FISM 2012 - my experience.
Posted: July 15th, 2012, 3:32 pm
Fism 2012 an opinion.
It should be pointed out before we start that I am a bitter man. Ive been attending the Blackpool Magic Convention for many years now, and its usually one of the highlights of my year. But I feel like Im starting to see through it now, and I feel like Ive been taken for a ride.
My ticket was about 480, and upon arrival, I was presented with the highly anticipated goodie bag. I received my 150 book, which turned out to be another Derek Lever publication. I didnt see this advertised as such anywhere in advance, I knew I would receive a hardback book with 150 value, but assumed (as this was FISM, not Blackpool Magic) that this would be something of value. I saw the same book on a dealer stand at 15, there were copies of the book dumped around at various places, and the number of jokes at Dereks expense makes me think that no-one really believes this book is of any real value, and certainly not the 150 printed on the cover. Is there some sort of unusual accountancy going on here? Is the book genuinely a free gift, or are we being sold this book? Why do we always get given a Derek Lever book at these conventions? No-one seems to want them is there something funny going on here?
The next item out of the bag was a programme, littered with spelling errors. It was interesting to see that Derek Lever had used a sizable chunk of his welcome page to discuss negative issues around the conference. Similar to previous Blackpool conventions where the programme often focuses on the threats made by certain individuals to disrupt the conference. Why cant this space be used for a positive welcome? Compare Dereks introduction with the Eric Eswins on the following page. They are worlds apart.
The organisers air of negativity continued throughout the conference. The guy who announced the acts in the close up the close up shows kept repeating to us between acts that there were no ladies toilets, and the handicapped toilets were in a poor state. So many comments and speeches covered unimportant and irrelevant information about trivial issues. And no-one was announcing anything of interest about the upcoming artists in the event for example. A good example of this was the speech made by the guy who handed over the diamond to the winner of the prize draw. The host told us that the winner of the 6500 diamond had been picked, and informed us that, had the diamond been a class one diamond it would be worth 20,000. Who cares? Its not a class one diamond, so why bring that up?
Oh yes, the diamond. If that diamond was really worth 6500, wouldnt that money have been better spent paying someone to clean the toilets? There were 11 sinks in the mens toilets, and ONE soap dispenser. Most of the cubicles had broken locks, and one toilet was so covered in [censored], I simply had to take a photo of it. And just the idea of giving away a diamond it shrieks of class and opulence for the sake of it reminding me of the Alan Partridge chat show where he introduces, for the first time on a British speaking chat show, a beautiful fountain! Yes, ladies and gentlemen thats what youll be getting throughout the series, lots of money spent on expensive items. There was simply no need to give away a diamond, especially when so many other aspects of the week seemed to be pulled off on the cheap.
So after being given our heavy book to lug around, a Tommy Cooper bear and a voucher for some free tricks (apparently sponsored by Hanky Panky Magic, so maybe at no cost to the organisers), we were advised there were no tickets left for the evening shows in the Olympia (a sort of unfinished annex to the Winter Gardens). Apparently, arriving at 9.30am on the Monday Morning was apparently too late for us to be given tickets. There was nothing to say that this particular event was a separate, ticketed event. And now, we couldnt go.
Unbelieveable.
As it happens, we complained to the front desk the following day, and they gave us a choice of tickets for either of the two shows, which only served to frustrate more there were tickets available after all! What a farce.
At this stage, wed taken about 30 steps into the building, and started to sense that this may not be the amazing event Id expected. Ill just remind you again, I paid 480 for my ticket. I stayed in a cheap B+B in Blackpool, and the total expenditure could have got me to Vegas.
I spent all day watching the stage competition, and missed the lectures, but I wasnt too bothered. The February convention had destroyed my faith in lectures, as many of them appeared to be nothing more than sales pitches for the products on sale outside. The worst example of this so far is Michael Webers lecture from February that was repeated in part at Fism the bulk of that lecture was little more than a mentalism act, and the techniques used were not discussed in the lecture, requiring the purchase of a 20-ish page book for 70. Im not a mentalist, but if anyone who bought a book is reading this, could you tell me, was it good value? The purpose of the lecture appeared to me to be to generate sales of the book, and a large proportion of the routines demonstrated in the lecture remained unexplained at the end, unless you bought something.
The stage shows were good, but again, seemed to suffer from no organisation there was no compere for the most part. The audience learned who was coming on next from information on the screens. The Wonderful, hard working Frank Wilson on the keyboards did an amazing job at keeping the audience amused.
The competions were as good or bad as the competitors themselves, and by not knowing what was going to come next, I enjoyed all of it, whatever the standard. I am not going into detail about the competition performances, as Craig has done a fantastic job of that already on this forum, and my review is of the event rather than the competitors.
The evening Gala show was pretty good personally I quite like Clive Webb and Danny Adams, and the evening, whilst nothing spectacular, was pretty good. I did wonder why Blub came on stage to play with bubble mixture (my kids do that at nursery) , we were sat near the back so it was hard to see if anything more interesting was happening (it just looked like blowing bubbles). I returned to the Bed and Breakfast and went to sleep. Little did I realise this would be the only Gala show I would make it through to the end of.
Day two followed a routine that would stick to for the next few days 8.30am start for the close up, then grab a sandwich from the co-op and hang around the doors of the main theatre for 45 minutes or so to get good seats for the competition. It seemed that the organisers hadnt realised how popular these competitions would be as the lectures I attended were very sparsely attended when the competitions were on. The lack of reserved seating for the competitions suggests to me that the organisers had not expected people to spend all day watching only that. However, this worked in our favour as our ticketed seats were quite near the back, so every competition we were running like the clappers and using pre-determinded strategy to get down the back of the theatre and down the second to last aisle to 3rd row seats behind the judges.
That night, we saw some nice close up in the second session, and were glad wed managed to get tickets after all. The YMCA tossed out deck routine was a bit overly long, but we liked the show overall. The ludicrous explanation of legal requirements for audience sizes seemed all the more silly when you saw the packed Olympia hall and saw it only sat 600 people. Surely there was some sort of [censored] up there why on earth schedule it to take place in the Olympia, when its going to upset about half the attendees?
Day 3 followed the same format as day 2, with another 8.30 start for the close up and 2pm for the main stage. Having come to realise that Id not see any lectures or spend any time in the dealer halls, I only stayed for the first half of the close up, then checked out the dealer halls until it was time to get in place to be first into the main theatre when the doors opened. The dealers were saying that things were a bit quiet, but I enjoyed the calmer more relaxed atmosphere. I got to talk to a few dealers, and had a demonstration of a brilliant portable levitation table! I decided not to buy anything at this time as there was so much to see, I wondered if Id see better things to buy later and regret spending all my money. The dealers seemed to be hearing that a lot.
The stage show followed the same format as previous days, with no announcements of the acts. Some acts were good, some not so, but the magic was starting to wear thin, for example, all the manipulators seemed to merge into one in my memory, and props started to become recognisable. We could recognise by the table on stage that the magician was probably going to make some doves appear, then probably cover it with a cloth, carry it over to the side, then show the cage had vanished.For example.
But nothing, NOTHING could have prepared us for the COMEDY CAPERS night in the theatre that evening. Our seats were 3 rows from the back, so some of the smaller effects were difficult to see, but we didnt think that would be a problem in a comedy show. John Archer performed 2 tricks with a lot of fun and humour but a bit too much narrative for the international audience. But John was great and I really enjoyed his routines. Stan Allen did a fairly basic job as host, but did a great routine with a puppet in the middle. Clive Webb and Danny Adams did their act and I thought it was quite good. But between these acts, we had Blub, who tapdanced (comedy capers? Tapdancing?), Nardini did some unfunny bad magician stuff, Richard McDougall walked onto the stage and smoked cigarettes for ten minutes (from where we were sat Im sure he was doing something magical with the cigarettes, but to me it was just a man smoking) - there was not a lot of comedy in any of these acts, and the big finale act was not even comedy at all. A special mention should go to them, Blackpools very own Amythyst provided a fast paced flick through an illusion dealer catalogue, by placing a girl in a box, sticking spikes through or similar, then revealing the girl was unharmed at the end. They did this five times, with 5 different elaborate cabinets. There was no plot, character, structure or storyline it was just elaborate cabinet after elaborate cabinet, LOOK, SHES OK!!! AGAIN!!!!. The biggest applause of the night for Amythist was a cut and restored rope routine that I really enjoyed. The audience of magicians seemed distinctly unimpressed by the off-the-shelf box illusions, one after the other. In fact, the traditional how did they do that? was only asked after they produced a bored looking tiger that paced around in a circle in the cage. Not How did they do that where did she go?, rather How did they get a tiger in Blackpool? How much work did that involve? Does that require a lot of Admin? Was it worth it to have such a bored animal in a cage? Its hardly Seigfried and Roy. Compare Amythyst to the Prince of Ilusion that won Fism same idea, but worlds apart in presentation and ideas.
Now, as Im typing this, I feel Im being negative. We shouldnt expect Siegfried and Roy, this is the Blackpool Magicians Club. BUT ITS NOT! THIS IS FISM!!! We paid 480 a ticket (sorry to keep bringing that up but its true!!!) The comedy capers show would remain one of the most disappointing shows Id ever seen had I not attended what was to come on subsequent nights. Only John Archer provided genuine comedy moments, the rest of the show was weak.
So, in the voice of Marcus Bentley, DAY FIVE. I followed the same routine as yesterday, leaving the close up after Yaan Frisch to go and see John Archers lecture and wander the dealer halls some more. Johns lecture was good, the items on sale were cheaper than their regular prices, and to me, that demonstrated what a lecture should be like I learned about presentation, I learned some methods, and most importantly, I had the choice of whether to buy something or not. For example, John explained what I would need to buy and how to create the Blank Night routine from his Penn and Teller performance. There were ready made items on sale as well, and I could save myself the hassle of making the props myself if I chose to. Thats a good lecture. I came away with new ideas and knowledge, and I was not required to buy anything unless I wanted to. As it happens, I did, and I bought some stuff. I noticed that the Speed Dating (still going on when I arrived for the lecture) seemed to have gone very well, although again the audience for both Johns lecture and the Speed Dating was very small, because everyone was at the close up.
I started to wonder how the dealers must have been feeling, as everywhere other than the FISM competitions felt really quiet. I went for a nice relaxing poo after the lecture, and ended up having to hold it in as I could not find a cubicle with a working lock on the door, or that wasnt covered from top to bottom in [censored]. As mentioned earlier, I took a photo, I just could not believe what I was seeing. How does someone let their arse get into that condition?
We went to the main theatre for the stage competiton, and once again, used strategy to bag wonderful seats. After this, we went for some food at the buffet.
Oh dear.
1200 people all waited outside the winter gardens for the first session of the buffet. When we got in, there was a bottleneck as people tried to pick the diamond in a random draw. It took forever to get in, we didnt win a diamond, and the queues were so long that we gave up waiting. As we were leaving the queue in the Chinese part of the Buffet, a lady announced they had run out of food and only had noodles left. The queue of people dispersed into the other queues, and as we left to head out to Burger King.
I wasnt that bothered about the Tower Circus, but I decided to go for a look anyway, leaving at the interval if it was boring. I arrived at the Winter Gardens for the 8.15pm Magical Musical March to the Tower, only to be greeted by a crowd of confused magicians. It seemed that the March had left some time earlier, and no-one was around the front of the Winter Gardens to tell the people who had arrived at the stated time where the Tower was. I have some local knowledge, and I directed them to the Tower, and when we arrived, there was a large group of people at the closed main entrance. There was a lot of confusion and eventually, we realised these doors were not going to open, and walked onto the promenade, and saw the queue there. People were complaining about the lack of communication.
The circus was excellent, and definitely well worth the 10 an adult ticket would cost you any other time. I recommend it really high standard. The hosts of the shows had a lot of fun with the running joke of the conference, (people were shouting OK!! whenever the performer said it) and the acrobats and artists were great.
DAY 6 then. No need to be up early, as no close up competition today, freeing up the morning. Three lectures in the AM, with 2 of those at the same time, despite there being no close up competition at the same time. Surely these could have all run sequentially? David Stone was excellent, although his lecture like so many others, was more like an entertaining dealer demonstration. Most of the tricks he demonstrated were self working tricks that he was selling, and there wasnt much to be learned from the lecture unless you were looking for presentation tips for the tricks he was selling.
The stage show passed the day nicely and the evening Gala show loomed. By now, our expectations for the Gala shows had been sufficiently lowered, but we had no idea how bad things were going to get. Ernesto Planas couldnt attend due to Visa restrictions, so instead, we were treated to a drag queen in a fat suit, tits hanging out and a fake hairy pubic bush. WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA??? Seriously, what the hell was that? An utterly appalling, rude, misjudged, shocking performance that the international audience of entertainers just could not believe. Dreadful, whoever gave that the go-ahead needs shooting. There was some good juggling from Blub, who redeemed his/herself by finally showing some actual relevant talent after the previous tapdancing and bubble blowing. The last act of the evening was a generic stage illusion act, so formulaic and tiresome that the audience actually started to boo. We left early to get good seats for Beat the Wand, which as always was a highlight of the weekend. Magic Sam and Andy do a terrific job of making people laugh, and after a lot of worry about the low number of acts the night went on late with people volunteering to go on stage throughout the evening.
The final day then Saturday, and all magic-ed out, we decided to go for a wander around Blackpool, make some purchases at the dealer halls, before the winners performances. What a shambles! The winners had not even been announced and the first we knew of who won was when their names appeared on the screens above when they were about to perform. Again, there was no compere other then the occasional housekeeping announcement, as Yann Frisch and Yu Ho Jin performed to massive standing ovations. No sense of occasion came from the organisers, only from the enthusiasm of the audience. In the evening presentation, the winners received their trophies and we were asked to wait for a few minutes whilst the acts had photos taken. This turned into about 30 minutes of waiting around. Then, on a day when the whole audience had spent the day watching the WORLD CLASS FISM WINNERS, we were treated to the most dreadful Gala show Ive ever seen. Im going to try to remember as much as I can, but my brain has blacked it out.
First off, we saw the Dolphin Dancers. They came on dancing like a poor Vegas imitation, the sort of thing you see on 321 repeats on Challenge TV. They were dancing to music that sounded like it was being played off a C120 tape. The muffled sound, the hiss, it was bad. The running order said theyd give us the Blackpool Experience, and I did feel like Id been assaulted afterwards. It only lasted about a minute, and that was long enough, but this short set implied theyd be back. Vladimir provided a forgettable act, a sweet old man called Micheal Pearse was GREAT, but not what an international FISM audience would expect, and then.... Well, what can I say. Wed wondered how they could possibly beat the fat suit from the previous day. We wondered if there was a deliberate attempt to make the Gala shows as terrible as possible. We considered that it would take a special kind of BAD ACT to sign off FISM 2012. And OH MY GOD they found just the right act.
Carl and Dave came onto the stage, and announced that they were boyfriends. There was a pause for a laugh at that point which never came, because its 2012 and some people ARE gay. The blatant homophobia continued with the line, in case youre wondering, he is. The act continued with some very weak humour, dreadful illusions, and an audience that whistled loudly and booed right through to the end of the act. When Victor Micheal came out to sing, we left to go and get good seats for the farewell party. Victor was very good, but, like the tapdancer, the bubble artist, the homophobic childrens entertainers and man smoking cigarettes, this wasnt what we were here to see. I felt bad missing Losander, but we couldnt take it any more. A week of largely terrible Gala shows had taken its toll, we needed to get out of the sweaty, hot theatre and we braved the farewell dinner instead. As we left the theatre, we could see that the majority of the younger audience crowd were already out there, and people continued to leave the theatre throughout.
The magician who played guitar at Beat the Wand was on stage filling in as people arrived at the finale party. He was good, but the sound system was not set up correctly, and after about 30 minutes on stage playing only 1 long feedback hum, he admitted defeat, left the stage. Then, the karaoke started. About halfway though the first song, we realised this singer was a paid entertainer. The vocals were so low in the mix, the resulting sound was an echoing mess, and we resigned ourselves to going back to the hotel. Did I mention we paid 480 for this?
So as I type this, and think about the last week, I realise my review is overwhelmingly negative. Its not meant to be. But the structure of the event meant that if you wanted to see the stage magic, you missed most of the lectures and other events. By spending all day in the close up then stage competitions, the only things left to review focus on the organisation of the event, which was a shables. It just seemed to me that every single aspect of the event that was in the control of the organisers was very badly run. I had a great week, and really enjoyed it. But the enjoyment came from the 150 magicians who had entered the competition, and these all came and performed unpaid, in the hope of winning. So, where did my 480 get spent? It certainly wasnt spent on great gala shows, clean toilets, organised buffets and so on. Did it get spent on printing 2500 copies of that Derek Lever book? Or did they massively overpay for the Gala show acts? Was everything done on the cheap for a reason? I just dont know. Ill be attending FISM in Italy to see how they do it.
Did I mention I paid 480 for this?
It should be pointed out before we start that I am a bitter man. Ive been attending the Blackpool Magic Convention for many years now, and its usually one of the highlights of my year. But I feel like Im starting to see through it now, and I feel like Ive been taken for a ride.
My ticket was about 480, and upon arrival, I was presented with the highly anticipated goodie bag. I received my 150 book, which turned out to be another Derek Lever publication. I didnt see this advertised as such anywhere in advance, I knew I would receive a hardback book with 150 value, but assumed (as this was FISM, not Blackpool Magic) that this would be something of value. I saw the same book on a dealer stand at 15, there were copies of the book dumped around at various places, and the number of jokes at Dereks expense makes me think that no-one really believes this book is of any real value, and certainly not the 150 printed on the cover. Is there some sort of unusual accountancy going on here? Is the book genuinely a free gift, or are we being sold this book? Why do we always get given a Derek Lever book at these conventions? No-one seems to want them is there something funny going on here?
The next item out of the bag was a programme, littered with spelling errors. It was interesting to see that Derek Lever had used a sizable chunk of his welcome page to discuss negative issues around the conference. Similar to previous Blackpool conventions where the programme often focuses on the threats made by certain individuals to disrupt the conference. Why cant this space be used for a positive welcome? Compare Dereks introduction with the Eric Eswins on the following page. They are worlds apart.
The organisers air of negativity continued throughout the conference. The guy who announced the acts in the close up the close up shows kept repeating to us between acts that there were no ladies toilets, and the handicapped toilets were in a poor state. So many comments and speeches covered unimportant and irrelevant information about trivial issues. And no-one was announcing anything of interest about the upcoming artists in the event for example. A good example of this was the speech made by the guy who handed over the diamond to the winner of the prize draw. The host told us that the winner of the 6500 diamond had been picked, and informed us that, had the diamond been a class one diamond it would be worth 20,000. Who cares? Its not a class one diamond, so why bring that up?
Oh yes, the diamond. If that diamond was really worth 6500, wouldnt that money have been better spent paying someone to clean the toilets? There were 11 sinks in the mens toilets, and ONE soap dispenser. Most of the cubicles had broken locks, and one toilet was so covered in [censored], I simply had to take a photo of it. And just the idea of giving away a diamond it shrieks of class and opulence for the sake of it reminding me of the Alan Partridge chat show where he introduces, for the first time on a British speaking chat show, a beautiful fountain! Yes, ladies and gentlemen thats what youll be getting throughout the series, lots of money spent on expensive items. There was simply no need to give away a diamond, especially when so many other aspects of the week seemed to be pulled off on the cheap.
So after being given our heavy book to lug around, a Tommy Cooper bear and a voucher for some free tricks (apparently sponsored by Hanky Panky Magic, so maybe at no cost to the organisers), we were advised there were no tickets left for the evening shows in the Olympia (a sort of unfinished annex to the Winter Gardens). Apparently, arriving at 9.30am on the Monday Morning was apparently too late for us to be given tickets. There was nothing to say that this particular event was a separate, ticketed event. And now, we couldnt go.
Unbelieveable.
As it happens, we complained to the front desk the following day, and they gave us a choice of tickets for either of the two shows, which only served to frustrate more there were tickets available after all! What a farce.
At this stage, wed taken about 30 steps into the building, and started to sense that this may not be the amazing event Id expected. Ill just remind you again, I paid 480 for my ticket. I stayed in a cheap B+B in Blackpool, and the total expenditure could have got me to Vegas.
I spent all day watching the stage competition, and missed the lectures, but I wasnt too bothered. The February convention had destroyed my faith in lectures, as many of them appeared to be nothing more than sales pitches for the products on sale outside. The worst example of this so far is Michael Webers lecture from February that was repeated in part at Fism the bulk of that lecture was little more than a mentalism act, and the techniques used were not discussed in the lecture, requiring the purchase of a 20-ish page book for 70. Im not a mentalist, but if anyone who bought a book is reading this, could you tell me, was it good value? The purpose of the lecture appeared to me to be to generate sales of the book, and a large proportion of the routines demonstrated in the lecture remained unexplained at the end, unless you bought something.
The stage shows were good, but again, seemed to suffer from no organisation there was no compere for the most part. The audience learned who was coming on next from information on the screens. The Wonderful, hard working Frank Wilson on the keyboards did an amazing job at keeping the audience amused.
The competions were as good or bad as the competitors themselves, and by not knowing what was going to come next, I enjoyed all of it, whatever the standard. I am not going into detail about the competition performances, as Craig has done a fantastic job of that already on this forum, and my review is of the event rather than the competitors.
The evening Gala show was pretty good personally I quite like Clive Webb and Danny Adams, and the evening, whilst nothing spectacular, was pretty good. I did wonder why Blub came on stage to play with bubble mixture (my kids do that at nursery) , we were sat near the back so it was hard to see if anything more interesting was happening (it just looked like blowing bubbles). I returned to the Bed and Breakfast and went to sleep. Little did I realise this would be the only Gala show I would make it through to the end of.
Day two followed a routine that would stick to for the next few days 8.30am start for the close up, then grab a sandwich from the co-op and hang around the doors of the main theatre for 45 minutes or so to get good seats for the competition. It seemed that the organisers hadnt realised how popular these competitions would be as the lectures I attended were very sparsely attended when the competitions were on. The lack of reserved seating for the competitions suggests to me that the organisers had not expected people to spend all day watching only that. However, this worked in our favour as our ticketed seats were quite near the back, so every competition we were running like the clappers and using pre-determinded strategy to get down the back of the theatre and down the second to last aisle to 3rd row seats behind the judges.
That night, we saw some nice close up in the second session, and were glad wed managed to get tickets after all. The YMCA tossed out deck routine was a bit overly long, but we liked the show overall. The ludicrous explanation of legal requirements for audience sizes seemed all the more silly when you saw the packed Olympia hall and saw it only sat 600 people. Surely there was some sort of [censored] up there why on earth schedule it to take place in the Olympia, when its going to upset about half the attendees?
Day 3 followed the same format as day 2, with another 8.30 start for the close up and 2pm for the main stage. Having come to realise that Id not see any lectures or spend any time in the dealer halls, I only stayed for the first half of the close up, then checked out the dealer halls until it was time to get in place to be first into the main theatre when the doors opened. The dealers were saying that things were a bit quiet, but I enjoyed the calmer more relaxed atmosphere. I got to talk to a few dealers, and had a demonstration of a brilliant portable levitation table! I decided not to buy anything at this time as there was so much to see, I wondered if Id see better things to buy later and regret spending all my money. The dealers seemed to be hearing that a lot.
The stage show followed the same format as previous days, with no announcements of the acts. Some acts were good, some not so, but the magic was starting to wear thin, for example, all the manipulators seemed to merge into one in my memory, and props started to become recognisable. We could recognise by the table on stage that the magician was probably going to make some doves appear, then probably cover it with a cloth, carry it over to the side, then show the cage had vanished.For example.
But nothing, NOTHING could have prepared us for the COMEDY CAPERS night in the theatre that evening. Our seats were 3 rows from the back, so some of the smaller effects were difficult to see, but we didnt think that would be a problem in a comedy show. John Archer performed 2 tricks with a lot of fun and humour but a bit too much narrative for the international audience. But John was great and I really enjoyed his routines. Stan Allen did a fairly basic job as host, but did a great routine with a puppet in the middle. Clive Webb and Danny Adams did their act and I thought it was quite good. But between these acts, we had Blub, who tapdanced (comedy capers? Tapdancing?), Nardini did some unfunny bad magician stuff, Richard McDougall walked onto the stage and smoked cigarettes for ten minutes (from where we were sat Im sure he was doing something magical with the cigarettes, but to me it was just a man smoking) - there was not a lot of comedy in any of these acts, and the big finale act was not even comedy at all. A special mention should go to them, Blackpools very own Amythyst provided a fast paced flick through an illusion dealer catalogue, by placing a girl in a box, sticking spikes through or similar, then revealing the girl was unharmed at the end. They did this five times, with 5 different elaborate cabinets. There was no plot, character, structure or storyline it was just elaborate cabinet after elaborate cabinet, LOOK, SHES OK!!! AGAIN!!!!. The biggest applause of the night for Amythist was a cut and restored rope routine that I really enjoyed. The audience of magicians seemed distinctly unimpressed by the off-the-shelf box illusions, one after the other. In fact, the traditional how did they do that? was only asked after they produced a bored looking tiger that paced around in a circle in the cage. Not How did they do that where did she go?, rather How did they get a tiger in Blackpool? How much work did that involve? Does that require a lot of Admin? Was it worth it to have such a bored animal in a cage? Its hardly Seigfried and Roy. Compare Amythyst to the Prince of Ilusion that won Fism same idea, but worlds apart in presentation and ideas.
Now, as Im typing this, I feel Im being negative. We shouldnt expect Siegfried and Roy, this is the Blackpool Magicians Club. BUT ITS NOT! THIS IS FISM!!! We paid 480 a ticket (sorry to keep bringing that up but its true!!!) The comedy capers show would remain one of the most disappointing shows Id ever seen had I not attended what was to come on subsequent nights. Only John Archer provided genuine comedy moments, the rest of the show was weak.
So, in the voice of Marcus Bentley, DAY FIVE. I followed the same routine as yesterday, leaving the close up after Yaan Frisch to go and see John Archers lecture and wander the dealer halls some more. Johns lecture was good, the items on sale were cheaper than their regular prices, and to me, that demonstrated what a lecture should be like I learned about presentation, I learned some methods, and most importantly, I had the choice of whether to buy something or not. For example, John explained what I would need to buy and how to create the Blank Night routine from his Penn and Teller performance. There were ready made items on sale as well, and I could save myself the hassle of making the props myself if I chose to. Thats a good lecture. I came away with new ideas and knowledge, and I was not required to buy anything unless I wanted to. As it happens, I did, and I bought some stuff. I noticed that the Speed Dating (still going on when I arrived for the lecture) seemed to have gone very well, although again the audience for both Johns lecture and the Speed Dating was very small, because everyone was at the close up.
I started to wonder how the dealers must have been feeling, as everywhere other than the FISM competitions felt really quiet. I went for a nice relaxing poo after the lecture, and ended up having to hold it in as I could not find a cubicle with a working lock on the door, or that wasnt covered from top to bottom in [censored]. As mentioned earlier, I took a photo, I just could not believe what I was seeing. How does someone let their arse get into that condition?
We went to the main theatre for the stage competiton, and once again, used strategy to bag wonderful seats. After this, we went for some food at the buffet.
Oh dear.
1200 people all waited outside the winter gardens for the first session of the buffet. When we got in, there was a bottleneck as people tried to pick the diamond in a random draw. It took forever to get in, we didnt win a diamond, and the queues were so long that we gave up waiting. As we were leaving the queue in the Chinese part of the Buffet, a lady announced they had run out of food and only had noodles left. The queue of people dispersed into the other queues, and as we left to head out to Burger King.
I wasnt that bothered about the Tower Circus, but I decided to go for a look anyway, leaving at the interval if it was boring. I arrived at the Winter Gardens for the 8.15pm Magical Musical March to the Tower, only to be greeted by a crowd of confused magicians. It seemed that the March had left some time earlier, and no-one was around the front of the Winter Gardens to tell the people who had arrived at the stated time where the Tower was. I have some local knowledge, and I directed them to the Tower, and when we arrived, there was a large group of people at the closed main entrance. There was a lot of confusion and eventually, we realised these doors were not going to open, and walked onto the promenade, and saw the queue there. People were complaining about the lack of communication.
The circus was excellent, and definitely well worth the 10 an adult ticket would cost you any other time. I recommend it really high standard. The hosts of the shows had a lot of fun with the running joke of the conference, (people were shouting OK!! whenever the performer said it) and the acrobats and artists were great.
DAY 6 then. No need to be up early, as no close up competition today, freeing up the morning. Three lectures in the AM, with 2 of those at the same time, despite there being no close up competition at the same time. Surely these could have all run sequentially? David Stone was excellent, although his lecture like so many others, was more like an entertaining dealer demonstration. Most of the tricks he demonstrated were self working tricks that he was selling, and there wasnt much to be learned from the lecture unless you were looking for presentation tips for the tricks he was selling.
The stage show passed the day nicely and the evening Gala show loomed. By now, our expectations for the Gala shows had been sufficiently lowered, but we had no idea how bad things were going to get. Ernesto Planas couldnt attend due to Visa restrictions, so instead, we were treated to a drag queen in a fat suit, tits hanging out and a fake hairy pubic bush. WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA??? Seriously, what the hell was that? An utterly appalling, rude, misjudged, shocking performance that the international audience of entertainers just could not believe. Dreadful, whoever gave that the go-ahead needs shooting. There was some good juggling from Blub, who redeemed his/herself by finally showing some actual relevant talent after the previous tapdancing and bubble blowing. The last act of the evening was a generic stage illusion act, so formulaic and tiresome that the audience actually started to boo. We left early to get good seats for Beat the Wand, which as always was a highlight of the weekend. Magic Sam and Andy do a terrific job of making people laugh, and after a lot of worry about the low number of acts the night went on late with people volunteering to go on stage throughout the evening.
The final day then Saturday, and all magic-ed out, we decided to go for a wander around Blackpool, make some purchases at the dealer halls, before the winners performances. What a shambles! The winners had not even been announced and the first we knew of who won was when their names appeared on the screens above when they were about to perform. Again, there was no compere other then the occasional housekeeping announcement, as Yann Frisch and Yu Ho Jin performed to massive standing ovations. No sense of occasion came from the organisers, only from the enthusiasm of the audience. In the evening presentation, the winners received their trophies and we were asked to wait for a few minutes whilst the acts had photos taken. This turned into about 30 minutes of waiting around. Then, on a day when the whole audience had spent the day watching the WORLD CLASS FISM WINNERS, we were treated to the most dreadful Gala show Ive ever seen. Im going to try to remember as much as I can, but my brain has blacked it out.
First off, we saw the Dolphin Dancers. They came on dancing like a poor Vegas imitation, the sort of thing you see on 321 repeats on Challenge TV. They were dancing to music that sounded like it was being played off a C120 tape. The muffled sound, the hiss, it was bad. The running order said theyd give us the Blackpool Experience, and I did feel like Id been assaulted afterwards. It only lasted about a minute, and that was long enough, but this short set implied theyd be back. Vladimir provided a forgettable act, a sweet old man called Micheal Pearse was GREAT, but not what an international FISM audience would expect, and then.... Well, what can I say. Wed wondered how they could possibly beat the fat suit from the previous day. We wondered if there was a deliberate attempt to make the Gala shows as terrible as possible. We considered that it would take a special kind of BAD ACT to sign off FISM 2012. And OH MY GOD they found just the right act.
Carl and Dave came onto the stage, and announced that they were boyfriends. There was a pause for a laugh at that point which never came, because its 2012 and some people ARE gay. The blatant homophobia continued with the line, in case youre wondering, he is. The act continued with some very weak humour, dreadful illusions, and an audience that whistled loudly and booed right through to the end of the act. When Victor Micheal came out to sing, we left to go and get good seats for the farewell party. Victor was very good, but, like the tapdancer, the bubble artist, the homophobic childrens entertainers and man smoking cigarettes, this wasnt what we were here to see. I felt bad missing Losander, but we couldnt take it any more. A week of largely terrible Gala shows had taken its toll, we needed to get out of the sweaty, hot theatre and we braved the farewell dinner instead. As we left the theatre, we could see that the majority of the younger audience crowd were already out there, and people continued to leave the theatre throughout.
The magician who played guitar at Beat the Wand was on stage filling in as people arrived at the finale party. He was good, but the sound system was not set up correctly, and after about 30 minutes on stage playing only 1 long feedback hum, he admitted defeat, left the stage. Then, the karaoke started. About halfway though the first song, we realised this singer was a paid entertainer. The vocals were so low in the mix, the resulting sound was an echoing mess, and we resigned ourselves to going back to the hotel. Did I mention we paid 480 for this?
So as I type this, and think about the last week, I realise my review is overwhelmingly negative. Its not meant to be. But the structure of the event meant that if you wanted to see the stage magic, you missed most of the lectures and other events. By spending all day in the close up then stage competitions, the only things left to review focus on the organisation of the event, which was a shables. It just seemed to me that every single aspect of the event that was in the control of the organisers was very badly run. I had a great week, and really enjoyed it. But the enjoyment came from the 150 magicians who had entered the competition, and these all came and performed unpaid, in the hope of winning. So, where did my 480 get spent? It certainly wasnt spent on great gala shows, clean toilets, organised buffets and so on. Did it get spent on printing 2500 copies of that Derek Lever book? Or did they massively overpay for the Gala show acts? Was everything done on the cheap for a reason? I just dont know. Ill be attending FISM in Italy to see how they do it.
Did I mention I paid 480 for this?