762: Pebblepalooza - Convention Report

Friday, May 26

1:00 p.m. Welcome and Housekeeping Announcements

1:20 p.m. Gary Plants

7:00 p.m. Doug Conn

Saturday, May 27

10:30 a.m. - The Do-It-Yourself, All-Star Debutantes Jamboree Soiree Hootenanny

1:00 p.m. - Jared Kopf

7:00 p.m. - Erik Tait

10:30 p.m. - Gary Plants’ Ultra Secret Video Historical Showcase Exhibit of long-gone time past and magical curiosities

Time stamps for this episode:

00:00:18 - Scott Wells drinks some hot coffee on his drive to Dallas

00:04:50 - Welcome remarks and housekeeping by Lance Pierce

00:06:48 - Erik Tait talks about this convention being his first Pebblepalooza and his anticipation to giving his presentation

00:11:08 - Justin Teeman has attended every Pebblepalooza and tells us some of his favorite moments

00:16:28 - Rolando Santos is a Past International President of the I.B.M. and gives us his initial observation of this being his first Pebblepalooza

00:24:32 - Tony Cabral is one of the people behind the scene who help make this event a success

00:33:38 - Lauren Cohen is the only female attendee who has attended every Pebblepalooza since Year Four.

00:39:22 - Danny Cheng, from California is 28 years old and is apparently the youngest attendee

00:43:53 - Eddie McColl, from Glasgow, Scotland, talks about Roy Walton and his magic shop, Tam Shepherds

00:51:49 - Lance Pierce is the organizer of this event and talks about how and why he put this event together and how it differs from the traditional “convention”

00:03:40 - Mike Powers helps wrap up today’s events

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506: Lance Pierce - Standing on Their Shoulders

Over the years, Lance Pierce has befriended some pretty incredible legends in our industry including Roger Klause, John Cornelius and Michael Skinner. In fact, he is the author of “Roger Klause in Concert” and “The Award Winning Magic of John Cornelius” and the webmaster of The Magic Pebble online forum and the host and organizer of Pebblepalooza, an annual close-up convention in Dallas, Texas He recognizes that the work we are doing today is only because of what we building on, which is the work of the early masters in our art.

This week, Lance talks about first meeting and becoming friends with Roger Klause, John Cornelius and Michael Skinner. He also discusses the development of The Magic Pebble and the close-up convention that became an outgrowth of that forum. Lanced has much advice to share that he freely offers in this podcast.

#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