Last time on Magic Tonight

I feel like an announcer on the old Batman series... Last time on... except that Robin isn't tied up somewhere about to be fed to a pit of alligators? Oh well. It was hot outside and cool inside at the Crimson Lounge Sunday night. The wonderful Jason Palter was there and the audience was on fire. Actually, I think the audience was on something; extremely energetic and interactive. It's very rare to have an audience that's appreciative to the point of being irritating.

Also making a surprise cameo in a couple of the photos is Scott McClelland, the director of Carnival Diablo and The Paranormal Show, who happened to be in town. Here Scott can be seen in a rare non-creepy attire.

Magic Tonight continues every Sunday night through the summer at the Crimson Lounge in Downtown Toronto. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.

For Keira at the Hamilton Fringe

Was at the Hamilton Fringe Festival yesterday and saw For Keira, which is a short one-person piece, part of the festival's "Gallery Series". His company, Broken Soil Theatre, has produced shows in the Hamilton Fringe for the past three years. They seem to be moving in the direction of real life. The first, Jamie's Gone, was a large cast semi-surreal production about an allegedly abducted child in a small town. The second, Places, was a much more straightforward love story (with some interesting nonheteronormative twists).

For Keira is a look at the frightening combination of technology and our legal system, where young people attempting to explore and understand their sexuality wind up unintentionally creating what is legally defined as child pornography. The story is told strictly from the point of view of one of the young people involved. It's a solo confessional delivered into a video camera. It's a point of view on an important issue rarely expressed. The piece isn't offering answers, simply shining light on the issue itself.

As I've mentioned before, the Gallery series is awkward. At 20 minutes, the turnaround between shows is longer than the length of the shows themselves (and this gallery has nothing to look at except some white clay figurines of naked pig-men...)

For Keira has five performances left at the Hamilton Artists Inc. Gallery (155 James Street North, Hamilton) Tickets are available at the door ($8 with a $5 Fringe Backer button). The full schedule is available online.

Why Card Tricks are Important at the Hamilton Fringe

I went to go see magician Chris Bruce at the Hamilton Fringe Festival last night. His show, Why Card Tricks Are Important, is part of the Fringe's "Gallery Series". It's an unusual collection of short shows — this one runs about twenty minutes — performed for much smaller audiences. The show contains — spoiler alert — card tricks. In fact it contains nothing which could not be called a card trick. They are spiffy and well-executed card tricks and fiercely interactive.

The burning question is whether or not the show could succeed in convincing someone that card tricks are, in fact, important. A more interesting question might be could anything convince you that card tricks were important. The answer is, unless you are slightly deranged, no... Unless you accept a perverse artistic meta-definition of important which allows that frivolous pursuits are important as a celebration of their own right to exist. After all, if we have a species have evolved to the point where we have so thoroughly beaten back the threats of disease, malnutrition, predators and war that we have the free time to wonder what exactly Justin Bieber is up to, isn't that a triumph worth celebrating?

For a magic show, or even a theatre presentation, it's an awkward time frame. At twenty minutes it's difficult to say hello and get through two substantive pieces before you're taking your bows. You're also spending more time getting your ticket and sitting in the theatre waiting for the show to start then you are watching the show. it would be better if someone could sit down and curate an hour or 90 minutes of complementary material so it feels like you got a little bang for your buck.

But if you're heading to the Hamilton Fringe festival, engage in something frivolously important and pick a card.

Why Card Tricks are Important has five performances left at Hamilton Artists Inc at the Hamilton Fringe Festival. Tickets ($8 with a $5 Hamilton Fringe backer button) are available at the door or online.

Death and Dating at the Hamilton Fringe

First I'll begin by saying I appreciate any production which allows me to walk up to the box office and say "One for Death please".  I first saw Death And Dating last fall under its original title, The Mom's House Factor, as a recital piece when I did the Soulo Theatre class in Toronto. What began as a 10-minute piece has grown into a forty-five minute extravaganza which mourns breakups and celebrates karaoke and funny hats. I suppose it falls under the category of tragicomedy, which I'm surprised my iPad recognizes as a legitimate word. It's the story, told as a set of reminiscences and flashbacks of a woman subjected to a cruel and in humane break up... At his mom's house. This takes quite a while to get over, as each flash forward in time shows that the pain hasn't really gone away.

Death and Dating is a project to help make light of and put in perspective those unfortunate events which occupy an unhealthy space in our consciousness.  

The venue, which has been confusingly named a hardware store... Is not one. Although somewhat confusingly it contains a bar and the beer is clearly visible in the fridge. Given that large portions of the show take place in a karaoke bar inside the protagonist's imagination, one would have hoped that for added realism, the bar could be open.

Death And Dating has 5 shows left at Mills Hardware (95 King Street East, Hamilton) Tickets $10 plus a Fringe backer button.

Written by Magdelana BB, Directed by Mark Kalzer

All the fun fact-shaped things at www.HamiltonFringe.ca. 

This week on Magic Tonight

Coming up on Sunday, we have the hilarious, zany and lightly peppered Jason Palter - winner of the Canadian Event Industry's "Entertainer of the Year" award. Jason has been on the show more times than I care to count and he's always loads of fun and full of surprises. Magic Tonight continues through the summer at the Crimson Lounge in Toronto. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online. You can see the full schedule of upcoming performers online here.

July 19 Jason Palter

Last week on Magic Tonight

What a creepy evening on Magic Tonight! Nick Wallace is, as I have maintained for years, the devil. In addition to an extremely creepy doll which seemed to form strange invisible connections with nearby individuals, he was turning people into human puppets and swallowing sharp objects. Odd how when you say it like that it doesn't sound anywhere near as fun as it is in person. Go figure. Take a look at some of what we got up to. Magic Tonight continues through the summer on Sunday nights at the Crimson Lounge in Toronto. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.