Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
Matthew Wright
Can a single magical influence change the course of another magician's career? Join us as we explore this captivating question with the ingenious Matthew Wright! This episode takes us on an emotional journey, recounting Matthew's memorable experiences with the legendary Eugene Berger in Amsterdam, where a shadow trick left an indelible mark on his career forever. Discover how these magical moments have shaped Matthew’s career, from the Tommy Wonder 'Nest of Boxes' to a multiple selection routine that blends comedy and magic seamlessly.
Ever wondered what it takes to select the perfect participant for a magic show? Matthew shares his insights on the nuances of performance dynamics, particularly through his opening trick "Visions," which serves as a litmus test for gauging a person's character. This episode also celebrates the artistry of magical legends like Tommy Wonder and Eugene Berger, as Matthew recounts their profound impact on his performances. Listen in as we discuss the creative evolution of tricks like "Mental Mullica" into the foolproof "Visions," and reflect on the emotional and creative journeys behind crafting unforgettable magical moments.
What makes a magician's performance truly unique? Matthew reveals the personal connections and inspirations that have shaped his eclectic repertoire over 40 years. From the influences of comedic magicians like Tom Mullica to the invaluable contributions of close friends like Mark Southworth, Matthew's stories highlight the importance of personal touch in magic. We also explore the significance of magical literature, with nods to influential works by Derren Brown, Geoffrey Durham, and, of course, Eugene Berger. Wrapping up with a touching tribute to his wife, this episode is a heartfelt homage to the artistry and emotional depth of magic.
Matthews Desert Island List:
1) Next of Boxes by Tommy Wonder
2) Haunted Deck by Eugene Burger
3) Mint by Matthew Wright
4) Final Destination by Matthew Wright
5) Visions by Matthew Wright
6) Card in Apple by Tom Mullica
7) Big Finish Card Trick by Matthew Wright
8) Brass Buttons by Mark Southworth
Book) Art of Magic by Eugene Burger
Item) Matthews Wife
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It's just me and Eugene sat in a little Amsterdam foyer and Eugene lit his candle, put the deck on the floor and said Matthew, I cast a shadow. And he just pointed his finger out and the shadow from the candle flickered across the top of the deck and the deck started to move. Tell the spirits to make it come back. And it came back and he turned over and it was his card. And then he had a little toot on his roll up and passed it to me and my head exploded. I said I don't think I can have any more, eugene, and he just leaned across and put his hand on my knee and said Matthew, you disappoint me.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Today I've got to try and find a different introduction, but today we do have a very exciting guest. If you know this person's magic, you know that they're always incredibly inventive, really smart in method, really really clever, really well thought through and always, for me, on the quirkier side, because I love quirkier magic If you're all on Unlimited at this point. You know that this person's been trending on our top 10 week on week since we launched it, and I am for one. I'm really excited to hear his list. I spoke to him a little bit a second ago, so I know that one of my favorite magic creators and personalities ever is gonna be in his list. So I'm already excited to see where that goes. So today's guest is none other than Mr Matthew Wright. Hello, matthew, how are you man? All right, I'm very excited to have you here, yeah me too.
Speaker 1:This sounds like a lot of fun. Today. I've had some fun putting this list together, so I hope you enjoy it A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Did you find it particularly difficult then?
Speaker 1:I thought it was going to be difficult. When you told me about it and asked me to do it, I thought I was going to struggle and as soon as I started it was quite easy. Really. Everything fell into place and I I'm looking at the list now and I don't think I've made any mistakes. I wouldn't change any of them. I think i've've got exactly right and it was just instinctive. Really Nice and looking down, there's a definite influence of a few of my most favourite magicians are there in almost every single one.
Speaker 2:Now, different people went down different avenues with these. So some people went for, for example, liam Monte, whose episode's already out so I can talk about it. He went down his almost like a journey through his life from the early days of what he really loved up to modern creations that he really enjoys. How did you go? Did you go for like a journey through your career, or did you go for just the ones you love performing?
Speaker 1:your career or did you go for just the ones you love performing? Well, I think every looking at this list, there's only one trick that I don't perform, and it's just my favorite piece to watch. I just watched it again before I came on just to remind myself of it, and I was laughing my head off all the way through it again, so it was definitely needs to stay in there. Uh, everything else, I still perform at every single one of them to this day, but they all had a massive impact at different stages in my journey, and I think maybe what this shows is that I don't put enough new stuff in my act, perhaps because some of these have been in there for 20 or 30 years.
Speaker 2:Wow. So these are going to be real heartfelt pieces for you then in your career.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think the reason behind them is, uh is fascinating as well. There's some real uh, some real stories there that we're going to get into and they're they're all kind of interlinked or a lot of them are linked together by by one or two of the same people throughout amazing, so I didn't do the concept part.
Speaker 2:So the concept today is we're gonna whisk matthew away to his own magical island. When he goes to the island, he's only allowed to take eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item. At this point, people who have listened to this from the beginning knows there's always the chance for honorable mentions, so we will allow honorable mentions in this list as well. Um particulars, how big the island is, who's there? Are there creatures? All of that sort of stuff we don't really mind. This is about matthew's ultimate list of tricks and, with that being said, we're gonna fly away or paddle or get a boat, however you want to get there, um to matthew's island, and's going to let us know his first item.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the first thing we're going to start with is the way that I start my show, and it's more of a premise than a trick. Really, I've done the same trick in a few different variations using this same premise. So I think it's the premise that entertains me and keeps me engaged with the routine more than anything else, and it's the Tommy Wonder nest of boxers and it's the way that he presented it as an auction. So he stops his show. Someone hands him a note. He stops his show. He says do you mind? We've just got to do five minutes of the auction.
Speaker 1:I don't have my watch. Can I borrow a watch? He then borrows the watch and then proceeds to looks at the list, says the first item on the auction list this evening is a gentleman's watch, and then smashes up the watch with the auction hammer. And it's just so funny. I've done it with a watch. I now do it in my show with a mobile phone, but it's the comedy moment. I love the fact that you're stopping for the auction, you have to borrow an item to time the auction and then you smash up the item that you borrow with the? Uh, with the auction hammer. Uh, and I've spent probably 25 years of my life building my nest of boxes.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you remember the Books of Wonder by Tommy Wonder, one of the most influential books that I've ever read. I'll give you a little preview that might make it into the honorable mentions list later on. I still haven't decided exactly which book I'm gonna take, yeah, but the books of wonder are definitely in in a possibility of of what I take. But he described his nest of boxes in there and it absolutely blew me away. And then I saw, um, the visions of wonder, and Max Maven looked at how it works and it was just ridiculous the method that he went through. I don't know if you know the method. It was incredible, just engineered, and you have to look at it. I can't describe it, you have to look at it.
Speaker 1:So I went to university to learn how to make the nest of boxes. That was my prime reason for going to university. I went to the university of hertfordshire to study special effects and I spent three years learning how to make these, this nest of boxes, and it was like a treasure hunt. In the books he He'd put all the details there, but he didn't want you to just give that book to an engineer and get someone to make it. So sometimes he flipped the images of the things that you need to make over. Sometimes he'd change the sizes from millimeters to inches and not tell you.
Speaker 1:So it was like a treasure hunt. You had all the pieces, but you had to piece it all together yourself. So I spent three years doing that and then I spent the the remaining 20 years since uh working on it and refining it, and I've just about two months ago released uh, I think, called the masterpiece on a kickstarter. It's sold out now, but uh, that was my homage to to tommy wonder's nest of boxes. Amazing, yeah, I think I saw pictures of you I.
Speaker 2:It looked like you were almost in a warehouse. But that was my homage to Tommy Wonder's Nest of Boxers. Amazing, yeah, I think I saw pictures of you. It looked like you were almost in a warehouse, surrounded by, surrounded them behind you. Yes, yeah, that's right, and they look beautiful. They look so well produced.
Speaker 1:It's a wonderful yeah, thomas Moore has made them for me. I'm really, really happy We've added a few layers to it. I spoke to Tommy Wunders' estate about them, and Tom Stone, who was kind of the guardian of Tommy's estate at the minute, and they're both very, very happy with the work we've done and happy that we've carried on Tommy's legacy with it. So, yeah, trick number one would be Tommy Wunders' Nest of Boxes.
Speaker 2:Great, what an excellent choice as well, and it's not one that to date we've had, so it's really exciting as well, because it's going to be a lovely one for people to go and discover um and, you're right, the books of wonder phenomenal. I remember watching um. Is it deck squeeze, the one where he squeezes it into the box.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Such a creative performer. His routines all make sense, his tricks are right out of the box, just coming from left field. And a wonderful, wonderful guy. The Books of Wonder I actually took to the Magic Castle and got him to sign. I went to the Magic Castle to see him and hung out with him for a few days and talked about the nest of boxes and things. So lovely, lovely guy as well amazing.
Speaker 2:Here's a question. I've never asked this for anyone, uh, from anyone so far on the podcast, the, the numbers that you've put in. Have you put them? Have you ranked them as number one being your ultimate?
Speaker 1:no, I don't think I can put these in an order because they're all quite so. It's like putting your children in an order, exactly, I think. And I've never been a big believer in an opener, a middle and a closer either. I think they should all be brilliant. All your tricks should be great. So I've never really been a big fan of having or put your weaker one in the middle. No, put a great one in the middle, let's make them all great. And a big fan of having I'll put your weaker one in the middle. No, put a great one in the middle, let's make them all great. And I think all eight of these tricks are great, so I can't put them in an order. But that was the top of the list and it kind of started and right at the beginning and it's right up to date now, so it kind of spans 20 or 30 years. So I thought it was a good one to go first with it's an excellent one to wetter appetite.
Speaker 2:I think it shows me where you're going to go. I think, on this list, I think you're going to have a really good selection. So that brings us on to your second one. What's in your second position?
Speaker 1:Well, let's go for another honourable mention of a book that will bring us into the second, because the story's all kind of tied together. Another book, a great book Magic and Meaning by Eugene Berger and Bob Neill. Now I spoke to Keith Bennett, the magic dealer, many years ago, just after I've read the Books of Wonder, and I said I love the Books of Wonder, is there anything along those lines? He said have you read any Eugene Berger books? And I'd never heard of Eugene at the time. This was 1999, I think it was. So he sent me the Magic and Meaning by Eugene Berger and Bob Neill and as I'm reading it I thought this is the greatest magician I've ever read. I don't know who he is, but I need to meet him. And there was a picture of him on the back, this old grey wizard.
Speaker 1:I thought I've got to make it my life's work to to meet this guy. I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I thought I'm going to track him down. I didn't know if he was dead or alive or anything. So I told my brother and my brother said you should try the internet. And I've never. I've heard of it but I've never really gone on the internet. So the first time I went on the internet, uh, was to google eugene. But I don't know if it's google, I don't know what it was back then, uh, but I searched for eugene burger and he popped up and, of course, eugene being eugene already had his own website and at the bottom he said contact eugene. So the first email I ever sent in my life was to eugene burger, and then the day after my brother got a message saying he's replied. So I went and read it and he invited me to las vegas to go to jeff mcbride's magic school. So two weeks later I was with eugene in las vegas, and then from las Vegas we went to Amsterdam, which is Eugene's favorite place in the world, and that is where he performed the next trick on my list, which is the haunted pack. It's just me and Eugene sat in a little Amsterdam foyer and Eugene lit his candle and put the deck on the floor and said Matthew, I cast a shadow. Eugene lit his candle and put the deck on the floor. I said, matthew, I cast a shadow, and he just pointed his finger out and the shadow from the candle flickered across the top of the deck and the deck started to move, tell the spirits to make it come back. And it came back and he turned over and it was his card. And then he had a little toot on his roll up and passed it to me and my head exploded. I said I don't think I can have any more, eugene, and he just leaned across and put his hand on my knee and said matthew, you disappoint me. And that was it. So the haunted pack has been there ever since.
Speaker 1:I love the trick. I do it everywhere. It's such an easy get into. There's no setup on it. I can't remember the original, but the original handling, just a little piece of I can't say it on the podcast, can I. The original handling, very, very simple, very easy to reset and you can pretty much do it with a borrowed deck if you want, but a wonderful, wonderful routine. So that is. Number two is the haunted deck.
Speaker 2:So it was amazing for you to experience it in that setting. That must have been incredible seeing Eugene do it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was amazing. Eugene's favourite place was Amsterdam. He was always a little bit mischievous when he was there, so we had a lot of fun. I took private lessons with Eugene. I moved to and and went to study in his apartment every week and, uh, he was a massive influence on me, but that was. That was really the thing that sparked it, and there's so many more routines that he's had a part of my life and played a part in, and I think we're going to do a couple of them as we as we get down the list as well amazing.
Speaker 2:So that brings us on to your third item. What's in your third position?
Speaker 1:well, I think we right we'll go for mint, which is on my uh unusual suspect dvd or download with you guys. Now, I think it's in your art what's your? Is it the academy?
Speaker 2:so no, this is um alakazam unlimited, yeah, so you have your own page you. You probably aren't aware of this, but I think you've been in the top 10 pretty much since it's launched or within it. Within that thing, I think don't quote me on this at the time of recording mint is in the top 10 at the moment how brilliant.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a wonderful, wonderful trick. Uh. So I'm glad it is there. And that kind of came around with a when. When I went over to see eugene in las vegas, it was at jeff mcbride's house. So I I turned up at jeff mcbride's house, knocked on the door and jeff came to the door in his full regalia as he does, his full Batman outfit, whatever he's wearing at the time and he said Eugene's out the back. So we went out the back and Eugene just looks at me and said Matthew, I know what you're thinking I'm a lot shorter than you thought I would be. So that was the first interaction with Eugene. So I then went into with Jeff and we had a private class just me and Jeff, and one of my favorite tricks at the time was Derren Brown smoke Just an incredible trick.
Speaker 1:But around that time smoking was just starting to become taboo and you'd feel a little bit weird or uncomfortable pulling out a cigarette to perform a trick at that time. Uh, and these little mint packets had just come out and jeff was was taking a minute, he was having a minute, and then he looked at it and looked at me and jeff being the inspiration that he is, he ran off and got a deck of cards and folded up one card and it just fit exactly into the mint packet. I'm like, well, this is fate. So we started working on adapting this derren brown smoke routine into this little mint routine and then we went out into the back garden where eugene was to perform it for him, and I offered him a mint and he just took on this in matthew, the effects of lsd usually take 20 minutes and just pop the mint on his tongue and it's like that was the start of the whole routine and that eugene did that.
Speaker 1:So much. You just, if you went to the master classes that jeff and eugene were running, you do your act and jeff would like critique you for 20 minutes, giving you technical advice on what you can do and and more presentational thing and how you should stand, and just incredible advice. And then Eugene would just drop in one or two sentences that just pearls of wisdom that would absolutely change your entire outlook on the routine and and quite often on life as well. And the two of them two working together were just what a combination, what a team. So next on the list is my mint trick, or mine, jeff and Eugene's mint trick.
Speaker 2:So I've just checked. It is seventh in the top ten at the moment. Oh, brilliant.
Speaker 1:I hope people are doing it.
Speaker 2:I hope so as well. That DVD was quite a while ago now now, but it still holds up now. That's still a trick that you could go out now and and it will fry everyone just as as well as it would have back then yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:There's a few routines. In fact, I think there's two. Yeah, well, you've already mentioned one that's coming on the list that we'll move on to now. But yeah, it was going on 20 years ago and I can still. I don't do mint as much as I used to because I used to have a performance table, um, but if I'm in the right setting, I'll absolutely bring it out and fry some mines with it. I love doing it yeah, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Uh, and that brings us on to our fourth position. This is your halfway point already. There we go. We'll see if you can guess what it's going to be. Uh, does it involve coins?
Speaker 1:it does involve coins, yeah, yeah, final destination. And I'm going to couple that in with my entire fizzle act as well, because everything, everything from the fizzle kind of grew from the final destination. It's always been in my competition acts. I think I first did it at the magic circle competition. For those who don't know, it's a three fly effect, uh, where the two, the first two coins, jump from one hand to the other in a more traditional sense and then in the third final coin, visibly floats across. Um, again, we, we were with jeff mcbride.
Speaker 1:I was trying out working out some stuff for a competition. It was for the magic circle close-up competition. I had this idea for for a three-fly routine of wanting it to visibly go across, because it's an old gag that a lot of magicians do, so would you like to see it go? And then they do the little hop where they hop their hands across and do it in slow motion. It's like a gag and that's how they do a switch or that's how they get their method for the doing, the reveal, and I thought it'd be wonderful if we could actually make that happen for real. So we, we workshopped it, we, we brainstormed it a bit, myself and jeff, and and finally came up with Final Destination within a couple of hours and then from there it just took off, won the Magic Circle Act with it, won International with it, won a few FISM acts with it. So it's really, really stood me in good stead and I do it every single night in the show here in Spain. We've got a theatre show here in Spain that I put together and I do my entire FISM act at the end and the opening trick of the FISM act is final destination, with exactly the same pattern that I did 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:I love it because it's also it's a homage to my dad as well, cause it is a true story that I tell that my dad showed me a coin trick when I was a kid and I really wanted to be a magician from there. So it lets me speak about my dad, who's been a big influence on my life throughout my life. So it's brilliant to be able to bring him into a story and tell everybody about my dad as I'm performing the trick, and it gives me a little reminder every night of my dad. He's still with us, he's not passed away or anything, but I know that I'm going to have that forever, where I've always got that little memory of my dad when I perform the trick, so emotionally. It's quite an important trick for me as well, but it's also it's seen me in good stead throughout magicians and I've.
Speaker 1:I've done so many other releases from the back of that. You know everything that you can make float sideways. Now I think I've done and there's a new one coming out, hopefully in another 12 months or so, with well, I can't say who, I won't say what it is or who it is, but it should be a big release coming out soon.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm already looking forward to that, because I think Final Destination really is phenomenal think, uh, final destination really is phenomenal, but a lot of these routines are kind of just dropping together. They, they fall together and you know that you're onto something good if you don't have to keep reworking it and reworking it. If it happens and it happens naturally, and final destination, that routine just came together so, so easily and quickly. And it's the same with with all of routines. I think that I'm looking at you know, when you're on a winner, if it comes together nicely. And this Final Destination absolutely did.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a phenomenal trick. If anyone hasn't seen it, I would actually say, watch it performed first, because it's an interesting one that you think you know where it's going to go, and then the end hits you and and it will blow your mind and it's lovely to experience it for the first time, I think. So go and seek it out, whether it's on youtube, the original trailer, whatever. Go and find it, um, and, of course, you can learn it as well.
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Speaker 2:But that takes us over your halfway point to number five. What's in your fifth position?
Speaker 1:Okay, well, let's stick with kind of that theme and what's been on the unusual suspect because this is kind of a, an adaptation or the next version of that and it's visions, which is my, uh, my drawing, duplication and card prediction, which the original kind of came from malika's uh, I can't remember, even remember what I called it on the unusual suspect no, it wasn't malika's nightmare, that was my ambitious card.
Speaker 1:There was two malika tricks on the unusual suspect and they all came. That all stemmed from Eugene Berger's Thoughtsender trick, so it's an adaptation of something from Eugene. That then became a trick with a Malika wallet. So we've got Mental Malika, mental Malika, that's it. Yeah, mental Malika, mullica wallet. So we've got mental mullica, mental mullica, that's it, yeah, mental mullica. So it was eugene berger's thought thought sender into mental mullica. And then that became visions.
Speaker 1:And I remember, uh, the year before eugene passed away, he was at blackpool and I performed visions to him and it fooled him and it was pretty much a version of his own trick, just to. So I was quite proud to have done that. But visions is my opening trick. It's the way that I I qualify people whether I'm going to bring them up on stage or not. Um, because my opening trick in my stage show with the, the tommy wonder nested boxers, I have the guy up on stage with me for 20 minutes and if I get the wrong guy it's a really long 20 minutes. So my opening line for visions will tell me a lot about that person's character. So my only line is can you feel that I've got woke up to a complete stranger. Can you feel that? Can you feel it? Can you feel it that that connection we've got and whatever, however they react to that will tell me whether he's going to be a good sport. If he comes back with something too strong and too confident, I'm not going to be able to get him up on stage because he's going to steal the limelight. I like sharing the spotlight, but if there's, if he's a little bit too boisterous, he can run away. And then if he, if he, just crumbles up and dies when I say that, then I know he's going to be too shy to get on stage. So it gives me a real feel for what character they are, and the trick itself is brilliant.
Speaker 1:I love it. It's a little bit edgy. You've got to. You're taking only a tiny risk, but you are taking a little bit of a risk, but I love that and it keeps me on my toes and it goes different ways every time. And it goes different ways every time. A lot of these things. You can get stuck into your patter and you know exactly what you're going to say time after time. With Visions it's not like that. It changes every single time, so I love performing it and it's my opening close-up trick.
Speaker 2:Do you do it on stage at all?
Speaker 1:I did do it on stage for a while. I made a jumbo version of it. I've never published a jumbo version of it. Um, I've never published a jumbo version. Maybe. Maybe I'll talk to peter and we'll get that out, but uh, I have done it on stage as a jumbo version. I've never done it on stage as a close-up version. I think the drawings might just be a little bit too small for stage. Uh, I mean, you could certainly do it with a camera it's brilliant but no, I do it as a walk-around trick amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, that's one that will be in the future on Unlimited, but it's not there at the moment. But at least that gives everyone something to look forward to yeah, it's a wonderful trick.
Speaker 1:I really, really enjoy performing it. It's baffling. It's the one thing that people come up to me after the show like they've watched the entire show, and the thing they come back and talk to me about is that trick from before they went into the show, which I don't know if that tells me a lot about the trick or whether it tells you more about the power of close-up magic as opposed to stage magic, because it was, it was done to to them in person, uh, but I'd like to think that it's because it's a wonderful trick so are there any differences between mental malika and visions?
Speaker 2:was there a transition between them?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely mental, malika, just uh, it was just their card and I think it had a word written on the back uh, visions is any. You think of any drawing that you want and I will put, and then you choose a card, and I've not only predicted the card that you've chosen, but on the back of the card is the drawing that you've just thought of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds incredible, such a powerful trick. So you're getting two tricks for the price of one, and it's self-working. You can concentrate purely on presentation, which is, for me what magic's all about. So the trick does it all for you really's. There's nothing, there's no moves to it as such. Um, really really powerful, because they can, genuinely, they think they can pick any picture. They can. They just think of a drawing in their mind and you've already predicted it longal.
Speaker 2:So go seek out Visions.
Speaker 1:Visions 2.0 at the minute We've got. I released a new version of it about 12 months ago, amazing.
Speaker 2:So go seek that out because it sounds absolutely incredible. And I will say all of your. You mentioned a second ago that your for you presentation is most important. I do think that comes across on unusual suspects. That's the most striking thing. Each of those tricks has its own mini story behind it and when you're listening to it, there's always a quirkiness, or quite often you repeat certain sections of a, of a script, um, in a way to loop back to it.
Speaker 1:They're always so quirky yeah, it's quite a funny thing you say about the, the looping back. I I've become a bit of a catch phrase thing. A lot of my magic I have little catch phrases that I do come back to quite a lot. Um, and I don't know if that's like an n NLP thing where I'm reinforcing and programming and triggering that same reaction time after time after time. I haven't really thought about it like that, but I guess that is part of the reason for it, but I'm certainly quirky with it and the unusual suspect time was a very quirky time in my life as well.
Speaker 1:That was right in the heyday of my Eugene days. So yeah, I would have been bang on presentation. I still am very big on presentation and my characters probably got more quirky and more comical. I think now Since I went to, I started at the House of Illusion maybe 15 years ago with Matt Edwards, who's an incredible performer, and he influenced a lot of my comedy and the way I thought about comedy, magic, because before that I was a semi-serious magician Like Eugene. You would class him as a serious magician or a bizarrest, but he had a lot of comedy and a lot of funny quirks and funny pieces hidden in the middle of his magic and that's the way that I chose to go. But now it's a little bit more outright comedy.
Speaker 2:I'm not telling jokes, it's all character based, but it's it's still uh, it's still quirky and funny yeah, well, I like I said when I watched those videos back, I was laughing all the way through. In fact, me and harry um would just sit down, um when we're in the office and it would just have us in stitches between you and john archer. We had very sore sides from laughing when adding them, um. So that brings us on to our sixth position. What's on your sixth place?
Speaker 1:let's go with. There's two ways we could go now, because of what we've just spoken. Right, we can go with the character or we can go with the storytelling, so I'll let you choose let's go. Let's go character okay, uh, then we will go for a trick that I would be amazed if anyone else mentions on this podcast in the whole time that you do it, and it is Tom Mullica's Card in Apple.
Speaker 2:That's not one that we've had yet.
Speaker 1:No, no, it's very difficult to even track down. It was on his tomfoolery. I've just found it on YouTube to watch it again to make sure that I do love it as much as I do and I did. Tom Mullica was such a great performer. I started off a lot of my professional magic doing bar magic, so Tom was a massive influence on me there. The Tomfoolery show was just incredible, and everyone knows Tom for his cigarette act, which was incredible as well.
Speaker 1:But there's something about this card in Apple. It's just funny, funny. He's got music going, he's dancing, he's pulling faces, uh, and for the first half of the trick you don't even know that he's. He's trying to find your card. He's just eating an apple, um, he's cutting bits off and he's singing and you need to watch it. I can't. I can't do it justice by describing it, but there's one moment in there where, just before he finds the card, in the middle of the apple that he's been eating for the last two or three minutes, he finds a little worm in there and it's so funny. He's spitting the apple out. It's just incredibly hilarious. He drops the knife and the knife goes through his foot and it's a beautiful masterpiece of timing, rhythm, clowning and magic and you can laugh it off and you can think it's just a very, very funny routine, but when you really study what he was doing with it, it's incredible. It's a massive lesson for everyone to learn from Tom Mullica, an absolute genius in magic, comedy magic especially.
Speaker 1:But the card in Apple might make it onto the list now For anyone else that's watched it. They might all put it on there because it's a beautiful piece of magic. I don't even think the magic's that strong, to be honest. I watched it then. I don't think the card's signed. I don't even think it's a signed card. I think it's just a card in an Apple.
Speaker 2:But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter one bit. The revelation and finding of the card is the least interesting bit of the whole performance. People who undoubtedly are never going to be replicated because they are so unique to them, their character is so unique and you can almost see that in your influences. Your character is so unique to you. It would be really difficult to do a matthew wright trick with matthew wright's patter exactly as it is because it's so unique. Same with all of these people and definitely the same with tom mullica. His tricks were so unique to him and so entertaining but I was.
Speaker 1:I was watching it back and there were some moments in there that I know are in my act now just little sort of few facial expressions that he does and oh, wow, that's where I've got it from. But I haven't watched it for for maybe five years. And I look and I'm like, wow, that's where I've got it from. I haven't watched it for maybe five years. And I look and I'm like, wow, that's where I've got it from, that's why I do it. So it's good to go back and re-watch your heroes after 10 years of not watching the routine, because you'll think, oh, that's where the influence comes from.
Speaker 1:There are so many of Eugene's little nuances and little looks or timings or rhythm that absolutely have made it into my act that I've completely forgot about. I think they're mine, until I re-watch it and say I've nicked it, that's where it's from. Now you never you never steal the act or the trick or the pat or anything like that. But you can understand why they're doing it and let that influence your own performances, which those three guys 100% have done. So finding your own way to do things is is a big part of the journey. You know the, the tricks there, find your own way and take little pieces or little bits of of what I've put into it and find your own character. But yeah, it is difficult to to see a trick that someone else does that they've obviously worked on and obviously made it become part of their character and then to try and take that and replicate it. It's just not something you you want to do or can do but I think that's part of the fun of being creative.
Speaker 2:When it comes to magic, it's taking those ideas and those performances and making them your own. A second ago you said that you've noticed influences from other people in your performance now, but you're only. That's not a conscious decision that you've made, it's just their influence was so strong and I think that's that's perfect. I think it's great to have influence of other people because it almost allows their legacy to move on. It would be great to see a Matthew Wright trick with a couple of nods to Matthew Wright, but maybe in someone's own style, in their own way. But I do think those little nods to other people are really important in allowing those effects to go forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I hope, if anything comes from this, that people go back and take another look at the the mint trick. I'd love to see people performing that again because it's kind of it dropped out a little bit and and you're saying that people are watching it. So I hope people start doing it again because it is a great trick and I've taken that from from darren and taken some of those bits and put a bit of darren in it and then people might take a little bit of of me and put their their own twist on it.
Speaker 2:So it'd be fascinating to see what people can come up with with it yeah, I think it's a phenomenal trick um, and that brings us on to position seven. What's in your seventh place?
Speaker 1:this is going to be a bit. It's a difficult one this. I'm not sure how this fits into your thing, but it's just a deck of cards really for my multiple selection, because I it's not a trick, because I never know quite how. It's just a deck of cards really for my multiple selection, because it's not a trick, because I never know quite how it's going to end up. It's not a set, all I do. I have a deck of cards.
Speaker 1:However many people are sat in front of me, I will jam and jazz and let them all pick a card and then I reveal all of their cards. So it's not a set routine in any way. I never know how many cards I'm going to pick, I never know what order I'm going to reveal them in. But it's the one trick that if I'm out and about in a bar or something, it's rare that I'll do magic when I'm out anymore I very rarely do it, but if I do, this will be the trick that I always finish with and it always finishes with a card from the mouth and me throwing the deck up in the air and you can pick up your own cards because I'm out of there. It's kind of it has to be the end, because I've got no cards left.
Speaker 2:So we do. We have had lots of people say just a deck of cards, right. So at that point you've already done it, so you're safe. But at that point I say, if you could only pick one trick to do with that deck of cards, what would it be? So you've already said that. My question to you, just from my curiosity in terms of influences for your multiple selection routine where would people look for those influences?
Speaker 1:well, it's this again. Watching the tom mullica card in apple, I had no idea that that's where my card in mouth comes from. The mannerisms that he does with his eyes and the comedy bits that he does with his mouth absolutely stem from that, and I wrote the list without even knowing that that was going to be the case and I watched it. I I'm like that's exactly what I do. It's just little looks, a little bit of look of surprise. My eyes pop up really big. I've got big cheeks. The card fills my mouth and it's exactly what Tom does with a piece of the apple. And I think it's on the unusual suspect. I think my multiple selection might be on there. Is it not the last trick on there?
Speaker 1:I believe it is yeah, yeah, yeah so I think the card in mouth part of it is is on there. I'm sure I will have adapted it a little bit more and it's become more facially expressive and more uh comedic since I put it on the unusual suspect. But it is absolutely uh. There's some tom mullica in there, there's some um gica in there, there's some um Greg, uh, gregory Wilson, the uh, the Phoenix aces um and the boomerang card of death. Gregory Wilson's card stunts, man. What a wonderful, wonderful release that was. I got so much from that um that I still use to this day card on the box Um fit, the boomerang card from that um that I still use to this day. Card on the box um fit, the boomerang card of death, the Phoenix aces. So much material on there that was great Uh, and a lot of that actually makes it into the, into the multiple selection routine, a lot of Greg Wilson's work.
Speaker 2:So I think it was called the big finish card trick.
Speaker 1:Yeah that sounds about right yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, the big finish card trick is the yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, um, and that's, that's already available for people, so that's already on the on the platform as well. So if people haven't seen that one, go to matthew's creator page and have a look on there, because it was excellent yeah, I love, I love doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the one trick that I will always go to, to the big finish card trick. I'm glad I called it that, because that's exactly what it is. It's my big finish.
Speaker 2:I don't recall if you threw the cards in the air on the video, though I can't remember, but I don't think you would have probably taken out of my wages. So that brings us onto your last selection. That's your eighth trick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm glad that it's worked out, that I've I've saved this till the last, really, uh, because it's one of my most recent releases and it's something that it's hard for me to get a trick into my repertoire and stay there, because I've got 40 years of experience. I only really do eight or ten tricks, and so to come in and be one of those eight to ten tricks, it has to be quite special and I'm glad that this has made it in because it's uh, it's a real tribute, uh, to one of my best friends in magic when I was talking about Final Destination. I get to talk about my dad with this trick. I get to talk about the guy who helped me create it, who's mark southworth. Uh, it's brass buttons. It was the the last thing that mark worked on, really before he passed away. Um, we were in mid-release when he passed away. Actually, we didn't even get to get any of mark's routines recorded on the download and my presentation of the routine is all about Mark being a great poker player, because he was he's, a wonderful poker player and Brass Buttons.
Speaker 1:For those who don't know it, it's a copper-silver brass routine where we've got a silver washer, a poker chip-winning, championship-winning chip and a little blue button and the work and the design behind it is genius really. It's mark is is very, very best and most creative. So I'm really pleased that I get this little memento and this little moment to share my story of mark, because, mark, we grew up in the in the same magic club when we were teenagers really. So we've known each other for again over 30 years.
Speaker 1:Every release that I've ever put out went through Mark in some way. He'd always have a look at it or give an opinion, and the same with Mark. He'd always send me videos of what he was working on a release, so he was my sounding board. Really it's a real shame, obviously it's a real shame, but it's. It's a really sad moment that that he he passed, but I still get to keep his memory alive by performing that trick. So I love that trick now and I'm glad that that's kind of how we finished the the eight yeah, it's a great routine.
Speaker 2:Again. It's another one that I remember seeing and thinking what a quirky avenue to go down with it. It's so. There's been similar versions over the years, but not quite as well produced as well thought through.
Speaker 1:Um, and the props look incredible and and it really does confuse method wise in your brain the gimmick that I mean we created it together, but that gimmick that that market eventually ended up designing. It's just genius, really. You put it in your hand, you, you do the move, which is a very, very simple move anyway, and then you look again and they've not only changed color, they've changed shape, they've the geometry of them change. There are holes where there shouldn't be holes. It just is. It makes no sense at all. Um, it's a wonderful, wonderful little gimmick and I think it's a real, a real contribution to not just the copper, silver, brass but the whole coin magic. I think that will change the way a lot of people now go about thinking about coin magic and producing coin magic. I think they'll get. That'll be the catalyst that will create more and more creations, I think I hope so, because it's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Just a little commentary on your eight we've got tommy wonder influence, eugene burger, mark at the end. There lots of your own stuff, tom malika, I think it. You can see influences of all those people in your work, which is amazing for us because, although this maybe isn't a journey through your career, you've literally given us a little glimpse into your life and your magical career. And the thought of you sitting with him in amsterdam, um, and then that jaff mcbride school of magic, and then you know, uh, with tom mullica and you said, at the magic castle, just all of these things. It shows what a rich, incredible journey you've had through through magic and probably why you are where you are now.
Speaker 1:Yes, those people have been massive influences and it is a journey and it was having the nerve to go to Amsterdam. I had to sell my car. You know you make those decisions when you're young in life. It was an adventure going to live in Chicago, studying in Eugene's. Going to live in chicago, studying in in eugene's, going to his apartment, sitting down, watching tv with him and and chilling and talking magic, just things that you don't get to do in life and all. It's a wonderful opportunity that magic's given me. Um, settle down a little bit. Now I've got the kids, kids and the wife and you can't really get on with those kind of adventures anymore.
Speaker 1:But when I was younger, in my foundation years, if you will what teachers to have, you know what influences to have and to meet them in person. I think that's why magic's quite. It's so accessible. It's such a small community that you can have these superstars and still have access to them and still meet them and they'll give you time more often than not, they'll spend time with you and they will teach you things and and be happy to talk to you. It's not like if you're a musician, the the chances of you getting hold of elton john or something like that is so slim, but eugene's the elton John of the magic world. I think you would have liked that.
Speaker 3:Actually, that's quite a good title for him.
Speaker 1:You know you can get hold of these people and get access to these people and it's such a wonderful community that we're in 99% of the time and that's why, if people come to me, I to do my best to to give them time and give them advice, although that's probably opened me up to a whole world.
Speaker 2:So matthew's phone number is zero one. So we're on to the last two items. And now these are the hardest two items because you know we gave you eight, which was hard enough with the tricks, but only one book and you've already referenced, you know, books of Wonder. I'm guessing you mentioned a Eugene Berger book.
Speaker 1:Magic and Meaning.
Speaker 2:So I'm guessing this was quite difficult for you.
Speaker 1:I loved all of Eugene's books for you.
Speaker 1:I loved all of Eugene's books. Um, there's one that I read more than any other that I think I'm gonna make as my book. I'm gonna give two more honourable mentions which were very, very close to being the book, but I'm gonna stick with the Eugene book. So, absolute Magic, darren Bryant. Incredible book. Love reading it, love way his style of writing. I took I think that was one of only two books that I took away with me when I went to live in Majorca for three years and I read it constantly. Wonderful, wonderful book.
Speaker 1:Another book that probably I'd be surprised if it makes it onto your list much, but it's an incredible book. Professional Secrets by Jeffrey Durham. No, we've not had that one yet. Incredible book. Just the way he talks about rhythm and timing and pacing, how he took a newspaper tear that took him. He got a good round of applause for his newspaper tear and then he talks about how he put an extra one second pause in there before he did the reveal and he turned it into a stand innovation trick. Just absolute little nuggets of gold in that book. But the one that I'm taking with me is the Art of Magic by Eugene Berger.
Speaker 2:Now correct me if I'm wrong. That was one of his earlier books.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, my favourite by far and the coolest book cover as well. To be honest, eugene wrote the same book over and over again. It was the same message that he was putting across in all of his books, but I think that was probably the biggest and I think that was the first one that I really got. There was magic and meaning, which was him, and Bob Neill. But the first book that I got that was solely Eugene was the Art of Magic, and I studied it, I devoured it. It was my toilet book, if you will. In the bathroom I'd have the Books of Wonder, absolute Magic and the Art of Magic, and those would be the three that I could just pick up, turn to any page. It didn't matter what page you turn to, you're just going to find gold in there. Why that one in particular? That he could, it, could, it could have been any of the eugene books, uh, but I think because it was the first. I think that'll be why, why, why I've gone with that yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:It's a phenomenal book.
Speaker 1:It's signed as well. I got it to sign it. So some of the other ones aren't signed, but that one is very, very jealous.
Speaker 2:Did you get him to sign it? Did he sign it to you?
Speaker 1:oh yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. That's very cool. My absolute magic book actually talking about it being signed and I don't even know if it's my Absolute Magic book actually talking about being signed and I don't even know if it's still there. But Darren signed the Absolute Magic book in UV ink. Okay, he said this is a hidden message to Matthew from Darren Brown and you can only see it with UV ink. Wow, and I thought it would be worth a fortune because it was the first edition. Absolute magic as well. Um, but I've since learned that uv ink fades after a few years. So I haven't, I haven't put the pen on it. It might not even be there anymore.
Speaker 2:I've been distraught if it's faded away so that's that's the second derren brown book signing story that we've had on the podcast, because oh really we had one from uh roman armstrong where uh deron signed his book specifically to him with an in joke, which I won't ruin. In case listeners haven't listened to roman, okay, but go and listen to it. That was very, very funny as well.
Speaker 1:So it seems to be that deron likes to uh sign books in interesting ways yeah, maybe, maybe everyone will have a story, and it's interesting that we're all getting deron brown to sign our books. It shows what an influence he he's had on us all absolutely.
Speaker 2:I was at the magic circle book signing for his latest book, yeah, and it was such a buzz every everyone was so thrilled to to be able to have that opportunity. So, yeah, just shows what he's had on our, on our industry, really, um, and that brings us on to the curveball, the one that we never know where it's gonna go. This is your non-magic item. What did you go for?
Speaker 1:well, I've picked two and I and I'm going to have to pick, I'm going to have to choose one of them, aren't I? You can have an honourable mention.
Speaker 1:Right, then I'll go for the honourable mention to be my Eugene Berger puppet. Okay, I have a puppet in the show, a mind-reading puppet, that looks just like Eugene. It was built by, uh, the same guy that, um, a big, very famous puppeteer and and famous puppet builder for for the bbc. He makes all the bbc's puppets. Uh, he made me a eugene berger puppet that I performed for eugene the first time I ever performed it. There was eugene, jeff mcbrideBride and Max Maven sat on the front row and I'm doing this little comedy Eugene Berger puppet routine. I love it, I love it.
Speaker 1:It's a very big part of my show. It's got the Eugene Berger puppet probably has about 15,000 pounds worth of technology. I've got an easel, I've got a master prediction, I've got a mind, I've got all sorts of things going into this little puppet routine. It's incredible and I also, after I've performed it, I get to come from the stage and tell everyone about Eugene, and we've got pictures up in the theater of Eugene. So I get to tell the story of Eugene, which again keeps his memory alive. So that's the honourable mention. I have to say I'm taking my wife with me okay, interesting because, well, she's a big part of the show.
Speaker 1:Okay, we run the show together. Without her we wouldn't have the show. So if I'm going to a desert island, I'm taking my show, so she's a massive part of it. And she does some very, very cool magic as well. I mean, obviously she does the the assistance bit, if you will, where she's doing a lot of the backstage work. That makes the magic for me happen on stage seem a lot easier than it would be without her. But she's also plays a big part in the show. She sings and then she does some some much darker things. While she's singing she does some magic. So I don't know if you know the, the song creep by radiohead yeah, quite a dark and mysterious song. She sings that while she's doing a blockhead routine, so she's smashing a nail up her nose while she's singing. Um, she does the the bang bang from kill bill okay, yeah, yeah the bang bang song from kill bill.
Speaker 1:She sings that while she's doing a bullet catch. Uh, she's mad world while she's doing a needle through her arm. So she's uh, she's quite a unique act that we've managed to put together with her, and she's my wife, so she's coming with me to my desert island.
Speaker 2:Amazing. So in the show does she? So she's obviously backstage as well, but does she get to choose sort of what she's into if she's not a magician?
Speaker 1:Her character is very dark. It's very dark and mysterious and it contrasts brilliant with my, with my clowny comedy act. So my character and hers yin and yang very, very well. What alana will do is come with a song that she wants to sing and then I will try and think of a trick to go with it and I'll kind of teach you the trick. So she only knows maybe three tricks, but she does three tricks in a stage show every single night in a magic theatre.
Speaker 2:Where is the show on?
Speaker 1:It's internally in us on the Costa del Sol. It's called the Chamber of Secrets. We've been here for nine years now.
Speaker 2:So if people want to find out about getting tickets to that, where can they go?
Speaker 1:Chamberofsecretseu.
Speaker 2:Chamberofsecretseu. And if anyone wants to find out more about you or your magic or what you're up to at the moment, where can they go?
Speaker 1:I'm not very good on the socials. To be honest. Facebook's the only thing that I run. I don't have my own personal magic website. I don't have business cards. I don't have leaflets. I don't tell anybody what I'm up to really, but the Chamber of Secrets Tori Malinos on Facebook will tell you what's happening with the show. My own personal Facebook, although I think I'm maxed out on friends at the minute.
Speaker 2:Other than that, I'm very very quiet, very aloof, but thank you for coming along. That's been such an excellent insight into your career and sort of the things that have influenced where you are now. I mean, I haven't asked this to other performers, but what's the future hold for you?
Speaker 1:I'm not sure. I do have some plans. I have one plan that's massive, that could change the entire landscape of the magic market. Wow, and I'm kind of putting that together. It's going to be together. It's whether I it's going to be a lot of work and it's going to take a lot of funding and it's whether I I have the funding to go ahead with it. I've got some great tricks coming up, some really really cool releases. Uh, the theater's going really well, but there's a chance that I might revolutionize the whole magic industry.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:If there ever was a tease.
Speaker 2:it was that Well, I can't wait to find out what is to come. Of course, if you guys are a member of Unlimited, go to Matthew's creator page. We've got a little bit about him on there. Check out. All of his products are listed below, so go check out some of the effects. He's mentioned, some of them in here. Uh, I'm definitely going to go and check out visions, because I think that sounds phenomenal, um, and it will be nice to see the the evolution of that from from your previous work as well. So go and find that. Find out more about Matthew wherever you can. Keep an eye out for his tricks. Definitely keep an eye out for that tease, because that was phenomenal, um, and thank you very much for giving your time over matthew she's really appreciated.
Speaker 1:It's been a lot of fun. I've learned a lot about myself today, so I hope everyone else has enjoyed it too.
Speaker 2:Well, I certainly have. So thank you guys for listening, and we will see you next week for another episode of desert island tricks.
Speaker 4:Goodbye you next week for another episode of Desert Island Tricks, goodbye. By downloading the app, it will make your shopping experience even slicker at alakazam. You'll also get exclusive in-app offers and in-app live streams. So go download it now and we'll see you on the next podcast.