September 2013
The month began by attending the Texas Association of Magicians convention in Dallas. It was fun not working and just hanging out with like-minded friends. In attendance were such famous magicians as Allen Okawa (who makes beautiful products), Shin Lim (a new up and coming manipulator), Bruce Walmstad (who put on an excellent lecture exposing fraudulent carny games), Chip Romero– my friend (who gave a talk on Doug Henning that was worth the price of the convention), David Stone (one of the most talented guys in magic today), Fielding West– seen in pic (a famous comedy magician from Vegas who put on an awesome lecture), David Magee– my friend (who performed and gave a talk along with Burton Gilliam, Johnny Thompson and Daniel Baldwin), Harry Anderson (the comedy magician best known from Cheers and Night Court), and finally Rob Zabrecky who stole the evening show with his oddball personality.
Of course there were hundreds of other magicians in attendance and I had fun visiting with as many of them as I could. Attending this convention always recharges my battery. I always spend too much money but who doesn’t love toys. I arrived home Sept. 1st and left again on Sept. 3rd to fly to London to begin my month long tour of the UK. I arrived in London on Sept. 4th and rented a car and drove to Liverpool the same day to stay with my pal Richie Smith. Richie is a great guy and he and his wife Chris always make me feel at home there.
| 09-04-13 | Liverpool where I stayed with my friend Richie Smith |
| 09-05-13 | Liverpool (lecture) Richie and I toured the city that day, saw many things Beatles and I gave a well-attended lecture |
| 09-06-13 | Buxton (IBM convention) where I set up my booth and enjoyed the show that evening. |
| 09-07-13 | Buxton (IBM convention) where I enjoyed the city that day and performed in the close-up show and attended the evening show |
| 09-08-13 | Buxton (IBM convention) where I lectured that morning; Derbyshire where I lectured that late afternoon |
| 09-09-13 | Magic Circle (lecture) where I lectured for the second time and dealt with crazy London traffic but had a good time |
| 09-10-13 | Bouremouth (lecture) where I toured the nice city and had fun that night |
| 09-11-13 | Sheffield (lecture) stopped and lunch with my two fun magic friends Tom and Anabel Peterson in Birmingham |
| 09-12-13 | Hull (lecture) lectured for a good group of guys and saw the amazing magic book collection of Eddie Dawes |
| 09-13-13 | Aberdeen, Scotland– left Hull, picked up my two cousins in Leeds, and then made a 7 hour drive to final destination where we ate in Jamie Oliver’s nice Italian restaurant |
| 09-14-13 | Aberdeen (lecture)- toured the city, a Castle, had a nice lunch with our new friend Dave Goulding and lectured to enthusiastic crowd that night |
| 09-15-13 | Leeds– Made the long haul back and spent the day with family |
| 09-16-13 | Leicester (lecture)– had fun with this lecture crowd. |
| 09-17-13 | Birmingham (lecture) where the crowd always makes me feel welcome. |
| 09-18-13 | Leamington Spa (lecture) I just remember it being nice. |
| 09-19-13 | Reading (lecture)- met many nice people. |
| 09-20-13 | Bristol – where I performed at the Smoke & Mirrors Bar, then briefly at the Illusions bar, then danced until 4am across the street at another place. |
| 09-21-13 | Bristol (lecture)- where I lectured and performed another stand-up show at Smoke & Mirrors. Hung out that night at Illusions with my new friend Wayne Goodman. |
| 09-22-13 | Herefordshire (lecture)- where I had a great day with the Amazing Morgan’s family, lecture assembly was awesome, had a wonderful feast and then made my way to Bath, England. |
| 09-23-13 | Portsmouth (lecture)- spent the day in Bath touring the Roman Spas and lectured for a wonderful group of people in Portsmouth that night. |
| 09-24-13 | Chelmsford (lecture)- saw family briefly and then lectured for a fun group. |
| 09-25-13 | London (lecture)- had hotel mix-up proceeded by a fun lecture. |
| 09-26-13 | Leatherhead (lecture)– fun group! |
| 09-27-13 | London– spent the day just trying to get to wife at Heathrow by car and train and then checked into our nice hotel in Regent’s Park |
| 09-28-13 | London– took a bus tour of the city, toured the Tower of London, cruised down the river Thames by boat, and had a nice curry dinner. |
| 09-29-13 | Leeds– spent the day with family |
| 09-30-13 | Manchester (lecture)– huge crowd! |
| 10-01-13 | Blackpool (lecture)– where they always treat my kindly and I had another nice curry dinner with my wife. |
| 10-02-13 | Chelmsford– made the long drive to Chelmsford, had a nice chili dinner with my cousins Adrian and Laura, and spent a fun night in the pub afterwards. |
| 10-03-13 | Chelmsford– had a great day in Cambridge and toured it by punting boat and had a nice evening with family again with a delicious meal with the Anstees |
| 10-04-13 | Drove to London, flew home to DFW |
All in all I did twenty lectures and three shows. I drove over 3000 miles across the UK. I considered it another success. Going to England now feels like going home. I did take lots of pictures that can be found on my Facebook page.
