ELORA – A lot of people might be surprised to learn there is an international competition considered to be the equivalent of the Olympics for magicians.
Many also wouldn’t know it’s being held for the first time in North America this month in Quebec City. What might be most interesting, is Canada’s official involvement started with a woman from Elora.
Joan Caesar, 76, is an Elora resident who founded the Canadian Association of Magicians (CAM) in 1997 so Canadians could compete at the Federation Internationale des Societies Magiques (FISM) World Championship of Magic.
“We had a lot of really good magicians who couldn’t compete under our flag, they had to compete under the (United) States,” Caesar said in an interview at her home.
Caesar first got involved in magic decades ago when her youngest son was three and he took an interest in it. She had to learn magic to teach it to him but this led to going to meetings and conventions which resulted in meeting the right people at the right time to get more involved in the wider community.
“They were looking for women to judge rather than it being just a male thing,” Caesar said, although acknowledging the field is still dominated by men. “I was just very lucky.”
She said there’s a “slew of magicians” in Canada — CAM has 200 members — but not all are stage magicians putting on big events. A lot are performers at kids birthday parties or other family-friendly events which was mostly what Caesar did.
Caesar is confident she knows good magic which is why she’s judged FISM competitions in the past but is humble about her own skills and expertise.
“She’s done incredible things, like around the world she’s known in our industry,” said Fergus’ Ryan Joyce, current VP of CAM.
Joyce said he’s known Caesar for 30 years since he was a child and cites her as a big influence to his career as a magician who has performed worldwide and on television.
He also highlighted how important the founding of CAM was for the magic community in Canada as a unifying body.
“It’s essential for higher level education for a lot of magicians but it’s also a good introduction for beginners,” Joyce said.
Both Joyce and Caesar are to going to Quebec City for the 28th edition of the event. The two are working as a lecture introducer and close up magic stage manager respectively.
The competition consists of stage performance categories of: manipulation, general, stage illusions, mental and comedy. There is also three close-up performance categories of card, micro and parlour along with an additional category of most original act or invention.
When asked how one can objectively judge magic, Caesar responded: "How do you judge a piece of art? It's kind of the same thing."
Caesar said she looked forward to seeing a few tricks as she knows some magicians will leave her stumped how they pulled the trick off, which is rare as she claims to know most of the tricks of the trade.
“I’m overjoyed to finally have FISM come to North America specifically,” Caesar said, giving credit to current CAM president Renee-Claude Auclair. “I’m very grateful to Renee-Claude for having the foresight and energy to this done.”
“It’s a historic moment for Canadian magicians specifically but also North American because the FISM World Championship of Magic has never come anywhere west of the United Kingdom,” Joyce said.
The competition runs in Quebec City from July 25 to 30, more information can be found here.
