My guest on this episode of the Spirit of Magic podcast is legendary close-up and bar magician JC Wagner. We cover everything from his days working the Disney Magic shop with Steve Martin to his time working the bar with Bob Sheets and Doc Eason. JC also shares some of history with Dai Vernon, Eddie Fecter and other legends of the west coast magic scene. If you want to work magic in the bar, there is no better teacher to learn from than the amazing JC Wagner.

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The Santa Maria Times has published an article updating the story of Jonathan Pendragon:

Claude Douglas Yarbrough, whose stage name is Jonathan Pendragon, pleaded no contest Tuesday to two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon for the July 8 shooting.

The 55-year-old magician will be sentenced to a year in jail April 13.

Yarbrough’s no-contest plea also results in two strikes being added to his record, and he could also face up to five years of probation, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

A no-contest plea is similar to a guilty plea in felony cases, although it is not an admission of guilt.

Yarbrough’s attorney, Ilan Funke-Bilu, said he didn’t know exactly why his client chose to change his plea and not proceed with a trial, but he assumed it had something to do with Yarbrough’s feelings for his wife.

She (Charlotte) was present in court Tuesday, when her husband of 33 years apologized to her for any harm he may have caused her.

Funke-Bilu said he has never had a client apologize to the victim at the time of a plea, which he believes shows Yarbrough is remorseful.

“It was something that he wanted to say,” Funke-Bilu said, adding the request by his client caught him off-guard. “It wasn’t something that I told him to say.”

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Joanie Spina is our special guest on this episode of the podcast. If you're not yet familiar with Joanie, she acts as a performance coach to magicians, jugglers, dancers, singers, clowns, mimes, and actors. She offers a variety of services including theatrical direction, staging and/or choreography, individual performance coaching and promotional tape design and is best known to many as the co-director and choreographer for world renowned magician David Copperfield. If your demo tape does more traveling than you do, then sit back and enjoy the expert opinions of a master magic coach on This Week in Magic!

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ENJOY THIS MONTAGE OF CHOREOGRAPHY BY JOANIE SPINA:

Shawn Farquar wraps up his coverage from the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas by chatting with several of the contestants. He even gives us a peek at the Gold Lions Head award winning act of Trevor & Lorena Watters. Congratulations guys!

WORLD MAGIC SEMINAR XXXIII CONTEST from Magic Newswire on Vimeo.

Shawn Farquhar reports from backstage during Day One of the World Magic Seminar and interviews several of the featured performers from the Gala Show. Soma, Shawn Anthony, Tina Lenert, Steve Kline and Heirich Botha. In addition, he let us know that the SARMOTI award was presented to Nestor Hato of France and that Trevor Watters and Lorena of BC Canada were presented with the Gold Lion's Head award. Lance Burton, Criss Angel, Penn and Teller all showed up to pay tribute and David Copperfield called in a message.

World Magic Seminar XXXIII Day 1 from Magic Newswire.

Ken Scott is off to Hollywood California where he's performing in the Palace Theater at the Magic Castle. While there, he's taking time to chat with some of his fellow performers between shows, by the pool and as they make their way around Hollywood.

In Part One, Ken chats with Robert Baxt, Troy Hooser, Barry Tamarkin Howard Mincone and Steve Axtel.

In Part Two, Ken is joined by Magic Castle photographer Najee,  World Magic Seminar Golden Lion's Head winners Trevor and Lorena Watters, Christopher Hart, Max Maven and the new Magic Castle Director of Entertainment Jack Goldfinger.

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LISTEN TO PART ONE OF KEN SCOTT AT THE MAGIC CASTLE:

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Steve Cohen is profiled in a piece from the NY Times that I've been expecting for the last two weeks thanks to a heads up from Steve.

Steve Cohen does not have the marquee name of a David Copperfield, David Blaine or Penn & Teller. What he does have, at 39, is Chamber Magic, five shows a weekend at the plush suite in the Waldorf-Astoria where Crown Prince Sultan of Saudi Arabia stays when in town. The audience is capped at about 50 people, who pay $75 each ($100 for the front row). They are expected to dress well. And two or three private events a month, for which he gets $10,000 to $20,000.

Mr. Cohen’s specialty is parlor magic, fusing close-up maneuvers and tricks with common objects for small audiences. He models himself after conjurers who entertained the aristocracy in European salons in the 1800s. He does not saw women or make elephants vanish.

“He works in the style of a soiree at the home of some Vanderbilt or Rittenhouse, where you might expect an evening of light opera but have lucked into an expert magician,”Teller, the silent member of Penn & Teller, wrote in an e-mail message.

The Millionaires’ Magician moniker came about eight years ago, when he was brainstorming with Mark Levy, a marketing strategist and amateur magician, about raising his visibility. He had always cultivated the upper crust, and, in a brief profile, Avenue magazine mentioned that he was sort of the millionaires’ magician. Be that, Mr. Levy said. Mr. Cohen worried it might limit who would hire him. Mr. Levy said, “You’ll get the right calls.”

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As if my interest in magic didn't help to prove that I am indeed a geek, here is yet more evidence. I am thrilled to learn that the entire Popular Science magazine archive is now online! So, why does that matter to me as a magician? Well, as evidenced by the image of Houdini above, there have been many magic related articles in the publication over the years. This article on Houdini was published almost exactly one year before Houdini's death in 1926. In December of 1925, there was a follow-up piece on his exposure of fake psychics. In 1946 there is an article on Blackstone and his magic workshop.  Find this and much much more by clicking here.

Chicago native Bill Malone discovered magic after a chance visit to a local magic shop when he was seventeen.  Little did he know that this would lead him to become a pupil of the legendary Ed Marlo and that he'd eventually become one of the most popular performers working the magic bar scene.  Today, Malone is known for his many creative contributions to classic bar magic  such as the bill in lemon, card under glass, and Sam the Bellhop. In this episode of the "Spirit of Magic Podcast," Bill talks about the many great magicians that have inspired him and the people that he works with today to keep the creative juices flowing. He also tips his advice on working trade shows and the corporate market.

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We mix things up on this episode of This Week in Magic by inviting two totally different performers to join us on the podcast. Doc Eason is one of the most expereinced bar magicians living today. He's performed in Snowmass Colorado for more than 27 years, with a lengthy stint at John Denver's Tower Restaurant Magic Bar. In addition, Doc was the recipient of the Academy of Magical Arts first every award for "Bar Magician of the Year" in 2005. In 2008, they also named him Close-up Magician of the Year. When he was 17, Levent was awarded 1st Prize in the Stage Magic competition at the IBM National Convention. He never looked back, immediately taking a resort booking, performing on cruise ships and in theaters around the world. He is a noted creator of magic tricks and a magic lecturer as well as a vaudeville historian. His most recent project is "Levent's Ultimate Guide to the Billiard Balls" in which he explores every aspect of this historic routine and recreates Cardini's famous presentation of the effect.

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Every year, Lance Burton hosts a luncheon at his castle for young magicians attending the World Magic Seminar. Among the magic celebrities in attendance were Johnny Thompson, Criss Angel, Siegfried, Jeff McBride, Eugene Burger and Joshua Jay.  This year, Robin Leach gave it some well deserved special attention in his Strip Scribbles column of the Las Vegas Sun. 

Master magician Lance Burton helped kick off a week of magic for the youth program of the World Magic Seminar at his castle in Henderson when he hosted a luncheon and meet-and-greet for 53 budding magicians with Siegfried Fischbacher and Criss Angel. The World Magic Seminar is based at The Orleans this week, and Lance invited many of the young magicians to his show at the Monte Carlo. It’s the 20th year of the convention in Las Vegas, with more than 1,000 attending. Lance said, “Can you imagine being a young magician coming to Las Vegas being able to meet one-on-one with some of the world’s most famous magicians? It’s a major international event.”

The above photos were posted by Criss Angel on Sunday in his Twitter Feed.