On my birthday, I decided to visit Scranton Pennsylvania and The Houdini Museum. This is Dorothy Dietrich (the proprietor) and also one of the only other people I know who does the burning rope strait jacket routine. She has really had a magic life!

Here I am with a performer well worth the trip to Key West. You'll find Frank Everhart Jr. performing his close-up magic most evenings at Frank's Magic Bar inside The Schooner Warf. He is an excellent card worker and will probably perform a trick his father Frank Senior invented called "Sam The Bellhop." (if you're really nice) This is one of my favorite card tricks, so tip big! the Conch Republic.

One of my favorite close-up magicians and lecturers, Mike Ammar. Mike was living in Austin at the same time that I was and his wife attended The University of Texas at the same time I was attending. The sad thing is that we didn't meet until ten years after we both moved.

When I was just a boy, I watched commercials selling magic kits on TV. They were created by this guy, Marshal Brodeen. I can still remember the lines from these commercials. "How'd you like to amaze your family and friends with tricks like these..."

Gaston is an amazing close-up artist from Argentina. Here I am showing him a trick, the old disappearing beer routine.

If you haven't heard of The Pendragons, then you don't watch much magic. They are famous among magicians for their lighting fast metamorphosis illusion.