Interview: Now You See It...

This is the first of three interviews I conducted for the Victoria-based music website What's Up Victoria!  The site has gone offline so I'll be posting the interviews here..

Jordan Blaikie, better known as Jordano the Great, has been working his magic on Victoria's Inner Harbour for eight years now. A former Ashtanga yoga instructor and lapsed devotee of the raw food diet, Blaikie has always had a fondness for the mystical arts.  “As a kid...I saw David Copperfield on TV and I was amazed,” he says.  “Any magic show that was on I couldn’t wait to see.”

One of five children born to a Brentwood-based chiropractor, Blaikie, 31, was born in Ontario but spent his formative years in the state of California.  In addition to being “Jordano the Great” Blaikie also writes articles online under the name “Liver Flush Man”, giving tips on how to do exactly that.  “I’m...a liver flush expert,” he says, “I’ve done over 120 of them in a 2 year period.”

Blaikie was the second among his siblings to find themselves in the business of illusion.  “[My] older sister... got into magic quite a while back,” he says.  “She took classes from Tony Eng.”  Eng, who died of cancer in 2008, was the owner of local Tony’s Trick & Joke Shop (now Murray’s) and a legend in the North American magician community.  After Jordan’s sister put down the wand for good she passed the tricks and knowledge she had learned from Eng onto Jordan and he took them to the Inner Harbour. 

“Being on the street like that...makes you a good magician,” says Blaikie. “If you’re practicing at home ...that’s good too but nothing beats a live audience.”  His act includes magical standards like coin tricks along with ventures into new territory such as “Black Light Magic”, something Blaikie claims is new to the magic world.  Gesturing to his table he says, “This is all made with fluorescents...they glow under black light.” Recently he began demonstrating his skills at the Sunset Room, Victoria’s after-hours rave venue.  “You have got to be that much better,” he says.  “If you flash anything...it glows in the black light...and [audiences] see it.”

 

As he launches into his grand finale, a complex version of the classic Cups & Balls routine, or shell game, Jordano the Great tells me to keep my eye on the ball.  My eyes struggle to keep up with the shuffling cups until finally he comes to a halt and invites me to point out where I think the ball ended up.   I, of course, choose the wrong one, and that pleases him no end.  “Every magician wants to trick people,” he says.  “They just don’t want to get caught.”


Check out Jordano's website, Tricky Magic Productions.