350: Hammer Time with Mike Hammer

For the past five years, Mike Hammer has been packing them in while headlining in his own theater in the Four Queens Casino and Hotel on Fremont Street, downtown Las Vegas. Mike has his own style, and it works for him. He is the "Don Rickles" of magic with a rather abrasive approach where he actually insults his audience...and they love him! The night I visited his show, the room was packed and afterwards I overheard some saying this was a repeat visit to enjoy his show. Two people had paid for return visits to watch his show over 30 times!

Some of you might remember seeing Mike on "Penn and Teller Fool Us" with his outrageously memorable performance using a blow up doll. If not, then you can view the video here on this blog.

In this podcast, we cover a lot of territory from how he developed his act, working in Las Vegas, routining, trick selection, getting out of bad situations when things go wrong, and keeping his performances fresh. This was a fun and funny podcast that includes a lot of sound advice with some great behind-the-scenes stories.

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342: Paul Romhany - VANISH-ing Monthly

Paul Romhany is the editor of VANISH Magazine, the largest digital magic magazine in the world with over 100,000 subscribers per month. Perhaps it is not only because of the outstanding content, but also because it is totally FREE! Paul is a transplanted New Zealander who is now a permanent resident of Canada.

A wonderful tribute with original music to Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin meets magic.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:02:33 - Paul talks about working on cruise ships and his book about "cat readings" (based on reading a cat's paw print), working with and being inspired by Chuck Jones and Ricky Dunn, and developing his stage character of "Charlie Chaplin".

00:28:54 - a word from our sponsor, The Great American Magic Company

00:34:23- Paul continues with our chat as he talks about VANISH Magazine

01:04:46 - Part One of a product product review for a 4 DVD set called "Ole!" by Juan Luis Rubiales. This review is for Disc One.

01:11:03 - Product review of Disc Two of "Ole!"

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

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It's been nearly a year since I last recorded a "Meals With Magicians" episode. This week we have lunch at Boston Market with Walter "Zaney" Blaney.

247: Day Three - MAGIC Live! 2015

Another whirlwind day of activities and more surprises. The general session was hosted by David Deeble and included a surprise performance by James Dimare as he performed to new music that was especially composed and arranged for him by one of our speakers, Edward B. Kessel. Jorge Blass talked about his Facebook trick he sold to Copperfield; Wayne Houchin taught a couple tricks from his lecture; and Michael Carbonaro talked about his hit TV show, "The Carbonaro Effect". Another surprise happened when Michael brought a couple on stage and the man proposed to his girlfriend.

The "Focus" Sessions included a wonderful talk by Mike Caveney on "Classic Correspondence" which brought history to life; Martin Lewis teaching something new and something old; and the close-up clinic that featured a grab bag of great close-up pros teaching hands-on card tricks and featured Alan Ackerman, Jason England, Tom Frank, Jared Kopf, Chris Korn, Steve Reynolds and R. Paul Wilson.

The evening show I saw was David and Leeman which was very funny, but before that, we had several groups attend a half hour "experimental" event that had everyone interacting with a projection screen hosted by Richard Wiseman. It was quite entertaining.

A new levitation of a borrowed wine glass, full or empty

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:24 - David Hinkin along with Dick and Diane Olson recap yesterday's event over breakfast.

00:09:14 - Dave Magee talks about why he got off all social media.

00:19:56 - Dirk Losander and Michael Ammar talk about their newest projects and a new levitation trick that will soon be available.

00:29:00 - Peter Nardi, Alakazam Magic, talks about performing at weddings and restaurants in England.

00:45:45 - Paul Draper talks about being the Technical Director of the daily sessions and the challenges of putting it all together.

00:52:28 - Chuck and Jan Jones talk about his creation of various illusions like the MIsMade Girl and lots of stories about his travels and television experience including an interesting story about working with Orson Welles.

01:13:57 - Stan Allen talks about how things are going so far and what all they are doing to keep the surprises secret.

01:28:53 - Bill and Marlene Seagraves talks about this being convention from the perspective of first time attendees.