Amazing, inspiring, educational, entertaining and a magical experience. Just a few words to describe the excellent time had at the three day Workshop for Magicians on the Art of Magic.
The legendary instructor, Tom Stone, led the workshop and guided us students through the art and mechanics of performance. The eleven attendees ranged from hobbyists, apprentices and members of the Magic Circle. Yet we all shared one goal, to improve ourselves in the art of magic.
Tom Stone has been running his workshops for nearly twenty years, and this is the first time he has run such a workshop in London. I sincerely hope he will be running more in the future. The workshops also run at five days in his home country of Sweden, which are free!
The London workshop was held in a miraculous modern church in central London. The Lumen Rooms, was an excellent venue, served by tremendous staff who served us breakfast and lunch at the ETC Cafe. I marvelled at the unique building for its contemporary structure and it served as a relaxing space to discuss and perform our ideas. I was particularly taken by the meditation room in the centre of the church. A conical structure which reached to the heavens, and once inside, one could contemplate your journey in magic.
The workshops are a serious opportunity to up your game in your technique, as Tom delves into the mechanics of performance. With his hands on approach, we formed into groups throughout the sessions, as Tom set us a task with a theme on the days instruction. All our performances were documented and shared in the workshops private Facebook group. We started off, simply by concentrating on ‘what is the effect?’ and moved on to the technical aspects of performance. It was refreshing to work alongside fellow magicians, whilst sharing constructive feedback on ideas and performances.
The highlights were the ability to share your ideas with others in the group, warts and all, whilst receiving constructive feedback. The performances also allowed us to drop our inhibitions, unhindered by making any mistakes. On the final day we worked on our individual performances, putting our own act together and helping each other through honing the act by applying the theory we had learnt over the preceding days.
The development process I enjoyed immensely, working and helping others with their act. We were also fortunate to have the amazing Fay Presto visit to see our performances. Fay was very interested in the workshop process, and offered sound advice on one of her pet hates, using that dreaded phrase in ones performance ‘What I’m going to do…’
With all the attendees of the workshop, we continued to discuss and exchange ideas. Hopefully we will also continue to meet up, whilst helping one another to reach our magic goals. Tom Stone has created a marvellous workshop, that I encourage all magicians old and new, to attend. Whilst the course came to an end, it was clear that we had all shared something special throughout the three days of magic. Our passion in the art of magic.
