251: Day One - T.A.O.M. Convention 2015

The first Day of TAOM 2015 was only a few hours long, but what a few hours it was! If you are anywhere near Austin, then you should get here immediately! This has been a great day to kick off another great convention. Thirteen dealers from around the world (from Germany to Oregon and Japan to Ft. Worth, Texas) we have it all. The afternoon kicked off with a nice dealer's show followed by an outstanding lecture by Jay Scott Berry.

the evening Masters of magic evening show was hosted by Robert Baxt and featured Ken Scott, John Carney, Paprika, Bob Fitch, Mark Merchant and Peter Samelson. After the show, Peter Samelson gave a lecture followed by another lecture from Randi Rain. Then Brian Brushwood presented "Scam School Live" with some guests from previous episodes making guest appearances like David Rangel and Diamond Jim Tyler.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:11 - Scott and Don Wiberg (Past International President of the IBM) talk in the car about the upcoming convention. This is Don Wiberg's first TAOM convention.

00:06:11 - President, Trixie Bond talks a bit about her expectations for the convention and some of the surprises in store for registrants.

00:09:47 - Oscar Munoz and Ken Scott talk about school shows and library shows and how they differ.

00:18:52 - Fumio Inagaki, seven time winner of TAOM's Comdy Award, talks about his invention of the bar code (UPC) gag.

00:29:40: - Walter "Zaney" Blaney has had a long road to completing his dream of building the perfect vanishing bird cage. Here you can hear his woes that will hopefully end with good news soon.

00:50:44 - Ventriloquist Mark Merchant talks about being topical in his scripting that makes him asuccess on cruise ships

010:58:55 - Mandy Nicot tells us about the surprise wedding she and Roger had at the FFFF convention earlier this year.

01:01:21: Brian Brushwood is the podcaster for Scam School and host of Life Hackers on the discovery Channel. He is also more than just a close friend. Brian is like one of my own children. Find out why in this chat..

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A Daily News Blog for Magicians capturing the magic news from around the world and putting it at your fingertips.

248: Day Four - MAGIC Live! 2015

The General Session for the final day was hosted by Mark Kornhauser who talked about lessons to learn from his monthly column "For What It's Worth:. Charlie Frye talked about the subject of Character and the importance of building one. Axel Hecklau talked about how to produce your own show in your own area. And the feature was the panel discussion hosted by Bill Malone with Ron Conley and Steve Forte as they talked about the differnce between gambling moves and magician moves.

In the Focus (breakout) sessions, Tony Clark discussed Slydini;s "Paper Balls Over the Head:; Mike Bent and Buster Balloon talked about "Monster Kids" and Joseph Barry blew us away with his card handling in "There's Always a Beginning".

The evening show was hosted by Justin Willman who was a standout highlight with an affable character that easily broke the fourth wall. Mark and Jinger Kalin premiered a new illusion and closed with a double "thin model sawing" with a twist. Xavier Mortimer put in not one, but two outstanding, original performances including a self levitation while "jumping rope". Den Den and Hun Lee both did very nice manipulation acts. The Evasons were stellar with their two person mind reading act. Dan Sperry reprised his fantastic, creative and bizarre bird act from the Illusionists tour. But the real highlight that got everyone talking was the 17 year old juggler, Ty Tojo who eaily juggled seven balls with alarming aplomb.

The Farewell Party featured an opportunity for some lucky registrant to win either $500, $1,000, $5,000 or $100,000. The lucky winner played a gamer wherein he selected certain tiles (similar to large Scrabble tiles) that had the value of one of the denominations inside the envelope. Whatever five numbers the person drew would be the amount he/she would win. The winner drew five $1,000 envelopes so he won $1,000.

My signature Coin in Bottle routine being performed at the 2014 TAOM Magic Convention in Fort Worth Texas

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:26 - Sean Popp talks about the Rubic Cube and Show Cues updates that are coming.

00:05:55 - David Deeble talks about being the MC for the morning session and a synopsis of his presentation.

00:13:26 - Master Payne talks about working Renaissance Festivals and Kozmo talks about working on the street.

00:28:35 - Axel Hecklau talks a bit about the presentation he gave on puting together a venue in your own community.

00:37:28 - Kayla Drescher talks about working behind the scenes at MAGIC Live!

00:39:43 - Richard Myer and Steve Bedwell give their comments on highlights from the convention.

00:47:02 - Tony Clark talks about his presentation on Slydini's "Paper Balls Over The Head"

00:53:21 - Giovanni Livera and Ian Pigeon are joined by Rafael Benatar as they talk about some of their highlights from the convention. Ian is the creator of "My Pet Boris" spider app and he talks about the creation of this variation of Jim Pace's "The Web".

01:19:15 - Dan Sperry says hello and goodby then we chat with Rory Johnston about his participation in the production of MAGIC Live!

247: Day Three - MAGIC Live! 2015

Another whirlwind day of activities and more surprises. The general session was hosted by David Deeble and included a surprise performance by James Dimare as he performed to new music that was especially composed and arranged for him by one of our speakers, Edward B. Kessel. Jorge Blass talked about his Facebook trick he sold to Copperfield; Wayne Houchin taught a couple tricks from his lecture; and Michael Carbonaro talked about his hit TV show, "The Carbonaro Effect". Another surprise happened when Michael brought a couple on stage and the man proposed to his girlfriend.

The "Focus" Sessions included a wonderful talk by Mike Caveney on "Classic Correspondence" which brought history to life; Martin Lewis teaching something new and something old; and the close-up clinic that featured a grab bag of great close-up pros teaching hands-on card tricks and featured Alan Ackerman, Jason England, Tom Frank, Jared Kopf, Chris Korn, Steve Reynolds and R. Paul Wilson.

The evening show I saw was David and Leeman which was very funny, but before that, we had several groups attend a half hour "experimental" event that had everyone interacting with a projection screen hosted by Richard Wiseman. It was quite entertaining.

A new levitation of a borrowed wine glass, full or empty

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:24 - David Hinkin along with Dick and Diane Olson recap yesterday's event over breakfast.

00:09:14 - Dave Magee talks about why he got off all social media.

00:19:56 - Dirk Losander and Michael Ammar talk about their newest projects and a new levitation trick that will soon be available.

00:29:00 - Peter Nardi, Alakazam Magic, talks about performing at weddings and restaurants in England.

00:45:45 - Paul Draper talks about being the Technical Director of the daily sessions and the challenges of putting it all together.

00:52:28 - Chuck and Jan Jones talk about his creation of various illusions like the MIsMade Girl and lots of stories about his travels and television experience including an interesting story about working with Orson Welles.

01:13:57 - Stan Allen talks about how things are going so far and what all they are doing to keep the surprises secret.

01:28:53 - Bill and Marlene Seagraves talks about this being convention from the perspective of first time attendees.