246: Day Two - MAGIC Live! 2015

Stan Allen opened the conference with the keynote speech that set the tone for the convention. His one word this year: curiosity. The morning session was a variety of outstanding presentations but the highlight everyone was waiting for was David Copperfield "In His Own Words". He was genuine, humble and charismatic and enjoyed by all. He admitted some of his failures and talked about continuing to work on projects and being forever committed to excellence and tweaking effects to make them perfect. He also discussed his disgust for those who steal from creators.

The afternoon sessions (for my colored badge) included Ian Rowland on mentalism (his third appearance at MAGIC Live!), Joel Bauer talking about trade shows, and Steve Valentine talking about variations of Cards to Pocket.

The evening show was outstanding hosted by Jorge Bass and opened with one of my favorite acts, Charlie Frye & Company. It concluded with not one or two, but three illusionists: Nathan Burton, Mike Michaels and Greg Gleason.

My evening rounded out with the 11:00 close-up show. Not your typical professional close-up show. In fact, this was perhaps for me, one of what will remain asa highlight of this MAGIC Live! Michael Weber hosted an evening of top professionals presenting one trick from the original "Stars of Magic" series. This featured Johnny Thomson, R. Paul Wilson, Paul Vigil, Julie Eng, Eric Mead and David Ben with a special guest appearance by the Professor himself, Dai Venon, perfectly portrayed by Jared Kppf.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:26 - Host Stan Allen explains the theme of this year's convention.

00:07:26 - Jamie D. Grant talks a bit about the show he just finished presenting on the memorized deck

00:08:50 - Michael Chaut, producer of Monday Night Magic talks a bit about his 18 year run at producing the show. We are intermittently joined by several people who are passing through the casino near the entrance of the theater.

00:22:00 - Simon Coronel was the master of ceremonies for the morning session and he talks a bit about not scripting his show.

00:28:55 - Shep Hyken and Seth Kramer talk about MAGIC Live!

00:41:16 - Bill Cook talks about performing on "Penn & Teller Fool Us" and "Wizard Wars".

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245: Day One - MAGIC LIve! 2015

For the first day of a four day event that had no scheduled activity until 7:30 p.m., there sure was a lot of meeting and greeting of old friends.

In this first day update, we have some time to chat with many of the friends we ran into. With nearly 1,800 registrants, it's hard to get around to have quality conversations with everyone. But it was great that some people gave me some great quality time albeit short due to the veritable whirlwind of magical luminaries swirling around the casino. Monday will bring us the first full day of activities so I probably should get a little rest. I;m still on Central Time so it is nearly dawn in Texas according to my body clock.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:25 - Charlie Randall of H&R Magic Books joins me at the airport for our flight from Houston to Las Vegas

00:07:17 - Chris Philppott and Steve Valentine, mates of mine from the Magic Castle are the first ones that I got to chat with after I checked into the hotel. Steve talks a bit about his presentation that he will give on Monday and Chris talks about his marketed effect, "French Postcards".

00:11:46 - R. Paul Wilson talks a bit about his movie, "Our Magic"

00:13:25 - "The Evil Twins", Dave Cox and Bruce Gold

00:15:20 - Steve Bryan talks about the Little Egypt Gazette and Randy Wakeman joins us to give us a health report on SIMON Lovell

00:22:44 - Kyle Knight and Mistie talks about their current and future schedule also about their performance on "Wizard Wars" and "Penn & Teller Fool Us".

00:31:35- Jeff and Tessa Evason are joined briefly by Gil Eagles and Ken Weber

00:39:26 - Justin Willman is getting married soon and he talks about that. He is also joined by Sean Popp and Shep Hyken.

00:44:38 - Dustin Stinett talks about the upcoming Genii convention

00:52:26 - Ray Anderson, star of Esther's Follies in Austin, Texas talks about the upcoming Texas Association of Magicians convention and his appearance there.

01:01:47 - Dennis Watkins talks about the return of the Houdini play in Chicago next summer for a 15 week run starting in June 2016.

01:06:52 - Steve Chezaday and Carol talk about Abbott's Get Together that just ended and he flew straight to Las Vegas

01:20:11 - Tom Mullica talks about his late night tales he told by his headstone in the graveyard at Colon, Michigan at Abbott's Get Together last week.

108: MAGIC Live! 2013 - Day 3

Day three was another fun and exciting day that began with the Opening Session hosted by Justin Flom A highlight of the show was Xavier Mortimer's incredibly innovative routines. He is currently featured in the Cirque du Soliel show here in Vegas, "Michael Jackson One".. But it was Wayne Dobson being interviewed by Jeff McBride which received a standing ovation.

00:00:07 – Tom Vorjahan, Daniel Herron and Eddie Wade give a recap of the Documentary Live 1 show from last night that featured the Long Beach Mystics hosted by Stan Allen and Mike Caveney. It featured David Deeble, Victor and Diamond, Michael Weber, Dana Daniels, Mark Kalin and Jinger, Armando Lucera, Kevin James, and James Hamilton (as Alexander Hamilton).

00:08:33 – I give a short review of the General Session that was hosted by Justin Flom and featured Master Payne, Bill Abbott, Xavier Mortimer, and Wayne Dobson being interviewed by Jeff McBride.

00:13:00 – I chatted with random people dining at the In ‘N Out and how much they enjoy this place. It is one of my regular, mandatory places to dine while in Las Vegas.

00:15:02 – Simon Coronel talks about creativity and how he developed his routine.

00:26:00 – Photo time with Criss Angel

00:26:50 – David Hira talks about this convention and conventions in general and their appeal to different age groups.

00:34:45 – Scott Hunstler was one of the winners on the Sunday night Welcome Party. He talks about what he won. Mark Weidhaas, S.A.M. Past President, and Errol Lipschitz, from Vancouver, talks about their experience of this convention.

00:39:56 – We viewed the documentary about Ricky Jay’s life, Deceptive Practices. Here I get to talk with a few people who know Ricky and have a perspective and opinion on the movie. It isn’t anything like Siskell & Ebert, but I think you will enjoy this discussion by Peter Samelson, Tim Felix and Jon Stetson.

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246: Day Two - MAGIC Live! 2015

245: Day One - MAGIC LIve! 2015

108: MAGIC Live! 2013 - Day 3

The Magic Word