732: Mac King and Joel Hodgson - Comedy Giants

Lightning in a bottle. I don’t know how else to describe what we experienced in this week’s episode. While at Abbott’s Get Together in Colon, Michigan, this past year we sat down for a chat with the dual winners of the Senator Crandall Comedy Award, Mac King and Joel Hodgson. All of you know Mac King as the longest running comedy headliner in Las Vegas. And many of you might know Joel Hodgson as the creator of “Mystery Science Theater” TV show, but fewer of you might remember him as a comedy magic performer having appeared on Saturday Night Live among many other television appearances.

Mac and Joel split the Sen. Crandall Comedy Award at the 1989 Abbott’s Get Together so it was funny (no pun intended) that it happened again in 2022. There career paths began as comedy magicians but both took dramatically different directions with their careers, Mac going to Las Vegas and Joel pursuing television. In this week’s episode they reflect on their humble beginnings in the early days of comedy clubs and how they developed their talents that led to their separate and successful careers. There is a lot of talent and advice packed into this episode.

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617: U.K. Kid Show Magicians

Kids are kids the world over and they all love magic. But there are some subtle differences in how and where magic is presented to children in the U.S. versus how it's done in the U.K. This week we chat with family and children show entertainers from the U.K. about these differences and some of their challenges (i.e. taking the tube and/or train in London between shows) and how they brand themselves by using memorable names for their characters.

Listen this week to our chat with Martin "Mr. Biscuit" Cox, Dave "Magic Dave" Allen and Paul "Colonel Custard" Megram as we hear how it's done "across the pond."

This week’s podcast episode on YouTube.

This week, Paul Megram, Dave Allen and Martin Cox represent a small sample of the complex and multi-levels of children’s show magicians in England. Someone could easily make a podcast devoted to just the kid show industry in the U.K. by featuring a different entertainer each week, but that’s not what The Magic Word Podcast is about. So please enjoy this 35,000 foot (or 10,668 meters) overview of this lucrative industry and accept our apologies if we have left out you as a guest or topics that you think we should have discussed.

Martin Cox at 2018 Blackpool Convention

A big "THANK YOU" goes out to Martin Cox who sent in his report from the largest magic convention in the world, Blackpool Magic Convention in Blackpool, England. In this Un-Numbered, Special Edition, he roams around the Winter Garden through the Dealer's Hall and elsewhere grabbing some conversations with dealers, registrants, organizers and talent. This gives you a pretty good feel of what went on during this event.