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The Ellusionist Blog has some interesting news about a potential new UK Magic show coming up this year

Magic on UK TV seems to be taking an upturn as of lately with a number of specials and shows having aired. These shows have subsequently spread across the shores to the US; the trend seems to be continuing. We’ve heard of a new magic show will be shooting this summer at bars around the UK.

The show that has yet to be named is being produced for a new UK channel launching this year. The difference—they are working with a little known magician who’ll be performing his own material alongside the cream of effects from the magic community in a ‘new and unique way’.

Having spoken to the magician at the center of the show, we’re sure that UK viewers are in for a treat, and a refreshing change in magic shows. “Everything I’m performing in the show, from my own material to the already released material, will be very unique in its presentation.

As to what the unique slant is and who the mystery newcomer is—stay tuned, and don’t touch that dial—we’ll be right back!

It all sounds very interesting, and a bit cryptic, but I’m hoping to do some more digging to find out what’s going on..

FISM Europe in sofa seems to be canceled according to their website;

Dear All,

Due to unforeseen circumstances, restricted organizational capacity and unexpected financial strains, jeopardizing the initial budget, it is with great regret that the FISM European Executive Board has to inform you that the FISM European Championships of Magic, planned to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 6 to 9 November 2008, have to be cancelled.

The first European Championships of Magic are postponed to a later date, to be announced as soon as possible.

Best regards.

FISM
European Executive Board

Andre Ciocca
Interim President

Seems a few others have spotted this as well.. as to what it physically means, and the decisions behind it are unclear…

FISM is the Olympics of the Magic world, I went to my first one in 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed it. The next one is scheduled for Beijing, China, and I’m keen to attend again. Each country hoping to host the FISM convention has to create a case, and bid for the honor of hosting the event, in 2006 it was down to three, one of which was China.

I think one of the major points for the Beijing bid was the use of the newly constructed National Center for the Performing Arts, a mammoth $400 million titanium and glass half dome. Housing a concert hall, opera house and theatre under one space, the venue looked amazing, and really seemed like a great home for FISM 2009.

However reading an email on the Electronic Grymoire last night, and checking the FISM 2009 site, it seems there has been a quiet change of venue..

New Venue for the FISM World Championships of Magic 2009 in Beijing

After multiple discussions about the best venue to host the 2009 event in Beijing, Mr Lin Jian, President of the organising committee has proposed to drop the National Grand Theatre in favour of the China National Convention Centre, in the heart of the Olympic Green in the North of Beijing.

Reserves and concerns expressed over the initial venue on Tianenmen square were the difficulty to organise a compact event with great distances between the different rooms (dealer fair, competitions, lectures, etc.) and the lack of hotels nearby.

The China National Convention Centre, which is to be home of the modern Pentathlon as well as the broadcast centre for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, will allow a much more intimate event. Further details about the new venue will be released later on www.fism2009.org

This news is actually not on the main FISM front page, and is almost shown to be an after thought, raising for me some questions. Firstly did the venue have problems to start off with (lack of nearby hotels, venue too large?), and if it did, then why was it selected ? and secondly, each country bidding for FISM had to make a case for it’s selection. Delegates from around the world were shown the National Grand Theatre as part of the site inspection, and based on inspections and ability to give FISM a good home, Beijing got the vote.

Changing the venue with less than 18 months to go sounds very worrying, the majority of Beijing’s bid was around the ultra modern and sophisticated new performance venue.

We know very little about the replacement The China National Convention Centre and it’s my guess that no site inspection has taken place of this venue. I hope the FISM main committee will be updating us on the changes..

UPDATE: Magic Unlimited (Tim Ellis and Sue-Anne Webber) are also now reporting on this, and shed a little more light on the subject:

Though no official word has come out yet, it appears that the FISM 2009 convention in Beijing has moved to a newer and possibly more practical venue (with a hotel right next door!). You can take a look at the Chinese National Convention Centre and take a ‘virtual tour’ of it right here.

Having a hotel right next door sounds good, but with no official word, except the snippet on the FISM main media site, it makes arrange hotels a little more complex. It’s good news if the venue is more practical, but the Chinese National Convention Center site is all in Chinese,  so it’s not that enlightening!!

One of the members of our local Magical Society, Robert Bone has been successful in being voted onto the BBC’s ‘Upstaged‘ show. The daily fate of the Contenders will lie with the ‘upstaged’ online community.

The Members will decide which acts make it through by watching their audition videos and voting for who they would like to see. The Contenders with the highest votes will go head-to-head on two specially built glass stages in the middle of Millennium Square, Bristol. Here, they will try to entertain the nation LIVE for 6 hours straight. Their attempts will be streamed online and filmed for a BBC Three highlights show.

Presenter Scott Mills describes Upstaged as “a brand new BBC entertainment event open to anyone across the country who thinks they’re worth watching. In short, it’s like having your own studio where you can broadcast what you want to the nation live on the internet.”

After scrutinising their performance, the public will vote for their favorite act and the winner will stay on. The Champion will perform again the next day with a new Challenger brought forward to try and upstage them. The rivalry all comes to an end on the 30th March with the overall Champion winning something rather tasty.

Robert’s profile and videos on the site got him through to the next stage, allowing him to perform in the BBC studio in Bristol on the 5th of February. Here he’ll be performing for 6 hours straight. Make sure you check it out online from 3pm on the main Upstaged site. Make sure you show your support for him today, and good luck Rob!

There’s no arguing that Derren Brown has brought the art of mentalism screaming back into public view over the last few years, with a number of hugely successful TV series behind him, The psychological illusionist has amazed, confused, entertained and in some cases shocked the public with his abilities to mix magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship to create something very clever and unique in todays entertainment world.

The System which aired last night on Channel 4, was the latest of the hour long specials, joining previous specials such as Messiah, The Gathering, The Heist, Seance, Russian Roulette, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. In The System Derren plants the seeds that probably everyone wants to believe in, that there is a sure fire, guaranteed way to predict the outcome of horse races, and win every single time.

The show was fairly enjoyable, from a pure ‘magic’ point of view there was very little in there except for one section involving a nice prediction, given most have probably already already seen the show, this involved four people shuffling and taking a large envelope, then freely choosing photos from about 500, they then selected a order in which to stand (each of them having a number stick to their chests). Derren correctly predicted the order they would stand in (ala a chair prediction), then pointed out the initials of the name on each of the polaroid photos matched the initials of the person that selected it, and also matched a photo in that each one of them held in the envelope they were holding (a nice double kicker prediction). Then explaining the odds of this happening, he revealed that the odds (14 billion odd to 1) were also listed on the back of the photo (each photo of the four making up 3 digits of the 12 digit number).

The rest of the show was purely then around the journey of one woman, who, receiving anonymous race tips from Derren, moved from merely confirming that the horses won, through placing small bets, to finally placing £4,000 on the final race.

To be honest, although the show was good, an excellent concept, it left me slightly flat, from the outset it was fairly obvious what The System was, and how it worked. The ability to predict 6 races without failure, from one viewpoint is simple, and Derren explains this at the end of the show.

Given that his ’system’ is explained, I don’t see a problem talking about it here.. however, if you’ve not see the show, you may want to stop reading now..

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