From the July 29th upload "World’s best magicians gather in Canada for championship" by CBC News: The National:
From the July 28th article "The best magicians in the world are gathering in Canada this week" by Joseph Pugh at the CBC:
Two Canadians are competing this year, including Yannick Lacroix from Quebec and Cobalt, who will be competing in the close-up card magic category.
"I'm excitedly terrified," Cobalt told CBC News. He qualified for the championship after competing in an event last fall for the first time.
The Toronto-based magician says there is added stress and excitement when thinking about the audience.
"It's literally every great magician I grew up reading about … or ask[ed] for an autograph who's going to be in there now watching me do this act."
There's a lot on the line for the magicians, according to Canadian illusionist Greg Frewin.
"If you place even in the top three of this competition, your life changes," he says.
Frewin speaks from experience having won first place in the general magic category at the 1994 world championships in Yokohama, Japan. He currently performs shows at the Greg Frewin theatre in Niagara Falls, Ont., and has been training the next generation of magicians. One of his students, Ding Yang of China, is also competing at FISM.
"I can't give away what she does, but I will say this, there is one part of her act that nobody, male or female, has ever done and probably won't do for a long time because of the skill level and the skill set besides magic that it takes."
