370: My Week At The Magic Castle - 2017: Part Four

This episode wraps up my week of short conversations with "Knights of the Castle" who were either performing with me that week or passing through and agreed to chat for a few moments. There will be additional, longer episodes devoted to longer conversations with some people in and around the Los Angeles area in upcoming podcasts.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:02:12 - Carl Christman, local California mentalist talks about his craft.

00:17:03 - Simon Coronel and Armado Lucero back stage of the close-up Gallery share some laughs.

00:26:20 - Paul Green chats with Scott in the lobby of the Magic Castle

00:30:28 - Martin Cox, from the U.K., was the Master of Ceremonies in the Palace of the Castle all this week and talks about his experience.

00:44:40 - chats with Jack Goldfinger, Bruce Gold and Jon Armstrong

00:59:45 - a wrap of the whole week by Scott Wells from the airport

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275: Where Comics and Magic Collide with Jon Armstrong

Pow! Bang! Wham! - Poof!Whoosh! Flash! - Hocus Pocus! Abracadabra. Presto Change-o

Jon Armstrong is not only a pretty face in the magic community (among other things like being the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Academy of Magical Arts, Close-up Magician of the Year, Consultant to theme parks, film and television, headliner at Caesar's Magical Empire, and appeared on many TV shows including "Penn & Teller Fool Us" and other talk shows), but Jon is also a self professed "comic book nerd".

Jon visits ComiCons each year and is a sought after as a panelist discussing the confluence of "magic" with "comic books" or "graphic novels",

Magician Jon Armstrong (www.cardjon.com) performs his signature effect "Tiny Plunger" which Penn calls the most original card trick he's seen.

In this podcast Jon Armstrong talks about how art influences life and vice versa, how magic and comics intertwine and how and why we should wisely choose our selection of tricks. Basically, we should select those things that reflect our unique personalities rather than just buying the "trick of the hour" that just came out.

He also refers to a book entitled "Understanding Comics - The Invisible Art" and why it should be required reading for magicians. You can read the free PDF excerpt by Clicking Here or download the entire PDF by Clicking Here or just read online all 223 pages of it by Clicking Here. Jon discusses how he approaches groups to perform close-up during cocktail parties. And he talks also about "branding" yourself and how he does it.

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

Click on the image above for more information and to order your Tiny Plunger direct from Jon Armstrong.

246: Day Two - MAGIC Live! 2015

Stan Allen opened the conference with the keynote speech that set the tone for the convention. His one word this year: curiosity. The morning session was a variety of outstanding presentations but the highlight everyone was waiting for was David Copperfield "In His Own Words". He was genuine, humble and charismatic and enjoyed by all. He admitted some of his failures and talked about continuing to work on projects and being forever committed to excellence and tweaking effects to make them perfect. He also discussed his disgust for those who steal from creators.

The afternoon sessions (for my colored badge) included Ian Rowland on mentalism (his third appearance at MAGIC Live!), Joel Bauer talking about trade shows, and Steve Valentine talking about variations of Cards to Pocket.

The evening show was outstanding hosted by Jorge Bass and opened with one of my favorite acts, Charlie Frye & Company. It concluded with not one or two, but three illusionists: Nathan Burton, Mike Michaels and Greg Gleason.

My evening rounded out with the 11:00 close-up show. Not your typical professional close-up show. In fact, this was perhaps for me, one of what will remain asa highlight of this MAGIC Live! Michael Weber hosted an evening of top professionals presenting one trick from the original "Stars of Magic" series. This featured Johnny Thomson, R. Paul Wilson, Paul Vigil, Julie Eng, Eric Mead and David Ben with a special guest appearance by the Professor himself, Dai Venon, perfectly portrayed by Jared Kppf.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:26 - Host Stan Allen explains the theme of this year's convention.

00:07:26 - Jamie D. Grant talks a bit about the show he just finished presenting on the memorized deck

00:08:50 - Michael Chaut, producer of Monday Night Magic talks a bit about his 18 year run at producing the show. We are intermittently joined by several people who are passing through the casino near the entrance of the theater.

00:22:00 - Simon Coronel was the master of ceremonies for the morning session and he talks a bit about not scripting his show.

00:28:55 - Shep Hyken and Seth Kramer talk about MAGIC Live!

00:41:16 - Bill Cook talks about performing on "Penn & Teller Fool Us" and "Wizard Wars".

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.

370: My Week At The Magic Castle - 2017: Part Four

275: Where Comics and Magic Collide with Jon Armstrong

246: Day Two - MAGIC Live! 2015

The Magic Word