Baldini: Seeing is believing

"Seeing is Believing!" - A Ryerson Graduate Film School short documentary project about Magic, featuring Baldini:

Jeff Pinsky and Matt DiSero remember Ron Leonard

In response to the earlier post Remembering Ron Leonard, the following comments from Matt DiSero and Jeff Pinsky have been added to the original post.

From Matt DiSero:

Ron was so nice to me as a kid at the magic club...when I got to be on a show with him for the first time it was one of the biggest thrills of my career at that time. He was so nice, and generous.... I miss him.

[Copied with permission from Facebook.]

From Jeff Pinsky:

I have fond memories of Ron Leonard. I was born in 1966. Thus I really only have my childhood memories during the decade of the 1970s.
 
Of course for those of us who were bitten by the wonderful magic 'bug' in Ontario Ron Leonard was an important figure.
 
How exciting it was to learn at the beginning of the Uncle Bobby Show that magic guest Ron Leonard was on. If memory serves me right he was not on all of the shows. That I learned many years later was due to his strong business acumen; busy with many professional performances and a gifted commercial painter.
 
In an era when there were about 12 television stations - one being in French - anything to do with magic appearing on television was exciting. Can you imagine the first Henning special? Or seeing for the first time Slydini on the Dick Cavett Show?
 
What was for me particularly wonderful about seeing Mr. Leonard perform on the Uncle Bobby Show was that he was using at times props which I might be able to afford if I saved my money. I could not dream of buying something I saw Doug Henning perform. And of course until I studied 'Magic of Slydini' I had no idea how Slydini's effects were done.
 
It was sort of a video catalogue for a magic shop well before there was any video! Watch Ron Leonard... then decide if I like the trick... then look it up in the (printed) magic catalogue and find out the price.
  
Years later after I took over Browser's Den of Magic I would have the pleasure of meeting Mr. Leonard. He was quite different than his TV personality. And why wouldn't he? On the show he was performing for little children at home.
 
But he was always pleasant when he would visit even with his poor hearing and health beginning to fail. One could tell it was affecting his enjoyment of life but at least he still had some 'magic' in him.
 
Jeff Pinsky
Browser's Den of Magic
Toronto, Canada
February 16, 2012


[With thanks to The Magic Demon for passing this along.]

Rama and Thunder Bay: Masters of Illusion - Live!

The Masters of Illusion - Live! 2011/2012 tour will be passing through Rama and Thunder Bay this weekend.  View the tour schedule for more information.

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.

Coquitlam: Penn and Teller

From Boulevard Casino:

Friday, March 30, 2012
Red Robinson Show Theatre
 
Penn & Teller have performed together for over thirty years combining the art of magic with comedy. And along the way, they have made the hardest trick of all – a remarkable career that ranges from stage to television to three best-selling books – look easy. Since first teaming up in 1975 when they combined Teller’s silent, occasionally creepy magic with Penn Jillette’s clown college education and juggling expertise, the duo have created an entertainment success story that went from the streets to small clubs to national theatre tours.

Read more and purchase tickets.

James Randi remembers Ron Leonard

The following is correspondence from James Randi in response to the earlier post Remembering Ron Leonard.  These thoughts have been added as a comment to the original post.  James, thank you very much for making the time to put some thoughts about Mr. Leonard together to share.

(And thank you to The Magic Demon for making this happen!)

I recall that one of the very first magicians I ever saw - live - was Ron Leonard, at a large theater somewhere in Toronto. I sat in the very front row, the music played, and Ron stepped out fanning and manipulating cards. Then he paused for applause, riffled through the deck until he was told to stop, and extracted that card, its face toward him. He pointed at a man on the aisle and asked him to name a card - "any card." The gentleman did, and Ron flipped the card around - it was correct! Only backstage in his dressing-room, did he reveal the secret. It had been a total fluke! His usual line, he told me, was to simply reply to the card named, with "Absolutely correct, sir!" - without revealing the face of the card. He was only right about once every 52 guesses, but I'd been lucky to witness such a moment...

Handsome, well-dressed, well-spoken and elegant, Ron Leonard was one of my early heroes, though he was only five years my senior. In fact, when I was on my own in Toronto as a teen, I responded to an ad offering a room for rent, only to find that it was being rented out by Ron's mother, a spare room that she had available! It was a couple of months before that lady noticed my interest in the conjuring profession, and proudly announced the identity of her son...! I was appropriately floored by the coincidence.

Ron, along with Johnny Giordmaine, Ross Bertram, Dai Vernon, Raymond Lowe, Howard Lyons, Bruce Posgate, Tom Ransom, Sid Lorraine, and our spiritual father, Harry Smith, saw me through the tortures of a top-change, multiplying billiard balls, and various rope-ties until I was able to head off to the USA as a pro. I'll never forget these chaps, all of whom made it possible for me to enjoy a long and happy career as a performer...

James (The Amazing) Randi.

[via The Magic Demon]

Las Vegas: Juliana Chen's Avant Garde

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"Avant Garde" opens Tuesday at the Plaza's vintage showroom as a variety show with international appeal. It's directed and headlined by Juliana Chen, a Chinese-born magician who came to live in Las Vegas by way of Canada.

Read more.