Magician blog category: Life updates
Here are the posts that I've written in the "Life updates" category:
Social Magician
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
28
Having a marketing background presents me with a small addiction to social media. Feel free to add, follow or stalk me on any of the following:
Twitter – WhoIsAndi
Facebook – magician Andi Gladwin
LinkedIn – professional magician Andi Gladwin
My Twitter posts normally consist of anecdotes and jokes for other professional magicians, loads of magicians who I don’t know add me to Facebook page and I’m not very good at using LinkedIn. However, if you can get past all that; feel free to take a look!
Magician’s Christmas Party
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
4
December is the busiest month for entertainers. Between us, we’ve covered every area of the country, performing at thousands of Christmas parties. Performing magic is a lot of fun, but it’s still a job. When do magicians get a Christmas party?!
The answer: last night.
Just over thirty close-up magicians, mind readers caricaturists, silhouette cutters traveled from across the UK to have our own Christmas party in London. We ate, drank and talked shop all evening. Well, not all evening as we also hired an incredibly funny improvisational poet who makes up poems on the spot about any subject you give him.
I’m on the train back now. It was a lot of fun and a nice way to wind down after an incredibly busy Christmas period!
A Magical 2010
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
2
I’ve just been thinking about what happened last year. It’s been by far the busiest year yet, since I’ve been a professional magician.
Here’s a brief rundown of some of the more interesting things!
- I accidentally ended up in the audience of Rick Astley’s latest music video.
- I got married!
- I bumped into internet sensation, Merton playing his improv piano.
- I performed for many charity events including for the Anthony Nolan Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support.
- I traveled to Cyprus to perform at an event for magicians.
- I organised a convention for close-up magicians … and hosted my own stag do there!
- I released my first DVD set for magicians.
- I published six books for magicians (by other close-up magicians).
- I performed at dozens of weddings, dozens of parties and other events throughout the country.
- I was interviewed for a BBC radio documentary about The Magic Circle.
- I performed and co-organised The Evening of Deception at The Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham.
- I was featured in MAGIC Magazine; the world’s largest journal for magicians.
- I performed stand-up comedy for the first time ever!
- I performed all over the country, clocking up 20,000 miles on my car!
- And most importantly … I had a lot of fun!
Thanks to everyone for your support and business during 2010. This next year promises to be even better!
My DVD set is now out!
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
5
My first ever DVD set, The Master Pushoff is now out. It’s specifically for magicians (sorry normal people!) and teaches the sleight of hand techniques that I use at my shows. If you’ve ever seen me perform magic, either at a show or for magicians, you would have definitely seen me use the techniques that I teach on the DVD set.
The DVDs were shot earlier this year during a multi-day shoot in a studio in Newbury. I uploaded some photos to the blog a few days after the shoot, giving a brief glimpse at this very tiring filming schedule!
I won’t give any more information about the content of the DVDs as this blog is intended for my non-magician readers. If you’re a magician who happens to be reading this, you can view more info on the Master Pushoff page at Vanishing Inc. where you can also view a trailer of the DVD.
The DVD is selling extremely well and is popping up on close-up magician’s Christmas lists all over the world! So if you see magicians performing in the New Year, the may well be using techniques from my DVDs!
Merton, the Improv Guy!
1 Comment | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
24
Meeting and performing for celebrities is quite a common thing for a close-up magician, therefore I’m not really the type to get starstruck if I see Bubble from Big Brother, or Stuart Baggs the Brand from The Apprentice.
But that all changed today! After a long flight from Las Vegas, I walked through arrivals at Gatwick to see a man in a green hoodie playing a pink piano. I immediately recognised him as the improv internet sensation, Merton! He was recording a new TV advert for T Mobile so I stayed around for a few minutes to hear his comedy songs. If it weren’t for an impatient valet driver, I’d have probably watched him for an hour or two!
Here are a couple of photos of the few minutes I spent at the airport:
Magician Interviews
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
14
One of the parts of my job that I enjoy the most is talking to other magicians and sharing my ideas with them. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been interviewed by a couple of magic publications:
I recorded an hour and a half interview about my business techniques in magic. I’d post it here, but I suspect that it’s of very little interest to people looking to hire me! I’ve received a lot of positive comments about the interview and the ideas that I discuss. The other two people to be interviewed in this series so far are Paul Daniels (in between his Strictly Come Dancing work!) and Andy Nyman; Derren Brown’s producer and writer/star of the West End show, Ghost Stories.
Last week I was also interviewed for some print magazines. Firstly, the world’s largest magic magazine interviewed me for a piece later this year. I will also be featured by a British magazine early next year so stay tuned to this blog for more info on both of those things!
In other news for magicians, I’m putting the finishing touches to the book that will come with my DVD set, am finishing off my next book for publication and am currently working on a new lecture. Busy times ahead!
Back from Honeymoon!
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
12
Yesterday was my first day back at work since I got back from my honeymoon a couple of days ago. I am a workaholic so after a week of ultimate relaxation, I was excited to get back to performing magic again!
My honeymoon was in the Maldives; the most magnificent place I have ever visited. Being a magician means that you get to travel a lot (I’ve been taken to places such as Las Vegas and many other American states, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and more), but I’ve never been anywhere like this! The Maldives is completely magical. The island that we stayed in was so small that you could stand in the middle and see the sea from both sides. There were 250 staff to just 50 or so guests so we got treated like absolute royalty! This is the first time that I’ve traveled to the East, but it definitely won’t be the last.
Now that I’m back, I have a busy month of performances and a long todo list to prepare for the launch of my first DVD set for magicians. The hard work starts now!
My Magical Wedding
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
9
I got married on the 28th August in a lovely hotel called Dormy House in the Cotswolds. The day went perfectly with lots of family and friends there. There were many, many magicians there including my two best man (both professional close-up magicians) and the head bridesmaid (also a professional close-up magician!) and lots of other magicians!
Entertainment wise, I flew a well-known magician from America called Chad Long to entertain at the wedding and he went down an absolute storm! Many of my friends and family haven’t had the opportunity to see a professional magician at work (given that 99% of my events are private parties) so this was a real treat for them and they loved his magic.
For wedding entertainment in the evening, I arranged for Signature, the Michael Jackson tribute from Britain’s Got Talent to perform as surprise for everyone, including my new wife! It took a lot of work to get them as they don’t do many private events, but it was definitely worth it as my wife was desperate to have them there, but thought that they weren’t available!
Here are a few photos from the day. I’ll add a few notes about my honeymoon in the Maldives tomorrow!
100th Blog Post
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
16
It’s hard to believe (for me!), that this is my 100th blog post about being a close-up magician. I thought it would be fun to list some of my favourite posts over the past ten or so months since I’ve been writing this blog:
- Ten Facts About Magicians
- Magic Circle Magician FAQ
- Unique Experience
- Five Questions to ask a Close-Up Magician
- Wedding Magician Gloucester
- Professional Close-Up Magician
- DVD Shoot for Magicians
- The Nine Faces of Britain’s Got Talent
- An Evening of Deception
I highlighted these posts in particular because lots of them have some great photos of me performing over the past year.
Thanks for reading!
Meeting of the Mind … Readers!
0 Comments | Posted by Andi Gladwin in Life updates
9
I have recently been corresponding with a legend in the magic and mind reading field. David Berglas is known as the “International Man of Mystery” and is one of the world’s leading mind readers. He was president of the Magic Circle for almost ten years and in my mind, was the key driving force behind taking the club to where it is today.
David was one of the first magicians to appear on British television with his own show Meet David Berglas in 1954 and made a name for himself with such stunts as making London stand still, making everything in a small area freeze for 30 seconds or so (including the traffic, the walkers, the bill boards and more). He caused a sensation whenever he performed on television and is a big inspiration to performers such as Derren Brown and David Blaine.
A few weeks ago, David called me to invite me to meet up with him and a few friends (including some top magicians such as Andy Nyman the co-writer and co-creator of Derren Brown’s shows). We met at what seemed like a secret location in a hidden part of Charring Cross station and spent the afternoon brainstorming ideas and reminiscing on past performances.
It was an honour to spend time with this great magician and a rare treat as David seldom meets with other magicians. He’s an inspirational performer and I look forward to meeting up with him again soon!
