741: Steve Aldrich - A Long Strange Trip

This episode is dedicated to those who remember the past and for those who want to learn more about our rich history. This week we travel back in time in our Grateful Dead VW bus and visit with magician and co-founder of the Foan Family Circus, Steve Aldrich. It was a simpler time when magicians were experimenting with new presentations and popular music of the time. It was at the height of Doug Henning’s popularity who was considered by some as a “Hippie Magician”.

Steve Aldrich also performed magic at the famed Tower Bar in Snowmass at a time when Doc Eason was still a waiter Steve and his band of merry men (and a woman) surprised and entertained magicians with their “tongue in cheek” original presentations of their “Foan Family Circus” at many magic conventions during the late 1970’s to early 1980’s. So what happened to the group? That and more will be the topic of discussion in this week’s episode.

If you are more of a visual person, then you will enjoy this video of our conversation recorded via Zoom.

Steve talks this week about the formation of the Foan Family Circus, their original presentations and music, their performances at magic conventions (one of which won them the Senator Crandall Comedy Award at Abbott’s Get Together), plus the origins of magic at the Tower Bar starting with Bob Sheets then passed down to Steve Aldrich and Steve Spill.

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434: 2018 I.B.M. Convention - Day Four Update

Saturday July 7, 2018

8 AM Merlin Breakfast (Ticket Required)

9 AM - 1 PM 2019 Pre-Registration Opens

9 AM - 5 PM Dealer's Room Open

9:30 AM - 11 AM Big Three Event - (BLUE LANYARDS)

9:30 AM - 11 AM Big Three Event - (GREEN LANYARDS)

9:30 AM - 11 AM Big Three Event - (RED LANYARDS)

11 AM - 12 NOON Lance Burton Teen Scene # 3

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Lecture - Larry Wilson

1 PM - 2 PM Lecture - Patrick Martin

3 PM - 4 PM Lecture - Jeff McBride

7 PM - 7:30 PMI.B.M. Contest Awards

8 PM - 9:30 PM Grand Finale Show

10:15 PM Farwell Party

11:45 PMJ eff McBride Special Workshop
Extra Cost Event

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:02:20- Dr. Larry Hass, Dean of the Mystery School, speaks to the members of the Order of Merlin (those with 25 or more years of consecutive membership in the I.B.M.) about lessons learned from Eugene Burger

00:14:42 - International President, Michael Finney, talks about what he plans to do during his presidency in the next year

00:32:48 - Past international President of the I.B.M. and Contest chairman, Oscar Munoz, talks about the importance of entering contests.

00:47:05 - Patrick Martin was one of the lecturers who was featured at this convention and he talks about working the corporate market.

01:03:02 - Robert Purcell talks about what it's like for a "first timer" because this is his first magic convention

01:11:36 - Kayla Drescher was a featured performer as one of the "Big Three" Events

01:16:17 - Larry Wilson (our emcee for the evening show0 returns to talk about one of his early TV specials

01:29:18 - a listing of the contest winners and a wrap of the convention

Contest Winners:

Stage Adult: Gold Medal, First Place and People's Choice - Zhou Zhou and Yuan Yuan; Award of Merit: Sebak

Stage Youth: First Place - Red Star; Award of Merit - Luna; Fantasma Award - Theo Chattra

Close-Up Adult: Erik Tait; Award of Merit - Chong Huang; People's Choice and Obie's Four F Award: Chris Quinero

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335: Howard Hamburg - Voices from the Past

Howard Hamburg has been around a long time...a very long time. And he has conferred with and confided in the some of the legends of our magical art. You name them, and Howard has a true, first hand story about them. Howard brings history alive with his marvelous stories of personal relationships with legendary magicians. There are some great stories in here and some performance tips along the way, too. At the beginning of this podcast, Howard talks about his attendance at "Escorial" in El Escorial, Spain which is an invitation-only card magic convention hosted by Juan Tamariz.

A spectator places ANY 2 face-up spot cards on the table the magician removes a joker from his deck and places it face up onto the table as well. The performer mentions that the number 7 is considered a lucky number among Americans, the number 8 is considered a lucky number by the Chinese, but 13 is the performer's lucky number for certain cards in the deck.