Magicians and I.B.M. Podcasters Jason Michaels, Scott Cantrell, and Ben Young welcome Michael Close, the magic producer for Penn & Teller: Fool Us, creator of the Workers series of magic instructional books/ebooks, and incredible teacher to the show. They discuss his approach to teaching magic, the inspiration for several of his most iconic tricks - including The Pothole Trick, Frog Prince, and Big Surprise, and his belief of the number one job of a magician.
I
just spent a pleasant hour or so talking to Jason Michaels, Ben Young,
and Scott Cantrell on their I.B.M. podcast. For those of you who might
be interested in my Explorer 1 classes (the next session begins on July
11), there's a pretty thorough discussion of why I developed it and
what I'm trying to accomplish with it.
Welcome to readers of Duncan Trillo's excellent publication, MagicWeek! We hope you enjoy your stay!
--
Continued from
Part 1
where we learned about Load-In, the Technical Run, The Run, and Pre-show activities.
A Week in the Life of Champions (of Magic) -- part 2 of 3
The Show - Champions of Magic: Holiday Spectacular (Dec 2025)
I have
seen five iterations of Champions of Magic including their 2018 Toronto
debut. Fernando Velasco, Richard Young and Sam Strange (as Young &
Strange) were part of the 2018 cast. Only three carryovers from that
show remain.
A quick reminder of our earlier Mail as Medicine request for Katie Hunt. If you have the time, Katie and Doug would both benefit from hearing from their friends!
Yesterday, we ventured to the Aki Studio
in Toronto.
This was our first visit to this theatre which is located in the
Daniels Spectrum
building. According to the Aki Studio website, they are fully
accessible for both patrons and performers.
The theatre is a cozy space, with a capacity of 120 seats (with raked
seating). The seating goes about 6 rows deep. Every seat has a
great view of the action and Keith has cameras setup to make the small
details clearly visible to all. There are seats reserved in the front
row, for audience members who have accessibility issues.
The theatre is air-conditioned (very welcome with the current heat wave).
The show is approximately an hour in length, with no intermissions.
Pre-show:
Keithis Fringe veteran. (He mentioned that this was his 60th (!!) Fringe festival.) He hosts a pre-show segment designed to make the
audience feel at ease. In it he discusses:
audience participation and
what to do if you don't feel comfortable volunteering (this is the
first time we can remember a performer proactively giving
the audience a method by which they can decline volunteering), and
what it means to be in his 'relaxed performance' show (sensory friendly,
house-lights on the majority of the time, in and out privileges, etc).
It's also worth noting that Keith made this showing a Pay What You
Can performance, in the hopes of making live shows more accessible to everyone.
On with the show:
In a theatre this size, you get a good view from every seat.
(Especially with the camera's Keith has setup.)
The show was nearly, if not completely sold out.
As Keith mentioned in his interview, 110% Wizard is a brand new show.
Without giving too much away, the show did involve gift bags, money, cards, cell phone (audience supplied), luggage tags, water fowl, drinks, and family photos (his).
There is plenty of audience participation. By our count there were well over dozen volunteers (including one not even at the show)!
The show is very family friendly and kept the children in the audience engaged.
Keith shared with us, what is was like working his first ever cruise contract earlier this year. He punctuated his tales with effects that directly related to his experiences.
If you've seen one of Keith's shows, you'll know that he's an expert
at making lemonade out of the lemons he is dealt. We're happy to that
he continues to do so in 110% Wizard!
"110% Wizard"
is a very refreshing lemonade!
Don't just take our word for it, read what the press at the Orlando Fringe had
to say about this show:
From the May 13th article "Orlando Fringe 2026 review: ‘110% Wizard’" by Seth Kubersky at
Orlando Weekly: If you have any doubts that Orlando Fringe changes lives, look no
further than illusionist Keith Brown. A fixture of the Festival for over a
decade, Brown landed an agent as a result of his 2024 show here, and is now an
in-demand guest artist aboard Norwegian and Virgin cruise ships. Read more.
From the May 15th article "2026 Orlando Fringe Review: 110% Wizard" by Jimbo Wood at
Orlando Shine: Brown, a familiar face to Orlando Fringe audiences and a three-time
Critic’s Choice winner for Best Magic Show, returns with what he jokingly
describes as the “same wizard, now 10% better.” The framing device for this
year’s show centers around a cruise ship residency thrown into chaos after an
airline loses the costumes and props intended for the run. Read more.
For more information about the Toronto Fringe, visit
FringeToronto.com
