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02.19.2011 – UPDATED PUBLICITY – WMS
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Some highlights from last year’s 2010 Seminar.
Important Note: Check back as we will be adding more images and video’s featuring touching tribute’s from SuperStar’s of Magic to S&R, who attended the World Magic Seminar 2010~!
THE 33RD WORLD MAGIC SEMINAR
IS OVER! – Joe Stevens
A TREMENDOUS SUCCESS FOR ALL INVOLVED! Over 600+ people in attendance and all had a great time! HIGHLIGHTS
The Jeff McBride welcome party was a smash hit! The room was filled with energy, excitement and fun. Jeff had all types of entertainment sections around the huge ballroom. Jugglers, Bird acts, Balloon Artists, Magicians of course and walk around entertainment as well! NO one can do it like Jeff McBride and his huge array of friends and talent!
DEANA MURRAY HIDES THE CARVED TIGER EYE (ONE PIECE) STONE PRESENTED TO SIEGFRIED BEHIND MARTHA STEVENS.
The TEEN program was one of the best with Dr. Nick St. Erne, once again, organizing and producing the event. Close up and stage contestants showed off special skills that left many of the adults in awe!
The LADIES FUNCTION with Siegfried and Lynette was outstanding as they took all of the ladies through their Secret Garden at the Mirage Hotel and had tea, lemonade and refreshments for all, as well as Siegfried giving all of the ladies a cute stuffed tiger as a gift! Over 80 ladies attended hosted also by Lynette Chappell, Irene Larsen, Martha Stevens and Deana Murray! Look for another super Ladies event next year at the 34th Seminar. Lynette Chappel received a Jay Stongwater ornate dove with Swarovski Crystal (that was purchased at a benefit to raise funds for animals), making it all the more special and applicable. The Princess of Magic – Irene Larsen was presented with a hard carved flourite bunney.
The International contest was one of the best in recent years as eight acts competed for the two $5,000 prizes.
The winners of the stage adult contests were;
TREVOR & LORENA WATTERS – CANADA – won the Golden Lion’s Head Award and $5,000.00!
NESTER HATO – FRANCE who won the Siegfried & Roy SARMOTI award and $5,000.00!
HENRY VARGAS (ENRIQUE VARGAS) – BRAZIL won the Lance Burton Teen Competition.
The PEOPLE’S CHOICE winner was Trevor & Lorena Watters from Canada who wowed the crowd with their fantastic stage comedy act! I can’t describe it other than that it was so different and well thought out! They won the Golden Lion’s Head award and $5,000.00 also!
The dealer room was a buzz and IF you couldn’t find a new miracle you were not into magic! Headliner talent included; Mickey Silver, Mike Caveney, Tina Lenert, Lex Alex, Nester Hato, Hara Hiroki, Furuyama and Sandy Marshall, Max Howard and Jan Rouven the wonderful illusionist from Germany.
Of course, having the two FISM winners, Shawn Farquhar and Soma were great hits as well and you can sure see why they were winners! Both very creative and entertaining and Shawn is one of those rare talents that can do everything well in magic. Stage, close up, comedy, any and everything!
Lance Burton took the teens to his home for lunch and many celebrities attended as well. Mac King, John Thompson, Chris Angel, Siegfried, Eugene Burger, Jeff McBride and many other notables as well.
All in all, it was just fabulous for everyone and we look forward to next year and can promise that it will even be better than this year! Be there for sure and we promise you a grand time!
Joe Stevens
World Magic Seminar Review 2010
By Mark Stevens
Wow what an amazing event WMS 2010 turned out to be! Of course every year is amazing but this year’s tribute to the sponsor’s of the Seminar – Siegfried and Roy made the event even more special. Special consideration goes to Bob Rossi and Bill and Becki Wells.
Paying tribute to these two legends in magic at the awards show included Lance Burton (the host of the teen magicians event). Lance provided S&R a signed proclamation by the mayor claiming it “S&R” day! While Lance is usually not upstaged, shortly after the applause stopped we all heard screams from the back of the audience, repeating the same phrase, “A DAY?” A DAY?” – as they walked towards the stage we all realized it was Penn and Teller who had their own proclamation from the Governor of Nevada, claming March officially as “S&R Month!” Upon which Teller read the proclamation to the delight and laughter of all who attended.
After this Criss Angel was introduced and came from behind the curtain to read a wonderful and heartfelt tribute to S & R, this was followed by Lynette Chappel who read on behalf of David Copperfield another tribute to the legend of Siegfried and Roy.
Having so many magic legends and superstars on one stage, was no doubt worth the price of the registration alone – but the comedy that followed as these superstars bantered back and forth was a case study in impromptu and spontaneity. While each are experts in this skill Roy was sharp as tack and provided in “machine gun fashion” one comical and hilarious barb after another.
In one funny but respectful moment Criss Angel took off his handcuff style necklace and put it around Roy’s neck! Then about 10 minutes later as the jokes and barbs continued to fly, Siegfried said he has been with Roy so many years that “he” should get an award at which point (Roy – not missing a beat), took off the hand-cuffed necklace and put it over Siegfried neck as “his” special award!
You can imagine how amazing that time was; being there was truly magical!
Now that I have already highlighted the close of the Seminar – (Awards Show), let’s go back to the start of the Seminar, and move forward.
Cilene and I were so lucky to have our partners in magic – Al and Deanna Murray invite us again on their jet to fly out to the Vegas. Such a rare and unusual treat that makes the rest of the trip pretty hard to beat. As an additional surprise, one of the two pilots happened to be a fraternity brother of mine at the University of Kansas. Two Delta Upsilon’s cruising at over 500 miles per hour, 40,000 feet above sea level – pretty scary thing when I think back to our wild college life! But all joking aside, Brent is a great pilot and provided us transportation to and from the event back to Wichita thanks again to Deana!
Many of you know Deana Murray is instrumental at Stevens Magic Emporium in so many ways, including but not limited to the number of stories she writes for us featured in our catalogs and also on the website. Deana Murray is also an exceptionally talented artist whom has mastered many arts including musician, composer, singer, magician and she also is one of the judges for the teen competition. She certainly has the accreditation to serve in that capacity at the World Magic Seminar. Deana is also instrumental in co-sponsoring the ladies event with Lynette Chappel, Irene Larsen, Martha Stevens.
The biggest task from Stevens Magic Emporium’s position is the set-up and breakdown. This year we took a lot of product and we had incredible help with our secret supporters in making sure the boxes of products and supplies and fixtures arrived safely. A special thank to Steve Kline who organizes all the logistics and stage techs for the entire event. Since Steve has come on board as the director, every year he finds new and professional tools and methods that show a real understanding of the intricacies of his profession.
I would be wrong not to compliment our wonderful staff and supporters who segregated the huge amount of products into sub-categories including but not limited too, products, books, DVD’s and supplies and fixtures.
Set up started on Saturday morning and took the entire day, and even at the end, we still were only 80% finished. Luckily for us we grew up attending trade shows so we have the experience knowing how to maximize these opportunities.
The opening night party – was and will be a memorable event as it was hosted by Jeff McBride. We heard glowing reviews most notably the fact that all parties and individual felt equal and comfortable. It didn’t matter if you were a superstar or a beginner – everyone mingled comfortable through the myriad of great stations that Jeff and Abby put together! There is no better way to start an event that having these two at the helm. They performed a successful launch that enabled the energy, and feel of the seminar to continue in the stratosphere for the entire event. The ball stayed up in the air so to speak from that opening event and didn’t come to rest back to earth until the event was over. Special kudos to Abby who was the Master of Ceremonies for one of the shows and got rave reviews for her performance!
Talent? Talk about talent! The shows were amazing and while we all love magic, this year as in some previous years, they did a great job bringing in some alternate variety acts that killed.
Every year Lance Burton hosts the Teen Event which includes performance competitions and can you image being a teen in this event and having the opportunity to have lunch at Lance’s house! Not only does Lance open his home to these young and future performers he invites some of his superstar friends like Criss Angel and Johnny Thompson.
This year’s teen competition has a tremendous amount of performers from all over the world as far as South Africa and Brazil! As many of you may know, my wife Cilene is from Brazil – the greatest magic trick I ever experienced was meeting her at the Congresso in Sao Paulo. At that time, I also met a very well mannered young man name Enrique Vargas. What impressed me greatly was not only his passion for the art but the fact that his mother supported that passion. Over the years Enrique Vargas has honed his art and performed in all venues close-up, parlor and stage.
When Cilene and I visited Belo Horizonte, we spent time with Enrique Vargas and his wonderful family who took us to the historical city of Ouro Preto (Black Gold), Brazil. Founded in the 17th century it as the focal point of Brazil’s golden age in the 18th Century.
Imagine our surprise when we learned he was a contestant in the teen competition. We were further excited to learn that Henry Vargas – Enrique Vargas “WON” the teen competition! What a great victory for Enrique and a big score for all of BRASIL!
While it is impossible to provide a complete review, I would be remiss to not include the Spouse event that all registrants would of LOVED to attend.
During the intermission of the opening show hosted by Fielding West there was an announcements for the spouses to meet outside where they had a bus that took them to the Mirage’s Secret Garden for a special tour by none-other then Siegfried and Lynnette Chappel. While I couldn’t go, my wife and our partner Deana Murray and Martha told me it was phenomenal. At this event Deana Murray presented Siegfried with a very ordinate sculpted Tiger statuate and then presented to Lynette a large Crystal Falcon (as a token of their providing us with the inspiration and love of magic.
The action in the dealer room is always a lot of fun as we see friends, some several times a year and others we haven’t seen for decades. The excitement is ever present, as you never know whom you are going to run into. Behind the booth – is also a lot fun… It’s a different experience working behind the booth just as for me, it would be a completely different experience being a registrant at a convention – I don’t think I ever have.
So it’s all about the comrade and banter working with some of the greatest demonstrators and the ambassador’s. We have a little of booth behind our booth as well as a bottle of scotch that mysteriously appears every year from Buma Sr., which is usually opened without fail around 6:30 when the dealer room closes. Then there are always the stories from the past, some of which are best left there or only discussed in certain company. HA!
Every year I always enjoy the verbal sparring between the Amazing Jonathan and Mark Burger (Buma Jr.), all in good fun… What it is about some people – they just love to take the verbal abuse? Or maybe it’s the opportunity to one-ups-manship. Whatever the motivations it’s fun to watch.
As to the International Stage Competition, several countries where involved and last year’s winner, in the WMS style – SOMA, was invited back to perform his award winning and exceptionally creative act. See above if you haven’t already for Joe’s review for the list of the winners for 2010.
Cilene and I enjoyed a few nights out with Mark Burger first at the Charlie Palmer Steak House in my favorite hotel in Vegas – the Four Seasons which is housed but not associated in the Mandalay Bay lot. This is a place that has class, when you walk in you don’t hear the tacky arcade sounds of the slot machines, the air is clean and not full of smoke – the casino is on the other end and even there the class is imminent.
On a personal note, it was great to see my wife so happy with fabulous entertainment both at the WMS and in the evening attending the Cirque Solei’s shows, and of course eating at least “one” time at Texas de Brazil – Churrascaria. She would kill me if we didn’t go there!
It was a great year and we sincerely hope to see all that attended and more for 2011! Thanks to all of our customers and friends (as you are both) for your support of our family business. Without “you” we would be nothing and we hope we will always satisfy the level of quality you deserve. Mark Stevens
