826 - Mike Miller - Talent Booker

More than a magician, Mike Miller, Past National President of the S.A.M., also books talent for many magic conventions including the S.A.M. convention, Abbott’s Get Together, Super Sunday, and many others. He scours the world looking for unique acts to book. He has a good eye for spotting up-and-coming performers before they “hit it big” on the international scene. The best way to be seen by Mike is by competing and performing in other magic conventions. For several years, Mike also booked acts for a multi-city tour of China. Today he regularly performs at the Smoke & Mirrors Theater in Philadelphia while still searching for convention acts. As a result of his untiring efforts in helping magicians around the world, the Academy of Magical Arts will present a Special Fellowship to him at the awards banquet on May 17, 2024.

If you are more of a visual person, then perhaps you might enjoy watching our interaction during our Zoom conversation.

In this episode, Mike Miller talks about his career as a talent booker and how Hank Moorehouse shaped his life. He talks about how he goes about finding unique acts and how he learned to be a stage manager, too.

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808: Daniel Garcia - Ideas Unlimited

Daniel Garcia is a highly respected magic creator and consultant. But he is an awesome performer in his own right, too! Daniel helps create magic for David Blaine, Dynamo, Cyril Takayama, and Dynamo, (just to name a few) for their performances on stage and screen and online, too.

Daniel talks this week about some of the celebrated magicians with whom he has worked, as well as how he comes up with his creative ideas. He has a system for developing these ideas that he shares in this episode. He also surrounds himself with other creative types like Blake Vogt, Alex Rangel, Brent Braun, and others who are titans of trickery in their own right.

Aha!: 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas

By Ayan, Jordan

Buy on Amazon

How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery

By Ashton, Kevin

Buy on Amazon

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

By Gilbert, Elizabeth

Buy on Amazon

The Creative Act: A Way of Being

By Rubin, Rick

Buy on Amazon

Hail and Farewell

**to those in our Magic Community who left us this past year.**

In 2023 we suffered the loss of many friends who have passed away, but whom are not forgotten. Perhaps as we grow older, we are more aware of those who pass. But this last year saw the passing of almost twice as many as were listed in the magic obituaries of 2022.

Although the list below is not exhaustive, it does reflect the names of many well-known (and some lesser known) magicians, spouses, assistants and magic aficionados who passed on in 2023. Some may not be as well-known to you, but they were my personal friends (hey, it is my blog!). If you are unfamiliar with any of these names, then it would behoove you to do a little online search of what these people have contributed to our craft. If you have someone you think was overlooked, then please post the name in the comments below on this blog.

Those whose names are highlighted with a “hot link” were featured or interviewed here on The Magic Word Podcast. It was not my original intent when I began this journey to chronicle the voices before they left us, but I am so thankful that I did sit down with many of these friends for lively, and sometimes intimate, conversations. You can click on their name to revisit and listen to their voices again.

Joe Stevens

Scott Alexander

Bob King

George Kimery

Karl Fulves

Véronique Ross

Greg Koren

Maria Ibanez

Thom Peterson

Gloria Metzner aka Gloria Dea

Harry Lorayne

Dr. Edwin “Eddie” Dawes

George Silverman

Dan Witkowski

Milton “Milt” Page Larsen

Ricky D. Boone

Dan Garrett

Larry Becker

Darwin Ortiz

Dirk Arthur

Dick Gustafson

Leo Behnke

Graham Putnam

Jeff Lanes

David Berglas

Jack Delvin

Tom Craven

Micky Hades

Bill Goldman

Tommy Smothers

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.

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