Richard Sanders

Richard Sanders is an innovative magician and lecturer from Montreal, Canada. He first came to the attention of the international magic community through his collaborational work with Jay Sankey, a sampling of which appeared in Sankey Pankey (Kaufman, 1986), then later comprised the entire contents of the book, When Creators Collide (Sankey/Sanders, 1987).

In 1989, Sanders formed a comedy magic trio called The Running Gags with fellow magicians David Acer (now the co-host and co-writer of Discovery Kids’ documentary series, Mystery Hunters) and Barry Julien (currently a writer on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report). The group performed original, unusual, and highly interactive magic at comedy clubs, colleges and show bars in and around Montreal, then disbanded a little more than a year later when Sanders moved to Toronto to expand his work opportunities.

In 1998, after years of honing his craft at corporate shows, trade shows, and on cruise ships, Sanders released a small, successful, ten-trick booklet through the Camirand Academy of Magic called Close-Up Assassin, written by fellow Running Gag, David Acer. Other popular one-trick releases through the Academy followed—“On Foot,” “Picture This” and “Three Ropes and a Baby”—but more recently, Sanders has begun to produce and market his own material, which includes “Slow Burn,” “Interlace,” “Visi-Bill,” “Fiber Optics,” and the three-volume DVD set, The Richard Sanders Show. In 2002, Sanders also renewed his collaborational efforts with Jay Sankey, resulting in the two-volume DVD set, The Sankey Sanders Sessions.

In addition to these sources, miscellaneous Sanders material has apeared in Genii Magazine, Magic, Ben Harris’ New Directions, Michael Ammar & Adam J. Fleischer's The Magical Arts Journal, Jim Sisti’s The Magic Menu, Jay Sankey’s 100% Sankey (by Richard Kaufman), Switch (by Jon Lovick), and two of David Acer’s books—Natural Selections (1996) and Random Acts of Magic (2004).

Sanders has also performed at the Magic Castle, lectured at F.I.S.M., and appeared many times on Canadian television, including featured performances on CBC’s The Magic of Canada (1995) and Global’s Urban Magic (2000).