Remembering Johnny

I was saddened to hear yesterday of the passing of one of the truly great magicians of the past hundred years, Johnny Thompson, at the age of 86. Although he had retired his legendary stage act “The Great Tomsoni & Co” which he performed for decades alongside his wife, Pam, he was still constantly at it teaching and consulting. You got the feeling he was like the Energizer Bunny; that he would go on forever. But alas, you can only do so much impossible in one lifetime.

I first met Johnny the Niagara Falls Comedy & Magic Seminar organized by (now good friends) David Peck and Anthony Lindan. Not really knowing much about him, I got to see his legendary act close the show. It was simultaneously sidesplittingly funny and utterly baffling. The man was pulling live doves, as far as i could tell, literally out of thin air.

June 2008 - L to R Pam Hayes, ME, Ben Train, Johnny Thompson, David Peck

June 2008 - L to R Pam Hayes, ME, Ben Train, Johnny Thompson, David Peck

But then it got really good. For the next several days, Johnny and Pam were going to be visiting a number of magic clubs in Ontario and somehow I wound up as the driver. (Let that be a lesson to young people… get a drivers license! It really can work magic!)

The man literally oozed secrets. While sitting in the passenger’s seat of my Honda Civic, he would just tell stories and explain things. It was plodding along in traffic on Yonge Street that he taught me so much of the subtle inner workings of the famous “Egg” trick. I was still just performing close-up magic at that point and didn’t have a use for it. But later and to this day, it is a central pillar in my show and never fails to astonish… all thanks to Johnny.

All thanks to Johnny.

Years later I would find myself working on his monumental magnum opus The Magic of Johnny Thompson. At the same time, I was also working on digitizing and indexing performances from the Magic Palace where Johnny appeared several times. Towards the end of the project, I was assembling a 60 second highlight reel and as the last clip I picked one of the bird appearances from his appearance. What was particularly gruelling was to try and line up the clip so that the appearance of the bird was timed to the show’s theme music, which involved watching it over and over and over and over again, moving the clip over a fraction of a second each time.

However at that same time, I was reviewing early drafts of the book and planning the photos, so as I was watching this bird appear repeatedly, I was also looking at the instructions for how he was doing it. Years before, we were having coffee and (for no particular reason other than he wanted to share) he took his empty coffee cup, tucked it into his jacket and explained how he made his famous dove productions — the secret is in the little finger! Still today, I’m not entirely sure where that bird is coming from. Such is the magic of Johnny Thompson.

This is clip. Here are The Great Tomsoni and Company!

Update: March 19 - Johnny’s obituary was published in the New York Times

Magic to understand the brain

There’s an interesting (but very long) article at Wired about psychologists’ efforts to use magic to better understand the brain.

magic-1.jpg
It’s an awkward fact of human existence that much of the time we don’t see something that is literally happening in front of our eyes. But, says Kuhn, that isn’t because we are stupid, it’s because the brain is a brilliant economiser of resources. “It’s purely about efficiency,” he says. “We have to filter out information to save energy, otherwise we would get overwhelmed. Rather than just processing all the information, the brain selects the stuff that’s really important. So we can be looking at something right in front of our eyes, but the information doesn’t go any further and reach our conscious experience.”

You can try this by looking at the wall opposite you. Unless you have been thinking about redecorating, you will notice marks that, until now, you were unaware of. It’s not that photons from those marks never landed on your retina. They almost certainly did. It’s just that the brain discarded that data as unimportant.

As a practicing magician, I’m excited to see the world in general, and academia in particular, take a more serious interest in what we do. There’s a lot to read in the full article.

New Dates for Magic & Martini this Spring

Magic and Martini Banner.jpg

Our show is currently sold out through the end of April and we’ve added new dates for May. Because of the high demand, we are doubling up offering two shows on the weekend on certain weekends. We also have a show on Mothers Day.

So if you are looking to see the show but have not been able to reserve a place, now is the time before the new dates fill up:

Saturday, May 4
Sunday, May 5
Saturday, May 11
Sunday, May 12
Saturday, May 18
Sunday, May 19
Sunday, May 26

Readers can use the code OLIVE for a discount on tickets purchased online:

New Dates for Magic & Martini

2019 is off to a magnificent and magical start. Magic & Martini is currently sold out up until March. We’ve just posted dates for April and hope you can join us. Readers can use the code olive for a discount on tickets reserved online. Come join us at Suite 114 in Downtown Toronto.

The Newest Trick in the Book

This week, I’ll be appearing on The Newest Trick In The Book, a weekly show put on by the Toronto Magic Company. I’ll be appearing along with Jeff Hinchliffe, Sean Rooney, Harry Zimmerman and TMC Founder Ben Train.

Tickets are free to reserve . This is a pay-what-you-feel show. The only rule is it must be brand new material, never performed before. So there is the possibility that everything will go horribly wrong and nothing in the show will work. What fun!

When: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 - 8:30 PM

Where: See-Scape, 347 Keel Street, Toronto

 

Photos from Magic & Martini in Toronto

Magic and Martini Banner.jpg

Last night at Suite 114, we had our first Magic & Martini of the New Year. Thank you to everyone who attended. Here are a few photos courtesy of Ivan “The Witch” Bekcic.

For our upcoming shows, readers can use the secret code olive for a discount on the price of tickets when reserving online.