New Show

I'm pleased to announce the return of Abracadabaret, June 30 in Toronto at the Winchester Kitchen. For the past few years, I've wanted to find a regular venue where we could perform these special variety shows together. In part, I was distracted by other projects I deeply enjoyed like work with Magicana, or the Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club and special projects like Asi Wind and Eugene Burger's performances and of course my own one-man show. At the same time, friends like Chris Westfall and Bobby Motta were producing regular instalments of Slice of Magic and Headgames respectively, so the presence of quality alternatives did nothing to curb my laziness.

But now that a great venue has presented itself, I'm happy to get back into things and June 30th can't come fast enough. So make sure you've subscribed to receive updates (to this blog, to Abracadabaret, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever) about the new shows over the next few weeks as we'll have lots of exciting news coming out.

More Damn Lies

My one-man show, Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks will be returning to The Winchester for three nights this summer.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday July 11, 12, 13 2013 @ 8:00 PM

Between the location, the ambiance and the menu, The Winchester is one of my favourite venues to perform at. I hope you can join us.

A bit of bootleg footage

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.

Appearance on Rogers Daytime Toronto

Last month, I appeared on Daytime Toronto with Val Cole. It was an appearance for the fun of it; the producers wanted to have some magic for April Fools Day. The video cuts off rather abruptly at the end. We tried to squeeze in one last trick, but did not make it to the end before the commercial break. So all that's missing is a trick with no ending.

Special Fundraiser Performance

Next week, several friends are putting on a special fundraising performance. It takes place Tuesday, April 30 at 8:00 PM. A Slice of Magic is dedicating 100% of the proceeds from the event towards sending a young person to Magic Camp on scholarship. Sorcerers Safari is Canada's only overnight camp dedicated to magic. In their fifteen year history, they have hosted hundreds of campers and an amazing roster of magic guest instructors from around the globe including multiple world champions.

The show features a number of good friends performing in the lounge at the Boston Pizza at Yonge & Eglinton (who have generously donated the space for this event. Tickets are $10 and are available online or at the door.

Doors open at 6:30 where you can come early for dinner and also see magicians performing close up magic before the show proper begins at 8:00.

Best Magician Contest

This Saturday, I will be competing in the "Best Magician Contest"[1] hosted by A1 Chinese Radio and Classic Force. We will be on stage at Market Village in Markham, Ontario on Saturday, April 13 at approximately 7:30 PM. This a free event being put on by the Radio Station. [Update June 3, 2013 - Performance footage, shot by Hansen Lau]

[1] It's not really a contest. The event is hosted in Cantonese. "Best Magician" has lost something in translation. Instead it's a gala performance with a mix of amateurs, hobbyists and professions with some judges thrown in for dramatic effect. There is some kind of prize for the act they like the best, but we're not sure what that is. To quote from Whose Line Is It Anyway, everything is made up and the points don't matter. But it should still be a great show!