900: Dan Sperry - The Anti-Conjuror

With this episode we celebrate the 900th episode of The Magic Word Podcast. Every 50 episodes we like to present a special guest who is well known throughout our worldwide magic community. And who better for this episode than Dan Sperry. He was a regular member of The Illusionists who toured the major stages of the world from Sydney, Australia, to Broadway in New York City. He has headlined in nightclubs, Las Vegas casinos, and performing arts theaters. For many years he has appeared on Masters of Illusion television show as well as many other TV shows. Now residing in Florida, he continues to travel the globe, but when at home, he enjoys (believe it or not) performing for children’s birthday parties.

In this week’s episode, Dan shares his story of how he developed his act and his character. He tells us about his early journey as he worked with doves and learned from some of the true masters like Joseph Gabriel that developed into a residency at a casino in Las Vegas. He toured Canada with Murray Hatfield as he honed his dove act and began to settle into his Shock Illusionist persona. He also talks about developing his talking act that led to work with the Illusionists and television appearances.

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644: Joseph Gabriel - A Bird In Hand

Multi-Award winning Broadway illusionist, Joseph Gabriel, single-handedly changed the face of magic with his iconic sleight-of-hand performance when he appeared on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” for the first time. Joseph is known for his signature style of producing various exotic birds and is equally adept at large-scale illusions, mentalism, and comedy audience participation. Soon after his appearance on “The Tonight Show”, Joseph began headlining in lavish Las Vegas review shows, such as the “Lido de Paris” at the Stardust Hotel and “City Lites” at the Flamingo where he headlined for nine years.

In this week’s episode, Joseph talks about the importance of “being so good, they can’t ignore you,” to quote Steve Martin. He has developed his own style of performing and talks about his journey where good things in his career kept happening, including his two year association with the Peruvian legend, Richiardi. In addition to his work with birds, he is also an accomplished artist and maker/performer of marionettes.

This week in magic, one of the highlights in our community was the “Las Vegas wedding of year” of Murray Sawchuck and Dani Elizabeth.

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..If you have a Spotify account, then you can also hear us through that app, too. You can also listen through your Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here

482: Les Arnold - More Inspired

Les Arnold has one of the funniest magic parody acts on the scene today. He works with his daughter (known as “Dazzle”) and has appeared four times on “Masters of Illusion” TV show (to date). Les was one of the early members of the legendary “Long Beach Mystics” in Long Beach, California and was a shop teacher until retirement when he converted his part time job as a performer to full time. During his formative years, Les built many illusions and developed his stage act today known as Les Arnold and Dazzle.

You can catch Les Arnold appearing at the Magic Collectors Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 20-22, 2019 and also at the I.B.M. Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona on July 10-13, 2019.

Les Arnold and Dazzle Full Act on Masters of Illusion

Time Stamps for this podcast:

00:02:50 - Les Arnold talks about his early beginnings with the Long Beach Mystics, how he developed his act “Les Arnold and Dazzle” act with his daughter, and how he keeps focused on what material works best for his character/act.

01:05:23 - Product Review: “Mint-O” from Vanishing, Inc. - a mint (Lifesaver or Polo circular mint) magically penetrates onto the cord of a set of headphone. Very visual with three different methods. Recommended.

01:08:00 - Product Review: “Snapped” from the Other Brothers - wrapped candy (i.e. Airheads, Hershey bar, etc. - some flat, wrapped candy) automatically, quickly and visually vanishes behind your wallet, deck of cards or other similarly sized item. Recommended.

01:10:40 - Product Review: “Fully Automatic Card Trick (FACT)” by Caleb Wiles - A seriously, fully automatic card trick that the volunteer does in his hands. There are instruction cards in the deck that the volunteer will follow to make this a “hands off” trick for the magician. It will take time to remember the set-up, but highly recommended.

Visit our store and consider purchasing your online magic from The Magic Word and help support the podcast.

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. If you have a Spotify account, then you can also hear us through that app, too. You can also listen through your Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here