Canada's Best Magic Camp

Dear Parents and Campers,

We are really looking forward to camp this year. Tuesday August 30th to Sunday September 4th is going to be very exciting and filled with magical activities.

The bus to and from camp is at the same spot as last year. Please take down the following information:

Location: Toronto French School
Address : 306 Lawrence Avenue East, Bayview & Lawrence
Drop off: Tuesday August 30th before 10:00am
Pick up : Sunday September 4th at approximately 3:30pm

Click here to see Mapquest.

It would be a good idea for you and your child to look over our “How to Prepare for Camp” on the registration section of our web site.

You should find this quite helpful. Given the relatively short duration of our camp, there will be no visitors day or mail. However, should a parent need to contact a camper in the event of an emergency, Camp White Pine’s phone number is 705-457-2131 (most likely you will have to leave a message that CWP staff will get to us sometime that day). During the day of departure or on the day of return you can also reach us on our cell phones: Magic Mike 416-319-1442 or Jen Segal 416-844-5363. We will also be checking our Toronto office line (416-322-1442) occasionally for messages on and off during the week. The campers are discouraged from using the pay phones once they are up at camp. We also ask that campers leave their cell phones at home.

Travel arrangements and flight information
For all families that are making air travel arrangements to and from Toronto, we would appreciate having all the travel details sent to us ASAP. It is important that the flights arrive at Pearson Airport (YYZ) on Tuesday August 30th before 9:00 a.m. The bus will be picking everyone up around 9:45 to take him or her to Camp White Pine. It takes a great deal of coordination on our part to make sure all planes are met on time by our staff. Please make sure that you speak with me ahead of time so I can go over the details regarding the person meeting and dropping off your children at the airport. Departure from Pearson Airport on Sunday September 4th should not be before 5:00 p.m.

Campers being dropped off and/or picked up at camp
All families that will be dropping and picking their children up directly at the camp (not taking the bus) need to notify us of this immediately. We only have a limited amount of seats on the bus, so unfortunately we will not be able to facilitate last minute changes to take the bus. There is a map with directions on our website for your convenience: http://sorcererssafari.ca/about-camp-white-pine/driving-directions-to-camp-white-pine/

We ask that the campers being dropped off at camp arrive no earlier than 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 30th. When you pull into the grounds you will see the canoes on the right, please pull your car in there. There will be staff waiting to greet you. You can leave your children and their bags with our staff and we will take care of everything from there. Cars will not be allowed on the grounds after 1:00 p.m. to allow for the bus arrival. Your campers will have lunch on site with everyone else on that day, but it won’t be until 1:30ish, so please make sure they don’t arrive hungry, as that is a bit of a wait.

In order for us to stay on schedule during the last day of camp, pick-up time at the camp is 11:00 a.m. on Sunday September 4th. Your children will be waiting at the same spot where you dropped them off, unless it is raining. If that is the case drive your car directly to the mess hall. Staff will be waiting there to assist you and your children. It is imperative that you are on time for the pick up. The camp staff must vacate immediately after the campers all leave, as Camp White Pine has another group coming in right after us. The campers will not be fed lunch on this day.

Campers taking bus to and/or from camp
The bus is scheduled for camper pick up at Toronto French School, 306 Lawrence Avenue East, north-west corner of Bayview and Lawrence on Tuesday August 30th to take the campers to Camp White Pine. Please make sure you are there before 10:00 a.m. in order for our staff to do a proper head count. It is a long bus trip so we encourage you to pack a snack for the bus drive up north. Sandwiches, cookies, drinking boxes, etc… (Nothing with peanuts due to some severe food allergies, please). Lunch will be provided for your campers shortly after arrival at Camp White Pine.

The bus will return to at Toronto French School, 306 Lawrence Avenue East, corner of Bayview and Lawrence to drop off the campers at approximately 3:30pm on Sunday September 4th. There is a bag lunch provided for the campers on the bus trip home. Please keep in mind that 3:30 is not a definite time as traffic can really slow us down, but please arrive before then to help eliminate camper and staff anxiety.

Food and candy policy
Campers are not allowed to bring food, candy or drinks to camp. This policy will be strictly enforced, to help ensure the safety and well being of others. We have quite a few campers with severe food allergies. They cannot be in the same room as the food that they are allergic to. Food can also attract animals into the cabins, so please make sure that you do not send food at all.

This is going to be very exciting. We have been looking forward to this week all year. If you have questions that haven’t been covered here, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Magically, Mike and Jen
Sorcerers Safari Camp
416-322-1442
www.SorcerersSafari.ca

Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp invades Flickr. Take a moment to look at several years worth of camp memories. Thanks to Carey Lauder, a thirteen year veteran of Magic Camp for all the great images.

Each year, Sorcerers Safari asks one of the leading magicians in the magic industry to attend magic camp as a special guest. One simple question.

Who will be the special guest at Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp in 2011?

Stay tuned to find out.

.

Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp’s special guest list:

• (1996) no special guest this year
• (1997) Johnny Ace Palmer
• (1998) Jay Sankey and David Acer
• (1999) Josh Jay
• (2000) Dan Harlan and Steve Kline
• (2001) Lee Asher
• (2002) Oscar Munoz
• (2003) Aaron Fisher and Nathan Kranzo
• (2004) Oscar Munoz
• (2005) Gregory Wilson
• (2006) Joe Givans and Eric Buss
• (2007) Wayne Houchin
• (2008) Michael Ammar
• (2009) Daniel Garcia
• (2010) Dan and Dave Buck
• (2011) ?

Michael Collins

Michelle Hache

Michael Kras

Hi All,

Well, it’s getting to be that time of year again. Starting today, and over the next couple of months, I will be rolling out a ton of 2009 camp footage.

Most notably among them are the camper clips from last year’s show. There will be NO second disc on this year’s camp DVD so the only place to see them is here on the Sorcerer’s Safari website or on Rotten Pictures Facebook account.

If you performed in the show and you would like to download your clip, please email John Rotstein at: camper_show2009@me.com and he will send you a link. Your clip will NOT be available for download until it appears on the Sorcerers Safari Facebook page so please be patient and do not get ahead of yourselves.

For the rest of you interested in downloading clips, John Rotstein will create a public FTP folder. Information on access and password to follow at a later date so keep tuned.

On that note, if you are not already, please ‘become a fan’ of the Sorcerers Safari Fan page or, if you are a fan and you know someone from camp who is not, please let them know. Visit soon and visit often.

Looking forward to hearing from you all and to the summer of 2010!

The Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp Team

By Dawn Calleja (this article originally appeared in the Globe and Mail)

‘Pick a card, any card,” the lanky boy said, holding out a fanned deck of cards. Around us, kids shuffled and riffled their own decks, or made shiny coins appear out of thin air. Other young campers sat on rocks near the lake, discussing the finer points of the fingertip vanish and the gravity half-pass.

I took a peek at my card — the two of hearts — and slid it into the deck. The boy shuffled, then he flipped over the top card and said dramatically, “Is this your card?” It was.

Welcome to Sorcerer’s Safari, a weeklong camp for budding magicians. A week ago, more than 100 campers aged nine to 20, from across Canada and the United States, descended on Camp White Pine (2 ½ hours north of Toronto) to learn the tricks of the trade from some of the best performers in the world. On the roster this year: Oregon card king Lee Asher, a ten-year veteran of Sorcerer’s Safari; L.A. magician Aaron Fisher; and Canadian illusionist and International Grand Champion of Magic Greg Frewin, who stars in a show at his theatre in Niagara Falls.

Sorcerer’s Safari — which marks its 14th anniversary this year — is the creation of Torontonian Mike Segal, 40, who’s been working as a magician since high school.

Mr. Segal had a tough time conjuring campers in the early days. For the camp’s inaugural season, in 1996, just four kids signed up.

Since then, however, Sorcerer’s Safari has become the premier magic camp in North America, with a loyal following of campers (there’s a return rate of 90 per cent) and A-list instructors who work for free — even with fees of about $1000+, the camp barely scrapes by.

Each day begins with card class. For the younger campers, that means learning basic tricks and shuffling techniques. For the most part, however, they work on refining their effects and making their patter more genuine. Magicians have to build a rapport with their audience, Mr. Asher tells his student. ” ‘Where are you from? Oh yeah? I was there last summer,’ ” he says. “If they like you, they’ll like your magic.”

For Nathaniel Rankin — a five-year camp vet who won the junior stage award from the Canadian Association of Magicians in 2005 — learning from pros like Mr. Asher is an honour. “I’m pretty secluded in Kingston, so it’s great to come here, where everyone knows the lingo,” he says. “And it’s inspiring to be talking to Lee Asher.”

There are also classes in marketing, restaurant magic and stage performance for campers who are serious about pursuing their craft as a career. (Many of them already do birthday parties and table hop at local eateries.)

In one cabin, a group of boys watches as instructor Brian Roberts performs a coin trick. There’s no childlike wonder here. Instead, they analyze Mr. Roberts’s techniques from every angle, before grabbing coins from a pile on the table and trying it themselves.

Lauren Proctor is one of only two girls in the card flourish class, and one of 15 or so at the entire camp. “I can’t think of five female magicians,” says Lauren, 17, a Torontonian who’s been coming to camp for the past seven years.

She’s got a handle on sleight-of-hand technique. What she can’t figure out is what to wear on stage. For a magician, pockets are a must. “I have a blazer, but it’s so masculine,” Lauren says.

When classes wrap up for the day, the camp counsellors try to get a game of capture the flag going. But most of the kids are more interested in “jamming” — hanging out with their buddies, practising their effects. Others swarm instructors such as Mr. Fisher, peppering them with questions and begging to see just one trick.

Then it’s time for dinner and the evening’s entertainment. Throughout the week, they see jugglers, stilt walkers, escape artists and illusionists. Mr. Frewin showed up with a scaled-down version of his show, complete with tigers.

The highlight of the week, however, was last night, when the students performed for their peers. “A few years ago, a kid got up and did a dancing-cane move I’ve never seen,” says Steven Kline, an Ohio magician who’s been an enthusiastic volunteer teacher for ten consecutive years. “The rush he had to feel doing something that blew away a room full of magicians — he’s probably still feeling it.”

Last year, one kid’s routine included his own homemade bed of nails.

Today, everyone heads home for another year. But nine-year veteran Aidan Gawronski, for one, will be back. “I’m going into my final year of high school, but of course I’ll come back,” he says. “Every year, I go home all pumped up about magic again. And if one of these guys can convince me, maybe I’ll end up being a magician.”