Ari Soroka

Ari Soroka
Born	Arieh Hanoch Soroka April 8, 1961 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Notable works	The Red Carpet

Ari Soroka, (b. April 8, 1961) performs mentalism as Artemus Syman and is the creator of the the mentalism effect known as "The Red Carpet."

Biography

His mother worked in a dress shoppe and his father was a former fire officer for the Shanghai Fire Brigade and in Israel. They emigrated to Canada in 1959 and they eventually settled in Toronto.

Ari's first introduction to the world of magic was at 8 years old when his father vanished a playing card he held in his hand. After that Ari read whatever he could get his hands on and scoured the TV listings for any sign of magic. The elementary school he attended had only one book on magic, "Scarne on Magic" which Ari signed out and still hopes to return one day. In junior high he met fellow magician Lloyd Wasser where they formed a magic club. Lloyd introduced Ari to Mrs. Smith of The Arcade Magic Shoppe (Toronto) on Yonge Street in Downtown Toronto and Len Cooper of the Browser's Den of Magic, in Midtown Toronto. That meant no more homemade props. Ari had now moved into the world of "professional" magic tricks.

At the Browser's Den, when Ari was all of 14 years old, Len Cooper invited him to an Ring 17IBM lecture given by famous British Magician, Ali Bongo at the King Edward Hotel. Ari being the youngest attendee was afforded a seat front row centre. During that meeting Ari met his boyhood magic hero local TV magician Ron Leonard. Ari was then introduced to IBM member Jimmy Lake who ran a junior magicians club called the Silver Wand Club. They met monthly in the basement of the Bathurst Heights Public Library and Ari started attending meetings regularly thanks to his dad's fondness for falling asleep in library reading chairs. At a meeting where it was Ari's turn to perform he did his very first mentalism effect.

It was at that point that Ari's performing path diverged toward mentalism. Ari then tried to get his hands on whatever mentalism books he could. Len Cooper suggested Books by Tony Corinda, Theodore Anneman and Larry Becker. These he devoured. In fact he reread the Thirteen Steps to Mentalism so many times that he had to buy a second copy.

Ari then left the magic world for a few years as he discovered.....girls. Upon the birth of his first nephew Adam, Ari returned to performing on the request of his brother for Adam's birthday party. The spark being reignited, Ari dove back into the the sea of magic spending more and more time and money at the Browser's Den. He then joined the Hat & Rabbit Club Ring 17 of the IBM at the behest of his friend Peter Isaacs. At one point Ari became Treasurer of the club. At one club meeting, contest night, Ari performed and won with his effect E=SP²(squared) which caused Sid Lorraine, Howard Lyons and others to give Ari a standing ovation. About ten or so years later Ari would give Jason Palter the rights to perform and eventually market the effect under the name "The Red Carpet".As the years followed Ari continued his study and performance of mentalism. To this day he continues to enjoy performing for clients all over the world.

References

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