FISM 2012 ORGANIZER RESPONDS TO CONTROVERSY

Since the announcement that the 2012 FISM contract had been awarded to Blackpool,  event organizer Derek Lever has come under fire in various public forums with regards to issues too numerous to count. Until now, he has yet to respond publicly to any of the issues.  Today, Darrel posted  an email that he received from Mr. Lever in response to several areas under discussion at Genii, The Magic Cafe and elsewhere at the MagicBunny.co.uk website.  In this correspondence, Mr. Lever states the following:

• The contract to run F.I.S.M. is with myself and Blackpool Magicians Club.
• Blackpool Convention and F.IS.M. Convention are separate events.
• People banned from Blackpool will not automatically be banned from F.I.S.M. There are only about 7 people who are banned from Blackpool and these are for serious reasons such as shoplifting, abusive behaviour/drunkenness, obscenity and fly pitching.Colin Richardson was banned (since lifted) not because he was running a convention but because he posted a Carl De Rome e.mail on their forum saying that all Blackpool Magicians Club competitions were fixed. Colin refused to delete it and only removed it after receiving a letter from my solicitor. Nobody has been banned because of personal differences.Despite press headlines I did not say that Paul Daniels was banned. I said that we had not invited him for the past 15 years and we did not intend to invite him for 2012. If he wants to come and buys a registration he is quite welcome.
• 90% of magicians who attend conventions don't read forums. Most of the vitriolic postings are by the same 9 people. If they believe that their comments will make me resign/lie down and die they obviously don't know me very well.
• When all the bleating is over I will still be getting 3,000 magicians attending Blackpool Convention, 3,000 magicians attending F.I.S.M. and will produce one of the best World Championships ever.