A week of Funny Faces

Any time we have a show, we try to preserve the memories with photos — smiles, shock, astonishment, bewilderment, wonder. The gallery over at Abracadabaret.com has a substantial collection. I've shot some myself. Other times I hand off the camera to see what someone else captures. Sometimes the photos are gorgeous, and other times the lighting is substandard, or the background is just strange. But through these photos — sorting them, cropping them, shooting them myself — has taught me a great deal about the performance of magic. Magic is an extremely difficult thing to photograph. Magic isn't static; it's based almost entirely on transformation and change. If a woman vanishes and I take a photo, a woman not in a photograph is not particularly impressive. It's the change from woman standing there to woman not standing there that makes for magic. Even mind reading, which some now consider to be magic in its purest form, is categorically unphotogenic. If I take your secret thoughts and speak them out loud, the resulting picture of our faces might be indistinguishable from the photo we'd get if I had just told you an exceptional "Knock-knock" joke.

And as I'm fond of telling young magicians, if you make cards magically spew from your mouth (a cool trick if ever there were one) don't take a picture of it. To the outside world, it simply looks like you are chewing on a fan of cards.

Most of the people who appear on the show are "talking acts". That means that a large portion of the photos taken will capture the face in the middle of a word. Not the most flattering position. This week, I was sorting through photos and the strange and funny faces seemed to jump out at me. So here, without anyone's consent, is a collection of The Funny Faces of Magic Tonight.

Thanks to Ron Guttman, Jason Palter, Brian Roberts and the irritatingly photogenic Keith Brown for not punching me.

Magic Tonight happens every week in Mississauga, Pickering and Toronto. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a special discount when buying tickets online.

This week on Magic Tonight

I'm incredibly excited. We have a special guest visiting this week (and spilling over into next week) from England. The legendary comic performer, Wes Zaharuk is a true artist and his work is truly an exhibition of the trans-mundane! Which is to say it's some pretty freaky stuff. We also have a dear friend, Ben Train. Ben doesn't normally perform for the public. He's normally consulting and creating magic for other magicians - now with a company dedicated to that aim, Five Academy.

Chris Mayhew is a comedic performer from Calgary who recently performed at the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.

Ben will be at the Franklin House in Streestville Thursday (Feb 12). Wes will be at The Bear in Pickering (Feb 13)and at The Franklin House the following Thursday (Feb 19). Readers of the blog can use the code reality when buying tickets online for a special discount. Chris will be a the Crimson Lounge in Toronto Sunday (Feb 15)

For more information, visit www.MagicTonight.ca

Feb 12 Train

Feb 13 Zaharuk

Feb 15 Mayhew

Feb 19 Zaharuk

Last week on Magic Tonight

Things are going quite well. Audience sizes are steadily growing at our new venues in Mississauga and Pickering. If you have friends outside of the city that you would enjoy the show, send them our way. They can use the code reality when buying tickets online for a special discount. Last week featured performances from Jason Palter, Brian Roberts, Keith Brown and some dude named James Alan:

There's more great magic coming this week so stay tuned to see who's on the lineup. We also love when the audience posts photos from the show (this is one of the few performances where we let people take photos). Mark them with the hashtag #MagicTonight so we can find them!

This week on Magic Tonight

We're back to our full schedule on Magic Tonight with three shows this week: Thursday @ The Franklin House, Mississauga Jason Palter - winner of the Canadian Event Industry's "Entertainer of the Year" award.

Friday @ The Bear, Pickering Brian Roberts - virtuoso sleight of hand performer and Canada's tallest magician

Sunday @ The Crimson Lounge, Toronto Keith Brown - "Toronto's Best Magician" 2013 and generally charming fellow

And of course, I'll be there too. Tickets are available online. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a special discount.

Feb 5 Palter

Feb 6 Roberts

Feb 8 Brown

The twisted mind of a mathematician

The domain where I've had the the most — what you might call — formal academic training is mathematics. Having spent years tutoring students in math (which means, by implication you're spending time with students who are less adept than the average at math) I understand that there is a definite peculiarity in the way people approach problems in math. Ordinary thinking involves guessing an answer — taking a shot in the dark — then trying to justify the guess as quickly as possible so you can move on to new problems. This manifests with students prepping for multiple choice tests saying something like, "It's B, isn't it?". And if I nod yes, they're right and they get to go onto the next question. But, as happens more often, I don't nod and that guess hasn't brought them any closer to a solution to the problem.

Math involves stepping back and looking at the problem from many different angles. It seems extraordinarily counter-intuitive if your goal is simply to get the pencil mark in the bubble for B.

Professor Persi Diaconis, in addition to being a professor of statistics, is also a world renowned magician, so when his work pops up in my news feed, I perk up. This is a wonderful example of the application of mathematical thinking to a very mundane problem. I guess the typical reaction to be a transition from this guy's so weird to this guy's so freakin' smart. 

Last week on Magic Tonight

It was a very cold night and it was also the Superbowl, so we had a magnificent intimate audience who was brave enough to face the snow to come see the show. (We did loose a few who rescheduled because of the snow.) Among the brave was mentalist Ron Guttman.

And to follow up, the convention in Ohio was wonderful. I did manage to sleep on the plane ride back so I wasn't completely useless during the show.

Magic Tonight happens weekly at The Crimson Lounge in Toronto, The Bear in Pickering and The Franklin House in Mississauga. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a special discount when purchasing tickets online.