Magic trick7/4/2023 The evening before their performance, the Lucians rehearsed with three volunteers snatched from the convention center’s lobby. It also had meant enlisting as volunteers a family of Ukrainian refugees they were housing in their home in Vienna, Austria. For years, Anca and Lucca Lucian had been practicing the complex techniques needed to pull off their mind-reading routine while doing the dishes, driving, and raising two sons. In the pursuit of perfection there’s never enough rehearsal time. They would catch up on FaceTime as she practiced maintaining her handstand. Because of China’s COVID-19 quarantine requirements, she hadn’t traveled back to see her husband and son. For four months before FISM, a 34-year-old Chinese magician and former acrobat named Ding Yang had holed up in a dinner theater in Niagara Falls, Canada, to practice her routine with Canadian magician Greg Frewin. This appearance of effortlessness comes only after years of grueling practice. “I spent two thousand dollars to be here,” one French competitor deadpanned, munching fistfuls of potato chips while pulling the four queens from a messy pile of facedown cards with inexplicable ease. Others opted for simple, self-deprecating humor. A 15-year-old German student who goes by the name Magic Maxl dueled with a soft-boiled egg that seemed to come alive while he pretended to get ready for school. One Japanese magician romanced an empty shirt that somehow wrapped her in its arms. And so some performers wove narratives at times surreal and poetic. Winning FISM requires more than merely fooling other magicians: It demands a new technique, a compelling story, a hilarious twist. “To impress the room, you have to do something different.” “These guys see hundreds of magicians all the time,” said Bertil Fredstrom, a Swedish magician who has attended every FISM since 1973. Among veteran conjurers, though, tricks are almost always decipherable-if not in precise mechanics, then in theory and technique. Most people don’t see magic that often, so even basic effects astound them. Developing an act for the world championship is nothing like performing for a typical audience. How to fool a magicianįISM got its start in 1948, and nearly 100 magic societies from 50 countries participate today, representing around 70,000 magicians. But it’s also a place where a lifetime’s worth of sweat and practice might only receive curt applause. It can even spark new trends in the magic world. A trick that impresses FISM’s 10-judge panels opens doors with retailers, TV show scouts, and theatrical bookers. The pressure-cooker contest can supercharge a magic career. “I use the mask and seatbelt as props and the window as a mirror.” “What else is there to do when the passengers are sleeping?” she said. On long hauls, she practices her own flight attendant-themed act. Years ago, Allison Shelley became a flight attendant to pay her way to FISM and now she visits her fellow magicians on layovers. Very few of FISM’s attendees earn a full-time income from magic: There are nuclear physicists, chess players, gastroenterologists. There were a few doves, but no rabbits, just a handful of clowns, only one person sawn in half, and many, many playing cards: flying across the stage, thrown from feet into mouths, and rattling inside a condom inflated over a magician’s head. If you haven’t seen much magic since David Copperfield’s TV specials, FISM might surprise you. until 2 a.m., with magic vendors hawking their latest inventions and magicians swapping secrets late into the night. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Įvery three years the International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM) hosts the contest, which “fits somewhere between the Harry Potter Goblet of Fire competition and the Westminster Dog Show,” one magician jested.
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