FISM 2000 - DAY FOUR

Thursday, July 6, 2000

67: GAELANO TRIGGIANO - Italy - GI.

T: An act set in a haunted mansion as two people explore and discover the magic. The piece featured amazing overacting, and a great self-opening book. Despite an obvious rip off of both the Pendragons sub trunk cloth rip and Lance Burton's cloth exchange (for which they would have lost a lot of points) the act was quite good and very well received.

S: Themed, but not original.

68: SHIMKOH - Japan - GM.

T: A Japanese Lance Burton right down to the style of music. Very nicely performed, but no points for originality at all.

S: Seen it all before! Another copycat.

69: FANG YINTING - China - GM.

T: A traditional Chinese waterbowl production. It's a pity we'd already seen it in the Gala Show #1, though this act performed it a little better.

S: Cultural, but no magic... just skillful at holding waterloads under his HUGE traditional costume.

70: LIU YUTEN - China - GM.

T: Very nice manipulation with billiard balls (an 18 ball routine), sword through neck with no stock, and then she went into a patter spirit cabinet act (with translator) which took her way over the time limit and she was disqualified.

S: Disqualification was a shame... she was doing really well. I like the act. All Chinese dialogue.

71: DUBY MIGUIO - Argentina - MAN.

T: A 17 year old with CDs, candles, very good doves, and a surprise doves to fishbowl ending. Some technical problems but overall well done.

S: CD's just don't make it... hard to see, but his manipulation was pretty good! Some nice moves.

72: EDUARDO - Brazil - MAN.

T: A 19 year old performing with a bar magic theme. Very nice moves and a billiard ball routine with different colour, solid balls. He had four in each hand running them from finger to finger. The audience loved that!

S: Another good little piece. The young performers are doing well... I just hope they don't form bad habits as they become more adept at magic.

73: CAVALIERE - Argentina - COM.

T: Not funny. The crowd almost turned on him when he started doing a three legged act a la Rudy Coby.

S: Terrible.

74: EINSTEIN JR - Germany - MM.

T: A young guy who actually performed muscle reading. Very entertaining as he had an audience member hide an item and then he discovered it's exact location, but too short, we wanted more.

S: Very, very clever. Very interesting!

75: YUMI - Japan - MAN.

T: Delightful act, truly beautiful as Yumi manipulated flowers, silks, and cards as delicately as petals.

S: Cultural. Dressed in a green traditional Japanese outfit producing pink and white flowers. Slow and graceful movements... magical... just beautiful!

76: ZAUBERTEAM FLICK-FLACK - Germany - GI.

T: Two guys who began with a weird shadowbox thing, a levitation with a fairly obvious vanish, and a clear sub trunk climaxing with one of the duo emerging from the audience.

S: Average illusion act. No punch..

77: LEMBENI KHONZANI - South Africa - GM.

T: Great authentic look as he came out in full tribal costume and danced to African music. The audience really got into it for a while, but I can't remember him doing any magic...

S: No... he did no magic! But the cultural flavour was fabulous.

78: MR GRIFFONY - Yugoslavia - GM.

T: A very slow moving act as an old grey haired man transformed into an old bald man and performed the magic of his youth.

S: Didn't quite make it. Interesting premise, but did nothing emotionally or magically.

79: NICOLAI FRIEDRICH- Germany - MM.

T: After a jumbo any-card-called-for rising card effect which appeared to be gimmick-free, this young performer presented an effect where the missing piece of a Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle was mentally divined. Very entertaining!

S: Quite clever and very good performance. Different.

80: DAN DEVOE - USA - MAN.

T: Dan and his partner did a lot of ballroom dancing, then his partner sat down at a dinner table as he impressed her with his magic. They have obviously spent a lot of time studying dance, but need to spend some on acting now.

S: Nice dancing.

81: VALERI BOSTROKOV- Russia - GM.

T: Not only the traditional multiplying Russian dolls, but multiplying balalaikas as well!

S: Another cultural performance with not much magic.

82: ROUSSEAU - England - MAN.

T: A well dressed gent standing under a street lamp. There were shades of Cardini as he is puzzled by the magic happening around him. Just a little too slow for my tastes.

S: Average performance... a little slow.

83: RUIZ DE RETES - Spain - GI.

T: A cleverly designed mirror shadowbox. Nicely done, but more than one illusion would have helped increase his point score.

S: Not much magic happening in this act, but the illusion was good.

84: CHARLES BROOK - Portugal - GM.

T: Fairly standard act, unfortunately.

S: Not a memorable performance...

Lunch break - race to the close up auditorium.

85: YASUYUKI - Japan - CU.

T: Yasuyuki is one of the Napoleons, which explains why this Japanese act was actually funny. In order to let us see his magic better, he lay on the table and had his close up pad up on it's end. All of the props stayed on the pad with cleverly concealed magnets. Not only that, but he utilised the gravity of the unusual orientation to get away with some extremely deceptive original sleights. Very entertaining!

S: Very clever, funny and very entertaining. His joke to do the magic on his side so we could see better actually worked!

86: MR GASSERT - Germany - CD.

T: Sequence themed around impressing a female volunteer. His technique was quite obvious and he did choose to use the 'F word'... which won't get you any extra points at FISM.

S: Crass... and embarrassed his female volunteer.

87: DINA - Argentina - CU.

T: Dina told a story about shopping with her friend. The story was good, her personality was over the top, but the magic was quite standard. Her final costume change under the table was a little too slow.

S: Interesting, but average act. Has potential.

88: KALLE HAKKARAINEN - Finland - IN.

T: Two clever effects. One where he appeared to "inflate" a glass bottle just by blowing into it. The other where a signed card appeared inside the frozen contents of a bottle of water.

S: Very clever and interesting effects.

89: ARIEL JR - Uruguay - CU.

T: He spoke Latin American but it was easy to follow as he performed cut and restored balloon, then had a balloon doggy find a selected card in a bag.

S: Not a bad act.

90: HENRY EVANS - Argentina - CD.

T: Technically astounding and quite entertaining. Henry vanished the box and changed the colour of the deck, cut to the kings, dealt 10 piles, each of which contained 1, 2, 3, 4 etc cards up to 10 in the tenth pile, he rearranged all the cards into order and finished with an invisible deck routine where the card was found inside a balloon. Great standard of effects, high skill level, and good routining.

S: Top technician and entertaining, too.

91: ANTONIO ROMERO - Spain - CU.

T: Antonio spoke Spanish and presented a nice colour changing knife routine with a lot of surprises, then a cups and balls routine with clear cups, sponge balls, and a covering cup.

S: Another fabulous technician. Fantastic magical pieces.

92: ROLAND MEISTER - Switzerland - CU.

T: He began with a colour changing shirt, then did card and coin effects followed by a cups and balls routine climaxing with final loads of an orange, sand, and water.

S: Pretty good performer.

93: KATIA - Russia - CU.

T: Blatantly capitalising on her sexuality Katia performed the first half of her act with 'Sex Bomb' playing in the background and she leaned over a lot in her low cut dress. She found three signed cards: one in her hair, one in her lipstick, one in her compact. Then she finished off with her cups and balls routine which climaxes with a miniature Kremlin as the final load.

S: Had magicians completely fooled... as Katia bent over her table and the camera operator tried to adjust the lens, we all copped an eye full of her cleavage. She's funny... and entertaining, but not in the magical sense.

94: MAGO MIGUE - Spain - CD.

T: He spoke Spanglish and was quite similar in style to Juan Tamariz. He had a double back deck and wrote the names of selected cards on the backs, then the cards became real, and eventually the entire deck was printed correctly. Quite original, extremely clever, and a crowd pleaser.

S: VERY entertaining, clever and skillful.

95: STEVE SANDOMIERSKI - South Africa - CU.

T: Steve had a nice premise as he played an ex-postal worker. But he had an evil laugh which made the whole act quite creepy (when you think of how many postal workers in the USA go crazy...) He did a "posted" signed card, linking onion rings, and a selected card into sandwich... but he ran overtime and was disqualified.

S: Themed... but what a strange act! Entertaining for the wrong reasons.

96: THORSTEN STROTMANN - Germany - CU.

T: Not a highly skilled act, he destroyed a volunteer's signed FISM nametag then found it restored inside an hourglass.

S: Average act.

97: GASTON QUIETO - Argentina - CD.

T: He began with a vanishing white glove, which distractingly dangled beneath his black jacket for the rest of his act. He displayed a good level of skill and finished off with MacDonald's Aces.

S: Skillful, but average presentation.

98: WILLY MONROE - Spain - CU.

T: Balloon to silk, cut and restored floating modelling balloon rat... but you could clearly see the thread... and it floated for ages... then, as he left, a trail of balloon rats on another "invisible" thread were dragging along behind him. I'm sorry, but this act was not good at all.

S: No magic... a stupid act!

99: KARTIS - Argentina - CU.

T: He began with the production of bills and coins which was okay, not great. Then he climaxed with an over the top cups and balls to music with tons of final loads (which the crowd loved!) but many of the loads were blatantly obvious...

S: Audience went crazy over this act... I have no idea why. His loads were obvious, his technique was average, he produced some interesting loads, including a liquid load from cups and balls (copying Tim Ellis' milkshake ending), but missing the point. Maybe the audience was tired by this stage and welcomed the music, colour and pretty objects produced... bells, ribbons and purple water. Who knows?

100: FELIPE DE ABREU - Brazil - CD.

T: Entered as a high school student talking on a mobile phone, then performed a series of card tricks, with nothing really standing out. His finish was finding one signed card in his phone, and stabbing the other in the air with his ruler. He then ended by walking off leaving his volunteer sitting alone on stage.

S: Young kid with loose act.... has no idea how to treat a volunteer.

101: MICHAEL JOSEPH- Portugal - CU

T: He produced a beerglass and a bottle from an envelope, then upstaged himself by announcing there were peanuts under everyone's armrests. So, as we all sought out our snacks for the next 45 seconds, he had to stop and wait. Then he put a peanut in a volunteer's pocket and sewed it up! He threw a hard shelled giant peanut into the audience to select (or maybe knock unconscious) another volunteer. But the best part, because of his accent, was when he announced, "I threw a giant penis into the audience" when he meant to say "peanut". Undoubtedly I'd do a lot worse trying to speak Portuguese... but you had to be there, we had tears rolling down our eyes.

S: This one had us in fits of laughter! Swearing and mistreating his volunteers were entrees to the rest of his act, I had no idea what his magic was about... but his mispronunciation was the life of the act. Apart from Tim's quote above, Michael also said to the volunteer: "Here, hold my penis while I bring out familiar magician's paper (toilet paper)... Do you know how we use this paper? First, you take a few shits (sheets)....".

102: FUJIMOTO - Japan - CU.

T: Fujimoto also had trouble with English, but spoke slowly and very deliberately... and knew it was funny! He did effects with contact lenses, coin to jumbo coin, cups and balls where the wand really penetrated the cup and left a hole, signed card to lemon... but a sponge ball ended up in the lemon and the selected card was in the cup... which now had no hole in it! Very original, funny, and entertaining.

S: Quite an entertaining act, funny with a few surprises.

103: SHINGO HARAOKA - Japan - CD.

T: Shingo did some "You Do As I Do" by-play with a volunteer and had some fun by-play (coming a little too close to putting down the volunteer though), and moderate skill.

S: Not a bad act.

104: HIRO SAKAI - Japan - CU.

T: Highly original material as he trapped the sound from a music box in a bottle, vanished water from a foam cup, unzipped his card case, and did a signed card transposition while one card was stapled to a board. Some effects need a little more work to become less obvious, but great ideas, and excellent use of music.

S: Highly original and entertaining. A very good act.

Now we raced back to the Theatre to catch the last part of Paul Daniels being interviewed by Stan Allen. Paul got a standing ovation!

After a dinner break came the Gala Show #2 and the exploding water torture tank. Max Maven compered the show, very well, in several different languages (which should be a prerequisite for ALL FISM comperes!) Ger Copper presented some more delightful black art, we saw The Napoleons, Carlos Barragan, Michael Mendes, Voronin and Derek Scott, Endovi, Ya-Lipu (a Spaniard dressed as a Chinese magician), two Chinese sisters who weren't listed in the programme but did a mask changing act, and of course Mago Anton.

Mago was handcuffed to a block of concrete and he jumped into a huge plexiglass tank of water where he was going to find a selected card from a deck which had been tossed inside.

Unfortunately, his concrete slab hit the front wall of the tank as he jumped in and the entire tank disintegrated. Water flooded the stage and covered the front two rows of the audience (the VIP seats!) but Mago was OK. Max handled the disaster well and Derek Scott and Michael Mendes entertainined us while the stage was being mopped dry for our final act, Topas.