Mahdi Gilbert at the South Tyneside International Magic Festival

From the South Tyneside Council website:

A magician born without hands or feet who managed to fool two of the magic world's toughest critics is bringing his unique act to the North East in March.

Mahdi Gilbert will lead an invasion of magicians from across the Atlantic heading to South Shields for the 14^th annual South Tyneside International Magic Festival (STIMF) from 16-19 March.

Born in Canada and now living in New York, Mahdi has developed every single technique he employs in his illusions from scratch. And, despite having no hands, he has become one of the world's finest sleight of hand magicians.

Read more.

Billy Hsueh on IBM's Executive Committee

Congratulations Billy!

From Billy Hsueh's Facebook page:

A note to subscribers: the content of this post is embedded from another website and is not available to preview. To view the content of the post, please visit http://CanadasMagic.blogspot.com. Some of the embedded code may be visible in this notification.

Montreal: Masters of Spectacular

January 26th.  With Marc Trudel!

From Evelyn Matlin's Facebook page:

A note to subscribers: the content of this post is embedded from another website and is not available to preview. To view the content of the post, please visit http://CanadasMagic.blogspot.com. Some of the embedded code may be visible in this notification.

Welcoming a new patron: Michael Close

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Michael Close!

Michael was born in Cleveland, raised in Indiana, lived and worked in Las Vegas for twelve years, and now lives in Toronto.

He is the author of the Workers series and other ebooks and is regarded as one of the top close-up magicians in the world. Additionally, he is the editor of M-U-M, the magazine of The Society of American Magicians.

Be sure to check out the once-in-a-lifetime weekend workshop with Johnny Thompson that Michael is offering this spring.

Thank you Michael, for your sponsorship of this website!

Broken wand: Suley Fattah

Updated January 31st to add:

•  Details about the Celebration of Life for Suley can be found at Magicana.

Updated on January 26th to add:

•  Details about the memorial service are posted at Magicana.

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of the recent passing of Suley Fattah, Julie Eng's husband.

I first met Suley at the 2001 CAM convention (though I first saw him years earlier, on stage at the Shaw Festival).  I'll remember Suley as always having a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. 

Our sincere condolences go out to Julie.  Our thoughts are with you at this most difficult time.


From James Alan's post in the Magic Cafe:

With great sadness, we report the passing of Suley Fattah, beloved husband of Julie Eng. Suley passed away earlier today due to complications from a heart attack. He died peacefully at Toronto General Hospital surrounded by his family.

Suley was a long-time associate of David Ben and Magicana where he worked largely behind the curtain contributing significantly to our stage productions, publications and community outreach programs. More information about Suley is available in the December 2016 issue of Genii in the cover story about Julie. His friendship will be greatly missed.

We will share more information about his memorial when we are able to.

Richard Kaufman also has a post up at the Genii forums.


From Julie's Facebook page:

2016 Readers' Choice award results

Thank you all for participating in the spirit in which the awards were intended:  a fun way to recognize and celebrate all of the fabulous talent in our country.

One hundred and eighty five of you voted in this "bragging rights" only contest.  Here are the results of our first ever "Readers' Choice Inspirational Canadian Magician of the Year" award!

Beacons of Inspiration

Murray and Teresa Hatfield

The Hatfields outdid themselves last year with their production "Unbelievable."  Murray also stepped up to the Vice President position of CAM, in anticipation of becoming CAM President later this year.

Thanks for the inspiration Murray and Teresa!


Website: MurrayHatfieldMagic.com

Matt DiSero

In 2016 Matt appeared on season 3 of Penn and Teller's "Fool Us," which I think is inspiring all on it's own.  He also has a knack for keeping things light and making us laugh.

Thanks for the inspiration Matt!

Website: MattDiSero.com

Editor's Choice

Mahdi Gilbert

I found Mahdi's appearance on season 3 of Penn and Teller's "Fool Us" very powerful and inspirational.  I was also impressed that one of my readers from Germany chose to nominate Mahdi.  Apparently he has quite the fan base!

Website: MahdiGilbert.com

Readers' Choice

Steven Lafond

Congratulations to Steven for winning the 2016 Readers' Choice award!

Keep up the great work with 'Magic Mondays' in Ottawa and your ongoing support of the Canadian magic community!


Website: MagicStudioProductions

Toronto: Spare Change for Social Change Lecture

From the Browser's Den of Magic website:

BRIAN ROBERTS & DAVE PECK - Spare Change for Social Change Lecture

Sunday, February 26

Two lecturers for the price of one!

Who are those guys you may ask? Well, Brian and David's combined years of performing, studying and lecturing magic is more than 50 years! And their work shows it.

This may end up being the bargain lecture of the year as Brian and David have a vast array of routines, ideas, concepts that they will share. Plus, it's for a good cause.

Both have lectured in the past at Browser's Den and we can tell you that the magic was excellent and there were lots of laughs along the way.

You will gain many tips and advice as you watch and listen to their magic covering: Cards, Coins, Misdirection, Stage Manipulation, Miser's Dream, etc.

Read more and buy tickets.