The World Championships of Magic, organized by the International Federation of Magical Societies (FISM), has been held since 1961 every three years in different cities around the world, and 150 magicians of different nationalities participate in it. The jury for the awards is made up of specialists and world leaders in magic.
The championship is divided into two main categories: close-up magic and stage magic. Each of them comprises other specialities such as general magic, manipulation magic, comic magic or mentalism, among others. The winners of each modality meet in the final to win the Grand Prix in one of the two significant sections.
The 2021 World Champs were delayed due to the pandemic and took place last weekend in French-speaking Quebec, Canada. If you want to experience what it felt like to attend the event, I recommend watching this 50-minute recap shared by YouTube magician Chris Ramsay.
Does anyone care about FISM?
I posed this question to subscribers on Tuesday the same way it has been proposed to me over the years. Do you think laypeople care about magic awards? Should magicians strive to compete and win?
Most magicians have never heard of FISM: perhaps 98% of magicians have not. The magicians who do know about FISM have likely never attended or would not be able to tell you what F-I-S-M stands for. Heck, can you name the winners from the last world championships? Hold on, can you name the winners from this weekend’s FISM? It’s easy to assume magic competitions like FISM don’t mean much.
Let’s see what One Ahead subscribers had to say:
“I competed when I was younger. This week I attended FISM and got to see almost all of the competitions. The benefits for me in entering the competitions were that I was able to use the competition as a deadline to get some new material ready. Not all of the tricks I created and rehearsed found their way into my regular working repertoire, but there were a few that did. The competitions gave me the incentive to dream bigger with my magic. An added bonus of competing was the ability to meet other competitors and form life-long friendships.”
— Chris Pilsworth
The first magic show I ever worked on was a mess. It wasn’t until an executive producer working on another show at the production company sat in on a production meeting that everything turned around. He sat silently for the first fifty-five minutes of the hour-long session. He listened to us discuss the intricate magic methods, shooting locations, casting needs and budgetary requirements.
Then with five minutes left, he took over the meeting, opening his notebook and asking the series producer to give him shoot dates for every magic trick for the series. We all furiously copied down the dates. After we’d placed an arbitrary deadline on every magic trick and stunt, he closed his notebook, stood up, and said something like “better get to it then” before leaving.
Our level of productivity was approximately 25x higher after that meeting.
I relate to Pilsworth’s note that the deadline of a performance and one in which you get judged on your material must inspire productivity and excellent work.
Like any competition I do not think it is an objective way of deciding who are the worlds best magicians. It is a Magic competition for Magicians at the end of the day, and the criteria for judging will likely favour magicians who perform magic that appeals to Magicians rather than standard audience members. I'm sure many of the prize winning acts could be pitted against lower placing acts and some audiences would prefer the latter to the former. There are so many brilliant magicians who are probably among the world's greatest that may not be able to excel in a 10 minute competition act but give a stunning magical performance in an hour long stage show or any other medium.
That being said, I think it is an important competition for Magicians. A great deal of magicians care about it and its a wonderful goal to strive towards. So many phenomenal acts have been seen at FISM over the past years and I can't help but think the title of World Champion of Magic was a great motivator for the competitors to improve their already strong acts. Furthermore, its a wonderful event, some of the best magicians in the world are performing in one convention, how could that not be loved?
Lay people probably do not care about these awards, and Magicians do not have to. It is still a competition and it means you were the subjectively the best competitor to a panel of judges at the time and at that place. But it is not harmful, and its a strong motivator for many brilliant magicians to explore the depths of what can be accomplished with Magic in technical ability, method, artistically and more. Why not push Magic as far as it can go?
— John Duffet
Your thoughts made my brain compare winning America’s Got Talent to winning FISM.
I don’t think it matters that the awards are judged and given out by magicians. I agree that audiences prefer many magicians who would never win a magic award to award-winning performers. But indeed, that’s the same for every industry. Spiderman was the highest-grossing film of 2021 — did it win the Oscar for best movie? Absolutely not. None of the eight best picture nominees were in the top 25 highest-growing films. You’ve only got to look at Rotten Tomatoes to see how differently critics and audiences rate films.
