783: Dana Daniels - Disney Deceptionist

Dana Daniels was one of the famous Long Beach Mystics when he was growing up in California and later found a career with Disney at Disneyland where he took on many roles before ending up in the Golden Horseshoe. In recent years, he and his bird, Luigi, have enjoyed the Hawaiian lifestyle as performers at Warren & Annabelle’s, a magic dinner theater in Lahiana, Maui, Hawaii.

As many of you know, a fire ravaged the island and destroyed homes and businesses across the island wreaking havoc, death and devastation. One of the businesses that was affected was Warren & Annabelle’s which burned to the ground. Warren Gibson, owner of the club, has started a Go-Fund-Me which is set up to financially assist the families of employees who have lost their jobs, homes, and everything. You can visit the Go-Fund-Me site by Clicking Here. Please help if you can with any amount of financial support you can give.

This week Dana talks about his magic roots as he joined the Long Beach Mystics and how they supported and helped him grow to the success he is today. He also talks extensively about his time at Disney and how his career careened and veered into many areas. Finally, Dana wraps up this episode talking about his involvement with Warren & Annabelle’s. This episode was recorded just 24 hours before news broke about the devastating fire, so it is timely and appropriate that you listen to his excitement and fondness for the club where he expected to work indefinitely.

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767: Randy Wakeman - I've Been Around for a Long, Long Years

Randy Wakeman has been around for many decades and was often seen lecturing and performing at magic conventions. Nonetheless, I have always seen him as an “underground” magician who appeals to the true sleight-of-hand experts. He is one of those guys who has “been there, done that, has the t-shirt” as he was one of the regular performers about the Chicago Bar Magic Scene before the turn of the last century. He has written several books on magic (card magic mostly) and is still relevant in our community as a performer, teacher and author.

While at the recent Senior Tour close-up convention in St. Louis, The Magic Word spoke with Randy as part of the convention report content. He was preparing for a workshop, so we didn’t get a chance to go in-depth as I had wanted. But we agreed to get together at the 4F convention in Buffalo a couple months later. True to his word, we sat down to complete our chat which results in this episode. The content of our chat in both places was a little disjunctive, so the editing required us to put the second conversation first then plug in the chat in St. Louis and finish with our talk while in Buffalo. This sounds more confusing that it actually is, but I know you will understand and enjoy our chat.

707: Lorenzo Clark - Funny Guy

Lorenzo Clark has been keeping America laughing for decades. From Las Vegas to comedy clubs to cruise ships, Lorenzo has spread joy and happiness wherever he goes. And with life experiences that he has had, this week he shares many of his real life tales from his vast life story. Lorenzo currently performs at Alexis Park in Las Vegas as part of a variety show, The Big Little Variety Show. Be sure to check it out on your next trip to Sin City.

Lorenzo Clark and I have known each other since we worked together at Houston’s Magic Island in the 1980’s when he was known as Larry Clark. In this week’s episode he talks about his name change, his many years on the comedy club and cruise ship circuits plus fun and funny stories from his vast experience and “unusual” friends.