687: Luis Carreon - La Bestia ("The Beast")

Luis Carreon has been a regular performer at the Chicago Magic Lounge for over a decade. He “earned his bones” by working at magic shops as a demonstrator and has parlayed his chops into performing for nightclubs (like Nashville’s “House of Cards” and Hollywood’s “Magic Castle” among others) and also for corporate events. He currently is a demonstrator for Magic, Inc. in Chicago and will soon have a “residency” at the Chicago Magic Lounge.

Luis talks about the importance of performing whenever and wherever you can to develop your skills. He also talks about being a Spanish speaking magician. We also go into some detail about what performers can and can’t say in today’s “sensitive” environment like nightclubs. He even talks about the workshops taught at the Chicago Magic Lounge and how to talk with your volunteers and audience. He also talks about the importance of scripting but being able to improvise, too. He also tells a horror story about a problem with a volunteer.

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608- Jeff Bibik - Bar Magician Extraordinaire

Jeff Bibik is a Chicago comedian and a magician. Originally from the Detroit, Michigan, area, he regularly performed magic in local restaurants and comedy clubs until 1985 when he moved to Chicago where he continued as a comedy magician in close-up and stage for the public and corporate audiences and he also performs a hypnosis act. Over the years he developed a large repertoire of jokes and gags that serves him well today as the house magician at the Chicago Magic Lounge.

Jeff Bibik pulls no punches this week in sharing the secrets behind getting work in restaurants performing magic, plus he tells lots of stories about working in bars and restaurants with a liberal sprinkling of funny gags, jokes and puns. This was recorded using StreamYard with Jeff joining us from the bar in his basement in his Chicago home. A video of our chat was also recorded and posted to YouTube. To view that video, please click on the video link below in this blog.

513: John Bannon - Scholar, Solicitor, Sorcerer

There are a fairly large number of great card magicians creating original magic. But the man whose card magic has resonated most with magicians in the last 30 years is John Bannon. Why? We think it's because John has just the right cocktail of ingredients: his magic is DIFFERENT than what others are doing. John has shared his magic through a series of books and DVD’s that have revolutionized card tricks. John is a low key, self-effacing, intellectual who is an attorney by day and a card trick innovator on weekends. For the last few decades, John has been part of the Saturday Session with Simon Aronson, David Solomon and David Finkelstein who work on and develop innovative card tricks.

For more about the Saturday Session crew of magicians, Click Here for the online article referred to in this podcast.