826 - Mike Miller - Talent Booker

More than a magician, Mike Miller, Past National President of the S.A.M., also books talent for many magic conventions including the S.A.M. convention, Abbott’s Get Together, Super Sunday, and many others. He scours the world looking for unique acts to book. He has a good eye for spotting up-and-coming performers before they “hit it big” on the international scene. The best way to be seen by Mike is by competing and performing in other magic conventions. For several years, Mike also booked acts for a multi-city tour of China. Today he regularly performs at the Smoke & Mirrors Theater in Philadelphia while still searching for convention acts. As a result of his untiring efforts in helping magicians around the world, the Academy of Magical Arts will present a Special Fellowship to him at the awards banquet on May 17, 2024.

If you are more of a visual person, then perhaps you might enjoy watching our interaction during our Zoom conversation.

In this episode, Mike Miller talks about his career as a talent booker and how Hank Moorehouse shaped his life. He talks about how he goes about finding unique acts and how he learned to be a stage manager, too.

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156: Day Four - F.F.F.F. 2014

The last day and night meant more magic being crammed into the final few hours. Plus more doughnuts, coffee, soda, beer and scotch, too. Everything has been coming down to this last day. The last chance for everyone to savor the last moments. The internet in the hotel seemed slower than usual, plus the scotch poured a bit more freely, and I chatted with lots of people well into the morning hours and the break of dawn. All those reasons are why this podcast didn't come out earlier in the day.

Henry Evans was the sole lecturer of the day with two stellar afternoon shows and and outstanding evening show. Lots of stuff going on, lots of interviews, and tons of magic.

If you would like to view the excellent program designed by Glenn Brown, please Click Here. This lists all the shows, all the performers, all the attendees, pictures and more. It is everything you need to know about what went on during the weekend.

Joe Monti shows a little trick he came up with for Guest of Honor, Shawn Farquhar, using the bookmark made by David Prouty.

FISM winner Soma doing a great performance with looping sounds of magic props live at this year's FFFF. This is the song you hear on the podcast for Day Four.

Australians are on a different "body clock" than us Americans. Nothing will deter them a full night's sleep. Tim Ellis has seen enough card tricks and needs his beauty rest despite the cacophony of card magician in the room.

Time codes for this podcast:

00:01:11 - Jean-Luc Dupont, Bill Bishop, Don Wiberg, and Jim Klayder talk about the status of trade shows, brick and mortar magic shops, and more as we chat over coffee at Starbucks. For those interested in club meeting ideas that we discussed, Don Wiberg's PDF can be found by Clicking Here.

00:20:00 - During dinner, Mike Hrab and Rick Hebert give their perspectives of what they have enjoyed the most during this convention...so far.

00:30:32 - Elevator chat #1 - Stephen Bargatze, Bruce Kalver, Shawn Farquhar talk about what might happen on the evening show.

00:32:04 - Shank Kotharei, first time attendee talks about his experience at this convention from his "fresh eyes".

00:38:57 - Richard Bangs, Ed Ripley and Jason Juliano talk about their highlights of this year's convention and reminisce about previous 4F conventions.

00:47:55 - Soma's "Four F" Song that he composed and recorded in front of s using an app on his iPhone. Music was made with shuffling cards, jangling coins,

00:49:20 - Elevator Chat #2 - Oscar Munoz talks about being the Guest of Honor next year.

00: 52:02 - National President Elect of the S.A.M. , Kenrick "Ice" McDonald, talks about his platform of what he hopes to accomplish during his year as President.

01:03:03 - Joe Monti talks about working at the Magic Island in Newport Beach and Houston

01:09:12 - Elevator Chat #3 - John Bannon talks about his new book on totally self-working card tricks.

01:10:53 - Will Fern, Stephen Bargatze, Rick Merrill, Tim Ellis, Michael Dardant and more are caught in the hallway outside the Precursor Suite as we talked about the evening show.

01:36:20 - Obie O'Brien talks about the convention and recaps the event.

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.

This was the second act that Ouka performed at the F.F.F.F. 2014 (this YouTube video was not shot at the 4F convention)

155: Day Three - F.F.F.F. 2014

More fun and more magic than you can shake a wand at, Day three saw a few more people arrive for the weekend and the afternoon and evening shows were outstanding with many acts that drew standing ovations.

The official activities on the morning began with the Pat Page Memorial Workshop, hosted by Mike Powers, that featured "Tricks from Before 1950". For a PDF of the tricks taught, you can Click Here to read it all. The afternoon show, "World Gala Sho" was hosted by Buddy Farnan, followed by the second afternoon show, "4F Friends, Old and New", emceed by Oscar Munoz. The evening show "Friday's Finger Flicking Frolic" compered by Meir Yedid. The evening's show was divided into two parts with a brief intermission that was punctuated by repeated standing ovation. There was no lecture during the day' however, lots of learning went on everywhere throughout the hotel.

Time codes for this podcast:

00:00:15 - FISM Winner, Soma from Hungary, gives us an update on the status of his book about using music. We last talked in Bristol on May 13, 2013. This will be an invaluable source for all magicians from close-up to stage.

00:10:35 - Rocco returned to the F.F.F.F. after a four year hiatus while he has been performing all over the world. Rocco talks about his experiences working at the Crazy Horse in Paris to theaters in Russia, China and many other places around the world. Rocco will be delivering what may well be his last lecture ever. on Penguin coming this July. More details at Penguin Magic. Rocco also talks about his D'Lites and the future of his products. One such product is his stage version of Slydini's jumbo Linking Safety Pins, among other items available through his website at http://DLitesNext.com or http://TheMagicOfRocco.com By the way, the magician from Spain that Rocco and I talked about was Mario Lopez from Spain.

00:28:48 - Guest of Honor, Shawn Farquhar, talks about his many contests he has competed in over the years and the multitude of awards he has received. Shawn will be the incoming International President of the I.B.M. later this summer (at the combined I.B.M. and S.A.M. convention). Here he talks about what he plans to do during his term in office.

00:50:50 - Richard Hatch, formerly of H&R Magic Books, talks about his recent injury and recovery following a fall that resulted in some stitches (thanks, Raj Madhok, for removing them here at the convention).

Ouke performed this yo-yo act and received a well deserved standing ovation (this YouTube video was not taken at the F.F.F.F. convention).

826 - Mike Miller - Talent Booker

156: Day Four - F.F.F.F. 2014

155: Day Three - F.F.F.F. 2014

The Magic Word