Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
Stranded with a Stranger: Andy Cooper
What if you could blend two seemingly different passions into a harmonious career? In our latest episode, we welcome Andy Cooper, a magician and musician from Berkshire, who has done just that. Andy's journey began with a spark of inspiration from the David Nixon magic show and a cherished magic book from his childhood, leading him to rediscover his love for magic in his 60s. With the help of modern resources like YouTube and magic shops, he combines his skills in music and magic to create captivating experiences for his bandmates and audiences. Andy takes us through his transition into mentalism, revealing how his performances have evolved and how he crafts routines that connect deeply with his audience.
From the innovative Volition by Joel Dickinson to his unique take on Three-Card Monty, Andy gives us a peek into the creativity behind his magical routines. He talks about the sentimental value of his first magic book and his admiration for Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic, which holds a special place in his heart. Whether you're an aspiring magician or simply curious, this episode promises a magical journey filled with personal stories and practical insights from a man who has managed to unite his love for music and magic.
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
Thank you, hello and welcome to another episode of Stranded with a Stranger. We have another stranger with us today. Today's stranger is Andy Cooper. Now, I remember Andy Cooper and he has written a little bio and it tells you why I can remember Andy Cooper. So let's get straight into it. He's given us a really great bio at the beginning, just to get us to know him a little bit more. He says I'm a hobbyist magician from Berkshire. We met and chatted at the very end of Wayne Shindig in Newmarket during November, where you convinced me to submit my stranded with a stranger list, even though I'm an occasional rather than a regular performer. Sorry, it's taken a while, but here it goes, so I'm going to stop there just for a second. Yes, so I do remember Andy. I remember the conversation that we had at the very end and I said to him he should send in his list because I'm sure it would be super, super interesting. And it doesn't matter that it's taken you a while, andy, it just matters that we have it now. So he continues. He says I first became interested in magic during the late 60s and early 70s when I watched the David Nixon magic show on TV, which gives away my age.
Speaker 2:This was my earliest memory of magic and of sharing a common interest with my dad. We both loved watching magic together. One Christmas I received an amazing magic book from Santa slash dad. I had no idea of the title, but it was a large, hard, hardbound colorful book full of DIY magic trick for youngsters Some very straightforward to make at home and some much more challenging. The arts and craft element, together with understanding methods, got me hooked. I have no idea what became of the book, but over the years I searched the local library for similar magic books and continued my interest in magic. But as I approached my early teens I discovered music and took up playing a guitar, and the magic took a backseat for many years. Much later in life, someone gave me a birthday present of colour-changing poker chips. She'd known I was into magicka as a youngster and had clearly researched the ideal trick to give me, as this required little or no sleight of hand but was very visual and fooling. It reignited my interest in magic and I soon discovered that the magic world had changed. We now had YouTube channels and magic shops where I could further my interest and learning. I now have several huge bottom drawers of magic which I regard as being essential for furthering my magic education, in the same way that books might have been if the internet hadn't been created these days.
Speaker 2:I'm in my 60s and, as a professional musician, I play in several tribute and cover bands and my magic performances tend to be for bandmates and sometimes for audience members during the gigs I'm booked for. These can be in theatres, pubs and clubs, hotel environments, etc. My bandmates are used to my requests to show them something, and I have recently been veering towards mentalism as I feel it better suits my personality. I've never found it easy to approach strangers for performing magic, but having a ready-made audience at my music gigs gives me the opportunity to practice magic, and my flight time is progressing at a very steady rate rather than trying to run before I can walk. Actually, I quite enjoy studying audience members first to pick who I might approach, rather than being obliged to approach everyone as I might, as if I was being paid to might approach, rather than being obliged to approach everyone as I might, as if I was being paid to perform magic rather than music. Up until the last 12 months or so, I've mainly been doing single tricks, but recently I've been concentrating on linking two or three tricks together in a logical order so that I can concentrate on my presentation and build a routine, rather than one and done.
Speaker 2:The tricks in my list are in no particular order, but to me they represent the tricks I perform most often or would not want to be without. So we'll qualify as items I would bring along with me if I was stuck on a desert island. Wow, that's great. And I got nearly confused there with the mix up of magic and music throughout that. But that's great. I really liked the bit where you said your friend knew that you did magic as a young star and she bought you those color changing poker chips. I think that's really nice. It just shows that you must have in some way telegraphed that you were still really into it and people wanted to see that from you. So that's really lovely. So let's get onto your list.
Speaker 2:So Andy has put them into no particular order. He says so in his first spot. He's got Volition by Joel Dickinson. He says I'm pretty sure I learned this from an Alakazam Academy a year or two after I renewed my interest in magic. It's a take on the free will principle, but using business cards, each with an unseen prediction on the reverse side. I didn't perform it when I first saw Joel's Academy, but I filed the method away for future reference and in the last year or so, since I've been veering towards mentalism, I now perform volition, probably more often than any other trick. The spectator makes a number of choices whilst holding three business cards. One card ends up in their pocket, one in the right hand and one in the left. The exact locations are revealed to have been predicted and are shown to be written on the reverse of each card. A perfect definition of EDC and something which works well as an introduction.
Speaker 2:An honorable mention here would be Coat by Cameron Francis, another mentalism prediction EDC effect using a small bunch of business cards. Yeah, what a great trick. We've had Volition before. It's a great everyday carrier. It just uses some business cards. It's a really unique approach for the free will plot and feels very, very organic. So, yeah, it's a great, great choice. And it leads us nicely into number two, which is Evoke by Craig Petty.
Speaker 2:With the release of Evoke, craig is partially responsible for steering me towards mentalism. I first saw some of the evoke routines demonstrated by Craig himself at Wayne Goodman's second Shindig Magic Convention in November 2023. Several months before the product was released, I knew I had to purchase evoke, and in fact I have two sets, just to make sure I'll always have one available. Probably my favourite routine would be the mini book test if I wanted to show something short but hard hitting. But there are so many routines in the tutorial, all slightly different from each other, so it's easy to string together and act without repetition. Honourable mention here is to the gallery deck by Mark Spellman. I first saw this when it came out but didn't feel at the time that I was ready to use it or to purchase it. It became available again in a small quantity recently and I was lucky enough to acquire a pack.
Speaker 2:My favourite routine to perform is John Bannon's Cross Purposes from Move 03, I think, but using the gallery deck in place of a regular deck. Two spectators each arrive at a secret number by cutting and then counting cards from a shuffle deck of gallery images whilst the performer's back is turned. The first spectator is then asked to remember the image without a force which is found at his secret number. When the performer deals the cards face up one by one, the second spectator is then asked to count face down to the card at her own secret number and it's found to be the first. Spectator is then asked to count face down to the card at her own secret number and it's found to be the first spectator's merely thought-of card. This is not on Mark's tutorial, but he emphasizes that the gallery deck can replace a regular deck.
Speaker 2:In so many routines and cross-purposes works for me with the images adding a mentalism slant. For me with the images adding a mentalism slant. Well, both of them are great. So Evoke is just one of the big hitters I think of that year. He had so many tricks, but I know Evoke really stood out for a lot of people and it's always nice to have a and I mean, I know we've had a lot of them recently in one form or another but a deck of cards that doesn't feel like a deck of cards. I myself have a deck in my close-up case, which I use all the time, which doesn't look like a deck of cards. It just looks like a photo deck. So absolutely, and of course, the gallery deck is superb as well. I also like that you're giving us a little honorable mention for each one. I'm not sure if you've done that all the way through, but that's a really interesting way to go A little honorable mention on each trick.
Speaker 2:So let's go to number three, which is the Stealth Assassin by Alakazam Once again. I became aware of this many years ago, but I didn't feel confident that I would use it or do it or myself justice. But having recently acquired it, I would say that, along with the Vogue, this is probably my best magic purchase. Being a musician, I use the wallet for a version of shortlist from the tutorial, but where the spectator correctly predicts my all-time favorite band from a list of six. I also have a music related version of Cash Cabaret when Spectator chooses three headline bands at random, one for each night of my imaginary three day music festival, and on conclusion I reveal a poster from the first ever festival that I attended and the Spectator's chosen acts exactly match each of the three nightly headline acts from the real festival.
Speaker 2:Neither of these routines use the main function of the wallet, but, having used it to gain some information about the spectator's childhood, for example, what could be better than asking them to pick an evoke emotion card and be able to tell them not only the emotion that they're feeling but also the name of the person they most closely associate with the emotion. First honorable mention for this one is the Greek peak wallet, a different type of peak and one which works well for when I don't want a long routine. Second honorable mention is a peak using a special stack of business cards which John Morton taught in his arts and crafts lecture at Newmarket. I don't know whether this method is available commercially, but it's the most low-tech but at the same time the most straightforward and justified falling peak I could imagine. I've used this several times and love it. I know Peter Nardi always advises that we should use the right tool for the right occasion, so I feel justified in carrying two wallets and my John Morton stack of business cards, but it would be the saw which comes away with me to the island.
Speaker 2:Great, Wow, there's some really nice ideas there. I really love the three headline bands that great. And having that poster come out at the end absolutely excellent. And earlier on you mentioned that you are trying to combine tricks and it shows that you're doing that perfectly here by saying that you've incorporated the stealth assassin and the evoke cards as well. So that's absolutely excellent. And leads us nicely onto number four, which is contactless by alakazam. A great effect and another edc. The contactless wallet fits inside my stealth assassin and also my regular non-magic wallet, so it's probably always with me whether I'm carrying a magic wallet or not. It's probably a contender for all-time best EDC.
Speaker 2:There are many superb three-way prediction effects around and I've already elected to take Volition away to the island with me. But since I always have contactless on me, come what may, it ought to be part of my desert island list. And the effect is so different to Volition I'm happy to perform both to the same set of spectators. Absolutely excellent. Yep, sometimes there are some plots that are so different in execution or performance that you could get away with doing them to the same audience. So absolutely true. And it leads us to a number five, which is Roll by Chrisris congreve.
Speaker 2:Before I started veering more towards mentalism, I learned roll and have probably performed this more than any other card effect. A simple effect to perform, but a real fooler. I recently found a deck of pop star playing cards on amazon. Each card has the usual corner indices but the faces of 52 different pop stars or musicians. I converted it into a roll deck using chris's method and it really suits my environment when I'm showing magic at my music gigs. What a great choice. Uh, I think we all love roll alakazam. It's such a commercial piece of magic. But what I really love here is that you've done it on this music deck, which I think must just really, really suit your style of gigs and it's probably great for your audience. So absolutely great idea. And if anyone else performs with a different kind of deck, do let us know. I think that sounds really cool. And this leads us to number six, which is Hopping Halves by Jim Boyd. When I rediscovered magic about 10 years ago, I wasn't initially sure of which direction to go, but coin magic seemed appealing and Hopping Halves seemed to be a good introduction.
Speaker 2:I have two or three different sets of gimmick coins, but the set I use the most and would take to the island with me is the dollar sized set. Following advice from one of Craig Petty's Magic TV deep dives, I carry the coins in a quiver purse along with a duplicate pair of non-gimmick coins, in order to not only end clean, but for me this gives a more logical ending to the routine compared to the usual. All coins have disappeared. Approach logical ending to the routine compared to the usual. All coins have disappeared. Approach. Wow, that's great. Everyone loves hopping, halves and confusing coins because it is so, so commercial. It's one of the coin tricks that we've had quite a few times on the podcast, and for good reason, and the fact that you have several different sets of them just shows how much you must enjoy this. So a really really good choice, and I think that's the first coin trick that we've had in your list so far, which is really really cool. So that takes us to the tail end of your eight, with number seven being the three card Monty.
Speaker 2:Lots of versions of this, but the version I use is a routine I saw performed by the New York magician and YouTuber, js Magic. He regularly performs Stand Up Monty by Garrett Thomas, but a few years back he performed a similar but shorter version which appealed to me. I messaged him to ask where I could learn this routine, but he apologized and said he couldn't remember because parts were from different sources over the years. I have a set of stand-up Monty gimmicks which helped me understand what was going on in Jonathan's performance. In my version I only need one gimmick card. The first two phases are straightforward money card and distraction card change places, but in the third phase, the money card disappears thanks to an elmsley count and appears back in the wallet where all the cards started out. Being good at arts and crafts, I decided to split cards and make my own gimmicks. For this effect, rather than using the standard df gimmick, I made up a set using aged bicycle cards, which I found helps disguise any slight imperfections caused by the splitting process, and also this works nicely with the patter about being a very old street hustle.
Speaker 2:I learned my Elmsley count from a Liam Montier Alakazam academy. I maintain that this count is maybe the best one to study. I'm pretty sure that he's a fellow guitar player, as are many magicians, and I'm convinced that musicians have a natural advantage when it comes to timing and rhythm, both of which are essential for the perfect Elmsley Count. Wow, that's great. I love that you've really gone into depth in terms of your exploration of this routine and the fact that you've almost come up with your own version of it, based on the ones that you've studied over the past few years. So that's absolutely excellent. And in terms of the Elmsley Count, I don't believe that there's anyone you can learn better than Liam Montier. I also learned from Liam and I love doing the Elmsley Count as a consequence of learning from him. So that's a great, great shout and it leads us on to number eight, which is convergence by cameron francis, a two-deck prediction routine, which is my second most performed trick and one that can easily segue from mentalism type effects.
Speaker 2:A red deck is shown with each card being numbered on the reverse from 1 to 52. A blue deck in a box is handed to the spectator for safe keeping. A spectator freely names any card with no force from the red deck which is located by the performer and placed aside. The spectator then chooses a number by chance from the remaining red deck. This gives us a freely named card and a randomly chosen number. When the blue deck is unboxed and spread, the named card is found at the chosen number without the performer touching the blue deck. Both decks examinable, no gaffes, easy to do, honorable mentions to Trilogy, extreme and Cataclysm, similar effects, I think. From a spectator's perspective, both have the advantage of being only one deck to carry, but for me Convergence would be the effect to take to the island and since it's two decks, one of which is regular and without writing on the back, so it could be used as a cheeky.
Speaker 2:Ninth item, absolutely another great, great choice. And I know a lot of performers worry about two-deck tricks. I remember many years ago performing Second Chance by Wayne Dobson, which is another two deck trick, and that was the time that I realized that a second deck can make a card trick feel much bigger. Feel much bigger. So by bringing out this deck of cards, which is like your prediction deck, and isolating it from what you're doing in your performance, really makes that trick feel much bigger and much more intriguing to an audience. So it's well worth looking at two deck tricks if you want to find a way to segue into parlor performances. And it does bring us to the two curveball items. So we're going to see what book Andy has taken and what non-magic item Andy has taken as well.
Speaker 2:In his book position he says I wish I could remember the name of the book which launched my interest in magic as a child, but I would certainly take it with me to the island if I could. It would be interesting to see if I would be as absorbed in the book as I was back in the day. One of the effects to make at home was the vanish reappearance and transposition of a coin using two old-fashioned brass cut curtain rings, a bit like an early version of dynamic coins. I remember following the instructions to make up this effect using some of mum's posh paper from her letter writing case as a performance surface, some glue, a couple of curtain rings and two small squares of card which exactly covered the curtain rings. It was the very first time I ever performed any magic and I remember dad's reaction to this day.
Speaker 2:If it isn't possible to locate and take my childhood magic book with me to the island, I'll take my copy of Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic, which in many ways is the grown-up version of my childhood book, equally absorbing, with plenty of make-at-home effects and a wealth of information for research as well as tricks to learn and perform. Great choice One that we've had. It's got to be well up there with one of the most selected books. We've had it lots of times, and for good reason. I wonder if you'll ever find that book or if someone listening to this can work out which book that trick was in, can work out which book that trick was in.
Speaker 2:So let's go on to your non-magic item. I haven't included it in my list of eight items, but when I use my Anverde die. I always carry a 10-inch square of black velvet cloth which the spectator is instructed to place over the die once they have rolled or chosen their number. I found the cloth on Amazon for next to nothing. It's actually a velvet pocket square handkerchief, and not only does this work well for the routine, but it also makes a useful but compact performance surface for any other effects.
Speaker 2:Honorable mention for a leather, ultra slim credit card wallet with three card slots, a side and a pocket in the middle. It's a bit like the wallet which comes with contactless, but it's double-sided. I use it to carry my Volition and a couple of other business card effects. I have a second one which I use for packet tricks. What a great choice, absolutely superb. Yeah, I think having that little black square and it has a dual purpose there, not to mention it's fashionable if you're using it as a pocket square as well it's a great, great choice, and one that we haven't had. So that's an excellent selection there.
Speaker 2:So let's just review andy's list. We went for volition. Uh, evoke was in second position. Stealth Assassin, contactless, roll, hopping Halves, three Card Monty, convergence His book was Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic and his non-magic item was a 10-inch square of black velvet cloth. Thank you so much for writing into us, andy, and sharing your list. Now, of course, andy is a stranger no more we know everything we need to know about him but it would be great for you to also send in your list, just like Andy did. So send in your list of eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item to sales at alakazamcouk. Please include a little bio about yourself and, obviously, the reason that you chose the items that you did. So we're going to be back next week with another stranded with a stranger and main podcast, but for but, for now, have a great week experience even slicker at alakazam.
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