A Magician and an Economist walk into a Bar

Although these days, it’s probably not a bar, it’s just a zoom call. The University of Chicago economist, Steven Levitt, who wrote the wildly popular Freakonomics and its various sequels, recently started a podcast: People I (mostly) Admire. His most recent guest was magician Joshua Jay.

Joshua plays a prominent role around the world bringing magicians together. For over a decade he was the editor of the tricks column for one of the largest magic magazines in the world. Later he co-founded a magic publishing company which shares secret material around the world and organizes conferences both in the US and the UK. (Picture a hotel filled with nine hundred magicians for a weekend….)

I enjoyed the discussion about how magicians think and create. Many professions are known entirely through cliches and stereotypes and magic is certainly one of them.

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.

Rencontre avec un magicien

I was recently invited to appear on "L’heure de pointe”, a CBC Radio Canada program, to talk about magic goings on in the city of Toronto. (Apparently I speak French… who knew?)

In particular Illusions: The Art of Magic currently open at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Allan Slaight Collection of Magic Posters is currently on display through the middle of May. (Or at least part of the collection… the exhibit is on loan from the McCord Museum in Montreal where the full collection lives.) These are stunning images produced to advertise magic shows in what we call the “Golden Age” (1880-1930 give or take). They were produced by an incredible colour printing technology on an unbelievable scale — many of the posters on display are larger than a person.

On top of the posters themselves magicians with the Toronto Magic Company (of whom I am one) are performing daily in the gallery from 2:00 - 4:00 PM and also evening performances 6:00 - 8:00 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays.

We also talked about some other Toronto goings on including the monthly “Newest Trick in the Book” and a secret little magicians get together known as “Alakajam”

Extra, Extra, Read All About It

I was recently honoured to be invited to write the cover story for the February issue of Vanish Magazine.

It’s a profile of two Toronto based performers and friends The Sentimentalists. They began performing together in 2015. I actually have photos from one of their earliest performances on my old show Magic Tonight which ran from 2013-2016 in Toronto. The pair is made up of Steffi Kay and Mysterion the Mindreader.

ca. 2016 - Photo by Ahmed Alexander

Recently they’ve been taking the world by storm with appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and America’s Got Talent and at the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. The article talks about how they met and began performing together and how they became a magical odd couple.

Vanish Magazine is a free electronic publication with tens of thousands of subscribers. The full issue is available online, with the article beginning on page 8.

A Cheap Victory

Judge Steffi Kay

Last night was Cheap Tricks 2, the nightmarish magic contest envisioned by Mysterion, Canada’s most awesomely coiffed, sartorially resplendent mentalist and half of the mindreading duo The Sentimentalists. Each contestant receives a series of constraints and has to create their act in just a few hours before performing on stage at Revival.

I appeared alongside John Roldan, Jim Byrnes, Beyond Mental Borders, Jonah Babins, Harry Zimmerman, Jacqueline Swann and Shamus MacGregor. The contest was judged by Steffi Kay of the Sentimentalists, Ben Train, Rayn, and the previous champion Chris Westfall. (I was a judge on the first contest in 2017, but agreed to give up my spot to Chris.)

My set of constrains was that i had 3 hours to build an act using a budget of $5 with only material procured at a the nearby A&W. I also had to present in the theme of a XXX-rated Adult Film…. magic for grownups indeed. I’m so glad I forgot to invite my mother to watch. I’m more glad that magic elder statesman Mark Lewis was in the audience to witness me debasing the art of magic.

But a contest is a contest and I played to win (much to Mysterion’s regret.) You can watch the full performance below — cheaply filmed and edited by the Cheap Tricks elves. Although there’s not necessarily any reason you would want to. And certainly don’t do it with your children around:

The tl/dw is that I won…. proud of it, but not proud of what I had to do to get it. Thank you to the judges and to everyone who attended the contest.

James Alan & Mysterion the Mindreader

L to R: Shamus Macgregor, Beyond Mental Borders, Harry Zimmerman, Jacqueline Swann, James Alan, Jonah Babins, Jim Byrns, John Roldan

I can’t wait to get back to doing normal magic!