Winnipeg: Piff the Magic Dragon

Thursday Aug 17th - Sunday Aug 20th

From Piff the Magic Dragon's Facebook page:

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Random thoughts from "Magic Theory, or Magic Fact? Let's Find Out."

Updated August 16 to add:

• Michael Weber has been announced as an additional special guest for the October workshop with Jason England.
• Michael posted his thoughts about his lecture.

You may remember that I had the good fortune of spending time with Michael Close at Sorcerers Safari.  (I even snagged a mini-interview with him.)  I was always thoroughly impressed with the wisdom he shared with his advanced card classes. 

When I heard Michael was lecturing locally, I knew I had to make it if I could.


From the Canada's Magic Twitter feed:

Guess where I was last night?@theBrowsersDen pic.twitter.com/q6R8EZYofZ

— Canada's Magic (@canadasmagic) August 14, 2017

Sunday night, the stars aligned and I was able to attend "Magic Theory, or Magic Fact? Let's Find Out."


Also from the Canada's Magic Twitter feed:

It was standing room only for the @MikeCloseMagic lecture @theBrowsersDen pic.twitter.com/ADymaPhGnC

— Canada's Magic (@canadasmagic) August 14, 2017

Among other things, during the lecture Michael discussed:

• theory's place in performance arts (with wonderful music analogies)
• his wonderfully complete definition of magic
• how to find (and cure) trouble spots in performance
• the importance of emotion and intellect
• the importance scripting
• assumptions that laymen make
• control, repose, and chaos
• "The Big Lie"

We got to see some magic too!  Of note, he performed "Red Blue Mama Fooler" and then pointed out The Big Problem and how he fixed it.  I was also delighted with a yet to be published routine from his upcoming eBook "Paradigm Shift."

Attendees were provided a discount code for MichaelClose.com which includes The Workers series, and Closely Guarded Secrets.  We were also tipped to the great sale price of Magic in the Real World.  (And if you didn't already know, there's this little thing called "Magic In Mind" that you can get for free at Vanishing Inc, which includes an essay from Michael as well as 32 other highly regarded professionals.)

If you haven't seen the announcement, Michael is hosting a workshop with Jason England and Michael Weber (and perhaps an additional mystery guest) in October.  Only eight spots remain.

Bottom line, as with Phil Matlin's report from a 2014 lecture by Michael, I was very impressed!

Far out Magic Dude.

Read Michael's thoughts about his lecture.

The last Tweet from Canada's Magic Twitter feed:

"Magic Theory, or Magic Fact? Let's Find Out."

-- @MikeCloseMagic @theBrowsersDen pic.twitter.com/TXs6r6q4lr

— Canada's Magic (@canadasmagic) August 14, 2017

CBC interview with Matt DiSero

An interview from August 2016, where Matt thinks he said something that upset a listener.


From the CBC:

For Matt DiSero, the magic came first—and then the comedy followed.

His uncle was a sword-swallower and fire-breather who first introduced him to magic. Matt credits performing in comedy clubs with the help he needed to hone his funny magic act.

Read more and listen to interview.

Canadians remember Eugene Burger

From Perfect Magic:

Eugene Burger was special, as a magician and as a person. The first and most important memory I have of him was when he came to Montreal to lecture for Magie Montréal. It was many years ago and I was not that into magic at the time, but I went to the lecture to help Phil and Vim Vermeys with registration, etc.  and stayed of course for the lecture.

Anyone at that lecture learned valuable lessons. I don’t rememberphil-eugene-and-tom one trick that he did. It wasn’t about the tricks, it was about performing. Every word was well thought out and had a reason for being there. His jokes were not to get a laugh, which they got, but as he explained, when you laugh you close your eyes for a second and that’s all the time he needed to do what he had to do in front of your eyes.

Read more.

From Derek Selinger's Facebook page:



From Lawrence Larouche's Facebook page:




From Ben Train's Facebook page:



From the Facebook page for Michael Close:



From Shawn Farquhar's Facebook page:




Visit the Eugene Burger Memorial Page, McBride Magic & Mystery School on Facebook.

BC: Reveen's Autumn 2017 tour

From the Facebook page of Reveen The Legend Continues:

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Mahdi Gilbert to be interviewed at Living Maths

From the Twitter feed of Living Maths:
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Join me on 28 Aug 6pm GMT + 2 when I interview @mahdibuchinger - The magician without hands https://t.co/HBvGhJzqCg #Magic #Magician #cards

— Living Maths (@LivingMaths) August 7, 2017

The Sentimentalists with Darren and Mo

Check out footage of The Sentimentalists' recent Magic Castle performance at the bottom of this post.


From the Facebook page of 98.1 CHFI:

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From Facebook page of the Sentimentalists: