I don't know if this post is in the right place. If it's not, please move it to the correct one.

In Sweden now we are discussing if there are few magicians or as many as anywhere else in the following countries/regions:

Turkey

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Can someone please enlighten me?



Mikael

Hi, and greetings from Latvia !
I'm a magician from Latvia. About the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, Lituania) I can tell you everything. Here in Latvia we are only 3 professional magicians (and for professional I mean that this is our full time job) and some 4 or 5 hobbyst, there is not any magic club, but I try, a couple of time a year, to arrange a kind of meeting. In Estonia, I could track only one magician. In Lithuania the situation is a little bit different, there are around 7-8 professional magician and a lot of beginners and hobbyst, let say around 25-30, there is a small magic club and they organize a meeting monthly; I know very well the president and many of the members, as I invite themes in Latvia each time I organize the magic meeting
here.
I start to track a kind of cronological history of magic here in Latvia (and Baltic states) I collected some pictures from magician between the 20' and the 60' and talked with a ritired magician that worked here between the 40' and the 70'.
About Turky, I know that also there are not many magicians (around 3 or 4), I have been in Istanbul a couple of years ago for job, and talked with a local actor/magician that hosted a TV program and he told me this thing, but I do not know more.
Magic regards
Enrico

Thank you very much for this answer!



Mikael

Hi Enrico & Mikael

A most interesting topic. Will either of you be coming to FISM next year? My girlfriend and I are planning to attend and thereafter tour around Scandanavia and most likely, Latvia. It would be nice to meet fellow magicians. We are from Toronto, Canada and it will be our first visit to that part of the world. We are certainly looking forward to it and doing some advance reading.

All the best.

Renaldi

No, I wont go to FISM as far as I know. But you can contact me anyhow if you go to Sweden and we can meet.



Mikael

That is too bad. Why will you not be attending? I hear Sweden is quite expensive. Is that accurate?

Renaldi

Yes, Sweden is quite expensive. I will not attend for two reasons:

1. I don't have the money right now.
2. I'm interested in buying stuff, not watching magic, so I will go to Blackpool instead.



Mikael

Hi,
I will be to the FISM, for us is the first time (and, maybe, the last one !) that a FISM is so close !
If you have the idea to travel around the Baltic States, after the FISM, drop me an e-mail, I can try to help you to find some show here and I can introduce you to the local (small) community of magician, many of themes will be very happy to meet
and talk with a magician from another country.
You can find me at: brinum-x@ml.lv
Magic regards
Enrico Pezzoli
http://www.bubbleandmagic.lv

Hi Mikael,
Maybe I am late, but the number given about Turkey is not true...There are lots of Magicians here in Turkey but unfortunately, not many of them are English speaking.So they are not so much well known abroad. The number as 3 or 4 magicians in Turkey is just funny !!! I am giving magic courses and I have at least 20 students in each class. I have done an International Magic Festival in Izmir / TURKEY and the number of only performing magicians in two nights was 46. We have also made a sight seeing tours which was included in the program and had 2 busses of people only for those who wanted to come. I had some of the Café staff with us and some Café members as well. They may verify this. But I think this is not a section they visit often -like me, so they did not answer this.
I can easily say that we have morethan 1000 magicians in the country and at least 1/4 of them are full time proffesssionals.
If you want to ask something in detail write me to my e-mail please.

250 full time proffesssional magicians in Turkey? I must say I am astounded. I would never have thought that. I would think there were many times more in Sweden, but I can't believe there are that many here at all. I have to ask what you mean by magician? someone who juggles and do acrobatics as well? Or the kind of magicians who do only magic? Even though Turkey has 6 times as many inhabitants as Sweden, it's still incredible.



Mikael



Mikael