Reason's Greetings

This Saturday night (December 19) we're doing a bonus instalment of Magic Tonight as a fundraiser for the Centre for Inquiry Canada. This organization, near and dear to my heart, promotes reason, science and secular values and offers a terrific range of educational programming. Dinner is included with tickets to the show and there are discounted tickets for Members of CFI. If you're not a member but would like to join, you can buy a membership along with your tickets, available at www.magictonight.ca/cfi. The evening starts at 5:00 PM with some mingling (yes, the bar is open!), dinner at 6:00 and the show at 7:00.

For those who haven't been, Magic Tonight is our weekly show in Downtown Toronto at the Crimson Lounge (College Street, just west of  Spadina). If you can't make it on the 19th, but still want to support CFI, you can buy tickets for any of our regular shows with the discount code cficanada. You'll get a huge discount and a portion of the proceeds will to go the centre.

Magicians at Google

Google hosts a series of truly fascinating talks at their offices and in the spirit of sharing, those talks have a neat habit of appearing online for free.  Last week, a performance with magicians David Williamson and Colin Cloud was posted and you can see the full program below: 

After about thirty minutes of performing, they sit down for a bit of a chat about how shows are put together and how performers think.

The questions are actually very interesting which leads me to believe that the bulk of them were planted to appear interesting. Either that or British Google people really are that perceptive.

Last week on Magic Tonight

Last night on on Magic Tonight, at the Crimson Lounge, I was joined by my very special guest, the #IrritatinglyPhotogenic Keith Brown. We got the chance to see some new material, presumably a sneak peak from a forthcoming show. You can take a look at some of the photos from the show below. Magic Tonight continues Sunday nights 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.

This weekend on Magic Tonight

We're nearly sold out for this Sunday's instalment of Magic Tonight. It's an extremely busy time of year for performers, so originally the plans were to just have me this Sunday, but I'm now being joined by the irritatingly photogenic [1] Keith Brown. Keith spent the bulk of the summer touring his Fringe show Exchange and is back in and around Toronto and London performing his signature trick where he swallows neckties and spits them back up again knotted. [2] We have a few seats left for the show, so I hope you can join us. It's going to be a fun magical evening.

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

December 13 Keith Brown

[1] A longstanding joke here on the blog. Surely you concede the nickname is deserved!

[2] This is not a trick Keith actually performs, but we all wish it were.

Andy Kim Christmas Special

Last night, I had the privilege of co-hosting the backstage celebration for the 11th annual Andy Kim Christmas Special. At the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, an amazing lineup of musical talent gathered to raise money in support of CAMH Gifts of Light. Performers included Kardinal Offishall,  The Barenaked Ladies, Finger Eleven, Ron Sexsmith, Tom Cochrane and of course Andy Kim. The entire show was sold out weeks in advance so in order to raise some additional funds, the concert was webcast live and viewers at home were given the opportunity to donate. On top of the live performances on stage we were live streaming interviews and magic from the VIP room backstage.  My co-hosts Vanessa Legacy and Max River looked after the red-carpet-y interview-y stuff and I got to perform magic.

It was a fun night. See for yourself:

I'll try to post some video from the webcast in the New Year if I can get my hands on it. In the meantime, if you have a few dollars to spare, consider a donation to CAMH Gifts of Light.

Last week on Magic Tonight

Last night on the show, my very special guest (and when you see the photos, you'll agree, I mean special) was Jason Palter. We had a wonderful time and as we get deeper into the holiday season we're starting to get full. So if you're coming down to see Magic Tonight, be sure to make your reservations early before we fill up.

Magic Tonight continues Sunday nights at the Crimson Lounge (Inside The Cage 292) 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.