A nice thing to share

We always begin our shows with the same announcement.

Please turn off all cellphones or set them to vibrate. Any electronic device that goes off during the show will be confiscated and smashed to bits with iron mallets.

(The iron mallets are a literary allusion - a free pair of tickets to Magic@theCage for the first person to respond in the comments with where it comes from.)

We also add the following:

Non flash photography is permitted. Weird stuff is going to happen and it belongs on YouTube and Facebook.

Recently, someone took our advice to heart, which is a good thing. Every month we take photos sent to us and add them to our own at the gallery page of Abracadabaret.com. And every month we randomly choose some of the posters and give them free tickets to an upcoming show.

Occasionally someone goes that extra light-year and we'll just give them the tickets right away. So, from JP Magic:

Magic at the Winchester is on every Sunday night at 7:00 PM, dinner @ 6:30. Tickets are $20 at the door ($15 online with special discounts for groups of five or more).

CP24 Breakfast

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.

Taller Tales

More photos from Illusions of Grandeur, the strange and special show I did with Tyler Wilson last weekend. Thanks to Chris Mayhew for these. The show was an amazing experience. Now I have to turn my attention to two major upcoming projects this one and this one... it's going to be a busy month.

Tall Tales

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. 

Rogers: Daytime Toronto

My appearance on Rogers Daytime Toronto discussing the upcoming Illusions of Grandeur with Tyler Wilson at The Winchester. 

Related Posts

About Illusions of Grandeur - Read A Tall Order

Photos from Illusions of Grandeur - Read Tall Tales and Taller Tales

James Alan's YouTube Chanel

Wendy's Magic

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.

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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.

Part 1: An Empty Paper Bag

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XZhR3G5WQA&w=560&h=315]

Part 2: The Cups & Balls

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhYpg9vIkDs&w=560&h=315]

More performance video...