Ive had a couple of fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable days but first of all the ship went all out with its halloween decorations. This is a small segment of the huge display behind the dessert trolleys in the restaurant and a shot of the beautiful 1000 seat theatre. As you can see the movie screen has been dropped in for a movie but is flown out for the stage sets and live shows. I disembarked the Dawn Princess in Melbourne and went to the exquisite little village of Sassafras in the Dandenong Mountains to spend a couple of days with Ross Skiffington. It was sheer bliss to just sit and chat about magic and the business with a quintessential showman away from everything. The second day Ross took me to a magical gem I did not know existed. In the Dandenongs lives a magician by the name of Ken Russell. Ken lives in a huge mansion and has had the gigantic ballroom converted to a theatre. All of the design and creative concepts were done by Rosss partner, Gordon. The theatre has been specifically designed to stage illusion shows and so has traps, chutes etc to accomplish miracles. Ken also owns a massive collection of premium illusions in gorgeous condition so I was in heaven. Photo four below is Ross on stage in the theatre on which are the stool levitation, The spread apart woman and a real rarity to the extreme left, a copy of Robert-Houdins Blooming Orange Bush. Photo 5 is Ken Russel and Ross with the Flaming Spike illusion. It was a wonderful day. All too soon my time up there came to an end and I returned to Melbourne to spend a couple of days with my son who this afternoon undergoes major surgery. On the weekend I will fly back to Auckland briefly to join the Diamond Princess. A huge Thank You to Ross for the peace, tranquility, friendship and experience.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 01:18:58 +0000
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