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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315: Day 4 - MAGIC Live! 2016

Day Four Schedule - August 17, 2016

24 hours - The Back Room
9:00 a.m. Registration
10:00 a.m. - Wednesday General Session for Maroon lanyards
   The Drink That Schooled Einstein - Michael Weber
   Raise Your Level - Ken Weber
   The Magic Shop - Bizzaro
   Teach-in the F.B.I. to Read Minds - Ian Rowland
   ON AIR: How to Get Yourself Booked on Television - Steve Spangler
   The Illusion of Reality - Curtis Hickman
10:00 a.m. - Wednesday Focus Group for Black lanyards
   Close-Up Clinic - Nine Master Teachers, hands-On
   Improv for Magicians - Navaris Darson of The Groundlings
   20/20 Hindsight - 20 slides, 20 seconds each, 5 subjects
11:00 a.m. The MAGIC Shop open until 6:30 p.m.
11:15 a.m. - Wednesday Focus Group for Black lanyards
   Close-Up Clinic - Nine Master Teachers, hands-On
   Improv for Magicians - Navaris Darson of The Groundlings
   20/20 Hindsight - 20 slides, 20 seconds each, 5 subjects
12:15 p.m. lunch break
2:15 p.m. - Wednesday General Session for Black lanyards
   The Drink That Schooled Einstein - Michael Weber
   Raise Your Level - Ken Weber
   The Magic Shop - Bizzaro
   Teach in the F.B.I. to Read Minds - Ian Rowland
   ON AIR: How to Get Yourself Booked on Television - Steve Spangler
   The Illusion of Reality - Curtis Hickman
2:15 p.m. - Wednesday Focus Group for Maroon lanyards
   Close-Up Clinic - Nine Master Teachers, hands-On
   Improv for Magicians - Navaris Darson of The Groundlings
   20/20 Hindsight - 20 slides, 20 seconds each, 5 subjects
3:30 p.m. - Wednesday Focus Group for Maroon lanyards
   Close-Up Clinic - Nine Master Teachers, hands-On
   Improv for Magicians - Navaris Darson of The Groundlings
   20/20 Hindsight - 20 slides, 20 seconds each, 5 subjects
5:00 p.m. - Dinner break
6:30 p.m. - Live on stage II
9:00 p.m. Live On Stage II
10:00 p.m. Farewell party until 1:00 a.m.
11:00 p.m. Special Presentation

This is just a small piece of all the magic tricks Luis Piedrahita can perform, I wanted to translate it so that more people can enjoy his beautiful performances

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:13: - Mel Kientz, distributor of the free daily news brief - "Magician's Life", gives his perspective on this year's MAGIC Live!

00:06:24 - Mark Ginther gives us a couple suggestions for shows to see while visiting Las Vegas (HIT: Xavier Mortimer).

00:09:05 - Simon and Ginny Aronson chats about their intimate close-up magic group in Chicago that was featured in a recent news article.

00:18:11 - Bizzaro talks about his participation in the General Session plus some of his roots in Texas.

00:26:23 - Mark Mason is wrapping up his dealer's booth and his association with Penguin Magic and the one-day events (Magic Expo) where he deals. Plus he gives some advice on a throat losenger.

00:30:47 - Busy trade show magician, Scott Tokar, talks about this convention and his views of MAGIC Live plus some trade show worker tips.

00:41:09 - FISM 2015 winner and July 2016 MAGIC Magazine cover boy, Pierric, chats about his experience of attending MAGIC Live for the first time and for that matter, his first time in Las Vegas. He chats about his FISM competition experience.

00:47:01 - Richard Hatch, of H&R Magic Books, tells us what he has seen or heard that has been some of the top tricks at this convention. Dan Witkowski joins us to give us his perspetive of MAGIC Live, too.

00:58:36 - Peter Samelson gives a quick review of the final night show plus what made this convention memorable for him.

01:02:07 - Fielding West, one of the 'cover boys" from MAGIC Magazine, talks about the importance of using a metronome when practicing.

01:13:14 - Luis Piedrahita, star of Spain's TV show, "The Anthill" tells us how to pronounce his last name, plus an overview of his presentation from his General Session.

01:23:51 - Stan Allen is listing the names of people who are in attendance who have appeared on the cover of MAGIC Magazine over the past 25 years. There were over 70 celebrated magicians here tonight.

01:28:47 - Stan Allen talks about this all being over and his plans for the future. Thanks, Stan!

312: Day 1 - MAGIC Live! 2016

Day One - Sunday, August 14th

24 hours - The Back Room (hang out cdenter)

10:00 a.m. - Registration and Name Badge photos

7:30 p.m. - Anniversary Party

7:30 - 11:30 - The MAGIC Shop (dealer faire)

7:45 p.m. - Grand Prize Giveaway

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:13 - we depart Houston Hobby airport via Southwest Airlines and start off the journey with a couple Dunkin' Donuts and get excited about the upcoming adventure.

00:03:44 - we finally arrived at the Orleans Hotel & Casino and get in line to pick up our registration packet and chat with a variety of people in line: Michael Perovich, Michael Trixx, Kirk DeWeese, Steve Trout, Bob Festa, R. Paul Wilson, Billy Hsueh

00:11:24 - Rory Johnston, one of Stan Allen's "right-hand-men" and co-organizer, chats about some of the organizational challenges, attendance, and the "back room" where registrants are expected to hang out. He talks about the "Art Deco" theme of this year's convention.

00:18:48 - MAGIC Live "custodian", Stan Allen, talks a little about what things he can talk about now without giving away too many "secrets".

00:24:05 - Rick Merrill and Steve Bargatze tell us about their experiences with attending past MAGIC Live! conventions,, plus Rick talks about the first MAGIC Live! inspiring his award winning magic act.

00:32:08 - Ian Rowland presented on the Focus sessions for the past three conventions and this year he will be on the general sessions on stage. He also talks a bit about his "origami cards". He also "confesses" to being the inventor of all of the effects that were in question during the recent Gregory Wilson controversy. LOL

00:42:34 - Chip Romero and Mark Jensen talk about their respective magic collections plus some tips on planning on the disposition of property after one's demise.

00:48:26 - Mark Jensen tells a story of the origination of the Marshall Brodein TV Magic Cards and how Johnny Thompson wrote the instructions.

0051:13 - Nathan Burton talks about his 4:00 p.m. daily show at Planet Hollywood.

00:53:16 - Vinny Grosso is finally able to talk about his recent win on Penn & Teller Fool Us, how he developed the act, all about his experience, when he will appear in the Penn & Teller show at the Rio. He also chats about an update to his book "Exposed and Fearless" which you can hear about in much more detail in our podcast HERE which is also available on Amazon.

00:59:18 - Shawn McMaster celebrates his birthday at MAGIC Live! and talks about his experience of working at some of the past conventions plus working on the magazine.

01:02:48 - Paul Draper has been stage manager of all of the past MAGIC Live! events, but this year he is experiencing this year just as a registrant. During our conversation, we are joined by Chad Long who talks about some of the conventions he has been working.

01:05:40 - Terry Ward talks about the many MAGIC Live! conventions he has attended and some of the memories he enjoyed from previous years.

01:09:14 - Steve Sabo (a Friend of The Magic Word) and his father, Dick Sabo, talks about getting interested in magic thanks to this convention.

01:12:05 - Erik Dobell and Chris Collins talk about how their show "Impossibilites" has been going since we did a podcast with them. HERE. This is Erik's first magic convention ever of any kind and finding it overwhelming.

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