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Riley Boyd: Magician on the Move

riley_boyd_and_snowy_copyAccording to Riley Boyd, 19-year-old phenom, the opposite of
easy is Magic.

This means one of two things: Mr. Boyd will do horribly on
the Miller's Analogy portion of his school standardized testing; or he is a
magician dedicated to working hard at his craft.

The Mountain News (Canada) has a
great feature on this up-and-comer in today's edition.

Mr. Boyd works with his partner, Snowy the dove, to
constantly improve his act and expand his client base.

He studied fine arts and multi-media at Canada's prestigious McMaster University
to augment his performance.  He's been
augmenting since he was in third-grade.

This is where the "magic is the opposite of easy"
part comes in. 

Mr. Boyd thought he could enter the school's talent show by
learning "a few magic tricks." 
That was a good plan but he didn't know any magic when he formalized the
scheme. 

What he discovered was that magic
was the opposite of easy. But he never gave up.

At Mountain Secondary School,
he quickly became known as 'magic boy', but it's a nick-name he was proud of.
"I've always loved magic, I became obsessed with it. It's just part of
me."

For a while, he lost interest, but
then a dream re-awakened his interest. Riley said he dreamed he was shopping in
a mall that had only magic shops.

"I woke up and I thought, I
gotta do magic again. I went to Winners to see if I could find a book on magic,
not really expecting to find one. I went to the book section and there, right
up front was this big blue book on magic."

If you think learning magic is difficult, imagine learning
how to petition your government for financial funding to further your study.

Mr. Boyd developed a proposal impressive enough to receive
support from the Canadian Government's program for budding entrepreneurs. 

Now, with $1,500 in hand, he can
successfully launch Riley's Magic of the Imagination. When he completes his
summer successfully, an additional $1,500 will be given to him.

Riley hopes to perform at
children's birthday parties, family and friend shows and at a few local family
restaurants who hire him to entertain families while they wait for their meals
on weekends.

He's been doing the latter for a
while already, at venues like East Side Marios and Philthy McNasty's. Here, his
captive audience watches while he amazes with his various card tricks.

We love the names of the clubs he plays.

And speaking of clubs, Mr. Boyd is a member of the Doug
Henning IBM Ring 49 where he was recently named The Most Improved New Member.  See images of Mr. Boyd and the club's
very famous members here.

"It's hard. Magic is hard," Mr. Boyd told the reporter.
"I never reveal the secrets to my tricks. No magician ever does."

Check out the full article here.

You can view Mr. Boyd's developing web site here.

Continue reading Riley Boyd: Magician on the Move

June 16th, 2006 | Category: Magic News | Leave a comment

Derren Brown’s Pure Effect – Changed Our Life!

Inside Magic Image of Derren BrownReading Derren Brown reminded us, honestly, of the Biblical Prophet Isaiah.


“What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the LORD.


“I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure.


“When you come in to visit me, who asks these things of you?


“Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me.”

We thought of Isaiah not because Mr. Brown’s book is spiritual.

Nope. There are parts and pieces of Mr. Brown’s book that make you feel as if he is decidedly anti-Christian.


He mocks Christianity – or perhaps we misread that which is meant to be serious as sarcastic.


So, if he is not biblically spiritual, he is nonetheless inspiring enough to read and re-read.

Consider the Isaiah-like pronouncement Mr. Brown makes:

“Aaahhh, my loves, and so we come to the end of a wonderful journey: we have
dipped our toelets in the the shimmering pool of secret wonder and
emerged triumphant.


I wonder if this book will affect your performance of magic or .


Let us roll up our collective sleeve of integrity and reach down deep into
the raw, foetid effluence of dull, unconvincing effects: past the
steaming turds that are billet switches; past the faecal nuggest that
are sealed envelopes and ‘gaps left for a nail writer;’ and deep belowy
that dead otter – that single stinking stool of immense proportions
that is the standard book test, or the ‘sealed predicition.”

In Bob Cassidy’s work, including his extraordinary Mental Miracles DVD, he argues that we should avoid the typical “card trick” or the use of cards to in your own mental miracle.

Like Kierkegaard in the world of (later) non-Christian Existentialists, the point is that once you have an understanding of your world, you are free to do as you need to live as you should for He who you know.


Use cards, Mr. Brown argues, use them if you need to or want to if it has anything to do with the effect you want your audience to feel.

Do not use cards because you are comfortable with them or because you know a neat trick.

Mr. Brown describes an epiphany when he sat at a table and imagined what it would be like to be a typical diner being approached by one of us, a table-hopper.

Continue reading Derren Brown’s Pure Effect – Changed Our Life!

June 16th, 2006 | Tags: , , | Category: Magic Book Review, Magic Review | Leave a comment