FISM 2003: Saturday 26th July
Lecture - Boris Wild
Boris opened with a Big Card Case from which he took a normal deck, and then the card case shrunk after he had removed the cards. A card was selected from one deck, and number was named, and counted too in a different deck, both the cards matched. Boris then found a selected card by dropping the rest of the cards to the floor, leaving just the selection, all done to music.
Boris then carefully explained the modus-operandi behind these and his other effects, those of you who know what Boris is famous for will need no explanation, just try and see him lecture!
He then explained one of his newest creations by searching for Miss Bikini 2003, using a deck of cards printed with women in Bikini's! And he performed his marketed item Very Wild.
Finally he closed the lecture with a performance of his award winning FISM Kiss act, where he uses the theme of a picture of a girl on a card, and cards with lipstick kisses on them, to perform an Assembly and Open Travellers amongst the kisses printing, transposing and travelling. Finally Boris ends up with a lipstick kiss on his cheek which turns into red confetti. During the act he uses some haunting music, which I was compelled to find, so just in case anyone is wondering I think its George Michael's version of Stevie Wonder's 'They Won't Go When I Go' which fits the act perfectly.
Awarding
The Awards show opened with the same Girl who started the Opening Gala. The Awards were then presented, the results you can find in the first FISM post on this blog.
Lecture - Jay Sankey
Who better to see for a final FISM lecture than Jay Sankey? Jay romped through his simple but powerful material, starting with Carbon Paper, One Coin vanish and Signed Singed and Delivered. He then demonstrated his marketed version of Bigger Finish.
Jay switched to Coins to show us his two beautiful coins across, a version with a Coin Roll and Mr. Clean Coins Across. Jay then demonstrated his EarPlugs, which are a very novel version of SpongeBalls, to give us some tips on vanishes.
Back to cards and Imposters featured repeated Erdnase Changes. Then an old Straw Penetration effect which I first learnt from Martin Gardner's book using silks. His marketed effect Killer Key saw a transposition between a nickel and a Yale Key.
Jay ended his lecture with variations on the Bill Switch, with four holes punched into the corners coming together, a triangle cut from the paper moving around the edges, and finally a novel T&R bill routine. Jay's idea was to use the Bill Switch to do something other than increasing money.
MagicSports Final
The MagicSports Final took place between the 10ft Poles and the Scared Studs. The Warmup game was with an Appearing Cane, and then they selected the objects for Make a Trick. Drunk Tech saw the Razor Blade trick and Unequal Ropes performed to a variety of musical clips.
Ask the Expert sees someone translating for another player speaking in a made up language, about any topic selected by the Audience. The Tradeshow game had one team member performing Gene Anderson's T&R newspaper whilst advertising Dutch Cheese, all whilst Gene himself was sat in the front row!
Star Rollercoaster took the form of tricks being performed to different emotions or scenes, the members chose to perform Cups and Balls and Unequal Ropes, with an excellent performance by Topas.
Finally Make A Trick saw Sean Taylor and team performing a broken and vanished biscuit, with one member being blindfolded and sent off to find the biscuit which turned up over the other side of the theatre on top of an Exit light, a very funny improvised piece.
Final Gala
The Final Gala incorporated the competition for the two Grand Prix prizes in Stage and Close-Up. Therefore the first two acts on the bill were Magomigue and Jason Latimer (the eventual Close-Up Grand Prix winner), who performed their acts to an audience of Jury members and it was projected onto the big screens, you can find writeups elsewhere in this report.
Pat Perry & Archibald got to repeat their act as they got first place in General Magic and in Invention. This is a very novel act where they play a game of Poker and the audience get to see a birds-eye view, the whole set being on its side, with them sitting at either end. This is a very clever idea but as has been noted on the Internet not a lot of magic takes place.
The second place in manipulation Lee Eun-Gyeol had enough points to make him elegible to take part in the race for the Grand Prix, he did a very slick act with Birds, Candles, Silks and a Card Fountain, with the finale of a Cage Vanish, and then he splits the table into two to walk through the middle.
Norbert Ferre was the winner in the manipulation category and the eventual winner of the Stage Grand Prix, he performs as two seperate characters, a quite mad one and a serious Magician one. His professional manipulation of Balls and Cards interspersed with a Comedy Prediction and the Suprise of finding his Shoes, made him a worthy Grand Prix winner.
To close the show was Dutch Illusionist Hans Klok, who managed to rattle through climax after climax, Big Box after Big Box, and personally didn't do a lot for me, there was no light and shade in the act and no time to catch your breath before the next illusion. He started with a Round Sub Trunk, then Sword Chest, Clear Box vanish, Dekolta Chair, Snowstorm, Shadow Box and Motorbike Vanish. The set then changed to Egypt where he performed Spike through Girl, Asrah and a Clear Metamorphosis.
The results of the Grand Prix where then announced and the Convention offically closed. As there was no Bar Magic that night, we said our Goodbyes to various people, and I even managed to spot Paul Harris wandering about! It was then time for one last night trip to the beach for Pizza and Beer before going back to pack and crash!
Sunday
Sunday saw us taking a train back to the airport, and with a slight technical delay on our plane, we eventually got on a Jet Plane which took just forty minutes to get back to Humberside, and it was time to catch up on some sleep...
