Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
David Jonathan
Can the future really be foretold with just a phone and some cards? Join us for another excellent episode as we welcome the extraordinary David Jonathan, a magician renowned for his cutting-edge phone magic and mind-bending card tricks. Discover why he loves the lotto prediction plot, where numbers selected in the past miraculously match a ticket in a photo from a week ago.
What's the ultimate magic trick you can carry as your EDC? This episode, we highlight some of the best everyday carry magic tricks out there. Marvel at "Powerball 60" by Richard Sanders and Bill Abbott, an ingeniously designed scratch card trick that delivers a powerful punch with minimal effort. Dive into the world of time prediction with the SB Watch and TimeSmith app by Banke Smith and Andras Barthazi, hailed as the pinnacle of its kind. These EDC items are not just practical; they offer lasting impressions and are essential tools for any magician.
How can your phone become the ultimate magical tool? We're diving into the innovative Black Mirror Project, featuring phone-based magic effects like an extraordinary book test using the Apple Books app and a lotto prediction trick that will leave you in awe. We also explore classic mind-reading techniques with John Lovick's "I Dream of Mind Reading" and Jeff Price’s "Monkey," which turns a keychain into a magical masterpiece. We wrap up with a spotlight on Wayne Fox’s 52-1 deck and the underrated gem "Spoiler Alert" by Ryan Matney. This episode is packed with insights and inspiration for every magic enthusiast—don't miss it!
Chats with influential, inspiring, prolific and community oriented folks.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
You would have just a piece of paper and a pen and you say you know what, jamie, you're going to give me the winning lotto numbers. So you give me six numbers I don't know if it's like one through 70, where you guys are in the UK, or whatever one through 60, whatever it is and then you just give me any six numbers. I just write them down on the pad. You can even write them down yourself, just so we have a reference of what the six numbers are. And I say yourself, just so we have a reference of what the six numbers are.
Speaker 1:And I say this is crazy. You pick up your phone, you literally do nothing. You just open your photo gallery and last week is a picture of a lot of ticket on your desk and you zoom in and the numbers that you said on that you freely said, match the ticket in your photo gallery perfectly, and the tickets even dated from a week ago. I mean, there's all this little stuff on the back end that makes it extra special, but it's just such a clean and direct lot of prediction, which is one of my favorite plots in magic.
Speaker 3:Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Another guest is waiting to be whisked away to his desert island. Now this guest has some heavy, heavy hitters. In fact, he's become a name synonymous with phone magic and clever, quirky card tricks and quite literally everything. He sort of has his fingers in a lot of pies, um, but whenever he comes out with a trick, it's always really fun, really clever. In particular, there was a phone trick that came out last year. I think that was just phenomenal and I still don't know how he came up with it. Um, I know that you're going to love it. He is at the time of recording our first American guest as well, so I'm really excited to see if there are any differences in the sort of tricks that we perform overseas, obviously because we have different markets, so it's going to be really good. Of course, you would have seen the title by now. You know who this man is. This is the incredible David Jonathan. Hello, David.
Speaker 1:Jamie, it's great to be here. I'm your first international guest. I mean we're an American audience. We're expanding our reaches here.
Speaker 3:I know. No pressure, david. No pressure at all For those who have never joined us before, and this is your first time on this podcast. We are about to whisk David away to an imaginary island. On the island, he's allowed to take with him eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item that he uses for magic Particulars. Where the island is? How big it is? Who's there? If he's going to perform to anyone all that good stuff, it's all within David's imagination, so we don't really mind how it's going to pan out. That being said, we are going to whisk him away now. So, david, let's take you to your island and find out what's in.
Speaker 1:Position number one so can I throw out some honorable mentions. First, I kind of took the concept, maybe a little bit too literal, but I'm thinking that, like, if these are tricks you bring with you that they're sort of prop based or have a prop, so in other words like an impromptu card trick. We have millions of those up in our heads. I didn't want to use that on the list here, so I did have a couple of just tricks that are sort of impromptu by nature. So the first one these are two card tricks. Are you familiar with Harm from louis laval? So he did re-release this through illusionist under the name resonance, a few years after the fact. But this was on paint the roses red, which was like his first dvd. That was released many, many years ago, I think in the first iteration of the 1914, and it is such an incredible card trick. So basically, you have a deck of cards and you can display it in many ways you want, but it's typically like a pseudo memory demonstration. So you hand to the spectator, they riffle, shuffle the deck genuinely twice, they cut the deck so it's in a completely shuffled order, and you would then well, so the main version is you would say okay, I'm going to scan the deck for one second and just remember all the positions of a suit. I have a way of doing it where any suit can be named. So if anyone's listening, I don't want to expose method here, but reach out to me and I'll be happy to share that with you. So they name any suit and they just start dealing from face down deck face, face up, until the first card of that suit appears and you can recite the rest of the order of that suit that will appear in the deck. So, for example, you see the Six of Hearts and you say, okay, the next one's going to be, yeah, the Jack of Hearts, and that might be five, six cards later down the deck and it's there. After the Jack was the oh, seven, yeah, oh, they deal. Maybe two, three cards later is the seven and you go through the entire deck. Is this incredible memory demonstration? And what's so good for magicians is the one thing that you would think of is there's something on the back, not the supposed method, but you know there's. There's no markings, there's nothing. Uh, it's just such a clever method, uh, and a really fun trick, and it really does look as legit as it gets. So that gets an honorable mention from me and I urge you guys to check it out and then the other one honorable mention there are going to be a couple on here from myself. I can't help it.
Speaker 1:I do perform a lot of my own material, so pardon the bias, but my effect Threesome if you're familiar with that one as well, that would make, just because it's an impromptu, foster you from any shuffle deck in use type effect. So basically, shuffle up the cards handed to you. Any card is selected. It is then lost and genuinely shuffled into the deck. You have three cards freely selected. You add up the sum of those three cards. You get a number. They count down the deck to that number and their original selection is there and it is completely impromptu and every single one of those choices is a complete free choice.
Speaker 1:The method is really, really cool. It's one of those tricks I'm not going to expose anything but it uses math as a principle, but I sort of took the math and disguised it all so it looks invisible. So I mean, you know, some of the most fooling tricks rely on math, as you know, sort of the back end, where it's one of those. Oh, that's so crazy. I don't know how that works, but they always look procedural right, like a math trick is clearly. Well, I don't know how you did it, but somehow there's some crazy math thing going on because it looks that way. So what I figured out with that one was a way to sort of hide all the math on the back end, so it doesn't look like anything, it just happens, and it's really, really cool. So that's another honorable mention for me. So now that we got that out of the way, I'm officially stranded. I'm taking in the sights and scenes around me and we can dive into the list.
Speaker 3:Amazing. What did you take in your first position?
Speaker 1:all right. So, uh, these are in no particular order, so first position is not number one. These are just eight in any order. So, um, this will have been out by the time this goes live. So all I have to say is the king is back. So of course I'm talking about extractor. What I mean just as far as utilities go. I mean, I have said this before I think it's one of the best card utilities of all time. Um, I have other people mention this.
Speaker 3:So we've had one or two, I think yeah, but now that we've got the return of it, I do think it will be a whole new generation of performers who get to use it and to experience it.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm excited for too, because I mean, this was a classic. But there's been this whole new generation to Magic, especially since post-COVID. You know a lot of people took it up as a hobby and I can't wait for them to see this, because this was like it was groundbreaking then and I think it's even still to this day groundbreaking when the new audience to see it. Um, so I mean, it's just impossible to have a card inserted into the middle of the deck in the box tucked away. I mean, to have complete control and access over that is just, it's just not possible.
Speaker 1:So, I really think that is one of the best utilities and it's made so well. It's just I can't say enough good things about it, and it's it's what's one of those things that really every magician should own. So, and there's so many uses for it too which is one of the reasons why it made my list is because it doesn't just do one routine. It's a true utility in every sense of the reasons why it made my list is because it doesn't just do one routine. It's a true utility in every sense of the word, whereas you can do so much with it and it's just ingenious.
Speaker 3:It's been quite interesting watching Pete Demit so throughout Blackpool, and actually a few days ago we were at the Magic Circle convention throughout blackpool and actually a few days ago we're at the magic circle convention and there's a moment where you see it's a bit like the any card at any number. When you get a really good any card at any number, magicians know where it's going. But the second that that card's turned over, you see the disbelief in their face of, yeah, I know that this is going there, but it can't have already happened and it can't be that clean. And that's what's been amazing watching Pete perform. It is there is a moment that you visibly see all of the tension on a magician's face just sort of dissipate when they relax and go oh no, and everything sort of goes oh, he's got me, but I don't know how he's got me. So yeah, even now it really gets magicians hard, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, how could it not? It's just, it's literally just looks so impossible. It's just everything about it. It's so clever too. So, yeah, I'm excited At the time of filming. Now it's about to be re-released, so I'm sure by the time we're here it's already out there and, uh, you guys will be singing its praises as well.
Speaker 3:I'm positive well, that is a heavy hitter in at number one. So I'm even more intrigued to see where this is going. Um what's in your position too?
Speaker 1:yeah, as I said, these aren't in any order. Maybe that would be number one overall, I don't know, but uh, so number two for me is I like a lot of things that are also kind of like an edc, everyday carry nature, and one of those the top my list has to be powerball 60 from richard sanders and bill abbott. So for anyone not familiar, these are um, do you call them scratch offs in the uk as well?
Speaker 3:we call them scratch cards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah scratch cards, yeah, um. So scratch cards that hide a devious secret that you know. They can, uh, basically think of any number from one to sixty and and the cards look so good, I mean, like you would swear they were bought from a shop. Just every little detail you can scrutinize. The thought that went into little features built in there is so clever. But they pick any number, 1 to 60, they look through the tickets, they find the winners and the losers, and you don't even have to look at the tickets or anything. You don't have to see any of the numbers, you know exactly what number they're thinking of, and there's loads else you can do with it as well. But it is just so strong. Organic gets thrown around a lot these days, but it really is organic because of the nature of the prop and I just love it.
Speaker 3:It's one of those yeah, another cliche, but pack small, plays big, but I mean, it really does check all those boxes and uh, that's been around for a while and it's uh with withheld the test of time, I would say it's one that I'm surprised we've not had more of, because I remember when that first came out, there was such a huge buzz around it, and I mean there's even been very similar versions of it which have been put into magic sets in the uk. So I remember when it came out and it was just massively well received, and it was the idea of this principle that we all knew that was in christmas crackers, which we have in the uk and it's a very widely known method suddenly became something that we could actually gig in the real world. That had this extra layer of deception to allow the dirty work to to happen and made it feel completely different, completely fresh and completely new. So I'm so surprised we don't have this more on our list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. I assumed that everyone would have said that, to be honest. But yeah, I mean to your point there. I personally think it's the best use of this method that I've seen to date and it's one of those methods that's kind of infiltrated the public a little bit, where they're like familiar with it because it was in the Christmas crackers and things you mentioned. But the way that it's used here and the way that it's hidden even if someone were to be familiar with that method on a layperson side, I think it's completely invisible that they don't associate that with his trick, just because it's so ingeniously adapted to this and with a lot of scratchers and it's just such a classic. I mean you look at Richard Sanders and Bill Abbott. I mean any one of their releases can be on any one of these. They're just hit after hit, after hit. But that's definitely one of, if not their best in my personal opinion.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely excellent choice, One that hopefully we'll have more in the future because it's a phenomenal effect. But that does bring us on to your third position. So what's in your third place?
Speaker 1:Sure, well, also, I'm glad too that if I'm naming things that other people haven't said, because that'd be a boring episode of oh yeah, we've had that, had that, had that so hopefully I'll shed some new light here. So let's see if we've had number three before. So there have been many versions of this effect and still coming out to this day continues to be many versions of it, but the one that I think is the best is the SB watch and the time Smith app from Banky Smith and Andras Barth I believe his name is, but the electrics guys. So, yeah, again, I think that this pretty much started with the Turner watch, sort of like, led the trend, and then there have been many, many versions since, and I can only speak to the ones that I've tried and used. But the Espio watch to me is just the creme de la creme. This new version is actually just coming out now, I believe.
Speaker 1:But as far as the ability to have, uh, you know, be able to predict the time set on a watch and have it look as innocent as it does, uh, to me it's again I talked about that everyday carry nature. To me, some of the strongest magic is the things that you just normally have on you, where there's some everyday carry stuff where it's like, okay, this is small, so I'll bring this with me, just because it fits in my pocket. But there's other things that you just wear every day. You know whether it's a piece of jewelry, that is a magic item or a watch or whatever. So you know, just like there is many versions of car to wallet Well, a lot of those are you know your everyday wallet as well.
Speaker 1:So to me, to have a watch, which you know I still wear regularly I'm happy wearing an Apple watch now, but I normally do wear that when I'm out and about just to have what I think is not only just a trick built into that, but one of the strongest tricks I conceive built into something that I wear every day and just regularly. I mean you can marry those two together. How does that not make the list?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you're 100% right. I had one of the Turner watches when they first came out and I remember thinking, because until that that time the only real versions of that style of trick was stage yeah, they were large like cyclocke um, and you know, really you're not going to carry a massive clock that you put all around at gigs unless you're flavor flame right so the idea that you could have that style of effect that normally would be for the stage but it was just on your wrist was a huge revelation.
Speaker 3:The ability to be able to have the strength of a stage trick anywhere you went is just incredible, and the fact that these guys have sort of taken the original concept and they've put all of these different ways to trigger things without giving too much away is just phenomenal yeah, I mean the technology under the hood, or whatever you want to call it, is just got to the point now where it's just amazing how I mean to me it's like you know it's when something looks analog and hides a very digital high end technology underneath it.
Speaker 1:I mean that's just again another perfect marriage of deception, whereas you know how could that possibly do what has to be happening when you know it's an old school style watch. So, uh, you know they've also come out like the uh, the pocket watch style versions, which again it looks aged and whatever. So again, when you're hiding these types of methods inside these, uh, analog or aged looking props, I mean it's just uh, further, uh, disguising what's really going on and just adds to it, in my opinion excellent.
Speaker 3:What an interesting choice, so far as well. So even already, we've gone from the e2, which is a ninja card gimmick, to powerball 60, which is just an everyday carry that you pop in your wallet. Now to the SB Watch, a highly James Bond-esque gadget, yes. So who knows where this is going to go from this point on?
Speaker 1:You mentioned my intro and it is kind of true. If you look at my history of releases, it is a wide variety. There isn't eclectic stuff in there, like I'm known for my phone magic in the past year and a half or so, but I'm also known for, you know, card tricks that are with cards and all this other stuff. So I've sort of a lot of. This is a reflection of me, where you're going to get a lot of variety in here just because I'm interested in lots of things.
Speaker 3:so and that's not just one particular style that's a good way to be. I think that's a very good way to be, uh, and it brings us to your halfway point. So what's in your fourth position?
Speaker 1:through this, um, so I guess that is a segue. Talking about me. Uh, I did have to put. I didn't feel comfortable putting more than like two of my things on here. As I said, I do perform a lot of my stuff all the time, so I am a little bit biased here, uh. But since we were talking about the phone just now, uh, I have to throw um, it's actually my latest release, black mirror projects on here.
Speaker 1:Black Project how do I describe this without giving too much away? So basically, it's a collection of seven different effects for your phone, and these are all just ready to go at any time. It is not an app. It uses something similar to an app, but it is. That means that everything's clean. And there is two in particular from this project, because I think it's a little bit cheating to have my eight items here and I list a project that has seven tricks on it. So, while they all come under this one project that's why it's called Project there's two in particular, which is one is the book test. I love book tests, but the reason I like this one so much is because it uses Apple Books, which is the native books app on your phone, and basically what happens is instead of normally.
Speaker 1:If you were to do a book test with you, offer someone five books, it's all right. Here you go and you hand them five books and then you can pick any one of them and then go through them. With this, you have five books. In your want to read a little section of the apple books app, you can say, hey, pick any one of these books. They pick one. You hand them the phone, they hold the phone face down and they just start swiping back and forth to a random page and whatever they like, they stop. You never take the phone back. Your back can be turned and say, just look at that first line of text. Find like a nice interesting word. You got one. So they're not thinking of a word. Then they hand the phone to a friend. The friend takes it. They start swiping from that point back and forth, face down, wherever they want, if they're happy. They then look. They find a nice interesting word on the first line. They lock the phone. It gets placed away. You turn back around for the first time. You never retrieve the phone, you never ask them any questions and just right there you can look them directly in the eyes and reveal both words they're thinking of. And what's cool about this is you're clean throughout. They can look at the book, they can swipe back and forth to other pages around it. I mean, it is as genuine and real as it should look. So, uh, that's one of them on there, and it's just for me to have the power of a book test, especially when I can choose from multiple books uh, basically swipe to any page and just have that.
Speaker 1:When you have your phone Again, that EDC nature, it's always on you anyway. That's just such a strong effect that it's one that I do all the time, because, why not? So that's on Black Mirror Project. And the other one that I'll just call out on there is the lotto prediction. I'm not sure if you've seen this, but basically you say that there's a few ways you can do this, but you would have just a piece of paper and a pen or a blank card, wherever you want to write on, and you say you know what, jamie, you're going to give me the winning lotto numbers. So you give me six numbers I don't know if it's like one through 70, where you guys are in the UK, or whatever one through 60, whatever it is and then you just give me any six numbers, I just write them down on the pad. You can even write them down yourself, just so we have a reference of what the six numbers are.
Speaker 1:And I say this is crazy.
Speaker 1:You pick up your phone, you literally do nothing. You just open your photo gallery and last week is a picture of a lot of ticket on your desk and you zoom in and the numbers that you said on that you freely said, match the ticket in your photo gallery, perfectly, perfectly, and the tickets even dated from a week ago. I mean, there's all this little stuff on the back end that makes it extra special, but it's just such a clean and direct lot of prediction, which is one of my favorite plots in magic, but it's just so easy to do and it just seemed impossible. And what's going on in the back end is especially. I'm not going to dive into that, but it's literally the input is done in one second and it doesn't look like anything because you're really not doing anything. So those are on Black Mirror Project. Again, I don't want to hype up my own stuff too much, but it's stuff that I do perform all the time and I couldn't not have that be on this list, because it's just such strong effects in my opinion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, both of those sound incredible. The book test in particular sounds super, super clean it's one of those two.
Speaker 1:Again, we're not getting into method here, but when you see what the method is, you can't help but laugh, because it's one of those. When I came up with it, I'm just like messing around and I'm like this is so stupid, like this is unbelievably stupid. It's so dumb to the point where sometimes something can look to be so dumb that it transcends into genius. This is one of those things where it's like when you see what's actually going on exposed, you laugh because you just can't believe that that is the method. And then you think about it. You're like wait, this is actually really clever. But the first time when I shared it with people, I'm like, well, this is what's going on. They're like wait, what I mean? You can't help but laugh. So it's, it's one of those two. I'm sure I've intrigued people a lot more just by saying that. But uh, it's so true, it's. It's again, it's so stupid that it transcends into genius amazing.
Speaker 3:That's one for me to explore, then, I think, because that sounds superb. So, um, I think you've got another customer from that one hello guys.
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Speaker 3:Check out now alakazamcouk cheers. And that brings us over your halfway point. Now to number five. So what's in your fifth position?
Speaker 1:number five. Um, all right, we're just gonna get my stuff out of the way so then I can talk about other people's effects that I like. So I did only put two of mine on here the Black Mirror Project and the next one I couldn't not, just because I'm a little bit biased because of how much work went into this, but oh well, it's actually on here because it's not just me. If anyone knows me, it would be impossible to list eight items without mentioning one other person. I'm sure you know who that is. So Nicholas Mavrisis finally makes the list with me for our effect premiere. So if you have been living under a rock, nicholas is my magic brother from another mother. We work hand in hand on so many effects together and so many projects. He is literally like half my brain. We both think exactly the same but also very differently, which helps us, you know, cover all these facets and really takes anything we work on to a new level, and Premiere is a prime example of that.
Speaker 1:So just to synopsize what this is, if you're not familiar you would say that you went to like a mystery movie night type thing, you know, like sort of local cin cinemas. They play a mystery movie each night and you go, you don't know what you're seeing, but they pick these films for you and you sort of uh go there. So they hand out these little souvenirs and there's five envelopes with five little movie posters inside. So you would uh just think of, just I would mix them up and you would point to any envelope, you would look at that poster inside, you'd remember that film, you'd place it back in, we'd mix them up and I would place those envelopes on the table and on the back side I'd show you that each one has a different symbol relating to the genre of film. So there's fantasy, there's animation, there's music, there's thriller and there's one more drama, I think. I think I mentioned that. So those are the five.
Speaker 1:And then I gave you each night they give you admission tokens, right, one for each night. Then you would go and you place them on top of the envelopes in any order that you like, and then we see what films were playing each night. So the fantasy film happened to be Lord of the Rings, the two towers, you know. The drama film was one foot of the cuckoo's nest, music was eight mile, and so on. And then I tell you that, you see, they gave you a little bit of a hint because on the other side of those emission tokens was a clue to what movie would be playing that night. So you place one token on top of the two towers Lord of the Rings and on the back of that was the number two, hinting at the two towers. You placed a three on Toy Story 3. You placed the seven on the movie Seven and so on the eight on Eight Mile and you matched them up perfectly and then you were thinking of one film from the start.
Speaker 1:This is a multi-phase effect. This is a multi-phase effect. Then I tell you what my favorite film was and eliminate all the other ones except 8 Mile, which you say was the one that you freely chose from the beginning. So you get a nice hit there.
Speaker 1:And then the best part of any film is that surprise ending, that thing you don't see coming. Because then when you watch it back you see how everything comes together and you move all the little admission tokens together with the numbers. And he say, when you watch it back with a change of perspective and you turn that three so it becomes an M, you turn that seven upside down so it becomes an L, kind of like crypt text, and then you say it comes together and you're surprised ending was there the whole time, because the numbers actually spell out eight mile on the tokens for the film and you get your grand finale. It's such a really cool routine and the method is why it's particularly on my list, because not only is it such a strong effect, because it has multiple phases and a kicker and all that that they don't see coming in the story. It's all tied together. But that is all credit to Nicholas. He shared the initial idea with the story behind this trick and he had an idea for a method that I tried and didn't work.
Speaker 1:It was back to the drawing board board and I've never worked so hard on figuring out a method for an effect, because every step of the way we knew what the method was going to be, but to get it to work was one step forward, two steps back, because we would solve one issue and then that would raise two other issues. We'd solve that issue, would raise two other issues and like, literally I probably worked as a exception, maybe black mirror I probably worked harder on that method than any other effects I've had, maybe even combined just getting it to the point where it was, where it did exactly what it had to do. It works perfectly and, you know, everything was perfection and one of the cool things about it also because it was the we worked with Murphy's magic on this because it was, you know, injection molded props. It was a lot of heavy duty things that are beyond my capabilities to produce by myself. So we need to bring in some of the big guns to help, you know, put this all together for us.
Speaker 1:And it's one thing where you have an idea in your mind and you sort of like write a little sketch on a pad of, hey, it would do this and this goes here, and then this should do this, which allows this to work.
Speaker 1:So just to have kind of like a high level thought of something and see it like sketched out on a crappy back of the napkin drawing, and then to see that come to fruition, where that idea, where you're not entirely sure, like you think it'll work, but then to have the first 3d printed props come like, oh my god, it works, like it's as you saw it in your head now comes to reality, and then to see that go to the final injection molded props is just something I hadn't experienced to that point where a lot of this stuff is relying on you, you know card magic principles or things that are, you know, tried to and trusted, whereas this is like wait, if we do this, this, this, then this should work, and then to actually build it and see it work is just a whole nother level of satisfaction. So, in particular, just because of my attachment to that method and it is a great effect I would be silly not to have it on this list somewhere great choice.
Speaker 3:And that brings us to your sixth item. So what's in your sixth position number?
Speaker 1:six.
Speaker 1:All right, uh, we're gonna go back. This is another classic. Uh, for me I had to put I dream of mind reading from john lovick. This is such a good effect. So it's from John Lovick, but I think it was popularized by Joshua Jay, as he's put it on some of his projects, with his handling of it. So the way Josh performs it which you don't have to, by the way is he tells a story of how he had to perform magic for a blind person and how would that sort of look like. So that's his sort of presentation angle here, which he uses to justify we'll call it the procedure.
Speaker 1:But basically, you have a deck of cards. This is also similar to Out of Sight that Joshua J put out. So if you're familiar with that, this is sort of along those lines, but I think the original version was actually stronger. So you have a deck of cards. Uh, you turn around and you say that you want, uh, the person to think of a card. He wants everyone else around here to know what that card is, but you don't want to say anything. Is you know I might hear it, or whatever. So he says you know, I want you to think of the value of your card. If it's a four, you know, deal one, two, three, four cards and place the rest of the deck on top. If it's a six, you would deal six cards so everyone can watch along and know the value of the card you're thinking of. When they're done with that he says okay, now think of the suit. If it's a club, deal one card of his heart, deal two, spade, three, diamonds, four. So everyone's watching and he would deal, you know. So let's say he did six for the value the first time, and then one, two, three, clubs, hearts, spades put on top. So everyone knows that he's thinking of the six of spades, even though he never said a word and all he did was just steal cards on top of the deck with me.
Speaker 1:So now, from there you're able to pick up the cards, turn back around, you go through the deck and just seem impossible, but you're able to pull up one card out of the deck and say you're just thinking of one card right now. You never said anything out loud. Everyone knows what this card is, except me. My back was turned, my eyes were closed, whatever it was. For the first time the card you were thinking of was the six of spades and they say, yes, you don't show the card, you're still showing the back.
Speaker 1:And he said but this was something you know when josh's presentation of our blind part, something to only take place in your mind. That's why the cards didn't even need to exist. You turn that card around, it's blank and you show the rest of the deck. They were dealing with a blank deck the entire time, so there were never any cards in the deck. All this took place in their minds.
Speaker 1:So how you're able to divine the card and just this beautiful kicker ending of a deck that never existed and how it ties to the presentation, because, uh, in the way josh performs I don't do it his way, but just to synopsize, you know he says if you're blind, the magic can only take place in your mind. So it's a nice call back to that at the end where you show that display and I just think for a blank deck trick to have a kicker like that, where it's just one you don't see coming and just makes it so impossible of there were never any cards. So how do you possibly know the card that I was thinking of? It's just such a beautiful, strong effect and I think it's one that gets overlooked a little bit. So Joshua J released Out of Sight, which basically took that effect, but it produced the actual card in a blank deck at the end that they were thinking of, and I just think there's something about the nature of it just without producing the card, with it always all being blank.
Speaker 3:That just hits a little bit differently and I like that different vibe to it, so that's why I had to include that on my list yeah, any trick with a blank deck is always gonna affect an audience completely differently than a standard deck of cards, but the fact that the premise there is that you're still able to read their mind even though no cards existed, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1:It's such a clever, interesting premise, I think, for routine it is, and the fact, too, that there's something about the psychology of they're dealing that blank deck the entire time and they don't know that because there's no switches or anything. I mean like, that is the deck that's been there from the start. So the fact that they sort of uh, it's the beginning of that process, they're holding a blank deck, there's something about that them just holding that thing not knowing what it is and having that it was like in their hands the whole time they never even knew.
Speaker 3:That, I just think, takes it to another level excellent choice, uh, and that brings us onto the tail end of your eight tricks.
Speaker 1:So we are now at number seven number seven is from my buddy jeff price, again different from everything else that I've said on here so far, but this has to be monkey. So this is basically like sort of a classic of magic, almost like the linking rings, but done in your key chain. So essentially you have your keys I don't have it in front of me here, but you know how the key chain at the end of it that hooks onto your keys sort of has like sometimes three little windows or like the how would you describe it? Like the, the part that hooks onto your keychain has like these little metal openings. It's, it's I don't know how to describe the nature of it, but if you look up keys, not all of them just have the open you know, sort of window for the contest. Some of them have, like you know, a few notches there. You know sort of window for Dokkan 2. Some of them have, like you know, a few notches there. So you basically take that off your key and you take the little, the key ring, the little circular part that hooks onto your key chain, and you thread that onto one end of the key ring or of the key and you say that you're going to make this solid through solid. The metal is going to go through the metal as you're going to knock it through to the other side. And then you just wave your hands and it's on the other side and you say it's a joke.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I just turned the key, you know, 180 degrees in my hand. I said if I can really do magic, you get them to hold on to the end of the key. You hold on to that little circular key ring thing and just right in front of their eyes, just right there, it goes through that metal bar and it's now in the center opening of the key and they're holding on to it. You just let go and they can immediately examine it. It is such a cool effect, it's uh. The only downside is it's micro close up, like it's the window. Of magic happens in that very small moment. But you know, when you it's a one on one piece where you do it, it's right in front of their face. They're holding on to us, right under their nose and they just see that metal through metal just happen in what looks like real magic and the fact that you just let go and they instantly examine it. They can try to move that uh ring back and forth. It's not moving at all.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's just so clever and the way it's constructed is just pure genius. I don't know how the hell jeff came up with this or how he was able to get these manufactured at that size and everything but um, it is true genius and such a strong effect. And again, it's on your keychain. It lives on my keys, which I'm bringing out with me all the time anyway. So again, why not just have a little bit of magic on there? That doesn't add anything to your space and it's not something I have to think about. It's just always on there ready to go and is just. I can't say enough good things about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, anything with keys. I mean, sankey famously has lots of key tricks and I do remember forgive me, I can't remember the name of it but he actually used to have a linking rings effect with just the key ring, but it was quite a literal linking ring. So it was this ring, this ring, bang, they're together and I remember performing that when I was a lot younger. But the reactions from that because it's such, it's a normal thing that we all have, everyone knows how it functions, we have it in our pockets every day. So a member of the audience who knows what this prop is, knows how it functions, knows its properties, to then do something impossible with that thing in front of them feels so much more organic because they know the properties of that item and they know how it functions. So, yeah, the idea of handing that key and then it coming straight off, amazing, absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, to that point, the fact that the key looks and feels 100% authentic, and that can really be detrimental because that stuff gets amplified, because these are things that people deal with and handle every day. So the fact that Jeff nailed it with his key, where I mean it is just a key, you would, if you hand it to me, you would never in a million years know that. Oh my God, this is what it does inside. Are you kidding me? It really is crazy. Um, monkey definitely deserves to be on the list. It's an engineering masterpiece amazing, great choice.
Speaker 3:And that brings us to your last effect. What's in your last position?
Speaker 1:I'm so sad we're at the end. So, okay, rounding out the eight items is the 52-1 deck from Wayne Fox. This was the 52-1, not the 5-2-2-1. He released it a couple times so this was the most recent release of it. I just think this is such a strong trick. So, yeah, I mean I can't say enough good things about it.
Speaker 1:So the general effect is that you would spread out the deck of cards. You have someone think of a card, literally just look and think of a card. You place the deck down in front of them and they can cut directly to the card they thought of. I mean, that's when you say that premise. Premise, that's kind of a holy grail idea or concept, and the methodology, the way it works. I mean he absolutely nailed it.
Speaker 1:So, uh, when he came out with the 55221 the, the original version of it, it was a different type of deck than it was gimmicked for the 52-51 deck and I actually had the similar idea because I love the first effect so much and I was like, oh, you can take this other popular deck and put that here. So I was kind of working on the same idea and then he came out with it officially. I was like, oh, you can take this other popular deck and put that here. So I was kind of working on the same idea. And then he came out to the official. I was like, oh great, so I loved it that much that I went to work on it.
Speaker 1:How can I even like? You know, I wanted to make this because it's going to be one. I performed a lot. What an ingenious trick, what an incredible method, and I just can't say enough good things about it. I mean, as I said, it's it really is like a holy grail plot to me, and the genius of uh wayne and david penn to come up with all this together is just. He gets my highest recommendation. It's so, so strong very, very good choice.
Speaker 3:And that brings us us onto our two curveball items. So we've got your book and your item now. Obviously, you had eight tricks, but only one book. So what book did you go for?
Speaker 1:All right. So my book here. Well, I'll make the card people happy again. So my book is I have no clue why this sort of flew under the radar the way that it did, because I think this is one of the best magic books to come out in decades, and I'm talking about spoiler alert from Ryan Matney.
Speaker 1:Ryan is just so good I mean, if I were to, if people aren't familiar with him because he's somewhat underground, I mean, some people probably familiar with him, but not to the level that he should be at, for how good his stuff is, uh. But if I were to compare anyone to him, it would be like john bannon or cameron francis. If you like that style of card magic, you will love his work, uh, and bannon actually wrote the forward to spoiler alert Alert. So there you go. But he is just so clever the way that he constructs his tricks. I mean, when you're creating magic, one of the goals to create a really good effect is to make an effect as deceptive but as streamlined as possible. Deceptive but as streamlined as possible, where you want to cut out as much of the fat and where you have, uh, the handling or any slights or methodology that you have to do is sort of done in the most efficient way, where it's sort of setting up the next phase and you're just achieving all this in the most minimal way possible. As far as like sleight of hand, you know when you see an effect that's constructed really well, it's not because, oh, you have to do these five things to get to this point, then do this. It's just his magic is so elegant and how the methods just flow perfectly into the revelations and uh, I I just can't say enough good things about it.
Speaker 1:And it's packed with tricks. There are so many tricks in that book and it's written in a very clear and concise way where I don't like reading through books where you know it takes like 10 pages to learn effect. There's just something daunting about me because I have to sit through and like get through, like oh man, it's just like mental prepare myself, like that's a lot for a card trick, you know, to get through, but everything's on just like a couple pages. It's just written in concise way, kind of like his methods. Everything streamlines, so is the writing. Uh, and I don't know why that book is not mentioned enough, as it should be, because every time I read through it there's.
Speaker 1:So when you get a book, let's put it this way when you get a book and you look through, when you talk about value for the money, let's say there's like three or four tricks in there that you would perform, like that's still considered like a good value for the book. You know, yeah, there were 30 tricks in there, but there's three or four that I'm really gonna do. But for you know, 40 where you have tricks that sell for 40 to get three or four like routines that I'm gonna add to my set or whatever, like that's still good value. I mean, depending on who you are, some of you might have more or less, but this you want to like damn, I want to do that. Oh, that's good, I gotta do that too. And just like every single one of these is so smart. So I've rambled a little bit on this one, but it's only because I'm like the only person singing its praises, it feels like.
Speaker 3:So I have to give a shout out to spoiler alert well, that's one that I get to put into my collection, because I do not have that one yet. So, um, it's one that I can uh get hold of and uh have a read through it it's so good.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, I'm sure andy, who's like the card master, how? Because I'm sure he will uh agree with with my praise of it. Um, but yeah, if you're into the John Baden style card match, you're into Cameron Francis, uh, those two names really feel synonymous with, uh, his, his style of magic.
Speaker 3:So if you're a fan of those guys, then you have no excuse not to check it out great, and both of those guys are great as well, but that does bring us on to your curveball item, the one that we genuinely have no clue where it's going to go. Um, and again, this is going to be interesting to see, because you're overseas, whether you have something that maybe we don't have over here, or you know any anything else. This could go in any direction. So what did you go for?
Speaker 1:So I was between two for this one. One of them kind of feels like it might be a cheat, because if I say my phone, which is really what I would go to, it's almost like the phone does so much these days that it's like of course. But obviously if I'm stranded on an island I'm going to call and ask for help. But let's assume I don't have service. But I mean just one, the phone, just because it connects us with people, it's our way of communication. So just you know, if I'm traveling to be with my family or friends or keep in touch, there's that element of the standard. That's what a phone does. But also just all my magic is on there.
Speaker 1:As we've talked about in the past year and a half, I've become a tech magician apparently. So with three phone projects released and two more in the pipeline coming this year, I'd be silly not to have a phone on me because so much my magic is now on that. But yeah, so it just kind of feels kind of like a little bit of a cop-out just because there's so much the phone does. So I had to say that. But just for bonus points if I had to pick another item, because that's almost feels like a cheat code to me. It would be my PlayStation 5 assuming I also have a TV just because I am an avid gamer, and that's something that I don't think that I could live without.
Speaker 3:A really diverse, interesting list as well A couple on there, hopefully, that people haven't heard of before. Certainly, I'm going to be looking at Spoiler Alert. I think I can picture the front cover of it, though, which is strange considering I don't have it, but I'm looking black, yellow and red, kind of like a spiral design. Yep, that's it yeah, yeah, that's the one. Great, excellent. So if people want to find out more about you, where can they go? David?
Speaker 1:uh, so if they go to davidjonathanmagiccom that's my website you can view my magic there. But at the bottom you'll see all my social links, my email, all that stuff. So you can find me on Facebook, instagram. What have you?
Speaker 3:Amazing and obviously you've got lots of coming, lots coming out this year, I should say as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, and a few projects in the works with Alakazam as well that I'm looking forward to. So, yeah, I'm excited to see how people like that stuff when they eventually come out. And so it's been a while in the works. I know we've been teasing little things here and there, but yeah, it's all good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very much looking forward to it. Well, thank you so much for your time, David.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It's an honor to be here and I'm glad to bring the Americans on the island for once.
Speaker 3:And hopefully we'll have more Americans hopefully, yes, come friends, join me. Thank you so much and thank you everyone to listening. We will be back next week with another episode of desert island tricks.
Speaker 2:Goodbye for now 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.