Andi Gladwin is well-known throughout the magic community as the co-partner with Joshua Jay in Vanishing, Inc. But he is so much more than just a pretty businessman. He and Josh coordinate both the Session convention in England and the MagiFest in Columbus, Ohio, each year. Moreover, he is a force to be reckoned with as an awesome creator and performer having fooled Penn & Teller on their TV show, plus a best selling author.

Podcasts and video interviews with Andi Gladwin can be found around the internet, but the conversation we have is completely unique from all the others. Andi opened up and shared a few tidbits that are “scoops” and have not been heard nor seen anywhere else. All the more reason to Subscribe and Like the Magic Word Podcast and listen each week.

This week Andi talks about the history of the MagiFest and how he and Josh came to take it over, overhaul the structure and host one of the two largest annual magic conventions in the U.S. He also tells us about the formation of Vanishing, Inc. plus he answers a listeners question on why they are located in the same industrial park in California as Murphy’s Magic and Penguin. Andi goes on to share a fascinating story about his experience on “Penn & Teller Fool Us” and about their deliberation that took THREE HOURS!

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.

There are a fairly large number of great card magicians creating original magic. But the man whose card magic has resonated most with magicians in the last 30 years is John Bannon. Why? We think it's because John has just the right cocktail of ingredients: his magic is DIFFERENT than what others are doing. John has shared his magic through a series of books and DVD’s that have revolutionized card tricks. John is a low key, self-effacing, intellectual who is an attorney by day and a card trick innovator on weekends. For the last few decades, John has been part of the Saturday Session with Simon Aronson, David Solomon and David Finkelstein who work on and develop innovative card tricks.

For more about the Saturday Session crew of magicians, Click Here for the online article referred to in this podcast.

While attending the 2019 MagiFest, I posted daily updates for each of the three days of the event and featured short conversations with talent, registrants, dealers, and organizers. Two of the conversations were longer than I normally like to include with such updates but shorter than the usual one hour of content for a “normal” podcast. So this week we feature the two conversations that were each less than a half hour but make for a satisfying hour podcast filled with different subject matter and points of view.

Time Stamps for this podcast:

00:02:44 - First up was a conversation I was having with Stan Allen about the upcoming MAGIC Live! convention then we started talking about critics in our craft and the lack of good critics. As fortune would have it, Jamy Ian Swiss was walking by when we cornered him to talk about giving advice and constructive criticism. How fortuitous.

00:26:38 - Later that evening (much into the late night actually), we had a conversation with Tom Gagnon who talked about his projects both old and new and his passion for continuing to learn and move forward with innovative card ideas. He also talks about his friendships and passing relationships with notable magicians like Ed Marlo and Jon Racherbaumer.

01:03:11 - “Card on Ceiling” by Jamy Ian Swiss: This DVD includes three different versions created and used by professionals including Scotty York, J.C. Wagner and Jamy Ian Swiss. On this DVD Jamy includes the history of the trick, nods to those who have made it a signature piece of their shows, performances of all three methods by Jamy at the W.C. Fields Bar at the Magic Castle, plus a thorough explanation of the methods of each. It also includes a great idea by Jamy for having this effect always ready and where and how to hide the “secret stuff”. Excellent. This is a “must-have” for anyone wanting to perform this trick. Highly recommended.

While attending the 2019 MagiFest

My later days of 2015 were spent re-reading Marlo's riffle shuffle systems.

Riffle work is normally associated with card cheating such as complex stacking procedures which are impossible to perform successfully without hefty and constant practice. Table workers can benefit immensely from riffle shuffle techniques but, for some reason, overhand shuffle procedures are normally preferred.

Common sense dictates that performers should use the same shuffling style for the sake of consistency. However, hindu, overhand and tabled shuffles are used indiscriminately so it is not rare to see all these different techniques used in the same effect for no particular reason. I think that the logic behind these mix and match shuffling choices is at least argueable.

Marlo's work shows the vast possibilities of riffle shuffle methods. Table workers would not find too difficult to remove all overhand/hindu shuffles and rely only on the riffle shuffle. In addition, Marlo demonstrates that strip outs combined with the top, middle and bottom transfers can create miracles. These techniques do not disturb the order of the deck they could put into great use be mnemonic deck practitioners (a job title I have just made up).

Marlo also describes an interesting method for culling/stacking cards using the strip out. Interestingly, Ernest Earick uses the same underlying idea in "The Case of the Inconstant Player" (although using zarrow shuffles) to adjust a five player stack if up to 3 players leave or 2 arrive - a problem that was already raised by Karl Fulves in "The Restacking Problem".

From a double lift with no get ready, to a double deal, to an alternative to the top change; all of them can be easily and deceivingly performed if you can competently push off two cards as one.

However, for some reason, the practicalities of this technique are generally underestimated. There must be a reason why the ability to push off two cards as one has been relegated to cheating at cards by means of the second deal. Maybe we should blame Marlo?

The truth is that magicians, card dealers and the general public are normally push-off dealers. By this I mean that to deal cards from the top of the deck, push-off dealers push the top card slightly off the deck with the thumb, and then use the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to deal the card. It is fair to say that the push-off deal is the most natural way to deal cards. Unless you are strike dealer, you will be more natural if you use the push-off deal consistently when you deal cards from the top (whether is to players, on a pile, or turn them face up on the deck).