719: Kenton Knepper - Word Wizard

While attending the recent Poe’s Magic Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the presenters was Kenton Knepper. We sat down in a quiet room for a very intense conversation that included his roots and moving to Phoenix, Arizona, and his friendship with noted mentalist, Larry Becker, plus his influences that led him to writing “Wonder Words” for which he is best known for as its author. Kenton has written about 20 different publications over the decades. We discussed NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) and hypnosis and much more in this week’s episode. Kenton doesn’t often attend major magic conventions so it was a rare privilege to sit down with him for this episode this week.

John was a friend and inspiration to Kenton

In this week’s episode, Kenton talks about the development of his Wonder Words, what it is and how it works, his relationship and inspiration by Larry Becker. He also encourages us to go out and just do it, whatever “it” is and try it. Our conversation went quite deep and I was truly engaged in our conversation so much so that something happened at the end of this episode that has never happened in all my years. Be sure to stay tuned to end of our chat to hear what happened.

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Kenton himself says: "KENTON PRINCIPLES is my legacy book. It compiles and expands on my most important principles in magic and mentalism. It will be the go-to book for the application of my ideas to anything you perform, magic or mentalism. Once you know these principles, anything is truly possible."

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!

390: Larry Becker - A Piece Of My Mind

Larry Becker is a legend in his own time. He is a master mentalist who blazed the trail for many who followed. As mentioned in the podcast, Larry was cool long before mentalism was cool. He and his business partner, Lee Earle, created one of the most successful partnerships in mentalism with their company "Mentalism Unlimited". Between them they created some of the most original material that is still used by top mentalists today.

Larry would like to be remembered for his "Russian Roulette: routine which had a real element of danger. This "possibility of death" at every show kept Larry on his toes and his audience on the edge of their seats.

Larry Becker's Mental Masterpieces DVD trailer performing his "Casino Royale".

In this podcast, Larry talks about his partnership at an advertising agency in New Jersey, meeting people like Cardini and Milbourne Christopher, his performance in the military, his move to Arizona, and the rise and fall of his partnership with Lee Earle.