Whoa!  I’ve maintained this blog for a little over 20 years now.

One fun weekend this month I did strolling magic for hundreds of folks in Forreston, TX after their dove hunt.  I’ve had many of my pinball and arcade games refurbished.  My collection continues to grow.  However, I think I’m done.  I’m out of space for more games.  People love my game house and I enjoy entertaining.

I attended the Nathan Coe Marsh lecture.  I had jury duty.  I performed at the Peacock Theater once again.  I did a show on Lake Lewisville for Ericsson.  Plus I drove to Austin again to film more episodes for what’s now called Scam Nation. While in Austin I attended the Austin Magic Auction that Saturday. That night I had a wonderful dinner out and took in the play Dracula, which was very well done.

Believe it or not, I do work.  I did have several shows in between my whimsical outings.  I still play poker on a regular basis and usually do well.  I’ve mainly been booking lots of shows for the last quarter of the year.  Also, I’m prepping things for the Bamboozlers books for their 3rd printing.  I’ve bought the rights to a metal spinning top.  I’m slowly compiling Bamboozlers Vol. Four.  I’m working on a Bamboozlers deck of cards.  Plus, I did my second book deal with Dover books and it looks like there will be a third.  I always have plenty of projects to keep me busy when I’m not actually performing or prepping for shows.

This has been an eventful month!  I started off by flying out to Las Vegas for 6 days.  Most of my time was spent at the now annual Magic Live convention.  It’s always great to see old friends and make new ones.  My roommate Riccardo always cracks me up and has such a zeal for knowledge and a zest for life.  He’s become a very good friend to me.  I learned a lot at this convention and got very little sleep (about 4 hours a night) for 5 days.  I saw lots of great shows, bought some new toys, and even had time to squeeze in some poker tournament play.  I left well ahead and made enough to pay off the trip.

I returned home Friday August 9th and used the weekend to play catch up.  On Monday the 12th I worked for Reunion Tower who has become a regular client.  The next weekend and I attended the Peacock Theater and saw a fantastic variety show.  I was asked last minute to do some close-up magic for the guests. I had a deck of cards, a shoestring and some rubberbands and was able to entertain about 80 people in 2 different shows.  I’m proud of myself for training myself to be a minimalist to achieve strong effects with the smallest of props.  These skills will help me throughout my whole life and career.  That same weekend I had a family get together and cooked out with my dad and sisters and more.  It was great seeing everyone and watching them play games in my house of fun.

I’ve added some great beginner magic to my site since people have asked for it for years.  I’ve also added the Magic Money back to my site.  I’m still teaching magic and bar bets on Scam Nation that airs every Wednesday night.  I’ve done around 50 episodes.  I’ve posted some of the lessons at the top and bottom here.  Now I’m prepping for the busy fall season which already promises to full of fun gigs.  I still have lots of dates open that I hope to book soon.

June kept me busy with lots of private shows.  I’ve been performing magic professionally since 1986 and I still feel lucky to do what I love.  Work is constantly rolling in.  My new Diamond Cards are selling well and magicians and cardists love the feel and look of my cards.  I’m very proud of them. See a pic here that my friend Lawry from Australia took.

Scam School changed its name to Scam Nation and I’ve been featured in many of the episodes as of late.  See some of them at the top and bottom of this post.  I think I’ve done close to 50 episodes now with about 17 million views.  It’s crazy for me to think how many millions of people I’ve taught magic, bar bets and gags with the help of my friend Brian Brushwood.

December is typically my busiest month but I think this July might top it.  I worked a week at the Magic Castle from July 1-7.  I did 4 shows a night in the Close-up Gallery.  It was a stellar week working with some of the best of the best.  I had the 4th of July off and spent it at the Hollywood Bowl.  I toured the Reagan Library that featured an emotional Ronald and Nancy Reagan exhibit.  The museum also featured a Leonardo DaVinci exhibit.

After Hollywood I had a few days at home.  Enough time to do laundry, pay bills, and pack for Nashville.  I worked the new venue House of Cards, which is much like the Castle, but underground like a speakeasy.  The food was amazing.  The venue was very magical.The entertainment director Joey was extremely accommodating.  My first week there I worked in the Carter Theater and actually used Carter’s own table for my 4 performances each night.  I was elated that both sets of my parents were able to come and partake and see me in action.  The reviews were great.

My second week I did the close-up shows.  It was a more rigorous schedule standing for 6 hours near a close-up table waiting for audiences to come and go.  I did that for 6 nights.  My feet were aching each night but it was lots of fun. The staff were all great people.  The owner, whom I only met briefly, seemed like a nice guy.  Thank goodness he loves magic.  He’s created an incredible space.  He owns about 6 businesses in Nashville and he’s expanding.  I can’t wait to see how the House of Cards evolves in the future.

Nashville is an amazing town.  There is so much music history there.  There’s amazing singers in every bar and there’s tons of bars there.  I took in the night life and The Hermitage, the Parthenon, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Johnny Cash & Patsy Cline museum, the Frist museum and more.  Plus I had the infamous “hot chicken” there at a few different places.

Once home I had a couple of shows in town.  Now I’m back at home writing my blog on August 4th and my flight to Vegas leaves soon.  I’m attending the Magic Live conference once again.  I’m excited to see the shows, lectures, dealer’s room, but most of all my friends. It’s hard for me to believe sometimes that this is my life!

May is busy with projects.  I made another appearance on Scam School.  In the episode above I teach how to play poker with 5 nickels and win every time in a seemingly fair manner.  I teach two clever secrets.  This will be featured in my next book Bamboozlers Vol. Four.  Rex and Brian in the video are loads of fun.  Watch it and enjoy.  I have made dozens of Scam School appearances over the years.  The episodes I appear in have over 16.5 million views!!

Some of my recent clients lately have been Brunswick Pool Tables, Tiger 21, Southern Methodist University and Southwest Airlines.  The events have been incredible.  I’d say 90% of my work comes from word of mouth.  I started professionally in 1986 so that’s 33 years of experience under my belt.  I’ve been to several millionaires and billionaires homes recently and some of the nicest hotels in the Dallas area.  One party had some amazing animals.  See me with a lemur here.

One of the big things happening soon is the release of my new brand of cards called Diamond Playing cards.  They are beautiful. Card workers will love them.  Plus there are a couple of cool secret features.  I know that most folks don’t have my passion or time to practice sleight of hand so these cards have a one-way design to make locating a selection easy and they are marked so you always know what card has been chosen.  I worked with award winning graphic artist Phill Smith to create this masterpiece.  The marking system is diabolical.  To learn more or purchase the cards click here.

In 1984 I attended the Cheap Trick concert at Six Flags with my best friend Kevin Davis.  They fast became our favorite band. Kevin and I have kept in touch all this time and have seen the band live many times.  Every time a new album came out I listened to it 100 times and memorized the words to every song.  Cheap Trick has been the soundtrack to my life.  I have about a dozen guitar picks from each of the shows I’ve attended.  Kev and I have hung out with the band after hours a couple of times.  Recently they were in town with Bad Co. and ZZ Top since it was their 50th anniversary.  It was a great show and Cheap Trick was obviously my favorite.

A couple of other big news items.  I just purchased the new 2019 Grand Sport Vette.  It’s pretty awesome.  This is my third Vette and my 9th sports car.

Today is May 29th.  On May 31st I will attend my kid sister Chelsye’s birthday.  The family is going bowling.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!

Well… same old song and dance.  I’m busy with shows and projects.  Some of my clients over the past several weeks have been Reunion Tower, Jackson’s Pottery, Exxon, etc. I drove to Houston for one gig.  Then I followed up that trip by going to Austin to hang out with two of my favorite relatives, my cousins Rodger and Alex.  It’s hard not to smile when with them.  Both have been a positive force in my life.  The following weekend I helped Rodger and Alex renovate the property they purchased.  The property once belonged to my great aunt and uncle.  Rodger grew up there and I spent many summers there.  My uncle Harlan was an architect who built the house.  It’s solar powered and has other energy efficient qualities.

While in Austin I shot more Scam School episodes.  It’s now called Scam Nation.  See an episode at the top and bottom of this post.  Brian Brushwood has been a friend for at least 12 years.  It’s been incredible to watch how he’s become a powerhouse and influencer online.  He’s the host of several Youtube channels like Modern Rogue, Night Attack and co-hosts a podcast called Weird Things.  I’m lucky to know him.  He’s a smart business man and a good friend to me.  He just attended a small birthday dinner I had the other night along with his wife Bonnie.  If you want to be successful then surround yourself with accomplished people.  I have done that in spades with Brian.

My friend Melissa helped work my magic booths two weekends in a row.  The first was for Penguin Magic in Dallas.  The second was for the Texas Pinball Festival in Frisco.  The Penguin event was very profitable.  The pinball event.. not so much… but I had a blast there and made some new friends.  While at the pinball festival I had the good fortune to meet and perform for the actor John Rhys-Davies.  He was a gentleman and begged for more magic!  He’s best known for his role as Sallah in Indiana Jones and as Gimli in the Lord of the Ring movies.

I met up with my childhood friend Kevin to help him celebrate his 50th.  I love hanging with Kevin and the Davis family.  One of Kevin and I’s first concerts was Cheap Trick.  After that we became die hard fans.  We’ve seen them together many times.  To carry on that tradition I got us awesome seats to see them again in May.

Recently my friend Thom Peterson was in town from the UK to give a magic lecture.  He and his wife Annabel stayed the night and we had a good visit.  Annabel is an amazing artist and does designer cakes now for a living.  Her work is incredible!  Click here to see her site.

I just had a birthday and my friends and family have been fattening me up.  I’ve eaten at Javiers, Blue Fish, Del Friscos, Fish City Grill, Kenny’s Burgers, Jack Allen’s, etc.  My gift to myself was to take another trip to California to visit the world famous Magic Castle.  The Castle bought my dinner one night and I took in lots of great shows with friends.  One night I did a private performance for the Hiltons.  I didn’t know until the next day that they were Paris Hilton’s parents.

The big news is that my mom beat cancer!!  I am beyond blessed.

I think time is speeding up.  I can’t believe it’s already 2019.  I kicked off the year again by doing a show for Phoenix House on January 1st.  These mostly withdrawn teens go bananas when I’m performing my magic there.  My show is only half an hour but I usually end up being there 2 hours to visit and sign autographs.  I think they are just happy to have company and to know that anything is possible when you set your mind to it.

These first two months of 2019 have been filled with private and corporate events.  Once again I’ve been in the homes of millionaires and billionaires.  I did a string of shows for Omni Hotels.  Plus some casinos in Oklahoma utilized my services.  I took my father to my gig at one casino on Fat Tuesday.  Some of those backwoods gamblers thought I was from another planet.

I took a vacation to Vegas and stayed on one of the Hilton Grand Vacations properties.  While in Vegas I saw some amazing shows and ate well at various fine dining establishments.  I only gambled a little but came out ahead which is good.  As an excursion I toured the Neon Graveyard and it was actually pretty cool.  I was surprised how much of Vegas’ history I knew.

After Vegas I went on to Los Angeles to see my friends Lorna, Chloe, Mitch, Jeff and Riccardo.  It was fun spending a little time with each of them.  While in LA I took in the Magic Castle and saw many great shows during the Valentine’s week.  I also had the chance to meet and visit with Crispin Glover (of Back to Future fame) and Bob Odenkirk (who plays Saul in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul).

Back at home I did a TV spot on WFAA to promote a run of shows I’m doing for Reunion Tower.

My home is turning into an arcade.  I had a pool table, shuffleboard, two slot machines, three pinballs, one multicade, one pachinko machine, one vintage arcade, plus my big screen with various gaming systems.  I just added another pinball machine called Safecracker and another arcade game called Ice Cold Beer; both of these machines are rare and collectible.  I’ve recently created a custom DJT coin for my machines and to use as business cards.

When not performing my shows or traveling I am working on projects.  I’ve got a secret project due out in June.  I recently signed another book deal with Dover books.  If it goes we will do a third project together too.  I am slowly compiling Bamboozlers Volume Four.  I hope to release a Bamboozlers Deck before the end of the year.  Plus I always have ten other projects I’m tinkering with.

This is always my busiest time of the year.  Between November and December I did 35 paid shows.  That’s not including all the parties I went to for family and friends.  Most of my shows are for corporate clients and a handful are private events in people’s homes or businesses.  One of the highlights in November was flying to California and working the show Boobie Trap in Hollywood.  It was a great line up and I had some friends come out.  The profits that night went to the victims of the fires in California.

Mid November I flew to California to work the Penguin Maxx event in Los Angeles where I performed with some of the best like Michael Weber, Brent Braun, Chad Long, Michael Kaminskas, Dan Harlan, The Other Brothers, etc.  It was a fun and profitable event.  While in Hollywood, CA I visited the Magic Castle where I am a member and had the privilege of performing for and talking at length with the actor Collin Farrell.

In November I filmed an interview for an online show called ALL IN with Bryan Weatherford.  Bryan is a great guy and host and we had lots in common.  On the show I performed many routines.  Bryan said later that I was one of his favorite guests. Watch parts of my interview at the top and bottom of this post.

In December, I did the bulk load of my shows, but also released my new product called Diamond Dice.  These dice are made for magicians and can be used in mentalism routines.  I now manufacture three different sets of trick dice.

The best part of the holiday season, besides the plethora of work, was seeing family and friends.  It’s rare that I get to see my family who is scattered about the metroplex.  Mom is still battling cancer and I try to make it out to her chemo treatments when I can.  I know from battling cancer myself that everyday is a gift.  I’m thankful for all my loved ones.