Conversations With Close

If you have any interest at all in card magic, I’m sure the name Roberto Giobbi is familiar to you. He is a prolific author, a frequent contributor to magazines (his column in Genii has run for fourteen years), a lecturer, a teacher, and an experienced performer. His new book, Sharing Secrets: The 52 Most Important and Practical Strategies in Magic , is fantastic. In it, Giobbi has solved a proble...

This month my guest on Conversations with Close is an old friend, Jamy Ian Swiss. Jamy is an author, a public speaker, a close-up and stand-up performer, and an activist in the skeptic community. We talked about a wide variety of subjects; Jamy offered some great stories he has never shared in interviews before. We also discussed his new book, The Conjurer’s Conundrum .

Dr. Michael Rubinstein has been a major player in the coin magic world since the 1980s. His new book, Rubinstein Coin Magic contains the best of his published creations, previously unpublished material, and routines from his friends around the world. Michael appeared on Penn and Teller: Fool Us a few seasons ago, performing a memorable Wild Coin routine. We had not spoken in a while, so we caught...

Richard Kaufman is a prolific author and publisher; his output includes some of the best books of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For more than twenty years he has been the editor of Genii magazine. His most recent book, Mr. Jennings Takes it Easy, has been in the works for many years.  I spoke to Richard from his home in Washington, DC. We talked about his process, his relationship...

Eric Mead is a gifted performer, a creator, an author, a genuinely funny human being, and the man responsible for the ten-percent solution on Penn & Teller: Fool Us . His book, Tangled Web , is full of great routines, and is required reading for those of you interested in memorized deck magic. Eric chimed in on one of my Facebook live video broadcasts. It had been a while since we had chatted;...

Scott Alexander is one of magic’s few general practitioners, equally adept at close-up, parlor, and stage magic. He has created and marketed some excellent, professional-caliber routines. He was also a close friend to the late Denny Haney, whom he considers to be his mentor. Later this month, Scott will release Denny Haney: Collected Wisdom – The Life, Lessons, and Legacy of Denny Haney and the De...

John Carney has been a friend for more than forty years. He is an author, one of the world’s finest sleight-of-hand performers, a serious student of conjuring, and one of the funniest people I know.  I spoke to John via Zoom. Our conversation ranged far and wide, from his early years at the Magic Castle, his mentors, to his development as an artist, his current approach to sleight of hand and...

Late in the evening on October 21, 2020, production wrapped on season 7b of Penn & Teller: Fool Us . I had been working on pre-production since early June. While I have written about the show in various places and have discussed it on my podcasts and the podcasts of others, I had never done an interview with Executive Producers Andrew Golder and Lincoln Hiatt, two gentlemen with whom I was in...

My guest on Conversations with Close this month is a relative newcomer to the world of magic: Brazil’s Guilherme Silveira. You may have seen Guilherme on season seven of Fool Us , which aired during the summer. His routine featured an interesting wrinkle on using a smart phone in a prediction effect. Guilherme’s background is in mathematics and software design. I met him last year, when he contact...

I met Doc Dixon almost thirty years ago; we have shared some memorable and hilarious experiences. I’m sure most of you saw Doc’s fooling performance on season six of Penn & Teller: Fool Us , in which he put a whole new spin on the venerable Three-shell Game. (A historical note for Fool Us fans: FU director Dennis Rosenblatt kept the signed cork pea used in the routine. He has it in his “How th...

For many magicians, playing cards have an undeniable fascination; enthusiasts eagerly snatch up every newly released pack they can get their hands on. (As someone wryly posted on Facebook, designer decks are the magical equivalent of Beanie Babies.) For serious playing-card collectors, their interest transcends the mere aesthetic appeal of new back and face designs. They study the history of playi...

One of the reasons I was eager to attend the OWOW Magic Festival was that two old friends were also going to be performing there. I’ve known Stephen Bargatze for at least thirty years, and I’ve known Rick Merrill almost that long. (When he was fifteen, Rick sent me a letter offering an improvement to one of my tricks. I don’t hold that against him.) Both men are funny in their bones; they can make...

Ryan Joyce is a busy performer, and he has been ever since he graduated from high school. For ten years, he performed a touring illusion show that crisscrossed Canada. He then entered the cruise-ship market, performing illusions, a smaller stand-up show, and a hypnosis act. Ryan also has an avid interest in technology and filmmaking, both of which are showcased in his online Magician’s Masterclass...

My guest this month is one of my favourite performers and creators, David Regal. Although our paths have crossed at the occasional magic convention over the years, we’ve never really had the opportunity to spend time chatting about magic. I regret that, because David is an “evangelist” for quality magic – magic with an elegant method, and an interesting and evocative “hook.” In other words (and as...

This Conversations with Close podcast features an interview with Paul Vigil, who, in the past few years, has established himself as one of the top-flight performers and creators in the world of magic. Paul’s skills were well known to the magicians of Las Vegas, but it is only recently, with the publication of his books Classic Fantastic and Doors of Deception and his performances and lectures, tha...

In March 2013, I ran a cover story on Pam Thompson in M-U-M. While there had been many stories about Johnny Thompson in magic magazines, there had not been one on Pam, who was an integral part of the Tomsoni & Company act. In preparation for that article, I recorded several phone conversations with Pam. There were a few things she could not recall, so I scheduled another phone call that would...

I met Harry Lorayne in the spring/summer of 1975. At the time, I was going to music school at Butler University. I lived not far from campus and was home for lunch. As I watched the noon news, I heard the following announcement: “After this commercial break, we’ll be back with memory expert, Harry Lorayne.” I never saw the interview, because I immediately hopped in my car and headed downtown to th...

Matt is one of the busiest professional comedy magicians around; he works corporate events, cruise ships, and comedy clubs. He is also in demand as a writer for television. You may  ave seen Matt on the fourth season of Penn & Teller: Fool Us. His experience on the show led him to an important insight, one I had not previously considered when I analyzed acts. I have shared that insight wi...

I had a chance to chat with my old friend, Bruce Kalver.  He was the president of The Society of American Magicians when I was hired to be the editor of M-U-M . He authored several feature stories for me and also wrote one of the most popular columns in the magazine, Tech Tricks (which continues to this day). Bruce’s story is a fascinating one. He was born into a show-biz family, has performe...

Jeff Pinsky is the owner and operator of The Browser's Den of Magic in Toronto, Ontario, CANADA. I sat down with Jeff at the Den in June 2019.

Jeff Altman is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and magician who has appeared as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman a combined 45 times. Altman mesmerized contemporaries like David Letterman and Jerry Seinfeld, and inspired future comedians like Judd Apatow. I had a wonderful conversation with Jeff in January 2019.

Andi Gladwin is a British magician, speaker, and publisher. He has appeared on television numerous times, has lectured for magicians throughout the UK, US and Europe and written / published books on magic. Joshua Jay is a magician, author, and lecturer. He has performed in over 100 countries, and he was awarded the top prize at the World Magic Seminar in 1998. He fooled Penn and Teller on their hi...

Mac King is an American magician who has performed on television specials, often as a co-host. He has his own family-friendly show, "The Mac King Comedy Magic Show", at the Harrah's Las Vegas in the Clint Holmes Theater. Here is the chat via Skype. (Sept 2018)

R. Paul Wilson is a close-up magician, filmmaker, and author. Michael sat down with R. Paul Wilson at the Ring 129 Workshop Convention in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Anthony Owen was a magician, mentalist, and producer. Michael caught up with Anthony at the Sesson in London, England. (January 2018)