767: Randy Wakeman - I've Been Around for a Long, Long Years

Randy Wakeman has been around for many decades and was often seen lecturing and performing at magic conventions. Nonetheless, I have always seen him as an “underground” magician who appeals to the true sleight-of-hand experts. He is one of those guys who has “been there, done that, has the t-shirt” as he was one of the regular performers about the Chicago Bar Magic Scene before the turn of the last century. He has written several books on magic (card magic mostly) and is still relevant in our community as a performer, teacher and author.

While at the recent Senior Tour close-up convention in St. Louis, The Magic Word spoke with Randy as part of the convention report content. He was preparing for a workshop, so we didn’t get a chance to go in-depth as I had wanted. But we agreed to get together at the 4F convention in Buffalo a couple months later. True to his word, we sat down to complete our chat which results in this episode. The content of our chat in both places was a little disjunctive, so the editing required us to put the second conversation first then plug in the chat in St. Louis and finish with our talk while in Buffalo. This sounds more confusing that it actually is, but I know you will understand and enjoy our chat.

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761: Dale Salwak - The Gentleman of Magic

While at the Magic Castle during the week of March 13-19, 2023, I spoke with Dale Salwak who most of you know as the teacher for the Chavez Studio of Magic. He is a professor at Citrus College but has been a well-known figure in our community for many decades having produced many magic shows other than his own, too.

Dale tells us this week where he got his moniker of the “Gentleman of Magic” plus he reminisces about Houston’s Magic Island, what people need to do if you are interested in getting booked at the Magic Castle, meeting and learning the Chavez way of magic through Ben and Marian Chavez then going on to become and instructor himself, plus performing at the Magic Castle, producing the AMA shows, and touring magic shows along the western seaboard.

665: Jania Taylor - Magic Lady

Jania Taylor is indeed a “Magic Lady” who performs on stage as well as out in the street for outdoor festivals. She also offers a lecture on some of the Women in Magic from over the years. Around the holidays she is seen as Santa’s Helper in a costumed character. And during her “off time” in the winter, she teaches snow skiing.

This was a video of “Now You See It with Scott Wells” from the MAES Convention in 2011 that featured Jana Taylor as one of my guests (as well as Denny Haney, too).

Bob Brown (of Bob Brown and Brenda fame) delivered a memorable lecture for the registrants at the 1983 International Brotherhood of Magicians convention in Honolulu, Hawaii. With today's marketing methods, much of his tips are outdated, but there is still much to be learned by this super salesman. Bob died on February 7, 2016, but I know he would like to be remembered for what he did best.

In this week’s episode Jania talks about her character in her outdoor festivals, promoting herself, some of the history of women in magic, busking, and more.