This week on Magic Tonight

It's Boxing Day and most of the festive (over) eating is over. I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday which continues over the next week or so. Our last official event of the night is tomorrow at the Crimson Lounge downtown. We're already sold out and looking forward to a full house. My ever-so-special guest is incredibly funny Glenn Ottaway, the godfather of Canadian magic and comedy in Toronto.

I also have a special guest, the ever-so-adorable Ben Train. I need the extra hand because I'm doing double duty with the Jolakotturinn show down the street at Revival. They still have some tickets available if you'd like to join us there. It's going to be a busy night of magic.

I'm also working on pulling together the best photos from our shows from the year, so if you've been in the audience at Magic Tonight and have photos or video you'd like to share, feel free to get in touch.

This week on Magic Tonight

This Sunday, I'm joined by Phil Pivnick - who was the winner of the "Toronto's Best Magician Contest" (which was, oddly, held in Markham... because Magicians are weird.) He's a funny and polished popular children's performer, but at Magic Tonight, we stick a suit on him and watch him perform his more grown up material! He also makes lots of funny faces as you'll see in the photos below. Update: We're sold out for this Sunday's show! Visit us online to grab tickets for our upcoming performances.

December 20 Phil Pivnick Sold Out

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

Reason's Greetings

This Saturday night (December 19) we're doing a bonus instalment of Magic Tonight as a fundraiser for the Centre for Inquiry Canada. This organization, near and dear to my heart, promotes reason, science and secular values and offers a terrific range of educational programming. Dinner is included with tickets to the show and there are discounted tickets for Members of CFI. If you're not a member but would like to join, you can buy a membership along with your tickets, available at www.magictonight.ca/cfi. The evening starts at 5:00 PM with some mingling (yes, the bar is open!), dinner at 6:00 and the show at 7:00.

For those who haven't been, Magic Tonight is our weekly show in Downtown Toronto at the Crimson Lounge (College Street, just west of  Spadina). If you can't make it on the 19th, but still want to support CFI, you can buy tickets for any of our regular shows with the discount code cficanada. You'll get a huge discount and a portion of the proceeds will to go the centre.

This weekend on Magic Tonight

We're nearly sold out for this Sunday's instalment of Magic Tonight. It's an extremely busy time of year for performers, so originally the plans were to just have me this Sunday, but I'm now being joined by the irritatingly photogenic [1] Keith Brown. Keith spent the bulk of the summer touring his Fringe show Exchange and is back in and around Toronto and London performing his signature trick where he swallows neckties and spits them back up again knotted. [2] We have a few seats left for the show, so I hope you can join us. It's going to be a fun magical evening.

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.

December 13 Keith Brown

[1] A longstanding joke here on the blog. Surely you concede the nickname is deserved!

[2] This is not a trick Keith actually performs, but we all wish it were.

Andy Kim Christmas Special

Last night, I had the privilege of co-hosting the backstage celebration for the 11th annual Andy Kim Christmas Special. At the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, an amazing lineup of musical talent gathered to raise money in support of CAMH Gifts of Light. Performers included Kardinal Offishall,  The Barenaked Ladies, Finger Eleven, Ron Sexsmith, Tom Cochrane and of course Andy Kim. The entire show was sold out weeks in advance so in order to raise some additional funds, the concert was webcast live and viewers at home were given the opportunity to donate. On top of the live performances on stage we were live streaming interviews and magic from the VIP room backstage.  My co-hosts Vanessa Legacy and Max River looked after the red-carpet-y interview-y stuff and I got to perform magic.

It was a fun night. See for yourself:

I'll try to post some video from the webcast in the New Year if I can get my hands on it. In the meantime, if you have a few dollars to spare, consider a donation to CAMH Gifts of Light.

This Week on Magic Tonight

This Sunday's special guest on Magic Tonight is a blast from the past. I've never actually performed with Michael Ross before but when I was but a wee lad, I saw him on Mr. Dressup and Sesame Street. Like me, he focuses on classical conjuring and has a lot of material which you almost never see performed live these days. So come join us for dinner and a wonderful evening of magic and fun at the Crimson Lounge downtown on Sunday night.

November 22 Michael Ross

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