086: MagiFest 2013 - Day Three

The final day of Version 2.0 of the Magifest was another success. The day opened with a lecture by John Archer then we had another great T.E.D. talk by outstanding magicians like Peter Pitchford, Ben Train & Chris Mayhew, Simon Aronson and Kainoa Harbottle with a little extra thrown in by co-organizer, Andi Gladwin, the day was magnificent. The afternoon lecture was by Dani DaOrtiz which was even more incredible to learn how his magic is accomplished. The evening show was hosted by Simon Lovell with the opening act by John Archer with some comedy mentalism followed by Peter Pitchford with an homage to Cardini. Justin Flom rocked the house with some outstanding, visual magic and closing the show was Justin Willman with some time-tested classics. The two Justins closed with dueling floating tables.

The podcast starts off with a nice chat with Kozmo about Reel Magic which is now available for streaming online. We talked about street performing and how Kozmo decided to quit working the streets and why he decided to return.

13:12 - After the evening show, I took my wandering mic around the lobby to get some feedback from some of the non-magicians who were in the audience and what they thought of the show.

20:40 - I then got to chat with a couple of the stars from the evening show, Justin Flom and Justin Willman. They had some great thoughts on the direction of magic and some advice for the young magicians.

32:41 - Ginny and Simon Aronson talked about their two person mind reading act, their inspiration, and some of their more difficult and unusual things people have had in their pockets and purses.

42:01 - Another one of the stars from the evening show was Peter Pitchford who talks about his interest in Cardini, branding, and making a living for a family of six as a stage magician.

53:35 - Braden Richards was the winner of the Junior Scholarship for the Sorcerer's Safari Magic Camp. We had a brief chat with him then talked with Mike Segal who is the director of the Magic Camp which will be the last week of August. For more information, see http://themagiccamp.com

59:23 - Convention organizers, Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay finally got to relax and take a breath after the convention was over  They talked about what they did and didn't do and what they might do in the future. John Archer chimed in with a few comments (and some Jager shots) during the chat, too.

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068: T.A.O.M. Day 2 in Houston, TX

The first full day of the T.A.O.M. convention was just that with lots of lectures, contests, fun, dealer deals, shows and more. With $5,000 in cash prize money on the table, the level of competition was keen among the 14 close-up contestants. Due to time conflicts with the close-up contests, Chad Long's lecture was delayed until after the evening's stage show. But he, Tony Clark, Chris Korn, Mark Mason and Eric Jones all scored well with their lectures. David Hira hosted the evening show that featured Tony Clark, Joe Givan & Carol Massie and Asi Wind. This was the first evening show that was opened to the public. And due to the wonderful publicity, including the newspaper and blog article in the Houston Chronicle, the ballroom was near its 900 seat capacity. You can read the article and see photos and a video at http://www.chron.com/default/article/Texas-magician-convention-opens-downtown...

As the day began, I sat down with Walter "Zaney" Blaney after the Order of Willard breakfast. The Order of Willard is for those with at least 25 years of membership in the TAOM and Walter has well over 50 years. Walter is a virtual repository of magic history, particularly about magic in and around Texas. But here he has some interesting tales to tell including a little about a Kennedy assasination conspiracy theory. I also chatted with Joshua Jay about taking over the Magifest in Columbus, Ohio then I talked with Chris Bontjes, President of the S.A.M. who was attending the TAOM for his second time. After the evening show, I sat down with Scott Hollingsworth, past president of the TAOM and past Entertainment Director of the Magic Island. We talked about many things but I did ask him for his thoughts on the future of the Magic Island.

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