Trevor Moore: Top 40 under 40

From page 4 of Southern Alberta Newspapers Top 40 Under 40:

Most people are not Trevor Moore.

Moore, who quite convincingly passes himself off as a hard-working family man and successful entrepreneur -- with not one but two growing businesses -- has been shamefully fooling people for years.  The truth is, the 38- year old Moore is retired and has been for some time.
Read more.

Jay Olson in the Vancouver Sun

From Canada.com:

Ever since he was five and someone pulled a coin out of his ear, Jay Olson has been fascinated by magic.

Five's an early age to begin independent research but by the time he was seven - after much reading and studying - this sorcerer's apprentice had become a professional magician.

Read more.

Hot Docs Forum report: An Honest Liar

From Real Screen (about An Honest Liar):

Guy Lavie from Yes Doc, meanwhile, said, “I think it’s a wonderful project – do you think you’re going to have confrontations with those who he has confronted?” Measom replied that Randi “has ruined lives and made people question things they held most dearly.”

Also enthusiastic was DR TV’s Hoffmann Meyer, who said, “I love it – I’m very keen and I have a feature doc strand for films like this,” while PBS’s Vossen said, “We worked with Justin on Being Elmo [which Weinstein produced] – it’s a great team and we’re very keen on them.”

And in Canada, Catherine Olsen, exec producer of documentaries for Canada’s CBC Newsworld, was also interested. “I think it could be a perfect fit for ‘Passionate Eye,’” she said.

Read more.

Sorcerers Safari 2012 registration underway

From Sorcerers Safari:

We are accepting Camper/CIT registration forms for Magic Camp 2012. Sorcerers Safari will run for a week from Tuesday August 28th – Sunday Sept 2nd, 2012.

Read more.

If only there was a Sorcerers Safari for adults!

Harry Anderson in "Harry the Hat Tonight"

Anyone who has known me for any length of time, knows that I have a soft spot in my heart for Harry Anderson's three card monte routine, Monarch Monte.  Seeing his live show has been on my bucket list for quite some time.  (I even briefly considered finding my way to Regina in November of 2010 to see him perform there.)

Imagine my delight when I first learned that he was scheduled to perform and lecture in Whitby, ON.

And so, last weekend, I went to the Class Act Dinner Theatre for the very first time. The theatre itself is spacious.  It looked to me like there were no bad seats in the house.  The buffet was plentiful and delicious.  My dinner companions made more than one trip to the servery before their meal was done.  The roast beef and Yorkshire pudding were the highlights of my meal and the desserts were yummy!

There were quite a few familiar faces in the audience:  David Ben, Julie Eng, Suley Fattah, Mike Segal, Jen Segal, Lee Elliott, Michael Close, Lisa Close, Owen Anderson, Peter Mennie,  Michael Fisher,  Deborah Fallick, Sammy Jakubowicz, Scott Hood, Ken McCreedy,  Richard Forget, David Sutherland, Phil, Bob Johnston, David Lax, Philip Groff and Gordon Precious.  There were other faces to which I've been unable to put a name and some I've just plain forgot.  (It was a busy weekend.)  Apologies if I've left you out.*

Richard Forget was the opening act for Harry Anderson. Apparently, one must be at least 6 feet tall to get onstage tonight.
— Sammy Jakubowicz (@Doc_Sammy) May 19, 2012

For entertainment, we had Glenn Ottaway, David Merry (who was non-stop with fantastic zingers, "I've been happily married for six years ...") and Richard Forget to warm us up.  Richard performed many of the effects he discussed at last September's Ring 17 lecture.  (I've never been so happy, to not see a skipping rope on stage.)  Then it was time for the headlining act!

Harry Anderson, complete with signature Borsalino and hand-painted tie, opened with Wise Guy Monte, followed with a discussion of card counting, some reminiscing about his performance with Skippy the guinea pig on SNL, and a straitjacket escape I'll not soon forget.  He also did some snazzy dancing while demonstrating card memorization and card counting in real time.  He finished with a larger than life magic square.   For an encore, we were treated to his very special chapeaugraphy routine.

Hilarious show last night @ClassActDinnerTheatre #HarryAnderson
— Peter Mennie (@petermennie) May 20, 2012

As for the lecture, "Tipping the Hat," Harry took us through each of the routines in his show, discussed volunteer selection and regaled us with stories from his past.  (My favourite is how an expensive impulse buy started a chain of events which lead to his being cast in Night Court!)  Dave Merry was on the money when said (in April) that "the stories alone are worth the price of admission."  (And this weekend with Harry cost less than a round trip flight to Regina!)

Thank you Class Act Dinner Theatre and Harry Anderson for a wonderful weekend!


"There's just one f***ing rule!"

Poor Yvette.

--
* If I’ve missed listing anyone who was there please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below! Thank you to Owen, Deborah and Sammy for helping me put names to some of the faces.

The opinions expressed above are entirely my own.  I was not compensated in any way.

Kent Wong: Those magic moments

From the Canada.com:

Kent Wong and I talked about magic for three hours one day this week, and I noticed that for most of that time he looked me straight in the eye. It made me a bit uncomfortable, until it finally dawned on me that he’s spent a lifetime looking people in the eye, because when he does they tend to look back, and therefore aren’t watching his hands.

Which brings us to those deep, dark secrets Wong was kind enough to share with me.

Read more.

I have one question after reading the article:  who is Kevin?



[h/t: CAM magic]

David Merry: Featured in MAGIC magazine

David Merry was featured in the April 2012 edition of MAGIC magazine.

 See the complete article, written by David Peck, at DavidMerry.com.