#200 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Last year we brought you "The Night Before Christmas" read by a handful of popular magicians. It was so well received that I asked a few more guys (and gals) to read "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". See if you can pick out the voices of: Boris Wild, Bob Cassidy, Docc Hilford, Tim Ellis, Tim Trono, George Tait, Rocco Silano, Eric DeCamps, Mandy Farrell, Ice McDonald, Steven Bargatze, Marc Salem, Rick Merrill, Richard Osterlind and, as the Grinch, Eugene Burger.

As I attended several magic conventions over this past year, I took aside a few guys and gals to chat on the podcast. But many of the people graciously agreed to record something special just for this very special podcast. I hope you enjoy hearing their reading of this Doctor Seuss classic. This was one of the most difficult podcasts to edit and took the longest time to gather all the voices to do this one which ended up being one of the shortest ones, too.

This special podcast is my Christmas gift to you for listening for these past few years to the previous 199 podcasts. I wish all the best to you and yours for this holiday season.

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Magic & Martinis Thursday...with the Grinch!

149: Day 3 - East Coast Mind Jam 2014

Day Three of the East Coast Mind Jam was a little off schedule due to a travel problem for Marc Salem from England. But the day began with an interesting lecture by Joe Atmore on The Amazing Dunninger. that included some fun, old videos from Dunninger's television show It didn't hurt that Joe bought a few dozen doughnuts from Dunkin' Donuts to entice better attendance at this early hour. After lunch we were visited by Tony Spina. Eric Citron, organizer of the Mind Jam, presented a "Lifetime Achievement in Magic Award" to Tony followed by several people who gave testimonials and recollections of their time with Tony.

This flowed directly into a special edition of "Now You See It with Scott Wells", a talk show that featured magicians from the weekend: George Tait (Patrick Redford), Joe Atmore, Ted Karmilovich, Bill Gladwell and Richard Osterlind. This took us right up to the time when Marc Salem arrived. The stage was struck and Marc began his one man show. That followed with his lecture that included some explanations of tricks from his working repertoire.

I apologize for the buzzing sound in this podcast but the microphone was near speaker which had an annoying buzz that I could not take out. Time stamps for this podcast:

00:01:24 - Tony Spina, former owner of Tannen's Magic, accepts an award plus several people tell stories of their influence by Tony.

00:17:57 - "Now You See It With Scott Wells" with George Tait up first.

00:30:50 - Joe Atmore tells some great stories about working with Uri Geller

00:4:41 - Ted Karmilovich talks about performing at a casino

00:53:30 - Bill Gladwell chats about how he got his one man show in Gatlinburg, Tennessee

00:58:30 - Richard Osterlind recounts a story about David Copperfield

01:06:03 - everyone on the couch tells their story of a highlight performance from their careers.

141: Marc Salem - Piece of Mind

Star of stage and screen (well, small screen...television), Marc Salem stopped by for an extended chat about mentalism, world travel, building a show and the structure of a show, theatre work, celebrities he has worked with and known, and more. In particular, he shares some stories about his appearance on the TV show, 60 Minutes, stories from the stage perspective, stories about Uri Geller and more. This was an interesting conversation in that we seem to be "all over the board". It was difficult to keep a focus and get direct answers despite redirecting. It was kind of like trying to nail Jell-o to to the wall.

One of the interesting analogies he draws are the three types of spacial displacement: human years, dog years and entertainment years. He also talks about the dangers of making predictions, making meaning of our magic and lives, using psychology, how to get publicity, The 13 (secret mentalism New York group), and so much more.

Marc was low-key in promoting his book to the point of not even mentioning its title in this podcast. For the record, his book is "The Six Keys to Unlock and Empower Your Mind: Spot Liars & Cheats, Negotiate Any Deal to Your Advantage, Win at the Office, Influence Friends, & Much More". Whew! With a long title like that, it's no wonder that he didn't mention it in order to keep the podcast short. :) But for those who are interested, you can find it on Amazon. Just Click Here for more information on Amazon and to see an excerpt from the book.

If you are interested in hearing more from Marc or you have any questions about anything he mentioned during our chat, then please drop him a note via email to masalem@aol.com