Building a magic business takes work, because the business has to be learned as much as the magic. Mark Toland knows firsthand.

Toland, a magician who is active in Chicago’s magic scene, also tours across the country performing for private engagements, corporate clients and colleges. He has made a name for himself with a solid show, great personality and a glass-walking act that has taken years of refinement — and a lot of broken bottles.

In addition to learning magic and mentalism, he has learned the business of magic more than most: He is his own agent. That comes with unique burdens and benefits, he said.

One of the benefits is booking. Making the most of a private gig in Pittsburg, Kan., he also booked a kids’ show at the Joplin Public Library for the same trip. He joined us for a dinner break in Joplin between gigs and talked to us about how he manages all the facets of his business, how he approaches tricks for kids and adults, how his character fits into mentalism and how he developed his glass-walking act.

You can see more of Toland on his website and in his weekly Magic Monday videos.

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If you’ve never seen Nathan Kranzo perform, you’re missing out. Whether it’s a quickie vid of The Card that Can’t Be Palmed or a full performance of his Mind-reading Crotch, every effect gives Kranzo’s personality a chance to shine. Dude’s funny.

In addition to being crazy creative with magic (lookin’ at you, Box Monster), Kranzilla has a great sense of how to fit his personality in with his magic. Whether it’s mentalism or a sleight of hand display, or using a close-to-self-working deck, he finds what works for him and builds on it. That’s a pretty big deal for mentalists — many of those performers find themselves stuck between the extremes of Derren Brown tricks of the mind and Uri Geller mastery of invisible forces, and don’t see any middle ground.

Kranzo has some lecture dates in November scheduled across the country, where he talks a little bit about that and much more. If you’re close by, the lecture is worth the drive. We caught up with Nathan during a recent lecture in Kansas City. After his lecture, he talked to Joe Hadsall about comedy with mentalism, his thoughts about finding tricks that play big and more. He even teased a little bit about his upcoming project, Boondock Mentalism, coming soon from Ellusionist.

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“Magic is a catalyst that got my mind working in the area of self development because you are able to see such a variety of people on a consistent basis … see the ups and downs, the way people are, the way they behave, the way they act and how their minds work.”

Like many of our first customers, Vince Caso caught a commercial for Ellusionist during a David Blaine special. From there, he became a prominent member of virtually every flourishing community, including Handlordz and Decknique, and became a regular performer at the legendary Magic Castle.

But Vince is first and foremost an actor. He got his start at 13, landing a lead in 2007′s “Humble Pie,” starring alongside Mary Lynn Rajskub, William Baldwin and the Oscar-winning Kathleen Quinlan. Currently, he plays Bladezz alongside Felicia Day in the web series “The Guild,” which in its current season has featured a star-studded cast of cameos.

Funny thing about magic, though: It pops up in everything you do. That’s the case for Caso, who brings his card handling to his character. He talked with us about how magic affects his acting and his self-development business, how he landed the role on “The Guild,” how magic became a part of his character, why he’s more of a LePaul guy than Erdnase guy and what it was like to perform magic with Neil Patrick Harris for Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion.

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In about two weeks, you’ll get the chance to get something that has been in development for almost two years. And it’s something that Ellusionist Vice President Jason Brumbalow is really proud of.

Pure Smoke, Ellusionist’s new smoke system, is a major upgrade over virtually every smoke delivery system on the market for good reason: It’s more compact, easy to use, economic and the smoke it delivers is mystical and mysterious — it looks like it’s straight out of a computer-animated fantasy movie.

But the system didn’t happen overnight. In this podcast, JBone talks about the design behind Pure Smoke, its debut at the Magic Live Conference, some of the improvements since that debut and some of the crazy ways magicians are already using it. Also, Jason dishes about some new products coming out before the end of the year.

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“There’s nothing intuitive about sleight of hand.”

Learning magic — i.e., learning to lie by passing off unnatural actions as natural motions — can be a difficult process, thanks to the practice needed to master certain sleights compounded by the infinite number of sleights available. Back in the day, many of the greats in magic studied under legendary mentors and enjoyed long-lasting relationships with them.

Aaron Fisher, card magician, technician and all-around genius, enjoyed one such relationship with Michael Skinner. He called it a kohai-senpai kinda thing (with a pretty good Sean Connery impersonation, truth be told) in this Artist Interview. He also said that today’s magic community, which has grown in many different directions on the Internet, hasn’t lost that chance for connection — rather, it gives magic students hungry for direction many more options.

We had a great conversation with Fisher about that and much more in this podcast. Enjoy:

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Fisher is one of the many experts available through Ellusionist’s InSession program. He also offers coaching sessions on his Web site.