Magic & Martinis Thursday - Aug. 29, 2013

This was a week for recuperating from hand surgery. All went well for my carpal tunnel and I am on the mend and able to do double lifts though I can't do the Erdnase Palm Shift very well. But then again, I never could. :) My doctor was funny. Before I could ask him if I could play the piano after the surgery (you know the old joke), he told me that I could play the piano ONLY if I played it before the surgery. Wise guy. He stole my line. So this past week I have been working on mentalism and performing tricks not requiring much sleight-of-hand.

During this past week, I performed John Archer's "Blank Night" (sold by Vanishing Inc.) to great success plus the Magic Square. If you are considering performing The Magic Square, then you have to buy the  Luis DeMatos DVD on The Magic Square Very well done and complete with professional routine and a bonus effect plus stickers for your marking pen. I have also continued to use To-Do VooDoo by Rick Lax. I impressed my doctor as well as our Sunday School teacher. It is a great impromptu trick that can easily be carried in your wallet. I wish I was compensated for mentioning any of these tricks, but just so you know, I paid full price like everyone else for all the products I mention. I only rely on your generosity through PayPal donations (see the upper left hand corner of this blog).

Later this weekend, I will be traveling to Dallas for the Texas Association of Magicians (T.A.O.M.) annual convention. I will be riding with Jamie Salinas who is one of the product reviewers for the M.U.M. magazine. It was Jamie who put me on to To-Do VooDoo. I ran into Rick Lax at the recent MAGIC Live! convention in Las Vegas and showed him a little improvement created by Jamie. I also told him about the presentation that Banachek shared with us. Rick was pleased to hear that we are enjoying his effect so much and thrilled that we are putting a different spin on it.

And speaking of Jamie and mentalism, he will be selling his Lotto Fever at the T.A.O.M. which is a killer effect that plays for audiences both big and small. It is another effect that can be carried in your wallet though you can also use other "sorcerer's sidearms" to aid in the effect, if you wish.

Enough for now. I'm off to see the wizards in Dallas. If we run into each other at the convention, please shake my left hand. :) Be sure to watch and listen for my updates from the T.A.O.M. Cheers! 

Martinis aid in the recovery of my hand surgery. 

086: MagiFest 2013 - Day Three

The final day of Version 2.0 of the Magifest was another success. The day opened with a lecture by John Archer then we had another great T.E.D. talk by outstanding magicians like Peter Pitchford, Ben Train & Chris Mayhew, Simon Aronson and Kainoa Harbottle with a little extra thrown in by co-organizer, Andi Gladwin, the day was magnificent. The afternoon lecture was by Dani DaOrtiz which was even more incredible to learn how his magic is accomplished. The evening show was hosted by Simon Lovell with the opening act by John Archer with some comedy mentalism followed by Peter Pitchford with an homage to Cardini. Justin Flom rocked the house with some outstanding, visual magic and closing the show was Justin Willman with some time-tested classics. The two Justins closed with dueling floating tables.

The podcast starts off with a nice chat with Kozmo about Reel Magic which is now available for streaming online. We talked about street performing and how Kozmo decided to quit working the streets and why he decided to return.

13:12 - After the evening show, I took my wandering mic around the lobby to get some feedback from some of the non-magicians who were in the audience and what they thought of the show.

20:40 - I then got to chat with a couple of the stars from the evening show, Justin Flom and Justin Willman. They had some great thoughts on the direction of magic and some advice for the young magicians.

32:41 - Ginny and Simon Aronson talked about their two person mind reading act, their inspiration, and some of their more difficult and unusual things people have had in their pockets and purses.

42:01 - Another one of the stars from the evening show was Peter Pitchford who talks about his interest in Cardini, branding, and making a living for a family of six as a stage magician.

53:35 - Braden Richards was the winner of the Junior Scholarship for the Sorcerer's Safari Magic Camp. We had a brief chat with him then talked with Mike Segal who is the director of the Magic Camp which will be the last week of August. For more information, see http://themagiccamp.com

59:23 - Convention organizers, Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay finally got to relax and take a breath after the convention was over  They talked about what they did and didn't do and what they might do in the future. John Archer chimed in with a few comments (and some Jager shots) during the chat, too.

MagiFest 2013 - Day Three
Scott Wells with Joshua Jay, Andi Gladwin & Others
Download

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.