The International Brotherhood of Magicians is holding a convention at Jacksonville’s Hyatt Regency downtown this week.
Hundreds of magicians from all over the world are in Jacksonville performing tricks and sharing trade secrets.
Magicians are competing for highly sought after awards.
Several of these performers are competing for highly sought after awards which are only given to those deemed outstanding by the judges.
Joe Turner, international president for the group says the judges will choose the top three contestants, but the winner will not necessarily receive either the Gold Medal Award for stage magic or the Golden Cups and Balls Award for close-up magic.
He says it’s been at least five years since anyone has won one of these top prizes at the conference.
“It’s not every year that someone makes it, but you can feel confident that if it is awarded, then the people who attended this convention saw something really special,” Turner said.
The six finalists in today’s stage magic competition will move on to perform at the Florida Theatre Friday night.
