Journal · July 2025 · Turin, Italy
World Champions of Mentalism
In July 2025, at the FISM World Championships of Magic in Turin, we became the FISM World Champions of Mentalism.
FISM is often called the Olympics of Magic. The win put us in a lineage of only four acts in 77 years.
We entered with UK backing and sponsorship from The Magic Circle, which is why FISM’s official results list Mind2Mind under the United Kingdom.
How the act was built
We met in 2017 and almost straight away began building a Second Sight act. James had been performing close-up since he was 16; Marina brought a musician’s focus and the stage discipline of years in other arts.
In early 2018 we posted a video online. David Penn saw it, got in touch, and has consulted on the act ever since. Somewhere in those early sessions, the idea of FISM took root. We broke the act in at Magic Texas before we had even finished it; that story, and the people in it, are in our Mentalist of the Year post.
James wrote about the whole road to Turin for Genii Magazine: The Road to FISM: Turning Fear into Flight Time, December 2025.
After Turin
Vanish International Magic Magazine put us on its cover as World Champions, and the same year we were named in the Ahlan Hot 100.
Today the act that won in Turin is The World Championship Act, performed for seated audiences. The year that followed brought Stage Magicians of the Year at The Magic Castle and a residency at Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
James & Marina