263: Shoot Yeah!

Shoot Ogawa is best known as a close-up magician and prime exponent of the "Ninja Rings" and also responsible for introducing the occidentals to the muscle pass. Shoot moved to the U.S. in 2003 and quickly won the hearts, minds and awards from U.S. magicians. He took top honors as "Close-Up Magician of the Year" by the Academy of Magical Arts in 2003 then again in 2006. He then won "Parlor Magician of the Year" in 2008.

Shoot Ogawa, presenting his Ninja Rings.

While passing through Houston, Texas on an abbreviated U.S. lecture tour, he spent the night in my home and we had a chance to sit down for a chat and a glass of scotch after his lecture. In our chat, he talks about his magic roots as a magic shop demonstrator in Japan, then moving to the U.S. and living near the Magic Castle. Shoot continues to travel the world performing in nearly every continent and country. Here he talks about some of the places he has been and where he plans to go from here.

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Shoot Ogawa and Scott Wells say "Kanpai" as we enjoy a glass of single malt scotch and a nice chat on this podcast.

You can buy 100 postcards based on posters from the Taschen book for less than $20.00. Click on the link below for more info on the postcards. By ordering here, you can help support The Magic Word, too!

The third novel in the Eli Marks, magician, mystery series is now available. John Gaspard has done it again and penned another great book that will appeal to magicians and mystery lovers alike. Order your copy now and help support The Magic Word, too, by clicking and ordering through this link. Just click on the graphic to be taken to Amazon.com to learn more and order your copy.

"Magic" by Taschen is available at Barnes & Noble (B&N) Bookstore for less than $20.00! Not the original large edition, but it is 9" x 13" and 384 pages. Click on the image above for more information.

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/

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".

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.