Random thoughts from the Browser's Den of Magic 41st anniversary party

I had the pleasure of spending some time at the Browser's Den of Magic 41st anniversary party on Sunday.  A great time, appeared to be had by all!  Here are a few random thoughts:

• I missed the auction, but heard it was absolutely packed, with a lot of great deals to be had.
• There are lots of a amazing finds and deals in the Back Room.

• Found something unexpected for sale @theBrowsersDen back room. Also had a great price on H. Anderson's jumbo cards. pic.twitter.com/NrZl9IyqL6

  — Canada's Magic (@canadasmagic) November 6, 2016

• The trivia segment was great fun, as always.  Jeff has a lot of very knowledgeable patrons!
• Among other things, trivia question answers included: Jeff Hinchliffe, Abdurrahman Ahmed, and 1995.

• The back room find @theBrowsersDen foreshadowed the answer to an impromptu trivia question! pic.twitter.com/mdGQTbkspW

  — Canada's Magic (@canadasmagic) November 6, 2016

• Jeff never stopped working the whole day @theBrowsersDen anniversary party! pic.twitter.com/47uvFAgcII

  — Canada's Magic (@canadasmagic) November 6, 2016

• Congratulations to Ryan Murray, the year's recipient of @theBrowsersDen Len Cooper Memorial Award! pic.twitter.com/a39GWQjeD2

  — Canada's Magic (@canadasmagic) November 6, 2016

•  Congratulations on another great anniversary event, Jeff et al!

Welcoming new Friends: The Outerbridges

Please join me in welcoming our newest Friends, The Outerbridges!

I first met Ted and Marion Outerbridge at Sorcerers Safari a couple of summers back.  You may have seen them at the IBM convention in Jacksonville in 2015, or this past year in the Grand Gala performance at the CAMaraderie Convention/Festival de magie de Québec, or at at SAM New York's "2016 Salute to Magic."

I had the pleasure of seeing their full stage show earlier this year, and attending their recent lecture at IBM Ring 17.  They are truly a talented and delightful duo!  (As an aside, it's worth the price of admission to see Ted sporting the "mirror ball" jacket hand crafted by Marion.  Photos do not do it justice.  It is absolutely eye-popping and dazzling!)

Thank you Marion and Ted, for becoming official Friends of Canada's Magic!

David Blaine special on CTV

From World Screen TV Real:

LOS ANGELES: Electus International has secured deals for the new special David Blaine: Beyond Magic, featuring cameos with Margot Robbie and other celebrities, in the U.K., Australia and Canada.

Electus International sold the finished tapes to Channel 4 in the U.K., Australia’s Network Nine and CTV in Canada. David Blaine: Beyond Magic is slated to air on ABC in the U.S. on November 15.

Read more.

Toronto: Eric Woolfe in "The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy"

From Owen Anderson's post in the IBM Ring 17 Facebook page:

There is a cool one-man show show running in Toronto until November 13th that features numerous magic routines as part of its narrative of the Klondike gold rush.
Performed by Eric Woolfe who performed at the Browsers Bash two years ago. f.y.i.

From the Eldrich Theatre:

Eric Woolfe and Samara Nicholds formed Eldritch Theatre in 1999 and has since been nominated 15 times for Dora Awards for their outstanding horror productions. Eldritch shows are "Toronto’s Spookiest Stage Shows” (Torontoist) and in “Toronto’s Top 5 Shows To See” (Culture Trip). This fall make Eldritch Theatre a tradition as it’s a “great way to continue the Halloween spirit,” (NOW Magazine). 

“An eerie tale of unholy larceny and Klondike gold. Based on the sworn testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal....Strange things loom in the midday moon, where lost men moil for gold.”

The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy is a new play by Eric Woolfe (House at Poe Corner, Doc Wuthergloom’s Haunted Medicine Show)) who uses puppets and close-up magic based on the Faust Legend. Our hero, Brimstone, is caught up in the Canadian Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.  An alchemy of historical fact, ancient legend, true stories of Old West grifters and card sharps, the works of HP Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood and Robert Service, and a good deal of heartbreak and whimsy, this epic tale tells the story of a two-bit conman and how he lost his true love to the dark spirits of the North as a result of his greed and lust for gold and “the sure thing” game.


Read more and buy tickets.

Toronto: Jason Palter and Ken Margoe

From Jason Palter's Facebook page:

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Billy Kidd's episode of The Magicians' Podcast and The Next Great Magician

From The Magician's Podcast:

Canadian born Billy Kidd started life as a child actor and didn't find magic until her twenties. She now lives in Bath and has done it all including street performing, close-up, stage and a ton of television, later this year you will see her on ITV1 attempting to become 'The Next Great Magician' too. In this interview Billy gives us an incredible insight in to what it's like to be a female in our male dominated industry

Read more and listen to podcast.

From Billy Kidd's Twitter feed:

Official like butter...#itv new show #NextGreatMagician starts Sunday's November 6 at 7pm.
I'll be on episode 4. #magic #magicians #itv1 pic.twitter.com/eVaSirhiXS

— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) November 1, 2016

From the ITV Press Centre:

Derren Brown’s Vaudeville Productions and Crook Productions have been commissioned by ITV to co-produce a brand new magic competition show, The Next Great Magician (6 x 60’). Crook Productions is part of Andrew O’Connor and ITV Studios’ Cat’s On The Roof Media, and The Next Great Magician is Crook Productions’ first big entertainment commission since the group’s inception earlier this year.

The series will feature the world’s best magicians performing their greatest tricks, many of them for the first time ever on television, as they compete to be crowned The Next Great Magician.

Read more.

David Lion on Global News Morning

From Global News:

Now, at 30-years-old, Lion has propelled himself onto the world stage with his brand of magic that he calls Lionism, a blend of arts of astonishment, which includes illusion, mentalism and hypnosis.

“When I was getting into magic, I didn’t want to just be labelled as a magician, because I was also interested in mentalism, which is mind reading and prediction, but I was also interested in hypnosis,” Lion said.

“When I learned all of them, I wanted to combine them into something that didn’t exist already.”

Read more and watch video.