As co-founder and magic consultant for Ars Mechanica, I’m excited to announce that our troupe will be in residence as part of the HATCH program at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. This April, we’ll be working on a new performance titled SISI. I’m working on some magic inspired by Empress Elisabeth of Austria for this. If you’d like to see what we come up with for this first stage of creation, click on the image above or this link for more details.
Those who work in the arts often have to choose between watching and creating.
I watch a wide variety of shows (magic, circus, theatre and more), which is an important part of being in touch with the artistic trends and communities that inspire me. And, of course, I try to plan as carefully as possible how to allocate time to watching important performances versus creating (writing, consulting, rehearsing, performing my own stuff). Screwups happen, however, and tonight I was forced to choose between going to a show that I’d already paid for and staying home to get some important creative work done. I hemmed and hawed up to the last minute. It pained me to realize that there was no way to give the ticket away, but I was also excited to put some time into a secret project.
Then, I realized that this was a psychological trap. As soon as I tossed the ticket into the recycling bin, I knew that I’d made the right decision. Tonight, I am creating instead of watching and I couldn’t be happier.
This looks like a fascinating virtual reality collaboration between experimental theatre creator Robert Lepage and one of my favorite Borges scholars: Alberto Manguel. The name of the site-specific performance is la bibliotèque, la nuit / The Library at Night. Visitors must book in advance and pay a very small fee before participating at the National Archives of Quebec. The exhibition is running from now until August 28, 2016. Here is a written description of The Library at Night event in English for those of you who thought the French trailer link above was some sort of bizarre smartphone advertisement.
I spent the last weekend manipulating objects for three days straight at the beautiful circus school pictured here. 2016 marked the 10th annual juggling festival hosted by the Quebec Circus School known as TurboFest. Most juggler’s agree that it’s the best festival to attend in North America. The talent is off-the-charts, the circus school is an amazing host, and the size of the festival is large enough to provide constant variety without losing that intimate camaraderie found at gatherings where you make great friends. I’ve gone to quite a few magic conventions, but never to one filled with jugglers at a circus school. In my book, we are all part of a large family of object manipulators. In the end, I taught a little, learned a lot and watched from a front row seat as Wes Peden, Patrik Elmnert and Tony Pezzo blew us away with their show Water on Mars.
At the end of my trip to France in November, I had the pleasure of dining with Philippe Beau, Raphaël Navarro, and Valentine Losseau (pictured above from left to right). I first heard about Navarro and Losseau’s magie nouvelle movement — a circus infused new wave of magic in France — sometime in 2012. At that time, I was writing the magic manifesto that became the conclusion of my dissertation and searching for what had already been published. I stumbled upon the wonderful April 2010 issue of Stradda magazine, which mentions that Navarro, Losseau and Clément Debailleul were working on a manifesto for their magie nouvelle movement. It was a real treat to hear about the latest developments of their work and to get an update on the development of their forthcoming publication. I was amazed to hear from Navarro that roughly 60 magie nouvelle companies are currently performing 100 different magie nouvelle shows. I highly recommend seeing one — by Yann Frisch, Etienne Saglio, CLOC and others — if you visit France.
Wayne Houchin and some weirdo
Wayne Houchin and I grew up going to the same magic shop — Grand Illusions in Sacramento, California. We aren’t officially kids anymore, but we still go to the Johnson family’s store. In early November, I had the privilege of creating a full evening of magic in which Wayne, his wife Frania, and Steve Johnson (who continues to nurture our love of magic) all performed. Here is a brief clip of Frania performing an upside-down straitjacket escape as part of that event. We’ve come a long way from being those kids in Steve’s shop. But in many ways, we never left.
I’m excited to announce that my interview with French magician and shadowgrapher Philippe Beau is now available in Genii magazine‘s December issue.
I grew up reading Genii in my hometown’s magic shop in Sacramento, California. Years later, I lived with the Domergue family in Nimes, France, to learn their beautiful language. Nowadays, I work in Montreal (French-speaking Canada). When Philippe came here to perform his one-man show last April, I interviewed him in his native language to learn about his work, the French magic scene, and the avant-garde movement known as “magie nouvelle.” There’s exciting, interdisciplinary exploration being done overseas that hasn’t received much exposure in North America and Philippe’s magic is one example of it.
Both magic and French have radically changed the way that I analyze the world. So it’s special for me to have combined the two for my first contribution to Genii.
This will come in handy for teaching magic history to French speaking students in Montréal. I found it in the boutique of le Musée de la Magie in Paris. The publishing house — Editions Georges Proust — have translated quite a few foundational texts from the magic canon.