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Opinion DisclaimerHigh-Five’n White Guys – Sunday Funnies
This past weekend I got to revisit my old home of Seattle, WA. I wanted to do a Sunday Funnies post in honor of that trip. When I think about Seattle and humor I think of one thing…Almost Live! Anyone who was in Seattle from the late 80′s through the 90′s probably already knows about this show. For the uninitiated, Almost Live! was a show that came on before Saturday Night Live so thus they were Almost (Saturday Night) Live. It followed a similar skit comedy format with some recurring characters.
Lately I’ve had people bring up high fives, especially high fiving yourself. I have shared the following video.
Do you remember Almost Live!? Did you live in a city with something similar? Do share your thoughts. I love myself some comedy and I look forward to finding more.
Sunday Funnies – Improv-A-Ganza
I love improvisational comedy. I loved watching “Whose Line Is It Anyway.” My wife could always tell when I was watching it because I would be truly laughing out loud and that laughter went to 11. I have also recently taken up studying improvisational comedy, first at DSI Comedy in Carrboro, North Carolina and now at ComedySportz in San Jose, CA.
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Earlier this year when I found out Drew Carey was getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, the promo reel they played talked about his new show “Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza“. It started this week on GSN and I’m looking forward to seeing more comedy gold from many of the same faces that I saw on “Whose Line Is It Anyway.” Barring an unfortunate cameo by Mr. #winning#15minutesAreUp himself Charlie Sheen, it has been as good as expected. The following is a clip from the show that once again had me LOLing.
Essential Magic Conference 2010 and 2011?
Friday I came home from work and my wife said, “You got something in the mail from Portugal!?” I had been watching the EMC newsletter and the EMC facebook page and I knew the long awaited DVDs were coming soon. I was very excited to finally get my DVDs!
My DVDs look alot like this
The 2010 Essential Magic Conference was awesome and well worth the money without watching all the sessions. The funny thing is through video streaming and now the DVDs I can watch all the sessions over and over again. I think you can still register and get the streaming videos ( and possibly the DVDs ), however you will definitely want to sign up for the 2011 conference as soon as they announce it. From the end of the following video it sounds like they are going to have one for sure.
I know my JAMM posts usually showcase a magician performing magic in some way and this post is targeted toward magicians. So if you are a magician I hope you check this out. If the JAMM posts have inspired you to look into performing magic this is great for you as well. I only consider myself a beginner/novice magician and I got a lot out of these sessions.
Did you already know about the Essential Magic Conference? Did you watch it? If you did what did you think of it? If not, why not!? I’d love to hear your opinions.
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Sunday Funnies – Insurance Execs
I know this is old, and was specific to a certain conversation that the country was having at the time. I’m just in a very annoyed at insurance BS right now and we still don’t have a public option. So here is a short little video talking about who the real victims are in any talk about health care reform.
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Just Another Magic Monday – Valentine’s Edition
Due to the specific day of the week used for my JAMM posts, its nice when holidays and other special days line up Monday and its easy to associate magic with them. Valentine’s Day 2011 is just such a day. Its Monday and there isn’t much that is more magical than love. So without further ado, let me present to you a little Valentine’s Day inspired magic.
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And just one more quicky, because I love Ekaterina:
I’d love to hear what you think about these two videos. I know there are more out there so feel free to share those as well. Thanks for reading.
Just Another Magic Monday – Jason Latimer and Buick
If you’ve been following my JAMM posts since my old my.opera blog, you might have seen me post about Jason Latimer in the past. Today’s JAMM post isn’t just about him but about some alternate ways that we can experience magic in our everyday lives – advertising and promotion. Recently Jason worked with Buick on the campaign for the new Buick Verano.
In the advertising Jason got to use some of his magic on screen to get across the idea of hidden keys.
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In a more subtle bit of magic, Latimer’s team also built the magic into the reveal of new car. See if you can spot the magic 
If you’ve seen or been a part of any great uses of magic other than a straight magic performance I’d love to hear it. If you have any questions or comments about the videos above please put them into the comments below.
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- Deacon
Just Another Magic Monday – Castle Style
As a fan of the cancelled TV show firefly I found myself drawn to watching the Nathan Fillion‘s current show Castle. It’s not very deep but it is entertaining and they’ve thrown in a couple of great Firefly references. After watching last week’s episode and seeing the ad for this week’s episode with a magic related crime, I couldn’t help but make it my first JAMM post of 2011. So here it is, a sneak peak at tonight’s episode of Castle – Poof! You’re Dead!
Also, here is a clip from the show using the often overused background music which was the theme music for the “Hardy Boys”
If you enjoy magic and/or you enjoy the TV show Castle I’d love to hear what you think of the show and especially this episode.
Thanks for reading
-Deacon
Sunday Funnies – Roscoe’s Rug Emporium
Back when I lived in Seattle we had a sketch comedy show that came on the half hour before SNL. It was great local comedy and many of the jokes just aren’t funny to people outside of the Seattle area. However, some sketches seem to be funny regardless of locale. The following videos regarding Roscoe’s Rug Emporium are two that always come to mind when I see furniture stores “Going out of Business.”
Watch and enjoy!
EMC 2010 Report – Just Another Magic Monday (Day 1)
The 15th through the 17th of July held a very special magical event. This event was the Essential Magic Conference. The first ever international online magic conference ( at least that’s what I got from the marketing ). At a price of just 55 euros, it was worth every penny before the end of the first day. One participant even mentioned in chat that it was worth the price after the first session.
Speaking of the first day, so far that’s all I have gotten through. Sure, I listened and watch parts of the sessions from days 2 and 3 as they were happening live but its taken until now for me to have the time to actually study the first 3 sessions from day 1. As of last Friday, all 9 sessions are available online as video on demand for people who signed up for the conference. So, if you missed this conference in real time you can still get more than your registration fee out of these videos.
As someone who still considers himself a novice magician, I gained loads from the first day( and even the first session) with speeches, performances and presentations form the likes of Lennart Greene, Barry & Stuart, Ponta the smith, Apollo Robbins, Gaetan Bloom, Max Maven and many more.
While I gained a lot from everybody, I gained the most from a magical duo I hadn’t heard of before – Barry & Stuart. They had a first day speech entitled, “Everything We’ve Learned So Far” [Registration Required]. What drew me in the most was an idea that their presentation kept dancing around and they summed up in one of their final bullet points as:
If you want to subvert your art, you need to first learn your craft.
While I have never come across as much of a rebel who would want to subvert much of anything, I do have this constant need to make things my own and I latched on to many of their ideas. Barry and Stuart are 2 young guys who have worked hard and created a niche and name for themselves in magic. And while there are many performances from day 1 I’d like to show my readership ( Ponta the smith’s performance in session 1 comes to mind ) – I don’t have access and permission to do that. So, I’ve looked up an entertaining video of Barry and Stuart for my magical and muggle readership alike. Enjoy.
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Liu Qian – Just Another Magic Monday
Magic is international. In some of my previous JAMM posts I have shown some stage performances from magicians of different locales. Stage performances, especially card manipulation performances, don’t usually require a lot of words. More intimate performances, especially table performances, require quite a bit more banter to connect with the audience.
However, the following video proves ( if you don’t speak chinese at least ) that magic, and the language of “holy crap that’s insanely awesome”, doesn’t require much more than body language to convey its message. Watch and be amazed…watch more and be amazed more..keep watching its worth seeing all of it 
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