737: Terry Ward - 10,000 Hours

You’ve probably heard of the 10,000 hour rule, which was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell’s blockbuster book “Outliers.” As Gladwell tells it, the rule goes like this: it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials. Our guest this week is Terry Ward who has exceeded that minimum by a factor of many. He has performed over 40,000 shows over a period of more than 30 years. He was the resident magician in Disney World for many years where he developed more than one character who delighted the millions of annual visitors.

Terry started out in theme parks and for the most part, never left that type of venue. Certainly he does more than his share of corporate dates, but his “bread and butter” has been theme parks.

Terry talks this week about working in theme parks, finding the job, developing his performing character, and the importance of “being a good guy” and getting along with management to assure longevity at a venue.

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Thank you to everyone who entered the contest but there could only be two winners in this contest. Please watch for another giveaway in a future episode of The Magic Word Podcast.

If you would like to know more about the "10,00 Hours Rule" and help The Magic Word Podcast with your purchase. Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

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725: David Ginn - King of the Kid Shows

With over 100 books on kid show magic, David Ginn stands as the King of the Kid Shows, in my opinion. He has single-handedly influenced more magicians over the decades by providing commercial, scripted routines for the children’s show entertainer than anyone can count. And when you add his DVD’s, lectures, and magazine columns, he is a rock star in our community. His routines and tricks were instrumental in the core of many of my children’s shows from birthday parties, to family shows, Scout banquets, libraries and schools and many of his routines and ideas applied to and influenced some routines in my adult shows. I would go further to say that any magician with a magic library and who has ever performed for kids probably has one or more of David’s books in their libraries.

This week David Ginn talks about some of his experiences over the years plus his relationships with J.B. Bobo and with Doug Henning. He also encourages everyone who is interested in learning free magic routines and watching him in action on video, to surf over to his website at https://ginnmagicshop.com where you can view and learn and get lots of tips for FREE.

696: FISM Quebec 2022 - Day One Report

Monday July 25th 2022

19:30 - 20:45: Opening ceremony

21:30 - 22:30: Max Maven presents Dr Will Houstoun “What we learned from Professor Hoffmann”

0:00 - 1:00: Luis De Matos Intimate Conversation with Arturo Brachett

21:00 - 22:00: Yann Frisch

23:00 - 0:00: Lee Asher

21:30 - 22:30: Mario Lopez

23:30 - 0:30: Bernardo Sedlacek

Time stamps for this episode:

00:00:16 - Scott Wells is at the airport awaiting his “magic carpet” to wing him to Quebec

00:03:06 - Alexandria Duvivier is one of the performers/lecturers at this event and is the first person we met. Lisa Menna is also there with us and chats a bit about her appearance at FISM Quebec.

00:05:44 - At the S.A.M. black tie banquet, we chat with the incoming President Elect John Sturk

00:14:50 - Gay Blackstone talks about her and Harry Blackstone, Jr. performances at previous FISMs

00:18:30 - Editor of the Magic Circular, Will Houstoun talks about his upcoming talk on Professor Hoffman later tonight.

00:21:10 - Before the evening opening gala, Mike Caveney talks about his recent episode #700 then Ice McDonald talks about attending this convention. From South Africa, Craig Mitchell talks about his job for Genii reporting on all of the competition for the magazine.

00:27:47 - From Scotland, Peter McLanachan talks about the reasons that he attends FISM

00:33:37 - Dal Sanders is a delegate representing the S.A.M. and talks about the opening gala show.

00:39:27 - From Spain, Luis DeMatos will be presenting his “in Conversation With…” during this FISM and talks about how he prepares for the conversations.

00:47:40 - David “Silly Billy” Kaye talks about life after COVID work and how his work has picked up and has returned to pre-COVID level of activity.