Day 2 DC Magic History Symposium

I can't report too much on Day 2 because I missed 2/3rds of the days events. I understand that the attendees enjoyed the Library of Congress though there were issues with the buses. I missed the afternoon lectures, so I'll have to catch up on some of that tomorrow.

I arrived at 8pm, just in time to see the first speaker, John MacLaughlin. He spoke about Magic, Espionage and the CIA. It was an incredible talk and I was frankly enthralled the entire time. So well put together and interesting throughout. He was a tough act to follow.

In the second spot was Bill Kalush, who frankly did an excellent job as well. When you come upon NEW Houdini material it's big news and he had some new Houdini stuff to share. A lost/forgotten manuscript that Houdini had written has been found. He also shared his thoughts and insights on the story of Houdini having to cut a whole in the ice to escape from a river. It was great and I hope I have some time tomorrow to meet and chat with Bill.

The final speaker was Dale Salwak who spoke about Magic and Magicians in North Korea. Also, fascinating and delivered with sincerity and passion. He is correct when he says that magic is a language that overcomes barriers and politics and can bring people together. I applaud his work and I also hope to get to meet him tomorrow.

I forgot to mention seeing my friend Joe Pecore at the event yesterday. Joe is a great guy, magic history lover and is Mr. Magicpedia, and a good friend as well. He's invited me to work on a project in the fall that is very exciting, so I'll share more about that in the future.

I had to say goodbye to my friend Scott Humston who was in the area visiting and came to the conference yesterday and today, but he is going to miss everything tomorrow because he and his family have to get back to Florida for shows on Monday. I can understand this because I missed most of today from shows. Safe travels.

I chatted a little with Wayne Alan both yesterday and today and Wayne is the fellow putting on the Houdini Festival in Danville at the end of June. We'll be talking about that more tomorrow so I'll have more information about that festival in the near future.

OH, I got to see my old friend Richard Kaufman who I haven't seen in years. Richard lives not all that far from me, but it seems like forever since I've seen him. It was good to see him again. Oh and speaking of folks I haven't seen in years, Charles Green is another local who I've not seen in a long time. It was nice to see Charles, though we didn't get to chat but for a moment.

I saw Al Cohen from a distance, I hope to see him again tomorrow.
I sold three paintings and had to bring two back as it looks like they are now reserved for another buyer. So not bad.  I hope to sell more tomorrow, but I'm not sure how it's going to go. This was a test run to see how they'd sell.


Looking forward to tomorrow!



OH WAIT! I almost forgot, yesterday I met Diego Domingo. I missed his talk today, but yesterday he showed me a grave photo of someone that really surprised me. And tonight he told me about another grave that he had found. Turns out Diego has also uncovered the life history of George White, the assistant to Howard Thurston, who later worked for a time for Dante. Diego had given this talk a couple years ago for another Magic History Conference and he was kind enough to share some of the details with me. WOW, it was incredible!