Michael Weber's Zombie Workshop

A free bonus chapter that didn't make it in to Ninety-Nine Fabrications Volume 2. (So if you haven't read it - here's a taste of what you're missing. Special thanks to Canada's Magic for leaking this for us. Now you can have the unabridged version with photographic illustrations.

A Report from the P. Howard Lyons Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, Ring 99, Toronto

While we may occasionally pretend to be men (and even women) of our word, our illustrious membership has less collective willpower than Augustus Gloop in a room full of Wonka Bars.

Earlier this year, as a result of a rather vague controversy, we vowed to send our beloved Ring to the grave and ne'er speak of it again. We thought we had succeeded. But when Michael Weber sent word that he would be in town (for reasons we are unable to relate here as they are so secret we have yet to determine them) and was interested in doing a workshop, we rose like zombies and gathered to feast on the contents of his magnificent and delicious brain.

This was no small order as the weekend he has selected was not only the long weekend celebrating our country's founding (uncreatively named Canada Day - Max Maven and Allan Slaight could have done better), but also the glorious orgasmic climax to Pride Week, which is always enjoyed most enthusiastically in Toronto. Nevertheless, we forewent the excessive indulgence in alcohol, fireworks and public nudity and assembled at the usual place. We were not disappointed for our efforts.

The ex-president (James Alan) accompanied by another James (James Harrison), and Keith Brown (recently named Toronto's Best Magician in a silly little contest held outside of Toronto to save on parking and avoid both traffic and credibility) rushed over from their fabulous performance at the gay pride installment of Abracadabaret (Canada's only variety show dedicated to magic, mystery and to-die-for shoes) on the other side of town to not miss any of the mind-blowingness. Two underaged attendees even managed to secure fake IDs to gain entry to our secret speakeasy-cum-clubhouse for the event.

Mr. Weber did not disappoint. He offered a marvelous assortment of practical, commercial and diabolically clever card magic, money magic, mentalism, and personal grooming accessories. We cannot divulge the contents of this super-secret workshop as we have all been sworn to secrecy. The penalty for violating this solemn oath is being forced to watch certain unnamed members of the city's other ring perform all of Ben Train's unpublished material. Twice. They would also be made to judge next year's Chasing Dovetails Bingo tournament. We are not permitted to  explain that he shared the stories  behind two of the long uncredited Vernon and Miller items from Kaplan and Expert Card Technique. We can say he taught his own mischievous and devious twists on three items hidden in the pages of the recent Graham-Diaconis book on math and magic. Weber closed out the night by demonstrating a small non-card treasure he unearthed in a letter written by Charles Jordan. Suffice it to say that we were all thoroughly delighted and will be keeping our yaps shut.

The special meeting room also features a VIP viewing gallery at the back to which the ex-president, Chicago's David Solomon and Aspen's Eric Mead were banished to prevent them from causing too much trouble. To keep the peanut gallery quiet, a second, younger more vertically-challenged Mr. Weber held court. Due to a strategically timed nap (and apparently a better fake ID than any of us had ever seen), young Master Weber was able to share the real work on several captivating iPad apps well past the point any sensible person would consider bedtime. The legumes on the periphery did manage to poke their heads up occasionally as Weber the senior got around to what we might call "the good bits" which happened what we may call "often".

Following the official programming there were additional things which cannot be explained and an informal session with Eric Mead which deteriorated rapidly into philosophical discussions of gastronomy, techniques for setting things on fire and looking at baby pictures.

So having had our fix, we put yet another silver bullet in the chamber and return the illustrious Ring 99 to oblivion... until the next guy comes through town.

To read more about the adventures of Ring 99, see Ninety Nine Fabrications Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Ninety-Nine Fabrications Volume 2

I suppose I should correctly call this Volume 2.71828 named after the mathematical constant e, because the characters depicted inside are either irrational and/or transcendental. As I mentioned previously, the members of Ring 99 knew how to have a good time. Unfortunately, it was customary for the club to record its (mis)adventures in regular reports to The Linking Ring which is the official journal of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Thanks to my partner in crime, Dr. Sammy Jakubowicz, these reports where always thoroughly embellished and the true facts probably cannot be extracted, even by those who were there.

Nevertheless, it gives me great pleasure to present Ninety Nine Fabrications, Volume 2.71828 to audiences with far too much time on their hands. This is an exhilarating read, which should take you no more than twenty minutes. It covers two years' worth of meetings of the club including our farewell banquet in May 2013.

On top of that we have included:

• An alleged history of Ring 99
• Improved author biographies
• The official Ring 99 Membership Oath
• The official Ring 99 Induction Lecture
• The Hat & Rabbit Club 2013 auction reviewed by Ring 99
• Magi-Fest 2013 reviewed by Ring 99
• The Ring 99 Farewell banquet
• "Hail to the Chief" by Lisa Close
• "Mischief, Mischief" by Matt DiSero

The booklet is now available for purchase on iTunes, Kobo and Kindle.

*This booklet contains no reliable or useful information and serves only to prove that I have far too much free time on my hands and need to be booked for more shows.

All in Good Fun

When groups of magicians gather together, strange things happen. I imagine the same thing must happen if you assemble any group of likeminded individuals like artists, musicians or politicians. But this is especially true with the P. Howard Lyons Ring.

Where to begin?

The P. Howard Lyons Ring, sometimes known as Ring 99, is a chapter of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the world's largest fraternal organization of magicians. The club meets at a secret location known only as "The Usual Place and Time." The membership is a motley crew of magicians, mentalists, psychics, comedians, university students, philosophers and general dilettantes. The ring's objectives lie vaguely between "advancing the art of magic" and "perfecting esoteric techniques for the vanishment and disappearance of pub foods."

This is a group that doesn't take themselves too seriously and certainly knows how to have a good time. They also had the misfortune of having me as their president.

Awards season takes on a whole new meaning

At the close of the 2012-13 season, the club decided to give out two special awards, one of which was:

The Mark Lewis Memorial Award forImagination, Integrity, Curmudgeonhood or Best Two Out Of Three

While I should point out that the award itself is completely facetious (see photos below), the individual it is named after does deserve some recognition.

Mark Lewis is a staple of the Toronto magic community. He performs as the elderly curmudgeon, and when watching others perform, he is as harsh a critic as one can imagine. He is also never one to shy away from offering an opinion, on any subject. He is decidedly "old school" and constantly pushing others to raise the quality of the magic they perform and to bring respect and honour to the art of magic. If something can earn a slight nod of approval from "The Great Mark Lewis" then you must be on to something. (Or perhaps, it is one of the seven signs of the coming apocalypse, who knows.) In addition to being a superlative children's entertainer, he is also one of the main characters in Ninety-Nine Fabrications Volumes 1 & 2.

Special mention is also due to Lisa Close who presented this "prestigious" award.Lisa crafted a speech which is probably the single greatest piece of magic verbiage since Bob Farmer's treatise on Wombats and Wildebeests (don't ask). She was somehow able to transition an award for James Alan into a roast of for James Alan so seamlessly we didn't even notice. Well done Lisa!

Lisa's speech, along with several other Ring secrets will be included in the forthcoming volume of Ninety-Nine Fabrications, because we clearly have too much time on our hands.

I'm honoured that the club would choose to present me with this prestigious (and infinitely practical) award. I will display it proudly in my home next to my other made up award.

Mark Lewis Award

Misrepresenting Magic

Magic is based on surprise and the unexpected. Some of the most fun I have performing is taking magic and putting it in places where people don't suspect it. My favourite instance of this was a few years ago when a company invited me to perform at their annual general meeting. However, the meeting was scheduled for April 1 so instead of listing a magic performance on the agenda, I was stuck in the middle and listed as a speaker on Corporate Governance from the University of Toronto. It was a very much welcomed change of pace for the meeting and everyone went into the second half with a great deal more attention and energy than they would have otherwise.

What particularly surprised me was that following the meeting, several people asked me about my corporate governance training. Of course I have none; I was a math major. But it's interesting how a lie will linger even after the source of the lie has been discredited.

I only bring this up now, because this effect is a double-edged sword. I was recently invited to perform a sixty-fifth birthday party. One particularly imaginative woman took the initiative to go around before I performed and told people that I was the stripper.

Go figure.

Seventeen Secrets Volume 2

I've just seen the first copies of the second volume of Seventeen Secrets. The booklet was produced by the Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club in Toronto. It was intended as a way to create something unique for our members by leveraging the talent of the amazing magicians that the club brings to the city. Editing Volume 1 was a tremendous experience. It was a collaboration with eight other people from three different countries. It was also a valuable growth experience for me as I was working with other people's material covering a wide range of fields from close up magic to stage magic to mentalism to gambling demonstrations.

The format was inspired by an earlier Toronto publication, Ibidem, which was a magazine published irregularly by P. Howard Lyons from 1955-1979. I never met Howard Lyons, so I suppose it is more accurate to say I was inspired by his legend. The cover of Seventeen Secrets was an image that reminded me of the artwork of Pat Lyons, which filled the original Ibidems inside and out. It struck me as suitably unusual for this project.

That volume was very well received and the executive asked me if I would work on another so here we are. I am even more impressed with the final product this time than I was with Volume 1. We were able to obtain more contributions (probably because the first book turned out so well). We were also able to do some rather unusual things. Chris Mayhew contributed his flourish, "Trinado" which took a huge amount of work to describe in print. Denis Behr, from Germany, contributed a card trick that comes with its own smartphone app and is so intricately constructed, I'm not even sure Denis himself knows how it works.  The only one we missed as Shane Cobalt who lectured for the club in November, but I suspect thad had something to do with our print deadlines conflicting with his wedding... next time perhaps.

The new booklet is available from the Hat & Rabbit Club here. I believe there are also a handful of copies of Volume 1 left if you act quickly.

Magic @ Luminato

For the past three years, one of the major highlights of my hear has been the magic series at Luminato. Now they are making it four years. In the past, they've brought in performers from the US, Spain, France, Chile & Canada. They have done shows in multiple languages, shows for families, shows for children & families and even magic shows for the blind! This year's festival runs June 14-23 with a new magic series spread throughout the festival. The new series, co-organized with Magicana, features three new shows which are Canadian Premieres:

Steve Cohen Chamber Magic

Miguel Puga Concerto for Piano & Pasteboards

Rafael Benatar Compositions

I met Rafael a few years ago and know him to be incredibly charming and talented. Compositions and Concerto are magic-music fusions held at the Telus Centre (next to Varsity Stadium). I'm excited to see the new combination and to see magic introduced into a venue where you wouldn't normally see it.

I only met Steve Cohen briefly (at an airport in San Diego of all places) and I'm excited to see his show. He's normally performing Chamber Magic in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York and seems like they've arranged a suitable space here in Toronto.

If you are in Toronto in June and have the opportunity, I would strongly recommend you make an effort to attend.