MagiFest Photos - Day 1 & 2

Opening night at the MagiFest meant a packed house in the small room that was designated as the Dealers' Room. With 24 dealers and a fire department sign indicating the room could only hole 130 people (and that's without the tables), it is hard to fit in 550 registrants at one time. Adding to the feeding frenzy, raffle tickets were given for each $20 you spent with any dealer which gave you a chance to win $1,000 of magic.

Dealers presented a lot of great stuff including some new stuff just being rolled out. Such was the case at the RFA Products booth. Tony Miller demoed the brand new card to wallet called Speed Loader. Here is a quick demo below.

Of course, what's a trip to Columbus without going to German Town and a dinner at Schmidt's Restaurant? You know I love good food. Below is a picture of Don Wiberg and me just outside the restaurant. Prosit!

We awoke on Day two to a rather heavy snow storm that lasted most of the day. But inside, the registrants were toasty. Perhaps some moreso that the others. :)

The Lecture Hall did double duty for all activities.

The afternoon session was compered by Joshua Jay and opened Magifest partner, Andi Gladwin who stepped inside a balloon. Yes, a balloon, but a BIG one.

If they are planning on selling tickets for the Saturday night show to more than those who are registered, then I don't know where they will put them. It looks pretty sold out to me already.

084: MagiFest 2013 - Day One

The MagiFest in Columbus, Ohio missed the wrecking ball after several decades of successful conventions and great management. The MagiFest was always considered the first major convention of the year drawing well over 500 peoply annually who would brave the traditionally frigid environs of the Midwest winters. Registrants traveled from around the region and talent was drawn from across the globe to make the MagiFest one of the premier conventions on the scene.

But after Jep Hostetler turned over the reigns of management to Ron Spangler, it appeared to be more than the new organizers were equipped to handle. Although last year's convention was a financial success, they kind of looked around the room and everyone agreed that perhaps they should let it go.

Joshua Jay was one of the hundreds of magicians who grew up attending the MagiFest and learned to love and appreciate magic. He saw some of the best talent in the world and learned from them. He and business partner, Andi Gladwin from the U.K. teamed up to organize "The Session", a close-up convention in England. Buoyed from the success of that convention, they felt that the MagiFest was too important to let die. Moreover, they thought if the MagiFest is to survive well into the future, it was time to take it in a new direction with some traditional things for the "regulars" plus have an appeal to the younger set of "up and comers"...just like Joshua was.

The first day allowed the registrants to squeeze into the small Dealers' Room for a chance to get the latest and greatest...and indeed, they had it all. I have never seen such a feeding frenzy; however, it reminded me of The Magic Circle Centenary cramped Dealers' Room many years ago that had us all packed in like sardines. At least this Dealers' Room had air conditioning, though it wasn't necessary since it was 12 degrees outside.

The registrants were split into two groups one of which saw Simon Lovell's one man show "Strange and Unusual Hobbies" that he has presented off Broadway in New York for eight years while the other room Scott Robinson hosted the other group with a workshop.

Before anything started and while the corridor was filled with anxious shoppers with time on their hands and money in their pockets and awaiting the opening of the Dealers' Room, I stopped long-time attendee (and local restaurant magician) Carroll Baker who talked about the demise of the Red Coats (the former organizers of the MagiFest) and John Sturk from Chicago and this being his first MagiFest. Steve Bryant (editor of "The Little Egypt Gazette") also said hello.

For "Magic and Martini Thursday" (see Facebook to join us each week for a virtual martini) we went into the bar for a real treat with Jania Taylor, John Archer and Simon Lovell. This may be one of the best and most fun (and funniest) interviews I have recorded on The Magic Word at conventions. I think I was able to bleep out all the potentially offensive language, but it wasn't easy. :)

Download this podcast in an MP3 file by Clicking Here then right click to save the file. You can also download the MP3 media file directly from the RSS feed by Clicking Here.

083: Still "Zaney" After All These Years - A Chat with Walter "Zaney" Blaney

Here's a New Year's "Blast from the Past." On January 12, 2010, Geoff Williams was in Houston on a lecture tour. Several local magicians got together for a lunch with Geoff that included Richard Hatch, John Star, Bill Palmer and others as well as Tim Drake (from Canada) who was in town to visit Walter Blaney.

I took advantage of the situation and sat down with Walter after lunch for a short chat about some highlights of his life in magic including his efforts to thwart magic exposure and the eventual development of the World Alliance of Magicians (W.A.M.), some funny stories of things that have happened during his performances with his Ladder Suspention and the fascinating people he has performed for such as NASA astronauts from the Apollo and Mercury missions.

Walter is working on an autobiography that will be a "must have" for all magicians when it finally comes out. But the effort, like Walter's long and multi-faceted life, is time consuming that has been years in the making and may be several years more before it is completed. Perhaps you could drop him a note to tell him how much you enoyed this podcast and to encourage him to hurry up and get his memoires published. You can reach him at: Walter@WalterBlaney.com

Download the MP3 file by Clicking Here then right click to save the file. You can also download the MP3 media file directly from the RSS feed by Clicking Here.