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

335: Howard Hamburg - Voices from the Past

Howard Hamburg has been around a long time...a very long time. And he has conferred with and confided in the some of the legends of our magical art. You name them, and Howard has a true, first hand story about them. Howard brings history alive with his marvelous stories of personal relationships with legendary magicians. There are some great stories in here and some performance tips along the way, too. At the beginning of this podcast, Howard talks about his attendance at "Escorial" in El Escorial, Spain which is an invitation-only card magic convention hosted by Juan Tamariz.

A spectator places ANY 2 face-up spot cards on the table the magician removes a joker from his deck and places it face up onto the table as well. The performer mentions that the number 7 is considered a lucky number among Americans, the number 8 is considered a lucky number by the Chinese, but 13 is the performer's lucky number for certain cards in the deck.

Time Stamps for this podcast:

00:04:35 - Howard talks about the "Escorial Convention"

00:17:15 - Howard begins his stories about magician friends beginning with Michael Skinner

00:43:16 - Eric Citron, owner of The Great American Magic Company is introduced as our new sponsor

00:48:11 - Howard resumes our conversation talking about how different his generation was from others.

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

Order your calendar from Amazon and help support The Magic Word Podcast

218: Steve Spill - I Lie For Money

I'm reluctant to produce a podcast solely for the intent purposes of promoting something that someone wants to pitch; however, there are exceptions. And this is one of them.

Steve Spill has had a magical life...and it's not over yet! One could say that Steve "grew up" in the Magic Castle because his father, Sandy Spillman, was a long-time host and also conducted the seances there for many years. Through his early teenage years he had unprecedented access to hang out with many of the greats such as Dai Vernon, Charlie Miller, Francis Carlyle, Kuda Bux and many, many others. Steve also worked at the Jolly Jester with Bob Sheets in the early days of "bar magic" in Aspen, Colorado. Later, the two of them opened the "Brook Farm Inn of Magic" in Delaware. And for about the past 20 years, he has owned and operated "Magicopolis" in Santa Monica, California.

You can follow Magicopolis on Twitter @Magicopolis and find them on Facebook at http://facebook.com/MAGICOPOLIS (note the all caps for their name plus be sure to look for the "monkey" profile picture so you know you have the correct "Magicopolis")

Steve and I first met over 30 years ago when he came through to perform at Houston's Magic Island and I was one of the House Magicians. Although it was not quite like "two ships passing in the night", we had fallen out of touch with one another since then as we both followed our separate paths. When Steve contacted me with the idea of pitching his new book, I knew that we needed to catch up to talk about all the "water that has run under our bridges."

Steve begins at the end by talking about Magicopolis which he built and owns and where he and his wife, Bozene, appear weekly. He then talks about his many experiences at the Magic Castle and relates stories about the eight mentors at the Castle who shaped his future. He also talks about Bob Sheets and the Jolly Jester in Aspen as well as the Brook Farm Inn of Magic. There a lot of stories from his new book plus some that are not there bu only appear here in this podcast.

You can read many of these stories plus dozens more in Steve's new book, "I Lie for Money" coming out soon and only available through Amazon. You can Click Here for more details and to order your copy.

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. Remember, you can download it through iTunes. See the preview page 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.

Exclusive Interview with Professional Magician & Magic Theater Owner Steve Spill

Order your copy of Steve's book (and support The Magic Word) by clicking on the link below to Amazon.

Get a free 30 day trial subscription and receive two free audible books to keep!