341: Houdini-Opoly with Dick Brookz and Dorothy Dietrich

Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz own and operate the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They have both led extraordinary lives and worthy of talking more about their Houdini museum, the Houdini seance, and the former Magic Townhouse in New York City. They talk about all these things but the purpose of this particular podcast is to help the magic world learn more about their newest project, "Houdini-Opoly"

They have been working on this board game for over two years and with the Kickstarter campaign now being fully funded just before this podcast was released. So not it's on to meet their "stretch" goals to pay for the "enhancements". Thanks to your support, it appears that it will be in production soon this year. The Magic Word Podcast is selective in providing a platform for promoting individuals or pet projects. But this is one I support and think is of particular interest to our community. But even if you choose not to support the cause and buy a game, the rest of our chat is interesting as we talk about the old Magic Townhouse in New York City and why it closed and the museum moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania. We also discuss the Houdini seance and the museum.

Help the Kickstarter Campaign and get your "one of a kind" collectible Houdini board game. You can't escape the fun!

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Click on the graphic above to visit the site for more information on Houdini-Opoly

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The contest is over and we congratulate Pat Darienzo who won a copy of Danny Archer's eBook. — The contest is over and we congratulate **Pat Darienzo** who won a copy of Danny Archer's eBook.

165: Ground Zero - IBM/SAM Combined Convention 2014

The tenth combined convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians will officially begin with a full day of activities on July 1st; however, there were a lot of "night before" activities that took place on Monday June 30th.

00:05:19 - Jeff Lanes and Frank Seltzer enjoy a Newcastle beer, a fine cigar and a great chat about the upcoming convention. We talk about the talent line-up and the importance of the congressional recognition of magic as a performing art.

00:21:57 - Steve Bryant talks about his Little Egypt Gazette that is an interesting monthly journal of magic. He also gives us a scoop on a new book he has coming out on November 18, 2014 called "Lucas McKenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show" which will eventually be sold through Amazon.com

00:26:12 – Dal Sanders, President of the S.A.M., talks about his past year as President but mostly about getting magic recognized as an art in the Congressional Record.

00:31:30 – Karl Hein talks about his recent performance on the Pete Holmes television show and how he landed the job and what it did for his career.

00:33:43 – John Sturk, from FunInc.com, talks about InvisibleThreadsClothing.com that is aligned with Fun Inb. and what's going on in Chicago with a new convention at Magic Inc.

00:36:58 – John Graybeal, a Friend of The Magic Word, is a regular listener and talks about how this podcast has influenced him and how his children has gotten involved in magic and contests as a result of learning from this podcast. He also talks about the two days of junior events that have taken place prior to the “main” convention.

00:44:35 – Oscar and Melody Munoz talk about the contests that will take place this week and the prize money that is at stake.

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.

140: Karl Hein - Finding Balance

Karl Hein passed through Houston during his recent lecture tour of the U.S. While visiting as my house guest, we sat down to talk about his performing philosophy, his approach to magic and his creative process. As the creator of the "Heiny 500", "Heinstein's Dream", and "The Heinstein Shuffle" among other effects, Karl has a unique perspective that has given him success in the magic world.

One of the interesting topics we discuss is his viewpoint on the change of ones to hundreds (dollar bills) and why they should be switched back to ones. We also talk about: story tricks (like "Sam the Bellhop"), what magic is (either a craft or an art), what magic is appropriate for each audience, being conscientious of your audience, selecting volunteers, and more.

You can learn more about Karl on his website at: http://www.karlhein.com/ and you can send him email at: karl@karlkoppertop.com

Magic & Martinis Thursday