In marked contrast to the Stage Competition the Close-up had lots of stand-out acts, it will be a close-call for the prizes.

First in our room was Stephen Gore from Bradford. As in last years competition technology was once again prevalent in lots of the acts. Stephen started with a few gags using his iPhone, he then had a card named, and seemingly pulled his phone apart to reveal the named card in the back. He had the card signed and took a photograph using a borrowed iPhone of the card on the spectators hand, and then pulled the card out of the photo leaving an empty hand on the phone. Next a nice touch on Shawn Farquhar’s Torn 2 Pieces, where a picture of his daughter was torn up and restored in a mismade fashion, and subsequently restored with a costume change, in the photo, thrown in for good measure. A chosen birthday card for his little girl and a video call on his laptop saw the freely selected card being fed into the screen of the laptop and caught by his daughter. Finally a snowglobe revealed the freely named card from the start of the act.

James Milner had one trick, a coins through table using six silver coins and one copper coin. Some nice handling in a very laid back style.

Third in our room was Stephen Ablett, who for some reason chose to work on the stage in our room, with thimble manips, a fork bend which could have been Morgan Streblers Liquid Metal and a Ring routine incorporating the Garrett Thomas Ring Thing move, Jay Sankey’s Stirring Silver and finishing with a mobile phone and giant bell production.

Rob James had a new opening and finish for the act he used in last years IBM competition, which helps hang the act together, with a call-back at the end to the opening trick, used to good effect. A sequence of a vanishing and reappearing box, and cards to case, was used to segue into his Gag Counter routine, using a laptop computer to count as many of those old-corny magician jokes as Rob could fit into the routine, then using that number of gags to count down in the deck to find a selected card. Finally his Thoughts routine is a Four-Ace production to music, interrupted by Rob’s internal monologue where we hear what he is really thinking. After producing the four Aces and changing them into Kings, and with a jumbo coin kicker, Rob then reproduced the Aces and showed the previously shuffled deck to now be sorted into suit order.

Steve Dela started with some Contact Juggling, and then changed some Iranian money into £20 notes. A short card sequence followed incorporating Paul Gordon’s Diminishing Returns, and a Twisting the Aces sequence, when the Aces finally changed to the Ace to Four of one suit, Steve deftly reproduced the Aces. Steve closed with a Cups and Balls sequence set to music, with impeccable timing and the usual final fruity loads.

Will Gray opened with a ring vanish and reproduced it in a flash of fire in the middle of a Piece of Rope. He followed this with a mental game of Monopoly predicting the outcome of the amount of money, the chosen game piece and the property. Will finished with a card trick where a signed card from a blue deck ended up sealed in place in a contrasting red deck of cards.

Hung-Chih Kuo had an act themed around Finding Nemo, a deck of different pictures of fish all turned into Nemo. He turned soap bubbles into pearls, and produced a gold-fish bowl complete with Nemo fish. Finally he magically transformed his working surface to look like an under-the-sea setting along with a costume change and he left wearing a snorkel and mask. Certainly a different act with a novel theme.

Craig Petty’s act revolved around coins and lighters. He used a lighter to produce a Silver Dollar and then repeatedly and visually changed the Dollar into Two Halves and back into the Silver Dollar. The coin then changed places several times with the lighter, back and forth to his pocket. Finally Craig produced multiple lighters and a small lighter and coin and a huge Jumbo Coin to finish his act.

Michael Jordan burst into song and utilised his guitar playing in an ESP matching trick. A spectator dealt down some ESP cards and where they stopped matched Michael’s prediction. A poem Michael had written accompanied a very clean coins to glass routine and finally Michael finished by painting a giant copy of a selection piece by piece onto his close-up mat, using the deck as a brush, and cards as his paint.

Lastly in our room Kevin Gallagher opened with a four coin production and vanish sequence, that led into a novel Oil and Water with coins, using Dollars and Iranian currency, to show how they wouldn’t mix. Finally he borrowed a deck to show some very visual Oil and Water sequences with the pasteboards.