250: At Home With Lupe & Norm Nielsen

After the 2015 MAGIC Live! convention, I stayed over for an extra day so as to visit with one of magic's legends: Norm Nielsen. I spoke with Lupe about coming over to their home to chat and see the poster collection. She told me that the bulk of their collection is now in Chicago preparing to be auctioned off by Potter & Potter over the next two years. But I was still welcome to come by for coffee and a visit. So I did.

Fortunately, I had visited their home and collection in 2007 when I also snapped some lovely photos which are on this blog. I also posted some pictures from this year's visit. Perhaps you can tell what a difference eight years makes.

Lupe talked about Norm's poster collection at the Order of Merlin breakfast at the combined IBM/SAM convention in St. Louis. You can Click Here to hear that interesting, historical presentation. Unfortunately, you cannot view the beautiful posters that she showed in her presentation, but the stories are interesting.

00:01:56 - Norm Nielsen and Lupe talk about their magic poster collection, how he came to start collecting and what is happening to it now. He also talks about his long career as a performer and builder and creator. He has many stories about other magic legends he has met along the way, not the least of which was his good friend, Tobias "Theo" Leendert Bamberg "Okito" (1875-1963) . During this chat in Norm's living room, his lovely wife, Lupe, fills in some details and gives us some additional background information. David Sandy and Lance Rich are also in attendance "in the studio audience" who ask some relevant questions, too.

00:59:07 - After our chat, we go out to the workshop where David shares a funny story about Faucett Ross. This is a legendary story that is Mac King's favorite story and has to be heard by this larger, podcast audience in order to preserve it for posterity.

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Check back with Potter & Potter from time to time to see when the Nielsen Poster collection will be put "on the auction block".

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/

026: I.B.M. Day Four - A "Nearly Lost Episode" from Dallas, TX

Rudy Coby talks about the convention and his perspective as a performer and lecturer at this convention plus some of his previous performances including his New Vaudeville show from many years ago.

Ric Heath, from the cast of Le Grand David, talks about last night's show especially Argentina's Rey Ben and Quique Marduk (billed as "One and a Half Men") and their lecture. He also talks about some behind the scenes with the Le Grand David show, Cesareo's health and their future.

Although the picture above is out of focus, it shows the final curtain call from some of the performers from The Legends show. It included Michael Ammar and Hannah, Francis Willard, Walter "Zaney" Blaney and Becky Blaney, Gay Blackstone, Johnny "The Great Tomsoni" Thompson and Company (Pam), Tom Mullica and Jeff McBride. Not pictured but also on the bill was Max Maven and Darren Romeo.

We have a closing conversation with David Sandy giving his reflections on how he felt the convention went this year. Jeff McBride gives us his perspective of the convention just before he heads out to prepare for his midnight workshop. And what is a podcast from a convention without a chat with (and a joke from) Howie Schwartzman? It's near the end before I give a final wrap-up.

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