Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
Andy Nyman
GRAB YOUR TICKETS TO THE LONDON MAGIC CONVENTION ON SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2024: https://www.londonmagicconvention.co.uk/
Join us as we welcome one of our most requested guests, the wonderful Andy Nyman! A celebrated actor and magician known for his collaborations with Derren Brown. This episode promises insight into Andy's illustrious career, from his creation of hit West End play turned Hollywood film "Ghost Stories" to his exciting role in hosting the London Magic Convention on November 3rd. With renowned lecturers like Wayne Houchin, Stephen Long, and Matt Ricardo on the program, Andy also shares a tantalising peek at the unexpected magical items he'd choose if marooned on a desert island.
Join us as Andy emphasise's the value of an open mind, illustrated through anecdotes of personal discovery at places like Kaymar Magic and interactions with magic legends. From the ingenious card tricks of Harry Baron to the unexpected wonders found in older magic books, we highlight the enduring power of classic magic that stands the test of time.
Experience the nostalgia of legendary magic venues, like Dean Dill's barbershop, where Dean's Box and Blizzard leave a lasting impression. Whether discussing the craftsmanship behind classic illusions or the thrill of discovering unique props like Ali Bongo's Dice Through Mirror, this episode celebrates the creativity and innovation that keep magic enchanting.
As a community we owe a great deal to Andy and have enjoyed his offerings on the stage and screen and his quirky, off-beat list provides a true insight into a living legend in magic!
Andy's Desert Island Tricks:
1) Spot Paddles
2) The Kick by Harry Baron and Kaymar Magic
3) Dean's Box by Dean Dill
4) Ring in Lightbulb by Vanni Bossi
5) Dice Through Mirror by Ali Bongo
6) Diabolical by Steve Cook
7) Nest of Boxes
8) Codology by George Kovari
Book) Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic
Item) London Magic Convention Coin
GRAB YOUR TICKETS TO THE LONDON MAGIC CONVENTION ON SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2024: https://www.londonmagicconvention.co.uk/
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Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
The World of Music Music.
Speaker 1:Music, music hello and welcome to another episode of desert island tricks. Now there are two ways that you could be experiencing today's podcast. You could be listening on the various streaming platforms, wherever you normally listen to this podcast, but you could also watch this one on YouTube. So there is a video version of this. If you want to head to our YouTube, go check it out. But that's because we have a very special guest.
Speaker 1:Now, today's guest is someone I've been a huge fan of my entire magic career, ever since I was 16, picking up his phenomenal DVDs and tricks. And, of course, his tricks are still incredible. They're getting even more interesting with these skulls and spike, without giving too much away, which was a phenomenal trick. Of course, we've already had his son here as well. Now I know he doesn't need an introduction, but I have got one.
Speaker 1:So Andy is not only an acclaimed actor known for his work in hit films like the Woman in Black, ghost Stories, jungle Cruise, which was very funny, just to name a few and shows like Peaky Blinders and Deadset Now, deadset was a really quirky TV show but he's also a world renownedrenowned magician, co-creating legendary theatre performances with Derren Brown and amazing audiences around the globe. From screen to stage. Andy is a master of storytelling, suspense and illusion. He's also an acclaimed theatre actor, recently starring alongside Imelda Staunton in Hello Dolly in London's West End. His theatre show Ghost Stories now back on tour I've got my tickets is a phenomenal blend of storytelling, illusion and the occasional well-timed jump scare which gets me every time.
Speaker 1:As well as all of this, andy hosts a wonderful convention, the London Magic Convention, which I've been to for the last few years, and it's always such an excellent day. Now it's back this year on Sunday November the 3rd at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, so make sure you grab your tickets. The entire Alakazam team are going to be there, of course. Today's guest, without further ado, is the phenomenal Andy Nyman. Hello, andy.
Speaker 2:Hello Jamie. What a lovely introduction. I hope I don't disappoint.
Speaker 1:You could never disappoint. Whenever we see your name on anything we know, it's going to be phenomenal, and this will be no exception. Like I said, you are our most requested guest.
Speaker 2:Oh, hopefully not your most complained about afterwards.
Speaker 1:But, that being said, at the very beginning I spoke to you. I just mentioned about the London Magic Convention. Now that is coming up and that will be after this, and I really want people to know about it, because it's such a great day that you and preston put together. So, uh, tell us a little bit about it as you said, it's sunday, november.
Speaker 2:The third, which is fast approaching, um, the wonderful lyric hammer smith basically, preston and I we love so much, as I know all of your listeners and viewers do, and sometimes we were worried, you know, sometimes it's a bit cliquey and a bit elitist and we just felt like people can forget the fun of magic. So we created a convention that was just made us laugh and was just full of fun and it's a one day. We have three incredible lecturers. We've got Wayne Houchin doing his first UK lecture for a decade, who, if you don't know him, is the most incredible magician. He invented French kiss, the card swapping in the mouth trick. He invented the amazing coin in soda. Can he's going to lecture his classics plus some new stuff. Amazing coin in soda can he's going to lecture his classics plus some new stuff.
Speaker 2:We've got Stephen Long, aka Hector Chadwick, who is writing the next Derren Brown stage show. He's written with Derren before. He's a brilliant mentalist. He's doing a brand new lecture. And then we've got the gentleman juggler, matt Ricardo, doing his first ever lecture. Matt will also end the day doing an amazing show. We've got a packed dealer's hall. We have the London Close-Up Magic Championship, where someone will be crowned Close-Up Magic Champion, London Close-Up Magic Champion, and we also have our hilarious £4 gala show, which you really have to see to experience. If you want to have a go in either the close-up competition or the £4 gala show, there are still a couple of spaces left. You can still get in All the details and the tickets are on londonmagicconventioncouk. This is our fourth year and I promise you you will have the best fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's always such a good day, and what you said there at the beginning about it being sort of cliquey sometimes, that's the exact opposite. Everyone just talks to each other, everyone just gets involved and it's such a lovely atmosphere every year.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, that really matters to us. It's really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be a great day, but it does lead us on to why we're actually here. And I'm equally as excited, because I'm sure that we're going to go down a route which is mentalism-esque, but there may be, a couple of curveballs. Are there some curveballs in there?
Speaker 2:I'm looking at my list, I would say it's mainly curveballs.
Speaker 1:Nice, that's good. So well, so we can all play andy nyman bingo here. So what do you think andy's gonna put on his list? So we know it's curveballs, but what do you think it is? See if you can guess what it is. Um, that being said, let's talk about the concept. So if you've never joined us before, the idea is we're about to maroon andy on his very own desert 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 the island is, who's there, stuff like that we do not mind. It's in andy's own imagination. What we do care about is the list of tricks that he would perform for the rest of his days, if that's all he could take. So, with that being said, andy, let's find out your first curveball, no doubt In position number one. What did you take with you?
Speaker 2:Okay, look, it's a given Salesman that I am. I would like to take all eight of my ocean tricks and have a dealer stand there on the off chance an ocean liner gets marooned and I can be selling to the people who get off the boat. But that's not what I'm going to do. I'm not going to include any of my tricks. The first trick in my list of eight is maybe the first trick I ever saw. It was in the magic spot. I think it was called, or was it called a magic shop in Leicester. I went in there and was shown spot paddles, aka dizzy dots, the paddle trick. That's my first trick. So spot paddles, and I remember so clearly. I've got the little packet here of it. So for those who don't know, I know I will break down every trick.
Speaker 2:Basically two little lollipop sticks. One of them has is blank on both sides and the other one has a dot on one side. The blank one pass it under your sleeve and now that also has a dot on both sides. So we now have two dots, four dots in total, and we go one, two and they have jumped off this, flown through the air, and we now have two dots on this one, all on both sides and you can wipe one of those off throughout in the air. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:I remember seeing this and it just blew my mind and the guy said it's very easy to do, it's quite cheap. I can't remember what it was probably 18 and a half P or something, when I saw it Very easy to do. And as a kid I just remember thinking that's a lie. That cannot be easy to do because what I had just seen is impossible. Firstly, I don't know how the dot flew off it must be magnets or something and I don't know how you caught it so expertly. And I've always loved paddle tricks, I think because of that. Well, I know because of that moment. So there's been lots of other subsequent paddle tricks. There was the brilliant tenyo one, that the spinny one, that the coin appeared on, mind spinner or something it was called. I think I absolutely love them, but spot paddles would be my first one. Dizzy dots, it just blew my mind yeah, it's a great choice.
Speaker 1:Uh, is it one that you like worked? So when you got confident with it, did you ever gig it and take it out? I never did that with it?
Speaker 2:did you ever gig it and take it out? I never did that. What I did do was, many years later I was also well, I never bought it. I didn't get it. I just remember the oh no, I was too scared of it. I just thought that's not possible. I think I probably went out of the magic shop without anything, um, but got it years later and then thought, oh my god, that's amazing, it may. Actually it was in one of the first magic sets I ever got, not dizzy dots per se, but a paddle. God, that's amazing, it may. Actually it was in one of the first magic sets I ever got, not Dizzy Dots per se, but a paddle trip. And that's when I was like, oh my God, the one that really the advancement on it that I did do for years was again for older listeners London older listeners I'd gone into Stacey's Magic Palace that was near the British Museum.
Speaker 2:I'd happened to wander in there and that was the first time I ever saw a hot rod. What I just couldn't believe, how amazing it was. So I did do a hot rod lots and in fact I've got a sort of a very beautiful, ornate sort of brass hot rod with lots of multi-colored things in it and that used to make appearances in all of the deron rehearsals and shows. Whenever an object was used it would be. It became this running joke for like 15 years ah, beware the bejeweled stick. So I would refer to it. So it was like let's have some objects from the audience.
Speaker 2:A bejeweled stick. You know, it would be that because I always used to carry it in my bag so we'd slip it into different places. The cursed stick of bejewels. But I do, I did a hot rod a lot, but but I love it. I think when done well, you know, and slowly, it's the most amazing thing. And in fact I think you've I'm not saying this because I you know, I've been asked to say things. I think Alakazam have just come out with that. There is that, what's it called?
Speaker 1:Snaps or what is it? Sticks by Eric Stevens. Yeah, sticks Well, six by Eric Stevens yeah, Six.
Speaker 2:Well, holy cow, I mean, you know, talk about. I remember the first time I saw his early video of that paddle stuff. I was just like what the hell it was like seeing ninja rings for the first time and you're realizing, is that just linking rings? You know, it felt like he'd done the same thing with paddles, but I really love it. So Dizzy Dots would be my first trip.
Speaker 1:Great, and I wonder how many of you out there playing Andy Bingo got that one. I would not have got that one, that's a great great choice, but that's great. It's also nice to know that's one of the early tricks that got you into into magic. Oh yeah, what was the first trick that got you into mentalism? Just as an aside.
Speaker 2:Well, it's really funny that, Jamie, because I realised I'd liked mental magic. I don't really distinguish much between the two. I don't really. It's funny. I just lectured this weekend in Poland at an excellent mentalism convention. But one of the things I was saying to them was don't label yourself as a mentalist, because it just means it cuts you down on everything else you're going to buy or read or learn. It's like no, this is my area and I've never really felt like that.
Speaker 2:I think the thinking of all of those things is going to help you in any way, shape or form in every branch of the art. So I remember I've always liked you know like a little a British mentalist back in the day called John Tremaine, who had started as a. I think he'd done all sorts of magic, had been a manipulator and he was quite big, big on the sort of circuit, I think probably back in the 70s and maybe early 80s, and he did a lecture of his mental stuff. That was all quite, really solid stuff, but within that he taught a really good centre tear and I'd learnt a very rudimentary one by then. But I saw this one and I remember thinking I that's actually really really amazing and I. Then I found that it was based on al baker. I think he referenced it. So I went to Davenport and I bought Al Baker's Mental Magic and that really was a game changer for me, because one of the things that's wonderful, I think that especially within mentalism now, there's a lot of highfalutin stuff, there's a lot of clever thinking, brilliant linguistic thinking, with not very practical methods, and one of the things about those old timers was they were out making their living doing it.
Speaker 2:So all of the methods they're dealing with for the most part are practical. Which is why when you, when you say by, you know, when you advise people, go back, look at the Supreme releases, look at those earlier books, it's because it's a completely different landscape. People weren't inventing tricks to release because there was big money Supreme, I'm sure, different, because that was a big business. But for the most part, any releases that came out were sort of tricks that people were doing to earn their living. And a lot of those Supreme books and those earlier books I know Al Baker wasn't those but those old timers, what they were releasing were their acts, their standalone tricks. So when it would be, this is a reputation maker from whoever they truly were, that's how they would close their act.
Speaker 2:So I think that going back and looking at all the stuff isn't just a sort of hackneyed expression. It's because a lot of the time there are very practical, solid methods at play that are reliable, with really good plots. So anyway, it was the Al Baker thing that really made me think, and also no one else was doing it. Literally. There was graham jolly, mark paul, me, that me and mark paul knew each other. That was it. You know, we were both at marvin's, we don't know.
Speaker 2:I can't believe no one else likes mentalism. It's really good and for me mine and mark's styles were completely different and for me what was exciting about mentalism was there was something about it as an actor that was like God. This is the most sort of naked version of magic. Even though I'm using very standard methods, it feels like there are no methods and also the fact it raised proper questions for an audience. In a way, magic didn't, but I was still going out, close-upping and stuff. I love it, I love it all. So my next trick actually is a really interesting mix of the two oh, there you go.
Speaker 1:That's a bit of a uh sneak peek, let's go straight into it then. So what did you put in your second position? So so.
Speaker 2:I used to schlep up to Kmart Magic quite a lot to see Morley Budden and I mean, fuck me, that was a schlep. I've lived in Hammersmith since 1987 and I used to have to get on the tube and I think it was up Minster or something. I mean it's like an hour and a half on the tube. It was literally the last stop and then you'd have to get a bus. You know it was literally the last stop and then he'd have to get a bus. You know it was like a pilgrimage but Morley was a great. It was a great shot and he was a great warm, friendly demonstrator and they released really interesting stuff and he had bought. My understanding is I'm sure there may be some people around who could correct this some of the old times I think he'd bought all of harry baron's catalog when when harry baron folded. There are actually two tricks on here that I got at kmr on my list. This is the first one and it's a trick that harryron, a card trick, called the kit and the effect. I still use it. The effect is this I'm going to look at you. So I'm going to do it for you now in Mime. Okay, so I'm looking at you, jack. Yes, I'm going to choose that card for you. That's the Jack of Diamonds, that's going to be your card. And look at me, peter Nardi, okay, let's take that. You're definitely the queen of clubs, ok, so here's what we'll do Give those a cut, mix them for a minute. So, jamie, let's do you first. I'm going to deal down. You say stop whenever you want, and we'll put your card in face up whenever you want. Stop there, great, and let Peter, let's do the same for you. Stop, whatever. That one or that one, was it that one? Okay, boom, all right. So if I said we're looking for the sister card of your cards, would you know what that was? I think I said you were the jack of clubs, so the sister card would be the jack of spades. And I said you were the whatever I said queen of clubs. Yours is the queen of spades, so if we spread them out, we'll take them out. There we are, there's the one next to yours and yours. You could have stopped me anywhere. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, turn them over. And it's the matching pairs and it's perfect and clean. And it's amazing. You stop there because, look, and you spread the rest of the deck and it's completely blank. It blew my mind and and I I do do it, you know, and I've got tricks I've based on it, but I still do that trick there. It is so simple and so clean, the thinking is so elegant, it's so unbelievably powerful, um, and where it's been incredibly useful for me. I actually did it very recently with um.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you know, but myself and jeremy dyson, who wrote ghost stories, we have a novel called the warlock effect about a magician set in the 1950s. It's been very, very popular book. It's out in paperback now. Feel free to get it. I also read it on audible. Feel free to listen. But we're in the throes of adapting it for television and we had a pitch meeting at the television company that we're going in for and I knew that part of that meeting.
Speaker 2:It would be useful if I did a card trick or a trick or two to sort of show, because there's lots of magic in the book. So I did the kick. But what I did was and I've done this a few times, I've adapted it. So the cards that I pulled out, rather than being match, you know, the queen of clubs and was I wrote the names of the people. Here you go, I've written there's yours, that's Jamie, and yours is boom, and they stop me at any card and we turn their cards over and it's their surnames. And now I spread the rest of the cards and every one of the cards they didn't stop at says the warlock effect, the warlock effect, the warlock effect, the warlock effect, the warlock effect. Same method. Completely the same method feels like a very different trick because of the way it's adapted it.
Speaker 2:I adore it. I think it's the most amazing trick. Um, it was one of the first times as well I'd seen a blank deck, and there's a great lesson in that. We're so blasé as magicians with gaffes. Yeah, I'll take a double backer.
Speaker 2:Most people never see a magician as long as they live, and if they do see a magician, they certainly don't see a blank deck. What is that? It's got a card with no face on it. So you know things we just forget, like a nudist deck. Holy shit, that trick's amazing. Completely blank deck, and now there's a back printed. And now they're all printed. What the fuck? Hang on, they're blank again.
Speaker 2:I mean, it is like special effects and it's easy to think when we watch BGT and Fool Loves oh, everyone's seen everything they haven't. They really, really, really haven't. And if they have, it's very different seeing it in the flesh, where they can touch it and look at it and think, oh, so that was another big lesson for me. With that is it's the most. The method was brilliant and practical, the plot easy to follow and knocks you for six. And again, something I've always tried to emulate I've tried to emulate a lot of that within my stuff is that the method is easy enough that you don't really have to worry about anything. You can just communicate and have fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a wonderful trick. I've got a version of it in my close-up case so I think I'm not sure if it's when Liam took Kmart over. Liam's done a great job.
Speaker 2:I think Liam's a really decent guy. I love that he's kept Kmart going. I love dealers and I really I think it's fantastic he's done that. I just wanted to interject that yeah, of course, I agree.
Speaker 1:I think um liam's uh, someone that I've known for a really long time. He puts his heart and soul into to kmr. He really, really loves it. Um, but yeah, they bought out a version with casino cards, so all of the the cards were actual casino cards, with the corners cut and all the backs were different and that's a great mentioned that in his podcast.
Speaker 2:What's it called there?
Speaker 1:it's cool I think it's the casino kick the kick, yeah. So it's a really great choice. It's such a wonderful uh trick and again it has that sort of mentalism magic-y crossover with it as well that's it.
Speaker 2:And that that was one of the things where it sort of does because it doesn't feel like sleight of hand. It doesn't feel like, you know, you're doing something clever or vanishing something, or now I've snapped it and it's turned from a king to an ace you've made. Did I make you stop at those places? I mean, that's also a plot you could do with it. You know, it's sort of mentalism-esque, deron-esque. I'm going to deal down. You say stop whenever you want. Um, did I? You know, I am going to make you stop at a couple of, but I would be wary of that because there's one thing that can go wrong in the trick. So I, you know, I think it's good to do that after the fact, after you've done the method. So now it's done and finished and then you're going. That was all pretty clean. Is that fair? Fair? Did it feel like I made you stop at a particular place? No, it doesn't, does it? It feels so fair.
Speaker 1:But of course I did make, or whatever you want to go, yeah, yeah, it's a superb choice and it does lead us nicely into number three. So what did you put in your third position?
Speaker 2:So, I'm very lucky over the years that I've been going out to LA for 25 years or whatever and was blessed to play at the castle quite a few times and I got to know a magician actually, there are two tricks in here because of him uh, a wonderful magician called glenn farringdon, and glenn is also a tv writer. And I got to know him when I was working at the castle and I'd gone to his house and and he sort of said to me on this day, what are you doing Saturday? And I was like, well, you know, I've got to be at the castle later, but nothing in the day. He was like, oh, we should go to the barbershop. And I was like I don't need a haircut. He said no, no, no, no, no, it's not that, come with me. So we drive out to this barbershop and it was dean dill's barbershop. So for those who don't know who dean dill was, dean, I mean, look him up. There's a few amazing clips of him on youtube, I think on um, on the tonight shot stuff. Um, he was an incredible magician and Dean also kind of looked like I mean again, this is an old reference Wolfman Jack. He looked like a biker, amazing looking dude, kind of bikers, beards, amazing hair and he had this barbershop. But in the back of the barbershop was his magic studio where he did magic and sold stuff. And the back of the barbershop was his magic studio where he did magic and sold stuff. And on a Saturday, all the guys would turn up there and they'd shoot the shit. Someone would have a haircut. He'd do magic. He was an extraordinary coin magician and inventor and manufacturer. He also had, so a contender.
Speaker 2:Here was Blizzard, which I know has been re-released recently. Well, at that point I actually ended up writing a routine for Dean that he marketed with it at first. This is how Christ is. Years ago Actually that's funny I said Christ, he was a devout Christian. I did not know that without Christian, I did not know that. So when he showed me Blizzard for the first time which, for those who don't know, it's a brilliant, brilliant effect where basically he's got a deck.
Speaker 2:Name a card, you name a card, three of hearts. Okay, I'm going to take out all the threes, put them and they go face down on the table. Okay, mix the four cards up, touch the one you think is the three of hearts. You touch it and it was. This is him doing it to me. It was it's like, wow, that was really clean. It's like, yeah, it's amazing, Because if you'd have touched any of the other three, because if you'd have touched any of the other three, turn them over. The other three were all blank Spread through the cards. They were all blank. It's the only card in the deck and it's a completely clean deck. And he did this to me and everyone was around watching All these like eight, nine heavy hitter LA guys watching and I went, fuck, fuck, I didn't know. He was like this devout Christian. They all just broke up and and someone sort of said Dean's uh, dean's, christian and I was like, oh, I am, I'm so sorry, but he was like I'll take that as a compliment, it's fine. It's an amazing trick and an amazing, amazing method, bold beyond belief. That's not the trick, it's.
Speaker 2:Dean's Box is my third choice. For those who do not know it. It's been re-released, recently authorized. There were lots of knockoffs available for years. I must have watched him do this, I kid you not, I don't know 20, 30 times.
Speaker 2:It's a wooden box, beautiful sort of mahogany wooden box, two holes at the side with these little curtains on them. It's like a little box slash spirit cabinet. You open it up inside. You can put your hands through these little curtains. There is nothing in there. He takes two ropes, a red rope and a white rope, and he holds them by the middle. So you know, you've got the two ends of the ropes like that and the ends hanging down. He takes the two ends. This is the first of three phases. He takes the two hooped ends of the ropes, he puts those into the curtains there's a hole at the top he lifts them up through the top and those two ropes are now linked. The ends are still sticking out, it's the middles of the ropes are now linked and he then takes them out and hands them to you. And there's nothing else in the box.
Speaker 2:It is beyond explanation. It is the most brilliant piece of thinking. It's actually based on a Jack Avis trick, an old Jack Avis trick, that is, you know, fantastic British magician from back in the day, and. But it's the most brilliant Taking of an idea and developing it. And then there are two more wonderful stages um, and and, where dean was amazing as well, where I'm not very good, I like to tip it. I liked, if I'm, if you and I were together and I show you my new trick. I always I'm always wanting to go okay, so it's really easy. What it is is uh, no, no, I mean, dean would just leave you drowning in it. He was, he was amazing, and not in a shitty way, he just had created brilliant mysteries and would leave you just swimming in them. It was fantastic, yeah, so that every now and then I kind of relearn it, but it's got such happy memories for me.
Speaker 1:Um, that trick, it's really, really amazing yeah, I mean just to comment on both of those. I remember seeing Blizzard at Davenport when I was young. Same thing, Just absolute. Your brain just dissipates completely. There's no logical way that you can backtrack any of it. And it's so well constructed. And again, Dean's Box. It's just such a lovely piece of magic. It just works so beautifully. It's routined amazingly. It gets more and more challenging each time, and what's interesting about it is the audience are caught up. So by the end of that linking they know what's about to happen. So then the stakes are raised for the performer, but he still gets them. And then the ring is brought in. Bang gets him again.
Speaker 2:I mean, that is the final phase is there's a red rope and a white rope. The lid is open in the box. You can see right in it. We're going to use one of these ropes. Which one do you want to use? The red or the white? The white, okay. The lid gets closed. You pass the white rope through. So the ends. It's very clean. It gets passed through one end. You go with the empty hand, bring it out the other end, leave the ends hanging out. You now take a brass ring that has been examined and you toss it inside the box, count to three, open the lid and it is now linked onto the rope which they can pull out, bring it out. It's yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:The thing that is brilliant and again, preston's kind of inherited this from me and I'm delighted he has. It's a sort of rail against the desire in magic for everything to be impromptu and look normal, and I think there's a real mistake there. There is such joy in mysterious objects that we mustn't forget as magicians. There's something wonderful about you know, in this world where you're walking around with you know your iPhone in your hand, where you can buy anything, do anything, this microcomputer can achieve anything. That when you sit there with a wooden box with two slightly sparkly curtains on it and something mysterious and wonderful that happens, it's like what is that? Where is that from? What would I call that? To have that mystery in that theater is something really special and also, I think, one of the truly magical things within magic. You know, there's something ancient about that. That is a real sense, and not in a sort of wanky way, but a real sense of wonder.
Speaker 2:When you you know one of the things I love about Three Skulls on a Spike, when you, firstly, when people see the object, it's like what the heck, what is that? And then you know, when you get to the end of the trick and the thing has happened, just they're left with and it's not something they can quantify or understand what it is and it's not a normal part of our world it's like oh, oh no, he does magic, he has these magic things. I really love that. So the next time you are in Alakazam or International or Kmart or whatever, or whatever magic shop I'm saying that, not websites, but you know, if you go on websites as well, just be bold on websites as well, just be bold, have a look at fun props and think maybe you know, give that a go because I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:It's special, yeah, yeah. Well, the funny thing is, magicians really praise, obviously, the work that you and darren have done together, but if you look at those shows, there's generally always a prop or something mysterious, like the emotion box or like an autonomon, or there's always something mysterious in those shows yeah, I, absolutely, I love it and that's been one of our great yin and yangs is that, you know, I've always I've got that old vaudeville sense that I love that, that I've always brought that into that product, as it were.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a great choice, and if you don't know, both of those Blizzard and Dean's Box, do go check them out. But it does bring us to number four. So what did you put in your fourth position? Okay?
Speaker 2:number four is a truly brilliant memory for me of the international magic conventions, which is which was one of the great inspirations for the london magic convention. Because when that convention, when international went ron's day, when it left a gaping hole in November for many, many, many magicians, one of my fondest memories of going around that dealer's hall was this trick and it ended up being published. I bought it then, but it ended up being published in Chris Power's brilliant Opus magazine. But it ended up being published in Chris Power's brilliant Opus magazine. The trick is Vanny Boss's ringing light bulb. Here is the trick. I am not bullshitting you. Here's a light bulb, a regular light light bulb. Sign your name on it. Okay, give me the light bulb. Got a ring right, give me the ring. One, two, throw the ring, it's in. It's now in the light bulb. You can see it on my hand in the light bulb. Hold on, pick the light bulb up. You can see it in there. Yeah, put your hand out, boom, boom, it falls out. There's the light bulb. There you go.
Speaker 2:I mean honestly, mind blowing, mind blowing, mind blowing and even more mind blowing was the method. I'm not even going to describe what the method is, because that's not what we're doing. The method is one of the most dazzling pieces of magical thinking I've come across in my 40 years of loving magic. It's extraordinary. It's extraordinary in its elegance, its simplicity, and it's no, no, it's amazing. And that was one of those moments in a dealer's hall that you just love, where you're like I'll be back in a minute, I'll be back in a minute, and you go and grab somebody. I don't give a fuck what you're doing, come with me now. Come with me now. Right, show him, show him. And you're like I'll be back in a minute, I'll be back in a minute, and you go and grab somebody. I don't give a fuck what you're doing, come with me now, come with me now. Right, show him, show him. And you're watching it again. And it's just what? How? Just incredible, an incredible moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, that's definitely one. I reckon everyone is going to be Googling that right now.
Speaker 2:Everyone's looking out. I wonder if it's Google-able. One way to find out let's have a look. Hold on, look at this Mid pod Coin ringing light bulb Fanny Bossy it's on YouTube. Stephen's Magic presents. Let's see how it holds up. Please be good, please be good, please be good. Oh my God, it's amazing. Oh my God, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:It's there on YouTube. Hello guys, I'm here to talk to you about Alakazam unlimited. This is the best streaming platform in the world. I'm telling you now. With alakazam unlimited, you get access to over 150 magic routines. This is video, performances and explanations. We have card magic, coin magic, kids, magic rope, magic, mentalism, stage parlor, impromptu. We've got you covered. All of this for the low price of just £4.99 a month, and you can cancel at any time. Perfect if you've got commitment issues. Yes, I'm talking to you, guys. You are going to absolutely love it. If you haven't joined the platform already, what the heck are you doing? Alakazam Unlimited is a streaming platform that you need to be a part of. Not only that, there is also exclusive content only available on the platform.
Speaker 1:Check out now alakazamcouk cheers great well, I'll definitely be looking that one up as well. Uh, straight after that, I've already written it down. Um, so that does bring us over your halfway point to number five. So what did you put in your fifth position?
Speaker 2:another bizarre. I mean honestly, I love a prop. These are all props. This was another thing that I used to watch in dealers halls cliff lount magic studio from bradford magic studio, which I believe danny hunt at castle magic now has all the rights to danny hunt, another wonderful dealer and maker. Danny makes three skulls on us and makes three skulls on a spike. For me the man is an artist, he's brilliant and a lovely bloke. Him and steph are brilliant. Castle Magic old books, old props, you can't beat them, just wonderful. So Leflowne, bradford Magic Studio, old timer, brilliant, and he had the rights to Ali Bongo's Dice Through Mirror. God almighty Again. I must have watched that 50 times before I bought it and I think at the time when I bought it was probably a tenner which felt like 60 quid to me, which I didn't have. But I watched Cliff do it with him. You're going to buy it, lad.
Speaker 2:For those who don't know, it's a sort of plastic wallet with a hole going through it and a mirror with a ribbon hanging out of it. Yes, it's as odd as it sounds. Ok, solid mirror hanging off this sort of bright red ribbon and this black leatherette thing. The mirror fits snugly, perfectly inside this wallet. The mirror fits snugly perfectly inside this wallet and because of the two little holes you can see the mirror in it. But you can see they're not like extra bits of mirror. It's a hole going through it and the top hole has got like a sort of lever door on it, like that. They're two little squares so you can see the thing. Spectator lays it inside. You close it, they're happy with that. You open the little lever door on the top and you take a dice that fits snugly in there. So now the lid of the box, the flap, is against this dice and you hold it like that. You either give them an ashtray or put their hands out and you just gently move it and you watch that dice melt straight through the mirror into their hand and then everything is clean.
Speaker 2:It is again something I do a lot. If people come round here, it's one of the things that I do and one of the things that, again, I love about these strange objects, especially with magicians. If they don't know, is the second they see them. They think, oh bollock, what's this shit? And then you just it's like pouring petrol on that reigniting that thing that we love about magic that you've sort of forgotten is a thing, because so much one of the things that again with the London Magic Convention, and one of the things that I really try and push against, is that kind of oh yeah, nice method. Oh yeah, it's that old thing. You know when you're seeing people how they react to tricks. Oh yeah, that's nice, yeah, it's good, it's good.
Speaker 2:I hate it. I hate that. You want that, you want enthusiasm and excitement and and some of these mad old props give you that. It's like throw it, as I say, throwing petrol back on those sort of simmering ashes of yeah, yeah, I quite like magic. It's like whoa, come on how it's thrilling. So that was another of those dice through mirror. And again, I think there are loads of knock. It was made in india. There are loads of shitty knockoffs available. Try and find an original if you can. I'm sure they'll pop up on magic week or I think castle magic at some point may be reissuing them. But oh, it's an absolute it. You know, if Tenyo kept. I mean, actually Tenyo did come out with a sort of version of it, licensed and everything, but I don't think it's as good as uh as the the alibongo. It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1:So when you you were mentioning it, it can come to mind that it's sort of an early tenure sort of trick. Right, it was just a cool, weird object that done this incredible thing with a really clever method. Um, and it was all what I. What I distinctly remember when I first saw it was how slow and deliberate the dice as it goes I mean, there's another thing I got a bit obsessed with in, uh, lockdown.
Speaker 2:That again it's something I keep thinking about. Maybe I'll try and get these remade and and and make. It was during lockdown. I got really into steel ball through glass and there's quite a few old versions of you know. It's a little wooden thing and when a piece of glass goes in it and you lock the case and then you drop a steel ball bearing onto it and this thing, you just see it go melt through and I found this really quirky one with a brilliant hidden method and I was, you know. You know what it was like in lockdown, where you're like, oh, I'll probably spend two days just playing with handling for that, which no one is ever going to see, but I love those. You're right, jamie, there's something about you, are it? It is melting through.
Speaker 1:It's a really powerful thing yeah, it's a wonderful, wonderful trick and, again, very different to all the others it's behind all of these is brilliant thinking, brilliant, brilliant, magical thinking.
Speaker 2:And the next one is almost as I look through the other things is, I think, for me the most thrilling one of those thinking-wise. This was another K-Mar moment. And Morley said I'll show you this. It's only just come out. They'd brought it out and it was a little ring box and Morley took out three dice from it red, blue and white and he gave them to me. He said there's another one in this box. He said put those dice in your pocket, rattle them around, bring one out. What have you got? Red? And he opened the box and inside the dice box that inside the ring box was his prediction, which was another red dice blew my mind and it was diabolical by steve cook, brilliant british magician, steve cook.
Speaker 2:I believe alakazam have 43 different versions of Steve's brilliant thinking and Steve took and again, we won't talk methods, but Steve took an ancient magical method and, with a piece of unbelievably elegant thinking for me, reinvented it and that was a trick that I performed at gigs. I then did um. Wayne dobson and colin rose, with steve's permission, brought out a different edition of it that used um gems, which I used for years and years and years and years and years and still have in my sort of gig bag, even though I don't gig, and that is the root of three skulls on a spike. That trick three skulls on a spike that trick Three skulls on a spike became my version. And again, steve, you know, steve gave me his blessing and he's fully credited with his brilliant thinking. But seeing that trick, it's amazing how I'm just looking at these. Of these eight tricks, six of them were experiences I had in bricks and mortar magic shops and the other two were things. One of them was just something I saw, which I'll come to next, and the other one was the thing I saw in performance. But the fact that most of these are bricks and mortar magic shop experiences really makes me a bit sad when I think about how the landscape of magic shopping has changed, because our experience now isn't the same and I know I sound old fashioned but the experience of watching something on video, rewatching it, reexamining it, being sold it in a way that doesn't feel you know. You know you've got the big trailer and the this and the that and you're not really seeing the whole thing and you're certainly not experiencing the magic of it, versus walking it, committing to walk to a place or drive to a place without the tube or the bus getting there, going, looking at the shelves being part of the wonder of it. What's new? The inevitable question Anything new in what's good? Seeing something that you just think, oh my God, and getting that thrill Magic shops are. Just Look, anyone listening and subscribing to this are going to be a Magic Shop customer. But if you haven't been to Alakazam, you should go. If you haven't been to International Magic, you should go. If you haven't been to Merlin's in Wakefield, magic in Sheffieldield, any of the ones I don't know about that I'm forgetting you should go. Because there is no experience like in all respects equally no experience like the disappointment of coming out again and that was shit. There was nothing that I wish them. He's a terrible dem or whatever it is, but there's something.
Speaker 2:It is so integral to our love of it and our hobby of it and our job of it. See the tactile nature of it. Just watching and clicking buy is so passive. It's also really important and the ease of it is joyous that you go, click download, got it, click buy. It's going to be here tomorrow and that's exciting. But if you can make those pilgrimages because if they're not there anymore, my God, we're going to miss them oh my God, it's going to be just so sad and Diabolical was another of those having Morley do that on me. And then that moment sitting on the four and a half hour tube back to Hammersmith where you look at the method in the written instructions and like, oh my God, that's so brilliant. Oh my God, I can't wait to do it.
Speaker 1:Skulls on a Spike. Superb. When I saw it come out and I saw the prop, it just looks so Well. First off, it's really well made. It just looks stunning.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, I mean it's one of those Jewish tricks where if that prop is on Hold on, it's literally within arm's reach is on hold on, it's literally within arm's reach. If that prop is sitting on the side and someone comes in, you know within five minutes they're going to say what, what is that? Oh, let me show you, and then you're into the trip. I mean it's, it's such a great win. And again, if you're gigging or you know doing a quiet little parlor show, just the uncovering of that the moment is you just feel the audience lean in. You know your work is already done, half the work for you. So you know, I really that's kind of to say I really feel that with magic props, I do think it's a really Out of fashion important part of what we do.
Speaker 1:You're right, the method is just mind bogglingly clever. It's so simple, but so smart.
Speaker 2:But that was also for me. There was a really massive lesson within that, and a lesson that ended up going into all my work, but in particular, the work with Darren Was that I also learned on that trick. Whilst it is amazing as a piece of thinking, I learnt very quickly that, oh, people can guess the method to this and I realized that I needed to bury the method more. The more I did it, and because there are no props, the way to bury the method is linguistic. So I really started to learn the power of language and how what you say and what process you create can really alter the perception of what a trick is and how fooling it is. In very simple ways, it's just like writing any other script, a piece of drama or a joke or a jump. It goes stories or whatever. Every little word has an impact and so that really came to fruition.
Speaker 2:The more I did that and did that and did that and that, the outcome of that actually is three skulls on a spike. You really see how the method just you know, I did it this weekend at this polish convention and these are all people who are into mentalism and again and again, you just see the reaction at the end of it? Well, that every single person in that room has got 10 versions of that trick. But you, just, you just go through that door, that exit door there, just keep going, that's it, that's it, and the door slams and then you can't come back in. Um, and I really loved that. So I had a really big lesson for me. But steve cook again. We need to cherish these. His books are brilliant. Fake genius, they're brilliant, brilliant books.
Speaker 1:He's a wonderful magician yep, great choice, as always, but that does bring us to the tail end. So we've got your last two choices. So what did you put in your seventh position?
Speaker 2:okay, seventh position back to glenn farrington in la, and I was at his house and we just went to look at a few bits and bobs and props and I was like, oh, we were talking about nest of boxes, because I love nest of boxes. As a plot, obviously, there was the great grandpa's box in deron. Well, that came out of my love of nest of boxes. And he said I've got this nest of boxes that's for coffee beans. Well, I love coffee. I thought, oh my god, can I see it? So I saw this nest of boxes and I thought, oh my god, I have to get one of those. So I did. It's made by Haynes House of Haynes or Haynes House of Magic, and it's a nest of boxes for a coin, beautifully made wooden nest of boxes.
Speaker 2:And I was so excited to do it and then realized, of course, once I tried it with coffee beans, that's bullshit, it doesn't work. And it doesn't work because the coffee beans are too small, so that means that it can't do what it needs to do. Actually, you know what? What? Every third time you try it, it's like why isn't that bollocks of coffee beans got in the way of it? So, whilst having that final box full of coffee beans. So whilst having that final box full of coffee beans.
Speaker 2:So I've always done it and I do do it. I did it recently. I don't gig. I haven't done a gig for 25 years, but when I was doing hello Dolly at the Palladium, the cast found out I did magic. I tend to keep it and I look quite a few shows a trick show, so that what's easiest, I'll just get them all and I'll do a few tricks. And one of the tricks I did was this and it's so clean, my God.
Speaker 2:And just again, this impossible, wonderful plot. Here's your coin. It's gone. Remember, I gave you those keys. Go over to that box, lift the lid, pull the thing out Right, open it, hold on keys. Go over to that box. Lift the lid, pull the thing out right, open it, hold on, let me hold that. Look, pull that ribbon. This is full of sweets. Pull the ribbon, pull the ribbon. Great, inside, under all the sweets, all the sweets falling out, there's another little sealed box. Open that. They open it and there's their coin inside it. Holy shit.
Speaker 2:But again, I love it because it feels like that is magic, that that could have been done 200 years ago in a parlor and it's not. It's not like I'm doing it. Oh, gentlemen and ladies, I welcome thee to this wondrous event of prestidigitation. Perhaps now thou will be sieged with thine I. I mean, it's not like I'm doing it, I'm just doing it like I'm talking now. But there's a sort of legacy that they are feeling again of a plot and a prop that is like wow, and if you're doing it and just communicating like a human being and this just looks like a nice wooden box, but not as magical looking as dean dill's box, it's just an interesting looking wooden box. It's not like, you know, nice spangles 1970. I mean, it's not that, it's just an interesting piece of drama. It's lovely, lovely. So I really love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great, great choice, and it does lead us on to, rather sadly, your last item. So what did you put in the last?
Speaker 2:position.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, jamie, you could ask all of your listeners and viewers to vote. Never in a million years would anybody go. Andy Lyman's last choice is going to be george cavarri's codology. It's a piece of green wood, drilled through it three holes, three pieces of rope. Hanging off the right hand side is a golden, sort of gold, satin fish on a sort of hook ring thing. Okay, it's a family, it's a kid's trick, it's a family trick. Hang on a sec. No, start, it's in the middle. So, two ropes the end.
Speaker 2:Hanging off the middle one is this cod, this fish. I'm gonna make it jump to one end. Here we go, put the ropes together. One, two, three. It's now on the right-hand side. Amazing, I'm going to make it jump to the other side. So it goes behind my back, comes out and it's now. You turned it round. Okay, I'll show you behind my back, but it's going to go back to the other side. One, two, three, I now turn my back, come back, jump to the other side. All right, okay, no, blah, blah, blah, all right. Well, amazing, it's jumped. Because not only that, there's the two other fish now that have appeared here. There's nothing there. Okay, well done, two other fish. Give yourselves a round of applause. What do you mean? You can't see those? Oh well, hold on a sec. One, two, boom, and there's now three fish hanging off this right, three big golden silk but satin cloth fish it I.
Speaker 2:So I saw kavari do it. The lyric hammersmith. He did a show with his son, george jr. Lyric hammersmith I'd have probably been I don't know 25 or whatever, and I saw this. George kavari was on, so I went up the road to see it. Escapology, all sorts of stuff. Good show. He brings this thing out. At the end I'm like, oh yeah, clog, what's this thing gonna be? Enjoyed the first part. When those three fish appeared. My art it was like you know, cartoon my eyes, like what.
Speaker 2:So I used to do kids parties. That was my finish at kids parties, that trick, and one of the reasons I loved it. Well, there's two reasons. The first thing was at the start of my kids party. I would do this thing where I'd have a badge in my hand here, in my hand here. Well, we can't see it. What do you mean? Oh, I'm so sorry, I left the. There's got like a little sticker, like an invisible, an invisible sticker. There you go and I take the invisible sticker off and now the badge is there and I've just done a spellbound, you know, as I go over here. So there's the thing. Oh, it's not there. Oh, hang on a sec, there you go. You see that. Now you know, because I do that. Look over there. Now, when we look back, the thing's there there. So I loved that and that at the end of the thing, when I go, you see the two fish as well. What do you mean? You can't see? Oh God, sorry, no, I've left the invisible coat, the invisible stickers on them, sorry about that. One, two, boom, there they are, whoa, and you'd see every parent Whoa.
Speaker 2:It was such a great finish. And again, look, it's an insane prop, but who cares? The method is amazing and it's one of those methods when you've got the trick, george still sells it. The amazing George Cavari, who is now 173 years old. No, I'm kidding, he's 172. He's amazing, he's amazing. Kavar is amazing. We gave him the Patrick Page Award for Excellence in Magic at the convention last year. What a wonderful man. The method is one of those methods that when you own the prop and you know how it's done, you cannot work out how everybody else can't see how it's done. It is so incredible. But it looks like real magic, truly brilliant. So that is my. Now I'm also. Look at that list. I'm covered for whatever happens. If I get rescued, okay, an ocean liner turns up. Look at the gigs I can do on the boat. So I'm earning on the boat. I can do kids, close up dizzy dots, the kick Parlour, show Dean's box. I can unscrew a light bulb, chug someone's ring in it.
Speaker 1:I'm covered all bases and you can catch some fish for dinner as well.
Speaker 2:There you go. That's the reason, jamie, I've got it on that Never starve as long as you can swallow silk, that's a great choice.
Speaker 1:Again, it's another curveball, but it's super interesting. Um, in terms of your entire list, it's such a diverse, different, interesting. I think it probably shows the way that you think about magic when you see props, and you must see things slightly differently and see how you can adapt it to different situations. I think it's a superb list and I guarantee no one playing Andy Bingo got any of those. I shouldn't think.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope that there are things on that list that maybe you'll go and buy, go and find I mean some of them you might struggle a bit with, but others you won't, you know. So I urge you to play around.
Speaker 1:Great, excellent choices, and it does lead us onto your two curveballs. So obviously, you've had eight selections so far. Now you're only allowed one each of them. So what did you go for your book?
Speaker 2:No question, mark Wilson Complete Course. It was one of the first proper magic books that I got. I think my dad bought it for me from a remainder shop in Leicester. There was a while in the early 80s where you know that big old hardback was in all the sort of remainder bookshops and I think you know he got it for me. It was probably about four quid.
Speaker 2:That book is extraordinary. Not only is it a kind of smorgasbord of all sorts of magic, the drawings are brilliant, as it's really easy to learn. There were tricks in there that I did in my close-up for years. Torn and restored, that I did. I mean, one of the downsides of the book is I thought everything was invented by Mark Wilson for a while. So you know I'm one of the few magicians who was out there doing Di Vernon's expansion of texture. I used to do that close-up. I'd learnt it from Mark Wilson's complete course. I didn't know it was Vernon. I don't think it's credited in there. But boy oh boy. You know, if I'd have known it was Vernon I probably wouldn't have learnt it. In fairness, it's a brilliant, brilliant book. It covers all bases Illusions, coins, ropes, Big stuff, little stuff, wonderful. So no question, that's the book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great choice. I think it's probably in our top five books at this point. Um, on the podcast, I think lots of people have mentioned it. Lots of people seem to reference the different book covers as well. I think there were two different book covers and everyone talks about which edition they had based on that. Um, the the design on the front. But, yeah, excellent, now I've got to go get mine.
Speaker 2:Hang on, that's the one I've got, and not only that. So 1991, my dad gave it to me. And not only that inside it 799 from bookstore the bargain bookshop in Leicester. Yeah, what a book Actually. It's inspired me. Now I've got that out to have a sort of maybe have a browse of it later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great choice, excellent choice for book. And it does bring us onto your curveball curveball item, because no one knows where this one's going to go. What did you put in your non-magic item?
Speaker 2:I had thought long and hard about this and actually, like father, like son, when Preston said what his object was, not only did it make me want to cry, but I thought I have to take the same, which is we made these coins for the London Magic Convention. I pretty much always carry it. There we are and that is my London Magic Convention coin, and not only is it a beautiful tactile object. Yes, we do sell them at the convention, but that's not why I'm choosing it. It's such a marker of what magic has meant in my family's life, what it's given me and preston, what we have, how proud we are of what we do with the convention. You know we do these things. Actually I should say this here as well please come to the convention. People. We, you know, as peter will tell you as well with their shot, it's me saying go to magic shops and stuff. It's important you support these things because they can't survive without us. It's the same without the convention. Please come to the convention because it's a lot of hard work and we need people to buy tickets. Having said that, I don't mean this year because we're desperate, we haven't sold, it's fine, but it, every single person that comes makes a difference. One of the other things that's really important for us is in honour of Anthony Owen, who killed himself, who was one of my closest friends. The Close Up Magic Championship is in his name.
Speaker 2:One of the things that we also do is we give away probably I don't know 20% of our tickets. We do a thing called Mitzvah tickets M-I-T-Z-V-A-H, and if you want to come to the convention and you can't afford it if you've had a shit time you would to come but you can't afford it send an email. If you look on instagram or or twitter, um, the details are on there. If you go to the the magic convention website, londonmagicconventioncouk, there's uh, I think there's a contact link in there. It's probably just info at londonmagicconventioncouk. In the subject put the word mitzvah, m-i-t-z-v-a-h. We will just give you a ticket. You don't have to explain. There's no shame. We've done it every year. It's not like you're going around with a sash on saying I couldn't afford to come.
Speaker 2:Nobody knows, but we honestly think that we love it. We love magic so much. We think it's such an important part of the community and such a fun thing that just come. It's fine. Have a brilliant day. Have a laugh. Might make you feel better and it might just help you a little bit. So come, come, come. It's fine and that's also part of why I'm so. I'm really proud of what Preston and I have done with it. So that is my, that's my object.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great one, and I remember when Preston spoke about it we didn't get the chance to see it. So now, because this is a video one, we'll get to see what it looks like as well. And you say you sell them at the convention as well, so this could end up being someone else's thing. Yeah, we do.
Speaker 2:That's that, and there's only 300 of them in the world. Each one is numbered. Yeah, and that's it. That's the London Magic Convention coin. Yeah, but we love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the London Magic Convention coin. Yeah, but we love it. Yeah, it's a great one and, like Andy said, do get tickets for it. It is coming up very quickly, but everyone's going to be there, so it should be a really, really fun day, and the lecturers as well. I'm super excited about the lecturers that you've got coming as well.
Speaker 2:They're great, they're really great really really good.
Speaker 1:Well, that's an amazing list. Thank you so much, andy. So we've gone from Dizzy Dots, the Kick Dean's Box Ring in Bulb Dice Through Mirror, diabolical Nester Boxes and Codology Amazing. So if people want to find out more about you I know that you're just about to go into rehearsals for a new show If anyone want to find out stuff, tell them what they need to know.
Speaker 2:Uh, you could go to my incredibly out of date website, uh, andynymancom, which I really, really need to put some work into, but I simply have not got the time. Um, I'm going to be, yeah, doing the producers at the many a chocolate factory. Um, from november the 27th through to March the 1st. It is virtually sold out. If you want tickets, there are some available in Feb, so book that. And then I'm in the film of Wicked that's coming out later in the year. But at the moment, come to the convention. We'll see you at the convention. Preston and I will be frantic running around doing it. But, jamie, I have absolutely loved doing this. I've absolutely loved it. What fun, what a great thing to do.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for doing it. It's been hard to pin you down, for obvious reasons. You're just so busy all the time, so it's amazing to finally have you on here and have that full circle thing. You're the only other father and son group that we've had, obviously because of Pete and Harry as well, of course. Well, thank you so much again, andy. Everyone, do grab your tickets to the convention. Do go check out the producers as well at the Chocolate Factory in London. I think we're probably going to end up getting tickets to producers as well at the Chocolate Factory in London. I think we're probably going to end up getting tickets to that as well. Thank you again. I know that you've got to rush off, andy, so I'll say goodbye to you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, jamie, and happy magic everybody.
Speaker 1:Happy magic and thank you guys for listening. Don't forget we do have Stranded with a Stranger, which is our Monday edition, where you can send in your list to sales at alakazamcouk. Do give us a reason for all of your tricks, as well as a bio about you, so that we get to know you a little bit more. Send it to sales at alakazam with the subject line my desert island list. That means it comes through to me and we can get one of those out on a Monday. That being said, thank you so much for listening. Please leave comments down below, if you're on YouTube Just giving your support to Andy to say thank you for all of his time and wisdom. Obviously, over the years we've all used a lot of his tricks and been entertained by them as well, and do go grab those tickets and we will see you at the convention. That being said, thank you all for watching or listening, and we'll see you again soon on another episode of desert island tricks.
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