238: I.B.M. 2015 Convention - Day One

The I.B.M. convention opened the first day with a bang. The first of two days of stage contests began plus an opening night party that featured Fantasio and Storm Troopers from Star Wars. How often can you see those two things in the same sentence? I.B.M. International Presiden, Shawn Farquhar, was introduced with fanfare and with a local group of Storm Troopers for his processional. I remember in New Orleans, Louisiana when then International President Earl Christenberry had a Creole Jazz Band parade in his processional throwing bead to the registrants as if we were in a Mardi Gras parade. Shawn's parade was quite different.

Fantasio was honored at the evening show as we enjoyed a performance by a troupe of performers from Argentina who delighted the audience with their magic, mind-reading, manipulation and comedy ending with a hand shadow act. Another nice feature at I.B.M. conventions is the "Autograph Party" where the performers are all lined up sitting at a table and signing free posters that feature their photos. Lectures of the day included Boris Wild and Soma.

In the "Night Before" party, those who arrived early enjoyed a double feature of magic films: one by Kevin Spencer on his "Healing of Magic" program and the second with Christian Cagigal called, "Now And At The Hour" which was a documentary about his one man show. The well-attended ate night lecture was with Kozmo.

Christian Cagigal brings an illusion from his show "Now and at the Hour" to the Ferry Building in San Francisco, CA. The show played in San Francisco June 5th to August 15, 2009 as well in in New York in February 2009.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:03:05 - Obie O'Brien talks FISM 2015 and IBM conventions he's attended.

00:21:34 - Ken Scott, Talent Chairman, talks about booking the acts for this convention and how he selected the performers.

00:33:09 - Steven Kline talks about how important good sound is for your show.

00:46:39 - Garrett Thomas talks about creativity.

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. You can download or listen to the podcast through Stitcher by Clicking Here or through FeedPress by Clicking Here or through Tunein.com by Clicking Here. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

Click on the banner above to learn more about the digital video magazine for magicians. The perfect companion to The Magic Word Podcast!

156: Day Four - F.F.F.F. 2014

The last day and night meant more magic being crammed into the final few hours. Plus more doughnuts, coffee, soda, beer and scotch, too. Everything has been coming down to this last day. The last chance for everyone to savor the last moments. The internet in the hotel seemed slower than usual, plus the scotch poured a bit more freely, and I chatted with lots of people well into the morning hours and the break of dawn. All those reasons are why this podcast didn't come out earlier in the day.

Henry Evans was the sole lecturer of the day with two stellar afternoon shows and and outstanding evening show. Lots of stuff going on, lots of interviews, and tons of magic.

If you would like to view the excellent program designed by Glenn Brown, please Click Here. This lists all the shows, all the performers, all the attendees, pictures and more. It is everything you need to know about what went on during the weekend.

Joe Monti shows a little trick he came up with for Guest of Honor, Shawn Farquhar, using the bookmark made by David Prouty.

FISM winner Soma doing a great performance with looping sounds of magic props live at this year's FFFF. This is the song you hear on the podcast for Day Four.

Australians are on a different "body clock" than us Americans. Nothing will deter them a full night's sleep. Tim Ellis has seen enough card tricks and needs his beauty rest despite the cacophony of card magician in the room.

Time codes for this podcast:

00:01:11 - Jean-Luc Dupont, Bill Bishop, Don Wiberg, and Jim Klayder talk about the status of trade shows, brick and mortar magic shops, and more as we chat over coffee at Starbucks. For those interested in club meeting ideas that we discussed, Don Wiberg's PDF can be found by Clicking Here.

00:20:00 - During dinner, Mike Hrab and Rick Hebert give their perspectives of what they have enjoyed the most during this convention...so far.

00:30:32 - Elevator chat #1 - Stephen Bargatze, Bruce Kalver, Shawn Farquhar talk about what might happen on the evening show.

00:32:04 - Shank Kotharei, first time attendee talks about his experience at this convention from his "fresh eyes".

00:38:57 - Richard Bangs, Ed Ripley and Jason Juliano talk about their highlights of this year's convention and reminisce about previous 4F conventions.

00:47:55 - Soma's "Four F" Song that he composed and recorded in front of s using an app on his iPhone. Music was made with shuffling cards, jangling coins,

00:49:20 - Elevator Chat #2 - Oscar Munoz talks about being the Guest of Honor next year.

00: 52:02 - National President Elect of the S.A.M. , Kenrick "Ice" McDonald, talks about his platform of what he hopes to accomplish during his year as President.

01:03:03 - Joe Monti talks about working at the Magic Island in Newport Beach and Houston

01:09:12 - Elevator Chat #3 - John Bannon talks about his new book on totally self-working card tricks.

01:10:53 - Will Fern, Stephen Bargatze, Rick Merrill, Tim Ellis, Michael Dardant and more are caught in the hallway outside the Precursor Suite as we talked about the evening show.

01:36:20 - Obie O'Brien talks about the convention and recaps the event.

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.

This was the second act that Ouka performed at the F.F.F.F. 2014 (this YouTube video was not shot at the 4F convention)

153: Day One - F.F.F.F. 2014

We're shuffling off to Buffalo for the first day of this four day and night close-up magic bacchanal. The number "four" has significance this year because it is also the 44th annual Four F convention.

This year's attendees are coming from 17 different countries on five continents. Twenty are from Canada, 12 from France, eight each from England and Japan; three each from Argentina, Germany, Italy and Taiwan; two each from Australia, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland; one each from China, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, and Scotland; and about 156 from the U.S.A. We have 43 contest winners from conventions around the world including 12 FISM winners, (three Grand Prix winners), the nine past International Presidents from the I.B.M. plus its current International President and the eight past Presidents of the S.A.M. along with 22 magicians attending the F.F.F.F. for the first time.

An free eBook of the program is available Here.

Made by Matt Episcopo for the Guest of Honor, Shawn Farquhar featuring some of the attendees at this year's F.F.F.F. convention.

Here are the time codes for this podcast:

00:00:15 - Scott Wells talks about what to expect in this and the next few podcasts as we post daily updates from the F.F.F.F. convention

00:05:41 - Gary Plants talks about his experience at the recent Magic Con in San Diego where he was one of the presenters.

00:16:10 - Dan Garrett talks about his recent lecture tour of Japan and his upcoming online lecture to be presented on Penguin Magic. on June 1, 2014

00:23:03 - Chief "Forker", Obie O'Brien, talks about some of the history of the F.F.F.F. convention, some stories about Jay Marshall, Eddie Fechter and others plus some advice on how to get an invitation to this private event.

238: I.B.M. 2015 Convention - Day One

156: Day Four - F.F.F.F. 2014

153: Day One - F.F.F.F. 2014

The Magic Word