Surrey-based magician Billy Hsueh won the prestigious Invention Award at the 2025 FISM World Championships of Magic, known as the 鈥淥lympics of Magic鈥� event.
In July he was in Turin, Italy, to perform a winning illusion that serves as "a modern, impossible take on the classic 'Think-a-Drink' plot," a signature routine in magic where a single container is used to pour multiple drinks named by the audience.
The international FISM convention (F茅d茅ration Internationale des Soci茅t茅s Magiques), held every three years, represents the highest level of competition in the art of magic, and the Invention Award is reserved for magicians whose contributions advance the technical or conceptual boundaries of the craft.
The last Canadian to win a FISM award was Shawn Farquhar in 2009.
鈥淲atching Billy win an award at World Championships of Magic was indescribable," Farquhar said in a news release. "To be there for this historic moment was both memorable and moving. He鈥檚 not just making magic, he鈥檚 moving our art forward."
Last spring , but ultimately didn't fool them. Pre-recorded on stage in Las Vegas, he entertained with a bartending trick where he turned water into wine and also one fruity martini using a "special" tea pot made in Taiwan, where Hsueh was born.
A longtime Fraser Heights resident, Hsueh (pronounced Shway) has performed internationally over the past two decades. He co-founded the , staged monthly on the fourth Tuesday at the Hidden Wonders Speakeasy theatre, located behind a fake storefront in New Westminster.
Also, Hsueh is , a 15,000-member organization founded in 1922.
