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David Merry
Background
David's background in entertainment started as the lead role in a grade four production of "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" at Bedford Park School in Toronto. His next step was behind the scenes as stagehand in a grade eight play at Crescent School. He developed a great interest in magic at the age of thirteen and performed his first magic show at a family friend's birthday on April fools day 1976. He got a lot more serious about entertainment and was bitten by the bug after starting Drama classes while attending high school at Lawrence Park Collegiate. After high school David started with the Second City workshops and soon tried his hand at stand up comedy on amateur night at the local comedy club. After "killing" on his third night he has never looked back. He has since performed over 5900 shows in twelve different time zones and been on over 70 TV shows.
Biography
David was the host of Global TV’s hit sports trivia game show "Game On". The second season is still in reruns which can be seen nationally in Canada on CTV's Sportsnet (check local listings).
David was also the host of Global TV's "Get a Grip on Golf", a golf show that was seen coast to coast in Canada, on Sunday afternoons. David has made appearances on "SCTV", "BIZARRE" and "An Evening at the Improv". He has also been seen on "Open Mike with Mike Bullard" (3 appearances), CBC's "Halifax Comedy Festival", 4 episodes of "Comedy at Club 54" including their 7th Anniversary Special, "Yuk Yuk’s the TV Show", "Fins and Skins", "Cooking with Comics", "Comedy College", and "Komedy Kitchen". David has been a guest on such discussion shows as, TSN'S "Off the Record", "The John Oakley Show" and Prime TV's "Grumps", and was one of the only novelty acts given his own his own half-hour comedy special of the hugely successful CBC TV series "Comics!".
He is a past recipient of Canada's "Club Comic of the Year" Award, and his show
"DON'TPANIC REMAIN.COM" was nominated at the Canadian Comedy Awards in
the Catagory BEST ONE MAN SHOW
Close Up and Gambling
Studying "close up" sleight of hand magic with three of the world's best, Derek Dingle, Ariel Frailich and Howard Shwartzman, David became a true "card mechanic" and gave demonstrations of gambling techniques utilizing false shuffles, bottom and second dealing and various card cheat ruses. Through his research he became bitten with the whole world of gambling and it's most entertaining characters. He soon was introduced to a gentleman in Toronto who revised the most revered modern day blackjack system ever invented. He studied and practiced the techniques until mastered. With his new found knowledge off to Las Vegas he went. In 1981 he made it to the third round of the World Blackjack championships. He played on his humble savings for several months until by chance met up with a professional blackjack team member living in his apartment complex. He made the team and played with them for several months until he was awoken in the night to a gunshot in the apartment next door. He moved back to Toronto two days later. Several years later he started toying with a "rumor" he heard in Las Vegas about an anomaly of the roulette table and formulated a strategy. After 25,000 spins and two years of research, his book "Reinventing the Wheel" containing advanced roulette procedures was printed and has since gone into second print.
David currently plays poker semi professionally as his comedy and magic travels continually take him to the gambling meccas of Atlantic City, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In 2006 he qualified and played in two events at the
WORLD SERIES OF POKER. missing the money in both events, however.....during that week when all the world's best were in town for the "Series" he played in the Saturday night main event poker tournament at Caeser's Palace and bested 175 other people to capture his first big payday and "no limit" Texas hold em poker tournament.In Las Vegas with World Poker Tour Champ Daniel Negreanu
Theatre
Theater is David's true love, playing many of Canada's premiere stages. They include "Night of 100 Stars" with Michael Burgess and Maureen Forrester at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. He has also played The Blythe Festival Theatre, The Stratford Festival Theatre and The Jane Mallet Theatre with Louise Pitre, Joe Flaherty and Brent Carver. His recent concert appearances include appearing at Roy Thomson Hall opening for
Englebert Humperdinck.
He has also opened for such stars as
Jerry Seinfeld (Superstars), Kris Kristofferson (Stages), Howie Mandel (Okeefe Center),
The Smothers Brothers (Oakville Centre)
Tommy Chong
The Beach Boys (Kingswood Music Theater), Steve Landesburg, The Nylons (Danforth Music Hall),
enter, The Imperial Room,
Neil Sedaka
Roch Voisine
(The Ottawa Civic Center),
Alan Frew
(Glass Tiger),
Michael Bolton (Casino Rama Special Events Pavillion), and week long tours with
Steven Wright
(Hummingbird Theater, Hamilton Place, The Olypmic Theater, Centennial Hall),
ntennial Hall)
Weird Al Yankovic
aandl
Dave Coulier
also Lawrence Gowan, Rich Hall, Billy Newton Davis,
Luba, The Box, and The Jitters.
David has performed with the "Coconuts", "Comedy Zone" and "Yuk Yuk’s" comedy club chains as a national headliner in comedy clubs in both Canada and the United States.
He has also performed at such notable showcase clubs in Los Angeles as The Improv, The Comedy Store, The Laff Factory, and The Icehouse. .... In New York at Catch a rising Star and Stand up New York and in Las Vegas at The Riviera Comedy Club. He is a regular at The Comedy Stop at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City and Las Vegas and the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach (LA).
When not performing on land David is a regular on Norwegian, Princess and Holland America cruise ships having performed with them on the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Agean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Alaskan Inner Passage, the Sea of Cortez and the Mediterranean.
When it comes to Globetrotting Dave can hold his own having performed in such far away places as St. Kitts, Hamilton Bermuda, London England, St Thomas, Skagway Alaska, Los Cabos Mexico, San Juan Puerto Rico, Amsterdam, Alert Northwest Territories (300 nautical miles from the north pole on the northern most tip of Ellesmere Island ), Walt Disney World, Yellowknife, Banff, Venezuela, Mazatlan Mexico, Catalina Island California, Antigua, The Hague, Masset Queen Charlotte Islands, Goose Bay (Labrador), Puerto Vallarta Mexico, Dominican Republic, Crete Greece, Cozumel Mexico, Maui Hawaii, Cornerbrook Newfoundl, Khusadasi Turkey, Madeira Portugal and Gothaab Greenland,
MonteTop of Page Carlo.