International Podcast Day 2015

September 30th is International Podcast Day (IPD) and The Magic Word is helping by posting this special podcast featuring some of the Friends of The Magic Word. The purpose of IPD is to create more awareness of podcasts and encourage more people to listen to podcasts. There are over 100,000 English speaking podcasts available today covering about any interest you can imagine...and some you cannot imagine.

There are less than a dozen magic-related podcasts and we all have our own personalities, niche and audience. The Magic Word Podcast focuses on casualness and curiosity. There is no particular agenda in our conversations. They are more like the conversations you would have with your friends, but they are always informative and cover some aspect of magic, performing and creativity. They also let you go "deeper" into subjects and let you get to know the guest on a more personal level allowing you to often find out things that you never knew about them. Sometimes the conversations go "off the rail" in a direction never envisioned. And that's when they become really interesting.

Here are a few people you may know who like and endorse The Magic Word Podcast.

What can you do to help promote International Podcast day? As it related to The Magic Word, you can help "Spread the Word" by using and sharing the hashtags #MagicWordPod and #PodcastDay to your social media to encourage others listen.

Here are some other suggestions below on what you can do today:

Grab your mic and camera and ask someone, really anyone, about their favorite podcast and share the response on social media using #podcastday
Join in with the numerous events going on.
Promote by posting the IPD banner image on your website.
Use #podcastday to engage with others worldwide talking about the IPD event
Play the IPD audio or video promo on your show
Change your social media image with the IPD logo
Explain to someone what a podcast is and get them hooked
Share your favorite podcast with someone (coworker, friend, teammate, etc.)
Send feedback to your favorite podcasters and tell them thank you.
Provide a rating and review of The Magic Word Podcast in iTunes or any other platform.
Subscribe to a new show and talk about it using #podcastday
Not a podcaster? Become one!

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.

John Shryock was joined by Ben Jackson in this special podcast.

097: John Shryock, Magical Captain of Land & Sea

John Shryock is a "favorite son" and good friend of Houston magicians. He and wife, Mari, regularly performed at The Magic Island for many years in its "hey day". But today when John is not with his wife and two daughters, he is either entertaining aboard cruise ships or performing at Warren & Annabelle's in Maui, Hawaii. While recently touring the continental U.S. with a somewhat abbreviated lecture schedule, John stopped through Houston for a couple nights. He and Fred Becker put on a show for Top Talent Productions on Saturday night that brought down the house. Well, they actually brought the audience to their feet not once but twice for standing ovations. A local veteran magician reported that it was the best magic show he had seen in years. On Sunday, John traveled to Lake Charles, Louisiana to lecture for Chip Romero and their magician's group. He then returned to Houston on Tuesday where he had a gala "welcome home" reception with many of the old Magic Island magicians coming out to rekindle old friendships and enjoy his lecture.

in this podcast, John talks about his work at sea and on land including Warren & Annabelle's and the now defunct Caesar's Magical Empire in Las Vegas. He also talks about character development and the importance of music in one's act. Some of this material is from his lecture so podcast listeners get a sneak peek at some of his lecture material.

As a bonus for this episode, local magician and multiple award winner,, Ben Jackson joined us. He also talked about character development and some "behind the scenes" preparation for his recent appearance as a contestant on NBC's Today Show with David Copperfield. He also gave us an overview of his T.E.D. talk he presented on "Simplicity vs. Complexity" using magic to demonstrate his points. That interesting talk is all on the video link below in this blog.

This podcast turned out to be quite enlightening and lots of fun well into the wee hours of the morning.

Download this podcast in an MP3 file by Clicking Here then right click to save the file. You can also download the MP3 media file directly from the RSS feed by Clicking Here.

Some of the "old crew" who worked together when John was a frequent visitor to The Magic Island. From left to right, Scott Hollingsworth (former Entertainment Director), Scott Wells, Phil Kampf, John Shryock, Frank Price and Jamie Salinas.

T.A.O.M. Photos from Day 1

Friday kicked off with a great lecture by Joe Givan and Carol Massie. Then as more people arrived, the house was packed for Joshua Jay's lecture. After a dinner break Oscar Munoz hosted the evening show with Bob Smith and Chip Romero. There was a brief interval followed by a well produced stage contest that made way for the official, late night opening of the Dealers' Room that was flooded with eager magicians looking to find the newest and best "Holy Grail" trick. The Texas Collector's met while Ben Jackson hosted a party in the Skyline Ballroom with impromptu close-up magic and kareoke with CJ Johnson.

Fumio was one of the guests I spoke with on the podcast posted elsewhere on The Magic Word. He competed in the Comedy category on Friday night having already won in three previous TAOM contests. In the video clip below, he reprised one of the bits from one of those award winning acts. Here he uses my wife, Kathy, to assist him as the other half of "Fumio and Juliet".