528: Roger Dreyer - Room For Houdini

On our recent trip to New York City to see the Derren Brown show, one of the “must see” stops is the Fantasma Magic shop and to hopefully get some time with the owner and proprietor, Roger Dreyer. In this week’s episode, Roger gives us a personal guided tour of his collection. The photos in this blog accompany the audio podcast so you can see some of the items he talks about in this week’s episode.

This was the video discussed by Roger Dreyer where Kamarr the Magician was on David Letterman in 1988.

The Houdini Museum of New York is a museum exhibiting memorabilia related to the escape artist, Harry Houdini. It is located at Fantasma Magic, a retail magic manufacturer and seller located at 213 West 35th Street, Rm 401, New York, NY.

DATELINE NEW YORK CITY OCTOBER 2019: Roger Dreyer gives a short tour of the Fantasma Headquarters on local television news segment.

This week we travel from Houston Texas to New York City to the world headquarters of Fantasma Magic. There we are given a personalized, guided tour of the magic store and the extensive Houdini collection.

During this episode, it is mentioned that the 2019 Official Houdini Seance will take place in Niagara Falls. But if you would like to see excerpts from the 2012 Official Houdini Seance, then you can contact Arthur Moses to purchase a DVD of the event for $17.00 U.S. You can contact Arthur at aem1957@sbcglobal.net or you can buy the online video by Clicking Here.

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 or through iHeart Radio by Clicking Here..If you have a Spotify account, then you can also hear us through that app, too. You can also listen through your Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here

416: Magic In The Big Apple

In this podcast, we enjoy a chat about some of New York City's (NYC) rich heritage of magic with David "Silly Billy" Kaye, Herb Scher, and Richard Cohn. Richard Cohn is a scholar on Coney Island and on magic in NYC in general. He tells us about the history of some of the old local magic shops (like Tannen's, Martinka's, Holden's and others) plus stories about Al Flosso in Coney Island, Houdini, magic on Broadway, and "magic" things to do and see in the City today. If you plan to visit "The Big Apple" and looking to find a little magic, then I recommend you check out Herb's website for magical things to do, see and enjoy. Click Here to visit Herb's "Magic in New York Blog" for more information.

Herb Scher and David Kaye are involved with producing this year's 109th annual "Salute to Magic" which is open to the public and happens this Saturday night, April 14, 2018 at 7:30 at Fashion Institute of Technology’s Haft Theatre ( 227 West 27th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenue) This is sponsored by the S.A.M. Parent Assembly #1 which is one of the nation's oldest and longest running annual magic shows.

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 or through iHeart Radio by Clicking Here.. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here And remember, you can listen through your Amazon Echo by just saying, "Alexa...Play the Magic Word Podcast".

Click on the graphic above for more information on the 2018 Salute To Magic

373: John Cox is Wild About Houdini

John Cox is passionate about one prestidigitator...Harry Houdini. You could say he is "Wild About Harry". At least he says that. For nearly seven years, John has maintained a daily blog about Houdini. Who would have thought there is that much information to be found on a daily basis about Houdini? Well, there is new stuff being revealed more regularly than you could ever imagine.

I first met John Cox when I was the "Medium" for the "Official Houdini Seance" in 2012 when we enjoyed the hospitality of our host, Arthur Moses, noted Houdini collector. You can hear Part One of our chat by Clicking Here and Part Two Here. We became fast friends because of not only our mutual interest in Houdini, but also Sherlock Holmes and James Bond plus an avid film fanatic in general.

While in Hollywood performing at The Magic Castle in 2017, I stopped by the apartment of John Cox, noted Houdini collector and blogger. Be sure to visit his blog at http://WildAboutHoudini.com for daily updates on all things Houdini.