141: Marc Salem - Piece of Mind

Star of stage and screen (well, small screen...television), Marc Salem stopped by for an extended chat about mentalism, world travel, building a show and the structure of a show, theatre work, celebrities he has worked with and known, and more. In particular, he shares some stories about his appearance on the TV show, 60 Minutes, stories from the stage perspective, stories about Uri Geller and more. This was an interesting conversation in that we seem to be "all over the board". It was difficult to keep a focus and get direct answers despite redirecting. It was kind of like trying to nail Jell-o to to the wall.

One of the interesting analogies he draws are the three types of spacial displacement: human years, dog years and entertainment years. He also talks about the dangers of making predictions, making meaning of our magic and lives, using psychology, how to get publicity, The 13 (secret mentalism New York group), and so much more.

Marc was low-key in promoting his book to the point of not even mentioning its title in this podcast. For the record, his book is "The Six Keys to Unlock and Empower Your Mind: Spot Liars & Cheats, Negotiate Any Deal to Your Advantage, Win at the Office, Influence Friends, & Much More". Whew! With a long title like that, it's no wonder that he didn't mention it in order to keep the podcast short. :) But for those who are interested, you can find it on Amazon. Just Click Here for more information on Amazon and to see an excerpt from the book.

If you are interested in hearing more from Marc or you have any questions about anything he mentioned during our chat, then please drop him a note via email to masalem@aol.com

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Magic (or is it "Mentalism") & Martinis' Thursday

098: 2013 Bristol Day of Magic

I attended the 53rd Bristol Day of Magic on May 12th along with about 400 other magicians from across the U.K.; however, I was one of the few (maybe three) from the U.S. along with Joshua Jay and Arthur Benjamin who were other performers on this outstanding bill. I was brought in as the "compere" or Master of Ceremonies for the evening gala show.

This podcast features some sounds of the convention and chats with some of the organizers, attendees and performers.

00:02:36 - Mandy Farrell, organizer, starts us off by giving us some history of the Bristol Day of Magic and laying out what we can expect over the next 24 hours.

00:11:00 - Eric Roumestan, from France, talks about his upcoming workshop on coin magic and his inspirations for creating his way of loading coins on the volunteer.

00:26:30 - John Billett, winner of the first Bristol Bucket Award, talks about mentalism and his path into the art. 

00:34:00 - Danny (somebody) talks about the new book "Frankly Disillusioned" by Dean Metcalfe. 

00:41:15 - Dean Metcalfe joined us to talk about some of his life experiences that are in the new book (available from http://FranlyDisillusioned.com/) 

00:50:06 - Soma, from Hungary, talked about the importance and use of music in your act. He also talked about his :road to fame: through contests from his first win in the Junior Stage Competition in Hungary to his first place win at the 2009 FISM context in Beijing.

01:12:42 - Arthur Benjamin, the MathMagician, talked about the way he came about to incorporate math into his magic performances and the similarities of logic, puzzles and math. You can check out a sample of his performance that he gave at a T.E.D. talk by Clicking Here.

01:36:47 - Colin McLeod, from Scotland, along Tim Stacy, from Bristol, and Mandy Davis, from London, talked in the bar after the convention about all the fun everyone had during the event. 

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​Scott Wells, Eric Roumestan, Arthur Benjamin, Soma, and seated are  Martin & Kerry Jo Gardiner (from "Celtic Storm")

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