Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
Alex McAleer
Alex McAleer, also known as Alexander Marsh lands on the Alakazam Island with his warm charm and humour, offering a refreshing take on the art of mentalism, sharing his journey from amateur dramatics in Suffolk to becoming a cherished figure in the mentalism community. Laugh along with us as we recount amusing anecdotes, like a radio studio mishap, and uncover Alex’s top “Desert Island Tricks,” including his favourite, the elusive "two envelope test." His vibrant storytelling provides a unique glimpse into his creative process and the magic behind his performances.
Join us as we unravel the art and strategy behind mentalism and magic acts, focusing on creating authentic and mesmerising experiences for the audience. From simple word predictions to mystifying card tricks with the invisible deck, we discuss the ethical nuances and the continuous evolution of performance techniques. Discover the delicate balance between innovation and tradition as we explore the charm of classic presentations and the playful mystery that surrounds the mentalist's craft.
In our journey through the intricacies of mentalism, we also delve into the practicalities of touring with delicate equipment, the power of memorised deck systems, and the allure of seemingly impossible feats, like recalling a shuffled deck's order. Learn about the significance of motivation in mentalism acts and the importance of using non-digital tools for capturing creativity. With insights from magic literature and personal anecdotes, we reflect on the cyclical nature of creativity and the influence of art and design on mentalism and magic. Don't miss out on this chance to peek behind the curtain of Alex McAleer's fascinating world.
Alex's Desert Island Tricks:
- Two Envelope Test
- Invisible Deck (Ultamental Deck)
- Four Sided Triangle
- Scatterbrain
- PK Touches
- A Deck of Cards
- Card Memory
- Blindfold Q&A
Book. Jinx
Item. Notepad and Pen
Chats with influential, inspiring, prolific and community oriented folks.
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Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
Can I tell this story without giving too much away? I'm sure I can. There is a moment in which two things are swapped secretly and it happens in an offbeat and I'm using someone's body to cover it just as an offbeat moment. But that normally happens when someone's on my left and right. But I was in a radio studio once doing this and, because of where the microphones have to be, the two guests were sat to my left, so they were sat next to each other. I was left, so they were sat next to each other. I was away on the right, so I had to stand up and do the little swappy move and then come back. What must have happened is I did the swappy move twice, which basically undoes the whole thing. So when I was just as I normally would check that the word was accurate, I was surprised to see what I was reading was the word, and now I was no longer ahead of the game. Hello.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. We have a mentalist in the wings today Now. This particular guest has sort of been on the scene for quite a long time now, but he has a very fresh, interesting take on mentalism. When you watch him perform you can tell that he is the kind of performer that likes people and likes talking to people. He's very personable, he's very friendly, normally quite bubbly as well for a mentalist. You know, most mentalists are quite quiet and mysterious and serious, whereas today's guest is quite warm, welcoming, inviting, quite animated at times as well, very funny as well. Uh, today's guest, you may know him by two different names as well, so there are two names, so I'm going to introduce him with both. Today's guest is alex mcaleer, slash alexander marsh. Lovely to have you a, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1:What a lovely intro as well. It's both slightly galling to hear and then also quite pleasant to hear, which is nice.
Speaker 2:But a lot of your tricks have come through the 1914 over recent years and they're always really fun to watch. You're very engaging, quite bubbly and, like I say, it just looks like you're always having an amazingly fun time. Thanks, no, I like that.
Speaker 1:I've had, like you know, reviews in shows or press bits where it says, like you know, he's quite warm and welcoming, unlike most mentalists who tend to be a bit dark and moody. I'm the mentalist that gets a lot of someone's partner, their wife, whatever goes. I normally hate mentalism, but I really like you. I was like, thank you, that normally hate mentalism, but I really like you. I was like, thank you, that's exactly what I'm going for, which is bubbly, unless you said I move a lot, which is anytime I've ever been directed in anything I could play or whatever. My notes are slow down and keep still. When I'm in charge of my show, I talk as quick as I want and I move around all over the place yeah, I think.
Speaker 2:I think it definitely gives you a distinct style, um, and it definitely makes you very warming as a performer as well. Like you say, mentalism is normally very dead serious, um. So just going back there acting background then, oh, a little bit only like amateur stuff.
Speaker 1:When I was growing up we grew up in like a little village well, it's a big village, small town in the middle of suffolk, mid-suffolk, and uh, yeah, it was like an amateur dramatics group and as a kid I was always involved in the pant of Suffolk, mid-suffolk, and uh, yeah, it was like an amateur dramatics group and as a kid I was always involved in the Pantos and then, being the only sort of young male still interested in performing on stage, I got lots of roles, like especially in the Panto. I once did a gig, actually nearby in Suffolk and this I would have been in my late 20s and this young girl who would have been in her mid-teens said are you Billy Bumpkin? I was in a pantomime Billy Bumpkin once, but not right now. I'm Alex the Mind Reader. Thank you, yeah, kind of acting, and I've done bits of semi-professional stuff and courses and clowning and all sorts of stuff, but not like honk-honk nose clowning, like movement and things like that. But yeah, I'm a director's nightmare.
Speaker 2:Great. Well, I'm really interested to see where your list is going to be. I normally have a guest. I think it's all going to be mentalism, I think for the most part.
Speaker 1:I did think about it not being mentalism, but now it's all mentalism, All mentalism great.
Speaker 2:So, with that being said, let's talk about the concept. If this is your first time listening to the podcast, today we are going to whisk Alex away to his very own magical 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 like how big the island is, who's there? Are there animals there? All that sort of good stuff. It doesn't really matter, it's in Alex's own imagination. This is basically the list of tricks that Alex would perform for the rest of his time, if that's all he could perform. So, with that being said, let's jump on a bicycle and go to your desert island and find out what you have in position. One In position one.
Speaker 1:Is it completely egomaniacal to choose one of your own routines?
Speaker 1:not at all if it's your trick it's your trick it's true which, but it's kind of a trick. It's a good one to talk about because it has many fathers and in mentalism and if anyone's ever seen me perform, they've definitely seen me do this because I've been doing it for ever. I've probably done a thousand times. I call it the two envelope test and, as you've seen me perform, I've seen a clip of me on YouTube, especially if it's live or in some news studio somewhere in America. It's when there's two people standing either side of me. One person thinks of a word and drops that down for later verification, and then the person on the right normally thinks of a person. So the person on the stage left is thinking of a word, person on stage right is thinking of a word. Person on stage right is thinking of a person. They get sealed in envelopes so you know their thoughts are safe and secure and hence the name to envelope test. One person takes a seat. I read very directly the person's mind of the word. We have a good fun time with it as well and then with the person that's thinking of a name. I also guess the age usually, and the relationship to this person, sometimes a bit more info. Uh, it's directly correlated to how good the handwriting is. I don't know why. It's just something that seems to happen, but it is. It's uh, it gets. I can say I can say one ahead here, can't I? You know? When you know it's a principle in magic that's really one of the best principles, the one head principle. Even if you're doing cups and balls that classic when you are you get one ahead with an extra item that's now underneath a cup. One ahead is often tends to be associated with with mentalism, but it is a one of the best principles of magic. And I guess this is kind of my version of um bob cassidy's name place, which is entirely different. Nothing gets torn up and there's no clairvoyant element where it doesn't really suit my character.
Speaker 1:I'm in the Darren Brown psychological camp, where you have to be thinking of it for me to guess it. I can't just hold my hand over a bit of paper and know what's written on it, although I can. I can do that, but it's uh, yeah, it's just a routine I love. It's also so simple and direct. I kind of developed it when I was doing a lot of cabaret spots in. You know, burlesque shows and cabaret shows where you only get five minutes, ten minutes at most, and trying to cram a mentalism routine into that is a nightmare, and I've always loved the three envelope test, which is bob cassidy's probably best associated with. But it is three of them and a slightly dodgy thing has to happen twice. So I just decided to remove one of those moments and keep it really simple. The envelopes aren't numbered. I don't want his or hers or this or that, or one or two, it's all done through. The person on stage left is thinking of this, the person on stage right is thinking of this, that envelope is on stage left and that envelope is on stage right. Can I tell this story without giving too much away? I'm sure I can.
Speaker 1:There is a moment in which two things are swapped secretly and it happens in an offbeat and you know I'm using someone's body to cover it just as an offbeat moment. But that normally happens when someone's on my left and right. But I was in a radio studio once doing this and, because of where the microphones have to be, the two guests were sat to my left, so they were sat next to each other. I was away on the right, so I had to stand up and do the little swapy move and then come back. What must have happened is I did the swapy move twice, which basically undoes the whole thing. So when I was was just as I normally would check that the word was accurate I was surprised to see what I was reading was the word, and now I was no longer ahead of the game and, yes, that was a good fun moment for me.
Speaker 1:Let's go to a song. I feel we should go to a song, right, while I think about how I get out of this mess. I used a swami. That about how I get out of this mess. Uh, I used to. I used to Swami. That's why I got out of it with.
Speaker 1:But anyway, uh, yeah, it's just simple direct. It uses the one head. It's kind of a clean. I opened my show with it because, you know, if you go see, come out and read minds, don't kind of do something slow, click and start high, kind of come up with a wow, this guy can read minds. And now you can do something a bit longer, like memorize a deck of cards or now get words picked from books. Yeah, I just really like the routine. I would because I came up with it, but it stands on the shoulders of many giants and it's had a few versions over the years where there's a bit of I can probably say dual reality to it. There's a there used to be a bit of dual reality to it, but now that's gone. I just make it a bit more direct using something I teach in my 19 my five hour 1914 download. But before. Someone would leave the stage knowing a deception had happened or with less of a slightly less impressive view of what happened. And I didn't like that. So I changed that element.
Speaker 2:But yeah that sounds great. The thing with a lot of mentalism is there are very small changes throughout history to mentalism plots, so some of this is going to get really geeky really quick. How did you determine because obviously bob cassidy's version was named place, so he would get someone to name a person, would get someone to name a person and then someone to name a place connected to that person, or try and find a hit. Well, he would end up finding a connection between them. So how did you go about determining what you wanted your audience to write in those two?
Speaker 1:categories? That's a good question. Well, I wanted it to have a some progression as well, because I came with this like 15 ago. I've been doing this, at least for and I wanted it to be something simple to start with. So the first thing they see me read a mind of is something as simple as a word, like I used to open my show or performance with a drawing duplication because it felt visual and also simple. But, um, I think a word means people might think, oh, maybe everyone thinks that word. I say like a short english word because it helps me with the method. Anyway, if it's a shorter word, it's not anti-disestablishmentarianism whatever.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, I wanted to be aware. So it starts something simple they believe maybe could be guessed based on the stuff they've seen on tv. A guy could maybe work this out from you know micro expressions and all that sort of stuff. I don't say it's that, but they might think that or they might think I've put the idea in their head subliminally. So therefore, the next progression up is he couldn't have done that with the name of the person for the next one, and there's so many details. But also, if they thought for the second one, maybe he's done some research on that person. There's no way I could have guessed the word to begin with from the first person if I'd done research on them, because who would earth would put as their twitter status you know, my favorite word is banana. Like that would be weird. But if a mind reader ever asked me on stage, I would say the word cake. Um, they kind of. They kind of cancel each other out for those pseudo ideas, because I'm kind of I like playing with the idea of that.
Speaker 1:I do present as a psychological mentalist, but I don't hammer it home. I'm reading this signal, I'm doing this. I just allow people to assume certain things, which means, therefore, I can then do a q, a act later when I'm blindfolded and just magically knowing things, because it is a magic act and you are playing that game. I'm fairly sure some people in the room like he must've read it somehow. Maybe there's a camera in the ceiling Like just playing that game with all of them is where a lot of the entertainment factor lies, and just denying that as a, as a mistake.
Speaker 1:But I wanted that progress, a progress. I wanted to be like a word, something as simple and then something personal, so something cold and then something personal, but it never. Yeah, it was all I used to do a first kiss for the person who was thinking of a, of a name, just because it's kind of a classic, and I think I could get away with that when I was younger and it was in a burlesque club, and then I kind of thought, um, but some people's first kiss perhaps isn't very nice actually. So then I made it first crush, but then even then it felt a little bit. I'm a little bit older now, like I'm 38, I think I'm losing track. Like if I was Luke Oslund I could probably get away with it still, but I'm not. I've got grey in my beard now.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that brings us on to your second item. What did you put in your second position, the?
Speaker 1:That brings us onto your second item. What did you put in your second position? The invisible deck slash, I guess the ultra mental deck, because someone will correct me, we all know and also I had to quit Google the invisible presentation, which isn't a very good. It's quite a cute presentation. It's very sort of 40s magic, isn't it A bit imaginary deck of cards. Take them out of the box first before we shuffle them. Apparently it's Bob bobo, as in it, came up with that initially, although it's credits to other people. But another thing that bobo came up with, um, but it's just what I love about it is I use it at the end of a a long routine which is just about playing cards. Why you should never play cards with the mind reader is what I call it, and but I'm always trying to search, for no particular reason, for an alternative. Ending of the card you named at the start is predicted, but nothing's as good as in, because the ultra mental deck is it's a 52 card out. That's all self-contained, perfectly logical as to why you just say I flipped it around, so, so I can't change it, or if you're doing a slightly more, there's a great line that Paul Zenon used in one of his specials where he says I want you to imagine the card you name jumps out of the deck, does a no, flips over, does a no dive and lands back in. It's like that's a great way to motivate why it's upside down and it's just an 52 card out. If you use the jokers as well, you can even even if they say, joker, when I still walk around and you get the the kind of guy that would say, like you made my wife disappear, they would often go, oh, the joker, and I would. Then after a gig I was like I'm gonna, I'm gonna r and s a joker and the jokers and stick them together in the deck. So I'm always I've got every card, any card they could pay, and yeah, when I did a lot of walkabout, it was that was the main thing I do. I do a drawing duplication invisible deck in my peak and I walk around for three hours doing that. But I just love it. And also there's just so many other tricks you can do with an ultra mental deck, even magic tricks. Um, I remember I did a gig years ago with mark uh paul and he told me about how this is. I think this has been published elsewhere.
Speaker 1:Lots of people have this idea. But you get someone to think of a card, you spread it one way. Think of any one of those. They go inside like a, a big sippy cup, you know, like a cup you get from a cinema. You get Coke, kint or something like that. Then you then shake the cards and say they're being mixed all around, upside down inside out. You take them out and you spread a few and show that some are face up, some are face down. Name your card, click your fingers and now the only card that's facing the wrong way is the card they thought of because of the handling and stuff, and it's like that's just the same prop. You just have that in your bag and you've probably got half a dozen tricks.
Speaker 1:It would be a bit exhausting to do all of those tricks, one after the other. It's just such a good prop and I've been searching for years to try and find another way to do something. We always have to restrict it or there has to be a moment of equivocate or something. It's like no, just name any card. There you go. I've predicted it also.
Speaker 1:I prefer O2 brainwave because I I would like it to feel a bit more organic, like I could have just taken the cards quickly gone through, flip one over and put them back in the box. But if it's a different color it kind of lends itself to like. It's always everyone says that card, or you know, maybe he subliminally forced me and maybe I don't always want that to be the presentation. So I was also one of those props for me for close up and walk about where I liked it, when props could do more than one thing and you had more than one presentation. So if I mix and mingle you when you approach that group and they're just not interested, so you do need to do something quick and snappy.
Speaker 1:It would just be hey, I have a deck of cards, you know the name of the card, so I name anyone. You can change your mind If I name anyone and then it would just boom, that would be it, or it would be a bit more involved. So I'll break it down. Is it red or is it black, depending on what they say? Is it hard to do diamonds? And then I would say just think, let's say they've chosen diamonds, think of any diamond card. Just get it in your mind, don't say it yet. Just think of any, and they go okay and I go no. That's not change your mind. I don't know what that one is.
Speaker 1:But change your mind. They go okay, you're close, you're really close, but to change it, stay around that number, change it and they go okay, what was that card? Start spreading through and then get the response. And having them change their mind a few times got rid of that like does everyone say that card element or it feels more nuanced. So I liked that presentation.
Speaker 1:I've also done that thing. I'm not sure whose it is, but you can do it like in a small parlor setting where you get like three people to stand up. You write something down, place it down, you ask their names beforehand and then so each of you think of a card, don't want your mind, say it out loud. And then you say say, oh, you got it, it's three of diamonds. You show it's three of diamonds and then it start. You say at the start I wrote down one of your names and it was that person's name. It's kind of like the ted kamiljevic target number thing. It's probably in that book, but I've seen it done before so maybe you lectured it. I don't know.
Speaker 1:But there was just many things I do. The way I use it now is this big long routine in my show which is is called Never Play Cards with a Mind Reader. It's a callback element from a kind of a joke at the start when I say think of any card, four of clubs, no, ah, one in 51 now. And then we just go through this very long routine and there's a callback at the end because there's two decks of cards, a red and a blue. The blue deck is now all over the place. The audience have half the deck, the rest of it's on the floor, and then I say, oh sir, from the very beginning, what was the card you thought of? Oh, but wait, look, it's reversed in this other pack. So it gets that kind of it's that callback thing. It's. It's a complete, it's really cheap way to get a reaction. But you know, audiences like it when they remember a thing from earlier on yeah, no, I think that sounds really really good.
Speaker 2:I like the um, the chaos aspect aspect of that as well, the idea of the cards being everywhere. But then really there's this again targeted uh prediction which has been on stage and you sort of bring it all back again. Um, it's nice to. I think with the invisible deck it's quite easy to see where it's going really, but the idea of that where no one really knows what on earth is going on, sounds really really interesting. I really like the sound of that. So this brings us on to your third position what did you?
Speaker 1:put in your third position. It's one I've only done once, but the principles of it I absolutely love and there's a lot and it's something I'm sure. It's max maven's four-sided triangle and it doesn't have to be done with cards. I'm always in my notebook is like a. What else can we do this with? But for those who don't know, it's in it's from the red book, maybe the blue book of mentalism, it's in Prism, it's in the big chunky one. So there's a great clip of Paul Daniels doing it as well. For some reason he's dressed it like. He's dressed like a jack of hearts or something from one of his old specials Weird time.
Speaker 1:So what happens in it is you bring someone up on stage. You give them an envelope, mysterious envelope. You also say that before the show you ask someone just to think of picture in their mind a playing card. That person's picturing it in their mind. They've never told anyone what it is, they've never told the performer what it is. And then someone else joins you on stage and then picks a card from a pack. The person who picked a card from a pack gets revealed to be, let's say, the Three of Diamonds, the person who just thought of a card before the show. They were thinking of the Three of Diamonds, and then the predicted card in the envelope is the Three of Diamonds and this uses what word can we say? Can we say PS? But it doesn't mean psychological subtleties, it uses that, but it's out there in the open and it's dual reality. But it's just a tiny clever bit of wordplay. And if you did it in a parlor setting and the person did blab, who's had the PS done to them, it doesn't really matter, it's still kind of a mystery and it's just a pack of cards and a big envelope with a big jumbo card in it.
Speaker 1:If you're doing it like that and it's so simple and I don't really understand maven sort of and I am the fourth side of this four-sided triangle it's like, okay, he's gone a bit philosophical there. I don't really know what he's talking about, but the trick is really good and it's so simple. I've only done it once but it's one of those ones I always come back to going. Could we do it with places, dream, dream, destination or something interesting like that? And it's one of those tricks in mentalism where it's kind of a sort of a mysterious coincidence, but it feels it has that element of. I guess the best way to describe it is when Darren did that, the torn newspaper prediction thing. But it had been there all along.
Speaker 1:You'd been saying it throughout the show. It feels like one of those tricks that it feels greater than just the sum of its parts. It makes you this sort of Svengali figure to control things. I just really like it. It's what I always try and put that in a show. But also I don't like pre-show because I'm a bit of a wimp. It makes me too nervous. I don't understand the thing when people say, oh no, I said P-Show, I don't know. Ps, anyway, I'll get a clean one for you. Ps, there we go. I don't like PS because I'm a bit of a wimp. I don't understand the thing when people say like oh, it puts my mind at complete ease because I know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2:It absolute fear. What if they just stand up in the middle of the show and go like this guy is a phony? Yeah, I just really love four-sided triangle great I. It brings to mind there's um, uh, it may be actually several clips. I think it's leo souchard, who does very similar things in his tv appearances, where he gets the entire audience to hold up either a word or a card or something that's been predicted on stage by a celebrity, but then also by the host.
Speaker 2:So you do have that sort of three-factor of I pick this, then the host has picked this. No, it's normally the celebrity sorry that they have on picks it. Then the host has somehow picked it and you get that thing. But audience, what do you? And then the whole audience take out their card and it just feels just completely unfathomable that that coincidence has even been a thing. So that brings us to your halfway point. So we're on a number four. What did you put in your fourth position?
Speaker 1:uh, this is. This is a routine called, uh, it's called scatterbrain. It's by david harkey. It's from aha, which is a routine called Scatterbrain. It's by David Harkey, it's from Aha, which is a brilliant title of her book. It's a great little book as well. It's mostly well, it is all card stuff and classic magic stuff, but I think quite a few things in there have become generally sort of slightly kind of standard now. But this is like a little gem in there. It's called Scatterbrain.
Speaker 1:What happens is again, this can involve PS work. You scatterbrain, uh. What happens is again this can involve ps work. You don't have to really, but someone's gone through a newspaper. A member of the public, member of the audience picked a word at random that exists only in their mind wink, wink, and then on stage, the magician has the newspaper and then it's, you know half and half down to a tiny piece. He says there's one word here. That word is the word is the word flapjack. Please, the first time, reveal what word did you pick before the show when you went to the newspaper? It's flapjack. And the whole audience has decided you know which half to eliminate, as as the performer is tearing it down and down and down and I think I can say the method kind of relies on bluff.
Speaker 1:It's just sheer bluff and again, I have done this before. Someone did release a version of this where someone can pick the word from the bit. It was called redonkulous, but I that's added too many bits to the process then I I'm as well as being a wimp with ps work, I'm also lazy. I don't really want to spend all this time cutting things out, forcing things, doing all this stuff. But sheer bluff is just a great method, along with the one ahead method, the missed call. And sheer bluff is just a great method when it's just sprinkled in there, like I have done this. But magazines and newspapers aren't so much a thing. I have another routine. Everyone's seen my show.
Speaker 1:It's when I talk about people watching. I've predicted something about someone, because I don't really predict things. I anticipate things about people very much in that Chan Kunasta way where he said I anticipate people's thoughts and predict them and that's what I like. So this kind of whole premise is that I've watched someone and anticipated a word they'd name or a country they'd like to visit and the whole thing is sheer bluff. The prediction I'm reading has nothing written in it. It used to have a description of the person, but I even got more lazy and just bluffed that as well. But there's enough that I can flash to the audience that it feels like what I've said is true. I have a little joke about their shoes being a bit rubbish and I think it's a questionable choice of footwear. And then in big letters it says footwear. So people know that I'm reading something from a letter. But yeah, it's just sheer bluff.
Speaker 1:And when I did it I didn't do PS work. When I did scatterbrain I just did it in the moment. I just gave someone the newspaper. I said find a word, jot down what it is. So we've got some proof. Later on come back to you in a moment.
Speaker 1:And then we the whole audience involved any time with mentalism where they can just feel like they're slightly involved, like if I'm asking one person to think of a word for me to guess, like with my two envelope thing, I'll ask the whole audience to think of a word and then pick someone. You come up and show me now everyone think of a name of someone you know, then pick one person, so they just feel slightly more involved and again the chaos of it. Like I said about my card routine stuff being scattered everywhere and making a mess, it's just more. It feels bigger, rather than, like most mentalism, where it's just are you thinking of this, thank you? That's just someone nodding or going, yes, wow, it's not. I can see why the got talent shows needed to be stupidly bombastic rather than people going like, wow, yeah, that's not great, telly uh, yeah, great.
Speaker 2:I think that's not one that I've come across, so I'm gonna research that one as well. It sounds really, really interesting. Um, also great name for scatterbrain and also also great impression of chan canasta thank you all.
Speaker 1:My podcastings is just an excuse to be trying to do my impressions of various mentalists and people wait there, who else have you got under your hat?
Speaker 1:then I we have, I can kind of do maven a little bit because it was well, if you do maven too much it becomes like because you can do eugene burger, because it's just all the way down here. But if you make it a bit softer and the way that maven spoke, it's that that kind of rhythm that he. Then I started to become Crichton from Red Dwarf. Oh, dear Mr Lister, but yeah, I do sort of impressions and accents I always have done since I was a kid. I can do like people you don't know. You know David Mead, alex, what are you talking about right there? He's Irish, by the way, I'm doing an Irish accent. Oh, louis Laval Love doing this lovely soft Louis Laval accent because he's got that lovely kind of Liverpoolian but it's very light, it's not that Scouse thing, it's that very light.
Speaker 1:I want you to think of your star sign and we were all born years ago, that's so good, that's excellent, that's great Keller, as well as the classic One, two, three, bend, I think bend and it's bending, my finger is bending.
Speaker 3:When I perform at gigs, I look at effects that tick these three boxes. Is it super strong and powerful? Yes, will it last with your spectators for a lifetime? Absolutely, and does it leave them with a souvenir that perfectly captures the moment of magic? If that all sounds exactly what you're after, look no further than the liquid forks. These forks have been custom designed to be able to bend right in front of your spectator's eyes. It's so easy to perform, it's so visual and, trust me, they will honestly keep this impossible objects because they've seen it morph in front of their eyes. It literally does the impossible.
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Speaker 1:uh, I guess, somewhat predictably but not quite, it's pk touches, but not as touches and preferably one that involves batteries, because I love obviously banachek's original and all those clever versions that are out there. That are, but it's ungimmicked, are all great, but I don't like the plot of I touched you on the shoulder and you felt it often it's just like why? What's going on here other than like oh, that's a bit weird. But when you apply something like what Darren did with his, you know the mysterious lift trick that we all know how it works. But when there's something, a movement, happening, that's a bit more interesting rather than just like where did you feel it how many times? I guess I'm saying this because I have a thing which it is does involve batteries and it's a bit like lift, which is the implication is that I'm controlling the hand, taken over control and it can lift up and then that builds to the whole audience take control of the hand and they draw something with it. But there's there's never a motivation for PK touches or anything like that. It's just like why it's happening. It just sort of happens. I mean, some people maybe do have a reason for it happening. Often the voodoo thing that's fun when it's like there's a voodoo doll. Dynamo had something, didn't they? A new special, which I think is Pete Turner's, I think, with the little arm going up and down, and Pete Turner's brilliant, clever little cleanup of Darren's we assume method, but yeah, it's PK Touches, pk touches. Well, then again, I do love the completely organic, the organic one where there's no special gimmicks. However, what I like about with something that requires batteries is it's the exact moment. They feel it. You can. You can when you move, they move, or when you touch, they touch. Something about that, but not the chair ones. Those are too expensive.
Speaker 1:I did a show, I did a bunch of shows recently in toronto and canada, and there's a lovely blog called canada's magic, run by a woman called nicole, and I chatted to her afterwards. We know each other a little bit, but she said you're really good at the wise. The wise is something happening. And I said what do you mean? He said well, there's always like there's at least a motivation, even if the motivation is hey, I'm a mind reader, I'm going to guess what you're thinking.
Speaker 1:I was like yeah, that's kind of the premise of my whole show. What would you like to see if you were stuck in a room with a mind reader. But I do like there to be not deep, meaningful reasons as to why something's happening. A big effect like pk touches someone, feels something. It can just be the little step along the journey to something, and it's also like my son describes it as the best moment in the show is when someone's hand I'm gesturing to raise their hand and their hand comes up. Because it just is that moment like oh no from the audience when they're like, oh, what's happening now?
Speaker 2:I thought this was like that darren guy where it's like reading nlp stuff, but now something weird's happening pk touches is one of my favorite effects ever, um, and I do think that there are some really clever versions. Now you've mentioned that you've got. One is that is this battery operated device, without going anything, your item there.
Speaker 1:Oh no, it's not a very well-known one. I can't remember who it's, where it's called. It's it's a german guy and it's very small and it the way it works. It's more like a haptic thump, is what they feel, which is really nice because that technology exists. It's not a silly little arm tapping away that they can't feel through anything thicker than a thin t-shirt. And also it's organically involved, and so it they I do.
Speaker 1:I do get them to sit down because they have to wear a blindfold, but that's motivated by the fact they can't see what they're drawing. Um, so it is organically involved. And also, um, because often mentalists watching go like I didn't know you wouldn't versions of those special chairs. I was like, no, also, I'm not touring around with a chair that costs that much, letting a member of the public anywhere near it. Great, uh, yeah, I can't remember what it's called. There's a few versions out there and it's well worth. And also because it's a small moment. If it fails, for whatever reason, it never has. Actually it doesn't matter, and my backup could be banachek's version, and then something's happened, you know yeah great, it sounds really interesting.
Speaker 2:I'm sure lots of people will be looking into that. Uh, let's go on to number six. What's in your sixth position?
Speaker 1:uh, I realize now here's another card thing, but this is more. This is more in the vibe of the fact I'm going to be stranded, I assume, on a desert island. So what I'm going to take is a deck of cards in mnemonica order or some sort of stack and just sit there and actually try and actually learn a stack. Probably what it would be is. I always loved Breakthrough Card System by Richard Ostlund and I used to do it. I've forgotten the formula. Now I can remember bits of it. There's the clock face in my mind but I can't remember the relevance of it. But there's also like a, really a. You can memorize it. There's an harmonic sentence or structure to help you memorize it. And what's nice is then it's also in a cyclical stack. So if you screw up, you're fine.
Speaker 1:So what I would do is I'd sit there and just learn it. Maybe if I'm stuck in the desert island, I'd just learn it by rote, just going over and over again. So I know that when the king of the spades is on the bottom, all the rest of the cards are, but it's because there's so many things you can do. Then, when I used to gig a lot more doing walkabout, I'd have two decks of cards. One was the invisible deck and one was a deck matching deck. It would start in breakthrough card system order because then it didn't matter if someone insisted on shuffling it. Then I wouldn't do any of the card calling stunts and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:But um, so I used to know it quite well. But to do a memorized deck, you could then know, like the number that they've cut off and all sorts of things you could do, sort of hypersensitive touch where you they cut off some cards, put them in your hand, you go that's 12, 12 cards and the top one's this and top one's that. It would just you just have a lot of fun with it. But again, like I said, I'm just a bit lazy, I'm not gonna sit and learn it, despite the fact I use mnemonics all the time, I've just never applied it to a deck of cards yeah, it's, I'm with you there.
Speaker 2:It's something I've always wanted to be able to do, um, but even just presenting a deck, that's been memorized just just as that a straight thing I remember watching I think it was nick.
Speaker 2:Nick muhammad has got a fantastic clip on um cats does countdown and the whole thing is him and someone shuffle them up, he goes through them, memorizes them and then just reads them back out. But the response from everyone in that room? They were absolutely dumbfounded. There was no, there was no backtracking for them at all. They were absolutely in that moment and absolutely captivated by it and all he did was read out the order of a deck of cards yeah, well, that does relate to a trick that we'll come up to, which is a pseudo version of that.
Speaker 1:But to really know it, but like a memorized deck, like mnemonica or something like that, aronson or whatever you prefer, um, is that it's a secret, it's a secret weapon. You see, I love tricks where it's a little secret bit of knowledge you have in your head, because then the audience aren't gonna guess that because it's not a mechanical thing and they can't fathom it and they don't have that secret piece of knowledge like a full shuffle and knowing the exact order of the deck. It's just gonna blow them away. And but, yeah, the fact that you could, just if you just recited all 52 cards, they'd be like, wow, if you like memorize that deck, yeah, they'd still be impressed. But if it's a secret and then you can know other things, like from when they cut the pack or they pull out a bunch from the middle, yeah, just a powerful, a powerful weapon, I guess yeah, I think, uh, just presenting it like that would would just, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 2:I would love to be able to do it. Um, maybe one day I'll visit you on your island and, uh, we can go through it together. Um, because I've got no chance. With that being said, we're going to go to the tail end of your eight tricks now. So we're on number seven. What's in your seventh position?
Speaker 1:Let's do the. Let's do the card memory things. This is Bob Cassidy's card memory, which I do a variation of. But there's a lot of card tricks for a mentalist, but then again I'm not one of those ones that's like I shouldn't use cards. But um, bob cassidy's memorized deck it was on that dvd he put out mental miracles it was called or something like that, which kind of came out the same time as osterland's for dvd thing. But people forgot about bob's one, despite the fact with those two DVDs sets you'd have a career I think I do, thanks to those two DVDs.
Speaker 1:But Cassidy's card memory, it was essentially. The premise is he memorizes half the stack, half a deck, and therefore knows what the other half are and he can back between the two people hold. They split the deck cards between them. So you have an ace of spades or two of spades, you have the three of spades but you have the four, the five, you have the six and it's just and it is impressive because you rattle them off. Um, I use it where half the deck has gone out amongst the audience and I memorize the half I'm holding on stage and prove it by doing like a name, a number. I'll tell you the card that's there and then, um, get everyone to stand up who's got the half the deck that's in the audience? And then, for their convenience not for mine I break it down into the suits, and they just happen to be in chased order, you know. Uh, so I rattle off all the clubs and they sit down when I've named the card and it gets hearts, then all the space, then all the diamonds and, using cassidy's little gag, at the end of wait there's still one person standing. What have I done wrong? Ah, you must have a joker. And then the crowd goes wild. Um, this is such a great routine. He would close his show with it as like a demonstration of real skill, of this sort of mastermind, and it's such a smart way to close a show. It's not the big bombastic look, I've predicted everything in the show. It's kind of the small little coda to the show which, based on everything you've seen beforehand, you go like, yeah, I guess this guy could do this. He's some sort of savant and it does get a good reaction. It's one of those things you're just showing the same skill over and over again. And also, I can't remember the exact setup that he had. It was just he learned it by these are over here, these are over here, uh, system. But mine is that one which is telephone numbers. They're split up in telephone numbers, so the clubs are the area code and then, uh, the heart, then the rest of that number. It's the two telephone numbers I know.
Speaker 1:I remember I showed, I performed this recently and there was a young magician in the audience. He must have been 19 and he was like what magician in the audience? He must've been 19. And he was like, what stack are you using for that memorized cockpit? I said it's not a stack, it's two telephone numbers. And obviously chased, I said, ah, I'm not even sure if I know two telephone numbers. I was like, oh God, well, luckily I memorized the first number I memorized from my family home and my mobile number or cell number for american listeners. Um, yeah, at least I've got those two in my head.
Speaker 2:But I could do others because I know a few telephone numbers, because I'm that old uh, the the gambit at the end as well, where he has that joker um yeah, I think that's so good, because there's there's few times where you get mentalist in trouble, like you get, yeah, magician in trouble, and then the big payoff is oh, but now the card is over the other side of the room or wherever you want it to be. But mentalism in trouble normally is defined as just something going wrong in order to facilitate the idea that what you're doing is real. So I love the idea of that moment of oh my god. Oh my god, he's got it wrong. Oh my god, this is really.
Speaker 1:It's also, I think, it's really humbling then for the performer from the what is his point of view, because the trouble is with magic, all magic and mentalism is you are immediately high status, and that's kind of why I lean into the playful bubbliness of my character, because, like it's insufferable to be to watch a really smug person for ages Cause.
Speaker 1:Otherwise my, especially my, the sort of the, uh, the style of material like which is very strong and very direct, I just seem like a smug dickhead basically the whole time. And also I refer to the whole card routine that I do that the memorized bit in, as this is an excuse to show off, like I highlight that straight away. But yeah, the humbling moment when they're all like, oh, I just missed one. And then it's the fact that I've just showed off my memory skills but I forgot to take the jokers out. It's a lovely little ironic twist and even if some people in the room are like he knew, I still get the credit and they still had a nice time. Yeah, it's a brilliant little twist at the end. And sometimes people sit because they're like, oh, this must be a mistake.
Speaker 2:And then I'm annoyed because I'm like no, I don't a fun ending now when I get to like worry, yeah, it's a great trick and a great nearly closing routine, but it does bring us onto your last trick. So what did? You put in your final position.
Speaker 1:Final position is specifically this version of it, but it's. It's mark paul's blindfold q a which he taught it's on vanishing ink. It's one of his masterclasses. He did I think he did two and one of them was taken up by him explaining exactly how to do a blindfold q a act like. I've done a lot of q a over the years using almost every method, but I'd never done the one where you are. Well, I think a lot of american mentalists do it more.
Speaker 1:We are blindfolded on stage. There's a bowl full of the, of the index cards of people's questions or facts about themselves, however you like to do it audience reading, as Cassidy would call it, and then you're holding it to your head and announcing that information. I just never done it because, like people don't buy this right and also I didn't want to do all the tape and stuff. I feel it's slightly too over proving that I can't see what. What's the thing in 13 Steps where Corinda says, like Charles says to his mother, why is that man blindfolding himself? And her mother replies so he can tell us what he can see. It's just what all blindfold acts are, but like Mark's one is. It's beautifully structured. There's no, you don't have to do anything prior to the show. Nothing handed out before the show. No big stupid boxes. I've got an attic full of various sizes of boxes that do things. Um, some are expensive, some are not so expensive. Um, you're not worried. Before I have done q a, when I was touring the champions of magic, where I used to have a luxurious time to plan what this act was going to look like. And then over the years it became you have five time to plan what this act was going to look like. And then over the years it became you have five minutes to plan what this little bit of an act is going to look like. And it's just. I don't need this high stress just before a show. Um, but with mark's one it all happens in the moment.
Speaker 1:So you know, two people come up on stage, someone's given a bunch of index cards and pens. Go go, hand them out to random people. Make sure it's a good spread. He explains to the people what he wants to write down. So like, write your name. They're not pre-printed either, but actually he does use pre-printed ones. I don't like pre-printed, but like write your name, fact about yourself, something, and then, when they've done that, make sure you gather them all back, make sure them all the same way, facing the same way and writing side down. They go off and do that. Someone's on stage with you. They check the blindfold.
Speaker 1:He then puts on the blindfold. This person on stage then draws a picture on a board that's behind at the back of the stage and then he gets to use an anemone ploy to work that out Blackboard ploy or blackboard peek, whatever anemone called it. So there's an effect happening whilst information is being written down by the audience. By the time he's done that, this person's come back, dumped them in the bowl and now he's good to go. He just does a few and it's got a clever little punchy ending where he can take off the blindfold and someone's still standing and he can do that last kicker ending like what was the name of your pet or your vehicle license, registration number, reg plate, and it's just so well-st well structured. It could be 10 minutes or it could be 20, depending on your personality and also because of the the nature of a blindfold thing. You can even just be looking at a clock.
Speaker 1:So you know, I know that's what um mccambridge, jerry mccambridge, I know during his act he is. He reaches into the bowl, bowl the box that the billets are in and presses a timer so he knows that when he has to finish his act. It's like that's a good tip actually. Yeah, specifically Mark Paul, one that he teaches, and it's also he goes into all the practicalities of how you can just I think this is the one he would use on a cruise ship so it just fits, you know, in a small bag and I tried it a few times. It's like this is great. I don't ever want to have to put the old OM box on the front of the stage and then get a stage hand to take it and then this, that and the other, and yeah, it's a Q&A as well, which is kind of the dream act, and it's super practical and simple and low tech. Yeah, great.
Speaker 2:There are some really good ones that have come out over recent years as well. I have to give mention to Looch's. Got a great Q&A system.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's great. Yeah, which isn't blindfolded, is it? It's just a clever use of the props and everything. Yeah, it's really nice Frameworks, right.
Speaker 2:Frameworks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's what's nice. But Mark Paul's is the same in that they're very good at giving structure to. I think what people are scared of when it comes to q a is that there's a lack of structure. With magic, we are constantly hiding behind the fact that we know what's going to happen at what point, we know when this move needs to happen to facilitate the mechanics of of the trick, and we know how to hide that, whereas when you've got a q a, it's basically jazz mentalism to to an extent, it's just random, spontaneous. We don't know if people are going to respond properly or how they're going to respond in some situations. And yeah, I think Mark's pause is the same in that it just gives you that little bit of confidence to know what's where, when it's going to be there and how to facilitate certain circumstances in that situation.
Speaker 2:How did you start with Q&A then? How did you find that process?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'd done the sort of one-ahead versions previously. I have a sort of version on the Masterclass, the 1914 Billets Masterclass, which is a one-ahead version. There is like a pitfall of that is um, you don't know what you're going to get, as in like, and you are kind of stuck with that one. But there's ways around that I sort of mentioned. But there is something I put in there to make it a structured moment. I force something to happen. But then I also so with champions of magic, which is a big touring show, ensemble illusion show. When first started I just did my cabaret set and then it was like this is going to be a bigger show, so could you do something bigger in the second half? What sort of bigger things are there in Mentors? Well, there's a Q&A and a big prediction on a chalkboard. Let's combine those two together.
Speaker 1:But it was initially. It was because there's the luxury of an intermission in a theatre show During. It was because there's the luxury of an intermission in a theater show. During the intermission people could do stuff and they came out and found me in the lobby. I'd hand out things and then they'd hand them back and I put them in a box, sometimes a box they could see, sometimes a box they couldn't see. But then when the show became quite popular, I would sort of essentially be swamped by people being like oh hi, wow, could we take a selfie? So I could no longer be the person in charge of this. So then we went to higher tech versions.
Speaker 1:But when that lets you down, it lets you down and there's nothing you can do. And then I just was like, let's just do the hundred year old method of it, om box which, or on box. I like to say it's an on box, but it's in Hanuman's chinks and stuff, or, for those of you who aren't familiar with it specifically it does. It's a kind of a homemade version of what's the proper amazed box. It does the same thing as an amazed box, but you can make them any size, like I have one that's maybe two foot by one foot cube, which I made myself out of some boxes and stained it and made it look cool.
Speaker 1:But but that allows you to steal away some information whilst apparently leaving the information in plain view. And that's nicer when you've got the luxury of an intermission and you can take your time to go through it, but when it, then things get moved around in the show and you have no time and the show is waiting for you to frantically make a crib because you haven't got the time to memorize it, then that's no fun. Make a crib because you haven't got the time to memorize it, then that's no fun. I've even tried the um let's call it a voice in your head version, which a friend of mine uses a lot.
Speaker 1:I've been the voice in their head, which is a good luxury, because the voice in your head can discover people's old myspace pages when they were still around. That's quite fun. But um, but I don't like that cuts me off from things and having seen some performers do it and it starts to go wrong. It looks like that classic clip of was it George W Bush? When he's clearly being fed lines and he starts to sort of glitch because he can't think and hear at the same time and speak. So I'm always a fan of just the easiest option and Mark Paul's is a good version of that or having the information prior and then having a having a secret little crib of it I remember a few years ago.
Speaker 2:There's quite a famous female psychic in the uk. She would have this giant fish bowl behind her with lots of pieces of paper that was displayed on the stage, and I thought that looks suspiciously like something I've seen in a lecture recently. I wonder if she's also been tuning into Penguin Magic. But yeah, it just shows that maybe those methods do work for real as well. Which is concerning Don't use it for bad everyone.
Speaker 1:No, a friend of mine for research went to a spiritualist church we have one here in norwich. Actually I'm always tempted to go, but he just wants to see like what's what happens, what are the readings like, as we'd call it? And then someone got up and did, got in touch with someone and then they'd finished and then he sort of started to clap and then I realized, oh no, no one else is clapping, because this isn't a show, is it? This is people are at church right now. People are clapping church. It's like well, done well.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great list, all the way from the two envelope test to the q a, uh, I mean even the the card tricks that you have in there. Two of them are very, very similar anyway, because they're both memorized demonstrations. But even that really isn't. You're using the cards as a prop as opposed to for its purpose of playing cards. And, of course, the invisible deck is. The invisible deck is awesome, um, yeah. So I think you've got a superb collection of tricks. It shows what your show would be like. I can really imagine the sorts of things that you get into, even some of the themes that you spoke about, like when you spoke about the PK touches and it was controlling people's arms. I think it sounds really interesting. But it does lead us onto your two curveball items. So these are the two items that you're only allowed one of. So what did you go for? Your book?
Speaker 1:the book. I thought for a while about this. Uh, an honorable mention here would be ta waters, mind, myth and magic, because it's just full of loads of things, four of which are good and the rest is sort of batshit. There's the spider monkey we mentioned luch before. We have this thing, like I'll say in luch's accent, because he would discuss a spider monkey because there's that bit where you can manifest a little dress that skips around the seance room and it's a spider monkey in a dress. That's the method. But and also all the names of the tricks are absolutely mental. You cannot find anything in that book unless you've put a poster note here going like a torn in three mental epic prediction, or let's say, you know what the hell it is. Um, that was an honorable mention. Also, it's huge as well, so you could probably use it as a weapon on the on the island, um.
Speaker 1:But the one I'd actually pick is the jinx, the combined everything, the jinx anamans one, because it's as it sounds like nonsense, but I do often, not often every once in a while I just genuinely start going through it again. I have the actual book bound version there's like two books and also I have it as the PDF thing I bought from a library because it's easier to flick through on your iPad and try. And where is this one mention of one tiny thing I'm trying to find? And often when you go through it you go oh yeah, this trick or something like this has just come out recently because someone's gone through it and then re-imagined it. And there's also that weird bit where what's his name? He's the guy that's in. It's a wonderful life james stewart the actor. He was a subscriber to the jinx and an amateur magician and he's got a whole issue sort of dedicated him and this jolly good wheeze that he did where he vanished from a case and stuff. It's just a really interesting. And also the bitchiness of anaman and how he doesn't like other magicians and he's people who write him the complaints. He's basically like, ah, screw you, I'm gonna do as I like.
Speaker 1:There's also still little gems in there, like all the good mentors and bits are compiled, aren't they in practical mental magic, or practical mental effects, as it used to be called? Um? But there's still the bits. You'll flick through and see an illustration, go like what's that? And you have an idea for something, or like that's the method I've been searching for, or it'll. It'll trigger off something in your brain. You're like I should do that. And what can I substitute a hat pin for? I don't know, maybe this yeah, I think it's true.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of the old magazines are really good to go through. Um, I know that there's um a bizarre book that's made up of of magazines and I love going through that because a lot of the sort of out there methods like there are. There's a surprising amount of tricks in there with mousetraps, um, so, um is this bascom jones's book is that's about magic.
Speaker 1:Magic with a k was bascom jones's one, and then you go through that and go like that's a really good idea. There's no one doing this why I've never heard of this before.
Speaker 2:Yeah there are so many good ideas like that but, like you just said, quite often someone will talk about something on maybe a forum or a friend, and then you'll google it and then it's always it's in jinx, volume three, and then you you just go through and, like you said, I've got the um library version as well and it's just so lovely to just click onto it, go straight to that trick and and check out that version. Um, same with the tar bell course as well. Quite often it's quite nice to go through tar bell and just look at one of the weird sections in there and go, oh, that's, that's different and interesting. Um. So yeah, I think jinx is a really, really good choice. And that brings us on to your item. So what did you put in your non-magic item position?
Speaker 1:I thought about this for a while, um, but it is a bit crap what I've chosen, which is just a notepad and pen like a moles Moleskine, not lined. I don't like lined ones because I like to doodle, I like them to look pretty and stuff, but I just always like I have one here. This is my newer one. Now I like bigger ones. This is like the size of an iPad and it's just. I just there's some jobs.
Speaker 1:A friend of mine has a thing where you have to be a mortgage broker or something. She refers to it as a laptop job. Can't do this on the phone. This has to be done on the laptop because this is serious, I have to concentrate. But when I'm like, if I'm just making notes or having ideas my phone notes I have loads of folders for things. That's a really good place. But when I have to actually work on something, I like a pen and a piece of paper and drawing notes and doodles. I I like storyboarding, like how you see in films and they storyboard shots for a show or a routine or anything. Storyboarding is really helpful because then you know where the props are and you have to go and how you want it to look for the audience. So, yeah, I like a biro and a blank Moleskine notebook because I'll be stranded on the island trying to learn mnemonica. So I can. I can do some doodles and write some notes and ideas you could have just used a stick in the sand that's true, but then it's erased.
Speaker 1:But often if I go through my notebooks, like they're up in the attic this is a different office but, um, that is mostly the same thing written over and over again. Just the same set list written over and over again and also once that two envelope test. I spoke before I was going through some. I came up with that guy like I'm a genius for this little switchy, switchy move. I'm an absolute genius. Can't believe I didn't think of this before. And then I went through some notebooks a while later after and performed for years. I had thought of this already. I just didn't know. I didn't know I'd already thought of this little moment that could switch something and help me get one ahead. And yeah, I had thought of it before. I just didn't go back through my notes. So maybe if I'm on the island I'll actually go back through the notes.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's a great choice. I think notepad and pen We've had it a few times on episodes, but it's a good solid thing to take with you episodes. But it it's a good solid thing to take with you. It's something that a lot of magicians, especially like creators and, uh, people that build shows and stuff use them all the time, because a lot of the time the, the inspiration comes from either somewhere weird to something weird, or a situation that was weird, um, so having it on you is always a you just have to all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, I my previous life I was, I studied art and design and our graphics tutor was like you had a visual diary and you were just asked to see it every week or every two weeks just to see, like what are you? Just not anything you're working on. Just what have you drawn? What have you done? This and that was really useful because there's always ideas in there, like I used to call I do psycho magic, very much like chan canasta. And he said have you doodled, when you just come up with a logo for that? And I did, and I made it an ambigram if you remember ambigrams those are all their age, back in the day not technically an ambigram, but it reads the same upside down as it does at the right way up.
Speaker 1:And I made a psycho magic the word p-s-y-c-h-o-m-a-g-h-i-c. So it works either way. And also the p was a question mark and I was very proud of myself for that. I can probably still doodle it. Yeah, just having a something, no book, just full of ideas you're flicking. Oh, yeah, it's like we'd go through the jinx or mark wilson's complete course in magic. You just flick through it, occasionally looking at the pictures, going like what can I think of what's a good idea, and if you've kept your own notes, then you can do that with your own notes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so does that mean that one day we're going to have an um alex notebook printed uh, just full of random ideas that we can go through and pick?
Speaker 1:out ideas. I'll put that in my will. No, it won't be a good idea. It'll just be to envelope test, followed by this thing, followed by card memory.
Speaker 2:And then the third one down. It'll just be the same set list as the first book.
Speaker 1:And we'll just bought the same thing.
Speaker 2:Great, well, thank you so much. If people want to find out more about you, more about your projects, your shows, all of that good stuff, where can they go?
Speaker 1:So for shows, my public-facing stuff, alex McAleer stuff, you can go to alexmacleercom. If you're worried about spelling McAleer, don't worry, I also bought alexthemindreadercom as well. That's me. You can find my shows and info about me, alex the Mind Reader, on Instagram as well, and for my products, products and alexander marsh stuff, alexander marsh mentalismcouk. Also. One word that's got my stuff on. That's my own little shopify store, but a lot of my stuff is the 1914 I released with those guys, because they're just great guys, as you well know. Uh, so they're on there and also that all their stuff is in is in every magic shop. So there's all sorts. There's my esp cards. There's hot. There's like what we've done. There's the masterclass on billets. There's a stagecraft masterclass, loads of stuff off stage. That was a fun one to do as well. That's kind of non-stage but still not crap tricks great.
Speaker 2:And I have to say, uh, I've got the Billet course and I think it's superb. It's so, so good. Anyone who hasn't been to watch it, please go over to the 1914 and check it out now, because it's superb. But that just leaves me to say thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it's a pleasure, a pleasure to be here, stranded on this island, with you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's a pleasure, a pleasure to be here, stranded on this island, with you. My last thing I have to say is listeners, if you have not left us a review yet, please leave us a review. I think we've only got one review, which is heartbreaking considering there are so many of you. Our listenership is growing week on week. So thank you so much for telling your friends, your loved ones, your other magic buddies. Thank you for that, but please do leave us a little review. It just lets us know that you're enjoying it. But, with that being said, we will see you next week on another episode of Desert Island Tricks.
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