Today Jonah tells you about Unconventional.fun 2: Magicland. He’ll explain to you what this is, how it came to be, and then give you six reasons why this may be something that you want to be a part of. 

What is Unconventional.fun? 

Six months ago, Ben Trane and Jonah launched the first ever eight-bit video-game virtual-magic convention. What that meant was that not only did you have all the cool parts of a convention, like lectures and shows and things like that, but the thing that they did was create a virtual world, kind of like an old video game, where you would mingle around the world with arrow keys. When you got close to other attendees, you could jam with each other. You could hang out because you could see each other’s cameras and hear each other’s voice. So it was kind of like a real magic convention but placed in a video game world. If you wanted, you could go to enjoy the lectures and panels and shows but you could also hang out with the cool kids in the back jamming or just connect with some of your favorite magicians and hangout and talk like you would at a real convention. It was awesome. They had 250 magicians but made two big obvious glaring errors that they are not going to make again.

Two Big Mistakes

The first big, huge mistake that they made was that they had 13 hours of lectures and shows and panels but they didn’t record a single thing. Which is funny because this is magic 101… record your shows and record your stuff!

The first reason why they didn’t record anything was because they were worried that it was all going to crash completely. It was earlier in the whole zoom world. The second reason why they didn’t record it was because they wanted to make it a live event, a kind of in-person thing, so everyone would be there. But what they didn’t realize was that there’s people all over the world and what’s two o’clock for them in the afternoon was maybe the middle of the night for somebody else. So a lot of people stayed up very late to be a part of the whole entire thing, which was epic but a mistake on their part.

The second mistake that they made was that they built a video game world. Jonah and Ben teamed together with coders and designers to make a world that was whatever they wanted. And with unlimited creativity, with unlimited power, the world that they built was … a convention center. They built a floor of a hotel lobby, and it was awesome, they had a dealer’s room, a main stage, jamming areas, a bar, and a lot of different cool stuff like you would have at a real convention.

But when they decided to do it again, they knew that they had to make something cool. So after the first convention, they sent out a survey asking if people wanted to do it again. And 96% said yes! So they knew they were going to do another one and they knew they were going to have to make some big changes.

Two Big Changes

The first big change is that they are recording all of the lectures, panels, and shows so you can watch them afterwards if you can’t make it, or like a convention, if instead of a lecture you’d want to meet up or jam with somebody who’s not lecturing at that time, you can totally do that and watch the lectures afterwards.

The second big change is that they built Magicland. It’s a magic themed amusement park. So instead of a dealer’s room, they have a midway. Instead of having a bar, they’ve got food trucks. So now when you walk around the virtual world, you are in a unique place that doesn’t look just like a hotel convention center, but instead it looks like something magical and impossible that has never existed before.

What To Expect

The first Unconventional.fun was a one day eight bit virtual magic convention. And now, Unconventional.fun 2 will be a two day eight bit video game virtual magic convention. And the days that it’s happening are Saturday, February 27th and Sunday, February 28.

Unconventional.fun 2: Magicland is the second ever video game virtual magic convention. Just like the first one, there’s lectures, panels, and shows and also you mingle around with the arrow keys.

When you get close to the other attendees your camera and mic fade into view. So you can jam, you can hang out, and you can spend time together. That means that if you come find Jonah, we can jam and hang out with him. You can also hang out with some of the other magicians that are there. Not only the ones on the lineup.

At Unconventional.fun 2, you can jam with Eric Jones, Suzanne, Caleb Wiles, Asi Wind, Paul Vigil, Moritz Mueller, and so many different magicians that are going to be there.

Six Reasons Why You Should Go

Number one: lectures. 

Ben and Jonah have brought some of the best lecturers together. Not only people who have been crushing in virtual but also just people who absolutely crush it. So not only do they have a John Guastaferro lecture, which is going to be amazing, they’ve got an Eric Jones lecture and Adrian Lacroix lecture. One lecture that Jonah is looking forward to is Asi Wind who will be doing a part lecture, part Q&A called “Fix Your Magic”. You will get to submit your magic problems and Asi will work to fix them and talk about some potential solutions. 

Number two: We have an incredible Virtual Magic Panel.

Ben and Johan have pulled together a handful of magicians who have been absolutely crushing it in the world of virtual to ask about why, what, and how they’re doing it and figure out how you can do the same thing. 

Number three: Performances.

The last year and a half of magic has gone through changes that it has never seen before because of the full fledged transition from in-person magic to virtual magic. So you better believe that when they say they’ve got virtual magic shows for you to watch, they have the best virtual magic performers in the world performing. You will get to see exactly what it is that they’ve created over the past year and how you can maybe do the same thing, not by taking their tricks (unless they’re for sale) but to get some inspiration from some really incredible virtual magic performances.

Number four: A custom world. 

Ben and Jonah built an entire custom world with magic jokes. And with unlimited different bits and pieces that are hilarious. They have food trucks, a midway, games, and performance spaces. Big enough for 500 magicians

Number five: The jamming. 

This is really the thing that separates this from other conventions in the virtual space is that you really can mingle around and you really can jam with anyone. Ben and Jonah are going to be there. All of the performers on the lineup are going to be hanging out and jamming.

And there’s a really cool feature in this platform where you can search the name of the person that you want to jam with. They’ll come up and then you can go find them. So if you want to jam with Eric Jones, you just search his name, you click on it and it’ll tell you where in the virtual world he is and go and find him. If you want to go jam with Spidey, it’s exactly the same thing, you can search where in the virtual world he is and go find them. If you’ve got a question for Adrian Lacroix or you want to jam with Chris Mayhew or you want to share some tricks with Michael Feldman. Easy! To find them you type their name in a little search bar and then you go find where their little avatar is hanging out.

Number Six: It’s yours forever

Every single one of those lectures, performances and panel talks, are being recorded and being given out to you forever. If you just bought this to download the videos afterwards, it would be worth it.

Get Your Tickets Today

It’s happening February 27th 7:00 PM to midnight Eastern Standard Time and then February 28th is the full day from 9:00 AM to midnight. If you’re interested in Unconventional.fun, Just click the links here to read a little bit about what it’s all about.

We would love to see you there. 

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