18 August 2019

Magic at the 2019 PNE

This year's Pacific National Exhibition runs from August 17 to September 2.  Be sure to check out Ty Reveen in "Reveen: The Superconscious Experience" and Dick Joiner hosting "Abracadabark"!  (Of note, we saw David Acer host Abracadabark last Friday at the CNE and it's a really fun show.)


From the August 17th article "Tux-wearing Tyrone Reveen picks up at PNE where famous father left off" by Gordon McIntyre in the Vancouver Sun:
“This is an opportunity to implement some great special effects, some of which have never been seen before, that will blow people’s minds,” Ty Reveen said before beginning 15 nights of entertaining at the Pacific Coliseum during the PNE Fair.

“I do a few things in this show that will surprise even the people at the top levels of the magic industry.”

He’s followed in the footsteps of his famous father, who died in 2013, a couple of years after his son Ty took over the act.

Ty and his three brothers spent their early years in Chilliwack, West Vancouver and Richmond, their dad (yes he had a first name, Peter) having arrived in 1961 — “With literally five cents in his pocket,” Reveen le fils said.

The boys and their mother Coral later followed from their native Australia after the hypnotist had established himself.

Read more.


From the PNE website - Reveen:
Reveen: The Superconscious Experience

It’s the man they call Reveen! The legend continues with this mesmerizing and hypnotic show featuring high-speed memory demonstrations and mystical showmanship. Now Tyrone Reveen is following in his father’s footsteps and continuing the family tradition. The Superconscious Experience allows audience members to become the stars in one of the wildest and funniest shows that has left millions of people crying with laughter all over the world.  The legend continues, never forget Reveen.







Also from the PNE website - Abracadabark:
SuperDogs™️ presents Abracadabark. Prepare to be amazed, amused and bedazzled as the SuperDogs unleash their most magical show ever, Abracadabark! With a magician as your guide you’ll experience the magic of the SuperDogs like never before!





Review: Magic Hour Plus

From August 12th article "Magic vs Science" by Sean McQuaid in The Buzz:
Featuring university professors turned magicians Grant McSorley and Derrick Chung in the latest version of the popular McSorley & Chung stage magic show they created in 2016, Magic Hour Plus also stars the duo’s original director (and two-time Canadian magic champion) Marc Trudel, here playing the onstage role of an eager-to-please intern.

McSorley & Chung are amusing in their stage personae as bookish, cheesily self-aggrandizing showmen, often puffing themselves up with lofty rhetoric and then deflating themselves with self-effacing humour; but comedy-wise, Trudel steals the show as a socially awkward magic savant. All three excel at misdirection, not only shifting our focus to where each magician wants it, but also subverting expectations; seemingly botched tricks will morph into even cooler tricks instead, like Chung’s baffling Rubik’s Cube stunts.


Read more.

17 August 2019

Magic at the 2019 Edmonton Fringe

There's lots of magic at this year's Edmonton Fringe!  The 38th Annual Edmonton International Fringe™ Theatre Festival August 15 – 25.

  • Keith Brown and the Art of Astonishment
  • Crazy for Dick Tricks:  A Dirk Darrow Investigation
  • I sold my soul for magic tricks and Adderall by Chris Gowen
  • Mind Games: Brain-Bending Magic by Jeff Newman
  • Newman and Price: Bar Magic by Jeff Newman and Ben Price
  • Rabbit Stew: Uncensored by Ben Price
  • Minerva - Queen of the Handcuffs

"Diversion" on Saturday August 24th

Saturday August 24th catch "Diversion" on TF1!


From the Medias France Twitter feed:
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Toronto: David Acer and Abracadabark

Edited at 10am to add:
  • Tweet from Friday at bottom of post.
  • This was easily the most entertaining Super Dogs show I've seen in the past 8 or so years!


From The Ex:
The President's Choice™ SuperDogs™ are back at the CNE with an extraordinary new show called Abracadabark featuring magic, mystery and all the fun people expect from more than four decades of SuperDogs spectacles! Watch as a mesmerizing magician entices our talented canine friends to perform an astounding array of magic tricks.  From invisible puppies to wizarding pooches, the show is brimming with magic, action and the most wonderful dogs in the world.


Read more.


From David Acer's Twitter feed:




16 August 2019

Catching up with the Outerbridges

Congratulations to Ted and Marion Outerbridge for the addition of 4 more shows to their Smith Falls Theatre run this season!


They've been in the news a bit too.


From the July 20th article "Experience the magic of illusions at the Smith Falls Station Theatre" by Sofia Donato in Ottawa Life:

In one of Ted’s illusions, he vanishes from the stage, appearing instantaneously in the audience and completely surprising them. One evening, he so confounded an audience member by this illusion that “someone was upset because I was blocking their view of the show," Ted recalls. “They were yelling and hit me to get out of the way. Then they realized it was me.” Outerbridge wasn’t injured. “I was amused," he said.

Read more.























15 August 2019

Windsor's former International Playing Card Company factory

From the August 9th article "Jarvis: Bringing back Windsor's history, brick by brick" by Anne Jarvis in the Windsor Star:

Underneath the recreated flap, on the side of the building, will be vertical red and blue panels — the colours of the Bicycle playing cards once manufactured in the building. The tops of the panels will be shaped like the diamonds that decorated the back of the cards. Drive one way, and the red will appear to change to blue. Drive the other way, and the blue changes to red, like the kind of sleight of hand performed with cards.

It’s J. P. Thomson Architects’ salute to the handsome former International Playing Card Company factory built in 1928, a designated heritage property and a link to our industrial history.

Read more.