Monday, May 15, 2023

A five star Magic Collector Expo in Cleveland

I've just returned from an incredible week in Cleveland where I had the pleasure of attending the Magic Collector Expo 2023. What a fantastic time I had! On the final day of the expo I gave a presentation on "Houdini in Cleveland." It was a somewhat frisky talk in which we learned that Cleveland is a rare FIVE star Houdini city! I will be doing a post about Houdini in Cleveland while the research is still fresh in my mind.


For excellent coverage of the expo I would recommend Scott Wells' The Magic Word Podcast. Scott was on the scene as always doing interviews with attendees, including myself, Arthur Moses, Dr. Bruce Averbook, Lance Burton, Bill Kalush, Julie Eng, and many more. Our friend Joe Notaro has also posted day by day coverage at his blog Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence.

On the final day of the expo, organizer and all around great guy Bill Smith announced that the next Magic Collector Expo will be in Las Vegas in 2025 and will include a tour of David Copperfield's museum!

I stayed over in Cleveland for a few extra days. I was able to visit and photograph almost all the Houdini locations that I spoke about in my talk. I was also able to spend an incredible day going through precious Houdiniana deep inside Dr. Bruce Averbook's amazing new home magic museum, The Averbook Magic Art Museum & Library.

Oh, there was also some big news at the expo! On opening night, Mike Caveney announced the details of an upcoming Houdini book that I have been working on with Mike and Bruce Averbook for the past several months. I've already shared this news on my Patreon. I will be sharing the details here soon.

Congratulations to Bill Smith, Lance Rich, David Sandy, and everyone who was involved in the Magic Collector Expo 2023. What an outstanding event!

5 comments:

  1. It was unbelievable! John and everyone gave excellent talks.

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    1. Thank you Anon! Yes, great talks all around.

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  2. The Great Lakes are huge. Any evidence of HH ever touring the lakes whenever he was in Cleveland or close by?

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    1. It's said he jumped handcuffed from an airplane into Lake Michigan during benefit air show in 1911.

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    2. Oh that's right! I forgot about that!

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