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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311: 2016 PCAM Convention Report

Running concurrently with Abbott's Get Together, the PCAM convention was happening in Simi Valley, California. Although we do tricky things, being in two places at the same time is not one of our skills.

But thanks to Fred King, a Friend of The Magic Word, and attendee at this year's PCAM convention, he was able to cover part of it with a delightful interview with Shawn Farquhar and Michael Dardant plus a recording of a panel discussion Regrettably, due to personal reasons Fred was unable to record more than these two reports. Thank you, Fred, for taking the time to record this special edition of The Magic Word Podcast that gives us a little insight to the magic family that is the P.C.A.M.

Shawn Farquhar returns to "Penn & Teller Fool Us" television show where he fools P&T for the second time.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:03:20 - Fred King talks with Shawn Farquhar about some of the history of the P.C.A.M. Then after just a few minutes into the conversation, Michael Dardant joins them to enliven the conversation. They both share several fun and entertaining stories. Shawn also talks about his experience of fooling Penn & Teller a second time on "Penn & Teller Fool Us" which he could not talk about at the I.B.M. convention in San Antonio, TX.

00:42:18- Shawn Farquhar hosts a panel discussion with S.A.M. President Jeff Sikora and International I.B.M. President, Oscar Munoz as they talk about their respective organizations and goals for this year.

231: FISM Italy - Prelude

The 26th World Championships of Magic is about to get underway...tomorrow. But first, let's learn a little about FISM and how it's judged and more about the point system and more, plus hear from a few friends I met while waiting to check in at the registration desk.