Magicians & More
2008 - 2019
Merchants of Doubt at Bucknell University
In October of 2015 I was part of a multi-day event at Bucknell University as part of the Public Understanding of Science program. I presented a talk about deception, and was part of a panel discussion about the documentary, “Merchants of Doubt,” in which I am featured as a commentator. L to R: Academy-Award nominated director Robert Kenner, Jamy, renowned climate scientist Michael Mann, and Naomi Orestes, Harvard historian of science and co-author of the book on which the film is based.
Barrie Richardson Memorial
On Saturday, June 4, 2016, I was privileged to be invited to take part in a memorial gathering and performance for my friend, Barrie Richardson. It was a spectacular gathering of many of Barrie and his wife Janie’s friends from their “other” world — the world in which worked at Centenary College as Dean of the Frost School of Business, where he was eventually appointed the Samuel Guy Sample Professor of Business Administration, a prestigious endowed chair that allowed him to continue to improve the Centenary program, until his retirement in 2001.
Janie wanted those folks to see Barrie’s other world, in which he was revered as a writer, creator, performer and teacher of mentalism. Barrie was a dear friend and had a tremendous influence on my work. In the photo you see a stellar cast of magicians and mentalists, many of us who performed on stage that evening, and a few others who performed close-up magic before the platform show. It was a memorable night, in tribute to an unforgettable man.
[L to R: Gary Plants, Banachek, Jamy, Michael Weber, Eric Mead, Norman Beck, Jon Stetson, Stephen Minch, Jon Racherbaumer, Bob Sheets, and Richard Hatch.]
Cardicians
At MAGIC Live in 2015, Bill Malone talked convention producer Stan Allen into letting Bill bring two friends along to have an on-stage conversation with as a feature convention event — namely, Steve Forte and Ron Conley. At least a thousand people at the convention had no idea who those two guys are, and you might not know either, but suffice to say, a handful of us — like, all the guys in this photo — made sure to get into both of the two times the threesome were on stage, and that includes those of us who know both of them personally to some extent or another.
That evening, mutual pal Norman Beck (tall guy standing next to and behind me to my left) put together an invitation only gathering at a local pub and pool hall. Rarely have I seen that much cardician talent in one room, and I’ll never forget something my pal Jason England (kneeling center) said to me that evening. He had recently read a book about literature, in which the writer posited that if you gathered a group of prominent writers together and asked them to name the greatest novelist of the 20th century, there would probably be general agreement about James Joyce — but if you asked the same group to name their top ten, there would be plenty of discussion and disagreement around the 4th, 5th and 6th positions. Jason said, “If we asked everybody here to name their top ten, there would be a lot of discussion and debate around 4th, 5th and 6th, but everybody is going to agree who’s number one.”
I laughed. Because he was right.
With Kermit
I’m not one for collecting photos of myself with celebrities, I think it’s frankly goofy in most cases. I take lots of photos with friends and magicians, and in a few cases I’ve taken photos with celebrities with whom I’ve worked, not just someone I grabbed a selfie with.
Thanks to my pal, Bill Prady, showrunner for “Big Bang Theory” and for the 2015 Muppets Show reboot, I got a backstage tour of the latter, and met a number of the Muppets. I was frankly in awe of being around them — it’s a weird, hard-to-explain experience, and also a tribute to the puppeteers, who were standing right there with me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the celebrity puppets. I love this photo, and it hangs in my home in tandem with the only other celebrity photo in the house. Perhaps I’ll post that one sometime as well.
Dinner in Vegas
Jason England and I share a passion for superb traditional Japanese cuisine. This isn’t our favorite place in Vegas, but it’s a terrific one, well off the strip.
This was a dinner gathering during MAGIC Live a few years ago with some pals o’ mine. L to R: Larry Fong, Jamy, Eric Mead, Mac King, Bill Mullins, R. Paul Wilson, Jason England, and Michael Weber.
At the Magic Castle
It had been many years since my NYC magic posse had been in one place together. Here we are at the Magic Castle, L to R: Asi Wind, Jamy, Prakash, Matthew Holtzclaw, Dennis Kyriakos.
NYC at Asi’s
A few of my best pals, L to R: Prakash Puru, Noah Levine, Matthew Holtzclaw, Jamy, Asi Wind, Brian Wendell Morton (from Baltimore).
A Couple of Reprobates
Always a pleasure to bump into these two magician pals, two of the best I know: Jason England and Chad Long.
J.C. Wagner
When I first relocated to San Diego in August of 2008, I had exactly one friend here, my old pal and fellow Magic Bartender, J.C. Wagner. We knew each other since the 1980s, and were part of the many interconnections in the Magic Bar lineage that started with “Heba Haba” Al Andrucci, was passed along to Bob Sheets, and that in turn Bob extended the line to J. C. Wagner, Steve Spill, Doc Eason, Eric Mead (by proxy at first), Scotty York, and finally myself.
J.C. used to hold court every Saturday afternoon at a sailor’s dive bar on Coronado, and the sharpest of the local San Diego magic scene, especially the younger crowd of upcoming talent, would gather there weekly in order to learn from the master. I made it out there as often as possible, and loved just being around J.C. and watching him work, or sessioning with him there.
Sadly, J.C. was diagnosed with cancer not long after I arrived in San Diego, and was gone a year-and-a-half later. It was a life cut short, and a companionship cut short as well. He was not only a great magician, but a truly gentle man.