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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Click on the image above to learn more about Mark's fabulous magic collection.

248: Day Four - MAGIC Live! 2015

The General Session for the final day was hosted by Mark Kornhauser who talked about lessons to learn from his monthly column "For What It's Worth:. Charlie Frye talked about the subject of Character and the importance of building one. Axel Hecklau talked about how to produce your own show in your own area. And the feature was the panel discussion hosted by Bill Malone with Ron Conley and Steve Forte as they talked about the differnce between gambling moves and magician moves.

In the Focus (breakout) sessions, Tony Clark discussed Slydini;s "Paper Balls Over the Head:; Mike Bent and Buster Balloon talked about "Monster Kids" and Joseph Barry blew us away with his card handling in "There's Always a Beginning".

The evening show was hosted by Justin Willman who was a standout highlight with an affable character that easily broke the fourth wall. Mark and Jinger Kalin premiered a new illusion and closed with a double "thin model sawing" with a twist. Xavier Mortimer put in not one, but two outstanding, original performances including a self levitation while "jumping rope". Den Den and Hun Lee both did very nice manipulation acts. The Evasons were stellar with their two person mind reading act. Dan Sperry reprised his fantastic, creative and bizarre bird act from the Illusionists tour. But the real highlight that got everyone talking was the 17 year old juggler, Ty Tojo who eaily juggled seven balls with alarming aplomb.

The Farewell Party featured an opportunity for some lucky registrant to win either $500, $1,000, $5,000 or $100,000. The lucky winner played a gamer wherein he selected certain tiles (similar to large Scrabble tiles) that had the value of one of the denominations inside the envelope. Whatever five numbers the person drew would be the amount he/she would win. The winner drew five $1,000 envelopes so he won $1,000.

My signature Coin in Bottle routine being performed at the 2014 TAOM Magic Convention in Fort Worth Texas

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:26 - Sean Popp talks about the Rubic Cube and Show Cues updates that are coming.

00:05:55 - David Deeble talks about being the MC for the morning session and a synopsis of his presentation.

00:13:26 - Master Payne talks about working Renaissance Festivals and Kozmo talks about working on the street.

00:28:35 - Axel Hecklau talks a bit about the presentation he gave on puting together a venue in your own community.

00:37:28 - Kayla Drescher talks about working behind the scenes at MAGIC Live!

00:39:43 - Richard Myer and Steve Bedwell give their comments on highlights from the convention.

00:47:02 - Tony Clark talks about his presentation on Slydini's "Paper Balls Over The Head"

00:53:21 - Giovanni Livera and Ian Pigeon are joined by Rafael Benatar as they talk about some of their highlights from the convention. Ian is the creator of "My Pet Boris" spider app and he talks about the creation of this variation of Jim Pace's "The Web".

01:19:15 - Dan Sperry says hello and goodby then we chat with Rory Johnston about his participation in the production of MAGIC Live!

235: FISM Italy - Day Four

It may have been a little overcast outside, but the weather and the magic was perfect in the convention center. After viewing the stage competition from 8:30 to 12:30, I got to walk around the dealers a bit more, chat with friends, and attend a couple lectures. And of course, it was Thursday which meant magic and Martinis in the evening with friends at the bar.

After watching Luke Jermay's one man show, was the evening gala featuring: Cyril Takayama and Eun Gyeol Lee as co-MC's with Mike Chao, Topas, David Kaplan, Tony Frebourg, Alberto Giorgi, Rob Zabrecky, Sos & Victoria and Samuel.