It's a coincidence, I swear

I recently acquired a scarlet Atheist lapel pin from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science in the US. To date, it's the best symbol for secularism I've seen which is appropriate for grownups (not that I don't love Flying Spaghetti Monster cufflinks and Darwin Fish car emblems). I look forward to wearing it in public performances, TV appearances and anywhere else I can sneak it in. What it took me a few days to realize was that both the scarlet  A and my letterhead both seemed to use the same font. Lucky me!

   

Although it's a good step forward, I think some work needs to be done on branding. Atheism remains a non-position and is very vague, so it would be nice to have something which made a bit more of a positive statement. Nevertheless, it's a pretty little thing and I'm happy to have one.

Praise for Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks

It's been a fantastic summer that I won't soon forget. Between the Hamilton Fringe Festival and the Summerworks Performance Festival, I completed thirteen performances of Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks. Here are some highlights of what people had to say:

Truly Entertaining NOW Magazine

Remarkable... This magician is one talented fellow. The Hamilton Spectator

Thought-provoking, funny, astonishing and thoroughly entertaining. It's a great magic display and that's all anyone needs to know. Ontario Arts Review

I promise you will be thinking about how it's done - during and after the show and probably the rest of the month. Thoroughly entertaining. Artword

Brimming with wicked wit and calculated comedy. The VIEW Magazine

To my eyes, James Alan is every bit as good as any magician I have seen on TV... Alan is very personable, he makes you laugh between the lies and tricks... It is very engaging and entertaining. An hour will fly by before you know it. Mooney on Theatre

Open Til Midnight Review

Open 'Til Midnight posted a very detailed review of my show - you can read the full review here. If you missed the show at Summerworks, you can see a tiny teaser from the show on their YouTube page:

Eugene Burger Special Event

I'm very pleased to announce one of my favourite magicians in the world is coming to Toronto for a live performance. On Friday, September 14, at 8:00 PM Eugene Burger will be presenting

The Presence of Magic Magic, Mystery and Things Going Bump in the Night

This is the first time Eugene has ever performed for the public in Canada. We will be at the Toronto Centre for the Arts in the Studio Theatre (Yonge, north of 401) which seats approximately 200.

More details will be available on the Abracadabaret webpage.

Produced in partnership with the Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club.

Anteater Consortium

This is one of the stranger projects I've ever worked on. I helped my friend Ben Train to write a small booklet of his card magic. The result was Anteater Consortium. It contains seven items which vary in difficulty from self working to moderately difficult. As you can guess from the title, none of them have particularly serious presentations. If you can't track down Ben directly to obtain a copy, you can get one from Denny & Lee's Magic Studio here.

James Biss Interviewed On the Larry Smith Show

The Hamilton Fringe Festival creates a wonderful sense of family and camaraderie. In particular, we have a performers club house at the Artword Artbar (which the public is welcome to crash). Every night, comedian Larry Smith hosts an avant garde talk show (meaning there are no cameras) on stage at Artword interviewing the players in the twenty eight Fringe productions. See my director, James Biss' interview in all its absurdity: