Alex Kazam: Making Magic in A Real World

From CineCoup:

An exploration of the life of magicians from the perspective of a young Canadian comedy magician. His struggles in finding his way, as a single child of a single immigrant mom. Conversations and performances by mentor magicians that have led to Las Vegas performances.

Read more.

WowFest in photos

From Glen Co Photography:

I’m glad I went.  I got to feel like a little kid again.  I guess I only covered a small portion of the festival since looking at their website now (http://wowfest.ca) the whole event ran for several more hours after I had left.  The portion that I had covered was the Family Fun Magic Show.  This was the part where families can spend a day together watching some neat magic!  Sounds like a good time, right?  Bring the kids, the grandparents, even the in-laws!  There was a face painting station, The Garden Variety Show booth was making balloon animals for their willing recipients, and The Vanishing Rabbit Magic Shop was performing slight of hand trickery for those who dared near it!

Read more and see the wonderful photos.

Billy Kidd on the CBC

Today on CBC I'll be chatting about magic and the wonderful Skirtsafire festival. 5:40pm on Radioactive foshizzles.
— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) March 8, 2013

A Series of Unfortunate Effects

From the Facebook page for A Series of Unfortunate Effects:

In five days Ben Train will be doing a LIVE Q and A with Full Circle Magic! If you ever wanted to know about who does his hair, what books he likes to reading on the toilet, or wanted more info about the movie, this is your chance! See you there!

Read more.

Ottawa: Eric Roumestan lecture

On Monday, April 29, Eric Roumestan will be lecturing in the Ottawa area.  Contact John Pert for more information.  (Contact information found at Magic Information Canada)


[via Magic Information Canada]

Edmonton: Billy Kidd at SkirtsAfire

From the Edmonton Journal:

Many of the festival’s headliners have already been discovered. They include Edmonton singer-songwriter Colleen Brown, and Billy Kidd, a born-in-Edmonton magician who has performed across Canada, Japan, the U.K. and Portugal. The four-day festival kicks off Thursday, March 7, with a live performance by singer-songwriter Maria Dunn, who weaves songs and video into a ballad that tells the story of the immigrant women who worked at the GWG factory over its 93-year history.

Read more.

Toronto: A (7th?) Slice of Magic

From Chris Westfall Magic:

Tuesday March 19th

Chris Westfall with Bobby Motta and Shawnathan at Boston pizza.

Read more and purchase tickets.
 

[via Magic Information Canada]

Update to the Johnny Giordmaine tribute site

A message from the curator of the Johnny Giordmaine tribute site:

Hello again! It's now March 2013. This is the fifth anniversary of our informal tribute to Canada's most beloved children's magician, Johnny Giordmaine (1898-1974). Many thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of you who have have already visited us in the past. Here's news about our eleven new pages of updates that might bring you back for another visit this month. "Reprints" and items of special interest include:

* Johnny featured in "M-U-M" (official publication of the SAM);

* Johnny featured in "The Linking Ring" (official publication of the IBM);

* Rarely seen home movie footage of Johnny at the 1930 IBM Convention;
 
* Feature cover stories on Johnny in "The Magic Magazine" and "The Gen" from the UK;

* Heartfelt obituary notices from "The Linking Ring" written by Sid Lorraine and Elizabeth Warlock;

* And more!

All copyrighted material as always used with permission.

If you remember Johnny at all you will most certainly want to rekindle your happy memories with a visit to this site. If you never met him, or if you have no idea who he was, please come and discover all about one of Canada's most memorable figures in 20th century magic. Perhaps you will even find inspiration for your own 21st century magic?

Personal memories about Johnny are always very welcome too. Contact information is on the site... http://www.johngiordmaine.com

A special thank you, Canada's Magic, for your ongoing support and greatly appreciated encouragement!

----
 

The pleasure is ours! Thank you for continuing to keep us updated with your progress.

Port Coquitlam: Moose in a Top Hat

Friday the 15th of March 2013

Be entertained by the mind reading skills of Christopher Taylor, the comedy entertainment of Matthew Johnson and the award winning magic of Trevor and Lorena Watters (warning: sound) in one spectacular show.

Visit Moose In A Top Hat for more information or to buy tickets.



[via Magic Information Canada]

Official nominees: CAM Magician of the Year

Shawn recently posted the list of official nominees for the Canadian Association of Magician's, Magician of the Year award!

From the CAM website:

When adding the votes we ended up with a three way tie for fourth place.  Because we used an option 1 and 2 it was easier to determine a winner based on which of those three magicians had the most option 1 votes.  Below I have listed the top nine magicians.  It is in fact a very impressive list which includes three previous winners of the award.  In the next few days I will contact each of these nominees and ask them to submit a brief 500 words or less description of themselves and their accomplishments.  Once I have these biographies I will post them here so you can all read and make an informed decision.  I truly believe that all the nominees are fitting of this, our most prestigious award and wish to congratulate them on being recognized by their peers for their contribution to magic in Canada and around the world.

Read more and learn the names of all the nominees as well as the list of official nominees.
 

Congratulations to everyone on the nomination list, and best of luck to the finalists!

(I was delighted to see that at least one of my nominees made it into the top four!)

MAGIC Live Intern Program

Posted by Chad Juros on the Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp Facebook group:

Here is an amazing opportunity for any young magician that I had the honor of doing myself when i was younger. I highly recommend it.....
MAGIC Live Intern Program
We are looking for young magicians, age 15–19, to participate in our intern program during MAGIC Live, August 11–14. This is a unique opportunity to work with the MAGIC Magazine team in all areas of the convention: registration, set-up, hosting, backstage, and more. You will also join in teen lunches with special magic guests, giving you an opportunity to mingle with, and learn from, some of the best.
Read more.

Rounding the Western rings in March

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)	- Comedy Night - competitions for the Rick Honey and Cecil Ackery trophies for Junior and Adult ComedyMagician of the Year
Vancouver, BC	SAM 95  (Carl Hemeon Assembly)	- n/a
Victoria, BC	Ring 183 (Victoria Magic Circle)	- Norman Beck Lecture - Tony Competition - Reilly Round Table

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

Rounding the Ontario rings in March

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

Hamilton, ON	Ring 49 (The Doug Henning Magic Wand Club)	- Pocket Miracles
London, ON	Ring 265 (London Magician's Guild)	- tba
Kitchener, ON	Ring 235 (The Caesar Hat & Wand Magic Circle)	- n/a
Ottawa, ON	Ring 151 (Ottawa Society of Magicians)	- Stand-up Magic - Charity Show
Ottawa, ON	Ottawa / Gatineau magicians	- n/a
Toronto, ON	Ring 17 (Sid Lorraine Hat and Rabbit Club)	- Members’ Night

 

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

Rounding the Eastern rings in March

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

Halifax, NS	Ring 316 (Conjourer's Court)	- Annual Club Auction
St. John, NB	Magic Circle of St. John	- n/a

Dai Vernon interview

From Richard Hatch's Twitter feed:

Late Vernon interview (1987) includes a couple of good anecdotes: youtube.com/watch?v=KLy2H2…... fb.me/19zapnoxx
— Richard Hatch (@RichardHatch) February 25, 2013

Lee Asher in MAGIC Magazine

Look who's in MAGIC Magazine this month!  From Lee Asher's Twitter feed:

Have you picked up your copy of @magicmagazine this month? twitpic.com/c738oq
— Lee Asher (@LeeAsherMagic) February 26, 2013

About's readers' choice for Best Close-Up Magician

Wayne Kawamoto has posted this year's Readers' Choice top nominations for Best Magician.  Jay Sankey is in the running for Best Close-Up Magician!

Congratulations Jay!

To vote for Jay, go to Wayne's post "Vote for your favourite magicians -- The finalists."

Please support our sponsors

A warm and heartfelt thank you, for the generous support from our sponsors, Doug Cuff at Magic Information Canada, Clive Court - The Fun-da-Mentalist, and Ryan Pilling author of Finding The Funny!

For more information about purchasing Sponsored Posts or about our Platinum, Gold, or Silver level sponsorships, please visit our Sponsorship page.

We're nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award!

From the CanWeblogAwards Twitter feed:

canadasmagic.blogspot.ca from @canadasmagic has been nominated in the 2013 Canadian Weblog Awards!
— Can Weblog Awards (@CanWeblogAwards) February 21, 2013

Thank you Schmutzie!

Saint Catharines: Alex Kazam in Triple Threat

From the Triple Threat Facebook page:

Thursday, 7 March 2013

It's time we did another show, don't you think?!?

The line up is simple.

• Bella Muerta.
• Alex Kazam.
• Danny Zzzz.

Join us for an evening of music, comedy and LOTS of magic!

The evening will feature Non-offensive\Clean Content.  

Read more.