With Christmas now over every one’s attention quickly turns to New Year’s Eve, 2009, and the inevitable resolutions that will be made and quickly forgotten.  I’ve had a standing New Year’s resolution to “not make resolutions” – so far I haven’t failed.

This is not to say that I don’t make goals for myself – of course I do.  The arbitrary date of January 1 just never felt any better than any other date and I have never felt particularly motivated to set a goal just because everyone else is at the end of the year.  My current outstanding goals (the ones that I am working on now) have various completion dates and were created when they were needed.  If February comes around and I need to set a new timeline for an accomplishment, I won’t wait 10 months to set a “resolution” – I will just make a new goal.  (If you put off setting goals for yourself like this, I would recommend a resolution to stop procrastinating.)

However, if you are motivated by the end of the year to start making goals – I would always recommend including an award for yourself once you have completed the goal.  This “reward” may help to keep you motivated and gives you a benefit to work towards.  Instead of saying, “I will lose 10 pounds,” say that, “If I lose 10 pounds this year I will buy myself a new car.”  (Or whatever reward you think is reasonable… a car for 10 pounds may be a little too much of a reward… well, maybe a Smart Car.)  I always include a reward for my goals no matter when I set them and it is always a great motivator.  I also thoroughly enjoy each reward that I receive when my goals are completed.

So whether or not January 1 is a turning point in your year, or just another date on the calendar and an excuse to drink champagne, I wish you a Happy New Year and All The Best in 2009!

PS:  If you need help on goal-setting, a business group that I am a part of (JCI Calgary) is producing a training event with Les Hewitt, the author of The Power of Focus.  Click here for more details.

For as long as I can remember my Mom has always sent out Christmas letters to everyone she ever knew.  My activities are always included in these letters so I don’t really feel as if I have to send my own messages – doubling up on the content.  However, with this blog it is a simple matter to tell you all about my 2008 (plus there is a 1 in 10 chance you might not be on my Mom’s mailing list)…

Performing magic and comedy shows is always a constant for me.  I’m doing it all the time.  It’s my full-time job and passion.  (Yes, I know how lucky I am that those things are the same.) So, this “summary” of my 2008 is going to be all about the big projects that I have worked on.  I am a project-orientated guy… bring who you need together into one place for a set length of time and then (when the project is done) you all move on to other projects.

The first big event of 2008 for myself and my non-profit company, Magic West, was the production of a limited engagement (2 nights) starring Jon Armstrong, the Close-Up Magician of the Year.  We had two sold-out shows at Club Paradiso to feature both Jon’s incredible magic and the hilarious stand-up comedy of Derick Lengwenus.  I love producing events that bring the best in the world to Calgary audiences, and this show was no exception.

Almost immediately after the conclusion of this show I began working with my good friend Jeff Buick on the launch of his fifth published novel Delicate Chaos.  In the last week of February Jeff put close to 400 of his fans into a Chapters store here in Calgary for the release.  Brother and sister team, Christopher and Nikki Barran, opened the show with their inspirational music, I did some magic/comedy, and Jeff shared stories of what it is like to be an author.  His books are definitely worth a read and I can’t wait for the release of his sixth one.

It was on the same night as this book launch that I signed a contract to produce a radio show for a local businessman.  While I had hoped that this contract would be longer-lived (I resigned in July), it was an incredible learning experience as I wrote and created a great deal of content in this time.  A lot of my friends wondered why I resigned.  It occurred to me that I was placing this contract above the importance of my own shows and after working in entertainment full-time for almost 6 years I have too much invested in this profession to loose focus on creating the best show that I can.

This year’s Pacific Coast Association of Magicians Convention was held in July in Monterey, California.  It was a beautiful place to hold a conference.  I was in attendance this year (as I have been since 2003) and as a Past President of the organization I had the honour of judging the general magic contests.  I learned how hard that can actually be!  It’s tough to evaluate one performer to another – but that’s not the benefit of contests.  The benefit is in the process of performing and creating and preparing – and with that in mind, all the contestants this year did a great job and, I am sure, learned a lot.  (The 2009 convention will be hosted by Shawn Farquhar in September on board the NCL Cruise Ship, Norweigan Pearl.  I’m already registered!)

At the end of August my family and I took a REAL vacation to Phoenix, AZ and Las Vegas, NV.  I say “real vacation” because this is the first time since I graduated high school that my travel didn’t have something to do with work.  We had a blast!  I even joined my family for a baseball game!  Phoenix was the more laid-back part of the trip with a golf game, shopping, and a trip to The Grand Canyon.  Vegas is Vegas… I lost some money, did some more shopping, saw Cirque du Soliel’s “O”, and met up with new and old industry-related friends.  (It was a true highlight to see Johnny Thompson do a close-up show there… my folks also loved it.) I also had a great time showing my brother how to get preferential seats at any show with general seating and a doorman: the greasy palm.  Using this tactic at a burlesque show resulted in him almost taking a boot to the head.  (Great trip!)

While I was on vacation this new web-site came online.  In fact, a substantial part of my year has been spent on the whole “image” and “branding” thing.  New logo, look, design, etc.  I’ve even now got a product coming out that will be for sale online soon.  (It’s for sale only after my shows right now.) Most people would be surprised how much time that marketing stuff actually takes.

The last few months of the year (leading up to the holiday “corporate season”), were spent performing and producing shows (all of which I have written a lot about on this blog).  It began with “One Enchanted Evening” in October – produced by Trevor Watters and Lorena.  From there is was the premiere of “Magically Delicious” with myself, Ryan Pilling, and Tyler Wilson.  And finally, it was Magic West’s Second Annual “Jawdroppers” in November.

December was spent driving/flying all over the place for shows for various corporations and getting ready for my last few performances of the year (starting again on Boxing Day).  I finished my Christmas shopping this morning, which brings me up to the writing of this post.  There’s nothing else “historical” that I can say… I’m now moving into uncharted territory…

Merry Christmas!

I love hearing from my fans: the people that have seen shows or follow what I have been up to.  So please, never hesitate to comment on this blog, find me on Facebook, etc.  With that said, I also think that there are a group of people that will want to hear from me, so I created a summary of the ways that I communicate information about shows, upcoming offers, special events, etc.  (Spolier alert: I use a lot more than just this blog.)

This new page is called “Interact” and available in the menu to the right or by clicking here. On it you will see all the ways that I communicate with whoever wants to listen.  You’ll also notice that everything is voluntary.  If, at any time, you no longer wish to receive information from me (a time which I hope doesn’t happen), you can unsubscribe from any of the listed mediums.

I hope that you check this out and utilize one or two of the methods listed.

(You’ll notice it is a bit of a smaller blog entry this week… next week’s will be kind of a “Christmas Letter” with a summary of my 2008 so I am saving my typing fingers for that post.)

I have been collaborating a lot with other performers this past little while.  Shows like Jawdroppers, Magically Delicious, and One Enchanted Evening have been my only public performances with magic for more than a couple of months.  A lot of people have been asking about my own show and if I am going to be performing it at all.  As luck would have it, yes I am.  Starting on December 26 I’m headlining the Comedy Cave with my one-man magic and comedy show. Tickets are only $10 and these featured apperances run as follows:

December 26 and 27:
8:00pm and 10:30pm

December 28 and 30:
8:00pm

Click here for The Comedy Cave web-site.
Click here for the Facebook event page.

As this is a short week of performing for this club (only six shows instead of eight) I have also been asked to make a special appearance on each of the New Year’s Eve presentations.  These particular shows will have comedian David Crowe wrapping up.  The club holds this night in very high regard, so I was honored to be asked to make an appearance.  (Plus, it beats my usual New Year’s plans of sitcom watching and frozen pizza… wish that was a joke.) Here’s the times:

Dinner Show – Doors at 5:30pm / Show at 7:00pm ($45 includes buffet dinner)
Countdown Show – Doors at 9:30pm / Show at 10:00pm ($25 includes champagne)

Tickets: call 403-287-1120.

I hope to see you out at one of these performances.  They should all be great.  (I have some new stuff that I am working out at each of these.)

Magicians get asked a LOT of questions by our audiences.  Sometimes I start to get a little bit bored of being asked the same things again and again… but then I realize that people are actually curious.  (Kind of like how I am curious about what it takes to become a doctor… I just have no idea… aside from “go to school.”)  One of the common questions is “Where do you learn your tricks?” And the answer is “from our peers.” Magicians are surprisingly well organized (and only slightly less corrupt than most big unions).  We have books, videos, pamphlets, international professional organizations, local clubs, and magazines.  It is one such magazine that today’s blog post is all about.

In the December issue of “MAGIC Magazine” (creative name, eh?) is a feature story on my good friends Murray Hatfield and Teresa.  These two have been producing great magic together for years, raising money for charity, and inspiring generations of new magicians.  Only now are they starting to get some much-delayed credit for this work and the article in MAGIC is a huge step towards continued recognition.

The bulk of the article was written by Shawn Farquhar (whose name, I think, has now appeared more times in this blog than my own).  When Shawn needed some input into the writing I was honored that he sent me his rough drafts and further honored when he used my suggestions.  As a thank you, the version of the article that he submitted to MAGIC included the by-line “Creative Editing by Donovan Deschner“.  The editors at the magazine then asked, “Who the he** is this ‘Donovan’ guy?”

As this very generous credit does not appear in the magazine I am assuming that they had to cut five words from the final draft and they could not be spared from anywhere else.  Even without those few words (which would have only further inflated my ego) the article is definitely worth a read if you are a magician, as it does a great job of capturing Murray and Teresa’s annual cross-Canada tour (and their amazing work).  For those of you that are not magicians (and live in Canada) you can catch a show by these fine performers near you in the coming weeks.  Check out this page for a tour schedule.

Otherwise… “corporate season” (my “busy time”) is now in full-swing and looking like it will be continuing into February.  I do have a couple of upcoming public shows in Calgary in December and will be posting on that next Tuesday (one week from now).