nice magic, very friendly and funny magicians. Fairly cheap too.

まとめ：
場所：他に面白いところが近くにない（フレンチドロップのマジックショップ以外）が地下鉄で割りと行き易い。
マジックの種類：クローズアップがメインで、サロンもジャグリングもちょっとあった
マジック：上手だった
値段：5000円
インテリア：きれい。パフォーマンスエリアが良かったし
スタッフ：凄くフレンドリーだったし、面白かったし
得点：音楽システムが良かった。音楽の使い方とかが良かった。
全体的な印象：マジックも良かったし、スタッフ皆優しかったし、割と安かったし、良かった。

Salmon difficulties

I do a trick where I produce some salmon sushi from the picture of sushi on my t-shirt. This trick goes over very well, but my salmon sushi are becoming more and more torn, and no one seems to be selling them anymore.

ティシャツの絵からサーモン寿司を出すマジックを最近結構やっている。ウケが良い。寿司自体がもうぼろぼろになっているが今どこでも売り切れだ。

I have been trying to make new sponge sushi salmon myself, but I am having some problems. The color I used for the rice is too stiff when it is dry, so the sushi does not regain its shape very quickly anymore. The color I used for the salmon part is flexible but seems to never actually dry. If the sushi gets even the slightest bit wet, it bleeds color like crazy. Which is not so good for my white t-shirt.

自分で新しいスポンジサーモンを何回か作ってみたが色々な問題がある。お米の分に使っていたペンキが乾いてから硬過ぎて、スポンジが早く膨らまない。サーモンの分に使ったペンキが逆に乾かないみたい。ちょっとだけ濡れたら、スポンジから半端ない量のペンキが漏れる…僕の白いティシャツに良くないね。

Visiting magicians, and gifts!

A present I received!

This weekend several magicians visited our magic bar. On Friday guy who does mentalism who I have met a few times before showed up at a very late hour. At more or less that same time, a guy who does mostly card magic (I think, but come to think of it I have never seen him perform magic) also showed up.

今週末、うちのマジックバーにマジシャンが沢山来た。金曜日の遅い時間に僕も何回か会っているメンタリズムが好きなマジシャンが来た。カードをやっている（かな？考えたら、彼のマジックを観たことない）マジシャンもほぼ同じ時間に入ってきた。

I did some mental magic that I have been practicing recently, and we had a nice mentalism chat until 6 in the morning or so... I also showed the mentalist a billet switch I have been practicing but never actually used for anything and he was impressed enough to give me a special deck of cards as a present! The cards were quite impressive, actually. I performed that magic trick three times during the weekend.

最近練習しているメンタルのネタを見せて、楽しいメンタリズムマニアの話を6時過ぎまでしていた。最近練習しているが一回も使ったことないビレットスイッチを見せたら、メンタリストが感動したみたいで、メンタルに使える仕掛けのトランプをくれた！週末に3回もそのマジックを披露した。

On Saturday, Spencer Tricks, a magician from Kushiro (eastern Hokkaido) showed up. He is every nice and speaks English very fluently (which is not so common in Japan). He wanted to see me hammer a nail into my nose, so I did my trick which contains that sort of stuff. He showed me a trick he invented where he can guess in which hand you are hiding a wine cork (which recently is sold in one of the bigger magic shops in Japan).

土曜日に釧路からのマジシャンのSpencer Tricksさんも来た。英語がうまいんだ。前に何回か会っている。今回、釘を鼻に入れるマジックを観たいと言われたからそれを使ったマジックも披露した。彼が逆に彼が自分で考えたネタ（最近日本のマジックショップで売っている）を見せてくれた。お客さんがどの手でワインのコルクを持っているかを当てるマジックで不思議だった。

On Monday, which was a holiday here in Japan, another magician from Kushiro also showed up.

月曜日（祝日）に釧路からの別のマジシャンも来た。

Kids in a bar

Last week children kept coming to our magic bar. On Friday a guest brought his daughter and his nephew at an early hour. The nephew was around 11 years old I guess, and he does magic himself. He did some quite impressive card stuff. He even did a trick that I used to do sometimes in our magic bar (Paul Harris's "Wizard's twist"), so I taught him two other variations on that trick.

先週子供がうちのマジックバーに来た。金曜日に前に来たことがあるお客さんが自分の娘と甥っ子を連れてきた。甥っ子が小学生で自分でもマジックをやっている。上手だった。結構レベル高いカードマジックを披露してくれた。僕がたまにマジックバーでやっていたネタ（Paul Harrisのウィザードツイスト）も綺麗にやってくれた。それの他のオチを２つ教えてあげた。

On Saturday, another man came with his son, also about 11 years old I would guess. This kid also does magic and has come to our bar before. This time he was practicing the Chinese rings.

It has been a while since I did magic for children, so it was quite fun. They seemed to be very nice kids.

土曜日に別のお客さんが息子さんと来た。その子も小学生だと思う。マジックもやっている。前にも来ている。今回、ずっとマジックバーでチャイナリングを練習していた。

子供にマジックを見せるのが久しぶりで楽しかった。いい子供だったし。

Unlucky guest from Hakodate

Guarana

Two months ago when I was in France on a business trip (or possibly when I was in Sweden because of my brother getting married), a girl who lives in Hakodate had flown to Sapporo to see me do magic. She and a friend had come to our magic bar, asking to see me. Since I was not even in the country, they were out of luck but still got to see three other magicians. But the girl coming by airplane to Sapporo was a bit sad anyway, I was told.

２ヶ月前、僕が出張でフランスに行っていた時かスウェーデンに弟の結婚の為に行っていた時か、僕が札幌にいない時に函館から飛行機で札幌に僕マジックを観に来たお客さんが友達１人とうちのマジックバーに来たんだ。僕が海外に行っていたので、残念ながら僕のマジック観れなかった。他のマジシャン３人がいたけど。それでもちょっとがっかりしたそうだ。

White "Black Sanda"

Apparently, the two of them came to our magic bar again during the O-Bon holidays (holidays mean even some Japanese people do not have to work, so they have time to fly to Sapporo to visit magic bars) but of course the magic bar where I perform was closed during the O-Bon holidays...

お盆の時にその２人がまたうちのマジックバーに来たみたいだが、お盆は店の休みだった。なかなか噛みあわないね。

They did a third try this weekend. They came to our magic bar on Saturday, and of course we are open on Saturdays. I am in the magic bar on Fridays and Saturdays unless I am out of the country or something exceptional like that happens, so I was there too. Unfortunately for these two girls, so were a LOT of other guests, so the bar was full when they showed up and they could not be let in...

３回目、今週また来たんだ。土曜日だったから、勿論マジックバー営業中だったし、僕が金土曜日にいるから僕もいたし、大丈夫そうだった。他のお客さんも土曜日にマジック観たかったみたいなので、函館からまた飛行機に乗って来たお客さんが来た時に、満席で入れなかった！運が悪すぎ、笑。

They did however come back later. Our bar becomes fairly empty after midnight (after the last subway), so when they came back at around 2 a.m. the bar was empty of guests. So she could finally meet me and see me do magic.

また遅い時間にもう一回来てくれた。うちのマジックバーは終電の後凄い暇になるから、お客さんが来た午前２時頃に、他のお客さんが１人もいなかった。やっと僕に会えて、僕のマジック観れた！

The girl from Hakodate even brought omiyage (souvenirs) from Hakodate for us! So we got something called "White 'Black Sanda'" ("Black Sanda" is a type of chocolate, and this was Black Sanda except made with white chocolate instead of the normal type of chocolate), which is a strange name. She also brought Guarana drinks from the Lucky Clown hamburger chain (a famous hamburger chain in Hakodate).

函館からのお客様がまさかお土産も持って来た！白いブラックサンダという矛盾なチョコレートも函館の有名なハンバーガーチェーンのLucky Pierrotのガラナもいただいた。美味しかった。

At around the time they came to our magic bar, it was time for the second wave of customers so 4 other groups of customers also dropped in and I had to go do magic for other guests too. So in the end, I forgot to ask why she wanted to see my magic or how she even knew about me before coming to our magic bar. This remains an interesting mystery, but maybe they will come back to our magic bar again :-)

その２人が入った時に、マジックバーの第２回のお客さんの入るタイミングだったから、ちょっとづつ人が入ってきて、結局他の４組も入った。僕が他のところも回ってマジックを見せないと行けないことになったから、そんなに長くは話せなかった。だから、何で僕のマジック観たかったとか、どうやってうちのマジックバーに来る前に僕のことを知っていたとか、色々気になっていたことを聞くの、忘れた！また来てくれるかな？また今度聞いてみよう。

They were funny to talk to and nice guests. One of the funnier stories of the evening was when they talked about how after last time the girl had gone through airport security with a PET-bottle of tea that also had a signed playing card stuck inside it. That also makes the tea turn black (the glue in the card is dissolved by the water in the tea, and the glue is black). And instead of putting it in her check-in luggage, she had it in her carry on bag. In Japan you can travel with liquids but you have to let the security personnel check your bottles. She got some very strange looks when handing over an unopened (sealed) PET-bottle of black liquid with a playing card floating around in it...

良いお客さんだった。面白い話もしてくれた。前回の函館に帰る時の話がうけた。マジックバーでお客さんがサインしてカードが新品のペットボトルに入った。そのペットボトルを函館に持って帰ったから、セキュリティの検査の時にかなり変なように見られた、笑。チェックインのスーツケースにペットボトルを入れれば良かったのに、持ち込みのバッグに入れた。検査の時にペットボトルを渡して何かの機械で危ないものが入っているかどうかチェックされるね。トランプの黒いノリがお茶と混ざってあって、新品のペットボトルに黒い液体が入ってて、変なトランプも中に浮いている…怪しいよね。

Magic Medicine

My boss in the magic bar has started taking pills that help with your magic. They are very funny. It says on the can that if you have problems with "Forgetting you routine", "Shaking hands", or other problems common to magicians, this will help. Effects include "making people laugh even when you make mistakes", "no problems dealing with children or drunkards", "fewer people saying 'I know that trick', 'I saw that!' or similar things", and other things.

マジックバーの店長が最近「テジナウケ～ルZ」という薬を飲み始めた。うける。手順を忘れるか手が震えるか、何かの問題があればこの薬を飲むと問題がなくなる。「失敗してもうける」「酔っ払い、子供相手でも安心」「『見えた、分かった』の減少」色々な効果があるそうだ。

The content list is also funny. It contains among other things "54 decks of Zarrow-shuffle-natrium", "Dai-Vernon-soda", and many other things (that are all puns in Japanese).

材料のリストも面白い。ダイバノン酸808デックとか、アレガミエナイヘキサン1964デックとか、色々入っているみたい。

Magic at DaiDonDen

Akkey, doing the "worlds coolest version of the linking rings"

In Sapporo we have a yearly street performance festival called DaiDonDen. Lots of street performers from Sapporo and some invited performers from other parts of the country do a lot of entertaining things for two days. Last year it rained and out of the normal 15 performance spots, only 3 were usable, so almost all performances were canceled. This year the weather was great, though maybe too hot for the performers.

Balance performer Lotto, making a cap enter into a PET-bottle through magic

札幌に毎年だいどんでんという大道芸イベントがある。札幌の人でも、遠くから来た人でも、色々なパフォーマンスをしてくれる。去年大雨でパフォーマンスの１５ヶ所の中の３ヶ所しか使えなかったので、沢山のパフォーマンスがキャンセルされてしまった。今年の天気が凄く良かったがパフォーマーにとって暑すぎたかもしれない。

"Sexy Davinci", doing the magic picture books with photos of himself

One guy I know was doing magic at the street performance festival, so I went to see his performance twice. I also saw a lot of other entertaining stuff. There were no other magicians at the festival, though a lot of people did do some magic during their juggling or balancing acts (or whatever their specialty might be).

Akkey making a voodoo doll rise

知り合い１人が大道芸のマジックをやっていたから、僕が２回も見に行った。他にも面白いパフォーマンスを色々見た。マジックは他にほとんどなかったがマジシャンではない人でもちょっとだけマジックもパフォーマンスの中にやっている人もいた。