FISM 2000 - DAY FIVE

Friday, July 7, 2000

106: MICHAEL ROSS - France - GI & IN.

T: Michael appeared from inside a huge balloon, then produced a girl from a roll of paper. Next they placed her into a big box, pulled her middle out, and gave her head a twist for good measure. Finally, they created a sub trunk by covering a frame with tissue paper. Original magic, but not 100% deceptive.

S: Original, but average presentation

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107: NANA HITOMI - Japan - GM.

T: Entering wearing a witches hat, red tails, and no pants, Nana presented a dove act but with wine glasses instead of doves... even down to doing a tails vanish of a glass full of wine!

S: I can understand why she didn't wear trousers...very average act.

108: NORBERT FERRE - France - MAN.

T: Exceptionally high skill level displayed as he began with a billiard ball routine where he tossed each ball from finger to finger as they appeared. Not only that, but he played an interesting and entertaining "daggy" character between effects, transforming into "Mr. Magician" for the manipulation pieces. His priest gag when he needed a deck of cards was priceless. The only let-down was that his card work, which was brilliant, couldn't live up to the standard he set with his billiard balls. However, he was amazing!

S: FANTASTIC. High skill level, manipulation unbelievable. Real magic!

109: OS INCORRIGIVEIS- Brazil - COM.

T: Two guys, one needs an assistant so the other dresses as a woman. The man makes a sword from a modelling balloon and displays it holding it at crotch level (get it?) then forces it down his "assistant's" throat as a metaphor, we assume, of rape... well, why else? They hold up a huge cloth and a third guy, wearing a dove suit runs out. Finally, the dove guy goes into a tent that could conceal a car, and when the cloth is dropped it reveals the dove guy... now plucked of his feathers. The end.

S: No magic. Rude and stupid.

110: IRINA FROM MOSCOW - Russia - GM.

T: So many surreal moments... a dancing shoe, a red wooden duck/boat, Irina putting the shoe in the duck/boat with a wooden doll and having them all follow her around the stage, a mysterious object "zombie-ing" under a cloth turns out to be three spoons which "click" at her, trees explode into flags... all performed by a woman dressed, apparently, as an orthodox high priest.

S: Russian cultural dance with snow... no magic!

111: RIKU ISAAKAINEN - Finland - GM.

T: Cards, candles, masks, Richard Ross' ring routine... At this stage of the competition, the audience was becoming less tolerant of standard magic, not done particularly well.

S: Terrible. No originality, no skill

112: KENJI MINEMURA - Japan - MAN.

T: Wow! Very highly skilled, very original, manipulation with plates, cutlery, bottles, glasses, GREAT stuff! Cheeky charm, good music, everything clear, deliberate and magical. Have you ever seen serving trays or champagne bottles appear or vanish as cleanly as playing cards? This guy is good!

S: Winner! Original and classy. Real magic! Great moves, nearly all perfect. Body movement sharp and clean... charming personality.

113: BIDOU - France - GM.

T: Black art balloon doggies. Why?

S: They went to the wrong convention... even so, the balloon act was a shocker!

114: FITO PAVESE - Argentina - GM.

T: A nice idea as he plucks projected items from a screen, but the stage was too dark for us to appreciate the act properly.

S: Original, very imaginative... lacked energy, probably due to poor lighting.

115: DAVID SOUSA - Portugal - MAN.

T: A young guy, black on black on black again! Very good, very slick manipulation including jumbo cards, but nothing unique or outstanding.

S: Quite good. Hard to watch when dressed in black with some black props against a black curtain. More thought to colour would make it a little more appealing.

116: SALGUERY - Portugal - GM.

T: Standard dove work with invisible harnesses. He would have lost points on simple things like when he pulled his lit match out, which wasn't lit, he didn't have a spare.

S: Black and white were the only colours used which didn't help this standard magic act.

117: LUCE - France - GM.

T: Lots of fire and special effects, but not a lot of magic. She had huge jets of flames, floating flame, and juggling flame. Very popular with the crowd. (I noted the nearest exit!)

S: Couple of good ideas. The use of party poppers in her act was unnecessary... it didn't help the presentation.

118: JASON BANEY - USA - MAN.

T: Very much the look of Jason Byrne. Unusual effects with chains, smoke, balloons, and the final production of a (why?) sandcastle.

S: Unusual. No theming, no meaning.

119: DAN DEVOE - USA - IN.

T: He presented a tall shadowbox. Was this invention or simply modification?

S: Bigger shadow box, nothing new.

120: WOODY PITTMAN - USA - COM.

T: He presented the dancing hanky, clocks from his coat, and several other effects which didn't get many laughs at all.

S: Average act.

121: FUJIMOTO - Japan - MAN.

T: Here he did thimbles, but had the great idea of covering them with sponge-balls and, guess what, we could SEE them! He also did card manipulation with CDs and climaxed with laser-discs.
S: CD's are shiny, but hard to see no matter how good the lighting.

122: BRENDO & SYLVANA - Argentina - GM.

T: Very similar act to past FISM winners, the highly original Junge Junge. As a result, this pair (an English gent and a street urchin) actually got booed and hissed when they pulled out a head sword box.

S: Sad to see copycats.

123: PEDRO III - Spain - GM.

T: A great opening with lightning effects and we have another haunted mansion. This was spoiled by bad acting, shoddy sets (moved either by the "ghosts" or instability) and no plot at all. At one point he transformed into Santa, then returned as himself.

S: Great start with thunder clouds made of smoke and a little too much lightning (although it kept the stage well lit) Looked to have potential... lots of things happening on stage but I couldn't understand what they were. Confusing

124: MASAK JIN - Japan - COM.

T: A promising entrance to the Inspector Gadget music, but then he brought out breakaway props, tried his hand at mime, and produced a toy dove and rabbit.

S: Slapstick. Not funny, not entertaining.

125: GEORGE HONDA - Japan - GM.

T: Lance Burton inspired classic tails dove act, but the doves were produced in cages. Terrible music, but the audience really enjoyed this act.

S: Actually, the 'doves' were budgies... elevator music enhanced this average act.

126: SHIMADA BLACK - Japan - COM.

T: Tom Mullica's act, done by a Japanese, dressed as a Mexican, without the humour and with only half the skill.

S: Not entertaining.

127: McMAGIC - Spain - COM.

T: A great opening as one monk came out and magically produced a second monk to 'The A Team' theme music. Then it got a little offensive as they performed magic with communion wafers, did a sword box where a pillar of black smoke emerged from the sword filled box, then the smoke changed to white as the swords were removed and the Pope emerged. Not enough comedy or magic.

S: Religious parody... not a good topic, especially when it lacked the essential magic content for a FISM competition.

128: MARITESS - USA - GM.

T: She performed the multiplying billiard balls, floating goldfish bowl, floating rose, and a fishbowl production. Too many "dealer" effects and nothing to reflect her as a unique act.

S: Very average performance.

129: HYASHI TAI CHI KIRARIN - Japan - COM.

T: Everytime the words 'Japan' and 'Comedy' come up on the screen together... people start to leave the theatre. But I'm glad we didn't miss this one! An old woman magically brings a leprechaun doll to life, and he teaches her about recycling! He takes her mixed up bottles and cans and magically separates them, he changes a stack of newspapers into toilet rolls (and throws them out to the crowd), then he becomes a midget, she turns into a bride, there's a wedding... this was really weird!

S: Save me!

130: EZAWA - Japan - GM.

T: It was hard to tell what she was doing, but she was using Japanese looking props combined with drinks, liquids, glitter and small items.

S: Cultural... no magic.

131: SCOTT THE MAGICIAN & MISS MURIEL - Nederlands - COM.

T: This act was hilarious. The "daggy" magician had no assistant to saw in half, so he was given a mannequin. After putting all of the pieces of the mannequin in the box and, inadvertently, sawing her in two, she came to life! She "helped" him perform a few simple effects, then finally got into a torture box which accidentally collapsed and crushed her. Then, the suspicious looking illusion stairs started moving away, we saw a pair of feet and a head emerge from inside, but when the stairs opened up we saw they were mechanical and Miss Muriel, now a cheerleader, came running in from the back of the theatre! Totally fooled everyone, as well as being hilariously funny.

S: Totally deceptive! Fantastic act... very, very funny! Miss Muriel stole the show... she was completely crazy (a dumb, fun loving, joyous live mannequin who hasn't quite got full control over her mannequin legs). The comedy worked because the two magicians had totally opposing and well developed characters. They remained in character for their entire act without fault. Mock drama and suspense added to this delightful act that received a well deserved standing ovation. A diamond.

132: YUVAL KEREN - Israel - IN.

T: After a sexist display of repeatedly kissing his volunteer on the lips, Yuval got down to business and demonstrated a fork which bent in the hands of a spectator, the straightened itself again.

S: The treatment of his volunteer was embarrassing. A turn off! A neat improvement on an old trick... of course, you can't use just 'any' fork!

133: HARRY HONG - Hong Kong - COM.

T: Harry attempted stand up comedy magic. He did some magician only gags, clumsily levitated the red light (which goes on if you go over time) and sent a volunteer back to the audience after he pretended the guy had stabbed him with scissors. Harry got a cardboard cut out of Copperfield, which changed into Claudia Schiffer, then the masked magician... as he tried to put the cutout into a sawing... the sawing started to fall to pieces... unintentionally. Harry left the stage for a whole 30 seconds and when he returned dressed as the female assistant and took off his cone bra and pulled silks from a pointy breast, the curtain came down. He must have run overtime...

S: Just terrible rubbish! No magic, not funny. Crass.

134: IONG TAT CHI - Macau- GM.

T: Music themed act where he produced various instruments. He climaxed by producing (well, pulling out from behind his table) a cardboard keyboard and set off a confetti cannon so loud that it woke everyone up.

S: I had no idea what this was about... but the closing effect had me scared me out of my wits!

135: LUIS BOYANO & ISABELLA - Spain - MM.

T: A very entertaining presentation of the Spirit Cabinet.

S: Standard Spirit Cabinet routine performed very well.

Now we moved to close up auditorium for the last few acts who had been postponed from last night because of lack of time. Unfortunately, the Jury didn't join us, they went off to Maurice Pierre's cocktail party (he could have postponed that?) leaving us all waiting in the auditorium for almost two hours. Lennart Green treated us to an impromptu show , astounding stuff!!! Then we got to see a little of the David Blaine interview broadcast live from the large Theatre... which we would have gone to see live if we'd known the Jury would take so long.

135: GERY - Austria - CU.

T: Gery has competed with this act at previous FISMs. It's a completely themed act of incredibly skilful dice-stacking. He was a guest act at the SAM in Milwaukee with us. He had one or two fumbles, but he had been on standby since yesterday, then again for two straight hours today! His act went over very well!

S: Very clever piece... colourful and interesting to watch.

136: PHILIPP - Austria - CU.

T: Produced a mini Statue of Liberty but then came across as a little arrogant by making negative remarks about Copperfield. He did coins across complete with spectacular coin vanishes, then a cups and balls routine and ended up giving his volunteer a little reward of a chocolate liqueur.

S: Lovely clean moves and very clever.

137: MAGO GRAGNELL - Mexico - CD & IN.

T: He spoke Spanish with a translator, which may have thrown his timing out and could have been why we saw all his lapping. He did lots of colour changes and five signed cards ended up in his wallet... but what was his invention?

S: Looked quite skillful, but I had no idea what was going on.

138: ETIENNE PRADIER - England - CD.

T: A fairly cocky French man who put down David Blaine then said "I only perform magic for my wife and mistresses." He vanished the aces, did a gag where he exposed back palming, he did a very visual ace assembly where they visually appeared face up in four piles, and finished with aces to pockets.

S: Cocky attitude didn't help his presentation.

139: KIKE - Spain - IN.

T: He'll sell tons of these! With a reincarnation theme he took a blank card, a glowing heart visibly appeared on it then split to become three hearts. It looked like real magic!

S: Where can I buy one of these? Absolutely impressive! An excellent effect.

140: FRANCISCO HERRERO - Spain - CD.

T: He spoke Spanish, did an ace trick, found a selected card and, I guess, told a lot of gags in Spanish because a lot of people were laughing.

S: Presentation seemed good, but I couldn't understand the Spanish language.

141: CHRIS KORN - USA - CU.

T: He had intro music as he walked on which worked beautifully. He did stock gags and standard coin moves which suffered in comparison to the more skilful acts we'd already seen. A previously vanished coin fell from his sleeve, not a gag, he'd lose a few points for that. Then he finished by pulling a selected card out of a fake bottom he was wearing, he'd lose the rest of his points on that one...

S: Cocky attitude... sick jokes. Not a nice act to watch... farting and pulling cards out of his fake bottom exposed to the audience. Disgusting gutter material.

142: MANUEL MUERTE - Germany - CU.

T: Cigar tricks, champagne tricks, lots of fun, killer surprises, a signed bill reappeared inside a plastic champagne cork... and then... the champagne bottle was seen to be resealed and given away as a gift. Add to this Manuel's delightful comedic personality, and the excitement of his race against the red light as he was coming to the end of his act... and you have total entertainment!

S: Wonderful act... very funny, clever and entertaining. Themed and a delight to watch.

143: ARISTON - Argentina - IN.

T: Ariston presented his creation, via a translator, "any card called for rising cards", which he'd been selling at the Magic Fair. It was quite a good new method and the cards appeared to be ungimmicked.

S: Very clever.

Now it was off to dinner, as there was nothing scheduled for us this evening. We met up with those who saw Gala Show #2 and took the bus back to the hotel with them, while many others headed to the Altis Hotel, the "Official Late Night Venue". Well, when the strolling magicians are Juan Tamariz, Bob Sheets, and Lennart Green... who's going to say no? Many people who'd never seen Juan live before were absolutely astounded. Just ask David Jones: "He doesn't do magic, he does miracles!"