165: Ground Zero - IBM/SAM Combined Convention 2014

The tenth combined convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians will officially begin with a full day of activities on July 1st; however, there were a lot of "night before" activities that took place on Monday June 30th.

00:05:19 - Jeff Lanes and Frank Seltzer enjoy a Newcastle beer, a fine cigar and a great chat about the upcoming convention. We talk about the talent line-up and the importance of the congressional recognition of magic as a performing art.

00:21:57 - Steve Bryant talks about his Little Egypt Gazette that is an interesting monthly journal of magic. He also gives us a scoop on a new book he has coming out on November 18, 2014 called "Lucas McKenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show" which will eventually be sold through Amazon.com

00:26:12 – Dal Sanders, President of the S.A.M., talks about his past year as President but mostly about getting magic recognized as an art in the Congressional Record.

00:31:30 – Karl Hein talks about his recent performance on the Pete Holmes television show and how he landed the job and what it did for his career.

00:33:43 – John Sturk, from FunInc.com, talks about InvisibleThreadsClothing.com that is aligned with Fun Inb. and what's going on in Chicago with a new convention at Magic Inc.

00:36:58 – John Graybeal, a Friend of The Magic Word, is a regular listener and talks about how this podcast has influenced him and how his children has gotten involved in magic and contests as a result of learning from this podcast. He also talks about the two days of junior events that have taken place prior to the “main” convention.

00:44:35 – Oscar and Melody Munoz talk about the contests that will take place this week and the prize money that is at stake.

Download this podcast in an MP3 file by Clicking Here and then right click to save the file. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed by Clicking Here. (please note: this RSS Feed subscription system may not work with Android systems). Remember, you can download it through iTunes. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

164: Part 4 - My Week at The Castle 2014

Ready to eat? Enjoy your lunch break with Bob Cassidy and me as we have a little take-out from In 'N Out and talk extensively about mentalism and performing. Back at the Magic Castle later that night, I caught up with John Carney outside the Parlour of Prestidigitation before he was seated for Rafael Benatar's show. Much later that night, I sat down with one of the members of the old "Long Beach Mystics", David Deeble. He was one of my favorite performers from the 2013 MAGIC Live!

00:01:26 - Master Mentalist, Bob Cassidy, chats candidly during a take-out lunch from In 'N Out that we took back to the apartment at the Nirvana in his room, The Charlie Miller Suite. We talked about his experience at the "Beyond Brookledge: event that included many other performers like Michael Weber and other eclectic entertainers. He talks about his early experience at The Magic Castle, the importance of scripting mentalism, Derren Brown, Keith Barry, knowing your powers, predictions, consistency in your performance, pre-show work, dual reality, working with drunks, selection of volunteers, Q&A, David Hoy, and more.

00:32:17 - John Carney, chats about his recent video projects, past and present, including Carney 2013 that was a monthly video lesson throughout last year. He also talks about Revizzit, the password protected way of safely downloading magic content. Rafael Benatar also drops in for a moment to say "hi" before he starts the show. John talks about working theatre shows and his learning experience.

00:40:12 - David Deeble, one of the Long Beach Mystics, tells us what he's been up to living abroad in Germany or a few years, what he's been doing recently and where he's going. Among other topics he talked about the hard times on the road at comedy clubs, his serious accident on a unicycle and how it affected his life, grabbing the wrong bag from the airport, and of course he talks about being a part of the legendary Long Beach Mystics..

Magic & Martinis Thursday

Scott Wells with Vigo the Carpathian, I mean, Bob Cassidy. Cheers!

163: Part 3 - My Week at The Castle 2014

Ah, the old barber shop. Sitting around the cracker barrel, playing dominoes, whittlin', spittin' and tellin' tales. Well, those days are mostly long gone in the real world, but not in the world of magic. Every Wednesday, many local magicians congregate at Dean's Shoppe (haircutting and magic) in Glendale to talk magic and shuffle cards.

In this Part Three of my multi-part podcast from my week at the Magic Castle, I turn on the recorder and let it roll as I had my hair cut and let the conversation and hair fall where it may. Alan Burskey and Pete Biro were the two guys who were in Dean's Shoppe on this particular Wednesday.

Back at the Castle, I chatted with Castle Librarian, Bill Goodwin then finished off the evening at the bar with the Builder of the Magic Castle, Milt Larsen.

00:01:50 - Alan Bursky talks about his involvement with the Magic Island in Newport Beach and Houston. To confirm one of our points, Alan even called Michael Caliie on his cell phone during our conversation. Pete Biro and Dean Dill add a few comments from time to time while Dean was cutting Scott's hair. Pete Biro talks about his latest project with a documentary on Spook Shows. We briefly talked about Triple Espresso, the "highly caffeinated comedy" but forgot the name of the magician who originally worked at Houston's Magic Island. It was Bill Arnold.

00:25:18 - Bill Goodwin, Close-Up Magician of the Year and The Magic Castle's librarian. Bill was performing with me in the Close-Up Gallery as the late show performer. Bill talks about the Castle's library and how to care for your own.

00:37:37- Milt Larsen, Creator of the Magic Castle, talks at length about his various business ventures including an exciting new movie project that will be based around and filmed in The Magic Castle.

Magic and Martinis' Thursday

There can't be good living where there's not good drinking.