21 July 2013

Our sincere condolences to David Ben and his family

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of the recent passing of David Ben's wife, Jan Howlett.

For those of you unfamiliar with this remarkable woman, I refer you to her tribute site:
http://ljanhowlett.howlettacademy.com/

David penned a touching obituary which can be read here:
http://ljanhowlett.howlettacademy.com/obituary-globe-mail/

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate that donations in Memory of Jan Howlett be sent to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

Updates will be posted on the Facebook page, In Memory of Jan Howlett.  A celebration of Jan's life is being planned for August 10th.  Please RSVP if you plan on attending.

Our sincere condolences go out to David and to his sons Courtney and Harrison.  Our thoughts are with you at this most difficult time.


20 July 2013

Toronto: Open mic magic night

From the Open Mic MAGIC Night Facebook event:
Thursday July 25th

Jekyl & Hyde Pub & Restaurant
2340 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M6P 4B2
  
Come witness 3 of Toronto's TOP Magic Performers as they
amaze and astound!
Strolling Performances, Close Up Magic, Stage Shows!

Read more.

19 July 2013

Wendy's: Act 6 - Ken Margoe

The sixth act in Wendy's advertising campaign featuring nine Canadian magicians performing real magic!

You can read about the promotion over at Reality Based Magic.

Watch Act 6, Ken Margoe, on YouTube:





Previous acts:

Wendy's: Act 5 - Mike D'Urzo

The fifth act in Wendy's advertising campaign featuring nine Canadian magicians performing real magic!

Watch Act 5, Mike D'Urzo, on YouTube:



Previous acts:

Wendy's: Act 4 - James Alan (again)

The fourth act in Wendy's advertising campaign featuring nine Canadian magicians performing real magic!

You can read about the promotion over at Reality Based Magic.

Watch Act 4, James Alan, on YouTube:




Previous acts:

18 July 2013

Shawn Farquhar and Alex Seaman promoting the IBM convention in Phoenix

Watch this YouTube clip of Alex Seaman, Oscar Muñoz and Bill Cook talking about the IBM Convention in Phoenix on ABC.






And watch this YouTube clip of Shawn Farquhar on KPHO News:


Toronto: Dan FREE at Harlem

From Dan McLean Jr's Facebook event:
Saturday, July 20

FREE show at this really wonderful soul food & soul music club! Three-and-a-half hours of solo acoustic soul. Philly, Motown & more, plus a few originals.

This show always is sold out for most/all of the night, so your best best is to make reservations. 416-368-1920. The food really is great. My faves are the Southern Fried Chicken & Waffle, the Blackened Catfish, the Jerk Beef Meatloaf, and the Guinness-Marinated Stewed Chicken.

Read more.

17 July 2013

Ariel Frailich on Full Circle Magic

From Full Circle Magic's May 6th Q&A with Ariel Frailich, owner of I Saw That Exclusive Magic:
Magic is theatre, not circus. With proper attention to presentation, we can invoke any emotion we want, we can show who we are, we can become real people instead of cardboard cut-outs. Then we become unique, uncopyable, and with any luck, in demand. It’s the difference between people saying, “I saw Ariel perform”, rather than, “I saw a guy do card tricks”.

Read more.

16 July 2013

Wendy's: Act 3 - Magic Mike Segal

The third act in Wendy's advertising campaign featuring nine Canadian magicians performing real magic!

Watch Act 3, Magic Mike Segal, on YouTube:




Previous acts:

15 July 2013

Vintage Toronto: Browser's Den

Over at the Vintage Toronto Facebook page, they've posted a photo of a "1982 Interior of The Magic Store" (photo via Cathy Pitre).

This is what Jeff Pinsky had to say about it at the Browser's Den Facebook Group:
I love this. Just a nice shot of the shop and it really captures the feel of the shop with Len and Bernice running the operation. This was the second location of Browser's Den. Four years later Len & Bernice moved the shop to Bathurst & Eglinton.

14 July 2013

The Zombie post, now with pictures!

The unabridged version of  the "Michael Weber Zombie Workshop" post is now available with photographic illustrations over at Reality Based Magic.

You're welcome.

Magic in the Rockies

James Alan thought our readers might be interested in reading the note below:


Hello,

I am the Secretary for Ring 250, the Presto Digitators, in Fort Collins, CO.  I am contacting you on behalf of our Ring and our annual convention, Magic In The Rockies.  After some consideration of not having our 20th anniversary edition of the convention (due to problems with our hotel's availability) we are trying to get the word out that we will have the convention, just on different dates than in the past.  Would it be possible to get the following notice into your monthly club newsletter, or otherwise pass it along to your membership?  We would appreciate any help you could provide in getting the word out to magicians in your area.


******************************************************


Magic In The Rockies 2013

We are pleased to announce that Magic In The Rockies, our 20th anniversary edition, will take place this year, though we have a few changes in store.  The biggest change is the date.  This year, MITR will be held Oct 3-6 at the Marriott in Fort Collins, CO, a full month later than in years past, but otherwise it will be the same convention that all of our regular attendees have come to know and love.  We have headliners and attendees from all over the world yet the convention is still an intimate gathering (usually under 250 magicians) where you get to rub elbows with some of the great names in magic.  For a review of last year's MITR, take a look at your December copy of The Linking Ring, page 42, for a review of last year.  Also, there is a slide show of highlights from last year's convention on our club website, www.prestodigitators.com.

One thing that has not changed for 2013 is our prices.  We have kept the registration fees the same as last year!

Keep checking our website www.magicintherockies.org or www.prestodigitators.com for updates, headliner and dealer lists, and registration information.  Additional names of headliners, dealers and schedules will be added soon.   For questions or registrations, we can be reached by email at mitrcon@gmail.com.



Thanks in advance, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Bob Blea
Secretary
IBM Ring 250, The Presto-Digitators

13 July 2013

Wendy's: Act 2 - Baldini

The second act in Wendy's advertising campaign featuring nine Canadian magicians performing real magic!

Watch Act 2, Baldini, on Youtube:




Previous acts:

12 July 2013

David Ben wins Milbourne Christopher Foundation’s Masters Award

From Sharing Wonder:
Magicana’s Artistic Director, David Ben, received the Masters Award in recognition for his contribution to the art of magic. The award was presented on July 6, 2013 in Arlington, Virgina at the Society of American Magician’s National Convention.

The Milbourne Christopher Foundation was established to encourage excellence, originality and leadership in the magical arts and to help conjuring to remain on par with other entertainment mediums such as dance, drama, comedy and music.

Read more.

Congratulations David!

11 July 2013

Wendy's: Act 1 - James Alan

Apparently Wendy's has a new advertising campaign featuring nine Canadian magicians performing real magic!

Watch Act 1James Alan, on Youtube:


10 July 2013

Toronto: Learn hypnosis

Taught by Gabriello Pitman:

From Meetup.com:
Sunday, July 14, 2013

Come out and get an introduction to hypnosis! We'll run through the basics and get you learning how to test for suggestibility. You'll get the chance to practice hands-on with other attendees!

Read more.

09 July 2013

Thank you to our July sponsors!

Thank you to our sponsors for their generous support.  We're pleased to have the support of Clive Court - The Fun-da-Mentalist, Ryan Pilling author of Finding The Funny and Evelyn & Phil Matlin, owners of Perfect Magic!

The next time you see them, let them know you saw their sponsorship here!



For more information about purchasing Sponsored Posts or about our Platinum, Gold, or Silver level sponsorships, please visit our Sponsorship page.


08 July 2013

Rounding the rings in July

The Magic Club of Winnipeg has an event on July 21st.
The Ottawa / Gatineau magicians will be meeting on July 23rd.  (And met on July 9th!)

06 July 2013

[Guest post] Michael Weber Zombie Workshop

Updated July 11 to add:  The unabridged version of the "Michael Weber Zombie Workshop" post is now available with photographic illustrations over at Reality Based Magic.


The following is a report from Ring 99.

--

Michael Weber Zombie Workshop
June 30, 2013

While we may occasionally pretend to be men (and even women) of our word, our illustrious membership has less collective willpower than Augustus Gloop in a room full of Wonka Bars.

Earlier this year, as a result of a rather vague controversy, we vowed to send our beloved Ring to the grave and ne'er speak of it again. We thought we had succeeded. But when Michael Weber sent word that he would be in town (for reasons we are unable to relate here as they are so secret we have yet to determine them) and was interested in doing a workshop, we rose like zombies and gathered to feast on the contents of his magnificent and delicious brain.

This was no small order as the weekend he has selected was not only the long weekend celebrating our country's founding (uncreatively named Canada Day - Max Maven and Allan Slaight could have done better), but also the glorious orgasmic climax to Pride Week, which is always enjoyed most enthusiastically in Toronto. Nevertheless, we forewent the excessive indulgence in alcohol, fireworks and public nudity and assembled at the usual place. We were not disappointed for our efforts.

The ex-president (James Alan) accompanied by another James (James Harrison), and Keith Brown (recently named Toronto's Best Magician in a silly little contest held outside of Toronto to save on parking and avoid both traffic and credibility) rushed over from their fabulous performance at the gay pride installment of Abracadabaret (Canada's only variety show dedicated to magic, mystery and to-die-for shoes) on the other side of town to not miss any of the mind-blowingness. Two underaged attendees even managed to secure fake IDs to gain entry to our secret speakeasy-cum-clubhouse for the event.

Mr. Weber did not disappoint. He offered a marvelous assortment of practical, commercial and diabolically clever card magic, money magic, mentalism, and personal grooming accessories. We cannot divulge the contents of this super-secret workshop as we have all been sworn to secrecy. The penalty for violating this solemn oath is being forced to watch certain unnamed members of the city's other ring perform all of Ben Train's unpublished material. Twice. They would also be made to judge next year's Chasing Dovetails Bingo tournament. We are not permitted to  explain that he shared the stories  behind two of the long uncredited Vernon and Miller items from Kaplan and Expert Card Technique. We can say he taught his own mischievous and devious twists on three items hidden in the pages of the recent Graham-Diaconis book on math and magic. Weber closed out the night by demonstrating a small non-card treasure he unearthed in a letter written by Charles Jordan. Suffice it to say that we were all thoroughly delighted and will be keeping our yaps shut.

The special meeting room also features a VIP viewing gallery at the back to which the ex-president, Chicago's David Solomon and Aspen's Eric Mead were banished to prevent them from causing too much trouble. To keep the peanut gallery quiet, a second, younger more vertically-challenged Mr. Weber held court. Due to a strategically timed nap (and apparently a better fake ID than any of us had ever seen), young Master Weber was able to share the real work on several captivating iPad apps well past the point any sensible person would consider bedtime. The legumes on the periphery did manage to poke their heads up occasionally as Weber the senior got around to what we might call "the good bits" which happened what we may call "often".

Following the official programming there were additional things which cannot be explained and an informal session with Eric Mead which deteriorated rapidly into philosophical discussions of gastronomy, techniques for setting things on fire and looking at baby pictures.

So having had our fix, we put yet another silver bullet in the chamber and return the illustrious Ring 99 to oblivion... until the next guy comes through town.

To read more about the adventures of Ring 99, see Ninety Nine Fabrications Volume 1 and Volume 2.

--

Thank you to the Zombies of Ring 99 for guest posting at Canada' s Magic!



05 July 2013

Winners to see DECEPTIVE PRACTICE: THE MYSTERIES AND MENTORS OF RICKY JAY in Toronto

The contest to win tickets to see "DECEPTIVE PRACTICE: THE MYSTERIES AND MENTORS OF RICKY JAY in Toronto" on July 5th closed last night at midnight.  Here's the list of entrants:
  1. Dan McLean Jr
  2. Phil DC
  3. Magic Mike Segal
  4. Derek D
  5. Keith Browne (not to be confused with magician Keith H. Brown)

Given that there are five pairs of tickets to be won and five entrants, I will save the suspense and the random drawing for another point in time.

Congratulations Dan, Phil, Mike, Derek and Keith!  I'll be sending you an e-mail with the name of the contact person.  Enjoy the show tonight!

Thank you all for playing! A special thanks to Patrycja from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival for generously making these tickets available!