303: What's App with Carl Andrews

Carl Andrews hails from Indianapolis, IN but lived and performed in Hawaii for eight years and now resides in North Carolina.

Carl talks about the old "Illusions" restaurant in Carmel, IN that was a magic themed restaurant that featured now well-known magic "names" like Michael Close, Homer Luwag, Chris Kenner, plus guests like Eugene Burger, Charles Greene III and others. We also talk about magic-themed restaurants.

Video clip from Carl Andrews Mental Comedy Show carlrandrews.com

A brief message about Audio Ape, the best audio companion for Show Cues.

During our discussion, Carl and I talked about an app by Max Krause but could not remember it's name. The app Carl was talking about during the podcast was Mental Killer and it's only available on the iPhone. To see some of the products offered by Carl Andrews, please visit his website at: http://www.carlandrews.com/products.html You can help both Carl and The Magic Word by purchasing his book through Amazon by clicking on the link below in this blog. And if you want to learn more about ShowCues, then visit the Conjuring Cabinet website then order it through the iTunes App store for $89.99.

BTW, during this podcast, I was trying to remember the name of a spy-themed bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After this podcast was posted, John Graybeal, a Friend of The Magic Word, reminded me that the name of the place is the Safe House. Thanks, John. It is unquestionably one of the coolest places I've ever visited!

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. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here

Order Carl's book, "Magic From Maui" that includes all of the effects on his DVD of the same name, and more! Lots of great ideas and tricks for performing Restaurant Magic. It is just as fresh and relevant aas the day it was published in 2003.

Thank you to the Friends of The Magic Word whose financial support helps pay for the shipping of these prizes.

Click the banner to visit The Magic Word online magic store. Help support us with your purchases.

157: Jim Sisti - On The Menu

What was he thinking? Why would someone start a bi-monthly magic publication in the early 1990’s? Desktop publishing was in its infancy in 1990, and I mean dot matrix printing and tractor-fed printers. And when I say low resolution graphics, I really mean pixilated clip art. Wow! And then to make it even more arcane, focus on a small segment of the magic society: restaurant magic. Even at its peak, they only had 500 subscribers. What was he thinking?

But Jim Sisti had a passion and created something that will live as essential reading for the restaurant magician as the Bible of Restaurant Magic. The Magic Menu started with the September/October 1990 issue that carried on for 11 years and eventually bound into two hardback volumes. I believe Jim has a plan for the last couple year’s worth of issues to be bound sometime.

The Magic Menu led the field in educating magicians in how to be a restaurant magician. It remains the longest running and only regularly published newsletter exclusively for the performing restaurant magician. The Magic Menu included advice, tips, tricks, brilliant articles and more for the restaurant magician. Contributors included all the top workers of the day including Al the Only, Michael Ammar, Michael Close, Jay Sankey, Simon Lovell, Paul Green, Doc Eason, Eugene Burger, just to drop a few. I was pleased and honored to have been one of the regular columnists for The Magic Menu for a number of years. I was also the one who designed the artwork for the masthead for the later years of the publication.

Jim was recently an adviser for Criss Angel’s “MindFreak” TV show and now works with Richard Osterlind and seen on many of Richard’s instructional videos. Jim is not only a close-up magician but also a skilled stage performer as well.

In this podcast, Jim talks a little about The Magic Menu, but more extensively about restaurant magic and some of the ideas gleaned from this publication. Jim talks about the real secrets and talks about facts, figures and money.. In addition to talking about the genesis of The Magic Menu, we discussed Bulletin Board Services (BBS) and other early iterations of how magicians congregated online in the days of "dial-up", which was long before the internet.

If you are interested in performing in a restaurant or in a corporate strolling environment, then this is a "must hear" podcast.

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.

Magic & Martinis Thursday

Click the Lybrary log to visit the page for ordering digital  editions of The Magic Menu — Click the Lybrary log to visit the page for ordering digital editions of The Magic Menu

124: Scott Hollingsworth - Magic Coach Extraordinaire

"Some people clap,. Some people throw money. Some people just say...WOW!" - Scott Hollingsworth.

Over the 25 years that Houston's Magic Island was open, Scott Hollingsworth served as the House Magician. He was also the Entertainment Director. As such, he booked and coordinated the talent that came through the Island that included the well known and celebrated to the lesser known and forgettable (the latter didn't usually last for the duration of their contracts). During that time, Scotto (as he is known to his friends), provided invaluable advice and stage direction to many of the acts who would listen. Today Scotto offers coaching through his website at: http://www.magicianscoach.com/index.php It is well worth the visit.

But prior to that, Scotto was one of the country's early restaurant magicians and one of the first, if not THE first, to publish a set of lecture notes exclusively for the restaurant magician on the "business" of working restaurants. The year was 1974 and the notes, called "Cashing In With Close Up - Restaurant Magic", included how to move from being a Salesman Entertainer (planning and proper attitude) to the Host Entertainer, to being the Entertainer.

The notes have long been out of print and some of the advice is antiquated, (for example the marketing materials that predated the internet and desktop publishing), but the bulk of the basics are still as solid gold as they were nearly 40 years ago. He has now reprinted and completely updated those notes and added supplemental material that makes this a "must have" for the working and the aspiring restaurant magician.

During a series of recent meetings of our Houston Association of Magicians, Scotto was asked to give us a series of three mini-lectures consisting of about 30 minutes each. The podcast this week features his third and final excerpt from this series. He talks about the secrets of "show business", the importance of networking in getting work at restaurants, how to do it, how to interact with patrons at the restaurant, being prepared for the unexpected, and much more. He also performed a few of his signature effects like his Bermuda Triangle (video below recorded earlier before a live audience) and Ring on String. It is great to hear his professional patter that has been honed to perfection over decades of constant repetition.

A lot of insightful material is packed into this short mini-lecture. As a bonus to this week's podcast, I have a link to three PDF's compliments of Scott Hollingsworth. The first is: Advantages of Having a Restaurant Magician. He refers to this document during this mini-lecture. Click Here to view the document. Secondly is a nice card trick for the birthday person, regardless of age, called Special Moments. Click Here to view that PDF. And finally, he demonstrated a coin trick called Brown and Silver. Click Here to view the instructions for this effect.

If you would like to book Scott Hollingsworth to lecture for your group, then please contact him directly at: Scott@ScottHollingsworth.com If you would like to thank him for giving us this sneak peek at his lecture, then I'm sure he would enjoy hearing from you.

To show your appreciation for Scott's generosity of providing this mini-lecture and two free tricks, please visit his website where you can purchase a set of his lecture notes and more. Please Click Here to visit his online store.

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.

Magic & Martinis Thursday

Scott Hollingsworth's favorite scotch...J&B. Cheers, Scotto.