928: T.A.O.M. 2025 Convention Report from Dallas, Texas

Friday, August 29, 2025

4:00 PM TAOM Board Meeting

6:00 PM Dinner Buffet

8:00 PM Dealer Exhibition

12:00 AM Midnight Madness

Saturday, August 30,2025

8:00 AM Breakfast

9:30 AM Lecture

11:00 AM Lecture

12:30 PM Lunch

2:00 PM Lecture

4:00 PM lecture

6:30 PM TAOM General Meeting and Memoriam

7:00 PM Picnic BBQ Dinner Buffet

8:00 PM A Night of Prestidigitation

9:30 PM TAOM 2026 Convention and Swearing in of New TAOM Officers

10:00 PM Midnight Madness

Time Stamps for this episode:

00:00:17 – announcement of winners from recent contest for the book “Practicing the Art of Magic” who were: Gary Weimer, Gary Freidrich, George Reis, Nicholas Nardi, Alison Homburger, and Greg Youngs.

00:02:46 – Kent Cummins joins me in the car drive to Dallas for the convention as we talk about our expectations and Kent’s experiences of past conventions.

00:16:37 – Eric Hogue is the President of this year’s event and he tells us what to expect and some of the challenges he has had over the past year in planning this.

00:25:54 – Clark May, owner of the Rabbit in Hat magic shop in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. This is his first T.A.O.M. convention and he tells us why it’s taken so long to get here.

00:37:11 – From South Africa, Trevor Duffy joins us to talk about his nationwide lecture tour. He is a dealer at this convention.

00:47:02 – a brief overview of what happened so far, then we talk with John Carter who is an avid magic collector and was one of the people to helped Chip Romero put together the Doug Henning exhibit at MAGIC Live! He tells us about that experience.

00:54:38 – more updates on what the morning brought us. Scott Hollingsworth, Entertainment Director of Houston’s Magic Island, who brings us up to date on the October 1st opening of the Magic Island.

01:03:14 – Gene Protas will be the T.A.O.M. President for 2026 who already has the talent planned and everything else you need to know like hotel, registration, and more.

01:08:37 – Now Past President, Eric Hogue and Scott wraps up the convention as Eric tells us how he felt the day went for him.

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436: Current Events

Lots of has been stuff that has been happening over the past few weeks. This week I try to cover a lot of it including my four week road trip (3,200 miles, eight states, 50 driving hours and visiting hundreds of friends) including a visit to a new brick and mortar magic shop. This past week was also the international competitions of FISM in South Korea. So this week we also chat with Stuart MacDonald who competed in General Magic and paced eighth in the world (first among U.S. competitors).

Penn & Teller Fool Us Stuart MacDonald #PennandTellerFoolUs season 4. More videos on his channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/StuMagic/videos

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:16 - I talk a little about his 3,000 mile road trip from Houston, Texas to Illinois to Michigan to Wisconsin to Oklahoma then back again. I call it my REBIRTH TOUR: over 3,200 miles, eight states, 50 hours on the road, and visits with dozens of family and friends, old and new. Each one helped me through the grieving process after my wife's passing. BTW, Kathy Wells joined me on this trip, too. I carried her ashes in the car with me for the trip.

First I drove straight for 14 hours in one day from Houston to Central Illinois to visit my mother-in-law and my wife's family where I mixed some of Kathy's ashes with her father's. I then drove to nearby Champaign, IL to see Andy Dallas and record a podcast from his magic shop.

Then it was on to Chicago to spend time with Don Wiberg and recorded a podcast about the Chicago Magic Round table members. Of course, a trip to Chicago had to include a trip to Magic, Inc. and saw Pedro Nieves Bosque, Ryan Plunkett and Lion Fludd. Don Wiberg and then over to the new Chicago Magic Lounge where I was given a first class tour by John Sturk and saw my friend, Jeff Bibik work behind the bar. Don and I then saw an entertaining one-man show by David London.

From Chicago I set my car towards Grand Rapids, Michigan with a side trip to Albanese Chocolate Factory in Indiana. Lots of great magic and friends at the IBM Convention in Grand Rapids too numerous to mention. But it was great seeing friends who supported me and gave me a hug, which I sorely needed.

After the convention it was back to Chicago and a visit with my fraternity brother and a groomsmen from my wedding 43 years ago, Jack Petersen and his wife, Linda Geeve Petersen. The following day I drove to the Wisconsin Dells to see a fantastic theater and show by my friend, Rick Wilcox and his wife Susan.

After lovely breakfast with the Wilcoxes (and a scone recipe from Susan), I drove to Oklahoma for a great visit with Doug Anderson and his wife Patti Beth. I then took a morning drive to nearby Tulsa to have lunch with Steve Lancaster. Before leaving Oklahoma, Doug took me to the small village of Locust Grove where Clark B. May operates the Rabbit in Hat Magic Shop and Theater.

From Oklahoma, I traveled to Dallas to visit with my son, Nick Wells, Jamie Wells and my grand daughters. Then after a few days, it was time to return to Houston.

I want to sincerely thank all of my friends and family for opening their doors and hearts to welcome me and help me on this "Rebirth Tour". I feel refreshed and ready to take on the world again. Lots of great stuff coming up for which I am truly thankful for and know it will be nothing but good!

00:06:16 - Clark B. May talks about his new brick and mortar magic shop in Locust Grove, Oklahoma and his plans for opening a theater in the back and a restaurant, too.

00:33:22 - Stuart MacDonald just returned from competing in the world championships (FISM) in Busan, South Korea where he ranked eighth in the world. He talks about preparing for the competition and his experience at FISM.

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 or through iHeart Radio by Clicking Here.. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here

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