235: FISM Italy - Day Four

It may have been a little overcast outside, but the weather and the magic was perfect in the convention center. After viewing the stage competition from 8:30 to 12:30, I got to walk around the dealers a bit more, chat with friends, and attend a couple lectures. And of course, it was Thursday which meant magic and Martinis in the evening with friends at the bar.

After watching Luke Jermay's one man show, was the evening gala featuring:  Cyril Takayama and Eun Gyeol Lee as co-MC's with Mike Chao, Topas, David Kaplan, Tony Frebourg, Alberto Giorgi, Rob Zabrecky, Sos & Victoria and Samuel.

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Time stamps for this podcast:

00:01:10 - Reuben Moreland

00:06:39 - Michael Perovich

00:11:23 - Rainer Pfeiffer and Martin Eisele

00:18:18 - David Kaplan

00:34:34 - Will Houstoun

00:42:43 - Bill Herz

00:57:14 - Phil Cass and Philippa

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 Stitcher by Clicking Here or through FeedPress by Clicking Here or through Tunein.com by Clicking Here. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

157: Jim Sisti - On The Menu

What was he thinking? Why would someone start a bi-monthly magic publication in the early 1990’s? Desktop publishing was in its infancy in 1990, and I mean dot matrix printing and tractor-fed printers. And when I say low resolution graphics, I really mean pixilated clip art. Wow! And then to make it even more arcane, focus on a small segment of the magic society: restaurant magic. Even at its peak, they only had 500 subscribers. What was he thinking?

But Jim Sisti had a passion and created something that will live as essential reading for the restaurant magician as the Bible of Restaurant Magic. The Magic Menu started with the September/October 1990 issue that carried on for 11 years and eventually bound into two hardback volumes. I believe Jim has a plan for the last couple year’s worth of issues to be bound sometime.

The Magic Menu led the field in educating magicians in how to be a restaurant magician. It remains the longest running and only regularly published newsletter exclusively for the performing restaurant magician. The Magic Menu included advice, tips, tricks, brilliant articles and more for the restaurant magician. Contributors included all the top workers of the day including Al the Only, Michael Ammar, Michael Close, Jay Sankey, Simon Lovell, Paul Green, Doc Eason, Eugene Burger, just to drop a few. I was pleased and honored to have been one of the regular columnists for The Magic Menu for a number of years. I was also the one who designed the artwork for the masthead for the later years of the publication.

Jim was recently an adviser for Criss Angel’s “MindFreak” TV show and now works with Richard Osterlind and seen on many of Richard’s instructional videos. Jim is not only a close-up magician but also a skilled stage performer as well.

In this podcast, Jim talks a little about The Magic Menu, but more extensively about restaurant magic and some of the ideas gleaned from this publication.  Jim talks about the real secrets and talks about facts, figures and money.. In addition to talking about the genesis of The Magic Menu, we discussed Bulletin Board Services (BBS) and other early iterations of how magicians congregated online in the days of "dial-up", which was long before the internet.

If you are interested in performing in a restaurant or in a corporate strolling environment, then this is a "must hear" podcast.

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.

Magic & Martinis Thursday

Martinis on the Menu

Click the Lybrary log to visit the page for ordering digital  editions of The Magic Menu