The Half Moon Magic Bar
For the last two weeks I’ve been in Korea and Japan on holiday with my family, switching off and enjoying quality time together.
When we booked Japan, I made sure to book ourselves a magic bar experience, which Japan has many of thanks to their lively night life in busy areas of Osaka and Tokyo. But the one I wanted to see in particular belonged to a magician by the name of Hide Yamamoto (pronounced hee-deh), owner of the Half Moon Magic Bar. This is a magician that people like Penn & Teller, JJ Abrams and Guillermo Del Toro have gone to see, and I wanted to add my name to the list, even if it was at the very bottom.
So on a Thursday night my family caught the train and strolled to his bar for an intimate experience that I won’t long forget, and these three things stood out for me throughout his show.
Music is Memorable
Before the show started, we sat at the bar and Hide asked us what drink we wanted to have, which in our case was Lemon Sour as that was a common drink we discovered throughout our stay in Japan, but one thing we noticed was the background music, consisting of Michael Bublé and similar tunes to get us ready.
When it was time to start, the music was cranked up and magic started. Magic with cards, rope, sponge balls, money and more were all accompanied by a different song specially curated by Hide for that specific routine. There was never a moment where there wasn’t music, even in the quieter moments where Hide is talking, he has some instrumental song quietly playing in the background.
The music made the routines that much more memorable, especially if it was a song you liked or already knew. Even the intermission song was memorable because it was from La La Land, which I have in my regular playlist. There was a charm in the use of music and even how it was controlled, with a control pedal that he would step on to go forward or backward in his playlist, and a control panel to adjust the volume, while the music was connected to his sound system from his mobile phone.
Music definitely added to making the experience that much more magical and memorable.
Regale and be Relatable
Our night saw my family of four, a couple from Hong Kong, one of which was a magician and three Japanese locals, who looked to be ending their work night with this magic show.
Hide engaged with us foreigners with his simple English and when he had more to say used the translation app on his phone to better communicate what he wanted to say or ask. The first half of the show was filled with magic, lots of different effects to build us up into a frenzy, but the second half after the intermission was where Hide could share more of himself. He had moments where he’d just sit and tell us a story in Japanese, giving history about himself and his connection with magic or a nice story as a precursor to a routine. This was boring for our kids since they didn’t understand Japanese, and while I too didn’t understand, I could see how he was relating to the Japanese patrons, talking to the females about their experiences growing up, learning origami from their mothers before going into his own origami routine.
Hide gave us the cliff notes version of his stories with a short translation from his phone and even apologised to the kids for the story, but I could tell it was important to him that he shared these stories, not just for the purposes of his routines but because he wanted to truly share how much magic has given him.
The Passion was Palpable
The main thing that flowed throughout the show in each of his routines was his passion for magic was real.
Hide wasn’t simply performing this show for the money, dialing it in as if it was just another night. He made the show as personable as possible, asking us where we were from, learning my son’s names and using them throughout the show, talking to the couple about their future goals and if marriage was on the horizon. His passion for magic was evident, in the way he spoke, performed and interacted with everyone. My kids loved it when he made a watermelon juice appear, then split it into two so they each had one, and their favourite routine was the finale, which made waiting through his story all the more worth it.
After the show, he shared a few more things with us magicians, a short film from R Paul Wilson, news of an upcoming Genii feature and left me with a parting gift that was greatly appreciated.
Seeing Hide’s one man show reignited my own passion for magic, and also highlighted the shortcomings I have in my own magical journey.
There’s a lot I want to do to personally, professionally and magically and seeing someone who went all in on magic at the age of 30 and make it work is great motivation, but that only comes with hard work, perseverance and a great belief in your passion and abilities.
Hide left us with a simple message that I’m sure all magicians can relate to:
“We didn’t choose magic, magic chose us”
