Mike D'Urzo on OMNI TV

Magician Mike D'Urzo on OMNI TV from earlier this year.  Bits of it are in English, but you'll get the most out of the clip if you understand Italian.

New Westminster: David Merry lecture

From SAM 95:

Monday, January 28, 2013

When it comes to the field of magic, David has been asked to perform at some of the most prestigious magic events in the world for his peers.

Read more.

Rounding the Western rings in December

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

City	Club	Event(s)
Calgary, AB	Ring 66 (Calgary Magic Circle, Les Brocklesby Ring)	- n/a
Edmonton, AB	Edmonton Magic Club	- n/a
Winnipeg, MB	The Magic Club of Winnipeg	- n/a
Vancouver, BC	Ring 92 (Vancouver Magic Circle)	- n/a
Victoria, BC	Ring 183 (Victoria Magic Circle)	- n/a

 
Please leave a comment or e-mail me about corrections or omissions.

Rounding the Ontario rings in December

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

Hamilton, ON	Ring 49 (The Doug Henning Magic Wand Club)	- Christmas party
London, ON	Ring 265 (London Magician's Guild)	- magic auction
Kitchener, ON	Ring 235 (The Caesar Hat & Wand Magic Circle)	- n/a
Ottawa, ON	Ring 151 (Ottawa Society of Magicians)	- Christmas party
Ottawa, ON	Ottawa / Gatineau magicians	- n/a
Toronto, ON	Ring 17 (Sid Lorraine Hat and Rabbit Club)	- Brower's Den visit
Woodstock, ON	CAM 1 (Friendly City Mystics)	-  n/a

 

Please leave a comment or e-mail me about corrections or omissions.

Rounding the Eastern rings in December

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

Halifax, NS	Ring 316 (Conjourer's Court)	- Christmas gift exchange
St. John, NB	Magic Circle of St. John	- n/a

Magical Arts Fund for Wayne Houchin

Updated Dec 5 to add, from iNewswire:

The Academy of Magical Arts (AMA), its Board of Directors and Board of Trustees, in conjunction with the Dai Vernon Foundation, Inc., has established a special fund to assist professional magician Wayne Houchin, who was severely injured during a Nov. 26 performance in the Caribbean.

Read more.

I have just learned from Wayne Kawamoto that Paul Harris has set up a Magical Arts Fund for Wayne Houchin to help Wayne with his finances during his recovery.

Read Paul's message to learn how you can contribute.

Phil Matlin's ragtime tour

Phil Matlin - owner of Montréal's magic shop Perfect Magic, will be playing ragtime and touring through Ontario (Cambridge, Elmira and Waterloo) at the end of December.

His detailed schedule can be found at the CAM website.

[h/t: CAM]

If you missed our previous post about the many talents of Phil, have a look at him playing Carolina in the Morning below:

Derren Brown's Apocalypse on SPACE

From Canada Newswire:

Before the Mayan calendar flips to Doomsday, SPACE asks viewers "what if the world ended tomorrow?" From BAFTA Award-winning psychological illusionist Derren Brown, DERREN BROWN: APOCALYPSE uses a compelling blend of suggestion, psychological tricks, and experiments to construct an elaborate and shocking stunt to convince one person that the planet has been devastated by a catastrophic meteor strike. The subject at the centre of the experiment is left to believe that he is one of a mere handful of survivors. The gripping two-part special airs back-to-back on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. ET exclusively on SPACE.

Read more.

[h/t: iTricks]

Wishing Wayne Houchin a speedy recovery

Updated November 30th to add:

I have just learned from Wayne Kawamoto that Paul Harris has set up a Magical Arts Fund for Wayne Houchin to help Wayne with his finances during his recovery.

Read Paul's message to learn about how you can contribute.

Last evening, I was stunned to find this tweet in Wayne Houchin's Twitter feed:

WAYNE HOUCHIN SEVERELY BURNED IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.A statement from Wayne: ...
— Wayne Houchin (@WayneHouchin) November 28, 2012

The Daily Deception has a summary of what transpired and why.


Wayne's most recent tweet, shows his character and goodwill is still shining through:

Our mission has not changed: to spread joy, wonder & love through magic #Curiosidades This pic was taken this evening: img.ly/qhh7
— Wayne Houchin (@WayneHouchin) November 29, 2012

Please join me in wishing Wayne the speediest of recoveries from this horrific incident.

Senior Living on Location: Ray Roch

Watch Ray Roch's appearance on "Senior Living on Location":




The full episode will be aired on February 3rd, 2013.  Read the episode description at Senior Living.


[h/t: SAM 95]

SOMA wearing pie

And now, for no particular reason, a video of SOMA getting pies in his face at Sorcerers Safari 2012.

Go to the Facebook Page to watch the video at full size.

X-elent Lecture Series: The end of the road

From the X-elent Lecture Series website:

For the past 9 years, we've had some of the greatest lecturers come through the region and share their hard-earned knowledge with us.

This has been no small feat, nor something easily accomplished. Without the dedicated help of each city, we would have never lasted as long as we have.

Under the X-elent Series banner, the region has seen 47 of the best lectures possible. But as they say, ...all good things must come to an end. It's with a sad heart that I make the following announcement.

Season 9 was the final season of the X-elent Lecture Series.

Read more.
 

Read what Calgarian Yeats Wong had to say about his experience with the X-elent series and it's creator, Lee Asher.

Thank you Lee, for all you've done to bring more magic to Canada!

Welcoming a new patron: Ryan Pilling

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Ryan Pilling!

Based out of Calgary, Ryan is not only a comedy magician, but he is also: a blogger, a designer, and an author!  Check out:

Playing Big -- Making magic out of tricks:

Ryan blogs about peformance observations and tips. He recently posted about "The Importance of Being Bad" and his post "If You Can't Say Anything Nice" is a topic that really resonates with me.

The Magic Assistant -- Gwyn Auger:

From Gwyn's website:

Gwyn Auger is a vivacious, creative woman who brings dedication and enthusiasm to every project she embarks on. Gwyn’s primary goal is to be a full time magician’s assistant, and as a trained dancer and professional model, she brings beauty and grace to any stage.  

Gwyn is an integral part of tongue-in-cheek horror show "A Brush With Death," which has taken Calgary by storm!

In my experience, Gwyn definitely has her finger on the pulse of the magical happenings in Calgary!

WowFest:

Back in October we first heard the news about Ryan's idea for Wowfest -- a Magic Arts Festival that he'd like to launch in Calgary.  In November he shared the exciting news that he received funding for the project!  Listen to Ryan interviewed on CBC's The Homestretch, talking about WowFest.

If you haven't already, go and "like" the WowFest Facebook page and then go to the WowFest website to subscribe to the project's newsletter.

Finding the Funny --  A Professional Entertainer's Guide to Improvisation, Ad-Libs, and Audience Interaction:

"Learn the techniques to creating inspired moments of comedy, and getting the best out of your audience volunteers."

"This guidebook will help the practiced magician, juggler, clown and other entertainers add the sparkle of spontaneity to their performances."
 

Thank you Ryan, for your efforts towards raising the profile of magic in Calgary, and for your sponsorship!

Murray SawChuck returns to Pawn Stars

According to iTricks, Murray SawChuck will appear in today's episode of Pawn Stars, called The Offer.

From the History.com website:

Then, when a guy brings in a historic magician s "sawing in half" box the guys learn that cutting Chumlee in half is the easy part... putting him back together is a bit tougher.

Read more.

[h/t: iTricks]

Two years and 783 posts later....

Two years ago today, I published the very first post at this website.  Since that time over 28,000 page loads have been served.  There are 325 Twitter followers and I've sent 3400+ tweets into the ether.  There are  65 Facebook fans and 44 subscribers.  While the majority of readers are Canadian, our readers also come from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Malaysia, Portugal, Australia, and the list goes on and on.

There are so many wonderful things going on in this country's magic community and I'm barely scratching the surface!

Thank you, as always, for reading, subscribing, re-tweeting, liking, sharing, submitting news, corresponding, making me aware of typos, guest posting, sponsoring and most of all for your wonderful feedback and continued support!

Toronto: The Mark Lewis Magic Show

Updated December 18th to extend the run to the end of January.

From Toronto.ca:

Starts: December 2, 2012
Ends: December 30, 2012  January 27, 2013
  
From the second the show starts, right through to the very end, the children will be laughing with delight! The show is sheer mayhem, madness, and magic! Through his decades of experience, Mark Lewis has achieved a rapport with his young audiences that is unequalled in this area of entertainment!
Read more

For more information, visit the Lower Ossington Theatre website or visit Ticketwise to purchase your tickets.

Alex Kazam vs.Teller

And now for something completely different...

Alex Kazam vs.Teller

Welcoming a new patron: The Fun-da-Mentalist!

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Clive Court, The Fun-da-Mentalist!

Clive's impressive career has taken him from England to Australia, New Zealand, the United States and lucky for us, Canada!  Some notable professional highlights include:

• Performed in London's West End as a teenager.
• "One of the best known magicians on Australian television." -- TV Week
• Wrote and cast "A History of Mystery," the first hour-long TV magic special produced in Australasia.
• Produced the TV magic special, "The Vanishing Art," shown on PBS.
• Approached by Gene Gordon, to give his first lecture in Buffalo.
• Developed the concept of the Canadian Telefilm Broadcast Fund.
• Helped to develop Canada's first degree program in Public Relations.
• Recently reinstated into the Magic Circle.

Currently, Clive performs as The Fun-da-Mentalist, "a cabaret entertainer who specializes in demonstrations of mind-bending magical experiences."

If you haven't already, read Clive's full biography.  It is fascinating!  (It may be that Clive is responsible for my introduction to Monty Python's Flying Circus via PBS.)

Thank you Clive, The Fun-da-Mentalist, for your tireless efforts towards the improvement of Canadian Television and your sponsorship of this website!

Recently asked question

A reader of this blog recently asked:

As I sponsor, may I submit more than one ad image for display?

Short answer: yes.

I can set your sponsorship up, at no extra charge, to randomly display one of a maximum of 4 images, when a reader comes to this website.  I cannot guarantee that all images will receive an exactly equal number of views.

If two or more of you out there would like to split a sponsorship, you may do so.  One of you would need to be the "point person" and coordinate the provision of all of the images, details and communications for the group.

If, however, if you'd like more than one image on display at the same time, you'd be required to pay a sponsorship rate for each of the images.

Publication ready art / graphics are to be supplied by the sponsor.  Graphic design services are available at an additional charge.

Now is the perfect time to become a sponsor of this website, while our 50% off annual sponsorship rates deal is still in effect!

 

California: Oslen's Dance & Illusions

From Star Tickets:

Friday January 11th 2013

At a very tender age, Oslen witnessed David Copperfield in The Great Escapes. It was love at first sight. Oslen’s curiosity and new found passion for magic led him on an incredible journey. He studied performing arts at school, where he mastered a wide range of craft, including magic, dance, music and acting. Over the next twenty years, this boy next door morphed into the glamorous illusionist he is today.

Read more.