653: Murray Christmas - Our Annual Visit with Murray Sawchuck

This is our eighth year of visiting with Celebrity Magician, Murray Sawchuck, in Las Vegas. He updates us on what’s been happening during 2021 in Las Vegas. During this past year Murray has been on the covers of VANISH and Genii magazines plus, most importantly, he got married this Fall in the historic Plaza Hotel and Casino in downtown Vegas. He continues to move magic forward as he maintains his residency at the Laugh Factor in the Tropicana plus a variety act in “Fantasy” at the Luxor. In addition to that, he also performs around the country for private engagements as well as comedy clubs and theaters. Watch for him when he comes to a venue near you!

Subscribe and watch our conversation with Murray this week on YouTube.

In this episode, Murray talks about the return of “live” shows and tourism and what shows have come and gone in Vegas in 2021 plus his defense of originating the locomotive vanish inside a theater which has been contested by The Illusionists and Copperfield. He also talks about how some shows are staying financially “in the black” due to the government grants due to the COVID payments and how and where these funds are being dispersed. He also gives some suggestions on what shows you should see when you travel to Las Vegas.

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#200 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Last year we brought you "The Night Before Christmas" read by a handful of popular magicians. It was so well received that I asked a few more guys (and gals) to read "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". See if you can pick out the voices of: Boris Wild, Bob Cassidy, Docc Hilford, Tim Ellis, Tim Trono, George Tait, Rocco Silano, Eric DeCamps, Mandy Farrell, Ice McDonald, Steven Bargatze, Marc Salem, Rick Merrill, Richard Osterlind and, as the Grinch, Eugene Burger.

As I attended several magic conventions over this past year, I took aside a few guys and gals to chat on the podcast. But many of the people graciously agreed to record something special just for this very special podcast. I hope you enjoy hearing their reading of this Doctor Seuss classic. This was one of the most difficult podcasts to edit and took the longest time to gather all the voices to do this one which ended up being one of the shortest ones, too.

This special podcast is my Christmas gift to you for listening for these past few years to the previous 199 podcasts. I wish all the best to you and yours for this holiday season.

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Magic & Martinis Thursday...with the Grinch!

149: Day 3 - East Coast Mind Jam 2014

Day Three of the East Coast Mind Jam was a little off schedule due to a travel problem for Marc Salem from England. But the day began with an interesting lecture by Joe Atmore on The Amazing Dunninger. that included some fun, old videos from Dunninger's television show It didn't hurt that Joe bought a few dozen doughnuts from Dunkin' Donuts to entice better attendance at this early hour. After lunch we were visited by Tony Spina. Eric Citron, organizer of the Mind Jam, presented a "Lifetime Achievement in Magic Award" to Tony followed by several people who gave testimonials and recollections of their time with Tony.

This flowed directly into a special edition of "Now You See It with Scott Wells", a talk show that featured magicians from the weekend: George Tait (Patrick Redford), Joe Atmore, Ted Karmilovich, Bill Gladwell and Richard Osterlind. This took us right up to the time when Marc Salem arrived. The stage was struck and Marc began his one man show. That followed with his lecture that included some explanations of tricks from his working repertoire.

I apologize for the buzzing sound in this podcast but the microphone was near speaker which had an annoying buzz that I could not take out. Time stamps for this podcast:

00:01:24 - Tony Spina, former owner of Tannen's Magic, accepts an award plus several people tell stories of their influence by Tony.

00:17:57 - "Now You See It With Scott Wells" with George Tait up first.

00:30:50 - Joe Atmore tells some great stories about working with Uri Geller

00:4:41 - Ted Karmilovich talks about performing at a casino

00:53:30 - Bill Gladwell chats about how he got his one man show in Gatlinburg, Tennessee

00:58:30 - Richard Osterlind recounts a story about David Copperfield

01:06:03 - everyone on the couch tells their story of a highlight performance from their careers.