028: MINDvention 2011 - Day One

Day one is history and a wonderful day it was. Even though it was only a half day, it was chock full of mentalism and magic. We began with performances by attendees hosted by Paul Draper. This is kind of a showcase for attendees to do one effect to let the rest of the group see what kind of mentalism is being performed around the world and to showcase a performer for consideration as one of the main acts/lecturers next year. Then followed back to back lectures by Devon Knight and Harvey Berg. Next was a panel discussion with Eugene Burger, Ted Karmalovich and Richard Osterlind on book tests. This ran nearly an hour and a half and had lots of subtle tips thrown in from the learned audience like Ross Johnson and Banachek.

After dinner Shep Hyken delivered a motivational lecture on marketing your act and the evening's entertainment was Paul Vigil's one man show direct from the Mirage where he presents the same act at King's Ink twice a night every Wednesday.

Gary Darwin drew caricatures of Scott Wells and Jamie Salinas while in the Dealers' Room of the MINDvention.

Chats include a brief talk with Pete Poskiparta from Finland and Paul Draper. We had Peter and Paul and we were quite merry (sorry). Later in the day and in the dealers' room I caught up with Steve Brooks to talk about The Magic Cafe, its development and future plans. First time attendee Timothy Cripe talked about how much he was enjoying MINDvention. And surprise guest Gary Darwin held court seated in the dealers' room. Gary could go on forever talking about magic and cracking wise. He is a veritable fount of...well, something. And finally I caught up with organizers Danny Archer and Robert Allen who talked about the convention (statistics, plans, schedule, etc.)

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027: MINDvention 2011 - The Frontal Lobe

Arriving in Las Vegas a day before the MINDvention officially begins gives us time to visit the In 'n Out burger restaurant, Denny & Lee's Magic Shop, get a preview of Rick Maue's upcoming lecture and enjoy the late night comedy and magic show with Chipper Lowell. Along the way we visit with Gregg and Eva Lancaster, Banachek, Scott Brown, Rick Maue and Chipper Lowell. This is all done in front of the scheduled activities hence the title, The Frontal Lobe.

Gene Protas, Scott Wells, Chipper Lowell, Banachek and Jamie Salinas strike a friendly pose outside the Improv Comedy Club at Harrah's after the show.

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"Now You See It with Scott Wells" from MAES 2011

"Now You See It with Scott Wells" is a TV Talk Show format for magicians. It is something different that Scott has been doing at magic conventions. Imagine something like "Late Night with David Letterman" or "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" or Johnny Carson but the guests are magicians. The guests are pulled from the talent featured at the convention who are often good friends of Scott's and whom he has known some time. It allows for the opportunity to chat openly about personal matters rather than being the standard interview-type chat like you would expect on "Actor's Studio".

Each show is dynamic and different as it is completely unscripted and is dependent upon the personalities, the direction of the conversation, and the interactions among the guests. It is not a panel discussion or a Q&A from the audience. It gives the convention registrants an opportunity to "eavesdrop" on what might seem like conversations at a bar. It also "humanizes" the talent so the registrants feel comfortable approaching them throughout the rest of the convention by giving them "talking points" so they can perhaps follow up on one of the topics discussed.

Between the introductions of each guest Scott shows "magic-themed" commercials. These are professionally produced spots made by ad agencies from around the world that often feature many well-known magicians such as Penn & Teller, Harry Blackstone, Jr., Lance Burton, David Copperfield, Paul Daniels, Melinda and more.

This episode was filmed by Marc DeSouza (who also provided the voice-over introduction) at the Magicians' Alliance of Eastern States (M.A.E.S.) on September 30, 2011 in Cherry Hills, NJ. Scott's guests in this episode include: Denny Haney, Eric DeCamps, Jania Taylor and David Corsaro. It is a one hour video episode in a QuickTime (MP4) format so the file was compressed to be just under 100MB making the quality a bit low.

Scott Wells presents a fun, lively talk show at magic conventions featuring other magicians who are on the bill at that event. Imagine a late night television talk show except with all magicians, hosted by a magician, and you have an idea of what this is all about.

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