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David Copperfield is coming to Kelowna’s Prospera Place on October 22nd. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (July 19th) at 10:00am.

Go to SelectYourTickets.com to buy your tickets.

Event Date:
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
8:30 pm

Event Date:
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
8:30 pm

Onsale Date:
Saturday, July 19, 2008
10:00 am

Well the 2008 PCAM convention is over and the reports and photo’s are rolling in. I wasn’t able to make it to the convention this year because I decided to visit Vegas instead (more on that in future posts). There’s thousands of photo’s from the convention posted online over at magic4us.com. Thanks to Elton & Anne for letting me live vicariously through the pictures

[My friend Dean Hankey running sound at the convention]

[Dean Hankey workin' the audience]

Fun Day in Gyro Park in Trail, BC includes live performance’s all day long

Rossland, BC – July 3, 2008 - The West Kootenay Boundary Regional Spirit of BC committee is pleased to celebrate BC150 and YOUR Heritage! The committee has a fun filled day planned for Sunday, July 27, 2008 to celebrate the province’s 150th anniversary of becoming a crown colony, as well as the Kootenay Boundary’s multicultural heritage. The cultural celebration will take place in the West Kootenay Boundary city of Trail at Gyro Park on Sunday, July 27 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and will feature a performance by Rivers Edge Theatre Group, Can-Can dancers, magician Ali K. Zam (From 12:00-1:00pm) and Canadian Country music recording artist, Craig Moritz. “The West Kootenay Boundary Spirit of BC Community Committee is pleased to organize this event that will coincide with BC’s 150th anniversary of becoming a Crown Colony,” said Maritza Reilly, Chair of the planning committee. “Our event plans to celebrate the cultural diversity, community strength and widespread achievement of not only our province but also of the West Kootenay Boundary area.”

Wow I’m so excited to announce that it’s confirmed! I talked to Shawn Farquhar and booked his lecture for the Okanagan Society of Magicians on Sunday October 19th! Mark your calendars now, you don’t want to miss this.

You will see great effects like:

MatriXpress
Don’t blink or you will miss this lightning fast matrix!

MagiCd
Magic for the digital age …

Blown Away
A card effect with a commercial twist.

The Ultimate Invisible Deck
A deck of cards turns to glass …

Torn 2 Pieces
The torn and almost restored photograph

Signed Card in Wallet
It doesn’t get and easier than this …

Tagged
Signed card trapped by a security tag in your coat!

Photo Finish
A poker chip moves so fast it gets trapped in a photo

Deck Switch
Completely invisible deck switch!

Admission is going to be just $20 so there’s absolutely no excuses for missing this amazing opportunity to see one of the world’s finest performers give a magic lecture.

This lecture features Shawn’s most amazing real world close-up material. But- there’s more. On Saturday October 18th Shawn will be performing a public stage show in Vernon. Tickets will eventually be up for sale on http://www.ticketseller.ca. Right now the website is only promoting shows up to August and the show is in October. I’ll let everyone know once tickets are available.

If your a magician from the Okanagan area and you’d like to be a part of the Okanagan Society of Magicians please give me a call at 250.575.SHOW(7469) or email me at alikzam@gmail.com.

With all the people who are watching Celebracadabra in Canada now it seems like there’s more and more people talking about the judges that were on the show.

I saw Rocco perform live once in Calgary several years ago, but I was too young to know anything about him. I did pick up a couple of d’lights though and I remember playing around with them in the hotel room. The only trick I remember Rocco doing was something where he takes a dice and slams it between his hands and it goes flat. I can’t remember if there was more to the routine or anything. I seem to recall something about it appearing on somebodies shoulder a few times, but I honestly can’t remember.

I’ve looked for videos of Rocco performing online but most of them are really bad quality with poor lighting and camera work. I came across this video today of Rocco’s award winning act. He won “Most Original Magic Act” in 2006 at FISM.

Great stuff. I love the smoke in the glass, the appearance of the popsicle, the fruit, and the glass filled with confetti at the end. Just fantastic!

It also looks like all of the Celebracadabra episodes are available as a digital download from amazon now. If you missed an episode then it might be worth it to check it out:

Well there’s be lots of talk on the blogs about how amazing Wall-E is. But, here at the magicblog we’re more interested in the short film before the movie called “Presto”. Well if you haven’t seen the movie (like me) you can still buy the short film online for $2 from iTunes. Or you could spend $5 more and go see the short film and Wall-E in theaters. Although… I’m sure that was their master plan all along!

You can find more wall-e tid bits over at kottke.

As many of you know, Dirk Losander and family are in need of our help. Here’s the letter Losander wrote to the magic community:

“I Need Your Help. Our little baby “Ione” was born 6 days ago. Today we found out she needs a heart operation and our insurance is not going to pay for it.

I am not writing you this to beg for money but if you need to buy something from my website now would be the time to help us out. Every Dollar counts and we really need all the support we can find right now! So if you feel like supporting this cause, go to my website and find your self some great magic and make this operation happen for us.

Click here!

Even if you are a non magician, we just came out with a new dvd “Las Vegas Greatest Magicians” which teaches you easy to learn magic. You can find it right here
or if you just want to donate some money for us please send it via PayPal to: losander@mac.com or just keep us in your prayers. Thank you so much for your support”

This is what Steve Brooks from the magic cafe had to add:

Now, since this letter was written little baby ‘Ione’ has had her surgery and is in revovery and doing very well.

That said, the bills continue to pour in to the Losander family on a daily basis. Not only has surgery been performed but many more visits requiring medical attention will be required.

So PLEASE, I emplore you to take a moment and seriously consider this very worthwhile cause. You’ll feel better for doing it and literally change lives in the process.

Thank you all and God bless.

If you’d like to support Losander but can’t find anything on his site that you’d like, check out the Vanishing Rabbit in Calgary Alberta.

The Vanishing Rabbit Magic Shop is donating 1% of all sales in July to Losander, Luna and their NEW Baby. So come in and by something.

I’ll be performing at Westside Daze on Sunday Night (June 29th 2008) at 7:00pm at the Johnson Bently Stage. Park behind A&W, you’ll see the signs and the shortcut to the park.The show runs till about 7:45pm. After me ABBA Again, an ABBA Tribute band, will be performing after me. So come on out and check it out.

You can see the event on Facebook by searching on facebook for “Ali K. Zam performing at Westside Daze!”. Apparently I can’t directly link to it because you need to belong to the “Kelowna” network before you can see it *shrugs*

For more information on the Westside Daze events check out their site for the full schedule.

PS: Tomorrow there’s a parade at 10:30am and tomorrow night in the Fireworks as well.

You’re invited to the Annual Sunshine Festival in Vernon BC on June 14th (This Saturday)

Don’t miss the largest street fair/sidewalk sale in the North Okanagan with an upwards of 10,000 people in attendance. Downtown truly comes alive with block after block of outstanding bargains, entertainment, children’s activities, outside street cafes, art and cultural performances and much more!

This festival includes and is not limited to a rock climbing wall, 2 entertainment stages, 2-3 bounce and plays and face painting.

On the Main Stage (2900 Block) I will be performing a 30 minute family show at 11:30 AM.

On 3400 block at 1:10 PM I will be performing a 20 minute street show, along with another street show at 2:10 on 3100 block. Don’t miss it!

I’ll be performing at a number of other public festivals and events over the summer and I’ll update you as the dates get closer.

Shop & Experience the Westside, 50% off Goodie Bags

From June 23rd to July 1st, the entire city of Westbank will be on sale! For more information on the event goto www.comeonover.info

Ali K. Zam Productions will be offering 50% off goodie bags for your birthday party show if you book the show between June 23rd and July 1st. For more information on Ali K. Zam’s birthday party show, goto www.HassleFreeBirthday.com.

Do you have children? New booster seat law in BC

New laws in effect July 1, 2008
All children must use booster seats until their 9th birthday unless they have reached the height of 145 cm (4′9″) tall. For more information goto BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation.
http://www.tsfbcaa.com/boost_bc

The FUN corner

Optical Illusion (Image)

1. First open up: First click here doesn’t look like to much does it?
2. Stand up and goto the back of the room. Look closely and you should see a famous painting!

“Magic is about transformation. It reminds us that everything changes – including ourselves.” - Jeff McBride

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All the people ask me where I buy my magic from. Do I get it local? Online? Sadly there’s no real magic shop in Kelowna. If you’re just looking for some beginner tricks then you do have some local options.

1) Kelowna Costume used to have a small shelf of beginner magic tricks. I don’t know if they still have it anymore, but it worth a shot. They also have top hats, capes, and things like that for kids.

2) If you’re looking for magic theme goodie bags for a birthday party then you can order some from me when booking a magic show (I also have Ali K. Zam Official Magicians Wand’s)

3) Check your local dollar store. Don’t get the little boxes that have like 10 tricks in them for $1 though, the tricks are poorly made and often don’t even work properly, instead get the ones that are $1/each.

4) If you check Zellers or Walmart they sometimes have like 30 piece magic sets. There’s also Loadza Toyz in Orchard Park Mall that has some magic tricks and puzzles.

If you’re looking for some intermediate to professional magic and some quality made props then you have to go online. Don’t worry though, there’s lots of great online magic shops and many offer either major discounts, or free shipping.

1) In Vancouver (On Granville) there’s Clownin’ Around Magic
Not very good for online shopping, but if you call them you can find out what they have in stock.

2) In Calgary there’s The Vanishing Rabbit (Discount for IBM members)

3) My favorite place to shop online without a doubt is The Magic Depot
They have free shipping on orders over $40 (Who orders less than that anyways?), their website is pretty slick, and did I mention that they have the BEST customer service around? Its true!

4) The rest of the time I order magic online, I get it directly from different magic inventors. If anybody needs help finding something online, just let me know by email or on in the comments and I’ll try my best to help you out.

Saturday morning started out with a buffet breakfast, then CEO and Foundder Brian from 1-800-Got-Junk? spoke and it was really quite interesting. Then there was another panel discussion, then finally the Best and the Brightest panel where I would be speaking with 3 other entrepreneurs. The others were Christopher from Mow & Snow Land Care, then Bob Wells and Scott Swanson from My Tech Guys.

15 minutes goes by really fast when you’re up there speaking, so I didn’t get a chance to cover everything I wanted to. Still though, I think everybody got the message I was trying to convey.

In the afternoon there was another policy session that I didn’t need to attend so I decided that I’d go out and explore what Whistler had to offer. Somebody was telling me about the “Zip Line” tours you could go on where you zip from tree to tree. I’d never really heard of anything like that before, but it sounded fun so I signed up for the Ziptrek Ecotours. Unfortunately I went by myself (although you go out in groups of 10), I had a blast and it was so much fun. If you ever get a chance to go, do it! The entire trek took about 3 hours, just in time to make it back for the final big dinner party back at the hotel.

At the dinner my mom found out that her chamber received a certificate for honorable mention for Chamber of the year. She was soo excited and that single moment was the highlight of the entire event for me!

After dinner I had a bunch of people come up to me and ask me to perform for their tables with I happily agreed to. A little later the band March Hare performed and they were excellent! They were high energy and kept everyone on the dance floor until 1am.

The next morning we were set to go back home, but before we left we decided to explore Whistler a little bit more. My mom and I decided to take the gondola up to the top of Blackcomb mountain.

Then we drove for 6 hours all the way back home. The end

If you read my last post then you know that last weekend I was invited to speak at the BC Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting. My mom works at the Westbank Chamber of Commerece and she was attending the event that I was going to speak at! How cool is that? It worked out well because we drove down together, and were able to share a hotel room.

We left a day early so that we wouldn’t have to rush or leave really early in the morning. The drive from here to Whistler was amazing. We went up through Merritt, up to Spenders Bridge, down to Lytton, then up through Lillott, and finally through Pemberton to Whistler.

The 5 hour drive took us 6 hours, but we made it safe and sound. We stayed at the Delta hotel. The room was pretty nice, had a washer/dryer, dishwasher. The extra blanket for the room was lumpy though, the lid for the coffee machine was missing, and the ironing board was broken but everything was fixed as soon as we asked. The service was top notch, as I would come to find out was standard everywhere I went in Whistler. This next photo is the view from our room.

We settled in then left the hotel to do a little exploring. This village is gorgeous, and we quickly found a little sushi restaurant that was fairly busy so we stopped for dinner.

The next day was registration. We were early, but my registration package hadn’t been put together yet because I was one of the speakers. I ended up getting it later on the same day. My mom went around networking with people that she hasn’t seen since last years event. I pulled her away for a moment and got somebody to take this picture of us.

The first day started out with a lunch, routine opening ceremony type stuff for the AGM, in the afternoon there were a few speakers, followed by a fancy dinner and a few more speakers (Detecting the theme here?).

The next morning started off with a breakfast, then the first policy session. This is where Chambers submit policy that the BC Chamber will pass onto the Government. The Westbank Chambers resolution was to increase the number of campsites. There were a few small language changes that had to be made so it wasn’t passed. In the afternoon there was a lunch, more speakers, then dinner, and more speakers. At night there was a little party where I took the time to break out the magic and perform.