#200 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Last year we brought you "The Night Before Christmas" read by a handful of popular magicians. It was so well received that I asked a few more guys (and gals) to read "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". See if you can pick out the voices of: Boris Wild, Bob Cassidy, Docc Hilford, Tim Ellis, Tim Trono, George Tait, Rocco Silano, Eric DeCamps, Mandy Farrell, Ice McDonald, Steven Bargatze, Marc Salem, Rick Merrill, Richard Osterlind and, as the Grinch, Eugene Burger.

As I attended several magic conventions over this past year, I took aside a few guys and gals to chat on the podcast. But many of the people graciously agreed to record something special just for this very special podcast. I hope you enjoy hearing their reading of this Doctor Seuss classic. This was one of the most difficult podcasts to edit and took the longest time to gather all the voices to do this one which ended up being one of the shortest ones, too.

This special podcast is my Christmas gift to you for listening for these past few years to the previous 199 podcasts. I wish all the best to you and yours for this holiday season.

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Magic & Martinis Thursday...with the Grinch!

180: Epilogue - Abbott's Get Together 2014

As a performer, we were provided lodging in the home of one of the local residents. Many of us were given a room (and breakfast) at the home of Mary Jo and Randy Sharp who lived on the lake. My wife, Kathy, and I shared the home with John and Mary Lynn Shyrock, Ted and Marion Outerbridge, Losander and Brenda, Tim Cripe, and George and Nina Shindler. What wonderful stories we shared over breakfast.

One of the "must do" things while one is in the area is to travel about 40 miles northeast of Colon to Marshall, Michigan. There you will find the American Museum of Magic. I have made several pilgrimages to this hallowed place, but as they say, "there is nothing like your first time." I recently found a recording I made in August 1984 that takes you inside the Museum and given a private tour by its curator, Bob Lund.

Also appearing in the early part of this video, you can hear Obie O'Brien's laughter and catch a glimpse of Michael Weber and Dana Daniels. At the time, I was more interested in the building and its artifacts than I was in capturing people's images and chatting with them.

In this podcast, I turned on the microphone during our final day's breakfast on Sunday morning. John and Mary Lynn Shyrock had already departed earlier in the morning (we were all up until around 4:00 a.m. regaling each other with tricks and stories). But George Shindler had an amazing amount of stories about, well, just about everything.

179: Day 4 - Abbott's Get Together 2014

Day Four...this is the day everyone has been looking forward to but no one wanted to see come because we knew it would be the last day. And what a day it was. Shoot Ogawa kicked off the day with his lecture. The afternoon matinee was spectacular with lots of fun moments, especially by illusionist, John Hudy, who had a crying child as a volunteer during his "Wiz Kote" routine. But he handled it professionally and all ended well. The evening's show was with a cruise ship theme (the S.S. Abbott) featuring Fred & Bobbi Becker, John Shyrock, Chris Blakemore, Chris Mitchell and Howard Mincone. It concluded with a hilarious "fountain" routine that had everyone in stitches and many comparing to the old "Foxy's Foollies" of yesteryear with Karrell Fox and Duke Stern, Dorny and others. What a show!

John Shryock won the Bill Baird/Neil Foster manipulation trophy. And the entire crew from this evening's show was presented with the Senator Clark Crandall Comedy award. And the Jack Gwynn award for presentation went to Losander.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:02:43 John Sturk arranges the schedules for the "spontaneous" street performances. He tells us a little history about busking in Colon.

00:13:04 - The Outerbridges, (illusionists) Marion and Ted, are fairly new to the magic convention scene but not to magic. They have been touring professionals in Canada for a number of years and have a unique perspective of magic and dance. with a "time lord" theme.

00:22:25 - Triple threat, Shoot Ogawa, performed in close-up, stage and as a lecturer this year. He tells what he has been up to and what his future plans are. It must be fun living just a few blocks from the Magic Castle.

00:32:33 - Patrick Thernes won the stage magic awards and at last year's MAGIC Live! convention, he won our hearts with the passionate story told by Joanie Spina. Here "Sir Patrick" tells us a little about himself and how that event changed his magic life.

00:46:06 - Randy Wakeman gives us the 411 health update on Simon Lovell's current condition in England and his prognosis.

00:57:01 - Gay Blackstone rounds out the day with a few stories from her perspective "inside the box".

#200 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Magic & Martinis Thursday...with the Grinch!

180: Epilogue - Abbott's Get Together 2014

179: Day 4 - Abbott's Get Together 2014

The Magic Word