Magician's Missus: Blackpool Ruminations
Guest post: Thoughts on the BMC from the ol' ball and chain
Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all recovered after the mayhem of Blackpool last weekend. It was my first time as a dealer and I loved it. Thank you to all you visited my stand, said hello and bought one of my tricks. It really means the world to create and share magic tricks with my magician friends.
Yes I ironed the table cloth but it creased again during transit…
I have of course made a YouTube video about the weekend from my perspective. Some highlights were being booked for more lectures this year and being a guest on The Monster Magic Saturday show which was filmed in the dealers hall!
Keep this channel going by donating me a coffee. Thank you in advance!
This week we have a guest writer! My wife. Although I don’t consider her a guest in my (sorry, “our”) house, she is technically a guest on this platform so let’s make her feel welcome.
Ladies and gentlemen here is my wife’s blog post about her experience of Blackpool Magic Convention….
I’m told it may not be a great idea to attend your first magic convention, the largest in the world at 5,000+ attendees and 150 dealers, with a 10-week-old baby. Nevertheless, on a bleary-eyed, drizzly Thursday morning, Iain and I packed up the Corsa to bursting with all Iain’s magic stock, all the baby gear (the travel system complete with buggy and bassinet, the collapsible travel cot, the bedding, plenty of changes of vests anticipating poopcidents, the HelloBaby monitor, the velcro Little Seeds swaddles etc etc etc), and all our stuff (some pants, basically), and drove the 240 miles to Blackpool: the picture-perfect February destination. Many of our NCT pals had planned their first trips with their babies to sunsoaked destinations like Tenerife, Spain, and South Africa—but not for us. Nothing less than Blackpool would satisfy our wanderlust.
I make fun, but I was actually really excited. To my shame, I’d never been to a magic convention before, and, while I’d watched my husband Iain develop numerous tricks over the years from idea to manufacture, I’d never seen him behind a stand, selling to other magicians. It was such a proud moment seeing him unfurl his banner and organise all his tricks neatly on his super-profesh branded tablecloth. There was something about seeing all his hard work over the past 8 years all laid out like that—his magic shop was suddenly so much more than just Shopify.
“Eight years?” I hear you ask. “Has it really been that long?” As a matter of fact, yes, it really has. When Iain and I first met (at a wedding—he was performing, I was flouncing around with a glass of Prosecco), he had already started dreaming up his own tricks. Back in 2015, I remember when Iain showed me his very first trick, Cafe Hero, in its earliest form while we were sipping lattes in Caffe Nero. It floored me. After that, Caffe Nero became one of our regular haunts as Iain needed to swipe wads of loyalty cards from the counter while the barista wasn’t looking so that he could experiment with the concept. And now, I couldn’t believe that I was seeing that trick sitting all packaged up in a gold-embossed box, waiting for someone to buy it, learn it at home, and floor their own unsuspecting girlfriend (or boyfriend, or whatever-type-of-friend) with it. I still love that trick.
In the years since we’ve been married, I’ve watched Iain create all ten of his tricks and products, and, while I’ve seen him perform them all multiple times, it was especially gratifying to see them all lined up. I had never noticed before the variety on offer—Iain has produced tricks for close up performers (Wand-o-Blocks and Dig It spring to mind), for mentalists (Ultrasound is a good’un), and stage acts (you can’t beat Dove Magic). The gimmicks are fun and colourful, including lego blocks, bent keys, brightly coloured cards, tiny little spades, and, of course, a bottle of Finish Rinse and Shine Aid (or glasses are absolutely gleaming these days, guys). Something for everyone.
Just in case you’re wondering if you might have spotted me at the convention, I was the crazy lady weaving the BABYZEN Yoyo 2 (winner of the Absolutely Mama Awards 2022 for Best Compact Stroller) through the crowds in the Winter Gardens looking lost and plagued by the inevitable mum guilt that arises when you bring your tiny child to a ginormous convention. I have to say, though, everyone was very kind as I clumsily jostled my way through huddles of animated magicians, negotiated accessible lifts with confusing mechanisms, and battled my way through heavy doors. Tons of you held doors for me, and cooed over our little boy—if that was you, please accept my wholehearted thanks, you made my experience a lot easier!
If you are a regular attender of the BMC, you may have wondered how the festivities appear to the ‘outsider’. Well, I can answer that for you: bonkers. Really, there’s nothing like it. There aren’t many places where you’ll find a group of serious, techy-looking bros showing off their latest Rubix cube innovations, alongside an old-timey candrystripe Punch and Judy stand, all punctuated by the high pitched squeaks from a dude with orange hair in the corner selling whistles. In between Harry’s naps, I wandered around, taking in the incredible, strange, and wonderful things going on at all the stands. I even had the chance to witness, in person, one of my favourite tricks—Losander’s floating table—performed by the creator himself, ably assisted by a ‘little baby ghost’. Which is a rare mixture of sinister and adorable.
In the end, though, I probably only spent around 5 hours total at the convention. When you’ve got a little 2 month old lad in tow, you are at the mercy of feeds and naps and witching-hours, and so I ended up spending an awful lot of time lurking in coffee shops lounging around our Air BnB. One evening, though, Iain and I decided to go for a meal together, and, as we walked through the town centre under the pink and green glow of the tower, we saw dozens and dozens of BMC lanyards around the necks of magicians chatting away animatedly in the restaurants and pubs. It felt like thousands of ideas—the good and the bad, the cheesy and the witty, the clumsy and the fooling—were being formed that night, and I wondered to myself what new creations would be hitting the Dealer’s Hall next year.
So, I guess we’ll have to come again to find out! Bring on 2025. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be the crazy lady wrestling with the screaming toddler.
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Thanks again for subscribing to my blog and have a great week!
Iain
My ex-husband and I took our 4 month old son to the SAM Convention in New Orleans in 1993. My dad came along ro help. I remember attending a Max Maven lecture at midnight and I fell asleep. I thought maybe that little boy would get into magic but it was my second born, my daughter. She and I attend SAM and IBM conventions together and have the best times! Hugs to your little boy.