774: S.A.M. 2023 Convention in New Orleans - Day Four Report

Wednesday, July 26th

9:00 AM SAM EVENT 6: Basic Training Boot Camp Session “Thurston Lecture Hall”

SYM Youth Academy “William Andrews Classroom”

10:00 AM Registration for 2024 Dallas - Vieux Carre Foyer

10:30 AM Lecture 5: David Charvet: History Comes Alive “Thurston Lecture Hall”

11:00 AM EXHIBITORS Open “Kellar Exhibitor Hall”

12:00 PM Registration for 2024 Dallas Closes Vieux Carre Foyer SYM Youth Academy Ends “William Andrews Classroom”

1:30 PM SAM EVENT 7: King Cake Surprise Bonus event “Thurston Lecture Hall”

3:30 PM Lecture 6: Pro Close-Up 2 with R. Paul Wilson and Friends “Thurston Lecture Hall”

4:00 PM EXHIBITORS Close “Kellar Exhibitor Hall”

7:00 PM Bus pick up at hotel 8:00 PM SHOW 7: GALA SHOW: Tina Lenert & Friends
Featuring Ardan James, Mike Caveney, Jorge Blass Houdini Theater at the Jesuit

9:30 PM Bus pick up at Jesuit 10:30 PM PARTY 4: SAM Finale Party TBD

Time stamps for this episode:

00:00:18 – at Mother’s Café, we chat with Charlie Randall (H&R Magic Books) and Scott recap a little of what went on at the convention yesterday. But Charlie recaps some of the highlights from the previous evening’s show.

00:07:52- Peter Rogers, from Sydney, Australia, talks about why he and a few other mates from “down under” travel from Australia.

00:18:03 – Bill Walsh, another friend from Australia, sits next to Scott on the bus traveling to the evening show. He tells us what he and the rest of the group plan to do between New Orleans and Las Vegas for MAGIC Live!

00:26:23 – Craig Mitchell traveled from South Africa and tells us what and who he likes about this convention.

00:34:50 – Back at the President’s Party, Ian Kendall, from Scotland, talks about his workshop that he presented earlier in the day, plus his views on this convention.

00:44:00 – Michael Dardant resides in New Orleans and was an integral part of planning this convention.

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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.

732: Mac King and Joel Hodgson - Comedy Giants

Lightning in a bottle. I don’t know how else to describe what we experienced in this week’s episode. While at Abbott’s Get Together in Colon, Michigan, this past year we sat down for a chat with the dual winners of the Senator Crandall Comedy Award, Mac King and Joel Hodgson. All of you know Mac King as the longest running comedy headliner in Las Vegas. And many of you might know Joel Hodgson as the creator of “Mystery Science Theater” TV show, but fewer of you might remember him as a comedy magic performer having appeared on Saturday Night Live among many other television appearances.

Mac and Joel split the Sen. Crandall Comedy Award at the 1989 Abbott’s Get Together so it was funny (no pun intended) that it happened again in 2022. There career paths began as comedy magicians but both took dramatically different directions with their careers, Mac going to Las Vegas and Joel pursuing television. In this week’s episode they reflect on their humble beginnings in the early days of comedy clubs and how they developed their talents that led to their separate and successful careers. There is a lot of talent and advice packed into this episode.