05 May 2023

[Guest post] ‘Magic chose me’: How one man found his calling

The following is a guest post by Sheridan Williamson Fraser.

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‘Magic chose me’: How one man found his calling
Mike Segal built a career by perfecting tricks and inspiring a new generation of magicians 

By Sheridan Williamson Fraser,
Journalism Undergraduate at Toronto Metropolitan University

It all started with a single bus ticket that in a flash became two. Day in and day out, Mike Segal, a young boy originally from Montreal, would take the bus to and from his new school in Toronto, carefully holding on to each bus ticket. One day in 1972, while playing outside at recess, another boy snatched the bus ticket from him, closing his tiny fist around the rectangular piece of paper. As Segal’s only way home was crushed between the other boy’s small fingers, concern built within him. Another second passed, then the other boy waved an erratic hand through the air before rolling back his fingers to show not one but two bus tickets lying on his palm. The boy then miraculously handed both tickets to Segal before walking away to enjoy the rest of his short break between classes. Looking down at his hand, Segal was left baffled. To him this was not some simple sleight of hand but an act of real magic.  

This one short instance, this one trick, was the start of a lifelong journey into the art of illusion and the beginning of a career which has spanned four decades. From this moment on, Segal began going to the library, constantly in search of the miraculous ticket trick. Initially he thought “If I could just learn that trick, my parents would never have to buy me another bus ticket.” 

During those days in 1972, flipping through book after book, Segal recalls learning all he could about magic, teaching himself different tricks and eventually building up a repertoire of techniques. “I never did find that trick,” he says, but now nearly 50 years later Segal can still remember that first magic moment, “I’ve seen thousands of magic shows. Can’t tell you anything about them but I remember that trick.” 

As for his own journey, Mike Segal has spent over four decades as a magician performing, teaching and inspiring the next generation of magicians. His career has impacted the trajectory of magic’s evolution in Canada by providing opportunities for young people to get involved with the craft and be supported in forming future careers. 

According to The Canadian Encyclopedia article “Magic,” the first reported magic performer in Canada was Maginnis in Halifax in 1875 but, Indigenous groups in Canada were said to have games and ritual practices prior to European arrival which are reminiscent of present-day performance magic. 

Since then, magic has evolved into a modern stage production involving close-up magic, big production acts and mental illusion among other tricks. 

Segal remembers feeling like the straight-faced and serious persona never fit his personality on stage, he was always more comfortable with presenting magic in a lighter comedic way. His signature performance style is the “magician in trouble scenario,” which appears on stage as a trick going wrong when in reality the act is another illusion in itself. 

This style of magic, which Segal performs to this day, was influenced by something that happened at the start of his career. At age 14, Segal recalls performing a comedic magic show at an elementary school. Following the performance, a young boy, approximately eight-years-old approached him. The boy asked hopefully, “You’re a magician. My brother just broke his arm. Can you make it better?” At that moment, Segal remembers thinking “Wow, okay so these kids think I could really do magic. Well, that’s wrong.” 

Segal says he believes in performing illusions not faking supernatural powers or witchcraft. “We don’t have any special powers. I have the same powers as all of you. I have just learned to create illusions, the way some learn to play tennis or how to play the piano,” Segal said. At the time, Segal felt it was unfair to misrepresent what magic was to young kids, innocent enough to believe his magic was real. 


Missing link: 

By 1982, Segal was nearing the end of high school and focusing on his career, choosing magic over his personal life. 

Jen Segal, Mike Segal’s wife, describes her relationship with Segal as an “Oprah story,” worthy of mushy daytime television. Jen and Mike met at York Mills Collegiate Institute. Shortly after starting high-school they began dating, staying together for years leading up to graduation where they amicably split.

Jen and Mike at prom in 1984

Jen and Mike at prom in 1984
photo source: Facebook


Jen remembers wanting to settle down and start a family, while Segal wanted to work and travel. “I was broken hearted,” Jen explained in an interview. 

After 10 years had gone by, both Mike and Jen had moved on with their lives until a single phone call in 1992 changed everything. “My [friend] Sherry called and she was like ‘Mike’s on BT’ [Breakfast Television] and so I turned on the TV and there he was”. 

In late 1990, Segal began making appearances on the Toronto morning show, BT. “I lived right by there [the studio], they knew me and we had a great relationship… I was part of the City TV family,” he said. 

Over two years, Segal made 100 weekly appearances on the show. Once Segal had built a relationship with the show’s network, he, in addition to his weekly appearances, became the fill-in visitor when scheduled guests were unable to arrive on time. 

“They would have you know, whoever coming into town to promote something that day, but the plane got delayed, or they're stuck in traffic or there's a snowstorm. So, these guys [Breakfast Television producers] would just call me and say ‘Mike, can you be in the studio in like half an hour and bring something?’ And so, I would do that,” said Segal. “I just loved it. The exposure was great. This was before the internet, so this was the greatest promotion I could ask for.” 

As for Jen, after seeing him on TV, she decided to take a chance, picking up the phone and calling the studio where she set up a time to meet Segal. “And that was 30 years ago,” Jen says as she sits on a white couch in the home she shares with Segal. “As soon as we saw each other it was like yeah we’re together forever.”

Creating a path: 

In the late 1980s, a few years prior to Segal’s reconciliation with Jen, he began carving out a place for himself in magic entertainment in Canada.  

After Segal had graduated from York University, he, along with a few friends and classmates freshly out of school, started Magic Unlimited Theater Productions in Toronto, a co-op theatre company that performed original shows for schools which were written based on the current school curriculum. 

John Rotstein, the owner of Rotten Pictures, a video production company, met Segal in a high-school theater class where they became close friends. Rotstein later received a performing arts bachelor’s degree with Segal from York University before joining the theatre production company. 

“Mike was very passionate about doing magic,” Rotstein explained in a phone interview. “He has a natural ability to charm people. He was very driven about his career and he knew what he wanted to do.”  

Segal says the idea for the company came about because they were “struggling artists” at a time when it was very difficult to get a grant for a magic-based performance because magic was not considered a legitimate performance art. 

“We were young and hungry. We hustled” Rotstein said. “We spent a lot of our time hustling for grant money to fund our projects.” 

Segal’s idea for the theatre production company was to bring performance magic some legitimacy and to show people why magic should get the same respect as other artforms. “Magic was such a great performance art and it bugged me so much that everywhere I went people would say ‘oh, magician? You should come and do my kid’s birthday party’. I just hated it.” 

Segal says he wanted to change the perception of magic in Canada by presenting it to young people who would not have preconceived notions surrounding what the craft could be. Connecting magic to youth was so important to Segal because when he was a young person, he had no one to mentor him or to look to for answers.

 

Mike Segal headshot

Mike Segal, circa early 1990s
photo source: Facebook

 

Fueling the future of magic: 

In 1980, Segal had his first experience receiving encouragement from a big name in magic entertainment. 

At 16 years old, Segal spent one week working as a stagehand for a CBC movie version of the Broadway hit The Magic Show, starring the famous Canadian magician, Doug Henning. The show was extremely popular, and according to the Internet Broadway Database, the magic musical earned Henning a Tony award nomination for best performance by an actor in 1975. 

A few years after the musical’s Broadway run ended, the CBC began working on a movie version of the show in Toronto, where teenage Segal gained a spot on the crew, skipping an entire week of high school to do so. 

The experience has become a blur, lost in time, except for one moment that would inspire not only Segal’s career but the decades of mentorship that would follow. 

On his last day on set, when Segal was sitting on a set of stairs helping to reset the stage lights, he looked up to see Doug Henning, the star of the show standing next to him. 

Henning walked the remaining few feet towards Segal before saying, “Hey, you’ve been here for a while. You’re a magician, right?” They both sat there on the stairs leading up to the stage talking about magic. 

“To me it seemed like we sat there for hours, we were probably there for 15 or 20 minutes,” says Segal. In that short time Segal recalls that Henning wished him luck in his future endeavors and listened intently when Segal described his future plans even dismissing another crew member who approached him with the flick of a hand. “So that stuck with me until today,” says Segal. “The way he treated me absolutely is part of why I decided to try and do that with younger magicians. If this guy is going to spend time with me now. I thought I should try and guide some people.” 

Segal, first and foremost, describes himself as a performer, though his work in mentorship for youth in magic has become a large part of his career. 

Sorcerers Safari was a Canadian performance arts camp, founded by Mike Segal, teaching youth magic, and it operated for one week every summer from 1997 to 2017. According to the Sorcerers Safari website, a typical day at camp involved various magic classes, outdoor activities and an evening show performed by professional magicians.  

After touring nationally and internationally with the Magic Mike Show for years, Segal recalls wanting to spend more time at home. Sorcerers Safari provided him with the opportunity to stay with his family and create magic education.

“He was the facilitator of mentorship,” says Keith Brown, a Canadian professional magician, who performs all around the world. Brown says he spent years of his adolescent life attending Sorcerers Safari, entering the camp grounds as a camper and exiting as an experienced counsellor. 

Brown fondly remembers his experience travelling to camp for the first time. “I remember making friends on the bus. And then literally jamming and doing card tricks the entire three hours up to the camp. And it was like, ‘Oh my god’, magic camp starts immediately on the bus ride.” 

When looking back on Segal’s creation, Brown said, “He's been around for so long, and is connected to so many different people and camp is like a by-product of that. He created this wonderful place out of love for all of these kids and his friends and his colleagues to come to”.

Brown attributes the days collaborating with peers and well-known magicians to his own success. “Magic camp was a huge influence on me and I would say that I would be a fraction of the magician I am today and I probably wouldn’t be a professional magician without it,” said Brown. 

 

It wasn't all cards and coins.  Segal (centre front) receives a haircut from Greg Frewin (left), Shawn Farquhar (centre back), and Lee Asher (right).

 "That time at Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp when some World Champion Magicians cut my hair." 
-- Mike Segal, August 2011
photo source: Facebook

Sam Pearce, another professional magician and ex-camper who attended Sorcerers Safari in 2005 and 2006, says his exposure to large illusions and comedy magic as a youth helped influence the magic he performs today. 

“I’m sure being exposed to all those different acts and seeing what was possible was certainly interesting,” Pearce explained. “That’s where I learned to juggle.”

Pearce can be seen incorporating his juggling into many of his performances. Two metal step stools are set up holding two rectangular planks, sandwiching a cylindrical piece of equipment similar to a hollowed out rolling pin, making the top plank reminiscent of a teeter totter. Pearce stands above the top blank shifting from side to side as he tries to balance. This is all made more complicated as he is simultaneously juggling three knives, the blades flying into the air and plummeting back down in quick succession.    

Rosemary Reid, a professional magician and Torontonian, spent 17 years attending Sorcerers Safari until its closure in 2017. 

When Reid first began showing an interest in magic, her father stumbled upon ‘Magic’ Mike Segal on Breakfast Television, while Segal was promoting magic camp, in 2001. 

Reid describes her first year at Sorcerers Safari as “The best experience I’ve ever had. I met some of my best friends who are still my best friends to this day that first year.” Adding, “So after that first year, I was like, I have to go back to magic camp.” 

During her 17 years attending Sorcerers Safari, Reid was a camper and instructor. Given there was only one cabin for girls at the camp, Reid worked as the social media manager and part-time videographer before becoming an instructor. “I kind of just tried to help wherever I could,” she said. 

“I remember speaking with Mike once and his advice to me one year at camp was to dream big. He told me to dream big and I’ve always remembered that and it always helps me to visualize the impossible, which is kind of like my job as a magician.” 

Since her time at camp, Reid has been an avid advocate for women in magic. Her goal is to continue the conversation and increase awareness of the effects of misogyny in the magic industry.  

“I kind of fell in love with [the camp] then watching the kids learn,” said Jen Segal, Mike Segal’s wife and manager of Sorcerers Safari, when thinking about her time walking through the camp grounds, peering into classrooms of overflowing excitement. Jen said she gets emotional thinking about the camp and the countless lives changed over those seven days every year. “Parents would write me or phone me after camp saying ‘my kid came home a different kid, they’re so much more confident’… ‘your camp totally changed them’.” 

Segal opened Sorcerers Safari to build new magic audiences and educate people on what is possible with magic. “In the beginning, we were just trying to find each other,” said Segal. “It became something so much bigger than all its parts. Sounds corny, but it really was like magic. It was the greatest magic trick I’ve ever done and I still don’t know how I did it.”

Dealers' Day' at Sorcerers Safari<br />A day when campers bought magic.

"Dealers' Day" at Sorcerers Safari
A day when campers bought magic.
photo source: Facebook


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Thank you Sheridan for guest posting at Canada's Magic!

 


 

04 May 2023

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03 May 2023

Canada's Got Talent: Atsushi Ono moves on to the May 16 finale!

Congratulations Atsushi, on a fantastic performance at the semi-finals!

 

From the May 2nd upload "Atsushi Ono’s MAGIC Dazzled The Judges With Quick Card Tricks" on the Canada's Got Talent YouTube channel:

Don’t ask Atsushi Ono where your card is!  He’s just the kind of magician who could tell you it’s anywhere and it will show up.  The speed of his card tricks and stage presence blow the judges away and his incredible talent is rewarded with a spot in the #CGT Live Finale!

 

 

 

 

02 May 2023

Maple Ridge: Norden and Gordon at Family Fest [May 5 - 7]

From the April 28th article "Award-winning magician hosts Family Fest for 10th year
Norden the Magician will be performing with his pal, the Great Gordini
" by Colleen Flanagan at Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows News:

Norden will be performing one solo show at 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 6, and then he will be teaming up with another local magician, the Great Gordini. The pair will be performing in two separate shows, one at 7 p.m. on Friday May 5, and the other at 12 p.m. on Sunday, May 7 – the Norden and Gorden Show.

“Like Pen and Teller, they go back and forth,” explained home show assistant event coordinator, Jhammi Gunnarsen.

The Great Gordini will also be doing a solo show at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 6.

“So, four magic shows and I think we have 16 hours of foam in the fun zone,” said Norden.

 Read more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canada's Got Talent: We asked the judges

Ahead of the Canada's Got Talent semi-finals, where Atsushi Ono and Magic Ben will represent Canadian magicians, we asked judges Trish Stratus and Howie Mandel:

At this stage of the competition, which do you value more: the magician's showmanship or their effects?


Here are their answers:

“For me, it’s showmanship. It’s important for the effect to be achieved obviously, but as far as engaging the audience, and making me feel like ‘do I want to see this again’, it’s got to be showmanship.”

 – Trish Stratus, Judge, Canada’s Got Talent

 

 

"Showmanship always trumps effect!"

– Howie Mandel, Judge, Canada’s Got Talent

 

 

 

Thank you Trish and Howie, for making the time to answer our question! 

 

Cheer on Atsushi Ono when you watch tonight's Canada's Got Talent semi-finals episode on CityTV. 

 

 

 

 

01 May 2023

Canada's Got Talent: Checking in with Atsushi Ono

Last week we learned that Atsushi Ono advanced to the Canada's Got Talent semi-finals!


Semi-finalist Atsushi Ono

Semi-finalist Atsushi Ono
source: @CanGotTalent


 

We had the opportunity to check in with Atsushi ahead of his appearance on the Canada's Got Talent semi-finals tomorrow.   He very kindly to answered the questions below.

Read our March interview where we learn about Atsushi's:
 - first memory of magic,
 - magical inspirations,
 - other inspirations,
 - magical influences,
 - motivation to audition,
   and
 - thoughts about quitting.
 
When you first learned you made it to the semi-finals, was your first impulse to add complexity to your semi-final performance?  Or was it to simplify?  Will you be honouring that impulse or did you change your mind

When I first learned that, I was in all emotions like surprise, relief, grateful. However, I didn't actually have any specific plan for the semi-finals as I gave everything I had to the audition lol, so nothing changed my mind but I started working on it right away! 
 
 
ICYMI:

 - Watch Atsushi's audition video "MAGICIAN Atsushi Ono’s Audition FREAKS OUT Kardinal"

 - Listen to Jacob Elyachar interview Atsushi Ono on the April 6th episode "Canada's Got Talent: Season Two Special #4: Atsushi Ono" of his podcast "Jake's Take with Jacob Elyachar" 

Will you be performing something from your regular repertoire or have you created something new for the competition?

I have created something new so I’m very excited and nervous to see how people will react to it!
 

Will you give it everything you’ve got or will you hold something special back for the finals?

Yes! Of course I will give it everything I've got as always!   :) 






Who is on your team of advisors for your progression to the next round(s) at Canada’s Got Talent? 

My friend Kevin Rusli has been helping me since the beginning in every way, and the feedback from the team at CGT has also been very helpful.

What will it mean to you to advance to the CGT finals?
 
It means a lot but it would also give me more opportunities to deliver my message.


 

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers of Canada’s Magic? 

I hope you will enjoy my act and always appreciate it if you could sending me your thoughts and feedback! Thank you for your time.  :)

 

Thank you Atsushi, for making the time to answer our questions!  Break a leg on the CGT semi-finals!


Learn more about Atsushi at his website AtsushiOno.com and follow him on Instagram.

 
Watch Atsuhi's performance at the Canada's Got Talent semi-finals May 2nd on CityTV. 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 April 2023

Top 5 posts in April 2023

There were 49 posts at Canada's Magic this month.  Here are the five most viewed posts in the past 30 days: 

5. Checking in with Shawn Farquhar and Lost in the Shuffle - Looking forward to the next project update!
4. Canada's Got Talent: Getting to know Will Stelfox - Fantastic audition Will! 
3. ICYMI: Canadian Conjurors video podcast ep. 1 -- Ryan Joyce interviews Glenn West - Great interview! 

2. A peek behind the curtain with Piff the Magic Dragon [2023] - You can still catch Piff at Fallsview Casino, Niagara Falls [May 21 -23], TCU Place, Saskatoon [Oct 10], Casino Regina [Oct 12], and Club Regent Event Centre, Winnipeg [Oct 13].

and the most viewed post this month  ...





1. Canada's Got Talent audition: JP Parent - Fantastic audition JP!