TAOM 2013 Epilogue - Awards

Of course nearly every convention has contests. I encourage magicians, young and old alike to enter and compete in contests. It strengthens you as a performer, introduces you to other competitors who will become lifelong friends (just ask Lance Burton and Jeff McBride), and winning gives you credibility in your promotional material. So, here are the winners from the 2013 T.A.O.M. Convention in Dallas, Texas

Junior Close - Up - Steffen Banta

Senior Close -Up - Kayla Drescher

Senior Stage - no winner

Junior Stage - tie resulted in two winners: Chase Hasty and James Irwin

Senior Comedy - no winner

Other certificates and letters of Appreciation went to outgoing President Mark Jensen, I.B.M. International President, Bill Irwin, and Tom Mullica.

114: T.A.O.M. 2013 Day 4

Sleep deprived magicians awoke to a 9:00 lecture by Rob Zabrecky and were blown away by his "Alphabet Lecture" that took us through the alphabet with each letter referring to an important point of performing like "A" for Acting, "D" for Directing, "R" for Risk and "S" for Scripting. No tricks were explained but a lot was learned that brought everyone to their feet for a spontaneous standing ovation. His lecture was followed by David Stone's second lecture that featured "bonus" ideas that have not been seen during his earlier lectures across the U.S.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:08 - Rob Zabrecky speaks with us following his wonderful lecture.

00:06:06 - Pressley Guitar, creator of the "Cigarette Through Quarter" has a chat about what he's been up to for the past few years.

00:18:30- Jamie Salinas and Scott give a wrap up and overview of this year's convention.

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113: T.A.O.M. 2013 Day 3

The third day of the 2013 T.A.O.M. convention was action packed from start to finish beginning with a lecture by Fielding West then panel discussion on "Magic, Movies and a Cast of Characters" hosted by David Magee with Daniel Baldwin, Burton Gilliam, Johnny Thompson and Tom Mullica. Harry Anderson's lecture followed the panel discussion with lots of tips and great advice, anecdotes and jokes with a couple cool tricks interspersed along the way. The professional close-up session had five magicians rotating among five rooms which must have been exhausting. It featured Allen Okawa, John Shyrock, Shin Lim, David Stone and Jared Copf, all great performers.

The evening show was hosted by actor Burton Gilliam after being introduced by Daniel Baldwin. The show opened with the illusions of the Beckers (Fred and Bobbie) then Larry Haas, Ian Richards, and David Magee. A well rounded show. The late night show was Johnny Thompson interviewing Tom Mullica, one on one. It was hilarity at its best as they dealt with microphone problems.

The timestamps for this podcast:

00:00:08 - We catch David Magee for a few moments before he goes in to host the panel discussion with Burton Gilliam (Blazing Saddles actor), Daniel Baldwin (actor), Johnny Thompson and Tom Mullica. Walter "Zaney" Blaney also adds his two cents on the topic of "where did magic lose its audience appeal?.".

00:07:10 - Walter Blaney loves Rob Zabrecky's act and we get to chat with Rob for a short time just before the afternoon panel discussion began.

00:09:36 - Chip Romero talks about Doug Henning and gives us some personal insight that was not discussed during his lecture.

00:28:00 - Burton Gilliam hosted the Sunday Night show. Here he gives us a story about his friends, Slim Pickens.and his wife.

00:31:35 - Burton Gilliam told us a funny golf story ab out him playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Paris, Texas..

00:35:22- Tom Mullica began to chat with us about his first meeting with Red Skelton just before we had to cut it short due to the show was to begin that was to honor him.

00:37:17 - Tom finalized our brief chat about the Red Skelton routines he performs.

00:41:55 - Johnny and Pam Thompson talk about the T.A.O.M., ending their Tomsoni & Company in Vegas and their favorite city in the world.

Download this podcast in an MP3 file through FeedBurner or directly by Clicking Here and then right click to save the file. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed by Clicking Here.

TAOM 2013 Epilogue - Awards

114: T.A.O.M. 2013 Day 4

113: T.A.O.M. 2013 Day 3

The Magic Word