WOOO!!!!

WOW, today I was so sore, I officially hit the wall. I have been going non stop for the past two weeks straight officially. I guess I'll start at where I left off! The magic castle :D

About the show!

We took a cast picture... but it isn't posted yet, so stand by its coming soon!

But Im going to describe our cast!

Starting with Mark Wilson, many of you aren't familiar with magic, but those of you who are probably know the name Mark Wilson. Mark is the origionator of Magic on television, and the reason for the existance of the show celebtrating it's 50th anniversary, The Magic Land of Allakazam. Mark spent his entire career origionating magic tricks and illusions in many magical styles. He now is a teacher of magic and an advisor to all who is willing to learn the art of magic. He is also the author of the best selling magic book of all time, the Mark Wilson's complete course in magic.

Next in the cast, Nani Darnell, who is perhapse the most famous magicians assistant of all time. Nani is married to Mark Wilson, and has spent her marriage as a wife, mother and as the best magicians assistant in magic history. Nani was very involved in the creative process of The Magic Land of Allakazam. Nani has always been the staple of what it means to be a magicians assistant.

next, Mike Wilson. Mike spent a good part of his young life performing with his parents on The Magic Land of Allakazam. Mike never was a fan of being on stage, but he was always interested in the technical aspect of show production. For the years after The Magic Land of Allakazam mike spent in technical operation or operating cameras for recording the shows his parents would perform in. Mike now is a family man who lives as a producer and has produced hundreds of shows internationally.

next in our cast, Greg Wilson. Greg was born after the Magic Land of Allakazam was being produced. Greg grew up with a passion for magic, and would wake his father up during the sunrise requesting to see his father perform a new magic trick. His father Mark, then decided to give him a set of billard balls to practice a magic routine. With in a day, Greg had mastered a a magic routine with the set, ever since then Greg has lived his life as a magician.

The show was structured like a taping of The Magic Land of Allakazam at CBS studios. In the begining of the show, Blake Towner announces him self as a CBS excecutive, and then begins his hosting duties.

After that, Bob Marino, the musical director, and drummer for the show leads the audience in singing the Allakazam theme song.

After a cameo from Mike, Nani, and a production of Mark Wilson, Mark would light up the crowd with stand up comedy, and then teach the crowd the silk to Egg routine. The first assistant to make an appearance was Lexy. Lexy is a professional dancer who has worked with Greg one time previously before, she also looks just like Jackie Joseph, who was actually an assistant from the original Magic Land of Allakazam.

The next assistant to make an apperance, was Tera Strand, who I have worked with many times before. Tara is, as Ive mentioned in previous posts here in my blog, a professional mime, and cos-player.

Also appearing in the show through out the week was Liberty Larsen, who is actually the grand daughter of the creators of the magic castle. She also comes from a long lineage of magicians assistant, and just followed her family's tradition by assisting her first show with Greg Wilson during this week of shows at the castle.

Of course, a show is nothing with out a stage manager. Bryan Le, who was voted stage magician of the year one year just from sheer awesome magic stage managing ability, operated sound, lights, video, and even helped me pre set through out the entire show.

My first show at the castle was basically our cast's dress rehearsal, it was a little bit rough, but the Wilson family's professionalism made it a great show none the less. After our first show, our second show went much better, a surprising amount of improvement, even for the amount of talent we had.

Here is a bit from the show! and yes, I made an appearance on OTRC on ABC.

After the my first day of show, Chris Mitchell, who was at the castle seeing shows, and I went to the first Kareoke bar in the US dimples, and its Kareoke... I sang!

About the run of the show! All I can say is wow, the castle treats their performers so well, and it was truly surreal sharing the stage with the Legendary Mark Wilson and his entire family, and performing the Wilson family illusions was amazing too.

Also performing at the castle specifically for the magic land of Allakazam, was Bev Bergeron, and Chipper Lowell. Bev Bergeron was Rebo the clown for the Magic Land of Allakazam, and he had spent his career as a comedy magician. Chipper Lowell is the son of Chuck Burnes, who was Mr.Perrywinkle the toy maker from the show.

I actually only know of two other magicians who were performing there during the week, Mark Nelson and Johnny Ace Palmer. (There were more I just couldn't tell you who else, sorry to the magicians I have left out.)

The week was nice, go to school during the day, and perform at the castle at night...

SIDE NOTE! I actually got an ear infection Wed. I was woken up at like 7am, by intense pain in my ear. I went straight to the hospital, and was put on antibiotics. That night was the first time I had to perform beyond my comfort zone thanks to something wrong with my body. Luckily after the first show, the antibiotics kicked in, and I was relatively fine for the rest of the week.

DOUBLE SIDE NOTE! Shout out, thank you to Coel Agustin, Sergei Dmitriev, Tuti Lamanvannuucci, Neko Kelly, Katelyn Adams, Jordan Henderson, Lara Maclssac, and Rosemary Ramirez for seeing my show.

The load out after the end of the show Sunday was intense. Aside from the complicated illusions in the show, we had to take down the show's exibits that were through out the entire castle. BUT the wonderful thing is, I was gifted with something that always makes me proud to see...

YES TECH HANDS!

After load out was over, and things were calmed down, Greg pulls me aside and says, "So, just to let you know... we might be on Ellen next Wensday." WOW! what a wonderful suprise.

I spent the next few days balancing a bit of post production after the show and school work, I had two papers due on Tuesday and a test in a class. What a life :)

And yes, all of a sudden its tuesday night and I got the confirm from Greg. Wed comes and I meet Greg at his place to be picked up by a Limo. We are driven right in to WB studios and park right behind Ellen's studio, and are escorted directly to our dressing room.

It has a TV, and a snack basket and a fully stocked fridge, and yes we are rooming right next to Howie Mendel, who we would be producing from the big book. We were brought sand witches from the PAs on the show for lunch. and all of a sudden we are with in an hour from the start of the show...

Here is me in costume...side note, my costume's shoe laces broke, so I had to use some slight ingenuity and use the laces from my actual shoes in replacement of my costume's shoe laces.

Next thing you know, it's 5 til my spot, and then out of no where, I am on... and off of TV.

Here is a montage from our footage on the show, edited by Greg Wilson.

After our spot was over, I changed out of costume, gave Howie Mendel props and was done for the day.

I spent the rest of the work week doing the usual as of late, class during the day, and then post production with Greg.

Friday night I went to Knott's scary farm with a girl who lives on my floor Karie...who is super awesome. I went specifically to see Ed Alonzo's psycho circus of Magic and Mayhem... WOW, big show! I have very high standards for this show with good reason... and Ed still suprised me... I actually can not figure out his finale! my mind is still boggled by it. Kudos to Ed, Chris and the entire cast of the show... standing ovation from me.

The rest of the night was a blast too, we caught most of the mazes, and also another show! Blood drums! I was hoping to catch Justin Immamura and Chris Pounders... luckily I caught Justin! great to see him, and they put on a great show as usual.

Knotts was very crowded, but deservedly so, the mazes were really well done. But I still say the majority of Great America monsters still do a better job than the majority of Knott's monsters, I just might be a little bias though. One more shout out to Karie for joining on my Knott's adventure.

The next day, I tried to wake up early to catch a swap meet at the magic castle. But didn't get up there until 12:30pm. I missed a lot of the action, but still got to catch some people. I was happy to come across Tony Clark! Also I met up with Greg Wilson, his wife Ayako, and Chipper Lowell for lunch after what was left of the meet. After lunch we visited Oscar's store, which sells vintage electronics. I bought a super nice radio for 20 bucks! Afterwards I helped out Greg Wilson with post production and logged video.

RANDOM but here is a photo of me on Satuday... yes my eyes are doing the happy color thing they do when Im in a really good mood ^^

I woke up today, totally exhausted, and helped out a bit at the Wilson's warehouse in Valencia... I then came home...and wrote this blog... and now Im here! still alive... but ready for sleep!