Spidey in The Suburban

From the February 10th post "Cohen in the City: Episode 46 – World renowned local mentalist and magician Spidey" by Mike Cohen in The Suburban:

Bedros Akkelian, better known as Spidey, is a proud resident of Laval who is gaining notice globally  for his profession as a mentalist and a magician.   He will be performing on a live Zoom broadcast for the Cummings Centre on Feb. 17 at 7:30 pm.   Barbara Zavalkoff, who chairs the committee that organizes these events, joins Spidey on this show. It includes a very emotional moment when Spidey learns about the passing of someone whom he held dear.

Read more and watch video.

 

 

From the February 9th Facebook post by The Society of American Magicians:

Spidey - Mentalist/Hypnotist is one of new stars in the magic world. He is part of the cast of Masters of Illusion, has performed on Penn and Teller: Fool Us and is part of Netflix's Brainchild. Like many entertainers, he has taken to the online world for shows during the pandemic. He took some time out to talk to The Suburban Newspaper about his work and upcoming shows.

 

 

Broken Wand: Evelyn Matlin

Updated at 8:15pm to add:

• The formal obituary can be found at Paperman and Sons.  The family requests "In lieu of flowers, donations in Evy’s memory may be made to the Palliative Care Unit c/o Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation, (514) 369-2222 ext.: 1299, or to the Gynecology-Oncology Unit c/o the Jewish General Hospital Foundation, (514) 340-8251."

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of the passing of Evelyn Matlin, co-owner of Perfect Magic in Montreal.  I first met Evelyn at the CAM-JAM in the spring of 2013.  I had the pleasure of reacquainting with her over the years through Sorcerers Safari and the Browser's Bash.  She had a wonderful upbeat personality and always had something nice to say.

In her 40+ years at Perfect Magic, Evelyn left her mark on the Montreal magic community.  She demonstrated magic in the shop and was often responsible for starting the ball rolling in people's lifelong love of magic.  Many of you know Evelyn as the authour of the blog Perfect Magic Then and Now.  You can read more about Evelyn in the March 13th article "The magic of pursuing your dreams: father's bravery had a ripple effect" by her daughter Julie Matlin in the Montreal Gazette.

Our condolences to her husband, Phil, their children Ronna, Michael, Brian, and Julie, as well as Evelyn's extended family and friends.



From Julie Matlin's July 11th post on Perfect Magic's Facebook page:

On Friday night, after a mercifully short battle with cancer, Evy passed away. We don't have to tell you what an exceptional human being she was. Everyone who met her knew. For the past 42 years, she was a proud member of the magic community, and few things gave her more pleasure than introducing people to the wonders of the craft. There are generations of people who remember how Evy showed them their first card trick, and she remembered each one of you.

We thank you for respecting our privacy at this time, while we grieve.

Julie Matlin

Perfect Magic in the Montreal Gazette

A wonderful piece by Julie Matlin about her parents!



From the March 13th article "The magic of pursuing your dreams: father's bravery had a ripple effect" by Julie Matlin in the Montreal Gazette:

Phil and Evelyn Matlin, my parents, own a beloved Montreal institution called Perfect Magic. It is, fittingly, a magic shop that’s been serving the community for more than 43 years. Walk in and you’re likely to find amateur hobbyists alongside pros chatting about technique. Or a seasoned performer giving some tips to a kid just starting out. It’s a unique experience.

My dad is 83 now, and my mom is 79 and undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer, yet they still go to work every day. Whenever I ask them about retiring, my dad shakes his head. “What would I do?” he asks. They’re happy. And I’m happy for them. My dad followed a dream and it led them to not only run a business that supported a family with four children, but also left a lasting mark on the magic community at large.

It’s funny how we got here.

Read more.

Perfect Magic writes about Magicians Without Borders

From the December 21st post "Magicians Without Borders" by Evelyn Matlin at Perfect Magic:

You must have heard about Doctors Without Borders, well yesterday we had a visit from Magicians Without Borders, a non-profit organization founded by Tom Verner and Janet Fredericks. It was a real fun and fascinating day.  These people go around the world spreading magic. What fun that must be. Harry Chaucer  (on the right) was here with a friend. Harry is a magician without borders.

Here are a couple of photos. They’ve been all over the planet entertaining people. The audience seems to be enjoying it.  According to the literature they left me, they have been performing  since 2003 for one million children in many of the most war-torn, difficult places in the world like Haiti, Sudan, Burma, and Bangladesh as well as for veterans in the US.  They came up from Vermont to see us and it was fun and educational.

Read more.

Magic and the Mind

From the November 5th post "Magic and the Mind" by Evelyn Matlin at Perfect Magic:

As most of you know, I was treated for cancer, and had Chemo and a robotic operation and now I’m back and so far so good. I was anxious to get back to the shop. A new customer came in and I picked up Cardtoon to demo it and I had no idea how it worked. I asked Phil. He said, “I never did it. You always demo it.”  I put it aside.

When he left I sat down with the deck and for the life of me, I could not remember how to do it. I opened a new pack to read the instructions and it was so complicated I couldn’t understand it. Then I remembered that whoever bought it, I showed them how it worked because the instructions were so complicated I felt they would take it home and never use it. It’s such a simple trick so I took a few minutes and showed them the secret so they would never have to look at the instructions. Still I couldn’t remember it or follow the instructions.

Read more.

Montreal: Guy Camirand Day!

From the October 29th post "GUY DAY" at Perfect Magic:

Mark your calendars NOVEMBER 2ND FROM 10AM TO 1PM. 2019
GUY DAY CELEBRATION

We’re celebrating Guy Day. Yes we are having a special event at Perfect Magic and invite you to to be there. We are honouring Guy Camirand of the Camirand AcadeIMG_0129.jpgmy of Magic. Many of you were his students of magic and he would be thrilled to see you. Many of you may have purchased the excellent products that he and Gary Ouellet created. Guy said he is bringing a surprise, something new that should be of interest to you, but he didn’t tell me what it is.

Bring your kids with you and get them started in magic. I’m sure they’ll be entertained.

We’re having a STOREWIDE SALE for the occasion, so be sure to be here on this coming Saturday NOVEMBER 2nd from 10:00am to 1:00pm 2019   We look forward to seeing you.

Read more.

Update from Evelyn Matlin

If you have a moment, be sure to visit the Perfect Magic blog and leave Evelyn a comment, or send her an email with your good wishes.


From the June 10th post "Magic Sent Me Back To the Magic Shop" by Evelyn Matlin at the Perfect Magic blog:

Today I saw my doctor and he said everything was fine and I should be having my robotic operation next week or the following week at the latest. They do 2 robotic operations a day. If I’m the first, I go home the same day and if I’m the second, I sleep over at the hospital. Frankly I don’t care which it is, as long as I get it over with. I thank you all for your good wishes that you sent and appreciate them. If you get a chance, drop in and say hello.

Read more.

Sending healing thoughts to Evelyn Matlin

For those of you who don't already know, have a read of Evelyn Matlin's March 11th post "Who’s The Magician Here?" at the Perfect Magic blog.

So if any of you don’t know yet, and are wondering why I haven’t written anything since January, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the beginning of February. To make a long story as short as possible, I think you know that Phil broke his ankle in late December and was working at home all this time. I looked after the shop all of January. I was used to running up and down the stairs of the shop and would take parcels to send out at the Pharmaprix Post Office across the street. I thought nothing of it.

Then, in early February I noticed I was out of breath when I got to the top of the stairs.

Read more.

Without Perfect Magic, there may not have been a JP Parent to fool Penn and Teller!

How many brick and mortar magic store staff are responsible for stories like this one from JP Parent ...

From the October 10th article "A Note from Montreal Magician Jean-Pierre Parent Who Fooled Penn and Teller" by Evelyn Matlin at Perfect Magic:

One goes about ones business everyday, doing what they do, but once in a while something happens to lift your spirits. JP Parent  who fooled Penn and Teller https://youtu.be/_-P4wjAROok took the time to write to me and with his permission I am sharing it with you. This is what he wrote.

“I love your articles you post !

The last one about being in heaven when you walked in the shop was my favorite. Ms Evelyn, you prob would not remember this if I told you ,but you where the first person to perform a magic trick for me in a magic shop.

Read more.

Pro-tip from Perfect Magic

From Perfect Magic's February 14 blog post titled "What Every Magician Should Know":

The other day I got a call from an old customer, a good magician I’m told by those who have seen him perform, and he wanted a certain electronic device. We had it in stock. He took a long drive to get to our shop as he wanted it right away and he’s from out of town.

I got a call from him today asking if we had another one in stock. I said yes. He asked if we would try it out to see if it worked. We did and it did. He said his didn’t.

“Strange,” I said. “Did you put a battery in?”

“Of course,” he replied.

Read more.

Isn't this how everyone picks a post-secondary school?

From the December 19 article "The Things We Do For Love (of Magic)" by Evelyn Matlin at the Perfect Magic blog:

So here’s the story. Before Christmas Stephane came to our shop for  supplies. He was talking to Phil at this point, as I was with another customer so I don’t know how the topic came up,  but I caught a bit of the conversation and later got the whole story. Stephane told us when he graduated from CEGEP, he was accepted by four Universities. He told his father he wanted to go to the Polytechnique  Montréal. His father said, “Why do you want to go there? You can go to any University, you can go to McGill!” and Stephane said he made up some excuse that he told his father and that’s where he went.

He said “Very few people know this but I chose it because ...

Read more.

Canadians remember Eugene Burger

From Perfect Magic:

Eugene Burger was special, as a magician and as a person. The first and most important memory I have of him was when he came to Montreal to lecture for Magie Montréal. It was many years ago and I was not that into magic at the time, but I went to the lecture to help Phil and Vim Vermeys with registration, etc.  and stayed of course for the lecture.

Anyone at that lecture learned valuable lessons. I don’t rememberphil-eugene-and-tom one trick that he did. It wasn’t about the tricks, it was about performing. Every word was well thought out and had a reason for being there. His jokes were not to get a laugh, which they got, but as he explained, when you laugh you close your eyes for a second and that’s all the time he needed to do what he had to do in front of your eyes.

Read more.

From Derek Selinger's Facebook page:



From Lawrence Larouche's Facebook page:




From Ben Train's Facebook page:



From the Facebook page for Michael Close:



From Shawn Farquhar's Facebook page:




Visit the Eugene Burger Memorial Page, McBride Magic & Mystery School on Facebook.

McCord Museum: Magic, music, and dance

From Perfect Magic:

If you haven’t been to the McCord Museum this summer it’s worth going to. Not your usual museum exhibition. It’s called ILLUSIONS – The Art of Magic and Luc Langevin is the ambassador of the exhibit. It’s the Allan Slaight collection, which was acquired by the McCord with the help of the Emmanuelle Gattuso Foundation.  A tip of the Top Hat to the people who designed it.. Phil and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We were invited by magician Dr. Joe Culpepper, magician, scholar, consultant and friend and customer of Perfect Magic. Before the guided tour, we were treated to a magic show, in a lovely little theatre there, given by the young students, who attended the McCord Museum Camp, Abracadabra, who were guided and taught by Joe and the counsellors. The kids did a great job and they all knew how to take a bow when the applause came.

So what’s the link between magic and music?

Read more.

Jeff says thanks to everyone for their support of the Browser's Den.

Special guest shouts out to: Kind of Magic's Phil Cox, Perfect Magic's Phil & Evelyn Matlin as well as past president of the IBM and head of the Canadian Association of Magicians – Joan Caesar.

From Len Cooper's family: Bernice, Len's wife, as well as his children Jack and Heather Cooper are here too! Len would have absolutely adored this!

Today's Zone performers: Al Grose, Arthur Poon, Morgan Pierce, Alex Boyer, Derick Finn, and Rosemary Reid!

Making the world a little bit smaller

From Perfect Magic:

Sometimes I wonder what I will write about and a blog walks into the shop. That’s  exactly what happened yesterday.

A guy came into the shop with a friend. He was from out of town and seemed to know his way around magic. He had phoned in advance to see if we had certain items and we did so he got those items and others that caught his interest.

Read more.

The Problem With Magic Instructions

Do you agree with Phil's advice below?  It sounds solid to me.  Although it seems that quite a few performers skip the "make it your own" step.  What tips do you have to offer for folks trying to make an effect "their own"?



From Evelyn Matlin's post "The Problem With Magic Instructions" at Perfect Magic:

Phil always said, “When you buy a trick, read the instructions first. See how the trick works and then forget about the instructions and make it your own!” I think that’s pretty good advice!

Read more.

Quantity vs quality

I have to agree with Evelyn Matlin's observation about the sheer volume of magic effects brought to market these days.  The selection is far greater than I when I first dipped my toe in, *mumble mumble* years ago.  I wonder if the quality of the effects, over all, is higher, the same, or lower than back in the day.


From Perfect Magic:

As a magic dealer, I am overwhelmed by the new magic that comes out on a daily basis. Especially because I do the banners on our home page of Perfect Magic and edit the write-ups for our catalog. There seems to be no end to it.

I remember a time when Albert Goshman (think Sponge Balls – Magic by Gosh) came to Montreal to perform at Magie Montreal when we had our Conventions, back in the 80’s. He stayed in our home and we took him to the Brown Derby in the Van Horne Shopping Centre for dinner one evening. Unfortunately, neither Albert nor the Brown Derby are with us any more.

Read more.

The devil is in the details

From the post "Where Magic Takes You" at Perfect Magic:

“We’re having a conference in a few weeks, maybe you’ll do some magic there.”

“Sure.”

So this fellow goes about practicing up on his walk around magic and one day his boss comes up to him and says, “By the way, just let me know what kind of lighting you need or tables, etc. Whatever you need.


Read more.

From Perfect Magic: Phil Matlin vs Julius Caesar

From Perfect Magic:

If you’ve  been to the Perfect Magic Facebook site, then you know that Phil has a few gigs  playing piano for the Cote St. Luc Library on the first Tuesday of the summer months. A piano had been donated to Cote St Luc and it went to Rembrandt Park and was inaugurated by none other than Oliver Jones. The media was there, as well as the politicians and it was a big deal.

The first Tuesday of June came along. We had our plans but nature had other plans. There was a storm the night before and the tarpaulin didn’t do its job and the piano was ruined. But in the tradition of show business, the show went on. Some folks from the library came to our condo and carried down Phil’s electric keyboard and speaker and whatever else and he played. It was not his best show, a little trouble with equipment, and whatnot, but people came over after and said they enjoyed it thoroughly. The other day in the elevator, a lady said to Phil, “You’re the piano player. It was so wonderful.” and he said “If you enjoyed it I’ll be there again this Tuesday.”

Read more.

How old were you when you got your first magic trick?

Click over to the Perfect Magic blog and let Evelyn know!

From Perfect Magic:

“I bet when Darcy Oake got his first magic trick, as a kid I presume, the furthest thing from his mind was that one day he would be going to London to visit the Queen. Get your kid a magic trick !”

Then I got to thinking that I got my first magic trick when I was 8 years old. My father went to New York  and went to Tannen’s  (I think that’s where he got it) and when he came home he gave me a Nickels to Dimes trick, made of brass. I can look back and see myself  sitting on the blue linoleum kitchen floor, banging away with that bang ring. I wonder if it left marks in the floor. I treasured it and found it amazingly clever, but I don’t remember performing it for anyone outside of the family. They did not have “Show and Tell” in school when I was in Grade 2. If they did, I surely would have brought that because it was something that none of the other kids would have had.

Read more and share your story.