234: FISM Italy - Day Three

On the third day, magicians created more magical moments. More stage competitions and the last of the close-up contests. That means tomorrow, I'll get to attend some lectures since there will not be any afternoon close-up contests to watch.

But today, between contests, we talked with friends and made new ones as I chatted with some of the talent from the gala shows plus a perspective from a competitor. We also chat with the new SAM National President, Dave Bowers.

the evening broke up the registrants into two groups. While one was at the Close-Up Gala, the other attended the "White Dinner" where everyone was encouraged to wear at least one white item, whether a white scarf, pants, Hat or carnation. The performers in the Close-Up Gala included: the Fat Brothers, Guy Hollingworth, David Williamson, Eugene Burger, and Armando Lucero with David Stone as the Master of Ceremonies.

the midnight show was actually a lecture by Dan Sperry on "the dark side of magic" And the midnight bar session featured Luke Jermay, Tony Montana and Juan Tamariz.

Street artists and their shills working the crowd during FISM 2015

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:01:33 - Dave Bowers, National President of the Society of American Magician

00:05:28 - Trigg Watson

00:12:08 - David Kaye, aka Silly Billy

00:23:03 - Topas

00:36:05 - "Mecki" Ludwig Gantner and Peter Pudill, from Vienna, Austria

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#204: 2014 Year of Magic in Review

It's that time of the year when we try to "put the band back together" and chat with members of the hosts from the MagicNewswire.com podcast, "This Week in Magic". Trying to get a time to arrange everyone's schedule is like "herding cats". So, due to work and health conflicts, this year we have David "Silly Billy" Kaye and Cameron Ramsay join Scott Wells to discuss what went on in the magic world this past year.

To supplement our chat about Magic on TV, here is a little up-to-the-minute information that I read on IndieWire.com after our chat:

"Magic is in the air, or at least on the airwaves. "Masters of Illusion" did well enough for CW last year to make an order for 13 more episodes materialize – and that's after being canceled by MyNetworkTV in 2009. It joins the network's other magic show, the British ITV production "Penn & Teller: Fool Us," as well as magic programs gaining traction on basic cable. TruTV's "The Carbonaro Effect" will be back for a second season, while "Wizard Wars" returns to Syfy in January for six additional episodes. Even shows that don't have magic as a focus are shuffling it into the deck: "American Masters" is kicking off a new season January 23 with an episode about master magician Ricky Jay, and Nat Geo's "Brain Games," regularly tosses a sleight-of-hand artist into the mix."

Of course this is from a personal perspective of the guest on this podcast and does not include a lot of things you perhaps found to be more relevant. But we hope you enjoy our chat.

Instead of bouncing all over the globe, we try to stay on topic with an agenda that includes: magic on television; live touring magic shows; magic conventions; notable passings, and; predictions for 2015.

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. (please note: this RSS Feed subscription system may not work with Android systems). Remember, you can download it through iTunes. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

Magicians' Valhalla

Although the list below is not exhaustive, it does reflect the names of many well-known (and some lesser known) magicians, spouses and assistants who passed on in 2014. If you are unfamiliar with any of these names, then it would behoove you to do a little online search of what these people have contributed to our craft. If you have someone you think was overlooked, then please post the name in the comments below on this blog.

Aldo Colombini

Scott Lewis

Dave Madden

Montecore (S&R’s tiger)

Jeff Busby

Judge Arnold Drennen

Robert “Bob” Knigge

Robert L. “Bob” Bluemle

Stella P. Coward (wife of Noel Coward)

John T. Fedko

Robert “Bob” W. Klamm

Alan Alan

Alan “Ace” C. Greenberg

Joanie Spina

Ronald A. Wohl

Roger Bernheim

Lubor Fiedler

Philip “Phil” Reed Willmarth

Joe M. Bertuzzi

Carl “Bud” Dietrich

Renee Lorayne (wife of Harry Lorayne)

Bernard Samuel Lerner (aka “Bobby Bernard”)

Lester “Larry” Fulton Weeks

Steve Walker

Andi Diamond (wife of Paul Diamond)

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168: Day 3 - IBM/SAM Combined Convention 2014

Lots of stuff again during this full day including the third and final day of the FISM North American Championships competitions. The early lecture was a 3D event featuring children show experts, Davie Kaye, Danny Orleans and Doug Scheer. The afternoon included a lecture by Christian Engblom. After the evening gala featuring the magic of Germany was a lecture by Xavier Mortimer followed by a late night show again by Richard Turner.

Available at http://www.dickbarrymagic.com/

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:02:09 - Danny Archer talks about his recent lecture tour and the upcoming MINDvention on October 12-14.

00:08:46 - Jim Steinmeyer brings us up to date about his new book project about Charles Morritt, plus his consulting on the hit Broadway show, Aladdin.

00:19:56 - Gabe Fajuri, Potter & Potter Auction, tells us about the upcoming auction on August 23rd featuring a lot of Houdini memorabilia.

00:23:21 - Bill Evans, Past International President for the I.B.M., was the emcee for the FISM North American Championships and I came on stage to chat with him in front of the whole audience in between the acts.

00: 45:43- Phillip Pound is the son-in-law of Pat Page and the photographer of the Page by Page book. Also joining us was Pat's daughter, Janette,

00:59:29 - David "Silly Billy" Kaye, was one of the lecturers from this morning. He has a book in the works that is a compendium of the 100 articles that appeared in his column in MAGIC Magazine.

01:12:20 - Rick Heath, poster artist for La Grand David show, tells us what it's like in the post-Caesaro Palez world.