New Canadian Podcast I'm on so have a listen yo. https://t.co/DBODzOqPKu https://t.co/DBODzOqPKu— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) January 17, 2019
Sweden October 30th! Get your tickets! https://t.co/8z6oq8glDD https://t.co/8z6oq8glDD— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) October 14, 2018
It’s bloody early but this one is for you Canada. Edmonton Airport. Gate 82. #findmycard #findit #signit #leaveit pic.twitter.com/Uk5yoGtAMY— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) August 27, 2018
“Magic wasn’t even on my radar whatsoever,” Kidd told the Asian Journal, adding that she was never one of those kids who had their own magic kit to play with.
“I wish I had that story, but I don’t,” she added.
Born in Canada, Kidd has gotten away with being an actress since she was just 11 years old, something she’s called magic in itself. The life of being able to miss periods of school, playing around, and getting paid for it made what she described as the “best life ever.”
But her introduction to magic came much later at a music festival where she saw a street magician from Australia doing a classic cups and balls trick in which balls appear and disappear under the cups at random.
Read more.
Join us for Something Magical With Billy Kidd at Hales Ales Palladium. An Evening of magic and comedy seamlessly interwoven, you won't believe your eyes as you are taken on this hilarious rollercoaster ride.
Billy Kidd also has appeared on numerous television shows such as CBC’s The Science of Magic on the Nature of Things and hosted Discovery Channel’s Breaking Magic series. She also appeared alongside Penn & Teller on Syfy’s Wizard Wars and is a regular on CW’s Masters of Illusion.
In the UK she was featured on ITV’s Next Great Magician, BBC’s Xmas Lectures and the doc. Now You See It.
It’s only aerial artist Meghan Schech @mama_circus who has found my card in Auckland New Zealand & LA airport! Congrats! More to find at Sydney, Melbourne, Istanbul, London, Japan, Singapore, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Barcelona, Paris, & Dublin. pic.twitter.com/KY3fZ66ip5— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) May 2, 2018
Updated April 3rd at 6pm to add the following nominations:
Updated March 31st at 9pm to add the following nominations:
- Celeste Evans and Reveen The Impossiblist (Reveen Sr.)
Updated March 29 at 7am to add the following nominations:
- Greg Frewin and Mahdi Gilbert
Updated March 24 at 10am to add the following nominations:
- Billy Kidd, Carisa Hendrix, Joan Caesar, and Julie Eng
Updated March 23 at 9am add the following nominations:
- Alain Choquette, David Drake, Mickey Hades, and Shin Lim
Updated March 23 at 7am add the following overnight nominations:
- Bob Farmer, Carl Coultier, Francis Martineau, Gary Ouelette, Howard P. Lions, Mel Stover, Romaine, Roy Cotte, Tom Ransom, Tony Eng, Willis Kinney
Updated at 12:15pm to add:
- Additional submissions: Bedros "Spidey" Akkelian, Bill Abbott, Bobby Motta, Dale Harney, Eric Leclerc, Johnny Giordmaine, Juliana Chen, Leon Mandrake, Sid Lorraine, Stewart James, Ron Leonard, and Vincent C
Updated at 10:15am to add:
- Additional submissions: Darcy Oake, Luc Langevin, Murray Hatfield, Ross Bertram, Tom Auburn
- The following names have been submitted for consideration: Chris Ramsay, Dai Vernon, David Acer, David Ben, Doug Henning, Gary Kurtz, James Randi, Jay Sankey, Martin Nash, Richard Sanders, Shawn Farquhar
Complete list of nominations received (alphabetical by first name):
- Alain Choquette
- Bedros "Spidey" Akkelian
- Bill Abbott
- Billy Kidd
- Bob Farmer
- Bobby Motta
- Carisa Hendrix
- Carl Coultier
- Celeste Evans
- Chris Ramsay
- Dai Vernon
- Dale Harney
- Darcy Oake
- David Acer
- David Ben
- David Drake
- Doug Henning
- Francis Martineau
- Eric Leclerc
- Gary Kurtz
- Gary Ouelette
- Greg Frewin
- Howard P. Lions
- James Randi
- Jay Sankey
- Joan Caesar
- Joel Machtinger
- Johnny Giordmaine
- Juliana Chen
- Julie Eng
- Leon Mandrake
- Luc Langevin
- Mahdi Gilbert
- Martin Nash
- Mel Stover
- Mickey Hades
- Murray Hatfield
- Reveen The Impossiblist (Reveen Sr.)
- Richard Sanders
- Romaine
- Ron Leonard
- Ross Bertram
- Roy Cotte
- Shawn Farquhar
- Shin Lim
- Sid Lorraine
- Stewart James
- Tom Auburn
- Tom Ransom
- Tony Eng
- Vincent C
- Willis Kinney
"You can see that the real question about our film 'The Science of Magic' isn’t why we wanted to make it, but rather, how could we not have?"
-- Donna Zuckerbrot
"I was thrilled. I have known the Zuckerbrots for many years and I am a big fan of their work."
"The idea of using magic as a mechanism for study into how we think, and how we perceive the world is fascinating for me. It was a huge honour to be asked to be the 'magical guide' for this film."
"... viewers are able to feel the power of magic from the comfort of their homes and experience some of the psychological principles these tricks reveal (including ‘magicians choice,’ and choice blindness,' ‘failure to see,’ ‘change blindness,’ inattentional blindness, as well as the ‘aha’ moment)."
"We were all surprised at how magical the science was. It was astonishing to realize that we don’t see what we think we are seeing, that our memories are as slippery as our perceptions, that who we are — even our deeply held beliefs can change without us knowing. Like good magic the science left us with a feeling of wonder."
-- the Zuckerbrots
"If we can use science and technology to work out the perfect angle for speed skaters to maximize physics to their advantage, why can we not benefit from learning more about human behaviour and cognition to advance our field?""Each of these areas can bring a lot of insights to magicians to heighten the “magic" experience for audiences."
THE SCIENCE OF MAGICproduced, directed and written byDonna Zuckerbrot and Daniel Zuckerbrot
With magical guide Julie EngToronto-based magicienne and executive director of Canada’s magical arts organization Magicana
World Broadcast Premiere on CBC’s The Nature of ThingsSunday, March 18, 2018 – 8PM (8:30 NT)
“The scientific community, I believe, can learn a lot about both the principles that magicians use as well the unique experience that magic elicits. By using new tools and scientific theory to understand why these principles work, scientists can really learn about the limits of human cognition.”
• Gustav Kuhn, Cognitive Psychologist, Goldsmiths University of London“Magicians and scientists both have learnt that it's our own mysterious consciousness that casts the spell, weaving reality from fleeting impressions. So, even when you don't know it, you are the magician.”
• Julie Eng, Magicienne, Executive Director Magicana
Reel Time Images is pleased to announce the world broadcast premiere of their new documentary, The Science of Magic. Directed by Donna and Daniel Zuckerbrot, and with magical guide Julie Eng, Toronto-based magicienne and executive director of Canada’s magical arts organization Magicana, The Science of Magic can be seen on CBC’s The Nature of Things on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 8PM (8:30 NT). The documentary will also be available to watch online at cbc.ca/natureofthings on Friday, March 16 from 5:00 pm EST.
Magic has become the latest investigative tool for scientists exploring human cognition, neurobiology, and behaviour. Across Canada, the US and Europe, The Science of Magic follows researchers and scientists who are bringing magicians’ tricks into the laboratory. This extraordinary exploration peeks behind the curtain into a fascinating world where ancient magic meets modern science.
Colourful, compelling and interactive, this film takes a critical and engaging look at the fascinating facts revealed when you see the human mind through the eyes of a magician. With opportunities to participate in on-air magic tricks, viewers are able to feel the power of magic from the comfort of their homes and experience some of the psychological principles these tricks reveal (including ‘magicians choice’, and choice blindness”, 'failure to see’, ‘change blindness’, inattentional blindness, as well as the ‘aha’ moment).
Acting as guide for much of the evening, Julie Eng mystifies with her magical talents, using card tricks to show how magic can be used to explore human consciousness. Alongside these simple tricks are more elaborate scientific experiments. Jay Olson, a performer of magic since his youth, is completing his PhD in psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal. There, Olson is one of the scientists spearheading a novel and powerful approach to experimental psychology. At the Montreal Neurological Institute, we join him for an extraordinary demonstration involving an MRI machine that seems not only to read minds, but to also use its electro-magnetic fields to manipulate your most private thoughts.
Professor Ronald Rensink at the University of British Columbia discovered how small distractions can blind drivers to obvious dangers. He believes that magicians’ practical knowledge about how to fool the eye and the mind can fuel important new research in vision science and psychology in general.
In the US professor Anthony Barnhart, a magician turned scientist is using magic principles to investigate why we sometimes don’t see what’s right under our noses. We also meet Professor Amory Danek who is using the conjuror’s craft to study creativity and problem solving.
In London England Gustav Kuhn conducts a study along with Canadian magician Billy Kidd, that tracks the eye movements of the magician’s audience. We see tricks that fool us despite nothing actually happening, as well as demonstrations that reveal we can be blind even to our own choices.
As surprising as many of these magic tricks are, the ultimate reveal, as Julie tells us just before she vanishes in front of our eyes, is that the true magician is our own brain — weaving reality out of fleeting impressions.
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THE SCIENCE OF MAGIC - PARTICIPANTS
Julie Eng
http://www.magicienne.com
Born in Victoria BC into a family of magicians, Julie Eng has been appearing on stage from an early age. Julie has developed a refreshing and distinctive style which combines a mix of elegance, surprise and humour. Besides performing, she is currently the executive director of Canada’ magical arts organization, Magicana which is dedicated to the study, exploration and advancement of magic as a performing art.
Ronald Rensink
https://psych.ubc.ca/persons/ronald-rensink/
Professor Rensink grew up in Whitby, Ontario and has taught at the University of British Columbia (UBC) since 2000. An authority on vision in humans and machines, his seminal paper on “change blindness” has become one of the most cited papers in the field of cognitive psychology. His studies of perception and consciousness have led him to work with magicians. He believes that magicians’ practical knowledge about how to fool the eye and the mind, can fuel important new research in vision science and psychology in general.
Jay Olson
https://www.jayolson.org
A performer of magic since his youth, Jay is currently completing his PhD in psychiatry at McGill University. Jay Olsen is looking at how magic, deception and suggestion can be used to create new methods in psychology. His studies show how magicians influence their audience and how people can be deceived into believing a machine is controlling their mind. His current work is on the potential use of machines as placebos.
Gustav Kuhn
https://www.gold.ac.uk/psychology/staff/kuhn/
Dr. Kuhn is a cognitive psychologist at Goldsmiths University of London. He went to England originally to perform magic and ended up staying and studying psychology. He is one of the founders of The Society of Magic Association (SOMA), and uses the methods of magic to study a range of questions about how we perceive and think about the world. His research focuses on magic, and explores how magicians allow people to experience the impossible.
Anthony Barnhart
https://www.carthage.edu/live/profiles/1492-anthony-barnhart
Dr. Barnhart is a professor of psychology at Carthage College in Kenosha. Wisconsin. His many years as a magician inform his studies of how our attention is misled in daily life. His research explores the wealth of principles used by magicians, but still unknown to psychology.
Amory Danek
http://www.amorydanek.de
Dr. Danek is associated with the psychology department at the University of Heidelberg. Her research using magic (with the cooperation of magician Thomas Fraps) is focused on insight. Her current research is aimed at disentangling the various ways of thinking and feeling that together make up the “aha experience”. Another aspect of her research involving magic uses behavioural and neuroimaging experiments. This work is centred on identify brain regions that come into play when our expectations are violated (e.g. something mysteriously appears, disappears, or acts contrary to what normally happens).
Matthew Tompkins
https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/team/matthew-tompkins
Matt Tompkins a part-time professional magician since he was 14 is currently the Jr. Dean at the Queen’s College Oxford University where he is a doctoral student in the department of Experimental Psychology. He uses his knowledge of magical techniques to investigate the interplay between attention, illusions and beliefs.
Thomas Strandberg
http://www.lucs.lu.se/choice-blindness-group/
Thomas Strandberg currently does research in the cognitive sciences at Sweden’s Lund University.He is affiliated with the Choice Blindness Laboratory. They use a variety of methods, including magicians’ tricks to study how our preferences, attitudes and choices change with the feedback we receive about them.
Billy Kidd
http://www.billykiddshow.com
Billy Kidd has been an actor in theatre, film, and television since she was 11. Her career as a magician began when, after graduating from the University of Alberta’s theatre program, she happened to see a magician busking on the streets in Edmonton. Here fascination with magic and especially street magic eventually led to international TV appearances and performances all over the world.
Tom Stone
Tom Stone is the stage name of Swedish magician, editor and author Thomas Bengtsson. One of Scandinavia’s foremost magicians, he is rarely to be found at home in Stockholm, Sweden. He spends a great deal of time traveling the world performing and lecturing. His books on magic, and creativity are considered modern classics by many of his fellow magicians.
Thomas Fraps
http://www.thomasfraps.com/english/index_e.html
A former student of physics, Thomas Fraps is an award-winning professional magician whose performances combine illusion, comedy and science. He has worked with a number of scientists including with Professor Amory Danek for whose experiments in problem solving he designed and performed a wide variety of magic tricks.
Pit Hartling
http://pithartling.de/en/
An extremely popular performer not only in his home of Germany but throughout the world. The author of two acclaimed books for magicians Hartling is as much in demand as a lecturer and teacher of magic as he is as an entertainer.
Juan Tamariz
Born in 1942 Juan Tamariz-Martel Negrón in Madrid, Spain he is known professionally as Juan Tamariz or simply as Tamariz. He is regarded as a national treasure in Spain, and an international treasure by his fans around the world. Based on his encyclopediac knowledge, his skill and creativity Tamariz is recognized by most of the world’s magical greats as the greatest magician alive.
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The Science of Magic is produced, directed and written by Donna Zuckerbrot and Daniel Zuckerbrot. It is produced by Reel Time Images in association with CBC, with the Participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit, and the Ontario Tax Credit.
To Kidd, the question of women in magic is a source of frustration. She’s not convinced that the lay audience is even aware that there are fewer female magicians out there, and she’s not sure she cares. “It’s never affected my career, it’s never affected me getting gigs, it’s never affected my audience,” Kidd said. Meanwhile, she does take issue with the push to turn non-magical pretty women into magicians for nothing more than the money-making novelty of putting a female on the bill. “I sometimes think I’m sexist against my own sex,” she admits.
Kidd doesn’t promote herself as a female magician—she is a magician, what else is there to talk about? “Take anyone who’s not a performer and make them famous because of that one little gimmick, their ego will completely explode. And it hurts the people who do put all that time and effort in, because they deserve it. They deserve the spotlight more in that regard,” Kidd says. She believes that sexism is more a fabric of our society today than it is specific affliction in the magic community, and she’d rather not draw so much attention to the topic. “The whole topic just segregates us even more. If your magic is strong enough, your magic should speak for itself.”
Read more.
Billy Kidd’s previous experience as a professional actor and classically-trained musician informs her career in magic.
“I saw a magician perform at a street festival and I was instantly hooked. I didn’t know how it was done, but I knew I wanted to do it,” she says.
In 2008, Kidd left Canada for Britain, where she was mentored by the legendary street magician, Gazzo. Did she find it hard to break into the male-dominated world of magic?
Read more.
Magician @Billykiddshow is @cityspectacular this weekend in Dublin but why do so few women perform on the street? https://t.co/be9ehw1hEn pic.twitter.com/09eirAepbs— TheWomensPodcast (@ITWomensPodcast) July 6, 2017
New Series of Masters of Illusion starts this Friday on the @TheCW network. @cw_illusion A quick show with very quick magic. #magic pic.twitter.com/KgqFsWL5PF— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) June 28, 2017
Canadian born Billy Kidd started life as a child actor and didn't find magic until her twenties. She now lives in Bath and has done it all including street performing, close-up, stage and a ton of television, later this year you will see her on ITV1 attempting to become 'The Next Great Magician' too. In this interview Billy gives us an incredible insight in to what it's like to be a female in our male dominated industry
Read more and listen to podcast.
Official like butter...#itv new show #NextGreatMagician starts Sunday's November 6 at 7pm.— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) November 1, 2016
I'll be on episode 4. #magic #magicians #itv1 pic.twitter.com/eVaSirhiXS
Derren Brown’s Vaudeville Productions and Crook Productions have been commissioned by ITV to co-produce a brand new magic competition show, The Next Great Magician (6 x 60’). Crook Productions is part of Andrew O’Connor and ITV Studios’ Cat’s On The Roof Media, and The Next Great Magician is Crook Productions’ first big entertainment commission since the group’s inception earlier this year.
The series will feature the world’s best magicians performing their greatest tricks, many of them for the first time ever on television, as they compete to be crowned The Next Great Magician.
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Internationally renowned Magician @Billykiddshow will perform at the Inverness Street Festival from 13-15 October pic.twitter.com/96q40dVu8L— Inverness BID (@InvernessBID) September 19, 2016
Without home or possessions to tie her down, young vagabond Bo is light enough to take off. She travels to the big city, the desert and the jungle and experiences different adventures, joys and challenges. She uses what others throw away and with her magic touch makes anything possible.
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The name is Billy Kidd, only she’s not a kid or even an outlaw. She’s one of the very few women who perform magic tricks instead of acting as the male magician’s lovely assistant.
Born in Edmonton, now based outside of London, Ms. Kidd is so good at her craft she has been featured on the Discovery and Syfy channels, and entertains throughout Europe, Asia and Japan. She found her inspiration several years ago watching a street magician in Edmonton.
As much as she enjoyed the magic, it was the crowd’s reaction that resonated with Ms. Kidd.
Read more.
