828: Obie's 4F 2024 Close-Up Convention - Days One and Two Report

Wednesday April 24

7:45 p.m. tribute to Guest of Honor (GOH) Christian Schenk (host: Rogr Nicot)

8:00 p.m. Lecture #1 GOH Christian Schenk

9:00 p.m. 1st Show 4F Opening Gala (MC :Keith Fields)

Thursday April 25

10:30 a.m. Lecture #2 Bernardo Sedlacek

1:30 p.m. 2nd Show Magical Moments (MC: Gary Morton)

3:30 p.m. Lecture #3 John Bannon

745 p.m. Tribute to GOH Jimmy C. (host: Darryl Rose)

8:00 p.m. Lecture #4 Jimmy C.

9:00 p.m. 3rd Show Friends Old & New (MC: Michael Dardant)

Time Stamps:

(00:00) Scott Wells recently returned from France

(01:04) Scotty heading to Buffalo for four f convention this weekend

(03:13) Scotty will receive a fellowship from the Academy of Magical Arts

(04:07) So, as far as a convention, since I missed last evening, Rick,

(06:42) Gino: Okay, now it's time for lunch. We have to go to the liquor store

(09:43) Gene Gordon and Chuck Ark attended the evening gala last night

(10:37) Christian: What did you think last night? Kind of stood out

(13:30) Jimmy C. started in magic at 42 and now does 22 gigs a month

(17:54) What do you say to encourage people to get into magic at a later age

(19:13) A friend of mine does a magic trick for laymen five times a day

(20:15) So my other question has to do then with the five star reviews

(21:02) Do you have a character when you perform? I mean, like,

(22:44) One of the recent podcast episodes with Rolando Santos has received overwhelming positive feedback

(23:18) Rolando discusses the difference between evoking and provoking

(25:28) The pendulum work is all ad lib because you don't know

(26:20) Have you been enjoying this convention so far? Yeah. The magic has been terrific

(28:24) Alain Iannoni from Italy joins us from NPR

(29:21) You've been a professional magician for 30 years now

(31:54) Talk about some of the things that are in your lecture

(36:22) Scott: Henry Evans recently finished a lecture tour

(37:41) Another guy that did a lot for you was Mike Miller taking you on chinese tours

(39:34) In China, most of the people speak only Chinese, so they need interpreter

(41:51) Scott Bennett says he fooled Penn and Teller on his Las Vegas tour

(45:26) You maintain citizenship in all three nationalities because you were born in Antigua

(46:56) Dev Patel's four f routine was a hit last night

(49:31) How many conventions have you been to? This is your 11th

(53:28) Keith Fields: I have a friend who owns a theater in San Antonio

(56:22) Gino Mozzarella got a call to do a gig in Spain

(01:00:10) Renee Levan performed for John Lennon once

(01:02:57) Well, yesterday at the four f, you gave a lecture. I missed that. But I was today, actually

(01:03:09) The theme of this lecture was how to create a special moment

(01:05:53) Bernardo gave a lecture on how to create a special moment

(01:08:29) Bernardo says being a first timer in magicians is daunting

(01:10:31) Scott, as a first timer, performing magicians was daunting

(01:14:00) Bernardo: The vibe at four f is very different from other conventions

(01:17:36) Mark: I'm anxious to see what Bernard is going to show us here

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767: Randy Wakeman - I've Been Around for a Long, Long Years

Randy Wakeman has been around for many decades and was often seen lecturing and performing at magic conventions. Nonetheless, I have always seen him as an “underground” magician who appeals to the true sleight-of-hand experts. He is one of those guys who has “been there, done that, has the t-shirt” as he was one of the regular performers about the Chicago Bar Magic Scene before the turn of the last century. He has written several books on magic (card magic mostly) and is still relevant in our community as a performer, teacher and author.

While at the recent Senior Tour close-up convention in St. Louis, The Magic Word spoke with Randy as part of the convention report content. He was preparing for a workshop, so we didn’t get a chance to go in-depth as I had wanted. But we agreed to get together at the 4F convention in Buffalo a couple months later. True to his word, we sat down to complete our chat which results in this episode. The content of our chat in both places was a little disjunctive, so the editing required us to put the second conversation first then plug in the chat in St. Louis and finish with our talk while in Buffalo. This sounds more confusing that it actually is, but I know you will understand and enjoy our chat.

608- Jeff Bibik - Bar Magician Extraordinaire

Jeff Bibik is a Chicago comedian and a magician. Originally from the Detroit, Michigan, area, he regularly performed magic in local restaurants and comedy clubs until 1985 when he moved to Chicago where he continued as a comedy magician in close-up and stage for the public and corporate audiences and he also performs a hypnosis act. Over the years he developed a large repertoire of jokes and gags that serves him well today as the house magician at the Chicago Magic Lounge.

Jeff Bibik pulls no punches this week in sharing the secrets behind getting work in restaurants performing magic, plus he tells lots of stories about working in bars and restaurants with a liberal sprinkling of funny gags, jokes and puns. This was recorded using StreamYard with Jeff joining us from the bar in his basement in his Chicago home. A video of our chat was also recorded and posted to YouTube. To view that video, please click on the video link below in this blog.