Vegas, baby!

You have every right to pillory me for the ever-lengthening gaps between blog posts but I'll be honest with you - I write when I feel I have something worth writing about. Or just when I'm in the mood. And that's not all that often. But today it's time. Why? Because I've just returned from my first ever trip to Las Vegas.

And we loved every flippin' moment of it. I had people telling me that my planned eight days would be far too long ("Four days is all you'll be able to handle," said one person. "We got bored after three," said another.) And to them I say "thpffffft."

We both loved it. In spite of a mini-April-heatwave (up to 35 degrees C) it was tolerable and for the first three days we just walked and walked and walked. And looked at the lights, and watched people playing games, and checked out each and every hotel on the strip, and and and.

In a nutshell, we saw five shows, explored countless casinos and hotels, went window-shopping in laughably expensive places (seriously - $28,900 for a watch? No jewels or precious metals, just a nice watch), drove to Hoover Dam, drove to the Grand Canyon and took a helicopter ride, hit the pawn shop from History Channel's 'Pawn Stars',

and even went shopping. Oh - and even found the Zombie Apocalypse Store, for all your Armageddon needs.

The magic shops (I found four of them) were by turns slick-but-dull, slick-and-duller, dire-and-empty, and ok-but-uninspired-and-mundane. Such a disappointment. Someone seriously needs to put together a real (ie not for tourists) well-stocked magic shop with some rockin' decor - plush carpet, secret doorways, wood cabinetry, red velvet chairs and a wide range of real working magic stuff. Not just kits aimed at visitors.

So...shows. Saw Penn and Teller. Absolute masters of their craft. Showmen. Polished, original, funny, engaging and eminently watchable. (Me with Teller after the show...)

Then Mac King. Not as famous among laypeople as he deserves. Warm, funny, and again very watchable.

And then there were two other magic acts I'm not even going to mention by name because I didn't enjoy either one. Neither was satisfying, admirable, entertaining or original. Disappointment.

So here I am, back in Canada, writing this in the rain. But it's good to be back.

Garden Variety Show video

Paul Spenard at ESP photography put together a short compilation video of last month's Garden Variety Show held at Loose Moose Theatre. I'm in there too, towards the end.

Mountain View Festival: "Albion" at Lougheed House

Next Sunday and Monday I've been invited to be a special guest at the next installment of the Mountain View Festival's lineup. Each month they put together an intimate evening of chamber music, sometimes interspersed with 'extra' entertainment. The last one I saw was all music by Chopin along with a very talented actress presenting a series of monologues in the character of Chopin's lover, George Sand.

So yours truly is up next week! The theme is English composers (with a slight romantic theme, being just before Valentine's day). It's held at the ever-wonderful Lougheed House which is the ideal atmosphere for something like this. The main room there can hold perhaps 80 people at the most and it's always fun. A glass of wine, some good conversation and an hour and a half of chamber music. And me, this time.

Sheep-rabbit. Love this.

I found this recently on Potentially Nervous' blog. Love it.

(Incidentally - Jade, thanks for the comments. I've tried to post comments on your blog but I've had trouble signing out and signing back in to do so. I'm not ignoring you!)

Make A Wish Foundation fundraiser photos

Just before Christmas I was invited to perform at the Make A Wish Foundation's annual fundraiser in Calgary. They had a professional photographer - Phil Crozier - there with his studio lights and backdrop, taking portraits of all the guests. He kindly took a few of me before I went onstage - I love the results!

Helge Thun - this really, really made me laugh

Ok, so perhaps this is partly because it has its share of magic inside-jokes, but boy this is good. Helge Thun is magnificent regardless but this song made me giggle (and remember, English is his second language). In fact, it's the only die box routine I've ever seen that I actually enjoyed. Usually it's such drivel.

So watch and listen!

Scottish voice recognition elevator

By special request from a friend in Orkney, here's the video. It seems for some reason people in the UK can no longer see this on Youtube. How can it have been blocked? I don't know, but let's hope this goes a short way to remedying the problem!