Last week on Magic Tonight

Last night on the show, my very special guest (and when you see the photos, you'll agree, I mean special) was Jason Palter. We had a wonderful time and as we get deeper into the holiday season we're starting to get full. So if you're coming down to see Magic Tonight, be sure to make your reservations early before we fill up.

Magic Tonight continues Sunday nights at the Crimson Lounge (Inside The Cage 292) in Downtown Toronto. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner when purchasing online.

Last week on Magic Tonight

It was a sold out show — which are oddly quite stressful, because there's barely any room to move around tables and we're sometimes in the unpleasant position of having to turn people away. I was joined by Michael "Merlin" Ross who has been performing since before I was born. He appeared when I was younger on Sesame Street and Mr. Dressup. He's been working primarily on the west cost for the past several years so we were able to have him on while he was visiting family here in Ontario.

Take a small peek at what you missed:

Magic Tonight continues every Sunday night at the Crimson Lounge in Downtown Toronto. Readers of this blog can use the code reality for a discount on the price of tickets and dinner.

Tony Stacy Centre - A Night To Remember

Last week, I had the opportunity to perform for a special fundraising gala for the Tony Stacy Centre for Veterans. Photos by Stephanie Lake Photography.

The Rocky Horror The Morning After

Last night, a group of comics, magicians and variety entertainers came together to support and pay tribute to Glenn Ottaway. Performers who donated their time included Mike Carbone, Jeff & Tessa Evason, Richard Forget, Glen Foster, Mini Holmes, David Peck and Brian Roberts. The evening was hosted by Mike Bullard and organized by Sir Matt of DiSero. You can check out Glenda Forham's review of the event. This is how it all ended:

She also managed to snag a few goofy photos of me:

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If you would still like to chip in, you can make a donation at www.TheRockyHorror.com.

Real Estate

Master satirist DarkMatter2525 has created a wonderful short film contrasting buying a house and choosing a religion: 

The technique is similar to a common strategy used in math and physics. When a problem is too difficult to tackle directly (like this example of trying to evaluate claims about gods and the afterlife) it's useful to begin with a much simpler problem; epistemologically get your feet wet. Most will remember studying motion in high school physics. First you study examples of motion with no acceleration, then motion with acceleration. Or without friction then with friction.

When it comes to questions about god and the afterlife, these are extremely difficult questions which cut across nearly every human discipline including physics, biology, logic, ethics, even history; which makes most of us pathetically under qualified to even approach them, yet we're forced to try anyway. So whatever methodology you choose to adopt, you should give it a test drive in a much simpler environment to make sure it produces acceptable results.

DarkMatter2525 chose to transpose the methodology to real estate (and at this point you need to watch the video if you have not already). My preferred example is rainbow unicorns. When you're presented with an argument dealing with an extraordinary claim (it could be having to do with religious miracles, aliens, bigfoot, crystal healing, alternative medicine) try to imagine how that would play out if the topic were rainbow unicorns.

I'm not claiming that if God exists, rainbow unicorns must exist or that god must be a rainbow unicorn. But it's a productive intellectual exercise to run through the thought experiment and contemplate what forms of evidence, if they did appear on your doorstep tomorrow, you would find convincing or laughable.

Sample unicorn.

So many of the arguments for God, when framed in unicorn terms, instantly lose their power. The popular "but you can't prove that there is no god, so how can you be so sure?" intuitively carries some weight. You'd be tempted to hem and haw and concede that maybe you're not as certain as you were a moment ago. But if you move it over, "but you can't prove that there are no rainbow unicorns, so how can you be so sure?" is equally true, but makes it obvious that the argument is fallacious and was really just a piece of rhetoric used for emotional appeal rather than any kind of rational value.

Another favourite example is Darth Vader. Since even if he existed, he existed in a galaxy far far away, so the evidence of his existence would be unavailable to us here for empirical analysis. So investigating the existence of Sith lords is a bit of a stepping stone towards being comfortable tackling the big theological questions.

Magic at TIFF

I had a wonderful time performing at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend. On the weekend, I was performing with Chris Mayhew at the Slaight Family Zone; magic on the street just outside of Roy Thompson Hall. It was threatening to rain constantly, but we still had plenty of fun. Last night I was at SET on King performing at the Raindance Film Festival's annual TIFF Party. Thanks to everyone who came out to pack the place and kudos to the head honcho Jaimy Warner for inviting me.