No post for the last too months could mean just two things.. either I am too busy to write… or I am magically starved…. Unfortunately this time, it was the latter..
My magical famine came to an end, when I was invited by friend and president of the Society of Indian Magicians (SIM), Magician Atul Patil to attend and perform in Khul ja sim sim, their annual international magic convention. Also of late, God bless Facebook, I had become friends with Kyle Ravin, a magician with Indian origin from Singapore India India
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| Kyle Ravin and Amazing David!! |
As my flight landed in Mumbai at on the morning of the 3rd of june, I was greeted at the airport by Atul and Magician Sreeraj We drove to the hotel where I would be sharing a room with Kyle. I was great to finally meet Kyle Ravin in person. Kyle gave me a signed copy of his book on showmanship and his postcard as well as a postcard and a Magicseen Magazine signed by ‘Singapore’s most famous Illusionist’ J C Sum. It is indeed a pleasure to add all these items to my collection. After a quick freshen up and a brunch of cheese burst pizza, we went down to Patils Magic Shop just around the corner from where we were staying. It was great to meet Mr.Mandar Patil, the owner of the shop after ages.
That afternoon, Atul took us, along with Sreeraj, Magician Ketan, Magician Arun Mande and Ravi Jadugar from Mauritius
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| Amazing David with K.Lal |
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| Amazing David with K.Lal jr |
We met K.Lal and K.Lal jr backstage before we were treated to their massive magic production. Appearances, vanishes, transformations, levitations and transpositions kept us all enthralled for a full 3 hours. It was indeed an honor when K.Lal called us up on stage and presented us with flowers. At 86 years,and suffering from brain tumor, K.Lal still owns the stage..
Post the show, while the rest of the gang headed for a chill out, I met up with my best-friend for almost 20 years, Nishant. We decided to head for Bandra for a date with my ‘other love’ KFC. However the weather had other plans and heavy rains had us sheltering in the canopy of a fast food joint for almost 45 miniutes. To make the most of the time we downed a couple of ‘shewarmas’ before making a second attempt to get to KFC, but when that failed, we ended up having a pizza for dinner. The rains had died down, however a light drizzle continued. Nishant an I took a long walk in the rain on the streets of Mumbai and down memory lane.
Early the next morning Nishant came to the hotel and we both feasted on a breakfast of aapam, malabari parathas and chicken sukha at a nearby joint. Kyle and I had an invitation the next day for lunch at the residence of friend and fellow magician Kruti Parekh. We met Kruti at Mahim station and took a train and thanks to the misdirection of our mysterious art, we missed our sation and had to take a cab back to her place. We had a great lunch prepared by Kruti’s mum and more pizza!!
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| Amazing David, Kruti Parkeh and Kyle Ravin make corn disappear |
After lunch the three of us had a great time sharing and discussing magic. Kruti took us for a drive round Mumbai and we stopped at the Gateway of India. Kyle and I took a cab back to the hotel. We met Nishant that evening and went down to Bandra for KFC (finally). We were joined by Nishant’s friend Pritha.
I had met Pritha many months ago at the Taj Bengal, Kolkata. I had a performance there and Nishant and Pritha happened to be posted at the hotel at the time.
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| Pritha. Nishant, Amazing David and Kyle freak at KFC! |
We had a great time at KFC as laughs were shared, magic blew minds and Pritha’s legs were mercilessly pulled!! This was followed by smoothies and later beers. Finally we got to the hotel at and then readied ourselves for the convention the next day.
We got a warm welcome at the convention premises, meeting old friends and new ones too. I knew a lot of magicians already thanks to Facebook. It was great meeting my long time net-buddy Ryan Viegas for the first time and also Sai Gopal, who I also know through the internet.
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| Sai Gopal, Amazing David, Ryan Viegas |
We took a quick round of the dealer stalls and then went up to the auditorium in time for the opening of the event. The event was opened by K.Lal and K.Lal jr. This was followed by a tradional Indian dance performance. We were then joined by Kruti who as usual turned up late!
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| Amazing David and Kyle ravin judge the magic.... .......while kruti judges the camera |
Kyle and I had the honor and pleasure of judging the junior magic competion. There were a lot of children performing. There were a lot of good performances making judging difficult. I was utterly disgusted as I watched a child doing an act as a drunkard. The competition was won by Zenia Bhumgara a 14 year old magician who showed excellent skills and showmanship as she conjured with scarves, canes, wine glasses and doves.
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| Zenia Bhumgara, Amazing David and Pearl Bhumgara |
She has a bright future in magic ahead. I must make mention of a little boy named Pradnyesh aged 6. This pint-sized magician wowed the audience with his stage work. Though he performed standard magic effects, his stage-presence and showmanship was far far beyond his age. His promise shows that he might just be India
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| Amazing Bosco and Amazing David!! |
He taught how to prepare the mind and body to do such a stunt but I don’t think I will be trying it anytime soon. Kyle Ravin took the stage next and delivered the most mind-blowing magic lecture that I have ever heard. His tips on showmanship and presentation were really informative and educating…. And what he taught I have started executing already. A traditional lunch followed, Kyle, Kruti and I visited all the dealer stalls and I picked up a few Items.
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| Magician of the Year, the AVS, Amazing David and Niraksh |
The senior competition followed and all the contestants wowed in some way or the other. But the well deserved first prize went to third generation illusionist Niraksh. He enthralled the crowd with his endless card productions followed by the production of jumbo and even giant cards and a castle of cards too.
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| Amazing David's Musical manipulation.. |
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| Amazing David manifests a gituar |
After a break for tea, the Grand gala show began. Yours truly, Amazing David opened with his musical manipulation act producing disco balls, cds and a guitar as the finale. Atul shed his mask and conjured with doves, coins and confettie, Zenia and Niraksh reprised their award winning acts, Samir Patel filled the stage with parasols, Magician Ali produced cards and doves, Amazing Bosco manipulated flames, and Kyle conjured up masks, linked and unlinked hula-hoops and escaped from a strait-jacket. Wow, truly a machine-gun of magic!!
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| Kyle konjurs with klass! |
Post the convention, I dropped Kyle to the airport and was thankful for his visit to India
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| Atul amazes!! |
The next morning Atul dropped me to the airport and I had a relaxing flight back home.
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| Amazing David and Nishant Philip.. the magic of friendship! |
Khul ja sim sim was an awesome convention and I look forward to more such conventions in the future!! Until next time…..this is Amazing David.. hoping to appear somewhere near you!! God bless……..
awesome..... dude.... m just out f words & just.. :D Nice one
ReplyDeletenice pics!!
ReplyDeleteHey David it was great to meet you in Mumbai ! I read with interest your Khul Ja Sim Sim report .. Nice job ! I posted the following report in Uday Talk Magic group . Why dont you join his group ...it is a real nice experience .
ReplyDeleteREPORT ON KHULJA SIM SIM On 5th June , Mumbai witnessed a Magic convention titled "Khul Ja Sim Sim 2011 " after a gap of several years and the morning was a buzz with delegates thronging Karnataka Sang Auditorium at an early start of registration followed by greeting each other at the breakfast ares. Atul Patil , President of SIM ( Society of Indian Magicians ,Mumbai ) and his commitee put up a gallant effort in having a One- day -convention and tried to pack in all the ingredients of a good convention spreading 9am to 9pm. . In all fairness , their efforts need to be lauded for good organisation and execution and it was indeed a memorable event. . Although the attendance was not very large ..about 170 delegates , there was a tinge of international flavour with faces from Singapore, Mauritius and and KL . Since it was a one day convention ...perhaps magicians from distant cities could not come all the way just for a day ....but still the general feeling was............. some convention is better than no convention !
ReplyDeleteThe event was graced by the presence of the evergreen veteren K,Lal who inaugurated the convention by lighting the traditional lamp folowed by a traditional dance welcome by a renownd cine artist . K.Lal's charm , oratory skills and youthful energy , at the age of 87 drew mamoth inspiration for all magicians present ......as living proof that magic has no retiring age ! Infact K Lal just completed a months public performance in South Mumbai and has now shifted to another auditorium in the suburbs. Despite his public show sheduled , a couple of hours later, K Lal extended his presence till the start of lunch .
One of the reasons for success of the convention was that the MC , Mr Srikant Rao did a fantastic job through out the day. His communication , jokes and impersonations were highly impressive and he kept the audience amused and entertained . His amusing mimicrys were ideal gap fillers ....much needed during the close of the curtains between acts . Not being a magician himself , he still handled the event flow beautifully.
The convention kicked off with the dealer demo and the near dozen dealers made a quick entry and exit as they had just 3 mins time alloted. Frankly, there was not much of magic or new stuff around and I personally saved Rs 4500 of the Rs 5000 I had budgeted to spend ! The variety of magic items was rather limited but I did see a couple of well made illusions around the corner.
Moving on, the Junior Conjuring competition took place with 9 youngsters showing their energetic skills in he 10 mins aloted time . It was heartening to see that juniors put up skillful performances , and the winners were as follows :-
1St prize to Magician Zenia, MUMBAI
2nd prize to Ms Akshaya PUNE
3rd prize Pragnes Parulekar MUMBAI
The senior Conjuring competitions was also quite interesting with 9 contestents, including 2 from Mauratius vying for the coveted trophy ! It was a rather closely contested affair and who was going to win was anyone's guess! The final result was
ReplyDelete1st Prize Niraksh (Nirmal kumar Sarang from Mumbai ) He kept the audienes amazed with a 10 minute card manupulation act ending with huge jumbo card manupulations and card throws .
2nd Prize Rakesh Parmar from BARODA . His act was terrific with highly skilled cd manupulations
3rd rd Prize Suresh Rajput from Baroda who had a very elegant conjuring routine , well choreographed and climaxed with multiple bird cage productions.
With the clock ticking away, the convention somehow scheduled in time for a pretty decent lunch , time for brpwzing dealer stalls and a few lectures by Pradeep Rangrez (banglore) and Kyle Ravin (Singapore) Bosco ( singapore) What I found really intrigueing was an effect by Bosco who invited audience members to come wih Rs 100 or more currency notes and handing them a staplegun( Tacking gun which is used to staple flex on wood) He asked them to staple the notes on various parts of the body !!! It looked incredible ...and very scary .! . I think he did not return the notes because he left the notes stapled all over his body including his face . A brilliant way to make instant money ! What was more interesting is that he asked if anyone would like to try doing it ? After a lot of hesitation a brave spectator went up on stage and he asked him to relax and stapled a blank paper on his arm. There seemed to be no pain or reaction ....and within a few minutes there were more than a dozen volunteers who successfully did the same ! I am sure each and every delegate is going to purchase a staple gun in the near future to use in his shows ! Although I did not try it I believe, from what I saw that it is no big deal ....but audience finds it unbelievbly incredible .!
T
he evening Gala show was the final attraction of the day and after tea in the backdrop of Mumbai monsoon everyone made their way to get a prized seat for the grand finale. The gala was open to public too by ticket sale. VIP (Vijay I Pawer) the famous comedian of Comedy Circus Tv serial. was a special guest of hopnour who added attraction to the event . by demonstrating 57 impersonifications in 1 min...maybe a Forthcoming Guiness record .... if entered !
ReplyDeleteThe highlights of the gala were performances by the winning acts of Jr and Sr competitions Zenia and Niraksh . Samir Patel's filled the stage with his enchanting Parasol productions, Hydrabad Ali left everyone amazed with hs card manupulations , parasols and doves. Sawant , the ace performer from Dwarka did a new act changing the costume of his wife Neha a number of times ...I lost count after 6 !!! Atul Patil made his entry from the exit door and dazzled the audience with his dove productions and miser's dream . A brilliant performance by magician Amazing David from Kolkota( India Magic Star fame)including quick cd manupulations and ending with the production of a flashy guitar ...not to miss his traditional apple bite-off- ! Kyle Ravin From Singapore did a nice mask change act ending with a Straight Jacket escape. Amazing Bosco had a firey act ending with the head guillitine ...one effect which magicians are tired of seeing ! What made the efffect interesting was that the volunteer added some real drama of being scared to put his head in. That was a very co-operative impromptu gesture on the part of a magician ! He insited on phoning his wife and even getting back to his seat before he was convinced to put his head on the block.
The grand gala drew the cutain on Khulja Sim Sim 2011... a memorable magical experience. ! At the dinner that followed magicians got yet another chance to meet , greet and say quick goodbyes to one another. The event was well covered by press coverage that made public aware that Magic was happening in Mumbai on 5th June 2011!
regds
Mhelly