8.00 am and we're having breakfast at the hotel. It's like a mini-convention already as we see Stan Allen, David Williamson, Guy Hollingworth, Johnny Thompson, Ton Onosaka, Paul Harris, Obie O'Brien, Wittus Witt, Johnny Lonn, … But it's time to head off and check out the products of the 98 Dealers.
The Dealers had everything from speciality rubber bands at 1 Euro each, to electronic mind reading devices at 1900 Euros. There were many dealers carrying full scale illusions, some with posters and antique books, others with magic statues and paintings, and one of the most popular stands sold the 'Spider' portable backdrops. 'Spider', like many other dealers, had completely sold out by the end of the convention.
Another interesting feature of this FISM was the 'FISM DAILY' everyone received each morning. This double sided A4 sheet contained news, program changes, and photos of the day before's events. What a great idea!
At 11.00am we headed into the amazing 2100 seat Alexander Hall for the Opening Gala. On a stage set with an intense blue wash was a girl in a long, flowing white dress reciting the names of past FISM Grand Prix winners. As the show began, she started singing one of the two FISM theme songs accompanied by Franky Wilson. As she sang she was lifted high up into the air. From inside her skirt, came our host (that sounds really bad doesn't it.. but it looked quite effective). Stilted characters also emerged playing musical instruments as a young boy came out and performed a floating ball. As he approached a wizard character the wizard levitated him and transformed him into an older magician. The whole scene was very well done and quite artistic.
Next on the opening were speeches from the FISM President Hilbert Geerling and the Mayor of Den Haag. Hilbert explained that the Mayor would then have to perform a giant card trick with him, onto the stage came a man who must have been almost 8 feet tall! An even bigger deck of cards was revealed on stage and an odd version of 'Jumbo Sidekick' was performed which culminated in all of the FISM Representatives coming on stage with guns to help the Mayor find his card. Of course the card was found, then transformed into the FISM logo.
Hilbert acknowledged Richard Ross and the other great magicians who had passed on since the last FISM, and this was followed by a montage of famous Dutch magicians who performed just 2 minutes each of their best material. Performers included: Tel Smit, Flip and Tommy Wonder.
Lunch break.
At 2.00pm, while others attended lectures by John Carney on presentation, Richard Sanders on close up, Amos Levkovitch on doves, and Michel on 'The Invisible Hand' holdout, the stage competition began!
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147 Contestants - Some competed in two categories simultaneously
GM = General Magic (55)
SI = Stage Illusions (10)
MAN = Manipulation (24)
PAR = Parlour Magic (7)
MM = Mental Magic (6)
IN = Invention (18)
MIC = Micro Magic (19)
CD = Cards (20)
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1: PRINCE OF ILLUSIONS - Netherlands - SI. 
The act seemed to begin with a dream sequence theme, but didn't end with a conclusion. Very effective bed illusion, like a horizontal sub-trunk, where the magician gets into bed and a woman instantly gets out just under the cover of a bed sheet. They also did a fire cage production, and the traditional 'Assistant's Revenge' where the rope was replaced by plastic tape which was cut away to release the magician at the end, a great idea! The prince brought a kid on stage and changed to kid's tiger doll into a girl using a crystal cabinet, and did an interesting large linking ring routine using the girl as a sort of fourth ring. Great stage presence by both principal performers, excellent timing, strong dance and movements, music and visuals stimulated a good audience response. The bed illusion was used again at the conclusion of the act for changing a woman into the magician and a young boy, who once again had his tiger doll.
2: CLIFF SELIM - Belgium - GM.
Cliff began his act well attired and soon stripped off his top. This was possibly to show he had nothing up his sleeves, or maybe his ripped abdominals were a misdirectional ruse. He produced mechanical birds and odd bits and pieces, as well as manipulating CDs, musical notes, and performing the floating cane and cut and restored silk. He moved well.
(After Cliff's performance Frank Wilson, who played music between each of the acts, had the audience in stitches as he improvised a song titled: "Cliff, I love your body").
Leony walked onto the stage as if he didn't want to be there even though Invention category doesn't require presentational skill. An odd contraption comprising a large "needle through balloon concept" using a sword. It looked like he accidentally exposed the method as a large sparkler penetrated the balloon at the conclusion of his presentation.
4: THEO DARI - France - GM & IN.
Great magic concept for lasers. Theo performed his entire act with a laser device in a futuristic suit. Some of the effects were fantastic. A laser beam was generated from the box he was standing on. He played with the light and actually held it in his hands so it seemed to have no source at all, but the best part was when he "snapped" the laser in two and played with it like a light saber from Star Wars. He suffered a little when the smoke on stage started to disperse, but at the finish his entire suit lit up as though he'd been electrified. Clever, but more scientific than magical. Great for rave parties!
5: JORGE BLASS - Spain - GM.
A themed, three stage act in respect to past masters of magic who were displayed in picture frames as the magician performed the main apparatus for which they were known. Doves, cards and rings. This was essentially the same act he performed in 2000 at Lisbon with some tidying up, but the pictures were suspended instead of mounted on easels like last time. The subsequent wobbling and swinging of the pictures was a little distracting. A nicely structured act that ended with a dead bird that was brought back to life.
6: ANTOINE ALCIATI - France - GM.
Spanish style act with doves and concluding with a double dog appearance. The magician experienced a few difficulties with three doves flying away but, along with his prominent assistant, didn't flinch at any problems, remaining true to their Spanish style. His assistant almost upstaged him with her flourishing skirt, but he maintained a stoney Antonio Banderas like facial expression throughout.
7: ALFONSO RIOS - Spain - GM.
Another topless act with rose productions. Roses were thrown out to the audience, who threw them back. Floating rose effect, but unfortunately the lighting conditions exposed the thread. Alfonso stabbed himself (I'm unsure of his motivation, I think it had something to do with love, the audience found it funny though) and nearly burned himself when a flashpaper rose fell on to his face. The audience wasn't quite sure when the act was over.
8: KIM JUNG-KUK - Korea Republic - GM.
An odd, but cute, Christmas act where a burglar who begins stealing from someone's home finds a Bible and realises that what he's doing is wrong. So, he decides to put everything back as well as producing an array of food and decorations for the owners of the home. The act concluded with the burglar lying on a table on his shoulders with his feet in the air, his back exposed with eyes drawn on it, and a Santa costume hanging from his bottom. The last piece of magic was performed upside down and backwards. It was a mouth coil but, as it wasn't exactly coming from his mouth, I really don't know what it should be called…
9: OLMAC - France - GM.
Black light act. Well done and interesting, colourful with plenty of movement, some moments were magical but was it "magic"?
10: ALEXANDER MABROS - Germany - MAN.
Alexander performed as a wonderful Robin Hood type character. His act was very themed as he performed with apples, sign posts, arrows, targets etc. He has a good presence on stage with nice expressions but the magic wasn't very strong.
11: THE GREAT NARDINI - Scotland - GM.
Extremely funny act where the magic goes completely wrong. Fantastic expressions, particularly from the lady assistant. A sub trunk, (which was actually just a costume change) was performed, and this was as close to any actual "magic" in the act. The gags were fairly basic, but the timing expressions of these performers made them truly hilarious. The magician and his assistant worked very well together. Again, so very funny.
12: TIMBO - Belgium - GM.
An act with small music CD's, some coloured CD's and some large CDs. Shiny objects are very hard to see on stage, therefore confusing to watch. He had an unusual ending to this act where, instead of the standard costume change, Timbo performed a sex change!
13: JULIUS FRACK - Germany - GM.
Here's a weird coincidence, Julius Frack was also the 13th competitor at the last FISM in Lisbon. Again he performed his "mad tailor" act, probably the only act in the world than can be justified in using thimbles… AND they appear on his toes as well! He does zombie scissors, produces silks to create a dress with, and finally turns his mannequin into a fully dressed girl. Very well structured and acted.
14: JEAN GARIN - France - MAN.
Jean appeared at first to be 'The Shadow', though this could have been simply a case of bad lighting. He manipulated with cards, balls, jumbo cards and primarily gloves that he tossed onto a board on the stage in the same manner as you toss socks onto a rough ceiling. His closing effect involved blending all of the gloves into one giant white glove… then splitting it to create a second giant black glove. Unfortunately he did drop and flash quite a lot.
15: CELCIUS - The Netherlands - SI.
This act started off with a good premise where the couple entered a restaurant scene (with about six extras!) and the woman is complaining about being an assistant to her husband and his huge ego. Unfortunately, almost all of the tricks they did seemed to mess up: the mirror penetration had mysterious moving fingerprints, threads were visible throughout the act, a glass will failed to shatter by mind power alone was eventually smashed with a hammer (the hammer was obviously there as a back up… but why do a trick at FISM which fails so frequently you need a back up?) and when he (draped in a cape) secretly switched for her (draped in a cape) the draped figure visibly changed size.
16: LAURENT BERETTA - France - GM.
Laurent produced lots of cards, but his angular style took away from the fluidity needed to make card manipulation look truly magical. Nevertheless he displayed high skill, only had a few drops, and the audience liked him.
Dinner break
After a quick dinner break we headed into the Rembrandt Hall to present MagicSports. I acted as the host while Tim Ellis, Thomas Fraps and Gaston competed against Helge Thun, Ben Profane, Sean Taylor and Topas. We presented two shows, each very well attended with some FANTASTIC improvised scenes.
One particularly memorable game involved creating a trick from a pack of TicTacs, a blindfold, and a bottle. Helge was introduced as the man with the all knowing tongue. He drank from the bottle constantly as he warmed up his tongue and Sean and Ben had a TicTac selected and signed. It was added into a bowl with three unsigned TicTacs and Helge was blindfolded by Topas as four volunteers came up on to the stage. Each volunteer chose a TicTac and placed it into their mouth. Helge intended to kiss each volunteer and "taste" whether they had the signed TicTac. The first girl was particularly enthusiastic however, and used her tongue to thrust the TicTac into Helge's mouth. The next girl assumed that was what Helge wanted… and did the same. The third volunteer was a man, and Helge seemed to instinctively know that he didn't have the signed TicTac. After kissing the final volunteer Helge found the signed TicTac and proceeded to magically spit it across the stage and into the sealed bottle.
In the Van Gogh Hall the Close Up Gala was taking place. Alexandra Duvivier was MC (filling in for an ill Aldo Colombini) and she introduced performances by Dan LeFay, Carlos Vaquera, Jean Pierre Vallarino, Joshua Jay,
Imam, Manuel Muerte, and David Williamson. As I was hosting MagicSports I was unable to see this show, but I heard it was excellent.
Also that night was an official Reception for FISM Presidents, and Bar Magic downstairs with Bob Sheets, Doc Eason, Eric Mead, John Stetson and last minute addition Armando Lucero who performed all over the place throughout the convention. Another unexpected treat was free gelati from a singing ice-cream vendor, and the very well done "Magical Labyrinth": a haunted house type of maze where you met up with strange and horrifying creatures (Dutch magicians) who told spooky stories and performed effective tricks.
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