A new year and a whole new series of challenges ahead.  Most of all The Sabbatical. Beginning in earnest next month, I’m spending a little time this month putting things in place so I can write, write, write.  As a kickstart to this process I’m working on a short paper/presentation reflecting on my own thoughts on performance magic and its relationship to the academy.  It’s been a little bit of a slog today as I’ve been mainly reading negative reviews by magicians attacking those ‘lofty academic’ who dare to have an opinion on magic in any sphere whatsoever.  It’s such a shame.  I don’t know why ideas can’t be shared and discussed, rather than knocked down and trampled on.  I’m hoping to find my own ideological position as I write this paper, but I guess it will be my usual damn leftie buddhist position (!) – and I guess I just better find a helmet for the moment when we publish the first issue of The Journal of Performance Magic.

This quiet (and cold – it’s freezing here) time is very different to the happy and creative chaos of last week’s Ten-in-One shows.  Three very successful carny nights were created by Third Year Undergraduates. A full sideshow, Tarot readings and a Strange Thing.  I’ll end this post with a contact sheet of the acts!

All the acts together
All the acts together