21 March 2011

Review: The Shadow Cutter

From the Ottawa Citizen:
We see Vernon hungering to learn an elusive sleight of hand known as the centre deal. And we watch as, uninterested in earning money by performing his tricks publicly, he pieces together a living as a shadow cutter, someone paid to cut silhouettes of people from black paper, once a popular art form.
Vernon's life, in other words, was consumed by a deck of cards, something so small you can put it in your pocket but with a reach so vast it can devour those who fall in love with it.

Read more...
Visit Ottawa's Great Canadian Theatre Company website to purchase tickets or for more information.

Greg Frewin's take on a Charlie Sheen Tiger Blood transfusion

A GregFrewinTheatre.com production.
 


[h/t: Owen Anderson]

18 March 2011

Japan

Canadian Aaron Jones (currently living in Japan) is featured on a Magic Newswire podcast discussing this week's tragic events.  Aaron has also been blogging about events in Japan as they transpire.  Additionally, within the Japanese magic community there are fundraisers being announced such as the Shikoku Public Magic show and lecture note sales.  I'm sure there will be many more to follow.

Locally, Shawn Farquhar mentioned on Facebook that a fundraiser for Japan Relief (Red Cross) in BC is still looking for acts. 

Other ways in which Canadians can help the relief efforts overseas can be found in this Toronto Star article.

Links for 2011-Mar-18

15 March 2011

Happy 14th birthday CAM!

The Canadian Association of Magicians (CAM) was founded on March 15, 1997 by Joan Caesar.  The creation of CAM as our national magic representative allowed us to apply for membership to FISM.  In the year 2000, CAM was accepted as a FISM member and Canadian magicians could, for the first time compete under the Canadian banner at FISM's World Championship of Magic.

CAM also hosts CAMaraderie, a now yearly national magic convention.  This year's CAMaraderie will run from July 28th to 31st in Vancouver, BC and will be held in conjuntion with the annual convention of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians (PCAM) under the guidance of the Vancouver Magic Circle (Ring 92).

Thank you Joan, for creating this wonderful national association 14 years ago!

For more information about the organization please visit the CAM website or the CAM Wikipedia entry.  Please visit magicianconvention.com for details about the joint CAM/P-CAM convention.

07 March 2011

Book launch: "The Lives of a Showman"

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending a book launch party for “The Lives of a Showman” by Mark Lewis. (I live tweeted the event with the tag #TLOAS though I missed tagging a few tweets here and there.)

Upon entering Browser’s Den of Magic, I was instructed to direct my attention upward. Hanging from the ceiling were more than a dozen cheerful Lee Asher sign creations containing “Markisms” such as “If they were all the nine of hearts it would look like this” and “You're quite slow, do you work for the post office?” The mood was set!

It was clear that Mark has a tremendous amount of support in the local magic community! I found myself shoulder-to-shoulder with Jeff Pinsky, Jeff Hinchliffe, Ariel Fralich, Mia Ngueyn and Adam Harmes who had all made contributions to, or were mentioned in, the book. Other notables present include*: Gordon Precious, Owen Anderson, Paul Pacific, Chris Westfall, John Pellatt, Richard Lyn, John Michalson, Shawna Ross-York, Dan McLean, Steve Shrott, Joe Schwarcz and young Daniel (one of Mark’s students).

While reading from his book, we were regaled with stories of Mark’s experiences with The Worst Audience Ever at The Blue Angel and his early days of (not so) psychic readings in Ireland with Adam Harmes. Mark also read a piece written about him by Mai Nguyen, winner of the Jerry Gladman Memorial Scholarship in Journalism.

To round out the evening we were treated to James Alan’s rendition of Mark’s “Pig Trick” and then we all laughed ourselves silly through Jeff Hinchliffe’s impersonation of Mark doing his Svengali deck hustle.

It is always a delightful experience to hear an author read his own words. If the rest of the book is even half as entertaining as the launch party, it should be a good read indeed!

To purchase “The Lives of a Showman” visit Mark's website, Browser’s Den of Magic or contact your local magic dealer.


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* If I’ve missed listing anyone who was there please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below! Thank you to John Pellatt, Ariel Fralich and James Alan for providing attendee intel on the parts of the room I didn’t make it to.