Desert Island Tricks

Piff The Magic Dragon

Alakazam Magic Season 1 Episode 33

Buckle up for a hilarious ride as we welcome Piff the Magic Dragon to our podcast! Picture this: a marooned magic dragon on a desert island, armed only with his eight favourite magic tricks and an unexpected friendship with a FedEx driver named Gary. Intrigued? You’ll love hearing about Piff’s whimsical escape plans and the ingenious use of his iconic props like the Pifftacular and his trusty cannon. Plus, Piff opens up about the joys and challenges of his touring life, all while keeping us in stitches with his unique brand of humour.

Ever wondered how a chosen card can end up in a sealed can of dog food or how a Chihuahua can elevate a magic act? Piff pulls back the curtain on his creative process, sharing stories that range from the funny to the downright surreal. We dive into his transition from close-up magic with sponge bunny rabbits to elaborate stand-up routines that leave audiences spellbound. Along the way, Piff reflects on his mentor, Faye Presto, and the life-changing lessons about making unforgettable first impressions.

Rounding out this magical episode, Piff shares the heartwarming and comedic journey of his dragon persona’s birth at a costume party—a pivotal moment that skyrocketed his career. From living the struggling magician's life to winning over crowds on America’s Got Talent, Piff’s stories of perseverance and creativity are as awe-inspiring as his tricks. Join us for a spellbinding episode filled with laughter, magic, and the indomitable spirit of Piff the Magic Dragon.

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Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk

Speaker 1:

Well, some of these tricks okay, they involve large props. Some of them you can carry on, but a lot of them they're checked luggage. So you're telling me that I somehow escape miraculously, and so do all of the cases that I need for these eight tricks.

Speaker 2:

Do you not have like dragon friends that could help out Well if.

Speaker 1:

I did, they would not abandon me on the island. I would be leaving the island and returning back to my uh luxury cave in the valleys of las vegas. This is a scenario where I'm stranded on an island, yet somehow I have eight of any any tricks I could want, I've aided them that miraculously uh arrived with me. Is that what we're talking about?

Speaker 2:

we, we shipped them over there for you. How about that?

Speaker 1:

oh, you ship them. Yeah, why not? So, you FedExed them to me.

Speaker 2:

Yes, there you go, Perfect.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the driver and I have one of those relationships that starts off frosty but as the years go on we sort of get to know each other and have some sort of long-growing mutual respect and eventually his wife will get sick or something. And I'll see it in his eyes and I'll say to him, hey, are you okay, buddy? And he'll be like no, I'm really not. And he'll spill his guts and I'll do one of these eight tricks and he'll be like, hey, uh, that's incredible. I mean, I'm sure my wife is dead now, but that isn't that what that really was a good sponge bunny sponge, bunny rabbit routine.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Now there are two ways you can actually be listening to this, which is confusing, because normally this is only a audio podcast and we've only ever done one other video, and that was the Derren Brown double episode. So today means we have a very special guest Now. He's not on the screen at the moment for you, but he is for me, and the first thing that I said to him is I've really really under made an effort with my background compared to what you're about to see. It is so cool and what's amazing is you're about to see things behind this person that you would have seen in videos and in shows, and everything that's surrounding him is so interesting. So, uh, we're really, really honored to have him here now. You guys would have seen it from his videos. You know who who it is anyway, um, because of the names on the title, uh, so of course, I'm going to stop babbling and introduce you all to mr piffiff the Magic Dragon. Hello, piff, hello.

Speaker 1:

God, that was a lot of babbling.

Speaker 2:

That was a lot of babbling.

Speaker 1:

I do apologise. That was yeah Look, I come to this podcast and I don't know what other guests are like. But as soon as I got the email, I began building this background from scratch. Made every single prop. I've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars building this background from scratch. Made every single prop. I've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into this background. And you sit there next to some lamp with the lights on.

Speaker 2:

But you're surrounded by some incredible stuff. You've got the Piftacular in the background there. You've obviously got the cannon as well. One of them. How many of them do you have?

Speaker 1:

We've got a bunch they don't last that long, the taculas, you know, because, um, we tore a lot and, uh, they get smashed up on the road. But we've got a bunch of those. Um, behind me, yes, behind me, we've got this. This is, it says, the pifter man of dragon theater and, um, we were in a small room in the Flamingo called the Pifter man and Dragon Theatre, but a few years ago we just got upgraded to the big main showroom and so now we're in that. So we took that, we just took that as scrap, and this is one of the cannons that Piffles has been shot out of in the name of entertainment. And then about $10,000 of feather flowers in the name of entertainment, um, and then a bunch about ten thousand dollars of feather flowers so, uh, what we're gonna do today is we're gonna go to your desert island.

Speaker 2:

Um, so if you guys haven't heard the concept of the podcast before, the idea is that we're about to maroon piff on his own magic 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. How big it is where it is, how many people are there, all that sort of good stuff Absolutely down to Piff. It's in his own imagination. These are basically the tricks that Piff could not live without. So, with that being said, we're going to take a. Are we going to fly in the back of a dragon? Can we do that Now? Take a, are we going?

Speaker 1:

to fly in the back of a dragon. Can we do that? Now? You're just riding my back, jamie. That's what you're doing. Obviously, I prepared immensely for this, but on the way here, I was involved in a very nasty accident and everything I ever had is now lost, and I had to rewrite my top eight tricks from memory, if you can believe that, and unfortunately, ever since the accident, I've had real trouble with my memory, and so I've just jotted down the first eight tricks I could think of.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, however, they come to you, it's all good with me, well some of these tricks, okay, they involve large props.

Speaker 1:

You know, some of them you can carry on, but a lot of them they're checked luggage. So you're telling me that I somehow escape miraculously and so do all of the cases that I need for these eight tricks.

Speaker 2:

Do you not have like dragon friends that could help out?

Speaker 1:

Well, if I did, they would not abandon me on the island. I would be leaving the island and returning back to my luxury cave in the valleys of Las Vegas. This is a scenario where I'm stranded on an island, yet somehow I have eight of any any tricks I could want, I've aided them that miraculously, uh, arrived with me. Is that what we're talking about?

Speaker 2:

we, we shipped them over there for you. How about that?

Speaker 1:

oh, you ship them yeah why, don't you fedex them to me?

Speaker 2:

Yes, there you go.

Speaker 1:

Perfect Great. Is there any chance I could FedEx myself off of the island, please? No, no, we don't do that. I'm just not very good at desert island living. You know what I mean. I'm much more of a sort of like convenient, you know convenient appliance living dragon. Like you know, like my own fridge, uber Eats that sort of stuff Alright. Well, now I'm starting to understand your hypothetical situation.

Speaker 1:

I've been quarantined on my own Las Vegas island, which is floating on the abundance of water that exists in a desert, and the first thing I've done is asked for eight of my favorite tricks to be immediately fedexed in yep okay, the driver and I have one of those relationships that starts off frosty but as the years go on we sort of get to know each other and and have like some sort of um, long-growing mutual respect, respect and eventually, um, you know, he's like wife will get sick or something. And I'll see it in his eyes and I'll say to him, hey, are you okay, buddy? And he'll be like no, I'm really not, and he'll spill his guts and I'll do one of these eight tricks and he'll be like, hey, uh, that's incredible. I mean, I'm sure my wife is dead now, but that isn't. That really was a good sponge bunny rabbit routine, which is actually one of my top eight desert island tricks. So maybe we start there.

Speaker 2:

Okay, great, so let's go with your first item then. So is that what you're going with for your first trick?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because it brings the most joy, and that's what Gary, my FedEx driver, needs right now. He needs a real bump.

Speaker 2:

What about Sponge Bunnies? Does it for you.

Speaker 1:

Before I saw the light and became a dragon, I was toiling in the mine of close-up magic, um, in the uh, the mind of close-up magic, which is a dark, dark world, and um only brings suffering and um and despair to those who choose that path, as we all know. We all, we all know those close-up magicians. So I was doing close-up magic and the thing that I always found the most difficult was approaching a group of people, and faye presto, who is a living legend and was basically my mentor for close-up magic, she kind of taught me by example that, um, if you can get them, if you can like hook them within the first couple of minutes, or in the first minute really, then maybe they'll tolerate you, uh, for the next six to seven minutes and um, um, and, and maybe you can, you can turn it into something more lucrative than that. So she had these um, sponge bunny rabbits by a guy called Eddie Ace, right, and Eddie Ace, um, he's, he's, he's a guy lives in is. Where is it? It's like, uh, I think it's Pennsylvania, munhall, pennsylvania, and his slogan is you name it. It's like, uh, I think it's pennsylvania, mud hall, pennsylvania, and his slogan is you name it, I'll carve it. Anything you name he makes out of sponge. Now I've named many things and he's refused to make them out of sponge, so I'm not sure how good his word is, but his sponge bunny rabbits are are very good.

Speaker 1:

So I had a set of these. I don't remember how Faye told me about them and I got a set of these and when I did, he sent me these other animals that he used to make and I think one of them was like an elephant and one of them was like a penguin and something or other elephant, and one of them was like a penguin and something or other. So I, you know my, my spongebob routine used two, um, adult bunnies, which makes them sound naughtier than they are, but they were just grown-ups, two of them and five tiny baby bunnies and a baby penguin. That was like what I used to carry around when I did close up magic and at the end, when all of the you know, when you use the two bunny rabbits, um, when they, when they get it, get it on and, um, immediately reproduce lots of smaller bunny rabbits. Uh, the penguin was also amongst them and I used to say, oh, look, it's a penguin. He's on work experience now that doesn't work in america because they don't have work experience. So in america he's an exchange student, which, uh, which works just just as well.

Speaker 1:

So I would go up to these tables and just as they're about to tell me to please leave them alone because they're having a nice, enjoyable dinner, I would say oh, I'm sorry, you've just got a little, and I'd like brush my shoulder. You've just got a little, you've just got a little hair on your shoulder. And then I would like reach over and pull out the rabbit from their shoulder and they'd all laugh and I'd say here's another word for bunny rabbit. As if, because they laughed, somehow they didn't understand the joke. So, um, and then I would give, and I would say he's for you as a gift, and I make him vanish, and then, you know, he'd appear in my pocket again.

Speaker 1:

So I did, like you know, like I like three quick jokes and and a couple of moments of magic. And I was just in on on the tables, you know, and I could at least say do one routine before they asked the manager to evict me. I wasn't, you know, I kind of split the room when I did close-up magic, which is fine to do when you're in, when you're a comedian, because even in a small gig, let's say, there are 50 people in the room. If you get 25 people laughing, that's enough people to laugh, whereas if you're doing a table and and you and you know you got like five people on the table and two of them laugh, that's not good, that doesn't, that's not effective. The other three people just think you're a dick.

Speaker 1:

So, um, I mean, like once there was a, I went up to a table and I said this is before I was doing the bunny rabbits. I said, hi, I'm a magician. Do you want to do you want to see some close-up magic? And, um, the guy said to me my wife has just asked me for a divorce. Do you really think I want to see some magic? And I said no, because I guess she just made half your house disappear. And and then I got thrown out of the restaurant Unbelievable, so you know, close that magic. I was like for half of the group. I was hilarious.

Speaker 2:

But for the other half, I was not really their cup of tea, so the Sponge Bunny robots helped me bridge that various shows. Um, sometimes you've gone up to the house and you go and you've got a hair, then you've pulled it off. Um, how did that translate to stage? Is it something that you, you like, worked into other?

Speaker 1:

shows. I don't. I, I you know cause I did it so much at one stage. It was like my A material, but I didn't want to publish because it was like I didn't want everyone else doing the same jokes. And you know, rightly so. Because then you know I was doing some gig and you know, some close-up magician comes up to me and is like and it was a guy who I was like thought would have not done this, it would have, kind of like anyway, he came up to me and he was like oh, I love your SpongeBob Bunny Rabbit routine. When I do the penguin bit it gets the biggest laugh. And I'm like, oh, my god, can you just not tell me that you're ripping me off to my face? So, um, so I never published it.

Speaker 1:

But the other thing I would say about close-up magic is um, uh, eventually I think I found opening, which was I'd walk up to the table and say hello, have you seen the magician? And they'd say no, and I'd be like I'm here, ta-da, and that's how I just, I just, it's just such a hard job to interrupt people for a living. You know you're literally saying to them hey, the venue doesn't trust you to have a good time by yourself. So they sent me to help and uh, but I but you know, I really like you know they talk about 10 000 hours, um, and that's how much you need to get good at something. The the good thing we're doing close-up magic.

Speaker 1:

Magic is you do like, you think about them as mini shows. You know a table as a show, so you do like eight, 10, 15 shows a night and you can do that four or five nights a week. You know you can get your. You can get your 10,000 hours in that way and that's what I did for a lot for many years. I did, did you know hundreds and hundreds of closeup mini shows, uh, a year and that sort of like honed, my um, performing uh, like persona and um, and and my ability to interact with people. You know cause they. They cause in closeup magic, people just talk to you when you're on stage, they don't. You's like that's considered heckling and um, that's never going to go well. But um, when you, when you're, when you're uh, when you're doing close-up magic, people, people want to join in were you honing your like stand-up persona at that?

Speaker 1:

looking back, looking back, I was at the time I didn't realize I still do the all close-up magic gig, believe it or not. Because, um, you know, there are some companies with more money than sense and, uh, they'll have like some, um, I don't know, some like event. You know, some make some mingling event, whatever it is, and they'll ask me to do a, to come and perform, and I'm like I don't really. You know, there's there's like maybe a hundred people. There's no good to perform, I don't want to do this, it's just going to, it's just going to bomb. So instead I'll come and do walk around magic and everyone will love it much more. Walk around magic, and everyone will love it much more.

Speaker 1:

And, um, because now I'm a dragon, if I walk into a room, people like what the f**k? What the f**k, I'm gonna hear. So now they I don't have to like go up to people and say, oh, there's a hair on your shoulder. People come up to me and they say what are you doing? And I'm like nothing and they're like no, why are you here? And I'm like it's not for you and they're like, no, seriously, what's going on? And I'm like, oh, my god, and then I can go into like magic, uh, but they're basically begging me to perform, whereas before it was the opposite. You know, like I was like begging a table for their attention. So now, like being a dragon has changed that and I quite like doing close up magic now. I have quite a lot of fun doing it, but then I don't have to do it five nights a week you know, every week.

Speaker 1:

But when I went from close up magic to stand up, it was a bit rough at the beginning because I was just like doing it as myself and I hadn't really found the angle. But the first day, um, I did, I did magic in a dragon outfit, literally the first show. I went oh, this is it. This is because I had all the material, not all the material. I had some material and I had all the material, not all the material, but I had some material and I had the stage time and everything just clicked. So from then it was it was not easy, but it was natural, whereas before that it was a little bit of a, it was a struggle.

Speaker 2:

From me just a personal question, just for one thing that I've always wanted to ask you where did the development of piff the magic dragon come from?

Speaker 1:

because it seems like I was just about to tell you in that previous story, and you know what I thought. I thought, no, there was somebody at home dying to hear my other seven routines. So how about we save it? We do another routine and then, um, I'll get into that. How about that?

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm down for that. So that takes us to your second trick. So, after Sponge Bunnies, what did you put in your second spot? Well, I'll tell you a trick.

Speaker 1:

That isn't in it, that this is not. It Do you know, is it called Flash Stab by Bob Swadling? It's got a small knife like a sword, a small sword about like eight inches high, and you get a card chosen and you wrap the deck in flash paper and flash string and then you stab them on the end of the sword and then they all burst into flames, leaving one card on the end of a sword. So that, and Sponge Bun and Rabbits used to be my main, that used to be my breadwinner. You know, if I was going out and doing 10 minutes anywhere, you know, on stage, and I did Sponge Bun and Rabbits to 20,000 people.

Speaker 1:

You know, and I'm always I'm always a little bit cynical when I hear like oh, you know, cardini played radio city music hall. Uh, because I'm like he might have played it, that doesn't mean he went well. Uh, because I've played radio city music hall and I've sat in the back of radio city music hall watching other acts. Uh, you know, soundcheck, and I remember watching watching Coldplay soundcheck from the very back row and I was just like is that? Is that Chris Martin over there? Is that tiny, tiny person, chris Martin? Now, imagine if I'd have been like is that, is that Cardini? Over there Is that tiny, tiny person. Oh, what's that? Oh, it's a billiard ball. Oh wow, look at it changing color. Look at it appearing and vanishing. Oh wow, now he's got some cigarettes. You know, I just refuse to believe that before the Jumbotron days, cardini was crushing in Radio City Music Hall. So I have done Sponge Bunny Rabbits to 20,000 people, but I don't think that they were that impressed.

Speaker 1:

So at some point I'm doing these two tricks and they're fine, and I kind of really felt like I didn't have any other ideas, because the Flashback one worked quite well, because I would say I'm going to find your card like a dragon, and then I blow on the cards and suddenly they'd all burst into fire. So you know, it was a good dragon themed magic trick. I did it for like a year and I was like, oh, I'd like to, I'd like something stronger than this. And Colin Rose, he had this trick where, like, these balls would be thrown out of a box, these like different coloured balls. And I was like, well, what if, instead of balls, then playing cards were being thrown out of a box? Um, and what if I said that mr piffles. My dog was in that box and what the box was a metacular instead of just a regular box. And what if he was trying to find a card? And and I sort of came.

Speaker 1:

I put it all together in about three quarters of an hour sitting in this bar and I just sort of like it suddenly all just lined up and what it ended up being was somebody chooses a card and it ends up in a sealed can of dog food and it's like the pedigree charm dog food. So when you open it up it looks like. It looks like factory sealed, and you go inside and you pull out the playing card and then over the years I added um, I would do like a bill switch beforehand and I would just demand people's walletets. I would say, give me your wallet, wallet, wallet. And I wouldn't really advise doing this because I found all sorts of things in people's wallets. I found drugs, I found lots of naked photos in wallets, and so anyway, I would like and I would find like a starbucks gift card or something you know, or a costco card, and I would take it. I would say, oh, this is mine. And then I would get some money and get the money signed and at the end of the trick, you know, pivils would fail to find the card and um, he said, and I, and I would say he says he's on a hunger strike and we would open up the food and then the food would be the playing card first, then it would be the Costco card, then it would be my middle finger and I'd flip them off and then finally I'd bring out the money and then finally I'd bring out the money and that routine, which is about 12 minutes long, it became that I could crush any gig with that routine and when I got into stand-up, the reason I got into it was because I'd seen these, um, you know, these people like amazing jonathan, um, uh, who had like these incredible, like seven minute sets, eight minutes, ten minute sets, and there was a show called le clique of the edinburgh fringe and I was full of people like captain frodo who like does a um, an amazing contortion act with two tennis rackets, and these people who are like their whole lives with this eight to ten minute set, you know like they'd appear on, like the paul daniel show, you know, and, um, and, and I'd always wanted to have like an eight to ten minute set that I could just do anywhere and crush with and um, and when I was doing the flash stab trick and the sponge bunny rabbit trick, I was doing okay.

Speaker 1:

But I did a gig with Max Somerset and Max, at the end of his act, produced a live chicken from nowhere and just killed the audience like lost it. And I, up until then, I designed my act to fit in a bag and that's why I was doing like spongebob and flashback, because it packed small and if, for example, I was trapped on a desert island with nothing but my carry-on luggage, then I'd still be able to perform, but fortunately for us all, that's not the case in this situation. So I thought you know what I'm just going to do, whatever it takes to get the best reaction. So I, um, I started opening my, my, the realms of possibilities to anything that I wanted to do and I was in Edinburgh doing my first full length Edinburgh show and it was fine. I was doing like 30, 40 minutes and it was fine.

Speaker 1:

But I was like you know, this needs, like it needs a gear change. I need to, like you know, somehow find a way to like, change the texture of the act and the girl who was running the venue. She had a Chihuahua and I put the Chihuahua into the show and it and it did so well that the next day I went out and got a Chihuahua and I didn't know what I was going to do with it for like three or four months. But I just had him in the show doing one joke for three or four months. And then I was just sitting there one afternoon and I suddenly went because I was like how can I use this dog? And then, seeing that Colin Rose thing, I was like, oh, the dog could be like throwing things out in my case. And then suddenly it all came together and I developed that routine over like two years.

Speaker 1:

It sort of ended up becoming what it is it. When it ended up with it, well, it's sort of like finished being, because some it's weird like I. I can, like I can tell a routine is not finished, um, but I don't necessarily know how to finish it. And then I can get to that point where I go, oh yeah, this is pretty much done and it stays in that shape for a long time. Maybe once in a while I'll think of like one or two tweaks, but nothing really major. You know, I'll kind of like figure it out. It's either finished or it's not finished, um, and I don't really know why, why I? It's just sort of like a gut feeling.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, I got to the point where I was like, oh, this, this routine is basically there and it became the routine that I did everywhere and it was like the most reliable routine I did, and I still do it today. I put it in a, I put it. I just published a book, I published that routine in there and I thought, oh, I'm going to stop doing it. But actually I do it, like because people love it so much and it's become one of those routines that I've never I've never performed the full version on TV. So there were like a lot of like surprises, even if you know the routine, so it's still like goes really well on the show. So that's sort of like if I was forced to do magic on this desert island to nobody, then that's probably the routine I would go to first.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, we've seen it on several performances of yours and it's such a well put together routine. My thing earlier on you mentioned the comedy side With that routine.

Speaker 1:

Well, comedians have it easy. It's much easier being a comedian well, here's, here's, here's the reality. It's much easier being a um, good comedian than it is to be a good magician. But it's much harder being a bad comedian than it is to be a bad magician, because when you're a bad magician, you can go out there with invisible deck and you're the best magician they've ever seen, whereas if you're a bad comedian, um you, you go out there and you just die and it's horrible. You know there's no, you don't get. You don't get. You don't get people going. Oh my god, you, the four of hearts was upside down on that deck. You're the best comedian I've ever seen. You don't get people going. Oh my God, the Four of Hearts was upside down on that deck. You're the best comedian I've ever seen.

Speaker 1:

But once you get good at comedy, then you have all these premises to choose from and you don't need anything for the premise. You know if you want to do a joke about, you know your journey to work that day, you don't need to go and buy a car. You know you don't need to get a job. You know those things exist and even if you don't have them like you have the. Everyone has the experience of them so that you can just talk about them. But you know, if I, if I come up with a new premise for a routine, so um, and maybe that you know can take us into the next trick, if you want, jamie look segueing my way through this podcast.

Speaker 2:

Just such a pro. Yeah, no, please go for it. The next routine.

Speaker 1:

I came up with a premise first, and the premise was wouldn't it be funny if the dog ate somebody's ring? I borrowed a ring and the dog eats it, and so I came up with a premise. Now, unfortunately, I can't just go on stage and explain that to people. I have to have a way for the dog to eat the ring, and I spent about three years working on making the dog eat the ring and eventually Nick Einhorn came up with this. I had this thing where I was taking dog food and I was putting the dog food on the ring, apparently, and then the dog was eating all the food and my hand was empty. So therefore the dog must have eaten the ring. And Nick Einhorn came up with this really great bit where I put the ring on a spoon and then I put the dog food on the ring and as I did it I stole the ring off and finger palmed it and, um, that was all, nick, and so I had this really great setup. But then I didn't have anywhere for the ring to go. So I can't, I still can't try, I still can't do this routine anywhere, because all I have is like the dog eating the ring. And then one day I was like, oh, wait a minute, I could do the egg bag where um with pitfalls, where I show the bag empty and I put it underneath him and he puts an egg into the bag. And then I was like and if I could find a way to have the ring be inside the egg, then I've got a routine. And until I had any of the methods for those, I still didn't have anything. I'd go on and try.

Speaker 1:

And the reason you have to go on and try it is because you might have the best idea in the world in theory. But if you go on stage and this is where it's much easier with comedians they can go on stage and they can try the seed of an idea and if it strikes a chord with the audience, the audience will react and you go okay, there's something there, and then you can refine it. But as a magician, every time you go okay, there's something there and then you can refine it. But as a magician, every time you go on stage, usually you're like you know, if you, if you're building something from scratch, you're at least you know, 10, 20, 30 hours into it, you're probably hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars into into it and, uh, you don't't know if it's going to work or not. So you go on stage and it doesn't even resonate. You literally just throw all that shit in the trash.

Speaker 1:

So it's like saying to a comedian all right, anytime you want to try a joke, it's $1,000. You got an idea for a joke? $1,000, buddy, go up there. It's going to cost you $1,000 to try it. It's going to cost you a thousand dollars to try it. It's like if you did that, I don't think there'd be as many funny comedians, you know. I think like we'd weed out a lot of people who didn't really want to do it that much.

Speaker 1:

So I had this routine and it took like a lot of years to come together and in the end and you know a lot of these ideas they're only me, like saying to other people what do you think? They're not me having a brain brainwave and suddenly figuring it out. So anyway, in this routine what happens is the, the dog eats the ring and that looks great because of nick ironhorn. And then I worked with the other brothers and cause they they hated the egg bag, they wanted it to be like. You know, there's dog poop bags that you get on on the roll of. You get a little roll of dog poop bags, so, um, we use one of them as an egg bag, which looked great.

Speaker 1:

And then there was a, there was a. There was a trick by. There was a, there was a trick by I can never pronounce his first name, kanoia, kanoia Harbottle, and he had this thing with a, a whiskey glass where you use the, the, the alcove of the bottom of the glass you know a shots glass and and use that to hide coins because the, the, the glass would, would reflect the, the light. And I and I think somebody who worked for me was like, well, what if you just like use um, mirror spray paint on that little? You know, uh, it's like a little, it's like it's like the opposite of a bump, so you can get like four coins in it. So we use mirror paint and suddenly it reflected all of my hand and it looks like you can stare at it and it's just an empty hand holding a glass. It looks unbelievable and we've got the ring in there. So when, when they crack the egg into the glass, then when I pull the glass in my hand, the ring is under the egg and they reach in and they take out the, they pop the yolk and inside the yolk is their ring. So once we had that it was like, oh, the game changer.

Speaker 1:

And now the routine just crushed. But I mean, that's, you know, three years and a lot of money after the initial idea. So that was probably like that was. You know, the dog food I got like a golden buzzer from neil patrick harris on america's got talent from it. You know, I worked all over the world with that trick. But when it comes to the routine that I'm most proud of like in terms of um, all the beats and um and being original and the magic being strong and everything like that, it's probably the ring to egg routine, which has got to be the most mundane name I've ever come up with. But I'm not very good at names Dog food, ring to egg not very good at those names, but that's the one that I'm most pleased with. So that is number three on my desert island tricks.

Speaker 2:

Wow, what an amazing journey for one routine. It just goes to show the trust that you put in your team of people to come up with these different ideas and bring these routines together as well. It sounds like an amazing group of people that you're surrounding yourself with as well. Well, that's what you do if you're, uh, not very right.

Speaker 1:

You just have to surround yourself with a lot of good thinkers. So what I'm good at, I'm like a magpie. You know, when they have, they have ideas, I'm like, oh, that's good, yeah, yeah and. But but because you're not allowed to steal in magic, then I have to pay them for the ideas. So I'm like a magpie with a hefty checkbook.

Speaker 3:

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Speaker 3:

Not only that Liquid Forks comes with 50 of these forks in each pack and it comes with the full Liquid Forks routine taught by the world famous David Penn. Not only that, we have a subscription service. If you guys love these forks and you get through them at your gigs, we now offer a monthly subscription where you get sent a box through every single month at a 10% reduced fee. Like I said, you guys are going to be loving these. You're going to be performing them every chance. You can Trust me, the reactions are second to none. So, guys, head over to anakazamcouk, pick up a set of Liquid Forks. You will not regret it. Easy to do, leaves them with a killer souvenir. And, to be honest with you, it's not cards, it's not coins, it's not mentalism.

Speaker 2:

It's something beyond beyond belief. Check out now, guys, the liquid forks. Well, that's a great, great choice, and it does bring us to your fourth trick. So what did you put in your fourth position?

Speaker 1:

I mean, these are just filler. Really, from this point in, you know what I mean, I feel like we peaked, because I just have this thing with podcasts People listen to the first first 20, 30 minutes and then very, very rarely people get through the whole three and a half hours. So I figure at this point we might as well just dig in with any old. So let's take a break and let's talk about somebody else's routine. This is one of those tricks that I would love to do and I do think about doing it still, and I just never. I've never got around to doing it because I'm not sure the original was ever published and the other versions I've seen haven't been as direct as the original. So it's called the. The routine is um homing card, but I think it's called homing card by fred caps. But there's a lot of tricks that are published under the name homing card and I've never seen f Capps' routine published. You know as he did on and what show did he do it on?

Speaker 1:

I think he did it on the Ed. Was it Ed Sullivan's show, ed Sullivan, ed Sullivan, not Sullivan Sullivan? And it might have been the show where he shared the. He shared the lineup with the Beatles. So the Beatles, very first American television performance. Fred Capps was also on the show and Fred Capps was like the headliner of the show. It was like you know, he was like the big guest and the Beatles were like there. Like you know, he was like the big guest and the Beatles were like there to make up the numbers, no way. And of course they stole the show.

Speaker 1:

But the routine is he says I've got five cards and got five red cards. And here's what I love about the routine. He says I've got five red cards, and this is what I think everyone misses. I've got five red cards, and this is what I think everyone misses. I've got five red cards and the idea is to make them go from the left hand to the right hand. They're going to start over on this hand, in my left hand which I know is my left hand because he does a joke about the way his thumb's pointing and they're going to end up in the right hand. And as he's doing that, one of the cards changes into a black picture card so you can see the difference, and he sort of pauses and he goes oh well, that's weird. And he's like, oh, I'm sorry, that must have just got into my pocket in the dressing room, even though he's just shown five cards. He's like, oh, maybe I just mixed up the card or something, even though he's shown five red cards. So he gets rid of the card and he goes anyway, I'm going to do a trick with four cards. It'll be just as good, except it won't have five cards, and the cards are going from the left to the right. And the thing is that he's got this effect that he wants to do, which is the cards going from the left to the right. That's the effect he's doing. He's not doing. The cards are going to change colour one by one and often when I see this performed, people don't have a strong enough premise. They don't have that reason for having five red cards. So when they're changing, you go oh well, this is the real trick.

Speaker 1:

But for Caps it was always like no, no, I'm just trying to do the trick where the red cards go from the left to the right and he's just doing less and less cards, which gets less and less. Uh, impressive, and he knows that and it's breaking his heart and then he gets to the final card and he just can't do anything and he's ruined his chance in front of all this audience. You know, his big break is over, so he's very upset and I just think that's like it's like a great. It gives like some great stakes. That difficult, it's really difficult in magic to get good stakes where it's like you know what's at risk here, and for Caps in that bit, like the thing that's at risk is his professional career. He's on TV, you know, and he's going to look like a f***ing idiot if he can't get these cards to go from the left to the right, and he can't because they just keep changing into black, into the same black card, no matter how much he gets rid of it.

Speaker 1:

So you know, one of my friends, um, he went to a um famous clown school. Um, which I'm gonna have to. I'm gonna see if I can look up the name of um, because I I keep forgetting. Oh, jacques lecoq, that's right, jacques lecoq, famous um, I might not be a clown school, might be a mime school. Um, he went to this, this school and he was doing his act and the teacher uh, stopped him and said can you do me a favor, can you take apart and put together your table and tell me what you're doing, because that will be far more interesting than whatever it is you're doing now.

Speaker 1:

And you know, I think in magic we get so swept up in the trick sometimes. You know, like cups and balls I have no idea what that's about. We're just putting balls under cups and then putting them in our pockets and then putting them back under the cups and it's just like what are we doing? Like we have, like magical, we have, like we're saying we have actual magic powers and this is what we're doing with them. You know, like making balls go under cups.

Speaker 1:

So, um, I I love that trick, I love great caps, and I saw that I was like, oh man, I'm so invested in this guy's life being ruined because he can't control the cards changing color and, like I said, I might do it, I might do it one day, but I've never found Fred's routine. The only other person I saw who did it really well was Guy Hollingworth. He does a routine and maybe I'll learn that, maybe that'll be mine, but I tried, guys. Everything Guy does is so. He makes it look so easy and it's just a nightmare. I never managed to make it work. I reserve the right to have Fred Capps FedExed to the island to perform this routine.

Speaker 2:

Okay, we'll give him as a as a little luxury item, which I don't think we've given anyone a luxury item. So he's yours. Yeah, it's great, and I'm guessing that being that sort of comedic timing with that sort of routine is really what you'd have to work on as well.

Speaker 1:

I don't think. I mean, you know, work is like such a weird word to use about developing comedic timing. Because because, unless you have that instinct, you know, unless you kind of want it, unless you're going to want to be funny, then you're not going to put the work in. Um, and I've just said work, so I guess I just ruined my own point. But um, you know it comes from.

Speaker 1:

It comes from like doing the show over and over again, thinking about the beats of the material and um, and taking it apart and analyzing why it beats of the material and taking it upon, analyzing why it works for other people and why it doesn't. So if you just go, I'm going to get comic timing. That's such a weird thing to do. It's like you have to get good at everything and you get good at everything and the comic timing will develop alongside it. But you know, if you haven't got the right beats and the material, you know you can't, you, you can't develop comedy timing because you don't have the right beats there. So you have to have the structure and then you have to understand what the comedic structure is. So it all sorts. The more you do it, the more it all comes together Great.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's a great choice, and it does lead us into your fifth position. So what did you put in your fifth spot? I'm going to do another, fred.

Speaker 1:

Capps one, but this is one that I've used multiple times in my show, the salt pour. So I saw caps do it and he does it great, although a funny story I heard, which may, may or may not be true fred caps used to have a business card with him buried up to his neck in salt. Because you know when he's performing it, um, it just looks like. Because you know when he's performing it, um, it just looks like there's mountains of salt. Because he, he's just there's just so much. And he did a show and afterwards the guy refused to pay him because where was the mountains of salt? There was just a little pool of salt on the floor. And this guy was expecting Fred Kapps to be buried out to his neck in salt, uh. So I was like, oh yeah, be careful, you be careful, your your promotional material promises because, uh, if you don't deliver, you may not be getting paid that night. So, um, but, but I, I I saw Fred Capps do it and I saw Fred Capps do it and I saw a few other people do it, and that was the routine. I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to do. And the framing I had was we shot Pivils out of a cannon and he died and then we cremated him and I did a salt pour with his ashes and, because the ashes are magical, then they just carried on pouring forever.

Speaker 1:

And there's a company called Pagani P-A-G-A-N-I dot D-K and they had this amazing salt pour gimmick, because I tried them all and I couldn't get any of them to work for me.

Speaker 1:

They're this amazing gimmick that basically allows you to control the salt perfectly, and so I worked on that routine for a couple of years and found the gimmick and I used to close my show with that routine and it used to do, it used to do really well. So, uh, and that's, that's an example of of seeing like, really just like, seeing taking another routine and finding a way to make it fit my act, which I don't do very often because, um, I think it then puts me and this is one of the reasons I've never done a homing card it puts me in the same group as other magicians who do that trick, and so so I don't want people to say, oh, I saw so-and-so do that trick if it's in my act. So I try not to do do anything like that. But, um, the salt poor is one of the ones. I feel like we've changed it enough in order to stay in the act.

Speaker 2:

And does Mr Piffles resurrect from the ashes?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we sweep him up, we sweep him up into like a dustpan and brush, and then I pull him out of the dustpan and he's in an angel costume.

Speaker 2:

Very, very interesting choice as well. It's not one that I would have expected you to have gone to, so that's really really cool, but it does bring us to your sixth item. So we've had sponge bunnies so far. We've had ring to egg, we've had a salt pour. They're nice and diverse so far. So goodness knows where this is going to go.

Speaker 1:

A trick that got me into magic. How about that? One of the reasons I committed to being a magician full-time. Look, I've got jamie. It's a coin purse, but it's brown. It's this thing, I don't even know how to describe it. It's my favorite designer coin purse, but it's brown.

Speaker 1:

And you know where I found this? On the alakazam store at magic live. I was like, oh my god, where did you get this coin purse? And they gave, they gave me one. And then I said, do you sell these? And they said, oh, we'll just give you one. And I said, no, I want. And they gave me 10 coin purses and I now have all of my fancy coin tricks in these purses. I mean, this is the greatest magic product of all time, this coin purse. It's the best design and it's brown, so it's brown leather. They are very nice.

Speaker 1:

And in that, in this coin purse, I have one of a few sets of copper, silver brass, which is my favorite coin trick, and um, uh was one of the first tricks that somebody ever performed for me and I was like, oh my god, that trick is unbelievable. I want to learn that and and I and I got it for one of my birthdays. My parents got it for me and, um, since then I I've collected like various versions of it over the years. But I that's my favorite coin trick in the world copper, silver, brass and I always have a fantasy about performing coin magic. But I never do because I can never make it work for me. Especially, like you know, this is a set made by Todd Lassen who passed away, and so it's irreplaceable and if you drop it it's ruined. So and I'm not very, you know, I'm not that nimble with my fingers, so I'm a bit of a klutz, so I don't trust myself to not drop it.

Speaker 2:

So a second ago you said you can't find a way for coins to work for you. Is that purely because of the PIF concept that you can't find it to fit in?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can't really find a good premise. You know, I don't have to have that much of a premise in order for it to get in my, in my act. You know, it just needs to be a way in, like a hook, something to engage the audience and to kind of create some sort of tension. And, and I can't, I just never get there with coin magic, you know, one coin going from the left hand to the right hand, I don't know, I don't know why we're doing that, you know, and um, um, you know, and you could, you could apply that equally to like, why, you know, why is it like finding a, a hair on your shoulder, you know why? Why does that resonate?

Speaker 1:

Just something about, um, something about them being cute bunny rabbits, you know, and the routine being really surprising and ending with like a, a really funny, funny reveal, something about that engages people and it's, I think it's also, in fact, it's so stupid, you know, it's just so dumb, it's like this is what you're doing with your, whereas, like, coin magic isn't dumb enough, it's not, it's not ridiculous enough, um, and therefore it just kind of like it hits that middle ground. I gave, I gave this coin purse a hat, because I use this sock as a to like do a trans, what do you call it when they change places, transition, transposition, transposition, yeah, and the toothpaste and the hat. So I'm wondering whether, if Pete's watching this, he might like to. I mean, imagine if all of the purses came with hats, because it's good, because if the purse accidentally opens, then the coins just fall into the hat and you don't lose them.

Speaker 2:

So it's like an added layer of protection. A nice piff hat, that would be kind of cool.

Speaker 1:

What? Why would it be a piff hat?

Speaker 2:

Because then it would suit your style.

Speaker 1:

You don't think this suits my style. Well, I thought we were getting somewhere, jeremy. I really did. I thought we were sort of you know that thing where you bond over a shared trauma. I thought that's what this podcast has been, and uh, and then you come up with something like that wow, I'm really taking it back, honestly, and I'm gonna have to re-evaluate whether we move forward uh, good, so that brings us on to the tail end of your atrix now.

Speaker 2:

So we're on number down to the.

Speaker 1:

I've saved some good ones. I've got some good ones. Probably my favorite routine that I've come up with that I haven't published serene's egg is my favorite one that I published. This is one that I haven't published and, um, uh, there's a classic of magic which is called any drink called for and you have like a kettle tea kettle originally and they name a drink and you pour it out of the kettle or you can use like a milk carton or whatever, and then what we use for this is Mr Piffles, and instead of a spout, well, he comes with his own spout. You know, you know what I mean. Every night in Vegas, mr Pitfalls delivers one glass of whatever beverage the audience member asks for and you see him piss it. It's one of those we.

Speaker 1:

I had this idea years ago and I thought it was going to be like five drinks and it was going to be this long routine and I didn't get anywhere with it for two years and one day I got desperate and I said to Teller Teller, you got to help me, because Penn and Teller have been these amazing mentors to me throughout my life Not throughout my life, ever since I was on that show, so the last 15 years and Teller came up with this method for it and we had it built and it cost like 20 grand to build it and it was just a real roll of the dice. Fingers crossed. I was going to work and we have a guy working for me called gabriel, and he came up with the final tweak on the method and, um, it went into the show and then we realized that we could show we could I don't want to give too much away, but we could. We can make it look like the dog that the p was actually coming out of his little doggy penis, and so that's what. So we did that and it just brought the house down and I was like, oh my god, we're doing any drink peed for.

Speaker 1:

And uh, and we then, you know, america's Got Talent asked me to do a guest spot and they said what tricks do you have? And I said I've only got one that I want to do and it's this one, expecting them to say no. And then, with a long story short, we ended up doing the trick live on air on America's Got Talent and it's probably my favorite TV spot I've ever done. And who'd have thought you could have a dog at any drink called for at 8 pm on primetime TV. So that's my favorite one, because everything about that is like it's a funny premise. The method's really great. It method deceptive it's. It's like it's hugely funny. Um, you know, the audience can like tell their friends about it the next day and it's just instantly memorable. It's a great visual.

Speaker 2:

So it's kind of like sums up everything I love in magic yeah, it's also something that I can't imagine many people are going to be out there doing anytime soon. No one can steal it. What are the audience? I presume that the audience drink the drink. Are they reluctant to drink it?

Speaker 1:

Well, it's whatever drink they name. So there's a pool between the fact that they've just seen a dog f*** it, that they've just seen, um, a dog and they're looking at it. Um, you know, so like, so like when we did it on America's Got Talent, you know, I said to Harry Mandel beforehand I said, look, um, I'm going to give you a drink and it's safe, just just, you have to drink. It's safe, just just you have to drink it. We and will you promise to drink it? And he said yes. So, and obviously I left out the fact that a dog would be putting it into a cup for him.

Speaker 1:

But he named an Arnold Palmer, which is iced tea and still lemonade, and it's unmistakably when you see in a glass, it's unmistakably. When you see it in a glass, it's unmistakably Alapama. So he's like, and it smells like Alapama and he's like oh my God, this is an Alapama. So there is, people want to taste it to make sure it is what it is, but also a dog just eats it. So they're not that willing. So it's a nice. You know when we're talking about what's at stake. You know it's a nice. It's a nice. Uh, you know when we're talking about what's at stake. You know that's a good example of what's at stake so that brings us to your very final trick.

Speaker 2:

Now you haven't given any honorable mentions, um, so you can, if you want to give honorable mentions, if not, you can go straight into your number eight.

Speaker 1:

My favorite trick and it's my favorite because it's been responsible for my biggest breaks. And you know, I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't be where I am today, without this trick. I don't think, because when you're a comedy magician which is a terrible, terrible phrase people think, oh, it's not going to be funny, it's not, it's not, he's not funny enough to be a comedian and the magic's not good enough to be a magician. So he's, he's the worst of both worlds. So I came up with this trick when I was like 19, maybe I was at university and I, literally, I was stripping cards to make gimmick cards. I learned to strip cards and I had a dream one night and I said I wonder if, um, I can use strip cards and regular cards and put these together. And, um, and I woke up and I was like, oh, I wonder whether that would work, this idea that I had. And I tried it and it did work. It worked. So the idea was a playing card, a signed playing card, changes, um, a piece at a time into another card.

Speaker 1:

So I started doing it and magicians freaked out over this trick and it took me a while to get good at it, but I kept going, I kept going, and when I, when I was doing Piff I was doing doing the show to I was doing this trick to close the show and they shot the first series of Penn Teller Foolers in the UK and they said you know, what do you want to do? And I said I want to do this trick because it's going to make them think. You know, I might not fool them, but it'll make them think. And I did the trick and they, they, they went pen and teller went bananas for it. And then that trick went viral.

Speaker 1:

And then when I did America's Got Talent long story short. But um, they just said, can you just do what you did on on pen and teller, fool us on on America's Got Talent? So I did it again and again it went viral. Again, like the audience, audience, the judges freaked out about the trick and I closed my show every night with it still. So I put it out with Alakazam and it was what got me known amongst magicians. So it's the trick that's done the most for me in all of my tricks. It's the trick that's that's that's done the most for me in in all of my tricks.

Speaker 2:

You know, it's the one that's changed my career there are lots of versions of that plot which exists now, but I would still hold yours at the very top of all of them it wasn't the first time someone had done like a signed, you know, like actual sign card and giving it away, you know, card changing.

Speaker 1:

People always call it, uh, a torn and restored, which is weird because nothing's being torn and nothing's being restored, so it's a transformation. But, um, yeah, it's been. It's been like super good to me and I and I, um, I finished my book with 94 pages of photos, explaining it step by step, which, weirdly, has been the biggest complaint of my book has been that we ended it with 94 photos but talking of books, it leads us on to your one book now.

Speaker 2:

It's been easy so far because you've had eight tricks, but now you're only allowed one book oh, this is easy, this is easy. Okay, so what did you go for then?

Speaker 1:

It's Drawing Room. Deceptions by Guy Hollingworth, the greatest magic book of all time. Everything about it the writing, the illustrations, the execution, the order of the tricks everything about it is flawless. When Guy does a card trick, I order of the tricks. Everything about it is flawless. When Guy does a car trick, I sort of, because he does this great thing where he just sets up for some reason he gets like he kind of draws the audience in and there's like a hook and you're like, oh yeah, I want to see him succeed.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's one that we've had several times before and no doubt we're going to have a game, because it seems to be one of those books that are just be for forever studied. I think it's just wonderful, yeah, um, and it does bring us to your item.

Speaker 1:

So what you put in your item, well, this is tricky because I have to choose between Jade, my onstage and offstage partner, and Mr Piffles. But I have to say sorry, honey, I love you very much, but the dog was there first and therefore I will be FedExing Mr Piffles to my desert island. Is Mr Piffles?

Speaker 2:

to my desert island. Is, mr Piffles, the same dog that you've always had as well, I still have him.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he's almost 17 now. Yeah, he's almost 17. And he does the occasional show. But we actually cloned him. We got his DNA, we sampled his DNA, does the occasional show, but we actually cloned him. We got his DNA, we sampled his DNA and we cloned him. And we have another dog who is an exact, is genetically identical to Mr Piffles and is a year and a half old now and has taken over from Mr Piffles and does the show did you train Mr Pivils Because he's so well behaved?

Speaker 1:

No, he's just like that really, and we tried a few other dogs but we couldn't get anyone to be like him. So we just said, oh, let's just clone him. And so we did, and unbelievably, and this new dog his name's Fortune, because he cost a fortune and he's great, he's unbelievable. People don't know. It's not Mr Piffles.

Speaker 2:

Well, that was a really great list. Thank you so much for taking us through it and for giving us your reasonings behind it as well.

Speaker 1:

Well, thanks for having me on this podcast of yours, and I've just got one last thing to say, and that is that these coin purses in brown are available from Alakazam, and I suggest you stock up while you still can, because these will not stay around for very long.

Speaker 2:

There is one thing that we're at the end now, so we have to circle back to the reason for Piff the magic dragon so what happened was I've got a real resting bitch face.

Speaker 1:

Now, that's not something I'm in control of, it's just on my face and it's my default setting. So imagine you do a wedding, you're getting married, and you book a magician and this guy comes to the party. So I was doing these gigs. I had a guy come. I had a guy come up to me. He said what is your problem? You're like the eeyore of magic. And um, then he fired me because he was the groom.

Speaker 1:

So I was getting, I was, I was getting let go of all these places and my work was drying up. I had less and less places and also I was doing these jokes. You know, like I said earlier about your wife just made half your house disappear. You know, I was like I was finding my style and it was not a close up magic style and I didn't know what to do. And I didn't know what to do.

Speaker 1:

And around the same time I went to a party which is a fancy dress party, a costume party, and I didn't have anything to wear. So I said to my sister show if something I can wear. She said, yeah, I've got a dragon outfit under my bed and I went okay, didn't ask any more questions. Neither should you, and I went to the party as a dragon and I arrived at the party and no one else was in costume, it was just me.

Speaker 1:

All these people were coming up to me and they said what are you supposed to be? And I'm like I'm a dragon. And they were like, well, why are you a dragon? I was like, listen, dickhead, you're supposed to be in costume, so why are you coming up to me? My friend, she came up to me. She said you could do this in your act. You could be Puff the Magic Dragon. And I said, wait, I could be Piff the Magic Dragon. You might have heard of my older brother, steve, and I came up with that line straight away and I was like that's really funny and it took me another four months to try it.

Speaker 1:

But as soon as I did it, I was like this is what I need to do now. And I was doing a close-up gig where I was just bombing and I said to the girl who was running I said I don't want to do this anymore. She said, but look, I can't get somebody this much short notice. Why don't you come and do it as the dragon? And I was like, okay, so I did it and it just killed.

Speaker 1:

And all these people who you know, hated me were now begging me to do magic, and all these people who thought I was a dickhead now as a dickhead in a dragon outfit, they thought it was hilarious. So, um, it became this thing. Um, that just it, I I kind of like I say like it's a thing of magpie. I realized that this was like gonna gonna make me stand out and, um, that had a lot of ideas around it and I've always just kept on having more and more ideas around it. So I just I went for it and went all in.

Speaker 1:

And you know, for the first couple of years, people like what the f**k are you doing? You, this is, this is, and I was like I've got a feeling this is going to be the biggest thing I do, and it's proven to be that way Don't listen to what the haters say, even if they're right. You know it's good to be a bit stubborn and a bit stupid in this business, because if you really understood the odds you're up against and the unlikelihood of success, then you would never try in the first place. So be a little dumb.

Speaker 2:

Well, with that being said, if people want to find out more about you and about your book and about any other projects and shows, where can they go to?

Speaker 1:

I'll just finish. That reminds me of one last little story, which is so short it's about 45 minutes. The first part is so Bill McCormick was a legend in our business and I met him, went for dinner with him after the Magic Circle one night and he was like giving me all this advice and we're getting on great. And then he said to me oh, do you have a business card? Give me your card. And I said no, I don't have one. And he was furious. He was like, listen, in this industry you've always got to be prepared, because you don't know when you're going to meet the person who's going to give you your break, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Your break, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

And I just felt like if people don't remember me, if people can't like recall who I am after meeting me, they need a business card to remember who I am, then I haven't made a good enough impression. So, um, and and you know that's kind of dumb, that thought because like, they're not going to, they're not going to remember your number. But I was like, you know, it was like the beginning of the Internet and I was like people can find me. So that's why, with PIF. One of the reasons I like followed it through so confidently was because I was like, hey, if you've seen this, even the first 10 seconds, you're going to remember it and you're going to be able to Google it the next day or the next week or whatever you know. And so if you want to find my book or my DVDs, or where I I perform me next or, um, any more information about me, google it and, uh, hopefully I'll be within the top 10 results amazing.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. So thank you, um, once more for giving us your time and, uh, giving us your list. Thanks, jamie, don't forget, we do have um stranded with a stranger as well. So if you want to send in your list, thanks, jamie, don't forget, we do have Stranded with a Stranger as well. So if you want to send in your list, you can Just send it to sales at alakazamcouk and we'll get that on one of our Monday editions. But for now, thank you all for listening and we will see you again next week on another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Goodbye.

Speaker 3:

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