1st National Prestidigitation Festival to open next week
The festival will take place in Hanoi from May 13-17, gathering 50 magicians of 20 troupes.
The event is co-organised by the Circus Association, Viet A Communication JS Company and AMICA Company.
Pham Ngoc Thanh and Diep Bao Hiep from the Bach Long Circus and Prestidigitation Club in the coastal city of Nha Trang will perform a play which includes several prestidigitation items, namely invisible fencing, flying bed, etc.
Huynh Van Nghiem from the Prestidigitation Club of Hanoi Friendship Cultural Palace will bring to the festival an item named œFlying man.
Tran Dung from HCM City Circus and Prestidigitation Club will show "Invisible Wheels". Independent prestidigitator Tuan Phuong will turn one object into four objects.
Viet Hung from the Vietnam Circus School will also perform œFlying man and œGirl passes a small pipe. Up to four artists will have the same items, œCutting a man into three pieces and œCutting a man head off.
At a press conference held in Hanoi on May 7, Vietnamese conjurers said that they know all magic tricks in the world.
œThe festival is the opportunity that we have been waiting for for a long time, to meet each other to exchange skills, said juggler Minh Tuan from the Quang Tri Art Troupe.
œOur prestidigitators are not inferior to international colleagues but we cant afford to buy necessary materials for prestidigitation, he said.
As the vice head of the General Art Troupe of the central province of Quang Tri, Tuan said annually his troupe receives VND5 million ($312) from the state for prestidigitation.
A representative of the Vietnam Circus Association said Vietnamese prestidigitators know up to 80% of prestidigitation items of international colleagues but they dont have money to arrange items like David Copperfield did, such as making the Statue of Liberty disappear.
After the festival, the Vietnam Circus School will invite prestidigitators to teach their students.
Source TP/Vietnamnet