222: My Week at the Magic Castle 2015 - Part Three

Join Scott and Lisa Land for a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard as we return to the Nirvana Apartment from breakfast at Mel's Diner. Scott Land is a puppeteer who was performing in the Palace theater at the Magic Castle during the same week I was in the Close-Up Gallery. We talk about many things and people including Scott's friend, Carl Ballentine. We stop along the way for Scott to point out some of the tourist landmarks on Hollywood Boulevard such as the El Capitan theater, "Walk of Stars" like Robin Williams, Julie Andrews, John Travolta, Milt and Bill Larsen, and Mann's Chinese Theatre.

After we return to the Nirvana Apartments (which is where many of the Castle performers are lodged during their/our week), I took a walk across the street and up the hill to the Academy of Magical Arts where I spoke with its General Manager, Joe Furlow. I happened to have been in the epicenter of the timeline when an agreement had just been reached between the Milt Larsen, the Magic Castle and the Academy of Magical Arts. Many of the agreed terms were discussed during our conversation.

00:02:52 - Join Lisa and Scott Land as we depart from Mel's Diner and walk along Hollywood Boulevard back to our apartment near the Magic Castle. Enjoy the sights and sounds and stories along the way. As we get back in front of the Nirvana Apartments, Scott talked extensively about Carl Ballentine, the development of his act, an entertaining story about Carl's' belief of Steve Martin "lifting" his act, and the puppet of Carl that Scott created.

00:20:18 - Joe Furlow, General Manager of the Academy of Magical Arts, talks about the resurrection of the Magic Castle and how they are now thriving as a financially successful enterprise.

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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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