Ryan Pilling and Gwyn Auger interviewed by Swerve magazine.
http://t.co/k1EADluCxm Time to get your tickets for the first and possibly ONLY Garden Variety Show of 2014! #calgary #letsgetmagic
— James Jordan (@GVS_varietyshow) February 13, 2014
http://t.co/k1EADluCxm Time to get your tickets for the first and possibly ONLY Garden Variety Show of 2014! #calgary #letsgetmagic
— James Jordan (@GVS_varietyshow) February 13, 2014
Calgary, Alberta – Entering its second year WowFest Magic Arts Festival presents a wide variety of amazing magic shows and events in the Epcor Centre for Performing Arts. The festival expects over 800 magic fans to partake in over a dozen unique performances.
The intimate Motel venue, with seating for 50, ensures the audience a full experience with an excellent view of the magic. Many shows in the festival are highly interactive, mixing magic with comedy and audience participation.
The festival kicks off on the Family Day holiday offering a day filled with shows and activities that all ages can enjoy together. The “Family Fun Magic Show”, with a rotating cast of local magicians, will be presented multiple times throughout the weeks.
To prove that tricks are not just for kids, the festival includes many feature shows intended for older audiences. “A Brush With Death” is a popular Calgary-based macabre magic show perfect for fans of horror movies. As a regular performer at Hollywood’s world-famous Magic Castle festival headliner Jon Armstrong presents award-winning magic with his one-man show “I Do Card Tricks and I’m Funny”.
With a wide variety of shows, and affordable ticket prices ranging from $12 to $20, WowFest is proud to showcase the art of magic in Calgary with both evening shows and weekend matinees. The full schedule of events and tickets are available on the festival website at www.WowFestMagic.com
Event Dates: February 17th to March 1st, 2014, various showtimes
Event Location: “Motel”, Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts
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With help from Calgary 2012, we were able to launch WowFest Magic Arts Festival on February 23rd, 2013. It was a huge success, with big crowds of happy and amazed people all day long. We’re working on bringing it back next year, bigger, better, and more magical.
Read more and buy tickets.
Sunday, December 15
Ryan and Gwyn of WowFest will be roaming ‘in da house’, dazzling patrons with magic and illusions. You won’t believe your eyes.
WowFest Magic Arts Festival presents the magical and mysterious art of sleight-of-hand and illusion to Calgary audiences. The second annual event spans two full weeks, and will feature a variety of magic shows. Some just right for children and family audiences, but also a good number of shows intended to baffle adult audiences. WowFest is a unique opportunity for Calgary to experience the wonders of the magical arts in a theatrical venue.
The festival is set to take place from February 17th to March 1st, 2014. There are a multitude of ways to get involved with making the magic happen, from volunteering to simply coming out to enjoy the shows. The festival is currently seeking corporate support, with a variety of sponsorship opportunities available.
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At the upcoming WowFest Magic Festival, happening in February 2014, we want to hand a whole show over to the next generation of magicians! The Young Magician Showcase will feature amazing performers under the age of 20. This is an open invitation to all those young whipper-snappers who want to be a part of WowFest.
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Calgary’s showcase for sleight-of-hand has officially marked the calendar for the second annual WowFest Magic Arts Festival. Set to appear in the last two weeks of February 2014, to amaze Calgary audiences with a variety of comedy, magic, and mystery entertainments.
After a highly successful and sold-out debut, WowFest is set to return with a full line-up of magicians spread over two weeks, hosted in the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts. The event begins on Family Day, February 17th, with an opportunity for families to not only see some magic shows, but participate in workshops where they can learn magic tricks for beginners. The rest of the festival, ending on March 1st, will feature a wide variety of performances for all ages, including mysteries exclusively for grown-up minds to ponder.
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Sunday, 25 August 2013
Don't miss this double-feature lecture.
Gwyn Auger - The Magic Assistant - Columnist for VANISH magazine, and veteran of promotion and live marketing. In her role as social media coordinator she was instrumental in the success and sold out shows of WowFest Magic Festival in Calgary earlier this year. She will be sharing her tips and techniques on personal branding and promotional marketing that will get you recognized and booked. Make sense of your online marketing strategy and get the results you want!
Ryan Pilling - Comedy Magician and Improvisor - Author of "Finding The Funny", a guidebook for getting amazing reactions with your audience interaction. Ryan is going to break down the magic he does in his show. Not only share and teach real-world routines, but dive in to to work of creating, writing, and developing those acts. Tips for making the magic more powerful through connecting with your audience, and developing your own creative muscle.
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Download your free sample of one of the feature chapters of the book “Finding The Funny”. This chapter discusses techniques to get the most out of audience volunteers and building a strong connection with your audience for maximum, and highly entertaining, results. All I ask is that you help spread the good word about this freebie. Share the link on your favourite social media to get instant access to the PDF download. Thanks!Thanks Ryan!
Read more and download your sample!
Until April 21stFrom Playing Big Magic's Facebook page:
MagicianVillage proudly presents our next "Magic Lecture Series" Backstage Access Member Exclusive Event with our very own Ryan Pilling!
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I created a video magic lecture for members of the MagicianVillage which is live this week. (part of their once-a-month lecture series for just $25 bucks a year... good deal!) Here's one review:Ryan is one of our generous sponsors, the mastermind behind Calgary's Magcial Arts Festival - WowFest and the author of Finding The Funny.
"Just watched Ryan Pilling's lecture in the [members area]. Great lecture. Lots of good advice on scripting, improvisation, thinking about magic and making it your own. Concrete advice on taking a trick, deconstructing it and turning it into a workable, effect. As a mentalist, his prediction 'Suitcase of Wonders' effect is a common sense knock-out prediction (think Master Prediction System) that could save you anywhere from $1000 to $3000 dollars. And he gives you three different methods!"
- Christopher Faria
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I’m glad I went. I got to feel like a little kid again. I guess I only covered a small portion of the festival since looking at their website now (http://wowfest.ca) the whole event ran for several more hours after I had left. The portion that I had covered was the Family Fun Magic Show. This was the part where families can spend a day together watching some neat magic! Sounds like a good time, right? Bring the kids, the grandparents, even the in-laws! There was a face painting station, The Garden Variety Show booth was making balloon animals for their willing recipients, and The Vanishing Rabbit Magic Shop was performing slight of hand trickery for those who dared near it!
Read more and see the wonderful photos.
Five Facts About The Garden Variety ShowYou can catch the next Garden Variety Show on February the 28th.
But Can You Do This? Founded by local vaudevillian James Jordan, the monthly Garden Variety Show is always the same—and always different: Jordan and his co-host Ryan Pilling kick off each show with a new magic trick (Jordan) and original song accompanied by banjo (Pilling), followed by a fresh cast of guests every month, including jugglers and local singer-songwriters.
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WowFest is the brainchild of Calgary magician Ryan Pilling, who said he’s been wanting to create such an event since 2007 when he hosted a conference for magicians.
Pilling, a magician for 15 years, was able to get the concept off the ground after receiving a grant from Calgary 2012, allowing him to invite nearly a dozen performers.
“It’s going to be one day full of magic,” he said, adding most of the magicians are from the Calgary area, although one performer is flying in from Texas and another hails from Japan.
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The inaugural WowFest Magic Arts Festival is now seeking performers for a slate of shows happening on Friday the 22nd, and Saturday, February 23rd, 2013.Deadline: January 4, 2013.
The goal of the festival is to showcase magic in an ideal environment, covering all genres from close-up to parlour and stage. For magicians, this is an opportunity to aspire to new artistic heights, working under optimum settings to an enthusiastic audience of magic fans.
Read more and apply.
Ryan blogs about peformance observations and tips. He recently posted about "The Importance of Being Bad" and his post "If You Can't Say Anything Nice" is a topic that really resonates with me.
From Gwyn's website:
Gwyn Auger is a vivacious, creative woman who brings dedication and enthusiasm to every project she embarks on. Gwyn’s primary goal is to be a full time magician’s assistant, and as a trained dancer and professional model, she brings beauty and grace to any stage.Gwyn is an integral part of tongue-in-cheek horror show "A Brush With Death," which has taken Calgary by storm!
In my experience, Gwyn definitely has her finger on the pulse of the magical happenings in Calgary!
Back in October we first heard the news about Ryan's idea for Wowfest -- a Magic Arts Festival that he'd like to launch in Calgary. In November he shared the exciting news that he received funding for the project! Listen to Ryan interviewed on CBC's The Homestretch, talking about WowFest.
If you haven't already, go and "like" the WowFest Facebook page and then go to the WowFest website to subscribe to the project's newsletter.
"Learn the techniques to creating inspired moments of comedy, and getting the best out of your audience volunteers."Thank you Ryan, for your efforts towards raising the profile of magic in Calgary, and for your sponsorship!
"This guidebook will help the practiced magician, juggler, clown and other entertainers add the sparkle of spontaneity to their performances."
Exciting News! We have received word that WowFest has won a funding grant from Calgary 2012! Hooray! A huge thanks to all those who supported the project with their votes, and all the friendly Calgary Cultural Ambassadors. Plus a special thanks to Gwyn The Magic Assistant who helped spread the word. I'm very pleased she has accepted the role of "Social Media Coordinator" for WowFest.Congratulations to Ryan Pilling on being one step closer to making his dream a reality!
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