912: Diana Zimmerman - The Enchantress

Diana Zimmerman is an enchanting woman in every sense of the word: personality, charm, abilities, looks, intelligence, skill, and so much more. She has led a life of magic like few other women. And she is being recognized for her achievements by being inducted to the Los Angeles Times Global Magicians Hall of Fame on July 9th, 2025. Married at 19 to Dick Zimmerman, magician and creative genius, she performed around the world on television and stage with her one-woman performance. She traveled with a giant gramophone then later switched to a thumb tie and pick pocketing. She developed and still works with the Magic Castle Junior Program (which just celebrated their 50th year) and is the author of several books of fantasy. But she also authored the definitive collector’s edition of the Siegfried and Roy book.

Diana has so many stories that she shares with us this week including her early days working with her then-husband, Dick Zimmerman, then how Cary Grant encouraged her to form the junior program at the Magic Castle, and many stories about the late Siegfried and Roy. She was a close confidant to the illusionists and shares some “behind the scenes” stories from Little Bavaria to “the Incident” that ended their Las Vegas run.

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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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720: Krystyn Lambert - Interview with a Witch

Some of you may remember Krystyn Lambert from performing as a Junior in some magic competitions, or her movies such as “Desperate Acts of Magic” or “Make Believe” or her appearances on TV shows shows like “Penn & Teller Fool Us” or “Masters of Illusion.” As an adult she has performed with Criss Angel in “The Supernaturalists” road tour and more recently she has been performing at the Chicago Magic Lounge and Mystique nightclubs. She recently completed a run at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado with her seance act.

This has all been a journey for Krystyn which has led her to where she is today. Oh, and did I mention that she is a witch?

In this week’s episode, Krystyn talks about what’s important in her life like horror movies, philosophical thought, her work with Criss Angel, character development and her transition into embracing and becoming a witch. A perfect Halloween holiday episode.

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 or through iHeart Radio by Clicking Here..If you have a Spotify account, then you can also hear us through that app, too. You can also listen through your Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here