Magicians pulling money out of a hat for Food Banks Canada
Fundraising video features 100 performers from across the country
Brent Nicholls and his wife Sarah were supposed to spend 20 weeks of 2020 entertaining people on cruise ships.
They have been performing magic shows on the water and in schools for 11 years, but that’s come to a halt as the COVID-19 pandemic has cancelled most events and public gatherings for an undetermined amount of time.
Born and raised in Fort Erie but living in Brampton, Nicholls is hoping a video he and Sarah curated involving 100 magicians from across the country will be their latest trick to captivate an audience, an effort to raise money for Food Banks Canada.
“We love to entertain. That’s the main part of what we do,” he said.
The nearly nine-minute video has magically recruited appearances from performers including “America’s Got Talent” champion Shin Lim and Niagara’s Greg Frewin.
Fort Erie resident and magician Anthony Lindan, a.k.a. Scoop McCoy, is one of the performers involved.
Each magician performs a trick in under 10 seconds on the video that raised more than $500 in its first few days of being live.
“People’s willingness to come forward during this time was pretty awesome,” said Nicholls.
Now is a time to focus on people in need, he said.
“Anyone struggling to get food right now can certainly use any help they can get.”
People in his industry can’t magically pull the income they were depending on this year out of a hat.
“This is kind of the worst thing that could hit entertainers, in terms of work. Pretty much everything we do is for audiences of 200 people or more,” he said.
He hopes it’s “not going to be a long time” until he and his wife can start performing on ships, stages and in school gymnasiums again.
The video can be viewed on YouTube under “Toronto Corporate Magicians - Brent and Sarah.”