833: Magic Collector Expo 2024 - Day Three

Thursday, May 10, 2024

9:30am-11:00am Dealer Room Open

11:00am-12:30 Session #5

12:30am-2:30pm Dealer Room Open

2:30pm-4:00pm Session #6

6:30pm-10:00pm Dinner & Show

Timestamps for this episode:

00:00:17 – We begin the third and final day of the Expo and just finished taking a ghost tour of the Queen Mary. Brad Henderson was the curator for the Richard Garriott magic collection and tells us what Richard has been doing since he moved from Austin to New York. He also gives us his viewpoint of the Expo.

00:14:35 – Organizer, Bill Smith, welcomes us to the Queen Mary and tells us why he selected this venue for the convention.

00:21:59 – Ed Alonzo, was a Long Beach Mystic and he tells us how that changed his life.

00:28:40 – as they are setting up for the final night banquet, we chat with Lance Burton, and John Cox. John had talked about Houdini on ship voyages and how Harry was the “King of Sea Sickness.”

00:36:30 – Dianna Zimmerman has been working with the Magic Castle Juniors for decades and she tells us how it got started in 1975 and how rewarding it has been for her.

00:48:51 – Mike Michaels is a performer/creator/builder/creator who tells us how his life was influenced by Lance Burton and how he developed his robotic act.

00:53:30 – Greg Wilson talks about this convention plus his years as part of the Wilson family magic legacy.

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832: Magic Collector Expo 2024 - Days One and Two

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

10:00am-4:00pm Registration Open

1:00pm to 4:00pm Dealers Open

4:00pm to 5:00pm Session #1 “Welcome To Long Beach”

5:00pm to 7:00pm Dinner

7:00pm to 8:30pm Session #2

8:30pm to 11:30pm Dealer Room Open

Wednesday, May 8th, 2024

9:00 am to 11:00am Dealer Room Open

11:00am to 12:30pm Session #3

12:30pm-5:00pm Dealer Room Open

1:30pm-5:00pm Mike Caveney’s Egyptian Hall

Museum (In The Queen Mary Boardroom) & Queen Mary Guided Tours

5:00pm-7:00pm Dinner

7:00pm-8:30pm Session#4

8:30pm-11:30pm Dealer Room Open

Timestamps for this episode:

00:00:17 – We take off from Austin for Burbank, California, where we’ll head to Long Beach and the Queen Mary for the convention then come back to Hollywood to the Magic Castle later and the awards presentation of the Academy of Magical Arts where I will be receiving a Special Fellowship for this podcast.

00:03:36 – Dana Daniels, one of the presenters who told some stories about working in Disneyland.

00:15:48 – Lance Rich, another of the presenters, told us a bit about his book “Neon Dreams” that was the focus of his talk last year. This year he spoke about “Neptune’s Sorcerers” which was about cruise ship magicians prior to the 1970’s.

00:22:42 – Les Arnold, one of the Long Beach Mystics, talked about his association with the club as a builder and performer

00:28:00 – Mike Caveney, one of the presenters gave us a quick recap of what was in his talk that I missed. It was about several of the artifacts in his Egyptian Hall and how he came about being the heir to the David Price collection.

00:32:22 – We kick off Day Two at breakfast with Peter Rogers, from Australia, and Dick Olson, from Texas, who are registrants at this event. They tell us what they have been doing and their reflections on this convention. It was Peter’s first Expo.

00:41:27 – Arthur Moses, Houdini expert/collector/historian/author, is a dealer at this Expo who talks about some of the things he has available. He talks about his new book that would interest those who are researching Houdini.

00:49:50 – David Charvet was another speaker at the convention who spoke about the Golden Age of Magic in Southern California 1893-1963.

00:57:00 – Chuck Jones was interviewed by Stan Allen on stage for the Expo. In this chat, Chuck recapped his life in this short chat. He tells some stories about his early television work.

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.