Haruo Shimada

Last month I had the pleasure of spending a week with Luna Shimada! For anyone who is not familiar with who that is, you must have been living under a rock! Anyway, not only is she the greatest female magician I have ever seen live, she is also the daughter of legendary Japanese magician Shimada! I could write pages of things I learned while working with her, but we thought it would be interesting if she told everyone what she thought about working with me! I have often wondered what world class performers that I work with thought about my ideas and contributions to their acts. Well, Luna gave me that chance!

I had been thinking about The Dancing Hanky Illusion for a long time. At first because my ex husband Losander performed it a lot in his show, I really wanted to find new ways for him to improve his routine but he seemed convinced that what he was doing was just fine. Ok so then my mind started wondering to the idea of what I would do if I had the right tools to perform this effect in the ultimate way possible. Of course for me, there was only one person that would know how to do that, which is Sean Bogunia. I first heard about him through the magic grapevine about 8 years ago as his inventions were creating quite a buzz. His name seemed to pop up in all kinds of conversations around magic groups and conventions.

I became fascinated by the technology he was putting out and thought it was very innovative. Perhaps too innovative for the low tech , low maintenance magic geek's that dominated the market of magic apparatus and product envy. But there was a new breed of magicians emerging into the market place too, the techno geek magicians who were all too ready and excited to take on something that is not only one of the greatest stage illusions of all time but they can play it and program it like a video game, wow! Too cool! Now having come from the low tech school of self made props myself, I didn't catch on to this for some time. I was always afraid to employ electronics into my act as I didn't want to be dependent on something that could potentially go glitchy on me. Well, I got over that.

So now here I am some 8 years later and I am itching to work on a long lost idea I had a while ago. I pulled out a Plexiglas production box that I had stored in my shed. I found it when I was putting away my Christmas decorations last year and decided to bring it into the house. Then I started thinking about Sean and how I should contact him to pick his brain... No sooner did I have the thought when he randomly sent me a private message on Facebook introducing himself as a fan of mine! Wow, coincidence? Perhaps. I prefer to call it synchronicity. So this message spurred on a discussion and eventually, a connection that developed into a strong respect and friendship for each other. It was then time for me to take the next step and invite him to Las Vegas to brainstorm with me on this routine or routines as in my typical fashion, I usually have more than one presentation in mind and like to work simultaneously on it from different angles.

As soon as he arrived , I could feel a great synergy between us and so we got to work on setting up his PTS. system. A very amazing an innovative thread system that allows one to have complete control of the object you are floating and animating from the direction which is 3D, to the speed and it's all fully programmable to ones specific timing. Because of this, you have access to an array of movements that can give your object a true personality. I was amazed, I never imagined being able to work with something like this, having always been dependent on my own timing and skill sets. This system enables you to do all the work in advance so that once you get on stage, you don't have to control anything, leaving you free to focus 100% on your performance and character.

Spending a week with Sean and getting to know him as a person and as an inventor was inspiring. He is so down to earth and humble and knows his craft so well, I even watched him collaborate with Losander on an idea and in the midst of it, he dismantled an old RC helicopter to salvage parts and in moments fashioned an apparatus that would serve the very function Losander was looking for in his new Table upgrade. That just blew my mind! I think he is a genius, but if you ask him , he would totally deny it cause what he does comes so natural to him. That is what makes him special in my opinion. His brilliance stems beyond what he currently has on the market. He is constantly working on new ideas and improving and taking his works to new levels. He does great custom work and is a great engineer and designer as well. I have him working on several other ideas now and I look forward to creating new and exciting concepts with him in the future.

Our week together was punctuated with fun times, deep conversations about various subjects other than magic ( imagine that)! And I did multiple performances for him to familiarize him with my style and creative process and our friendship and respect for each other grew to new levels. The week flew by in the blink of an eye. That is what happens when you fall into the gap and get into the zone. It was an incredible and unforgettable time. If you are ever looking for something extraordinary for your show, you should definitely look into the innovative mind of Sean Bogunia. There is so much more to him than the sum of his parts and products.He is changing the way magic is performed and paving the way to new dimensions, merging magic with technology. He can make real magic...Happen!

Wow! Thank you so much Luna!