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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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.

516: 2019 T.A.O.M. Update Days Three & Four

Schedule of Events - September 1

7AM-8:30AM Invisible Lodge

8AM-9AM Gospel Magic Church Meeting

9AM-10AM TAOM General Meeting

9AM-6PM Registration

9AM-6PM Dealers Open

9AM-11AM TAOM Magic Camp

10AM-6PM 2020 Registration

10AM-11AM Order of Willard Breakfast

11:30AM-12:30PM David Charvet Lecture

12:30PM-1:30PM Lunch

1:30PM-3:30PM Pro Close-Up Show

4PM-5PM Stuart MacDonald Lecture

5PM-7PM Dinner

7PM-9PM Show at the Magik Theatre

10PM-11PM Bizarre Panel Talk

Schedule of Events - September 2

9AM-12PM 2020 Registration

9AM-12PM Dealers Open

10AM-11:30AM Carol Massie Lecture

Time Stamps for this Podcast:

00:01:50 Kent Cummins talks to the “Order of Willard” group at breakfast about the Fun ‘n Magic Shoppe in San Antonio and its proprietor, Louis Berkie.

00:30:00 - Dal Sanders recently received an Award of Merit from the Academy of Magical Arts for his work on getting a bill passed recognizing magic as an art. In this conversation, Dal gives us an update on what has been done and what yet needs to be done.

00:38:14 - Jay Zugai won the comedy award and was surprised since he had entered the close-up contest. But he was so funny that they split him out to award him in that category.

00:43:05 - Nick Lewin was the evening show’s emcee and talks about his experience on the evening show that ran three and a half hours.

00:49:02 - Stuart MacDonald performed two different stage routines, one close-up show and a full lecture.

01:00:50 - Oscar Munoz was one of the stand-out hits of the Sunday night’s show.

01:09:18 - David Deeble talks about getting through a technically challenging show in a professional way and coming out on “the other side” as another of the stand-out hits of the evening show

01:22:29 - Jamie Salinas and Scott are on the drive home and give a wrap-up of the convention