From the Browser's Den of Magic:
Magic Show & Tell at Browser's Den
FREE EVENTS COMING UP!
SAVE THE DATES!
Saturday, July 20, 2pm to 3:30pm - David Barrett
Saturday, August 10, 2pm to 3:30pm - James Alan
Saturday, August 31, 2pm to 3:30pm - Andrew Woo
Saturday, September 14, 2pm to 3:30pm - Dr. Sammy
Saturday, October 5, 2pm to 3:30pm - Ryan Murray
Saturday, October 26, 2pm to 3:30pm - David Peck
Featuring Ben Train, Jonah Babins, and James Alan. Tickets at Yuk Yuk's.
From the February 28th Facebook post by The Toronto Magic Company:
What do you get when you combine a Comedy Mind-reader, an Award-Winning Magician, and a world-class sleight of hand expert into a single 90-minute show?
Answer: an amazing night of fun for YOU!
Jam packed with laughs and mind-blowing magic, this show is perfect for a night out with friends, a date, or just because you need a break from your annoying kids.
Featuring Ben Train (Penn and Teller’s Fool Us), Jonah Babins (2021 Allan Slaight Award Winner), and sleight of hand artist James Alan, it’s all happening Sunday March 10th at Yuk Yuk’s Toronto.
December 21, 2023
Toronto's Sid Lorraine Hat and Rabbit Club (IBM Ring 17) hosted a virtual
fundraiser in support of mental health initiatives in Toronto and in support
of North York General Hospital.
Watch the show and donate at:
https://www.ibmring17.com/show/
From Jokers.ca:
December 10 - Henry Cheng, Ken Pham, and Mysterion
December 17 - Chris Westfall, Henry Cheng, and Ken Pham
December 22 - James Alan, Mysterion and Ken Pham
This morning we let you know about the upcoming The Art of Magic show presented by The Toronto Magic Company.
If you've never been to one of these shows, they're a very unique
experience. Ben Train was kind enough to answer some questions we had
about The Toronto Magic Company, and The Art of Magic.
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Ben Train |
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Ben and Jonah Babins on an adventure. |
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Admiring the art at The Art of Magic |
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Jonah entertaining at The Art of Magic |
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Ben entertaining at The Art of Magic |
Learn more about
The Toronto Magic Company
and follow them on
Facebook, and
Instagram.
From Eventbrite:
Toronto has spoken! After more than 30 straight sold out shows,The Art of Magic is BACK! This time with full night of magic plus an interactive EXHIBIT
The Art of Magic is way more than just a show. It’s an entire evening filled with beautiful magic inspired art, and interactive magical exhibit and most importantly a secret magic show that you have to see to believe!
The Gallery
The fun begins at 6pm OR 8pm - inside the Super Wonder Gallery. Enjoy delicious drinks while you interact with our magical art.
We don't want to give away all our secrets but you'll get to enjoy:
100+ year old magic props, world famous magic posters, and paintings and physical illusions that you get to BE IN! (You read that right!)
The Close-up Magic
During the gallery, while you're drinking, relaxing and enjoying the night - our magicians are working! 5 Magicians will be wandering around the event doing close-up magic that happens IN YOUR HANDS!
This is a chance for you to not only experience magic, but to experience a lot of it, right at your finger tips!
The Secret Show
At one magical moment during the night you are whisked away to a private SECRET show . This is a private show, for a small selection of the audience where you get to interact up close and personal with the magic. It's intimate, impossible, and this is magic of the highest level the way it was meant to be experienced: up close and personal. Seating for this secret experience is extremely limited and is included with your ticket to the Art of Magic show!
In order to ensure every seat in the house is a good one, only 50 tickets are available each show for this intimate theatre experience. Make sure you order yours before they disappear forever!
Oh! And did we mention that each ticket comes with a drink 🍸 😘
Don't miss your chance to see Ben Train, Jonah Babins, Chris Westfall, Sawyer Bullock, James Alan, and Steven Jones in action this month! (Performers vary by date and location.)
From the August 29th Instagram post by the Toronto Magic Company:
FOUR AMAZING EVENTS THIS MONTH!
(Tickets in bio!)
“The Magic of Illusion” at Hockley Valley Resort on Friday September 1st. Filled with laughs and impossible magic, this show is perfect for the whole family!
Tickets are running out fast though, so if you’re hoping to score some seats click the link in our bio RIGHT NOW!
Next up is “Hocus Jokus” on Sunday September 10th at Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. Is this Toronto’s funniest comedy magic show or Toronto’s most mind-blowing comedy show? You decide! Featuring three magicians, including headliner Chris Westfall!
Then on Saturday September 23rd we have the return of “The Art of Magic” at the Super Wonder Gallery. The night begins with drinks and a tour through the gallery, where you’ll see magic-themed works of art and meet our mingling performers. These roaming wizards will give you the chance to experience magic up close, with tricks happening in front of your eyes and even in your own hands!
Then, take your seat in the secret theatre for the show: a mixture of award-winning sleight of hand and world-class mind reading.
If you love magic, art, or just a great night out: this event is for you.
Finally we have “Ben and Jonah’s Magic Road Trip” at Joker’s Theatre and Comedy Club on Friday September 29th. After touring the show across Canada (including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, a dozen other cities) Ben and Jonah are back with their incredible two-man show. If you’re a fan of magic, you won’t want to miss it. And if you’re not a fan of magic… come and they’ll change your mind.
From the July 31st post at James Alan's blog:
Coming up September 2, James Alan will be appearing with Steven Jones at The Rec Room in Toronto.
Tickets at Eventbrite.
From the January 28th Facebook post by Chris Mayhew:
I’ll be performing on this show at the Rec Room Toronto this upcoming Friday Feb 3rd! Come watch me and my friends tear up this awesome stage folks, I promise it will be a wild ride like usual with me 😎😈🔥
Confirm details about dates and locations by visiting each club's website.
| Montreal, QC | Ring 62 (20th Century Ring) | - N/A. |
| Hamilton, ON | Ring 49 (The Doug Henning Magic Wand Club) | - Ben Train and Jonah Babins lecture. |
| London, ON | Ring 265 (London Magician's Guild) | - Ben Train and Jonah Babins lecture. |
| Kitchener, ON | Ring 235 (KW Magic Society) | - N/A. |
| Ottawa, ON | Ring 151 (Ottawa Society of Magicians) | - N/A. |
| Ottawa, ON | Ottawa / Gatineau magicians | - N/A |
| Toronto, ON | Ring 17 (Sid Lorraine Hat and Rabbit Club) | - James Alan lecture. |
From IBM Ring 17:
When it comes to magic in Toronto, James Alan has had his hand in every cookie jar you can think of.
Performing for the public, he has created long-running shows including Magic Tonight (2013-2016) and Magic & Martini (2016-2020), produced shows for visiting international performers including Eugene Burger, Dani DaOrtiz and Asi Wind. For the community, he has been actively involved with the important community outreach programs My Magic Hands and Senior Sorcery.
During the unpleasantness, has was busy in the virtual space, creating Bring Magic Home, with over three hundred shows with audiences in twenty countries. His tricks have been featured in Genii and MAGIC Magazine (which included the most complained about trick in that magazine's history), and his writing has been featured in Vanish, MUM, The Linking Ring, Elixir and Magicol. We know him as the distinguished Ex-President of our club and the disgraced Ex-President of That Other Club.
From the October 12th Facebook post by Colin Geddes:
The Hat & Rabbit Club represented at the Daily Bread Food Bank over the weekend! James Alan entertained some of the hard working volunteers who were helping to make a difference for families in the GTA. We are looking forward to more collaborations with this inspiring charity!
The following is a guest post by James Alan.
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Review: David Copperfield’s History of Magic
David Copperfield needs no introduction. He’s absolutely in the running for greatest living magician and still top of the list for greatest magician of all time. He was undeniably the most famous magician in the world in the 80s and 90s when he was regularly producing major network tv specials. He doesn’t really appear on tv anymore but is still performing constantly in his own theatre at the MGM Grand. But unbeknownst to most people, he is also the owner of a giant secret museum of magic hidden away at an undisclosed location somewhere near Las Vegas.
In 1991, David acquired a massive collection of magic literature known as the Mulholland Library. Since then he has developed a bit of an obsession with acquiring and preserving important artifacts from magic’s history. It far from being a hoarder, or a government agency with an Indiana Jones-like warehouse of crates, these rarities are curated and displayed in a private invitation-only museum. Being allowed to visit the museum, which usually comes in the form of a guided tour from Copperfield himself, is a magician’s dream come true. Kid in a candy store doesn’t even come close.
Of course over the last two years, visiting the museum in person hasn’t been an option, even if you knew who to be extra-nice to in order to wrangle an invitation. So with this book, Copperfield (and his expert co-authors David Britland and Richard Wiseman) has offered all of us a peek inside.
Actually, the book isn’t about things, it’s about people. It’s a collection of twenty-eight miniature biographies of prominent magicians. Magicians we’ve heard of like Max Malini and Harry Kellar, lesser known ones like Wyman the Wizard and Dell O’Dell, and who could forget our beloved Canadian magicians Dai Vernon and Doug Henning. It shows that magicians come in all shapes and sizes. Our history is more than just the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini and a bunch of tuxedo-clad dove wranglers. Perhaps even more important, it shows these magicians as profoundly human. A woman who loses her husband and has to take over and start touring his show. There are great role models overcoming adversity, but also cultural appropriators and criminals. Even in the introduction, Copperfield talks about his initial challenges getting started as a performing professionally. It gives you a taste of what you could be in store for if you want to make it in this eccentric branch of show business. This human side of magic is one of the so-called “real secrets” of the art.
The entire thing is wonderfully written; grown-up but accessible to a middle school student. The photos, taken primarily by Homer Liwag are gorgeous. The physical book itself takes full advantage of modern advances in printing. Ten to fifteen years ago, a book like this with large high quality full colour photos everywhere would have easily been an overpriced inaccessible art book. Here it’s an affordable $45 (Canadian) hardcover with a dust jacket. The design is minimal with the text spaced out and easy to read and plenty of space to appreciate the pictures. Because each mini-biography is only a few pages, you can start and stop easily and take your time to enjoy it.
And since the holidays are coming up…
Magicians in your life can be really difficult to shop for. We’re a secretive bunch and you’re never sure if they own this trick or that gimmick. And downloads sit invisibly on a computer or in the cloud. And most everything can’t be exchanged. So if you’re looking for a gift for a magician in your life or magical-curious person, David Copperfield’s History of Magic would be a perfect bet.
David Copperfield’s History of Magic, by David Copperfield, Richard Wiseman, David Britland. Photos by Homer Liwag. Simon & Schuster, 2021. 257 pages, full colour, hardbound with dust jacket. $45 Canadian, available from major booksellers.
Reserve your copy at the Browser’s Den of Magic.
All photos provided by James Alan.
Disclosure: James received a review copy the book and has received no compensation for writing this review.
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Thank you James for guest posting at Canada's Magic!
Well, not TONIGHT exactly. But Friday nights. On Zoom.
Tickets and details at MagicTonight.ca
From the December 9th Facebook post by James Alan:
Shameless self-promotion: After a bit of a (pandemic-induced) hiatus, decided to go back to doing a weekly show on Friday nights. My old show, Magic and Martini was all about getting all dressed up. This one is all about curling up and getting comfortable... possibly letting your cat upstage me... If you'd like to drop by and spend a whole hour looking at my annoying bookshelf, tickets are at www.magictonight.ca
Updated to add links to Tweets:
If all goes according to plan, we'll be live Tweeting the event. Join us by following the hashtag #Ring17Cure
From The Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club:
The Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club is getting together (virtually) to put on a show to raise money for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. Over a dozen magicians will be performing from home. It's going to be a great time.
To see the show go to www.ibmring17.com/show on Thursday, December 3 at 8PM Eastern. The show is free to watch and all donations, big and small, are very much appreciated. If you like, you can head there now and donate early.
Come and join us and together, let's make cancer disappear!
Merci beaucoup à @HDPTORONTO pour l'invitationhttps://t.co/CLQymWqdkr@AGOtoronto @TorontoMagicCO pic.twitter.com/IWnNfqeDJ6— James Alan (@james_alan) March 5, 2020
From the @agotoronto INSIDER team “We are often curious about the career paths of unique and extraordinary professions. For Julie Eng life as a professional magician has taken shape through rich life experience, adversity and family support.” READ & WATCH: https://t.co/3x3n4zB26H pic.twitter.com/nW1O3ZDMge— Magicana (@sharingwonder) March 3, 2020
Via TORONTO SUN @LizBraunSun "Dazzling new magic exhibit casts a spell at the AGO. The touring superstars of 100 years ago were magicians.The Art Gallery of Ontario celebrates the Golden Age of Magic" READ: https://t.co/Oe8DpMh4NM pic.twitter.com/qrtjrIDYXB— Magicana (@sharingwonder) March 2, 2020
Great to speak with the Smithsonian to talk about #illusionsAGO "The show explores the fantastic feats and sensational showmanship of performers during magic’s “Golden Age”... magicians soared to unprecedented heights of international celebrity." READ: https://t.co/soAVtI0VSF pic.twitter.com/Iax3ACWrIF— David Ben (@theconjuror) March 4, 2020
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| Adolph Friedländer, Comedians de Mephisto Co. Allied with Le Roy-Talma-Bosco, 1905. 186.5 × 266.5 cm. M2014.128.318. ©McCord Museum |
“These posters tell us so much about that time – the public’s fascination with Asia, with spiritualism, the occult and the changing role of women in society,” says Julian Cox, the AGO’s Deputy Director and Chief Curator. “Toronto was a popular stop on the international touring circuit for magicians, and Houdini performed here numerous times over his career. These works and the stories behind them remain as captivating today as they were one hundred years ago.”
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| The Metropolitan Printing Company, Adelaide Herrmann and Company, About 1905, 20th century, 76.7 x 50.2 cm. Purchase, funds graciously donated by La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso. M2014.128.207. © McCord Museum |
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| A still shot from video of Harry Blackstone and his dancing handkerchief |
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| A still shot from an interview with Julie Eng talking about her life in magic. |
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| A still shot from video of Houdini's variation of a forearm riffle. |
Make your own magic poster
There's a station where you can digitally create your own magic poster! (Complete with a legend that explains what all the animals and other objects on the posters represent.)
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| Hofzinser cards from David Ben's collection |
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| Visitor book from Arcade Magic. From David Ben's collection. |
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| Houdini's straitjacket. |
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| Av Yaga, Alexander, the Man Who Knows, 1915, 20th century 207.9 x 107.7 cm. Purchase, funds graciously donated by La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso. M2014.128.3. © McCord Museum |
Apologies in advance for the length of this post, from the conversations we have been having, a number of you would like to read it! A few people have brought up concerns or questions regarding the changes being proposed for the club, and we want to address them.
Please feel free to comment below, or to reach out to any of us privately. We have also organized a Town Hall on Monday September 23rd to discuss the changes and so anyone who wants to come talk in person is welcome (and invited!) to do so. - https://www.facebook.com/events/436950640256041/
But to answer some of your questions.
We are the same club, The Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club, IBM Ring 17. We are still committed to providing our members with valuable magic experiences and opportunities; to help grow individually as magic enthusiasts and to leave magic as a whole better off than we found it. (And if you are one of those distinguished humans with an honorary lifetime membership, it is still here waiting for you.)
