The Non-Conference

This coming weekend, I'll be performing at a rather unusual event — The Non-Conference. Contrary to its name, it is a conference. It's a one-day conference for non-believers in Niagara Falls, Saturday, August 13.

Speakers at the conference include Maajid Nawaz (who recently co-wrote a book with one of my favourite authors), Catherine Dunphy (a former executive director of The Clergy Project, Scott Clifton (I'll let you figure out on your own why they invited a three-time Emmy winner General Hospital cast member) and several more. If you're free to attend, it will be a terrific event. Tickets are $159 for the day.

My part comes in at the special sit down VIP dinner on Friday, August 12 where guests have a chance to sit down with the speakers. I'll be doing some good old fashioned magic with a skeptical bent. I believe there are still a few tickets left for the dinner.

The weirdest thing to ever happen to me on stage

For the past four years, I have been allowing members of the audience to blindfold me with duct tape (of various and assorted colours). Some would say that this strikes most of the audience as unusual and sends a rather strange message about what my personal boundaries might be. Admitting all that, nothing like this has ever happened to me before: (No spoilers, see for yourself, apologies for the poor video quality)

This was filmed at Magic Tonight If you would like to see what the whole trick actually looks like, in colour, you can watch it here.

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.