The accent that the Tucson, AZ Celebration 2006 Convention this coming May (www.celebratemagic.com) is heading a little more toward profiting from magic by marketing and performing on cruise ships.

While the guys being featured (John Shryock, Kerry Pollack) have skinnied their props down to very visible but table pieces (in most cases) I am wondering about very portable stage illusions (NO large/larger/big ata cases requiring special shipping) who is making what in real fold down models. I used to have a wonderful Zig-Zag that came down to a suitcase size 28x14x30. Took a little longer to set-up but it could go anywhere.

I guess the Charvet/Gwynne/Evans sub trunk would qualify as able to carry things in shipping.

BTW - the convention (see the ads in the major magazines) is more of a party where you sit down with the working pros until the wee hours of the morning and session and "ideate." Dave Sandy - one of the working masterminds in marketing and selling magical performance will be giving a lecture abd be accessible on "how to". Special hotel rates and $100 for the tree days if registered by April 15.

If you got a portable illusion you want to session -- bring it along -- several of us are in the market.

If I were anywhere nearby, I would gladly attend that convention! But I'm in another part of the world unfortunately.

I worked on a couple of cruises I have to notice that more and more cruise lines are employing bigger and bigger illusion shows. I still stick to pack small play big standard illusions that are easy to carry and assemble, but I worked on cruise where they had a magician with 2 live tigers, a black panther, 10 exotic birds and like 25 huge illusions (his finale was a Car Appearance). More and more often you can see illusions like a water fountain levitation (huge and heavy), Osmosis, Motorbike Vanish, etc. performed on the cruises. When it comes to practicality and weight of equipment, that seems to be less and less of an issue with cruise lines. Strong competition (all the shows of all the cruise lines are being rated and compared at the end of the year when they chose the cruise line with the best entertainment), showlounges that are as big and as equipped as an average broadway theatre (even more equipped), million dollar sound systems (there is a cruise line that uses it as an adverisment - the sound system in their showlounge is really worth a million) - these are all the reasons why they hire huge and expensive acts.