Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
Stranded with a Stranger: Jim Levell
Magic enthusiast Jim Levell shares his magical journey with us, recounting tales from a childhood influenced by a magical uncle and a trusty magic kit. Faced with the challenge of a hurricane evacuation, Jim had to make the tough decision of selecting only a few tricks to take with him, offering a unique lens into balancing the art of visual magic and mentalism. He reminisces about the evolution of magic instruction from the days of VHS tapes to today's online streaming world. Inspired by Jim's story, we explore a collection of essential tricks, including the captivating "Any Card" by Richard Sanders and the versatility of invisible thread, all while reflecting on broader trends shaping the magic community today.
Join the adventure as we dive into Jim's magical toolkit, featuring "Charming Chinese Challenge" and a versatile deck of cards that unlocks endless possibilities. Explore the timeless wisdom of "Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic," a must-have book for magicians at any level. Jim also emphasises the transformative power of music in enhancing magical performances, offering a glimpse into his personal preferences. This episode is a celebration of the art of magic, illustrating its profound connection to other forms of creative expression.
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
Thank you for watching. Hello and welcome to another episode of Stranded with a Stranger. This is our mid-episode episode, where you get to send in your list of 8 tricks, 1 book and 1 non-magic item to us and we'll record one of these for you. Of eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item to us and we'll record one of these for you. Now, if you want to be a part of one of these, then please send in your list with a little bio and, of course, the reasons that you chose your tricks to salzaalakazamcouk In the subject line. Please put my desert island list. That way it comes through to me and I can get one of these recorded for you. Now we do have another stranded stranger on his way to our island, and this week's guest is Jim Lavelle. He's given us a little bio at the very beginning to get to know him, and he says my name is Jim Lavelle and I have loved magic for decades.
Speaker 1:Mine is the usual origin story magic kit for Christmas. As a young child, combined with a funny uncle who would show the occasional card trick, this grew into a lifetime love of magic, although I put the craft aside for a few decades as I started my business as an investment counsellor, I've always been fascinated by how things work. As we magicians know, often the method can be as interesting as the trick itself. I would imagine many amateurs like me often buy tricks, so we can just know how it was accomplished. Over the years I've been fortunate enough to see some of the greats Doug Henning, penn and Teller, matt King, blackstone Jr, max Maven, michael Amar and Danny Deities, just to name a few. When I returned to magic 20 years ago, it was fascinating to watch the evolution of instruction from multi-trick VHS tapes and DVDs to individual trick gimmicks and online streaming, as I'm a big fan of the podcast and enjoy the concept of cutting through the noise and boiling it down to the best of the best.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, I recently had a real-life experience of desert island tricks. Living in southwest Florida, we must deal with the occasional hurricane and recently my family and I had to quickly evacuate for Hurricane Milton. As I stared at my magic and book collection with a small box in hand, I realized I could not take all of it with me and thus began the selection process. The following list of tricks all made the cut of being packed into the boot of the car as we headed for higher ground. Thankfully, I'm happy to report, we survived the storm and all of my magic is safe and sound.
Speaker 1:That being said, let's take a look at what made it to the island. Wow, so you were almost forced into this. You didn't really have a choice, which is absolutely crazy. But I'm really glad to hear that you're OK and you made it through. But yeah, being forced into that must have been a really tough decision.
Speaker 1:And you mentioned multi-trick VHS tapes. I wonder if we have any magicians, younger magicians, listening that are young enough to not understand what a VHS tape is. I wonder if we're at that stage, who knows? Now we have actually been given some honourable mentions by Jim to go through. So we're going to read these out first to see if we can gauge where we think his list is going to go. So his honour going to read these out first to see if we can gauge where we think his list is going to go. So his honourable mentions are the Raven, made famous in one second by David Blaine in his first street magic special. Oh, my goodness, I think we all remember seeing that for the first time. It was phenomenal.
Speaker 1:B-wave, the king of packet tricks and perfect blend of magic and mentalism. Great choice A thumbtip, a100 bill switch, vanishing sort, just so flexible, absolutely. And free will such a clever wordplay concept that deserves further exploration. Wow, so we've got some two mentalism tricks there B-wave free will, and we've got the raven and thumbtip two visual tricks. So I wonder if this is going to be a blend of visual magic and mentalism. Let's find out.
Speaker 1:So we are going to go to Jim's Island now and find out what he put in position number one. It is Any Card by Richard Sanders. If you're going to carry one trick deck, it's better to be a good one, and any card meets that requirement. I prefer to make the selection process as slow and fair as possible, often involving multiple spectators arriving at freely named choice. When you reveal the name of that card written on the back of the four aces, it is a magical moment, one of my strongest effects. I think Richard Sanders has to have been mentioned so many times on these podcasts now, in various different ways for various different tricks. In fact, I wonder who the most credited creator is on these podcasts. I'm not sure I'm. Anyone wants to go back to really do the research on that one, but it would be interesting to find out. But a great first choice. And it leads us on to a number two.
Speaker 1:Oh, sort of a utility item here invisible thread, the versatile magic prop that can take many forms, such as loops or ties or other devices like the spider pen or itr. I know you still want to pin me down to only one trick, to which I'll respond the helicopter card. There can be something almost therapeutic practicing this effect. It also needs no explanation and works across language barriers. Just looking at the sight of a playing card floating around your body as you instantly understand the impossibility of it. Yep, absolutely great choice. And that's one of the ones that I remember seeing it on magictrickscouk when I was much younger, in my probably early teens, and being absolutely fascinated by it. I had no idea how it worked, no idea how it could work, because you know, I remember it flying through the loop of the arms and then around the body. When it's done well, it really is phenomenal. Um, and, of course, loops and ties are an everyday utility tool for a lot of performers in the world, me included. I think that they are phenomenal and I literally could not live without them. They stay in my wallet all day, every day. So a great, great choice.
Speaker 1:And that brings us to number three, which is poker test 2.0 by eric casey. I use this as an opener when performing because it's quick, easy and has several moments of magic plus. You'll get to skip the entire. Pick a card game and get right to the magic. Not sure what the first poker test was, but it seemed like they got it right the second time around. Yeah, I think we've had poker tests before on the podcast, because it's so strong. You're absolutely right, it gets straight into the action. It's a great opening piece, I think as well at tables. Um, if you're a walk around magician, just have these cards bang straight away into the action. It gets them questioning what's going on. A great, great choice.
Speaker 1:And that leads us to number four. Look, look who that creator is Extreme Burn by Richard Sanders. There are many variations of changing money Hyundai 500, flash cash, etc. But Extreme Burn has been my favorite for a while. If we had real magical powers, we wouldn't be using them to find your card. We'll be doing something like this making money, guess. That's why myers's dream has stood the test of time money makes the world go wrong round. Yeah, I mean, I know, um, it's Steve Deller who speaks about money being mentioned early on in your set, because it just gets instant interest from your audience. They instantly want to know what you're on about. The idea of winning money always gets people. So, yeah, a great choice. And again, extreme Burn has to be in the top ten. Now, surely it's in the top 10 for people's lists, but it does bring us to number five, which is Ring on Rope.
Speaker 1:Once again, nice to do something that isn't a car trick and a ring and rope is limited only by your imagination. Use the rope to make knots appear and disappear, penetrate your body, cut and restored and, of course, professor's Nightmare. The ring adds another dimension by linking and unlinking in a variety of ways. My time on the island would allow me to develop other handlings and routines. A great choice. Yeah, you're right, I've not thought about that. Really. You can use it without the ring and of course, you have the rope for a myriad of different tricks. And then, of course, by adding the ring, you have another routine as well. So a great, great choice. And that brings us to number six, which is chop by craig petty.
Speaker 1:Craig has created something special with chop it hides in plain sight and can do things a normal chop cup cannot do. I also believe that using a crunched up dollar bill makes it more organic and less suspicious. It's been said that you can tell a real magician by their ability to do the cups and balls. Take me to the island so I can master this legend of magic. Absolutely. I think that the idea of being able to do a chop cup anywhere so really, if you forgo the bill just for a second and you have the apparatus which just fits into a pocket, doesn't even take up the whole pocket. It literally clips to the pocket without giving anything away, and then you'll have something attached to that which then you can borrow a bill and then start the routine, or borrow a napkin and start the routine. You can literally be in a coffee shop, get a cup and do the chop cup. It's that organic, it's that spur of the moment it's the only time that I can think of that. You can do a chop cup at the spur of the moment, wherever you might be. So yeah, it's great, it's a great tool to have in your pocket. I remember when Craig originally bought it out many years ago now, thinking it was just so, so clever. It really is a superb routine and it brings us onto the tail end of Jim's trick. So we're at number seven, and number seven we have. Oh, he said I'm running out of time because the storm is coming. So here is number seven. Wow, imagine at this point just trying to get everything together.
Speaker 1:Charming Chinese Challenge by Troy Hooser. Troy has constructed a beautiful routine of three coins magically melting off a red ribbon, but it's a bit of a knuckle buster. Some quiet time on the island would allow me to polish this masterpiece again. This has to be one that a lot of professionals use. It's a great, I would say, like parlor upgrade. If you're close, if you're used to doing close-up magic, this is a great one. To start doing it in parlor and as a stand-up piece, because the whole audience can see it. It's really easy to and it's such a wonderful trick, a great, great choice. And it brings us to number eight.
Speaker 1:A deck of cards. Uh-oh, am I going to have to be devil's advocate? Let's see. Yes, just a normal, ordinary deck of cards to while away the hours. The entire card magic field is so wide and varied one hardly knows where to begin as a new deck is unwrapped, full shuffles, controls, culling, palming or passes to warm up the hands, and then a million card tricks to explore. If the rules of the island require me to choose one trick, it will most likely be the Ambitious card, or maybe Chicago Opener, or maybe a Memorized deck, never mind, it's too hard to pick just one card trick. Uh, just 52 cards, but a million possibilities. I'll take ambitious card as your answer there. Um, yeah, great, great choice. And again, you mentioned ambitious card, chicago opener.
Speaker 1:These are, you know, two tricks that everyone, pretty much, has learned in their career and many, many people use daily in their working sets Memorized deck work. You know it's something that I've spoken about before tackling. Josh Jay, of course, bought out a new book recently called the Particle System, which seems to be sort of a modernized version of a memorized deck, a memorized deck system. So it's another one that's lasted the test of time. And obviously, when we spoke to nick muhammad on this, I mentioned his performance, which is still one of my favorite memorized deck performances that I've seen, because you see the impact on the audience.
Speaker 1:You know all he's doing is revealing the order of a deck of cards. That's, that's what that trick is. You get it for free is revealing the order of a deck of cards. That's what that trick is. You get it for free if you're memorizing a deck anyway, and the response from people just when you're reeling off these cards is just phenomenal. It's great, it just feels absolutely impossible. So, yeah, a great, great choice and a great list. So we've gone from any card by richard sanders to invisible thread to poker test 2.0, extreme burn ring on rope, chopped by craig petty, charming chinese challenge, and a deck of cards for ambitious cards or chicago opener or a memorized deck, and a deck of cards for ambitious cards or chicago opener or a memorized deck. A great, great list. Nice mix of effects there as well, and it does lead us to book. So here's what jim says.
Speaker 1:As you know, choosing only one book is very tough. Some of the titles I considered were the amateurs magicians handbook by henry hay, the royal road to card magic, the the Books of Wonder by Tommy Wonder, scripting Magic by Pete McKay, strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz or the Magic of Michael Amar All extraordinary titles that are special in their own right. However, my choice is Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic. As a young boy growing up in Nebraska, I remember being so excited seeing the ad for this mail-in course on the back of a magic magazine when it first became available. It was a bit too expensive for my mum at the time, so years later, when I discovered it had been condensed into book form, I was immediately taken back to my childhood in Omaha.
Speaker 1:The book is a clear roadmap to the basics of magic, but also has something for the more seasoned performer. It covers several aspects of the art, including cards, coins, rope, mentalism, silks, billiard balls, even a few stage illusions. Overall, a quality read with excellent illustrations and instructions. Yeah, again one that we've had many times and no doubt we'll have many more, because it's a phenomenal book. It's, it's quite literally a bible through magic. It has everything in there, from big illusions, small illusions, literally anything you can think of is in that book. So a great, great choice. Now, of course, that brings us on to our curveball. Curveball item, which is the non-magic item that you use for magic, and Jim has put in music.
Speaker 1:One of the few things that brings me more joy than magic is music. Not sure how it will work or what form the music will take iPod with headphones, my old record collection or CD collection, or a coconut radio, like Gilligan's Island, but I must have music. The sound of waves would get old after a while. But if you add a little Jimmy Buffett, then you would have a party. And when I break out my magic tricks now, the fun really begins. Thanks again for letting me take a short cruise to your desert island and forcing us to make the hard, magical choices. Love the podcast. Well, that's a great, great choice.
Speaker 1:Music is one of those ones that I think a lot of performers use in one way or another. Some use it before a gig to get you into a certain mindset. Some people use it in a gig and use music in their shows. So it is one of those things that it's a a great tool to have at our disposal. But a great, great list.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, jim, for spending the time to type all of that out for me and for us all to listen to. Now again, if you guys want your list read out, please send in your list of eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item to sales at alakazamcouk. In the subject line put my desert island tricks. That way it comes through to me and we can get one recorded. Obviously, the more of these we get, the more episodes we can give you, and I think that these are really interesting. It's so nice to see how the world at large is developing their act and their routines. Now, of course, jim is no longer a stranger to us. We know everything we need to know about him. With that being said, we'll see you this Friday with another episode of the Main Podcast, but until then, have a great week.
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