Ye Olde Magick Blogge

Oh come on, Mr. Daniels, tell us how you really feel!

Paul Daniels basically had some choice words about the fact that Blackpool was going to be hosting FISM in 2012. Lamenting the current state of the city compared with how it used to be, Daniels said, “”Now, it’s rough, tasteless, bawdy, scruffy and you have to accept that, treat the place as it is, and find your own fun. Like I say, it’s sad.”

Yeouch.

Long time readers of the olde blogge (all three of you) will know that I was lucky enough to go to Blackpool for the annual convention two years ago. It was the time of my life. Now, I had no idea that things could get so political, which I blame partially on the fact that my main goal was to drink with as many other magicians as I could.

Over the past couple of years, though, things have gotten really testy. Derek Lever has come down hard on any critics of Blackpool, banning people all over the place — Daniels himself has been uninvited for his comments — and also working hard to torpedo competitors to the Blackpool convention, stating at one point that anybody who works as a vendor or lecturer or performer at a UK convention in the month prior to the Blackpool convention would be blacklisted. Threads over at the Genii and the Magic Woods forums were swamped in allegations of corruption all the way to the top — I’ve personally got no comment since the only Blackpool higher-up that I knew of was Harry Robson, and Harry’s a prince — and while it seemed like the controversy had died down, no doubt these comments from Daniels won’t help matters much.

Don’t get me wrong — I loves me my controversy — but I’ve been trying hard to make sure that none of this stuff has a souring effect on my memory of the event. It was wild, and normally something I’d totally recommend to anybody, so here’s hoping all of this is much ado about nothing.