At the FISM World Championships of Magic 2025, the organizer and president of the event, Walter Rolfo, invited me to conduct hour-long interviews with four legendary performers: Arturo Brachetti, Luís de Matos, Mac King, and Steven Frayne (formerly known as Dynamo). Each of them has achieved so much.
Arturo Brachetti is from Italy, is widely considered to be the best quick-change performer in the world, and his elegant and artistic shows have been seen by millions of people across the globe. From Portugal, Luís de Matos has appeared in countless live shows and television specials and has received numerous awards, including the Portuguese National Order of Knighthood. American Mac King is the top comedy magician in the world today, has recently celebrated an amazing 25 years in Vegas, and Penn & Teller referred to him as a god. Steven Frayne is from Britain, where his debut television series attracted over 250 million viewers, and he also became the first magician to headline London’s O2 Arena.
It was a pleasure to chat to them and each of the four conversations explored the interviewee’s life and career in depth, guided by carefully selected images and video clips. I was also interested in where they might agree or disagree on key topics, and so ensured that part of each interview contained some of the same themes.
Although I didn’t explore every theme with every interviewee, in general I asked them about a variety of subjects, such as how they began in magic, how they keep their performances fresh, the advice they would give to fellow magicians, and what magic means to them personally. Unlike a panel discussion, each interviewee didn’t know what the other had said, and so it was especially interesting to see similarities and contradictions emerge.
Here are some of my favorite moments from the conversations.
How did you get started?
ARTURO: I attended a Roman Catholic seminary and started to perform magic tricks for my friends when I was about 14 years old. Like most magicians, I was terribly shy. We don’t play football because that needs 11 people. We don’t play tennis because that needs two people. Magic just requires you and a mirror.
