434: 2018 I.B.M. Convention - Day Four Update

Saturday July 7, 2018

8 AM Merlin Breakfast (Ticket Required)

9 AM - 1 PM 2019 Pre-Registration Opens

9 AM - 5 PM Dealer's Room Open

9:30 AM - 11 AM Big Three Event - (BLUE LANYARDS)

9:30 AM - 11 AM Big Three Event - (GREEN LANYARDS)

9:30 AM - 11 AM Big Three Event - (RED LANYARDS)

11 AM - 12 NOON Lance Burton Teen Scene # 3

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Lecture - Larry Wilson

1 PM - 2 PM Lecture - Patrick Martin

3 PM - 4 PM Lecture - Jeff McBride

7 PM - 7:30 PMI.B.M. Contest Awards

8 PM - 9:30 PM Grand Finale Show

10:15 PM Farwell Party

11:45 PMJ eff McBride Special Workshop
Extra Cost Event

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:02:20- Dr. Larry Hass, Dean of the Mystery School, speaks to the members of the Order of Merlin (those with 25 or more years of consecutive membership in the I.B.M.) about lessons learned from Eugene Burger

00:14:42 - International President, Michael Finney, talks about what he plans to do during his presidency in the next year

00:32:48 - Past international President of the I.B.M. and Contest chairman, Oscar Munoz, talks about the importance of entering contests.

00:47:05 - Patrick Martin was one of the lecturers who was featured at this convention and he talks about working the corporate market.

01:03:02 - Robert Purcell talks about what it's like for a "first timer" because this is his first magic convention

01:11:36 - Kayla Drescher was a featured performer as one of the "Big Three" Events

01:16:17 - Larry Wilson (our emcee for the evening show0 returns to talk about one of his early TV specials

01:29:18 - a listing of the contest winners and a wrap of the convention

Contest Winners:

Stage Adult: Gold Medal, First Place and People's Choice - Zhou Zhou and Yuan Yuan; Award of Merit: Sebak

Stage Youth: First Place - Red Star; Award of Merit - Luna; Fantasma Award - Theo Chattra

Close-Up Adult: Erik Tait; Award of Merit - Chong Huang; People's Choice and Obie's Four F Award: Chris Quinero

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241: I.B.M. 2015 Convention - Day Four

The 87th annual IBM convention drew to a close after another full day that began with the Order of Merlin breakfast that honored long time members of the organization. The Big Three events wrapped up by noon then the "Six Pack" events began. This is similar to the Big Three except here, registrants pick two from the six events they want to see. The afternoon lecture was by Bill Abbott.

Before the 8:00 public show, the organization presented its awards at a special 7:00 time slot in the Florida Theatre. The judges did not see an act worthy of the Gold Cups or the Gold Medal this year. Here are the winners:

Close-up
McBride Magic & Mystery school faculty award - Jolie Dreiling
IBM endowment and development fund scholarship to Stephanie Trott and Avi Littky
Sorcerers Safari Camp - Jolie Dreiling
Obie Award for People's choice went to Shin Lim
Second place adult - Ed Ripley
First place adult- Shin Lim
Second place junior - William Zaballero
First place junior - Jolie Dreiling
No Gold Cups
Peoples choice award - Shin Lim

Stage
Second place youth - Hannah Kikuchi
First place youth - Daniel Hernandez
Fantasia Magic Package went to Daniel Hernandez
Second place adult - Trent James
First place adult - Chris Randall
No Gold Medal
Peoples choice award - Hannah Kikuchi

The evening show was hosted by Tom Mullica who featured his new pickpocketing act. Also on the bill was Ken Scott, Soma, David Kaplan, and the Outerbridges. Registrants returned to the hotel where they said their goodbyes at the Farewell Party.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:01:04 - Guest of Honor, Fantasio, and maker of appearing/disappearing candles and canes

00:16:26 - David Gabbay, from Los Angeles, California, was a close-up contestant

00:17:03 - Eugene Burger

00:22:16 - Bill Abbott, performer and lecturer

00:33:54 - various magicians in a room comment on what they liked about this convention

00:38:29 - Chad Long, another performer and lecturer at this convention

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. You can download or listen to the podcast through Stitcher by Clicking Here or through FeedPress by Clicking Here or through Tunein.com by Clicking Here. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

Click on the banner to visit the I.B.M. website for more convention information.

#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