Sorry, I fell asleep!

This was way easier than I thought. The list is not long, but complete. Many qualify under multiple categories which is to be expected. Here we go:

• Those cretins that hurt and abuse helpless, harmless beautiful animals.
• No number two. Just check that we got everyone in the first category.
• Bullies!
• CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and all other three initialed thieves feasting on the misery of those that can’t fight back
• MBAs and CPAs. Sorry, no exceptions.
• Joe F Biden. Maybe should have been first. He’ll probably trip and fall in anyway.

This one always gets i/m.

I walk my dog several miles a day. Good for him and good for me. Lots of dog haters out there, so I need to stay alert. Fortunately many of them are addled old women and deranged old men. A wide array of multi colored hair feminists complete the anti-dog army. I hate people that hate dogs!

Anyway, I listen to a lot of podcasts. Most of them stink, but they are, generally, better than nothing. Most are lacking in quality – quality of content and quality of production. Good Grief People. Anyone doing this should be able to afford a decent microphone and set up the guest for success with decent equipment and instructions. I listened to an interview of Magick Balay (not sure why) and apparently he set up his phone across the room and shouted to it the whole time. Pathetic! There are other, more egregious, examples.

Most magic podcasts serve as little more than background white noise while I scoop dog shit. There are exceptions, but they are rare.

There is one I’m always confident in recommending:

The Eli Marks Podcast

This is the serialization of a series of books by John Gaspard, about a magician that solves crimes – Murder She Wrote for geeks. Each episode has an interview with a name magician – frequently a big name, and is the best interviewing available, as they know how to stay out of the way.

Episodes are roughly biweekly and are professionally narrated by John Cunningham

Nothing else comes close.

I was watching a YouTube Video of Nick Locapo showing Nick’s Top 10 Mind Reading Tricks. Sure I know he’s pimping Penguin stuff, after all, it is his job, but I still managed to learn some things. He speaks with rare credibility in this industry of shysters. Actually, I also consider him one of the top 10 performers, along with Terry Ward and Lonnie Chevrie, working today.

Anyway, he goes over 10 categories of mentalism tricks and selects products that he considers the best of breed in each. Not surprisingly, all are available at Penguin, but I have no real argument in all instances where I am aware of the product. It’s a good list. (If you want to see the list, viewing the video in the Penguin site is the best way).

No real arguments about the categories or products until we hit Peek Wallet. This one drives ol’ i/m crazy. As much as I hear about motivation, I’ve never seen any presentation that would fool anyone with even a partially functioning brain. You might as well say Here, put you information in my wallet so I can get a look at it later. Pulling out a bowling ball and have the spectator put the card in the thumb hole makes as much sense. As the Great Ballantine would say, How else?, as he took out the scissors and cut the string on his floating ball trick.