Monthly Archives: March 2024

Really? Has it been that long?

I had no idea it had been 2 years since my last update. If you’ve been looking for an updated post from me I’m sorry. I haven’t even been active on my Facebook page either so obviously social media isn’t on my mind very often. you can find me over there at https://www.facebook.com/Marvelous.Matt.Magic

I need to move some newer photos over here eventually, but knowing how lax I’ve been in both places, don’t count on it.

The last two years were a whirlwind. I’ve been working on several new effects for the show, but burnout happens and I haven’t been that motivated. Not that I don’t enjoy magic, because I do, I’m just feeling the effects of overload between my day to day job and the performance aspect.

By nature I am not a social creature anyway. I’d rather be home with a book or a good movie. COVID and the lockdowns made it even worse but I’m finally finding my way out of that hole. In the next two weeks I will be returning to the Norman Medieval Faire again April 5-7th. The last time I was there was 2018 and it was the coldest event they had ever held. The long range forecast this year is mild temps in the low 60’s to low 70’s, minor chance of rain Thursday into Friday and sunny the rest of the weekend.

The wife and I will also be working again for T’ger Toggs at the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival this year. He wasn’t there last year because of a major SCA event he wanted to save inventory for. Many people asked him to return and since we were willing to work, he chose to come back down to vend.

In other news, last fall my wife opened her own faire business as a reseller of Renboots at KCRF. Because of that the owners of Renboots asked her and my daughter to work the tent for them at Norman this spring. This works out for us because we’ll be able to pickup inventory for our next event, the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival since Renboots is based in Oklahoma City. Because of her success at KCRF she will be bringing her boot shop, Olde Soles, down to OKRF this year. We’re borrowing one of T’ger’s other tents for our space and we’ll go down the week before to set everything up.

My next performing gig is The Renaissance Festival of Nebraska. They added a third weekend this year so I chose the last weekend, May 18-19 to return. I like this event. It’s small and family friendly and the owner likes me. I’ve had good reviews from this show so it’s really the audiences bringing me back.

Then I’ll be at the Great Bend Kansas June Jaunt the first Saturday of June. Again, an awesome community show and the organizer loves me. Or more likely I take care of myself and don’t cause problems. My wife is down at this event as well face painting you can see her stuff over at Doodle Faces KC on Facebook (I really need to update her page here too).

In the middle of all this we will be traveling to LA for the Magic Collectors Expo. One of the few non-performing events that happen when I have time available. Lectures on magic history, dealer room, visiting collections in the area, etc. I’ve been to the last two and my wife joined me last year in Cleveland so we’re looking forward to seeing what the organizers have planned for us this year. The event venue is the Queen Mary cruise ship, which now operates as a hotel in Long Beach, CA. I think it will be a very interesting time this year.

Anyway that’s what I have for now. I hope you like it.