A Person Sized Optical Illusion

Happy New Year!

It was certainly a strange holiday season but hopefully everyone found some safe enjoyment and an opportunity to connect with loved ones, even if that might not have been in person.

Here’s a little bit of magical “eye candy” in the form of a person-sized optical illusion from Derek Muller and Veritasium:

Optical illusions present some of the most magical experiences. That’s because the magic remains even after they’ve been explained. That whole thing about magicians swearing never to reveal the secrets? That’s usually because most magic secrets trigger a response of “Wait?!? That’s it?” which generally leads to disappointment and also pretty much guarantees that you’re never able to enjoy the same trick in the same way. (Unless, of course, you learn to do it yourself, then you derive enjoyment from giving that sense of wonder to others, even if you can’t experience the “magic” yourself.)

Is That Your Card: The Math Behind It

If you’ve seen at least one card trick in your life, you’ve probably seen this one. You pick out a card, put it back magicians rummages through the deck, pulls out a card, exclaims, “Is this your card?” That one.

When I was younger, I studied math at the University of Toronto and so I loved this explanation by UK math teacher, author and comedian, Matt Parker about the math behind about guessing what card someone chose. Because as it turns out that with just about everything to do with probability and statistics, that our intuitions are almost always wrong. And not just a little bit wrong, but wrong by a lot.

Now of course no sensible magician would do this trick by guessing. There has to be something else going on. But they might pretend they were guessing for dramatic effect. You never can trust those magicians.

David Copperfield on some of his most well-known Illusions

Almost everyone grew up getting to watch one famous magician on television. In the 70s and 80s, that was Canadian Doug Henning. In the 80s and 90s, that was David Copperfield. For over a decade, David defined for the world what it meant to be a magician!

Here with GQ, he revisits some of his most famous illusions, in a fairly long interview:

David is still performing in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel.

Every Martini Ever (Almost)

When you host over two hundred performances of a show called Magic & Martini, everyone starts to send you drink recipes! Here, a YouTube channel, “The Educated Barfly” does a retrospective of the different recipes for the martini going back to the earliest recorded ones from the 1880s.

I agree with what he says that probably no other cocktail has a higher level awareness in popular culture, not just because ordering it was one of James Bond’s catchphrases — shaken not stirred (which everyone will almost invariably tell you is not the way to order your martini) — but the huge number of other old films that featured it.

So if you’re looking for a project while spending lots of time social distancing at home, trying five different versions of the martini to compare and contrast might be a fun passtime!

One Hundred Magicians in Canada

One hundred Canadian magicians were asked to contribute a five second clip while social distancing at home. Here is the result, assembled by Brent and Sarah Nicholls:

The video includes appearances from friends including Rob Testa, Matt DiSero, David Merry, Harry Zimmerman, David Peck, Nicholas Wallace, Ben Train, Jonah Babins, Shawn Farquhar, Aaron Matthews and Mark Correia.

If you enjoyed the project, we’re encouraging viewers to donate to Food Banks Canada during this difficult time.

A Magical Place - Trailer

The trailer for a new short documentary about magic in Toronto, and in particular our local secret magic shop, the Browser’s Den of Magic, has just been released.

In order of appearance: Mark Lewis, The Sentimentalists (Mysterion & Steffi Kay), Ryan Murray, Mark Correia, John Talbot, Jim Byrnes, Wij, me, Jacqueline Swan, Ahmed Alexander, Mike Segal, Kevin Rusli, Jeff Hinchliffe, Patrick Nemeth, Ben Train. Produced by Paul Steinberg.