This post is basically geared towards the magicians in the crowd, but I think you normal people will enjoy it as well.
Not long ago I was asked if there were any magicians or effects that manage to impress me. I’m assuming I was asked because I am quite ‘jaded’ when it comes to magicians. The answer however, is a big yes.
I still like finding clips of Doug Henning and Paul Daniels. Watching Eugene Burger, Jeff McBride and Ricky Jay is always a treat. There are guys like Shawn Farquhar who I’ve discussed in these pages before. Donovan, Tony Chris, Matthew Johnson, Ray Wong and of course the late Tony Eng and Sid Lorraine are also on my favorites list, all for different reasons, all are extremely entertaining. Ben Salinas, here in State College is just a hoot to watch, his smile and enthusiasm are infectious.
Montreal is a mecca for magicians. While there are many reasons for this, I honestly believe the majority or reasons can be attributed to Tom Auburn (Magic Tom). It always amazed me how many people I have come across that had been on his magic show. In University so many of my classmates would come up to me with the same, similar story: “…your family is in the magic business? Do you know Magic Tom? I loved magic Tom, I was on his show when I was a kid, and I never missed watching that show.” Nobody showed any shock that my father owned a magic shop. In BC, I got odd looks when people found out what I did. After Magic Tom passed away people would come to me telling me about the time they were on the show, eventually I would be asked if I could make an introduction, at which time I would have to deliver the sad news. I always had a hard time telling my friends and acquaintances that Magic Tom had passed away, every time they would get that look in their eyes as if I had just killed off part of their childhood.
Perhaps my father, or other magi from Quebec will comment on this post giving possible explanations as to why magic is so popular in Quebec. Because of this popularity Quebec has produced some excellent magicians. There are too many to name but a few examples are
David Acer: Unfortunately I can only watch him for short periods of time as my stomach and sides quickly begin to hurt from laughing so hard.
Richard Saunders: Crap man, I hate this guy. I once sold him an effect. I saw him perform it a few days later and I had no idea how he did it!
Roger Benoit: Never failed to amaze and amuse me. Roger may find it interesting that he is one of my favourite magicians.
Gary Kurtz: Gary would stand at the front door to the shop and call over to me. ‘Brian Pick up that deck of cards you are using and spread them face up on the table and think of one card when you have the card in mind shuffle the deck” That done he would then name the card I was thinking of. Doesn’t sound like much but believe me it is nothing short of a miracle
I was in the Montreal shop practicing a small cups and balls routine, (Three balls penetrate three cups) a customer walks in and offers to give me some pointers. I want to say it was Jean Boucher but can’t swear to it, anyway he has me set the effect up. We go through the routine together very slowly. I picked up the first ball made it vanish from my hand only to appear under a cup that is on the table. The ordeal is repeated with the second ball. I pick up the third ball and the customer says to me. ‘We should change this up, pick up the cup first so we can see that there is nothing underneath” I picked up the third cup and underneath it was my own wrist watch. Son of a Bitch!
Alain Choquette: I’m not even going to discuss Alain’s magic. He performed live on a popular french TV show and all the girls loved him. He made me quite popular by association, Thanks Alain.
Sorry there are just too many to name such as Romain, Carl Cloutier, Patrick Reymond, Blair Marshall, Ted Outerbridge, Lawrence Larouche and sorry to all those that I have forgotten to name here.
My point being is yes I am jaded when it comes to magic. Yes sometimes I tend to run the other way when I see a group of magicians, yes I may break out in a rash when I see somebody with a deck of cards. But in the end I can honestly say that magicians, despite their reputations as being complete nerds are some of the most incredible people around.
Suddenly I’m feeling incredible….woohoo!!!! 🙂
Couple of things;
Having “escaped” the frying pan of magic into the fire of ragtime [i digress] I must say that it’s that much easier to see how the ‘normal folk’ must imagine the goings on when listening to magician’s talk. ” Hey, check out this triple palm double lift inverted cup hold!”
“Three balls penetrate three cups” Why? Why did you want to do that in the first place? It’s amazing how much of magic relies on the visual mystery to obfuscate the absurdity of the apparatus!
As for it’s popularity in Quebec, might I expand on something The Mother once told me about European magicians and how they did silent routines to music rather than have to learn the 50 languages of the neighbouring countries, thusly increasing the possible work opportunities. Kind of unique to Quebec is the ..ah …er language dilemma. If you can remember that far back, can you even think of one episode where language was an issue in The Store or A Meeting. Of course not, everyone was either wondering how the SOB did it or how he could do it better! Remember Paul Diamond at the conventions. . . “What the f… is wrong you bastards? Don’t you speak American!!!!” (and I really cleaned that up folks) yet the more abusive he got the higher his sales climbed. As far as Montreal being the Mecca, there is a magic store that actually had magic & entertainment supplies rather than a trick & joke store!
As far as the list of local yokels, admittedly far too many to mention but how could anyone forget….
… The Great Unknown!
I want to add tone of the reasons of Magic’s popularity in Quebec is the Magic Shops. You glossed over this, and it’s understandable that you weren’t around in the 50’s. I’ll go back to 1947 after I saw Blackstone senior’s 1000 and wonders show,, my father took me to a little magic store called S. Cramer. I later learned that Cramer’s was a mecca for magic in Montreal. My next experience was Morrissey, which prior to 1984 when they relocated to Toronto, was the place to be. At that time there were also Henry Gordon’s magic shop and Chanadu. Perfect Magic was started in 1976 and is still vibrant today. I’d like to think that we all had something to do with Magic’s popularity. Another reason was Magie Montreal. This was a Magic Convention conceived and run by Phil Matlin and family and Wim Vermeys and family. we started in 1979 and ran continuously every year until 1998. During those years we brought in to perform and lecture the top names in Magic. These include Jeff McBride, Carl Cloutier, Jay Marshall, Frank Garcia, Michael Ammar, David Roth, Albert Goshman, George Schindler and many many more. For anyone interested there is a complete list in the “About Perfect Magic’ link at the bottom of our home page. “www.perfectmagic.com”
This could have been and could still be a guest blog for Perfect Magic. Only I don’t know how to do that!