Reflections on FISM

1st prize trophy for World Championship Street Magic and... World Championship of Online Magic in the fine print? (Don't worry. The organizers fixed this).

This trophy epitomizes the FISM World Championship Street Magic experience:

There were typos, hiccups, and moments of confusion, but ultimately the end result was historic and unforgettable.

The whole experience was a whirlwind. Competitors in the other categories prepare for FISM for at least three years. For us, the whole process took six months.

I was first encouraged to apply in February, submited my application in March, and learned about my acceptance in late April. I arrived in Turin on July 11.

For something that came together so quickly, I was blown away by how smoothly everything ran.

The new demonstration category was a logistical and historical triumph. As street performers, we certainly had concerns: 10:30am is not a workable time; neither is high noon in the midst of a heat wave. Piazza Castello (in the middle of a wide open square with limited foot traffic) is not normally a workable spot. And also what if it rains?

Despite our initial skepticism, FISM managed to give us a built-in initial audience. Attendees from the FISM convention along with members of the public drawn in from the advertising the organizers had done, showed up to watch the competition. And, so that no one performer would be stuck in a bad spot every single performance, the organizers did their best to balance the spots and times in which we would each perform.

They successfully organized 4 days of shows across seven different locations. While that's a lot of performing for us, it was also an incredible demonstration of endurance for the 5 judges who sat underneath the sweltering sun watching every single one of our acts.

How were we judged? Officially, the street magic category had the same criteria as the other categories: Technical Skill/Handling, Showmanship/Presentation, Entertainment value, Artistic Impression/Routining, Originality, Magic Atmosphere.

We didn't know this criteria beforehand.

But in reality, the answer was a lot more complicated.

From what I could deduce, the most important criteria was: Is this a street magic show? Not all of the competitors had the same definition of a street show. A fellow competitor told me: "We are performing on the street. This is a street show!"

I would argue that simply being on the street does not a street show make. A street show is not a festival show is not a stage show. Given that at least some of the judges were street performers, it seemed that they shared this opinion. Acts that could have fit into the FISM stage category didn't make it through the pre-finals round. Acts that would thrive in a festival environment but struggle in an urban environment also didn't make the cut.

That definition, while clear to me, was not universally understood -- especially cross-culturally. A clearer definition of "street magic" (along with coinciding unique scoring criteria) would help future contestants and, moreover, would really help the street magic category stand out as a very different kind of competition from the other traditional FISM categories.

Once the definition of "street magic" is agreed on, the rest falls into place. Many of the original criteria is still applicable: Technical excellence, for example, is definitely relevant. Audience interaction and adaptability (e.g., responding to a crying baby) could be additional criteria applied specifically to street magic.

And then comes the question of audience votes. It makes sense the audience votes should count in a street performing competition to some degree -- but to what degree? Some of us chose to hat for money more than hat for votes. Over the course of the competition, as we learned that people weren't really paying very much and that votes really do count, we slowly started to change our hat lines to ask for more votes. Knowing this ahead of time would have impacted our performances from the beginning.

There will always be room for improvement, but, for a new demonstration category with so many potential hurdles, the first year of FISM street magic was a rousing success. I hope the winners will gain a lot from their accomplishments, and I am glad I decided to take part in this historic first.

I even got a participation certificate out of it!

Note: This certificate assumes women are not street performers. FISM can do better here.

Thank you so much to FISM, the judges, my fellow competitors, and all the friends who came to watch, support, and encourage me to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime event.

And hey, I got some really cool footage out of it: