Legendary Metro Vancouver magicians get spotlight on 'Jeopardy!'
Two legendary Metro Vancouver performers got to share the spotlight once again, thanks to a magician clue on the hit show Jeopardy!
The mention came during a recent episode of the long-running game show, which had a category dedicated to magic.
A contestant selected the $400 question, which was a video clue starring Port Moody-raised Gabriella Lester, star of Now You See Me Live, based on the popular film franchise.
Lester used the clue to give a shout-out to her mentor Shawn Farquhar, two-time World Champion of Magic and owner of Hidden Wonders Speakeasy Magic Experience in New Westminster.
View this post on Instagram
- You might also like:
- 12 horror movies you didn't know were filmed in Metro Vancouver
- Vancouver named one of the most affordable holiday travel destinations
- 10 Vancouver concerts we can't wait to check out in November
“My mentor and idol is the brilliant Shawn Farquhar, whose amazing feats include being the first person to successfully fool this duo two different times on their hit show, Fool Us,” said Lester.
Farquhar told Daily Hive that he was backstage at the River Rock Casino, preparing to go on stage, when his cellphone exploded with messages from all over the place,
“Everyone was texting to tell me I was on Jeopardy! and a question,” recalled the first-place winner at the International Brotherhood of Magicians for both Stage and Sleight of Hand.
“I really didn’t have time to process it until hours later when the show was over. Gabriella had mentioned she might mention me, but that it would be up to the Producers of the show if it would actually air.”
Gabriella Lester / Instagram
Farquhar, producer of the annual magic festival in New West, first met Lester when he performed for a fundraiser at her elementary school.
“She approached me at the end of the show for an autograph, and I shoved the Sharpie pen up my nose,” he said. “To this day she claims it was the moment she decided she too wanted to be a magician.
“Gabriella was ten years old at the time, and she and her parents asked if I could help train her. I agreed on the condition that she actually studied and that they were okay with me not asking for any kind of monetary compensation. I was fortunate to have had a number of mentors in my life, and not one of them ever charged me a dime, so I felt that was just the right way to approach it.”
Farquhar is proud of his “adopted daughter,” who was recently named Canadian Magician of the year by the Canadian Association of Magicians.
Gabriella Lester (left), Shawn Farquhar, and Gabriella’s friend / Supplied
From left: Billy Hsueh, Gabriella Lester, Shawn Farquhar, Lori Farquhar, Hannah Farquhar, Alex Zander / Supplied
Lester is also currently performing with Now You See Me Live at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.
“There is truly nothing more gratifying than to see you students succeeding, and then to see them giving you a shout-out on a show like Jeopardy! is totally surreal,” said Farquhar, who performs seven shows a week at the Hidden Wonders Speakeasy Magic Experience in downtown New Westminster
“Mentoring is my way of passing on my family’s magic to well-deserving people who will honour magic and its traditions. It’s a way of paying it forward, and I have been blessed to find well-deserving people like Gabriella.”
View this post on Instagram
It’s not the first time that Canada has been mentioned on Jeopardy. Calgary’s Olympic history and cold temperatures stumped contestants, while Canadians were left screaming at their screens when no one knew the answer to “This Ontario rocker ruled the ’80s with hits like ‘Cuts Like a Knife.’”
Vancouver even got its own Jeopardy! category once, but how hard you think the answers were may vary.
With files from Daily Hive staff