Did you know that magic has its own "Olympics"? The FISM magic championships are held every 3 years, and are attended by magicians and magic enthusiasts worldwide. Each continent has its own championships leading up to the world championship of magic. It's an exciting world filled with creativity, endless preparation, and most of all - a passion for magic.
The competition is organized and run by the World Congress of Magic, known as FISM: Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques (International Federation of Magic Societies). Founded in 1948, it is the world's premier governing body for the art of magic, representing over 80,000 magicians through more than 110 affiliated societies across six continents.
Many magicians around the world love the opportunity to create new, original magic effects and methods, and share them with their fellow wonder-workers at regional, national, and international magic competitions. In these competitions, the performers are scored on categories such as: originality, skill, presentation, costume, music, speaking / theatricality, stage presence, and more. The performers truly bring their "A Game" to these competitions, as winning can mean receiving lucrative performing contracts.
Generally a performer will start with local or regional competitions, and work up the rungs of the competition ladder for a couple of years before attempting one of the large national or international competitions.
From 2014 - 2017 Jim immersed himself in the world of magic competitions, and won many prestigious awards, including:
North American Champion of Close-Up Magic - FISM North America 2017
People's Choice Award - FISM North America Championship 2017
1st Place - Gold Cups Championship - 2016 International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM)
People's Choice Award - 2016 International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM)
1st Place - 2016 The Society of American Magicians National Convention (SAM)
People's Choice Award - 2016 The Society of American Magicians National Convention (SAM)
1st Place - 2016 Canadian Association of Magicians (CAM)
Gold Medal - 2015 Pacific Coast Association of Magicians (PCAM)
Jury's Choice Award - 2015 Festival de Magie de Québec
1st Place - 2015 International Battle of Magicians
1st Place - 2015 Midwest Magic Jubilee
1st Place - 2015 Winter Carnival of Magic
People's Choice Award - 2015 Winter Carnival of Magic
1st Place - 2014 Daytona Beach Festival of Magic / Florida State Magic Convention
Jim is one of the very few magicians in history to win both the International Brotherhood of Magicians top award, and the Society of American Magicians top award, both in the same year.
Jim's "signature act" is one that he calls "The Money Act."
In the 1800's, legendary magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin performed an amazing feat of magic called "The Aerial Treasury" where he produced many coins from mid-air. It has become a standard effect in magic, and magicians the world over perform it.
Jim decided he wanted to "push The Aerial Treasury to the max," and attempt to do it in a new way, with new methods never applied to this particular illusion - and take it further than anyone before. In Jim's routine, coins, banknotes, credit cards, and even a gold bar appear from nowhere... Jim sits at a table with sleeves rolled up, and all the magic happens in his bare hands.
A few years after winning FISM North America, Jim appeared on the hit television show "Penn & Teller: Fool Us" where he performed the act. There are many videos of that television performance online, including on YouTube.
Yes! After winning FISM North America in 2017, Jim and his family traveled to Busan, South Korea in the summer of 2018 where Jim represented the United States in the 27th World Championships of Magic (FISM 2018). In that competition, competing against 150 magicians from around the world, Jim took 7th Place... which at first was a slight disappointment to Jim... until his wife said, "Honey, that means you're the 7th Wonder of the World!" ❤️