Nick Wallace on AGT 2019

We previously mentioned that The Sentimentalists were going to be on AGT 2019.  Here's another representative from the Canadian magic scene!

Keep an eye out for Nick Wallace!  The season starts May 28 on NBC.


From Nick Wallace's Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

The cat is out of the bag. You might see a familiar face auditioning for @agt ! Catch the season premier on May 28 at 8/7c on @nbc . #agt #agtauditions

A post shared by Nick Wallace (@nickwallacelive) on May 13, 2019 at 4:58pm PDT

Joe Schwarcz in The Suburban

From the May 8th article "Dr. Joe and company mark two decades of excellence in science at McGill" by Mike Cohen in The Suburban:

Born in Hungary, Schwarcz came to Canada at the age of eight. He told me that he credits a magician at a Grade 6 friend’s birthday party who used a so-called magical chemical to perform a trick for turning him on to what would become his future vocation. “I still include magic into many of my lectures,” he says. “Magic expands the mind.”

Read more.

Discourse in Magic with Matt Johnson (plus 60s docs)

Via iTricks, Matt Johnson featured on the web series "60 Second Docs" in the episode "The Bittersweet Ache of Escaping." (embedded at the bottom of this post)


From Discourse in Magic:

On episode 158, Matt Johnson joins Jonah to discuss escapology, adding human elements to your magic, and recreating your brand. You may know Matt for his water tank escape on Penn & Teller: Fool Us or for his semi-place finish on Britain’s Got Talent.

Matt remembers a wind-up box at his grandmother’s house sparking his initial love for magic. While not a magic trick, it still gave him this magical feeling and caused him to want to know how a little box could play music. At the age of twelve, he started learning tricks and, after performing for Matt’s siblings’ birthday, a magician took Matt under his wing. Soon, he was attending his local shop every weekend right through his teen years.

Read more and listen.

If you do what other people do you will be one step behind ANYONE. Dare to be different. Do something new! @likemattjohnson https://t.co/FUJWcj0DnY pic.twitter.com/WprQ7ew6So

— Discourse in Magic (@discoursenmagic) April 29, 2019

From the 60 Second Docs YouTube channel:

Gwyn Auger on Illusionary

From Yeats Magic Co's Facebook post:

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Billy Kidd in Topic Stories, Liberty Magic, and Super$tition

A reminder that Super$tition runs April 11- 21 in Edmonton.


From Billy Kidd's Twitter feed:

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Magician @Billykiddshow explains what it’s like to make a life in magic, where, even if things look like just fun, “things can’t go wrong.” pic.twitter.com/FgiPN4Ufxp

— Topic (@topicstories) April 8, 2019

📣 Big news! 📣 Yesterday we unveiled the Liberty Magic Summer 2019 lineup!

✨ @BillyKiddShow — May 15 - June 23

✨ @MarkTolandLive — June 26 - Aug. 4

✨ @EricJonesMagic — Aug. 7 - Sept. 8

♠️♥️ Learn more and get your tickets at https://t.co/bX1mYDAwft ♣️♦️ pic.twitter.com/UZsWi7DhwO

— PGH Cultural Trust (@CulturalTrust) April 2, 2019

Behind the scenes. Always a good time working with @fireflytheatre Load in day at the Theatre. Have you got tickets yet? #circuslife #fireflytheatreandcircus #super$tition #cabaret #variety #magic #yegarts https://t.co/dy4n7qvxfj

— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) April 8, 2019

Hello Canada! I'll be magishing in Firefly Theatre & Circus' new production called Super$tition. Show runs April 11- 21 in Edmonton Alberta at La Cite Francophone Theatre. Get your tickets quick! https://t.co/0N8xz6puGS

— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) April 8, 2019

Bill Peterson in the Amherst News

From the March 26th article "Sackville magician wows audiences throughout Maritimes" by Katie Tower in the Amherst News:

It’s powerful and mind blowing, the kind of experience you have to see to believe. And if you’ve met Bill Peterson and have seen him in action, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Peterson draws you in with his jaw-dropping, get-your-heart-racing, can’t-quite-wrap-your-head-around-it magic that you will be telling your friends about for weeks – and which will probably stay with you a lifetime.

He is the type of magician who will likely turn even the harshest skeptic into a believer by the time he’s done.

Card tricks are always a hit with the crowds, particularly for Bill Peterson’s walk-around or table-to-table magic he performs at special events, such as this wine show.
Card tricks are always a hit with the crowds, particularly for Bill Peterson’s walk-around or table-to-table magic he performs at special events, such as this wine show.
No, there’s no rabbits being pulled out of hats, no smoke and mirrors, and no birds up his sleeve. Peterson simply wows by bringing the audience into the magic, to make them feel it themselves and become part of the experience.

Magic for him is an art, one which he says creates a “positive permanent memory” for those who witness it. And that’s exactly why he loves what he does.

“It’s the pleasure of giving that gift of joy and excitement to others that makes it so much fun,” he says.

~~
Peterson will be bringing his magic to the Vogue Theatre stage in Sackville on May 11, where he will put on a show featuring mind reading, teleporting, mentalism, illusion and card tricks.

Read more.

Chris Ramsay and Xavier Caffrey in the National Post

From the April 4th article "How young magicians are learning to cast a spell on a modern audience" by Alex Wong in the National Post:

A professional magician, Caffrey immigrated from Lebanon to Canada at the age of 15. While other high-school students loitered in back alleys and caused headaches for nearby convenience-store owners, Caffrey hung out at the library, reading English books and learning the language. If he couldn’t pronounce a word on the page, he would scamper over to the nearest librarian for a quick lesson. “Once I get into something,” Caffrey says. “I have to do it all the time.”

~~~~

One person who seems to have surveyed this new landscape accurately is Chris Ramsay. A practicing magician for over a decade, Ramsay started by working for magic companies, helping them create tricks that are teased over social media, then sold — at prices that range from $5 to thousands of dollars — with full explanations on how they work to other magicians for use in their acts. While managing the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for these businesses, Ramsay had an epiphany: He could use social media himself as a direct channel to a potential audience. By sharing his work online, he could skip the middleman and be the owner of his content. And so, Ramsay created and began posting to his own YouTube channel.

Read more.

April Fool Us Day 2019

From CBS Local:

APRIL FOOLS! — The world-famous team of Penn & Teller prank Chris Hardwick (“Talking Dead”) by turning him into an amazing, world-class magician as they send him to the streets of Vegas to bedazzle the crowds. Original airdate: Monday, April 1st, 2019 @ 9pm

Mahdi Gilbert in CBC Arts

From the March 18th article "People told Mahdi the Magician his body would make his dreams impossible — but he refused to quit" in CBC Arts:

"One of my teachers told me I shouldn't use my body because my body 'isn't any good,'" the Canadian magician, who was born without hands or feet, tells filmmaker Jason D'Souza. "[They said] that I should use my mind because my mind is still good."

But then, at 17, he found something to be passionate about: slight [sic] of hand. Despite discovering that most of the literature about his newfound passion were written by two-handed magicians for other two-handed magicians, Gilbert would make it work for him and practice through the night.


Read more and watch the video by Jason D'Souza.

AGT 2019 spoiler alert!

Do you see who I see?


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CBC's The Amazing and Astounding Invisible Women of Magic

From the February 22nd post "The women of magic are much more than 'lovely assistants'" CBC Radio:

Sawing a woman in half, a hemicorporectomy, is a classic illusion. And a classic role for women in magic — the pretty helpmeet, assisting men as they dazzle and enchant their audiences. But women are busting out of the boxes.

Frank Faulk's documentary, which was first broadcast a decade ago, is called "The Amazing and Astounding Invisible Women of Magic."

Read more and listen to interview.

Paris: Luc Langevin

Luc Langevin returns to Paris with his show "Maintenant Demain"  March 21 to March 31, 2019!

He is also touring through Europe through May 2019.  Visit Luc's European website for details.

#Parispétille: l'illusionniste @LucLangevin était l'invité de Bonsoir Paris pour nous parler de son nouveau spectacle "Maintenant Demain" pic.twitter.com/noVRIjeErz

— BFM Paris (@BFMParis) January 24, 2019

.@LucLangevin - Maintenant Demain
Du 21 au 31 mars 2019 au @leCasinodeParis de Paris
MISE EN VENTE : LUNDI 25 JUIN
> https://t.co/Cfq326BkTS pic.twitter.com/02szF9vWxo

— Caramba Spectacles (@Caramba_Prod) June 19, 2018

Eric Leclerc in season 2 of Tricked

Unfortunately, the videos on BYU TV appear to be geoblocked.  Anyone out there know how we can watch this in Canada?


From the Tricked Facebook page:

Join us as Season 2 returns to #BYUtv on February 25th at 6:30 pm MT. Will you be watching? #TrickedTV

David Ben: U of T Featured Alumni

From the January 22nd article at the University of Toronto Alumni website:

“The news of my retirement is greatly exaggerated,” says David Ben (UC 1983), a Toronto-born conjuror, historian of magic, writer and consultant.

Ben, a renowned expert in sleight-of-hand magic, is in the midst of creating a new show that will revisit some of his old tricks and add a selection of new ones. Each time he creates a show, he is a writer, director and set designer all in one, weaving together a story that incorporates each of his chosen tricks.

“I believe that to be an artist, you need great technique, a great understanding of the past and a vision for the future,” he says.


Read more and watch video.

Carisa Hendrix in the Calgary Herald

From the February 7th article "Who's that girl? Calgary magician Carisa Hendrix and the rise of Lucy Darling" by Eric Volmers in the Calgary Herald:

Lucy is as good an authority as anyone on the magic of new personas. She is actually the alter ego of Calgary magician, fire-eater, actress, model and “circus artist” Carisa Hendrix. Two years ago, Hendrix was a moderately successful act in Calgary, concentrating largely on corporate gigs and children’s festivals and generally “scraping by and living a little bit in magic obscurity,” she says. There had been notable highlights. She had developed a show for Las Vegas, was the subject of the documentary Girl on Fire and even broke the Guinness World Record for “longest duration fire-torch teething” in 2012. But her entry into the exclusive inner circle of international magicians eluded her.

Then Lucy came along.

Lucy Darling, decked out in an elegant evening gown and possessing a quick wit worthy of Dorothy Parker, debuted in Australia at the Melbourne Magic Festival in July of 2017.

Read more.

Matt Johnson on World's Best and in Vanish

Congratulations to Matt Johnson on advancing on CBS' The World's Best and for recently being featured on the cover of Vanish Magazine!


From Brent Smith's Facebook page:




From Clive Court's Facebook page:




From Matt Johnson's Facebook page:



From Paul Romhany's Facebook page:

Peter Mennie unpacks his TV archive

From Peter Mennie's blog post "That’s a Lot of Magic!":

Way back when (about two years ago), I did a lot of television. Every month for 11 months, I had an appearance on a local TV chat show. I did two-three routines every time (that's 20-30 tricks) for nearly twenty years!

Over the next few months, here are some of the greatest hits - in no chronological order - and with apologies for the video quality of some of the segments.

Read more and watch video. [1 - Straight Ahead]

Peter's also posted:

• Television Magic Archives – Part 2 [2 - No Cards Required]
• Television Magic Archives – Part 3 [3 - Never Play with Matches]
• Television Magic Archives – Part 4 [4 - The Cards Know Everything] 
• Television Magic Archives – Part 5 [5 - A Dual Reality Card Trick]

Carisa Hendrix in Ozy

A reminder that you can see Carisa Hendrix perform in Calgary on February 9th.


From the January 30th article "IT'S NO TRICK: WOMEN ARE CRASHING THE MALE-DOMINATED WORLD OF MAGIC" by Tania Bhattacharya in Ozy:

You can tell a lot about a person by what they drink, declares Lucy Darling, the elegant, razor-sharp alter ego of 31-year-old Canadian magician Carisa Hendrix. She’s entertaining a giddy audience at the Magic Castle, the Academy of Magical Arts’ (AMA) private clubhouse in Los Angeles, with her Maker Martini routine. Tony and Jennifer — two spectators — select the strawberry martini and the gimlet as the cocktails they want. Darling goes behind her magical bar to shake up an empty shaker, then pours three different drinks in one go. She hands the strawberry martini to Tony and the gimlet to Jennifer, and they return to their seats, amazed.

A Guinness World Record holder for the longest duration of fire torch teething – a stunt where you hold a fire torch upright with your teeth – and winner of best comedy magic show at the 2017 Melbourne Magic Festival, Hendrix is among a growing number of female illusionists changing the world of magic. For decades, women have largely been relegated to the role of perky assistants who are sawed in half. Now, more and more women are joining the profession as magicians themselves. Top magic schools are recording a dramatic surge in female students. And audiences are embracing them like never before.

Read more.

Jason Latimer's Impossible Science Stage Show at UTS

From the January 31st article "Toronto student wins First Prize in Engineering.com's Impossible Science Challenge. Jason Latimer, World Champion Magician to perform live for her school on February 6th." on the PR Newswire:

Jason Latimer, World Champion Magician, Curator of Impossible Science and Science Channel Host, is flying into Toronto on Wednesday, February 6, to perform his Impossible Science Stage Show LIVE for students at University of Toronto Schools (UTS). #BestAssemblyEver

"He's coming for one reason, Ananya Chadha. Ananya is an extraordinary STEM mind, TKS innovator, and grade 11 student who won the challenge with her project that used EEG's and electrodes to control a remote controlled car with her brain!" commented Lauren Baldesarra, Chief Creative Officer, engineering.com and Co-founder of ProjectBoard.

https://projectboard.engineering.com/project/impossible-science-challenge-brain-controlled-car

Read more.

Ryan Michael in Global News

You can see Ryan on Feb. 2 at Dakoda’s Sports Bar and Grill in Kelowna.

From the January 25th article, "‘It’s all about creating that one moment of mystery’: Kelowna magician sets sights on America’s Got Talent" by Shay Galor in Global News:

“I think the first time I ever saw a trick was David Blaine on television with his first special. Me and my dad watched it,” Michael said. “I think we must have watched it 100 times or more, just watching every little thing that he did. And it was amazing. It totally hooked me right away.”

Michael has been practicing magic for about a decade, with six of those years performing professionally in front of audiences across the country.

“The whole reason that I do magic, aside from creating a connection with people, is that one moment where your brain disconnects from reality and has to think about what just happened,” Michael said.

Read more and watch video.