528: Roger Dreyer - Room For Houdini

On our recent trip to New York City to see the Derren Brown show, one of the “must see” stops is the Fantasma Magic shop and to hopefully get some time with the owner and proprietor, Roger Dreyer. In this week’s episode, Roger gives us a personal guided tour of his collection. The photos in this blog accompany the audio podcast so you can see some of the items he talks about in this week’s episode.

This was the video discussed by Roger Dreyer where Kamarr the Magician was on David Letterman in 1988.

The Houdini Museum of New York is a museum exhibiting memorabilia related to the escape artist, Harry Houdini. It is located at Fantasma Magic, a retail magic manufacturer and seller located at 213 West 35th Street, Rm 401, New York, NY.

DATELINE NEW YORK CITY OCTOBER 2019: Roger Dreyer gives a short tour of the Fantasma Headquarters on local television news segment.

This week we travel from Houston Texas to New York City to the world headquarters of Fantasma Magic. There we are given a personalized, guided tour of the magic store and the extensive Houdini collection.

During this episode, it is mentioned that the 2019 Official Houdini Seance will take place in Niagara Falls. But if you would like to see excerpts from the 2012 Official Houdini Seance, then you can contact Arthur Moses to purchase a DVD of the event for $17.00 U.S. You can contact Arthur at aem1957@sbcglobal.net or you can buy the online video by Clicking Here.

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527: October Reads - Joe Posnanski, Jeff Abraham, and Burt Kearns

In this fourth installment of our October “Month of Boo”, we have two great suggested books for you to read. Neither book is a “magic book” per se, but they are interesting reads that are perfect for this month. One is about the some of those who died on stage while the other is about an individual who, though long gone, still is alive in our imaginations today.

The first, “The Life and Afterlife of Houdini” by Joe Posnanski, a sports writer who ventured out with his first book on magic, this one about Houdini and why his name still resonates in our world 93 years after his death. It is a fascinating look at an aspect of Houdini that has not yet been explored. It puts to death some of the myths surrounding Houdini, but it is because of those myths that we have the legend.

The second book, “The Show Won’t Go On” by Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns is a respectful look at the lives and deaths of those who died while doing something they love. Yes, many have figuratively died on stage, but these have literally died on stage.

Time stamps for this podcast:

00:04:29 - Joe Posnanski talks about writing “The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini” and the people along the way who helped make this possible.

00:31:53 - Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns discuss their book, “The Show Won’t Go On” and some of the interesting stories about those who died on stage doing what they loved.

Hello, World!

526: Paul Prater - Take a Walk on the Spooky Side

Paul Prater is a “bizarrist” in his magic style as he loves and explores the unusual side of our art. He creates props and scripts that lead his audiences down a very spooky path, and they love going with him. Since 2017 Paul has been presenting “Haunted Argenta” in Argenta, Arkansas which is a Ghost Tour. He as recently added “Boos and Brews, The Lascivious and Wild Tales of Argenta”. You may think that Argenta isn’t so spooky, but thousands of Native Americans died here on the Trail of Tears, plus other real and mythical tales.

Paul tells how he found the venue where he performs his Ghost Tours and how he developed his market. Paul is also an attorney who decided to go down this path as his living and he talks about why he chose this path.

528: Roger Dreyer - Room For Houdini

527: October Reads - Joe Posnanski, Jeff Abraham, and Burt Kearns

526: Paul Prater - Take a Walk on the Spooky Side

The Magic Word