741: Steve Aldrich - A Long Strange Trip

This episode is dedicated to those who remember the past and for those who want to learn more about our rich history. This week we travel back in time in our Grateful Dead VW bus and visit with magician and co-founder of the Foan Family Circus, Steve Aldrich. It was a simpler time when magicians were experimenting with new presentations and popular music of the time. It was at the height of Doug Henning’s popularity who was considered by some as a “Hippie Magician”.

Steve Aldrich also performed magic at the famed Tower Bar in Snowmass at a time when Doc Eason was still a waiter Steve and his band of merry men (and a woman) surprised and entertained magicians with their “tongue in cheek” original presentations of their “Foan Family Circus” at many magic conventions during the late 1970’s to early 1980’s. So what happened to the group? That and more will be the topic of discussion in this week’s episode.

If you are more of a visual person, then you will enjoy this video of our conversation recorded via Zoom.

Steve talks this week about the formation of the Foan Family Circus, their original presentations and music, their performances at magic conventions (one of which won them the Senator Crandall Comedy Award at Abbott’s Get Together), plus the origins of magic at the Tower Bar starting with Bob Sheets then passed down to Steve Aldrich and Steve Spill.

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603 - Doc Eason - The Doctor is In

Recognized as one of the top “bar magicians” in the country (if not the world), Doc Eason joins us this week from his home in Colorado. Doc was one of the house magicians at the former John Denver’s Tower Magic Bar and Restaurant in Snowmass, Colorado. He received “Best Bar Magician” by the Academy of Magical Arts and lectured around the world. After the passing of John Denver in 1997, the Tower soon thereafter closed and Doc took a little different direction as an after dinner motivational speaker.

This week’s podcast video on YouTube.

In this episode, Doc Eason talks about his career path that took him to Colorado and becoming the bar magician in residence in Snowmass. He has several stories about some of the shenanigans he has seen in the bar over the years, many of which will be going into a biography he is currently writing. He also talks about many of the people in his life along the way, like Eric Mead and Bob Sheets, who were pivotal in his life and career. He also shares some philosophy about life and a few emotional stories that you are sure to enjoy.

262: Just One Thing with Bob Fitch

Bob Fitch is well known among those who know him well. Of course that is meant to be tongue-in-cheek as of course Bob is a man of many hats...and he wears them all extremely well: actor, director, magician, singer and dancer. A show business legend himself, Bob has appeared in theatrical presentations including: "Funny Things Happened On The Way To The Forum", Will Roger's Follies, Annie, Mack & Mabel, Mame, and many more. He has worked or directed many of the famous celebrities including Liza Minnelli, Steve Martin, Carol Channing, Katherine Hepburn, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Carol Burnette, Whoopi Goldberg, just to name a very few.

But among magicians, he is known for his series of three Topit videos and his work with the Fitch Kohler Hold-Out. But perhaps he is best known as someone who helps professionals take their game up another notch. As a director and coach in private workshops, Bob finds and focuses on one thing that will help make their performances achieve greatness. It could be something as simple as eliminating the walk between a volunteer and the performer's table by merely carrying the prop on your person, thus avoiding the lapse in time it takes to make the walk. Or it could be the opposite in which the performer adds that time by walking back and forth. Often times, whatever that "one thing" is turns out to be something that leads the performer to think about other aspects of his/her performance that could use the same kind of attention.

Bob Fitch has won many awards over the years including: Best Director - Nominated - New England Theatre Awards; Best Director & Best Actor - Nominated - Carbonelle Awards (Florida); Burns-Mantle Award (Broadway) for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Annie). And the S.A.M. Parent Assembly awarded Bob with the "Magician of the Year", and in 2009, the Academy of Magical Arts presented him with the "Lifetime Achievement Award".

Bob Fitch was one of the featured lecturers and performers at this year's T.A.O.M. convention (let me say here again that I found it to be one of the top ten best conventions I have ever attended). In this podcast, Bob talks about several of the things he taught during his lecture plus some of the same stories that he related there, too. If you saw/heard/experienced that lecture, then you will enjoy hearing it again. It's like reading a book a second time and finding a passage you overlooked the first time. If you missed the lecture, then I know you will enjoy and learn at least "one thing" from our chat.

741: Steve Aldrich - A Long Strange Trip

603 - Doc Eason - The Doctor is In

262: Just One Thing with Bob Fitch

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