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

Wow! I just got home from a show this evening and I had a BLAST.

I perform lots of kids audiences, and lots of adult audiences but it’s less common that I perform in a stage situation with a few hundred people where there’s a mix of adults and kids. It was great to be able to mix up the adult material, and the kid show material, and perform a full 45 minute set.

Before the show some of the kids had finished their dinner early (as most kids do) and they were running around the place. I got them all together at the edge of the stage and I performed some close-up magic to keep the entertained before the rest of the evening continued. Kids are unpredictable, and speak their mind, I love it. I had some fun performing some silk magic, and showing them some ‘magic bubbles’.

The stage show started shortly after and I right from the start the audience was very receptive and I knew it was going to be a great show. It was a church group, and the venue was just down the street from my home. I’ve performed there many many times and so it kind of felt like I owned the stage.

The show went off without incident, and I had some great volunteers throughout the show. After the show many of the people came up to me and told me stories about how they had seen me perform years and years ago when I was just a little guy, and I was still performing with my mom as my assistant! When I was 8 and 9 years old I performed at every community and charity event I could, and to this day I get comments all the time from people who had seen me during those starting years. I hope that in another 10 or 15 years I’m still crossing paths with these people who saw me when I was just starting out.

I often tell others that I love magic because it helps others break free from their normal day-to-day routine and makes them feel better. Tonight I was selfish and the show made me feel great as well. Magic is a powerful.

Do you have extra noise in your life? Well, I’ve noticed it my life recently, and I’ve been taking steps to correct it. For example, I’m a huge fan of RSS. In the past even been proud of how many websites I keep up with on a day to day basis. But today I’m slowly eliminating websites that aren’t thought provoking, or don’t provide me with information that I can act upon. I’ve turned off email on my blackberry which helps me better focus through other tasks like writing this post. And I’m removing myself from online discussions where the people participating seem to have no respect for the human on the other side of their computer screen.

These changes have helped me become far more efficient, and have freed up huge amounts of extra time. I’ve been able to spend more time with friends, family, and creating new video clips for the web.

Motivational speaker Brian Tracy makes a great point in his live presentations. We all have 24 hours in a day right. From top athletes, to presidents, to entrepreneurs. How we use that time is what’s important.

Are there areas of your life where you’re killing time? You may have a hard time finding the problem areas at first. I know I didn’t realize how much time I was wasting on a day to day basis.

I challenge you to free up some of that time and use it doing something more meaningful. You might be surprised. I promise you’ll be happier for it.

(But don’t stop reading my blog. Free time up in other ways! I appreciate your attention it’s the most valuable thing you can give to me.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I just recently got some brand new business cards printed up. I got them printed by a local print company in Kelowna. They did some posters for me in the past and I was pretty happy with them.

This time I wanted to get some new business cards printed, but I wanted really nice business cards. I was looking around for a special kind of textured laminate paper, and I was able to provide Ehmann Printworx with a sample and they were able to make them for me.

In the end the cards turned out really nice and I’m quite happy with them. I’m looking forward to handing out all 2,000 of them. I’ve already handed out a few dozen, but of course the first few are always the easiest.

“Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Returns” airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.

Uh oh, Well it turns out that Masters of Illusion on MyNetworkTV was reschedule to a new time but lots of people didn’t know so they missed the show! Well, fear not my American friends because you’ll still be able to catch the full episode online for download from the official MyNetworkTV website. First go to their website, then click on “Full Episodes”.

The newest Episode hasn’t been posted yet, but I’m sure it will be available in a few days. I’ll try and post any clips that appear on youtube on my blog as well.

You have to admit, that new Britney Spears song is pretty catchy.

I got excited when I heard over at The Magic Newswire that Ed Alonzo was going to be helping Miss Spears with incorporating some magic into her new circus themed concert. Wicked stuff!

Gossip central of the world “E!” has been all over the story as well.

If you head on over to candies.com you can put in your information into that box in the lower right corner, or some bogus information, and you’ll see a short video clip montage of their rehearsal. Lots of circus stuff, but there appears to be a couple moments where they show magical apparatuses. I’m not sure if this is what the E! commercial was referring to or not. We’ll have to wait to seen.

[Edit: Below is the video that was previously "locked" at the Candies.com website. Thanks itricks! ]

First Look at Britney's 'Circus' Tour

[Edit #2: Looks like an extended version of the above video was released today. Its, like, twice as long, at 2 minutes in length. Haha ]

I came across this really funny video of comedian Louis C.K. on Conan O’Brian talking about how everything is amazing and yet nobody is happy.

The whole world around us is amazing, and yet some people will just never notice. I hope the clip made you smile

Well it looks like the Blackpool magicians convention is over and the reviews are coming in. I haven’t heard any news of major screw ups, and nobody so far seems’ to be complaining, which has to be some sort of record for a convention that size!!

Its been really cool to see all the Blackpool magic pictures that people have posted on Facebook. Having people like Jeff McBride and Rudy Coby (Great to have you back buddy!) on my list means I get to see all the pictures that he’s tagged in. Its been funny to see all the comments on pictures from people who had their picture taken with David Blaine. In every picture he’s just standing there with a black expression on his face. He looks like he’s starving and been in a block of ice for 63 hours or something…

Nedim Guzel’s Photos – Blackpool 2009
Dennis van den Hove’s Photos – Blackpool Convention 2009
Howard Hughes’s Photos – Blckpool Convention 2009
Berk Eratay’s Photos – Blackpool 2009
Peter McLanachan’s Photos – 2009 Blackpool Convention (You can see an example of David Blaine in this album)

( Through facebook I can’t tell what albums are set to public or not, so I’m going to give you a bunch of links to some Blackpool photo albums. If some of the links don’t work for you, just let me know in the comments section. )

For some video from the convention, check out the official Blackpool blog site.

Okanagan Today Segment on Leif David’s Nomination for the 2009 Okanagan Arts Award.

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2009 Okanagan Arts Awards including the Theatre Kelowna Society who won the “Theater” category for which I was also nominated. It feels great to be nominated in the community for an art which isn’t very “traditional”. The Theatre Kelowna Society has been bringing theatre to Kelowna for over 60 years and is truly deserving of the award. Congratulations again.

Here’s a collection of videos from Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show “Magic Week” 2009.