This is my second attempt at posting this daily report. It’s 1am and the report I just spend over an hour on was deleted when my 24 hour hotel internet allowance expired unexpectedly as I was posting. Why did it expire and why did it take me so long to write the report? Because the temperature in this hotel room is 29 degrees. The air-conditioner is still faulty (and getting even hotter) and no-one can turn it off and the windows are sealed shut. The staff have offered us a cooler room to sleep in (we don’t have the time to move our stuff into it) but the maintenance staff can’t look at our "cooler" until tomorrow. Hopefully the room won’t have melted down completely by then!
So anyway… here’s a brief version of today’s activities before I pass out from heat exhaustion.
9.00am – We headed off to see the Stage Competition and there were some really outstanding acts (some outstanding for different reasons… like Mr Underpants) but you can read Sue-Anne’s full competition report on our website www.MagicUnlimited.com at the end of the week.
While we were watching the acts, others attended lectures by Cellini, Jeff McBride, John Gallo, Armando Lucero, a one-man show by Juan Tamariz or a session on cheating and gambling by Paul Wilson and Jason England.
After the Stage Comp ended people rushed to see the Close Up Comp but, as the close up room only seats about 200, getting tickets to sit in the room is almost impossible! You need to line up 45 minutes before the doors open to get your ticket, then when the doors open you rush in like mad to claim your space. That’s one of the benefits of being on the Close Up Jury, I get a front row seat every time! Sure I’ve got to work for it, but it’s a great perk.
Those who can’t get a seat move into the adjoining room which is much larger and they get to watch the close up competitors on the big screen.
Of course, if you miss out on that room you can watch the acts on any one of the many monitors throughout the FISM centre.
This is a pic Sue-Anne took of Shawn Farqhuar and Ali Bongo in the close up room. (I think Ali had just been told he’d missed out on a seat!)
During the Close Up Competition Paul Daniels presented his Malini Show, but once those two events finished the schedule suddenly got a little thin for most of the registrants. The Dealers Room was closed, and Gazzo kindly put on a street show in the foyer at 6.00pm
but other than the 7.00pm Close Up Gala Show for Group C (1/3 of the registrants), there was nothing for the other 2/3 to do until Stevie Starr, regurgitator extraordinaire did his 30 minute show at 9.30pm.
It was at about this time we heard quite a bit of grumbling from registrants complaining about bad organisation and scheduling, as well as complaining about the quality of the Close Up Gala and the AV support in general. We’ll have to wait until the end of the week to see how it all pans out.
As expected, Stevie Starr was the ‘hit’ of the convention. Magicians were intrigued and amazed as he swallowed gases, liquids and objects and regurgitated them on command. He was rewarded with a loud and very long standing ovation.
After this some people went back into the city centre by train to see the Bar Magic at the Scandic Sergel Plaza, tonight featuring Bill Malone, Michael Vincent and Gazzo from 11.00pm. Since the last train back to our hotel is about 11.42pm we decided to call it a night… that was many hours ago and I’m still typing!
Catch you tomorrow and hopefully this computer won’t have melted in the heat by then! Believe it or not, even though cold air is coming out of the vent at a rate of knots, the temperature has risen by another degree and it’s still getting hotter!
Continue reading FISM – Tuesday
The industry already loves the new movie The Great Buck Howard even though its first day of shooting was yesterday. 
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