355: Bill Smith - The Man Behind the Illusions

Former Long Beach Mystic, Bill Smith, has been a long time resident on Las Vegas and doesn't consider himself as a creator so much as he is a builder. He has seen a lot of magicians come and go. For ten years, he was a stage hand for Harry Blackstone, Jr. and traveled across the U.S. including his Broadway show. He also has some strong beliefs on building from original plans rather than building rip-offs.

As part of the Las Vegas Chronicles, one of the visits was to the illusion fabrication warehouse of Bill Smith's Magic Ventures where his crew was busy building props for upcoming shows. For more info on Magic Ventures, visit his website at: http://www.magicventures.com/

To hear our chat with Bill Smith, visit: https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwellsmagic/bill-smith

Bill Smith talks about his migration to "Sin City" as magic began to flourish. He talks about magic he has been involved with from Caesar's Magic Kingdom to the current big shows on the Strip. He also talks about working with Stan Allen in the magic shop in Los Angeles and his early attempts at building. Bill started out as a performer and gradually moved into building. He also chats about how he met Harry Blackstone, Jr. and how he starting working for him including a lot of behind-the-scene stories with Harry. Some of Bill's best memories are from his attendance at Abbott's Get Together.

We then have a good discussion about rip-offs of illusions, ethics, rights, YouTube, China, lack of creativity, and more. He now laments the lack of new, original illusions coming on the market today.

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

333: Todd Robbins - The Man Of Your Nightmares

Todd Robbins is a man of many talents with many "irons in the fire", so to speak. With a background in sideshow entertainment (eating glass, fire eating, driving a nail up his nose, walking on glass, etc.) he has found a niche in the larger public eye on the Discovery Network as the host of "True Nightmares". He is also the star of the theatrical show "Play Dead" co-written by his friend, Teller (of Penn & Teller fame).

Watch performance artist Todd Robbins Eat a Light Bulb for ART or something like it!

In this episode, Todd talks about "spiritualism" performing seances that led to his producing "Play Dead"; his work doing deshow entertainment (for example, how he eats glass); his work with the Big Apple Circus; producing and performing at "Monday Night Magic" in New York City; hosting the hit TV series, "True Nightmares", being one of the famous "Long Beach Mystics" as a young man, all interspersed with some pretty interesting stories along the way.

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

276: David Deeble - An Unnatural Talent

The "Long Beach Mystics" became an almost "mythical" group of magicians who grew to fame and notoriety in the magic world. Consider the names of some of these former members: Stan Allen, Mike Weber, Dana Daniels, Mark Kalin, Jonathan Pendragon, Kevin James and David Deeble, Wait...which name doesn't immediately pop out to you as being "recognizable"?

Well, in this podcast, you will see why David Deeble should be another name that you should add to the frontal lobe of your memory data banks. I admit that I had not seen David perform until the MAGIC Live! convention in 2013, but after seeing him there and later hearing his "story of recovery" at the MAGIC Live! 2015 convention, I became one of his biggest fans and it made me wonder where I had been for all these years.

David Deeble is hard to categorize but if I did put him in a box, I guess it would be a comedy juggler. But due to what could have been a life changing injury, he moved from being a conventional juggler. Perhaps that's why I had never seen him perform at a convention...okay, I'll leave the comedy to David.

Here is a taste of the humor of David Deeble recorded live at comedy clubs.

David Deeble tells about his time with the Long Beach Mystics beginning in 1980 when he was 10 years old. He also regales us with some fun stories "from the day" about some of the Mystics. He also talks about attending the 1984 Abbott's Get Together which, coincidentally, was my first Get Together, too. For a glimpse back into history, Click Here to visit an earlier episode of The Magic Word that contains the fun video discussed in this podcast.

Due to a unicycle indoor accident (when he hit his head on the door frame), he lost the use of one of his arms. As a juggler, a husband and soon-to-be-father, you can imagine how devastating it was and could have been on his career. But David decided to move on towards his goal and find other "unnatural acts" that he would do that no other jugglers were doing. In particular, he learned how to toss an olive into the air and catch in on a toothpick held in his mouth. Also, he tosses a billiard ball from his foot into the air and catches it in his eye socket!

David also talks about how he likes to be introduced, how to handle problems when something goes wrong in your act (i.e. dropping the juggling club, etc.), releasing tension with comedy, using "stock" lines versus writing your own lines, working on cruise ships, and more.

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