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:

So here we are on day 3 of the “convention of the century” - a little too lofty a title unfortunately..

First event at 11 am was the “business of being funny” - a discussion forum with Mike Finney, Mac King and David Williamson - hosted by Stan Allen. This was a great opportunity to get to know these legendary comic stars - their inspirations, approach to comedy, and ideas. Very relaxed and informal.

For those wondering, David Williamson wasn’t quite his usual hyped up self - but still presented plenty of antics along the way - including dismantling the podium as part of his ‘presidential debate’

The Stage Contest followed in the Kentucky Centre - a few observations of the acts today.

Derek Selinger - Canada - featured a novel levitation / suspension illusion as if he was being blown away while holding onto a lamp post.

Jason Bishop kicked off with an intriguing origami style diminishing lady illusion which was quite effective - however - the presentation probably saw it being perceived as more of a puzzle than an illusion by a lay audience. This was followed by a slick card manipulation sequence and high energy card throwing number. Two fairly disparate pieces of magic - box illusion and then cards - but nevertheless presented with intelligence which so many ‘illusionists’ fail to do.

Omar Ferret - USA - manipulated cards, glasses, liquids, multiplying bottles and my favourite - floating glass on visible thread. Did today’s performers not see the previous stage contest ? Thread should NOT be seen and this is clearly an issue with the current lighting rig.

Trigg presented his act as seen at the World Magic Seminar in Vegas. A young performer with some very novel ideas - but I question how you can have a ‘contest of the century’ which was meant to attract the pros - and end up with a potpourri of mediocre standard acts, young teens and then a smattering of top professionals who do this for a living.

Red Hat from Korea followed with a high paced mask manipulation act - appearing masks, color changing masks etc set against the backdrop of an automated marionette doll type character. Intriguing concept not yet fully realised which received a good response. Unfortunately too many of his steals were painfully apparent.

Andost - USA - appeared lamps ( the bulging jacket gives a little too much away ) and manipulated light-bulbs d’lite style.

Tim Trust and Jule - Germany - delivered a 2 person mentalism coding routine. Although Tim Trust’s ridiculous outfit with frilly shirt and enormous mad-hatter style top hat distracts horribly from the magic. Too many cues to the sight of objects potentially tips a possible method.

Kyoko from Japan - presented a traditional Japanese act ( more Asian magicians presenting traditional Asian magic - why must it always be traditional ? ) Parasols, costume changes, color changing fans, floating butterfly and snowstorm ( the hump on her back got progressively smaller as more and more parasols ‘appeared’ )

The Reed Sisters from Ohio took the adage of playing to your crowd to heart and clearly lots of people enjoy their performance - which to my mind was more akin to a Colgate commercial than anything I have ever seen - is it humanly possible to smile for 10 straight minutes with a luminous white grin ? Appearing birds - somebody in a jail uniform and Elvis music - thankfully we had no appearing statue of liberties or references to great grandfathers fighting in the US civil war. Their sub trunk was novel and saw the one vanish magically at high speed from underneath an ENORMOUS cape. Unfortunately the re-appearance in the audience was spoiled by a premature spotlight on the entry door to the theatre.

Shawn Farquhar from Canada presented his now famous Shape of his Heart card routine which earned him a well deserved ovation. I have been fortunate to see Shawn perform this a good number of times - and for the first time he did appear to be nervous with what appeared to be his hand shaking on screen ( this could have just been magnified due to the large video screen ) Nevertheless- a great routine …

Darcy Oak from Canada concluded today’s round with a contemporary street style bird act. He needs the services of a director to cut out some unnecessary backwards and forwards - but the act holds promise with further work.

The evening’s events were split amongst those going to the Gala Banquet and Cabaret with the rest going to the Close-up Gala Show.

I was in the Banquet group - and despite the many perils of even contemplating hosting a banquet for magicians ( anyone care to remember FISM in Portugal ) tonight’s event went off smoothly. Serving a plated meal for 1000 people is no easy task.

Entertainment consisted of Terry Seabrooke, Ardan James, Duane Laflin as a singing Elvis ( only in America! ) and banjo-playing magician Todd Charles.

Tomorrow sees things kick off with David Williamson’s lecture at 10 am - stage contest at noon and the final close-up gala show at 9 pm ( what exactly is happening for the SIX HOUR slot from 3 pm to 9 pm - you guessed it - NOTHING … please can someone tell me who was in charge of scheduling. Everyone I have spoken to has all commented on how sparse the programming has been. Did we run out of lecturers ? Conventions are supposed to be jam-packed affairs - numerous lectures and choices to make - I have NEVER been to an event where I have six hours to kill.

In summary - its clearly apparent that this has been a watered down 6 day event. What should have taken no more than 3 or 4 days has been stretched to fill 6 days - and it shows unfortunately. By all means have a six day FISM style spectacular - but then lets have all the FISM bells & whistles that go with it - and a schedule that makes your head spin with the sheer variety on offer.