555: Meir Yedid - Adapt or Perish

Meir Yedid is one of those guys who easily becomes one of your best friends from the first time you meet him. He always has a friendly smile and kind words to say. He has won many awards in magic and produced the video “Finger Fantasies” then ironically and tragically soon thereafter, had a car accident that severed one of his fingers. Not to be discouraged, Meir saw that as an opportunity rather than a setback. Because of his positive energy and outlook on life, he has excelled in magic having won awards and received accommodations over the years. He currently operates the online magic shop MyMagic.com and is often a dealer at magic conventions. He is also one of the members on the Board of Directors for Obie’s 4F annual convention in Batavia, New York. Since that convention was canceled for this year, he talks a bit about that, too, on this week’s podcast.

Meir Yedid performing his "Finger Fantasies" act on the 1986 TV series Comedy Tonight. This was the second to last television appearance before a tragic car ...

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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.

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314: Day 3 - MAGIC Live! 2016

Schedule for Day Three - August 16, 2016

24 hours - The Back Room
9:00 a.m. - Registration
10:00 a.m. - Tuesday General Session for Maroon lanyards (showroom until 12:15 p.m.
   Real or Camera Tricks - Mat Franco
   Reaching Out, Changing Lives - Julie Eng
   Expectations - Master Payne
   Making Magic - Martin Lewis
   Magic, Special Effects, and the Narrative Thread - Mike Elizalde
   Passing the Light - David Copperfield and Marvyn Roy
   The Gambler's Ballad, or An Incident At Jake's Saloon - Johnny Thompson and Penn Jilette
10:00 a.m. - Tuesday Focus Sessions for black lanyards until 11:00 a.m.
   Practical and Performable - Daryl
   Show Doctor ICU - Jeff McBride
   Innovative Ideas in Family Entertainment - Rafael
11:00 a.m. - The MAGIC Shop until 6:30 p.m.
11:15 - Tuesday Focus Sessions for maroon lanyards until 11:00 a.m.
   Practical and Performable - Daryl
   Show Doctor ICU - Jeff McBride
   Innovative Ideas in Family Entertainment - Rafael
12:15 p.m. - lunch break
2:15 - Tuesday General Session for Black lanyards (showroom until 4:15 p.m.
   Real or Camera Tricks - Mat Franco
   Reaching Out, Changing Lives - Julie Eng
   Expectations - Master Payne
   Making Magic - Martin Lewis
   Magic, Special Effects, and the Narrative Thread - Mike Elizalde
   Passing the Light - David Copperfield and Marvyn Roy
   The Gambler's Ballad, or An Incident At Jake's Saloon - Johnny Thompson and Penn Jilette
2:15 p.m. - Tuesday Focus Sessions for maroon lanyards until 3:15 p.m.
   Practical and Performable - Daryl
   Show Doctor ICU - Jeff McBride
   Innovative Ideas in Family Entertainment - Rafael
3:30 p.m. - Tuesday Focus Sessions for maroon lanyards until 4:30 p.m.
   Practical and Performable - Daryl
   Show Doctor ICU - Jeff McBride
   Innovative Ideas in Family Entertainment - Rafael5:00 p.m. Dinner break
5:00 p.m. Dinner break
5:30 - MAGIC Museum until 11:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. - The Game until 7:45 p.m.
7:30 p.m. - Close-Up Experience until 8:45 p.m.
7:30 p.m. MAGIC Cabaret: The Secret Class until 8:30 p.m.
8:00 p.m. - The Game uneil 8:45 p.m.
9:00 p.m. - Close-Up Experience until 10:15 p.m.
9:00 p.m. - The Game until 9:45 p.m.
9:15 p.m. MAGIC Cabaret: The Secret Class until 10:45 p.m.
10:00 p.m. - The Game until 10:45 p.m.
10:30 p.m. - Close-Up Experience until 11:45 p.m.

MAGIC Live! Night at the Museum. This was a very special, one night only exhibit of special props, devices, pictures, posters, ephemera, etc. owned and on loan from various private collections including David Copperfield, Gay Blackstone, Norm Neilsen, Penn & Teller, Chip Romero, Mike Caveney and others.

An introduction to the work of Magicians Without Borders, a non-profit group that brings joy and hope to troubled places all around the world. Magicians Without Borders performs magic shows for children in refugee camps, orphanages and hospitals around the world -often in war torn places where love, laughter and magic are desperately needed.

Time stamps for this Podcast:

00:00:12 - Tom Dobrowolski has put on his own magic convention and has nothing but praise for MAGIC Live.

00:06:48 - Dick Olson has attended dozens of magic conventions over the decades and swears that this one is the best.

00:11:34 - Diamond Jim Tyler, author the "Bamboozler" series, chats a bit about this being one of his top conventions and what he enjoyed best.

00:13:59 - Meir Yedid, one of the dealers, talks about being an exhibitor at MAGIC Live!

00:18:40 - Enrico De La Vega has worked with all of the top magicians and chats a bit about some of the stuff he can talk about like the upcoming David Blaine TV special, but not about anything he's doing with Cyril.

00:23:28 - Marvyn Roy "Mr. Electric" talks a bit about his life, his legacy, and the used equipment that he "gave" to David Copperfield for his museum.

00:32:25 - Rudy Coby talks about his recent work in Macau, China, and how exhausting of a show it was. This is Rudy's first MAGIC Live!

00:40:38 - In the MAGIC Live museum, Chip Romero shows us his Doug Henning pieces from his collection that are displayed in his exhibit.

00:44:42 - Michael "Six" Muldoon was one of the presenters in the General Session this today and talked about "Magicians Without Borders". This is an important, philanthropic organization that could use your help.