This is a 5 day hands-on workshop in conjuring. There will be loads of exercises in misdirection, dramatic and deceptive structure, as well as in prop making. We will examine magic theories, apply them and discuss them in the context of performances. The course is suitable for those with moderate experience as well as experts. We will work from early morning to late night and you’ll find it both challenging and rewarding.

The workshop is led by Tom Stone, who is the author of several technical books on conjuring arts, as well as a performer, consultant, speaker, creator and teacher of the subject. He was awarded the 2015 Creative Fellowship by the Academy of Magical Arts.

For the lessons in propmaking, you will meet Johan Davidsson. Johan is is long time craft teacher with specialisation in historical crafts.
He has been teaching craft workshops since 2001, in woodworking, leather craft, silversmithing, textile arts to name a few.

The workshop is given twice this summer, since the interest was very high in 2018.
The first time is during week 31 (July 29 to August 2). Application form Filled!
The second time is during week 32 (August 5-9). Application form Filled!

Learning objective: On completion of the workshop, the student should:

• Be able to practice and apply misdirection, dramatic techniques and non-linear methods.
• Be able to confidently work with the brainstorming process in relation to any given theme.
• Be able to cogently discuss, research and experiment with colleagues in both magic and related artistic fields.
• Be able to use small tools to build props.

Schedule

Monday
• 9.00 Check-in.
• 10:30 Diningroom: Fika (coffee & snacks) + introduction of all the courses.
• 11:00 Exercise: The Effect as a narrative.
• 11:30 Exercise: Think face.
• 12:00 Lunch
• 13:00 Exercise: Subplots.
• 14:00 Exercise: Foreshadowing & callbacks
• 16:00 Fika (coffee & snacks).
• 16:30 Exercise: Misdirection, John Ramsay style.
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:00 Extra event.
  Week 1: The Butterfly Deck, with Ondřej Pšenička.
  Week 2: “Magic – The feminist perspective”, with Sofia Lerma.
• …In the evening, there’s a bar. There’s also a lake nearby for those who want to swim.

Tuesday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Propmaking.
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 Propmaking.
• 12:00 Lunch
• 13:00 Propmaking.
• 16:00 Fika.
• 16:30 Propmaking
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:00 Extra event: Technology & Magic, with Simon Almers.
• …The bar is open.

Wednesday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Exercise: Crossing the Gaze.
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 Exercise: Cancelling.
• 12:00 Lunch
• 13:00 Exercise: One ahead / One behind
• 16:00 Fika.
• 16:30 Exercise: Amodal completion.
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:00 Extra event for female magicians: Talks on how to establish a mutual body of work.
• …The bar is open.

Thursday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Exercise: Motion vectors.
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 Exercise: Motion vectors.
• 12:00 Lunch
• 13:00 Guest exercise, Leif Olberius: Theatrical techniques 1
• 16:00 Fika.
• 16:30 Guest exercise, Leif Olberius: Theatrical techniques 2
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:30 Extra event: Open stage in the dining room. You are welcome to perform. Audience: Laypeople from the other courses
• …The bar is open.

Friday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Exercise: Bringing it all together.
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 Exercise: Applications in your own work.
• 12:00 Lunch
• 13:00 Final performances
• 14:00 Final evaluation
• 15:00 Final Fika.

Loose guidelines.

The following are just advice, not rules or demands.

In general:
Make sure you have pen and notepad. You will get hundreds of ideas, and any idea not written down will be instantly forgotten.
You will probably want to document some of the work you do, so make sure you have plenty of free memory in your devices so you can film and photograph your ideas.
It might also be nice to share one’s notes with the group, via some internet solution; Google Docs, Dropbox…

For the propmaking classes:
It is good if you have clothes that you don’t have to be very careful with, preferably clothes made of natural fibers (cotton, linen…). Tight fitting clothes are better than loose fitting clothes that can can get caught in things. Closed-toed shoes is preferable. And a hairband to tie your hair back if it is long.

For the exercises in misdirection:
Bring a few coins in a size that is comfortable to you to palm.
Also, bring a few identical small objects that are comfortable to finger palm (maybe small rubber balls, balls from Cups & Balls, small toys, marbles, pebbles from the ground… anything).
And one object that can act as a magic wand (a wand, a drumstick, a large pencil, a stirring stick for drinks… something)

For the exercises in structure and routine construction:
You need to bring 3-5 simple and short tricks that you can perform. It does not need to be good or advanced (it can even be something from a magic set for kids). But they should be different, not too similar. The purpose is to learn how to build the structure of a routine or an act, so the nature and quality of the actual tricks are not important. The simpler the better.

For the final exercise:
(Optional) It is not necessary or essential, but you can bring 1-2 tricks or routines you are already working with. The last exercise is to apply as much as possible of the new knowledge on one of your own routines, but the advice is to pick either something new that is in development, or an old piece that you’re godawfully tired of, rather than something that is in your active repertoire, because most people are hesitant to change something they know works well as it is. The reason we say this is optional, is because we’ve noticed that most tend to pick something they’ve come up with during the week. Yet, it might be good to have something, for peace of mind, if nothing else.

For the creativity exercises:
Bring a small kit of your favorite solutions.
If you like to use magnets and strings to solve magic problems, bring magnets and strings.
If you often solve magic problems by gluing stuff together; bring glue.
If you tend to use black art; bring black material.
…
And if you don’t have any favorite solutions to magic problems, don’t worry; just bring yourself.

Music:
For some of the exercises you will likely want to add music, so load up your devices with a good assortment of music in various moods; upbeat, sad, happy, spooky, dramatic, soft, rhythmic…et cetera.

Finally
On the school, besides the Conjuring workshop, there are several other workshops at the same time (in writing, photographing, painting..). In the evenings, a make-shift pub will be open and the participants in all the workshops can socialize with each other. Improvised magic performances and sessions are very welcome.