Many years ago, I saw the cover of a comedy album with the comedian, Orson Bean, holding a newspaper fir tree. I knew that it is a magic trick so I was interested to learn about the "roots" (pun intended) of Orson's interest in magic. So while I was in Los Angeles for a week this past June, I made arrangements to chat with the man himself. Well, what I got was much more than I had hoped for and expected. I was invited to his home for breakfast and to chat with both him and his wife, Alley Mills. They had recently completed work on a two person play entitled, "Alright Then" and were in the final stages of rehearsal before taking it on the road to Connecticut. I was fortunate that they also chose to "rehearse" a bit of the play on the podcast, too.

Orson Bean is an iconic television legend in the U.S. having been a long-time panelist on "To Tell The Truth" game show, frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (88 times including many times hosting the show), and an episode of "Twilight Zone" as Mr. Bevis and a regular (146 episodes) on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" plus the voices of Frodo and Bilbo in a couple animated "Hobbit" movies. His film credits are lengthy and worthy of more than a glance. And his lovely wife, Alley Mills, is also well-known particularly from her role as "Norma Arnold" in television's "Wonder Years" and currently in the TV soap opera, "The Bold and the Beautiful".

This is a delightful and fun episode that is a bit of a diversion from the typical podcasts where the guests are magicians. Here, Orson is interested in magic, but that is not his main vocation, avocation nor passion. But there is a "magic hook" in there.

You can watch a full length video of Orson Bean performing his one-man play, "Safe At Home With Orson Bean", view some candid photos, read the blog, listen to the podcast online and download the MP3 file at: https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scot......son-bean

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