Past editions artist

Eugene Burger

On our stage at:

FISM Italy 2015 2016

Eugene Burger was born in Chicago on June 1, 1939. He fell in love with magic at eight, watching magician Jack Gwynne perform in Chicago, and knew from that moment what he wanted to do. First, though, he taught philosophy and comparative religion in college and became a director of welfare in Evanston. It was a séance show staged for friends in an attic that finally lit the spark: in 1977, at 38, he left his job to devote himself full time to magic.

From 1978 he performed professionally, then specialized in close-up magic, with immediate success in two exclusive Chicago restaurants. At Hollywood's Magic Castle his lectures twice earned him the Academy of Magical Arts' Lecturer of the Year award, and he taught for years with Jeff McBride at the McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas. Books such as "Secrets and Mysteries for the Close-Up Entertainer", "The Craft of Magic", "The Performance of Close-Up Magic" and "Spirit Theater" made him one of the most admired thinkers in magic.

He was our guest at the FISM World Championship of Magic in Rimini 2015 and the Masters of Magic Convention 2016. He died in Chicago in August 2017.

Photo: David Linsell / Magicana

This page is part of our historical archive: it tells the story of the PAST editions. The 2027 line-up will be announced soon.