Winners to see "An honest liar"

A quick reminder that "An honest liar" is playing various times at Toronto's Bloor Cinema until August 21st.

The contest to win tickets to see "An honest liar" in Toronto tonight closed last night at midnight.  Here's the official list of entrants:

1. Dan McLean Jr
2. Mark Campbell
3. Magic Mike Segal
4. Mark Lewis
5. David Olson

I digress for a moment and encourage everyone to read the entry by Mark Lewis.  I wish I could offer a prize for best entry!

Random draw results:

  

  

Congratulations to Mike, Dan, and Mark Campbell!  I've sent you an e-mail with the name of the contact person and instructions on how to claim your tickets.  Enjoy the show tonight and be sure to tell me all about the Q&A with Randi!

Thank you all for playing!  A special thanks to Hannah from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival for generously making these tickets available to you!

Trevor and Lorena in the Vancouver Sun

From the Vancouver Sun:

Powerful magic can be found in the unlikeliest of places. Trevor and Lorena Watters, a couple from North Delta, were crowned North American Champions of Stage Magic earlier this month, winning them entry to the 2015 World Championships of Magic in Rimini, Italy. The Sun reached the pair between illusions to discover how magic brought them together and what tricks they’re conjuring up for next year’s contest.

Q: What drew you both to magic?

Read more.

Win tickets to see "An honest liar" in Toronto

Great news! I have been offered three pairs of tickets to give away to my readers, to attend "AN HONEST LIAR" at the Friday, August 8, 6:30pm screening in Toronto, Canada.  (I understand that there's a Q&A with Randi at that screening.)

I will be holding a random draw for each pair of tickets.  (There will be three winners. Each winner will receive a pair of tickets.)  The draw results will be posted on Friday August the 8th.


To enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post, telling me your favourite Amazing Randi memory (from a personal encounter, an interview, a performance etc).  (You do not need to be a magician to enter the contest.)(Your favourite memory could be entering this contest!)
2. Leave your name, along with a way that I may contact you (e-mail address, phone number, website, Twitter handle etc.) so that I can notify you if you win.
3. If you win, you must be willing to provide your full name and contact information for me to share with Hannah from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

The fine print:

• To participate in the contest, you must be 18 years of age or older.
• One entry per person.
• This giveaway is open to Canadian residents, excluding residents of Quebec. (Je m'excuse!)
• This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
• If you experience difficulties leaving a comment, you may e-mail it to me for posting.  (I am not responsible if your e-mail is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder.)
• You must be able to use the tickets as offered.  (No cash value will be offered if you cannot use the tickets.)
• Photo ID will be required to claim the tickets at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema box office prior to the show on your way into the screening.
• The odds of winning depend on how many people enter the contest.
• Contest closes on Thursday August the 7th, 2014 at 11:59pm EST.

With thanks to Hannah from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival for generously making these tickets available to you!

Toronto: An honest liar

Updated at 14:40:

• Contest details can be found at this post: Win tickets to see "An honest liar" in Toronto

I'm hoping to set up a ticket give away for this documentary.  Details to follow.

From Hot Docs:

AN HONEST LIAR
August 8- 21

James “The Amazing” Randi is an 85-year-old magician and escape artist who has been enchanted with illusions from a young age. Dedicating his life to learning the tricks of the trade, Randi became a sensation who toured the world, always honest about being a “liar, cheat and charlatan.” When people start using the same tricks but calling themselves “psychics”—like spoon-bender Uri Geller or “faith-healing” like televangelist Peter Popoff—Randi is angry and afraid for the people who are duped.  

James "The Amazing" Randi will participate in a Q&A on August 8, at 6:30 p.m., moderated by NOW Magazine's senior film writer Norm Wilner. 

Read more and buy tickets.

Bob Cates in The Record

From The Record:

Bob Cates, champion juggler of fire sticks and sharp knives, stood at The Hot Corner.

Third base on a baseball diamond somewhere outside Ottawa.

All is not fair at the county fair. Not in the fall of 1998.

"Behind me was a hay machine, threshing away," recalled Cates, now a 43-year-old Hespeler resident and 2014 Canadian Comedy Awards nominee for best variety act.                          
Read more.

Montreal: Patrik Kuffs

From the Perfect Magic Facebook page:

Post by Perfect Magic.

James Jordan on Global News

From Global News:

Montreal: Asi Wind performance

In addition to Asi Wind's Toronto lecture date and his lectures in Montreal and Ottawa, he's also doing a show in Montreal!

From The Comedy Nest Event Brite page:

Asi Wind - Monday August 11th

Buy tickets.

[via Perfect Magic]

HWDYKM answers: part 1

Last month, I posted some statements about me for you to guess as true or false.  Today is the first in a short series of answers to those true or false questions.

According to Google, there were over 150 views of the post.  Six of you dared to guess.

I was reminded by Sammy, that "... some of us know who you are and would skew the results."  (I was also reminded that the results may not have been skewed in my favour!)

Fair enough.


Question one:  True or False?

The person behind the curtain at Canada's Magic is shorter than the average of the heights of Richard Forget, Ryan Pilling, James Alan and David Acer.

Four (66%) of you correctly suspect that I'm not that tall.  (Which makes me wonder who the other third of you think I am.)  While it's true that we grow some of our magicians real tall in these parts, I'm not one of them.  (I echo the thoughts by Doug, who commented "Wait, people can be taller than David Acer?!")

How are you scoring so far?

Browser's Den magic club day

From the Browser's Den of Magic Facebook group:

Tomorrow, August 2nd is (free) MAGIC CLUB DAY at the shop.
All are welcome!
Club meets from 2:30pm to about 5:00pm. 

Read more.

Corey Mintz makes dinner for David Ben

From the Toronto Star, Saturday July 19, 2014, page L3, by Corey Mintz:

It's hard to choose a playlist for dinner with a magician.  Just "Final Countdown" on a four-hour loop?  I settle on the early '70s smooth jazz sounds of Bob James.

I don't know a lot about magic but I feel that this could be the soundtrack to a Doug Henning television special.

Planning a menu for David Ben was easier.  I only had to figure out how to execute the most obvious food allusion, to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Steve Valentine surprise special guest at Sorcerers Safari

How exciting for this year's campers!  Among many other notables, Steve Valentine was the 2013 Magic Castle Lecturer of the Year!

From the Sorcerers Safari Facebook group:

Well we can finally let the cat out of the bag.....our surprise special guest this year, along with Asi Wind, will be Magic Castle's lecturer of the year....Steve Valentine!!

So excited to have these guys up at Sorcerers! Along with our awesome 'regulars' Lee Asher , Aaron Fisher,  Eric Leclerc, Steven Kline  and so many others, It's really going to be the BEST SUMMER YET!! Hope you can join us Aug. 15-20. See you there! 

Read more.

Grateful for our August sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors for their generous support.  This site would not be possible without their backing.

We're grateful to have the support of:

• Clive Court - The Fun-da-Mentalist,
• Evelyn & Phil Matlin, owners of Perfect Magic and
• Jeff Pinsky, owner of The Browser's Den of Magic!

The next time you see them, let them know you saw their sponsorship here!

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

Or you can Be Our Friend for only $20 per year! 

Donations of any size are always welcome.

Who's where August 2014

Leave a comment on this post to let us know where you're going to be this month!

Listings from last month's comments section:

From Captain Corbin:

Yarr,
I'll be performing pirate themed magic shows every Friday in July and August at London Ontario's Storybook Gardens! and Every Sunday in July and August at Gravenhurst Ontario's Wharf aboard the steamship Wenonah I'll be hosting a 2 hour pirate cruise on Lake Muskoka!

Hosting Magic@theCage this Sunday with Jason Palter and Wes Zaharuk. Still a few tickets left: http://t.co/WIvcsZrdWt
— James Alan (@james_alan) August 14, 2014

Next Public performances are happening this weekend in #canada. I'll be at #portcredit #buskerfest... http://t.co/3eS0hjWSWE
— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) August 10, 2014

"Exchange hits the mark ★★★★” - @WinnipegNews, Opens 8 PM. Join me in BYOV 47! http://t.co/tgmqU64T7M #yegfringe
— Keith Brown (@KeithHBrown) August 14, 2014

Every Tuesday starting August 19th 10/9c on Syfy channel #wizardwars begins. I'm on Episode 4 with Leon Etienne.... http://t.co/S21hyTJ0ro
— Billy Kidd (@Billykiddshow) August 9, 2014

Come see a show this summer. If you're looking for me you shouldn't have to look to far because I'm everywhere! http://t.co/k8vOwv5Zso
— IncrediBrent (@IncrediBrent) June 18, 2014

Amherst: Houdini Day

From Wild About Houdini:

Bruce MacNab, author of The Metamorphosis: The Apprenticeship of Harry Houdini, has helped arrange a special Houdini Day in Amherst, Nova Scotia, this Sunday, August 3, 2014. The event celebrates Houdini's historic August 3, 1896 performance at the Amherst Academy of Music.

Read more.

Also in the post, it says that "Lucas Wilson will perform Houdini's upside down straitjacket escape from a 100-foot crane."

A special way to mark Houdini's presence in Canada!

Top 5 posts in July 2014

It's been a busy month at Canada's Magic, with 44 posts and over 2000 page loads!  The most popular were:

5. Goodbye to Morrissey Magic -- the end of an era in Toronto - It's been almost a year, but it's still catching people by surprise.

4. Aaron Fisher interviews Chris Mayhew: A Series of Unfortunate Effects 

3. Who's where July 2014 - Keep your eyes open for the August page.

2. Niagara Falls: Mindtrix the Show - Reviews anyone?

and the most viewed (but poorly responded to) post this month  ...

1. How well do you know me? - Never you mind.  I may just inflict the answers on you anyway.

They're all fabulous, of course!

What do the following people have in common, other than the fact that they're all Canadian magicians?

• 2014 FISM North America Champions of Magic Stage, Lorena & Trevor Watters
• 2014 San Diego Comic Con performing Eric Leclerc
• 2014 endurance stunt fundraiser Mark Correia
• Lee Asher who went to Sichuan province this year for their first magic convention 
• Chris Pilsworth  who performed at Magi-Fest this year 
• Greg Frewin, who has recently marked his 9th anniversary in Niagara Falls
• Mike Close, editor of M-U-M and Lisa Close, Graphic Designer for the S.A.M
• 2013 Canadian Magician of the Year, Mike Segal
• Evelyn and Phil Matlin, owners of Perfect Magic

Any idea?

Maybe this will help.  The following magicians also have the same thing in common:

• Anders Fox from Sweden
• Aaron Fisher
• Steven Kline who lectured at IBM/SAM this year
• Asi Wind from New York

They are a fabulous group of people to be sure!   Words can't describe what an opportunity it would be, to be able to be shoulder-to-shoulder in a room with these bright minds and seasoned performers.  What about spending a week with them?

If you're a kid between the ages of 8 and 18, you can!

All of the above folks are scheduled to be at the 2014 season of Sorcerers Safari Magic and Performance Camp!  (You can read my thoughts on Sorcerers Safari in my post "The secret to Sorcerers Safari's success" or watch the 2013 Magic Camp documentary.)

There will also be many other wonderful and talented people at camp this year.  Too numerous to count.  My apologies if you're going to be there and I neglected to get your name down.

This year Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp runs from Friday August 15^th through to Wednesday August 20^th.  There's still room for a few last-minute registrations.  Register at http://www.sorcererssafari.ca

Reviews: Keith Brown's Exchange

From the CBC:

I’m a brash skeptic who will dismiss any magician’s trick shown to me on video by simply yelling “IT’S VIDEO!” and storming away. I don’t believe in anything supernatural as much as I believe in the human mind’s ability to manipulate and be manipulated, even by itself.

That said, Keith Brown blew my little pumpkin all over the back wall of Venue 5 on Friday night. And not just with his tricks, each of which elicited a reaction from the audience that I suspect would have been the same if we had just seen a shark attack him on stage.

Read more.

From the Winnipeg Free Press:

Baby-faced London, Ont., magician Keith Brown wants to make your fringe experience a magical one, and his one-man, hour-long Exchange hits the mark. Featuring straight-up magic — with playing cards, cellphones and neckties — and an impressive use of a memory palace to memorize a deck of cards, Brown’s sweetness and talent charm the audience. And when he brings out some curious and pointy props for his finale, he brings the show home with stomach-churning impressiveness.

Read more. 

Collingwood: The Young Faust by Sawyer Bullock

From Simcoe:

Local magician Sawyer Bullock will present a new show Aug. 8-9 at Collingwood’s New Life Brethren in Christ Church.

The 19-year-old Wasaga Beach resident, who lived in Stayner growing up, said the show is called Sawyer Bullock Presents The Young Faust.

“It’s an evening of magic, comedy and mentalism,” Bullock said.

He started writing the show about a year ago but said it only started to really come together in the last couple months.

Read more.

You may remember Sawyer was the recipient of the 2012 Tony Eng Youth Fund bursary.

Well done Sawyer!


From Sawyer Bullock's Facebook page:

Post by Sawyer Bullock Magic.

Scott Hood, Executive Committee Member of the I.B.M.

Shawn Farquhar isn't the only Canadian with a new position among the I.B.M. officers this year.  Congratulations to Scott Hood, who was sworn in as an Executive Committee Member!

It's also worth noting that Scott is also the president of the Canadian Association of Magicians.  Thank you Scott for taking on that important role!

From the Perfect Magic Facebook page:

Post by Perfect Magic.