Contestants must enter by June 15th
Full Official Rules and Procedures
CONTEST RULES AND PROCEDURES FOR THE
NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP OF MAGIC
The FISM North American Championship of Magic is open to any magician who has reached FISM level, who is a member of a FISM North American Member Society where they are living (officially registered at least one year before the dates of the Championship) and after having received the written authorization of the President of the Society of which they are a member. Any magician who has reached the FISM Level and is living in North America and is not a member of a FISM Member Society, could apply to compete to FISM NACM after having received the written authorization of three of the FISM NA committee representatives of North American Member Societies. The guaranteeing Society must be up to date with payment of the fees assigned by the NAEB in accordance with the statutes of the FISM and FISM North America.
b) Excluded from participation are artists who are booked or invited by the organizing committee to perform or lecture at that convention.
c) A contestant must be a paid registrant of the Convention, during which the contest is held.
d) The NAEB must have received the duly signed registration form for the contest, including the appropriate authorization, the necessary agreement, the convention fee before June 15th, 2024.
e) Signing and sending the request to compete, candidate implicitly accepts the transfer of all data to be stored and processed for the exclusive use of FISM, following the North American laws of data protection, before, during and after the competition.
f) The number of contestants is limited to around 90 applicants, being around 60 for the stage and around 30 for the close-up competition.
g) By participating in the contest, a contestant agrees to all the decisions of the judges, which are not subject to appeal.
h) A prize-winning contestant, when asked by the organizing committee, must perform their act again at a show of the Convention, without any fee. The nonappearance to the gala that has been cited, or not being in the rehearsal and performance times scheduled by the technical and artistic director or presenting in an obvious physical condition not appropriate to be able to successfully face their performance, may be cause for loss of the prize if the jury considers it so.
2. ABOUT THE JURY
a) To determine all prizes and other awards (see Article 6), a jury of 7 members will judge the stage magic and the close-up contests.
b) The jury will be presided over by a non-judging president, appointed by the NAEB. (North American Executive Board)
c) All Jury members are appointed by the NAEB selecting 7 of the jury members from the list of FISM Official judges. These appointments should be based on the qualifications of the candidates in both the art of Magic and that of judging magic performances. There should be a diversity of age and cultural background. The NAEB should also acknowledge continuity in FISM juries. Preferably there will be only one judge for any one member organization.
d) Judges will be exempted from paying a convention registration fee and will get free refreshments and meals during their judging time.
e) The Chairmen of the juries will send a report of the contest results, with appropriate remarks and observations, to the NAEB and a copy to the Presidium within one month of the closing of the convention.
3. ABOUT THE CATEGORIES
a) The contest performances are open in the following categories:
STAGE PERFORMANCES
- Manipulation: A magic stage act wholly or largely based on sleight of hand
- General Magic: A magic stage act which is, in most cases, a mix of several of the
other categories. The props used are usually smaller than the ones used in a Stage
Illusion act. Some performances using modern high-tech or video technology can also be categorized under this denomination.
- Stage Illusions: A magic stage act in which huge props are used (even when these
are not visible to the audience). Often several people and/or animals are involved.
- Comedy Magic: A magic stage act of which the main purpose is to make people
laugh. It can be based on any one of the aforementioned categories, provided the
emphasis is laid on the magic nature of the performance.
- Mental Magic: Branch of magic comprising demonstrations of apparent extraordinary or supernatural mental powers, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, super memory, lightning calculation, telekinesis & simulations of mediumistic phenomena.
CLOSE-UP MAGIC PERFORMANCES:
Acts intended to be performed for small groups of people in close proximity. The
contestant can be seated or standing behind a table, mostly with some members of the audience also seated at this table, but the act can also be presented standing up
without any use of a table. The items used are generally small and most effects directly involve the spectators or participants. Three categories are distinguished:
- Card Magic: the act is exclusively based on effects using playing cards.
- Micro Magic: although playing cards are not to be excluded, the act is of a more
general nature.
- Parlor Magic: An act, midway between close-up and stage magic, meant to be
performed for a group of people in a moderately sized room.
ADDITIONAL CATEGORY: Invention - Most Original act
b) If the judges are of the shared opinion that the act of a contestant should have been entered in another category, they are entitled to make such a change, if it is in the best interest of a contestant.
4. ABOUT THE CONTESTANTS AND THE CONTEST PERFORMANCE
a) A contestant is responsible for his own performance. He undertakes to FISM North America that he has secured the necessary rights to perform this full and complete contest performance, (also known as his ‘act’).
b) The contestant's undertaking includes the right to perform the act in question and encompasses the contestant securing all ancillary rights and licenses whether music or otherwise from all legally required third parties, if applicable.
c) The contestant will specifically undertake to FISM North America that he is entitled to exploit and grant solely license of his act and that his act does not infringe the rights of any third party.
d) If the contestant is in breach of any of the aforementioned undertakings, he has to accept all the consequences and liabilities. If the contestant is in breach of the regulations concerning the Music Rights of his act, if necessary, the Organizing Committee has, after having communicated with the contestant, the exclusive right to either obtain the necessary performance and/or music rights at the expense of the contestant or to substitute the music in question.
e) Volunteers for contestants will be chosen before the competition by an impartial worker to eliminate the possibility of a stooge
f) A contestant who has been rewarded a Grand Prix in a FISM WCM or NACM is not allowed to compete with essentially the same act.
g) A contestant must present a complete act (not a single trick) of at least five minutes and not more than ten minutes. However, in the category “Mental Magic” an act within these time limits, consisting of one effect, is acceptable.
h) A contestant who presents an act that is obviously a copy of the act, or a significant or typical part of it, of another performer will be disqualified.
i) A contestant can only present one act in one category in Stage magic and one act in one category in Close-up magic
j) A contestant must be ready to perform his act at least ten minutes before the scheduled time. The jury may disqualify a contestant who is not ready by this ten minute notice.
k) An act begins when the contestant enters the stage or when the music of the act starts, whichever comes first.
l) At the front of the stage will be a signal (monitor or lamp) easy visible for Jury and competitor. After nine minutes of a performance, a yellow signal will be switch on. After the tenth minute, a red signal will be switched on, showing the contestant that he or she is over time and therefore disqualified. A contestant will also be disqualified in case of a flashing red signal (see Article 7d) m) When introducing a contestant, the Master of Ceremonies of the competition will refrain from any comment on the performer or the act, restricting the announcement to the name of the contestant, the category of performance, the FISM North America society and the name of the President authorizing this participation in the contest.
5. ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND BROADCASTING RIGHTS
a) By no later than four (4) weeks prior to the commencement of the competition, the contestant will provide the Organizing Committee with a list of all music titles to be used in his act; including the title's name, composer, adapter, recording artist, the time of the soundtrack and the name of the label.
b) A contestant's performance or act may be recorded and/or videotaped by or on behalf of FISM NA (North America) and broadcast and transmitted to monitors inside and outside the performance theatre.
6. ABOUT PRIZES AND AWARDS
a) Prizes: In each category three prizes can be awarded by the jury: a first, a second and a third prize.
b) Jury can award a Grand Prix for Stage and Close-up according to FISM WCM rules without a second phase of Competition.
c) Special Contest Award: For both stage performances and close-up performances each jury can award a “Most Original Act” award. The Jury can issue one or more awards for an invention both in stage and close-up competitions. The inventions must be presented as part of an act in one of the categories and the invention must be claimed by the contestant when registering for the competition. There is no hierarchy for awards for invention. The jury, who will determine the invention to be at least a new effect or a new method or technique, will decide on these awards. To be considered for this award, the competitors must send a description of the invention they claim, together with the method used. This information will be
treated as strictly confidential and must be sent directly to the jury president, who will forward it to the members of the concerned jury panel. It should be received no later than four weeks before the start of the convention.
d) Other awards: No other prize, award, distinction, or gift can be given without the approval of the NAEB and the President of the jury. This includes any prize or award given on behalf of a private company. Only contestants having received a prize or a (special) contest award, are eligible for an additional prize or award beyond those mentioned in the preceding paragraphs of this Article.
e) 1st Prize ,2nd prize and 3rd prize winners have a non-transferable guaranteed participation in the next World Championship of Magic.
7. ABOUT THE JUDGING PROCESS
a) The jury will judge all the contestants' performances during the contest to determine who’s eligible for the prizes and awards as mentioned in Article 6, when appropriate.
b) A member of the jury shall give a fair judgement on the performance of every contestant, without prejudice, with an equal level of critical standards regarding the following six aspects:
• Technical Skill / Handling. • Showmanship / Presentation • Entertainment value • Artistic Impression / “Routining” • Originality • Magic Atmosphere
c) Jury members use the official judging form. Each judge will give a total score of up to 100 points to each contestant. After each contest performance, the judge will close his judging procedure giving the part of the sheet of judging form below the dotted line to a member of the Jury staff as mentioned in Article 9a or selecting/clicking on CLOSE VOTE button on Digital System. Adding the scores of all judges and dividing the total by the number of judges, the final score will then be calculated.
d) Judges will each have access to a switch to activate the red signal on the performing platform. If, after the first three minutes of an act, a judge is of the opinion that the performance is substantially below the FISM level, he can press his button. If more than 70% of the judges have pressed their red button, the system activates the red signal which then starts flashing, meaning the contestant is disqualified. In case of maltreatment of persons or animals or when the performer is endangering the assistants or the audience, a jury member shall press the button immediately, without any time restraints. In case of serious maltreatment, the chairperson and/or jury president must have the possibility to also close the
curtain and thus end the performance.
e) At the conclusion of the competition, having seen the performances of all the contestants, the individual judges may reconsider their judgments and, with the approval of the President of the jury, will be given the opportunity to change some of their scores. These changes will be given to the special staff members who will recalculate the final scores.
f) After all necessary calculations are complete, the list of final scores will be handed to the President of the jury, who will assemble all the judges in a meeting to determine who qualifies for the different prizes.
g) The prizes will be awarded to the highest scores in each category. To be awarded a first prize, a contestant must have a final score of at least 80 points. The final score must be at least 70 points for a second prize and at least 60 points for a third prize.
h) A contestant with a final score lower than 50 points is considered below FISM level and will be disqualified.
i) If no contestant has the required points for a given prize in a given category, that prize will not be awarded.
j) The list of prizes and any other awards will be kept secret until the official proclamation and presentation of the trophies to the winners. The declaration of the awards will be made in reverse order, beginning with the special contest awards, then the lowest prize and ending with the first prize.
8. ABOUT TITLES
a) A first-prize winner is entitled to use the title of ”North American Champion” along with the category plus the year of its acquisition (e.g., “North American Champion Stage Illusions 2024” or "North American Champion Card Magic 2024").
b) The holders of the two Grand Prix awards are entitled to precede their title of “North American Champion” by “FISM North American Grand Prix Winner” (e.g., “FISM North America Grand Prix Winner and North American Champion Manipulation 2024” or “FISM North America Grand Prix Winner and North American Champion Card Magic 2024”
9. ABOUT THE ADMINISTRATION
a) The NAEB, will appoint a jury staff officer for the contests and a special staff who will assure a smooth-running judging process. Among other responsibilities, the jury staff shall collect the forms, do the necessary calculations, and take care of the well-being of the judges.
The jury staff will keep all the scores strictly secret, revealing them to no one except for the jury.
b) The NAEB and the organizer will provide the necessary official judging forms, clipboards, diplomas as well as a private meeting room appropriated and prepared to deliberate along the competition sessions.
c) The design of the FISM NACM trophies and/or cups for the different prizes and awards should be approved by the NAEB.
d) The NAEB will send the contest rules and procedures to the judges no less than four weeks before the start of the Convention.
