magic is about honesty
everything here is true
except for the bits I made up
Here is the video from my appearance on CP24 Breakfast last weekend.
More information about Magic at the Winchester is available here.
If parts of it seem to be missing, that's because one of my segments was cut short because to cover a press conference with Kathleen Wynne which started ahead of schedule. So it's been removed to protect you from being confused.
Special thanks to Chris Mayhew for his video jiggery-pokery.
Check out more video here.
This weekend, I finished the first round of shows for Illusions of Grandeur with my friend, Tyler Wilson. The goal was to create a true close-up magic show, instead of a show on stage that people had to watch from a distance. The worst seat in the house was 12 feet away from the "stage". The feedback we've received so far has been extraordinary. Tyler and I would like to thank everyone who was able to make it out. Putting together the show was an amazing experience. We had to assemble and script everything by email and there were several of Tyler's in the show that even I didn't even have the chance to see until the day before when Tyler arrived in Toronto.
At the moment, we don't have any concrete plans to remount the show anywhere, but I've spoken with Tyler and it's not entirely off the table... so keep an eye open for the possibility.
Here is the first round of photos from the show:
These are just the iPhone photos. The Abracadabaret elf, Chris Mayhew, is busily working on the nice ones.
My appearance on Rogers Daytime Toronto discussing the upcoming Illusions of Grandeur with Tyler Wilson at The Winchester.
About Illusions of Grandeur - Read A Tall Order
Photos from Illusions of Grandeur - Read Tall Tales and Taller Tales
James Alan's YouTube Chanel
Back in June, along with several other magicians, I was asked to film a series of short pieces to help promote a new product being introduced by Wendy's Canada - the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger. Tied in with the magic is the chance to win a trip to Las Vegas. This was originally intended to be a project using faked magic (actors performing with camera tricks) but instead Wendy's opted for real magicians performing with no trick photography. Everything was shot continuously in one take (although there are multiple camera angles for better visibility). The result was the online ad campaign Expect to be Amazed.
The hardest part of the project is the name: try saying "Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger" over over again - it's hard to say on camera, and I don't think any of us got it right in less than three takes.
Now that the product has been launched, the videos that were shot here in Toronto are being released one by one every few days through Wendy's Canada's Facebook page and YouTube Channel. You can watch my performances along with Mike Segal (Canada's Magician of the Year) and David "Baldini" Grossfield. More are coming, so follow and like to see them all.
And of course, get yourself to a Wendy's so you can try the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburgerbefore they all disappear.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XZhR3G5WQA&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhYpg9vIkDs&w=560&h=315]
Last year, my show Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks was in the Summerworks Performance Festival at the Scotiabank Studio Theatre. As an experiment, we included an announcement at the beginning of the show along with the cell phone notice saying "non-flash photography is permitted, weird stuff will happen and it belongs on YouTube and Facebook" just to see what would happen. Now, eight months later, someone DropBoxed me a the video they shot of a portion of the show from the audience.
I don't actually have all that much video of my performances and I'm always happy to see it. So even though this is (formerly) unauthorized footage, I'll share it, so that if there's anyone else out there who has something stashed away, perhaps they'll share it.
This remains one of my favourite tricks that I've ever performed. Those of you who have seen more recent versions of it know that I've changed the story from "waiting in a hotel bar" to "waiting in an airport lounge" proving that either my memory is getting progressively worse or I'm a better liar than ever.
