840: Paul Gordon - Singer and Sorcerer

From England, Paul Gordon, is beginning to slow down in his 60’s and ease into retirement…whatever that is. He retired from doing gigs but is still active as a creator and writer. Over the decades, Paul has specialized in performing with cards as a close-up magician for corporate events and weddings while originating some of his own material and writing books. A Member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star, Paul has lectured and appeared on the cover of the Magic Circular and the Linking Ring Magazine.

If you are more of a visual person, then you might enjoy our Zoom recording of our conversation that is raw and unedited and contains a bit more than in the audio-only version of this week's podcast episode.

In this episode, Paul tells us some stories from the road, some jokes he loves to share, and a few tips on building a successful career.

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TheI.B.M. 2024 international convention starts soon, July 10-13. For more information and to register for the convention, please visit: https://ibmconvention.com/

767: Randy Wakeman - I've Been Around for a Long, Long Years

Randy Wakeman has been around for many decades and was often seen lecturing and performing at magic conventions. Nonetheless, I have always seen him as an “underground” magician who appeals to the true sleight-of-hand experts. He is one of those guys who has “been there, done that, has the t-shirt” as he was one of the regular performers about the Chicago Bar Magic Scene before the turn of the last century. He has written several books on magic (card magic mostly) and is still relevant in our community as a performer, teacher and author.

While at the recent Senior Tour close-up convention in St. Louis, The Magic Word spoke with Randy as part of the convention report content. He was preparing for a workshop, so we didn’t get a chance to go in-depth as I had wanted. But we agreed to get together at the 4F convention in Buffalo a couple months later. True to his word, we sat down to complete our chat which results in this episode. The content of our chat in both places was a little disjunctive, so the editing required us to put the second conversation first then plug in the chat in St. Louis and finish with our talk while in Buffalo. This sounds more confusing that it actually is, but I know you will understand and enjoy our chat.

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 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

608- Jeff Bibik - Bar Magician Extraordinaire

Jeff Bibik is a Chicago comedian and a magician. Originally from the Detroit, Michigan, area, he regularly performed magic in local restaurants and comedy clubs until 1985 when he moved to Chicago where he continued as a comedy magician in close-up and stage for the public and corporate audiences and he also performs a hypnosis act. Over the years he developed a large repertoire of jokes and gags that serves him well today as the house magician at the Chicago Magic Lounge.

Jeff Bibik pulls no punches this week in sharing the secrets behind getting work in restaurants performing magic, plus he tells lots of stories about working in bars and restaurants with a liberal sprinkling of funny gags, jokes and puns. This was recorded using StreamYard with Jeff joining us from the bar in his basement in his Chicago home. A video of our chat was also recorded and posted to YouTube. To view that video, please click on the video link below in this blog.

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 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