Close-Up Magic Competition 2005

Competition night! It's now become an established part of our calendar, awaited with excitement and trepidation by our steadily growing group of Members. Excitement because it's always a night of good magic and good fun; and trepidation because it's the night when lots of our new and young magicians first "try out their wings" under the gaze of their peers and colleagues. In these situations an attack of nerves is always to be expected – many would go so far as to say it's desirable. The occasion brought out around sixty people and Michael Court took the floor to launch proceedings, starting off with those who have been members for less that twelve months.

Section C - New Members

First up was Eric Liew with some nice card effects. Eric started with an "Oil and Water" effect where the reds and blacks just wouldn't mix – then moved smoothly into a reverse of that same effect. This moved into a variation of Vernon's "Twisting the Aces" but using Kings, and then evolving into variations paying tribute to both Ascanio and Hollingworth. The routine was precisely timed.

Next came Jack Ooi, with a very good floating wand done to musical accompaniment. This was followed by a ball production, with multiplication to four balls, which "stuck" to Jack's fingers in an entertaining way before finally disappearing with a bang. The closer for this act was a series of card changes, again finishing with perfect timing against the seven-minute deadline

Andrew Vashevnik followed with a spoof "nose tip" opener – "invisible to the naked eye in pitch darkness". Than came a ribbon cutting prediction along similar lines to Harry Lorayne's "Line 'o type" This was neatly brought to its climax. Andrew then launched into another prediction, using Simon Coronel as his participating audience member, but unfortunately the clock beat him in his efforts to prove his predictive skills.

Then came "Stas", with sponge balls, a neat production of a live goldfish in a tiny glass of water, and a marked coin relocated in a soft drink box after the ever obliging Simon had consumed the contents against a rapidly ticking down clock.

Last in the newcomers section was Andre with some card effects featuring heavy audience involvement. Selected cards changed to double backers, then double facers, and finally back to separate once more. This was followed by some "Ambitious Card" variations.

   
  Jack Ooi Eric Liew Andrew Vashevnik  

Section B - Members who have been with the club for more than one year

Leading off in the section for those with more than twelve month's experience was Michael Sullivan. Michael's routine was well dressed and sustained as a salesman for Magico. After a series of nicely presented card count displays, using help from the audience with the "sleight of hand" remote being sold by Magico, he switched into a routine in which labels were made to appear on previously blank CDs. The act came to an excellent close with the production of a live dove, and right on the allotted time as well!

Next was Peter Cook, zany as ever. After winning the argument with the voice from his suitcase, Peter showed us a small flat packet of folded paper from which a shot glass mysteriously appeared. Moving into world traveller – currency exchange – mode Peter had a group of Australian coins change into Mexican centavos, then into Chinese coins. The big finish was a big coin, followed by a BIG coin. Peter showed good timing, and was generous in his attributions of his effects to Mike Gallo and Eugene Burger.

Nick Morton then appeared in his guise as a mentalist. First up was a poker deal using readily visible jumbo cards. By the exercise of great psychological power he was able to influence volunteer Andrew to leave him with an unbeatable poker hand without the faces of Nick's hand being seen at all until the climax. Drawing upon his even better psychic skills with images, Nick managed to "correctly" receive the mental picture of a bear being transmitted by Jason. Nick closed right on time with a word prediction using alphabet cards.

Brian Pleasants followed Nick with a clever prediction of a golf score based on a scorecard filled in by a member of the audience. It was surprising that with so many in attendance there were so few golfers, and, when it came to adding up the scores, so few mathematicians. But, after calling in reinforcements, and calculators, we reached the point where Brian's prediction, secreted within the golf ball, matched the finally audited total of the scorecard. As always, Brian extracted good entertainment, and in a timely way.

Bob Sheridan then stepped up with his smooth, relaxed style. He started with some neat banknote transpositions from hand to hand, including spectator hands at times. This moved into the "Ten of Hearts" trick, a clever four-card packet effect incorporating Ambitious Card elements. Bob kept the surprises coming, and managed the time element of the challenge well.

Last in this group was Frank Smith. Frank scored well, starting with a weave shuffle and jumbo fan before moving into a "Cutting the Aces" routine. This was followed with an "Ambitious Card" routine with an interesting spoof finish, before closing with a torn and restored card.

   
  Peter Cook Michael Sullivan Frank Smith  

Section A – Members who perform magic either Professionally or Semi-Professionally

Another brief pause followed while all those assembled assumed the Wisdom of Solomon in casting their votes while the performances were still fresh in the mind. Finally, the professionals took centre stage.

Tom Stevens led off, introducing his very own genie to us. Genie lives in a bottle full of rice, and after some nice byplay with an assistant enabled the bottle to hang suspended from a drinking straw. This was followed by a red silk mysteriously passing in one ear and out the other of the assistant. Next came a prediction of an actor from a group of four, with a fake finale showing a baby, which could easily have been any of the actors. But all was well in the end, with the correct actor appearing on the back of the baby picture. Tom sent his assistant off with a nice balloon doggie.

The spiffily attired Jason Varga was next leading off with a packet trick using Queens and Jokers. This was followed by the production and various movements of three poker chips. Jason then launched into a drawn out prediction effect in which he skilfully built the tension that he was going to run out of time. When he finally did so the prediction turned out to be "You will run out of time before you can finalise the prediction". It scored a big laugh and emphasised the fact that the entertainment is often more important than the magic.

Simon Coronel was next, leading off by producing a large wineglass, and then a pack of cards, (what else?), from an immaculate white silk handkerchief. The pack of cards was put to immediate use for some of Simon's unfailingly skilful four ace productions. This was followed by a series of beautiful movements of the four aces to the face of the shuffled pack while the pack was enclosed face out in the wineglass, secure from the interference of nimble fingers. An excellent effect. Simon closed with a torn and restored card.

Last player in this group was stalwart Graham Etherington. Graham opened with a good visible jumbo card effect using pictures of his various relatives and family members, all of whom featured distinctive facial hair styling. Once the "free" selection of a relative was completed with Graham's back turned to the process, he faced the front to reveal an "instant beard" which matched the selection. There followed another byplay with the audience in which, to the astonishment of all, the volunteers won the Lotto "scratchy" tickets, but Graham won the $100.

   
  Simon Coronel Jason Varga Graham Etherington  

Again the audience donned their critical caps to cast their votes. There was a further pause while the adjudicators sorted out all the votes, but finally the tension was broken by release of the following results


 
And the Winners were....

All ASM financial members in the audience conducted the judging for the night. Each voted in each Section, awarding points for first, second and third place. All audience members (regardless of whether or not they were ASM members) also voted for “The Most Entertaining Performer.” This is a perpetual trophy that will pass on from year to year. The final results for each section were…


Section A
 
1st Simon Coronel
2nd Jason Varga
3rd Graham Etherington

 
Section B
 
1st Peter Cook
2nd Frank Smith
3rd Michael Sullivan

 
Section C
 
1st Jack Ooi
2nd Eric Lieu
3rd Andrew Vashevnik

 
Most Entertaining Performer
 
The prize for the most entertaining performer was a tie, and was awarded to both Simon Coronel and Peter Cook