A funny thing happened to me yesterday... Let me put things in context here, if you haven't been keeping score.  It's been over 35 years since I did a complete magic show.  In front of humans.  Those who might have witnessed my performances back then might argue that I've never done a complete magic show, but I digress. All of that changed yesterday... a change that was the result of a series of changes that I've gotten into in past blogs and won't replay here.  Suffice to say, I went from "getting serious about magic again" last March, to performing my first (paid) magic show this very week.  How did it go?  Let me give you the long version... I began teetering on the shoulders of giants some time ago.  The first was Jay Sankey.  I wrote music for him, he supplied me with effects and tons of great advice.  Through Jay I began to learn that solid tricks are important, but selling them, really bringing on the show and entertaining, is...

This will be brief. In 10 days, I will perform my first magic show in over 35 years. Crunch time?  Oh yeah. Today was a sobering mix of practice and prop problems.  I actually ruined one of my props.  A replacement has been ordered, and with any luck it will be here with time to spare. I've practiced each effect endless times now, but have yet to do a complete run through of the show... that happens tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and... Lately, at least one person a day has asked me, "Are you nervous?"  The honest answer is no.  I suppose I should be, if anything to satisfy those who insist I should be, but even at the most frustrating parts of this rehearsal day, I remained calm about the actual performance.  Perhaps it will hit me when there are only 5 days left, but now I have 10. 10 days. Tick, tick, tick...

Despite the fact that I'm less than a month from my first show, I'm taking a break from practice today... ok, true confession, I DID go through one of the effects a couple of times, but otherwise I'm going to relax, enjoy a wonderful meal with family, and give thanks. There's a lot to be thankful for this year.  Yes, my professional life has had it's ups and downs, but there have been plenty of good things... the family is all healthy and employed, we've moved into a new home, some good friends have offered freelance work to fill in the gaps, I've renewed my focus in magic, and I've discovered an entire new family of magicians who have been accepting of this aging Novice. Accepting is too small a word, to be honest, and family feels like a literal word.  I've gained many magic Brothers and Sisters.  From Jeff McBride, Dean Hass, and the rest of the Magic & Mystery School team, who made it possible for me to attend Magic & Meaning and ...

A brief view behind the curtain... When I write these blogs, there's no real plan.  There is, of course, a theme, but unlike the blogs and scripts I write for clients, I simply let whatever comes out land on the page.  There are no keywords, no word counts, no concern for a "call-to-action," or any of those other pesky details that my day-to-day marketing words require.  This means that I'm often surprised by what comes out.  What appeared in part 1 of this blog was more a love note to many of the people that have become my magic family, and less about the events at Magic & Meaning.  They were things that needed to be said, but again, I had no plan to write it that way. There's no question that words are magic.  Of course, there are things I experienced at Magic & Meaning that I can't/won't talk about (it was a gathering of Magicians, after all), however there were wonderful parts that I can share... experiences I will carry with me for the r...

I was 38 years old before I first visited Disney World.  Walking through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, I immediately became the teary-eyed 5 year-old who wanted to visit 33 years earlier... full of wonder & love, even as I stumbled off curbs. I am now, of course, much more mature, so when I attended my first gathering of magicians this past week, I was a teary-eyed 10 year-old... full of wonder & love.  Oh, and I did stumble off a few curbs too (more on that later). Understand that Magic and Meaning isn't just another conference for magicians; at least that's what everyone kept reminding me. Wisdom is shared, but not the kind you might imagine.  "Tricks" are taught, yes, but "Magic" is not so simple a word; so much emphasis was put on finding the deeper meanings of it all.  Heavy stuff for the worlds oldest 10 year-old. I'm still processing it all, and obviously there are things I can't and won't share about the experience, but...

I am a handful of days away from attending the Magic and Meaning conference in Vegas.  My entry into the affair happened by an unusual alignment of events... life changes, spur of the moment emails, and no small amount of faith in me from my wife and friends (even as I was losing it in myself).  I've never been one to believe in fate or destiny, choosing instead to hold onto the conviction that I have some sort of control over my own life, but looking back at it all, there certainly seems to be a clearly defined path that's leading me there.  It's like, well, magic. So what if I'm going to be the "new guy?"  Everyone is a beginner at some point.  Hell, as Chaplin pointed out in the movie Limelight, "That's all any of us are: amateurs.  We don't live long enough to be anything else."  All being a freshman really means is that I need to keep my eyes, ears, and heart open and my mouth shut as much as possible (I am me, after all...), I sho...

I'm healthy again, that's the first thing.  Let me rephrase that... I'm no longer feeling the effects of pneumonia.  I'm back to where I was before I did my best to cough my lungs out for several weeks. Things do change as I grow older, whether I choose to ignore the numbers or not.  Little aches that come out of nowhere and never seem to completely go away, fat bulges that poke out in the most unflattering places, and the odd skin discolorations here and there that the doctor insists aren't cancer... but are less than attractive.  Yes, things change, and it would be easy to sit still, bitch about it all, and pine for the "good old days," but the truth is that despite the normal wear and tear of aging, I'm much stronger, mentally and physically, than I've ever been in my life.  Why not push back, ignore the little physical distractions, and get busy doing things I've always wanted to do?  So I'm a rookie Magician at 55+, why not?  It ...

"Be careful what you wish for."  It's a phrase that often sums up my life.  I struggle with the concept of manifestation, but it happens... and sometimes, the "gift" is both a blessing and a curse.  For example, let's recap the past 6 months: 1. I recommit to magic 2. I begin writing about my journey 3. Surprisingly, other magicians read the blog and respond 4.  One of those magicians is Jeff McBride, who suggests that I apply for a Mystery School scholorship 5.  I'm accepted 6.  Non-magician friends read the blog 7.  A non-magician friend offers me my first booking That's the "Fairytale" side of the story, the part that both surprised me and made me humbly grateful.  There was, however, another narrative going on behind that story: 1.  My wife and I randomly stumbled on our dream house and made an offer 2.  We spent weeks organizing, dumping, then moving 26 years of accumulation from our old house to our new one ...

The name "Jay Sankey" needs no introduction in the magic world, but for the benefit of my non-magician readers, let me just say that he's among the most inventive minds in magic.  He has created tricks that have become legendary, performed by the uber-famous in their television specials.  He is a deep thinker, concerned about the present and future of magic and what it needs to do to evolve as the rest of the entertainment world evolves.  He's also funny as hell.  Like many magicians, he took the stand-up comedy by-pass for a time, and has been known to post hilarious and quirky videos on his YouTube channel.  He writes, he performs, he speaks his mind... which has, at times, upset some members of the magic community.  Still, nobody can deny his drive and passion for the magic arts.  For the past decade, he has also been one of my best friends. To this day I'm not sure how we found each other.  I think I discovered one of his videos an...

I have a magic bucket list, filled with magicians to see and magic places to experience first-hand before the bucket tips.  So far I've been lucky enough to experience David Copperfield, Dan Sperry, Jeff Hobson, Shim Lin, and several others on that list live, and I've also visited the Magic Castle in LA and Eclectica magic shop in Rome. Still, I have so many to see, so many places to be. Visiting Magicopolis in Santa Monica would mean two ticks off the list, as the incredible Steve Spill holds court there.   Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Steve's theatre packs 'em in for a magic show only he could do, because there's nobody quite like Steve.  I'd give you more of his background, but honestly he does a much better job than I ever could in his book, I Lie For Money , which anyone who has even a passing interest in magic, comedy, and the entertainment industry must read.  Suffice to say, he's been there, done that in entertainment, and man...

Answers are seldom simple.  A question like, "Did you feed the cat?" could have a complex answer, like, "My day consists of hours toiling at a job, which I receive compensation for bi-weekly.  This compensation is directly deposited into my bank account, via a complex series of secured technologies, thus enabling me to have access to said compensation, which allows me to purchase goods at any number of retailers.  One such retailer specializes in products for a wide variety of pets, including felines... So yes, through a combination of labor, economic alchemy, and shopping, I do feed the cat!"  On the other hand, the answer might be, "No. Did you?" Like answers, Edward Underwood is a complex man.  He is most certainly a magician, and a great one at that, but that is only part of his puzzle.  He's a musician, composer, comedian, writer, thinker... With a heavy emphasis on "thinker."  He and his lovely wife Karen perform various sh...

As someone with a bit of Peter Pan syndrome,  I'm a little envious of children.  Kids simply do things - they see a can, they kick it & it turns into a game. They see a pile of Legos, they build a house/space ship/dinosaur.  They get a magic set for their birthday, they become a magician. As we grow-up, "simply do" is replaced by, "something more important to do."   Some mornings, I'd like nothing better than to simply jump on my bike and ride away to some secret place and read comic books all day.  My adult reality is, A: I no longer own a bike, B: the comics I still own are "collectible" and under plastic, and C: I have to go to work, make money, pay bills. It's a wonder my interest in magic survived young adulthood at all.  I raised 3 kids, built several careers (radio, advertising, writing, voice-over/audio production), and moved across the country more times than I'd like to think about.  The fact that there was room for ev...

I had planned to begin a series of blogs this week, then Death decided to work overtime on people I admire, and I find that I'm stumbling a bit.  First there was Glen Campbell, the "Country Act" who was so much more.  Then there was Broadway Star Barbara Cook, a gifted actress who was the original "Marian the Librarian" in the Music Man, among hundreds of other memorable roles. One loss, however, hit me in the heart of everything I am attempting to do today.  His name was Eugene Burger. If you're not a magician, I won't be appalled if you don't know his name.  If you are a magician, you know that to our world, Mr. Burger's passing is devastating.  There are some Stars who quietly shine outside of the spotlight, and while he had a very successful career as a magician, he wasn't a household name... unless you have a magician in your household. There have been endless wonderful words written about the man the past few days.  As a perform...

The reality of what I'm trying to bite off has set in.  It's not a comfortable feeling.  I'm loving every second of it. I suppose I'm that guy, always jumping into everything sideways.  I've already mentioned that I more or less started in magic in a bubble; I had no peers or mentors to turn to other than the books I read and magicians I saw on TV, so I stumbled my way into performing tricks. Much the same can be said about my professional career.  I was a theatre major who started working part-time at a local radio station, which led to a career in broadcasting.  I liked doing silly voices, which got me in the production room as a Production/Creative Director.  I wrote countless scripts and goofy memos to the rest of the staff about production techniques, and that landed me a monthly columnist gig in a radio trade, which I've now done for nearly 25 years.  I could go on, but the bottom line is that everything I've done professionally has not c...