Rounding the Central rings in December 2018

Does the London Magician's Guild have a new web address?


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

Montreal, QC	Ring 62 (20th Century Ring)	- TBA.
Hamilton, ON	Ring 49 (The Doug Henning Magic Wand Club)	- Christmas treats.
London, ON	Ring 265 (London Magician's Guild)	- TBA.
Kitchener, ON	Ring 235 (The Caesar Hat & Wand Magic Circle)	- Annual holiday banquet.
Ottawa, ON	Ring 151 (Ottawa Society of Magicians)	- TBA
Ottawa, ON	Ottawa / Gatineau magicians	- Christmas party and pot-luck.
Toronto, ON	Ring 17 (Sid Lorraine Hat and Rabbit Club)	- Browser's Den of Magic visit - Dinner at Mandarin

Please leave a comment or email me about corrections or omissions.

Rounding the Eastern rings in December 2018

Does anybody have current information to share about the Magic Circle of St. John?

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

Halifax, NS	Ring 316 (Conjourer's Court)	- Visit their Facebook page.
St. John, NB	Magic Circle of St. John	- TBA

Please leave a comment or email me about corrections or omissions.

Remembering Ricky Jay

In case you missed the sad news, Ricky Jay passed away on November 24th.

A note to subscribers: the content of this post is embedded from another website and is not available to preview. To view the content of the post, please visit http://CanadasMagic.blogspot.com. Some of the embedded code may be visible in this notification.

Remembering the wild, weird and wonderful Ricky Jay (1948-2018)
From an appearance in Canada on The Magic Palace c.1979 in The Screening Room: https://t.co/ECl1AVrsU8 pic.twitter.com/PyYTQDPcK5

— Magicana (@sharingwonder) November 26, 2018

#magic #rickyjay Rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/8O0babHxRZ

— Greg Dodds (@oddsmagic) November 25, 2018

The magician Ricky Jay has died. Revisit Mark Singer's 1993 Profile of the legendary sleight-of-hand artist, who preferred to live in the mysterious world of eccentric entertainers rather than headline in Las Vegas. https://t.co/P5BNfaXYuU

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) November 25, 2018

Happy eighth (belated) blogiversary to me!

Eight years ago last Sunday, this blog was born!

Thanks to you wonderful people who have supported this project!

For free, we've published over 3,640 posts, and served well over 131,410 page loads (over 710,764 by Blogger's count).  Two hundred and sixty-four of you have given us your thumbs-up on Facebook, more than 1269 of you are following along on Twitter (29.9K tweets and counting!), and approximately 60 of you have subscribed to this site's RSS feed.  The bulk of you are Canadian, and I'm delighted to see visitors from United States, the United Kingdom, India, France, and the list goes on.

There are so many of you doing such a fabulous job of making magic a priority in this great country!

A special thanks to:

• All of my early supporters.  Special shout outs to Ariel, Doug, James, and John for your continued encouragement.
• All of you readers, Likers, RTers, submitters, guest posters, contest prize providers and all other manner of promoters of this site.
• All of my sponsors, past and present.  That means you: Magic Information Canada, Ryan Pilling, Clive Court, Perfect Magic, The Browser's Den of Magic, The Amazing Corbin,  Michael Close, and Daniel Sugar!
• All of the blog's official friends, past and present.  That's you:  John Smithman, John Harrison, Richard Lyn, Joan Caesar, Ted & Marion Outerbridge, Ian Crawford, Owen Anderson, Ryan Pilling, and Matt DiSero.
• My family for their support of this bloggy experiment.

My continued thanks to all of you!

Toronto: Free magic club

From the Browser's Den of Magic Facebook group:

Hi Denizens,

This Saturday, December 1 is our next (free) Magic Club meeting. All are welcome.

Meeting at Browser's Den of Magic from 2:30pm to 5:30pm.

Thank you-The Jeff's, John Cardella, Luiz Castro & Lisa Close.
Serving Magicians Since 1975

The top 5 posts in November 2018

There were 24+ posts at Canada's Magic this month.  Here are the 5 most viewed posts in the past 30 days:

5. Toronto: Five world records in one day? - We'll find out at the Browser's Den this coming Sunday.

4. Julie Eng on Pop Life CTV - Marvelous magic in mainstream media!

3. Video: Shawn Farquhar Fool Us REVEALED - The people want to know.

2. 2018 "Holiday Magic" - Great show with great talent for a great cause!

and the most viewed post this month  ...

1. The 2018 "Readers' Choice Inspirational Canadian Magician of the Year" award - Nominations are closed and the voting will begin soon!

Michael Close on the Palming Series

From the November 2nd article "The Story Behind the Palming Series" at Michael Close's website:

Looking back on the skill sets I’ve used to make a living during my life (magic, jazz piano, writing/editing), I realize that most of what I know about those subjects I figured out by myself, without any formal training. I did have an excellent high school English teacher my senior year; I received degrees in music theory and composition; and my time spent with Harry Riser was invaluable. But I grew up isolated in a farming community in the middle of Indiana; books were my mentors, and I studied everything I could get my hands on. As I absorbed that information, I was also unconsciously absorbing the process of learning how to teach myselfthe information.

My father provided inspiration as I did this. He came from industry, and for twenty-two years he taught in the mechanical engineering technology department at the Purdue campus in Indianapolis. His great gift was as a teacher; he understood how to break down information and impart it effectively. I learned from his example.

Read more.