Bracco's blog adds
'International' flavor
by Gregory Bracco
Season's Greetings from South Korea the land of the morning calm. To all my friends in magic out there I hope that during this holiday season you were able to find some time, between your busy performing schedules, to spend with your family and loved ones to enjoy some holiday cheer. To those of you who don’t know me, I wish you the same and hope the New Year can bring us the opportunity to meet and discuss our common love for the art of magic.
Recently, I was asked by our new I.B.M. Portal editor, Bobby Warren, if I would interested in doing a series of monthly articles for the Web site.
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The aim of the online column is to let everyone know more about some of the things going on with the magic community here in Korea. Well, it did not take me long to reply with a loud resounding “Yes, please sign me up!” And here we are at the start of this series, so let me introduce myself and let you know what you can come to expect in future articles.
My name is Gregory Bracco, and I am the I.B.M. Territorial Vice President for South Korea. For those members who are not sure what a T.V.P. does, please think of our jobs as a mixture of a manger, a counselor and a diplomat all in one. We act as a manger by helping the individual Rings in our area keep current with various policies from the home office, which are in place to make the Rings operate more efficiently. We also act as a kind of counselor when needed to listen to and work with the Rings or individual members in our area in order to help solve problems or find answers to questions that they may have about the I.B.M. or the Rings. And of course just like every member we are a kind of diplomat for the I.B.M. and the art of magic. We try to foster and encourage the growth of the art and the I.B.M. through not only our actions and words with the other members but also through our interactions with the public when talking about magic.
Over the past nine years I have been living and working in Asia teaching English, eight of which have been in Korea and one in Mainland China. My involvement with the magic community here started in 2003 when I first started to travel to the city of Seoul every weekend, a three-and-a-half hour bus ride each way, to meet, learn and practice with one of the magic groups here. In 2004 I became the I.B.M. TVP and since then I have been making friends with many of the wonderful professional and amateur magicians throughout Korea. My role as a .T.V.P has helped me to become more involved in the magic community here, whether it be by helping to judge at a competition, answering questions about the I.B.M. or magic in my home country, being involved in establishing Rings, checking the English on a membership form, or working with magicians to improve their English skills for overseas competitions. It has been and will continue to be a wonderful experience.
Over the years, and with the help of friends here, I have gained a better understanding of how magic has developed into where it is now in Korea. As in any country or culture, there are always good and bad things, or things that are just done differently from our own culture. Sometimes we look at these things on the surface and we struggle to understand why they are the way they are. Other times we dig deeper and come to realize how the culture and the history of the country or other countries have played a role in their development and we come to accept it.
Then there are times when after we have dug into the reasons and have gained an understanding of why and how things work the way they do that we try to improve them. We build on the good points; bring in ideas from other countries and cultures while striving to create new and better ways to do things and keep our own identity. And this is where I believe magic in Korea to be. There are a number of magicians here doing just that, doing their best to build upon the art and make it stronger here.
Magic in Korea is growing and developing. A number of Korean magicians are being recognized on the world stage of magic, and the art in the country is gaining better recognition. At present there are at least two colleges/universities that offer degrees in Magic as an entrainment art and the status of magicians here is comparable to that of other artists within the entrainment industry, like singers, actors or actresses. Where will it go from here, well the possibilities are wide open, but I am very happy to be here at this time to see firsthand all of these fabulous things.
It is some of these things that I will be writing about in my next article. I would like to also encourage you to e-mail me let me know what you the readers would like to know about. If you have any questions on what is going on in Korea or about some of the Korean magicians, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to try to answer your questions. You can e-mail me at gbracco2003@yahoo.com. I will be looking forward to your questions.
Magically yours,
Gregory Bracco
