Showing posts with label Dai Vernon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dai Vernon. Show all posts

02 April 2021

You're invited to a CAM JAM with Chip Romero

Updated April 19th to add:

 

Wednesday, April 14 at 8 PM EST

This is a magicians-only event and it's free to attend.  Membership is not required. 

 

From The Canadian Association of Magicians:

Recently, we caught rumour of a magician with some rare and exciting items.  

A collection of historical magic props, illusions and memorabilia that was out of this world. Including some treasured Canadian history from the likes of Doug Henning and Dai Vernon!

So, we offered this magician some maple syrup and Tim Hortons to convince him to share a peek at the rarest items in his collection!

We're happy to say Chip Romero agreed!  

Chip is a professional magician and collector who has offered to share CAM JAM attendees with a unique glimpse into magic's cherished history. Here's an opportunity to look behind the curtain in one of the largest collections of Doug Henning props, illusions and most treasured memorabilia.   

Read more.


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23 February 2020

David Ben in the Globe and Mail

A reminder that David will be speaking about The Golden Age of Magic at the AGO later this week.



From the February 22nd opinion piece "Magicians are the original purveyors of ‘fake news.’ They can’t help it" by David Ben in the Globe and Mail:
Magicians were masters of cultural appropriation. There are many examples in the exhibition, particularly of Western magicians portraying themselves as Asian – both onstage and off – capitalizing on the then-burgeoning interest in all things exotic. My favourite: Fu Manchu, the onstage persona of David Bamberg, an eighth-generation Dutch-Jewish magician who was raised in the United States and educated in England and found fame in South America performing as a Chinese magician who spoke Spanish. (Not to be confused with the villainous Dr. Fu Manchu of Sax Rohmer’s novels and the films starring Christopher Lee.)
Read more.

01 July 2018

Dai Vernon in Atlas Obscura

From the June 25th article "An Insider’s Tour of New York’s Disappearing Magic History," by Sarah Laskow in Atlas Obscura:
With his sharp mustache and debonair smile, Dai Vernon always looked like he knew more than he was revealing, and as his stature in the magic community grew, his life became legend. When he came to New York from Ottawa, Canada, in 1915, the vaudeville circuit was still feeding magicians steady income and fame, though Pastor’s heyday was long over. A kid obsessed with magic and card tricks, Vernon gravitated to the city’s magic shops. Martinka’s had already become legendary, though from the outside, one reporter wrote in 1916, it looked like “a little dingy shop … with one window full of dusty paraphernalia,” in the shadow of Sixth Avenue’s elevated train. Whatever wonders the shop had to offer were in the back room, off-limits to newcomers like Vernon.


Read more.

22 March 2018

Who are the top 10 Canadian magicians of all time?

Updated April 3rd at 6pm to add the following nominations:
  • Celeste Evans and Reveen The Impossiblist (Reveen Sr.)
Updated March 31st at 9pm to add the following nominations:
  • Greg Frewin and Mahdi Gilbert
Updated March 29 at 7am to add the following nominations:
  • Billy Kidd, Carisa Hendrix, Joan Caesar, and Julie Eng
Updated March 24 at 10am to add the following nominations:
  • Alain Choquette, David Drake, Mickey Hades, and Shin Lim
Updated March 23 at 9am add the following nominations:
  • Bob Farmer, Carl Coultier, Francis Martineau, Gary Ouelette, Howard P. Lions, Mel Stover, Romaine, Roy Cotte, Tom Ransom, Tony Eng, Willis Kinney
Updated March 23 at 7am add the following overnight nominations:
  • 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 12:15pm to add:
  • Additional submissions: Darcy Oake, Luc Langevin, Murray Hatfield, Ross Bertram, Tom Auburn
Updated at 10:15am to add:
  • 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):

  1. Alain Choquette
  2. Bedros "Spidey" Akkelian
  3. Bill Abbott
  4. Billy Kidd
  5. Bob Farmer
  6. Bobby Motta
  7. Carisa Hendrix
  8. Carl Coultier
  9. Celeste Evans
  10. Chris Ramsay
  11. Dai Vernon
  12. Dale Harney
  13. Darcy Oake
  14. David Acer 
  15. David Ben
  16. David Drake
  17. Doug Henning
  18. Francis Martineau
  19. Eric Leclerc
  20. Gary Kurtz
  21. Gary Ouelette
  22. Greg Frewin
  23. Howard P. Lions
  24. James Randi
  25. Jay Sankey
  26. Joan Caesar
  27. Joel Machtinger
  28. Johnny Giordmaine
  29. Juliana Chen
  30. Julie Eng
  31. Leon Mandrake
  32. Luc Langevin
  33. Mahdi Gilbert
  34. Martin Nash
  35. Mel Stover
  36. Mickey Hades
  37. Murray Hatfield
  38. Reveen The Impossiblist (Reveen Sr.)
  39. Richard Sanders
  40. Romaine
  41. Ron Leonard
  42. Ross Bertram
  43. Roy Cotte
  44. Shawn Farquhar 
  45. Shin Lim
  46. Sid Lorraine
  47. Stewart James
  48. Tom Auburn
  49. Tom Ransom
  50. Tony Eng
  51. Vincent C
  52. Willis Kinney


Devon Murphy recently posted the article, "Top Canadian Magicians and the Tricks That Made Them Famous," at the CBC website.  Devon lists seven outstanding magicians (Julie Eng, Dai Vernon,  Doug Henning, Billy Kidd, Mahdi Gilbert, Greg Frewin, and David Ben).  (Of note, two of the seven on that list are recipients of the "Editor's Choice Award" in the Canada's Magic "Readers' Choice Award" festivities.)

Devon's list got me wondering.

Who do you, dear readers, consider to be the top 10 Canadian magicians of all time?

For those of you who don't like to be influenced by the decisions of others, we're going to start with a clean slate and let you choose all ten!

Submit your nominations in the comment form below,* by 11:59PM EDT on Friday April 6th.  You may nominate as many Canadian magicians as you like.  (Number of nominations don't influence the vote.  If you see your choice(s) listed, please refrain from submitting duplicates.)  Voting will open shortly thereafter.  

What say you?  Who are your top (living or dead) Canadian magicians of all time?


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* or email me.  I'll send a confirmation back to let you know I received your email.




29 November 2017

Dai Vernon: The Spirit of Magic

From Magicana:
While the film was very well received, it was only available briefly for purchase as a VHS cassette, which was subsequently pirated. The film pops up regularly online, always low-quality copies of copies shared without any credit to those who made the project possible.
Now is our chance to fix that. We have provided Historica Canada with a clean copy, transferred from the broadcast master. It is now available to view on-line for free as part of their Canadian Biography series. A copy can also be viewed through the Screening Room.

Read more.


From Magicana's Facebook post:

11 February 2017

Mystery School Monday: Dai Vernon his life and magic

Earlier this week Jeff McBride dedicated Mystery School Monday to Dai Vernon his life and magic.

Go on over to Magical Wisdom and watch MSM-294 "Dai Vernon" with Jeff McBride Feb 6 2017.

13 February 2016

Canadians on the list of "Top Ten Magicians of the 20th Century"

Have a look over at The Top Tens and see how Doug Henning, Dai Vernon, Shawn Farquhar, and Shin Lim are ranking in their list of "Top Ten Magicians of the 20th Century."

While you're there, add your vote!

28 January 2016

Shane Cobalt at Belfast MagiCon 2016

Shane Cobalt will be performing at Belfast MagiCon 2016.

From Belfast MagiCon 2016:

Belfast MagiCon 2016 is being held in the Ramada Encore Hotel, Belfast. The dates for the convention are Friday 29th April, Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May 2016.

 An extra special event, Roberto Giobbi's Dai Vernon seminar will be taking place on bank holiday Monday 2nd May 2016. For anybody wishing to attend this event please get in touch asap to secure your space. Details can be found on our headliner page.

Read more and register.

10 November 2015

Perfect Magic on Magicians and Politicians

For a brief moment I had a flashback to a Magic Convention.  Dai Vernon, the 80 plus year old legend, with a lot of knowledge and experience. He was a living legend and everyone was trying to get to him, but he wasn’t interested in them. He was only interested in Phil, yes, Phil Matlin, because they were both honky tonk and ragtime piano players and Dai loved that music. even more than magic.

Women were not prominent on the magic scene back then. That’s changing too.

Read more.

22 January 2015

Ricky Jay on Dai Vernon

From iTricks:
PBS is stepping up the promotion of their airing of Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice as a part of American Masters next week with a few new clips. In addition to one of Jay on Charlie Millers, they put out this video featuring memories of the incomparable Dai Vernon. Deceptive Practice will air on most PBS station next Friday, January 23; it is the first time a magician has been featured in the American Masters series.

Watch on YouTube:

 

16 January 2014

Dodd Vickers and David Roth talk Dai Vernon

From Dodd Vickers Twitter feed:

31 October 2013

Storytime with The Professor

From John Cox at Wild About Houdini:
The October 2013 Magic Castle Newsletter has launched a new column, "Storytime with The Professor", featuring memorable tales told by the late Dai Vernon. The inaugural story is about, what else, Houdini, and in it Vernon recounts how S.A.M. members once "tricked" Houdini into going into a closest at the New York Hippodrome and locked him inside. "We pulled this trick on him because he was such a terrible egotist," said the man who's own ego was pretty well developed.

Read more.

03 March 2013

Dai Vernon interview

From Richard Hatch's Twitter feed:

10 August 2012

Video of 1987 Dai Vernon roast

From The Magic Newswire:
Thanks to Michael Ammar for sharing this video from the 1987 roast of Dai Vernon at the New York Magic Symposium.. According to Michael :

If you are a magician or if you love magic this is a real treat.  This is the only known footage from the roast of Dai Vernon, the Professor, in 1987 at the New York Magic Symposium.  Tom Mullica is the MC and everyone who speaks is renowned in the world of magic. 

Read more.


Watch the video on YouTube:

17 February 2012

Dai Vernon mentioned in Magic Castle article

From the LA Weekly article "Magic Castle Battles Back From a Halloween Fire. Was it a Message From Houdini?":
The late Dai Vernon, sleight-of-hand master, who once performed a card trick so confounding even Houdini couldn't figure it out, spent the last 28 years of his life holding court at the Castle. Upon his death in 1992, his ashes were interred in a small wooden box, high up on a ledge outside the Parlor of Prestidigitation.

Read more.

20 December 2011

Dai Vernon's son recovering from house fire injuries

From iTricks:
79-year-old David Verner, son to legendary magician Dai Vernon, was very badly burned by an electrical fire at his New York State home.
 
Read more.

Canada's Magic joins iTricks in wishing Verner a speedy recovery.

28 September 2011

Dai Vernon's quest for the "center deal"

From the Magic News Wire:
Dai Vernon, considered among the most influential magicians of the 20th century, could do just about any trick that called for sleight of hand. He was obsessed with learning the secrets of crooked card dealers. But there was one move he couldn't master.

Read more.

Vernon was on the cover of Genii in May 1989.