Canada's Magic

04 November 2013

Coquitlam: Stars of Magic

From the Stars of Magic Show Facebook page:

Saturday November 9

We have flown in some of the top talent from around the world for our convention.
We are hosting a PUBLIC show at the venue.

The show will be starring:
MC - Nick Lewin
Shoot Ogawa
Louie Foxx
Wes Barker
Barry Mitchell
Bill Robison

Read more and buy tickets.

03 November 2013

Rounding the Western rings in November

Confirm details about dates and locations by visiting each club's website.

City	Club	Event(s)
Calgary, AB	Ring 66 (Calgary Magic Circle, Les Brocklesby Ring)	- n/a
Edmonton, AB	Edmonton Magic Club	- n/a
Winnipeg, MB	The Magic Club of Winnipeg	- n/a
Fraser Valley, BC	IBM Ring 387 (Fraser Valley Magic Circle)	- Farrell Dillon lecture - Christmas Banquet and Show - mentalism with special guest stars Leon Mandrake and Damien Carriere and emcee Chris Yuill
Vancouver, BC	Ring 92 (Vancouver Magic Circle)	- 3 of clubs convention - Christmas dinner
Vancouver, BC	SAM 95 (Carl Hemeon Assembly)	- Juan Garcia
Victoria, BC	Ring 183 (Victoria Magic Circle)	- 3 of clubs convention - Mentalism / mental magic - Wacky Wednesday

Please leave a comment or e-mail me about corrections or omissions.

Rounding the Ontario rings in November

Confirm details about dates and locations by visiting each club's website.

Hamilton, ON	Ring 49 (The Doug Henning Magic Wand Club)	- n/a
London, ON	Ring 265 (London Magician's Guild)	- Coin and coin box night
Kitchener, ON	Ring 235 (The Caesar Hat & Wand Magic Circle)	- Magic movie night
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)	- Dani DaOrtiz lecture, Simple workshop, Not so simple workshop, The show

Please leave a comment or e-mail me about corrections or omissions.

Rounding the Eastern rings in November

Confirm details about dates and locations by visiting each club's website.

Halifax, NS	Ring 316 (Conjourer's Court)	- n/a
St. John, NB	Magic Circle of St. John	- n/a

Please leave a comment or e-mail me about corrections or omissions.

02 November 2013

[Guest post] New Okito Box patter

The following is a guest post from an author who wishes to be known as The Magic Demon.

--

NEW OKITO BOX PATTER
Exclusively for readers of Canada's Magic
by The Magic Demon

Some time ago I purchased a brass Okito Box from the Browser's Den of Magic in Toronto (although I'm sure Perfect Magic in Montreal carries them too!) If you don't already have one and you are into coin magic, you need one.

What always used to bug me about it was coming up with an explanation for the unusual looking prop. It isn't something you see every day. Inspired by recent events in the UK, I came up with the following story. I hope you will enjoy using it or a variation of it in your act.

I use a large old English penny. You can also use multiple pennies if you wish. You could use this as a module in your coin act or as a stand alone item. I won't go into the mechanics of the trick; use your favourite method. But here's what you can say while demonstrating the effect (in this case, that of making a single coin disappear from a seemingly secure brass case).

~~~~

"The Royal Family in England never carry cash on them. Do you know why? It used to be a problem for them years ago when they wanted to "spend a penny". Do you know what that means? In England it means to use a public toilet which used to cost a penny in the old days. They cost more today but the expression is still the same.

Now, in the old days they created little gold cases for the Royals to store their precious pennies, in case they needed to spend one. The cases had room for 3 or 4 pennies, more than enough for any Royal on tour. Now the original cases were made of gold or silver but they kept getting stolen or mislaid. So they decided to manufacture a number of them in brass. They still looked elegant but they were less likely to get stolen. I have one of them here, but I won't tell you how I got it. Let's just say the Royals were very absent minded about where they left them.

So they would store their precious pennies in their new brass cases - all safe and sound. But what they could not have foreseen was the unusual effect that the brass casing had on the old fashioned copper pennies. Now some say it is a purely chemical reaction between copper and brass. Others claim it is because Britannia (who is on the the coin) hates being imprisoned in such a tiny space. Well, whatever the reason, you can still see what happens - it's gone!

And that's why the Royals don't keep any money on them to this day. What would be the point? They couldn't even hold on to their pennies!"

~~~~

Thank you The Magic Demon for guest posting at Canada's Magic!

01 November 2013

Chris Westfall on M-U-M cover

Read James Alan's article, "Magic Saved My Life," about Chris Westfall in the November issue of M-U-M!

From The Society of American Magicians:

A magician stands at a fork in the road. One path leads to magic; the other path leads to dangerous behavior, possible incarceration, and possible death. (So, let the reader be warned.) Chris Westfall is a remarkable magician in more ways than one. On the surface, he seems fairly ordinary; an arsenal of card tricks, rubber bands around his wrist, a mildly goofy, slightly off-Sankey sense of humor. None of that seems to explain how busy he is. He currently juggles four restaurant gigs in Toronto in addition to professional close-up gigs. In the summer he adds a series of kids’ day-camp workshops that fuels weekends full of children’s shows. Of course, he’s not organized enough to give me an exact figure, but a back-of-an-envelope estimate has him doing about six hundred dates a year.

Read more.