Steve Spill's New Book: I Lie For Money

[Jack Shalom]

Magician Steve Spill, he of Magicopolis fame, has a new book out in May about his life and times as a journeyman magician. It's got the poetic symbolic title of I Lie For Money. If you want to read great stories about being mentored by Dai Vernon, Charlie Miller, and Francis Carlyle, and would like to know how he managed to open his own magic theater where he stars nightly, then look out for this entertaining book.

You can read my review of it here, on my daily blog:

http://jackshalom.net/2015/03/07/i-lie-for-money/

[Q. Kumber]

Thank you for posting that. Sounds like my kind of book.

[Richard Kaufman]

And the May issue of Genii will be your kind of issue, Quentin, since Steve Spill will be on the cover.

[Q. Kumber]

Great. The Woody Allen issue arrived a couple of weeks ago.

[Dustin Stinett]

The book is available for preorder on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Lie-Money-Outrage ... teve+spill

I have also read it (a galley proof) and it is marvelous.

[Brad Jeffers]

And the May issue of Genii will be your kind of issue, Quentin, since Steve Spill will be on the cover.

Hate to tell you Richard, but you've been scooped ...

[Jack Shalom]

Brad, as you can see by the name in the lower left-hand corner, the cover you posted was of a fellow named Steve Spillman, so Richard wins. Spillman was pretty good. Wonder what ever happened to him?

[John McDonald]

Also in the Amazon UK store https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1632204924/ ... .ub1KS54KY

[John McDonald]

Looks great I'm in.

[Dustin Stinett]

For the record, Steve Spill appeared on the cover of Genii in June, 1991.

I wish I could say that we have an exclusive with him, but he was on the cover of an M-U-M in 2009 I think.

Steve is a terrific guy and an outstanding magician (and he still has the close-up chops that young Mr. Spillman had all those years ago). I highly recommend seeing him and Bozena (his beautiful wife*) at Magicopolis. He has several pieces that has magicians scratching their heads. And before the show he does a close-up card set before pitching the Svengali decks at his magic counter. It makes for a terrific night's entertainment even for jaded magicians.

Dustin

*The biggest mystery is how Steve was able to convince Bo to marry him.

[Jack Shalom]

This past week, I interviewed Steve for WBAI radio and the Pacifica radio network. In the interview, among other things, he talked about his time as a a young teen performing and raising hell with the greats at the Magic Castle. However, in the editing of the piece for general audiences, some of the most interesting parts for magicians necessarily got cut out. You can listen to some of those missing outtakes by going to my blog here:

http://jackshalom.net/2015/03/21/knight ... ic-castle/

WBAI should be running the rest of the interview in a couple of weeks from now, and I’ll post it up on the blog after it’s broadcast.

[Jack Shalom]

Just a heads-up to let you know that the full interview will be running on WBAI 99.5 FM NYC this Thursday, April 2nd, on the Arts Express show. It will run sometime between 2-3pm EST. (I don't know yet what place in the show the segment will be put. I can give you more info on that later in the week.) The show will be simulcast on the Internet at WBAI.org, same time 2-3pm EST.

I'll also post a link to an archive of the recording on Friday.

[Jack Shalom]

Magician (and now author!) Steve Spill spoke with me about his new book I Lie for Money: Candid Outrageous Stories from a Magician’s Misadventures on radio station WBAI 99.5 FM NY yesterday. The book is a fun read. In the interview Spill talks about, among other things, his days as Highdini, the Cheech-and-Chong inspired magician who opened up for rock bands in the 70s. You can listen to the interview at this link:

http://jackshalom.net/2015/04/03/tales- ... the-beans/