697: FISM Quebec 2022 - Day Two Report

Tuesday July 26th 2022

8:15-11:00 - Stage Contest
12:30 - 14:30: Close-up Contest

8:30 - 9:30: Jay Sankey

10:30 - 11:30: Banachek

8:00 - 9:00: Tobias Beckwith

10:00 - 11:00: Jim Steinmeyer

12:00 - 13:00: Dani DaOrtiz

16:30 - 17:30: Banachek Lecture about James Rand

16:30 - 17:30: Paul Gertner

18:30 - 19:30 Jeff McBride

19:00 - 20:00: Jay Sankey

19:00 - 20:00: Luis De Matos Intimate Conversation with Max Maven

22:30 - 23:30: Max Maven presents David Ben - Tribute to Dai Vernon

23:00 - 0:00: Yann Frisch

15:00 - 19:30: FISM General Assembly

22:00 - 1:00: Workshop / Dani DaOrtiz

23:30 - 0:30: Alexandra Duvivier

Time stamps for this episode:

00:00:16 - Stage competition has just started and we open with a chat with Erika Larsen fro the Academy of Magical Arts. She talks about the Magic Castle, her parents, and her upcoming talk during FISM. She also gives us an update on the Magic Castle movie.

00:05:42 - Richard Hatch just arrived and tells us his “contrarian” viewpoint of the previous evening’s show plus his stage picks from the first of five days of competitions.

00:15:17 - Charles Greene III talks a bit about his recent book, “Ionia”

00:21:59 -Mike Segal is in the dealer’s room and welcomes us to his country, Canada, who is hosting this year’s FISM.

00:24:48 - Yigal Mesika talks about his most recent dealers’ items.

00:29:50 - Bob Fitch talks a bit about the differences between coaching and teaching plus some of the points he teaches in workshops and was recounted in our podcast HERE.

00:39:30 - Marc DeSouza gives us a little “color” on the stage and close-up contests.

00:57:12 - Pit Hartling, from Canada, chats about his vacation here in Canada prior to FISM.

01:00:15 - Long time friend from Canada, Bob Farmer, and Scott get caught up after not seeing each other for over a decade.

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400: David Berglas - International Man of Mystery, Part One

David Berglas has an affect on me.

Okay, that is corny. But it is true that he has influenced and inspired more magicians and mentalists in the world than can be counted. Not only has he changed how we look at magic, David Berglas has significantly changed magic on television.

The BBC called him the “Godfather of TV Magic”. Born in 1926, Berglas escaped to Britain from Nazi Germany at age 11. He first became interested in Magic in his 20’s and studied psychotherapy at university before becoming a professional magician in 1952. His groundbreaking TV show in 1986, “The Mind of David Berglas” paved the way for all others to follow up to this very day. He is the author of several books including, "The Berglas Effects" and "The Mind & Magic of David Berglas", among others. And he is an multiple award winner of several prestigious organizations and is the Past President of The Magic Circle.

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I was part of a momentous meeting organized by Spyros Melaris in 2002 when he arranged a dinner meeting with David Berglas and his wife, Ruth, with Banachek and his wife, Heidi, and me and my wife, Kathy. It was a wonderful, memorable dinner with Banachek sharing his spoon bending to David and magic talk late into the evening. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, no photos of that evening exist except those in our minds.

It was at that first meeting that we all became good friends and I am glad that we could get together again for this podcast where David talks about his beginnings in magic, work both in front of and behind the cameras on television and film, plus lots of stories about celebrated names of magicians, most of whom are long since passed.

Magicians' Valhalla

Although the list below is not exhaustive nor in any particular order, it does reflect the names of many well-known (and some lesser known) magicians, spouses and assistants who passed on in 2017. Some may not be as well-known to you, but they were my personal friends (hey, it is my blog!). If you are unfamiliar with any of these names, then it would behoove you to do a little online search of what these people have contributed to our craft. If you have someone you think was overlooked, then please post the name in the comments below on this blog.

Those whose names are highlighted were featured or interviewed here on The Magic Word Podcast. You can click on their name to revisit and listen to their voices again. David Oliver put together a video of some names and dates of passing of these (and others) in a YouTube video. Click Here to see that video.

Phil Messina

Daryl Easton (Martinez)

Bob Cassidy

Jim Zachary

Ed Thomas

Jessica “Shedini” Moore

George Kovari, Jr.

"Chuck" Kirchner

John Moehring

Eugene Burger

Tom Jones

Eddie Gibson

"Fast" Eddie Silverman

Kenneth Silverman

Paul Diamond

Peter Diamond

Steve Baker

Kevin King

Celeste Evans

Tim Glancey

Ian Ogilvy

Trevor Dawson

James Hamilton

Mike O’Dowd

Bill McIlhany

Michael Giles

Harold Greenbaum

Philip Morris

Ray Goulet

Lee Delano

Fantasio (Ricardo Roucau).

Deanna Shimada

Heidi Larsen

Johnny Fox

Happy New Year! I've got mine. Have you ordered yours yet? Click on the graphic above to visit Amazon.com and purchase your 2018 calendar while helping supprt The Magic Word Podcast. Or you can Click Here.to visit the Amazon.com site for more inform… — Happy New Year! I've got mine. Have you ordered yours yet? Click on the graphic above to visit Amazon.com and purchase your 2018 calendar while helping supprt The Magic Word Podcast. Or you can Click Here.to visit the Amazon.com site for more information. Thank you and Happy Holidays!

262: Just One Thing with Bob Fitch

Bob Fitch is well known among those who know him well. Of course that is meant to be tongue-in-cheek as of course Bob is a man of many hats...and he wears them all extremely well: actor, director, magician, singer and dancer. A show business legend himself, Bob has appeared in theatrical presentations including: "Funny Things Happened On The Way To The Forum", Will Roger's Follies, Annie, Mack & Mabel, Mame, and many more. He has worked or directed many of the famous celebrities including Liza Minnelli, Steve Martin, Carol Channing, Katherine Hepburn, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Carol Burnette, Whoopi Goldberg, just to name a very few.

But among magicians, he is known for his series of three Topit videos and his work with the Fitch Kohler Hold-Out. But perhaps he is best known as someone who helps professionals take their game up another notch. As a director and coach in private workshops, Bob finds and focuses on one thing that will help make their performances achieve greatness. It could be something as simple as eliminating the walk between a volunteer and the performer's table by merely carrying the prop on your person, thus avoiding the lapse in time it takes to make the walk. Or it could be the opposite in which the performer adds that time by walking back and forth. Often times, whatever that "one thing" is turns out to be something that leads the performer to think about other aspects of his/her performance that could use the same kind of attention.

Bob Fitch has won many awards over the years including: Best Director - Nominated - New England Theatre Awards; Best Director & Best Actor - Nominated - Carbonelle Awards (Florida); Burns-Mantle Award (Broadway) for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Annie). And the S.A.M. Parent Assembly awarded Bob with the "Magician of the Year", and in 2009, the Academy of Magical Arts presented him with the "Lifetime Achievement Award".

Bob Fitch was one of the featured lecturers and performers at this year's T.A.O.M. convention (let me say here again that I found it to be one of the top ten best conventions I have ever attended). In this podcast, Bob talks about several of the things he taught during his lecture plus some of the same stories that he related there, too. If you saw/heard/experienced that lecture, then you will enjoy hearing it again. It's like reading a book a second time and finding a passage you overlooked the first time. If you missed the lecture, then I know you will enjoy and learn at least "one thing" from our chat.