The Magi-Fest Youth Scholarship 2013

Magicana’s Tony Eng Youth Fund and Magi-Fest in Columbus, Ohio are proud to announce a partnership for the Magi-Fest Youth Scholarship 2013.

The Columbus Magi-Fest is one of the oldest and most significant magic gatherings in the world. It is an 83-year old tradition that has fostered and helped develop the careers of young magicians. The festival includes youth-only events in which international headline performers work directly with young magicians on their acts. Additionally, lectures, shows and workshops are held where attendees can learn about the experiences and knowledge of  professional magicians.

Tony Eng Youth Fund Bursary

We are thrilled to announce a scholarship for a young magician to attend Magi-Fest.

Magicana – through the Tony Eng Youth Fund – and Magi-Fest (thanks to a donation from Doug Taylor) are offering a bursary to assist a young, Canadian magician (and their corresponding legal guardian/parent) to attend. Specifically, Magicana is offering a $350 bursary for a young magician to help with his/her travel and accommodation expenses; and Magi-Fest will provide $260 for two convention registrations.

To apply:

We invite passionate young magicians to submit a short essay (500 words or less) on why they would like to attend and what they hope to gain from attending this event. In addition to the essay, you will also need the following to qualify:

• to be a Canadian aged 12 to 17 years old;
• to have parent/guardian consent; and
• to be in possession of valid passport(s) –  a must have for both travellers upon application.

All qualifying submissions will be reviewed by a blind panel of judges (judges will not know names nor ages) and a winner will be selected. Winners will be notified by phone and email.

Do it now!

If you meet the above requirements, then send us an email (info@magicana.com) including your name, age, city of residence, telephone number and a short essay on why you’d like to attend and what you hope to gain from going to the 2013 MagiFest. To be a qualifying submission, we must be able to contact your parent or guardian so be sure to include their telephone number!

Canadian Scholarship

This special combined Magi-Fest Youth Scholarship consists of the following:

• 2 convention registrations for  2013 Magi-Fest ( young magician and guardian/parent);
• 3 nights hotel at The Crowne Plaza (shared accommodations with magician and guardian/parent); and
• travel honorarium

Submit your essays now. Deadline for submission is on December 10, 2012, 11:59 PM, EST.

The Magi-Fest 2013 convention will take place at the Crowne Plaza, Dublin, Ohio from January 24 to 26, 2013.

The hotel is located at:

600 Metro Place North
Dublin, Ohio
43017, USA

For more information about the convention, please visit Magi-Fest.

For more information about the Tony Eng Youth Fund, please click here.

We wish all our participants the best of luck!

The Reviews and Recommendations of “A Cut Above”

Some of you may have missed the video review of “A Cut Above” by Luke Dancy back in May 2011 on an episode of the Magic Marketplace. Well, “A Cut Above” has been recommended once again, this time by Paul Lelekis of The Linking Ring (September 2012). He writes:

“Magic has been a passion of his (Msgr. Vincent Foy) since he first saw Harry Blackstone perform in 1925. Friends and magicians David Ben and Nick Sacco have waded through a massive amount of his personal notes to compile an impressive array of one-handed cuts and flourishes. Ron van Someren painstakingly photographed Msgr. Foy’s hands as he performed every single move of each and every cut and flourish. This, along with the descriptive text, made learning these sleights very easy to do.”

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW

“A Cut Above” was first released by Magicana in April 2011. It is the exploration of one-handed cuts created and documented by Msgr. Vincent Foy, a pioneer of the modern movement of card flourishes. His contributions initially appeared in The Linking Ring, so we are pleased to see his name mentioned once again in the publication where he first prospered.

This black and white, 240 page hardbound (colour dustjacket) volume is approximately 8.75″ x 11.75″ (22cm x 30cm) and contains 500 photo images. It is available for sale from Magicana, or your favourite magic dealer for $45 USD (plus shipping. International rates vary).

Congratulations to Genii’s 75th Birthday Bash!

We’d like to congratulate the stellar team behind Genii’s 75th Birthday Bash for delivering an outstanding magic convention.  The Genii’s 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash was held at the Florida Hotel and Conference Center in Orlando, last October 4, 5 and 6 2012, with a final count of 800 plus attendees!

Featured events included Magicana’s Artistic Director, David Ben making a rare convention appearance by lecturing on the Coin Magic of Ross Bertram and performing  in the parlour show with Max Maven, Chad Long, Eric Mead, and Rob Zabrecky.  And those were just two events of the jam-packed Genii Bash schedule. Starting at 8 AM right up to midnight lectures, the magic never stopped – it was simply  filled to the brim with lectures and performances by so many of our favourite magicians.

Were you there?! We were very happy to see so many of our dear friends and to meet many more new ones! It was truly a great convention that rightfully honoured one of the oldest, independent magic magazines.

Everyone’s buzzing about their favourite moments of the weekend. If you’d like to contribute, you can write about your favourite moment in our comment box below. 

Happy Birthday Genii!