Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Fun @ Dean Dill's

I was a bit nervous about showing up at Dean Dill’s Barber Shop in Glendale. Pete Biro, who I had met last week, and was so friendly and helpful told me that there was a fun session at Dean Dill’s place on Wed. Sounded like a plan to me. The 170 to the 134 got me there in less than 15 minutes. I found parking right out in front of the place with no problem. I took a new deck, one last drag of my cigar; leaned it up against the wall for later and went in.

Interior Barber Shop

Session in Session

It’s a smaller room, but certainly big enough for everything that needs to be there. Barber chair, couch, book case, sink, mirrors, close up table, chairs, cup collection and magicians. My kind of place. I entered and was happy to see Pete’s smiling face. He introduced me to the gang. I recognized Dean and John Carney but didn’t know the other guys. One fellow was doing a coin routine and asked the guys for advice. I was impressed with the dialog that followed. We discussed some fundamentals about choosing material that has a clear plot and is easy to follow. Carney spoke the Professors words, “Confusion isn’t magic”. Examples and ideas were thrown around to try and fix the problem. Later we evaluated a new “any card at any number” effect.

I’ll tell you what, John Carney is as funny as he is good. VERY! He had us cracking up, he was doing impressions of his Dad visiting and seeing someone famous. He also did a nice coin routine he’s been working on.

Dean did a new coin penetration through a piece of glass. Like his Deans Box, it’s an elaborate ungimmicked prop that serves to create a table top arena for a triple penetration of 3 coins individually into a bowl. Very cool.

Glenn Farrington showed up a little later, another real nice guy, very warm with big smile. I asked him what he did here in LA and he said he was a screen writer, I found that interesting.

I did see something that afternoon that was completely new to me. All the guys were talking about this new thing (possibly a Matthew Bich thing, I think it was). Carney did a cool variation of it where he drew a witch tied to a steak in the ground on a smaller 3” x 3” piece of paper. He talked about in the days of burning witches when they would set the fire to them, he lit the piece of paper with a match. The flames get closer to the image of the witch and and the witch (on the paper) slowly dematerializes before the flames touch it. Far out. Very visual, very easy to follow. This might be something fun worth checking out and playing with!

I really enjoy hanging out with magicians. Thanks for being my friends. It feels good to be part of a community, so rich in interesting characters.

@ Dean Dill's 11/15/06

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