Yesterday evening the Magic Castle in Hollywood hosted its second quarterly "Strolling Olympics". In a nutshell, they create the atmosphere of a cocktail party with several magicians strolling amongst the guests performing for them. At the end of the evening the judges, who are amongst the guests at the party, rate the performers. The winner gets a cheque for $50, a trophy to keep, and his name engraved on a perpetual trophy on display at the Castle.

At the first SO there were six performers competing; last night there were ten.

When the dust had settled and the votes were tallied, two magicians were tied for first place, so they had a sudden-death playoff: one routine each for all of the judges.

I came in third, a hair's breadth behind the two who were tied.

My style is not flashy, which contrasts me with many of the others who were quite so: lots of quick tricks, things flying around and so on. I'm more conversational, greeting the audience, introducing myself, getting their names, chatting a bit; my magic is generally very low-key, not startling. The effect I try to create is that, when I finish, the audience members think for a moment and say, "What did I just see? I can't have seen what I thought, that's impossible. What just happened?" I want them to be puzzling an hour later.

The comments I got were interesting. Several people said that if I had added one flashy, eye-catching routine at each table, I would have won going away.

Look out, October!

 

Congrats. What card am I thinking of?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BDMonk
[B]Congrats.

 

Congrats!

 

You got me . . . I was going to say credit (was thinking about ordering a grill cover) . . . I don't have a Discover, though.

But I'll admit it - I was vanquished.

 

Bill-

Is October when you try for member magician again?

 

I think you mean when I again audition to perform in the close-up gallery.

No, it's the next Strolling Olympics. But the entertainment director and his assistant were there last night, so I'm sure that a couple of good showings will help. Indeed, they might consider that the audition.

 

congrat's.

 

Congrats Bill. Maybe next time, you can load up the audience with S2K members and we will rate you higher