After-Action Report: TAOM 2010

"It's just your average convention," my friend said sarcastically as we stood there next to the like of Max Maven, Michael Weber, Shawn Greer, and Chad Long. 

"Let's hope that this becomes the average festival," I said.

I've had less than ten hours of sleep over the last four days. I've been running on mostly caffeine, excitement, and general insanity. I'm exhausted, burnt-out, and barely functioning. It was f*****g amazing.

An honest assesment of TAOM 2010 would be that it was a life-changing experience. With so many amazing performers crammed into one place bringing in various levels of experience and a wide variety of performance backgrounds and styles, you can hardly be surprised, but even knowing the lineup of performers and lecturers beforehand couldn't prepare me for the whirlwind of amazingness that was coming my way.



We kicked things off with the inaugural Austin Street Magic Festival. We had Arsene Dupin, Fool and Flourish, Shawn Greer and several others out there entertaining convention-goers and random people from 6th Street. Performers were lined up down the street and inside several bars. The air was electric. Seriously there was lightning (it was lightning-ing?). Everyone had a great time and even though Clay and I made it back to the hotel soaking wet, the night couldn't have gone better.

I can't remember a step-by-step replay of the convention, only that at some point the following things happened:

• A dealer insisted that you could tell that his wands were good because when you hit them against a cup it made it ring (more the quality of the cup.)
• Jeff McBride wore my hat.
• Recieved a $40 tip.
• Talked with Whit Haydn.
• Joked around with Chad Long and Michael Webber
• Saw some awesome close-up magic
• Got to chat with Shawn Greer
• and other things I can't remember right now because I'm so damn tired.

The lectures were outstanding, with the only one that was hard for me to enjoy being the Close-up Stars lecture (several magicians being able to show and teach just one or two things). The setup gave you exposure to different magicians and their styles, but it was just a taste and not as in-depth as I would have liked.

What was really strange for me was the close-up competition. It was two and a half hours or so of people performing, but for the most part it was just average. I wasn't really blown away by anyone in particular, though they did have a few guys come through and perform who weren't competing, and they were quite good.

There are a ton of hilarious stories, and I'll be putting those up in another post soon.

"Mathematics doesn't care if you're ornery." ~Max Maven

Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic