531: Mark Connelly Wilson - Developing a Character

Mark C. Wilson is an actor, musician, filmmaker, producer, teacher and magician but perhaps best known in Texas as “Merlin the Wise” at the Sherwood Forest Faire near Austin. In this week’s episode, Mark talks about something that only has been discussed by a handful of previous guests: developing his character. Merlin is an iconic character so how does one pull it off? Mark has an acting background and has spent much time on developing this persona. You may not plan to every perform at a Renaissance Festival, but you will do well to take to heart the lessons he learned and teaches here. For more information, please visit his Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/MerlinTheWise/

Magician, actor, and musician Mark Connelly Wilson performs as "Merlin The Wise" with "Nimue" played by Lydia Kettle, and "Newt" played by his daughter Elissa Wilson, during the 2010 opening season of Sherwood Forest Faire on the Greenwood stage.

This was the movie discussed at the end of our podcast. The music and singing in this trailer was provided by Mark C. Wilson.

For a more in-depth article about developing a character, then read the article by Kent Cummins in the June 2019 issue of The Linking Ring entitled, “Storytelling is the Secret Sauce.” Click Here to see a PDF of that article.

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398: Bill Palmer - Renaissance Man

Author, Creator, Musician, Magician, Collector, and Multi-Lingual "bon vivant" Bill Palmer is an all-around nice guy who is more than just a little knowledgeable on nearly every topic. Hence the reason that I refer to him as a Renaissance Man and not just from his 25 years of appearing as Merlin the Magician at the RenFest and Scarborough Faire. Bill was also the translator of German to English of magic books by Punx, Borodin and Ted Lesley. Many of you know Bill Palmer's name from being the owner and curator of the Cups and Balls Museum. And although he has relocated, he is still collecting and looking to display his collection in his new home.

On October 24, 2006, Bill Palmer gave us a tour of his Cups and Balls Museum. This video opens with a discussion of how Bill started his collection and how it grew.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:05:35 - Bill Palmer gives us a mini-lecture about loving your audience, the development of his Merlin the Wizard character, his association with Ted Lesley and Punx, translatingmagic books from German to English, and more.

01:06:34 - As an addendum to our chat where Bill talks about his cups and balls collection and the status of where iti is now, plus insights on collecting in general.At the end of our discussion, Bill suggested an interesting book about collecting which was written in 1852. You can download a PDF copy of "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions by Charles MacKay" by Clicking Here.

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#204: 2014 Year of Magic in Review

It's that time of the year when we try to "put the band back together" and chat with members of the hosts from the MagicNewswire.com podcast, "This Week in Magic". Trying to get a time to arrange everyone's schedule is like "herding cats". So, due to work and health conflicts, this year we have David "Silly Billy" Kaye and Cameron Ramsay join Scott Wells to discuss what went on in the magic world this past year.

To supplement our chat about Magic on TV, here is a little up-to-the-minute information that I read on IndieWire.com after our chat:

"Magic is in the air, or at least on the airwaves. "Masters of Illusion" did well enough for CW last year to make an order for 13 more episodes materialize – and that's after being canceled by MyNetworkTV in 2009. It joins the network's other magic show, the British ITV production "Penn & Teller: Fool Us," as well as magic programs gaining traction on basic cable. TruTV's "The Carbonaro Effect" will be back for a second season, while "Wizard Wars" returns to Syfy in January for six additional episodes. Even shows that don't have magic as a focus are shuffling it into the deck: "American Masters" is kicking off a new season January 23 with an episode about master magician Ricky Jay, and Nat Geo's "Brain Games," regularly tosses a sleight-of-hand artist into the mix."

Of course this is from a personal perspective of the guest on this podcast and does not include a lot of things you perhaps found to be more relevant. But we hope you enjoy our chat.

Instead of bouncing all over the globe, we try to stay on topic with an agenda that includes: magic on television; live touring magic shows; magic conventions; notable passings, and; predictions for 2015.

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.

Magicians' Valhalla

Although the list below is not exhaustive, it does reflect the names of many well-known (and some lesser known) magicians, spouses and assistants who passed on in 2014. If you are unfamiliar with any of these names, then it would behoove you to do a little online search of what these people have contributed to our craft. If you have someone you think was overlooked, then please post the name in the comments below on this blog.

Aldo Colombini

Scott Lewis

Dave Madden

Montecore (S&R’s tiger)

Jeff Busby

Judge Arnold Drennen

Robert “Bob” Knigge

Robert L. “Bob” Bluemle

Stella P. Coward (wife of Noel Coward)

John T. Fedko

Robert “Bob” W. Klamm

Alan Alan