36th International Magic Convention 2007 - Round Up and Look Back
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-03-15 23:16:46
The 36th International Magic Convention started around 7:30pm on its always great wandering round and running into populate you experience or recognise. Magician Bingo is always a favorite pastime of ours when we’re there. Magician Bingo for those who don’t is a bit desire buzzword bingo and the like you get points for spotting various members of the magical fraternity and points are added up on the measure day’s gala show (normally where the points roll up). I probably should post the slightly loose rules at some point for those into the weirdness of it all but generally Magician Bingo got off to a good start me me scoring a starter for 10 with.
The start of the evening was Guy Hollowingworth. Guy was presenting his ‘Expert at the card table‘ a 75 minute play and performance based around the book by S. W Erdnase. Another manifold evince score on Magician Bingo with Andy Nyman who I had a quick chat with as Derren Brown was sorting out his registration and was signing books (again forgetting mine for him to write!)
As he talked about Andrews ability to stack and cull cards he slowly took a shuffled deck back to new deck order dealing cards from the top bottom and ‘middle’ of the deck and dealing called for numbers of red or color cards. A great solid show and very entertaining presented as always to guys professional standard
Anthony Owen was the first real lecture of the convention presenting his ’some tricks’ instruct commenting on how nice it was to be lecturing remembering his youth sitting at the back of the show shuffling cards with others many years ago. I was also nice for me to be taken back to my youth at the the conventions! He covered some good material although most of which I’ve got already it was nice to see it as a reminder for me to hunt it out from the store when I get back next week. His lecture coudl undergo been entitled ‘Various ways to stick cards together‘ as a lot of the material was based aroudn that wonderful color glue we all undergo laying round the house. He explained ‘Holy Sh*t’ and his Son of a complain Oil and Water probably the most clean and fair looking gaffed oil and wet effect there is.
Dynamo was next to lecture and you could tell he was nervous he worked through a number of items he uses in his professional routine and given this was his first instruct ever anywhere. I think he did pretty well. If the material didn’t go across as new or cutting edge what did go across was that he has a great personality and enthusiasm coupled with having some big names behind him unfortunately he did also explain a certain coin in soda can effect but he was honest and fresh in how he talked to the audience (if not slightly disjointed on some stuff) and it was a pleasant end to the lectures.
Afterwards I caught up with a few more populate and I also had an extremely pleasant converse with David Berglas. I’d brought my in the hope that he’s be here to write it for me and David was kind enough to inscribe it for me. We had a chat about the book and how much I was enjoying reading it and he seemed genuinely pleased that I’d brought the book and managed to sight him. It was a great end to a long day. Saturday was of course the main competition day. I’ve listed a full description of pretty much all the acts but in summary the standard was good with some notable gems shining out;
John van der Put (UK) had a great funny personality starting with a pass over rabbit routine which was quite dry and funny so that was an excite to the running. He did a two be prediction that seemed to go do by but he recovered by ‘restoring’ the wrong separate to the correct one (including signature!) which was actually a really nice effect quarter by quarter changing from a act separate to the chosen separate. The card was also handed out at the end.. John did a nice multiple card selection and various revelation section the final revelation was a kind of separate on window but with a MacBook (bonus points from me if i was a judge!) the card being sprayed at the check one sticking to the inside of the screen. John then ran off stage to appear in the scene inside the macbook to acquire the card returning to take his applause. His humor throughout was good and very entertaining.
Satoru (Japan) started off a bit strange as he seemed very nervous setting up and there was an air of ‘oh no not looking good‘ over the audience before he started but he really built up to a great act. Once he’d warmed up he managed to milk laughs and applause create the audience and his come was very fresh. Personal favorites where his ‘act a toothpick’ selecting a toothpick from a pack of 400 odd to reveal the ‘chosen toothpick’ seeming to be a gag it turned out that all the toothpicks had different coloured bottoms and in fact he had correctly found the chosen one. Also favorite was a three person ’stamp on a card’ freely selected cards on the floor being stood on and the selections being revealed on the bottom of his shoes socks and finally feet as a final kicker he produced a large umbrella from his hit and shoe bundle with the predictions again correctly spelt out on the umbrella. The consensus believe was that we’d just seen the winner.
Lior Manor (Israel) did a generally quite amusing mentalism act mainly focused around his bad english but intentionally funny a jumbo poker hand type cause where the spectator could decide a separate for his or Lior’s hands there was a nice bit again at the end with another laptop (pc this measure. booo!) and a Lior on the laptop correctly interacting with the spectator to reveal a chosen number. Although his act in the closeup show on sunday personally I thought was stronger than his competition act.
Patrick Przysiecki (USA) gave a very confident and professional performance and probably was the first ‘true competition act’ of the day. Patrick did a nice globe production from inside the closeup mat and the globe theme carried on through the act a signed note was burnt and found inside a smaller global (thanks to a Tommy query move) and finishing with a 3 bomb game routine unfortunately set to rhyme the final loads being large dice and roll and him flattening the globe under the closeup mat to finish.
Gianfranco Preverino (Italy) Started with a clean printing of faces and backs on a keep be along with a colour change of the deck and then box. Some nice ace locations (roll over aces?) separation of reds and blacks reordering of the deck but a very very weak ending. It was a shame he almost just said. ‘. and thats it’.
Troy Von Scheibner (England) Despite his name hes not German he’s English. 18 black funny and has great potential talent as he said not a old german dude but a 18 year old who wears hoodies and had cool hair. He did a very sharp and polished coin manipulation set in the style of Michael Jackson and a short rope cozen (knots on and off) in Bolloywood style followed by a Kung Foo fighter divide that didnt include any magic as such… up to this point he’d had the audience laughing and warming to him he then followed with a bring together card trick but seemed to be unhappy with the ending divide and I think brought the audience down. I think he’s very raw talent but has good things ahead.
Francis Menotti (USA) having lost his luggage in transit with air canada he was dressed casually. He started with a deck in new deck order and mimicked the shuffling of the deck with the mixing of the words in his sentences the more the deck was mixed the more mixed his words became a selected card delay on the place was and sight from request hard much could have been. He returned his sentences to the alter request and revealed the same had happened to the be approve in new deck order a small magic number effect with the outcome being 24 the location of the selected card in the be along with the number 24 on its back and some by play with ‘nothing’ allowing him to alter coins invisible (given you cant seen nothing and hence is nothing is on top of the create verbally you cant see it as nothing is in the way) meant it was a strong act.
saw Al Schnieder. Just Alan and Mr Daba act to the re-create. Al Schnieder a legend for the invention of the matrix effect was always going to be a lecture worth seeing he started off with a great and very clean looking routine of coin vanishes and productions a bit like mickey silver but without the swishes!! He then continued with a very neat and clean cups and balls routine explaining a nice new pinch move along with a clever little coin to silk it was a good solid lecture with very usable material.
Just Alan gave a lecture entitled ‘Thoughts to cerebrate on Transcending Technique’ which to be honest could have been a killer lecture but it left me feeling a bit disappointed and flat. It didn’t start come up with Just Alan starting the lecture again for technical reasons and continuing to have failures and errors in the lecture as he went through. The main communicate of the session was to take the technique of an effect and work on it to fit into your personality and persona.
During the Competition prize giving David Berglas also presented a special award for promotion of the art of magic. The 1st Berglas International Magic Award was presented to the Macmillan Family for their continued efforts and work organising International Magic Weekend. They got a standing ovation from the audience.
Gala Show was on the whole very good again (both from a performance point of view and a Magician Bingo aspect with a tripple word score on Alan Alan. Kovari and a Daniel Radcliffe look alike). The show opened with Jade from the USA performing her chinese act with silks parasols sieve and water balls and a nice costume change at the end.
Jade was followed by Dana Daniels create the USA a comedy magic act with Dwaine the mind reading dove. Svetlana from the Ukraine was next a contortion and modern dance act (with fire!) and was a good break from the magic. Francis Menotti again performed a great routine with an egg bag and mobile phone with some great twists and touches that really made the egg bag special change surface performing mentalism and predictions down to predicting his own death on stage in a fantastic comical way.
After Francis’ be was dragged off stage the world class skills of Mahka Tendo from Japan produced some excellent separate manipulations and productions. Just Alan opened the second half and presented his award winning act The Sands of India it was a lovely piece about an indian fakir producing coloured sands from a bowl of water a nice conjoin and did make up for my disappointment yesterday. Juan Ordeix again did some object blowing mentalism three balloons with cards in through out to the audience matched three cards freely selected from the deck a beyond explanation prediction of the money spent bill serial number playing card and date in a sealed envelope along with the actual money and separate left the audience lost for a method.
Voronin from the Ukraine just was singularly the best act and should have closed mixing the traditions of Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati he held the audience with his silent act polished and flawless it was a joy to watch he change surface involved the rest of the gala show acts. it was just wonderful. James desire the traditional end of show illusion act closed which I think was a shame. I dont think anyone could have followed Voronin on his own great but I think he looked weak after what I think was perfection. A tough slot to have. James did a number of good illusions but it was a weak finish I think to a good show. The convention was as I bequeath it a great weekend the shaw theatre providing an excellent and very comfortable environment for the shows and lectures dealers were a bit thin on the fasten. I would undergo liked to have seen a bit more there but pretty good on the whole.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.naquada.co.uk/2007/11/26/36th-international-magic-convention-2007-round-up-and-look-back/
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