264: Street Talk from Gazzo

With literally tens of thousands of performances over his lifetime, Gazzo is one of the world's best street performers. Don't just take my word for it. On multiple occasions he has taken top honors at street festivals as the "best" street performer. Gazzo resides in Bath Spa, England, but as a globe-trotter, he is really a citizen of the world.

During a recent nationwide lecture tour across the U.S., Gazzo stopped by Houston and visited my home to record a chat. Gazzo talked about his philosophy of life, working the streets around the world, differences (or lack of differences) in appreciating verbal humor among other cultures and non-English speaking audiences, and much more.

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263: Shoot Yeah!

Shoot Ogawa is best known as a close-up magician and prime exponent of the "Ninja Rings" and also responsible for introducing the occidentals to the muscle pass. Shoot moved to the U.S. in 2003 and quickly won the hearts, minds and awards from U.S. magicians. He took top honors as "Close-Up Magician of the Year" by the Academy of Magical Arts in 2003 then again in 2006. He then won "Parlor Magician of the Year" in 2008.

Shoot Ogawa, presenting his Ninja Rings.

While passing through Houston, Texas on an abbreviated U.S. lecture tour, he spent the night in my home and we had a chance to sit down for a chat and a glass of scotch after his lecture. In our chat, he talks about his magic roots as a magic shop demonstrator in Japan, then moving to the U.S. and living near the Magic Castle. Shoot continues to travel the world performing in nearly every continent and country. Here he talks about some of the places he has been and where he plans to go from here.

Shoot Ogawa and Scott Wells say "Kanpai" as we enjoy a glass of single malt scotch and a nice chat on this podcast.

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262: Just One Thing with Bob Fitch

Bob Fitch is well known among those who know him well. Of course that is meant to be tongue-in-cheek as of course Bob is a man of many hats...and he wears them all extremely well: actor, director, magician, singer and dancer. A show business legend himself, Bob has appeared in theatrical presentations including: "Funny Things Happened On The Way To The Forum", Will Roger's Follies, Annie, Mack & Mabel, Mame, and many more. He has worked or directed many of the famous celebrities including Liza Minnelli, Steve Martin, Carol Channing, Katherine Hepburn, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Carol Burnette, Whoopi Goldberg, just to name a very few.

But among magicians, he is known for his series of three Topit videos and his work with the Fitch Kohler Hold-Out. But perhaps he is best known as someone who helps professionals take their game up another notch. As a director and coach in private workshops, Bob finds and focuses on one thing that will help make their performances achieve greatness. It could be something as simple as eliminating the walk between a volunteer and the performer's table by merely carrying the prop on your person, thus avoiding the lapse in time it takes to make the walk. Or it could be the opposite in which the performer adds that time by walking back and forth. Often times, whatever that "one thing" is turns out to be something that leads the performer to think about other aspects of his/her performance that could use the same kind of attention.

Bob Fitch has won many awards over the years including: Best Director - Nominated - New England Theatre Awards; Best Director & Best Actor - Nominated - Carbonelle Awards (Florida); Burns-Mantle Award (Broadway) for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Annie). And the S.A.M. Parent Assembly awarded Bob with the "Magician of the Year", and in 2009, the Academy of Magical Arts presented him with the "Lifetime Achievement Award".

Bob Fitch was one of the featured lecturers and performers at this year's T.A.O.M. convention (let me say here again that I found it to be one of the top ten best conventions I have ever attended). In this podcast, Bob talks about several of the things he taught during his lecture plus some of the same stories that he related there, too. If you saw/heard/experienced that lecture, then you will enjoy hearing it again. It's like reading a book a second time and finding a passage you overlooked the first time. If you missed the lecture, then I know you will enjoy and learn at least "one thing" from our chat.