334: A Magical Christmas Carol

Over the past year, I have attended a LOT of magic conventions. During those events, i have tried to update you with what was going on each day with daily updates from the organizers, talent, registrants, and dealers plus sometimes a little "color" background outside of the hotel.

But while I had some of my guests "cornered" for a few minutes, I asked them to do a reading of the classic story, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. As many of you don't know, Dickens was a bit of a conjurer himself having performed during the summer of 1949 in a coastal resort off of the Isle of Wight purveying prestidigitation to those on holiday in the area. He was known as the “Rhia Rhama Rhoos - the Unparalleled Necromancer" and reportedly performed many unusual tricks including making playing cards magically burst into flames, transporting a woman’s watch from inside a wooden box and into the middle of a loaf of bread, and even cooking a steaming hot plum pudding in a gentleman’s top hat.

But prior to his venturing onto the stage to prestidigitate, he had already written many of his well-known novels including one published in 1843 which would become the iconic classic and perennial treatise on the holiday, "A Christmas Carol".

So here I present you this year's audio greeting card with great gratitude to all of my guests who participated in this project and also to all of you who regularly listen to The Magic Word Podcast. Happy Holidays!

As a little added treat for you this holiday season, here is a video I filmed and edited in 1985. Magician Scott Wells is visited by "three foreign" visitors who want to learn magic. In this video, Scott performs close-up, stand-up and stage magic for his guests. He also gives magic lessons to his guests; however, these instructions have been edited out of this public video.

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290: F.F.F.F. 2016 Day Four

The final day (and night) of the "Original Close-Up Convention"

Saturday April 30:
11:00am: Luis Otera Lecture
12:30pm: Lunch Buffet
1:30pm: 7th Close-Up Show "Asian Gala"
3:30pm: 8th Close-Up Show Fechter's Fabulous Frolics (Steve Beam emcee)
5:30pm: Dinner Buffet
7:30pm: Fat Brothers Tribute
8:00pm: 9th Close-Up Show Grand Finale Show (Obie O'Brien emcee)
11:30pm: Hospitality Suite

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:00 - Geoff Williams gives us some of his best "Puns of the the Day"

00:04:25 - We follow-up with Lion Fludd after his first appearance and performance at the 4F.

00:10:54 - Scott Robinson, organizer of TRICS magic convention in North Carolina, talks about his upcoming event plus highlights from this convention.

00:14:49 - Matt Episcipo loves this convention because of the camaraderie, a term we frequently hear.

00:19:13 - Steve Bargatze and Rick Merrill have closed the Saturday night show for many years, but this year they are taking a break but talk about what they could have "riffed" on from this year's convention.

00:25:25 - Gary Morton, emcee of the Friday afternoon show, talks about some of the seminal moments from this and past 4F conventions.

00:30:58 - Paul Gertner tells us a little about his planning for his portion of the final night show.

00:36:28 - Michael Dardant and Boris Wils talk about some of the outstanding acts at this year's 4F.

00:47:55 - Mike Maione and Darryl Rose talk about doughnuts and give their impressions on some of the outstanding acts.

01:00:23 - Obie O'Brien sits back and relaxes now that the convention is officially over. He looks back on the successful convention as the 46th annual 4F convention goes into the history books.

287: F.F.F.F. 2016 Day One

The annual gathering of international close-up stars begins..It's been a long day and it's after 2:00 a.m. and time to upload this half hour podcast from Batavia, New York. I'll update this blog later with more links and info about some of the folks I've chatted with today.

Wednesday April 27:
8:00pm: 4F Kick-Off Show - Canadian Gala (Joan Caesar emcee)
10:00pm: Huot/Lacroix Lecture
11:00pm: Hospitality Suite

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:05- We're off to see the wizard. We depart Houston leaving for Buffalo, New York and the 46th annual F.F.F.F. convention.

00:03:49 - We ran into Lion Fludd on the airplane on our connection in Chicago. This will be his first 4F convention and we discuss how he has prepared for it and his expectations.

00:11:50 - Obie O'Brien, the "Head Forker" explains his title as the organizer and founder of this convention.

00:18:44 - Geoff Williams talks about the evening Canadian Gala Show.

00:22:25 - Chris Pilsworth, Keith Fields join Geoff Williams to talk about what makes this convention unique from the others.

00:28:29 - Weekly trick reviews: Double ACAAN and Transcend (both by Creative Artists), Post-It Mysteries by Mr. Bless, and Fusion by Zolo