Revisit "The Magic Palace"

From Magicana:

The Magic Palace was a Canadian television series, produced and hosted by Dale Harney, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which was an inspiration for a generation of magicians. In an age before YouTube and the Internet, the show gave viewers a broad sampling of magic acts from North America and Europe in an unprecedented scale. 

Almost lost to history, it is now one of the most important collections of magic performances. Magicana is delighted to share this material and, perhaps, inspire another generation of magicians all over again. 

Read more and enter exhibit.

Watch the teaser:

 

Thank you to our May 2016 Friends!

Thank you to John Smithman, John Harrison, Richard Lyn and Joan Caesar for being Friends of Canada's Magic!

It's good to have friends like you.
    

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Donations of any size are always welcome.

Toronto: Free magic club meeting

From the Browser's Den of Magic Facebook group:

Hi There- This Saturday, July 2nd is our next (FREE) Magic Club Meeting. 

We meet at Browser's Den from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. All interested in talking magic are welcome.  

And we are pleased to let you know that it looks as if Jeff Hinchliffe will be joining us at the meeting. 

Happy Canada Day!
Jeff & The Browser's Den Team.
Serving Magicians Since 1975

Thank you to our July 2016 sponsors!

Thank you to our sponsors for their generous support.

This site would not be possible without their backing.

We're grateful to have the support of:

• Clive Court - The Fun-da-Mentalist,
• Evelyn & Phil Matlin, owners of Perfect Magic 
• Jeff Pinsky, owner of The Browser's Den of Magic and 
• Michael Fisher, aka The Amazing Corbin, aka Captain Corbin The Magical Pirate!

The next time you see them, let them know you saw their sponsorship here!

For more information about purchasing Sponsored Posts or about our Platinum, Gold, or Silver level sponsorships, please visit our Sponsorship page.

Or you can Be Our Friend for only $20 per year! 

Donations of any size are always welcome.

Top 5 posts of June 2016

Again with the high number of duplicate-ish entries in this list, so to level out the playing field, here are the 10 most viewed posts at Canada's Magic this month:

10.  Montreal and Toronto: Let’s Make uberMAGIC - Did you participate?  How was the experience? 

9.  Diary of a Sorcerers Safari newbie - part 10 - The latest instalment of imaginary camper Alex's experiences at Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp. 

8.  Toronto: Fundraising for Fort McMurray - Shout out to all the magicians out there raising money for this good cause. 

7.  Diary of a Sorcerers Safari newbie - part 9 - In which we see Daryl get up close and personal with pie. 

6.  20 things you need to know about Sorcerers Safari - Who can tell me about the origins of "Farquhar Lake" mentioned in item 6? 

5.  Diary of a Sorcerers Safari newbie - part 6 - Camp photo! 

4.  Diary of a Sorcerers Safari newbie - part 7 - “Cheerleader" by Omi and "Love Is An Open Door" from Frozen.  Need I say more? 

3.  20 magical memories from Sorcerers Safari - Have you ever seen Lee Asher in an egg plant costume? 

2.  Chris Funk on America's Got Talent - Go Chris, go!

and the most viewed post this month  ...

1.  20 amazing alumni from Sorcerers Safari - Did you know that Neil Croswell (gold medal ‘Magic of China, International Magic Championships” 2015), Bill Cook (three-time award winner at the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas), and Kelvin Kwong (first place Magi-Fest junior close-up, second place IBM junior close-up) have all attended?

Vancouver: 3 of clubs 2016

From the 3 of Clubs Convention:

Register today and join us on November 11th-13th, 2016 for our favourite I.B.M. Ring Reunion, the 3 of Clubs!

We’re bringing together some of our favourite talent and greatest friends we’ve met throughout the years we’ve spent travelling the magic convention circuit.

If you saw yourself in the photo above, we want YOU!  If you don’t see yourself there, we REALLY want you!

Come see what your West Coast magic family has to offer, and see what makes us one of the best magic communities in North America!

Read more and register.

Diary of a Sorcerers Safari newbie - part 10

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A camper's notebook.

Day 5: Tuesday August 18th*

Cheesy omelette breakfast.  I saw the rabbits again!  And I saw a bright green frog too.  Still no sign of the deer. 

At card class Shawn Farquhar talked to us about stuff I’d never considered.  He said, “give people a sense of wonder.  Don’t make them feel stupid or small.”  And then he said this quote from American poet Maya Angelou:   

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

We played “Capture the Flag” which was so. much. FUN!

6pm
The camper show was fantastic.  Before the show, Lee Asher made his group perform walk around for the audience.  They did really well. 

Pre-show walk around.

Then the show started.  Some of the kids performed things they just learned (or even made!) this week!  Others made stuff up and some came prepared with things they’d been working on the whole year.  Shout out to them all!

Emcees: Chaz and RJ.
Performers: Cathy, James, Brad, Matt, Tariq, Jordan, Ava, Vincent, Landon, Matthew, Nathan, Will, Ben, Jack, Nick, and Jeff.
Backstage: Simon, Holden, Serena, and Jarrett.
Sound and tech: Steve Kline (for this and all the other shows!).
Production assistants: Mike and Lisa Close, Dan Wiebe, and Mike Toal.

Owning the stage.

Sponge balls.

Something big is about to happen!

The coolest thing about the show was that everyone’s performance looked good.  Beginner kids went first so they didn’t have to go after someone who had more experience.  I don’t see any competition between the kids.  The adults want us all to shine. 

Today’s electives were Pulp Friction (with Lee himself!), linking rings, Gravity Half Pass (with Aaron Fisher!), Assistant’s Revenge stage illusion, Miser’s Dream, any card at any number, and Patriotic Ropes. 

Bill Wells and Sheldon Casavant talking coins.

I did the linking rings and was kinda surprised (and disappointed) to learn how they work.  It seems that some of the most wonderful effects are based on simple ideas.  Loran was a great teacher, but I’m going to have to practise a lot more until I feel comfortable doing it in front of anyone!

Rats. Camp swim got rained out.  (I wish I tried the high jump yesterday).  Silver lining: we all piled into the Staff Lounge and had a big impromptu panel with Shawn, Eric, Phil, and Mark.  They do things off the top of their head better than I can do anything I’ve rehearsed a million times.  I wonder how much of it is pure talent and how much of it is hours and hours of practise.

Shawn speaking at the panel.

To be continued ...


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The 2016 season of Sorcerers Safari will run from Sunday August 7th through Friday August 12th, 2016. For more information, or to register, please visit SorcerersSafari.ca

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* The “Diary of a Sorcerers Safari Newbie” is primarily based on the 2015 camp season.  It is an aggregate of many perspectives, and at times includes events from previous years.