OsadaSlowianska

Here i talk about what it was like when young Victor came to me in the hopes that i would teach him sleight of hand with playing cards. I must have been around 24 then.

At that time in my life, i already had eight years of performing as a street magician under my belt (street magic was the style i chose, inspired by David Blaine, which helped me refine my personal confidence, interpersonal skills and develop my card handling). I also had street-busking experience after experiencing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as a street performer on the Royal Mile, alongside all those street-pros who showed me the ropes of street performances. And not to mention i already debuted my hour long one man theater shows "Shuffling Philosophies" all around my city, being the first oriental to ever do so.

Did i feel up to the task of being a teacher?

Hmm....

In 2022 i somehow ended up working as a Kitchen Porter.

I had always known of the Pizza Express branch within the Brindley Place area. As a kid i used to walk passed the restaurant daily, peering inside as i watch the chefs make pizzas. I always thought how nice it would be to work there, even if i had the idea in my head that i was never good enough to.

About 10 years later, here i am, thrown right in the deep end of Summer 2022. This was when the Commonwealth Games were being held in my city https://www.birmingham2022.com/ . It was hot, the work was very difficult, it was absolutely heaving with volumes and volumes of customers...that Summer was a great summer!

I learnt a lot during my time there. Unfortunately the branch had to close down, due to internal politics between upper management. The branch ended up getting bought outright by an investor...now the joint is a sports club. I still walk passed there every day and i cannot shake the memories.

This job propelled me to greater heights as a kitchen porter/potwash/cleaner. I shall speak on this in a dedicated video in the future.

In the 5 months that i was there i was privileged to be part of one of the best team i ever got to work with. My boss was an absolute legend! Back then i lived about 10mins walking distance from the job, my boss would give me some great shifts....for example i would come in the morning from 10am-12pm to do the cleaning (toilets, restaurant floor) and sort deliveries. If i had an evening shift, my boss would send me home for about 3-4 hours, where i jus chilled in the sun. I would then go back to the job in the evening for a couple hours. It was most relaxing lemme tell ya!

The food was great, my team always looked after me. I have to remind myself how difficult the job was in such a busy restaurant during a busy time. The team, from the runners to the waiters/waitresses, to the chefs and even managers, all taught me what it means to be a kitchen porter.

Thanks for all the good times!

This is my rendition of Rene Lavand's composition entitled "Duel Of The West", which saw the light of day once more at a special performance for my family at The Pizza LAB in Leipzig, Germany.

It's my favourite storytelling piece and has been with me for almost a decade. Through this piece I started finding my style in my performance of magic and it's because of this piece I have grown as a performer, artist and storyteller.

Thank you Ricardo Martin for writing this story and thank you Rene for showcasing it to the world. I hope if you see this in Heaven, that you will be proud of my performance!

Just messing with the cards and figured I want to play around with the Joker.

The concept i had in mind was, "What can I do with this Joker card that could be interesting? That can bring it life?"

We all know in card games, the Joker is a card that become anything. Perfect! I could try and showcase the many faces or guises that a Joker has.

If you look at it this way, playing cards are more than just pieces of paper, but do have a life of their own...if you know where to look and how to tap into it.

Thanks for watching!

This practice drill was taught to me by my Mentor and Brother Michael Vincent (master magician from London).

Everytime i sit down and practice at the table, this drill here would be of utmost importance. One has to keep the ligaments, the nerves and the sense of touch of the fingers and hands "well-oiled".

This drill is perfect for refining my card handling, and also maintains my standard of card work, which i pride myself on.

I'm not the best student of magic, i'm not the best card magician (i'm second rate at best), but i do take what i study and practice seriously.

Thanks for stopping by!

I was practicing this the other week and realized a few things that may be of use to you, please bare my rudimentary thoughts:

I find that if i am able to maintain perfect structural alignment, especially the core area (tail bone tucked up, abs contracted a little, and whilst in battle stance i have correct weight distribution), i can feel my lower back more

Send the awareness to the lower back and try to keep it there

I am very disconnected with my lower back, and find that i must do warm ups to help connect my mind to the lower back muscles. I notice that if i take a basketball and bounce it off a brick wall and then catch it, within the natural motion of catching the ball, my body already knows how to create the "spring load effect". The body, when catching the ball, automatically bends the needs, pushes out the lower back, sinks down and hollows the chest. Ahh! So it's this "catching the ball" posture that i'm looking for!

Maybe the Wing Chun masters knew about the "spring load effect" and had studied it extensively....is this why we are taught to be in almost the "catching the ball" position in our proper Wing Chun stance? When in this position we already are in position to absorb incoming shock, and am in position to release this latent energy outwards from the sprung position. This is genius thinking on the Master's part.

When i am in perfect structural alignment and palm strike upwards, by popping the hip flexer of my striking side, i automatically am able to create the spring load via the opposite side of my lower back. So for example if i am in battle stance, with left leg as lead and right as rear, and i strike upwards with the left hand, i am able to pop the left hip flexer up, as i visualize also elbowing someone behind with the right (Wu Sau?); as i do that, i notice that i automatically sink down a little with both legs (still maintaining 40 lead leg/ 60 rear leg), and as i do that my lower back pops out.

Have to be able to feel the kinetic chain; the striking hand and the guarding hand work together in opposite directions to create that snap, generating short form power; if the upper body is connected with the lower body (through perfect structural alignment), as i engage in the upper body "snap", automatically the lower body engages itself and creates a kinetic chain with the hip flexer on the striking side and the popping of the lower back on the opposite side (of the striking side).

Hope it helps!

Stand up against the corrupt uniformed agents!

Send these pork boyz back to their oink oink machines!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGCyA57FPIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6NBgSMvdQo

https://www.michaelvincentmagic.com/shuffling-philosophies-by-jin-lee/

https://www.michaelvincentmagic.com/guest-blogger-jin-lee/

Such that it pains me to re-visit these memories...

This video was filmed during Autumn of 2018, three months after i came back from my 10 month hitchiking journey across Europe.

Right after that journey i was given the opportunity to travel to Argentina with my then friend, brotha and mentor Michael Vincent. We have a decade long Master-Student relationship, which started somewhere during 2008 after i witnessed Michael's performance on Penn and Teller's "Fool Us" (season 1), and the apex of such a friendship was discovered during our town in Buenos Aires.

I have the journey recorded and compiled into my "Blast From Da Past" video, which i shall upload sometime soon. In that video you will see the artistry of these Argentinian magicians. Because of Michael i got to make my acquaintance with the wife of the late Rene Lavand, the world reknowned one handed illusionist, right in their home of Tandil. If you've ever watched any videos of Rene's, especially from his documentary "El Gran Simulador" (The Great Pretender), i can only attest to the beauty of the town of eternal autumn that is Tandil. Rene's home is just as beautiful as i saw it in the documentary...and stepping foot in Renes home, knowing he wanted to respond to my handwritten letter before his untimely passing...i shook the hand of his statue and made my peace.

During our time in Argentina, i got to live with Michael with thanks to our friends in Bueanos Aires. We got to meet many famous nationwide magicians, some semi-professionals, some full pro. It was good to sit down with these artists, young and old, to share magic together.

My second highlight of this trip was when i met Pablo, a very underrated and unknown underground magician from the classical era. I have never witnessed a more beautiful "Ace Assembly" routine in my life...i vividly remember Pablo's personal magician library, full of classic tomes i am familiar with, and hard to procure too in Argentina. These were English books such as "Greater Magic", the "Tarbel Courses in Magic", "Our Magic", even books by Johanne Nepomuk Hofzinser too. It was a wonderful evening at Pablo's house.

Michael starting losing his hearing sometime in the early 2010s and by the time 2018 came, his hearing was almost completely gone. I have my theories on why a healthy man, who takes no external substances, who has never had any health problems would suddenly one day wake up to a world without sound. Living in central London...blasted by the radiation and EMF, our beautiful London overshadowed by evil magicks....

When filming this short piece, gathering the footage was easy. The hardest part was asking a man who had not heard his own voice truly for a decade to sing. Through his song i can hear his pain and his hope for life.

Michael has always been a light upon this world. Chinese Zodiac wise he is a Dragon. Me being a Stallion we were a perfect fit. But i could never rise to the heights of a Dragon, for it was not the destiny of a Stallion to fly. We parted ways when 2020 came. It was sudden. We came to a point of no return.

We all need a mentor. It may be that some of us are destined for a life of struggle and isolation, yet i am certain even this type of person will be given the duty of being someone's guide in life. That's what Mike taught me. Even a useless person can help others if we take up the mantle (and stop being useless).

My friend, my brotha and mentor. I owe you half my life. You said i already made you proud back then when we were in Amsterdamn, attending the https://www.amsterdamsights.com/events/amsterdam-magic-show.html ...do you remember? I was perhaps 25 then, already a semi professional then with my own one man theater shows...but i never felt the words you said to me rang true. One day i'll make you really proud man i promise, i know that day will come.

Til then.

Bless this woman!

Warehouse work was one of the first jobs i ever landed. I started working the warehouses in my city right around the time i walked out on working at the Lee Family Restaurant ("Chinatown Noodle Bar") at 18 years old.

One of the first warehouse jobs was working for a Chinese import/exports company who's product was but one thing: baby-milk powder.

In that warehouse, packing baby-milk powder, i learnt the warehouse trade. Little did i think warehousing would follow me right throughout my 20s and even until now in my 30s.

I love warehouse work as it's honest work. I've had a lot of great warehouse jobs...such as working for a office stationary distributor called Spicers LTD, then Amazon as a picker/packer associate, DHL and now presenting to you my time at Kumon in 2023.

For those who don't know, Kumon is largely a tailor made Maths and English program created by this Nippon dude who calls himself Toru Kumon, marketing to the private tutoring industry and even for homeschoolers. The program's all about improving critical thinking, logical problem solving and improving the capacity for their students to learn. The whole program is basically the Japanese method of teaching kids how to learn and progress in education efficiently (as the times demand - these poor kids are being shoved into maturity before they even have time to play!!!).

My job as a warehouse operative was...well...nothing fancy. I spent 40 hrs a week counting sheets of paper according to customer orders, finger sheets of papers, mucking around cardboard boxes, making friends with pallets and smoking pipe.

The job was good man, paid well too on a salary. As said befoer i like warehouse work as it's honest...though i much prefer a bigger warehouse where i can be alone with my task. I just love the sound of pump trucks, counterbalance vehicles, i love the sound of torn cardboard...i also love setting them on fire. I love the dust, i love the dirt and grime of a warehouse...and i also love the hot chocolate machines.

I had to leave Kumon when the boss man started asking, then demanding, regular urine tests for no reason (between you and high, i was not about to let that happen). The company also started shifting from the paper systems to the Amazon-like digital tracking systems used in their warehouses to keep track of employee progress. They also started implementing their digital products by the truck load...it was then i knew my paper burning, cardboard box boxing, pump trucking days there had come to a close.

Good times man.