335: Howard Hamburg - Voices from the Past

Howard Hamburg has been around a long time...a very long time. And he has conferred with and confided in the some of the legends of our magical art. You name them, and Howard has a true, first hand story about them. Howard brings history alive with his marvelous stories of personal relationships with legendary magicians. There are some great stories in here and some performance tips along the way, too. At the beginning of this podcast, Howard talks about his attendance at "Escorial" in El Escorial, Spain which is an invitation-only card magic convention hosted by Juan Tamariz.

A spectator places ANY 2 face-up spot cards on the table the magician removes a joker from his deck and places it face up onto the table as well. The performer mentions that the number 7 is considered a lucky number among Americans, the number 8 is considered a lucky number by the Chinese, but 13 is the performer's lucky number for certain cards in the deck.

Time Stamps for this podcast:

00:04:35 - Howard talks about the "Escorial Convention"

00:17:15 - Howard begins his stories about magician friends beginning with Michael Skinner

00:43:16 - Eric Citron, owner of The Great American Magic Company is introduced as our new sponsor

00:48:11 - Howard resumes our conversation talking about how different his generation was from others.

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272: Time for Change with Cosmo Solano

Follow the money.

Cosmo Solano is a magic creator. His first creation that caught the attention of most magicians was his Quantum Connection (a.k.a. "Q") and later his International Pocket Change. Both took years of Research and Development before he was ready to take anything to market. Certainly there are those occasions in the world of "simultaneous inspiration" in which the same idea is thought of and worked on by someone else somewhere in the world. But our measure of who created it first is largely dependent upon who actually got it to market first.

In this podcast, Cosmo Solano talks about his creation of "International Pocket Change" and his conversations with Gregory Wilson.who marketed"Exact Change". He talks about the chronology of the creation and how the two differ. This is a rather sensitive subject for Cosmo and he was reluctant to publicly discuss the matter. But I believe he thought it was important enough to contribute to the conversation and perhaps encourage others to speak "on the record" about their experiences of dealing with Gregory Wilson.

This chat moves along our conversation of "magic thievery" in our community and will hopefully encourage others to share their stories here, on forums, and/or in the social media. #MagicCereal

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Available at www.hocus-pocus.com. Your 1-100 prediction is right on the money! *Easy to do *Start clean and end clean *36 remarkable routines

Cosmo tells us his side of the story in conversations with Gregory, much of which he was not just recalling from memory, but from notes he made at the time during their conversation.

He also talks about his cynicism of sharing his creative ideas with other magicians and how he no longer has an interest in marketing anything to the magic community in the foreseeable future. He also talks about his Quantum Connection trick that launched his name as a magic creator. He concludes with saying that some magic being released today is not particularly "quality magic" but feeds the appetite of voracious magicians. He is optimistic about the future of magic as long as we recognize those who are the creators and do not feel we are "entitled" to everything. He suggests that people new to magic give back to the community rather than just taking from it.

2016 has begun but it's not too late to get your new year magic wall calendar. Mine is hanging next to my computer and I love it. You can support The Magic Word with your purchase and if you have Amazon Prime, then shipping is free!

220: My Week at the Magic Castle 2015 - Part One

We're off to be the wizard. We head west this week to the hills of Hollywood a bit early before my week begins because I want to catch the Castle swap meet on Saturday. To kick off this multi-part podcast of my week at the Castle, there is no better way to indoctrinate you than to immerse you in the lore and with stories from the Castle's rich heritage.

In this Part One podcast, we sit down in "Vernon's Corner" to hear stories from Howard Hamburg and Newell Unfried. They tell story after story of legends some of whom are long gone but whose spirit lives on in the Magic Castle. They include stories of Dai Vernon, Eddie Fields, Earl Nelson, Ed Marlo, John Cornelius and many, many others. We also get to chat with Bill Goodwin, the Librarian of The Magic Castle. What a way to kick off this series!

00:07:22 - Howard Hamburg and Newell Unfried seem to top each other by telling one story after another about many of the legendary magicians who have frequented the Magic Castle over its rich years of history. Newell has some great stories about those who have visited the old Hollywood Magic shop and Howard talks about some of the characters from the Castle like Senator Crandall and Dai Vernon. Our discussion is topped by a final story involving Martin Nash and the Professor. Nothing can top this one.

00:50:34 - Close-Up Magician of the Year (and current nominee again for 2014), Bill Goodwin talks about the Castle library and the thousands of videos available among the many tombs of books. He also talks about bequethment of collections and how you can provide for donatoins to the library after you are gone.