Sneak peek- Listen below to the Ali K. Zam Productions “Season of Magic” radio commercial that will be airing on AM1150!

Planning a Christmas Party in Kelowna, West Kelowna (Westbank), Peachland, Summerland, Penticton, or Vernon? Check out my various Christmas Party entertainment packages!

Yesturday I was in WalMart picking up a few things before heading off to a magic show when I needed some more playing cards. That’s where I came across the new “Bicycle – Eco Edition” playing cards. The box for them is just awesome looking.

I of course bought them. On the back of the box it says:

Our playing cards crafted from sustainable forest paper. Starch based lamination glue and vegatable-based printing inks. This pack of cards is recyclable.

Made by us. Enjoyed by you. Befit for all.

The black ink appears to be just a little bit lighter than on regular playing cards, but its hardly noticeable. There’s also no red ink. Just green and yellow.

The backs of the cards are also printed in green ink as well.

These cards have the standard “Air Cushion Finish” like all other Bicycle cards and they handle just the same as other regular bicycle cards. I think they’re kind of neat and could probably open up some interesting presentational ideas too.

( Pictures taken from this thread over at T11 )

My top 5 Ellusionist items.

5) Flow by Dan Hauss (Honestly, just a very cool method. I haven’t found a place to perform this yet.)

4) Criss Angel – Signed Coin in Soda Can (Actually invented by Wayne Houchin.. it’s good!)

3) Fraud by Daniel Garcia (If you live in the USA. Doesn’t work with Canadian currency sadly)

2) Stigmata by Wayne Houchin (Impromptu and its strong enough to be done in your regular sets. Invented by Banachek.)

1) Tally-ho black viper playing cards, or any of the Elluionsist cards. They make practicing more fun even though I’d never use them for a regular audience.

Use discount promo code ELL313 to receive 5% off at checkout!

Try and kill Criss Angel or save his life in a flash game on the A&E website designed to promote the final 5 episodes of Criss Angel’s TV show.

Play the Game Here. It’s actually kind of fun…

Below is an article that I included in my last Magical Moments eNewsletter. For more articles like this please subscribe.

As an event planner you and your group will come up with many ideas on activities and events for your guests to partake including Raffles to Contests. But not knowing the difference between a contest and a raffle is a game you DON’T want to play…

In BC promotional contests are not considered ‘gaming’ — the difference being in gaming you ‘pay to play’ whereas contests are free.

If you plan to host ticket raffles including 50/50 draws, sports players drafts, rubber duck races, and cake walks and other similar activities your group will need to acquire a gaming license. Depending on how much money you plan to raise, and how your organization is structured.

For more information on which license you need, as well as how to apply, visit the Gaming and Information Services website.

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…)

[ Taken from Optical Illusions ]

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.

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!

On Saturday April 4th from 10:30-11:30am I will be performing at the Lil’ Sproutz Children’s Boutique performing mingling magic. The entire event runs from 10:00am-2:00pm at Evangel Church in Kelowna BC @ 3261 Gordon Drive.

Lil’ Sproutz is a new West Kelowna company that sells gently used and new children’s clothing. For more information about the event or Lil’ Sproutz please contact Sarah at (250)212-9227.

Yesterday I stopped by CupCasions in Kelowna. I’ve hear about them all the time and since my customers often need catering I thought it would be worthwhile to check out. I picked up a sample box of the mini-cupcakes of all different flavors and they are delicious. I can see these things being a hit at any event!

I mention in my birthday party guide that cupcakes are a great alternative to serving cake because everybody gets their own, for children each piece is identical so you aren’t fighting over who gets what design, and they’re a breeze to serve, plus they taste good. Yum.

Cupcakes are perfect for any wedding, meeting, or grand opening. I’m told that CupCasions can customize them however you want. If you’d like them to match your mood or theme of your event it’s no problem. No magic required- I don’t know how they do it.

Janet, the owner of Cupcasions, was kind enough to give me some $10 gift certificates to pass on. If you have an occasion coming up and you’d like to turn it into a cupcasion email me at alikzam@gmail.com and I’ll send you one in the mail. I only have a few of them though, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

For more information contact:
CupCasions
#170-2000 Spall Road, Kelowna BC
Tel: (250)860-3690
www.cupcasions.com

Many people are paralyzed by failure.

I’ve never understood this. I would much rather take a risk on my own terms. Bad things are going to happen in life. It’s just a fact. Things we have no control over. At least if you go for something and fail, you attempted something that very few other people ever do.

At a young age I learnt that failure can be a good thing. When I first started performing there were times when I had spectators that I couldn’t control, or times when magic wouldn’t go as expected. I remember vividly a time when I was 9 years old and a trick went horribly wrong and it brought me to tears. In the end though it really wasn’t such a big deal, and I really believe that it made me stronger.

I could give you example after example of this from my own life but I’m sure you have your own examples. Think back to these times when you failed but you gained so much more out of it. My online friend Tom Beleware said something interesting the other day “The good thing about life is, it has a one-sided score board, the failures never count.”

So get out there. Get inspired. And try…

Tomorrow I’ll be performing at two local libraries and I’m performing a brand new routine. Each show is going to have between 60-100 kids plus adults. This new routine is outside of my comfort zone, and honestly I’m a little nervous about it but that’s exactly why I’m doing it.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Failure: The Secret to Success