768: Diego Vargas - No Borders

Costa Rican magician, Diego Vargas, has a passion for making people happy. Beyond the typical audiences he regularly performs for at the Magic Castle, Diego is part of the staff for Magicians Without Borders, an organization that spans the globe bringing joy and happiness to third-world countries, war-torn areas, hospitals and prisons.

While at the recent Magic Collectors Expo, Michael Caveney suggested Diego as a podcast guest. I took his advice and believe that everyone will benefit by listening to this week’s episode. Diego talks about performing comedy in a language that is not his native tongue. He also talks about cultural differences and language nuances as well as the “political sensitivity” of Americans compared with other countries who aren’t offended by certain words, phrases and inferences. But the majority of this podcast goes into detail about Magicians Without Borders. If you have the financial ability to assist this organization, they could certainly use your donations.

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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.

766: Ron Saylor - Thinker, Saylor, Magician Guy

While performing at the Magic Castle during the week of March 13-19, 2023, I shared the stage in the Parlour of Prestidigitation and my apartment with Ron Saylor. Ron has performed on The Emmy Awards, on the Stages of nine major Casinos in Las Vegas and regularly appears at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, and throughout the United States and Canada. Not only an award winning magician, but he has been the magic consultant on a few major motion pictures. He is also the owner and proprietor of Celebrities of Magic that hosts some of the top magicians who perform there in Bakersfield, California.

In this week’s episode, Ron Saylor begins our chat with a discussion about famous Tiki Rooms and what makes a Tiki Room a Tiki Room. We then go into detail about his Celebrities of Magic Theater and how it got started. It is hoped that this might inspire others to consider setting up their own theater in their home town to allow even more people to experience great magic.