A couple of weekends ago, we took a break from our normal routine and went over to see the Nris show (a Thai illusionist). It was located at the Hua Hin Thailand Hilton Hotel & Resort. The show was very good with the ’small but mighty’ audience being entertained immensely. We also found him to be a very nice guy and he was very gracious to both myself and my guests during and after the show.

The entrance To his theatre at the Hilton Hotel

You even get free refreshments & popcorn with the ticket price!

Where you buy your tickets and souvenir t-shirts

A close-up shot of the nice atmospheric set entrance

Inside the theatre before the curtain opens

A video is played a few minutes before the show. It shows some of his national tv appearances on Thai television…

An interesting touch – There is a tip box as you leave the theatre!

A candid shot of Joe Conrad & Nris right after the show

Another pic of Nris, but this time with my Prod. Director Andy & WIlliam

We always try and support the magic scene in Thailand and were happy to attend the show of Nris and company. The show includes small magic, audience participation, some in-house built magic, hand puppet shadows and even a motorcycle production. The day we saw him it as in the smaller showroom, due to the reduced audience size. When there is a hundred or more people it is moved into the larger convention hall. When there it includes bigger scale illusions with a helicopter production. I hope to make it back to see it sometime. The current contract runs until September. Good job Nris!

After a year and a half in development, we are finally proud to debut our totally originally version of the classic thin model sawing illusion. This involved a complete redesign from the bottom up. We our so proud of our new baby…

(The above is our new promo shot featuring our original illusion concept. It is being released on our website and this blog for the very first time.)

Only a silly American tourist would pose for a pic like this. In the middle of the Bangkok protests, with people getting wounded and killed, this lady (I use the term loosely) poses with the awaiting Thai Army troops.

The older I get the more I amazed by the actions of people. Well, whatever…

Not often we show you the ‘backstage’ part of our illusion company – But my Production Director Andy was a bit bored and arranged one of our truckload of cases for a pic, after last week’s event in Bangkok.

Good job Andy – I Iiked it!

We are now a proud member of the Singapore-Thai Chamber of Commerce. Previously our company was just active in the American Chamber and attended occasional joint functions with the Singapore group. But with more and more of our event work taking place in Singapore and Singapore companies with events in Thailand, this is just a natural progression.

We are proud to be accepted as a member and looking forward to joining the family at the Singapore-Thai Chamber group.

This week is the “Songkran” Water Festival holiday all over Thailand. It is essentially the New Year celebration for Thai people and everyone is off from work all week. Part of the fun country-wide is people splash water all over each other for good luck.

I am in none of the pics below, as I am staying inside nice and dry! But seriously, nice to have some downtime while everyone else is going mad running around.

I know I am real late with this news (finding out after the fact) and it has been reported many places elsewhere in the magic community – But I did want to make mention of it and a few words with my own insight.

Jerry Conklin was one of the real “old timers” and one half of the “Amazing Conklins.” He lived and was based out of Colon, Michigan ever since I can remember. I saw many of his illusion shows at the annual Abbott Get-Together’s and always learned much from him. Ironically, he was born in the same year as my mom, 1928.

I know in recent months he had been active on his Facebook page and is where I re-connected with him. RIP – Both you as a person and your performances will be greatly missed Jerry. But will live on in all of our memories forever…

Yes we heard your requests! Finally have a chance to share a few pics from our performances last February in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The performances took place at Setia Tropika Johor (February 27th) & Setia Eco Gardens (February 28th). We shipped a full container full of magic, illusions and special effects, as well as brought the full crew. But it was worth it and the audience seemed to enjoy it.

The photographer we hired was not too great but at least we have some shots of the shows. Our Malaysian friend Alex is forwarding some even better pics in the near future. When we get them we will post some off those, as well…

The full gallery of pics from these performances is available over at our Facebook page.

Nice to stop by and see my Thai friend Tuxedo a few days ago in his new custom-built theatre in North Pattaya, Thailand (his previous location was on 2nd road in a much smaller place).

Show has much new material in it, as well. Good luck Tuxedo! His web site can be seen here www.tuxedo-magic.com.