A PASSING GLANCE might leave one thinking David Kaye is just your average New Yorker as he walks along in T-shirt and jeans. But what's with the shoes? Even in New York, they are hardly de rigueur - one red, with a multi-coloured, curly rubber shoe lace, the other blue, with a plain lace. They are, apparently, what all the best-dressed magicians are wearing.
Some of them, anyway. 'I was so embarrassed when we travelled on the train together this morning,' says fellow magician Steven Kline, while sitting in Eddy's Magic Club in Fo Tan, 'because he's wearing those shoes.'
Technically, they are not Kaye's shoes, they are Silly Billy's. And Silly Billy, Kaye's most famous character and New York's leading conjuror for children (he has been hired by Madonna, Susan Sarandon and Bruce Springsteen), has brought all the tricks of his trade to town for the 5th Eddy International Magic Convention 2003, which runs from today until Sunday at the Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Hitec) in Kowloon Bay.
This year, apart from magic performances and classes hosted by world-class magicians, including Kaye, Kline and Lennart Green, the convention will also include a summer fun carnival, with booths selling magic products, books and VCDs, a magic workshop, games zone, costume fashion show and DIY workshop for children.
There are also competitions for the magicians from around the region who have signed up for the convention - the winner will go on the Star Of Magic Show, to be held at the same venue on August 17 - and a children's magic artist competition.
'It is not easy to be a magician for children,' says Eddy Au Wan-leung, a former magic man and now the owner of the convention organiser, Eddy International. 'One has to truly understand how and what children think.'