546: Christian Engblom - Welcome to My Table

Christian Engblom joined me along with Chip Romero, Caesar Trujillo and Rob Greenlee late one night in my backyard sipping martinis and smoking cigars. The ambiance was perfect and the conversation was epic. Christian shared some of his philosophy on magic and Chip talked about his cruise experiences and shared philosophy. Christian talked about Juan Tamaiz and Dani DaOrtiz and Chip talked about Doug Henning. It was a fun conversation where you feel you are right in the conversation with us. So pull up a chair and enjoy this episode. I know you’ll learn something, too!

Christian talks about developing his “Anti-Faro” shuffle, performing on “Penn & Teller Fool Us”, and Chip Romero talks about Doug Henning and cruise ships.

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Magic & Martinis Thursday - Aug. 22, 2013

The "after-glow" of MAGIC Live! continued this week as I slowly came back to reality. It really was a fun convention, but like most of these events, it's the friends, both new and old, that make a convention truly magical. I was so pleased and flattered that so many people from around the world listened to my daily podcasts. Steve Bryant gave us a nice "shout out" on his August update of Little Egypt Gazette. And there was some nice "buzz" on the Genii Forum, too. But I was surprised to see the nice link from Hanno Rhomberg from Germany on his Blog. I can't read German, but I think it's complimentary. :) Thanks, guys.

And while we're on compliments, I was blown away by a recent email from John Graybeal. I don't think he would mind me re-posting this:

"My two kids just competed in the Midwest Magic Jubilee in St. Louis this past weekend. My daughter won 3rd place (She is 6) and my son did equally as well (he is 9). Both in stage magic. They were amazing!

"I will tell you this, if it was not for your podcast and information we would have never even thought about going to a convention and competing. After your show about the movie "Make Believe" (which I knew nothing about until then) we watched it and both my kids wanted to get on stage!

"Thanks again!"

First of all, congratulations to John's two children. And secondly...WOW, thanks for the email, John. It is due to comments and encouraging links like these that keep me going with this podcast. Well, that and the Magic & Martinis Thursday :) It was particularly appreciated last night because of their "relaxing quality" that I needed following my hand surgery earlier that morning. I had surgery on my right hand for carpal tunnel syndrome which is why it is taking me longer to type in this week's update because I have to "hunt and peck" on the keyboard.

Anyway, next week we will be packing for the annual Texas Association of Magicians (T.A.O.M.) convention in Dallas. Watch and listen for updates from Dallas next Friday. Until then...Cheers!

On The Magic Word website with my iPad and on Dan & Dave's new "Ultimate Deck"

T.A.O.M. Photos from Day 3

Day two was pretty much a lot of lectures so I didn't get many photos, but Day three provided some great shots. I caught Dani DaOrtiz and Christian Engbloom holding court at their booth with a horde of magicians packed around just to watch Dani work.

The professsional close-up show was a real treat and as good or better of a line-up of performers that I have ever seen at a convention: Eric Jones, Chad Long, Mark Mason, Christian Engbloom, Paul Wilson and Chris Korn.

Mark Mason and Chad Long received standing ovations. This picutre below was Chad's.

The T.A.O.M. convention was not the only convention going on in the Hilton Americas Hotel over the Labor Day weekend. The Miss Texas pageant was also happening on one of the other floors. PJ Campagna hosted one of the rooms for the Professional Close-Up Shows. She and Joy Miller gave us a funny moment during a break in the close-up action.

The late night lectures after the evening stage show started off with Michael Weber who gave us several clever ideas for both close-up and stage plus some cool mentalism tricks, too.