658: From Paris With Love

Bonjour, mon ami! During my recent trip to France, some time was spent in Paris, the "City of Love." I certainly fell in love with the city and its people. And why not! I was warmly welcomed by three of my local magician friends, Alexandra Duvivier, David Stone and Boris Wild. They were so hospitable and generous and even showered me with unexpected birthday gifts! My travel companions (and fellow Texas magicians, Dick Olson and Trixie Bond along with her husband, Mark Axford) watched an amazing show at Le Double Fond that featured Alexandra and her father, Dominique Duvivier. The next day we had coffee at a little bistro with David Stone then met Boris Wild for a tour of the local Museum of Magic. While there we were entertained by Jérôme Cadeac who is the house magician at the Museum.
Enjoy this episode with conversations featuring three of the top magicians in Paris (if not the world), Alexandra, David and Boris.

In this episode, we open with a chat with Alexandra Duvivier at Le Double Fond immediately following her close-up show with her father, Dominuque. The next morning we meet up with David Stone is a French bistro for some coffee and conversation about the development of his new character, Klek Entos. Finally, we visit Musée de la Magie where we chat with FISM winner, Boris Wild.

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544: Gaetan Bloom - Crazy Creative

Gaetan Bloom is recognized as not only one of the most inventive and creative magic thinkers in our world of magic, but also he is one of the really nice guys in magic. We sat down with Gaetan during a recent magic convention and spent some quality time talking about his work in France, his performances at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris, his first meeting with another creative thinker, Kevin James, plus his thoughts and philosophies on magic and working with invisible thread and much more.

Gaetan Bloom talks about his road to work at the Crazy Horse in Paris, his thoughts on creativity using thread, his friendship with another magic creator, Kevin James, and many more topics.

334: A Magical Christmas Carol

Over the past year, I have attended a LOT of magic conventions. During those events, i have tried to update you with what was going on each day with daily updates from the organizers, talent, registrants, and dealers plus sometimes a little "color" background outside of the hotel.

But while I had some of my guests "cornered" for a few minutes, I asked them to do a reading of the classic story, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. As many of you don't know, Dickens was a bit of a conjurer himself having performed during the summer of 1949 in a coastal resort off of the Isle of Wight purveying prestidigitation to those on holiday in the area. He was known as the “Rhia Rhama Rhoos - the Unparalleled Necromancer" and reportedly performed many unusual tricks including making playing cards magically burst into flames, transporting a woman’s watch from inside a wooden box and into the middle of a loaf of bread, and even cooking a steaming hot plum pudding in a gentleman’s top hat.

But prior to his venturing onto the stage to prestidigitate, he had already written many of his well-known novels including one published in 1843 which would become the iconic classic and perennial treatise on the holiday, "A Christmas Carol".

So here I present you this year's audio greeting card with great gratitude to all of my guests who participated in this project and also to all of you who regularly listen to The Magic Word Podcast. Happy Holidays!

As a little added treat for you this holiday season, here is a video I filmed and edited in 1985. Magician Scott Wells is visited by "three foreign" visitors who want to learn magic. In this video, Scott performs close-up, stand-up and stage magic for his guests. He also gives magic lessons to his guests; however, these instructions have been edited out of this public video.