FISM 2009 - DAY SIX

Friday, July 31, 2009

FINAL DAY

(By Tim Ellis)

Today started of with the highly anticipated Rocco One Man Show. Though scheduled and introduced as a one hour show, Rocco ran a tad over time and finished at 12 noon, when the Awards Ceremony was supposed to start.

Everyone was very excited to see Rocco, but as the show went on and the objects produced became more and more bizarre... people who weren't used to Rocco's unique style became visibly restless.

I had to leave after an hour to get in position for the awards show, so I have no idea how it finished.

Others chose to attend Lennart Green's lecture.

However, THE AWARDS!

First, it was produced and presented extremely professionally with no nonsense, no long speeches, just presentations with plenty of time for celebrations afterwards.

It began with Eric Eswin explaining that one competitor (Juan Ordeix, though he was not named) had been eliminated for using a stooge in his act. The audience actually applauded this to show their approval. (They Jury spent hours on this one act. Juan was questioned and he explained his methods to them, but the methods explained didn't match what he did on the videotape. After extensive deliberation the jury was satisfied that he had broken the FISM 'no stooge' rule and unfortunately had to be disqualified).

Then the award winners were announced:

Invention
- Jorge Luengo - Spain

Most Original Act
- Charming Choi - Korea

Micro Magic
- 1st place ... not awarded
- 2nd place ... Vittorio Belloni - Italy
- 3rd place ... tie Simon Coronel - Australia and Johan Stahl - Sweden

Cards
- 1st place ... Shawn Farquhar - Canada
- 2nd place ... Kristian Nivala - Finland
- 3rd place ... Olmac - France

Parlour Magic
- 1st place ... Marc Oberon - UK (originally in Micro, recategorised by the Jury to Parlour)
- 2nd place ... Charlie Caper - Sweden
- 3rd place ... Latko - Argentina (originally in Micro, recategorised by the Jury to Parlour)

Comedy Magic
- 1st place ... not awarded
- 2nd place ... Brynolf & Ljung - Sweden (originally in General Magic, recategorised by the Jury to Comedy)
- 3rd place ... Cheff Magic - Denmark (originally in General Magic, recategorised by the Jury to Comedy)

Mentalism
- 1st place ... not awarded
- 2nd place ... tie - Nicolai Friedrich - Germany - and Rob & Emiel - Netherlands
- 3rd place ... Tony Montana - Argentina

Stage Illusions
- 1st place ... Julius Frack - Germany
- 2nd place ... Magic Sky Group - China
- 3rd place ... not awarded

General Magic
- 1st place ... Soma - Hungary
- 2nd place ... Ma Yanyan - China
- 3rd place ... Siebensinn - Austria

Manipulation
- 1st place ... tie - Yo Kato - Japan - and Han Seol-Hui - Korea
- 2nd place ... Sebastian Nicolas - Germany
- 3rd place ... An Ha Lim - Korea

After the awards, while the final show was being prepared, registrants took one last chance to visit the Dealer's Fair (which was a very disappointing fair on many different levels) or they attended lectures by Rocco or Miguel Puga.

Finally it was time for the Closing Ceremony and the awarding of the two Grand Prix prizes.

Mike Caveney hosted in a laid back style as he gave a brief history of FISM between the competitors performances.

Guest act was Topas with a series of very unique and original illusions.

Finally the Grand Prix winners were announced:

CLOSE UP GRAND PRIX - Shawn Farquhar

STAGE GRAND PRIX - Soma

Then, just to kill the excitement of the moment, a politician gave a very long speech and FISM was officially over.

A week later, the following score sheet appeared on the week.

FISM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS OF MAGIC 2009
Special Awards and Total scores of all contestants

SPECIAL CONTEST AWARDS
Creativity & Artistic Vision - Jim Steinmeyer (USA)
History, Research & Scholarship - Bill Kalush (USA)
Theory & Philosophy - Juan Tamariz (Spain)

FISM World Championships of Magic
GRAND PRIX STAGE MAGIC 2009: SOMA - Hungary
GRAND PRIX CLOSE-UP MAGIC 2009: SHAWN FARQUHAR - Canada
MOST ORIGINAL ACT: Charming Choi - Republic of Korea
INVENTION: Jorge Luengo - Spain

General Magic
Soma Hungary 81 (1st Prize + GRAND PRIX STAGE MAGIC 2009)
Ma Yanyan China 72 (2nd Prize)
Siebensinn Austria 71 (3rd Prize)
Xavier Tapias Spain 70
Qu Lei China 69
Sergey Yanpolskiy Russian Federation 68
Latko Argentina 67
Mayuko Japan 63
Jae Hoon Lim Republic of Korea 63
Ernesto Italy 62
Duo Kybalion Spain 61
Red Hat Republic of Korea 60
Liao Xiaorun China 60
Jeff Lee Taiwan 60
Andost USA 60
Artyom Shchukin Russian Federation 58
Avon Lee Hong Kong 56
The Tramp Switzerland 55
PJ Wen Taiwan 55
Jiang Qiwei China 55
Naka Kyosuke Japan 55
Kenneth Chan Hong Kong 54
Akua Shin Japan 53
Leriko Russian Federation 52
Martino Greece 50

Manipulation
Yo Kato Japan 80 (1st Prize tie)
Han Seol-Hui Republic of Korea 80 (1st Prize tie)
Sebastian Nicolas Germany 78 (2ndPrize)
An Ha Lim Republic of Korea 77 (3rd Prize)
Hyun-Joon Kim Republic of Korea 74
Jordan Gomez France 70
Liu Mingya China 70
Maia Jiang China 69
Liu Zihao China 63
Dion The Netherlands 63
Zhang Chao China 61
Hugues Protat France 58
Alan Taiwan 55
Serge Fergini Russian Federation 51
Masahiko Matsuda Japan 51

Stage Illusions
Julius Frack Germany 80 (1st Prize)
Magic Sky Group China 72 (2nd Prize)
Bo Wen China 59
JeiMin Republic of Korea 55
Wang Qimo China 54

Mental Magic
Nicolai Friedrich Germany 70 (2nd Prize, tie)
Rob & Emiel The Netherlands 70 (2nd Prize, tie)
Tony Montana Argentina 67(3rd Prize)
Jorge Luengo Spain 63 (Invention)

Comedy Magic
Brynolf & Ljung Sweden 72(2nd Prize)
Cheffmagic Denmark 67 (3rd Prize)
Roman Burenkov Russian Federation 52

Card magic
Shawn Farquhar Canada 81(1st Prize + GRAND PRIX CLOSE-UP MAGIC 2009)
Kristian Nivala Finland 77(2nd Prize)
Olmac France 76 (3rd Prize)
Min Hyung Kim- Republic of Korea 68
Ryu Hyun Min - Republic of Korea 66
Dai Hewga Japan 65
Giacomo de Carlo Italy 62
Christian Bierbrauer Germany 62
Sho Arai Japan 59
Martin Lübcke Germany 58
Kif China-Hong Kong 57
Lv Siyuan China 55
Ramon Rioboo Spain 53
Sito Qirong China 52

Micro Magic
Vittorio Belloni Italy 73(2nd Prize)
Simon Coronel Australia 72(3rd Prize, tie)
Johan Ståhl Sweden 72 (3rd Prize, tie)
Mago Bruno Peru 70
Jaque Spain 69
Satoru Japan 65
Daly Tang Hong Kong 64
Shota Japan 62
Rune Norway 56
Shunya Okuno Japan 55
Katsuya Matsuda Japan 53

Parlour Magic
Marc Oberon England 81 (1st Prize)
Charlie Caper Sweden 75 (2nd Prize)
Latko Argentina 73 (3rd Prize)
Charming Choi Republic of Korea 71 (Most Original Act)
Shohei Komoriya Japan 67
Yves Doumergue France 65
Jeremy Pei Singapore 63
Mago Larry Argentina 55
Rod Chow Canada 53