scholar    •    magician    •    consultant

Friends, there are discount tickets tonight for the avant-premiere of — Où vont les fleurs? — at the TOHU tonight. Here is the special link: https://bit.ly/2JKkVq5. Congratulations to the entire team of this show! I already have my tickets for tomorrow night’s premiere and look forward to seeing friends there. The show runs from May 29 to June 9. Whichever night you go, be sure to keep an eye out for the amazing John Witte and Félix Martin who perform an original magic-infused juggling number that we worked on this year (I dropped a hint about this on CBC’s The Bridge a couple months ago, for those of you listening/watching closely). Bon spectacle!

Done! Well, done for now. My new portable magic table isn’t flawless, but I’m pretty darn happy with it and look forward to using it for the first time at Concordia’s Black Box Theatre at Embodied Interventions this Sunday at 2PM.

For magicians, the size, functions and look of a magic table are extremely personal choices. My favorite ones are those beautiful, custom tables that you see in venues like Hollywood’s Magic Castle or the ones made by craftsmen like Tabman in the States. Sometimes you might get lucky and find an old one for sale on commission in a magic shop or an antique table in an auction catalogue. All of the high quality tables are pricey and can run anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

There is also a plethora of poor quality, overpriced, or simply unserviceable magic tables on the market that performers must wade through when searching for one that fits their needs.

I tend to construct my own, because I usually want to customize them to meet specific conditions. Here is a post about the last table that I made, which I still love and use frequently. The size of the performance surface is ideal (20″ x 40″). Card work on that table feels like driving a luxury Cadillac. It’s perfect for shows that I take a car to and where the table doesn’t have to move more than once or twice.

This latest, smaller table (pictured above), is more of a skiff. It’s a smaller performance surface (17″ x 21″). That’s still large enough to accommodate nearly all of my favorite props and effects, while also being infinitely easier to immediately pick up and move after a performance. The nearly invisible black bottom baseboard is a piece of 1/4″ thick birch. It’s covered with black stretch velvet, so the underside of the table looks presentable when I flip up the table and move it. Poker green surrounded by a gold frame round out the color-scheme chosen this time around. The base is also wood and feels warmer than the last one I purchased (a sleek, black metal keyboard stand). Both pieces of this table are the perfect weight for picking them up at a drop of a hat and folding an arm over them. This means that it’s infinitely easier to take them on public transit or even on a train, bus or plane.

Flight time will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of this latest table. For the moment, I’m simply enjoying the feeling of watching a carefully sourced and constructed project come together.

I’m stoked to be seeing friends and performing in the gala show at the University of Waterloo’s 27th annual juggling festival this Saturday. One of my contact juggling heros, Kyle Johnson (shout-out to Sacramento), will be there. He’s just one of many awesome folks who will be in attendance. It’s a great crowd and a small, intimate festival. If you’ve never gone, check out the festival website and carpool with somebody or find another way to get there. This festival holds a special place in my heart, since it’s one of the first places where I was able to test out a new magic-juggling idea years ago. I really like the informal and fun-focused structure of juggling festivals, which include best trick jams, juggling games (like volleyclub), passing, free workshops, and more formal shows like the one on Saturday night. There’s a beautiful lack of pretense at festivals like this one, which makes it much easier for object manipulators of all skill levels (absolute beginner to absolute pro) to exchange skills and learn new tricks quickly. I’ll be teaching a rope manipulation workshop at the festival on Saturday afternoon and am looking forward to all of the other activities too. The general festival is free for all (click on the link or the image above for details) and the gala show is great entertainment for price. Click here for tickets.

Today, I’m grateful for this profile of my work in the wonderful worlds of magic and circus. Ever since Nathan showed me the first trick that truly mystified me, I’ve worked to learn as much as possible about how to create similar magical experiences for others. Why are we humans are so fascinated by displays of what seems impossible? What is magic? The exploration of these questions continues to be a meaningful journey. There have been many serendipitous moments along the way: discovering a magic shop in my hometown (Grand Illusions), seeing Quidam in Berkeley, California, at 16, meeting David Ben and Julie Eng in Toronto, meeting circus scholar Dr. Patrick Leroux at Concordia University, collaborating with Patrice Aubertin, Daniela Arendasova and Eric Langlois at the National Circus School, learning from Boris Verkhovsky at Cirque du Soleil, and benefiting from the wisdom and guidance of so many extraordinary people in this alternative universe that we somehow inhabit.

I can’t wait to perform strolling and stage magic at the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco’s beautiful Regency Ballroom on January 25 and 26, 2019. If you’ve never been to this Paradox Media event or this historic venue, I highly recommend it. The Edwardian Ball celebrates both the Edwardian period as well as the delightful and macabre style of Edward Gorey. Click on the image above to experience what it’s all about and don’t forget to dress up!

I’d like to take a moment to recommend Elliott Terral’s wonderful podcast Magical Thinking. Magic podcasts and audiobooks are finally beginning to appear in larger quantities and with greater regularity nowadays, which is a wonderful way to spread a deeper understanding of the art. Terral is a young US magician based in Los Angeles, which gives his podcast a different style and flavour compared to UK magician Richard Young’s The Magician’s Podcast (mentioned in an earlier post). Having listened to every episode of each podcast (I listen to them on my daily commute to and from work), I encourage those interest in gaining a more intimate understanding of how the magic industry operates at every level to do the same. It’s amazing what you can learn by listening to the fascinating ups, downs and lives of the magicians interviewed and the topics explored during these smart, silly, and sometimes shockingly unguarded conversations.

See you soon, Atlanta and Georgia Tech! Thank you to Dr. Patrick Ellis, his department, and his students for this fantastic poster.