Tuesday, January 24, 2012

We are having lunch with good friend and magician Rafael Benatar today.  Rafa was in town to talk with Pepe about Magic Agora and to do a lecture at last night’s CIVAC meeting.  He heads back to Madrid this evening after what promises to be a busy day for him.

Susan was a bit done in by all our weekend activities so she decided that yesterday would be a good day to rest and recover.  She spent the day reading, watching TV and making an absolutely scrumptious chicken with artichokes that she served over pasta.  Outstanding!  I got to the gym and did a good hour’s worth of cardio and had worked up a good appetite.  As I walked through the door, Susan was putting the finishing touches on her chicken dish.  We had lunch and we spent the remainder of the afternoon reading our respective novels.

I left for the CIVAC meeting a little before 8:00.  There was a good crowd this evening because of Rafael’s lecture.  I chatted with a few magicians and at around 8:15 Rafael walked in.  We greeted each other and chatted for a while and then he chatted briefly with a few other magicians and got ready for his presentation.  His focus last night was close-up magic.

In the course of presenting a number of tricks Rafael talked about naturalness and misdirection.  How and when we misdirect the attention or gaze of our audience are key elements in a performance.  Last night we learned that any time we do that there needs to be an action that justifies any movement that we make.  He concluded his lecture with a demonstration of the Top Change.  Rafael is a master of that move and his advice was eagerly listened to and appreciated by those of us in attendance.

After the lecture we all sat down to sandwiches that Pepe and Paquito had busily assembled while several magicians chatted with Rafa about this and that.  We then took our seats around the table and polished off our sandwiches while we enjoyed each other’s company.   I left for home a little after 11:00 having made arrangement for Susan and me to meet up with Rafa for lunch.