Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
Marc Spelmann
Marc Spellman, the captivating magician best known for his performances on Britain's Got Talent and America's Got Talent, joins us for a truly wonderful episode. From his masked persona "X" to humorous fictitious crime watch appearances, Marc’s wit and charm make this a must-listen episode.
Explore the timeless utility of the TT as Marc reminisces about his days at Davenport's magic shop in the early '90s. He shares his fascination with this versatile tool and how Silvano's masterful lectures influenced his craft. You'll also get an insider's look (listen) at Marc's studio, a treasure trove of over 150 TT's, as well as the revolutionary "Stealth Assassin Wallet," developed in collaboration with Peter Nardi. Marc's favourite tricks like his unique "Voodoo" card trick, which has appeared on Roman Armstrong's Desert Island Tricks!
Lastly, we delve into the artistry of magical creation. Marc emphasises the importance of personalisation in performing tricks, drawing inspiration from figures like Jeff McBride and Uri Geller. Learn about the evolution of spoon bending and other psychic tools, and get a sneak peek into Marc's upcoming projects! This episode is brimming with insights, anecdotes, and a touch of humour, promising an engaging and insightful listen!
Marcs Desert Island Tricks:
1) Thumb Tip
2) Stealth Assassin Wallet by Peter Nardi
3) The Code by Andy Nyman
4) Mind Buster by Labco
5) Morgan Dollar and Shell
6) Spoon Bend
7) ITR
8) MB
Book) Practical Mental Magic by Annemann
Item) Mobile Phone
A podcast about being an artist from a practical perspective. The series will...
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Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
I've done this on my ex-girlfriend. She's not my ex-girlfriend because I did this Anyway. So imagine you do this. Imagine you're sitting in a park. I got a flower, and imagine you say, look, she loves me. And you pluck off a petal and you put it into your hand, into your fist, and then pluck it away. She loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not. And you do that until the flower has got it's just a stem, it's got no petals on it, and you take the stem and you put that into your fist, where you've just been dropping all of these little petals. And then now you blow on your hand or whatever magical gesture you would like, and then, when you open up your hand, all of the petals have reattached to the stem.
Speaker 1:When I did it, she was not expecting magic in that moment. She thought we were just sitting apart. She loves me, I was just doing some weird. You know, loves me, loves me, not thing. And then I just went oh no, definitely loves me. And I went, that's for you, and I gave it to her and it was an amazing moment of organic, natural magic.
Speaker 2:Music, music.
Speaker 3:Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Today's guest is going to be one that, again, really doesn't need an introduction, probably from the general public and from magicians, which is a rarity. I think he's probably known just as much for what he's done on a certain tv show than what he's done in magic, but both are substantial. Uh, he is most well known probably for his return to bgt, britain's got talent a second year under a pseudonym pseudcharacter with a mask. So of course he went on to the first season and it was excellent.
Speaker 3:It's still one of the ones that if I talk to people and they talk about magicians on Britain's Got Talent, they always talk about the man with the kid who reveals the word. They always always mention that one. And then, of course, he came back the year after as x. He's also been on america's got talent. He's been on I think there was another britain's got talent that he did, possibly, but he'll correct me on that one. Um, but more than that, he is just a legend in terms of creating magic and mentalism as well. He's been around for a long ish time, um, he's been around and invented some great, great effects. Some of them have already been on desert island tricks, so they have appeared in other people's lists, which shows you just how prolific this person is. Of course you would have seen by the title. It is the one and only mark spellman. Hello mark, hello james.
Speaker 1:How are you, mate, you're all right, I'm good. How are you? Yeah, I'm all right, mate, I'm very, very well. I was worried a bit when you were saying about tv show very known for tv show because uh, I was on crime watch a few years back before the bgt stuff and all that. But I don't really talk about that.
Speaker 3:That was in a different kind of mask as well.
Speaker 1:I had a mask on in that one as well. Sorry, just for legalities. That is actually just a joke. I didn't really do a post office in Croydon with a mask on. It was in Harpenden, not Croydon, so anyway, talk to me. I'm on a desert island and I'm allowed three girls and a bucket of prawns.
Speaker 3:In fairness, I think someone took as their non-magic item their wife. Ah which yeah?
Speaker 1:Forever on a desert island. Wow, that's love. Or or that person can't cook. Bring the wife, she does wicked dinners.
Speaker 3:Yes, so we are very excited to hear your list. Me and Pete had a discussion about what we think you're going to go for. I'm interested.
Speaker 1:Can you do me a favor, because obviously people can't see us now because this is a podcast, but can you write down so you can't just make it up afterwards. I want it written down and I can see you now because we're doing this on a Zoom but can you write down what your guess is of one or two of the items I don't know how many you've guessed and what peter has guessed as well and then put it behind you so that I can see that you're not doing any sneaky sort of stuff, so that this is your prediction and we're going to see how much whether you or peter know me better than other, or if you know me at all.
Speaker 2:Right one sec. This is a long list.
Speaker 3:I'm putting it on.
Speaker 1:I've put three things down, so you know I'm not cheating, Just so you guys. Jamie's writing. Jamie's writing now.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to show you what I've put, but you can see at the bottom there is writing.
Speaker 1:Three writing. I can make out one of them because I saw the end of it.
Speaker 3:All right, okay, so those are my three guesses.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, but will you remember what Peter's one was, or did Peter have a guess as to what one of them might be?
Speaker 3:I can't remember what Pete said, I'm afraid. Okay, all right.
Speaker 3:Okay, maybe pay attention next time, but let's let everyone know. So if this is your first time listening to one of these, the idea is that we're about to maroon Mark on his own island. When he's there, he's allowed to take eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item that he uses for magic Particulars, things like the size of the island, what's there, who's there, how it's there. All of that good stuff doesn't really matter. This is basically Mark's ultimate list of tricks and, with that being said, let's whisk you away, Mark, on your cruise ship, no doubt to number one. What's first in your list?
Speaker 1:Can I just say more private jet if I had my choice, I've performed on cruise ships, not my preferred mode of transport. Private jet is is come on um. So number one on my list is I, and I don't know. I mean, I'll be interested to know if this has come up before, but number one on my list would be a. I'm gonna say a tt. Can I say a tt?
Speaker 1:you can say a tt so people that are non-magic listening to this, they're going wow, he really loves his tea. But you know what I mean? Has that come up before? Tt? It must have, yeah, it must have 100%, okay. So I'll tell you a bit of a backstory on this.
Speaker 1:I've always thought that the TT is out of everything that has been exposed to the general public, I think the tt is the one that breaks my heart because I think the tt, in the way that magicians and mentalists would use that particular device, it is ingenious, it is. I I think it's one of the best of all the things that we have now, all the incredible devices, all the tech, all the things that are accessible to a magician. Now I still look at that simple, beautiful device and think to myself that is genius, because you can effectively and you can show your hands empty and literally two feet in front of someone, and then what you can do with that tt device is absolutely incredible. So I've always loved it as a product and I used to demonstrate in a magic shop that sadly is no longer around anymore called Davenport, so we're talking like very early 90s. I used to. I was in sort of a struggling magician, gigging and trying to make ends meet and that kind of thing, trying to forge a career in magic back in the early 90s, forge a career in magic back in the early 90s and um, so I, as a sideline, I kind of just sort of did a couple of days at Davenport's as and when they needed me, and Betty Davenport used to call me supermodel because I've got a background in arts and crafts. If they gave me a stack of orders, like you know, mail order, magic, kind of things that needed to be packed up and stuff, I was just a whiz kid with this. So she used to call me supermark was my name, because I would get everything wrapped up, labeled and sent out by 10, 30 that morning and I'd go knock on her office door and say betty, is there anything else you need me to do? Make up some unequal, equal ropes, professor's Nightmare, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But at Davenport's they used to have at the time imagine this is like the early 90s they used to have the best selection of TTs, all different types, different shades, rubber Am I allowed to say rubber's okay, plastic, it's all pretty vague, isn't it right? Um, and I remember I used to collect them. So betty would say if we had a particularly good week at dapples. She'd turn around to me at the end of the end of the week and say, mark, is there anything you'd like to take? You know, just like a book or something like that. And I used to say to her can I have a couple of tts? And then I went to internet International Magic Convention and I'm just telling you why this is one of my choices.
Speaker 1:And I saw a video by a fantastic VHS video so back in the day, and it was by an incredible magician called Silvano and it was all about. It was his lecture at International Magic Convention with a TT and how he uses it, and I already had a love and an affinity with this device because I loved it. It was just so clever. But then, after watching Silvano do his lecture I don't think Silvano is with us anymore, but he was very charismatic, had a lovely persona, great way of performing and what he did with a TTt even as magicians we're going right now where is it? Because we know what we're looking for. And then at the end of his lecture he said let me do it again. So after all of his performances where we just mesmerized with his technique. Uh, he then says, let me do it. And he pulls out an illuminous green tt and then does it again. And then you go, this is how you use one of these devices like. This is like master class level. And again, this is in like the mid 90s and that is still available, that lecture. So if you are someone who has a tt, most magicians or people that are listening to this might have Just, honestly, international Magic, get the Silvano lecture, thank me later and sit there and just be absolutely blown away by how incredible that device is.
Speaker 1:And we all know that the price of these devices, the TTs, range from like £3.50. I mean, obviously you can go up to like some of the more advanced ones, like sort of 20 quid or whatever, but in general they're like £3.50. And I just, I'm sad, I genuinely am Out of everything that's ever been exposed. All the masked magician nonsense, all that rubbish. I just for me the tt is like oh god, couldn't have just kept that one secret. But I think we use it so, um, creatively that even someone that knows of a tt in public world would not necessarily know how we're utilizing that ingenious device. So, out of everything, that's my number one. If you said to me, you've got one thing to go onto a desert island with, that would be it.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I'm going to be devil's advocate. Go, just because I've done this to everyone else who has said this item. If you could only perform one effect using that, though, what would it be?
Speaker 1:Okay, so obviously I'm known very much for mentalism and it can have a huge benefit and many uses in the world of mentalism. But one of the things I really love it was on a michael amarr lecture and it was just a simple transposition. He did it with a, with a 10 pound note, and he I'll tell you exactly what the effect was. I won't obviously discuss methods, but he got a 10 pound note and he signed a 10 pound note and he put it in a cigarette box. Cigarettes were these things that we used to put to our mouths and give us cancer. Really clever. But now we've got these things called vapes that just drown our lungs apparently. So another good well done. Just don't do any of this with anything that doesn't feel natural. Just don't do it Anyway. So he got this note, a £10 note, signed it or put his initials on it, folded it up, put it in a cigarette box, set the cigarette box to one side, then got someone else to take out a £10 note. They put their initials on that note. He took it up empty hands and slowly folded up their note, unfolded it it was now his note with the initials showed his hands empty, pointing to the cigarette box. He had not gone anywhere near, walked over to it, reached inside. Folded up inside was the 10 pound note. But now when he opened it, it was their signed 10 pound note.
Speaker 1:So it's a transposition of two pieces of, effectively, paper from one place to the other. But it was so pure, with so many convincers, and obviously anyone listening to this who knows what a TT is will know exactly what that method is. But that for me, so a transposition, I think, is so strong, I think it's really strong Under the conditions that a TT will allow you to have. That would be the effect. So I don't know. I'm on a desert island, so maybe I've got a leaf and someone has torn the corner or the edge of one of those leaves. Kept a bit as a souvenir, I folded that leaf up, made it vanish and it ends up inside of a coconut that falls off a tree and then they can match up the corner and it is the piece of missing leaf. There you go. That's a desert trick that I literally just came up with as I'm rambling to you right now. So there you go.
Speaker 3:Great, very good choice. It reminds me Blaine had, I'm sure, on one of his specials. He goes to an island and he does like a sponge ball transfer with leaves. He sort of plucks a leaf off and he puts one in someone's hand and then he takes another one and disappears.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did, and that was lovely. But also, equally, paul Harris had a lovely effect where he would actually stand near a, if I say, back palm. No one really knows what that is, so he would back palm a leaf, um, and then create the illusion of plucking a leaf off of a tree. Show, oh, do you know what? One of the sorry, one of the best trick? Oh, my god, that's another great trick with the tt. So there was a book and this would I wouldn't take this book with me, but it was darwin's 101 tt tricks. Right, it was a little manuscript. Again, davenport's used to sell this. It was a little manuscript, staple bound manuscript, um, maybe I don't know, like the description of a trick and the method would be a third of a page. It was so like trick, trick, trick, trick, trick.
Speaker 1:Loads of tricks, lance Byrne, all like great magicians and stuff, and one of them which I think is one of the most organic tricks and I think there's something you reminded me about it with the David Blaine thing and that is you go up, you you get a flower. So you imagine this. You know what a TT is and a lot of people listening to this will know what a TT is. So imagine you do this. Imagine you're sitting in a park and I've done this on my ex-girlfriend. She's not my ex-girlfriend because I did this. She's my ex-girlfriend because of other complications within our relationship. But let's not worry about that right now. He's a beautiful soul and we're still very good friends, um, anyway. So, um, sitting in a park, I got a flower and it's like a little not a daffodil, but it was what's the one? You put underneath your chin and you kind of go oh yeah, you like butter.
Speaker 1:That weird yeah, buttercup maybe that's the clues in the title. Maybe it's a buttercup, so anyway. So put you on the spot. Maybe it's a buttercup, right, so anyway, so you get it. It'll put you on the spot there, jamie's going buttercup, so anyway.
Speaker 1:But basically you get the flower and imagine you say, look, she loves me. And you pluck off a petal and you put it into your hand, into your fist, as you're holding the thing. Obviously people can't see what I'm doing, but, jamie, you can see what I'm doing, right. And then plucking she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not. And you do that until the flower has got it's just the stem, it's got no petals on it. And you take the stem and you put that into your fist, where you've just been dropping all of these little petals. And then now you blow on your hand or whatever magical gesture you would like, and then when you open up your hand, all of the petals have reattached to the stem and it's done with a TT. That's great and that for me, like when I did it and I can mention the lady's name because she's a beautiful soul Hannah was my ex-girlfriend and when I did it on Hannah, she was not expecting magic in that moment she thought we were just sitting apart.
Speaker 1:She loves me. So I was just doing some weird. You know, loves me, loves me nothing. And then I just went oh no, definitely loves me. And I went that's for you, and I gave it to her and it was an amazing moment of organic, natural magic. No prop it seemed like there was no props, so you just reminded me of that. That was in 101 t hundred and one TT tricks by Darwin at Davenport.
Speaker 3:So look that up. Great choice, one that I'm not sure if everyone would have suspected you would go for.
Speaker 1:Maybe I don't know, but for me I mean people that know me. So we've got many mutual friends. I have got a box actually now the people at home cannot see this, but I want you to know that everything I'm telling you is gospel. So I'm just in my studio space going through boxes and I'm going to show you young Jamie Dawes, so you'll see on there what that says yeah, okay. And then you'll see how much I absolutely love this particular device. Oh my word.
Speaker 3:Right particular device because oh, my word right. So it is literally like the terracotta army of tt.
Speaker 1:Oh my word, right. So we go from things like this one was uh, I think this is a dutch company, so let me just do. You can see there that one is a soft one, but decent, like there's a blurring out or whatever, right. But there you go, right. And then you've got the classic um, you know verne ones again right. But then we've got the more expensive jobs, like where's the more expensive? I'm literally just going through, but I mean and this is not all of them, I mean this is the ones that I go to when I'm going right, I've got something. There you go, like these are the no, that's not expensive One. I no, they're not expensive.
Speaker 3:We should explain as well. So Mark has shown me a black box On the side. It's got a label with the long form version of tt's written on the side and he's just opened it up and easily well over 100, maybe 150 of those devices, yeah, and then just give you an example of the leader.
Speaker 1:That are the sort of 20 pound jobs.
Speaker 1:But when I finally show you that one, it won't look as good on camera as it is, but it's like you know when you're talking detail yeah, that's incredibly detailed yeah so that's a ready up one anyway, but so, yeah, so that, yeah, that is, like you know, colin, who knows me very well and has been to my studio many, many times, he's seen that and that is one box. The other one is just that sort of just again, but they're the ones that I need access to when I'm working on stuff.
Speaker 3:Great choice. And that brings us on to your second item. What's in your second position?
Speaker 1:Second position is going to be something called the um, the assassin. So this is more of a comfort item. This is a wallet just for me, just just in case I need to go to a cash point, uh, or something like that, just carry my credit cards, um. But that, yeah, that for me, and peter I many, many years ago Peter released something called Stealth. Can I say names of things? Jamie?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can say the name of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so many, many years ago, peter created a thing called the Stealth Wallet, and this is way back when this was the first of its type. And this is way back when this was the first of its type, um, utilizing a very, very famous principle by a gentleman called mark strivings. And peter actually went to mark and got officially like you know, absolutely fine, please do just give me a credit, kind of thing. So did it the right way? And then I got the stealth wallet and looked at it and, as always, took out a scalpel, took out a cutting mat, and then went I want to do this and this and this and this, and made a couple of adaptations to sort of create what I wanted, shared it with peter. Then peter came back to me with additional ideas and then, lo and behold, the stealth assassin wallet was born.
Speaker 1:And this is we're talking like 2003, 2004, something like that, so 20 years ago. Easy and um, we decided to sit down and just come up with routines for this, things that we would normally do and things that we were actually doing with it. But then we were looking at it and going, well, what else could you do with it? And we said and at the time we were saying you know, you could easily do a 15 minute act with this alone, because it's hidden in plain sight. It is what it purports to be and it really is. I mean, like you know, I I actually haven't got mine here, but you know, when I'm out and about, that's why I have. So that would be my second choice.
Speaker 3:I get to tick off one on my Mark spellman bingo, yeah I thought that I thought I saw the end of ollie or alex so, devil's advocate again, are you going to say about what routine would I do?
Speaker 1:with it, I'm afraid. So, okay, no, that's absolutely fine. Um, one of my favorite routines to do with it is, uh, obviously, naturally it's going to be leaning towards mind reading, uh, but one of my favorite routines is a routine and it's hard to say exactly what the routine is without explaining methods, so I'm going to skirt around it a little bit without going into too many methods. But basically I get someone to think of, I get 10 items. So it's very organic. So we lay out 10 things on a table, whether that's a coin, a key, a pen, might be a coaster. That's nearby a glass, a bottle of wine, whatever is accessible and nearby it could be a hair clip, could be someone's watch or a ring. And we lay those items out and I say, if I were to ask you to think of one of those 10 items and make a note of it, then obviously in that moment it's limited, it's limited to these 10 items, but that's kind of how I have to work. So now I get them to think of one of those items and they write it down and that then gets put inside my wallet. So then at that point I turn around to someone else and say actually, let me. Let me try this with two of you. So you're thinking of one of these 10 items. What about if I asked you to think of something far more meaningful, something far more relevant? Someone that you, you hold dear to your heart, might not be your husband or your partner, it might be an old friend, it could be anyone. In actual fact, I'd ask you to go back in time to a point where even the people around us right now might not know who that is. Cause if you do say your partner, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, whatever, oh yeah, we knew you were gonna say sarah, do you know? I mean so, like, maybe make it, and that's part of my presentation anyway.
Speaker 1:So now I go to the wallet, I take out a blank card and I give it to her, and then she writes something down that then goes back into the wallet, into the same enclosed area for safekeeping, and at that point now I make a point. I'll put it underneath yours and let's get back to your item, and then I get the ladies, or whoever I'm doing, on to hold their hand over the items and then, very slowly, using a little bit of body um contact, mind reading, I eliminate some and then I get her to close her eyes, hold her hand over one, get her to hold her hand palm up, and then I place one of the items in her hand and I say what was the item you were thinking of? And then she says the ring. I say open your eyes and she can even feel that I put the ring in her hand, but it's just presentationally. She opens her eyes, she sees the ring, she's oh my god reaction. And then at that point I say but and, and that is what you wrote down.
Speaker 1:I go back to the wallet, I slide out her card, show it and then say ring, perfect, you didn't change your mind, no great whatever. And then now I say but now think about it. You thought one of these 10 things. You're thinking of something far more complex, something far more difficult, and let me see if I can get that, and so. So now's the point where I go to the wallet to take out another blank business card and in that moment, everything being secured as it should be, I am now able to read the lady's mind and tell her the person that she thought of.
Speaker 1:So that's the routine, that when I was doing a lot, I don't do as much close-up as I used to do. Now I do more stage work, but when I am, I mean even socially. That's an effect that just with just having a couple of business cards and some items around, you know and you can choose what those 10 items are. If you want to make it super simple, you could just take out six different coins, you know a pound, a 20p, a 5p, a 2p, a 1p, whatever, and lay them out and just go look. So basically you're just getting something that is tangible, seemingly achievable, you know. And then you're going actually, but let's push this out, let's go crazy, let's get you thinking of someone that I don't even know, that, even though you're thinking of, you're both thinking of something. Uh, they couldn't be more different, because one is deeply personal, one is just an item that has no connection to you. So even even though when you say, can you read a thought, thoughts vary drastically.
Speaker 3:So that would that's my kind of presentational angle when I was doing the close-up with the stealth assassin great, excellent choice, and I'm glad I got one of them right, um, so that takes us on to number three. What is in your third position?
Speaker 1:Third position is going to be the Code by Nyman. Reason being is I, as obviously I'm known predominantly for doing mentalism, but if any of you saw me working close up, you would know that I probably do about 60% to 70% mentalism but 30 to 40% magic, depending on who I'm with the audience, especially when I was doing close-up. So I would say, if you put me on a scale of card magicians, I would say I'm probably a 6 and a half to a seven out of ten in terms of skill and ability. I pick things up pretty quickly. I can do lots of the need to know moves and some advanced stuff with cards.
Speaker 1:So cards obviously, um, a deck of playing cards has, uh, so many opportunities. Whether you want to do something mind reading based, it becomes is more of a tool than a one trick thing, if that makes sense, um, so I would definitely have a deck of cards. Reason why I say the code is, you know, because there's certain advantages that you would have with the code over you know just an off-the-shelf deck of playing cards. So that's why I would have the code. So the routine that I do more often than not with deck of playing cards is I do a routine which is a variation on the chicago opener. So my variation on the chicago opener is um well done who said that.
Speaker 1:So that was the one that pete said, so it came to me just to let people aware, as I said, a very my variation on the chic Chicago Opener. Jamie just held up the pad that he previously wrote on and Peter's guess was my version of the Chicago Opener. So my version of the Chicago Opener is a routine that I call Voozoo, and I'm sure it will end up being a download or something like that on Alakazam at some point. It's something that I'm more than happy to share now, but I don't do as much close-up as I used to do uh, but for for I mean 15 to 20 years.
Speaker 1:That variation was was my was sometimes the only card trick that I would ever do and it was a um. Basically, the variation is a lot of the technique and the handling varied to the classic Chicago opener, red Hot Mama. There was subtleties in there that I felt improved the effect. But equally it was with a burn on a card, which I've always loved more than I thought it was more plausible a burn appearing, especially if you had incorporated some smoke or fire in the act, um, as opposed to a card changing color. So that would be the effect, because it's very easy to uh just get a flame and and scorch a card and then have that version of uh, the chicago opener.
Speaker 3:Uh, in my case, voodoo would be the trick that I would do with that deck of cards so I was just looking through my notes to see who it was, and this episode's gone out now so we can talk about it. That particular effect was in someone else's top 8 tricks, so it was in Roman Armstrong's top 8 tricks and all I had written down was Chicago Opener. We were trying to find out where it was available to learn. So, yeah, it would be excellent to maybe get that available to people, because it's obviously one that apparently you taught it in a lecture somewhere. Who did you did? What was he talking about? The burn card variation? Apparently you taught it in a lecture somewhere. Who did you?
Speaker 1:did? Oh yeah, what was he talking about? The burn card variation? Oh right, okay, so, yeah. So basically, I mean it's worth doing as a download at some point because, like every nuance there is, even about how to burn the cards properly without warping them.
Speaker 1:I've done it for years, you know, and yeah, yeah, I'll speak, I'll be something that I will be more than happy to record and put out for alakazam. But what I tell you is an effect that I've performed it for, like eric fatten, I've done it for george, the late, great george michael, um his birthday in streetly where he used to live, and, um, I've done it for god, I mean endless people. I mean I've done it like for years and years and years. I used to work at a venue called the house of magic and I think I used to perform it in the late well, sort of early to late 90s, but late 90s. I was doing a lot of the close-up magic at the venue, the House of Magic. I think my last appearance there was 2001, I'm sure. Actually, I remember 9-11 happening and we were all there with all the newspapers and stuff about that tragic historical event. But yeah, I remember doing it there and so I mean, I've been doing my version Voodoo, the Chicago opener for over 25 years, um, and it's still a trick on.
Speaker 1:I was recently on a virgin cruise ship performing and I have a burnt card in my case with a deck of playing cards and I'll do my version and it does get a really good reaction. People always comment on it and I've got lots of hints and tips and things that you can do with it. Um, I think there's multiple things with, uh, with the chicago opener as well just going a little bit into depth on that and that is that when you think of a trick, a lot of the time when you think of a card trick, it's very much you take a card and I'll find it. And although that is the kind of subtext behind Chicago Opener, there's twists and turns along the way, for anyone that knows Chicago Opener will know there's this sort of magician failing moment, it not quite working, and that kind of thing. I don't really go down that route with voodoo. I talk about performing.
Speaker 1:What's the difference between a mentalist and a magician? And I say let me show you what a magician would do first, and then I'll tell you how, how a mentalist would reframe things slightly and give it a different context. So it's almost like I'm repeating the same trick twice, first time as a magician, with the magical elements, the burning on the back of the car, the smoke, the fire, the whatever I'm using and then the second part of it is more of a mentalist approach. But then it comes full circle, as people would know, with the chicago red hot, mama, um, and then you get your, your moment of like well, hang on a minute, you just pulled the rug from under their feet, which I love. I love those twists, as people will know, with a lot of my work.
Speaker 3:Amazing. Well, I'm really genuinely looking forward to hopefully seeing that in the future, because it is one that I know Pete's mentioned, and obviously, roman put in his top eight, so it's got to be pretty good.
Speaker 1:Also Roman, lovely Roman Armstrong. I'm not sure I must have met him. I think I might have lectured this at the Magic Circle. I'm not sure I must have met him. Maybe I think I might have lectured this at the Magic Circle. I'm not sure, but briefly gone over it, just talking about it, I'm sure I lectured it because I was saying about a trick is never finished. Even when you buy a trick, when you buy a trick online, it's not finished.
Speaker 1:That's the mechanics, this is how it works, but what are you going to do to it? That's the mechanics, this is how it works, but what are you going to do to it? So imagine that trick's 90% finished or 80% finished. What are you going to do? What's the last 20%, 10%, whatever it is? What are you going to put on it? And then it becomes your piece.
Speaker 1:And that's how I felt about Chicago. I loved it as a trick, I loved it as a twist and a turn, um. But how am I going to make it mine? How do I change it? How do I theme it? How do I make it fit me?
Speaker 1:And I think that's where magic becomes really fun, because we can learn endless secrets and methods. That's we can do that. It's all there. You Go on YouTube now you can find secrets and methods, but what do we put onto it? And I think the real hardcore creative magicians don't have to be technically minded. But that, for me, is the fun part, because it's almost like someone's drawn the lines to a picture and they're saying how are you going to color it in? And I think that's where it becomes. How am I going to color it in? And I think that's that's where it becomes. Oh, how am I going to color this in? You know, and that's um, and there's nothing. You'll know this. You're a creator, jamie.
Speaker 1:Uh, there's something so rewarding about performing something that you've created, and obviously, you know I create a lot of magic, but I would never be delusional to the point where I think I've created that completely on my own. There's many influences, many. You know it's a cliche saying standing on the shoulders of giants, but I've done. I've stood on many shoulders of many giants and you take pieces and parts and they amalgamate together to form something that feels new and, in some cases, could be new. It could be a very new angle, a new twist, a new turn, but for me, um, I love performing things that I've really put effort into.
Speaker 1:There's some tricks that I do that get a great reaction from the audience, but it's not me. You know, being magician. X on bgt was really good fun, not for the tricks. There was one trick that I did that I created, which was the 1989 element with the boards, with that and deck, and that that was. I've had so many people offer me large sums of money to talk to them about how that particular part works, um, but yeah, whatever, that's a mystery. But um, everything else. Now, the fun part of that for me was creating x. The rest of it was very much things that have been done before and I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, um, but for me the creative process is really important and in that case it was very much hex. But yeah, chicago opener, the code burn card, my voodoo effect great, very, very good choice.
Speaker 3:And that brings us to your halfway point. So what's in the fourth position?
Speaker 1:fourth position is um is well, this is a bit of a double-edged sword now, because I need to ask you about this the rules, the rules that have been laid out. I know they're quite flimsy, but um. So if I said, you mind buster.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that incorporates a couple of things.
Speaker 3:You know the MB and the. You know the how you receive the information.
Speaker 1:How I receive the information. So is that, would that?
Speaker 3:all be one thing or Yep.
Speaker 1:That would be one item. Okay, so that for me, obviously, there are a lot of tech apparatus that are available now in the world of magic. As we evolve with tech and things like that, it comes into the the realms of magic as well, and I don't really use a lot. To be honest with you, um, and I'm not saying that to be you know, I do use it, you know, uh, but I don't use it a lot. I don't use it a lot. I use it where necessary and an MB is I've still got, you know, one from that I purchased, god, I don't know, 10 years, 10, 8 years, 10 years ago, something like that. Same one Works like a charm and so, yeah, I use that and I like it because it's very versatile, it's super clean. Um, obviously there's always the issue of like what happens when it doesn't work or goes wrong. Well, if you're an experienced magician and mentalist with some years under your belt, you'll know that even things that are non-tech can mess up at times. So it's just about having good presentational skills about how things. I always have this thing where I always say don't be so delusional that you don't think anything is ever going to go wrong. Absolutely expect something to go wrong, but don't just expect something to go wrong. Be prepared for when something goes wrong. So I always have an out and I learned this very briefly, I couldn't even mention this because it kind of relates to the tech stuff. Couldn't even mention this because it kind of relates to the tech stuff. Um, an amazing magician, jeff mcbride, an absolute great in the world of magic, uh, he has a thing called a commando act and his commando act literally is something that packs into literally a like a bum bag, a rucksack, a kind of small bag, and he, in that bag he's got enough things that without any light, without any sound, without any microphone, he can perform up to I think I think it was up to sort of like 15 to 20 minutes of magic. Now, obviously that does tie in with the stealth assassin that we mentioned earlier, but I always have and the stealth, even when I'm on stage, a stealth assassin is with me, even if you never see it throughout my show. It's with me because there could be a moment where I need to all of a sudden go. Actually, do you, do you know what? Let's change this slightly and that normally means that something hasn't gone quite right and I need to readjust. But as long as you're prepared, then you know, was it? They say, prepare to fail or no, was it? No, fail to prepare, google it, google it everyone. Get the right one, anyway. So yeah, so that would be my fourth item, and if you were going to ask me what routine I would do, I would say that it would be. I think it's too.
Speaker 1:There's something very I love drawing duplications. I love them because of the organic nature, I think, because of the how geller popularized them as much as he did and made something quite simple um, amazing. You know, he's. If anyone you know like geller's an amazing, he's. He's very charismatic, regardless of what you, what you feel or think about. Is he psychic? Isn't he psychic? Aside from that, just looking at what he's delivering to an audience, I think he's got a great way of taking something that some of us could not sell, in a way, and amplifying it and making it like that's amazing.
Speaker 1:So I do love drawing duplications, but equally, I like to have an aspect of.
Speaker 1:So it's not essentially a routine as such. What I'm actually going to tell you here is I'm going to code it slightly so that we know what we're talking about. But if you are a random member of the public that's listened this far, uh, first of all, wow, okay, um, but, uh, but yeah, you don't want to know these things because it just ruins it anyway. So, basically, under the guise of getting someone to draw an image, I'm actually accessing more information than my audience would be aware of, if that makes sense. So I'd be using a thing called dual and r for them to do a drawing, but equally, there might be a few other bits of required filling in that the audience is unaware of but my participant on stage is aware of. And equally, now not only am I able to replicate an image, which seems to be the main purpose of this, but equally, I'm able to now seemingly reveal information that never was applied. That make sense? Yep, 100%, yeah, okay, cool, so yeah, so that would be that.
Speaker 3:Great, great choice. And of course, there are some lo-fi versions of that, if people ever want to look into that as well. Um, yes, just just that. Premise alone is, yes, amazing hello guys.
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Speaker 3:Check it out now alakazamcouk cheers, and it does take us over your halfway point to number five. What's in your number five? How many?
Speaker 1:have I got how many? Have I got six? Is it six items? You've got eight items, eight, oh my god, jesus, right, okay, wow, this is which are really generous with this, actually. So, um, I think, item number six number five no this is five items. Item number five would be and I believe I'm gonna hold it up now so you can see this it would be morgan is that morgan is that?
Speaker 1:Do you know your coins? Colin will tell me off about this because he gave them to me. I'm sure it's a Morgan dollar. Let me have a look. Is that a Morgan dollar? I'm sure it's a Morgan dollar. Anyway, old Morgan dollar coins, five of them. Old Morgan dollar coins.
Speaker 3:five of them, One of them resembles something you might find on a beach, nice. I like what you did there. That was great. You know what I did there.
Speaker 1:But you hold up to your ear and you can hear the sea. So one of them would be one of those I love again, not something that you would necessarily associate with me, but I absolutely love coin magic. I love its organic nature, I love the visual aspect of it all. I can do a lot of the moves. I'm by no means an expert in it I'm not an Eric Chen but I can certainly do some decent coin magic and I also, like I just play with coins a lot as well. So I'd want them on the island with me. If I was going to do an effect with them, which is probably coming up, it would be a classic, probably the classic. A slight variation on the classic coins across by david roth the late great legend that is david roth would be my trick of choice with that particular prop uh, that's one that we've had a few times, I think.
Speaker 3:I think we've had David Roth's coins across.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a classic and there are. I mean, there's kind of variation in things that I sort of added to it, but my goodness, it's like 3% of 97% of David Roth.
Speaker 3:Great, that's a nice curveball as well, one that I don't think anyone would have expected from you, which is really nice. But that does bring us on to your sixth item. What's in its sixth position? Okay?
Speaker 1:now this is an interesting one because this is something I do a lot of, my sixth item. But then this is non-magic, but it is magic. It would be a whole bunch of spoons. There is a certain brand actually that I probably bought about a thousand spoons from this particular company because they work for what. I probably bought about a thousand spoons from this particular company because they work for what I need, the way that I would like them to work. So I would say, yeah, um, that, and if you're going to ask me what I would do with them, I think you know where this is going to go right now. Yeah, but I have, I've always loved spoon bending.
Speaker 1:Again, influences from from geller as well, and I mean, it's one of those things whereby you know the metal bending is just synonymous with with geller, and I don't know if anyone my historical knowledge wouldn't doesn't go that far I wouldn't know if anyone did metal bending before Geller. Was it a? Was it a Geller creation, certainly very popularized by Geller? But I'd be interested to know. Maybe that's a question for a historian, but I wonder if before gala there was metal bending, and and I don't, I don't know that I've ever heard of it and I've done a lot of work in metal bending um. My metal bending routine again, uh, obviously massively influences from gala, uh, from people like patrick cuffs, banner check, um, but equally um, I would say more so I've got a very good friend called colin klaus who has a company called refractor. They do lots of rubik's cube magic. Colin's one of my best uh friends in magic of Rubik's Cube magic. Colin's one of my best uh friends in magic and um and Colin. I met Colin through two, two gents called Urban Magic, mike and Vern of Urban Magic, originally from Bristol, and um, mike and Vern were a double act or still are a double act. I don't know how much they go out and perform now, but they were a double act Really cool in sort of T-shirts covered in tattoos, way before everyone else was covered in tattoos, so it was like an unusual look and they used to wear T-shirts and jeans and perform really strong magic, but as a double act. So they they do an ambitious card and things like that, but as a double act, and the card would end up with the other performer who was standing three feet, which is really clever stuff, and they had a metal bending act that they would do together to the point where I think if you look up urban magic on YouTube, you can see them on Turkish television. They ended up getting pulled into a news program where they did part of their metal bending.
Speaker 1:And I would say that 70% of my current metal bending act that I do, or routine, I would say 70% of it is from Colin and Urban Magic and I've added a couple of bits. There's a few bits that I don't do, that they do, but I would say that my metal bending act is one of the strongest things that I do, because my restrictions, or one of my sorry, one of my what would be the word, one of my conditions, is that if I hand you one of the spoons that I bend, you would find it hard to do, even if you're a gym bunny, you know, and you would still go yeah, that's, that's a spoon. Um, there's other very popular metal bending things, um, sometimes with forks and stuff, and um, from my experience and don't get me like, artistically it looks very clever, it looks great on camera and that kind of thing but I think some of these forks, I think you hand them to Joe Public and they kind of go oh, that's a weird one, isn't? It Feels a bit, you know, wibbly and wobbly. So that was one of my conditions is that I had to literally train myself and and it's not undoable as well, because with metal bending one, I think one of the most important things about metal bending is this if and this is why coin bending is really strong, because no one can bend a coin like you can't bend a coin so the minute a mentalist, a mind reader, a psychic or whatever takes a coin and it slowly melts at their fingertips, it's actually superior to spoon bending and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:In that it is that impossible, it's impossible to do. You can get the world's strongest man, they just can't get the leverage on it and that kind of thing. So one of my conditions but I don't think it's as visual as spoon bending spoon bending and fork bending and that kind of could be very visual. Like you know, a lot of coin bending is visual at the end, where you get a little bit, but it's very much in the hands, kind of chatter and stuff. So yeah, so a bunch of spoons that are surprisingly strong but have a certain quality to them that I so they would be with me.
Speaker 3:Great, very, very, very good choice. And that brings us to the tail end of your eight. So what is in your seventh position?
Speaker 1:Seventh position, again initials I-T-R, and I'll tell you why. This is something that we're actually in the process of working on at the moment. Many years ago I came up with the concept, so I'm talking like 1998. I came up with a way of utilizing an itr in a way that was very psychic. It was not like a lot of the time you get like a floating bill or a note or something like that, and it was done in a much more, I felt, more psychic style, much more telekinesis, psychokinetic kind of minimal, but for me slightly more tangible and believable. And I developed this when I was working at davenport's magic shop and I had access to some really like a variation of itrs and um. And I created this particular technique and it's something that I've lectured a couple of times I touched on many, many years ago in a release many, many years ago and literally Monday just gone, which will now be probably a few weeks by the time this comes out I had lunch with Peter and Colin and I reminded Peter of this particular technique and he watched me do a couple of things and just went to me.
Speaker 1:Why do more people not do this? This is madness. So it is something after years and years of doing this that we are going to re-release, release but an itr and my technique, um, it's called ut, um is um what I would do with it, which is very much psychic demonstrations, very examinable but moving objects in ways that seem impossible. And even if you know the method as a magician you still would be going, but I don't understand quite where that would be my what's his seventh.
Speaker 3:That was number seven. Yes, number seven. Okay, wow. So that brings us on to your final item. What's in your last position?
Speaker 1:my last item is something that not a lot of magicians are going to know. I'm going to say two initials, m and B, and it's not the mind buster thing that we spoke about before. This is something different. This is a tool, is an incredible tool, and the only reason I have to be very careful about what I say here is it is an investment. It's something that I really thought long and hard about before I made the decision to go down this route. It's something that works really well for me.
Speaker 1:I know a number of top mentalists and mind readers performers have now used this system, but it's MB and I would say in, in a way, it is a, a revelation system, a prediction system that just is very organic, very innocent, especially for me. Uh, it's I mean me, and you have had discussions about this previously and you all know how I justify this particular technique that I that I use um, but it is. It's not just a technique, it is an item, um, but that would be with me because it is very, very versatile as well so without giving too much away.
Speaker 3:It's easy to put it as so.
Speaker 1:It is an entire prediction system, almost so it's a way that you could have something written down, have something said and then that thing can be revealed, or yeah, so, so, to give you context, uh, I get someone in my audience to just think of someone that means everything to, that means the world's. We've got a really good connection with this particular person and I write something down and then I ask them to say who this person is, their name, and then I'm able to show that I completely got that right. And it is that impossible. Looking it looks that impossible. Um, and that's the routine that I tend to use it for in my show when I do my show. So, yes, uh, it's so, that's a routine that the device is something that just hides in plain sight, seems very organic. It's very, very clever, it's uh, and it enables you to to reveal and predict things in a way that I've not seen before great, excellent choice, um, and a really interesting list.
Speaker 1:Uh, not maybe what everyone thought, so I think a few, though what was it? So can we quickly ask a couple of questions about what you've got on your list there?
Speaker 3:So I had Sneak Thief.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, yeah. So Sneak Thief, I get that, but I think with a Mind Buster, and with this particular the last one, my eighth position, was it eighth position? That would almost negate I could do it like even seemingly cleaner, if that makes sense yep, absolutely, and I had pk touches ah okay, so now pk touches is not something, something that I take onto an island, because it's something that you, just you don't need anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's very true.
Speaker 1:I'm not taking anything, it's just with me and you do a fantastic. You've got some really good work on the PK touches, which actually I want to ask you about after this actually.
Speaker 1:But yeah so that would be yeah, but I get that. I do get the PK touches. Steve, that would be yeah, but I get that. I do get the PK touch. But again, I don't feel I need to take anything for that. I know that there's multiple techniques of doing that with nothing, so I don't have to take anything, just me. If I've got arms and legs, I'll be all right. And let's be honest, if I haven't got arms and legs, a lot of the other stuff I've taken with me is going to be a bit redundant as well, but going to be a bit redundant as well, uh, but that does take us on to your two curveball items.
Speaker 3:So you've got your book and your non-magic item that you use for magic. So what did you go for? Your book, my?
Speaker 1:book would be practical mental magic by anaman. Uh, a very close second would be the 13 steps to mentalism. These books, as old as they are, are they're the bibles of modern day mentalism. So much of what you read, what you download, what you see of modern mentalism, its roots come from those books. So if you are able to be like I was mentioning before about adding an element of your own creativity, I think part of the fun is doing that, and there's nothing more fun than reading a book that can be a little bit dated, like practical mental magic and 13 steps to mentalism. Um, they can feel a little bit dated in the the language.
Speaker 1:And you know, getting a phone book you know we don't have phone books anymore. You know, get grabbing six or seven newspapers? Well, that's not always going to. I mean, we still have newspapers, but they're not readily accessible as they used to be. Um, but modernizing it?
Speaker 1:You know the techniques are still there. Maybe some of the tools and the apparatus has changed. Maybe, instead of a, an old notebook or a calling card, you're getting someone to doodle something on an iphone or in their notes app or whatever. Do you know what I mean? But the fundamentals are still there and I think, uh, that's a lot of people like you know, richard Osterlund, uh, larry Becker, the late Max Maver, late, late, um, larry Becker as well, obviously, and um, I think they would say to you so much of the work that they've created, which have been now sort of, you know, staples of many, many a performer now grew from the seeds that were planted in those books.
Speaker 1:So practical mental magic by Anaman for me is just, if you only had one, if you were going to go, I'm going to be a mind reader and I said, listen, all you can have is this one book. You can do it, you could take that book and create a stage act, a strolling act, just with that book yeah, excellent choice, and it is one that really should be in everyone's book collection.
Speaker 3:there's some really good. It's one that really should be in everyone's book collection. Yes, some really good. It's one of those ones where I would assume quite a lot of performers have gone back to it and found a technique when they needed it and they couldn't find it anywhere else.
Speaker 1:When I used to work in Davenport. One time I came in and you know he was like one of the Spanish goats, right, I mean, he's like one of the best that there is, right. And Juan Tamarez walked in and he said and he's really charming, really lovely. And he just said can I have a look at all of your old manuscripts? And I love that because he's not saying what have you got that's new? Which a lot of people what's new in? You know what's the latest trick? He actually came in and said what have you got? That's really old, complete opposite.
Speaker 1:And I remember in davenport, so the bottom of one of the bookshelves, they have these stock room with books everywhere and you know props and things, and they had these boxes, dust covered boxes and you take it out. It'd be all manuscripts of, like mentalism and albaker magic, haunted decks, all that kind of stuff. But they were these barely any illustrations, lots of text typed out on an old typewriter and they were staple bound, rusty old staples and once a mary's just took one of every single one of them, probably read most of them on the plane back to spain and then just relished in finding gems that are hidden. Uh, guy hollingworth did a really clever thing in his book, uh, drawing room deceptions, and he's got a lovely voodoo routine. So, talking about voodoo earlier on, he's got a great voodoo routine and it's actually in the introduction of his book. So, and he said, if you want to hide a good trick anywhere, stick it in your introduction, because most people are skimming that, going straight to the contents and trying to absorb all the tricks.
Speaker 1:And uh, but I didn't ignore his introduction. I read the introduction and everything else and I went oh, that's good, that was a really good voodoo effect different, slightly different to mine, but but a great food. And for someone like you, jamie as well I know you're you probably know it and appreciate it for what it is great routine. So yeah, so that would be my magical items and my book amazing, uh, so well, technically you've got one item left.
Speaker 1:You've got your, one item left your non-magic item that you use for magic so obviously excluding human beings, because obviously tessa and isabella would.
Speaker 1:Obviously I'd love to have them with me. Failing that, obviously, ticket availability you know flight availability, maybe you know they, they, uh, they've got no more seats in first class. Who knows um, but I would, I'd go with. This is going to sound a bit crap, but I'm going to go with them with my iphone and I'll give you all the reasons why, because with an iphone it's I can watch and learn um. Bear in mind there's no internet, obviously on this desert island, but I've gone there with some mp4s, you know, you know downloads and things, so I can do that.
Speaker 1:I can film and I can edit. I love filming, I love editing, I love creating magic, even though I can't share on social media because there is no Wi-Fi, so it's all for my own pleasure. But I love filming, I love editing. It's something that I, if I didn't do it as part of my job, which I do, it would be something I would do just for fun, even to the point where I want to sort of Isabella's eight years old now, and I was saying to Tessa last night I want to collate all of our, all the videos that we collate on our phones that forget to look at.
Speaker 1:Um, and Tessa's very good. Every once in a while I just find her laughing at a video from like five, six years ago of Isabella. And I said to Tessa last night, just last night literally um, I need to collate all your favorite videos of Isabella so we can do year one, year two, year three, year four, and I'll edit them as a hobby in my own time. Um, and then it's like when Isabella turns 18, we can literally present her with, you know, a hard drive. With this is your life kind of a moment of like. These are all your wonder years. So my non-magic item would be an iPhone, which some could say is a bit of a magic item in itself, because you know, you know, and I know, as a lot of other people listen to this, an iPhone can be very helpful in magic.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so that would be it. Yep, I think that's fair enough. It's still a non-magic item that you can use for magic. It falls within that perimeter. Great list, Excellent choices. Curveball again. Just out of my own curiosity, if you could only take one trick with your iPhone, what would the trick be?
Speaker 1:one trick with the iphone, I would say god, it's hard, you know. I'll tell you why it's difficult because I like this curveball. This is good. I think Mark Kirstein is. I think his apps are second to none. I think the interface, how easy they are to use. I think Mark Kirstein is just the person for clever apps. However, if you said to me what app do I use the most on my iPhone, it would be DFB, and also the other one would be iThump Pro. I'm more comfortable saying that one, because of the price tag, would deter most, whereas DFB is something that you kind of could get, which are just obviously public domain and stuff. But they would be the two that I use most. But I would say that things like Kirstein's W test is mind-reading gold with nothing.
Speaker 3:Excellent. So what does the future hold for Mark, and where can people find out more about you?
Speaker 1:Well, people can find out about me. I'm on Instagram. If you go to, I am Spellman S-e-l-m-a-n-n. One l, two n's in spellman. I am spellman, uh, on instagram. I'm on there, um, so do follow along.
Speaker 1:Uh, I'm on youtube as well, and my main goal for this we were talking about this before we went live and that is that my main goal is to become much more proficient using youtube, because I think it's just such a great resource. I love editing, love filming, uh, and I just need to get more up on youtube, um, but for one reason or another, instagram seems to be my just. I just I'm drawn to that as a social media platform, um, so you can find five beyond there. In terms of what I'm up to, there's a project I'm working on at the moment I can't actually talk about, and I know that's really annoying and dull, but there's a project that is potentially really really super interesting for me, um, and if that were to come to fruition, that would would be amazing. But I'm so long in the tooth that I have been involved in many, many projects that sound great, are almost 90% there, and then they fall to the wayside and never happen again. So that's that and, yeah, just live performances.
Speaker 1:I want to be releasing more material because a lot of people are asking me about the things and I've realized that there's a lot of things that I no longer do or I do far less. So things like Voodoo my variation on Chicago Ovener is one of those things. I don't do. Blockhead anymore the nails in the head but it was one of my staples of my act for many, many years Took me around the world. I performed that on TV shows way before Britain's Got Talent, over in Asia, where millions 100 million people watched me do that live one night on Asian television in Jakarta and it was transmissioned or shown, streamed live to thailand and the philippines and, yeah, part a lot of asia. So and that was in 2010, I think it was um, so, yeah.
Speaker 1:So things like blockhead um, I'm gonna do a whole thing on blockhead that people can learn about very soon. That's gonna be very, very soon, uh, and it'll tell you why you should do it, why you shouldn't do it, why I don't do it anymore, why I did do it for as long as I did, the safety ramifications of doing it, lots of things like that. So there's lots of projects. You know what it is. For me, jamie, time, it's just time, and that's part of like. Doing a quick post on instagram is much easier and achievable than me doing a longer video on youtube. So I know you're doing a lot of stuff, obviously for alakazam with these like the journeys, the videos, the tutorials, the vlogs, um. So I know how little time you have to maybe even breathe at the moment, jamie yep, a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:Um, so, yeah, find out where mark is. I've seen a couple of things that may be coming out from Mark soon which look very, very cool. Mark will also hopefully be doing some more with Unlimited in the very near future, so it will be exciting to see all of that come into the platform very soon.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to do it. You know what Part of the fun of doing what I do for a living and creating the magic that I do is I. There's some bits that I love you just pass on. So in 2004, when I released Glimpse 2020, which was my uh, clever peak method utilizing 52, um, you know that was something that I used. I mean, I used that all the way through the 90s, my early. It was one of my earliest creations and you know, because you've released stuff yourself, that sometimes you create things that you actually think you're happy to share because other people will develop it and use it in a way, creatively within their own acts.
Speaker 1:For me, things like voodoo I never released, I never even really spoke about voodoo for, you know, 18 plus years um, purely on the basis that it was one of the main effects I did, even though it's a variation on a classic, it was enough of a variation that it felt like a different trick. Almost like if you showed an audience that trick chicago in the one year and then next year I turned up and did voodoo they would feel as though they saw a different effect. It had a different feel and a different vibe. So, yeah, so I'm looking forward to you know. And also, again, it utilizes three things that I love.
Speaker 1:One, the magic that I create and that creative process. Two, the filming of it, because I've got my own studio, my camera, so you won't have to do any of this, so don't worry, you can have the afternoon off or an hour, and then I edit it all together as well. So it's three things I absolutely love. And then being able to share that with people that are going to maybe take them and fly with them and utilise them and enjoy them, would be lovely like really lovely thing, amazing.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much for giving us your list mark and for your time no problem at all, an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 1:It's nice catching up with you, um, and I hope you enjoyed the little private thing that I shared with you. That is going to be deleted off this podcast, but, um, but yeah, I think you, I think you know your eyes widened when you saw some of that, so maybe something for you to look into. Now everyone's going what are they talking about?
Speaker 1:that's not fair it sounds nefarious, because everyone's going to come up to us at conventions and go that bit when you were talking. What was it? That's not fair. But listen, honestly a pleasure, jamie, and yeah, I hope to see you soon. I'm going to come down to alakazam at some point and apparently peter's saying to me I've got to do something called journeys, I've got a journey or something otherwise, yeah, yep, we'll get a journey to recorded with you, which would be great yeah, journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, all right, make sure you've got enough memory card, because that'd be a. You've only asked me for a list of eight things and we've been on what was it an hour and a half. I'm so sorry amazing.
Speaker 3:So, guys, go find out mark, keep an eye out on unlimited for some more of his effects and some of the new effects coming up. Um, he's also got a few tricks that I've seen in the office. There are prototypes for which look amazing as well. One in particular with multiple colours looks very good. So, with that being said, thank you all for listening and we'll hear from you again next week on another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Goodbye tricks goodbye hi.
Speaker 2:Peter nardi here and I really hope you enjoyed that podcast. I just wanted to make you know that alakazam have their own app. You can download it from the app store or the google play store. 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.