910: Brian Curry - Entering The Funny Zone

Brian Curry is a corporate magician from the Washington, D.C. area who often performs comedy magic for executives and politicians inside the beltway. He also performs school shows while balancing a home life with a wife and family. For a long time, he and Mark Phillips shared the stage in a “dueling magicians” type performance that played to great reviews. Known as “D.C.’s most honest con man,” Brian has a regular show entitled “The Good Liar” that plays at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C.

Brian has several stories about performing for politicians that he can’t publicly share, but the interesting ones he can share, he does in this week’s episode. He also gives some advice and tips along the way while sharing some comical stories.

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For more information, please visit the website at: https://ibmring50.org/lecturers/

879: Mark Pocan - "Pocan" the Political Bear

Mark Pocan represents the second congressional district in Wisconsin, near Madison. He is also a long-time magician, but had a passion since his youth for both magic and politics. He is now serving his seventh term in office and for a few years was offering a YouTube channel filled with explanations of how politics works using magic in what he called “Magic Mondays.” Although he ceased production of those videos a few years ago, he plans to get them up and running again in 2025.

Mark came from a family of politicians and, as he says, began door-to-door campaigning for his father at the tender age of six. He pursued politics through college while using magic to defray some of his costs of schooling. He still performs magic at fund raising functions and other charitable events. He is often seen attending magic conventions and has twice attended Vanishing Inc.’s magic retreats including one in Washington, D.C. where he was able to use his influence to allow attendees access to some backstage places in Congress.

#197 - Henning Magic - Part One

Henning, Eric Henning. No, this is not about Doug Henning but instead about the "Financial Wizard", Eric Henning who resides in Maryland outside of our nation's capitol, Washington, D.C.

Eric and I talked for nearly two hours and so this podcast has been broken into two separate, easy to digest, podcasts. In this first one, Eric talks about how he followed Fidel Castro as a speaker in Barbados, the early years of the Electronic Grymoire, working as a strolling magician at the Presidential Inaugural Ball, and he also gives some advice to magicians who might be performing for political dignitaries where security is a critical issue. And have you ever wondered why some federal buildings (such as Treasury buildings) don't allow certain performers (like magicians and rock bands)? Eric weighs in with his analysis why this is the case. He also talks about why several opportunities have dried up due to tightening of restrictions to certain types of entertainment due to "appearances". That particular story was the topic of a feature article in the Politico magazine. You can read the full article by clicking here. We also talk about Jasper Maskelyne and the "War Magician".And did you know that George H.W. Bush was interested in magic and often came into Al's Magic Shop in Washington, D.C.?

His website for magicians is http://thewand.net where you can find TIPS, an excellent set of lecture notes which I highly recommend. During our conversation, One of the tips that is not in his book if for Amazing Insoles for anybody who's on their feet a lot (like most all performing magicians).

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.

Eric Henning "The Financial Wizard" will be one of the faculty members at M.B.U.

910: Brian Curry - Entering The Funny Zone

879: Mark Pocan - "Pocan" the Political Bear

#197 - Henning Magic - Part One

The Magic Word