The fabulous magician, manipulator, and historian Levent writes:
“Here’s a great film of the amazing French magician Jean Valton in 1964. He was a math teacher who, during the German occupation of France, spent five years smoking cigarettes and practicing card manipulations. He won first prize in Manipulation at the very first FISM convention (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques: The World Championships of Magic) held in 1948 in Lausanne, Switzerland. A lot of what he is doing is Cardistry before there was such a thing. And the manipulation sequences are superb.”
You can read more about Valton in an article by Jamy Ian Swiss at Magicana:
https://www.magicana.com/news/blog/take-two-19-jean-valton
FISM 2018 may have just finished (we’re still waiting on official confirmation of the results), but you can already start planning your trip to the next one. If you live in North America, you’re in luck, because FISM 2021 will be gracing the shores of Quebec, Canada.
The event will run from July 26th to July 31st at the very sophisticated Centre des congrès de Québec in Quebec City.
Update: The Society of American Magicians would like to remind its members that they are eligible for FISM membership cards and, by extension, lower prices for registration. You can apply for a FISM card here.
Every three years, the greatest magicians from all over the world gather to show off their skills and compete at FISM. The prestigious convention plays host to the “World Championship of Magic,” where illusionists from a variety of genres attempt to win the coveted Grand Prix. This year, FISM 2018 will take place in Busan, South Korea, and the organization has released a trailer promising six days of some of the most mind-blowing magic you’ll ever see.
FISM 2018 will take place between July 9 and July 14 2018 at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (also known as BEXCO), and will feature lectures, workshops, one-man shows, a dealer’s hall, and gala shows, in addition to the big competition.
Registration for the upcoming competition is still open and available for $700 USD per standard ticket. Dealer and sponsor tickets are still available as well. Visit FISM 2018’s official page for more information.
Specifics on the contents of the hosted lectures and performances are still sparse, but stay tuned to GeniiOnline as more details trickle in from the rapidly-approaching convention.
You can skip to 4:35 in the above video if you just want to be astounded by Hector Mancha‘s Grand Prix FISM-winning act, but you’ll be missing out on a great discussion between Hector and Shin Lim about developing a character for the stage.
The benefit of adopting a stage persona, says Hector, is that it allows you to do things that are out of the ordinary, like using awkward hand gestures and body movements, without it seeming artificial. He goes on to use Peter Parker’s evolution into Spider-man to illustrate why you need to perform as much as possible to really understand the persona you’re embodying. It’s a great chat and a remarkable performance.