544: Gaetan Bloom - Crazy Creative

Gaetan Bloom is recognized as not only one of the most inventive and creative magic thinkers in our world of magic, but also he is one of the really nice guys in magic. We sat down with Gaetan during a recent magic convention and spent some quality time talking about his work in France, his performances at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris, his first meeting with another creative thinker, Kevin James, plus his thoughts and philosophies on magic and working with invisible thread and much more.

Gaetan Bloom talks about his road to work at the Crazy Horse in Paris, his thoughts on creativity using thread, his friendship with another magic creator, Kevin James, and many more topics.

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530: Dan Fleshman - Off The Menu

Dan Fleshman has been around a long time and a recognized figure in our magic community. He managed and operated several comedy clubs back in the day. But for the past 30 years, he has been making his living as a professional magician. Performing three hours a night, five days a week for the past ten years at the Chop House in the Aspen, Colorado area makes him an “expert” in the field of restaurant work.

This week Dan Fleshman talks about his experience in managing comedy clubs and working as a professional magician in an upscale steak house in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Along the way, Dan shares some advice, wisdom, tips and tricks plus several funny stories along the way..

If you r name wasn’t drawn as one of our winners, you can order a copy of this set of lecture notes by visiting Dan Fleshman’s website at: https://www.danfleshman.com/index.php/product/every-table-is-a-stage-2-dvd-set/

334: A Magical Christmas Carol

Over the past year, I have attended a LOT of magic conventions. During those events, i have tried to update you with what was going on each day with daily updates from the organizers, talent, registrants, and dealers plus sometimes a little "color" background outside of the hotel.

But while I had some of my guests "cornered" for a few minutes, I asked them to do a reading of the classic story, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. As many of you don't know, Dickens was a bit of a conjurer himself having performed during the summer of 1949 in a coastal resort off of the Isle of Wight purveying prestidigitation to those on holiday in the area. He was known as the “Rhia Rhama Rhoos - the Unparalleled Necromancer" and reportedly performed many unusual tricks including making playing cards magically burst into flames, transporting a woman’s watch from inside a wooden box and into the middle of a loaf of bread, and even cooking a steaming hot plum pudding in a gentleman’s top hat.

But prior to his venturing onto the stage to prestidigitate, he had already written many of his well-known novels including one published in 1843 which would become the iconic classic and perennial treatise on the holiday, "A Christmas Carol".

So here I present you this year's audio greeting card with great gratitude to all of my guests who participated in this project and also to all of you who regularly listen to The Magic Word Podcast. Happy Holidays!

As a little added treat for you this holiday season, here is a video I filmed and edited in 1985. Magician Scott Wells is visited by "three foreign" visitors who want to learn magic. In this video, Scott performs close-up, stand-up and stage magic for his guests. He also gives magic lessons to his guests; however, these instructions have been edited out of this public video.