News from Mark Mitton

The next part of my trip took me to the lovely town of Ayr in Scotland, where I shared haggis and magic stories with Andrew Galloway, a legendary misdirection expert who studied with the master John Ramsay. We had so much to talk about! Thank you, Andy, for your wonderful hospitality!

I have always wanted to see a pantomime in Scotland, and this year I was lucky enough to catch a performance of Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates at the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh. The show did not disappoint… It was filled with topical references and outrageous comedy. Allan Stewart (as Robinson Crusoe’s mother) and Grant Stott (as Blackheart the Pirate) had the audience rolling in the aisles, and one of the highlights was when Stewart did his spot-on impression of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ superstar Susan Boyle.

(Find out here what happened when the real Ms. Boyle came to the show a week later).

From DC I flew to Holland to celebrate New Year’s with my in-laws. We were treated to a lot of snow and took these photos on a magical early-morning walk down the road that Susanna grew up on. The last shot is of one of the many windmills behind her childhood home (click to enlarge):

This is what happened on New Year’s Eve, when a neighbor shot his bottle rocket across the street instead of up in the air. Kaboom!

Cellist Sean Grissom’s ‘Holiday Vaudeville’ show at the Kennedy Center is now in its tenth year. I have been on it, together with the Alexandria Kleztet, for five of those years. It is such a fun show. We perform for two nights together and always have a packed house. Our day off is usually spent sightseeing in our nation’s capital. This year, we visited the Washington Monument.

  
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For the longest time, I have wanted to travel to Galicia in the northwest of Spain. When magicians Mago Anton and Luis de Matos invited me to perform at a festival in Santiago de Compostela, the destination of the 9th century medieval pilgrimage route the Way of St. James, of course I jumped at the opportunity. Santiago is a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it was so much fun to perform there on the steps of the cathedral. Mago Anton was a gracious host and he took me to the mysterious headquarters of the Galician Professional Magicians Association, which has a hidden library and secret passages.

Here are some highlights of the festival:

Just got back from another cruise with John Mayer, produced by Sixthman. This year we sailed from LA to Cabo San Lucas. Had a fantastic time on board, performing close-up magic for the VIPs, and doing stage shows with two of John’s band members: guitarist Robbie McIntosh and saxophone player Bob Reynolds. It was so nice of them to participate — especially considering how busy they were with John’s concerts — and we had an absolute blast! Both Robbie and Bob played a couple of their own beautiful compositions in my show, and participated in some goofy magic and mindreading tricks.

On our day off in Cabo, Susanna and I visited the local orphanage with the band Guster, who gave away 25 musical instruments. I performed magic for the kids. It was a wonderful way to spend our break.

My friend Laurie Baker from Marc Ecko Enterprises happened to be on board, and captured this scene late at night. More photos to follow, once I get them off my camera!

Susanna and I spent the holidays in beautiful South Africa, enjoying the summer sun. Our friend John had invited us to stay with him in Cape Town – an offer we could not turn down! We spent the first two nights at Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town, home of a large colony of very charming and noisy African penguins. On our first morning, while penguin-watching at the crack of dawn, we met an American doctor who is working with local physicians in Botswana. He and his wife were kind enough to drive us all around the magnificent Cape Peninsula, and we hiked down to Cape Point and saw all sorts of animals, including a herd of bonteboks. Thank you, Mike and Lynne, for a wonderful day!

From there we moved to our friend’s amazing house in trendy Camps Bay. We did a lot of sightseeing in and around Cape Town (Bo-Kaap, De Waterkant, Table Mountain, the Klein Constantia winery, Stellenbosch, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, etc.), enjoyed great meals and conversations, and attended a star-studded New Year’s Eve party at casino magnate Sol Kerzner’s home (guests included John Cleese, Sarah Ferguson and the princesses, Mike Rutherford from Genesis, Roger Taylor from Queen, and Richard Branson; and Sol and Heather Kerzner were very gracious hosts). We were also fortunate enough to catch the traditional ‘Kaapse Klopse’ New Year’s parade.

We ended our trip at Addo Elephant National Park outside Port Elizabeth, where we saw lots and lots of exotic and dangerous animals, including lions, warthogs, kudus, red hartebeest, zebras, ostriches, a buffalo, and of course elephants. It was truly like The Lion King come alive! We spent quite a bit of time speaking with the local Xhosa guides. The language they speak contains three kinds of clicks… fascinating!

Speaking of language, Susanna was delighted to be able to read Afrikaans and had fun trying to understand the spoken language as well. I myself did not get much further than saying “Baie dankie” (sounds like “Buy a donkey”), which means “Thank you” in Afrikaans, and “Sizobonana” (sounds like “See You Banana”), which means “See you later” in Zulu. I also learned one of the Xhosa clicking sounds.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and we are so thankful that we were able to go. Thank you, John, for all your generosity, and for giving us a reason to explore this remarkable country!

Below are a few photos (click to enlarge), and you can see a longer slideshow here.

   
   
(1) Cape of Good Hope, (2) The house in Camps Bay, (3) New Year’s Party at Sol Kerzner’s home, (4) New Year’s celebration in Bo-Kaap, (5) African penguins at Boulders Beach, (6) Addo Elephant National Park

My friend Sandy Rower, Director of the Calder Foundation, invited me to spend a couple of days with him at Art Basel Miami. It was quite an education! Not only did we see lots of art, but we also attended many parties. Sandy was able to get us into a Marilyn Manson party at the Gansevoort Hotel by using some sort of secret password that I still don’t know. At another party, Faye Dunaway came over to me and introduced herself. She has the strongest handshake and an amazing presence! Rosa de la Cruz, one of Miami’s most prominent art collectors, opened up her beautiful home museum on Key Biscayne. I bumped into my old friend Alan Katz, who is now the group publisher of the Brant Publications (Art in America, Antiques and Interview), and we ended up having a very late-night supper together. I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go back next year!

Susanna and I have spent the past two weeks traveling through England, Belgium and Holland. We have been very lucky with the weather. We started off in beautiful Dorset, where we stayed in an incredible manor house owned by friends from New York. Coincidentally, the legendary guitarist Robbie McIntosh, who plays with John Mayer and who we met on the Mayercraft Carrier cruise, lives only 10 minutes away, so we were able to see him and his wife Flo as well. From Dorset we drove via the New Forest - where we saw lots of wild ponies - to Eastbourne, one of those charming English seaside resorts. I performed at a magic convention there, and ate lots of fish and chips. We traveled on to London for a special tribute show to Siegfried and Roy at the Palladium. S&R were there in person. It was quite moving to see Roy walk and talk after his tragic accident in 2003 that almost cost him his life.

We celebrated Susanna’s birthday in London with her relatives, and then woke up at the crack of dawn to take the Eurostar to Belgium to see our friend Lieven Gheysen (a.k.a. comic magician Gili) and his wife Annick in historic Ghent. It was a fast and smooth train trip, and they served nice chocolate croissants on board. In Ghent we saw the beautiful Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece, completed by the Van Eyck brothers in 1432. The colors are still incredibly vivid after almost six (!) centuries.

We ended up our little tour in beautiful Alkmaar, Susanna’s home town in Holland. It was a great trip.

Below are some pictures. Click here for a bigger slideshow with captions.

I am attending my first neuroscience conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, with my friend and fellow magician, Thomas Fraps from Munich. Peter Lamont, a psychologist and a magician, together with the Psychology Department of the University of Edinburgh, is one of the organizers. We are learning so much. My favorite talk was by Giacomo Rizzolatti, who spoke about his discovery of mirror neurons and his latest work on them. It’s fascinating stuff.

And what a beautiful city Edinburgh is! On my first night I was lucky enough to catch the fireworks over the castle, as part of the closing ceremonies of the Edinburgh Festival. The next day I visited Andrew Galloway, a student of the legendary misdirection expert John Ramsay, in the town of Ayr. We talked all day. I also went on an excursion to Rosslyn Chapel, the inspiration for the ending of the Da Vinci Code. Today Thomas and I did some sightseeing around town.

Here are some photos of the conference, the Camera Obscura, and Thomas and me goofing around at the castle:

Susanna and I just got back from visiting friends on an island in Maine called Vinalhaven. It was wonderful… No cellphone reception, no e-mails… just pure relaxation! We hiked, we picknicked, we swam in an old quarry and simply enjoyed great conversations, excellent seafood and looking at the stars at night. The mud flats and the lobster rolls really reminded me of the area where I was born in Eastern Canada.

Here are some photos from our trip and a short video clip of our landing in a Cessna at the Vinalhaven landing strip in the woods: