248: Day Four - MAGIC Live! 2015

The General Session for the final day was hosted by Mark Kornhauser who talked about lessons to learn from his monthly column "For What It's Worth:. Charlie Frye talked about the subject of Character and the importance of building one. Axel Hecklau talked about how to produce your own show in your own area. And the feature was the panel discussion hosted by Bill Malone with Ron Conley and Steve Forte as they talked about the differnce between gambling moves and magician moves.

In the Focus (breakout) sessions, Tony Clark discussed Slydini;s "Paper Balls Over the Head:; Mike Bent and Buster Balloon talked about "Monster Kids" and Joseph Barry blew us away with his card handling in "There's Always a Beginning".

The evening show was hosted by Justin Willman who was a standout highlight with an affable character that easily broke the fourth wall. Mark and Jinger Kalin premiered a new illusion and closed with a double "thin model sawing" with a twist. Xavier Mortimer put in not one, but two outstanding, original performances including a self levitation while "jumping rope". Den Den and Hun Lee both did very nice manipulation acts. The Evasons were stellar with their two person mind reading act. Dan Sperry reprised his fantastic, creative and bizarre bird act from the Illusionists tour. But the real highlight that got everyone talking was the 17 year old juggler, Ty Tojo who eaily juggled seven balls with alarming aplomb.

The Farewell Party featured an opportunity for some lucky registrant to win either $500, $1,000, $5,000 or $100,000. The lucky winner played a gamer wherein he selected certain tiles (similar to large Scrabble tiles) that had the value of one of the denominations inside the envelope. Whatever five numbers the person drew would be the amount he/she would win. The winner drew five $1,000 envelopes so he won $1,000.

My signature Coin in Bottle routine being performed at the 2014 TAOM Magic Convention in Fort Worth Texas

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:26 - Sean Popp talks about the Rubic Cube and Show Cues updates that are coming.

00:05:55 - David Deeble talks about being the MC for the morning session and a synopsis of his presentation.

00:13:26 - Master Payne talks about working Renaissance Festivals and Kozmo talks about working on the street.

00:28:35 - Axel Hecklau talks a bit about the presentation he gave on puting together a venue in your own community.

00:37:28 - Kayla Drescher talks about working behind the scenes at MAGIC Live!

00:39:43 - Richard Myer and Steve Bedwell give their comments on highlights from the convention.

00:47:02 - Tony Clark talks about his presentation on Slydini's "Paper Balls Over The Head"

00:53:21 - Giovanni Livera and Ian Pigeon are joined by Rafael Benatar as they talk about some of their highlights from the convention. Ian is the creator of "My Pet Boris" spider app and he talks about the creation of this variation of Jim Pace's "The Web".

01:19:15 - Dan Sperry says hello and goodby then we chat with Rory Johnston about his participation in the production of MAGIC Live!

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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.

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

164: Part 4 - My Week at The Castle 2014

Ready to eat? Enjoy your lunch break with Bob Cassidy and me as we have a little take-out from In 'N Out and talk extensively about mentalism and performing. Back at the Magic Castle later that night, I caught up with John Carney outside the Parlour of Prestidigitation before he was seated for Rafael Benatar's show. Much later that night, I sat down with one of the members of the old "Long Beach Mystics", David Deeble. He was one of my favorite performers from the 2013 MAGIC Live!

00:01:26 - Master Mentalist, Bob Cassidy, chats candidly during a take-out lunch from In 'N Out that we took back to the apartment at the Nirvana in his room, The Charlie Miller Suite. We talked about his experience at the "Beyond Brookledge: event that included many other performers like Michael Weber and other eclectic entertainers. He talks about his early experience at The Magic Castle, the importance of scripting mentalism, Derren Brown, Keith Barry, knowing your powers, predictions, consistency in your performance, pre-show work, dual reality, working with drunks, selection of volunteers, Q&A, David Hoy, and more.

00:32:17 - John Carney, chats about his recent video projects, past and present, including Carney 2013 that was a monthly video lesson throughout last year. He also talks about Revizzit, the password protected way of safely downloading magic content. Rafael Benatar also drops in for a moment to say "hi" before he starts the show. John talks about working theatre shows and his learning experience.

00:40:12 - David Deeble, one of the Long Beach Mystics, tells us what he's been up to living abroad in Germany or a few years, what he's been doing recently and where he's going. Among other topics he talked about the hard times on the road at comedy clubs, his serious accident on a unicycle and how it affected his life, grabbing the wrong bag from the airport, and of course he talks about being a part of the legendary Long Beach Mystics..

Download this podcast in an MP3 file by Clicking Here and then right click to save the file. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed by Clicking Here. (please note: this RSS Feed subscription system may not work with Android systems). Remember, you can download it through iTunes. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

Magic & Martinis Thursday

Scott Wells with Vigo the Carpathian, I mean, Bob Cassidy. Cheers!

248: Day Four - MAGIC Live! 2015

213: Chicago Magic Bars & Lounges

164: Part 4 - My Week at The Castle 2014

Magic & Martinis Thursday

The Magic Word