We raised over $3,000

Thank you to everyone who donated in support of our fundraiser for the North York General Hospital Foundation. We passed our initial goal of $2,500 and are working towards our stretch goal of $4,000.

Thanks as well to the Ace of Spades Lounge for hosting the live portion and our magic video elf, Chris Mayhew. Thanks especially to the wonderful performers who donated their time and talents both live and virtually: Jonah Babins, Farley Carter, Ian Crawford, Rob Fishbaum, Katarina Gligorijevic, Anthony Lindan, Chris Mayhew, Brian Minuzzo, David Peck, Phil Pivnick, David Sutherland, Ben Train, and Mark Wicken.

The donation page is still up, so if you have a moment to contribute, any amount is greatly appreciated.

And the show will be kept live for the next little while if you would like to go back and watch. Chapter markers have been added to the video so you can skip to watch your favourite performers.

Thanks again for all of your support. Wishing everyone a safe, prosperous and magical New Year.

Virtual Charity Fundraiser

Join me on Thursday, December 21 at 8:00 PM Eastern where I will be (virtually) hosting the Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club’s 4th annual charity fundraiser, this year raising money for mental health services at the North York General Hospital.

This year I’ll be appearing alongside a dozen other magicians. In the past, individual contributors shared their material from home. This year, we also have a group who will be performing live at the Ace of Spades Comedy Lounge in downtown Toronto and we will be dropping in on them throughout the evening to see what they’re up to.

Please join us (virtually) for an evening of magic and fun. And if you have a moment to donate, we’re already well on the way to our goal and every little bit helps. We have already raised $1,000 and the show hasn’t even started yet! On Thursday, night at 8PM eastern, the show will be available to view at www.ibmring17.com/show

(Donations go directly to the North York General Foundation and you will receive a tax receipt for your donation.)

Another Virtual Magic Holiday Fundriaser

For the third year, I will be teaming up with with the Sid Lorraine Hat & Rabbit Club to raise money for Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank. Join us at 8PM eastern on Thursday, December 19 on YouTube. The show is free to watch and we’d be delighted if you could share the link with family and friends.

The link for donations is already open. All contributions of $10 and up automatically receive a tax receipt.

Bring Magic Home Friday Nights

It’s been a while, but we’re thrilled to announce a new weekly show, this time happening virtually. While my last long-running show, Magic & Martini, was all about getting all fancy dressed up, this new show is meant to be enjoyed curled up on the couch with a snack, and possibly with a cat jumping up and upstaging me… we’ll see.

The shows will take place every Friday night (minus Xmas Day and New Years Day). To accommodate for the fact that we’re virtual, there will be two separate performances at 8PM Easter and 8PM Pacific, although you can reserve for whichever show is more convenient for you no matter where in the world you are.

Design by Kurt Firla

This is a brand new show, with a mixture of close-up magic (that you can now see up close on screen from thousands of miles away) and interactive magic where I play with you, your mind and possibly even cause strange things to happen in your own home. The shows have been a tremendous amount of fun so far and we hope you’ll come and enjoy them as well.

We’re starting this week and tickets are now available. Readers can use the code secrets for a little bit of a discount.

Conjuring for a Cure Virtual Fundraiser

Last night, I got to host Conjuring for a Cure, a virtual fundraiser put on by the Hat & Rabbit Club of Toronto raising money for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

In the end, twenty magicians from age two-and-a-half to age ninety-six teamed up to share magic virtually safely from home. While we were in the middle of planning earlier in the fall, they instituted stricter safety measures (ending indoor dining, limiting gathering size) and everything online is so different, so we didn’t know how things would go and we set a very modest goal of $500.

We ended the evening at over $5,500 and people to continue to see the archived broadcast and donate.

I want to thank all of the magicians who donated their time: Jonah Babins, David Ben, Ian Crawford, Matt DiSero, Shawn Farquhar, Gerry Frenette, Robert Herd, Lulu Lin, Patrick Nemeth, Marty Papernick, David Peck, Jeff Pinsky, Gordon Precious, Khanya Rubushe, Ari Soroka, Ben Train, Glenn West, “Brookalini” Westfall, Mark Wicken, Andrew Woo.

You can still watch the show for the next ten days here:

And of course donations are still being accepted.

Virtual Experiences with AirBnB

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve teamed up to deliver a magical virtual experience with AirBnB. Now instead of staying at someone else’s home, you get to bring the magic home to your own

The program is designed to give smaller group a chance to reconnect online and participate in a new and fun activity. (After all, virtual magic didn’t even exist before the spring!) Multiple households can join in from anywhere in the world, but it’s still a private event, limited to just the people you invite. Spots are available now, on a first-come, first-served basis.

It started out weird, but over the past few months, we’ve been having a tremendous amount of fun performing for audiences virtually. The shows are fully live and interactive. Instead of tuning into a livestream, you get to keep your microphone on and participate the whole way through. This is especially true when we do virtual get-togethers for smaller groups of family and friends.

Feel free to take advantage of this opportunity to Bring Magic Home, or contact us if you have any questions.