FISM 2006 - DAY FIVE

Friday, August 4, 2006


(By Tim Ellis & Contestant reports by Sue-Anne Webster)

Second last day of FISM! Everyone gathered in the Victoria Hall bright and early (some people line up, and it's a VERY long line, while others just gather around the doors and as soon as they are open it's a race to see who can get to the best seats. Often people who line up early end up sitting at the back while people who walk up to the doors just as they are opening end up in the front row... it's an issue that future FISMs need to think carefully about).


The Stage Jury took their seats and watched another batch of contestants. The trends in stage magic this year seem to be voice-over introductions at the start of acts, instant costume changes (some more instant than others), LCD screens and video projectors, and we've had a few singing acts too. One talked about act was Aaron Crow who fired an arrow through an apple on the head of a volunteer, another was illusionist duo Marc & Alex who used so many pyros that the smell of their act lingered in the theatre all morning....


STAGE COMPETITION


81 - Marc & Alex
Stage Illusions
Germany
Sponsor – Wolfgang Sommer (Magischer Zirkel Von Deutschland)
This was an energetic act with plenty of girl dancers and lasers. Marc and Alex appear from the same illusion to begin the show. Marc and Alex wasted no time as they launched into their next illusion. They performed the sub trunk with the Pendragons’ tear apart cloth, then immediately performed a fire cage illusion with another rip apart cloth revealing two girls dressed as leopards, who ended up attaching themselves to the illusionsists. Fire sticks were twirled as one illusionist graffitied a picture of a girl on a large piece of paper on one side of the stage, a glass box illusion was covered briefly on the other side of the stage to reveal the girl. A girl was forced into another box illusion shown empty at first, rods were poked through the box, then the screen was burnt to nothing revealing the girl had vanished. The same illusion was covered briefly with a cloth and she returned, but then another girl appeared from the same box, then two more girls (one inside the box and one on top of the box), then a very large cloth made that illusion vanish and in it’s place yet another two girls appeared. I guess it’s almost every man’s fantasy.


82 - Gustavo Raley
General Magic
Argentina
Sponsor – Rene Oscar Hernando (Centro Magico Platense)
Gustavo began his act playing the ultimate dag with weird stylized movements to the music of ‘The Entertainer’. He did a double colour changing suit, a bad version of the torn and restored newspaper, floated an old music box then changed it behind a cloth to a ghetto blaster, changed his costume to a red glossy shirt behind the same cloth and also changed his face to look like a hip magician with spiky hair with blonde tips. He produced a coke can and a glass to drink it from. A silk was crushed into the glass and vanished, reappearing out of the same coke can. He immediately poured another drink from the same coke can. Very clever. He pulled cards off his card tie, took a 70’s vinyl record and changed it to a CD, playing easy music. Gustavo crushed a sheet of aluminum foil that changed into long running silver streamers. He bunched up the streamers and from it produced a microphone and a large mirror ball. The stage went dark, two torches were used to parody the 20th Century Fox sound track movie spot lights, then Gustavo did a shadow routine in front of a projector. He formed with his hands Woody Woodpecker (the cartoon character), the Pink Panther, Bart Simpson, ‘Thing’ form the Adam’s Family, produced a playing card, a chicken, a kitten and two people dancing. Lights went up, he picked up a large cloth and instantly changed into roller skates, picked up his ghetto blaster and his coke and skated off stage.


83 - Nana Hitomi
General Magic
Japan
Sponsor – Junichiro Sejima (Society of Japanese Magicians)
Japanese set. Nana produced red silks and changed them to masks, then to an umbrella, then produced another mask and did a zombie routine with it.. She vanished the mask and made it appear in a picture frame. She took large paddles and did paddle moves (as in close-up paddles but much larger), using silks to help. She produced shuttlecocks and batted them with the paddles. She made pictures appear on the paddles, then multiplied the paddles and produced a really large paddle. She juggled with something pink, dropped it, changed it to streamers at the same time produced another umbrella. Nana did a slow instant change behind the umbrella, then produced more streamers and confetti. She performed a silk fountain, produced more long streamers, gathered and folded them to produce a cape. She picked up her paddles and did more paddle moves, produced more pink streamers and four large floral bouquets. A very colourful act although the moves were fiddly and not very deceptive. It was good to see her doing a different act from her past two FISM performances.


84 - Simon Pierro
General Magic
Germany
Sponsor – Wolfgang Sommer (Magischer Zirkel Von Deutschland)
Simon performed as a 1950’s kitchen hand (dressed in a blue/green washer’s outfit and white apron) who wished for a wealthier lifestyle to attract an ‘uptown girl’. He magically produced an uptown girl at the doors of the restaurant. She walked in to the song ‘Uptown Girl’. She passes right by him, he does ‘the lean’ to kiss her (but of course doesn’t). He tried to impress her by juggling some dishes and instantly cleaning the dirty dishes. He played the plates like a guitar to woo her. He changed a white plate to one with a red painted heart. She left, then he started to dream of a different life he could have. He changed something kitchen-like on the wash bench into a small Statue of Liberty. He did ‘Miser’s Dream’ with a clear cylinder, produced a model of an expensive car, threw up a checkered cloth for an instant costume change to a black suit (he had changed professions). He manipulated cards, changed a Time Magazine cover to show his photo on the cover, produced a cigar, produced fish from his fist and put them in water. Then everything he touched turned to gold. He had the Midas touch – the statue turned to gold, his vest, his wallet, a bag. Things started to go weird and there was thunder. Everything started to turn back to normal The girl walks back in the restaurant, he held up his checkered cloth and the girl changed from an uptown girl to the ‘girl next door’ and they live happily ever after. (He performed this act in FISM 2003 where he received 2nd Place in General Magic).


85 - Nikolai Dmitriev
General Magic
Russian Federation
Sponsor – Vladamir Rudnev (Moskovskiy Klub Fukosnikov)
A picture on an easel and a music stand and sheet music were on stage as Nikolai entered in white tails, took a note off the sheet music and began a manipulation act with the black music notes. He multiplied them with a bit of fiddling and exposure. He picked up a stick and turned it into a rose by magically adding leaves and a flower. He produced a very long lit white candle and placed it on a stand. He produced silks and various objects to place on the picture, he made a frame for the picture and turned it upside down. He had made an outdoor scene, magically making a red ball rise representing the sun.. He took a ball from behind the painting and did a large multiplying ball routine, except some balls were so obviously smaller than others. He juggled some balls, rolled out a Stockholm FISM 2006 banner and stood behind it with the ball on top.


86 - Florian Zimmer
Manipulation
Germany
Sponsor – Wolfgang Sommer (Magischer Zirkel Von Deutschland)

Florian presented a different approach to producing the usual items used in manipulation by using a white spray can. He sprayed white spray onto his hand, the spray forming a white ball that he was able to manipulate. He used a cloth to squash the ball to form a smear of paint on the material, so when he slapped the cloth with the smear onto his T-shirt, he transferred the paint to create his name. Florian sprayed more white balls into existence before he changed the white spray can to red, threw a white ball into the air, sprayed it and it turned into a red ball. He then sprayed more red balls into existence. Florian lights a real fire on the barrel that made up his set. He sprayed the fire to douse it out, simultaneously his spray can turned white. He sprayed a white card onto the barrel, peeled it off to do a card manipulation routine with white cards. He tossed a white card into the air and it turned green. He sprayed cards into his hand, sprayed the air and plucked cards from the air then sprayede fans of cards. He covers his eyes with a fan of cards to produce sunglasses on his face. More card manipulation, white turning to green, he wiped green cards across his glasses so they turned green, too. Florian did a green card manipulation as well as manipulation at the tips of his fingers. He sprayed a red can into existence, his glasses turned red. He heard a police siren, so he sprayed himself a green hat, picked up a board and sprayed the letters “BMX”, a flash pot exploded, a real BMX bike appeared and he rides off the stage. A clever idea using a spray can to produce items.


87 - Dai Binchun
Manipulation
China
Sponsor – Lin Jian (China Magic Art Society)

Dai did an act reminiscent of Bin Lin. He began his act sitting on a chair, produced sunglasses, vanished a cane and produced card fans to music from “Riverdance”. He scaled cards, manipulated and produced cards at his finger tips, more card fans and single card productions, produced large card fans, then back to small card fans, flung a card to catch it, did a little dance while producing more cards and scaling them. Dai then went to his chair to produce a large pop up card pyramid, produced a cane and sat back on the chair in his original starting position.


88 - Timo Marc
General Magic
Germany
Sponsor – Wolfgang Sommer (Magischer Zirkel Von Deutschland)
Timo began his act in a blue suit, lit flash string that didn’t work but produced a paint brush regardless. He went over to a blue screen (rear projection) and ‘painted’ orange letters on the screen which fell off into his bag. He wrote “Hello” to the audience, then painted an orange spot which he plucked off the screen to become an orange ball. He slapped his trouser pocket with it and his pocket turned orange. He painted a wriggly line on the blue screen so he could off a rope to do some rope tricks. He produced a blue rope, painted an orange spot on the screen, slaps the rope to the screen and the orange spot attaches to the rope as a knot. He untied the rope and an orange section on the blue rope remained. Timo poured orange paint from a cup into his hand and an orange ball appeared and turned to confetti. He then played a mock game of soccer with a little figure on screen. As Timo turned away, the little figure went to follow him but bumped into the side of the screen and fell down. Timo held a cloth up to the screen and it ‘broke’ (a crack appeared across the screen with the little figure incapacitated). Timo then went behind the screen to do some shadow work with a few tricks then he pulled off his head and held it on top off the screen for all to see, his arms came off his body, then a flash pot exploded as Timo did an ‘instant’ costume change into an orange suit.


89 - Eun-Gyeol Lee
Manipulation (re-categorised by the Jury into General Magic)
Korea
Sponsor – Richard Dooley (Society of American Magicians)

Many people, including myself, believed Eun Gyeol should have won the Grand Prix award. He performed this act at FISM 2003 and came equal 2nd in Manipulation. His exceptional ability and skill in magically producing, vanishing and manipulating objects, cleverly and seamlessly segueing from one trick to another and his incredible ease and confidence in being able to entertain an audience, all with a charming demeanor and beautiful smile made him stand out in the competition. Eun Gyrol produced a fan of cards that transformed into a dove, produced a ball that turned to a silk to produce a glass. A flash appeared in the glass that turned to a silk that produced a dove. He produced a candle and lit it but it turned to confetti. He produced another candle that transformed into a ball which disintegrated into a puff of smoke. Another ball turned into a candle, a flash then two candles, back to a ball to a silk then a dove. A fan of candles, then card manipulation and vaporised the cards to smoke. Card productions to silk to another dove, more card fans and card productions then card manipulation at his finger tips that he made looks so easy! He scaled cards, card to dove, kept a ‘feather’ from the dove, lit it to transform it to cards and did an upside down riffle shuffle. Eun Gyeol then produced a flash and confetti to produce two hats, one with a card fountain. He took his bird cage and lit it, when it sparked all over the cage it exploded to produce another two large bird cages with doves, a huge fan of cards, another two large bird cages with doves, then a third with a lot of streamers to finish the act. A true winner.


90 - Magic Wave
General Magic
Netherlands
Sponsor – Ronald Moray (Nederlands Magische Unie)
Magic Wave performed a very similar act at FISM 2003 where a ‘surfer’ and a skateboarder have a ‘friendly’ duel. The act began to music from the ‘Beach Boys’. The surfer did an instant change into casual clothes. The skateboarder pointed his finger at the surf board on stage and magically broke it in two, then produced sunglasses and put headphones on to listen to his music. The surfer fired a flash and the head phones exploded. They both produced a never ending stream of sand from their empty hands (3 kg in total – 6.6 lbs of sand!) all the while transferring the pouring of the sand seamlessly and effortlessly between each other. The sand turned to a ‘snowstorm’. The skater spray painted a girl on large paper the surfer was holding, he draws a cigarette and the surfer had a cigarette materialize in his mouth. The skater tears up the paper and restores it. The surfer peels off the bird in the picture and it becomes a toy bird that flaps its’ wings. The skater produced a full scale surfboard from behind the paper. The surfer produced and multiplied bottles then they both juggled them around each other’s body. A clever act.


91 - Kazuma
General Magic
Japan
Sponsor – Junichiro Sejima (Society of Japanese Magicians)
This act featured a projector to highlight Kazuma’s act. Kazuma did a (pink) ball manipulation to begin his act then produced white confetti. The balls instantly multiplied to eight balls between his fingers. His movements were very smooth and almost robot like. He did a green and pink ball production before he used the projector screen to form shadows, like producing a ball. His own shadow turns a negative of itself then multiplies himself into three, where one of his shadows answered a mobile phone. He opened an umbrella because it started to rain on screen and did an impressive back bend before he came back out from behind the screen to produce a CD to CD manipulation and production (all choreographed especially to the music) then the CDs vanished to confetti. He produced a silk then did more CD productions with befitting screen images to match. A voice was heard “Welcome to the next level”. His CD turned green and so did his shirt, he produced a card fan (to music that confused the senses), floated a glowing ball that changed to glowing confetti.


92 - Junge Junge & Der Romer
General Magic
Germany
Sponsor – Wolfgang Sommer (Magischer Zirkel Von Deutschland)
Junge Junge (without Der Romer) won 1st place in General Magic at FISM 1997 for a completely different act. This time, they did very little magic and a lot of chapeaugraphy and projector screen work. To music (like Yello and the Beatles), they began twisting their felt hats with a Western theme, then Spanish, rap style, Chinese, a Star Wars Stormtrooper (or Darth Vader), Madonna, herding cows, accident victim, Nuns, babies and a Titanic scene. Then the three of them did the most incredible and impressive choreography and interaction with a screen projection I’ve ever seen. They multiplied themselves, so there were two of each performer, making six. Each performer had himself reflected of the screen behind and beside themselves (totally six ‘people’). They interacted with their doubles on screen, doing a kind of levitation where the middle section of one performer floated upwards, higher than his head and legs. They jumped on and off screen with the most amazing precision and perfect timing. The extremely clever finale had them, with their three doubles on screen, take their clothes off and swap them with each other, ending up in the same clothes they started with in the first place. They all threw their clothes back and forth to each other and their doubles, transferring them through the visuals on screen and back to real life. You have to see this act to believe it!


93 - Malin Nilsson
General Magic
Sweden
Sponsor – Dag Lofalk (Svensk Magisk Cirkel)
Marlin dressed and acted like an Oliver Twist type character. She wore a black top hat and black dress with stockings and boots reminiscent of a street urchin. Her bushy blonde hair added to the affect. Malin is a strong performer and her moves were well rehearsed and choreographed. She began with a rings routine, some of the moves were very clever. She performed fabulous hat juggling and played with her wand, making it appear from it’s usual place in her right boot to her mouth. She produced a small mirror and a lipstick, although something went awry at this moment she recovered without a beat. She pulled out a rope tied like a rabbit from her hat (after she had proven her hat empty by juggling it) and pulled out scissors to do a good rope routine. Her moves were sharp, metered, deliberate and dramatic and performed to plucking notes on a piano. The rope ended back up like a rabbit. A very good performance.


94 - Aaron Crow
Mental Magic
Belgium
Sponsor – Olivier Prestant (????)
Aaron performed a “genuinely terrifying” act at FISM 2000 and won the 2nd place award for Mental Magic. This time, he performed another crazy act in the Mental Magic category. It was a mental act, not a Mental act. Dressed in a futuristic cloak, Aaron wielded a green laser gun (or arrow). He then went into the audience for two volunteers (partners), brought them up on stage and acted as ‘cupid’. A target was set up on one side of the stage. He took off the lady’s (wedding) ring, sat her on a chair, placed the ring inside a green apple, balanced it on a cushion and placed the cushion on her head, kept in place by her partner. On the opposite side of the stage to the target, he picked up his large red arrow and stung it on his bow, stood on a spinning plate, prepared the arrow for firing and spun himself in circles, aiming for the ring in the apple. The laser pointed at many people in the audience as he spun around on his disc a few times before he finally let go of the arrow. There was a second or two delay before the apple fell off her head and the arrow landing in the target. Her ring was found attached to the arrow, Aaron took it off and performed as a minister at a wedding as he had the lady’s partner put the ring back on her finger, asking them to kiss.


95 - Yasu Okai
Manipulation
Japan
Sponsor – Maki Kitami (Japanese Professional Magicians Association)
Yasu is a very skilled performer with a lovely smile and clear moves. He performed card manipulation, coin magic to a large coin, produced a card fan by ‘warping’ the coin over his hands, did a another multiplying card routine to finish.


96 - Ben & Alex
Stage Illusions
France
Sponsor – Guy Lamelot (Federation Francaise Des Artistes Prestidigitateurs)
Ben and Alex played a policeman and a driver with a traffic infringement. The scene opened to traffic noises and a policeman writing out a ticket for a parking fine. The driver stole the policeman’s infringement pad and the policeman punched him. The policeman took cover in a large metal box labeled ‘radioactive’ that was sitting on four red and white striped legs (like the water poles in Venice). The driver pulled out his gun and shot the box and bullet holes appeared. The box became a sword box, so the driver shoved speeding signposts through the holes, pyros exploded and the driver went to leave but he heard crying coming from the box and a white ‘surrender’ flag waiving from one of the holes. A letter was pushed through a hole tied up with ribbon. It turned out to be a speeding fine. The driver lit a stick of dynamite and stuck it through a hole, exploding inside the box. A weak whistle was heard from inside the box, the policeman found his way out of the box (after the sign posts were taken out), his uniform in tatteres and ran after the driver who was trying to escape.


97 - Park Min Soo
Manipulation
Republic of Korea
Sponsor – Eun-Sung Chung (Korean Magic Society)
Park Min Soo started the act by throwing out streamers. He produced silver cards and performed fast moves with something shiny. Small shiny objects are very hard to see. The silver cards turned into a dove. His assistant (a man) stood behind Park Min Soo to give the impression that he had four arms doing card productions. The props were now white alongside both performers dress in white making everything hard to see. He produced doves (which were white), card fans, single cards, card scaling and money notes (but hard to tell). He climbed into a glass pyramid and severely misjudged his vanishing act. What the audience saw was Park Min Soon climbing into the illusion and then into the trapdoor in the base. Then nothing happened. After a while the curtains closed.


98 - Manuel Muerte (Replacing Wave who was listed in the programme)
Manipulation
Germany
Sponsor – Wolfgang Sommer (Magischer Zirkel Von Deutschland)
Manuel performed a parody act of a Las Vegas performer, or a magician trying to be a Las Vegas performer but most of the audience misunderstood the aim of the act and felt it to be a ‘lost, vague-ass’ performance. A lady announces “Manuel Muerte”. She adjusts the tuning on the radio (that was receiving signals through coat hangers). He came on to do some (deliberately) bad tricks and announce “The End”. His hand then got caught in the microphone stand, then two fake hands were caught in the microphone stand. The lady did an instant costume change, Manuel pulled out a broom from his jacket and gave it to her to clean up. He did multiplying silks, thinking he was a great performer. During his act, the lady brought on table after table of props and for somewhere to put his used tricks. He shot a bird and many of the tables started to wheel away from him. He went gun crazy, scaring away his props. The humour fell flat.


99 - Bravo Nakaya
General Magic
Japan
Sponsor – Maki Kitami (Japanese Professional Magicians Association)
Bravo came out in a blue tails coat with gold trim, white shirt, black pants and a Spiderman mask. After tossing a few throw streamers (webs?) he produced a silk which read ‘The End’. He made some food appear, took off his mask and held a small black screen in front of his chest and a hand came through his stomach. This was followed by several odd objects climaxing with a small stuffed white tiger. He took two battery operated dancing hula dolls which he placed on tables on either side of the stage and told us how amazing it was that they danced but didn’t fall off the tables. He announced he would perform the “Human Body Exchange” and tried to hypnotise his assistant, but fell asleep on the floor himself. She held a large silver hoop of fabric over the two of them, lifted the cloth then, when it was dropped, he was holding the cloth and she was sleeping on the floor. He then displayed a cage, not an ‘Illusion Cage, but a pet cage for a large dog. His assistant climbed inside and he covered it with a cloth. After a moment or two he pulled the cloth off the cage revealing a tiger… well, it was his assistant now wearing a tiger suit. This was pure Japanese comedy magic and the audience laughed a lot.


100 - Huang Zheng
Manipulation
China
Sponsor – Lin Jian (China Magic Art Society)
The scene opened with a beautifully dressed Chinese lady standing next to a full-sized autumn tree. A leaf fell from the tree which she picked up and crushed to sand, then produced a yellow silk. She produced flowers, confetti and cards very elegantly, and did a series of card fan manipulations. She changed a plume into a paper bird which span when she blew on it. She produced some red cards and another yellow silk from which a large number of flowers appeared. This was followed by card scaling, silk fountains and more confetti. For the climax she took a flute and brought on winter. As she played it snow fell from the ceiling and the leaves all fell off the tree revealing bare branches in the shape of a heart.


101 - George Marek
Stage Illusions
Czech Republic
Sponsor – Frantisek Cach (Czesky Magisky Svaz)
This act was set in a graveyard and began with George stumbling across a large crypt. Zombies seemed to emerge from the ground and they went into quite a long dance routine with him. The four female zombies opened the crypt on all four sides to show that it was empty, they threw a large white lycra sheet over it and gradually we saw hands and a face pressing against the lycra from within the box. George pulled the sheet away and there was nothing there. This was repeated several times and each time there was no-one in the box. Finally George was put into the box, it was covered with the sheet, and he vanished. There was quite a lot of dancing and movement for what was, essentially, one effect.






Those who didn't watch the competition enjoyed lectures by Armand Lucero, John Gallo, Cellini, Tim Star, Jeff McBride, the one man show from Juan Tamariz (an additional session is scheduled for tomorrow) and the hit event seems to have been the Cheating and Gambling session.



After the competition came an event on Corporate Sessions where Paul Daniels, Bill Malone, John Houdi, Magic Christian and Banachek spoke about various aspects of magic in the corporate arena.

From there we joined the massive line to get into the banquet. 2,800 people got a free drink and headed inside to grab a table. (One person described the set up as the biggest garage they'd ever been in). Frank Wilson was there playing and entertaining us all in his usual superb style. During his opening rendition of 'Let Me Entertain You' he was more energetic than usual as he used one hand to fight off an older magician who was crawling all over him trying to turn his volume down until an official came up and pulled the guy off Frank. (Frank desrves an award for bravery for that one!)

Three special awards were presented this year. Gaetan Bloom received the FISM Award for 'Creativity and Vision', Eddie Dawes was presented with the 'History and Research Award', and the late Tommy Wonder was given the 'Theory and Philosophy Award'. Tommy received a long and emotional standing ovation and Max Maven, who came up with these awards, pointed out that most of the votes came in before Tommy passed away and he was well in the lead at that stage. Not only that, but Tommy voted for Juan Tamariz.

Then the show commenced. MC John Houdi did a good job introducing Kenji Minemura who performed some extremely eye-popping sleight of hand with cutlery, glasses, and bottles.

Gaetan Bloom followed with some fairly standard magic but presented with his usual French charm. He finished off doing a very funny display of card productions while wearing boxing gloves.

Ardan James absolutely stole the show with his exceptional mime and charming personality, finishing his set with Tina Lenert as two old people dancing to Madonna's 'Vogue' (Boris Wild said he'd never listen to that song in the same way again!)

One thing that should be mentioned is Eric Eswin announcing that China had won FISM 2009. This was received by a huge cheer and applause... followed by an even longer session of boos and hisses. Hmmm... I guess there are a lot of people who won't be going to China.

Eric also announced the 6 highest scoring acts in the Stage Competition who will compete for the Grand Prix tomorrow. (He announced the close up acts earlier in the day). For the record, the top acts who are in the running for both Grand Prix's are:

CLOSE UP GRAND PRIX
Rick Merrill, Martin Eisele, David Stone, Shawn Farquhar (all in Micro) and Helder Guimaraes (Cards).

STAGE GRAND PRIX
Pillou, David Sousa, Dai BinChin (Manipulation), Gaston (Parlour), Lee Eun-Gyeol (General Magic), and Sittah (Illusions)