The public, the press and his peers have recognized David as one of the world’s foremost sleight-of-hand artists.

Educated at the University of Toronto (BA), the University of Western Ontario (LLB), and the London School of Economics (LLM), David retired from practicing tax law to pursue his passion for creativity, performing and community. University of Toronto Magazine has since profiled him as one of 40 young alumni “taking the world by storm.”

As a magician, David was the sole protégé of Ross Bertram - one of the great sleight-of-hand artists of the twentieth century. David is a member of London’s prestigious Magic Circle and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, England and Japan.

David’s personal performance highlights include two seasons at the Shaw Festival, a season at the Charlottetown Festival, a four-month commercial run in Toronto at Theatre ROM, performances at the Canadian Embassy in Paris and Tokyo, the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, the official opening of Magic Circle Theatre in London, the 100th Anniversary Gala Show of Society of American Magicians at the Hammerstein Theatre in New York, and being the subject of a feature documentary – A Conjuror In The Making – for Breakfast with the Arts for the A&E Network and Adrianne Clarkson Presents for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.


David is the author of four books. His first, Advantage Play, examines magicians, card cheats and psychics as models of creativity and pragmatic problem solving and was published by Key Porter Books. His second, Tricks, was a how-to book for magicians published by Squash Publications. His third book, also with Squash, was Dai Vernon: A Biography, the first volume of a long-awaited portrait of the life and times of the most influential magician of the twentieth century. David's most recent work is, Zarrow, a portrait and technical retrospective of one of magic’s most revered arrangers.


David is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Magicana a performing arts organization and registered charity dedicated to studying and promoting magic as an introduction to the arts. He is spearheading, among other things, My Magic Hands, a program designed to use the process of learning, practicing and performing magic as an introduction to creativity and the arts for underprivileged and disadvantaged children.


To learn more about David, visit his website: www.davidben.com.

author, speaker, consultant, collector, educator, lawyer, publisher, producer, performer

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