Tall Tales
This weekend, I finished the first round of shows for Illusions of Grandeur with my friend, Tyler Wilson. The goal was to create a true close-up magic show, instead of a show on stage that people had to watch from a distance. The worst seat in the house was 12 feet away from the "stage". The feedback we've received so far has been extraordinary. Tyler and I would like to thank everyone who was able to make it out. Putting together the show was an amazing experience. We had to assemble and script everything by email and there were several of Tyler's in the show that even I didn't even have the chance to see until the day before when Tyler arrived in Toronto.
At the moment, we don't have any concrete plans to remount the show anywhere, but I've spoken with Tyler and it's not entirely off the table... so keep an eye open for the possibility.
Here is the first round of photos from the show:
These are just the iPhone photos. The Abracadabaret elf, Chris Mayhew, is busily working on the nice ones.
Magic that Sucks
Earlier this year, I contributed a trick to a special project organized by David Peck and the Mosquitoes Suck Tour. His plan was to create an instructional resource for magicians - magicians teaching magicians - and to take all the proceeds (actually all the revenue!) and put them towards the purchase of malaria preventing mosquito nets. It took a number of months to gather all the contributions and edit them together and the final product is now available. The Mosquitoes Suck Project can be downloaded for just $10. It includes contributions from Bobby Motta, Joshua Jay, Anthony Lindan, David Peck, Brian Roberts and Canadian Magician of the Year Winners Bill Abbott and Jay Sankey. All of the performers donated their time for the project and SoChange provided the filming and editing so 100% of the revenue goes towards bednets.
On "set" with Anthony Lindan, David Peck & Brian Roberts
The download comes as an mp4, 106 minutes long, 2.97 GB. It's an enormous amount of content at an incredible value. The reason for the $10 price tag: $10 buys one insecticide treated mosquito net which protects a family for up to five years. So please consider buying a copy now.
Mosquitoes Suck Project
If you're not interested in magic but still want to help, MST also has a bunch of cool stuff like T-shirts, and an assortment of private label fair trade coffee available at their shop.
thirteen
I'm staring at a little present from Bobby Motta. To go along with his lecture at the Browser's Den of Magic last weekend, he produced a set of notes which was available for sale.
notes
The good news is they're gorgeous. They come in an envelope with a wax seal.
seal
The bad news is, they come in an envelope with a wax seal, and I can't bring myself to open them. So I have absolutely no idea what they look like.
Full disclosure: I wrote them, so I know what they say. But I still have no idea what they look like. They contain five tricks, all of the mental variety. (Actually it could be considered eight tricks; four of them are variations on a theme.) One of them offers an in-depth section on a creation of his, Blackmail, which you would have to own for it to be of use to you. And it also includes the piece which he uses to close his show at Dave & Busters. I'm not allowed to say which one of the five that is; you'll have to go see the show for yourself to figure that out.
The booklets were produced in a very limited number for the lecture (The Browser's Den only fits about 40-50 people before you have to start standing on people's shoulders) so if you're interested in obtaining a copy, you'd probably have to track Bobby down directly fairly soon. They may be reprinted, but if it's done in larger quantities, he might get lazy and the new edition might not look nearly as pretty.*
It's also possible that Bobby won't be around long enough to reprint them after I thank him for his... ahem... generous acknowledgement at the end of the notes. I'm not saying any more here. You'll have to go read it for yourself.
*If you ask me, his wive probably gets most of the credit for how pretty they look. But that's just a hunch.
Rogers: Daytime Toronto
My appearance on Rogers Daytime Toronto discussing the upcoming Illusions of Grandeur with Tyler Wilson at The Winchester.
Related Posts
About Illusions of Grandeur - Read A Tall Order
Photos from Illusions of Grandeur - Read Tall Tales and Taller Tales
James Alan's YouTube Chanel
September Abracadabaret
The September instalment of Abracadabaret is coming up this weekend: Sunday, September 29 at the Winchester. The show starts at 7:00 with tickets available online or at the door.
I'm off that night, leaving the performance to three extremely capable individuals:
Nick is a gifted 'practitioner of the art of astonishment'. I've been a devoted fan of his work for years. He has been a fixture at the Hamilton Fringe festival, where I performed last year, winning Best in Fringe multiple times. He produces magnificent shows that are elegant and minimalist while at the same time being extremely enjoyable and making your brain hurt. Honestly, I've been trying to get him on one of the shows for years!
Jason has appeared at Abracadabaret and Friday Night Magic several times. He's an extremely funny and energetic comedy magician. I describe him the way Watterson described a tiger: He has no setting between high and off.
He is also the winner of the Canadian Event Industry's Entertainer of the Year award.
Chris arrived on Toronto's magic doorstep three years ago after leaving his native Calgary. When he showed up, he had a note pinned to the front of his shirt which read
Please take good care of Chris. If you give him a fresh deck of cards, a selection of Thai restaurants and good wifi, he won't leave you.
And he never has!
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