662: Jeffrey Alan - American Museum of Magic

David Copperfield’s museum is private and only open by invitation. In another part of the country, The American Museum of Magic (AMM) is open to the public. This week, Jeffrey Alan talks about the museum, its history, how it came to be, how it expanded and much more. Jeffrey is on the Board of Directors for the AMM as well as the I.B.M. He is also a full time performing magician in the Michigan area. If ever you are in the Midwestern U.S., then you owe it to yourself to visit this wonderful collection of our history’s treasures.

If you are more of a visual person, you can watch a YouTube video of our chat recorded over Zoom.

Jeffrey shares a lot of information about the history of The American Museum of Magic that brings our history to life. For more information, directions, and to make an appointment for a private tour, please visit their website at: https://americanmuseumofmagic.com/

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254: Tales from Old Las Vegas

During a party in the Team Land Studios in Las Vegas, I enjoyed a great conversation with some notable figures in the clowning world who shared some great stories about the old days of Las Vegas. The party was hosted by Scott and Lisa Land and turned out to be a little of a surprise birthday party for Scott. Despite the inclement weather, they had a decent turnout of guests on the day after the MAGIC Live! convention ended.

Team Land Studios is located in a warehouse adjacent to McCarran Airport. The doors to the warehouse were open so you can hear the occasional airline traffic in the background of this podcast. There was also a terrible storm going on with flash floods and lightning. You can hear the occasional thunder on the podcast, too.

Many of Scott and Lisa's friends are from the variety arts world rather than just magicians. During one conversation I was having with Scott and a group of his friends, things got real interesting real fast. I asked them to hold for a moment while I pulled out the microphone to see if I could capture some of this "lightning in a bottle" (no pun intended, despite the weather).

Most of these guys have lived and worked in Las Vegas for decades and rubbed shoulders with the greats and legends of the past. They lived during the time when the city wasn't run by politicians...if you know what I mean, and I think you do (thanks, Bill Malone). After some delightful discussions with Scott Land, Charlie Strachan, and Don Hendrix, it was Earl Chaney who soon took over as the central story teller with some fantastic stories about anyone and everyone who was someone in Las Vegas from Sammy Davis, Jr. to Elvis Presley.

Earl Chaney performs at the Red Skelton Clown Follies

Enjoy a delightful breakfast outdoors on the riverfront property of Trixie Bond with Jay Scott Berry and Suzanne the Magician.

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#198 - Henning Magic - Part Two

In this second and final podcast of my "pre-Halloween" coffee talk with Eric Henning, he picks up where we left off talking about his experience of performing at a Halloween party in 2010 in the White House for President Obama. This story, as most of Eric's stories, goes down several side roads before it all comes to a satisfactory conclusion. But it is a delightful journey.

In addition to his story about performing in the White House for the President, Eric also talks about some additional thoughts and tips since he published his book "Tips: Real World Ideas from a Working Magician". His website for magicians, http://thewand.net is where you can find this excellent set of lecture notes which I highly recommend. During our conversation, One of the tips that is not in his book if for Amazing Insoles for anybody who's on their feet a lot (like most all performing magicians).

He also talks about the importance of learning to be a better public speaker by joining Toastmasters in your area. We also talk about the importance of taking pictures with your client and sending it to the client with a hand-written "thank you" card. Eric shares a few additional tips like ideas from the old Linking Ring columns by Rick Johnsonn, "Come A Little Closer" He finishes with a great tax tip that every magician should do BEFORE the end of the calendar year.

Download this podcast in an MP3 file by Clicking Here and then right click to save the file. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed by Clicking Here. (please note: this RSS Feed subscription system may not work with Android systems). Remember, you can download it through iTunes. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

Eric "The Financial Wizard" Henning will be one of the professors at M.B.U. in 2015

Join Trixie Bond and Charles Gauci and Scott Wells for lunch in Houston in this short podcast.

Fill your Christmas stockings with all things Banachek.

662: Jeffrey Alan - American Museum of Magic

254: Tales from Old Las Vegas

#198 - Henning Magic - Part Two

The Magic Word