Craig Mitchell has kindly sent some of his on the ground reporting, which he’s covering over on the Genii Forum as well from Kentucky:

Day five of the convention saw a bright and early start for the last round of the close-up contest at 9 am.

Observations and musings:

Charming Choi – Korea – had the audience in sing along mode repeating his name – “Charming charming charming Choi” He featured a coin matrix with a very nifty magician pleaser that sees the coins visibly travel from the 3 sides to the one corner, along with a card printing routine that suffered from the poor white balance on the big screen making the card faces impossible to see ( this should have been corrected after Monday’s contest )

John Born – New York – presented a 3 stage act – magic of the hands, mind and heart. Magic of the hands was a coin matrix ( magicians are performing this to death in the contest ) to music followed by a convoluted mentalism routine that saw a spectators named of card being discovered by counting the amount of money in a wallet given to the volunteer which equaled the value written on the back of the selected card. I know – complicated. Why can’t we just have a nice simple – think of any card, here it is in the wallet – unbelievable routine. Now that’s magic. He ended with a close-up rendition of the linking rings ( in tribute to his dead grandfather ) and then in the textbook case of how to treat your volunteer – he ended his show – walked right past the spectator and left them standing without so much as a backward glance. Beautiful to see that we have the basics of good manners covered.

Galambos from Hungary performed cups and balls, card manipulation, a bizarre marbles from mouth routine, a coin matrix and ending with multiple jumbo coin productions – with steals from behind the table way too apparent.

Marc Oberon – UK – presented a disjointed act. First half was a performance of any card called for being produced, located, counted down to, followed by his marketed item Bang On. The second segment was a Midas themed act with everything he touched turning to gold – golden cards, apples, swans, coins etc. This had a poetic nature to it ( sounds of Enya in the background ) with some very beautiful sequences. He received a standing ovation.

Tallan & Gorman – USA – presented a duo cups & balls act with their 2 performances in near perfect synchronicity. A magicians act made for the convention.

Toto – Japan – a very strange act that saw linking cigarettes named Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan, rubber band penetrations, card under glass topped off with the performer explaining how most of his effects were done as part of the show ! Perhaps this is a new wave of performance sweeping Japan ?

Pattric Przyseicki – USA – presented a ‘manufactured just for a contest’ act themed around a travel agency. Uninspired and lumbering – almost a paint by numbers attempt at putting an act together which just does not work unfortunately.

Kiko Pasture – Spain – card worker to the overtures of Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately I didn’t see the full act – but the commentary from Bob Sheets behind me was all positive.

Shawn Farquhar – Canada – house favorite presented his now legendary ‘signed, sealed and delivered’ card in card case effect followed by the fantastic cups & balls routine in a manner that only Shawn can present, a roller coaster from start to finish that saw another standing ovation for the performer in his trademark purple suit.

Satoru – Tokyo – another peculiar act that featured a toothpick prediction and later card revelation on the soles of his shoes, then socks and later feet. I always like a good close-up performer who takes off his socks on stage.

Latko – Argentina – featured a creative cups and balls routine set to music which saw the slow revelation of chess pieces ending in the visual transformation of the close-up mat to a now filled chess board complete with timer clocks on the side. A nice idea that earned him a standing ovation. With more work and confidence – this could be a beautiful theme to take even further.

12 performers down and the IBM SAM Close-up contest had come to a close. Today’s contestants were significantly better than Monday’s with a much higher standard that was wonderful to see.

The finalists for tomorrow’s stage contest were announced today:

Tony Chapek
Red Hat
David Kaplan
An-ha Lim
Timo Marc
David Sousa

The only real major surprise is the inclusion of David Kaplan whose bowling ball act – while entertaining – is no where near the level of more traditional ( oooh – there comes that word again ) contest winning acts.

Post contest was Derek Lever’s lecture on “The World’s Greatest Magic Inventors” I did not get to see this ( although seeing as though everyone at Blackpool got a book written by Derek on his magic creations – I wonder if he listed himself…

A true highlight for the day was David Kaye’s lecture on “The first century of Childrens Magic” which saw David chart the course of kids magic over the years – extracting a key effect from each decade and in the end – performing it for a live kids audience assembled on stage. The lecture went on for well over 90 minutes – was filled with great snippets and clearly the result of a lot of work. Well done, David.

The International Gala Show rounds off tonight’s major entertainment at 8 pm.

***

Finally a Gala Show worth waiting for. Tonight’s International Gala was miles ahead of those before it.

Topas was an inspired choice as MC – charming, talented and an instant hit with the audience. Some clever sequences between acts – he ended with his now famous ( or infamous – I don’t enjoy the sight of multi-coloured speakers – they just don’t look real ) speaker production illusion with audience sing along – “one more time” – a lot of fun.

The show kicked off with Sos Jr and Tgran from Russia – 8 and 11 years old presenting a remarkable display of card manipulation for such a young age. Very inspiring – but a little too long an act for performers of that age – a shorter sequence would be preferable and add to the impact.

Takamitsu from Japan manipulated jumbo super-size cards ( probably the size of your average newspaper ! ) Wayne Dobson did his now standard audience interaction number and card revelation with much hilarity.

Huang Zeng from China thankfully featured no parasols or fans and thus won’t be termed a traditional Asian act for the sake of the author’s safety.

Sos & Victoria showed why they are amongst the best quick change artists in the world – and could teach the competitors in the contest a thing or two ! Slick, polished and filled with attitude. Brilliant.

Jerome Helfenstein from France has to be without a doubt the highlight of the convention for me. Jerome mixes shadowgraphy with an animated video screen backdrop to create the most amazing of effects. Blindingly simple – but oh so magical — the net result is a beautiful performance piece that has to be seen to be believed. Short of Raymond Crowe – Jerome takes shadowgraphy to a whole new level ! 5 stars.

With the show running at 2 1/2 hours – it was way too long. John Archer presented the same schtick as seen at Blackpool – and in the interests of brevity should have been cut – as should have Roxanne who presented a ‘new’ act featuring impressions based on her different hair styles ( Princess Leia / Madonna etc. ) Mildly amusing.

All in all – a highly enjoyable show of a level that one expected from day one …

The Close-up finalists were also announce:

Shawn Farquhar
Latko
David Minkin
Tallon & Gorman
Marc Oberon
plus 1 other from Japan if I heard correctly

Tomorrow’s schedule sees Wayne Dobson lecture at 9 am, close-up finals at 11 am – decided by audience voting, Eberhard Riese lecturing on the Evolution of an Act in the afternoon and the people’s choice stage finals in the evening.

Sleep is calling …