Naquada

Well the competition started almost on time and in true style ran late, and later, and left the audience with something to be desired from some acts, JJ’s already done a fine job of running through the acts but my views are below (in running order)

Jerome Bourgeon (France)

Jerome opened the running with a taped commentary and voice over art, Jerome played a character based around his youth, and the cups and balls, there were some nice twists with his magic book that he was learning from reappearing under the cups over and over, he finished with a nice appearance of a fourth cup, and final acrylic ball loads, and a small to full sized book production to end, generally a good start to the day.

Kolos Tarkanyi (Hungary)

Opening with color changing decks and card cases, the theme seemed to be green. He did a lot of fast flourishes, a few of which he didnt quite pull off, but I was a little lost with the speed, loosing the idea of some of the appearances and appearances. He did have a good personality, and did some nice ace and ace through king productions of suits, but I dont think he’ll be in the prizes camp..

John van der Put (UK)

John had a great funny personality, starting with a sponge rabbit routine, which was quite dry and funny, so that was an uplift to the running, He did a two deck prediction that seemed to go wrong, but he recovered by ‘restoring’ the wrong card to the correct one (including signature!) which was actually a really nice effect, quarter by quarter changing from a court card to the chosen card. The card was also handed out at the end.. John did a nice multiple card selection and various revelation section, the final revelation was a kind of card on window, but with a MacBook (bonus points from me if i was a judge!), the card being sprayed at the screen, one sticking to the inside of the screen. John then ran off stage to appear in the scene inside the macbook to retrieve the card, returning to take his applause. His humor throughout was good, and I think personally he’s also i the running for something award wise…

Satoru (Japan)

I actually really liked Satoru’s act, it started off a bit oh no not looking good as he was setting up his act, but really built up to a great act. Once he’d warmed up he managed to milk laughs and applause form the audience, and his approach was very fresh. Personal favorites where his ‘take a toothpick’, selecting a toothpick from a pack of 400 odd, to reveal the ‘chosen toothpick’, seeming to be a gag, it turned out that all the toothpicks had different coloured bottoms, and in fact he had correctly found the chosen one. Also favorite was a three person ’stamp on a card’ freely selected cards on the floor being stood on, and the selections being revealed on the bottom of his shoes, socks and finally feet, as a final kicker he produced a large umbrella from his sock and shoe bundle with the predictions again correctly spelt out on the umbrella. I’m currently putting money on him winning.

Peter McLanachan (uk)

Peter McLanachan is at a technical card level well above most, running through flawless shuffles and ace locations, selected card at called for number, separation of reds and blacks in the deck and generally excellent card stuff, although very confident, and solid, I get the feeling that he’s probably not going to get anything, which is a shame, but I’d like to be proved wrong.

Shorty (Switzerland)

Not a great act and definitely not a closeup act, this was entirely stage, based around a street character, there were cigarette productions and cigar work (all lit), I wasnt quite sure what he was doing when he was jiggling on stage and undoing his zipper, it seemed he had the urge to pull a silk from his crotch… Not on the shortlist..

Alex Moffat (UK)

Generally ok, he started with a reboxing of the deck back into the box, multiple decks coming out of the same box and a pen form box. generally presentable personality, and threw in a nice broken and restore spectacle arm, it was an ok act, but again, not one of the winners I think.

Lior Manor (Israel)

Generally quite amusing, mainly focused around his bad english but intentionally funny, a jumbo poker hand type effect, where the spectator could select a card for his or Lior’s hands, there was a nice bit again at the end with another laptop (pc this time.. booo!) and a Lior on the laptop correctly interacting with the spectator to reveal a chosen number. Again I’m not sure he’s on the winning list, but as a generally entertaining act he might get a merit award

Patrick Przysiecki (USA)

Very confident and professional, and probably the first ‘true competition act’ of the day. Patrick did a nice globe production from inside the closeup mat, and the globe theme carried on through the act, a signed note was burnt and found inside a smaller global (thanks to a Tommy Wonder move), and finishing with a 3 shell game routine, unfortunately set to rhyme, the final loads being large dice and ball, and him flattening the globe under the closeup mat to finish. Given the material and general crowd pleasing, he’ll more than likely get an award.

Gianfranco Preverino (Italy)

Started with a clean printing of faces and backs on a blank deck, along with a colour change of the deck and then box. Some nice ace locations (roll over aces?) separation of reds and blacks, reordering of the deck, but a very very weak ending. It was a shame he almost just said, ‘..and thats it’. Generally very good, but might get let down by the anticlimax ending, I think probably he should get something..

Troy Von Scheibner (England)

Despite his name, hes not German, he’s English, 18, black , funny and great potential talent, as he said, not a old german dude but a 18 year old who wears hoodies and had cool hair. He did a very sharp and polished coin manipulation set in the style of Michael Jackson, and a short rope trick (knots on and off) in Bolloywood style, followed by a Kung Foo fighter section that didnt contain any magic as such… up to this point he’d had the audience laughing and warming to him, he then followed with a fair card trick, but seemed to be unhappy with the ending section and I think brought the audience down. I think he’s very raw talent, but has good things ahead.. I doubt he’ll get anything this time round, although a merit might be a surprise here.

Francis Menotti (USA)

Having lost his luggage in transit with air canada, he was dressed casually. He started with a deck in new deck order, and mimicked the shuffling of the deck with the mixing of the words in his sentences, the more the deck was mixed, the more mixed his words became, a selected card table on the place was, and find from order hard much could have been. He returned his sentences to the right order, and revealed the same had happened to the deck, back in new deck order. a small magic number effect with the outcome being 24, the location of the selected card in the deck, along with the number 24 on its back, and some by play with ‘nothing’ allowing him to make coins invisible (given you cant seen nothing and hence is nothing is on top of the coin, you cant see it as nothing is in the way) meant it was a strong act. Another personal favorite to get some award.

Jon Gordon (UK)

I didnt like this act, Jon performed standing with no table, he did a coin in glass routine, a ring on rope/cord with a spectators ring, ending up with a ring flight. There was a selected card that ended up pinned to the front of his jacket, but it didn’t catch me.. probably not a winner but a fair end to the day..

InternationalMagic, Magic

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