928: T.A.O.M. 2025 Convention Report from Dallas, Texas

Friday, August 29, 2025

4:00 PM TAOM Board Meeting

6:00 PM Dinner Buffet

8:00 PM Dealer Exhibition

12:00 AM Midnight Madness

Saturday, August 30,2025

8:00 AM Breakfast

9:30 AM Lecture

11:00 AM Lecture

12:30 PM Lunch

2:00 PM Lecture

4:00 PM lecture

6:30 PM TAOM General Meeting and Memoriam

7:00 PM Picnic BBQ Dinner Buffet

8:00 PM A Night of Prestidigitation

9:30 PM TAOM 2026 Convention and Swearing in of New TAOM Officers

10:00 PM Midnight Madness

Time Stamps for this episode:

00:00:17 – announcement of winners from recent contest for the book “Practicing the Art of Magic” who were: Gary Weimer, Gary Freidrich, George Reis, Nicholas Nardi, Alison Homburger, and Greg Youngs.

00:02:46 – Kent Cummins joins me in the car drive to Dallas for the convention as we talk about our expectations and Kent’s experiences of past conventions.

00:16:37 – Eric Hogue is the President of this year’s event and he tells us what to expect and some of the challenges he has had over the past year in planning this.

00:25:54 – Clark May, owner of the Rabbit in Hat magic shop in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. This is his first T.A.O.M. convention and he tells us why it’s taken so long to get here.

00:37:11 – From South Africa, Trevor Duffy joins us to talk about his nationwide lecture tour. He is a dealer at this convention.

00:47:02 – a brief overview of what happened so far, then we talk with John Carter who is an avid magic collector and was one of the people to helped Chip Romero put together the Doug Henning exhibit at MAGIC Live! He tells us about that experience.

00:54:38 – more updates on what the morning brought us. Scott Hollingsworth, Entertainment Director of Houston’s Magic Island, who brings us up to date on the October 1st opening of the Magic Island.

01:03:14 – Gene Protas will be the T.A.O.M. President for 2026 who already has the talent planned and everything else you need to know like hotel, registration, and more.

01:08:37 – Now Past President, Eric Hogue and Scott wraps up the convention as Eric tells us how he felt the day went for him.

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828: Obie's 4F 2024 Close-Up Convention - Days One and Two Report

Wednesday April 24

7:45 p.m. tribute to Guest of Honor (GOH) Christian Schenk (host: Rogr Nicot)

8:00 p.m. Lecture #1 GOH Christian Schenk

9:00 p.m. 1st Show 4F Opening Gala (MC :Keith Fields)

Thursday April 25

10:30 a.m. Lecture #2 Bernardo Sedlacek

1:30 p.m. 2nd Show Magical Moments (MC: Gary Morton)

3:30 p.m. Lecture #3 John Bannon

745 p.m. Tribute to GOH Jimmy C. (host: Darryl Rose)

8:00 p.m. Lecture #4 Jimmy C.

9:00 p.m. 3rd Show Friends Old & New (MC: Michael Dardant)

Time Stamps:

(00:00) Scott Wells recently returned from France

(01:04) Scotty heading to Buffalo for four f convention this weekend

(03:13) Scotty will receive a fellowship from the Academy of Magical Arts

(04:07) So, as far as a convention, since I missed last evening, Rick,

(06:42) Gino: Okay, now it's time for lunch. We have to go to the liquor store

(09:43) Gene Gordon and Chuck Ark attended the evening gala last night

(10:37) Christian: What did you think last night? Kind of stood out

(13:30) Jimmy C. started in magic at 42 and now does 22 gigs a month

(17:54) What do you say to encourage people to get into magic at a later age

(19:13) A friend of mine does a magic trick for laymen five times a day

(20:15) So my other question has to do then with the five star reviews

(21:02) Do you have a character when you perform? I mean, like,

(22:44) One of the recent podcast episodes with Rolando Santos has received overwhelming positive feedback

(23:18) Rolando discusses the difference between evoking and provoking

(25:28) The pendulum work is all ad lib because you don't know

(26:20) Have you been enjoying this convention so far? Yeah. The magic has been terrific

(28:24) Alain Iannoni from Italy joins us from NPR

(29:21) You've been a professional magician for 30 years now

(31:54) Talk about some of the things that are in your lecture

(36:22) Scott: Henry Evans recently finished a lecture tour

(37:41) Another guy that did a lot for you was Mike Miller taking you on chinese tours

(39:34) In China, most of the people speak only Chinese, so they need interpreter

(41:51) Scott Bennett says he fooled Penn and Teller on his Las Vegas tour

(45:26) You maintain citizenship in all three nationalities because you were born in Antigua

(46:56) Dev Patel's four f routine was a hit last night

(49:31) How many conventions have you been to? This is your 11th

(53:28) Keith Fields: I have a friend who owns a theater in San Antonio

(56:22) Gino Mozzarella got a call to do a gig in Spain

(01:00:10) Renee Levan performed for John Lennon once

(01:02:57) Well, yesterday at the four f, you gave a lecture. I missed that. But I was today, actually

(01:03:09) The theme of this lecture was how to create a special moment

(01:05:53) Bernardo gave a lecture on how to create a special moment

(01:08:29) Bernardo says being a first timer in magicians is daunting

(01:10:31) Scott, as a first timer, performing magicians was daunting

(01:14:00) Bernardo: The vibe at four f is very different from other conventions

(01:17:36) Mark: I'm anxious to see what Bernard is going to show us here

261: Project Alpha with Mike Edwards

After viewing the highly acclaimed documentary, "An Honest Liar" about the career of James "The Amazing" Randi, I wanted to talk with Mike Edwards, the "psychic" who was "tested" along with Steve Shaw (Banachek) over a three year period in the late 70;s to the early 80;s. I have discussed Project Alpha with Banachek many times privately, on the podcast and on an L&L Video (Psi Series Volume 4 - Psychokenisis) but I had never met or spoken with, Mike Edwards, his partner on the project.

The stars aligned with my travel plans to Phoenix, Arizona and Mike's availability so we were able to find a relatively quiet corner in an otherwise busy restaurant and record this chat. It is a completely different perspective from the one I have heard from Banachek and the revelation during the last few minutes of our conversation figuratively "bowled me over". I was not expecting that news. You might be surprised and excited once you hear it, too.

Recorded: 5/27/2010 Original Alpha Kid, Michael Edwards pays a visit to the foundation and recalls some of the behind the scenes tricks that he and Steve Shaw (Banachek) did during the MacLab test. From Wikipedia: Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi.

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