Reality Based Magic - Notes

Last night, I did a special lecture for magicians at the Joan Caesar Hat & Wand Club in Kitchener, Ontario. To go along with the lecture, I prepared a 50-page booklet describing some of the tricks I taught. I have a few copies of the booklet left over for any magicians that might be interested. The trick includes one piece from Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks, an item from my family shows (yes, I perform for children when asked politely) and from my close up repertoire as well as some smaller card items and three essays.

The booklet was originally going to be titled The Magic of Reality, but before I had a chance, Richard Dawkins stole the title and used it for his book for children. (The book is superb, if you don't have it already.) The theme that draws the pieces (mostly) together is that according to certain systems of magic theory, they are all bad tricks, and yet they work. When I say bad, they're time tested in front of audiences but they violate tenets of standard magic theory about how the methods should work. For me they underscore that "rules" in magic are really just guidelines and that reality is the ultimate arbiter of what works and what doesn't.

To match the spirit of the title, the cover image and chapter titles are images from the Hubble Space Telescope, which are easily more impressive than everything in the book.

If anyone is interested, I have a handful of the books left. I may also re-release them in an electronic format at some point.

The booklet is $20, available from the Ring 17 online store. 

Nominated for Magician of the Year

According to an announcement posted yesterday on the Canadian Association of Magicians Blog, I've been nominated for Canadian Magician of the Year. What does this mean? I have no idea. The process behind the award has changed this year, and the process is not quite transparent with no formal criteria. It appears to have been remade as a popularity contest where anyone can nominate anyone and it goes on record. So at the moment it appears to just be a very flattering joke someone has played on my behalf.

Edit 5/17/2013 The President of the Canadian Association of Magicians clarified that what were originally announced as "nominations" aren't proper nominations but rather "suggestions for nominations" . The actual "nominees" are really just the "finalists" who receive the most "suggestions for nominations". Furthermore, the two lovely people who did "nominate" me have since been identified and both have confessed to doing so with the most ironic of intentions. So it still makes about as much sense as the rest of Canadian politics.

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

On Thursday, February 21, I will be giving a lecture for the Joan Caesar Hat & Wand Club in Kitchener. I'm very excited for the lecture since it contains several things I have never shared except with close friends. Tickets are available at the door if you are interested in attending. However, I was a bit shocked when I saw the photo they used in promoting the lecture. Apparently this was modified by the secretary using an iPhone app.... Henceforth, I will have a new stipulation in my rider that promotional photos may not be altered... sigh.

Photo by Irina Popova, sparkles by Daryl Hutton

New YouTube Page

I've started posting some performance video and other resources on my YouTube page. Feel free to subscribe there.

Mosquitoes Suck

This is a shameless piece of promotion for some colleagues who deserve it. In particular, this is directed to anyone who works in the field of education, especially Ontario high schools. My friends, Matt Disero and David Peck, who between them are a magicians, comedians, philosophers and teachers (I'll leave you to sort out who's what) and have created a fantastic school program: The Mosquitoes Suck Tour. The program blends magic and comedy with an important message about the importance of social justice and the means to eradicate malaria.

If that weren't cool enough, they shows also contain contributions from Rick Mercer, Fefe Dobson and the boy band Neverest. There are also spinoff programs including curriculum materials about social justice and malaria for social/science teachers. There is also a fundraising program they run for both schools and mosquito nets involving fair trade coffee which is quite good.

The program originated a few years ago in the Halton/Peel region and built itself up slowly. Most of their performances have been in that region, but they are starting to expand their territory outwards into the rest of Ontario.

I know that because of labour disputes, this has been a particularly strange year for education in Ontario. But if you're in the field and could benefit from some exception programming, I can't recommend this program highly enough.

Magic Workshops for Children

I recently completed work designing a series of magic workshops for children. The workshops are being offered by a company, UGOT Canada. UGOT began as a company offering after four and extracurricular dance programs over five years ago and has since expanded to include a number of other programs in the realm of art, fitness and education including magic. At the moment, we have two programs ready for delivery, designed for children ages 7-12. We created a sixty-minute one-time workshop which explains and teaches three simple magic tricks and includes some extra tricks performed but not explained. The learning is hands on with a set of materials for every participant. (There are extra fees if you want the kids to be able to take the material home at the end of the workshop.) These workshops are intended for schools, aftercare programs and community groups and are acceptable for groups of up to 35 children with proper staff supervision.

We also crafted an extended workshop which consists of five to eight sixty-minute workshops. These are usually spaced a week apart. The course includes 8-15 tricks with each participant getting a complete set of the material to keep. These extended workshops are recommended for groups of up to fifteen participants.

Currently, the workshops are offered in the GTA. I'm teaching about fifty percent of the workshops personally, but we've begun the process of training additional instructors to offer the workshops outside the GTA as well.

Interested groups should contact UGOT Canada directly.