807: Kerry Pollock - Wireless Wizard

Kerry Pollock came into magic and comedy in a very interesting way. With a background in engineering, he developed a professional act as he created so many products that are now used by top professionals. He is the “go to guy” when magicians need something different and all original. He is also the creator of the game show “Bonk.” Kerry now owns and manages his own comedy club called “Comedy Magic Cabaret” in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Wow, is this week’s episode full! Kerry tells stories from his years of working at Houston’s Magic Island in the 1980’s when he created “Kate & Edith” to creating magical effects for Warren & Annabelle’s in Lahaina, Hawaii, to other electronic creations made for private homes (like Giovanni Livera and Bruce Averbook as well as magic celebrities like Mac King) to what he’s doing in his comedy club in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

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 Pandora and SiriusXM (formerly 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

215: Brad Henderson, the Esoteric Escamoteur - Part One, Magic As Art

Brad Henderson spends a lot of time thinking about the "art" of magic and how to present it as such. He is well-known in our community as a trick reviewer, magic historian, professional mentalist, author of "The Dance", Mystery School staff member, and curator of the Richard Garriott magic collection.

I have known Brad for many years and although we only live about 259 miles apart (he in Austin and I in Houston...Texas is a big State) we rarely have time to sit down and talk...I mean really talk. So this time when I recently visited Austin (where I was the auctioneer for the annual Austin Magic Auction and Brad was a guest auctioneer), I made time to sit down with him and chat. I'm glad we did because I was able to capture "lightning in a bottle" with this podcast. There was so much covered in our chat that I decided to divide it into two parts so you, the listener (and I), can more easily digest the incredible volume and depth of the material, and perhaps come back for a second listen.

In this first of this two part podcast, our discussion focuses on magic as an art and how we should aspire to make every performance an art and not be a "hack" performing tricks for the sake of the trick. He is an advocate and believer that our performances should be about emotion and creating memorable experiences. This is a rather deep and theoretical discussion that may not be for everyone in that it contains neither trick explanations or stories. But the content is gold. I will suggest you listen for a great performing tip on Kerry Pollock's "Kate and Edith" that is worth the price of admission.

Reach thousands of listeners with your ad on The Magic Word. It could even be embedded into each podcast! Contact Scott Wells for more information at Scott at TheMagicWordPodcast dot com or click the banner above to send a mail request.

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

#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.

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. (please note: this RSS Feed subscription system may not work with Android systems). Remember, you can download it through iTunes. See the preview page by Clicking Here.