Darcy Oake at London's New Year’s Day Parade

The lucky audience in Winnipeg got to see this stunt performed!

From the Evening Standard:

Escapologist Darcy Oake is set to attempt the “pinnacle of his career” at the New Year’s Day Parade in London.

Oake, 28, will be suspended with a box locked on his head filled with water. With his hands tied and on one gulp of air he will try and pick locks to escape. 

Writing on his Facebook wall, Oake said the stunt, which he performed for the first time at the end of his 2015 tour on December 5, was "Single handedly the most dangerous thing I've ever done in my life".

Read more.

And now for something completely different

Not magic, but magical in its own way.  Sorry.

From JB's YouTube channel:

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[via Shawn Farquhar]

Benevolence of Magic part 3

Dennis Schick's third annual Benevolence of Magic (in the December "Linking Ring" (v95,12)) features two Canadian projects.  From Dennis:

The first is magician Jeff Christensen from Vancouver. Each year he and his wife and daughter produce “A Magical Evening” in honor and memory of their son, Jonah, to raise money for their Celebrate the Child Foundation, which supports numerous worthy causes.


The other is John Kaplan, also from Vancouver, whose Fundraising Magic program raises money for organizations and communities across Canada.

Well done Jeff and John for your hard work to help others.

Thank you Dennis for sending this information my way!  


Previously featured "Benevolence of Magic" Canadian projects:

• Magicana: Sharing Wonder
• Mosquitoes Suck Tour
• Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp

Canadians at Magi-Fest 2016

Who'd I miss?

From the Magi-Fest website:

Magi-Fest 2016 
Jan 28 - 31 2016, Columbus, Ohio

• Shin Lim
• Eric Leclerc 

 Read more and register.

More "Tricks" to be had

From Magicana:

We've been having a wonderful week full of magic with Tricks at Soulpepper in Toronto. In fact, Sunday's matinée is now sold out.

To accommodate the demand, we've added one more performance to the schedule on Saturday, January 2 at 8:00 PM. Tickets just went on sale, so there are some excellent seats still available so you can be right up close to the action. Don't forget, we have special discounted family packs for groups of four or more (with at least one child).

Read more.

Read this review from Toronto Stage:

As a youngster, I remember my father once cautioning me to watch out for people who ask you to share a secret, used car salesmen of any kind and smooth talkers who want to show you a good card trick.

Falling into the latter category, of course, is David Ben.

That’s because he’s the kind of guy who could make a lot of money hanging out at Union Station mingling with stop over travelers with a little extra time on their side. He may not have anything up his sleeve but he’s definitely got something, somewhere.

The return of Tricks, is anti-pomp and pageantry. The stripped down production relies on basic furnishings to accomplish what great all tricksters need to put on a smoking good show.

Read more.