Stan Allen opened the conference with the keynote speech that set the tone for the convention. His one word this year: curiosity. The morning session was a variety of outstanding presentations but the highlight everyone was waiting for was David Copperfield "In His Own Words". He was genuine, humble and charismatic and enjoyed by all. He admitted some of his failures and talked about continuing to work on projects and being forever committed to excellence and tweaking effects to make them perfect. He also discussed his disgust for those who steal from creators.
The afternoon sessions (for my colored badge) included Ian Rowland on mentalism (his third appearance at MAGIC Live!), Joel Bauer talking about trade shows, and Steve Valentine talking about variations of Cards to Pocket.
The evening show was outstanding hosted by Jorge Bass and opened with one of my favorite acts, Charlie Frye & Company. It concluded with not one or two, but three illusionists: Nathan Burton, Mike Michaels and Greg Gleason.
My evening rounded out with the 11:00 close-up show. Not your typical professional close-up show. In fact, this was perhaps for me, one of what will remain asa highlight of this MAGIC Live! Michael Weber hosted an evening of top professionals presenting one trick from the original "Stars of Magic" series. This featured Johnny Thomson, R. Paul Wilson, Paul Vigil, Julie Eng, Eric Mead and David Ben with a special guest appearance by the Professor himself, Dai Venon, perfectly portrayed by Jared Kppf.
Time stamps for this podcast:
00:00:26 - Host Stan Allen explains the theme of this year's convention.
00:07:26 - Jamie D. Grant talks a bit about the show he just finished presenting on the memorized deck
00:08:50 - Michael Chaut, producer of Monday Night Magic talks a bit about his 18 year run at producing the show. We are intermittently joined by several people who are passing through the casino near the entrance of the theater.
00:22:00 - Simon Coronel was the master of ceremonies for the morning session and he talks a bit about not scripting his show.
00:28:55 - Shep Hyken and Seth Kramer talk about MAGIC Live!
00:41:16 - Bill Cook talks about performing on "Penn & Teller Fool Us" and "Wizard Wars".
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