How The West Was Won,
or Now The Rest Can Come
by Scott Wells
TAOM 1999-2000 President

The last T.A.O.M. convention of the millennium is now over and I believe it was wrapped up in Majestic style (pun intended - but for those of you who didn't attend the convention, the final stage act on Sunday night at the Majestic Theatre was "The Majestix"). I had a great time at T.A.O.M. 2000 and I sincerely hope you did, too. It's not my place to review this convention but I'm certain that one or more will be written to memorialize what went on in Dallas. When the reviews are in, and if we get the authors' permission, we hope to post those reports here online. If you would like to make a public comment about the convention, then please send your e-mail to the webmaster for posting on this site.

Our theme for this year's convention was "Tomorrow's Convention for Today's Family" and we met that goal on every account. We tried several innovative things at this year's convention including duplicate evening shows, special late night features, unique youth events, and business-oriented lectures.

We updated the website with digital photos throughout every day of the convention. This was the next best thing we could do to let non-registrants what was going on. Now that some of you have returned home, maybe you can see yourself in some of those photos. We will soon have a video available with highlights of the convention. Kevin DeRita has seven hours of good footage to edit into a tight and entertaining look back on what took place. That tape will be available for sale and advertised here when it's ready.

We intended to make this family convention even more "youth oriented" and so we had scheduled very special events. The youth were entertained at a lecture by crazy-man Steve Bargatze who gave everyone complimentary copies of his lecture notes. There was a youth-only pizza party in the President's Suite that was attended by nearly 75 young boys and girls. The Sunday event for the youth featured performances by the 1999 T.A.O.M. junior close-up and stage winner, Chase Curtis, and from Portugal, a Magic Circle winner and 2000 FISM junior contestant, Charles Brooke. This was followed by a panel discussion with prominent magic figures including S.A.M. International President, Jann Goodsell then a Q&A teleconference with Lance Burton in Las Vegas.

Continuing with the theme of "Today's Family," we saw the present generation passing the proverbial wand to the next with Walter Blaney and his daughter Becky, Mark Wilson and his son Greg, and Chuck Jones and his daughter Stacy (who along with Michael Giles were "The Majestix"). As we ended this millennium, we featured a magician-only show at the hotel that included a historical perspective of performers gone by such as Alexander Hermann and Harry Blackstone, Jr. We finished with magic of the future presented by last year's T.A.O.M. Best-of-Convention winner Murray presenting a fantastically creative act with CD's.

In constructing T.A.O.M. 2000, I had intent to make magicians more business-oriented. I have always felt that we all know enough tricks but we need to know what to do after we've learned them. Among the many opportunities to learn the real secret to success in magic: Gene Anderson talked about how to be a part-time professional; John Carney lectured on the business side of magic; Paul Green offered registrants the opportunity to enter into discussions on the secrets of restaurant and trade show work; Greg Wilson taught registrants how to make a promotional video; Anne White was taking professional publicity photos, and; All Occasion Video was there to make your promotional video. On top of all this, many lecturers taught some really cool tricks to add to your repertoire. Of course the dealers were happy to supply you with the proper tools to make you look good.

Lots of people spent many long hours putting this convention together just as every other previous organization has done. I am particularly proud to have worked closely with so many people who were committed to making this a success. My tenure in office was unprecedented in T.A.O.M. history due to my location. As some of you may know, I moved to Houston two years ago and that made things a bit more challenging than had been anticipated. Several last minute crises were avoided due to the experience and dedication of the Dallas Magic Club (DMC) members who were willing, able, and always available and made the convention run smoothly. I want to personally and publicly thank the T.A.O.M. 2000 convention chairmen and also every member of the DMC for their undying support. I also want to thank everyone who performed and lectured and exhibited at the convention because I'm confident that it was their "celebrity name status" that helped draw record registrations. Finally, I want to thank all of you who attended T.A.O.M. 2000 because without you, we would have all been just fooling ourselves!

Scott Wells TAOM President 1999-00