One of the highlights from our visit to New York was the tour of the Conjuring Arts Research Center given to us by Ricky Smith. (It was super cool to see a copy of High Spots sitting on the shelf there.) Ricky is a one of a kind individual with a killer sense of humor. He’s also a find card man. He invited Ben and I to perform for a few people around the office. Here’s Ben’s performance:

After leaving Conjuring Arts we made our way to the Museum of Modern Art. Unfortunately it was closed, but we did spend about an hour in the gift shop. Go figure.

The lecture was later that night for SAM Parent Assembly #1. A great group of guys showed up to take part in the fun. My favorite part was during my explanation of Holy BLANK when I started to explain Ken Krenzel’s Monte Plus Move… with Ken Krenzel sitting in the front row.

Asi Wind attended as well and stuck around for dinner afterward. Asi is one of my new favorite magicians. I had the opportunity to interact with him briefly a few weeks ago at the Magifest Convention. He gave an extremely good lecture. I bought everything he had for sale. I highly recommend his Switcher gimmick.

I also had the chance to meet Doug McKenzie who is David Blaine’s head consultant. He is famous for stealing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s watch in front of his security detail. The watch was later auctioned back to Mayor Giuliani to raise money for charity. At dinner, Doug show us some amazing and sophisticated memorized deck material… he also ate a lit cigarette. What a cool guy.

I really enjoyed spending time with all of the guys in New York including Alex Pandrea, Joshua Jay, and a whole host of others. By the way, Josh is busy working on his new one man show at the moment. He is such a creative thinker and a really hard worker. So much thought has gone into this new production. It’s going to be amazing. Alex is busy working on a brand new magic website called The Blue Crown. Check it out when you get a chance.

Tomorrow, I’ll post videos from our travels to Philadelphia, PA.

Tags: Magic Videos, Travel Journal