739: Mark Merchant - A Man of Many Voices

Arguably, ventriloquism may be a performing art longer than magic. Both can be traced back to Egyptian and Hebrew archeology. And some might say that some of the “patter” might be just as old! This week Mark Merchant talks about his 40+ year career as a ventriloquist and how it evolved. We are living in a world where audiences are more sensitive than ever before when it comes to humor. It only takes one person’s opinions and comments to dominate and possibly obliterate one’s profession. Social acceptance isn’t what it used to be.

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

In this week’s episode, Mark Merchant talks about his career and how he has “walked the tightrope” of controversy with his puppets and the scripting for his culturally and politically diverse vent figures. He shares stories and opinions regarding using humor that potentially offends today’s audiences and how he avoids those traps.

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251: Day One - T.A.O.M. Convention 2015

The first Day of TAOM 2015 was only a few hours long, but what a few hours it was! If you are anywhere near Austin, then you should get here immediately! This has been a great day to kick off another great convention. Thirteen dealers from around the world (from Germany to Oregon and Japan to Ft. Worth, Texas) we have it all. The afternoon kicked off with a nice dealer's show followed by an outstanding lecture by Jay Scott Berry.

the evening Masters of magic evening show was hosted by Robert Baxt and featured Ken Scott, John Carney, Paprika, Bob Fitch, Mark Merchant and Peter Samelson. After the show, Peter Samelson gave a lecture followed by another lecture from Randi Rain. Then Brian Brushwood presented "Scam School Live" with some guests from previous episodes making guest appearances like David Rangel and Diamond Jim Tyler.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:11 - Scott and Don Wiberg (Past International President of the IBM) talk in the car about the upcoming convention. This is Don Wiberg's first TAOM convention.

00:06:11 - President, Trixie Bond talks a bit about her expectations for the convention and some of the surprises in store for registrants.

00:09:47 - Oscar Munoz and Ken Scott talk about school shows and library shows and how they differ.

00:18:52 - Fumio Inagaki, seven time winner of TAOM's Comdy Award, talks about his invention of the bar code (UPC) gag.

00:29:40: - Walter "Zaney" Blaney has had a long road to completing his dream of building the perfect vanishing bird cage. Here you can hear his woes that will hopefully end with good news soon.

00:50:44 - Ventriloquist Mark Merchant talks about being topical in his scripting that makes him asuccess on cruise ships

010:58:55 - Mandy Nicot tells us about the surprise wedding she and Roger had at the FFFF convention earlier this year.

01:01:21: Brian Brushwood is the podcaster for Scam School and host of Life Hackers on the discovery Channel. He is also more than just a close friend. Brian is like one of my own children. Find out why in this chat..

A Daily News Blog for Magicians capturing the magic news from around the world and putting it at your fingertips.

#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.

739: Mark Merchant - A Man of Many Voices

251: Day One - T.A.O.M. Convention 2015

#200 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Magic & Martinis Thursday...with the Grinch!

The Magic Word