magic is about honesty
everything here is true
except for the bits I made up
Design by Kurt Firla
Magic & Martini is continuing this fall. Our shows for September are nearly sold out (we currently have about fifteen tickets left.) We have just posted new dates for October and November. Readers can use the secret code olive for a discount on tickets purchased online.
Come join us at Suite 114 (116 Dundas Street West, Toronto). Solve the riddle and get access to the secret menu and see some incredible magic.
Or maybe not.
On Sunday, September 23, I'll be giving a magic seminar at The Browser's Den of Magic. I'll be discussing the underpinnings of some of the material I've worked on over the past ten-ish years. It's not necessarily informative for the uninitiated. But it's an opportunity to talk about some of the work that for 99% of my work must be kept secret.
Sunday, September 23 - 5:30 PM
The Browser's Den of Magic
3220 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Canadian magician, Nicholas Wallace (who appears sweet and innocent but is actually the devil; pure evil wrapped in Mr. Rogers' sweater) appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Here he tries to take the most wholesome snack, milk and cookies, and turn it into something that is both magic and sinister.
Toronto-born Mahdi Gilbert is, as far as I know, unique in the world of magic. He was born without hands and feet but created his own system to perform the kind of magic which would, under ordinary circumstances, be called "sleight-of-hand".
He recently appeared at the EG Conference and you can watch is performance followed by an interview with another celebrated magician, Eric Mead. As far as I know, Eric is the first interviewer who's dared to ask about the specifics of his physical condition. (Heck, I've known Mahdi for about eight years and I've never asked.)
The trick you can see performed is a modern classic known as "Oil and Water"
Mahdi's work is, in part, inspired by another differently abled magician from Argentina, René Lavand. Lavand lost his right arm in an accident at an early age.
He also worked primarily with cards. Most of his performances revolved around storytelling and even the occasional poetry reading. He described his own work as "Lentidigitation" which was the opposite of "Prestidigitation", roughly translated as "Fast Finger Action".
If you watch it below, you'll repeatedly hear him say "No Se Pueder Hacer Más Lento" which translates to "It can't be done any slower."
Sometimes ideas are just in the air and they keep bubbling up to the surface all a once. Following up on the spoken word piece I shared yesterday, Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) was recently interviewed in Vulture and part of their conversation was about women in magic and he shared the following:
“Everybody that I know in magic got in before they were 10 and they have a huge affection for that scene of older men — it was always men — with cigars talking in the basement of a library about magic. I hated that. I didn’t get into magic in any real way until I was 19 and met TellerRaymond Joseph Teller met Jillette in 1974, and they began their trademark show in 1981. Teller normally does not speak in shows or in public, citing early magic shows at frat parties where bros paid closer attention when he was silent. . My whole life up that point was about dirty rock bands. And most of my friends in high school were girls. So the idea of a boys’ club that excluded them — which is what magic was — made me furious. Even now it fills me with rage that people ask if my son is into magic and don’t ask if my daughter is.
...
So the biggest trend I’m seeing in magic is what we saw in comedy 15 years ago, which is that the boys’ club is crumbling. Three years ago, it was maybe one girl every two years who would come up after a show and say she was interested in magic. Now it’s about three girls a week — 12-year-old girls with a deck of cards in their hands saying, “I’m going to be on ”
You can read the full article at Vulture.
Toronto-based magician Rosemary Reid asks (and answers) why we don't see more women performing magic. Something to think about:
I've considered the paucity of women performing magic can be explained very straightforwardly by a lack of visible role models. Small effects can have large causes, especially if their impact multiplies through a population. In the days before video, if a female magician didn't live in your area, your chances of seeing a role model were very low. Now that the world of online video has exploded, we could very well see that trend reverse itself extremely quickly.
