Matt Clewley

This week we welcome MagicTV’s Matt Clewley! Matt takes us on a whimsical journey into his crazy world of magic, including anecdotes of a German-accented magician transforming a serious act into comedic brilliance with a mere suitcase of sausages. Matt's collaboration with the renowned Craig Petty and his venture into the daring “Blockhead” are just glimpses into his vibrant career.

 Listeners will find themselves marooned with Matt as he showcases his ultimate magic trick lineup for a desert island escape. From the incredible Anverdi Die, which he swears by for its captivating prowess, to the stealthy Si Stebbins stack, Matt reveals his secret weapons in balancing close-up, parlour, cabaret, and stage magic. His passion for mentalism shines through as he shares how a theatrical touch can weave simple tricks into awe-inspiring stories. Matt’s account of discovering PK Touches and the art of using billets and Sharpies for branded interactions provides listeners with a fresh perspective on magic's adaptability and charm.

Matt teases upcoming conventions and collaborations that promise to push the boundaries of his journey. Through anecdotes of performing with familiar routines like Sneak Thief and the Crystal Casket, Matt highlights the joy of creating magical moments in various settings. For someone who has only been in magic for a few years, Matt’s exposure to so much magic and so many magicians mean’s he is lightyears ahead of where he should be. His enthusiasm for our art shines through in this episode and we know you are going to really enjoy this episode! 

Matt’s Desert Island Tricks: 

1. Anverdi Die 
2. Si Stebbins Stacked Deck
3. PK Touches 
4. Alexander Marsh’s Billet Peek 
5. Master Prediction System 
6. Imposter / Bane / Psycology
7. Sneak Thief 
8. Crystal Casket

Book. 13 Steps to Mentalism 
Item. Motorbike 

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

Chapters

• 0:00 Crazy Magic Antics
• 4:25 Magic Trick Favorites and Surprises
• 10:30 Magical Performance Secrets Revealed
• 19:15 Magic and Mentalism
• 23:56 Phenomenal Reactions to PK Touch
• 28:24 Branding Magic With Billets and Sharpies
• 41:40 Alakazam Unlimited Magic Streaming Platform
• 46:31 Magic Routine Versatility and Adaptability
• 54:52 Magic Illusions and Essential Tools
• 1:01:08 Escape on Two Wheels
• 1:10:14 Magic Conversations and Future Plans

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

And he comes out on stage and he pretends to be German and he's got this big blonde wig on and he's got this shirt that's unbuttoned down and he's all very dramatic and very Vegas, but in a German accent. And he's got this suitcase that he opens up and when he opens the suitcase up he's got five different types of sausage stuck to the inside of the suitcase. And then he gets a guy to come up and he's trying to pick one to five which sausages roll the die and whatever the number is, pick up that sausage. And then he kind of reads their minds and tell them what sausage they're holding. And he's basically he's getting them to roll a die. But then he puts this he's supposed to have this really fancy blindfold but he doesn't have a blindfold, so he ends up putting this little bag on his head and then he's telling them what sausage he's holding. And he gets two guys up on stage and tells them what sausages they're both holding, while he's standing there with his German accent and a bag on his head.

Speaker 1: 0:48

And I'm just like that is the most imaginative way of using that product that you could possibly imagine. He's just taken what can be portrayed as quite a serious mentalism piece and just thrown it into this crazy, high energy, hilarious routine. And I was in pain. Drew kept looking at me and just going, I told you, and I was laughing that much I was in agony watching him do that. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks we have the other half of the Magic Anten deck with us today.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. We have the other half of the Magic Anton deck with us today. I'll let you work out who is who in this situation. He is probably best known to work with Ah, that guy, what is his name? Newcomer, I don't know. Craig, dettie, craig, something, I can't remember his name.

Speaker 2: 2:06

But this is the other half works with craig quite closely and over the past few years, I'm sure everyone's really enjoyed watching his journey through the matt tests and, uh, normally being picked on by craig. Let's all be entirely honest. So this is matt's official opportunity to get back at craig. We're not going to let it out. Whatever matt says. This is a safe place for matt. This is matt's official opportunity to get back at craig. We're not going to edit out whatever matt says. This is a safe place for matt. This is going to be I feel like this is going to be more therapy for matt at this point, so it should be good.

Speaker 2: 2:34

But he is a phenomenal performer. He's really good at exploring new things. I think every time I see a video of him, he's just explored something new, trying something new, most recently Blockhead, which is a brave, bold move. So I'm really excited to see what he's going to come up with. I also know, because of who he works with, he must be surrounded by magic. There must be so much magic which comes across his desk every single day, so we don't really know where this is going to go. We'll see. So today's guest, of course, is Matt Cluley. Hello, matt.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Hey, dude, how's it going Good? Good to have you on. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. And yeah, I'm not pulling any punches on Craig today. We can play whatever we want about him, he's not even here. He's not in the office today, so that's on him.

Speaker 2: 3:29

Well notice who we asked to come on out of both of you.

Speaker 1: 3:32

I know, yeah, I told him that I was coming on and he was like, what You're going on Desert Island Chicks? I was like, yeah, he went, I haven't been on that yet. And I was like I'll just show Zuhala Kazam like more than I guess. Well, we've got Ryland coming on next. And then we've got oh, you've got Ryland before him as well.

Speaker 2: 3:52

We're going to try to. Yeah, we're going to try and do. Maybe everyone in your office, we'll just get everyone to do it before Craig.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Well, thea did her first show on New Year's Eve we're recording this just after New year's eve and she did her first show where she was helping us out with the illusions and stuff, and the new year's eve show that we did a dram at a park.

Speaker 2: 4:09

so thea is now officially an illusionist, so you could get her on as well nice, perfect before he's gonna be so annoyed oh yeah, totally, and it'd be amazing when craig comes on because undoubtedly he will eventually what do you think he would put in his spots? What do you think he'd put in his position?

Speaker 1: 4:27

oh god, he'd probably put eight of his own tricks that's a fair point. That is a fair point he just lists his eight most recent tricks to try and get more sales on them.

Speaker 2: 4:39

That's what Craig would do, I reckon so what was his latest one at time of recording?

Speaker 1: 4:43

focus, I think is the last one that's come out, isn't it? He's got a bunch of stuff that's coming out, um, cheetah chips and stuff, I think he's coming out I don't even know if I'm supposed to have said that and then there's. He's got a bunch of other stuff in the pipeline that he's been working on with various other people as well. So by the time it gets to your recording, they'll easily be another eight tricks that he could he could promote. So he'd just go for eight of his own tricks that he's trying to promote at the time.

Speaker 1: 5:08

I'm guessing god help us all and he wouldn't thank me for saying that, but he knows it's true and he's not going to listen to this anyway because it's me. So, um, yeah, I think I can get away with it well, today it is about you.

Speaker 2: 5:23

It's not about what's his name. All right, it's about Matt Clooney, the other one, the other one, the lesser known. So, yeah, I'm really excited to find out what your list is like. Did you find it difficult with just the sheer amount of magic that you must be around at the moment?

Speaker 1: 5:40

Yeah, so I made it because of the amount of stuff. I mean, just looking around this particular room that I'm in now, it is literally wall-to-wall magic everywhere, and when we get stuff that we get sent through or that we buy to do live reviews and stuff on, then I'll always go out and try them. I'll go out and try everything that we get live. So there's that much stuff that we have around that I could pick and choose. But I've gone for stuff that is in my repertoire. I've gone for stuff that I do regularly and that I am comfortable with and happy with and it's been with me for a long time. So there's a couple of things on the list that everyone would automatically guess.

Speaker 1: 6:22

And if you're thinking, oh, he's just going to go for those things, then yes, you're right, I am, because they're my staples, that's what I do and they're how I start my close-up sets and that's you know. So I've put them on just because if I didn't, everyone would be like, well, surely he's going to put that on there. So I am, I absolutely love. So yeah, and I've kind of gone for a bit of close-up, a bit of parlor cabaret and a bit of stage as well. So, because I do all of them, I've gone for a mix of kind of different types of performing, but there is a running theme, as you can imagine, with what I do, and most of it is just that it's really fun to perform because I'm all about, as you know, I'm all about the performance over the technical ability of the trick. So the vast majority of what I do is heavily performance based and that's that's reflected in my list for sure, I think.

Speaker 2: 7:19

So maybe we need to play Matt's bingo. Maybe everyone listening now needs to come up with maybe three things that they think are going to be on your list before we begin.

Speaker 1: 7:29

So you've got about. I pretty much guarantee that everyone will get two of them at least.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Well, you've got about 20 seconds, all right, because we've got the little intro bit to come up with your list at home and see how many of them you ticked off. And what's amazing is if you tick them all off, craig Petty has said he will send you 10 English pounds if you get it right. He said it, not me, so each of you will get 10 English pounds if you get them right.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Nice. That's very generous of him.

Speaker 2: 7:59

It is very generous of him. So if this is your first time listening, the idea is that we're about to maroon matt on his own desert island. When he's there, he's allowed to take eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item that he uses for magic particulars like who's there? What's there? Has he buried craig petty on the island somewhere? That good stuff is all in matt's own imagination. We do not mind. It's basically the ultimate list of tricks that he could not live without. So, that being said, matt, let's get into it. What did you put in your first position?

Speaker 1: 8:30

First one is not going to be a surprise to anybody. It is my Anverde dye. I love this thing. It is the best thing that I've ever used. It was one of the first things I ever did, performing After being dragged down to smoke and mirrors on the first time I ever did close up magic.

Speaker 1: 8:47

I was then introduced to the Anverdi die after that and since then it's just been a staple of what I do. It's the perfect opener for the kind of sets that I do when I'm doing close up magic. If I can just walk up to a table. It's short, it's, it's sharp, it's snappy you just throw somebody a die, can examine it, they can lick it if they want to. You know what I mean. You can do anything you want with that dye. It's not going to give anything away. It is the cleanest thing that you can possibly do and the way that I've got the routine in down now it's. I mean I could make that If I wanted to do a 15 minute, 20 minute set at a corporate event, I could easily do your full 15, 20 minutes with just that die. It's like you could just keep that going for as long as you want to. Um, it is such an incredible thing and it's so reliable and people just don't. It's something that people don't get given like. If you walk up to a table and say, hi, I'm a magician, you take out a deck of cards, a lot of people are just like, oh, it's another magician, because every magician walks into a table and takes out a deck of cards. Um, and doing the corporate circuit and doing weddings and so on and so forth, you can like. You have like.

Speaker 1: 9:55

I've realized very, very quickly when I've started doing this that not everybody's jammy doors, not everybody's quake pay and there are a lot of magicians that are out there that are just trying to do it for pocket money or whatever. So you get a lot of people that come to you and go, oh, you're doing a core trick and it's like, actually, no, I'm not have a look at this. And then you give them a die and people are like, what's that? I'm like it's a die and they're like, well, what do I do with that? And then you go through the routine with them and you, just because it's something they're not expecting, it's something that's a little bit different, it just blows people away. Um, and the routine in that I've got with that.

Speaker 1: 10:30

Now I've been doing it for that long that it just flows out of me and the spiel that I've got that goes with it and getting people. I'm like, by the end of it, I've got one person sitting down on a chair and the rest of the table are all standing up and they're crowded around me and they're looking for what I'm looking for and you know, and people have people are doing it for me. I've had people that are doing this for me by the end of it and what I'm doing is a complete lie, but I've had people doing stuff for me that and they're like it's getting drags people into the. So you've got a whole table that are then in on the routine. They're all in on what's happening and it's it's a fully inclusive thing to be able to use and it's so simple and it couldn't be any simpler than it is and it just allows you to focus solely on the routine of what you're doing and it's all performance based and that's perfect for me.

Speaker 1: 11:24

So, um, I, I couldn't. I could not do close-up magic without an anvil. I know, I don't think. Even if I don't actually use it, it's always in my pocket and it's that thing that I've got, that I know that if anything goes wrong or I'm losing an audience or I'm not performing as well as I could do that day, if I I put my hand in my pocket and my Anverde dies there, I know I'm going to be okay Cause I'm going to be able to pull that out and then just blow people away. So that is number one on my list, that, and I know that a lot of people in Matt Bingo will have been expecting that to be there and it is. And I'm quite happy for Craig to send people a 10 if they get it, because they guessed the Anverdi dies there, because that's never going away. I don't think I love it. I absolutely love it.

Speaker 2: 12:10

Yeah, it's a great one, but at the beginning you mentioned that you do a good mixture of like Parler and Close Up. Is it one that you've used in Parler, because I've seen so many people use it in that way.

Speaker 1: 12:26

I have. There's a guy. I went to the Cutest Cabaret that Chris Wilder runs over in Nottingham and there was a guy called Klaus Fantastisch. He's like a comedy magician and he is. I remember Drew Perry and he was like this guy. Klaus Fantastisch is hilarious, you're going to love him.

Speaker 1: 12:42

And he comes out on stage and he pretends to be German and he's got this big blonde wig on and he's got this shirt that's unbuttoned down and he's all very dramatic and very Vegas, but in a German accent. He's not German, he's English, but he does this accent really, really well. And he's got this suitcase that he opens up. And when he opens the suitcase up he's got five different types of sausage stuck to the inside of the suitcase. And then he gets a guy to come up and he's trying to pick one to five which sausage it is, roll the die and whatever the number is, pick up that sausage, and then he kind of reads their minds and tell them what sausage they're holding, and it's this whole routine with and he's basically he's getting him to roll a die. But then he puts this he's supposed to have this really fancy blindfold, but he doesn't have a blindfold, so he ends up putting this little bag on his head and obviously the little bag is I mean, you know, I can't tell you how it works, but I mean the little bag is very important. And then he's telling him what sausage he's holding.

Speaker 1: 13:43

And he gets two guys up on stage and tells them what sausage he's there both holding, while he's standing there with his German accent and a bag on his head, and I'm just like that is the most imaginative way of using that product that you can possibly imagine. He's just taken what can be portrayed as quite a serious mentalism piece and just thrown it into this crazy, high energy, hilarious routine. And I was in pain. Drew kept looking at me and just going, I told you, and I was laughing that much I was in agony watching him do that. So I've never used it on stage, but I have seen it used on stage and it's very it works. It absolutely works. This is brilliant.

Speaker 2: 14:25

Well, well, that's a great opening gambit, uh, and it excites me for where you're going to go. So what did you put in your second position?

Speaker 1: 14:32

okay, so the second position is normally what I go to after I've done my anverdy die um, which again, is one of the first things that I was taught when we were learning on the channel and stuff, and it's one of them things that's just stuck with me and it's a deck of cards but it just so happens to be in stebbin stack, which, again, people are going to be falling off their seats, um, with surprise right now. But yeah, um, any, any deck of cards in stebbin stack and the possibilities that you've got to go through, um, the possibilities that you've got with just a step short of just doing the standard thing that you can do, um, there's so many things that you can do with that deck, but I mean just doing this. The standard, easy routine with it is, it's just mind blowing. People just don't get it. And I've found that if you go straight in with a deck of cards, I everyone's like, oh, he's a magician. If you go in with the anverdi die first and you've already proven that you can do this kind of thing by the time you go, okay, but that's a one in six shot, so there is a strong possibility. I can guess that right some of the time I'll make it a little bit harder.

Speaker 1: 15:35

This is a one in 52 and by the time you've brought the cards out, you're not a magician anymore. You are doing something that they've got no idea how you're doing. You're not, it's not a trick. Do you know what I mean? They think that you're a genius at this point. So by the time you brought the cards out, nobody's focusing on the cards, because the cards aren't important, they're not like.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Because when you just pull out a deck of cards, people will be like oh, can I shuffle them? Oh, can I have a look at them? Oh, can I do that? And they're asking you questions and trying to trick you up. But if you pull a deck of cards out after you've used the die, those questions disappear. People don't ask you anymore because it's not about the deck of cards. It's at that point you're so far into the routine and you've sucked them in so much into what you're doing that the questions are out of the window and they're just sitting there in awe of what you're doing. So I think that the two of them together to open any close-up set is for what I do and the way that I do it and the way that I perform. It is perfect.

Speaker 2: 16:29

So the second one is the sidestep and stack so if you could only do one routine with your deck, what would it be?

Speaker 1: 16:35

you just get them to pick a card and then psycho babble, analyze them a bit and tell them what the card is. It's the simplest routine that you can do. Really, I don't know if I mean you know how that works. Obviously, um, it's that. But you, I know this isn't on video, but that um, and that's that's the simplest and easiest routine to do with a seven stack. And again, if I had nothing else and I turned up at a gig and my car would caught fire on the way there and everything I had was burnt to shreds and all of my clothes were tattered and I had to stop at a petrol station and get a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, but they just so happened to have a deck of cards there as well. If I had time to put that into a seven stack, I could quite easily do a two hour closeup game with just a seven stack.

Speaker 1: 17:16

Um, and that it's that good, like the way that you can perform it, the way that you can use it and the way it sucks people in it's. It's, yeah, just using the very bog standard basic pick card. It's, this one is um, is is phenomenally powerful if you perform it in the right way, when I when I take when I take um cards to to a gig, I've normally got two or three on me so I've got like one in Stebbins deck. Sometimes I've got a spare one in Stebbins if I'm going to like a military base or something where those guys can get pretty rowdy, or I'm going to like a wedding that's in the evening, so I know that everybody's already had a drink. I'll sometimes take a spare Stebbins deck with me because if somebody snatches at the end and throws it on the floor, you're done, so I'll have a spare one. But then I've also normally got under the couple of decks of cards in my other pocket.

Speaker 1: 18:06

Um, it's normally providence decks. I've just got a bunch of providence decks in my pockets because they look phenomenal and they work great, um. So yeah, I've got a. I mean I've got obviously the normal card tricks that people do. I've got an ambitious, ambitious card routine Out of this back in time. Actually, back in time is a really good one because I can kind of I've got a really good story for that and a lot of what.

Speaker 1: 18:29

I do is like storytelling. So if I do want to do, and I'm feeling in the mood to do an actual card trick, I'll normally do. I mean, it's super simple. Obviously Nothing I do is crazy, complicated, like technicality wise. As far as actually doing the trick, um, I mean out of this world, uh, back in time, is what like it's. I can't even say what it is can I.

Speaker 1: 18:52

But it's like it's really uh, it's really really simple to do. It's not a difficult card trick, there's only a couple of moves, um. But the story that I've got that goes with that is um, I can make that card trick last about four and a half minutes just because of the story that goes with it. So, um, but yeah, I've normally got three or four decks of cards on me when I'm doing close-up nice and just looking at your list so far.

Speaker 2: 19:15

So I know we've only had two. So we've got anverdy dice but uh, anis stebb that deck, but with a mentalism flavour. So far we're going heavy mentalism.

Speaker 1: 19:26

Yeah, yeah, definitely. That's what I do. That's what I prefer to do, that's my thing, because as far as I'm concerned, mentalism is more about storytelling than it is If you look at a lot of the best mentalism tricks in the world. They're not technically difficult to do and it leaves you massively open to interpretation as far as presentation and stuff goes. And I think it's because mentalists are storytellers and that's kind of what I that's where I came from, I'm a theater bunny and I'm an actor and that's kind of my thing is is telling stories. So I much prefer to put a lot of the time into the presentation rather than what I've got to do to make the trick work, because if I'm concentrating really hard on what I've got to do to make the trick work, the presentation is going to suffer a little bit. Um, so I yeah, I normally go for stuff that I can do quite easily, but it means that I can go heavy on the cell. And Nem says this to me all the time Nemed, phoenix, whenever we're gigging together we've gigged together a few times over Christmas and he's like you're doing the simplest things in the world, but all I'm hearing is like tables of people applauding you all around the room, because when we go and do gigs together like, we'll normally pick a side of the room each and then we'll just meet in the middle when we're done and then he'll go all night.

Speaker 1: 20:45

All I've heard is people clapping and cheering. And I know what you're doing. I know it is the simplest things in the world that you're doing, but all of these people are clapping and cheering and standing up and dressing you in your back over and getting their friends to come over and look at what you're doing, because I'm putting the effort into selling it well. So I think, as far as gigging is concerned, when you're a professional gigging magician, whether you are doing like audiences don't care if you're doing really technical stuff. They just want to be entertained. Military bases they don't care what you're doing, as long as you're entertaining them and you're having a laugh with them while you're doing it.

Speaker 1: 21:22

So yeah, because I've came into this, this into the whole magic thing, really late, I mean, I've still only been doing magic for it's less than three years, I think I've been doing magic for so and I'm still. I'm getting to do cool stuff like this and talking to people like you, which is amazing. But because I haven't come from sitting in magic for 30 years and learning everything there is to know and and learning all of these moves and then being able to apply them and stuff. I haven't got that.

Speaker 1: 21:50

So and I didn't have time when I first started because I was just thrown in at the deep end and I was out within a couple of weeks. I was out performing with people like Nemed Phoenix and Craig Petty and Tom Mullinger and it's just all of these guys and I'm walking into gigs alongside them and having to hold my own really, really quickly. So I just naturally gravitated towards mentalism, because it's more about the presentation and when it comes to presentation, I'm at much less of a disadvantage than everybody else, than anything else that magicians do. So, um, yeah, it is all mentalism and it's all really simple, but it's all stuff that I do and I know that it works, so that's why it's on my list so that gives us a little teaser going forward, so we can uh guess what you're going to go for.

Speaker 2: 22:35

So what did you put in your third spot?

Speaker 1: 22:37

okay, my third. My third spot is um is because of you. You opened me a few months ago. You opened me up to a whole new world of stuff and it was something that I'd seen. Um, I was talking to, uh, pete turner at blackpool not last year, year before and um it was. He was talking about doing this kind of stuff and it just blew me away and I was just like, oh my God, that's amazing. And then I managed to find, thanks to the wonderful Alaka Pham, a download called Mind Over Mentalism by this incredible, by this incredible mentalist called Jamie Dawes. And then I was lucky enough to be able to just text Jamie Dawes and ask him about this stuff and then, based off of that conversation, I instantly ordered a bunch of packs of loops and have been absolutely obsessed with this stuff ever since. So number three on my list is PK Touches, and I don't know how many different things I'm allowed to say within the pk touches genre of performance, but um loops is fantastic. So anything with loops is um is amazing.

Speaker 1: 23:56

The routine that you do on your mind over mentalism download is phenomenally good. But we've also got the uh the chairs, the pk touch chairs. So we've done that a few times as well over the christmas period. And it's just the reactions that people get. It's the closest I've come so far to feeling like derren brown on the stage doing the pk touch stuff on a stage. Um, with the chairs is just amazing. It's mind-blowing.

Speaker 1: 24:22

Um, and the gasps and stuff that you get, because the thing with being a mentalist, especially going around tables and stuff, you do get it. Sometimes you have to work really, really hard for it but you do get the the rounds of applause and and the whoops and the hollers and all that kind of stuff. But it doesn't happen every time because a lot of the time in mentalism people are more stunned than else. They're sitting there trying to figure out what's just happened. So you don't get that big reaction a lot of the time. But with the PK touch chairs it's the same thing. You don't get the massive rapturous standing ovation but what you get is to look out over the audience after you finish the routine and everybody is just sitting there wide-eyed with their jaws on the floor trying to process what the hell they've just seen. And it's the same with with when you're using the loops and doing like the stuff that you do.

Speaker 3: 25:18

Um, I'm still working on it and I've got a feeling and I said this to you before this is going to be something that I'm going to be working on it and I've got a feeling and I said this to you before this is going to be something that I'm going to be working on for years.

Speaker 1: 25:25

It's not the kind of thing you can just pick up overnight and get done. I've got a couple of really short routines that I do with it at the moment because I'm still working on it, but I even with the couple of really short, simple routines that I've got that I'm doing with it at the moment, the reactions have been phenomenal and it's very quickly becoming my favorite thing to do. The chairs that we use are now my favorite thing that we do in our illusion show with me and Greg. It just makes me feel good to get up on stage or do close up and perform anything PK Touch based. So number three is PK Touch because it is and will be for quite a long time, I would imagine, my favourite thing to perform.

Speaker 2: 26:10

Yeah, it just gets a reaction like I've not seen from another trick. It really does, doesn't it?

Speaker 1: 26:17

Yeah, I'm going to be doing that for a really long time and it's thanks to you, so thank you for helping me with getting into that, because it is one of them things where you look at it and even as a magician that's been performing professionally for a couple of years, it was one of those things that I just looked out, thought there's no way. It's just there's no way it's it's going to be one of them ridiculously difficult things that I'm just I'm not going gonna have the dexterity for it or I'm not gonna have the there's no way, I'm not gonna have the skill to do it. And and then you just went you're gonna be able to do that, you'll be fine. I was like, okay, okay, let's do it, let's do it, um, but yeah, I am like I said, I'm still working on it as we speak, but it is.

Speaker 1: 26:57

It's one of those things that just leaves people stunned, and I know exactly what you mean about being able to walk away from a table and the table's silent. I do that with a couple of different routines that I do. Just you, there's one of them that I do using an app, um, and it allows me to do the routine and walk away from the table and then it's normally kind of 10-15 seconds before anything happens on the table, because everyone's just sitting there looking at each other and they're looking what just what was how, and everyone's just kind of looking around before they even realise that you're gone. And by the time they realise you're gone, you're on the other side of the room and then what happens is everyone will stand up, because if it's a big function and there's like 30 tables, everyone kind of stands up and they're looking for you.

Speaker 1: 27:44

And if you can make it so that you're walking towards the booker and you get the booker's attention, as an entire table of people stand up 20 feet behind you and go there, he is there, he is, oh my God, and they're like clapping you and stuff trying to get your attention, it just makes you look like a god in front of the booker. So I found makes you look like a god in front of the booker. So I found that if you can time that right, that's a really good way of getting the booker to realize that you're doing a cracking job at that gig. So, um, but yeah, the, the loops and the pk twitches and those routines that you, that you teach on your download. They're going to be a staple in my, in my set close up and stage for a long time. There, it's amazing. So, yeah, that's a big number three on the list well, that leads us very nicely into number four.

Speaker 2: 28:24

So what did you put in your fourth position?

Speaker 1: 28:28

okay. So in my fourth position I put bits and a sharpie. Right now. I know the rules of this. I know that you're going to ask me specifically what routines that I want to do with said billets and sharpies, because I do listen to the podcast. Um, so billets in a sharpie there are multitude of things that you can do with billets and a sharpie. I always use the, the thin, fine tip sharpies, not the big fat ones, because I normally use the, the standard size billet cards that come from your competitor that I'm not I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say the name of or not. I get the 1914, they're billets, so I use those because they're just perfect for what I need. And then the fine tip Sharpies and stuff. There's loads and loads and loads of things that you can do with a simple piece of card and a Sharpie pen, but the main thing I do is, again from the 1914, it's Alex Marsh's Billy Peake, which is based off of Assetto's Novus, but it's not. It's slightly different, and it's on his Billy Masterclass. Download Alex, alexander Marshall, alex Marshall, alex Buckley, whatever we call him, whatever you want to call him, from that dude.

Speaker 1: 29:41

And I was lucky enough again to go to the, the curious cabaret, um chris's chris wilder's deal, and he has a thing on mondays now where he gets magicians to come in and do teach little master classes in person, and I got to meet alex doing one of those. I also got to see him perform live. Um, we performed. Where were we? We were at a magic convention and I was with um. I was teching for roiland. Where were we? Was it tineside? It might have been tineside and we were teching for um. I was teching for roiland and roiland was in the garlic show and alex was in the garlic show. So I got to hang out backstage with with alex for a while.

Speaker 1: 30:19

He's such a lovely bloke. I've got a lot of respect for Alex. He's amazing and I got to watch him perform and a lot of the route, a lot of his stage show, was literally just done with a pocket full of billets and some brand envelopes and it's just, it's so clever and I'm watching him doing it, knowing how he does what he does, and I'm still impressed because it's so simple but it just fools everyone. No one's got a clue what he's doing. So there's a few different things that I use billets and little brown envelopes and Sharpies for. But his version of Acidus Novus is definitely. That's definitely big for me Also. I use that, and this ties into something that I'm going to say later on as well.

Speaker 1: 31:07

But I did um, a company um called bar juice. They're the one of the biggest bar um, one of the biggest vape juice companies in the country. They contacted us and they were doing the vape show at the NEC. This was in October last year, um, and they wanted a magician to come out. So I was speaking to the guy and booked it in, ended up doing it myself because I'm a vaper and I've worked at the vape show at the NEC a few times before doing various different things. So I ended up going and they wanted me to do close-up magic just on the stand, just to kind of keep people on the stand and kind of help promote the brand and all that kind of stuff. And then they wanted me to do a 40 minute, 45 minute stage show in the middle of the day. And they went is there any possible way that you can brand um, brand some of the tricks? And I was like, well, what pos have you got? What merchandise have you got? What kind of advertising things have you got with you. That's already done.

Speaker 1: 32:04

And what they had was, um, an a4 piece of card with a picture and a little bio of every bar juice they have, every vape juice flavor they have, and there happened to be 41 of them and I was like that couldn't be much more perfect. Give me a few of those. So they gave me one of these cards and I numbered them all 1 to 41 and then I would walk around. The first thing I did he was like can I come and just check you out for five minutes? Like when I first started on the stand on the first day, I had the owner of bar juice following me around the stand watching what I was doing and I was like, yeah, of course, snowy's. Um. So I'd hand people this piece of card with all of the vape juice flavors on it, numbered 1 to 41. I'd get them to pick, not necessarily their favorite one, but one that jumps out at them, one that they're going to be able to sense, that they can taste, that can smell, one that they're going to be able to kind of connect to this particular flavor, and then I'd get them to write the number down on a little piece of white card and put it in an envelope and put it in their top pocket and then I would read them, um, and figure out which bar juice was their favorite bar juice.

Speaker 1: 33:12

And it was people. People were just freaking out the the boss. He was like how the hell do you do that? And I'm like it's magic, like I'm good at reading people, it's like whatever, um, and it was just a really good way of kind of doing what the customer wanted. He wanted branded magic. And then like, based off of that, we could, you could do that with anything. So any company that now comes to us and once we can say to them well, you know, we could do branded magic for your event and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Cause if they've got products that they're selling, you can easily put a number on them and then you can tell people what they're thinking of. And it's it's just a fantastic tool in order to be able to go and do things like that.

Speaker 1: 33:58

And then again there was another. There's another one on my list, um, where I'll go through that later because it's later on the list. But yeah, that is. I mean it just worked so, so well, um, but doing that in in close-up and you can use it on stage and you can do what. It's a really simple thing to do. It takes a little bit of practice to get it slick, um, but it's not difficult to do and it's so powerful because, again, it puts all of the weight of the act goes onto the presentation, because the move itself is what? Half a second, and then everything else is based on the presentation and how you can spin it. And if you can spin it properly, then it just wipes people out. It's amazing. I love it.

Speaker 2: 34:43

Yeah, it's such a good point to make that sometimes we need techniques in our sort of mental toolbox for those moments where, like you just said, you're put on the spot and you need to make something bespoke, and I guarantee that they'll probably look at hiring you again, if they haven't already, because now they know that you already have.

Speaker 2: 35:03

Yeah, there you go because that in that moment you just showed that you could make everything bespoke to them and help advertise them more. You know, it's such a great uh thing to be able to do, just to pluck that from your brain and go, oh well, I've got that technique, that'd be great for that.

Speaker 1: 35:21

Well, I have got um I did make a phone call to a good friend of mine called john morton and he, um, excuse me, he helped me out with the um, with the idea. But yeah, it was pretty much, um, they told me, and then we had to scramble and do something quick and I just called john. I went, john, help me, um, and then we kind of he just kind of calmed me down and then he went, what have you got? And I was like, well, I've got this, I could do this with it. And he went, perfect, just do that. And I'm like, okay, great, um.

Speaker 1: 35:52

But yeah, I can't take all the credit for that. It's definitely john, help me out, um, but yeah, it's, it's amazing and it's so versatile and you can do anything with it, um, and that's going to be with me for a really long time Because, like I said, the next time a customer says is there any way you can brand something? I've got two instantaneous ways of just branding stuff to people that I know will work and they're really impressive and they're good routines and I know them inside out. So I'm not going to be out of my comfort zone by doing something completely bespoke on the spot. So with that it's perfect. So yeah, absolutely 100%. Number four, but it's Sharpie and some little brown envelopes from Amazon.

Speaker 2: 36:32

So I wonder how everyone's doing with Matt Bingo. I wonder if everyone has filled those three spots and is £10 richer from Craig Petty. That does bring us to number five. So what did you put in your fifth position?

Speaker 1: 36:44

Right, this is where we start going more stage and it's because it is a staple of our illusion show that we do, even though it's not really an illusion, but it is a staple of what we do and I just love performing it. I just love it. It's so clever and it's just got that air of mystery around it and it's a great way to start a show. To the point where, when Killian and Roland did their tour in the summer, this was how this the show. Before the show started, this was pointed out and we basically me and Rhys Morgan, who were doing all the tech for the show, but we basically me and Rhys set it up the tour with Ryland and Killian. So there was a spot that just came off LX1, which is the lighting rig across the front of the stage, and that was basically pointed directly at this thing for the entire show. And then it was one of the very last things that was done at the end of the second act of the show and we did it on um, we did it on new year's eve. It was same thing again, just highlight it at the start of the show and then, um, it just sits there and it's just that. Devon's done it as well. It's also been done on Britain's Got Talent and America's Got Talent, and people have done it all over the place. But it is the master prediction system and I love it. It's just, it creates that air of mystery in a room and then it gets to the point where I do my specific routine that I do with it, where I talk a lot about my tattoos and how all of my tattoos are memories, which they are. Every single tattoo that I've got is a memory that I collect and I base it on facts, because when you base things like that on facts, it just flows out easier and then if you get asked questions later on, they're easy to answer because you're not lying to people. So all of my tattoos are memories and my, my presentation of the master prediction system is that it's all about. It's all about my memories that I've collected around the world and I want to create a memory together with everybody in the room, together with everybody in the room and um.

Speaker 1: 39:05

And then I'll say but I couldn't possibly know what you guys have just shouted out off the tops of your heads. Could I? And everyone's like no, of course that'd be impossible, wouldn't it? Yes, of course it would, but I did. I did know and I can prove it.

Speaker 1: 39:16

And then you take a couple of really slow steps backwards towards this box that's hanging from a chain on the corner of the stage and then you just look at it and as you look at the box, everybody in the audience just goes and you just get that audible intake of breath from an entire room of people because all of a sudden they've realized what's happening. They now know what's going to happen, but they can't believe it. So they know some information. They know that you're going to take that box off, you're going to open that box and you're going to prove to them that you knew from the very start of the show, before they even entered the room, what they were going to choose. But that's not possible. So you, we're not going to believe that that's going to happen because it can't, it's not true. But they know it's going to happen anyway and it's very confusing for the audience. So you would then open the box, you take out the scroll and you show them that you knew exactly what they were going to say before they even entered the building.

Speaker 1: 40:18

And the round of applause that you get from that particular. I know obviously everyone's going to have seen it when Darren did it and the round of applause that you get is just looking out over those, over people's faces, and they're just gobsmacked. They've got no idea. We had it on on New Year's Eve, 300 and something odd people in a room. They just they didn't have a clue. They were just gobsmacked at how you could possibly know this information and it's so clean and it's just, it's brilliant, I love it. If I was on a desert island, that would definitely be hanging from a palm tree somewhere, um, and see views whenever I wanted it, um. But yeah, massive addiction system number five.

Speaker 2: 40:59

It's brilliant, I love it yeah, and it's another one that is so adaptable to different performances. Like you just said, so many people have done a version of it and you can just adapt it to any performance that you're doing, any show that you're doing, even if you're doing I mean, this time of the year a pantomime. It's so adaptable.

Speaker 1: 41:18

Yeah, you could do it as a comedy piece. You could, yeah, you could do it as a comedy piece. You could do it as magic. You can do it as mentalism, you can do it serious, you can theme it, you can whatever, whatever presentation your heart desires. You can make it work with that, with that little tool, um, and it's uh, it's, yeah, it's phenomenal. I love it. I love performing it hello guys.

Speaker 3: 41:40

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Speaker 2: 42:35

Well, that brings us nicely to number six. So what did you put in your six box?

Speaker 1: 42:39

Ah see, this is a tricky one, jamie. I have three in this spot right now. I know, because I listened to the podcast, that I'm allowed some honorary mentions, but I don't know how to separate them. So there's three on here and I'm gonna say three and if you want to take two of them as an honorable mention, you can. But you can pick which ones are honourable mentions. So we have imposter by john martin, psychology by luke of alpe and bane by your good self.

Speaker 1: 43:15

Now, all three of them are very similar in the fact that you get five people up on stage and you make them look silly the way that I do it anyway, um, but they've all got benefits, for each one of them's got its own benefit as far as presentation and and visually on stage, and you know they've all got their. They've all got pros, but I love performing all of them, so I'm not going to pick which. I know that you're looking at me going. You've got to pick one. I don't want to pick one. I love all of them and they've all got different possibilities for different things. See, psychology.

Speaker 1: 43:59

I did that with um I. I did that at the NEC as well, because inside each glass I'll put a vape juice. So even though they didn't win, they still got a vape juice for free to take away with them. So that that would. I wouldn't have been able to do that with something like imposter.

Speaker 1: 44:17

So, um, but then, imposter, I can do that close-up as well. So if I've got that little black tube in my pocket, I can do close-up with that, I can do stage with that, I can do parlor with that, I can do whatever it's really versatile. But then Bane visually on stage with the cocktail shakers and stuff. It just looks amazing and the routine that you came up with is just brilliant. It's fantastic. So all three of them have their pros and I love all three of them equally and I use all three of them, depending on the kind of client that it is and depending on the kind of gig that I'm doing. Um, so I don't want to choose between them, jamie, yeah, I can't choose between the three, dude, and I'm not going to do it. You can't make me the.

Speaker 2: 45:01

The problem is is everyone who was playing matt bingo and has just won 10 pound from craig petty. You have just incurred a tax now, which now takes that 10 pound away from everyone.

Speaker 1: 45:14

That's listening, and now everyone gets nothing yeah, well, I would say I'm sorry everybody, but I'm not because I want my tricks with me. So yeah, craig will give it to you. Anyway, you'll be fine, just keep emailing him until he sends you the money.

Speaker 2: 45:28

Yeah, each of those is great. Luca Volpe's routine is so clever, so well-constructed, imposter I love. And John, well, we're not allowed to say, but if anyone's listened to his episode we'll know the phrase under the table. That's. That's all we all we need to talk about, if you like that and I'm very biased for Bane because, like you, I'm all about the presentation. So with Bane it was presentation first, method second for me. But the whole getting people to die on stage was one of those things that the first time I did it I was like, yeah, this is, this is absolutely it's amazing.

Speaker 1: 46:09

It's so, so, so clever. I remember watching that and just thinking, oh my god, this guy's good, he's so good.

Speaker 2: 46:17

Um, and you can't make me choose between them, jamie, it's not going to happen I mean, I'm not going to make you choose them, uh, but just remember that everyone hates you now for the £10 being taken away from them, but it does lead us onto the tail end of your eight. So what did you put in at number seven?

Speaker 1: 46:34

At number seven, I've put in and this was the other thing that I did at the NEC, actually so I put in Sneak Thief. I was introduced to this by a good mate of mine and Sneak Thief is incredible. It's incredible, it's so. Again, it's so simple. Everything that I do, as you can see from the list, everything I do is designed purely around being able to present the hell out of it and not having to do a great deal of work magically. So Sneak Thief, again, it's super, super simple. It's just a fantastic tool again to be able to use. And the same thing again.

Speaker 1: 47:10

So this was another one that I did at the NEC. I had five boards. I had five of the same cards, but I didn't number them. So I had the cards with the 41 different vape juices on them and I just got five pieces of polystyrene from john mohan, who'd given me a stack of these polystyrene boards, um, to practice doing sneak thief, um. And then I stuck the uh, the card that they had with all the vape juices on it, one on each board, one on each of the five boards and did them out to. The people, got them to look at the back of the board with all of the vape juices on it, then flip the board over and write which one was their favorite vape juice and then obviously did the routine. But then I said to them if we get them right, you all just the vape juice that you've put down, which is your favorite flavor. You get to go to the back of the stand and pick up your favorite vape juice that you've put down, which is your favorite flavor. You get to go to the back of the stand and pick up your favorite vape juice and you can have one for free. And so it was an incentive to them to not screw me over.

Speaker 1: 48:12

Um, but also it was all inclusive with the rest of the audience because I we had some like promo girls on the stand and I had them coming over and we were asking questions and then we were trying to look at people's reactions and stuff. And it was really weird because out of the four questions that we had to ask the five people, two of the promo girls came up and I'd ask the question, ask them what they thought, and they got it right, which was even more fooling because the one that got it wrong. I then had to kind of direct them into the direction that I wanted them to go, but two out of the four girls just nailed it straight off the back, which made it so much more fooling than it ever would be again, because they just fluked getting it right. Um and the the again. The owner came over to me afterwards and he meant that couldn't have been any more perfect. That's exactly what we wanted.

Speaker 1: 49:03

You've got everyone talking about the different flavours. You've got people standing there while they're writing their flavours down, with everybody looking at all the other flavours that we do on our POS. That's on the back of the board that we've given you. You've got the entire audience. There was thousands of people at this event and we've got. So I've got a microphone on Our booth is smack bang in the middle of the hall. I'm on a microphone, so we've got literally hundreds and hundreds of people in 360 around me, which was again one of the reasons that you can't do certain things, because I was perfected effectively performing in the round to all of these hundreds of people. That were 360 around me. So you can't. There's nothing you can do where you've got to have you back to the audience or whatever.

Speaker 1: 49:43

Um, and this just worked so so, so well in that scenario, um, the the book out. The owner of the company absolutely loved it. The audience went because I just basically said um, if we've got it right, hold the board up in the air. On the count of three, one, two, three, all five of them held their board up in the air. Obviously they were correct. We got them right.

Speaker 1: 50:03

The whole audience went absolutely crazy. All the five people that helped me, I've got a free bar juice. Two of the promo girls were skipping and dancing and cartwheeling back onto the stand because they'd helped me and they got it right. Everyone was happy, everyone's a winner and it's the simplest, simplest method, which I know we're not allowed to talk about, but it's the simplest method. You couldn't get much simpler than that.

Speaker 1: 50:24

If you have the use of your eyes, you can do this trick. It's so so, so simple, um, so yeah, and it's so versatile. You can. You can do this close up, you can do it with. I've done it with billets. You can do it close up, you can do it on stage, you can do it parlor cabaret, you can do it anywhere, um, and it takes very, very little to do it.

Speaker 1: 50:47

I've now ordered um, which I've had for a while now. I think I just ordered them off amazon and you can just get like a4 sized whiteboards, um, which is just little. There's no frames on them or anything. It's literally just pieces of whiteboards that are like five mil thick and I just ordered it. You get a pack of 10 of them for like 15 quid or something off Amazon, and if you get a pack of 10, you've got two lot. But I mean you can just use them over and over and over and over again because they're whiteboards. You just wipe them off and it's the simplest thing. In the car You've got a 15-minute stage routine with five pieces of whiteboards and five Sharpies. Like what's not to love. So yeah, number seven Sneak Thief.

Speaker 2: 51:32

Yeah, I mean looking at your entire list. It's such an adaptable list. You've got Anverdy Dice, You've got your Billets and Sharpie. You've got the billets and sharpie. You've got the master prediction system. You've got um imposter bane and psychology and now um sneak thief as well. All of those are just such adaptable routines that you really can put into any show in any circumstance, and we've spoken about sneak thief quite a few times on on the podcast before. There's some great versions yeah thief in the dark.

Speaker 2: 52:06

Uh, mark spellman. Uh, one of my favorite ones of late was andy nymans, from his lecture notes, which uses mobile phones, which is just a phenomenal version. It's such an adaptable. Again, it's one of those routines that you just have to have it in your mental toolbox, have it there and then it's ready to go whenever you need it absolutely 100, yeah, and it's like you say everything because I I work a lot, I do a lot of gigs.

Speaker 1: 52:36

I've done I mean I don't even know how many gigs I did last year um 60 something, 70, 70-something gigs. It's ridiculous. And a lot of them are stage, a lot of them are parlor, cabaret and stuff. In order to be able to do that, you've got to have stuff that you can adapt. You've got to have stuff that if a customer turns around to you and says is there any possible way that you can kind of brand that for me? You've got to have stuff that you're still comfortable and practice for a couple of weeks and write an entire new script for and you can do it and you can adapt it and you can do it there and then, and a lot of those that are on there, you can.

Speaker 1: 53:08

It's really adaptable, it works with everyone and, if need be, I could do Anne Verdi die on stage. I could do Steppenstack on stage. If need be, loops and PK Touches, you can do that anywhere. That's Parlerlor, that's close-up. That stage, that's whatever billets and sharpies, close-up, stage, parlor, whatever you want to do. The only one you can't really do close-up is in the stabilization system, um, but I do know a couple of people are working on that, so maybe soon. But yeah, everything is kind of it's adaptable. It's what I um, what I do every day and everything that I've learned over the last couple of years with doing magic. These are the things that I have properly fallen in love with and will do till the day I die.

Speaker 2: 53:58

Well, that leads us on to number eight, which I'm excited to hear. So what did you manage to sneak into your last position?

Speaker 1: 54:05

See, sneaking into it. I was kind of umming and ahhing about what to do with a few of these things, because there's way more that I could put on there. I wanted to put my apps on there, because there's a couple of apps that I use, that I do regularly and they're a big part of my set and I absolutely love them. But then I was just like I wanted to put something that's a little bit different on there, something that people might not necessarily expect well, don't forget, you've got honorable mentions, so why don't you go for the weird one, but then use your apps as your honorable mentions?

Speaker 1: 54:36

okay, so there's two um, and I can see james getting increasingly more annoyed.

Speaker 2: 54:41

Well, the thing is, the next tax that comes is everyone has to pay craig 10 pound, and I can see Jamie getting increasingly more annoyed with me. Well, the thing is, the next tax that comes is everyone has to pay Craig £10. So it's just getting worse.

Speaker 1: 54:52

So I might have to decide between the two, but they are illusions, two of our illusions from the show. So I've got the split press and the crystal casket, which are two of the illusions that we do and I love them and we. They are so much fun. But then I was also thinking if we had illusions on a desert island, it would be instant shelter, because you can just get inside. Um, we could make stuff out of them. Uh, we'd have like resources and stuff that we could take things off and make other things out of them and so on.

Speaker 1: 55:26

So yeah, so I think an illusion would be really handy to have on a desert island, but also, they're just so much fun. And I was performing illusions on stage before I did my first close-up gig. So the first thing that I did magic wise was get on stage and perform a bunch of illusions. So they're they're a big part of what my they're a big part of my magic journey and they're a huge part of what I've done.

Speaker 1: 55:51

Um, and Craig felt more comfortable sticking me on stage doing illusions because of my theatre background, and I was more comfortable on stage doing stuff like that um than I was going out and doing close to magic. So my magic career started by doing illusions on stage. So, um, I can't do a list of things that I can't live without without putting a couple of illusions on there, really. So, um, split press is probably my favorite one, and it's only my favorite one because the music we do it to is rock music. So I love doing that one because we get to put a bit of rock music into a magic show. Um, and uh, the crystal casket, because it's just phenomenal. We start every show with the crystal casket. We end every show with the the slipper.

Speaker 2: 56:34

So, um, yeah, the, an illusion would be number eight so I'm not to let you take both, right, I'll let you do it one time, I've let you do it once before. So if you were to take one, which one would it be?

Speaker 1: 56:53

Crystal Casket. Let's go, crystal Casket. Presentationally, with the Crystal Casket we've got more versus and issues with that, so we can do different things with it. And we use it in kid shows and we can turn it into a kid's trick. If we're doing like um, like family fun days and things like that, we can take that down and we can make it into the magic sweet machine where cat disappears and then cat comes back and she's holding a bunch of bags of sweets to hand out to the kids and stuff like that. And when we're doing the show and we're doing it with roland, we've decided that for 20 minutes before the start of the show we just stick roland in the box and then wheel him out into the middle of the stage and he can't do anything for 20 minutes. So I like that one purely because we get rid of roland for 20 minutes at the start of every show.

Speaker 2: 57:31

So, um, yeah, let's go crystal casket well, that's a great ending uh effect, and probably one that no one was expecting. And, but did you want to talk about the apps as well, do you? You want to do your honourable mentions? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:45

So, basically, I've got loads and loads of apps, all the apps that Lloyd's doing. I've got those. The main two that I use, because they're just phenomenal, is DFB Pro, obviously, because if anybody doesn't know what DFB Pro is, what are you doing? There's so much stuff you can do with that, and that is when you were talking earlier about pk touches being the trick where you can do something and walk away from the table and then you wait for the reaction because it takes that long to sink in. The trick that I do with dfb pro is that trick that I do now where I can walk away from the table, walk towards the booker, give it 10 seconds and then everyone stands up and starts clapping because it takes them that long for it to sink in what has just happened right in front of their eyes and it's TFB that I use for that and Toxic, because who would ever want to go and do a stage show and not do Toxic? But you can do it close up. You can do it on stage, um, but you can do it close up. You can do it on stage. You can do it anywhere that hasn't got a camera pointed at you. It's, it's just phenomenal and it melts people, it blows people away.

Speaker 1: 58:50

I did it recently at a corporate event in birmingham city center and they were another vape company. Actually, my name is getting around in the vape world as being a good magician, so I'm hoping that that kind of carries on snowballing. But it was another vape company and it was their Christmas party. There was about 250 people there and I had to jump up on this thing where the DJ was and she wanted me to do a trick to everybody and she just stuck a microphone in my face and I was like, oh my God, what am I going to do? Do, oh, I've got my phone on me, done? You know who doesn't take their phone around with this, so even if you've got always kitted up for clothes up, and she went is there any way you could just jump up and do a trick for everyone? And I was like, uh, yes, I can, no problem, because I had my phone in my pocket. And then you jump up and then everyone's just like, oh my god. And there's loads of like people coming up to me afterwards going that was incredible, I can't believe it. And then the booker was like I asked you 10 seconds before you did that if you had something you could do to the, to the entire room and you, that's what you just had on you. And I was like yeah, and she was like oh my god, and she was blown away.

Speaker 1: 59:59

The audience were blown away, um, even the musician that was sitting next to me about to start playing again he was. He came over to me and he was like I'm supposed to have already started, but what the hell just happened. And I was like I'll tell you how it did, don't worry, it's fine. And then just disappeared and left. Um, but yeah, it's, it's phenomenal. Toxic is amazing. Dfb is amazing. Yeah, I couldn't um assuming there was somewhere to charge my phone on this desert island, which Gwilym Biggera I was talking to him about coming on here earlier on, and Gwilym was like well, you can't use apps because you're not going to be able to charge your phone on a desert island. I'm like that's not how it works, dude. But I did say to him that I'd mention it, that if there's somewhere for me to charge my phone, then then I will take my apps as well.

Speaker 2: 1:00:41

So that's 14 tricks. Now that Matt has taken to his island, I feel like the concept has gone well and truly out the window at this point.

Speaker 1: 1:00:51

I'm a rule bender Jamie.

Speaker 2: 1:00:53

I'm a rule bender, but that does bring us nicely onto your two curveball items. So obviously, we gave you apparently 14 tricks to take with you, but now you're only allowed one book and one non-magic item.

Speaker 1: 1:01:07

so what did you put in your book position? Uh, my book. I'm not a bit. Who was it that said recently on this podcast it was a few episodes ago that they're not a big reader?

Speaker 2: 1:01:14

I can't remember who he was, but someone's like I'm just not a big reader we've had a few people say it yeah, some, some people are just not big, big reading books, which is fine.

Speaker 1: 1:01:24

I'm not. I'm really not. It's mainly time and I'm too impatient to read a book because I just want to get to the end and know what it is, so that I can then act on that. It's the same with reading. I used to read a lot of novels when I was younger and then I just got way too impatient and I just wanted to get to the end. And it's easier to just watch a movie, because that's a couple of hours and you get to the end and you find out what happens and you can move on to the next thing you know. So I'm not a big book reader.

Speaker 1: 1:02:00

Craig's always telling me that I need to start reading magic books and a bunch of people have the same opinion you need to start reading magic books. And I'm like, yeah, I know. But so I'm going to go with 13 steps because, although I haven't, I've read bits of the book. I haven't read all of the book. I have watched all of the dvds. So I know that's cheating and I know I'm bending the rules again, but we did a review of the 13 steps of mentalism on our channel, so I had to read the entire, well, watch the entire thing, all the way through start to finish.

Speaker 1: 1:02:38

But I had the pack where you get all the it's, the download version now that they've done, and you get all of the, the props and stuff in the pack that comes with it, um, and I learned so much from watching all of that. I learned so much stuff. It was just completely life-changing, um at how one of the things that got me the most was just how bold everything is that he does on that, on those downloads, and how simple things can be. That it's. You don't have to and there's going to be loads of people that peed off at me for saying it, I know, but you don't have to do really complicated stuff to get a reaction. You don't have to be the best sleight of hand artist in the world to be able to go out and be a worker. You just have to be clever and a lot of the routines that are in that book and I know there's loads more in the book than there is on the downloads before loads of people start commenting and saying you're missing out. I know, and that's why I got the book as well and I am working my way through the book.

Speaker 1: 1:03:45

Um, it's just gonna take me a really long time to do it, but even just with the download version of it, there's so much stuff in there that is just so clever. It's simple and it's bold, but it's really, really clever. And I learned a lot from doing that video that we did where we did the review on it, because I was like, if I'm going to review something that's this iconic within the world of mentalism, I'm going to have to give it everything. So it is and um, yeah, I don't, I don't, I still have it at home and I'm never going to, it's never going anywhere. That's always staying with me and I am going to make my way through that book eventually, but, yeah, 13 steps, I think, just because it taught me so much.

Speaker 2: 1:04:34

Well, you mentioned that there was, you know, simple, bold methods. But when you look back at your list, anverde Dice PK Touches. Back at your list, anverde Dice PK Touches the Billet Peak Sneak Thief. If you're going to use the close-up version, it's very bold, they are all bold, but simple techniques, yeah simple but bold.

Speaker 1: 1:04:57

That's it, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 1:05:01

I think that's my wheelhouse, simple, so that brings us to your item then. So what?

Speaker 1: 1:05:04

did you put in your item position um my motorbike, because I couldn't live without my motorbike, um henata, which is her name, um which, because she's a kawasaki, which is a Japanese-made motorbike. I know you're looking at me frowning at the minute, jeremy but it's, it's more that you've named your bike.

Speaker 2: 1:05:27

It's not?

Speaker 1: 1:05:28

so much Of course I have.

Speaker 2: 1:05:29

Okay, why would you not Continue?

Speaker 1: 1:05:39

Her name is Hinata because she is a Japanese bike and Hinata means chasing the sun in japanese. So I actually have I've had stickers made, proper bike decals made that are actually on the side of the bike in the same color scheme as the bike. So her name is actually on on on each fairing at the front side of the bike. Um, but yeah, hinata is my. Um, a lot of people pay a lot of money on therapy and going to see psychologists and people do things to de-stress themselves um, play computer games, go swimming, go for a hike, whatever it is that people do to de-stress themselves, go to the pub, whatever it may be the thing to de-stress themselves. Go to the pub, whatever it may be. The thing that de-stresses me more than anything else on the face of the earth is going for a ride on my bike. So if I've had the worst week imaginable, I can get up on a Sunday morning, put my gear on, go for a ride, and that just clears my head, because when you're riding a motorbike it is literally just you and the road and you haven't got time to think about anything else. You're just concentrating on that bit of tarmac in front of you that's coming at you really, really quickly, and you have to make sure that you are going to get around the next corner. So all you're thinking about is what you're doing in that moment, which is very freeing for the rest of your mind, because you're not thinking about everything else, you're not thinking about the stresses of the week, you're not thinking about oh my god, I've got this gig. I'm really worried about how am I going to get this bit of work done in time, how am I going to learn that magic trick and talk whatever it is that you're stressed about, it just disappears. And then, within a couple of hours, I find myself on top of a mountain somewhere in mid wales staring out over nothing, and you can be in the middle of nowhere in a very short period of time on a motorbike, because there's no traffic, there's no waiting in traffic lights or in traffic jams. You just go straight down the outside, done um, you can get everywhere really, really quickly. So I very often find myself standing somewhere on the top of snowdon just looking out over the rest of the world, taking a big, deep breath of fresh air, before I jump back on my bike and head back to the city. You know, um, I don't.

Speaker 1: 1:07:51

Yeah, me and my cousin and a couple of mates of mine and I'm in a motorbike group, a Facebook group, and there's about four or 500 of us and we go to all the bike meets and like bike for life festival, where there's 12,000 bikes meet at Marbrace and ride down to our way of cost of food and that kind of stuff Um, and it's just a really good. It's like the magic community. It's just a bunch of people from all different walks of life that have all got the same hobby. Everyone likes riding motorbikes, so there's always something to talk about. Likes riding motorbikes, so there's always something to talk about, because you're always just talking about motorbikes. It's the same with magic. It's the same. We go into the blackboard magic convention and everybody there just just there because they like magic. So you've automatically got something in common with people and you've automatically got something to talk about, because everyone just likes the magic. And it's exactly the same with bikes.

Speaker 1: 1:08:38

Um, but it is my kind of. I don't make any money from bikes. That's not my job. So, as much as I love performing magic and I love doing magic every now and again, you just need to get on your bike and go for a ride and forget about it, so you can come back refreshed and your brain is kicked back into gear and you can start being creative again. So, yeah, 100%. I mean she wouldn't thank me for it because motorbikes and sand really don't get on, so we'd have to find an area of the island where we can run her safely. But yeah, hinata would definitely come with me to a desert island.

Speaker 2: 1:09:14

I'm also very excited to see how you get the crystal casket on the bike to get to your island. Do you have to sort of balance it with the master prediction system on?

Speaker 1: 1:09:29

the other side does it sort of. What I could do is because the crystal casket's on wheels, so I could use the chain from the master prediction system to wrap around the uh, the number plate tail tidy that I've got on the back of the bike and then I could just drag the crystal casket behind me because it's on wheels.

Speaker 2: 1:09:46

And is that where you'd put Craig? Then He'd be in the crystal casket, trailing behind the bike.

Speaker 1: 1:09:51

Oh God, is Craig on this?

Speaker 2: 1:09:53

island with me. I've presumed that it went hand in hand.

Speaker 1: 1:09:56

No, oh God, that's thrown a spanner in the works. If I get marooned on a desert island, then at least I'd get some peace and quiet. You can't put him on there with me. It's going to ruin the entire experience. Oh God, you've just ruined the entire podcast for me. Jamie, I was actually quite looking forward to it. I was hoping this was going to be an actual thing where I could have a holiday and you and the Alaka fam were going to actually pay to go and put me on a desert island for a week. I thought that would be great. But if Craig's coming with me, then you can forget it. I'm staying here.

Speaker 2: 1:10:29

Well, that was a great list All the way from Anverdy Dice, a Stebbin Stack Deck, we got PK Touches, a Billet and Sharpie with Alex McAleer's Billet, peak Master Prediction System, imposter Bane, psychology, sneak Thief, crystal Casket, 13 Steps to Mentalism and A Motorbike Great list.

Speaker 1: 1:10:57

A good mix of stage and close-up as well. Yeah, I wanted to do a bit, because I would do both and I didn't want to just focus on one and ignore the other. So, yeah, I wanted to do a bit of a mix, I mean a lot of the ones that are predominantly close-up you can do on stage and a lot of the ones that are predominantly stage you could do close-up. So yeah, they are kind of a mixture between the two, but that's kind of what.

Speaker 2: 1:11:16

I was going for. If anyone wants to find out more about you, matt, where can they go?

Speaker 1: 1:11:20

I mean you could go to our channel, magic tv. That's the youtube channel. That's predominantly where everybody knows me from. Um, I don't really post much stuff on my personal socials because we've got a mic who just does all the socials and stuff through the company. So, um, magic tv slightly unusual. Um, magic tv predominantly would be where to go, or um, or ask any of you guys down at Alakazam. You normally know where we are and what we're doing.

Speaker 2: 1:11:47

Normally at Alakazam. This year Craig's been down at Alakazam more than he's been at home, I think this year yeah exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:11:56

So, yeah, yeah, if you want to find us, if you want to see what we do, the vast majority of it is going to be on Magic TV. So, if you want to see what we do, the vast majority of it is going to be on magic tv. So, uh, go and have a look there. But I do have social, so if you want to add me as a friend, then feel free to do so and conventions uh blackpool.

Speaker 1: 1:12:13

Blackpool's coming up. That was terrible. That was an awful note. My voice is not good today anyway, so I really probably shouldn't have attempted that. That was terrible, uh. But blackpool's coming up next month. Are you ready?

Speaker 2: 1:12:25

Getting there. Yeah, We've got a few things to finish off without giving too much away.

Speaker 3: 1:12:34

But yeah, we are pretty much there.

Speaker 2: 1:12:36

We're looking forward to it this year.

Speaker 1: 1:12:38

I think, yeah, we are too. We've got a double stand this year, I believe so, because Craig's released that many different products in the last 12 months that we need a double stand to get them all on it. So we've got a double this year, I think, and it's going to be hopefully me, craig and Ryland all on the stand, because the last two years it's just been me, because Craig and Ryland have been off doing other stuff. But I think this year we're all going to be on the same stand. That's what I've been told. Whether that actually happens or not is another matter, but that's what I've been told. Um, and then we'll have all the rest of the conventions throughout the year that we will no doubt either be at performing, selling or just hanging around.

Speaker 1: 1:13:19

Um, but, yeah, I'm really looking forward to 2025. I've got some big plans for 2025. There's lots of stuff in the pipeline. There's lots of stuff that I want to do um, and I've got. I was speaking to grillham earlier on today, um, and both of us have got big things that we're going to do this year. So, um, yeah, 2025, it's going to be a good year, man, I can feel it well, we'll all have to keep an eye out.

Speaker 2: 1:13:41

If you see matt at a convention, obviously, please go and say that you enjoyed the fact that you had to pay craig petty 10 pounds because of his rule breaks. Um and just uh yeah show him your appreciation. Uh, thank you so much for giving us your time, matt you're very welcome.

Speaker 1: 1:14:00

thank you so much for having me. Man, like I can't believe I'm on the same podcast as people like Darren Brown and Mark Spellman and all these amazing guys that you've had on here, so the fact that you even asked me to do it was just like mind-blowing to me. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it, dude.

Speaker 2: 1:14:18

Well, you are the first guest that we've had who threatened to kill their boss.

Speaker 1: 1:14:22

Yeah, but nobody else on here works for Craig Pais, it's understandable, you know Well.

Speaker 2: 1:14:29

Thank you so much. We'll see you at Blackpool in a few weeks. Oh really.

Speaker 2: 1:14:33

If I don't see you before, dude, I'll see you at Blackpool. And remember, if you guys want to be a part of our Monday episode, stranded with a Stranger, send in your list of eight tricks, one book and one non-magic item. Please include a little bio as well as, obviously, the reasons for your tricks, and then we'll get one of those recorded for you. So we're going to be back again next week. We are fast approaching the end of the first season. We're going to have a special episode, which I won't ruin for you, but we will have a very special episode which I won't ruin for you, but we will have a very special episode to break off the first season and then into the second season. There is going to be a new twist in the second season as well.

Speaker 2: 1:15:12

So our guests unlike matt, who's just taken everything with him um, we do they are going to have one extra thing that they can do on the island, but we'll tell you about that in a future episode. So for now, thank you all for listening and have a great week. Goodbye. Extra thing that they can do on the island, but we'll tell you about that in a future episode. So for now, thank you all for listening and have a great week. Goodbye.

Speaker 4: 1:15:31

Hi, peter Nardi here and I really hope you enjoyed that podcast. I just wanted to make you know that Alakazam have their own app. You can download it from the App Store or the Google Play Store. By downloading the app, it will make your shopping experience even slicker. At Alakazam, you'll also get exclusive in-app offers and in-app live streams. So go download it now and we'll see you on the next podcast.