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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277: Gregory Wilson Returns & Responds - Part One with Brad Stine

This week we have a surprise for those naysayers who thought that he wouldn't return. Gregory Wilson is this week's guest for the first of two podcasts to respond to the accusers who have presented their "proof" in episodes #270, #272 and #273.

Greg was preparing for a trip to the 2016 Blackpool convention where he will perform and lecture and he wanted to present his rebuttals before he departed. Due to his busy schedule, Greg said that he had only recently gotten around to listening to a few of the podcasts. After he returns from England, he intends to listen to episode #274 with John Lovick then respond point by point to each issue brought up by John; however, some of the issues are addressed in this podcast.

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Also on this podcast is an edited bit of a conversation I had with stand-up comic, Brad Stine, who is a long time friend of Greg's. Brad was a comedy magician and regular performer at the (now defunct) Magic Island in Newport Beach, California and has had crediting incidents with Greg. Brad wanted to present his stories in a public forum to show that Greg can, has and will give credit when shown the proof of creation.

2/9/12 - Conservative Comedian Brad Stine went after political correctness in its many forms at CPAC 2012.

Congratulations to Nathan Reed and Fred King who won a digital download of he Audible.com book "The Ambitious Card - An Eli Marks Mystery" by John Gaspard. And thank you again, John Gaspard for offering these prizes.

272: Time for Change with Cosmo Solano

Follow the money.

Cosmo Solano is a magic creator. His first creation that caught the attention of most magicians was his Quantum Connection (a.k.a. "Q") and later his International Pocket Change. Both took years of Research and Development before he was ready to take anything to market. Certainly there are those occasions in the world of "simultaneous inspiration" in which the same idea is thought of and worked on by someone else somewhere in the world. But our measure of who created it first is largely dependent upon who actually got it to market first.

In this podcast, Cosmo Solano talks about his creation of "International Pocket Change" and his conversations with Gregory Wilson.who marketed"Exact Change". He talks about the chronology of the creation and how the two differ. This is a rather sensitive subject for Cosmo and he was reluctant to publicly discuss the matter. But I believe he thought it was important enough to contribute to the conversation and perhaps encourage others to speak "on the record" about their experiences of dealing with Gregory Wilson.

This chat moves along our conversation of "magic thievery" in our community and will hopefully encourage others to share their stories here, on forums, and/or in the social media. #MagicCereal

From the creator of SHOPAHOLIC!, "Q" and NEWSWORTHY!comes an organic, all natural magic effect with everyday objects! International Pocket Change (a.k.a. IPC) is an easy to do, entertaining and MIND BLOWING effectwhere your AUDIENCE predicts the amount of pocket change you have in your pocket!

Available at www.hocus-pocus.com. Your 1-100 prediction is right on the money! *Easy to do *Start clean and end clean *36 remarkable routines

Cosmo tells us his side of the story in conversations with Gregory, much of which he was not just recalling from memory, but from notes he made at the time during their conversation.

He also talks about his cynicism of sharing his creative ideas with other magicians and how he no longer has an interest in marketing anything to the magic community in the foreseeable future. He also talks about his Quantum Connection trick that launched his name as a magic creator. He concludes with saying that some magic being released today is not particularly "quality magic" but feeds the appetite of voracious magicians. He is optimistic about the future of magic as long as we recognize those who are the creators and do not feel we are "entitled" to everything. He suggests that people new to magic give back to the community rather than just taking from it.

2016 has begun but it's not too late to get your new year magic wall calendar. Mine is hanging next to my computer and I love it. You can support The Magic Word with your purchase and if you have Amazon Prime, then shipping is free!