990: Tony Clark - Magicians Using AI

Technology is advancing faster than we could have imagined. In fact, the current fear is that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is learning and growing on its own without the aid of human intervention. Recent news has reported that some of the creators are advocating a hold on further advancement until we can control this potential monster. In the meantime, there are a multitude of opportunities for AI to be used “for good” as magicians create music for their shows, voice overs, promotional materials, help in scripting, help in developing a stage character, researching show opportunities, and much, much more.

This week Tony Clark joins us to give us his perspective as a magic consultant on how AI has been used and could be used by magicians. Let me first give this disclaimer that neither Tony nor Scott Wells are experts in this field. We have some experience and our discussion reflects what we know or have seen or think. The discussion in this week’s episode are the results of our experiences and do not reflect what one should or should not do with this information.

To watch our conversation that was recorded over Zoom, please enjoy the YouTube video which includes a bit more content.

Tony Clark is a creative consultant for magicians using live experiences on stage and screen. This week, Tony advocates for live performances rather than depending upon technology and digital help. We discuss the importance and ethics of utilizing AI to build your brand and not just putting your face on the promotional material of other successful magicians. We also discuss how AI can help you as a virtual assistant to weed out and find the right performing venues for you. Tony also emphasizes how performers need to be genuine on stage and in their performances. Specifically, we need to be vulnerable and let our audiences into our lives so they don’t necessarily go home talking about our tricks, but remembering the person who is performing them.

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 Pandora and SiriusXM (formerly Stitcher) by Clicking Here or through FeedPress by Clicking Here or through Tunein.com by Clicking Here or through iHeart Radio by Clicking Here. If you have a Spotify account, then you can also hear us through that app, too. You can also listen through your Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

989: Jack Hart - Designing the Invisible

Jack Hart is an artist in the truest sense of the word. He has designed illusions to make them more deceptive and toured with Blackstone, Jr. for nearly five years. He worked with Copperfield, Henning, Kalin, and so many more. For many years, Jack worked designing games for the television show, “The Price is Right” plus he currently does missionary work around the world.

We start this week’s chat by going into a bit of detail about Jack’s Christian Missionary work. We then delve into his multi-faceted career as he tells us about working with Harry Blackstone, Jr. and later traveling with the show. He not only designed some of the artwork on the outside of boxes, but also many of the beautiful tapestries and backdrops in Harry’s show. For long while Jack worked in Old Chicago along with Buddy Farnan (who was featured in Episode #770) then back to California where he worked for many years on “The Price is Right” with Bob Barker as he helped design some of the games that are played each week. One of the games became popular around the world, even as a “take home” game, called Plinko which is a version of Pachinko. Jack worked in a lot of different arenas and left an invisible stamp on all of his work.

988: Christopher Hart - Give Him a Hand

Christopher Hart has had, and continues to have, an amazing career, or should I say “careers”. Many people, not just magicians, would be satisfied with success in any one of the areas where Chris has exceeded expectations. Many listeners of The Magic Word Podcast know that it was his hand as “Thing” in “The Addams Family” movies. And yet there is a whole generation who have never seen nor heard of “The Addams Family”, the New Yorker comic strip, the TV series let alone the movies. The recent Netflix series “Wednesday” has introduced many to this genre, but Chris wasn’t in that, and I digress.

But he has performed in dinner theater with “Triple Espresso” and also singing on network TV, Plus of course he has presented his award winning act around the world with the torn and restored sheet music and the disembodied hand. You may think you know Christopher Hart, but there is so much to know about Christopher that you will be surprised what you learn in this episode.

This week’s episode was recorded in Appleton, Wisconsin, while we were at the SAM National convention. Christopher not only performed but also lectured. He had so much material to share, that he never got around to explaining some of the items on his agenda during his lecture. He resolves that by chatting on this week’s episode as he talks about his touches on the torn and restored newspaper and the zombie gimmick. But we start, of course, by chatting about his film career, then his time with dinner theater, overcoming his fear of singing in public, working and touring with David Copperfield, plus serving as President of the Board of Trustees on the Academy of Magical Arts. He shares some great “behind the scenes” stories about all of this which makes this one of my favorite episodes, and I hope yours, too.