Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
Stranded With A Stranger: Phil Tilston
Welcome to our brand new in-between mini episode, "Stranded with a Stranger," where YOU can send in your ultimate list of eight magic tricks, a single book, and one non-magic item you'd use for magic!
Our inaugural guest, Phil Tilston, a veteran magician and resident performer at Houdini's Magic Bar, kicks things off by sharing his top picks. From the classic cups and balls to the signed bill to lemon, Phil provides insights into why these tricks are his go-to and how they captivate audiences, regardless of the setting.
Tune in to hear more about Phil's magical journey and discover why Alakazam Unlimited could be the key to your next great performance.
If you'd like your list read out on 'Stranded With A Stranger', send in your list of 8 tricks, 1 book and 1 non magic item you use for magic as well as a little bit of information about who you are to: sales@alakazam.co.uk with the subject line: My Desert Island List and YOU could have your list discussed on a future episode!
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
Thank you for watching. Hello and welcome to this very exciting first episode of Stranded with a Stranger. So if you are a regular listener to this podcast, you know that we invite guests on here to talk about their lists, but we've always wanted to extend this to the larger community. So stranded with a stranger is your chance to send us in your list. When you send in your list, we will read it out on one of these episodes. So I cannot guarantee how regular these are going to be, because they are purely dependent on how many we get sent in. Now, if you do want to send in your list to us it is eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item that you use for magic. Give us a little bit of background about you as well and, of course, tell us why you chose those tricks. And, of course, tell us why you chose those tricks. Take that list and send it into sales at alakazamcouk. So that's sales at alakazamcouk, with the subject line my desert island list. If you do that, it will come through to me, I'll be able to read through them and we can record one of these little midweek episodes. We know that everyone's loving these, so we wanted to give you another mini episode halfway through the week. So, with that being said, we do have our first Stranded with a Stranger submission. So this was sent in to us by Phil Tilsden and he's given us a little bit of background. He says I started learning magic about 30 years ago. I'm a member of the Magic Circle and several other magic clubs. Most of my performing has been around tables and walk around. However, for the last seven years, I've been a resident magician at Houdini's Magic Bar, where the format is to perform close-up magic at the tables but also to perform two short parlor shows per evening. I've created and released several tricks and streaming videos through Alakazam and JB Magic. So I've had the pleasure of going to Houdini's bar Houdini, houdini's Magic Bar several times, and they're always excellent evenings out. So if you're in the UK and you haven't had a chance to go to Houdini's magic bar, please do seek it out. It's very, very good. So let's look at what Phil has to say. These are his submissions.
Speaker 1:Number one signed bill to lemon, the strongest trick I perform. I use Masika's bill to lemon, although these are not available anymore. This holds the lemon in position inside the jacket until loading, thus not taking up any pocket space For parlor shows. I use a presentation adapted from Cody Fisher's signed build to lemon. Great, excellent choice. Signed build to lemon is always a staple.
Speaker 1:Now there are other versions of objects into items fruit. There's some that are in something, in something, in something. I don't know if it makes it any stronger. It's not something that I've ever thought about. Let me know what you guys think. Let me know whether you think it is more impressive to have something inside something inside something inside something, or if that's overkill. I've got no idea. But either way, side build to lemon is a phenomenal trick and a great first choice.
Speaker 1:His second choice is signed card to sealed envelope. He says when wearing a jacket, I use Harry Robson's Mark II wallet. This uses Harry's instant reset principle, which I believe has been used by a few other magic wallets as well. I'm one of several people who helped Harry develop the instant reset function. And the instant reset function isn't fiddly at all. You can prepare several envelopes ahead of time and load them easily whilst walking from table to table. If I'm not wearing a jacket, then I perform Carter wallet using either a JOL wallet with no palm feature or a Malacca wallet. Yep, again, it's a staple in a lot of performers repertoires because it's so strong. And again, is it worth putting it into a envelope? Personally, I've always put it into an envelope, or with the JOL I've put it into the little ID card feature. But does it matter? I'm not sure it's up to you guys. For me I love putting it into an envelope inside the wallet.
Speaker 1:But yeah let me know what you think. So his third choice is Cups and Balls. I perform this regularly at Houdini's Magic Bar. I don't believe that it's anyone's specific routine, but something I constructed from various parts of the Michael Amar Cups and Balls videos. Apart from having a great trick to perform on the desert island, I would have a lot of time to develop new routines and practice some handling not in my current version when I've done some busking in the past, I end the cups and balls routine with the spectators bill in the lemon. What a great idea to have the final load as the card in lemon. That's such a smart move and I think years ago I know that Craig Petty had a great chop cup trick called chop and I'm fairly sure that's how he ended his the ball. The bill ends up in that. I think it's such a smart idea and it really helps tie everything together.
Speaker 1:Number four Fiber Optics by Richard Sanders. I perform a slightly stripped down version of the effect but perform it probably every time I perform. It's a fantastically versatile and it plays from one to 100 people, probably more. Even if there's loud music playing and no one can hear you, then it's sufficiently visible with clear effects that everyone can follow Absolutely. And I think we've all been there, all performers have been there in those loud environments and having a trick that an audience can understand without a huge amount of speaking, it really really helps with those difficult situations when there is a DJ cranking up the music.
Speaker 1:That brings us to number five, three Fly. I use Morgan Dollars and a shell from JB magic, again very visible for noisy environments. The routine I use is essentially the production of the coins, one at a time, from an Ian Moran trick, daryl's free fly adapted for use of a shell. The disappearance of the coins, one at a time, from a routine by Doug Brewer's book the Unexpected Visitor. Wow, that sounds great. That sounds like an excellent collection of different methods that you've put into a full routine.
Speaker 1:And Three Fly is another one. That's dependent on what version you have and, obviously, what's required for it. It's nice and quick, it's easy to get into. You've always got everything on you. You can get into it. It's easy to understand. Not a lot is required to explain, it just works really, really well.
Speaker 1:And that brings us on to number six emergency card or classified prediction. I must include at least one trick I have created, although it's like choosing between one's children's Emergency card. This is an effect I've been performing for over 10 years, where the emergency card finds a spectator's signed card, the magic happens in the spectator's hand. Wow, that sounds interesting. That is apparently it's not a released one yet, um, so that's one that we can look forward to. I've not seen that yet, so that's one that I'm looking forward to seeing, and lots of people have sort of emergency card effects out there and they always play really, really well. They're super commercial tricks, so I'm really interested to see this version that brings us on to the tail end of phil's list.
Speaker 1:So this is number seven. We've got irish poker, a packet trick where blank cards change to aces one at a time, with a quirky presentation that suits me. It can be found in the book the dave campbell legacy at international magic interesting, great. I love tricks where cards transform and change Again. They're very commercial routines. Anyone who's performed one at an event for audiences know just how strong they play.
Speaker 1:And that brings us on to his last effect, gypsy Thread, a trick that I've only performed a few times but want to perform much more. I use the method by Eugene Berger in the book Eugene Berger From Beyond by Larry Haas. Thank you. However, the selection of this is not only due to the strength of the effect, but also because so many completely different presentations can be created for it. I assume I will be on the island long enough to develop a wide variety of presentations, absolutely. Gypsy Thread is another phenomenal effect and again, it's a great one to have in your knowledge bank because if you turn up to an event, should something happen to your props, it's a wonderful piece of magic that can be purchased anywhere, I would think anywhere in the world. Even if you're overseas and you lose everything, you can just go to a craft shop, pick up some thread and you've got an insane effect. So, yep, it's a great, great choice, and I do love the gypsy thread. So he's given us some honorable mentions and he says, in no particular order Thimbles.
Speaker 1:I perform a shootagawa thimble routine, close up with a presentation that makes sense. The routine is from a DVD, I believe, called Thimbles by Shoot. Interesting. We've not had thimbles. It's quite an old-fashioned prop nowadays, so it's great to see that someone's still out there performing with them, because I remember some of the thimble routines that I used to see when I was growing up were phenomenal and they looked incredible with magic sets as well. I'm fairly sure my old Paul Daniels set had some nesting symbols which were kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:His second honourable mention is Pit Boss by Tom Peterson, a mentalism routine for parlour. I also perform it close up with a business card. Yep, pit Boss is such a phenomenal routine. It can be adapted to loads of different people in different situations and different styles. It's such a phenomenal trick and it is available on Alakazam Unlimited. So if you're an Unlimited member and you want to learn that one, go there, check it out in Tom Peterson's section.
Speaker 1:His last honorable mention is the Incredible Suit Jacket Escape by Anthony Linden, a comedy escapology trick. I love this trick but very rarely have enough space to be able to perform it. Yeah, that's such a superb effect. It's a funny one. It's great for parlor. I should think that if you're a compare, it would be a great compare piece as well.
Speaker 1:This brings us on to Phil's book. He says I started learning magic with books and have a few to choose from. The important thing for me is to decide if I want a book stack with theory or a book stack with effects. That is a question that we've had on the pod before people discussing which one they would do. What one would you do If you were picking? Would you prefer tricks or theory? Phil continues if I could only take one book, then I would want to take one stack with effects Interesting. Any one volume of Apocalypse by Harry Lorayne would do. There's just such a massive amount of material in each one. Absolutely, I think some of the old magazines. There's always something hidden in there that is an absolute gem. They're always packed with interesting ideas. Honorable mentions he's given us some book honorable mentions here Designing Miracles by Darwin Ortiz I think we've had that before. Books of Wonder by Tommy Wonder I think we've had that before. Anything by Eugene Berger We've had Eugene books before as well. So yeah, all great honorable mentions as well.
Speaker 1:Non-magic item that could be used for magic phil says swiss army penknife, preferably a fat one with lots of functions. Apart from being useful for survival, it could be used for a card stab. Very true, it could also be useful for making various props. I, if there are walnuts on the island, then I could manufacture three shells and a pea. I could also carve items from wood. I could mark cards by scratching them lightly, etc. Yep, we've had a Swiss Army knife on there before. I think it might have been Luca Volpe who said he has one. But yeah, a little pen, knife or multi-tool is always a really handy thing to have and I know a lot of performers actually pack one when they're doing gigs just in case anything breaks and they need to repair stuff. Some people actually have like a little repair kit with lots of different magic things in there to help repair. So Phil has closed off his list with general thoughts.
Speaker 1:Looking at some of the items I've chosen after the fact, most relate to items that I've performed regularly over a number of years. I think from these items I could construct a good close up or parlor show, absolutely One excellent choice of tricks, all the way from signed bill to lemon and card to envelope cups and balls. We've got fiber optics, free fly, emergency card, irish poker, gypsy thread and of course, his book suggestion there from apocalypse as well. Really interesting, diverse and, again, like phil just said, there's a great amount there to either use close up or on stage and I think when selecting your choice of tricks it's always good to think about the diversity of those effects. Can they be performed close up and stage and parlor. Are they only suited for a certain kind of event or audience, or can they be used in lots of different ways? I think they're all really interesting questions that we should think about when we're trying to construct our lists.
Speaker 1:So thank you so much to Phil Tilsden for sending that in. He hasn't given us any way to contact him so you can try and find him online, phil Tilton, and I'm sure he would love to hear from you. Now, if you want your list read out, like I said at the very intro, send in your list. So a little bit about you, your list, why you've written each trick, your book, your item, and send it to sales at alakazamcouk with the tagline my desert island list, and then we can record one of these episodes and get it out to the public so they can hear what your list is so, with that being said, we'll be back later on this week with a another episode of Desert Island Tricks.
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