Surrey-based magician Billy Hsueh won the prestigious Invention Award at the 2025 FISM World Championships of Magic, known as the “Olympics of Magic” 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 (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés 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.
“Watching 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’s not just making magic, he’s moving our art forward."
Last spring Hsueh impressed American magic duo Penn & Teller on their Fool Us TV show, 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 Cabaret of Wonders, staged monthly on the fourth Tuesday at the Hidden Wonders Speakeasy theatre, located behind a fake storefront in New Westminster.
Also, Hsueh is a past-president of The International Brotherhood of Magicians, a 15,000-member organization founded in 1922.
