Day one is history and a wonderful day it was. Even though it was only a half day, it was chock full of mentalism and magic. We began with performances by attendees hosted by Paul Draper. This is kind of a showcase for attendees to do one effect to let the rest of the group see what kind of mentalism is being performed around the world and to showcase a performer for consideration as one of the main acts/lecturers next year. Then followed back to back lectures by Devon Knight and Harvey Berg. Next was a panel discussion with Eugene Burger, Ted Karmalovich and Richard Osterlind on book tests. This ran nearly an hour and a half and had lots of subtle tips thrown in from the learned audience like Ross Johnson and Banachek.
After dinner Shep Hyken delivered a motivational lecture on marketing your act and the evening's entertainment was Paul Vigil's one man show direct from the Mirage where he presents the same act at King's Ink twice a night every Wednesday.
Gary Darwin drew caricatures of Scott Wells and Jamie Salinas while in the Dealers' Room of the MINDvention.
Chats include a brief talk with Pete Poskiparta from Finland and Paul Draper. We had Peter and Paul and we were quite merry (sorry). Later in the day and in the dealers' room I caught up with Steve Brooks to talk about The Magic Cafe, its development and future plans. First time attendee Timothy Cripe talked about how much he was enjoying MINDvention. And surprise guest Gary Darwin held court seated in the dealers' room. Gary could go on forever talking about magic and cracking wise. He is a veritable fount of...well, something. And finally I caught up with organizers Danny Archer and Robert Allen who talked about the convention (statistics, plans, schedule, etc.)
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