This year I was invited to perform at the 2009 Urban Adventure Challenge After Party. I had a blast performing for all the teams and volunteers who took part in the event. Everyone was really excited at the event, and people were ready to just sit back, relax, and take in some magic.

For those who are on facebook- you can find these same pictures on my photoalbum.

Last week I did an interview with Catherine Mamo from ilovekelowna.com. She wrote up a great article on me that was published today on their homepage. You can read the full article on their website.

I didn’t expect the article to be a long as it was, but our chat last week did last for over a half hour so she certainly had lots to mention. Catherine met me a few weeks ago when I performing at some local libraries. She really enjoyed the show and thought it would make for a great article! Who am I to disagree?

Today I came across one of those lists that are usually passed on by email forwards. Now normally I hate these lists, but this one is actually kind of funny. If you’ve seen this before- I’m sorry. If you love it, and you have a facebook, you can join the group for it.

1. Your best pickup line is “Pick a card.”

2. You use the word “effect” rather than “trick”.

3. You pay $50 for a $1 coin.

4. A “shell” is not something found on a beach.

5. All your friends call you when magic is on TV.

6. You never play card games with your cards.

7. While watching a movie or TV, you have cards in your hands.

8. You pose for a photo with one eyebrow raised!

9. You pay $60.00 for a book and get, possibly, one or two useful things out of it and you’re happy.

10. Your Christmas/Birthday wish list looks like a magic catalogue.

11. If you’ve ever been asked the question “can you make my wife disappear”?

12. You’re back-ordered for rabbits and doves at the pet store.

13. 75% of your patter consists of lame one-liners.

14. You drive 300 miles round trip to visit a teeney-tiny store.

15. You have over 100 responses to the phrase “How did you do that?”

16. There’s a pack of cards in sight as you read these words.

17. You’re holding a fan of cards in every photo that you’re in.

18. You actually want to go to a lecture.

19. You record every magic special on TV.

20. You have a tie with playing cards on it.

(more…)

I love networking events. This week there was a Business After Hours for the Westbank Chamber. There were something like 16 people who had RSVP’ed for the event, but there ended up being about 60 people there! It was a great opportunity to mix and mingle with different people from local businesses. I met some great people and a few of them were also interested in hiring me for different events. The next afterhours is coming up again in just a few weeks and I’m hoping it’s going to be just as big.

I’m really excited because on May 14th at Nk’mip Cellars in Osoyoos is going to be the the 11th Annual Vally Wide Afterhours! Last year this was the best networking event for me and I had a blast meeting people and performing some magic.

For more information on the Chamber or their events check out www.WestbankChamber.com

[ Taken from Optical Illusions ]

Filmed at my girlfriends mom’s house after Easter brunch. The two girls are my girlfriends nieces.

(Click the “HQ” button on the video player to watch the video in high quality.)

This week I got together with another magician from out of town and worked on some magic together. I always love getting together with other magicians and performers- It never fails to provide fuel and inspiration for whatever I’m working on at the time.

I’m slowly working on some new material that will eventually work itself into my Children’s Stage Show, and my Adult Stage Show. I’m really excited about the new magic I’m working on. I really feel that it matches my performing style, and the magic is so strong, I know my audiences will love it! I’ve recently added a new piece to my close-up/mingling magic and the reactions have been really great. It’s a trick that I’ve been working on for a while now, I’m glad that I’ve gotten it to a point where it fits in with the rest of my close-up material.

I’m always amazed when I look back on material that gets added into my show, and how long it takes to find its way there. There have been a few effects that I’ve been working on for a few years now, but no matter what I do they don’t fit. And then in other cases there’s new material that just fit me right away, and after just a few months of practice it finds its way into the show.

Hopefully the new effects I’m working on make their way into the show sometime soon- I look forward to sharing them with you.

[ Thanks iTricks.com ]

If you’re a magician reading this, you’re probably already familiar with the name Joshua Jay. He’s the author of “Talk about Tricks” in MAGIC magazine, author of “Magic The Complete Course”, and has a slew of other accomplishments to his name. The Complete Course is a great book that I would recommend to anyone who’s just started out in magic, and to anybody who wants to re-look at some the classics. Don’t overlook this “beginner” book though, it includes some classics like Crazy Man’s Handcuffs.

Today Joshua Jay launched a brand new website and online magic retailer. I’m not sure why we need ANOTHER magic retailer, but, they do have some lofty goals how they are going to be different than whats already out there. To prove their serious – Joshua Jay released a 92 page eBook – all for free. It’s called “Over, Under” and is written for those serious about their magic who are under 18 years old. The first section is for the student of magic, and the latter half is for the parents to read. Check out the website to download your free copy. I won’t bother with all the details of the book since you can get it for free. You do have to register on the site to get your download, but from what I’ve read so far, its worth it.

Today I had two really awesome shows. The first one was some mingling magic at the Lil’ Sproutz Children’s Market. There were a bunch of young families there with their young children making for a really great atmosphere. One of the little girls had seen me before and was really excited to see me perform again- she was telling me about all the tricks she saw me perform and how much she loved them. I love having fans.

There was also another family who had seen me perform last year at Westside Daze and were wondering if I would be there again this year. Yes, I’ll be performing at Westside Daze again this year. The date hasn’t been finalized yet, but it will probably be on Saturday July 4th during the Children’s day. For the first time, this year the Saturday is going to feature a FULL DAY designed especially for kids including children’s entertainment all day long. I’m really excited about this because it means that there’s going to be a huge audience for my Children’s Stage Show.

Also Westside Daze 2009 is also going to have West Coast Amusement Midway and Amusement Park. Apparently it’s the only stop they make in the Okananagan, so even for the big kids this year will be an event you do NOT want to miss.

My second show today was a birthday party show for a 7 year old girl who invited over 11 of her closest friends. The show went really well and everyone had a blast. I’m constantly tweaking various tricks on my show, and there’s one routine that I’ve been tweaking recently and I’m very very happy with the results.

You could be a 2010 Olympic Torchbearer. This upcoming fall the Olypmic Flame will make its way across Canada on its journey to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Would you like to carry the Olympic flame? You can sign up online. I signed up a few weeks ago. I’ve got my fingers crossed!

Last week at the local RBC branch Olympic athlete Andrea Holmes was showing off a replica of the 2010 Olympic Torch. I got my photo taken with my mom (left), Andra Holmes (middle), and me (right) with the Olympic Torch. The torch is very cool looking and quite a bit bigger than I thought! It’s not very heavy though. Too bad it wasn’t on fire… oh well.

I love learning new time management skills. As an entrepreneur the greatest skill you require is that of continued motivation, self control, and focus. Sounds easy enough, but for most … it’s an impossible task.

Fellow magician and magic business teacher Eric Paul has often mentioned the benefit of taking chunks of time to stay focused on a single task and work on it without being interrupted. He advocates the use of an egg timer. You sit down at your computer ready to work, you close the door, turn off the phone, turn off the email, turn off the Facebook and messenger, set the egg timer to an hour, and begin your focused work.

It sounded like a great idea, I even went out looking for an egg timer! Sadly though I couldn’t find one. I forgot about the time management technique- until today.

I was watching a video blog by Tim Ferris, Author of “The 4 Hour Workweek”, and he mentioned a website called www.e.ggtimer.com. E.ggtimer is an online virtual “egg timer”. You can set it for 5 seconds, 5 minutes, 5 hours, or however long you want. Once the time is up the alarm goes off. I’ve added this website to my quick launch bar in Firefox . Now it will always be ready at my fingertips.

I haven’t fully had time to rigorously test the “egg timer” yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a great tip. Why not try it yourself?

Set an hour aside to work on a task that you’ve been delaying for far too long.

Only 59minutes and 59 seconds to go- Now get working!