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20th International
Magic
Close-up Competition
6th December 2003
Reported by Kevin Gallagher
Three Commendation Awards
Carlos Vaquera / Jean-Pierre Vallerino
Carlos featured in the competitors list but when he performed, close friend
Jean-Pierre stood close-by with a number of amusing interventions where he made
life more 'challenging' for Carlos by, for example, tapping the Aces into the
pack before a multiple shift could be performed. Needless to say, Carlos always
triumphed with some beautiful card and coin work with a modicum of mime thrown
in for good measure.
Michael Vincent
Immaculate card work including the definitive Dr Daley sequence which has become
one of his trademarks. It is difficult to imagine how a pure card routine could
be better executed.
Tony Price
A very theatrical act which revolved around a presentation of 'Esoteric Deck '
where the deck self cut itself three times to produce three selected cards. This
was then repeated under a glass dome.
Third Place + £100
Ferenc Galambos
Ferenc performed on his own stand to music. It was a street entertainer style
act featuring the likes of a quite superb cup and ball routine, fisherman's
pearls, card assembly. Very professionally put over with perfect timing.
Second Place + £500
Tom Stone
Swedish magician who was completely new to me. His slight struggle with the
language and impish charm were strongly in his favour while he romped through a
series of routines during which his shoe repeatedly appeared on the table under
misdirection. The most prominent routine was a 'Tommy Wonder and beyond' cup and
ball routine where the bag ended up inside a cup only to be replaced by, you
guessed it, his shoe.
First Place, The Kevin Reay Trophy + £1000
Hayashi
One of those pure competition acts that was a unanimous winner with everyone who
saw it. It is very difficult describe this act in a few sentences which was
hilariously funny with superb card magic. After introducing himself with a very
funny sequence of subtitle banners, Hayashi struggled with a strong Japanese
accent before introducing his 'language translation machine', the machine
translated as he spoke with a very funny sequence and a number of machine
malfunctions which eventually ended up with Hayashi speaking perfect plum
English and the machine speaking Japanese. The machine had the final say with
the CD tray ejecting for the final card revelation.
In general, the competition was of an extremely high standard as was the rest of
the weekend. It is only a shame that it is twelve months before the next one.
© Kevin Gallagher, December 2003