Card tricks, number games, chicken teleportation, chicken cannon shooting, chicken flattening and then re-pumping, handkerchief stuff, human dismemberment, skimpy assistant outfits, time travel, toilet paper tossing, and of course the incredible straightjacket escape are all part of the onslaught of trickery in Ted and Marion Outerbridge’s show called Magical Moments in Time.

The couple has combined real-life experiences with a unique fusion of magic, dance and theatre.The result is a world-class illusion show that has played to sold-out houses and standing ovations across Canada and in Europe, reaching into the minds and hearts of audiences and taking them on a magical journey through time. And now Ted Outerbridge, The Master of Illusion, is coming to Bracebridge this Friday.

Performing professionally since 1983, Outerbridge has done everything from making Fortune 500 executives materialize onstage, to consulting for the Cirque du Soleil, and creating the magic for Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeves in Tri-Star Pictures’ Switching Channels. He has made over 75 television appearances on various networks including the The Discovery Channel, and on his own TV special, Magic With Ted Outerbridge. His enormous television success in Canada has resulted in return bookings with the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, performances with Princess Cruises, and one of the world’s premier entertainment venues, SkyDome.

So what can you expect from Magical Moments in Time? The show is a reflection of day-to-day life that just about everyone can relate to. Have you ever felt so absorbed by television that you wonder where all the hours went? Marion climbs into a television and then she is gone. Have you ever wished you could travel back in time? Ted and Marion do it in every performance with the help of a seven-foot-tall alarm clock, and they always bring their audiences with them.

The entire audience is transported back in time — first by one year, then back to the 1960s where Ted impersonates a “psychic” game show host, and finally by hundreds of years where the audience is part of a medieval ritual.

The press in Europe has called Ted and Marion Outerbridge “Champions of Magic”. In Canada, Magical Moments in Time has been hip enough to appear on everything from Mystery Hunters to Much Music, important enough to make the front pages, from the Guelph Mercury to the National Post, and so powerful that it has even been performed on the radio — from country and western to CBC, no kidding!

In Magical Moments in Time, comedy meets mind-bending illusions, making for a uniquely bewitching and hilarious evening of entertainment. Ted and Marion Outerbridge don’t just play in the spotlight, they come to life in it — and then share it with audience members, inviting them to experience the magic up close and on stage. Whether it’s Ted changing places with Marion in a split second, or reading minds and travelling through time to appear “out of nowhere” in the middle of the audience, Ted and Marion Outerbridge will hold you spellbound and leave you hungry for more.

Join them at the Rene M. Caisse Memorial Theatre on Friday, April 4 at 8 p.m. For tickets call 645-8400.