FISM 2018 in Busan, Korea

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Richard Kaufman
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FISM 2018 in Busan, Korea

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 13th, 2018, 11:14 am

Saw this article on Alan Watson's e-zine this morning. It comes from Yonhap, which is a South Korean company that provides news stories to newspapers, and so on. It states that 39 magicians will compete in the close-up competition. I'm not a FISM expert by any means, but isn't that an extremely low number?

Yonhap News

Olympics for magicians to kick off in July in Busan as organizers
anticipate
North Korea's participation.

BUSAN, (Yonhap) -- More than 110 top guns of the magic world will gather
in the South Korean coastal city of Busan this summer to take part in
the World Championships of Magic competition, the Organizers' said.

The organizing committee for the competition, which is hosted by the
International Federation of Magic Societies, said the triennial event
will bring together 113 top-notch magicians from 22 countries -- 56 from
five European countries, 22 from five North and South American
countries, 34 from Asian countries and one from Oceania.

In case performers from North Korea attend the Olympics for magicians,
the number of participating magicians at the July 9-14 event will rise
to 115. The Busan municipal government has announced that two North
Korean magicians won berths for the competition from the board of
directors of the competition's Asian federation.

As many as 2,500 magicians are expected to visit the venue, the
auditorium at the BEXCO exhibition center, as spectators, according to
the organizing committee.

Seventy-four magicians will perform in the stage competition and 39 in
the close-up event. The stage competition will have five divisions - 17
magicians for manipulations, 32 for general, four for illusion magic, 11
for mentalism and 10 for comedy magic. The close-up event will comprise
three divisions - 11 magicians for card magic, 18 for micromagic and 10
for parlor magic.

Three South Korean magicians -- Ahn Ha-rim, Lee Kun-ho and Chung Min-kyu
-- will show their prowess in the manipulations category. Ahn took third
place in the category at the 2009 World Championships of Magic in Beijing.

Also participating in the category are French performer Nestor Hato, who
is well known for his fast card magic, and Japanese performer Satoru
Furukawa, who is famous for his incredible money magic tricks.

The general category, or the magic of storytelling, will draw the
largest number of performers, including five South Korean artists.

Four teams, including ones led by Yunke of Spain, who took second prize
in the illusion category at the 2000 World Championships of Magic in
Lisbon, and Lipan Jr. of Argentina, will participate in the illusion
magic competition.

Eleven magicians, mostly from South America and Europe, will show off
their talents in mental magic tricks that include the art of reading
people's minds or making prophecies. Asian performers fall relatively
behind in the field.

Eric Buss of the United States, who has amazed audiences worldwide with
his innovative brand of comedy and magic, is expected to stage a new
type of wonderful comic tricks in the comedy magic category.

In the card magic category, South Korean performer Yoo Hyun-min, who
took third place in the card genre at the 2012 Blackpool Convention,
will be pitted against two magicians from Spain, the powerhouse in the
close-up sector, and his South Korean compatriot Jan Ji-woo.

South Korean performer Kim Kyung-duk, the winner of the most original
close-up act award in the 2015 competition, will compete in the
micromagic category, in which smalls items such as dice, bottle caps,
sugar cubes, pebbles and pens are used for performances by sleight of hand.

In parlor magic, a genre smaller than stage magic and larger than
close-up magic, magician Choi Hyo-won will represent South Korea. Magic
Brothers, a duo from South Korea, took the third place award in the
category with Henry Harrius from Hong Kong at the 2015 competition in
Rimini, Italy.

The organizing committee for the competition has been paying keen
attention to whether North Korea will take part in the competition. Kang
Yeol-woo, who heads the organizing committee, and Ahn Sung-woo, the arts
director for the convention, are in talks with officials of the
Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean issues to discuss the North's
possible attendance at the event.

Domenico Dante, president of the International Federation of Magic
Societies, has expressed his support for North Korea if the country
decides to send its magicians to the Busan event.

If North Korea's intention to attend the competition is confirmed, the
organizing committee plans to hold a joint performance with magicians of
the two Koreas during the competition in a bid to give a message of
inter-Korean reconciliation and peace to spectators.

North Korea disappeared from the international magic stage after it
performed as a special guest at the 1976 World Championships of Magic in
Vienna. If the North participates in the global contest this year, it
will mark the first time for the North to attend the competition in 40
years.

Kang, the organizing committee's chief, said the committee will hold a
public magic gala show on June 28 in the lead-up to the opening ceremony
of the competition on July 9 and wishes to present a high-level magic
festival in Busan this summer.
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CraigMitchell
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Re: FISM 2018 in Busan, Korea

Postby CraigMitchell » April 16th, 2018, 7:14 am

This in fact very closely mirrors FISM Beijing's competitor numbers.

The numbers unfortunately always tend to drop when outside of Europe.


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