250: At Home With Lupe & Norm Nielsen

After the 2015 MAGIC Live! convention, I stayed over for an extra day so as to visit with one of magic's legends: Norm Nielsen. I spoke with Lupe about coming over to their home to chat and see the poster collection. She told me that the bulk of their collection is now in Chicago preparing to be auctioned off by Potter & Potter over the next two years. But I was still welcome to come by for coffee and a visit. So I did.

Fortunately, I had visited their home and collection in 2007 when I also snapped some lovely photos which are on this blog. I also posted some pictures from this year's visit. Perhaps you can tell what a difference eight years makes.

Lupe talked about Norm's poster collection at the Order of Merlin breakfast at the combined IBM/SAM convention in St. Louis. You can Click Here to hear that interesting, historical presentation. Unfortunately, you cannot view the beautiful posters that she showed in her presentation, but the stories are interesting.

00:01:56 - Norm Nielsen and Lupe talk about their magic poster collection, how he came to start collecting and what is happening to it now. He also talks about his long career as a performer and builder and creator. He has many stories about other magic legends he has met along the way, not the least of which was his good friend, Tobias "Theo" Leendert Bamberg "Okito" (1875-1963) . During this chat in Norm's living room, his lovely wife, Lupe, fills in some details and gives us some additional background information. David Sandy and Lance Rich are also in attendance "in the studio audience" who ask some relevant questions, too.

00:59:07 - After our chat, we go out to the workshop where David shares a funny story about Faucett Ross. This is a legendary story that is Mac King's favorite story and has to be heard by this larger, podcast audience in order to preserve it for posterity.

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Check back with Potter & Potter from time to time to see when the Nielsen Poster collection will be put "on the auction block".

249: Tom After Tom

Tom Mullica was one of the featured entertainers at the 2015 I.B.M. convention in Jacksonville, Florida. He was seen almost everywhere throughout the convention and he was outstanding in everything he did: lecturer, performer, and master of ceremonies. As a lecturer, Tom did double duty, lecturing in the evening to all the registrants then again with a completely different lecture for the breakfast meeting of the Order of Merlin members (those with 25 or more years of consecutive membership in the I.B.M.).

After performing a Tribute Act to Red Skelton in Branson, Missouri for 17 years, Tom felt that it has run its course and plans to return to magic. I'm not sure what that means insofar as where he will be appearing, but it is probably a sure bet that you will be seeing him being a bit more active on the magic convention scene in the near future. One new direction Where Tom has focused his interest is in pickpocketing. He has been breaking in this new act at magic conventions this summer like he I.B.M convention and the Midwest Magic Jubilee in St. Louis.

Tom allowed me to record his breakfast lecture and post it here. After that lecture, Tom sat down with me to talk one-on-one, exclusively for the podcast. Hence the title of this podcast, "Tom After Tom".

Runny nose gag - During Tom Mullica's presentation at the breakfast meeting of the Order of Merlin group during the I.B.M. convention in Jacksonville, Florida, Tom described a gag. Essentially, you have a mouth full of water and wait until the time is right. then let the water dibble out of your mouth as you run your arm under your nose.

This is the gag he performed during his morning speech.

A vintage video of magician Tom Mullica performing his magic

00:02:16 - The first part of this podcast is a broadcast of his specially prepared lecture on "Naivete" wherein he talks about trusting people which usually turned out great, but sometimes severely injured him financially and emotionally.

00:21:39 - In the second part of the podcast, Tom talks candidly about his life and tells some stories that you won't hear elsewhere. In one such story, Tom opens up emotionally to talk about "coming out of the closet" and telling his mother (and the world) that he was gay.

Now through March 15, 2016 Meir Yedid has reduced the price for a download of a remastered "An Evening at the Tom-Foolery," with all proceeds going to his husband, Stephen. The price for the download is now only $10.

248: Day Four - MAGIC Live! 2015

The General Session for the final day was hosted by Mark Kornhauser who talked about lessons to learn from his monthly column "For What It's Worth:. Charlie Frye talked about the subject of Character and the importance of building one. Axel Hecklau talked about how to produce your own show in your own area. And the feature was the panel discussion hosted by Bill Malone with Ron Conley and Steve Forte as they talked about the differnce between gambling moves and magician moves.

In the Focus (breakout) sessions, Tony Clark discussed Slydini;s "Paper Balls Over the Head:; Mike Bent and Buster Balloon talked about "Monster Kids" and Joseph Barry blew us away with his card handling in "There's Always a Beginning".

The evening show was hosted by Justin Willman who was a standout highlight with an affable character that easily broke the fourth wall. Mark and Jinger Kalin premiered a new illusion and closed with a double "thin model sawing" with a twist. Xavier Mortimer put in not one, but two outstanding, original performances including a self levitation while "jumping rope". Den Den and Hun Lee both did very nice manipulation acts. The Evasons were stellar with their two person mind reading act. Dan Sperry reprised his fantastic, creative and bizarre bird act from the Illusionists tour. But the real highlight that got everyone talking was the 17 year old juggler, Ty Tojo who eaily juggled seven balls with alarming aplomb.

The Farewell Party featured an opportunity for some lucky registrant to win either $500, $1,000, $5,000 or $100,000. The lucky winner played a gamer wherein he selected certain tiles (similar to large Scrabble tiles) that had the value of one of the denominations inside the envelope. Whatever five numbers the person drew would be the amount he/she would win. The winner drew five $1,000 envelopes so he won $1,000.

My signature Coin in Bottle routine being performed at the 2014 TAOM Magic Convention in Fort Worth Texas

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:00:26 - Sean Popp talks about the Rubic Cube and Show Cues updates that are coming.

00:05:55 - David Deeble talks about being the MC for the morning session and a synopsis of his presentation.

00:13:26 - Master Payne talks about working Renaissance Festivals and Kozmo talks about working on the street.

00:28:35 - Axel Hecklau talks a bit about the presentation he gave on puting together a venue in your own community.

00:37:28 - Kayla Drescher talks about working behind the scenes at MAGIC Live!

00:39:43 - Richard Myer and Steve Bedwell give their comments on highlights from the convention.

00:47:02 - Tony Clark talks about his presentation on Slydini's "Paper Balls Over The Head"

00:53:21 - Giovanni Livera and Ian Pigeon are joined by Rafael Benatar as they talk about some of their highlights from the convention. Ian is the creator of "My Pet Boris" spider app and he talks about the creation of this variation of Jim Pace's "The Web".

01:19:15 - Dan Sperry says hello and goodby then we chat with Rory Johnston about his participation in the production of MAGIC Live!