213: Chicago Magic Bars & Lounges

Chicago has a rich history of magic bars within the city limits as well as in the outlying areas. The "hay day" of magic bars in Chicago ended around 1998 with the closing of the last magic bar. But Joey Cranford and John Sturk are pumping new life into an old concept with the new nightclub/theater called "Chicago Magic Lounge". This will be a recreation of the early 20th century, prohibition era lounge one night each week on the upper part of Chicago.

Bill Weimer is a local magician who was an integral part of the Chicago magic bar scene from the 1970's through the 1990's. He worked seven of the nine or so Chicago-land magic bars. He has a lot of stories about these clubs in their glory days and in fact, wrote a book about his experiences called "Now You See Them, Now You Don't".

00:03:18 - Joey Cranford and John Sturk talk about the newest venture that will open on March 5, 2015, The Chicago Magic Lounge. They talk about their vision of the Lounge and what they hope will happen. They will also encourage local magicians to come and hang our and create a "magic lab" where performers can try out new stuff.

00:40:56 - Bill Weimer talks about the history of Chicago-land bars from his perspective of one who has been there and done that having worked at seven of the nine or so magic bars within the city's boundaries over a 20 year period. Bill wrote the book on bar magic entitled "Now You See Them, Now You Don't". In this podcast, Bill shares some of the stories from his book and his perspective as a working performer.

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Order your copy of Bill's book at his website http://www.magicbarbook.com/

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.

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109: MAGIC Live! 2013 - Day 4

Every day and every show and nearly every session was great this year with lots of surprises and spectacles. This final day brought more of the same. And the big surprise for the end of the evening was the last performance of The Great Tomsoni and Company. It was as much of a surprise to us as it was for Johnny as he was joined on stage by good friends Lance Burton and Penn & Teller.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:08 - Noel Britten, from Bath, England, talks about the importance of giving back and the rich rewards magicians are given in the form of love when working at charity events and hospitals.

00:18:15 - S.A.M. International President, Dal Sanders, and the First Lady, Sindie Sanders, talk about conventions and the evolution of how the S.A.M. is keeping up with keeping their conventions new.

00:28:56 - Paul Stone talks about his plans for the Innovention convention in 2015 in Liverpool

00:33:12 - Steve Chezaday talks about the recent Abbott's Get Together. Steve was one of the featured performers of this years Get Together.

00:37:02 - Mark Korhouser gives us an update on his "First Trick" video project.

00:40:52 - Doug Anderson, cruise ship magician, talks about this being his first MAGIC Live! convention and relates his experience with this event.

00:43:43 - Auke Van Dauken, creator of metal products (cups, coins and more), talks about some of his exciting new products especially some created from Tommy Wonder's ideas.

00:49:41 - Doc Eason is another first time registrant at MAGIC Live! and he gives his observations on this event.

00:55:06 - Stan Allen thanks everyone for coming as he introduces Johnny and Pam Thompson presenting his last performance as The Great Tomsoni and Company.

00:57:36 - Lance Burton is the first voice you hear then Penn followed by Teller.

01:04:46 - Stan Allen gives us his quick perspective on this convention now that it is over.

01:08:37 - Milt Larsen, the Godfather of the Magic Castle, talked about the 50 years of the Academy of Magical Arts.

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