The Allan Slaight Awards highlight and reward outstanding achievements in the deceptive arts. Founded in 2008 by amateur magician-cum-media-mogul, Allan Slaight, the foundation has pledged $50,000 a year, over five years, to be awarded to magicians of merit in the form of cold hard cash and engraved iPads. Magic site, Magicana, has been tasked with organizing the awards, and has been announcing a winner every day this week. Now that all the hard work is done, we’re going to swoop in and announce the winners all at once.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Edwin Dawes
The foundations highest honor, this award recognizes a lifetime of exceptional commitment to the magical arts. This year, English biochemist and magician, Dr. Edwin Dawes, joins the likes of Johnny Thompson, Max Maven and Ton Onosaka as an award winner.
Dawes has spent a lifetime recording and studying the history of magic, and is considered by some to be the most prolific writer of magic history alive today. He’s also a skilled magician in his own right.
You can see a profile of Dawes and his accomplishments, as well as his acceptance speech here.
Sharing Wonder Award: Michael Carbonaro
The Sharing Wonder award recognises an outstanding performance of magic by an exceptional artist. Past recipients include Penn & Teller, Darcy Oake and Derek DelGaudio. This year’s award went to Michael Carbonaro, who has spent the last decade and a half entertaining audiences on the stage and on television. Starting with an excellent performance on The Chappelle Show back in 2004, Carbonaro has gone on to carve out an enviable career for himself. His excellent magic/prank show, The Carbonaro Effect, has been running for 68 episodes and is still going strong.
His award comes with $15,000 and an engraved iPad. You can see a profile of Carbonaro and his acceptance speech, here.
Sharing Secrets Award: The College of Magic
The Sharing Secrets awards recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of magic study and research, the kind conducted by previous award winners including Richard Kaufman and John Lovick. This year, the award has been expanded to cover organizations, allowing Cape Town’s College of Magic to cinch the win.
At the foreground of South Africa’s booming magic scene, the College of Magic is a non-profit, public benefit organisation that offers its students the opportunity to study magic in a beautiful Victorian homestead built in 1899. Those students will now hopefully reap the benefits of $10,000 and an engraved iPad. You can see a profile of the college, and an acceptance speech from its faculty, here.
International Rising Star Award: Noah Levine
The International Rising Star award is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s an award recognizing an emerging international magic talent. This year, the award goes to American magician Noah Levine.
Levine is a Brooklyn-based magician who specializes in sleight of hand and “unnerving coincidence” tricks. He’s performed at numerous venues around the US, made a number of TV appearances, and performs his show, Magic After Hours, every week at Tannen’s. He’s walking away with $5,000 and an engraved iPad. You can see a profile of Levine and his acceptance speech here.
Canadian Rising Star Award: Nicholas Wallace
As Mr. Slaight is a Canadian, it’s only right that one of the awards made in his name goes to a fellow syrup eater. Thus, the Canadian Rising Star award, which recognizes outstanding work by an emerging Canadian magician.
This year the award goes to “magic minimalist,” Nick Wallace. Wallace is a sought-after performer in the corporate gig scene, and has been making waves in the world of theatre with his star turn in STRANGE&UNUSUAL. Previous winners of the award include Mahdi Gilbert, Luc Langevin and Eric Leclerc.
The award also comes with $5,000 and, you guessed it, an engraved iPad. You can see his profile and his thoughts on the award here.
Everybody here at Genii Online would like to congratulate these talented and hardworking magicians on their well-deserved awards.