Vancouver: Magic Dinner Live 2014

From Event Brite:

Society of American Magicians #95
Friday, 24 January 2014
Vancouver, BC

Read more and buy tickets.

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
Fraser Valley, BC	IBM Ring 387 (Fraser Valley Magic Circle)	- Third Monday Magic
Vancouver, BC	Ring 92 (Vancouver Magic Circle)	- n/a
Vancouver, BC	SAM 95  (Carl Hemeon Assembly)	- Dave/Trevor Watters
Victoria, BC	Ring 183 (Victoria Magic Circle)	- Strolling/Close up

 

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

Rounding the Ontario rings in December

Updated December 3rd, to add Hamilton event details.


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

Hamilton, ON	Ring 49 (The Doug Henning Magic Wand Club)	- "Share the Magic" at Wentworth Lodge Long Term Care Residential Home
London, ON	Ring 265 (London Magician's Guild)	- tricky boxes and tabletop illusions
Kitchener, ON	Ring 235 (The Caesar Hat & Wand Magic Circle)	- Christmas dinner
Ottawa, ON	Ring 151 (Ottawa Society of Magicians)	- Christmas party
Ottawa, ON	Ottawa / Gatineau magicians	- last meeting before Christmas
Toronto, ON	Ring 17 (Sid Lorraine Hat and Rabbit Club)	- Browser's Den of Magic visit

 

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)	- n/a
St. John, NB	Magic Circle of St. John	- n/a

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

Scott Hammell: Down and Out for Free The Children

From YouTube:

Scott Hammell overcame his fear of heights so that he could jump from an airplane while handcuffed to his waist. As part of a challenge to inspire high school students to fundraise enough money to build a school in Ecuador, Scott added the potential of a blindfold to offer some incentive.

Read more.

Montreal: Magic workshop for kids

From Montreal Families:

Dec 1, 2013

Enchanted butterflies, invisible coins, Chinese rings and magic chocolate milk are among magician Yan Lee Chan's tricks. Mystery, humour and loads of surprises are in store.

Read more.

[via Perfect Magic]

I write like

I pasted text from here into this and apparently:

I write like
William Gibson

I Write Like. Analyze your writing!

Now to plan how I can be as succesful as Gibson.

Who do you write like?



Hopefully back to the magic tomorrow....

BC: The Magic & Illusions of Murray Hatfield & Company

From Murray Hatfield's Facebook page:

The All-New Shriners Variety Show is hitting the road featuring Ventriloquist - Neale Bacon & Friends, Comic Juggler - Aaron Gregg and The Magic & Illusions of Murray Hatfield & Company. 

The performances will take place;

Dec. 5 in Kamloops at the Coast Hotel and Conference Centre.
Dec. 6 in Vernon at the Vernon Secondary School Theatre.
Dec. 7 in Abbotsford at the Abby Arts Centre.

Read more.

Toronto: Jay Sankey lecture

From the Browser's Den of Magic Facebook group:

Jay Sankey Lecture 

All Brand New Stuff!
DATE & TIME: Sunday, February 9th
LOCATION: Browser's Den of Magic
TICKET PRICE: $15.00 & Special Offer Below if you Buy in Advance!

Dear Magic Friends,
In February 2014 Mr. Sankey will be touring Europe with his brand new lecture! And just before he takes off for the tour Jay has agreed to give his fellow Canadians the first viewing of this new lecture.

Read more.

Happy third blogiversary to me!

Three years ago today, I published the very first post at this website.  Thanks to you wonderful people who have supported this project!  More than 1,303 posts have been published, more than 46,000 page  loads have been served.  Eight-one of you have given us your thumbs-up on Facebook, more than 500 of you are following along on Twitter (5940 tweets and counting!), and approximately 80 of you have subscribed to this site's feed.  The bulk of you are Canadian, and I'm delighted to see visitors from United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom,  Hong Kong, Portugal, Germany, and the list goes on.

There are so many of you doing such a fabulous job of making magic a priority in this great country!

Many thanks to all of you, for reading, subscribing, re-tweeting, liking, sharing, submitting news, corresponding, making me aware of typos, guest posting, sponsoring and especially for your wonderful feedback and continued support!

Broken wand: Harold Black

From the Ring 17 newsletter:

We are sad to report the passing of one of our members, Harold Black, passed away Wednesday at the age of 89. He joined the club in 1949 (as reported in the Linking Ring by then secretary Bruce Posgate.) He was a lifetime member, who as the club librarian and was the president in 1974-75. While health concerns kept him from attending club meetings in recent years, he was actively involved in the magic community in Toronto and performed as a magician and a clown for decades.

Read more.

From The Star:

BLACK, Harold E. (Buster) - Past Patron, Eastern Star (Scarborough Chapter 231), Masonic Lodge (Coronati 520), IOF (Court Futura), Hat & Rabbit Association - Linking Ring 17 (Kambla the Magician), Circus Fans Association (Buster the Clown), CN Railway - 37 years service (Blackie). After a recent leg amputation, at the age of 89 Harold peacefully passed away at Scarborough General Hospital on November 20, 2013 with his loving family by his side.  

Read more.

Do you remember Le Grand Marcis of Magic?

From Perfect Magic:

Le Grand Marcis, Maurice Choquette, was one of these people. He had a little magic shop on de Bienville when we met him and he gave weekly magic courses and had a great following. We were friends with him and he was kind enough to translate many of the popular card tricks for us when we first went into business.  I have a copy of Wild Card  ”Les cartes “frimées” which  he did for us “Traduction et adaptation française faite par “Le Grand Marcis” 1977 and many others as well.

also:

It would be great if his students could write in and provide us with information about him, anecdotes, when he started, when and where he moved his shop to. I think it was Park Avenue. If you were a student of his, let us know. Maybe you should have a reunion. Let’s hear from you. let’s get a little history going here, and if you want to write it in French, ça va!

Read more.

Sorcerers Safari Magic & Performance Camp Documentary

Back in 2012, I posted about my experience at Sorcerer's Safari Magic and Performance Camp.  The article was later republished with awesome photos by Carey Lauder.

This year, Chris Mayhew created a wonderful 30 minute documentary about the camp. 

From Sorcerers Safari:

After watching this documentary you’ll see what makes magic camp so special and why campers keep coming back year after year. While the grounds are amazing, the teaching is top quality and the nightly shows are stellar, magic camp is much more than the sum of its parts - this documentary helps explain why.

The video captures much more about the camp than can be communicated through text alone.




Don't have time to watch the full video?  Watch the 3 minute teaser.  It'll make you want to watch the full documentary!




Or you could just watch the dueling cardicians:




For more information visit http://sorcererssafari.ca/

Arthur Poon: recipient of the 2013 Len Cooper Memorial Award

Congratulations to Arthur Poon, who was this year's recipient of the Len Cooper Memorial Award! 

Watch as Arthur receive the award at the Browser's Den of Magic 38th Anniversary Party, on YouTube:

Paul Pacific interviews Mark Lewis

Watch Paul Pacific interview Mark Lewis on YouTube:





Or watch on YouTube, Paul Pacific chat with Mark Lewis in a coffee shop:




[via Ring 17]

Ontario: Tiny Talent Time casting call

From CHCH:

Tiny Talent Time – Casting Call

TORONTO, OCTOBER 1, 2013….Parents and kids are invited to join in the celebration of CHCH’s 60th Anniversary with the return of the iconic Tiny Talent Time. One of the longest running and most-loved family shows in Canadian history, Tiny Talent Time takes us back to a refreshing era of tap-dancing tots and pint-sized magicians sharing their developing talents, just for the fun of it.

An Ontario-wide casting call to children under 12 years old begins today and runs until November 30th through online video submissions at www.chch.com/tinytalenttime. Single and group acts of all kinds of talent are welcome, but submissions are limited to one per discipline per child/group. Only the producers will be able to see the video submission and none will be posted for public viewing.

Read more.

[via Sorcerers Safari]

Researching Magic Tom Auburn

A writer is researching Magic Tom Auburn for a piece and is looking to connect with people who have memories or information to share.  More information can be found at Perfect Magic.  See below.

From Perfect Magic Then and Now:

The other day a gentleman, unknown to us, came into the shop. He, too, wanted to keep Tom Auburn’s name and memory alive. He’s a writer and he is passionate about history and about Magic Tom and he is writing an article (on real paper) which will appear in the Quebec Heritage News, which is an English language Quebec  Magazine.

Read more.

Review: Nick Wallace's Séance

From The Star:

HAMILTON—“Good evening and welcome to Séance. I don’t know what’s going to happen any more than you do.”

Nick Wallace grins nervously, like Harry Potter paying a late-night visit to Slytherin.

In fact, he does know in part what’s about to happen in the Norman and Louise Haac Studio Theatre of Theatre Aquarius. Wallace has designed this evening of supernatural entertainment, along with director Luke Brown, but it’s true that he has no idea what will transpire when 50 random people interact with supposed spirits during what they reliably call “the first attempt to use an actual séance as part of a theatrical entertainment.”

Read more.

[via Ring 17]

Farewell to "Showtime"

In the November issue of the Linking Ring, Peter Marucci penned his last issue of "Showtime," which ran since 1991.  Peter indicates that he is physically unwell, but would love to hear from everyone via e-mail.  His name is listed among the "Sick and Convalescent" IBM members.

I remember meeting Peter, back in the days when Ring 17 was meeting in a deli basement.  He always brought a smile to my face.  I also remember reading his fun submissions in the Globe and Mail.

Peter can be reached at:  pmarucci [at] cogeco [dot] ca

His snail mail address can be found in the Linking Ring.

I'm sending happy vibes to Fergus for you Peter!

Ben Train in Grand Rapids and Chicago

Hey friends! I'll be lecturing in Grand Rapids Michigan Thursday and Chicago Friday! I hope to see you there!
— Ben Train (@ErdnaseinTO) November 13, 2013