magic is about honesty
everything here is true
except for the bits I made up
Or maybe not.
On Sunday, September 23, I'll be giving a magic seminar at The Browser's Den of Magic. I'll be discussing the underpinnings of some of the material I've worked on over the past ten-ish years. It's not necessarily informative for the uninitiated. But it's an opportunity to talk about some of the work that for 99% of my work must be kept secret.
Sunday, September 23 - 5:30 PM
The Browser's Den of Magic
3220 Dufferin Street, Toronto
It's just been announced, I'll be appearing on stage at the annual one day magic convention hosted in Toronto by the Browser's Den of Magic - The Browser Bash. This is the fourth year they're holding this special gathering for magicians and magic enthusiasts. Every year it seems to get bigger and more extravagant.
I've been asked if I would do one of my favourite pieces; something which began as the close of my first theatre show, Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks:
Photo by Irina Popova
Of course, as you would expect for an event organized by magicians, they're being intentionally mysterious about who else is performing, but more names will be added as we get closer to April.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with David Peck, the host of the Face2Face Podcast and ridiculously tall Canadian magician Brian Roberts to discuss their upcoming lecture "Spare Change for Social Change."
Both David and Brian have appeared several times as guests on Magic Tonight. I've been a guest on David's podcast twice already (see here and here) and but this time I was able to steal the microphone and serve as interviewer and host. We met in the mysterious back room of the Browser's Den of Magic, who will be hosting the lecture later this month.
We talked about the process of sharing and uncovering secrets and the value that different magicians place on different branches of the craft of magic. Eventually, David's inner philosopher reared its ugly head and we discussed the role of the modern performing magician in today's society. It was a very interesting conversation to be part of.
You can download the podcast here (episode no. 263) or subscribe in iTunes. Tickets are available for the lecture on Saturday, February 26 at 6:00 PM, $20 when you reserve online.
*The unhealthy obsession with "introductions" in the podcast is a dig at a previous appearance of mine on the "Discourse in Magic" podcast... long story.
We had a wonderful time on Magic Tonight last week. We lost a day (Sunday - we were at a sold out gathering of 250 magicians locked in a banquet hall for 12 hours... and you though our show was odd!) but we made up for it with extra special guests. In addition to the regularly scheduled Ben Train and Phil Pivnick, we had a special guest joining us from San Francisco, Michael Feldman. Michael is a regular performer at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and just generally a deviously clever and charming fellow. He did an outstanding job — even better when you consider that he had just spent 10 hours in planes before exiting the airport, hopping in a car and heading to our show.
See what we got up to. And if you haven't had a chance to see the show recently, come check us out!
Magic Tonight is performed weekly in Mississauga, Pickering and Toronto. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for discounts on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.
I'm staring at a little present from Bobby Motta. To go along with his lecture at the Browser's Den of Magic last weekend, he produced a set of notes which was available for sale.
notes
The good news is they're gorgeous. They come in an envelope with a wax seal.
seal
The bad news is, they come in an envelope with a wax seal, and I can't bring myself to open them. So I have absolutely no idea what they look like.
Full disclosure: I wrote them, so I know what they say. But I still have no idea what they look like. They contain five tricks, all of the mental variety. (Actually it could be considered eight tricks; four of them are variations on a theme.) One of them offers an in-depth section on a creation of his, Blackmail, which you would have to own for it to be of use to you. And it also includes the piece which he uses to close his show at Dave & Busters. I'm not allowed to say which one of the five that is; you'll have to go see the show for yourself to figure that out.
The booklets were produced in a very limited number for the lecture (The Browser's Den only fits about 40-50 people before you have to start standing on people's shoulders) so if you're interested in obtaining a copy, you'd probably have to track Bobby down directly fairly soon. They may be reprinted, but if it's done in larger quantities, he might get lazy and the new edition might not look nearly as pretty.*
It's also possible that Bobby won't be around long enough to reprint them after I thank him for his... ahem... generous acknowledgement at the end of the notes. I'm not saying any more here. You'll have to go read it for yourself.
*If you ask me, his wive probably gets most of the credit for how pretty they look. But that's just a hunch.
