SOULO Theatre Festival

Tickets are now on sale for the SOULO Theatre Festival, May 22-25 in Toronto. SOULO Theatre, created by Tracey Erin Smith, highlights solo performances and one-person shows with a focus on personal storytelling. This is the second year of the festival and I've joined their team as their general manager, thanks, I'm sure, to my mother teaching me to make elaborate spreadsheets so I could survive managing Camp Black Belt all those years ago - love you!  (Insert joke about "Selling my soul-o" here.)

The entire festival takes place at The Red Sandcastle Theatre (922 Queen Street). The quality of the performers is exceptional. I was at the launch party which was preceded by a showcase of four short solo shows which were wonderful, heartwarming, disturbing and uplifting (but not necessarily in that order).

In the festival there are seven one-person shows (selected from nearly fifty applicants) and two showcases of four short performances, The SOULO Salon and the SOULO Allstars. And if you're more interested in the work behind the scenes - the creation, production and promotion of SOULO Theatre, there are five workshops and panels for those just curious or those seriously considering getting their stories out there.

Every event at the festival is $15. All of the tickets are available here. You can also get a pass to get into all of the workshops and panels for $50 (save $25) here. With the festival just two weeks away, tickets are going quickly, so grab yours while you still have the chance.

Diabolical Deceptions

At the end of this month, I'll be participating in a one-night-only show with four other performers to put on a night of incredible magic. We will be at 99 Sudbury which is a beautiful space for magic. Joining me on the show are Chris Mayhew - A hilariously funny comedy magician

Bella Muerta - Ghoul next door and multi-talented sassy lass.

Mind Bender - A young and aspiring magical performer

Baldini - The man of magical mystery.

Tickets are now available online - or you can purchase them from me directly.

Diabolical Deceptions Saturday, May 31, 2014 - 8:00 PM 99 Sudbury Street, Toronto Tickets $20

French Photos

I'm slowly beginning to catch up on my sleep after spending most of last week with Vincent Hedan, the charming and wonderful French magician, with the equally charming and wonderful accent. While he was in town, he presented his show, The Wish, in English for the first time, did two special events for The Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club and we even snuck him out to perform at a private event. Enjoy the photos, while I get back to plotting and scheming - there's lots of great magic coming up very soon.

I need to thank Hat & Rabbit Club and Ben Train for helping to organize everything and thank Michael Weber and Dr. Sammy Jakubowicz for their mischievous tweets.

Photos by Johan Duker, Josh Sexmith, Vincent Hedan & James Alan, not all at the same time.

The Naked News

James Alan Naked News

Somewhere, somehow, there is someone who thinks that my normal performances aren't strange enough. And that person has access to a video camera. My interview/performance The Naked News was posted in a segment called "The Schmooze".

See what others are saying about the clip:

Spencer Malone

In order to view the clip, you need to be a subscriber to The Naked News. Or you can skip all that and just click here.

Magic@theCage Continues

I went back and checked and last night marked our twentieth show at The Cage 292 in The Crimson Lounge. It's been a wonderful time and we have no plans of stopping any time soon. But I went back and looked through the photos since we started the show and picked out my favourites. Join us every Tuesday and Sunday night for more great Magic@theCage....

CagePosterweb

A Series of Unfortunate Effects

A few years ago, I found out about a strange magic project; a hybrid between a magic instructional video and normal human movie. (Both magic instructional videos and normal human movies have a rich history, but so far as we've been able to figure, the twain have not previously met.) Finally, the project has been shot, edited, package and the producers are having a public screening at the end of this month.

A Series of Unfortunate Effects Tuesday, April 29, 2014 @ 7:00 PM The Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles)

Tickets are available from FiveAcademyMagic.com. You can also head there to Pre-Order the DVD.

I won't actually be at the screening, since it's the same night as Magic@theCage, but we are hosting the after party at The Cage, so I'll be there for that. The interesting part is that almost all of the cast has performed at The Cage at one point or another including Chris Mayhew, Ben Train, Chris Westfall, Jeff Hinchliffe and Canadian Magician of the Year Bill Abbott. We'll see how many of them we can talk into performing, possibly while drunk.

It's also the night before Vincent Hedan's show, The Wish, so make sure you have your tickets for that as well.