magic is about honesty
everything here is true
except for the bits I made up
This Friday, I'll be performing at the Centre for Inquiry's Winter Solstice Party.
Friday, December 20, 2013 Tota Lounge - 592 Queen Street West Doors open at 7:00 Tickets $10 - online
CFI works to combat the harm of superstition, pseudoscience and religion by advancing the values of reason, science and secularism through education, activism and community. So join us for a special secular soiree and help us celebrate reason this season.
For those using the Lie Detector app which is part of Denis Behr's trick in Seventeen Secrets Volume 2, he made a small update which improves the working. You should go to his site and redownload the app to get the slightly better version. The method behind the trick remains exactly the same, but the output of the app has been made slightly clearer, which makes the effect clearer in the eyes of the audience. The change came about because of suggestions from Dani DaOrtiz while he was in Toronto recently.
For those of you that bought the book but haven't tried the trick because of the [secret stuff] involved, you should. It's one of the most ingenious combination of diverse principles that I have ever come across and the result is an iPhone that appears as though it can read minds.
The two booklets I edited for the Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club are now available as eBooks. So if you prefer a lighter digital version, or just don't want to pay for shipping, both titles are now available for $15 each at Lybrary.com. Lybrary is the world's largest site for eBooks about magic and its related arts with hundreds of titles including reproductions of rare and out of print books.
Volume 1 includes contributions from me, James Biss, Matt DiSero, Richard Forget, Murray Hatfield, Will Houstoun, Joshua Jay, Michael Weber and Tyler Wilson. Read the full table of contents.
Volume 2 contains contributions from me, Bill Abbott, Denis Behr, Eugene Burger, Alain Choquette, Matt DiSero, Tina Lenert, Chris Mayhew, Ricky Smith, Rob Testa and Chris Westfall. Read the full table of contents.
The print and electronic versions have identical content with a few formatting changes. The photos in the eBooks are larger and in colour. Otherwise they're the same books. They cover a range of material including cards, close-up, stage and mentalism with varying levels of difficulty.
For those interested in purchasing the original print versions, which are limited numbered editions, they are available from the Hat & Rabbit Club's web store for $20 each plus postage.
While catching up on sleep, I'm coming down from the high brought on by spending five days with Dani DaOrtiz. He was a guest, visiting from Spain, here to do a series of seminars and shows with Abracadabaret, The Hat & Rabbit Club and The Browser's Den of Magic. I remember first hearing about Dani and his magic four years ago. I remember not believing what I heard. After all, this is an industry built on misleading people (for entertainment) and we have no shortage of hype. Imagine my surprise when, earlier this year at Magi Fest in Columbus, Ohio, I saw Dani live. He wasn't just as good as they were saying, he was somehow better.
There is a feeling that comes with spending time with truly great magicians. It's a sense that anything is possible that seems to ooze out of their pores and seep into you by osmosis. Or maybe it's disorientation brought on by too much time in nice restaurants and not enough sleep. Who knows? But several other magicians that spent time with us mentioned a similar feeling… almost a religious experience. Apparently those can be brought on just as easily by card tricks!
More than a few people asked me how I was able to pull off organizing these events - the sold out show, sold out workshops and the lecture packed to the rafters with local magicians. The secret is, as usual, I cheat.
It takes a lot of people to coordinate large projects and these were no exceptions. Top of the list is the executive of the Hat & Rabbit Club: Chris Harvison, Pete DiLisi, Eric Simmatis and Andrew Goss (along with our secret cohort of learned advisors). Our partners in crime at The Browser's Den: Jeff Pinsky, Lisa & Michael Close. The crew at the Wychwood Theatre: Beth Brown, Dean Johnston, Joe Culpepper and Ivan Bekcic. And for being generally magical: the loveable Ben Train, the resourceful Chris Mayhew, the dependable Bobby Motta, the generous Daniel Zuckerbrot, the incomparable Mahdi Gilbert and the hunky Joshua Jay.
Now I'm going back to sleep, then to the gym. In the meantime, you can look at pictures:
I've got a new teaser video, now up on YouTube (or an inch and a half below this sentence if you're in a hurry). Posted with special thanks to Toronto's magic video elf, Chris Mayhew. There's an extended version immediately below. I've also updated the video page with a few new things, so feel free to check it out.
An article I wrote about a fellow Toronto magician, Chris Westfall, wound up as the cover story for the November issue of MUM, the journal of the Society of American Magicians. The article is titled "Magic Saved My Life" and is not an especially happy story - although it does have a happy ending as Chris is now an important part of the magic community in Toronto; one of the busiest performers in the city. There's an expert which has been published on the SAM site here.
Also in the works; the project that led to the article being written in the first place is still in its super secret phase, so hopefully someone will tell me I'm allowed to write about that soon.
For those that receive MUM, the issues have been printed and are currently in the mail. Back issues are available from the MUM site.
