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.

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987: Dean Gunnarson - Escaping Reality

Multi international award winning escapist, Dean Gunnarson, joins us this week to talk about his dangerous career. He has been called by the media “The World’s Most Daring Escape Artist” and the title fits. Traveling from his home in Canada to lands across China, Dean has conquered it all and accepted challenges much like Harry Houdini, from rope and chain escapes to the Water Torture and Milk Can Escapes, not to mention straitjacket escapes while being suspended hundreds of feet in the air,

Dean shares with us this week about how James “The Amazing” Randi got him started with an early television special that led to Dean becoming his successor having passed the “Mantle of Escapes” on to Dean. He also shares with us some horror stories when he broke bones, lost a finger, and more. This is an unusual profession and few in the world specialize solely in this art. He does not consider himself a magician, nor does he perform magic at his appearances.

986: Dan Harlan - Cosmic Thinker

One of magic’s most creative minds, Dan Harlan, joins us this week. No doubt many of you have his “Card Toon” card trick or have watched him on Penguin Live videos or perhaps on the Tarbell Course of Magic on video. Maybe you once subscribed to The Minotaur which he co-published with Marv Leventhal. His life and career hasn’t all been roses and indeed had many bumps along the way. Currently he hosts MagiCon - The Mystic Tower convention in Raleigh, North Carolina plus he continues to create and perform.

Dan Harlan is quite candid about his successes and shortcomings as he openly shares many stories in this week’s episode. We learn that Dan doesn’t like card tricks and he tells us why. He also reveals a long time secret that Majoke was co-authored by him and Scott Alexander. He talks about the time it took to create and film “Every Trick in the Book” of Tarbell. Dan also tells us about his years with Penguin and other creative projects that hold his attention.