Hi guys!

I am back again! I just came back from Stockholm and I have to say that I had a great great time.

excellent organization, nice people, and by far the best convention in compare to the others I have been.

we have to congratulate the commetee for the great work they have done.

Lincoln thanks for the video you shoot me with Max Maven!! it looks great! I will visit your forum and talk about the E.T.


best regards to all the new magicians I have met!

Neo

Ok so there was a few problems but nothing that couldn't be solved. in the end.Me and my girlfriend vorked at FISM, or shall I say SHE worked. She was in charge of the information desk. Most of the problems we ran into was contestent that didn't know were to go, when there rehersal was or what day they were going to compeat. This was for us very strange as all competitors got a written confirmation with all this information some time befor the convention.
I agree that the TV crew was giving us truble, we got to know that the whole Wictoria hall was change the same day as the taping giving us little time to prepare the seat changes some of you experianced. As for the screening and sound problems we didn't have anything to do with it. I know one of the close up competitors didn't were a mike (his choise not ouers) and couldn't be heread in the other room.

I do think some of ower guest ( yes that means you) did behave very badly and quite rude to some of ouer workers. I beleave that if you got a ticket for one room you go to that room and whatch the screen and do not create chaos so we have to call for security wich we had to do during the final close up cometition/show.

Pleas for those of you that are comlaning think twice about what you are saying and if you can do better I look forword to see YOU working 15 houers aday for 7 days stright at the next FISM.
We had some problems but we solved most of them.

Personaly I had a great time there by the way.

Jonas Karlsson
Vibono magic / Vibono & Mirage

StoCon (Stockholm Convention Bureau) that we used under FISM 2006 are used to bring in large groups. This September they had 24 000 heartsurgeons from all over the world at the same venue we had FISM 2006 and it worked fine.
The surprise here is that 24 000 heartsurgeons are easier to handle for them than 2500 magicians... ;-)

True, and that was our option and almost did. The thing was a demand.
So many people wanted to come and some (surprise) went crazy hearing we stopped registartions for a while.
That's why we extended everything and doubled the gala shows, rented more rooms, technical crew, paying barmagicians more and added more barmagicians etc, etc (for a great expence) just to be "nice" to our late registered fellow magicians who still wanted to come.
We informed EVERYBODY registering late that they had to see the last show on a screen and it was there option to agree or not to accept that. We never forced anybody.

OOOPS! Sorry Juan *grin*

Simon

I had a great time. I just recovered from the 6 days and from a minor Swedish flu.

I totally agree with Tim and all others. I did not like the long time doing the standing ovations and applauses and all the retakes, but felt very uneasy with all the booing and hisses.

But I would like to take this opportunity to point out two things which I did not like and would rather not see at the next FISM. This is for constructive purposes and not to just bash.

1) The venues - I did not like the travelling between the FISM venues. It's wasn't cheap to travel by train to the bar magic (I was staying near the FISM place), and although we were given discounts, it was still a hassle to go back and forth and the train stopped at 12.30am and we had to leave the bar magic very early and sometimes it was not even worth it to go at all because the events at FISM went late. I would suggest a FISM like in the Hague, where all the activities take place in the same venue or at least in the same area.

2) The lectures - We had some great lecturers but the problem was the lectures where too short. 1 hour is not enough for a lecture. In the Hague we had 1 and a half hour lectures and even that could be considered a bit short. Many of the lecturers found the 1 hour time short too. Some of them went past the allocated time because we wanted more, but then they clashed with other lectures. So I would suggest a minimum time of 1 and a half hours for the lectures.

I hope these comments are taken constructively and I will post them wherever neccessary in order to be considered for the next FISM.

It was a great experience. Both this and the 2003 FISM had different things to offer. I enjoyed both.

Sue-Anne has finished her report on every single FISM 2006 competitor. It's currently up at http://www.MagicUnlimited.Typepad.com

Take a look!

Sue-Anne deserves a Knighthood for that amount of work!!!

Great work and it was great to meet you both - even if it was only for a moment or 2!

Best wishes

Peter
:)

Yes it IS a lot of work.

Hey Tim, Simon and Peter,

Taking out Simon and Gazzo in the Hold'em event was a blast ... we played two nights and I believe I was the only player to finish in the money both nights ...

It was such fun I will probaly do a Poker Night at the next LVMI convention ...

Yeah sue-anne does deserve some sort of free pass for 2009 for that review list!!!

anyone who did go.. the flickr photo pool is at

http://www.flickr.com/groups/fism2006/ feel free to add your own..

and anyone that didn't.. you can see some of the photos..

Simon.. was great to see you again.. I might be over in new york for some christmas shopping...

Danny, you mean you bet Simon Lovell? lol

Hello all,

First of all: Thanks to SMC for the FISM convention - to me a fantastic adventure! Some small things happened, as noted above, but no real disaster, that I found. I spent most of the time watching the Stage Competition (all of it), the rest of the time in the dealer's room and I also watched all the shows. Great arrengement!

Although I didn't see any of the CloseUp Competition, my brain boiled after all that magic. I wouldn't want to be in the competition jury...

Also: A standing ovation for Sue-Anne, for her fantastic "FISM 2006 Competition Report!" - link above. I'm speechless!

These are my notes for the competition acts that I found appealing to me... for one or more reasons...
(For description of the acts, see Sue-Anne's report)

* Monday
Shawn Farquhar: The lyrics suits the handling of the deck. Nice and cool.
I.MA.GI.A: The floating box was GREAT!
Gaston: Great show! Hilarious! For magicians... But I wonder how this would be recieved by the general audience...?
Xavier Tapias: The robot walks! And the dog. Kind of cool.

* Tuesday
Hugo Valenzuela: Great act. Great theatre! A complete story!
Mikael Szanyel: "The Master Singer" - this was hilarious! What a laugh! Best so far, in my book!
Yamagami Brothers: So young and so skilled!
David Sousa: Cool, calm, collected.
Latko: Nice! Really nice! (Couldn't bike off stage, though...

* Wednesday
Sittah: Lara Croft(?) theme! Well done all the way!
Anton & Landru: Great comedy.
Pilou: The rogue. Excellent production show! Simply Great!
Robert & Emiel: Clever! Really clever! And very well carried out! The theatrical bit was well-thought of!
Xavier Mortimer: Nice and easy...
Jérôme Helfenstein: Shadows. But *what* shadows! Great act!

* Thursday
Jan-Thomas Loewe: Mentalism in 21st century. Today's technology has great potential - I guess Jan-Thomas is only scratching the surface...
Zhao Yuying: Nice productions!
Die Zauderer: My stomach hurts! I can't see through the tears! Laughter all the way!
Duo Mira-Cool-X: Second show to hurt my stomach today. Hilarious!

* Friday:
Marc & Alex: Illusions galore! How many???
Florian Zimmer: Cool and professional (simply skipped the part that begun in a disaster). Nice palmings, nice colorshifts, nice BMX! A REAL BMX!

In My Humble Opinion,
Gene

Thankyou for your kind words about my report.

Tim and I have been travelling the UK this past week and internet has been difficult to find AND expensive...so, since Tim's a speed reading internet freak I've left the 'chat' all to him.

Someone wrote to me commenting that I must have gone insane. I almost did! It wasn't easy, especially trying to catch up on the reports AFTER FISM (since three was little time during FISM to write the reports)when the REAL Santa Claus in Finland distracted me and the UK countryside was calling for my attention.

It was hard work, I didn't get to see anything else but the competitors and gala shows, but you guys make it worthwhile

Thankyou again! I truly appreciate the positive feedback.

Sue Ann... I don't know how you do it... great stuff! AS long as you keep going to FISM I won't have to.

Anybody know if there is a DVD video from FISM 2006?

Paulo

There will be a TV show made by a man called Stephen Mulhern. Everybdoy hated him.

here is some clips http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TLATV from the joint youtube/mulhern TV production.

I didn't hate him

It has been interesting reading the reports about FISM both here and on other websites. Having attended a number in my career as a magic dealer the same problems always seem to be the cause of complaint. These being over crowding of events, transport to and from the convention centre, and the intrusion of television film crews. I remember in Dresden being told that I could not get to my dealer stand despite the hall being open to the public due to filming. What amazes me is that it takes three years to put a FISM convention together so why are possible problems not spotted. Perhaps the FISM committee could learn something from Blackpool Magicians Club who stage a yearly event and have far more registrants attending.

Tony Curtis

I liked Stephen Mulhern, a lot!

Backstage he was a kind and intelligent man who I was not aware was also a magician.
Backstage he had no ego and was friendly to all...
In fact even after the rude folks booo'd him he was nice and friendly...

I watched some of his stuff on Youtube and it's fun.

The FISM TV Show aired in Belguim the other day and it looks great. I found clips at http://www.dailymotion.com

Cheers,

Shawn