Vodavil

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the historic Winter Garden Theatre, Vodavil
played to a great house as part of the Luminato festival of the arts.

© 2011 Magicana. All rights reserved. Photos by David Linsell.

What a great show!

Where else in the world will you have a chance to see The Great Tomsoni, Gaetan Bloom, Mike Caveney, Tina Lenert and Ardan James all on the same stage, all on one night? That’s vaudeville.

“Vodavil” was an informal term many vaudeville performers used in their correspondence to describe their profession: that distinctive and highly polished brand of popular entertainment that flourished in specialty theatres across North America from the 1890s until the 1930s. During that time, each show consisted of a variety of acts — performers who specialized in a particular branch of popular entertainment: singing, dancing, pantomime, juggling, comedy and, of course, magic. The performers worked a circuit, coming together to present their ‘turn’ on a show in a host city for a few days before parting their separate ways to repeat the process with other performers in a different town or city. By and large, the acts had to be easy to stage and transport.

Vodavil brings together artists, who, in an earlier era, would have proudlyborne the name of “vaudevillians” for an evening of all-out family entertainment, in a grand theatre of that same era.

Vodavil June 17, 18 – 8PM
Winter Garden Theatre | 189 Yonge Street (@Queen)

Front of the Line

From April 11 to 15, we invite you to purchase your tickets to 2011 Luminato events before they go on sale to the general public. Buy your tickets today, and receive early access to tickets for the extraordinary lineup of theatre, dance, music, literature, magic and other events.

Buy tickets for NATURAL MAGICK

Buy tickets for VODAVIL

Buy tickes for Luminato 2011 events

Use the code MAGICLUM when ordering your tickets.

Magicana is proud to present these shows in partnership with Luminato:

Natural Magick

June 10-16

Inspired by the notion that the performance of magic may be seen as a modern-day equivalent of one of legendary storyteller Shahrazad’s most fantastical tales, magician and author David Ben has collaborated with Canadian broadcasting icon, Patrick Watson, to create a new exploration of magic as a theatrical art.   DETAILS

Vodavil

June 17, 18

Comedy, pantomime, and magic combine in one glorious night of pure entertainment, featuring: The Great Tomsoni and Company, Mike Caveney, Tina Lenert, Ardan James and Gaëtan Bloom.

DETAILS

Bar Magic

June 10-12

Eric Mead is a variety artist that defies categorization. Mead refers to himself a magician, and his performances are full of fantastic and magical happenings. FREE EVENT!

DETAILS

LUMINATO 2011

Pre-sale begins today, Monday, April 11 @ Noon EST. To purchase tickets, visit luminato.com/2011/ticketed or call 416-368-4TIX (4849).

Offer is valid from 12:00 PM on April 11, 2011 to 11:59 PM on April 15, 2011. All artists, dates, venues, prices subject to change and availability.

Luminato 2011

We’re back!

As Luminato, Toronto’s festival of creativity and the arts, has just announced, we will be part of festival’s Masters of Magic series June 10-18^th.

Magicana will be presenting three distinct programs in June: Natural Magick, Vodavil and Eric Mead: Toast of the Town.  Magicana will also be presenting its community outreach program, My Magic Hands, at Holland-Bloorview Kid’s Rehabilitation Hospital, and at Queen Victoria Public School.

Stay tuned because our artistic director, David Ben, will be discussing the ins and outs of the various shows over the coming weeks.  At this stage, if you love magic, Toronto is the place to be between June 10-18^th.

Tickets will go on sale in Mid-April. We will be giving an advance purchase option to subscribers, so make sure that you join the Magicana eList to receive word.

Magic, Secrets and Wizards…. Oh My!

Forgive the lag in the postings, but HOLY MOLY have we been busy!

First, we congratulate, once again, our Tony Eng Youth Fund Winner, Jennifer Antonioof Winnipeg. She won an all-expense paid trip from Winnipeg to Kitchener-Waterloo to attend this year’s Canadian Magician’s Association’s (CAM) 2010 convention. Read all about it here.  We are thrilled that this talented young lady was able to attend a national conference, accompanied by her father, Richard, thanks to the generous support of Kent Wong of Edmonton, the CAM and all the supporters and donors of the Tony Eng Youth Fund.

Next, we were delighted to be contacted by our long-time partner, The York School, to provide magic for the annual Grade 7 and 8, Challenge Week, this week May 3 to 7.

Each year, 13 to 15 York School students are secreted away to an undisclosed location and given an intensive, introductory program to performing magic. This year, in addition to the chockful schedule, we also added new guest speakers, ‘Vladimir Eisengrim’ of The Paranormal Show and magician, Scott McClelland. The shocking and bizarre magic was a great lesson to underscore to our students that knowing the secret is a small part of performing great magic! In addition to learning some crafty magic, students also learned valuable tips and tricks of the trade to being great presenters. We hope these life-skills will serve our students in the future.

Congratulations to this year’s York Challenge Students. They not only survived ‘Boot Camp Magic’ by Magicana, but they also successfully performed six shows for the Lower School at York and for the senior residents at The Belmont House! No small achievement! We applaud this year’s graduates for meeting this difficult challenge with energy and enthusiasm. May the magic continue on in your Magic Hands!

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that Magicana will be hosting the 41st annual Magic Collectors Weekend in Chicago, where we are honouring Mike Caveney and George Daily.  We are only five days away from the big event, which will be held May 13 to 16 at the Westin O’Hare in Rosemont (Chicago).

If you have a slight (or, is that sleight?) interest in collecting magic, magic’s history or great magicians of the past, you may want to consider joining the Magic Collectors Association. Magicana is the new administrative body taking care of the MCA, its membership and its quarterly publication of Magicol – a serial journal that has been produced and shared with members for fifty years.

So, all in all, the last three weeks have been very busy, but also pretty magical!

We will have more news about Lumainato and the Masters of Magic Series (June 17 to 20), so, be sure to check back soon.