457: Michael Kaminskas - His Cups Runneth Over

Michael Kaminskas is a corporate magician who may not be as well known to the magic community as he should be. Not only is he one of the busy trade show magicians working today, he is also the “King of CUps” in that he has designed and manufactured his own unique brand of cups and Chop cups and fake fruit for the final loads. He worked for over a decade as a demonstrator in a Magic Shop and also had his own one-man magic show traveling up and down the Atlantic seaboard playing in the finest hotels and sponsored by a car company.

His coin work is flawless and he loves to talk about close-up. He has been featured at several magic conventions so his name is starting to get “out there” plus he was one of the dealers at this year’s MAGIC Live! event and sold out of nearly everything. His well crafted items are highly sought after by professionals.

From KPRC Channel 2 in Houston, a great news piece covering the rebirth of the Magic Island. For more information, still pictures, plus links for more videos, visit: https://www.click2houston.com/news/rising-from-the-ashes-the-rebirth-of-houstons-magic-island

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398: Bill Palmer - Renaissance Man

Author, Creator, Musician, Magician, Collector, and Multi-Lingual "bon vivant" Bill Palmer is an all-around nice guy who is more than just a little knowledgeable on nearly every topic. Hence the reason that I refer to him as a Renaissance Man and not just from his 25 years of appearing as Merlin the Magician at the RenFest and Scarborough Faire. Bill was also the translator of German to English of magic books by Punx, Borodin and Ted Lesley. Many of you know Bill Palmer's name from being the owner and curator of the Cups and Balls Museum. And although he has relocated, he is still collecting and looking to display his collection in his new home.

On October 24, 2006, Bill Palmer gave us a tour of his Cups and Balls Museum. This video opens with a discussion of how Bill started his collection and how it grew.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:05:35 - Bill Palmer gives us a mini-lecture about loving your audience, the development of his Merlin the Wizard character, his association with Ted Lesley and Punx, translatingmagic books from German to English, and more.

01:06:34 - As an addendum to our chat where Bill talks about his cups and balls collection and the status of where iti is now, plus insights on collecting in general.At the end of our discussion, Bill suggested an interesting book about collecting which was written in 1852. You can download a PDF copy of "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions by Charles MacKay" by Clicking Here.

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378 - Tom Frank - Street Wise

Tom Frank crossed the U.S. on a major lecture tour in early 2017. While he was in Houston, Texas, I had a chance to chat with him about some of the things in his lecture plus some of the things that weren't. Tom performed on Universal Studio's "City Walk" for a number of years until he was bumped by Harry Potter.

Tom Frank lectured for the Houston Association of Magicians and took some time to sit behind the new microphones to chat with Scott Wells for The Magic Word Podcast. Be sure to listen to our chat at https://www.themagicwordpocsast.com/scottwellsmagic/378-tom-frank

Time Stamps for this podcast:

00:08:18 - Tom talks about the importance of "Back of the Room Sales", pitching, and how magicians are leaving money on the table; performing on the street; advice he received from Cellini; lessons he's learned while on the street and on the road; operating a brick and mortar magic shop; and more.

01:06:24 - Product Review: "Cube 3" by Steven Brundage is not a gimmicked Rubik's Cube, but it is a super smooth working model complete with an online instruction video and PDF. This is NOT a self-working trick but will require work to perform. Recommended.

01:11:44 - Product Review: "The Yarn" by Manuel LLaser (Vernet Magic) is a signed bill/card to ball of yarn. Recommended.

Download this podcast in an MP3 file by Clicking Here and then right click to save the file. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed by Clicking Here. You can download or listen to the podcast through Stitcher by Clicking Here or through FeedPress by Clicking Here or through Tunein.com by Clicking Here. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here.