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Part Six: Approaching The Millenium In 1985 the triennial congregation returned to Spain, opening on July The six‑day affair drew 1400 magicians. There were 44 dealers. FISM™ President was Manuel Lorente, and the congress President was Jose Luis Bonifla Nasarre. The convention was again taped for Japanese television. In the shows were past favourites such as Topper Martyn, Finn Jon and the by now perennial Ali Bongo. Jay Scott Berry and Vito Lupo were among the returning young artists offering new incarnations of their award‑winning work. Also of note were some acts with storylines: the "mad scientist" playlet of France's Al Carthy, and the romantic jewel thief sketch of Poland's Arsene Lupin. Ted Winkel switched his theme from medals to microphones, with refreshingly strange results. Otto Wessely got his act off to a rousing start: His entrance was preceded by Lance Burton and Richard Ross strewing rose petals. When a third petal‑strewer turned out to be Dai Vernon, the house came down.
It was at this convention that the Europeans got their first chance to see a live performance by The Pendragons, whose dazzling physicality got a fervent response. The stylistic influence of Jeff McBride had already begun to filter into Europe; now, the real McBride made his initial FISM™ appearance, and garnered a standing ovation. The huge theater of the Palacio de Congresos de Madrid was used for contests and gala shows. The rooms for the lectures were less spacious; in fact, they were too small to accommodate the crowds, and many people were turned away, which led to some loud altercations. Those who did get in had to contend with poor acoustics and troublesome sightlines. On a more pleasant note, it is worth recording that among the 17 lecturers were such stellar thinkers as Arturo de Ascanio, Tommy Wonder, and the brilliant René Lavand of Argentina. The scheduling was peculiar. Apparently as part of a financially efficient contract between the producers and the Palacio, the building had to be vacated by the end of each afternoon. So, events began early; shows one would expect to run at night began at mid‑day. (This was all the more disconcerting given that outside of the convention centre the rest of Madrid was holding to the customary Spanish late night agenda.) Despite the surely unfamiliar challenge of attempting to function during daylight hours, the Escuela produced a superb show in one of the center's medium‑sized halls, featuring Ascanio, Tamariz, Camilo and Carroll. In a triumph of bad planning, it was scheduled at the same time as the Micromagic contest, putting close‑up aficionados in a quandary. Away from the Palacio, there were night, time events. Multiple performances of night‑club and cabaret shows were attended in smaller groups. The nightclub bill included two highly original talents: the craftily charming Gaetan Bloom, and a poetic young Spanish conjuror who simply called himself Alex. Other activities outside the convention center included an evening civic reception with food and drink at the Cecilio Rodriguez Gardens. There was also a visit to Aranjuez to see a bloodless bullfight. After a bus tour, the conventioneers were brought back to the bullring, where dinner was served and a Flamenco dance show presented.
There were 132 contest
acts.
By now, the American magicians were observing the FISM™ contest with keen attention. In addition to the evolving reasons mentioned earlier, another ingredient had appeared to elevate the status of contests in the United States: money. At the 1983 Desert Seminar, Joe Stevens had run the first magic competition with a substantial cash prize, which raised interest all the more. Some of the FISM™ competitors who didn't win awards would go on to make reputations elsewhere, such as Israeli‑born American finger‑flinger Meir Yedid, Fernando Keops and Joaquin Ayala of Mexico (the latter with a pre, Vegas Mozartian dove act), and England's Johnny Johnson (who later shortened his billing to "JJ of Opus"). United Artists, a Swiss duo, registered well with their four‑armed manipulation. (An act from France with a similar format, Nop and irs, had appeared at the Paris convention in 1973.) Not long after, fearing a lawsuit from the motion picture Company of the same name, they changed their billing to Tempest & Cottet. They would go on to separate careers, with Marco Tempest acclaimed for his integration of sleight‑of‑hand and computer graphics. The contest results went like this: GRAND PRIX:
MANIPULATION:
GENERAL MAGIC:
COMEDY:
GRAND ILLUSION:
MENTALISM:
MICROMAGIC:
CARDS:
A notable development at this congress was the significant presence of magicians from Japan. There were tour groups, some booked acts, and several contestants. The strongest impact was made Mahka Tendo who won the highest score in the Manipulation category, doing split fans with jumbo cards. His remarkable dexterity and sleek manner led many to expect him to van the Grand Prix. Another Japanese act did well in the General field: Fukai & Kimika, with an upbeat routine of umbrella productions. Their set got off to a great start, but then a prop was dropped. The audience flinched in sympathy. However, Kimika retrieved the fallen ring with such flair that, if anything, it got them extra points. First place in that category went to Davido, with a slightly modified version of the act he'd entered in the Manipulation category three years before. The third slot was taken by Scott Cervine, a quiet American with a graceful silent act. (He's since learned to talk, and works comedy clubs as well as acting on television.) The comedy prize went to Sam Angelico. The audience wasn't quite sure how to take his character, With its stark make‑up and guttural outbursts. Then, one spectator got up to leave, dearly headed for the men's room. With a series of loud and expressive whistles, Angelico got the fellow to return to his seat, much to the crowd's amusement, and the prize was his. The other comedy awards went to the French burlesque magic team of Joel et Jill, and America's Robert Baxt, whose prize was the final ingredient in his decision to drop out of law school and pursue a showbiz career. The close‑up awards were governed by Americans. John Cornelius topped the Card category, and trade, show Pro Paul Gertner took the Close‑Up prize with much the same routine that had earlier won the Desert Seminar. Coming in next was Johnny Ace Palmer's eclectic mix of material that had won several U.S. contests, then Michael Weber, whose third prize was actually impressive given that in order to avoid exceeding the time limit he ended early‑leaving out his closer. The Grand Prix went to Javier y Ana, an illusion act employing a large, elaborate set, with a sentimental storyline involving a sad little waif who meets up with a benevolent hobo who turns out to be an angel in disguise. There were those who felt that the ratio of magic to cloying sentiment was too low. There were also rumours that certain members of the judging panel had conspired to scale down the points given to strong acts in order to bolster the chances of the Spanish illusion act. Of course, similar gossip had cropped up at many previous FISM™ contests. This time it was intensified because the champion, Javier Anton Viscasiflas, was a member of the convention organizing committee, and the only contestant to have a full‑page photograph in the souvenir program. If nothing else, there was clearly favouritism involved, and this dampened the reaction to the outcome. Several countries had voiced interest in producing the next International Congress, including Denmark and Germany. However, a group from Holland had been engineering support from the first day of the convention, and at the business meeting the Dutch won handily. The largest gathering of magicians thus far began on July 18, 1988 when over 2000 registrants from 45 countries came to Den Haag, Holland for the 17th FISM™ congress starting on July 18. The six‑day event had as its President Eric Eswin who gave welcoming speeches in several languages. Former champions Richard Ross and Tonny van Dommelen were in charge of the contest and stage shows, respectively. There were 68 dealers. The opening gala featured an imposing line‑up of former Grand Prix champions‑all of them Dutch. The convention was extensively organized. One shrewd gambit was that the bars and concession stands in the convention centre would not accept cash. instead, one purchased special tokens to use for such purchases. These came in two denominations, one bearing a portrait of Fred Kaps, the other of Okito. By using these, the FISM™ committee was able to prevent any revenue loss from skimming. Moreover, many magicians opted to keep some of the tokens as souvenirs, thus upping the profits even further. Most events were held at the Nederlands Congresgebouw. There was also a reception in a municipal hall where the assembly was greeted by the mayor and the Minister of Culture. The big party event, so often problematic, ran smoothly, in no small part because it was held in a huge function room in the convention centre. A feature of this event was that everyone received a glass of champagne. The glasses were randomly distributed and three of them contained diamonds (People drank carefully.) There were seven lectures, each presented several times, by Finn Jon, Daryl, Eugene Burger and others. For two nights the group was split in half, with some attending the close‑up show that included such new (to Europe) faces as Eugene Burger, Kevin James and Lisa Menna from the U.S., and Dr. Sawa from Japan. The European performers included Carlos Vaquera of Spain (residing in Belgium), Dominique Duvivier of France, and England's Bob Read.
On the same nights,
there was a stage show with such as Japan's Princess Tenko, America's
Rudy Coby and England's Wayne Dobson in the Circus Theater at
the nearby beach, front of Scheveningen. (Those who weren't Dutch had a
terrible time remembering the name of
Among the performers making their initial appearances at a FISM™ congress were Canadian James Dimmare partnered with Lisa Shimada, Davide Costi of Italy, and Kohl & Company of the United States.
Vla
Each gala began with an overture specially composed for the convention. The production values for the stage shows had been conspicuously upgraded, With excellent lighting and special scenery. Part of the reason for this was that this time the convention was being taped by two different companies, the Japanese plus a Dutch group that subsequently sold shows into several other markets. In part because of the complications of taping, the final Winners' gala was extremely long. Fortunately, the show was in the capable hands of emcee Paul Daniels of England, who was up to the task‑but he had to work hard that afternoon. There were contest sessions on each of the six days of the convention, to accommodate the 162 hopefuls who had signed up. These were the results: GRAND PRIX:
MANIPULATION:
GENERAL MAGIC:
INVENTION:
COMEDY:
GRAND ILLUSION:
MICROMAGIC:
CARDS:
MENTALISM:
The Micromagic results were once again led by Americans, in this case with divergent styles. Joe Given's set had a surreal storyline using unusual props, while John Carney followed a more classic path, enlivened by his whimsical sense of humor. Toyohisa Saikawa became the first Japanese to win a close‑up prize, with an inventive routine where eventually everything changed into dice.
In Cards there was
another strong showing from Spain, with José Carroll adding another
trophy to his collection. The Swiss prize‑winner, Roberto Giobbi, was
another active member of the Madrid School. He's now best known as the
author of the fundamental series of Card
College
books. One cardman who delivered a terrific performance in the contest was Lennart Green, a Swedish physician with an utterly original repertoire. He did not place, be., cause some of the judges, completely fooled by his bizarre methods, jumped to the incorrect conclusion that the spectators who had shuffled the cards during his routine were actually stooges.
A Another act that received a career boost from this contest was the team of Vic & Fabrini, whose routine involving a swaggering magician and a mechanical robot was a crowd favorite. The other two winners in General Magic were also standouts. Tommy Wonder debuted his splendid new stage act, with an astonishing floating bird, cage as its centerpiece. Yuka made a deep impression with productions of Japanese fans, presented with a pensive beauty.
Yuka's husband, Parte
Koishi, also ca As with the illusionists, in the Manipulation category there was no first place winner. In third place was Markus Gabriel, whose Linking Rings done with lively choreography went over very well. The highest award given in that field went to a young German kid, still in his teens, named Topas. His playful act involved some unusual props: In addition to more traditional cards and wands, he manipulated sunglasses and tinkling bells. This young performer had been coached by Eberhard Riese, a drama instructor from Stuttgart who had also been adviser to the second‑place winner in Comedy, Cha'peau.
The Grand Prix winner
was agai There was also a another rumor that the award had been rigged. In this case, the story was that the scoring had been such that no contestant had earned enough points to qualify for the top prize, meaning that this would be the first FISM™ congress without a champion. The story continued that the television companies had forced the judges to make a selection because without a Grand Prix they would have no climax for their show. Whether this saga has any relationship to what actually went on behind the scenes, I cannot say. I can tell you that at this convention I was working as a coordinator for both the Japanese and Dutch television companies, and I never heard a single comment from any of the TV people that would support this story. Nevertheless, the rumour still circulates to this day, and over time has put a curious spin on the Den Haag results. Italy had been selected to host the 1991 congress in Rome. Alberto Sitta was the President, and plans were moving forward when he was tragically killed in a fire in his home in July, 1989. Without his leadership, the FISM™ preparations ground to a halt and the Italian team relinquished their position.
At the FISM™ general meeting held at the Magic Hands convention in Germany the following January, a new location was discussed. A bid was put in by Mexico, but that was deemed by most to be too far away from Europe. The Dutch proposed a return to Den Haag, but it was felt that the convention should not be held in the same place two times in a row. The decision was made to go back to Lausanne, the site of the FISM™ gatherings Of 1948 and 1982. Jean Garance became FISM™ President, and Claude Pahud the Chairman of the convention. There was another massive turnout, With 2,080 registrants from 41 countries. (The number of registrations sold was beyond the seating capacity of the hall; late purchasers had to settle for attending the public gala shows.) The dealer hall had over 60 booths. Nine years earlier there had been an unexpected hot spell in Lausanne, and the registrants had been unhappy to discover that the air‑conditioning at the Palais de Beaulieu was not strong enough to handle it. When the convention opened on July 8, the conventioneers were distressed to find that there was another heat wave, and once again the temperature in the hall was nearly unbearable. Annoyance over this situation was exacerbated when a rumor began, suggesting that the producers had opted to save money by not turning the air‑conditioning on all the way. There was an exhibition of antique conjuring materials from the collection of the late Adolphe Blind of Switzerland, which had been care, fully restored under the direction of Christian Fechner. And, of course, there was a boat trip on Lake Geneva. Returning talent during the six‑day event included Tamariz, Lavand, The Pendragons, Ceby, Tempest & Cottet, and the indispensable Bongo. Also appearing was the famous Swiss mime group Mummenschanz, known for their work using curious materials. New faces included a trio of American doveworkers with divergent styles: Michael Douglas, James Brandon and Amos Levkovitch (the latter an Israeli transplanted to Los Angeles). Another new face, and a particularly droll one, belonged to Voronin, a comedy magician from the Ukraine who got a great reaction. For larger magic there was Markus Gabriel with a new partner, Trix, and a new levitation. There were two young Dutch illusionists, Hans Klock and the team of Phillipart & Anja, and a pair of American troupes led by Greg Wilson and Harry Blackstone, the latter getting a standing ovation for his Floating Lightbulb. On a smaller scale, but with larger volume, David Williamson of the United States triumphed over adverse conditions in the close‑up show with his manic attack. There was another marathon of contest acts, with over 140 entrants. The outcome looked like this:
GRAND
PRIX:
MANIPULATION:
GENERAL MAGIC:
INVENTION:
COMEDY:
GRAND ILLUSION:
MICROMAGIC:
CARDS:
MENTALISM:
DEALER DISPLAY:
SPECIAL:
SPECIAL:
The idiosyncratic methods used by Lennart Green had become known, at least to some degree, in the interim between the last contest and now; this time he was given credit for what he was actually doing, and won the Card prize. Roberto Giobbi took second place, again representing the Spanish School. The third position was held by Helge Thun part of an emerging group of young Germans who would become known collectively as Die fertigen Finger ("The Dexterous Digit").
Another German success was
Topas, who came in The General Magic category was notable, with Italy's Vikj offering some surprising visual illusions for his third‑place win, and the second prize going to Alpha of France with star, ding pyrotechnics. First prize went to the young man from Spain who had been billed as Alex; now, he worked as Juan Mayoral. A Spaniard with a decidedly different approach was Enric Magoo, whose singing Frankenstein act came in third in the Comedy division. Another off, trail act was done by Australia's Tim Ellis, who presented the hoary Six, Card Repeat as a rap music routine. The judges felt that this one item was too short to qualify for a standard award, but the response had been so favourable that they gave it a special prize. Another special award was given to Shankar junior, a precocious magician in his early teens whose rendition of the traditional Indian version of the Cups & Balls was another crowd pleaser. The Grand Prix went to Vladimir Danilin, who had merged the two acts he'd presented three years before into a very effective routine. Delightfully strange effects took place, many incorporating a doorsized screen. Objects appeared, costumes changed, and the magician levitated himself. Some of the magic was done using relatively standard sleight‑of‑hand, but other sequences involved technical approaches little known outside of the former Soviet Union. Danilin's performing style of deadpan bemusement tickled the audience, and his selection for the top prize was a popular choice. The FISM™ convention of 1994 was the first to be held off of the European continent. Over the years, other proposals had been made by clubs from outside of Europe, but had always met with resistance. At Lausanne, a Japanese group had offered a convincing game plan, backed with support from several key delegates, and Tokyo was voted to be the site of the next FISM™, with Masatoshi Furota announced as President.
At the time, the Japanese
economy had been vigorously healthy, but during the next There had originally been plans to make arrangements with sponsoring airlines for discount airfares, but that had fallen through, which hampered the attendance. Some 1,300 registered, but the ratio of local to foreign was almost two to one. There were 35 dealers. The convention site had been moved from Tokyo to Yokohama, which provided the brand new Pacifico Convention Center. The opening ceremony on July 25 was held in the 5,000‑seat National Hall, as was the closing gala six days later; the extra seats were filled by members of the public. The other gala shows were held in the center's smaller 1,000 seat theater, which meant that those shows were done twice, with the audience divided in half while this split format had been used before, it was previously applied to only one or two events. Its repeated use in Yokohama served to undermine the communal feeling that comes out of a shared experience. The complications of language have often posed problems at FISM™ events. The backstage situation in Lausanne had been chaotic. In Yokohama, the complexity was multiplied, and despite the best efforts of a hard‑working crew, there were often delays. All things considered, the technical production of the shows was reasonably smooth.
The talent included FISM™
veterans such as M Two of the best reactions were garnered by non‑magic acts from the United States: juggler Michael Goudeau (on leave from the Lance Burton show in Las Vegas) was a hit in the opening show, and Avner the Eccentric's inspired clowning was a highlight of the final gala. That last show was closed by a lovely performance of the classic Japanese Mizugei water fountain act by Sayo Akizuki. The close‑up shows were noteworthy, featuring performances by such as Japan's Tomohiro Maeda and Kenichi Kuroki, and America's Michael Weber and Steve Cohen (the latter a Japanese resident at that time). A solid line‑up of lecturers included America's iconoclastic Jerry Andrus, plus Tamariz, Mayoral, Weber, Green, Colombini, Duvivier and Kuroki. There were exhibits of early Japanese magic graphics, and optical illusions created by Andrus and the Tenyo company. There was also a video area which offered a continual showing of tapes from international sources. The absolute low point of the convention took place on Friday night, when the registrants were taken by bus to the Tycoon, a large restaurant in the trendy Bay Bridge district of Yokohama, for what was intended as a big party. The venue was over, crowded, and the supply of food was insufficient. Things got ugly when several western guests began breaking plates on the floor, a shamefully boorish display.
The contest had 106
entries, and was an more tedious than e The result was that there were many acts in the contest who had no business being there. This not only made for a long and wearisome line‑up; it also skewed the perception of the western magicians, many of whom came away with the idea that the overall quality of Japanese magic was very poor. For all that, the contest also had its share of worthwhile participants. Among those that got great reactions despite not receiving awards were the creative American/Hungarian team of Nicholas Night & Kinga, and Jorgos, a Greek‑born performer from Germany, who interacted with his own life‑size video image in clever ways. Those that did win prizes were:
GRAND
PRIX:
MANIPULATION:
GENERAL MAGIC:
COMEDY:
GRAND
ILLUSION:
MICROMAGIC:
CARDS:
MENTALISM:
Germany did particularly well in the I awards, in part due to preparatory contests that had been orchestrated by the Magische Zirkel. The far‑reaching influence of the Madrid School could be discerned in the cleverly constructed act of Ramblar of Argentina, who won the Card category. The second prize in that field went to Pit Harding, one of the Fertigen Finger fraternity who was also an ardent student of the Madrid Escuela. Another Argentinian, Henry Evans, tied for third place with Yuji Wada of Japan. The latter's win took him completely by surprise; he was in the dealer room, helping Joe Stevens pack, when word came that he'd better get over to the theatre right away to accept his award. Tim Ellis brought a longer act this time, and scored second place in the Micromagic field, flanked by sleevers Carl Cloutier and Rocco on either side. Comedy award‑winner "Funtasio" was, in fact, the Floridian cane and candle dealer, with a new act involving well‑known tricks with unexpected twists. There was another case of a judging decision based on a misapprehension. Satori, the sole winner for Mentalism, received only enough points to achieve a third‑place ranking, because the judges presumed he was using an electronic device to receive information. He wasn't although what difference that would have made is not entirely clear, given that the FISM™ scoring system allows no points for "technique" in the Mentalism category. The two illusion acts that placed were decidedly different in style. Cyril Takayama, a young Japanese‑French‑American living in Tokyo, had obtained financial backing from a talent agency, which enabled him to mount an act with a huge set, surely the most elaborate to ever be seen in a convention contest. Yuji Yasuda's act was on a smaller scale, but energetic and tightly choreographed. (Yasuda was originally from North Korea, where he was known as An Son U, but had become a Japanese citizen. At the most recent Desert Seminar, he competed as the representative of his country of birth, but used his Japanese name.)
The top scores in
Manipulation went to two young performers with bold ideas. Third place
went to Peter Marvey, who got a solid response for his act involving the
production of varied items, working in a costume with short sleeves. In
second place, Takamitsu Uchida took jumbo card manipulation to new levels
approaching absurdity, working with cards so large that even the basic
task of shuffling them became an impress The General field had a strong triumvirate of winners this time. Coming in third was Clemens Valentino, another Riese pupil, with a whimsical act involving a shifting series of styles matched to musical changes. Viktor Voitko had great impact with a supple Linking Ring routine that included sequences in which the rings floated. Greg Frewin topped the category with a dove act that featured a number of visual moments that took the audience by surprise, and a climax wherein the dove cage suddenly transformed into a live woman (Alanna, now his wife) that was the talk of the convention. There were many who felt that Frewin should have won the Grand Prix. That award went to Franklin Schmidt, a 19‑year‑old working sans surname with an effervescent act involving effects with micro, phones and lollipops. The act was very well received, and the general consensus was that the young German undoubtedly deserved an award. The question was, should that award have been the Grand Prix? Once again, the spectre of backroom politics was raised, in part because Franklin was another act coached by Eberhard Riese, and Riese was a member of the contest jury. The audience revealed its assessment at the closing gala. Franklin received a warm response to his performance, but it was Frewin who got a standing ovation. Both young men went on to international success
And that brings us to the present. So where do we go from here?
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Before,
Bill Larsen had covered the stage acts, and passed on the card and
close‑up workers. (A couple of times he had gotten Pete Biro to provide
commentary on those.) This year in his GENII write‑up, Bill gave capsule
descriptions for every entry in every category.
the place, except for
the Japanese, who found an easy mnemonic as the pronunciation sounded
very much like sukebeningen, Japanese for "horny person.") The
beach was also the location for a separate streetmagic contest, and a
late night fireworks display. There was also a special junior magic
show, with a cast of eight young Dutch magicians. Among the returning
acts in the various shows were on, Colombini, Lonn, Lupo, Lenert,
McBride, Pit, The Pen, dragons and, of course, Bongo. 
dimir Danilin of
Russia had arrived intending to enter the contest with two different
acts, but as he did not belong to a member club this was not allowed.
Instead, the producers took a chance and put him on the Friday night
gala, to do both acts. As no one had actually seen either of these, the
director placed him in a relatively safe position in the middle of each
half of the show. Through an interpreter, the director explained to
Danilin that if his first set did not go over, the second would be
deleted from the line‑up (which, because he was not listed in the
program, could be done discreetly). That night, with a fair amount of
trepidation, the director (now in the role of emcee) introduced Danilin's first act‑which was a great success, as was the second. The
Pendragons closed that show, and got a standing ovation, as did the full
cast.
nother
wrong conjecture was the reason that Tom Mullica came third on the
Comedy list. Tom's con, test set was eagerly anticipated, as many in
Europe had heard about his remarkable routine in which he seemingly ate
many lit cigarettes. The problem in this case was that his technique was
too good: Some of the judges believed that he had actually swallowed the
cigarettes (perhaps regurgitating them later backstage), and thus
decided that his act was not magic, but rather a straightforward and
fairly disgusting geek demonstration. Mullica had the last laugh, as his
appearance in the contest led to many work opportunities, far more t
han
for many first prize winners.
me home with a
FISM™ award, which he shared with his
partner Bona Ueki. Collectively known as The Napoleons, their comedic
approach won them third place in the Grand Illusion field. The highest
award in that category went to the German team of Axel & Dirk, whose act
had a sadomasochistic tone made somewhat surreal by the logo on all of
their props: an old stylized portrait of Dunninger. 
n from the United States. Moreover, for the first time the award
went to a close‑up magician. Johnny Ace Palmer had been winning American
contests left and right, and his award was celebrated by many‑but by no
means all. His act was the same with which he'd won second place in
Micromagic three years before, and there were those who felt that the
old ineligibility rule that had been applied to Cox in 1967 and
had provoked harsh criticism of Smit in 1970 should have been
enforced here.
first for Manipulation, having added several new
touches to his act including the production of an electric guitar. Two
other Eberhard Riese protégés also won awards: Tom Voss in Grand Illusion,
and Andy in Mentalism.
couple of years
that country fell into a recession, and companies that had made promises
to help sponsor the FISM™ venture began to renege. There was upheaval
within the committee that had been formed to produce the congress. When
the dust settled , the FISM™ President was Sumie Shoukyokusai. The first
woman to hold that position, she was also the President of the Japan
Professional Magicians Association. The hands‑on producing was done by
Yoshi Tamura.
artyn, Lenert, Caveney, Tenko, Tamariz, Duvivier,
Colombini and, unfailingly, Bongo. Recent prize‑winners who performed
included Danilin, Topas, Markus & Trix, Green, Mayoral, Mullica and Magoo,
as well as Japanese winners Sanada, Yoka, The Napoleons, Fukai & Kimika
and Mahka a Tendo. New faces included Canadian doveworker James Cielen and
Canadian card manipulator Juliana Chen (the latter transplanted from
China), comedy illusionist Nathan Burton from the United States, and
Japanese pros Maki Kitami, Johnny Hirose and Shintaro Fujiyama.
ver. Because of the expense of
coming to Japan, the number of entrants from Europe and the Americas was
smaller than usual. Unfortunately, instead of reveling in this reduction
of quantity, the organizers felt that the registrants would be
disappointed by a smaller contest turnout. Therefore, prior to the
convention they cajoled the various Japanese clubs into providing
contestants to fill out the schedule!
ive
feat of logistics.
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