Sunday was the final day of the convention and started out in a great way, with the second of the Flicking Fingers lectures. Again this was a joint lecture between Pit Hartling and Manuel Muerte. Manuel performed and explained a Coin and Marker routine that saw the coin and the marker magically grow in size. Pit performed his Cupid routine, and along with a great spectator and Pit’s well scripted trick it made for a great performance piece. Essentially it is a matching card effect in three phases, the final phase is where all the cards pair up, helped by the Joker who plays the part of Cupid. Manuel was back with a very clever impromptu card-in-shoe idea, that incorporates a glass from shoe production. Pit then performed Unforgettable, a memory effect where the properties of Orange Juice allow him to remember the order of the cards. Finally Manuel performed and explained a bill in cigarette. A fantastic lecture, and its just a shame it had to be a bit rushed because of time constraints.
Before the Close-up Gala came the Awards Ceremony, as has already been reported the Awards of Merit went to Andost, Rene Jensen and Paul Sommersguter. The results in reverse order were 3rd - Alexander Hansford, 2nd - Kim Min Hung and 1st - Matthew Wright.
First on the Close-up Gala Show was Tyler Wilson, he bounded on with his usual ebullience and launched straight into a Story Deck with a borrowed pack, I won’t spoil it for you but if you ever see Tyler ask him to show you! A trick and gag with an iPhone turned out to actually be a low-tech prediction and finally Tyler showed us his version of Anniversary Waltz combined with Card-on-Ceiling not an easy trick in the Mermaid, and Tyler had to climb up a very precarious looking ladder to retrieve the card, and bring the trick to it’s successful conclusion. (more…)
