* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * New Zealand's MagicNZ e-zine * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #32 Date: Sunday 6th August 2000 Editor: Alan Watson www.alan-watson.com ================================ Hi Alan here is the latest news ================================ 1. Editors Message 2. "Cirque du Soleil - Journey of Man" 3. Norm Twigg honoured 4. RE: school shows - Tom Ogden 5. The Birthday card Trick by Peter Marucci 6. School Shows in Australia 7. Recent visit to New Zealand by colleague 8. Dave Sheridan is back to normal 9. Tremendous report on FISM Congress in Lisbon 10. FISM 2000 - Sue-Anne Webster & Tim Ellis (PART 2) 11. To perform in Australia in schools you have two options 12. Hats and rabbits Progress report 13. Interview with Rene Lavand 14. Guy Cater & Kevin Chisnall 13 weeks TV series 15. Downloadable video demonstrations 16. Hamilton Pet Expo - The Advantage Magic Show 17. WANTED Ian Adair's Dove Encyclopaedias (vol 1-5) 18. **NEWS FLASH** Channing Pollack's wife dies of cancer 19. The 2001 Christchurch convention - Looking for lecturers 20. Diarise these events 21. News Items 22. MagicNZ e-zine archives 23. Benefit of subscribing to the MagicNZ e-zine 24. Subscription Management 25. Contact Information. ------------------------------------- 1. Editors Message ------------------------------------- Message from Alan Watson - The Magic One Why did I set up the MagicNZ e-zine? In 1987 when I first performed at the Magic Castle, a number of magicians had never heard of New Zealand! Upon returning home I developed a passion to promote both New Zealand and the magicians here and the MagicNZ e-zine is latest promotional tool that I have utilise. PART 2 of FISM 2000 This week's issue of MagicNZ e-zine will feature Part 2 of FISM 2000 by Sue-Anne Webster & Tim Ellis. This report has generated an incredible interest worldwide and our subscription base now has rocketed to 800 plus subscribers in 29 countries. If you missed the Part 1 of FISM 2000 by Sue-Anne Webster and Tim Ellis you can access back issues from our Archives. Please note that the password has now been changed to newzealand. For more information on the Archives read Item 22. User Name: ezine Password: newzealand Magical Watson twins 20 Hard to believe that another year has gone by and the magical Watson twins, Larissa and Melanie, have just turned 20. New Zealand Entertainers News Flash Have just set up a FREE electronic newsflash e-mail service to keep New Zealand entertainers notified of convalescing performers and recent bereavements in the industry. To subscribe to this mail list go to www.watson.co.nz/nzentertainers.html Remember Alan if you have any magic news drop me a line: alan@watson.co.nz ------------------------------------- 2. "Cirque du Soleil - Journey of Man" ---------------------------------- Message from Brent Miers (NZ) The Show - "Cirque du Soleil - Journey of Man" The Verdict - Awesome! For those of you, like myself, who have not seen the Vegas shows performed by the same troupes, I highly recommend that you make an effort to see them in Auckland! The 45min production is of course only a small 'snippet' compared to the full live shows (so I'm told), but very well worth the look. And hey....it's in 3D too! Not too overdone, so that you get dizzy, but quite neat when you have a large fish only a foot away, and feel as if the trapeze artistes are coming out of the screen to grab you! (See the show, you'll know what I mean...) IMAX (I feel) is probably the only medium, where you can get wonderful views of fabulous trapeze/balancing/underwater acts, from an incredible number of angles! Something you can't get from a normal seat at a live show. One of the interesting things about the feats performed were that they were put to a story line, and the settings (forests, deserts, the sea bottom) were also amazing to see. To top it all off, the performers were also dressed in some very amazing visual costumes. Highly recommended! Go see it. ---------------------------------- 3. Norm Twigg honoured ---------------------------------- Message from Ken Bates (NZ) Just a bit of local news last week the Palmerton North Magic Club went out to dinner 28 members attended we had a very nice meal and plenty of magic round the tables. After the meal the club honoured Norm Twigg by making him a life member of the club, we now have two life members, the other being Barry Brook. Norm has been in and around magic since Adam was a boy he has run a junior magic and juggling club for years, and is always ready to help any one at any time. Norm is one of the best clown magicians in the country and one of the very few who takes pride in putting on his make up. Norm is the secretary of our club and has been for years. Congratulations Norm may you have many more years bringing fun and laughter to the kids of New Zealand. ---------------------------------- 4. RE: school shows - Tom Ogden ---------------------------------- Message from Tom Ogden (USA) RE: school shows. Well, there are two ways to go about booking them in the USA. The first is the old-fashioned way, for which J.B. Bobo was renowned. He actually dropped in to each school, met the principal, and sold him on the act. He booked lots of shows in one area for future dates. Then, he rebooked for the next year as soon as his assembly was finished. Over the years, he built up a huge client list. I performed for three full years (1975-77) doing school shows, but I booked through agencies. There are four of five major agents here in the US that specialize in booking school shows. The agencies have a "gentlemen's agreement" breaking up the country into territories, and they don't book in each other's areas. Each agency holds auditions once a year, and the heads of the agencies fly to each others' auditions. (That way, the act doesn't have to fly to five different auditions.) You have to perform a half-hour (or so) segment of your show for a live kids audience. The agencies book a full year in advance, so the spring 2000 auditions were for the school year 2001-2! After an agency selects the ten or so acts it's going to offer the next season, it makes up a one-sheet flyer on the act. Then, a solo agent hits the road with a binder holding all of the brochures. The agent will visit a school and let the school pick which assemblies it wants. Price depends upon how many assembly programs the school buys and whether the school demands a particular date. (The rate can be quite reasonable it the school agrees to take the assembly anytime the act is in the area.) The reason the agency books so far in advance is, once the acts are booked, the agency must sit down with all the dates requested and work out a tour route. Then the agent must go back out (or get on the phone) to fill in more shows around the dates already booked. The act winds up performing 3-4 shows per day in DIFFERENT schools, each about 10-20 miles apart. If there's a big jump (i.e. travel distance) between schools, it's usually done after the last afternoon show. The act is paid by the week, out of which it must pay its own expenses (hotel, gas). Many acts drive recreational vehicles or campers, so they don't have to stay in hotels, but, of course, such vehicles get much poorer gas mileage. I estimate that in the three years I performed school shows, I performed live before well over a million kids, in more than 30 states. It allowed me to travel (and sightsee) all over the country -- part of the country I would otherwise never have gotten to see. Another benefit is that I built most of my repertoire (certainly my kid show) over those years. I could put a trick, line, or bit in the act in the morning, and by the end of the day, I will have tried it out before more than 1,000 kids. I could find out real fast whether something's going to work, or was right, for me. ---------------------------------- 5. The Birthday card Trick by Peter Marucci ---------------------------------- Message from David O'Connor (ZA) Ex Kiwi Pat With every new e-zine bulletin coming out each week, I sense a real International flavour. With so many overseas subscribers contributing, it makes it a wonderful information and share exchange interaction for fellow magicians. Peter Marucci's BIRTHDAY CARD TRICK effect last week is just another great little effect from his very fertile and creative mind. I had occasion to make it up, and try it out this week, at a birthday party. It really is a tremendous little routine with positive spectator reaction. For those that may have glossed over it, I urge you to have another look at it, make it up, and use it. It's a great effect. Admittedly I am a fan of Peters more than often humorous ideas and routines which are positively entertaining magic. Peter also submits material for the South African Magical Society monthly newsletter so we have this added bonus as well from our Canadian friend. ---------------------------------- 6. School Shows in Australia ---------------------------------- Message from David O'Connor (ZA) Kiwi Ex Pat In response to Ray Coopers request in last weeks E-zine regarding performing in schools in the USA and Australia, I suggest you contact Gerry McCreanor in Adelaide, for his views on performing in Australia. Gerry is a full time professional close up and school entertainer who performs under the name "Merlin". He school show is an hour long and also includes a very fascinating talk on the history of magic. I'm sure Gerry will give you some pointers and advice suitable for the Australian magic scene. He may be contacted as follows. Mr. Gerry McCreanor 27 George Street, Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia 5076. Telephone (08) 333 2858. Good luck with your plans Ray. ---------------------------------- 7. Recent visit to New Zealand by colleague ---------------------------------- Message from David O'Connor (ZA) - Kiwi Ex Pat I would like to take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to fellow Kiwi magicians who made the recent visit to New Zealand by colleague David and Wesley Upfold so enjoyable and hospitable. They were absolutely overawed by the tremendous spirit of friendship and hospitality they received, especially in Auckland. Meeting with professional magicians was the highlight of their stay in the city of sails, and they have very happy magical memories. Special thanks to Alan & Michele Watson, Paul Romhany, Richard Webster, Mary Smith, Wayne Rogers, Ken Ring and Guy Cater. Kind regards to all. ------------------------------------- 8. Dave Sheridan is back to normal ------------------------------------- Message from Guy Cater (NZ) Thought it might be nice to open with some happy news .. Dave Sheridan is back to normal (?) and has responded to his treatment wonderfully. So much so that he and I are working together next Thursday night and he is ready to take any engagements offered him now. ------------------------------------- 9. Tremendous report on FISM Congress in Lisbon ------------------------------------- Message from David O'Connor (ZA) I would like to thank Sue-Ann Webster and Tim Ellis for the tremendous report back on the recent FISM Congress in Lisbon. It was most comprehensive, very descriptive, and greatly appreciated by those not fortunate enough to actually be there. It was enough to stimulate us all to try and attend the next FISM. Many thanks again from the magic fraternity. ------------------------------------- 10. FISM 2000 - Sue-Anne Webster & Tim Ellis (PART 2) ------------------------------------- Report from Sue-Anne Webster & Tim Ellis (Aust) - katzkin@ozemail.com.au FISM 2000 July 3 - 8 Portugal, Lisbon DAY FOUR THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2000 67: GAELANO TRIGGIANO - Italy - GI. T: An act set in a haunted mansion as two people explore and discover the magic. The piece featured amazing overacting, and a great self-opening book. Despite an obvious rip off of both the Pendragons sub trunk cloth rip and Lance Burton's cloth exchange (for which they would have lost a lot of points) the act was quite good and very well received. S: Themed, but not original. 68: SHIMKOH - Japan - GM. T: A Japanese Lance Burton right down to the style of music. Very nicely performed, but no points for originality at all. S: Seen it all before! Another copycat. 69: FANG YINTING - China - GM. T: A traditional Chinese waterbowl production. It's a pity we'd already seen it in the Gala Show #1, though this act performed it a little better. S: Cultural, but no magic... just skillful at holding waterloads under his HUGE traditional costume. 70: LIU YUTEN - China - GM. T: Very nice manipulation with billiard balls (an 18 ball routine), sword through neck with no stock, and then she went into a patter spirit cabinet act (with translator) which took her way over the time limit and she was disqualified. S: Disqualification was a shame... she was doing really well. I like the act. All Chinese dialogue. 71: DUBY MIGUIO - Argentina - MAN. T: A 17 year old with CDs, candles, very good doves, and a surprise doves to fishbowl ending. Some technical problems but overall well done. S: CD's just don't make it... hard to see, but his manipulation was pretty good! Some nice moves. 72: EDUARDO - Brazil - MAN. T: A 19 year old performing with a bar magic theme. Very nice moves and a billiard ball routine with different colour, solid balls. He had four in each hand running them from finger to finger. The audience loved that! S: Another good little piece. The young performers are doing well... I just hope they don't form bad habits as they become more adept at magic. 73: CAVALIERE - Argentina - COM. T: Not funny. The crowd almost turned on him when he started doing a three legged act a la Rudy Coby. S: Terrible. 74: EINSTEIN JR - Germany - MM. T: A young guy who actually performed muscle reading. Very entertaining as he had an audience member hide an item and then he discovered it's exact location, but too short, we wanted more. S: Very, very clever. Very interesting! 75: YUMI - Japan - MAN. T: Delightful act, truly beautiful as Yumi manipulated flowers, silks, and cards as delicately as petals. S: Cultural. Dressed in a green traditional Japanese outfit producing pink and white flowers. Slow and graceful movements... magical... just beautiful! 76: ZAUBERTEAM FLICK-FLACK - Germany - GI. T: Two guys who began with a weird shadowbox thing, a levitation with a fairly obvious vanish, and a clear sub trunk climaxing with one of the duo emerging from the audience. S: Average illusion act. No punch.. 77: LEMBENI KHONZANI - South Africa - GM. T: Great authentic look as he came out in full tribal costume and danced to African music. The audience really got into it for a while, but I can't remember him doing any magic... S: No... he did no magic! But the cultural flavour was fabulous. 78: MR GRIFFONY - Yugoslavia - GM. T: A very slow moving act as an old grey haired man transformed into an old bald man and performed the magic of his youth. S: Didn't quite make it. Interesting premise, but did nothing emotionally or magically. 79: NICOLAI FRIEDRICH- Germany - MM. T: After a jumbo any-card-called-for rising card effect which appeared to be gimmick-free, this young performer presented an effect where the missing piece of a Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle was mentally divined. Very entertaining! S: Quite clever and very good performance. Different. 80: DAN DEVOE - USA - MAN. T: Dan and his partner did a lot of ballroom dancing, then his partner sat down at a dinner table as he impressed her with his magic. They have obviously spent a lot of time studying dance, but need to spend some on acting now. S: Nice dancing. 81: VALERI BOSTROKOV- Russia - GM. T: Not only the traditional multiplying Russian dolls, but multiplying balalaikas as well! S: Another cultural performance with not much magic. 82: ROUSSEAU - England - MAN. T: A well dressed gent standing under a street lamp. There were shades of Cardini as he is puzzled by the magic happening around him. Just a little too slow for my tastes. S: Average performance... a little slow. 83: RUIZ DE RETES - Spain - GI. T: A cleverly designed mirror shadowbox. Nicely done, but more than one illusion would have helped increase his point score. S: Not much magic happening in this act, but the illusion was good. 84: CHARLES BROOK - Portugal - GM. T: Fairly standard act, unfortunately. S: Not a memorable performance... Lunch break - race to the close up auditorium. 85: YASUYUKI - Japan - CU. T: Yasuyuki is one of the Napoleons, which explains why this Japanese act was actually funny. In order to let us see his magic better, he lay on the table and had his close up pad up on it's end. All of the props stayed on the pad with cleverly concealed magnets. Not only that, but he utilised the gravity of the unusual orientation to get away with some extremely deceptive original sleights. Very entertaining! S: Very clever, funny and very entertaining. His joke to do the magic on his side so we could see better actually worked! 86: MR GASSERT - Germany - CD. T: Sequence themed around impressing a female volunteer. His technique was quite obvious and he did choose to use the 'F word'... which won't get you any extra points at FISM. S: Crass... and embarrassed his female volunteer. 87: DINA - Argentina - CU. T: Dina told a story about shopping with her friend. The story was good, her personality was over the top, but the magic was quite standard. Her final costume change under the table was a little too slow. S: Interesting, but average act. Has potential. 88: KALLE HAKKARAINEN - Finland - IN. T: Two clever effects. One where he appeared to "inflate" a glass bottle just by blowing into it. The other where a signed card appeared inside the frozen contents of a bottle of water. S: Very clever and interesting effects. 89: ARIEL JR - Uruguay - CU. T: He spoke Latin American but it was easy to follow as he performed cut and restored balloon, then had a balloon doggy find a selected card in a bag. S: Not a bad act. 90: HENRY EVANS - Argentina - CD. T: Technically astounding and quite entertaining. Henry vanished the box and changed the colour of the deck, cut to the kings, dealt 10 piles, each of which contained 1, 2, 3, 4 etc cards up to 10 in the tenth pile, he rearranged all the cards into order and finished with an invisible deck routine where the card was found inside a balloon. Great standard of effects, high skill level, and good routining. S: Top technician and entertaining, too. 91: ANTONIO ROMERO - Spain - CU. T: Antonio spoke Spanish and presented a nice colour changing knife routine with a lot of surprises, then a cups and balls routine with clear cups, sponge balls, and a covering cup. S: Another fabulous technician. Fantastic magical pieces. 92: ROLAND MEISTER - Switzerland - CU. T: He began with a colour changing shirt, then did card and coin effects followed by a cups and balls routine climaxing with final loads of an orange, sand, and water. S: Pretty good performer. 93: KATIA - Russia - CU. T: Blatantly capitalising on her sexuality Katia performed the first half of her act with 'Sex Bomb' playing in the background and she leaned over a lot in her low cut dress. She found three signed cards: one in her hair, one in her lipstick, one in her compact. Then she finished off with her cups and balls routine which climaxes with a miniature Kremlin as the final load. S: Had magicians completely fooled... as Katia bent over her table and the camera operator tried to adjust the lens, we all copped an eye full of her cleavage. She's funny... and entertaining, but not in the magical sense. 94: MAGO MIGUE - Spain - CD. T: He spoke Spanglish and was quite similar in style to Juan Tamariz. He had a double back deck and wrote the names of selected cards on the backs, then the cards became real, and eventually the entire deck was printed correctly. Quite original, extremely clever, and a crowd pleaser. S: VERY entertaining, clever and skillful. 95: STEVE SANDOMIERSKI - South Africa - CU. T: Steve had a nice premise as he played an ex-postal worker. But he had an evil laugh which made the whole act quite creepy (when you think of how many postal workers in the USA go crazy...) He did a "posted" signed card, linking onion rings, and a selected card into sandwich... but he ran overtime and was disqualified. S: Themed... but what a strange act! Entertaining for the wrong reasons. 96: THORSTEN STROTMANN - Germany - CU. T: Not a highly skilled act, he destroyed a volunteer's signed FISM nametag then found it restored inside an hourglass. S: Average act. 97: GASTON QUIETO - Argentina - CD. T: He began with a vanishing white glove, which distractingly dangled beneath his black jacket for the rest of his act. He displayed a good level of skill and finished off with MacDonald's Aces. S: Skillful, but average presentation. 98: WILLY MONROE - Spain - CU. T: Balloon to silk, cut and restored floating modelling balloon rat... but you could clearly see the thread... and it floated for ages... then, as he left, a trail of balloon rats on another "invisible" thread were dragging along behind him. I'm sorry, but this act was not good at all. S: No magic... a stupid act! 99: KARTIS - Argentina - CU. T: He began with the production of bills and coins which was okay, not great. Then he climaxed with an over the top cups and balls to music with tons of final loads (which the crowd loved!) but many of the loads were blatantly obvious... S: Audience went crazy over this act... I have no idea why. His loads were obvious, his technique was average, he produced some interesting loads, including a liquid load from cups and balls (copying Tim Ellis' milkshake ending), but missing the point. Maybe the audience was tired by this stage and welcomed the music, colour and pretty objects produced... bells, ribbons and purple water. Who knows? 100: FELIPE DE ABREU - Brazil - CD. T: Entered as a high school student talking on a mobile phone, then performed a series of card tricks, with nothing really standing out. His finish was finding one signed card in his phone, and stabbing the other in the air with his ruler. He then ended by walking off leaving his volunteer sitting alone on stage. S: Young kid with loose act.... has no idea how to treat a volunteer. 101: MICHAEL JOSEPH- Portugal - CU T: He produced a beerglass and a bottle from an envelope, then upstaged himself by announcing there were peanuts under everyone's armrests. So, as we all sought out our snacks for the next 45 seconds, he had to stop and wait. Then he put a peanut in a volunteer's pocket and sewed it up! He threw a hard shelled giant peanut into the audience to select (or maybe knock unconscious) another volunteer. But the best part, because of his accent, was when he announced, "I threw a giant penis into the audience" when he meant to say "peanut". Undoubtedly I'd do a lot worse trying to speak Portuguese... but you had to be there, we had tears rolling down our eyes. S: This one had us in fits of laughter! Swearing and mistreating his volunteers were entrees to the rest of his act, I had no idea what his magic was about... but his mispronunciation was the life of the act. Apart from Tim's quote above, Michael also said to the volunteer: "Here, hold my penis while I bring out familiar magician's paper (toilet paper)... Do you know how we use this paper? First, you take a few shits (sheets)....". 102: FUJIMOTO - Japan - CU. T: Fujimoto also had trouble with English, but spoke slowly and very deliberately... and knew it was funny! He did effects with contact lenses, coin to jumbo coin, cups and balls where the wand really penetrated the cup and left a hole, signed card to lemon... but a sponge ball ended up in the lemon and the selected card was in the cup... which now had no hole in it! Very original, funny, and entertaining. S: Quite an entertaining act, funny with a few surprises. 103: SHINGO HARAOKA - Japan - CD. T: Shingo did some "You Do As I Do" by-play with a volunteer and had some fun by-play (coming a little too close to putting down the volunteer though), and moderate skill. S: Not a bad act. 104: HIRO SAKAI - Japan - CU. T: Highly original material as he trapped the sound from a music box in a bottle, vanished water from a foam cup, unzipped his card case, and did a signed card transposition while one card was stapled to a board. Some effects need a little more work to become less obvious, but great ideas, and excellent use of music. S: Highly original and entertaining. A very good act. Now we raced back to the Theatre to catch the last part of Paul Daniels being interviewed by Stan Allen. Paul got a standing ovation! After a dinner break came the Gala Show #2 and the exploding water torture tank. Max Maven compered the show, very well, in several different languages (which should be a prerequisite for ALL FISM comperes!) Ger Copper presented some more delightful black art, we saw The Napoleons, Carlos Barragan, Michael Mendes, Voronin and Derek Scott, Endovi, Ya-Lipu (a Spaniard dressed as a Chinese magician), two Chinese sisters who weren't listed in the programme but did a mask changing act, and of course Mago Anton. Mago was handcuffed to a block of concrete and he jumped into a huge plexiglass tank of water where he was going to find a selected card from a deck which had been tossed inside. Unfortunately, his concrete slab hit the front wall of the tank as he jumped in and the entire tank disintegrated. Water flooded the stage and covered the front two rows of the audience (the VIP seats!) but Mago was OK. Max handled the disaster well and Derek Scott and Michael Mendes entertainined us while the stage was being mopped dry for our final act, Topas. DAY FIVE FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2000 106: MICHAEL ROSS - France - GI & IN. T: Michael appeared from inside a huge balloon, then produced a girl from a roll of paper. Next they placed her into a big box, pulled her middle out, and gave her head a twist for good measure. Finally, they created a sub trunk by covering a frame with tissue paper. Original magic, but not 100% deceptive. S: Original, but average presentation . 107: NANA HITOMI - Japan - GM. T: Entering wearing a witches hat, red tails, and no pants, Nana presented a dove act but with wine glasses instead of doves... even down to doing a tails vanish of a glass full of wine! S: I can understand why she didn't wear trousers...very average act. 108: NORBERT FERRE - France - MAN. T: Exceptionally high skill level displayed as he began with a billiard ball routine where he tossed each ball from finger to finger as they appeared. Not only that, but he played an interesting and entertaining "daggy" character between effects, transforming into "Mr. Magician" for the manipulation pieces. His priest gag when he needed a deck of cards was priceless. The only let-down was that his card work, which was brilliant, couldn't live up to the standard he set with his billiard balls. However, he was amazing! S: FANTASTIC. High skill level, manipulation unbelievable. Real magic! 109: OS INCORRIGIVEIS- Brazil - COM. T: Two guys, one needs an assistant so the other dresses as a woman. The man makes a sword from a modelling balloon and displays it holding it at crotch level (get it?) then forces it down his "assistant's" throat as a metaphor, we assume, of rape... well, why else? They hold up a huge cloth and a third guy, wearing a dove suit runs out. Finally, the dove guy goes into a tent that could conceal a car, and when the cloth is dropped it reveals the dove guy... now plucked of his feathers. The end. S: No magic. Rude and stupid. 110: IRINA FROM MOSCOW - Russia - GM. T: So many surreal moments... a dancing shoe, a red wooden duck/boat, Irina putting the shoe in the duck/boat with a wooden doll and having them all follow her around the stage, a mysterious object "zombie-ing" under a cloth turns out to be three spoons which "click" at her, trees explode into flags... all performed by a woman dressed, apparently, as an orthodox high priest. S: Russian cultural dance with snow... no magic! 111: RIKU ISAAKAINEN - Finland - GM. T: Cards, candles, masks, Richard Ross' ring routine... At this stage of the competition, the audience was becoming less tolerant of standard magic, not done particularly well. S: Terrible. No originality, no skill . 112: KENJI MINEMURA - Japan - MAN. T: Wow! Very highly skilled, very original, manipulation with plates, cutlery, bottles, glasses, GREAT stuff! Cheeky charm, good music, everything clear, deliberate and magical. Have you ever seen serving trays or champagne bottles appear or vanish as cleanly as playing cards? This guy is good! S: Winner! Original and classy. Real magic! Great moves, nearly all perfect. Body movement sharp and clean... charming personality. 113: BIDOU - France - GM. T: Black art balloon doggies. Why? S: They went to the wrong convention... even so, the balloon act was a shocker! 114: FITO PAVESE - Argentina - GM. T: A nice idea as he plucks projected items from a screen, but the stage was too dark for us to appreciate the act properly. S: Original, very imaginative... lacked energy, probably due to poor lighting. 115: DAVID SOUSA - Portugal - MAN. T: A young guy, black on black on black again! Very good, very slick manipulation including jumbo cards, but nothing unique or outstanding. S: Quite good. Hard to watch when dressed in black with some black props against a black curtain. More thought to colour would make it a little more appealing. 116: SALGUERY - Portugal - GM. T: Standard dove work with invisible harnesses. He would have lost points on simple things like when he pulled his lit match out, which wasn't lit, he didn't have a spare. S: Black and white were the only colours used which didn't help this standard magic act. 117: LUCE - France - GM. T: Lots of fire and special effects, but not a lot of magic. She had huge jets of flames, floating flame, and juggling flame. Very popular with the crowd. (I noted the nearest exit!) S: Couple of good ideas. The use of party poppers in her act was unnecessary... it didn't help the presentation. 118: JASON BANEY - USA - MAN. T: Very much the look of Jason Byrne. Unusual effects with chains, smoke, balloons, and the final production of a (why?) sandcastle. S: Unusual. No theming, no meaning. 119: DAN DEVOE - USA - IN. T: He presented a tall shadowbox. Was this invention or simply modification? S: Bigger shadow box, nothing new. 120: WOODY PITTMAN - USA - COM. T: He presented the dancing hanky, clocks from his coat, and several other effects which didn't get many laughs at all. S: Averages act. 121: FUJIMOTO - Japan - MAN. T: Here he did thimbles, but had the great idea of covering them with sponge-balls and, guess what, we could SEE them! He also did card manipulation with CDs and climaxed with laser-discs. S: CD's are shiny, but hard to see no matter how good the lighting. 122: BRENDO & SYLVANA - Argentina - GM. T: Very similar act to past FISM winners, the highly original Junge Junge. As a result, this pair (an English gent and a street urchin) actually got booed and hissed when they pulled out a head sword box. S: Sad to see copycats. 123: PEDRO III - Spain - GM. T: A great opening with lightning effects and we have another haunted mansion. This was spoiled by bad acting, shoddy sets (moved either by the "ghosts" or instability) and no plot at all. At one point he transformed into Santa, then returned as himself. S: Great start with thunder clouds made of smoke and a little too much lightning (although it kept the stage well lit) Looked to have potential... lots of things happening on stage but I couldn't understand what they were. Confusing 124: MASAK JIN - Japan - COM. T: A promising entrance to the Inspector Gadget music, but then he brought out breakaway props, tried his hand at mime, and produced a toy dove and rabbit. S: Slapstick. Not funny, not entertaining. 125: GEORGE HONDA - Japan - GM. T: Lance Burton inspired classic tails dove act, but the doves were produced in cages. Terrible music, but the audience really enjoyed this act. S: Actually, the 'doves' were budgies... elevator music enhanced this average act. 126: SHIMADA BLACK - Japan - COM. T: Tom Mullica's act, done by a Japanese, dressed as a Mexican, without the humour and with only half the skill. S: Not entertaining. 127: McMAGIC - Spain - COM. T: A great opening as one monk came out and magically produced a second monk to 'The A Team' theme music. Then it got a little offensive as they performed magic with communion wafers, did a sword box where a pillar of black smoke emerged from the sword filled box, then the smoke changed to white as the swords were removed and the Pope emerged. Not enough comedy or magic. S: Religious parody... not a good topic, especially when it lacked the essential magic content for a FISM competition. 128: MARITESS - USA - GM. T: She performed the multiplying billiard balls, floating goldfish bowl, floating rose, and a fishbowl production. Too many "dealer" effects and nothing to reflect her as a unique act. S: Very average performance. 129: HYASHI TAI CHI KIRARIN - Japan - COM. T: Everytime the words 'Japan' and 'Comedy' come up on the screen together... people start to leave the theatre. But I'm glad we didn't miss this one! An old woman magically brings a leprechaun doll to life, and he teaches her about recycling! He takes her mixed up bottles and cans and magically separates them, he changes a stack of newspapers into toilet rolls (and throws them out to the crowd), then he becomes a midget, she turns into a bride, there's a wedding... this was really weird! S: Save me! 130: EZAWA - Japan - GM. T: It was hard to tell what she was doing, but she was using Japanese looking props combined with drinks, liquids, glitter and small items. S: Cultural... no magic. 131: SCOTT THE MAGICIAN & MISS MURIEL - Nederlands - COM. T: This act was hilarious. The "daggy" magician had no assistant to saw in half, so he was given a mannequin. After putting all of the pieces of the mannequin in the box and, inadvertently, sawing her in two, she came to life! She "helped" him perform a few simple effects, then finally got into a torture box which accidentally collapsed and crushed her. Then, the suspicious looking illusion stairs started moving away, we saw a pair of feet and a head emerge from inside, but when the stairs opened up we saw they were mechanical and Miss Muriel, now a cheerleader, came running in from the back of the theatre! Totally fooled everyone, as well as being hilariously funny. S: Totally deceptive! Fantastic act... very, very funny! Miss Muriel stole the show... she was completely crazy (a dumb, fun loving, joyous live mannequin who hasn't quite got full control over her mannequin legs). The comedy worked because the two magicians had totally opposing and well developed characters. They remained in character for their entire act without fault. Mock drama and suspense added to this delightful act that received a well deserved standing ovation. A diamond. 132: YUVAL KEREN - Israel - IN. T: After a sexist display of repeatedly kissing his volunteer on the lips, Yuval got down to business and demonstrated a fork which bent in the hands of a spectator, the straightened itself again. S: The treatment of his volunteer was embarrassing. A turn off! A neat improvement on an old trick... of course, you can't use just 'any' fork! 133: HARRY HONG - Hong Kong - COM. T: Harry attempted stand up comedy magic. He did some magician only gags, clumsily levitated the red light (which goes on if you go over time) and sent a volunteer back to the audience after he pretended the guy had stabbed him with scissors. Harry got a cardboard cut out of Copperfield, which changed into Claudia Schiffer, then the masked magician... as he tried to put the cutout into a sawing... the sawing started to fall to pieces... unintentionally. Harry left the stage for a whole 30 seconds and when he returned dressed as the female assistant and took off his cone bra and pulled silks from a pointy breast, the curtain came down. He must have run overtime... S: Just terrible rubbish! No magic, not funny. Crass. 134: IONG TAT CHI - Macau- GM. T: Music themed act where he produced various instruments. He climaxed by producing (well, pulling out from behind his table) a cardboard keyboard and set off a confetti cannon so loud that it woke everyone up. S: I had no idea what this was about... but the closing effect had me scared me out of my wits! 135: LUIS BOYANO & ISABELLA - Spain - MM. T: A very entertaining presentation of the Spirit Cabinet. S: Standard Spirit Cabinet routine performed very well. Now we moved to close up auditorium for the last few acts who had been postponed from last night because of lack of time. Unfortunately, the Jury didn't join us, they went off to Maurice Pierre's cocktail party (he could have postponed that?) leaving us all waiting in the auditorium for almost two hours. Lennart Green treated us to an impromptu show , astounding stuff!!! Then we got to see a little of the David Blaine interview broadcast live from the large Theatre... which we would have gone to see live if we'd known the Jury would take so long. 135: GERY - Austria - CU. T: Gery has competed with this act at previous FISMs. It's a completely themed act of incredibly skilful dice-stacking. He was a guest act at the SAM in Milwaukee with us. He had one or two fumbles, but he had been on standby since yesterday, then again for two straight hours today! His act went over very well! S: Very clever piece... colourful and interesting to watch. 136: PHILIPP - Austria - CU. T: Produced a mini Statue of Liberty but then came across as a little arrogant by making negative remarks about Copperfield. He did coins across complete with spectacular coin vanishes, then a cups and balls routine and ended up giving his volunteer a little reward of a chocolate liqueur. S: Lovely clean moves and very clever. 137: MAGO GRAGNELL - Mexico - CD & IN. T: He spoke Spanish with a translator, which may have thrown his timing out and could have been why we saw all his lapping. He did lots of colour changes and five signed cards ended up in his wallet... but what was his invention? S: Looked quite skillful, but I had no idea what was going on. 138: ETIENNE PRADIER - England - CD. T: A fairly cocky French man who put down David Blaine then said "I only perform magic for my wife and mistresses." He vanished the aces, did a gag where he exposed back palming, he did a very visual ace assembly where they visually appeared face up in four piles, and finished with aces to pockets. S: Cocky attitude didn't help his presentation. 139: KIKE - Spain - IN. T: He'll sell tons of these! With a reincarnation theme he took a blank card, a glowing heart visibly appeared on it then split to become three hearts. It looked like real magic! S: Where can I buy one of these? Absolutely impressive! An excellent effect. 140: FRANCISCO HERRERO - Spain - CD. T: He spoke Spanish, did an ace trick, found a selected card and, I guess, told a lot of gags in Spanish because a lot of people were laughing. S: Presentation seemed good, but I couldn't understand the Spanish language. 141: CHRIS KORN - USA - CU. T: He had intro music as he walked on which worked beautifully. He did stock gags and standard coin moves which suffered in comparison to the more skilful acts we'd already seen. A previously vanished coin fell from his sleeve, not a gag, he'd lose a few points for that. Then he finished by pulling a selected card out of a fake bottom he was wearing, he'd lose the rest of his points on that one... S: Cocky attitude... sick jokes. Not a nice act to watch... farting and pulling cards out of his fake bottom exposed to the audience. Disgusting gutter material. 142: MANUEL MUERTE - Germany - CU. T: Cigar tricks, champagne tricks, lots of fun, killer surprises, a signed bill reappeared inside a plastic champagne cork... and then... the champagne bottle was seen to be resealed and given away as a gift. Add to this Manuel's delightful comedic personality, and the excitement of his race against the red light as he was coming to the end of his act... and you have total entertainment! S: Wonderful act... very funny, clever and entertaining. Themed and a delight to watch. 143: ARISTON - Argentina - IN. T: Ariston presented his creation, via a translator, "any card called for rising cards", which he'd been selling at the Magic Fair. It was quite a good new method and the cards appeared to be ungimmicked. S: Very clever. Now it was off to dinner, as there was nothing scheduled for us this evening. We met up with those who saw Gala Show #2 and took the bus back to the hotel with them, while many others headed to the Altis Hotel, the "Official Late Night Venue". Well, when the strolling magicians are Juan Tamariz, Bob Sheets, and Lennart Green... who's going to say no? Many people who'd never seen Juan live before were absolutely astounded. Just ask David Jones: "He doesn't do magic, he does miracles!" DAY SIX SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2000 Today wasn't quite as busy as the first "Event" was the Award Ceremony at noon, but we still took the 8.30am bus in so we could make a few purchases from the dealers. Many dealers had sold out of the more popular items and reported tremendous sales. Even Charles Gauci, who's stock arrived late thanks to lost luggage, sold out of many items. We also managed to sneak in a quick look at Topas lecturing. He's only 27 but he speaks with a wealth of great experience about how to really perform magic. Very inspirational. Now we moved into the Theatre again for the Award Ceremony, and the winners were... _____________________________________ THE WINNERS Manipulation 1- Kenji Minemura - Japan 2- Norbert Ferré - France 3- Eduardo - Brazil Comedy Magic 1 - Not Awarded 2 - Zauderer - Germany 3 - The Maestro - USA General Magic 1- Mask - France 2 - Yumi - Japan 3 (tie) - George Saterial - USA 3 (tie) - Roxanne - Germany Illusions 1- der "Hexer" - Germany 2 - Yunke - Spain 3 - Zauberteam Flick-Flack - Germany Mental Magic 1 - Not Awarded 2 - Luis Boyano & Isabella - Spain 3 - Nicola Friedrich - Germany Card Magic 1 - Henry Evans - Argentina 2 - Mago Migue - Spain 3 - (tie) Gregory Wilson - USA 3 - (tie) Thomas Fraps & Gaston - Germany Close-Up 1 - Simo Aalto - Finland 2 - Manuel Muerte - Germany 3 - Gery - Austria Inventions 1 - Michael Ross - France 2 - Ariston - Argentina 3 - Kalle Hakkarainen - Finland Grand Prix Scott the Magician & Miss Muriel - Nederlands After the awards it was announced that the next FISM would be in Den Haag in 2003 and many people (including us) rushed the booth to sign up and register. A leisurely boat trip took us to the site of Expo '98 where we had a few hours to explore this amazing place before lining up for the Gala Dinner and Show... The less said here the better! 2100 people, one skinny entrance, and everyone racing inside (dressed to the nines!) to try and get a seat. There weren't enough chairs, tables, or food to go around and Luis de Matos apologised from the stage telling us that more people turned up than were expected...? Now you couldn't get in without a ticket... so how did that happen? Many people left before the show, which was truly terrible. Outdoors, on a huge rock stage, many of the winners couldn't perform. We watch the Close up and Cards winners perform on the stage via a giant Jumbotron screen. We watched an appalling comedy act from Sweden, Topper Martyn sang a song then got off, Richard McDougall presented his cigarette act... why these acts for THIS venue? We even had a videotape of David Copperfield which we couldn't hear because of bad sound, then we crossed live via phone to David, and couldn't really hear him then either. Max Maven did his best to compere the show, and David Williamson added humour throughout it... but it really ended what was a good FISM on a bad note. The show ended with a spectacular fireworks display (which set off car alarms) as people walked out trying to find the buses. ------------------------------------- 11. To perform in Australia in schools you have two options ------------------------------------- Message from Tim Ellis (Aust) 1 - The best, in my opinion: Contact the particular State's Arts Council and, if they consider your show good enough, they can set up a tour for you and either pay you a set wage plus living allowances and petrol costs, or do a "door deal" 2 - You can contact a private agency who arranges school tours on a percentage deal (they charge the school per child, then take 30% of it as a fee). Agencies won't pay you living allowances or petrol costs. Just 70% of what you earn. However your success with either of these groups depends entirely on the quality of your show. If you want some contacts for Victoria, feel free to email me at katzkin@ozemail.com.au http://www.MagicUnlimited.com ------------------------------------- 12. Hats and rabbits Progress report ------------------------------------- Message from Jan & Steve Dacri (USA) We want both you and your readers to know how gratifying it has been since we opened hatsandrabbits.com to the magic community. The response has been fantastic from all over the world. Many of my friends from the magic world that I have either lost touch with or "misplaced" have contacted me to wish us well and compliment us on the look of the site. You must keep in mind that we are not really "open" yet. Many of the cool features are not even completed yet, as the technical stuff, and behind the scenes work is enormous and time consuming. At present we do have a news page, and my weekly column (AbracaDacri) which are both operational, and within a few short days we will be opening up the message boards and a few other features. We have several contests now running, and visitors will find the details on the site. We encourage everyone to enter. You could win a trip to Las Vegas or Hawaii! We are also planning many other contests and sweepstakes which are all free to enter. Naturally, this is all part of our "ploy" to get everyone to visit us often. A bribe, as Mark Wilson says, is a good thing for magicians! And for all of the non-magicians who will be stopping by to watch the "Trick of the Day" and other things. And remember, many of the key areas, the "secret stuff" and material aimed at the magic community will be protected from curious visitors. We intend to have "magicians only" areas and an even more secure password protected level which will only be accessible by actual magicians. There will NEVER be any exposure. We want to expand the reach of magic and encourage folks to recognize magic as an art and maybe even invite new members into the fold to learn and appreciate magic, but we also must educate them on the value of magic secrets and teach respect for the art and it's history. We want folks to think of hatsandrabbits as a community, with lots of fun stuff and magic information which is always updated. When our magic mall opens, it will contain more magic products and books and videos than Al Flosso could have fit under his counter top. (For those that remember and had the good fortune to know Al, his cases were chock full of stuff, with layers and layers of tricks, one on top of the other, in total disarray, yet he could always find anything you requested!) So, make a point of visiting often, check out our progress and be ready for the grand opening announcement. We are shooting for Nov. 1 (my son, Jesse's birthday) as the big day, but many new features will be added and open long before. Our "Panel of Magic Advisors" is growing, too. Walter Zaney Blaney and Lance Burton are now a part of this distinguished bunch, and a few more are on the way. The Panel will help us draft the criteria for nominating magicians to be voted on for induction into the Internet Magic Hall of Fame, among other things. Visitors are encouraged (magicians, that is) to send us names of 3 (or more) magicians who they feel MUST be inducted right away. Each year, a number of magicians from the past will be inducted, as well as several of today's magicians. This is an exciting element of the site, which will actually have it's own separate and distinct site, accessible from hatsandrabbits. Our offer still stands at the moment: free lifetime memberships to qualified magicians and magic enthusiasts. Contact karen@hatsandrabbits.com for details. That's all for now. Jan & I are off to Las Vegas as guests of Lance's Monte Carlo show and dinner afterwards. We will be filming an interview in his dressing room, and parts of it will be eventually seen on our site. ------------------------------------- 13. Interview with Rene Lavand ------------------------------------- Message from Michael Woolf (NZ) "Magicana" Magazine for August-September was mailed this week. I think you'll enjoy it - there's a FISM report from Stan Goudge, a Melbourne Convention report from me and also an interview I was privileged to make with Rene Lavand. Also items from Bernard Reid, Jim Reilly, Jim Alfredson, Roderick Mulgan, Bob Klamm, Harvey Berg, Richard Webster, Alan Watson, Wayne Rogers and Diamond Jim Tyler. The overseas mailing is by Air Express so will be delivered all over the world in a few days. Enjoy! Michael Woolf - Editor Contact to subscribe: michaelw@ihug.co.nz ------------------------------------- 14. Guy Cater & Kevin Chisnall 13 weeks TV series ------------------------------------- Message from Guy Cater (NZ) I've had a bit of luck through the shows I did recently at the PowerStation. Seems some people were impressed enough to want to make a TV Series .. 13 weeks Whoooooooo!!!!!!!! Filming will commence in March 2001 after I return from Singapore. We are talking about Pheonix Television who make the 'Pulp Comedy' show and are producing Mike Kings new series. They are looking at putting me together with Kevin Chisnall and we will tour different locations throughout the country doing what we do. Kevin will perform his Kreskin/Uri Geller/Max Maven routines and I will hypnotise folk. These outdoor locations will be interspersed with shots of each of us performing our own shows in theatres and cabaret. Should be heaps of fun and really raise our profiles. ------------------------------------- 15. Downloadable video demonstrations ------------------------------------- Message from Ben Harris (Aust) I have posted downloadable video demonstrations of Alida, Hoodwink, Zoom and Cosmosis to our site. Now it's easy to see what the effects are supposed to look like. the URL is: http://pages.hotbot.com/arts/benharris/mtv.html ------------------------------------- 16. Hamilton Pet Expo - The Advantage Magic Show ------------------------------------- Message from Bill & Mandy Reid (NZ) Mandy and I will be performing at the Hamilton Pet Expo this coming weekend: 12-13 August Performing The Advantage Magic Show Show times are 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm, 3.30pm both days We look forward to anyone dropping in for a chat ------------------------------------- 17. WANTED Ian Adair's Dove Encyclopaedias (vol 1-5) ------------------------------------- Message from Joel Fenton- magician@ihug.co.nz WANTED Ian Adair's Dove Encyclopaedias (vol 1-5) or (06) 356 3018 ------------------------------------- 18. **NEWS FLASH** Channing Pollack's wife dies of cancer ------------------------------------- Message from Bev Bergeron (USA) Two more magic people died. Channing Pollack's wife died of cancer. Also the master prop builder in Seattle, Washington, Pomeroy, also died of cancer. ------------------------------------- 19. The 2001 Christchurch convention - Looking for lecturers ------------------------------------- Brennan Sharp (NZ) - Convention Committee Secretary - brennanzl@xtra.co.nz The New Zealand 2001 Christchurch Convention committee is still open to suggestions for lecturers for Easter (12th -- 16th April) next year. If you know someone that might be interested, we'd like to hear from you. ------------------------------------- 20. Diarise these events ------------------------------------- Sunday 22nd October - IBM Ring 160 Day of magic - Auckland Thursday 12th - 16th April (Easter) 2001 - 26th New Zealand Magicians' Convention - Christchurch If you require more information about the above events go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive to research for more information. ------------------------------------- 21. News Items ------------------------------------- If you have any news items that you feel the majority of our subscribers would be interested in please e-mail me so I can include them in the next e-zine. The magician who e-mails me a particular news item FIRST will receive full credit at the top of that item. If the news is of major importance I will send them out immediately as a Newsflash. ------------------------------------- 22. MagicNZ e-zine archives ------------------------------------- Back issues of the MagicNZ e-zine go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive Both the User Name and Password MUST be entered in lower case to gain access. User Name: ezine Password: newzealand When you enter the archive the e-zines are in issue order and are coded. Eg 001nov6.txt first three numbers denote issue number then the date. ------------------------------------- 23. Benefit of subscribing to the MagicNZ e-zine ------------------------------------- You will now be informed well in advance of coming events and kept right up to date with the latest news. MagicNZ e-zine is published weekly, late on Sunday night. ------------------------------------- 24. Subscription Management ------------------------------------- Our subscriber list is NOT made available to other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and respect your privacy. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the MagicNZ e-zine: www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html The opinions expressed in this e-zine are those of the individual contributors. Neither MagicNZ nor Alan Watson can vouch for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, message, statement, or other information reported via MagicNZ e-zine. We reserve the right to correct any errors or omissions as we see fit. >> This publication may be freely redistributed to other magicians if copied in its ENTIRETY << (c) Copyright 2000 Alan Watson ------------------------------------- 25. Contact Information ------------------------------------- Alan Watson Ph. (9) 483-9274 Fax. (09) 483-9274 Mobile 025 95-7070 e-mail alan@watson.co.nz www.magician.co.nz www.magicianz.com