Wes Barker, a “stunt magician” with Surrey/Langley roots, was featured on “Ellen” Thursday (April 15) with his new Big Trick Energy crew.
The four magicians performed on the TV show via Zoom, with illusions that included cards, a U.S. map and a “bucket room,” in a seven-minute segment now posted to Youtube.
The daytime-television showcase serves as a preview of the April 22 debut of “Big Trick Energy” on TruTV, featuring Barker along with fellow “master magicians and mischievous daredevils” Chris Ramsay, Eric Leclerc and Alex Boyer.
Friends for more than 10 years, the four Canadians “venture into the real world to both shock and awe unsuspecting spectators — and each other — with their unique brand of extreme, provocative, mind-blowing magic,” explains a post on trutv.com.
(Story continues below video of Big Trick Energy on Ellen)
The Langley-raised Barker once called Clayton Heights home, and now lives near Montreal.
A decade ago, he quit his job with the City of Surrey to do magic professionally.
Barker honed his magic skills while working for the city in his early 20s, between time spent studying business administration at university.
“I did lots of jobs for them – water meters, watermains, weedeating on the roads and drainage,” he said during an interview in 2014. “You take your lunch breaks in your truck, because there’s nowhere to go and everyone just packs a lunch, and you have your half-hour lunch and two 10-minute coffees. So there’s 50 minutes a day where you’re just sitting in your truck with nothing to do, so I just brought books with me, on magic, and on my breaks I’d practise magic tricks. Every partner I had thought it was hilarious that I had this library of books in the truck, and during every break I’d pull out cards, coins and whatnot. Kind of weird.”
In 2013, Barker was a top-five finalist in The Comedy Network’s “Exposed” talent contest, and later appeared on “America’s Got Talent.” In 2017, a video from Barker showed how you can make a quick $20 at a Canada Day party, in a trick that involved removing a bank note from the top of a beer bottle without disturbing a stack of coins placed on top.
Watch the “Big Trick Energy” trailer below.
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