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!

Cheap Tricks with Dear Friends

On Thursday, September 15, I'll be involved in a most unusual show in Toronto:

Cheap Tricks (it's not what you think it is... I swear)

Many performers dread the thought of arriving at an event to discover that part or all of their show is missing (or more likely, that some airline personnel have skilfully redirected it to the wrong city as part of their mission to increase the amount of entropy in the universe.) This is a show where we make this happen on purpose.

A few hours before the show, seven magicians will be given a limited budget and a destination store (like a convenience store) and have to generate an act based on what they can acquire in a limited amount of time. It's a test of ingenuity, creativity and audacity. I'll be one of the judges, which I suspect may be a more difficult job that what awaits the performers.

The show details for the show are:

Cheap Tricks Thursday, September 15 @ 8:00 PM Revival (783 College Street)

Advance tickets are $20 and are available online now. If you're able to make it out I'm sure it will be a most exciting and unique evening.

Making Faces

It's been a while since I've posted one of these compilations. Most people don't realize how difficult it is to take photos of live performance. There is no chance to go back and try it again, the moments are gone forever. But what that also means is that sometimes the moments you capture are truly strange. So take a look at some of the funny faces performers made so far this year on Magic Tonight. Enjoy the lovely faces of Glenn Ottaway, Ben Train, David Merry, The Sentimentalists (Mysterion & Steffi Kay) and me:

Magic Tonight continues Sunday nights in Downtown Toronto at the Crimson Lounge. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.

Last time on Magic Tonight

One of the things I enjoy most about Magic Tonight is the rich variety of performers we have in the city who appear on the show. Last week, I had the chance to see a new double-act forming: The Sentimentalists. The always-creepy Mysterion has teemed up with Steffi Kay (who came fabulously colour coordinated to our venue) to demonstrate some two-person mind reading or what has become known, for historical reasons, as "second sight".

Magic Tonight continues Sunday nights in Toronto at the Crimson Lounge. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.

Happy Halloween

Magicians are not generally very scary people. We're primarily entertainers. But sometimes, in order to be dramatic, we need to court danger and sometimes just be a little weird. So for Halloween this year, I took a look through our archives and assembled this collection of the magicians on Magic Tonight getting dressed up or just generally being strange and creepy. Enjoy!

Magic Tonight runs weekly at the Crimson Lounge in downtown Toronto, Readers of this blog can use the code reality fir a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.

Last week on Magic Tonight

Last night's show at the Crimson Lounge in Toronto was creepier than usual. Mysterion was in strange form (and of course, I mean that in a good way.) He was corrupting the youth, contacting the dead and just generally weirding people out. I'm not sure if that child actually went home and did his satanic colouring, but we can be on the lookout for dark clouds and bad omens today. We're gearing up for the fall season. Currently all of our shows in Missisauga for September are sold out but we have shows in Toronto with seats available. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.

If you didn't make it to the show last night, take a look at some of what you missed: