Jopal, “Festival Mundial de Magia”

February to April 1994

With : Greg Frewin / Canada, Christopher Hart / USA, Enric Magoo / Spain, Merpin / Argentina, Gustavo Lorgia / Colombia, Omar Pasha / France.
“El Mundial de Magia” (The World Festival of Magic) is a Tour organised by the Colombian illusionist Gustavo Lorgia, a star in his country, through many TV shows. The theatres are packed. Audiences are very lively, reactive and enthusiastic.

JOPAL, sports playground, 1994 :
A base for petroleum search and nothing to entertain the workers and their families. They look forward to the show.

The second aircraft to join is a small propeller driven plane. It has only a small baggage hold. All the big illusions’ props from our colleagues are loaded inside the passengers cabin. Never-ending discussions, time is racing, but we finally embark. They are only 3 other passengers added to our group.
Captain speaking : “Please everybody move to the back of the plane in order to balance the load.” We are scared a bit, but we laugh.

The theatre? A sports playground, with a roof for the audience, but the podium is in the open air. The arrangement for our special set, is quite acrobatic. The sun is blazing down.
End of the afternoon : a huge tropical storm, it rains cats and dogs. But nothing stops Colombians : they twist the curtains over basins and mop up the floor.

About 2000 or 2500 people were expected, but more than 3000 have already packed the place and as many are still queuing outside. Time is racing, the crowd gets impatient, but it becomes too late to be thinking of a second show. Outside, some people leave and the others listen to the show’s music and have fun, even if they cannot watch. Incredible memories.