With the 44th Magic Collectors Weekend only two months away, we are pleased announce our Guests of Honor for the Weekend—William (Bill) Kalush and Michael (Micky) Hades.
It may be trite to say, but it is true. With accomplishments so rich, and spanning so many decades, our Guests of Honor need little introduction. Both, in many ways, have changed the course of magic history, particularly for magic collectors and historians.
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Mr. Swiss will now be providing online content on a regular basis for Magicana which can be found here www.magicana.com/lyonsden. His first review will be released this Friday, October 21, featuring the new book The Performance Pieces & Divertissements of the Famous Handsome Jack etc. by Handsome Jack and annotated by John Lovick.
Funding for this project is provided by an endowment to Magicana by the late Pat Lyons. Pat was an accomplished commercial artist, pulled into the world of magic by her husband, P. Howard Lyons. Together they created Ibidem, combining Pat’s individually silkscreened covers and interior illustrations with Howard’s curatorial eye for creative approaches to magic. The Lyons Den, named in honour of Pat and Howard, is just the first of a variety of initiatives being developed by Magicana thanks to the generosity and vision of Pat Lyons.
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Magicana is delighted to bring the MCW to Montreal in May 2017. We will be staging this conference to coincide with the opening of the major magic exhibition, drawn from the Allan Slaight Collection of magic posters and Houdiniana, at the McCord Museum.
In fact, a large part of the conference will take place at the McCord Museum (which is located in the heart of downtown Montreal) where delegates will enjoy private tours of the exhibition and behind-the-scenes tours by curators and staff of the museum. The museum has an exquisite exhibition in the works, and MCW delegates will be the first to experience it!
The balance of the conference will be held at our convention hotel, the Delta Montreal which is, literally, around the corner from the McCord. And, as we have had in the past, there will be a broad range of speakers.
But space is limited! This event is restricted by the meeting capacity at the McCord, so we only have 125 places available. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Read more and register.
Lifetime Achievement Award ($15,000) - TON ONOSAKA
Sharing Wonder Award ($15,000) - DARCY OAKE
Sharing Secrets Award ($10,000) - RICHARD KAUFMAN
International Rising Star ($5,000) - JORGE BLASS
Canadian Rising Star ($5,000) - LUC LANGEVIN
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The Magic Palace was a Canadian television series, produced and hosted by Dale Harney, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which was an inspiration for a generation of magicians. In an age before YouTube and the Internet, the show gave viewers a broad sampling of magic acts from North America and Europe in an unprecedented scale.
Almost lost to history, it is now one of the most important collections of magic performances. Magicana is delighted to share this material and, perhaps, inspire another generation of magicians all over again.
Read more and enter exhibit.
We've got a secret!
Here is the first look at a new online exhibition we will be releasing in a few weeks. Who remembers watching this?
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Magicana is pleased to present a lecture and workshop with renowned sleight-of-hand expert Jason England. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on sleight-of-hand and advantage play with cards. He has over 25 years of experience both performing magic and consulting on casino game protection.
The three-hour lecture will cover tricks and routines with cards mixing magic and gambling material. The four-hour workshop is for a limited group for individual attention. Limited to 15 participants, Jason will focus on the mechanics of individual sleights like second deals, bottom deals and false shuffles. If there is a particular technique you are interested in, you can let us know.
Read more and buy tickets.
PAT LYONS (PATTERSON)Magicana is sad to report the passing of famed magic illustrator Pat Lyons (aka Pat Patterson)...
Posted by Magicana Sharing Wonder on Tuesday, 15 March 2016
David Ben’s #NoHairSelfie campaign concluded yesterday, February 4, 2016 with a public shaving at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. With some last-minute donations arriving by mail, the total has now passed $214,000 raised for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.
As promised earlier, donors who requested our Unusual Collectible your hair will be in the mail very soon. We’ve also learned that the cards will be signed by Pat Lyons, the artists who designed them.
For those wishing to verify the authenticity of the hair, you can watch it being severed below. The shaver is Gary Slaight, son of Allan Slaight.
Read more and watch video.
It's time to overindulge with The Fat Brothers...
Or not... It's your life.
April 23 & 24, Dani DaOrtiz, Christian Engblom and Miguel Angel Gea will be coming to Toronto for a weekend gourmet magic.
The Lecture - Saturday April 23 - 1:00 PM
At the Wychwood Theatre (St. Clair & Christie).
Break for Dinner
The Show - Saturday, April 23 - 8:00 PM
At the Wychwood Theatre (St. Clair & Christie)
The Workshop* - Sunday, April 24 - 1:00 PM
At the Howlett Academy (Bloor & Spadina)
These three larger-than-life performers are recognized around the world for their astonishing magic and zany off-the-wall humour. We invite you to to join us for this remarkable opportunity.
*The workshop has limited seating for an intimate learning experience. The Brothers will be covering previously unpublished material and (time permitting) answer specific questions about their material.
Performances in English... more or less.
Read more and buy tickets.
Magicana is pleased to announce on behalf of the Slaight Family Foundation the creation of the Allan Slaight Awards to recognize outstanding achievement in the pursuit of the impossible.
Initiated by the Slaight Family Foundation to honour Canadian media mogul and philanthropist Allan Slaight, and his lifelong passion for and contribution to magic, Magicana will distribute, on behalf of the Slaight Family Foundation $250,000 over five years - $50,000 per year - to recognize excellence in magic.
The first is magician Jeff Christensen from Vancouver. Each year he and his wife and daughter produce “A Magical Evening” in honor and memory of their son, Jonah, to raise money for their Celebrate the Child Foundation, which supports numerous worthy causes.
The other is John Kaplan, also from Vancouver, whose Fundraising Magic program raises money for organizations and communities across Canada.
We've been having a wonderful week full of magic with Tricks at Soulpepper in Toronto. In fact, Sunday's matinée is now sold out.
To accommodate the demand, we've added one more performance to the schedule on Saturday, January 2 at 8:00 PM. Tickets just went on sale, so there are some excellent seats still available so you can be right up close to the action. Don't forget, we have special discounted family packs for groups of four or more (with at least one child).
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As a youngster, I remember my father once cautioning me to watch out for people who ask you to share a secret, used car salesmen of any kind and smooth talkers who want to show you a good card trick.
Falling into the latter category, of course, is David Ben.
That’s because he’s the kind of guy who could make a lot of money hanging out at Union Station mingling with stop over travelers with a little extra time on their side. He may not have anything up his sleeve but he’s definitely got something, somewhere.
The return of Tricks, is anti-pomp and pageantry. The stripped down production relies on basic furnishings to accomplish what great all tricksters need to put on a smoking good show.
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This is a preliminary announcement that we plan on staging the Magic Collectors Weekend May 25 to 27, 2017 in Montreal, Canada.
This will coincide with the opening of the major exhibition of magic posters from the Allan Slaight Collection at the McCord Museum. The exhibition, for which David Ben is the guest curator, will open that very weekend.
In addition to private tours of the exhibition, we will be working with the McCord on some additional programming and events – including some behind the scene access to elements related to the exhibition. Given Houdini’s connection to Montreal – and, in fact, the McCord – there will certainly also be some Houdini on the bill.
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Mark your calendar for the weekend of April 23-24, 2016.
Here in Toronto, we’ll be hosting a weekend of magic with three big international guests. There will be a one-night-only performance at the Wychwood Theatre (St. Clair & Christie) as well as a lecture and workshop that you will not not want to miss. We will release more details in coming weeks. So, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or subscribed to our eList to be the first to know and to sign up!
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The reviews are starting trickle in on our latest publication, The Experts at the Card Table:
"This book is a pleasure to page through, and is an important and welcome addition to Erdnasiana." / John Lovick
"David has made the once-daunting material more accessible than ever. For my first time, I read the text cover to cover, and it all made sense." / Steve Bryant
"...if you have some card technique under your belt and if you’ve wanted to plunge into the Erdnase pond, this is a great way to experience the material…" / Michael Close
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Shamans, ravens, jesters, jugglers, conjurors, and magicians come in all shapes and sizes. In Tricks, David Ben - Soulpepper's resident trickster - presents a concert of magic inspired by an eclectic range of people and events: Frank Sinatra and Telford Fenton; Glenn Gould and Charles Bertram; Harold Lloyd and Harry Houdini; Tom Waits and Erik Satie; Hammer Studio Films and Southern Baptist preachers; and Dai Vernon and the cherry blossoms in Japan.
Ben, recognized as one of the top sleight-of-hand artists in the world, will showcase some of the most challenging and seldom-seen pieces of magic, all completely different than last year’s The Conjuror. There is no timeline or plot - just great tricks - comical and mysterious, beautiful and visceral - performed with twists and turns.
Read more and buy tickets using their promo code.
