Conversations With Close
Episodes
Asi Wind Interview - S6 E10
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Asi Wind is a world-class performer and creator. He is also an author and a talented watercolor artist.I spoke with Asi about his background (both mag...
Let's Talk Latta - S6 E9
07 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
My guests this month on Conversations with Close are Jamy Ian Swiss and Peter Samelson. I’ve known Jamy for more than forty years; while I haven’t...
Ben Seidman Interview S6 E8
26 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I’m a big Ben Seidman fan. He’s funny, he’s smart, and, because he has a profound interest in designing material that will entertain and deeply ...
Christopher Carter Interview S6 E7
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For more than thirty years, Christopher Carter has been one of the busiest performers on the college circuit and has been in demand as a corporate ent...
Aurelio Paviato Interview S6 E6
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aurelio Paviato is my guest on this month’s Conversations with Close. Aurelio is a well-established, fulltime pro in Italy; he performs at corporate...
Stephen Minch Interview S6 E5
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this installment of Conversations with Close, my guest is the man who, as a writer, editor, and/or publisher, is responsible for many of the most i...
Gary Plants Interview S6 E4
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gary Plants is an old friend; we met more than forty years ago at one of Joe Stevens’ early Desert Magic Seminar conventions. Gary is an extraordina...
Mick Ayres Interview S6 E3
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mick Ayres has had a fascinating and varied career with the Walt Disney Company, working as a magician, storyteller, and musician. Like many performer...
Allan Ackerman Interview S6 E2
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For more than fifty years, Allan Ackerman has been a major creative force in the world of card magic. Starting with Magic Mafia Effects in 1970, Allan...
Steve Reynolds Interview S6 E1
07 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Reynolds is a creative and prolific card magician. He lives in New Orleans, the city his mentor, Jon Racherbaumer, also calls home. Steve was gr...
Piff the Magic Dragon S5 E4
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
These days, our friend Piff is a very busy dragon. Joined by his partner Jade Simone and Mr. Piffles the Wonder Chihuahua, he headlines his own show a...
Friedrich Roitzsch S5 E3
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friedrich Roitzsch is a full-time professional magician based in Munich, Germany. He is also the author of the excellent new book, Instructions for Mi...
Christian Bischof Interview S5 E2
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
My guest this month on Conversations with Close is someone who may be unfamiliar to you. Christian Bischof is a Swiss corporate entertainer who has re...
John Bannon Interview S5 E1
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John Bannon is a prolific creator of high-quality magic (emphasis on card magic). His published works include Impossibilia, Smoke & Mirrors, Dear ...
Steve Valentine Interview S4 E7
20 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Valentine is a world-class magician (two-time recipient of the Magic Castle’s Close-up Magician of the Year award), a magic scholar, a creator...
Amy Kimlat Interview S4 E6
16 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Amy Kimlat has written a new book (Hocus Pocus Practice Focus: The Making of a Magician) geared toward young readers who have an interest in magic. Th...
Danny DaOrtiz Interview S4 E5
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dani DaOrtiz is certainly one of the best-known creators and performers in the magic world. At the 2022 Quebec FISM, he won a special award for his wr...
Steve Spill S4 E4
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In a career spanning fifty years, Steve Spill has done it all – close-up performer, bar magician, comedy clubs, concert venues (opening for rock ban...
Martin Lewis Interview S4 E3
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Lewis is one of magic’s finest performers, and one of its most ingenious creators. His effects can be found in the repertoires of magicians a...
Steve Cohen Interview S4 E2
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Cohen is a New York City-based magician whose show, Chamber Magic, has been running Off-Broadway for twenty years, first at the Waldorf Astoria ...
Larry Hass Interview S4 E1
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lawrence Hass, Ph.D. is the Dean of the McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas, successor in that role to his friend and mentor, Eugene Burge...
Boris Wild Interview S3 E10
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Boris Wild is a well-known performer, lecturer, and creator of magic, including the ingenious marked-deck system that bears his name. The pandemic qua...
Josh Jay Interview S3 E9
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve known Joshua Jay since he was a youngster, and I’ve followed his development as a performer, a creator, an author, and a businessman. He has ...
Bob Farmer Interview S3 E8
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For more than four decades, Bob Farmer has been a prolific creator of high-caliber magic effects. But in that time, I don’t recall anyone doing an i...
Sylvain Juzan Interview S3 E7
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month’s guest on Conversations with Close is Sylvain Juzan. Sylvain and I met briefly at a Genii convention a few years ago, and then got to sp...
Roberto Giobbi Interview S3 E6
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you have any interest at all in card magic, I’m sure the name Roberto Giobbi is familiar to you. He is a prolific author, a frequent contributor ...
Jamy Ian Swiss Interview S3 E5
07 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month my guest on Conversations with Close is an old friend, Jamy Ian Swiss. Jamy is an author, a public speaker, a close-up and stand-up perform...
Dr. Michael Rubinstein S3 E4
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Michael Rubinstein has been a major player in the coin magic world since the 1980s. His new book, Rubinstein Coin Magic contains the best of his p...
Richard Kaufman Interview S3 E3
06 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Kaufman is a prolific author and publisher; his output includes some of the best books of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For more t...
Eric Mead S3 E2
13 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Mead is a gifted performer, a creator, an author, a genuinely funny human being, and the man responsible for the ten-percent solution on Penn &am...
Scott Alexander Interview - S3 E1
05 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Alexander is one of magic’s few general practitioners, equally adept at close-up, parlor, and stage magic. He has created and marketed some ex...
John Carney Interview S2 E5
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
John Carney has been a friend for more than forty years. He is an author, one of the world’s finest sleight-of-hand performers, a serious student of...
Andrew Golder & Lincoln Hiatt Interview S2E4
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Late in the evening on October 21, 2020, production wrapped on season 7b of Penn & Teller: Fool Us. I had been working on pre-production since ear...
Guilherme Silveira Interview - Season 2, Episode 3
05 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
My guest on Conversations with Close this month is a relative newcomer to the world of magic: Brazil’s Guilherme Silveira. You may have seen Guilher...
Doc Dixon Interview Season 2 - Episode 2
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I met Doc Dixon almost thirty years ago; we have shared some memorable and hilarious experiences. I’m sure most of you saw Doc’s fooling performan...
Asher and McKinstry Interview - Season 2 - Episode 1
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For many magicians, playing cards have an undeniable fascination; enthusiasts eagerly snatch up every newly released pack they can get their hands on....
Stephen Bargatze & Rick Merrill Interview - Episode 16
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the reasons I was eager to attend the OWOW Magic Festival was that two old friends were also going to be performing there. I’ve known Stephe...
Ryan Joyce Interview - Episode 15
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ryan Joyce is a busy performer, and he has been ever since he graduated from high school. For ten years, he performed a touring illusion show that cri...
David Regal Interview - Episode 14
31 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
My guest this month is one of my favourite performers and creators, David Regal. Although our paths have crossed at the occasional magic convention ov...
Paul Vigil Interview - Episode 13
02 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This Conversations with Close podcast features an interview with Paul Vigil, who, in the past few years, has established himself as one of the top-fli...
Johnny and Pam Thompson - Episode 12
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2013, I ran a cover story on Pam Thompson in M-U-M. While there had been many stories about Johnny Thompson in magic magazines, there had not...
Harry Lorayne - Episode 11
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I met Harry Lorayne in the spring/summer of 1975. At the time, I was going to music school at Butler University. I lived not far from campus and was h...
Matt Disero - Episode 10
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Matt is one of the busiest professional comedy magicians around; he works corporate events, cruise ships, and comedy clubs. He is also in demand as a ...
Bruce Kalver - Episode 9
07 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I had a chance to chat with my old friend, Bruce Kalver. He was the president of The Society of American Magicians when I was hired to be the ed...
Jeff Pinsky - Episode 8
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jeff Pinsky is the owner and operator of The Browser's Den of Magic in Toronto, Ontario, CANADA. I sat down with Jeff at the Den in June 2019.
Jeff Altman - Episode 7
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jeff Altman is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and magician who has appeared as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with Da...
Andi Gladwin & Josh Jay - Episode 6
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Andi Gladwin is a British magician, speaker, and publisher. He has appeared on television numerous times, has lectured for magicians throughout the UK...
Mac King - Episode 5
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mac King is an American magician who has performed on television specials, often as a co-host. He has his own family-friendly show, "The Mac King Come...
R. Paul Wilson - Episode 4
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
R. Paul Wilson is a close-up magician, filmmaker, and author. Michael sat down with R. Paul Wilson at the Ring 129 Workshop Convention in St. Joseph, ...
Anthony Owen - Episode 3
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Owen was a magician, mentalist, and producer. Michael caught up with Anthony at the Sesson in London, England. (January 2018)
Pit Hartling - Episode 2
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Pit Hartling is one of Germany's most requested entertainers and Michael got a chance to sit down with him for a conversation in Las Vegas, Neva...
Tim Trono - Episode 1
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Trono is a magician, magic producer and creator. Michael caught up with Tim at the Session in London, England (January 2018).