Past editions artist

Otto Wessely

On our stage at:

FISM Italy 2015 2018 United Magicians for the World 2020 FISM World Championship 2025

Otto Wessely, born in Austria in 1945, began his career in Vienna's Prater amusement park, where he gave five to ten shows a day. In 1968 he met Christa, who became his wife and stage partner, and together they settled in Paris, where he performs as the "magicien fou", the mad magician, in good, less good and decidedly bad establishments.

His act is a burlesque show on the edge of the abyss that bursts the bounds of classical magic: lovers of rubber rabbits and cuddly toy pigeons get their money's worth just as much as fans of chainsaw massacres. He won a FISM first prize in comedy magic, spent years at the Crazy Horse in Paris and later in Las Vegas, played the Olympia seven times and Montreal's Just for Laughs festival three times, joined Arturo Brachetti's company and La Clique, and in 2017 received the Jury Prize for his career at the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo.

Wessely brought his madness to the FISM World Championship of Magic in Rimini 2015, the 2018 Masters of Magic Convention, United Magicians for the World in 2020 and the FISM World Championship of Magic in Turin 2025.

This page is part of our historical archive: it tells the story of the PAST editions. The 2027 cast is revealed one name at a time on the Artists page.