CANORA - Full Moon Friday on June 2 was an evening of entertainment, wonder and laughs for Canora and area residents of all ages at the Sylvia Fedoruk Centre. Put on by the Canora Tourism Fundraising Committee, the event featured performers Magic Ben and Hypnotist Corrie J.
Hypnotic performance
According to information found online, Corrie J is “fun, funny, clean and entertaining. He and his expert team will leave guests rolling on the aisle as they watch their friends get up to hijinks on stage.”
Corrie J started off the evening in Canora by telling the audience about another skill he has developed, mentalism. According to Wikipedia, mentalism is “ a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities.”
With that in mind, Corrie J called a group of volunteers on stage, gave them a coin, and asked them to decide amongst themselves who would hold it. Once the decision was made and they all held out their closed hands with the coin hidden in one of them, Corrie J determined who was holding the coin simply by observing their tendencies and mannerisms.
Corrie J followed that by hypnotizing audience members, telling them that “It feels like daydreaming. The only after effect of hypnosis is that you’ll likely end up having the best night’s sleep of your life.”
Corrie J then proceeded to have all kinds of fun with a group of hypnotized volunteers. He told them it was getting colder and colder, and they had to wiggle their fingers to warm up, which they all did. Then the game was reversed, and suddenly it was getting hotter, and they all had to cool down.
After the temperature was under control, the volunteers became “musicians,” acting like they were playing piano, then trumpet, then drums, with Wipeout, the surf rock classic from the ‘60s, appropriately playing in the background. Corrie J then had one of the volunteers stand up, and convinced her she was conducting the Canora Symphony, which included the entre audience.
When the volunteers left the stage, Corrie J told the other audience members they could get involved in the fun. To get a palm reading from one of the hypnotized women, or a shoulder rub from one of the men, they could simply raise their hand and yell “Canora Tourism!”
Corrie J brought the volunteers out of hypnosis and told them, “When you think of this night, think of your favourite colour, place your hand over your heart, and get a boost of positive energy.”
The magic word
Then it was time for Magic Ben to take to the stage, coming off a successful recent appearance on the TV show Canada’s Got Talent.
He started off by informing the audience that “normally the magic words are please and thank you. But for tonight, the magic word is ‘magic.’ When I call for the magic word tonight, that’s what I want you to say.”
And that’s what happened every time Magic Ben did one of his mind boggling tricks throughout the evening.
He started off by sharing that before he got into magic, his favourite activity was art. He brought out a colouring book with empty white pages, and asked everyone in the audience to use their “invisible finger” to do some colouring. Somehow, all kinds of colours magically appeared on the pages of the colouring book.
Another trick involved Magic Ben bringing two volunteer to the stage. He asked one of them to shuffle a deck of cards, and then each to slip 10 cards in their pockets. Somehow, without Ben touching them, one of the volunteers ended up with all 20 cards in his pocket.
The next card trick involved an invisible deck. Ben “threw it” to an audience member, and had it passed along between several others. He asked one of them to pick a card, which ended up 小蓝视频 the five of hearts. He then asked her to flip over that imaginary card, and throw the imaginary deck back to him. Somehow, after all that, Magic Ben ended up with a real deck of cards, with only the five of hearts flipped over.
Magic Ben informed the audience that, at the age of nine, the first magic trick he ever saw was where large rings are locked together. But he decided to build on that, and in Canora, he asked for three volunteers to give him the kind of rings that people wear on their fingers. As he was receiving the rings, Ben observed, “If this doesn’t work, I’m gonna have to run really fast,” to which someone in the audience shouted “Start the car!”
But Magic Ben persevered, somehow locked all three rings together, and then separated them again by seemingly melting them through each other.
After the performance, many of the audience members rushed over the photo booth for an opportunity to get a picture and an autograph from Magic Ben.
Brandi Zavislak, community development officer and member of the Canora Tourism Fundraising Committee, said Full Moon Friday was another tremendous success and raised over $8,000 for future community improvement projects. “Our dedicated committee is very proud to continue to bring to Canora events for all ages to enjoy,” said Zavislak.
