In March 2020, magicians Ben Train and Jonah Babins, like so many other performers, found their livelihoods put on indefinite pause. So they did what any young entrepreneurs would: they pivoted by taking their show to the Zoom circuit.
Two years in, it’s gotten them noticed by the likes of Seth Rogen. They’ve recently returned from Las Vegas, where they met with some of their magician idols, David Copperfield and Mac King. And with COVID restrictions easing up, they’re finally preparing for their first in-person show of 2022, held at Yuk Yuk’s in downtown Toronto.
Train and Babins join The CJN Daily to discuss their Jewish roots and how they transformed their pandemic problems into a booming business model.
What we talked about:
- Learn about the The Toronto Magic Company at torontomagiccompany.com
- Get tickets for their Yuk Yuk’s show, Hocus Jokus, at yukyuks.com
Episode Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated automatically by a computer. Because we can’t always read them through entirely, they may contain some errors.
Ben Train and Jonah Babins:
Ben is taking a photo. I’ve never done a show before where one of the audience members was a legit pot-bellied pig. That’s amazing. Well, Maryanne, you’ll have to let us know.
Ellin Bessner:
That’s what it sounded like recently when Toronto magicians Ben Train and Jonah Babins were doing a live show for clients over Zoom and one of the guests brought her pet pig onto the screen. But usually the laughter goes the other way, with Train and Babins making their audiences laugh and mostly blowing their minds with their sleight of hand card tricks and comedic mentalist performances. The duo founded the Toronto Magic Company. Babins got his start in showbiz after graduating with a math degree from Queen’s University. He did the Jewish summer camp circuit for a while and then met with Ben Train, who’d been working as a magician for years around North America. When the pandemic forced the cancellation of all their live shows in person, they pivoted and started doing their magic online. Two years in, it’s getting them noticed, including an endorsement from Seth Rogen. And they’ve just returned from Las Vegas, where they met with some of their magician idols, including Mac King and David Copperfield.
Ben Train and Jonah Babins:
There’s obviously a ton of Judaism in our journey, in the way we talk. The most Jewish part, I would say of the show is the fact that both Jonah and I went to university for many years and then chose to disappoint our parents by going into the arts. That’s right.
Ellin BessnerL
I’m Ellin Bessner, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Thursday, February 17, 2022. Welcome to the CJN Daily, sponsored by Metropia.
Although Jonah Babins started doing magic when he was a little kid, he comes by being a professional magician, honestly. And I know this because I went to school with his father and his uncle, and they were the funniest kids in my grade. Aside from the magic shows, Babins does a magic podcast. He’s a magic coach, and he won the Alan Slaight Award for being a Canadian Rising Star. He’s been profiled in multiple media outlets for being a successful millennial, making six figures in revenue during the pandemic. And he’s not even 30 yet.
Ben Train is a decade older. He does instructional videos and lectures and his own solo career, as well. With COVID capacity restrictions being eased, now they’re hosting their first in person show of 2022 next week at the iconic Yuk Yuks Club in Toronto. Coming up, we’ll meet the founders of the Toronto Magic Company. But first, here’s what’s making news elsewhere in Canada right now.
Hartley Stern:
I’m Hartley Stern in Ottawa, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like.
Ellin Bessner:
The student union at the University of Toronto’s main campus was voting Wednesday night on a motion to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy against Israel. Opponents of the motion have been working quietly, including Jewish groups, to try to gather enough votes to defeat it. I did try to watch the online meeting, but it was only open to U of T students and I was not allowed in. Last fall, the U of T’s Graduate Students Union put a similar motion forward to try to ban kosher food on campus if the caterers supported Israel. They later apologized. It isn’t clear if the motion went forward. Watch TheCJN.ca and find out what happens.
And joining me now from their studio in Toronto, from where they do their live online shows are Ben Train and Jonah Babins. Welcome to the CJNDaily, guys.
Jonah Babins:
So good to be here.
Ellin Bessner:
Is there anything Jewish that you do in your act or any Jewish routines that you do?
Jonah Babins and Ben Train:
Yeah, in the middle of the show Moses comes out. No, I’m kidding. Here’s the truth. We bring ten people up near the end of the show to form a minyan. You do Maariv, but it’s only because it’s late. It’s the late show.
Jonah Babins:
Here’s the truth. It’s funny. In our current act right now, we have a joke in our show which uses matzah and uses a bowl of matzah. Like, I have little pieces of matzah that are still from my cupboard. And if you’re Jewish, for those who don’t know what matzah is, matzah is stale crackers that sit in the back of your closet and it never goes.
Ellin Bessner:
They’re not even Tam Tams?
Jonah Babins and Ben Train:
They’re actual real matzah, right? No, it’s not. Shmura Matza! No, the reason why it’s matzah is because every like Pesach, our parents bring us matzah and we eat salads instead. So then at the end of the year, we have a big box of matzah, like I’m sure everybody does at the end of Pesach, they’ve got four in the back of their cupboard. So one day when I try to do the trick with crackers, I said, I have 2,000 pieces of matzah. We’ll just start using those for the trick.
Jonah Babins:
But the truth is I learned a long time ago that when I speak, people know I’m Jewish. People know. And I’m just being honest. The way I speak, the rhythm. No, the way I speak, the rhythm, the timing, all of that. It is very Jewish. And to be honest, we have a lot of people in our communities, Ben and I, when we slowly got into magic, a lot of the ways we did it, a lot of the events that were the first events that we got to be a part of our Jewish events in Jewish communities, the amount of Hanukkah parties, the first things that I did were Jewish summer camps. I went on tour at Jewish summer camps for years. I would email different synagogues every year and say, “Hey, I’m available for events.” So now we do a lot of corporate stuff. Now we don’t necessarily a lot of, like, our act is not Jewish related humour.
Ben Train:
But that’s pretty Jewish-related because we switched to the higher paying, better corporate work.
Jonah Babins:
Oh, my goodness!
Ben Train:
For us, I almost feel like Spinoza in certain ways. We’re not necessarily they were more connected with the world than they were with the above. It’s the physical plane. And our focus is about reminding people that the world is filled with incredible, wonderful, magical moments. Even if that’s not necessarily miracles. Seeing a friend that you haven’t seen in a decade after you were thinking about them the night before is a magical sensation. Getting a coin in your change and it’s a really cool collectible coin that you’ve been looking for is a magical moment. And our show is filled with, like, the world is filled with incredible things. You may have forgotten to be aware of how wonderful the world can be because we’re always on our phones. The show is a break from reality to remember that this world is filled with Incredible things and depending on who’s watching it.
Jonah Babins:
What’s nice about magic is you don’t say that this trick represents this. This trick represents that. What happens is you perform magic and people take from what they are. It reflects exactly what somebody comes to the show and they’re thinking about their Jewish values, and they’re thinking about what’s important to them, what’s on their mind, what they’re going to see in the show is going to reflect those things. They’ll say “This is so fun. Maybe I need to remember to go spend some more fun time with my family.” or “I’m so looking forward to Hanukkah.” That makes sense. To somebody else who’s not thinking that they can say, “Oh, that’s so fun. Let’s keep drinking!” or whatever.
Ben Train:
Theologians love our work.
Ellin Bessner:
Well, let’s get into that topic because I want to bring up some of the historical legacy: Houdini, David Blaine, David Copperfield, et cetera, even Moses’ staff. I read a story that 20 % to 30 % of magicians are Jewish. Were any of these at all? Did you study any of these? Do they influence you and somehow inform your journey?
Jonah Babins:
The people you’re naming David Copperfield, Houdini, these are obviously incredibly famous magicians, and they’ve played a huge role in our life. And exactly what you said. It’s funny. There is a lot of overlap between magic and Judaism over and over again, and we see it all the time. And yes, these people obviously had big influence.
Ben Train:
When we talk about Houdini, the reason that Houdini became the most popular entertainer of his time wasn’t just that he was a good magician or performer. It’s that like you were saying the things that his performances symbolized, such as power. At the time, it was this man who was a five foot four immigrant of Jewish descent, who was the son of a rabbi who was shackled and constrained by the Russian government or the U.S. police or whatever it was. And he would free himself from oppression and from the shackles of oppression. And so the symbolism, the metaphor was very powerful, especially during the period in which he was performing in World War One. And the same is true David Copperfield and David Blaine.
Jonah Babins:
And I would say if I were to connect the reason that you see so many Jews in magic, and there is a high number of Jewish people in magic, I think that one is that Judaism encourages people to get into the arts. It encourages intellectual pursuits. And magic is at its core an art that is also engineering and science. And so it’s very much rewards intellectual pursuits and artistic pursuits.
Ben Train and Jonah Babins:
It’s also a selfless act in many ways. You can charge, obviously for work. But at its core, again, it’s about sharing wonder and joy. And those are very Jewish things. And also truthfully. I think a big part of it is skepticism. I think that I studied Jewish philosophy when I was in university, and it’s very important in philosophy and in Jewish thought to be skeptical about the world around you and about the things that are happening. And when Hollywood was formed, it was one of the few industries that let Jews and immigrants in.
Ellin Bessner:
Is there any kind of magic you don’t do anymore or isn’t cool because of the way we live now?
Ben Train:
The most obvious example that comes to our mind that was very prevalent at one point was what they called Oriental magic. So it was white men who dressed up and well, you wanted to present your magic as being different and being mysterious from a faraway land. So you would say he comes from the Orient, and here is magic from the east, and it is. And some guy dresses up in a way that he shouldn’t.
Jonah Babibs:
Our general sense as human beings does a better job in preventing us from doing weird old things that are racially insensitive or sexist or things like that.
Ben Train:
We want our shows to be inclusive and welcoming. It’s better for us financially. It’s better for us as a community. It’s better for us as an art form if people can come and feel welcome. And not to say that we can’t push certain boundaries or push certain buttons, but we want to be very conscious of it. So if we make a political statement in a show, we are aware that if we do such a thing, it’s going to polarize the audience and we have to make that decision. So, for instance, I’ll tell you, you were asking about Jewish events. I’ll tell you something that I find personally problematic at some of the events that I’m doing. I will have someone who will call and they’ll say, we want you to come and perform for our private school. And we don’t want you to mention anything that has to do with pop culture, social events, anything that’s in the news, anything. And I half jokingly say, “Wow, it sounds like you’re really keeping them sheltered.” And they laugh and say, “We are”. And I say, “That is interesting. I am not the right entertainer for you because I think it is my job to get people to think about the world that they’re in and interact with the world and see the positive and other things.”
Jonah Babins:
So to answer the question of how do we mention these things in shows, it’s the same way that you mention things in conversations. Right.? If you’re in Florida and you start yelling about Trump being the worst and people start looking at you horribly, well, then you’re going to learn about how you want to talk and what things you want to express in the way that you talk to people in your regular day life.
Ellin Bessneer:
Right. You want to make a living, too. Exactly. I hear you.
Jonah Babins:
When I perform at Yuk Yuks, I say the F-word. When I perform at synagogues. I don’t. Correct. Yeah.
Ellin Bessner:
Cool. All right. We only have a few minutes left. How did you get Seth Rogen to endorse you?
Jonah Babins:
I was at a bar and he was there. So I went up to him and I said, “Hey, Dude, I love your stuff. Can I show you some magic?” He said, “Yeah”. I showed him he loved it. And he said some really nice things about me.
Ben Train:
And if there’s any kids or people listening or even adults, magic is a cool hobby because no matter where you go meeting new clients, new people, you got the trick.
Ellin Bessner:
The last thing I want to ask you is this, which would you rather, Harry Potter or The Prestige? And why. Each of you.
Jonah Babins:
Harry Potter? Yeah, Harry Potter. Why is my life is magic, and I benefit from things and people understanding this common language of magic. Anything that’s in pop culture that makes you want to talk about magic makes me more excited. And I have more things to do and more people love Harry Potter. That’s their deepest connection to magic. They love magic because of Harry Potter, and nobody loves magic because of The Prestige. There are moments where you literally gasp out loud.
Ben Train:
I went to Camp Kadimah, and one summer, I think it was when the fifth Harry Potter book came out. So many kids got it. Everyone had it, and they just went in their own corners reading. We had a whole day off where people got to say it was like a sick day. So we had activities, but kids were allowed to skip all activities that day to read Harry Potter. And when you talk about magic, like The Prestige is cool, but The Prestige doesn’t shut down a camp where every kid wants to skip swim and sport to read a book.
Ellin Bessner:
And that’s what Jewish Canada sounds like for this episode. And this week of the CJN Daily sponsored by Metropia. Integrity, community, quality and customer care. Now Monday is a holiday in most parts of the country so we’ll be off and back with a fresh episode on Tuesday. If you want more info and ticket information on how to watch the Toronto Magic Company’s show at February 23 and 24th event at Yuk Yuks, go on to our show notes and the links are all there.
Today’s listener shout out goes to Professor Mark Celinscak of the University of Nebraska in Omaha. He’s got a new book out about the Canadian soldiers who liberated Bergen-Belsen.
And we’ll end today’s show with this clip from Question Period. On Wednesday in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister got into it over bringing in the Emergencies Act and responded to some questions from Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman and criticized her party’s support for the truckers’ protest. Now some people, including Lantsman, are demanding an apology. She is a descendant of Holocaust survivors and says Trudeau went too far. What do you think?
Justin Trudeau:
Conservative party members can stand with people who wave swastikas, they can stand with people who wave…
Melissa Lantsman:
Mr. Speaker, I am a strong Jewish woman and a member of this House and the descendant of Holocaust survivors and I have never made, it’s never been singled out and I have never been made to feel less, except for today when the Prime Minister accused me of standing with swastikas. I think he owes me an apology. I’d like an apology and I think he owes an apology to all members of this house.
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.