791: Greg Frewin - Lions and Tigers and Birds, Oh My!

Greg Frewin is an award winning magician who has had a long and successful career, having once teamed up with Jason Byrne when they both had bird acts to currently performing in his own venue, “The Greg Frewin Theatre” in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. He has appeared on dozens of television shows around the world and Las Vegas showrooms, too. He has even given a Royal Command Performance for Prince Rainier of Monte Carlo. He used to perform with big cats in his grand illusion show, which he is slowly turning over to his apprentice, Christian Mascia.

In this episode, Greg talks about his long and storied career that has taken him around the world on cruise ships, casino showrooms and Royal Command Performances that have won him accolades like First Place for the I.B.M., S.A.M. and FISM. He chats about working with birds and why he started working with large cats until he decided to retire that act. And speaking of retiring, he is slowly going into semi-retirement as he is turning over the reins to his theatre to Christian Mascia, whom we also talk to in this episode.

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790: Steve Valentine - Quiet Confidence

Actor and Magician, Steve Valentine joins us this week to chat about something that is in the news: the actors/screen writers strike. As an actor, it directly affects Steve and he tells us what it is that the union is asking from from the studios. In the meantime, everyone is having to depend upon alternate streams of revenue while the industry is shut down until…well, who knows when. But the stakes are high and not only affect people like Steve, but also the movie and streaming viewing audience. Steve has appeared as a regular on the TV show, “Crossing Jordan” as well as in Robert Zemeckis films such as “The Walk” among other television bit parts over the years. Some of his television appearances include “House,” “Monk,” “Will & Grace,” and “Psych” just to name a few. He is also a regular performer at the Magic Castle and star of his own one-man show, “Life and Other Deceptions.” Steve has been featured on the cover of nearly every English speaking magic magazine in the world.

This is the Snoop Dogg video that Steve Valentine alluded to in this week’s podcast.

Steve talks at length about the importance of what the writers and actors are striking for and how it impacts the viewers, too. Steve talks about his career and how he had to separate his magic life from his acting life in order to succeed in Hollywood. He chats about how his one-man show is all about his life and career. He also discusses his “Magic on the Run” which he started during COVID and now has over 900 videos online that you can subscribe to by Clicking Here.

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.