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4F – Friday’s Finger Flicking Frolic Show

April 24th, 2010 by Shawn Farquhar

Tonight’s show, Friday’s Finger Flicking Frolic, was hosted by none other than Meir Yedid. Meir is one of the best hosts you can have for an event. He really knows how to keep a show moving along and can interject just the right amount of comedy.

Our first performer was all the way from the UK. Yes, even with the volcano a few UK magicians were able to make the journey because luckily they were all ready in the States. Bob Swadling kicked off with a some great original ideas to the tunes of Frank Sinatra. His three card, annoying queen reappearance was lot fun as were his three other routines.

Andy Dallas, a past President of the SAM, shared with us an encore of last years presentation of the Zombie. If you haven’t seen this you really need to make an effort to watch this guys work. I’m pretty sure he has a while different Zombie than the rest of us!

Mark DeSouza always has something special to share and this year was no different. He began with Jerry Andrus’s Zone Zero and the production of limes to the tune of “Tequila” and ended his set with a story. It was a well crafted tale of a dream catcher and the music and magic was quite elegant.

Charlie Caper, Sweden’s Got Talent and FISM Winner, did his FISM act for his first appearance at 4F. He is such a likeable character and his magic is so well though out. His only error was the opening of a can of soda above the close up table. The can exploded and his he was in peril of being killed by Obie! Cooler minds prevailed and I am sure we will see him here again.

Paul Gertner shared with us a a super funny story about an incident that started last year with his introduction. We were all laughing so hard and the pay off of the special video he shared was the icing on the cake. Next he distributed the front row Forkers their very own OBIE’s (Old Butt Irritant Extractors) or as we might call them custom seat cushions with Obie’s face on one side. Paul finally got to the magic and showed us an excellent card effect.

To close the first half we had a special treat of 2006 FISM Grand Prix Stage champion, Pilou of France. Even with the limited amount of space he had he was able to present his full act an get a standing ovation.

After intermission Bruce Trigg presented the golf tournament trophies but during the presentations Patrick Przysiecki came forward to collect his prize and tripped and crushed the close up table! It literally snapped in half and the crowd fell silent waiting for Obie’s reaction. For those that aren’t aware the table is considered sacred by the 4F as so many have performed behind it and this was big time bad. However it was soon revealed that Patrick had crafted a duplicate table and during the intermission had switched the tables just to freak out Obie … oh yes it did!

Helder Guimaraes, FISM Card winner from Portugal, was next with what he described as “self working” card tricks. They were in now way self working … unless of course you’re Helder! A great set with some great reactions.

Henry Evans, FISM Card winner from Argentina, followed with even more impressive card effects and the show just kept getting better and better. I think if you were able to see any three of the acts on this show at any other convention you would have been thrilled! Here we get them back to back to back!

David Stone, yet another FISM winner from France, always has something special planned. This time he manipulated Obie buttons and later asked for a deck from the audience. Dozens of decks came flying from all sides and he attempted to figure out which deck belonged to whom. It was a comedy routine based on inside jokes and the oddities associated with each deck. Some of the jokes were super great and others were less well received. He closed with a touching piece of theatrical close up to music and candle light.

Meir announced the final act of the evening as Obies illegitimate son. That’s right it was my turn and I present a moving security tag effect to start and followed with my version of the Tipsy Turvey bottles. Kelly, Obie’s daughter, was an awesome volunteer and made me look good and we had lots of laughs. Bill Malone joined me on stage for a do as I do card effect and I closed with a signed card in a signed balloon. The balloon burst a little premature but it did not affect the outcome of the routine.

The cast returned for a bow and a well deserved standing ovation.

It was now off to party and share more magic in the hospitality room and of course room #404!

Follow all the updates from Shawn Farquhar from The 40th Fechters Finger Flicking Frolic as he posts them.