FISM 2025 – Day Five

CLOSE-UP CONTEST

*Omini & Nico - Micro - Switzerland
Set during the pandemic, this comedy duo act finds one magician wrapped in a dressing gown and clearly under the weather, while the other casually reads a newspaper blaring the headline “FISM News – New Virus.” What unfolds is a clever performance of contagious magic.

A green sponge ball is sneezed from the nose, swabs multiply in absurd places, thermometers and COVID tests pop into view, and eventually, a suspiciously green swab sets the tone for escalating infection. The sponge balls become the virus itself—vanishing, spreading, multiplying—until both performers are seen in matching bathrobes, having fully succumbed to the contagion.

It’s fun, well-paced, and full of creativity. A great start to the morning.

*Piero Venesia - Parlour - Italy
A tailor by trade - and apparently taste - Piero begins by accidentally swallowing a needle… and then deciding he quite likes it. More needles follow, along with thread, a cigarette, and even a lit match. A handful of needles are dropped into a glass filled with win. He downs it all, along with cork, only to pull the thread back up threaded cleanly through the needles. The cigarette and lit match all return – even the cork.

Great presentation to the classic needle swallowing routine.


*Tino Plaz - Cards - Switzerland
“Memories can be stored in a marmalade jar,” Tino explains, framing his card act around memory and how it fades, distorts, and resurfaces. A signed card begins to lose detail. It's torn, then instantly restored. As memories distort, the deck becomes chaotic—face up, face down—before returning to order. Black cards vanish. Only red remain. Then just hearts. Eventually, all return face down. A missing piece of the signed card is found under the deck. As the finale - a jar is placed on a spectator’s hand and fills with smoke… the signed card visibly – and instantly - appears inside.

Rapturous standing ovation with a killer invention.


*Jin Hyoung Han - Micro – Korea
An incredible performance worth getting up so early for. Jin begins with a simple lamp and a red flower in a vase. A piece of cellophane melts and morphs into a clear glass ball, which shrinks into a marble, then transforms again—into a magnifying glass, then an origami crane, and eventually back into cellophane. The plastic sheet becomes a glass. The glass holds a candle, which is lit, and the heat seems to melt the glass back into a ball before visibly breaking apart once more.

The rose and vase crumble at his touch. Jin astonishingly recreates both from cellophane—first the vase, then a delicate flower. He places the clear bloom by the lamp, where it slowly shifts to red, bringing the entire sequence full circle.

Astonishing magic rewarded with a standing ovation.

( it’s worth noting that the reaction at the end whilst good was still somewhat muted. The audience are utterly shattered and it shows. )


*Jonio - Parlor - Napan
With a beard full of surprises, Jonio delivered a one-of-a-kind performance. Coins appear miraculously from his beard, followed by a comb that vanished into silver glitter. His coin magic was exceptional—at one point, a coin impossibly jumped from one hand to the other mid-air.

From Miser’s Dream-style coin sequences to producing shot glasses of orange juice—all from the beard—Jonio kept the surprises coming, culminating in a finale where jumbo coins gave way to even larger ones, until he was pulling out coins the size of dinner plates.

A definite highlight and undeniably entertaining, however, it’s worth noting that he previously placed at FISM with the same routine. Perhaps it’s time for a larger conversation about whether competitors should be allowed to re-enter with the same act? As it is, FISM will certainly need to cut back competitor numbers based on our experience in 2025.

*Augusto Amen - Cards - Denmark

Augusto opened by covering his eyes entirely with duct tape—then took it further by taping the spectator’s hands directly over his face. Blindfolded and restrained, he still managed to locate all four aces with apparent ease.
A second spectator, Betty, signed a card with Augusto locating it each and every time. For the finale … the entire deck turned blank before the signed card was found not in the deck, but beneath the tape on his face, right over his eyes.

( worth interjecting here that we need to be alternating spectators. Having the same volunteers for each and every performance can become problematic )

*Morgan De Cecco - Micro – France
A pickpocket/beggar travelling on a public subway with accompanying sound effects and good use of the venue’s extremely impressive technical rig. ( The lighting may well be better in the close-up venue that the ‘stage tent’ ) The act begins with coins and wallets appearing in rapid succession. The misers dream sequence leads seamlessly into a visit to the casino, where a cascade of coins and a jumbo coin production symbolise his growing winnings. Bills followed, along with a watch appearance as he cashed out and returned to the subway. En-route he comes across another beggar, and for a final transformation – changes a coin into a bill – and gives it to the man on the street.

Unfortunately, the pacing dragged toward the end and the lack of a strong finish left the piece feeling incomplete.


*Eric Chien - Parlour - Taiwan
Eric walks on stage as an old man in a full latex mask, struggling to sit down. He produces a glass of tea, then removes the mask to reveal his younger self. From there, it’s a rapid-fire sequence: Skittles turn into Rubik’s cubes, sponge balls vanish and reappear under a glass, his shirt changes colour, and the table fills with sponges and props …all done to the bizarre of the Greatest Showman soundtrack.

He ends by producing a Disneyland castle, then puts the mask back on and ages again, his cane rising from the floor.

Expectations were high for Eric – based on his previous performances. Unfortunately he failed to deliver.


*Robin Deville - Cards - France
Robin reprises his past FISM act Dr. Blue & Mr. Red, portraying a nerdy doctor and his wild alter ego. Drinking from red and blue beakers triggers the transformations, marked by changes in costume and energy.

The five of diamonds is signed and becomes central to a series of visual effects: cards change colour, transpose sides, and appear with matching hat images depending on the persona in play. At one point, Mr. Red tears the signed card, but a switch back to Dr. Blue restores it—and it’s found intact under the tablecloth.

There’s some strong magic here, but the whole ‘lets do magic as a character’ is all a little too juvenile for my taste. Same discussion needs to be had. How many times should one be able to enter FISM with the same act?


*Hernan Maccagno - Micro - Argentina
Surrounded by eight volunteers, Hernán opens with Chinese (?) coins that change to silver, followed by a classic coins-through-table routine. The table is then stripped back with everything examined.
He brings out a “portable hole” – asking the spectator to “Please check my hole,” - getting the laugh he was aiming for. This sets up a sequence where coins travel impossibly from hand to hand along with the routine I’m told was featured on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us. Unfortunately, poor camera work made following all the action somewhat difficult at times. The coins ultimately transform back into a mix of foreign currencies.

Hernan certainly has that Spanish energy.



Zazza – Parlour – Italy
A dramatic voiceover announces, “In a world ruled by chaos, only one can restore order.” Enter Zazza, pulling a Rubik’s Cube from a smoking Temu bag. (You can feel the collective sigh ripple through the audience. At this point, Rubik’s Cubes are inching their way into the FISM Parthenon of overused props —right alongside floating LED lights, bare white cards, and emotionally symbolic trees.)

Zazza burns a slip of paper (the instructions?) declaring “no distractions today,” though the point is unclear. His T-shirt changes, and he proclaims himself “Zazza, superhero of Rubik’s Cube.”

A grown man playing superhero is not what I was hoping for today.

A spectator is brought up to choose their “lucky colour” from a sheet of cube stickers and mark it—but the thick accent makes the directions nearly impossible to follow. Mispronunciations like “cows” instead of “cards” make comprehension harder still.

When the spectator struggles, he dismissively jokes “the assistant is by Temu.” Sadly so was this performance. Insulting the volunteer on stage is not acceptable.


*Francesco Fon-tanelli - Italy
Francesco is surrounded by a group of volunteers as he begins his act, with a plastic ball-and-vase prop to one side.

He opens by having a card signed by Ali and mixes the deck face up and face down. To music, he performs a Triumph routine - the deck rights itself with only a single card face up. He says it’s a version his father used to do… then shows us his own take: when he spreads the deck, only the spades are face up — in perfect A-to-10 order.

The signed card is lost again, and now the entire deck is in full new deck order.

He then divides a second deck between all the spectators to shuffle. A third deck is handed to him by the judges. Both decks are shuffled, then cut — and the same card appears on top of each.
They do it again — same result.

Finally, he spreads both decks: they are in identical order. It’s a powerful visual. And for a kicker, the signed card is found inside the ball-and-vase.

Francesco brings incredible energy to his performance — engaging, charismatic, and simply fun to watch.



*Yuriy Zahariev - Micro – Bulgaria
Begins with a flash paper production of a coin, then straight into a coin matrix — and never really leaves it. The routine drags on … and on … and on.



*Michael Bloemeke - Parlor - USA
I’ll be honest. When I saw the cups and balls come out, my heart sank. Clearly I was being punished for something I did in a past life.

But thankfully, Michael is everything you want in a magic act built for magicians at a magic convention—where “death by matrix” often sounds more pleasurable than sitting through yet another cups and balls routine.

This, however, is the cups & balls performed entirely with plastic claws as hands! From Vernon spins, Ramsay’s subtleties, Ammar nods—this is a magician pleaser that doesn’t take itself too seriously. A tie vanishes. A watch ends up strapped to a claw. And apparently someone’s been held hostage under the table. The inside FISM jokes were the icing on the cake and duly rewarded with a standing ovation.


*Mario Bove – Cards - Italy
Mario starts with some standard productions—four aces, four kings— but things quickly go south amidst general confusion along with the worst second deal imaginable – visible for all to see on the jumbo screen.

He ends by revealing the shuffled deck is back in new-deck order, only to then show that all the backs are now magically different. Or perhaps the performer just switched the deck?



*Gotaishi – Close-up – Japan

Gotaishi begins as a monk seated cross-legged on the floor – telling us about the similarities between Buddhism and magic. A brass cup covers a bell, and from it he produces a shot glass of liquid.

He moves into a cups and balls routine—mini cup transforms to full-size, balls vanish into sleeves, and reappear elsewhere. Unfortunately, an awkward attempt at lapping didn’t help matters. The drink reappears, then transforms back into the original bell—bringing the act full circle.


*Matthew Le Mottee – Parlour – Great Britain

For reasons unknown—or perhaps just FISM fate—all the cups and balls routines seem to be following one after the other which is not ideal

Matthew enters carrying a tray of afternoon tea—complete with cakes and the promise of a “slice of magic.” He launches into a two-cup routine using crimson balls, with some slick transpositions, though a load is unfortunately flashed during proceedings.

A slice of cake appears under the cup, followed by his cravat vanishing and reappearing inside. For the finale, both cups are revealed to be real cakes, which he slices open. It’s a great idea, even if one swapped cup stood out awkwardly.


*Pere Rafart - Micro - Spain
A blue egg is placed in front of a mirror—and suddenly, there are two. A purse appears, then duplicates too. Coins stack and multiply. It's all clever at first, but the novelty begins to wear off fast.

He continues using the mirror to create duplicates and distort cards, eventually applying the concept to his glasses and [censored]. When the mirror is accidentally dropped, the magic stops and everything returns to normal.

The act never has an actual purpose beyond the premise … what’s the point?


*Manuel Muerte – Parlor - Germany

Betty is back on stage with past FISM winner, Mauel Muere. And expectations are high.

Manuel begins with the appearance of a shoehorn and a hammer, then shifts into full chaos mode. He starts talking to a box, vanishes the shoehorn (which reappears in place of his tie), and produces a marker seemingly out of nowhere.

He opens the box to reveal Rocky the Raccoon (caught in a trap), which is placed inside with the deck. Rocky finds the first signed card in its mouth, then flings the rest of the deck at Manuel—who catches the second card in his teeth.

The final card is discovered skewered on Rocky’s tail.

Things only get weirder from there: Rocky pulls off Manuel’s hair, a shoe ends up in a tub of popcorn, and finally a block of ice appears in a glass of orange juice—containing the final signed card.

The routine is all over the place – and unfortunately Manuel failed to meet expectation.



And so ends the Close-up Competition for FISM Italy 2025.

STAGE CONTEST

The final day of the stage contests beckon.

*Alex Ramon – Illusions - USA
“What’s rule number one … You have to have a cute blonde assistant.” And so Alex produces his much loved dog, MJ … a golden doxie.

Alex is loud, proudly American in style, and radiates energy throughout. He clearly enjoys being on stage—and his enthusiasm is infectious.

What follows is what could be a giant version of Josh Jay’s Balance … with MJ precariously (and impossibly balanced) on a ledge between a broom / chair / inflatable ball and bag of dog food. It’s certainly unique.


*David Ben Magic - Manipulation - Israel
Someone unfortunately missed the memo that the audience need to be able to see the performer on stage in order to know what on earth is happening. For the most part – the act was done in near darkness with the performer aimlessly wandering around the stage in an apparent “manipulation” act with leaves (we think), a “leaf” fountain, “floating” leaf blatantly attached to the jacket, “multiplying” flowers or how not to design a magic prop and a butterfly on string making a brief cameo …ending with the production of a giant flower.

Horrendously below FISM standard that it was borderline insulting.




*Mervil - General – France
A singing magician at a gas station … every FISM audience’s nightmare. Mervil’s act was a surreal mix of musical theatre, giant pigeon productions, and pyrotechnics—often all at once. Giant pigeons appeared, more birds flew in from the back, a lota vase turned sand into fuel, and a tree visibly grew from the petrol station set. All the while, Mervil serenaded us—in French—leaving many unsure what the song was all about.

Not that it mattered. The audience—or at least those who cared—were far more horrified than entertained, as birds were violently dropped to the floor or nearly flambéed by pyros fired alarmingly close to them.

Animal cruelty masquerading as magic isn’t just outdated—it’s unacceptable. The act should be disqualified outright. And those who ignorantly applaud it should be embarrassed.
*Larry - Mentalism – Argentina
Larry’s act involves spectators selecting from banners on stage featuring various words and locations. Eventually ‘art’ is chosen along with a hospital in France. Various predictions & revelations are made all supposedly leading back to Vincent van Gogh. Somehow.

Unfortunately, Larry’s thick accent and limited English made the act nearly impossible to follow. At times, it felt more like a language comprehension exercise than a mentalism routine.




*Antioche & Zegora - Comedy - France
A glitter-clad parody of a husband-and-wife magic duo, complete with levitation, flower productions, and a Chinese sticks routine. “It’s my wife, my love.” Unfortunately, the comedy never arrived, and neither did the magic.

France used to have standards. Not any more sadly.



*Zhao Yujia - General - China
A schoolgirl practices piano while the metronome ticks. She tears up her sheet music, and the crumpled page transforms into a white billiard ball, bouncing off the piano as she begins a choreographed manipulation sequence.

The card manipulations are crisp, if a little standard for FISM, punctuated by the magical appearance of musical notes and sheet music. Unfortunately, the double-bass production from inside the piano is badly flashed—detracting from an otherwise strong act.



*Wanabe Ko - Manipulation - Japan
Rose petals turn into paper flowers, followed by visual fingertip productions of flowers that shift in color. A card manipulation sequence follows, performed with blue cards that eventually change into white flowers, then pink ones appear at the fingertips.

The skill is undeniable, but the act suffers from being far too slow. The audience still enjoy and are up on their feet with a standing ovation.


*Nick Blaze - General - Italy
Thunder crashes as Nick sits beneath a smouldering tree stump. From a small mound of sand, he produces a bird—followed by a second, placing them on the branches.

But then the tree “erupts,” sparks fly, and one bird is seemingly struck down. The other is quickly vanished in a burst of feathers, which then rise from the ground—materializing into a new dove before our eyes.
He ends by producing yet another dove. And then places them right back into the same tree. The irony of wanting to protect your animals from harm yet doing dove magic is clearly lost on the performer.


*Mind2mind - Mentalism – UK
A standout performance that quickly became the talk of the convention. Marina stands blindfolded in the audience while James tells the story of a challenge once set by David Berglas — to identify a box of random objects in under a minute.

Before getting there, James heads out into the audience with a live camera following him. Random items from spectators are revealed: the Six of Hearts. A cellphone is identified along with how much battery is remaining. A debit card is handed over — she reveals not only the type, but the full PIN: 5689. This is all accompanied with slick visuals on screen.

Then comes the real challenge. While James had been in the audience, a second spectator had been quietly collecting assorted objects in abox and placing them onstage. One by one, James holds them up as a camera captures each item.

What follows is a relentless barrage of revelations — sanitizer, shoehorn, Nokia phone, three diamonds, dental floss, coin box, a FISM pen, the timestamp on a receipt — all named instantly and in striking detail.

The pace never lets up. By the time Marina tears off the blindfold, the room is already on its feet.


*Wessy – General Magic – Japan
A cleaner walks on stage—then transforms into a rock star. It’s a quick change from mop to mayhem as the act blends rock music with card manipulations, spinning brooms, and appearing buckets turned into drums.

Brooms become guitars, and a collapsible drum kit appears (though not especially convincingly), followed by a guitar and amp production.

The act has energy but there is a bit of a homemade feel throughout.



*Mag Marin – Illusions - Spain

Inspector Gadget music blares—but Marin isn’t dressed remotely like him. The act follows with a strange mechanical contraption from which a girl is produced. A porter then randomly delivers a random chunk of meat before they head into the audience brandishing a gun.

Back onstage, a thin sawing-in-half illusion is attempted with a spectator from the audience, though one half of the prop collapses mid-routine leaving the hapless spectator sliced in two. We move into a Lady Gaga-style dance routine, morphing into an “Assistant’s Revenge” illusion. The kicker? The “assistant” turns out to be the same guy who’d been sawn in half—now in full drag.

We end with a compressor illusion, and finally, the magician disappears inside the original contraption. His wife rolls out a giant bazooka, fires into the crowd—and he reappears in the audience.

*Francesco Della Bona - Manipulation - Italy
Francesco opens with a ticking pocket watch, which transforms into a ball—marking the start of a precise and deliberate act themed around time.

The manipulation is elegant: billiard balls appear and vanish cleanly, and the card sequence is slow, thoughtful—like the ticking of a clock. The slow motion sequence is sublime as billiard balls float gently from hand to hand … A card hovers mid-air eventually leading to one card suspended in space. He reaches for it and what follows is an utterly insane one handed vanish.

Massive crowd response.


*Ilia & Arina – General Magic - Russia
Dramatic poses, endless gestures, and more umbrellas than a department store clearance sale.

From the jacket, from the chest, from who-knows-where—they just keep coming. There’s a flying silk that barely takes off, an appearing cane from chest, a quick change, a color-changing umbrella… and then, of course, 100 more umbrellas.

By the time the act ends, he looks like he’s lost 20 pounds from hauling them all.

Magicians do realise audiences know umbrellas collapse, right? It’s not that magical when you supply pull them from your jacket.


*Benoit Rosemont - Mentalism - France
Benoit appears in a white suit and red bow tie (the dress code should have been the clue) and introduces himself as the “human calendar.”

He begins by asking a spectator for their date of birth: 8 May 1992 and whether they know on which day they were born. The volunteer doesn’t quite understand the question, and communication quickly becomes an issue. Benoit confidently announces the day — “Wednesday” — but it was actually a Friday.

Next, the spectator opens calendar books to random dates and Benoit correctly identifies a couple of days of the week. Few people care what day 6 June 1946 fell on.

He then attempts to list all the months in 2019 that contained a Friday the 13th — and gets that wrong too.

Finally, he squares the volunteer’s birth year (92 × 92), then cubes it in some bizarre attempt at mathemagic which is also ultimately goes amiss.

An ultimately pointless performance.



*Manolo Costa Y Mindanguillo - Comedy - Spain
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating — comedy magic is often an oxymoron.

The act opens with an appearing cane before the assistant runs across the stage brandishing fickle fire, mid-way through the magician’s manipulation routine. Then he runs back — this time with his head on fire.

It’s as inane as it sounds.

No expense was spared on the backdrop (read: zero spent).

We get an opera singer bit, a man in a polka dot dress, and a sword box routine featuring vanishing and appearing canes as spikes.

Some acts should not be at FISM.


*Bruno Tarnecci – General Magic – Peru
Bruno opens with a floating cane that balances and clings to his fingers. The silk segment starts well but quickly derails when the flying silk gets tangled. Eventually, the silk transforms into smoke and then into a paper boat.

A painting with a hole is used ala Zone Zero. The boat vanishes through the hole and later reappears — ultimately ending up sailing inside a fishbowl, pulled from a paper bag. Well constructed, but the pacing drags at times and could do with a tad more urgency to hold attention.


*Tsiao Yang - Manipulation – Hong Kong
The act begins with floating lights and the magician standing atop a lit staircase. More lights appear, revealing a fan, followed by a sequence of flower and fan productions. Fans change color and multiply, but unfortunately, the method is often far too visible — we clearly see them being loaded from the sleeves.

The floating light returns, though it’s clearly just attached to a stick, and several of the fan productions are outright flashed. The blooming flowers add little, and the whole routine leans heavily on repetition.

That said, the finale delivers an unexpected and impressive payoff: a synchronized mini drone display. A strong visual close to an otherwise forgettable routine.



*Lukas Brandl - General - Germany
The act opens with the performer surrounded by white balls before a sudden blackout — when the lights return, they’ve vanished. A single ball drops from the ceiling, leading into a contact juggling sequence mixed with mime.
There’s more ball manipulation, all the while Lukas runs around the stage (akin to a caveman) in what I assume must now be called “interpretative dance”. He dashes off one side of the stage and instantly appears on the other — not magic, just a body double, and not particularly deceptive.

The finale sees a dramatic drop of balls from the ceiling that "attack" the magician.

*Only the die-hards remain
We have now been in the room for over 5 hours with most of the audience leaving to make the 7 pm Close-up Gala Show.


*Dong Ni & Pau Borrell - Comedy – Spain
This comedy act begins with the magician climbing into a sub trunk. Things go off-script — intentionally — when the assistant “accidentally” knocks her out cold inside the chest.

The assistant throws on her jacket and lipstick, stepping into the spotlight to continue the act herself, whilst lip-syncing to George Michael. It’s chaotic and ends with the sub trunk collapsing entirely and the passed out magician suspended at an impossible angle.


*Mill Nathan – Manipulation – Thailand
Dressed all in white, Mill begins standing on a chair with a book that crumbles in his hands. Pages begin to appear at his fingertips—some transforming into paper, others into a crown, with strands of thread dangling awkwardly from them. There’s a noticeable fumble as he tries to vanish one into his jacket. Eventually, the book returns, bringing the act full circle. Visually ambitious, but the performance lacked polish.


*Max Muto – General – Germany
Max opens with, “I’m here to tell you a story,” … and it was a long one.

He travels to “the Orient” (are you still allowed to say that in 2025?) in search of a magic wand but instead is given a wooden hand. That hand becomes the focus of the act, placed on a stand surrounded by a gate large enough to conceal a small theatre company. While concealed, the hand supposedly performs feats: twisting a balloon, vanishing a ring, and stabbing a named card. It’s hard to suspend disbelief when the method could well be so clearly hidden behind the screen.

The performance never quite lands. Still, Team Germany were on their feet with cheers—perhaps more for national pride than the performance itself.



Six hours and fifteen minutes later, we’re finally released from the never-ending stage contest.



With over 150 contestants watched in full this FISM … I think I’ve served my life sentence.

Wow, thanks for such a detailed breakdown of Day Five! It’s really interesting to see how varied the acts were, from the pandemic-inspired comedy of Omini & Nico to the incredibly precise manipulations of Jin Hyoung Han. I hadn’t realized just how much creativity and inventiveness goes into these routines, and it’s fascinating to see both the standout performances and the ones that didn’t quite land.

I happened to be travelling in Italy around that time through https://gowithguide.com/Italy , so it’s great to read such an in-depth recap and get a sense of everything that was happening at FISM. It really shows the scale and endurance needed to sit through over 150 contestants, an incredible effort on both the performers’ and audience’s part.