On the evening of Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024 a full house of adults and children packed the Mary Webb Centre for the Arts in Highgate waiting to be amazed by magician Keith Brown. They were not disappointed. Keith, who has relatives in Ridgetown, did a variety of card tricks some of which involved his amazing memory. He had 4 volunteers come up on stage and asked them a few questions about themselves. He then gave them each a piece of paper and marker and asked them to quickly draw something on the paper. He then matched the first three drawings to the people who drew them. With the fourth, because he now knew who drew it, he drew a drawing that was the same.

He did many card tricks that showed his total manipulation of the cards and his total recall. With two audience members on stage, he took a deck of cards, shuffled it and gave half to each of his volunteers. He then went through half of the cards, one at a time to learn what she held. This meant that her fellow participant had the rest. Then, in rapid succession, one at a time, he called out the cards in succession with his hand towards the one holding that card and every time got the cards correctly. In finishing this trick, he talked about several ways to improve your memory.

As a youngster, in Prague to watch the World Junior hockey tournament, he had amazed passengers on a train back from a game. That trip lead him to be invited to Michigan to see the Stanley Cup on tour and perform at a gathering of hockey fans who were there to see the Cup. As a professional magician, he also met the President and first lady of Iceland having performed at two locations in Iceland. The First Lady was from Canada and he decided to invite her to come and see him perform. She did, bringing her son with her. In telling this story, he stressed that if you want something, you should go for it. If you don’t, you won’t get it, but you might certainly achieve what you are after if you do.

Keith was very involved with the audience, mingling with them before the concert, during the intermission and when it was over. Overall, an extremely entertaining night.

Our next concert is at 8:00 pm on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024 when Take 3 and Co present a Tribute to Burt Bacharach. See more details at marywebbcentre.ca.

If it’s at The Mary Webb Centre, you know it is going to be great!

Keith Brown, in the middle with two audience volunteers

Keith Brown, on the far right, with four volunteers from the audience