337: Danny Archer - Smoke and Mirrors

[Scott Wells]

As we close out 2016, we circle back to chat with Danny Archer. We last had an in-depth conversation with Danny on October 4, 2012 (https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/sco ... -on-target) but quite a bit has changed in his life over the past four years. He has ended his business partnership with Gregory Wilson and relocated back to his "homeland" of Pennsylvania and picked up his old friendship with Marty Martin who, together, have formed the Magical Arts Center which will house the "Smoke and Mirrors" theater. More than just a theater, "Smoke and Mirrors" will also have a magic shop, a school for magicians, and will eventually offer seances, too.

In this week's podcast, Danny talks about the challenges of developing the theater and what led up to this project. You can see a schematic of the plans, listen to our conversation, and download the MP3 file at: https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/sco ... nny-archer

This week we congratulate Jon Barr who won last week's contest for a "surprise" collectible gift from or new sponsor, The Great American Magic Company (http://thegreatamericanmagiccompany.com). Be sure to enter this week's contest for a free eBook by Devin Knight, "The Human Pin Cushion Feat". We also welcome and thank Gene Protas to the Friends of The Magic Word for his donation to the podcast. Thanks, Gene.

To clean up a little, there seems to be a bit of controversy going on at the Yigal Mesika podcast/blog (https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/sco ... gal-mesika). Yigal promised me that he would be available sometime in January to record a podcast to update us from where we left off on the Penguin lawsuit. He hopes to have everything concluded soon so he can speak with some final authority on the court's decision.

And finally, since it is the end of the year, it is time to pause, reflect and remember those who passed this past year. It was not a good year for magicians in general as we lost some of the titans of our art. You can see the names of 30 people whom you may or may not know. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but includes those whom I knew and were important in my life, and probably yours, too. You no doubt can add names of those whom you remember and I encourage you to do so by adding their name(s) in the comments below this week's blog. BTW, there is a link on Bob Brown's name that goes to a video of his lecture for the I.B.M. in Hawaii back in the early 1980's that, although outdated, still has some great underlying value.

Aloha, my friends, and Happy New Year to everyone!