Mike Norden has won his 10th Children’s Entertainer title.
Known as ‘Norden the Magician,’ he beat out six other performers at the fifth annual Children’s Entertainer of the Year competition hosted by the Fraser Valley Magic Circle on June 12.
“We had a 10-minute time limit, normally it’s 15 [minutes], but we had so many acts we had to cut it back to ten minutes,” said Norden.
“My act was a pretty silly act. I pretty much had two helpers come up, we had three different handkerchiefs and then we tied them together with magic,” he laughed.
“There’s just a lot of comedy with my act. A lot of gags and jokes. A lot of fun and interaction. I think that does it for my act is the interaction with the kids rather than just performing magic I kind of interact with them,” he explained.
Over 600 people attended the festival in Mission and over 300 people watched the show.
Judges included a mixture of professional magicians and children.
This win makes the magician, who has been performing for 17 years, the most decorated children’s entertainer in Canada.
Next year Norden is planning on entering the North American Children’s Entertainer of the Year competition in Iowa.
“A lot of our local competitions are aimed at the style of birthday magic, festivals, libraries, you know where you have 45 minutes with kids,” said Norden.
“[This competition] is really strict because he wants five minutes for the act and you have to pre-enter and do it. Five minutes, I can barely warm kids up in five minutes. It’s more like an AGT style, America’s Got Talent, you know, flashy, boom-type stuff,” he said, adding that it is going to be a challenge.
