This week on Magic Tonight

It's Boxing Day and most of the festive (over) eating is over. I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday which continues over the next week or so. Our last official event of the night is tomorrow at the Crimson Lounge downtown. We're already sold out and looking forward to a full house. My ever-so-special guest is incredibly funny Glenn Ottaway, the godfather of Canadian magic and comedy in Toronto.

I also have a special guest, the ever-so-adorable Ben Train. I need the extra hand because I'm doing double duty with the Jolakotturinn show down the street at Revival. They still have some tickets available if you'd like to join us there. It's going to be a busy night of magic.

I'm also working on pulling together the best photos from our shows from the year, so if you've been in the audience at Magic Tonight and have photos or video you'd like to share, feel free to get in touch.

Last time on Magic Tonight

The penultimate Magic Tonight of 2015 featured Toronto's Best Magician [1], Phil Pivnick. While Phil performs primarily for youngsters [2] but he shared some of his more grownup material with our sold-out audience. Take a look at some of the fun we had:

Our last show for the year (December 27) is already sold out. So we want to thank everyone who's been to see us for their continued support. It's been  wonderful year. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner for our 2016 dates when purchasing online.

[1] An award presented in Markham because magicians are weird.

[2] I'm allergic to children so if you ask me about performing at an event for kids, I'll likely just be handing you Phil's phone number.

Stephen Fry the Magician

Sat down to watch the Christmas special of the M series of QI with a wonderful surprise at the end involving Stephen Fry and the president of the Magic Circle, Scott Penrose.You'll need to watch until the end, and knowing QI, you'll probably learn an interesting thing or two along the way! 

It's no secret that Stephen Fry has an interest in magic. In fact, QI has magic tricks sprinkled throughout the episodes. He also wrote about his experiences with the seminal text Expert Card Technique by Frederick Braue and Jean Hugard in his memoir, Moab Is My Washpot.

CFI Canada Winter Solstice Celebration

Last night at a special bonus instalment of Magic Tonight, we were joined by a group from the Centre for Inquiry Canada celebrating the winter solstice and raising money for the centre. The holiday season can be difficult for skeptics, freethinkers and atheists, particularly those spending time with religious family members. It can create a feeling of being left out and so it's a pleasure and an honour to be able to provide a place for like minded people to celebrate and have a good time. On top of the magic, we celebrated The Flying Spaghetti Monster and all present were touched by his great noodly appendage!

This year secular organizations like CFI have been busy this year fighting for freedom of expression and freedom from religion around the world. In particular, CFI Canada has helped bring a number of free though refugees and their families to escape religious persecution around the world and make their way to Canada. The best way to support them in their work is to join CFI Canada.

For those who were interested in attending but weren't able to make it because of other holiday commitments, take a look at some of the fun we got up to. There may also be some video coming later in the week.

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Magic Tonight runs weekly at the Crimson Lounge in downtown Toronto, every Sunday night. Readers of this blog can use the discount code cficanada for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.  A portion of every ticket sold will also go to support the centre and its work.

This week on Magic Tonight

This Sunday, I'm joined by Phil Pivnick - who was the winner of the "Toronto's Best Magician Contest" (which was, oddly, held in Markham... because Magicians are weird.) He's a funny and polished popular children's performer, but at Magic Tonight, we stick a suit on him and watch him perform his more grown up material! He also makes lots of funny faces as you'll see in the photos below. Update: We're sold out for this Sunday's show! Visit us online to grab tickets for our upcoming performances.

December 20 Phil Pivnick Sold Out

Magic Tonight continues every Sunday night 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.

Strange Manifestations

I was surprised when sorting through the photos of the latest Magic Tonight (with my guest, the irritatingly photogenic Keith Brown, pictured here.) We've taken photos of just about every show we've ever done, and never seen anything like this.

These photos are completely undoctored (except the watermark). It only covers photos from about a three minute period about a  third of the way into the performance.

Of course this could be spirits from beyond the grave, or hyper-intelligent alien beings from the fifth dimension trying to make contact (because realistically, where else would they want to make contact but at a magic show in Toronto?) There was a popular discipline known as spirit photography (where people claimed to be able to photograph ghosts) but I've never heard of it being performed with digital cameras before. But if anyone knows what might be causing this, I'd love to hear from you.

Photos by Ivan "The Witch" Bekcic.

Magic Tonight runs every Sunday night 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.

And you can see all of the regular photos we take over at my Facebook page.