Peter J. Reveen (8 October 1935 – 8 April 2013) was an Australian

illusionist Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

and

hypnotist Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

who performed mainly in Canada, and particularly

Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...

Early life

Reveen was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and traveled to the US in January 1961, landing in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. From there, he took an unpleasant boat ride to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California and purchased a

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...

Bus ticket to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Reveen was granted a six-month visitor's visa on 16 March 1961.

Career

Reveen began his career in the town of Chilliwack, BC, booking himself into local community halls and legions, calling himself ''Reveen, the Impossibilist''. To promote his shows, Reveen offered complimentary tickets to all businesses willing to put a poster in their storefront window. In many towns, he also offered local radio stations a percentage of ticket sales in exchange for advertising. In 1962, ''The Man They Call Reveen'' was given the opportunity to perform in a movie house and his career took off. He toured extensively through Canada and the United States for 35 years, eventually performing for over 6,000,000 people. In September 2007, Reveen came out of retirement with a mini-tour of Atlantic Canada called ''The Return of Reveen.'' Reveen was one of the founding members of the

Magic Castle The Magic Castle is a clubhouse for magicians and magic enthusiasts, as well as the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It is in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California and it bills itself as "the most unusual private club in t ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and in 1987 wrote the book ''The Superconscious World''. In 2000, he won the DRAGON Award, an annual award given to magicians who excel in Drama, Romance, Artistry, Glamour, Originality and Necromancy. After Peter's death from diabetes and dementia in 2013, his son, Tyrone, continued on with the "Reveen" show.

Personal life

Reveen was married to Coral Reveen and had 4 sons (oldest to youngest): Wayne, Tyrone, Calvin, and Peter, Jr. Peter Jr. is best known as the former guitar player in the now defunct American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Salty Dog.

Cultural references

Samples from his self-hypnosis LPs, including ''Relax with Reveen'', ''Study and Concentrate with Reveen'', and ''Stop Smoking...Stop Overeating with Reveen'', feature on some modern

Electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

, such as the ''

Lemon Jelly Lemon Jelly is a British electronic music duo from London that formed in 1998 and went on hiatus starting in 2008. Since its inception, the band members have always been Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen. Lemon Jelly has been nominated for awards l ...

'' track ''Nervous Tension'', and ''

Bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...

'' track ''Shadowtricks''. ''

Trailer Park Boys ''Trailer Park Boys'' is a Canadian mockumentary sitcom television series created by Mike Clattenburg that began airing in 2001 as a continuation of his 1999 film bearing the same name. The show follows the misadventures of a group of trailer pa ...

character

Ricky Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky (Brno-Country District), a village and municipality in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a village in the north of the Czech Republic * Rickmansworth, a town in England sometimes called "Ricky" ...

is occasionally called "Reveen", much to Ricky's displeasure, due to their vague physical resemblance. Reveen appears to be the basis for a ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' parody commercial about a hypnotist who gets audience members exiting the theatre to robotically drone "It was much better than ''

CATS The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of t ...

'', I would see it again and again." to a reporter. In an episode of the Canadian sketch comedy program ''

The Holmes Show ''The Holmes Show'' is a Canadian television sketch comedy series that premiered on CTV on September 24, 2002. The 22-episode series stars Jessica Holmes, Roman Danylo and Kurt Smeaton. Filming took place at the CTV studios in June and August 2 ...

'', there is a sketch featuring Roman Danylo as a stage hypnotist named "Crevasse the Impossiblist". A crevasse is similar to a ravine, and is a pun on the name "Reveen". During his May 2009 ''Late Show with David Letterman'' appearance, comedian

Norm Macdonald Norman Gene MacdonaldThe capitalization of Norm Macdonald's surname has been inconsistently reported in publications such as ''TV Guide''. Books that discuss him, such as ''Shales'' (2003) and Crawford' (2000), as well as other sources such as ...

revealed he went to one of Reveen's shows as a teenager.

Notable honours

In December 2009, IBM Ring 257 named Reveen their 2009 Magician of the Year.

References

External links

Official website
*https://web.archive.org/web/20050408151430/http://www.unb.ca/web/bruns/9900/issue9/entertainment/raveen.html *http://arcmusic.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/don%e2%80%99t-mind-me%e2%80%a6/ *http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/08/you-are-going-t.html

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reveen, Peter 1935 births 2013 deaths Australian emigrants to Canada Canadian magicians Canadian hypnotists Deaths from dementia in Nevada Deaths from diabetes People from Adelaide