Desert Island Tricks
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Desert Island Tricks
End of Season 1 Special
Come join us for a magical celebration as we mark a year of Desert Island Tricks! We’re bringing back the one and only Peter Nardi to help us explore the collective top 8 tricks that were chosen on the first season of the podcast.
In this special compilation, we’ll chat about each trick and invite two of our guests to share their thoughts from their episode. We’ll also talk about our top 3 favourite episodes and what made them so special.
And guess what? We’ve got a sneak peek at season 2! Our guests will get to share what they’re taking with them on their desert island. This extended episode has more insights and behind-the-scenes glimpses into this new and exciting podcast.
Top Desert Island Tricks:
- Deck of Cards (Mike Sullivan & Collin Claus)
- Thumb Tip (Chris Harding & Marc Spelmann)
- Coins Across (coins and a shelly) (Collin Claus & Andy Smith)
- Professors Nightmare (Joel Dickinson & Tom Mullinger)
- Sponge Balls (Wayne Goodman & Chris Frost ‘Frostie’)
- Extractor (Henry Ferris & David Jonathan)
- Stealth Assassin (Steve Dela & Simon Lipkin)
- Diabolical (Andy Nyman & Adam Dadswell)
Book. Notes From a Fellow traveller (Roman Armstrong & John Morton)
Item. Notepad and pen / Phone / People
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
The film, which was released in the late 2000s, is set to be released of Desert Island Tricks. Now, if you have been listening which hopefully you have been, because that's how you got to this then you'll know we've done an entire year's worth of episodes. How crazy is that? So I thought I would invite back on one of our guests, plus my boss, and we'll have a little discussion about the podcast. So far, the top eight, the cumulative top eight that I know everyone has been asking after we can have a little chat about it. So everybody not that he needs an introduction, it's Mr Peter Nardi. Hello, pete.
Speaker 5:I do need an introduction. You give everyone a lovely introduction and for me you don't even bother.
Speaker 4:Well, I gave you an introduction on your episode. How about that? You did, you did. How's everything Good? Yeah, so it's crazy to think that we came up with the concept probably yeah, well, just under a year ago, or just over a year ago, I should say Just over a year ago, yeah and it's turned into this crazy, crazy thing, like the followers we're having and the people listening is unreal. Do you know what?
Speaker 5:I don't listen to a lot of podcasts, I'll be honest with you but the one I do listen to is this, without Fail, and for a couple of reasons, I think. For me it's really interesting to hear people's choices and why they're choosing them, and I've actually found myself searching out tricks because they're things that I might not have heard of or things that spark my interest that someone's talking about. I find it really interesting, and I love the stranded with a stranger as well, as well as the pro guys. I love the stranded with the stranger because it's really good to hear what people choose and why, and, as I said when I did mine, it's not an easy thing to do to sit there and pick eight. It is a really good sort of exercise for everyone to sit there and do, and you know it's not easy.
Speaker 4:I wonder how many guests have changed their list since we had them on, so I wonder how many have stuck, like I can imagine Bill Abbott if you've not listened to his episode, his was literally a rundown of his show as it is, so I can imagine his is pretty much the same list, but obviously you're around so much magic so I guarantee yours is probably a lot different now yeah, yeah it's.
Speaker 5:I mean there's gonna be a few things in there that will still be in there. But you're right, I mean if I was to sit back, maybe a couple of bits would change. I don't know. I think a lot of what I chose were were pretty much classics. So whether, whether they would. But there's a lot of people, especially with the stranded, with the stranger as well, where you know a couple of them have put the latest thing that they've purchased. Now, that's something we all know we buy a trick and we fall in love with it and then suddenly a new trick comes along and you sort of forget about the old one. That was the best trick you've ever done in your life. So it would be interesting to see how people's lists have changed. But I'm currently listening to the latest episode, which is Ali Cook, and he's another one where when he's talking about his tricks, they're tricks he's been doing for years and you can't see that list changing at all. You know they're stables.
Speaker 4:I think it's really interesting as well how, because I think we've learned a lot about how performers think throughout the podcast and it's been interesting to see how people choose their lists. So you have, like liam montier's episode where it was almost a journey through his life, so from his early tricks to what he likes now. Then you've got again bill abbott, who was that was just his show, and then you have people like chris harding who picked out tricks that they hadn't performed but they just loved and they enjoyed practicing. So I think it's been really interesting to see the different ways people have approached the the idea of the podcast the idea of the podcast really is.
Speaker 5:It doesn't have to be eight tricks that you've done so I remember listening to richard young's one and he said you know, I would take david copperfield's flying. That's not a trick that he's ever done, but he can take anything with him. He's got all the time in the world to learn it, so why not? And yeah, they're really interesting. I find I look forward to the podcast every week and I think I've got to give it to you as well. You're a great host, you ask the right questions and it's a really.
Speaker 5:For me it's a really interesting listen and it usually takes me sort of three days to finish a complete podcast, but I'm always excited to be able to tune back into it. You know I want to see what their next steps are and the next tricks. So, yeah, I'm really interested to see what this top eight is. And I will say as well, just for the record you don't tell me what people choose, because I don't want to know before I listen. So I've got no idea. I'm going into these podcasts like every other listener and I find that great. I really enjoy listening to them and, like you said, we're getting new listeners every single week and we're getting a lot of people sending in their Stranded with a Stranger list, but we want more. So if you are listening and you would like to take part in Stranded with a Stranger, make sure you send us your listings. We would love to have you on there.
Speaker 4:Well, it was really interesting. I think we've had a bit of a slowdown over the past couple of weeks so we've had a few people say you know, I haven't been getting stranded with the strangers, where are they? We can only put out as many episodes of those as we get in. So there have been a couple of lulls and it was interesting. I was at an event I obviously won't name anyone um a few months ago where someone came over and they said you know, I really love the podcast, I really like the stranded with a stranger, but I don't feel confident sending in my list. But I think it's really important to say that there is no right or wrong list. That's what makes the podcast so fascinating. It makes it interesting because everyone's different yeah, and it's you and your choice.
Speaker 5:That's the thing. It's your choice, you. You're not competing with anyone. It's not like you know. Oh, he's put this so I've got to put this. It's not that, it's your list and your truthful list. That's what it is. That's what's interesting about this podcast is the diversity of what's being picked, people's reasons behind it, and it is about you. That's the thing. It's about you. That's what makes this podcast interesting.
Speaker 5:The list of eight tricks is not what makes this podcast interesting. It's you and your reasons behind it that's interesting. Whether that's you know, whenever I perform this trick, the reactions are always good or whether it's this is the first trick I ever saw and it's got a special place in my heart. Whatever the reasoning is, that's what makes this podcast what it is it's. It's that trick's connection with you and your connection with the trick, no matter what it is, no matter how technical the trick is, how simple the trick is it could be. You know, we've had people that are putting tenyo tricks. Look at Preston. Pretty much all of his tricks were little ten-year-old things, but the reasoning behind them is what makes it interesting.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we've had a few crystal cleavers, I think, over the course, which is great. I think one of the other really interesting things that I've noticed happened is how the podcast ends up going full circle between different people. So one example is in your list you mentioned the predator wallet and obviously yours was one of the first that we had.
Speaker 4:And then full circle recently, literally a few weeks ago, we had steve della who then spoke about the story of you having the Predator wallet and showing it to him for the first time. So there's lots of kind of like crossovers and interactions, and I'll give a little teaser for what's coming up. So we've got an episode next week which is going to launch our new series. We have a new thing that they can pick which we'll talk about later, but that person talks about someone who we had on before, but the person before talks about this person and the fact that they've created a trick for them. So it's funny how there's so many different crossovers all the way through the podcast yeah, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 5:I, I truly it, and it is part of my weekly listen. It's something I have to do every week. I just listen to it and I love it and in a way, it sort of gives me my weekly magic boost. I think it really does, because there's nothing better for me than hearing someone speak passionately about a trick, you know, and when I hear it, that's what I remember. Listening to Andy Nymans and he talks about a nest of boxes, and as soon as he spoke about it, I searched for it. I cannot find it anywhere and I actually just reminded myself. I'm going to send him a message and say what the hell is this? I've got a nest of boxes fetish. I've never performed one, but I've got quite a few, um, and one day I will perform one and I'll have loads to choose from. But his one sounded great and I want to know what it is, and I want to know now.
Speaker 4:So I'm gonna message him well, we we've had quite a few people talk about the mb on mark spellman's, so obviously he didn't reveal what that was. He showed me and it was amazing, but he still wanted to keep it a little bit close to his chest. So if anyone sees him out and about, you have to hand him to find out what it is.
Speaker 5:I was going to say that was a weird one, because that was a really underground product and then suddenly it got sort of commercially available. Well, it's incredible just unreal well, there was a lot of magicians up in arms about it because they had paid heavily for it to be this exclusive. No one knows about it, and now suddenly it was being punted about everywhere but before we get into the list, let's talk about the top three listens.
Speaker 4:We've had some incredible guests this year, notably, you know, obviously, derren Brown was phenomenal. We've had Andy Nyman, preston Nyman. We've had Nick Muhammad recently, which was phenomenal I loved doing that one. Bill Abba you know the amount of magicians from the Magic Circle as well Notable people from the Magic Circle, I think. We've had BAFTA nominated, bafta winners. We've had two or three Magic Circle magicians of the year on here, literally in one year. It's been incredible. So before we go to the top three people so the top listened to episodes who would you say have been your favourite or the more notable episodes for you?
Speaker 5:Obviously I loved Darren because he is Darren. So it's very interesting to hear what he would choose. I would say my top three and they're all great. So it's hard to choose a top three because each one is individual. It's not a competition. No one's reasoning is better than anyone else's.
Speaker 5:But I would say Andy Nyman I really enjoyed because he's got a similar way of thinking to me when it comes to props and like weird props, and I have this being a dealer. One of the hang-ups I have is when people say to me oh, how do I justify that? And you think, really, you just say, well, I've got a box here and it's got something in it that's quite interesting. You know, you don't have to put a lot of thought into it. And Andes along those same lines of interesting props are fun. They do half the job for you because they're interesting. So I really liked Andy's.
Speaker 5:Nick Muhammad I really enjoyed, not because he's just a funny guy anyway, but also not a lot of it. I know nothing about Nick apart from what I see on TV. But I know nothing about Nick apart from what I see on TV. So to me it was really interesting to hear more about every other one that's been on the podcast. I know they're a magician, nick. You sort of don't really know unless you know. So to hear that background of how long he's been doing it, what sort of it really made me go. Oh no, he is a magician. You know, he truly is a magician. He's does acting like Andy or Simon or whatever. Um, so that was really interesting.
Speaker 5:And the other one, I would say so, I would say Andy, nick and maybe Richard Young or Sam Strange. I'm going to put them together as Young and Strange because I thought there was some really good banter between them. I know they're on separate episodes but there was some nice banter there which made you really excited to hear the next one. But also I liked the way that Richard everyone's going down the same path of tricks that we do. But Richard didn't do that. He was some of them he does, but some of them were just tricks that he loves, and if he could only choose eight tricks, these will be part of it. So yeah, I will say young and strange. I'm going to bundle them together and because I'm the boss, there's no devil's advocate, but I enjoy them all. I can't really say any of them are better than others. Really, I think they're all great because everyone is personal to them.
Speaker 4:I agree. What about you? I think I really enjoyed Bill Abbott's.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Bill's was great, really great.
Speaker 4:I think it's because I felt like I'd watched his show, yeah, and that's what stood out about his one in particular.
Speaker 4:I felt like someone had literally, like he just stood in front of me and he'd just done a personal show for me. I could perfectly imagine all of those tricks put together and the way he explained how they connect and why they connect and the stories behind them. Uh, I just thought it was, yeah, really really good. Um, but again, yeah, like you just said, it's really difficult because each guest has their own quirk or their own thing that they add. Like wayne goodman obviously is more of a kids and family entertainer, so hearing his list was a bit different. Like chris frost, who was a bit different, and then you have sort of the um, there's a person coming on in the next episode who we won't reveal until next week, so you can just enjoy that suspense now. I really enjoyed his episode because, again, it was like sitting through a show and and really watching it and and sort of enjoying it for what it was. Obviously deron was both fascinating and terrifying at the same time because he was or is literally my childhood hero. So, doing that episode, very little was going on other than please don't mess this up, make sure you press record and make sure everything's working. But I really enjoyed his. Again, he actually gave us so much time as well. We cut out a very tiny bit of ums and ahs and stuff like that, but it was yeah, it was even longer than than that one. I really actually quite like preston's. I thought press the way preston spoke so passionately about his choices and tenure and he spoke about the tenuism books and you could really understand how not only did he enjoy those tricks, he really he studied them that for him it wasn't just a a trick, it was an exploration. He really enjoyed those things. Um, again, nyman's uh, andy nyman was phenomenal.
Speaker 4:I love talking to nick muhammad. I'm a big nick fan as well. Yeah, so I'd watched a lot of his TV stuff beforehand and I actually went to see his show over Christmas in London, which was hilarious, absolutely hilarious. It's excellent. So there's just so many of them. It's been such a joy to sit down with people and knowing that other magicians and performers are really enjoying it. Yeah, it's been great. It's really difficult to pick favorites, but notably, those are just the first ones that sort of pop out to me yeah, yeah, and this is a.
Speaker 5:This is interesting, actually, because if you are listening to this on youtube, why don't you put down below your three favourites?
Speaker 5:yeah, the three most notable episodes to you yeah, it'll be interesting to see who it is. In fact, it's hard to think back because I would say Bill Abbott would certainly be. There's so many that would be in my top three, you know, and I was actually on holiday when the Bill Abbott one went live and I remember sitting by the pool just listening to Bill Abbott and laughing and really enjoying it because you know he is really funny. But, like you said, the great thing was he was breaking down his show, which was which was great, and you really pictured the show yeah, really, really good.
Speaker 4:So let's get into it, let's find out what the eight tricks were. So I basically wrote down a massive list of all of the tricks which I'm looking at now. And you know, even looking at some of the tricks we've got, uh, one that a few people mentioned was random card generator, which has popped up a few times but didn't quite make the top eight. We've got cards across came up a few times. We had lolly hero, we've had q a, we've had pendulums, we've had just a ton of different things. Obviously, books we've had loads of different books strong magic, drawing room deceptions, art of astonishment, leading with your head, jinx, maxim's primer, mentalissimo, just tons of incredible books and, of course, the curveball thing. We've had lots of bizarre things um, cd player, sharpie, post-it notes. We've got the london magic coin, which I think was preston and andy both picked the same one. Someone said they would take wayne dobson.
Speaker 4:We've got we've got a good mix of them, but of course that isn't the top eight, so here we go in number one. The most spoken about effect is a deck of cards.
Speaker 7:Well, first of all, deck of cards allows you to do hundreds, if not thousands, of tricks, which sort of goes against the grain of Desert Island Discs 8 Tricks Only. But I think a deck of cards is the epitome of a magician. I mean, if a magician turned up without a deck of cards, you'd think they're saying it wrong. Even if they have them in their pocket and they just do iPad magic or Rubik's Cube magic, they will always have a deck of cards. I mean, as I grew up as a, as a kid and certainly into teenage years, the amount of magicians that would say always carry a deck of cards. Not so much nowadays. People have different ways of showing magic, but my first thing would be to carry a deck of cards. There's one trick I would always do with that deck of cards. The one routine would I would do and this will surprise you is etienne predier's card to pocket routine. I saw him literally oh, letri, oh, 20 years ago, at least 20 years ago and I was so taken back by the amount of magic content that it had in just one card trick, which was basically, you know, a version of ambitious card, if you like, where it just kept coming back and it disappeared. And it came back and it disappeared. So I bought his lecture notes, I learned the moves and I've been doing it ever since and it is one of those tricks that I think personally has got me more bookings.
Speaker 7:And the structure of the trick itself. If you really study his manuscript and then obviously he brought it out on video later on there's so much misdirection in there. It doesn't matter if people see it two or three times. They still can't understand how the card gets in the pocket, how the deck ends up in the pocket. There's some great moves in it, uh, one of them being the bernard billis watch still, uh, and that is. I mean that that alone. If you was to do that move alone, that's brilliant, yeah, but to incorporate into a whole routine that Etienne has obviously sat down and thought about, I've added my take to it as well. There's certain things that didn't work for me that Etienne did and I've shown Etienne and he loves it. He thinks it's great. But you know you have to put your mark on all the magic you do. You can't just do what the instructions say. So that would be the one trick that I would always do.
Speaker 9:So number one and this is going to be the most obvious one is the ambitious card, and the reason I've picked this such an obvious choice is because it's my perfect opener. I've been doing it for almost 22 years, I've done it in every type of situation and I just know every single tiny moment of that trick. So if you don't know the ambitious card, the idea is that you put a card into the middle and it magically turned up on top and there are about a million different versions. And if you, I think Daryl's DVD was the one first thing that inspired me to sort of look into that. But if you watch his routine, it goes on for about 15 minutes with that single plot and how he makes it, you know, and it's really riveting when you watch him do it, every single moment is just amazing. Um, which is the danger, oddly enough, of when I see other magicians do it. Some magicians are brilliant at it, but some magicians kind of it can get a bit boring. You kind of go yeah, okay, I've seen it now. But so it's really really important to make that routine build as soon as you know you start. So my justification for choosing that particular trick is the fact that I it helps me to establish myself as a magician.
Speaker 9:I get someone to pick a card and I always let them pick the card face up, which is kind of disarming from the start. Normally people pick from a face-down deck and you don't know what the card is, so immediately they're going. This is a bit weird. I can choose any card and then I get them to sign it and then, once the card's lost in the middle, I do a bit of a shuffle demonstration and do some fancy false cuts. And the reason I do that is again to establish myself as a magician, because they haven't seen me do anything, they've just seen me put a card in the middle. So by doing those flashy shuffles, people immediately know oh, he's quite good at what he does, so he's worth watching. And I'm not one of these people that tries to hide his skills, I think. For me, I'm happy to show people that I'm skilled, because I feel that helps the magic rather than hinders it, which I know. There's two schools of thoughts there, you know. Some people say hide the skill. Other people say sort of emphasize it. Um, so, yeah, card goes the middle, uh, and then, um, so once I've uh, once I've done those shuffles, I've shown that it's not on top, not near the top, and then boom, it's then on top and not near the top. And then boom, it's then on top. And then I do just a few more phases and then my final phase is.
Speaker 9:What I really love about it, and it's my main reason for doing it, is most people are doing Omnideck. At the end of theirs, I just make the deck vanish. I make the whole deck vanish apart from their card. And for me, me that's what makes that strong um moment. And when I perform, I perform in a uh t-shirt, you know, t-shirt, smart t-shirt, smart jeans, sort of thing. So it makes that moment really impossible because it's like everyone's going where the hell's that deck on? You know, you've got no sleeves, no jacket, uh, and it's gone. So that's my first choice.
Speaker 4:So I feel like a bubble, bubble my way through that no, no, that's perfect, and I think it's, it's probably the most popular card plot. It's certainly one that most people have a version of it, yeah.
Speaker 9:I think it's because there's so many different options and ways you can go with that, and people have come up with some amazing ways to or amazing variations on that particular theme, so, yeah, Do you do it in their hands when the deck disappears?
Speaker 9:I well, I get them to put because at the end I'm holding the deck in between my hands I get them to put their hand on top and underneath and then squeeze down and all that's left is that one card. And so they kind of feel the moment that it's happening, because your hands kind of just sort of seem to sort of glide down into each other. People often go, god, that feels weird, and so, yeah, it's a really, really strong moment. But sometimes I don't even bother, I just go boom, it's gone, and it's just their face because they've they've sort of seen the same thing again, again and in fact, um, uh, another phase is often, often, uh, that I used to do was the card in the mouth.
Speaker 9:I don't. Since covid I don't do the card in the mouth anymore because it's just not, it just doesn't look hygienic. So I end up in my top pocket of my waistcoat rather than that. But yeah, when that deck vanishes, it's a moment that just gets people and also allows me to move on to something else other than cards. It kind of says that's the end of the card trick. Now let me show you something else now, is that predictable or not predictable?
Speaker 5:I would say that's predictable. If I was going to play devil's advocate, I'd say what was the trick they chose, jamie?
Speaker 4:so generally no one picked one over the other. They all cited a trick that they prefer from a book. Most people mentioned two or three tricks that they had put together into a routine. So if it was an ambitious card, they mentioned two or three different things that they put into their own routine. So there wasn't one particular routine that stood out over all of the other ones.
Speaker 5:It was just sort of their favorite tricks yeah, yeah, and I mean that does make sense. We've got to say that if we had to grab one thing when we're going out, it's going to be a deck of cards, because you, you do know, at the end of the day, when you're on the island, you won't do one trick with them, no matter what Jamie says.
Speaker 8:If he's not here to watch he'll be doing whatever you want, I agree.
Speaker 4:So the question is if you had a deck of cards because we didn't have just a deck of cards with you what is the one trick that you do with a deck of cards?
Speaker 5:I would probably say my take on Crist's aces, which is a multiple selection. So I don't do it with aces, I do it with four spectators. Spectator number four their job is to find their own card, which they end up not doing, but their sign card ends up in my wallet, um. So I would say, if I had one trick to do, that gets a lot of people involved, there's a lot of magical moments in it, um, and it's really fun to perform, and at some point it's going on Unlimited as an exclusive.
Speaker 4:Nice. I've not even seen that, so I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 5:No, I haven't shown many people. If I'm honest, I haven't shown many people. It's something that I've been doing for a while and I don't do it very often because it uses for spectators and it does use. It can be done in the hands, but it's more of a. It's more of a parlor trick. Do you know what I mean? You want the table in front of you and stuff like that. There's spreading of the cards and um. So it's not saying that I perform very often, but a few years ago I was working on a little parlor act, like a little 20-minute parlor act, and I created it for that, really. So yeah, I have got plans to put it as an unlimited exclusive at some point.
Speaker 4:Great, well, something to look forward to. A little teaser, how about?
Speaker 5:you. What would your trick be? You're not getting away with it this time, Jamie.
Speaker 4:I think my one would be one that lots of people have actually mentioned on the pod, and it would be Out of this World. I think. Out of this World for me I particularly like. I like the original from Paul Curry's book Worlds Beyond from Paul Curry's book Worlds Beyond. But I do perform Greg Rastami's version, which I learned from his Penguin lecture, and that's a really lovely version. What I love about that one is you can get in and out of it so they can shuffle up the cards and then you can get into the routine. I don't think I've seen that one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's great. So that's the one when I'm at the restaurant and I want to do something. If there's a kid at the table, I like to have them be the magician, if that makes sense. So I get them to stand where I would stand and I get them to perform a trick, and that's a really good one because it's really easy for them to understand, it's completely hands off, it makes them look like the magician and it puts all the emphasis on them and they've done this amazing thing. And Rastami's version is just a very clean, very easy to do routine. But again, the original from Paul Curry's book is phenomenal.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it is, and if I had to give an honourable mention, my second choice would be Triumph. Whether it's done in the hands with a slop shuffle, or whether it's done on the table with a zarrow or a push through or something like that, it's a trick that never fails to get amazing reactions.
Speaker 4:Well, we had a few people mention Triumph as one of their tricks, so I think we had the straight Triumph. We had Asi Wins, Not so Straight Triumph, I think it's called as well. So yeah, Triumph does seem to be one of the ones that lots of people would pick.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's a beautiful trick and easy to follow.
Speaker 4:So that was number one. I'm going to let you guess. What do you think's the number two? Thumb tip. It is a thumb tip. Yeah, yeah, it's a thumb tip.
Speaker 11:It started up as a utility type item but actually is something that I use in the building kiwi as a part of the method. So it's a. The best way to describe ourselves in this form is a changing banknote. A uh, changing, changing banknote, using a prop that all magicians own. We all use it, often to vanish the silk, but a bill change that gets a thumbs up from me.
Speaker 11:A hundred dollar bill change, I think it was called Absolutely, there we go, but specifically, specifically, not just the kind of idea of changing one denomination to another. It's a routine that I think is Etienne's idea Etienne Praday, isn't it? It's called Bureau de Change. This is where it's a note that's called for. That is a different currency. So the reason I love this and what I think is so good about this is, I believe that it's on a very similar path to any drink called for that magicians do on stage.
Speaker 11:Now, any drink called for the magic kettle, or whatever you like it to be, is a routine where people call out drinks, supposedly at random, and the kettle pours out the drink. I feel like this is the same thing of it, but in close-up I someone you can borrow. You know the way I did it with the kiwi trick is I'd borrow a fiver, change it into something they call for, often a 50. I know some people change down, change up, spit the money in that and then change it back in, have it signed. And I would ask them are you going on holiday anytime soon, are you going away anywhere soon? And they might say, oh yeah, I'm going here, I'm going here, I'm going here. Or you detect an accident from somewhere at the table Someone's from Australia, it might be. If you then change that note into the currency of where they're going on holiday, a currency they've named, or the country they're from, it's incredibly strong. It's almost strong if you don't specifically ask for name any currency, in the same way you would do in any drink called for.
Speaker 11:But I've done this thousands and thousands of times and it has that same feeling as what I imagine people must feel when they shout out um, I want a whiskey. And you pour a whiskey out of the magic kettle trick. This is the same routine but for close-up and it. It just has something about it that is sort of a little bit inexplicable for people. Of course, there's going to be an element where they question method.
Speaker 11:And is he just, you know, this is this guy like a travel agent walking around but having done it so many times, um, and seeing the response of it, it's just incredible, especially if you've got a couple of kind of uh variations where you know someone calls for 20 australian dollars and you ask if they want it in one or two notes and it could be two tens or 20, and that it's a really powerful thing because it feels like, because of the timing of them, because of the fluidity of the method, it looks like it's happening in real time.
Speaker 11:And I mean, if people have seen Etienne lecture or work live, you'll see, like you know the pinnacle of it and you know luckynacle of it and I you know like enough to be there at the early stages when it was just, I think it was just your sort of euros or us dollars or something. But over time now it's developed this, this gimmick that you get, um, which kind of allows you to have quite a few you you know currencies, you know to hand to make this work and it's amazing. You see, definitely see trends. At the moment you see quite a lot of kind of younger people and it's always dubai dirhams that some people you mean you can just kind of get a feel what might go for. But I feel like. So my callback is I would borrow the note back, have it signed, um, after having changed from like a higher currency. So you brought a fiver and they say I'm going to south africa, whatever it is and you also could do that you know what is that.
Speaker 11:Ran, boom, change the sign note to round, put it on the table, bang done. And that was always my way of vanishing the note for the billing kiwi. I throw that sort of lesser currency down, um and lesser in value, I mean, and that'll be it. And I'd crack on with the next thing, um. And then at the end I'd pick up I said oh yeah, but no, and then go to fold it back up, put it in my pocket, boom into the ending of the kiwi. And it was. It was a really efficient way to do it. It's very, very magical, um.
Speaker 11:The biggest thing with it is not to do it too much. You don't want four or five people around the table shouting out different currencies and just going for it just because you can, because it kills it. Actually, the best usage of it, which happens more often than not. I mean, if people do it, they'll know this. You'll be at a table, you go, can I borrow like £5 from someone and there'll be some guy that sidles out with some Polish zloty or something. You just borrow that and carry on with the routine as normal. So if someone hands you a Canadian dollar, get them to sign it straight away, change it to a different, change it up, but it's changed up. Being Canadian, you don't reference the fact it's a different currency. Just crack straight on it's changed and then go straight to the Kiwi ending later.
Speaker 11:That's probably where it's strongest because it feels like it could have been any note. So, for example, if you were a gig and someone handed you a $10 bill and you say, oh yeah, just sign that for me, that's great, without kind of flinching, and change it, oh, change it down to a one. Oh, there we go, it's a one and they go. Their brain just goes because they go. Well, hang on a second. He I'm going to hear us a five pound. Why give me different currents? But it still works and I don't understand that there's so many permutations.
Speaker 11:It's a really good trick. Again, I suppose like a pattern here, isn't it? It's a little bit of work to get it kind of, you know, to get yourself well versed with it and the speed and the kind of the timing and that, but it's really well worth it. Blockbuster trick it is the close-up version of any drink called for, and I mean the utility gimmick itself. I mean I could use for other things on the island, you know, I could be doing tricks, banishing any kind of lonesome handkerchiefs that might be hanging around and that, but um, if I had to pick one thing to do with it, it would be that that bureau to change that multiple currency thing. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 12:Brilliant. So number one on my list is and I don't know. I mean I'd be interested to know if this has come up before, but number one on my list would be a. I'm going to say a TT. Can I say a TT?
Speaker 4:You can say a TT.
Speaker 12:So people that are non-magic listening to this, they're going, wow, he really loves his tea. But you know what I mean? Has that come up before? Tt? It must have, yeah, it must have 100% Okay. So I'll tell you a bit of a backstory on this.
Speaker 12:I've always thought that the TT is out of everything that has been exposed to the general public, I think the TT is the one that breaks my heart because I think the tt, in the way that magicians and mentalists would use that particular device, it is ingenious, it is. I I think it's one of the best of all the things that we have now. All the incredible devices, all the tech, all the things that we have now, all the incredible devices, all the tech, all the things that are accessible to a magician. Now I still look at that simple, beautiful device and think to myself that is genius, because you can effectively and you can show your hands empty and literally two feet in front of someone, and then what you can do with that TT device is absolutely incredible. So I've always loved it as a product and I used to demonstrate in a magic shop that sadly, is no longer around anymore called Davenport, so we're talking like very early 90s. Um, I used to.
Speaker 12:I was in sort of a struggling magician gigging and trying to make ends meet and that kind of thing, trying to forge a career in magic back in the early 90s and um, so I as a sideline I kind of just sort of did a couple of days at Davenport's as and when they needed me, and Betty Davenport used to call me Supermar because I've got a background in arts and crafts. If they gave me a stack of orders like you know, mail order, magic kind of things that needed to be packed up and stuff, I was just a whiz kid with this packed up and stuff, I was just a whiz kid with this. So she used to call me Supermark was my name, because I would get everything wrapped up, labelled and sent out by 10.30 that morning and I'd go knock on her office door and say, betty, is there anything else you need me to do? Make up some unequal, equal ropes.
Speaker 12:Professor's Nightmare all that kind of stuff. But at Davenport's they to have at the time imagine, this is like the early 90s they used to have the best selection of TTs, all different types, different shades, rubber am I allowed to say the rubber's okay? Plastic, it's all pretty vague, isn't it right? Um, and I remember I used to collect them. So betty would say if we had a particularly good week at dapples, she'd turn around to me at the end of the end of the week and say, mark, is there anything you'd like to take? You know, just like a book or something like that. And I used to say to her can I have a couple of tts? And then I went to internet, the international magic convention, and this is I'm just telling you why this is one of my choices.
Speaker 12:And I saw a video by a fantastic vhs video so back in the day, and it was by a incredible magician called silvano and it was all about. It was his lecture international magic convention with a tt and how he uses it. And I already had an, a love and an affinity with this device because I loved it. It was just so clever. But then, after watching Silvano do his lecture and I don't think Silvano is with us anymore. But he was very charismatic, had a lovely persona, great way of performing and what he did with a TT even as magicians we're going right now where is it? Because we know what we're looking for. And then at the end of his lecture he said let me do it again. So after all of his performances where we're just mesmerized with his technique, he then says let me do it. And he pulls out an illuminous green TT and then does it again and then you go. This is how you use one of these devices like this is like master class level and again, this is in like the mid 90s and that is still available. That lecture. So if you are someone who has a tt, most magicians or people that listen to this might have, just, honestly, international magic. Get the Silvano lecture, thank me later and sit there and just be absolutely blown away by how incredible that device is.
Speaker 12:And we all know that the price of these devices, the TTs, range from like £3.50. I mean, obviously you can go up to like some of the more advanced ones, like sort of 20 quid or whatever, but in general they're like three pound 50. And I just I'm sad, I genuinely am Everything that's ever been exposed, all the masked magician nonsense, all that rubbish. I just for me the TT is like oh God, couldn't have just kept that one secret. But I think we use it so creatively that even someone that knows of a TT in public world would not necessarily know how we're utilizing that ingenious device. So that is out of everything. That's my number one. If if you said to me oh, you've got one thing to go onto a desert island with, that would be it okay, so I'm going to be devil's advocate, just because I've done this to everyone else who has said this item.
Speaker 4:If you could only perform one effect using that, though, what would it be?
Speaker 12:okay. So obviously I'm known very much for mentalism and it can have a huge um benefit and many uses in the world of mentalism. But one of the things I really love and it was on a michael am lecture and it was just a simple transposition. He did it with a, with a 10 pound note, and he I'll tell you exactly what the effect was. I won't discuss methods, but he got a 10 pound note and he signed a 10 pound note and he put it in a cigarette box.
Speaker 12:Cigarettes were these things that we used to put to our mouths and give us cancer Really clever. But now we've got these things called vapes that put to our mouths and give us cancer really clever, um, but now we've got these things called vapes that just drown our lungs, apparently. So another good well done. Just don't do any of this with anything that doesn't feel natural. Just don't do it, um, anyway. So he got this, uh, this note, a 10 pound note, signed it or put his initials on it, folded it up, put it in a cigarette box, set the cigarette box to one, then got someone else to take out a £10 note. They put their initials on that note. He took it up empty hands and slowly folded up their note. And then when he unfolded it, it was now his note with the initials showed his hands empty, pointed to the cigarette box. He had not gone anywhere near, walked over to it, reached inside, folded up inside was the £10 note. But now when he opened it, it was their signed £10 note. So it was a transposition of two pieces of, effectively, paper from one place to the other. But it was so pure, with so many convincers, and obviously anyone listening to this who knows what a TT is will know exactly what that method is.
Speaker 12:Um, but that for me. So a transposition, I think, is so strong, I think it's really strong under the conditions that a tt will allow you to have. That would be the effect. So I don't know. I'm on a desert island, so maybe I've got a leaf and someone has torn the corner or the edge of one of those leaves. Kept a bit as a souvenir, I folded that leaf up, made it vanish and it ends up inside of a coconut that falls off a tree and then they can match up the corner and it is the piece of missing leaf. There you go. That's a desert trick that I literally just came up with as I'm rambling to you right now.
Speaker 5:So there you go yeah, it's such a versatile prop. You know most people do it with the hanky. You know, when you get into magic it's probably one of the first tricks you buy in a vanishing hanky. Um. But it is so versatile and I've told this story a hundred times, I'm gonna tell it again, because I used to do magic when I was very, very young and then I not fell out of love with it, but I I just stopped doing it.
Speaker 5:I started doing other things in my early teens and stuff like that and magic fell by the wayside. And then when I was in my early 20s I got back into magic again and one of the things I did was I bought Abra from Davenport and in the back there was uh, you could send off, send your one pound 50 and get all these catalogs from different magic companies. And I got a catalog through from a company in england called hocus pocus the amazing dave charles, who's a very good friend of mine now and I was looking through his catalog and my eyes were lit up by you. You know the amazing money change trick borrow a five pound note and instantly turn it into a 50. So I ticked that off. I'll be buying that.
Speaker 5:The amazing vanishing cigarette trick borrow a lit cigarette and vanish it in your bare hands. That sounds great, I'll order that. The amazing vanishing and reappearing salt trick I mean, that sounds good, I'll order that. I ordered about four tricks and literally I got four thumb tips in the post, each one with a different instruction sheet, and it just shows you how miraculous and how incredible each one of these effects are in their own right, and how incredible each one of these effects are in their own right. You know, each one of these effects is so completely different that I read that catalogue and went oh my God, that sounds amazing and I've got no idea how that will work. I've got no idea how this will work and you know, four thumbtips turn up.
Speaker 4:And anyone who's had the chance to go to the Magic Circle. Just an aside, there's actually an exhibit of thumbtips through the ages that you can see, and it's funny to see how. I mean, they've obviously changed in manufacture, but the concept's always been the same. It's it's something that goes so far back and it's still fooling people nowadays.
Speaker 5:Well, me and jenny this week went to see the amazing simon lipkin in oliver. He does the the silk vanish using said prop on a stage full of what? Two thousand people I don't know how many people that theater holds, but you know so to gasps. It's great. I mean it's such a versatile prop and I'll be honest with you, like many people, I probably only used it for a bill switch and I will say this isn't an advert for Unlimited, but there is a thumbtip course coming up later on in 2025. I think it's the final quarter of 2025. Wayne Goodman's working on a thumbtip course where he's going to be teaching various routines and handling tips and everything else, because it is such a versatile prop.
Speaker 4:Yep, it is, and it's one of those things that it was obvious it was going to be in the top eight.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it had to be in there. Had to be in there.
Speaker 4:So let's go to number three. So so far we've had a deck of cards, a thumbtip. I think they're both quite obvious. At one point. These are obviously going to get less obvious. So what do you think's in number three? I don't know. So we three, um, I don't know. So we're going to coins now. Oh yeah, I don't know. So it's coins and a. Now, well, there's loads of different ways people have put this. Some. Some people have said a tortoise, a turtle, yep, um, we've had lots of different ways that people have put these. I've written down shelly, uh, our good friend shelly from down the road, uh, yeah, so coins and a shelly, or a turtle can I guess at a routine go on coins across.
Speaker 4:Yeah, coins across in its various forms.
Speaker 9:We'll put it that way it was, uh, david davies who showed me this effect back in 2012 and I was blown away. He's really good and skilled, uh, doing it, and so I was blown away and then when he showed me, I went oh, there was. There was so many sort of areas in that effect. I thought, oh, I don't like that, and I think it's one of those plots that a lot of people have studied and a lot of people have tried to improve. But if you see someone that's really skilled doing it, you kind of do those moments kind of fly over, but it's really important to make those moments not stand out like Dave did. So I spent I think I spent about two or three years just looking to every single method that I could find before I even tried it out to anyone. I think I just kind of just I go down that sort of rabbit hole because it's never good enough for me to show anyone something. So, and within 3Fly, there's two sort of schools of thoughts, gimmicked and un-gimmicked. So, without giving away any method, um, but um, my favorite version, so you're going to ask me for my favorite version of these, so I know where this is going. So, um, my favorite version, unfortunately, is uh, egotistically, is my own because it's um, it's schmetterling, uh, which is butterfly in german, and it's on my project, ghost, which I released through alakazam uh, with a company that I had with a friend of mine, simon alexander, called the alchemy tree, and um, pete's been really good in allowing us to um release all our stuff through him. It was exclusively through him as well, but yeah, so that version again, it took me years because I came up with this method. Ghost is all about a method of making a coin vanish. There's loads of uses. A method of making the coin vanish. Here, there's loads of uses, but using that technique I came with my perfect version that looks as clean as I think it should look and that, uh, that was my choice there. Now I do also. The only problem with that version is that it's slightly, maybe, angle sensitive, without giving any method away or anything like that. So it's not appropriate for any situation. I can't do it surrounded or anything like that. So if I was in any other situation, I would use a gimmick, because I find the gimmick versions are often more suitable for surrounding walk around, although you can I've seen people do really good versions as well but yeah, so I've got another version which is also released through Alakazam.
Speaker 9:I released this thing called download, called a study in three fly, and that uses a gimmick and that that gimmick, uh, I won't give it too much away but it's a TUC gimmick. It's my kind of study into that gimmick because I think it was designed for to make the perfect three fly. But I've also got to quickly give an honourable mention because I've since found a better gimmick and I can't tell you what it is. But all I'll say is Ronald Davies. So if you don't know who Ronald Davies is, he's one of the best coin gaff makers in the world. In fact, for me he's the best and he's an absolute legend and gentleman. And he came up with, he showed me this idea. I went oh my god, and um, I've given him a couple of tips on how I wanted, how I think it could be improved slightly, so he's sort of gone with that, but that gimmick. So if anyone's interested, um, get a hold of ronald and um, that's, that's just the perfect gimmick for three fly I was going to say your version of three fly.
Speaker 4:Is it made up of influences of other people's routines?
Speaker 9:very good question, actually, yes, and I had a list ready. So yeah, absolutely so. So yeah, you're absolutely right, honorable mention. So obviously the original version I studied was Chris Kenner's, which was out of his book Out of Control, and that was kind of the version that started all the crazes off. And also Dowell has an amazing download on penguin, which just again, it's a study of ungimmick three fly. Um ponce the smith has a brilliant version, janny goldsmith had the version called dragonfly, which is amazing, and craig petty has a version on the alakazam.
Speaker 9:I think it's the second Coin Academy, which is a really nice. It kind of goes on. It's got so many phases to it, as Craig Soften does, but there's so many good things to study in that as well. But if you're doing the gimmicked, one of the first versions I saw that blew me away was have you ever heard of Moritz Müller? He's this German coin guy and he, he, he released it. I think he first did it. He was about eight years old, really sweet little kid, and he just does the most amazing three fly and you know anyone who watched him and just opened mouths because it was just flawless but um, yeah. So aside from that, also Craig Petty. Nightshade has loads of three flies on there on the Nightshade project, gary Jones and Chris Congrease flying tonight and finally, kainoa hard bottle has an effect called 3Y, which is also really good to study. So if anyone wants to study 3Fly, those are my recommendations. Good to study, so if anyone wants to study, three fly.
Speaker 2:Those are my recommendations. So uh, three, fly three fly any particular three five uh, no, not really.
Speaker 2:Um, there I got introduced to free fly, uh, via gary kurtz. I saw him on video um, so, uh, his routine, misty like a dream, it's very good. Um, the original free flight by chris kenner that appears in out of control, um, I like all of them. I don't think there's any one single one that I don't like, but the gary kurtz one was certainly the one that inspired it. Um, and I've learned lots and lots of different variations over the years, but, um, I guess now the routine that I perform is kind of amalgamation of each of the the different. So stuff by Curtis Cam, stuff by Chris Kenna, gary Kurtz, michael Vinson, people that I've looked at the routines and just thought do you know what I like? That little bit there, I don't like that bit there. So, kind of, you know you change things in and out. It's like doing an ambitious card routine, isn't it? You do the ambitious card, but you know you kind of take bits that suit you better and remove bits that don't, and then you you end up with a routine.
Speaker 4:So I'm going to be devil's advocate here, so I'm going to say that you're on the Island, but you have to take a specific free fly. Which one are you going to take?
Speaker 2:The Gary Kurtz one, gary Kurtz. And where would that be? Une? Yeah, on his DVDs that he's released streaming videos.
Speaker 4:Okay, and is that like the first card trick that you learnt? Coin trick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it is very much like that. I would have called out coins across on my one, didn't I?
Speaker 4:I think it's always on me, so I presume I would have done one, didn't I? I think it's always on me, so I presume I would have done. I can tell you in one second. Um, I know that one of yours was a wallet. One of yours was um.
Speaker 5:I mean, it might be confusing coins or coins across, but both of them are on me all the time you didn.
Speaker 4:You did go for a coin set, though, so you went for the Mirage coin set.
Speaker 5:Which I can do coins across with. So I've covered myself Even though that wouldn't have been the trick I chose out of the Mirage, because you would have wangled me down to one trick that wouldn't have been the one I chose. But yeah, coins across doesn't surprise me, it's such a worker.
Speaker 4:Yeah, coins Across doesn't surprise me. It's such a worker. Yeah, and I think one of my favourite versions was Imagination Coins, because I think it's such a it's an in-the-hands, spectator-in-the-hands version of Coins Across, yeah, but I remember seeing the trailer for it, with the sky and it's all starry and everything, and the way it's been constructed is so simple, concise, but so so lovely in the way it's put together. Again, it's another classic. It's another one that everyone does a version of at some point in their career, I should think. But let's go on to number four. So what do you think was in the fourth spot? Carter Wallet. No.
Speaker 4:I'll give you a clue. We're going stage parlor and close up, but I would say parlor. Well, it doesn't help, does it? It uses a prop that we haven't used so far, and they are long.
Speaker 5:Can restored. Or Professor's Nightmare. Professor's Nightmare, the camera's stored. Or Professor's Nightmare.
Speaker 15:Professor's Nightmare. So I put this routine together over the years of working with Matt Edwards and Oliver Tabor and I started on the routine I'm talking maybe 20, 22 years ago or something like that and gradually, over time, it's just become this three-rope routine that I just love performing and I perform it up close, I perform it on stage and I know that the moment I bring this routine out I've got an incredibly strong piece of magic and it's something different that people haven't necessarily seen, because we all have our rope routines and you know things like that. But for me, the ropes to show a combination of classic and also impressive magic and for people who are watching, rope is rope. I remember watching rope magic as a kid and just absolutely loving what I was seeing. So you know, I think a lot of my magic has been from my experiences as a kid and what I've seen that captivated my attention. You know and I think that's one thing I probably learned from going through this list A lot of the stuff is things that I've seen over time and you know the rope routine anyway is was gradually, you know, like as time progressed with this rope routine, new material would come out and become available to magicians.
Speaker 15:I remember picking up um fiber optics extended by richard sanders and adding some of the moves from that. Oh, brilliant, that can fit into this, because I'm doing this and now I just feel like my rope routine is just such a strong piece of magic that now when I perform it like I finished my show with my three rope routine and I stand on top of my case, my suitcase, and I play a little bit of music in my show and I just perform this routine with a little bit of talking and about my experiences of magic, and I feel like when I perform this routine and finish the whole routine, when it's done, that the audience have probably like connected with me, like at this point, because they've seen what I have said is going to be the strongest piece of magic that I know and I'm going to save it to the end and show you it. But then I tell them at the end why it's the strongest piece of routine and explain that it's been a piece of magic that I've been working on practically throughout my life. And this is where it's at and hopefully in 10 years time, when you see me in the future, this piece of magic will be even stronger and even better than it is now. And then I thank everybody for watching the show and hope to see them all again, or whatever. You know, obviously there's more than that. I'm just kind of paraphrasing it.
Speaker 15:Um, but that that's, like you know, just one bit of magic. That's traditional, it's visual and it's got so many like amazing moments that are just oh, it starts off with three pieces of rope Now that are all the same size. So, three pieces of rope that are all the same size. They all change sizes. Um, the ends become the middle, the middle become the ends, and you pull the ends off, you throw the ends back on, you put the ends in your mouth, you spit them back on, uh, you connect that piece to that piece. That's all over your shoulder and when you pull it off, it's now one long length.
Speaker 15:You can show the length of rope and it goes on. It all intertwines, as rope should, because rope itself is intertwined and we can see its movement, its rhythm. And for me, like when you move rope, we've just finished recording for a doc, a documentary for netflix, and, honestly, the crew who were working on this documentary all they wanted was me stood on this bridge, on the millennium bridge performing with the rope, because it was just so visual for the camera, you know, and it's like that. That's the way, the way they perceived it sorry, the camera crew perceived the rope routine that I was doing is exactly what I've had in my mind and the reaction that it gets when I finish performing it for people, be it close up or be on stage, it just gets the reaction and it feels like what I want to be presenting to people. So rope is my number one.
Speaker 16:When I first got into magic, I was 27 years old and I decided that I wanted to learn magic and I started to reach out to magicians in the local area. I mean, I was definitely annoying, but I was emailing people saying do you do lessons, how do I learn, how do I get into it? And for one reason or another, I didn't get much responses back. I need to put a shout out to Paul Martin and Jamie Raven, who were extremely kind with me very early on. However, there was a gentleman named Keith Pearson who phoned me when it happened to be my birthday, which was lovely, and he told me about the Leamington and Warwick Magic Society. He said I'm not going to try and charge you for lessons. Come to the magic club, meet like-minded people, and I nervously went. The first time I met Keith and that was the first step into me becoming a magician. Day Keith said to me Tom, it's about time that you started doing magic with three bits of rope. And I remember looking around the room at all the old boys in the corner thinking they do magic with rope. I want to be Jester Stiles. I want to be an edgy street magician. I want to be like Dynamo, like David Blame, and he said, well, okay, but let me show you three bits of rope magic. And he showed me Professor's Nightmare slash Fibre Optics or a mashup in between, and I thought, oh, do you know what? That is good. So I took my three bits of rope that he gave me, I took them home and I put them in a drawer and didn't think about them again, and then a few weeks later I met Craig Petty and we got talking and he said I'm going to lend you this fiber optics DVD. Thanks, craig, I'm going to take this home, I'm going to learn it. I went home, I put it on my shelf and I left it.
Speaker 16:Then lockdown hit and many years later, many, many years later, and I was like, well, if it was ever a time to learn a routine that I can do to camera, now is the time. So I put on the DVD of fiber optics, this absolute classic of magic that I'd been ignoring for so long, because I didn't think it would suit me, and I started to put the moves together and after a while I felt like I had the ingredients but not the recipe. I had all these moves, but I just couldn't work out how to make it into a routine. So I reached out to Owen Strickland, amazing worker, and he sent me a video of his routine. I was then able to put that together into a routine that suited me. So suddenly this classic of magic that I've been ignoring was in my hands and I could do it. And I'd made it personal to me. I had to do Zoom shows and then there was a weird loophole in lockdown where they could open Santa's grottos, me being.
Speaker 16:Me managed to get a gig at Santa's grotto where I dressed up as Jack Frost and performed behind plexiglass. So I can't really interact with people. It was a character role, but I could put ropes in glitter and perform that trick hundreds of times a day. So by the time that finished I'd absolutely worked it in. And then, unfortunately, we lost Keith Pearson to COVID in lockdown. So when we went back out into the real world I took this rope with me and every time I work it and I'm holding it up and putting it away to a round of applause or reaction, I just whisper a little thanks, keith. So that's why it's number one Fiber optics, professor's Nightmare. And there's other names for it, like Two Ropes and a Baby or something.
Speaker 16:But that routine where you have three bits of rope which change size and then change back, is my number one pick, a classic of magic. Uh, why, why? Why is it so good? Why is it a classic? I think it just comes down to the fact that when you perform it, you're in automatically in the best performing position. You're stood up, it's at head height, it's arms out in front of you.
Speaker 16:When people watch watch it, they have to follow. Even if they don't want to want to follow, they have to follow. They get intrigued by it. People that watch it from across the room Watch it in a way that, oh well, I bet if he did that in front of me I'd get it. So then they call you over straight away. After, can you do that thing with the ropes again? And as a worker, it resets itself, it goes in a pocket, it stays there, it plays to two people or like 100 people. Um, if you've got kids I'm not a kids performer, but there's loads of kids at weddings and if you can get the kids on side, the parents think you're amazing. So if you've got that kid that's bored and you go over, you don't help me with this. Can you just check out this bit of rope instantly. You're in with a family. That's a hit, uh.
Speaker 5:So that is number one nice, yeah, another absolute classic and a crowd pleaser. And I will say I don't want this to turn into advertising. But we have got alexander, got a version of Professor's Nightmare coming out later on this year, which I think will be a bit of a game changer for the modern performer, if that makes any sense well it does.
Speaker 4:It will make sense eventually but yeah, professor's Nightmare.
Speaker 5:I mean, what can you say about it? It's so magical, it's one of the tricks that I think I first saw, probably my first visit to a magic shop. You know, professor's Nightmare cups and balls with little plastic cups and balls, dynamic coins, svengali deck, and it looks like real magic. I mean, there's no, as I say to you, you can't get your head around any sort of method that's going to make that work, apart from their magic ropes.
Speaker 5:Well, there's one person who's been cited in quite a few of the podcasts when it comes to professors, yeah, Well, what Richard done done, which was really nice was he put together an incredible modular routine which had so many phases. Um, you know, you had cut and restored rope. You had like literally everything, almost everything you can think of, in rope. Magic Richard had in fibre optics. But the nice thing about fibre optics, as I said, was it's pretty modular, so you don't have to learn the full six-minute routine. If you don't want, you can take the bits you like and construct them together.
Speaker 5:Um, it was an incredible project. I mean, sanders is one of those guys. He doesn't release very much but when he does release it, you know one, so much thought has gone into it. And two, it's going to be something that's going to be workable and entertaining. I mean, people credit Richard Sanders for, you know, extreme burn when you look back. I mean it's Fred Capps and um pat page. You know they both had versions of flash cash. It's a classic effect. But what richard done was modernize the gimmick, made the changes. I gave you so many different ways of changing um the thing and it that's the go-to one now. Extreme burn, you know, and sanders has that magic touch and he did it with fiber optics, so that doesn't surprise me and there's been some really clever ones come out.
Speaker 4:I know there was a not tenyo. Tenyo had a great one oh, maybe it was tenyo. Yeah, they had one that was that just fooled the hell out of me. The one where you can take the ring off of the rope. Yeah, it's Tenio.
Speaker 5:It's not for the surprise, is it? It's something like that. We sold a lot of those. It's such an amazing trick and even when you know what's going on, I tell you who does that and does it really well, dave Loosley. And even when you know what's going on, you watch it and you think, yeah, I don't get it. I don't get it.
Speaker 5:That's probably the most magical rope routine I think I've ever seen, because there's bits in there that defy logic. I mean, like you said, you get a long piece of rope. At one point you sort of make a hoop with it, as if you're going to do a knot, and now you pull that hoop off it. As if you're going to do a knot and now you pull that hoop off, but then you're holding the hoop and you throw the end of the rope through the hoop and then it all becomes one long piece again and you're going what's happened there? Yeah, amazing. Is it called something like fourth dimensional nightmare or something? Or the fourth nightmare or four nightmares? It's called, and it's honestly, it's amazing, absolutely amazing well, it's a good one so far.
Speaker 4:So we've got deck of cards, thumb tip coins across professor's nightmare and number five. I can tip you what this is by giving you one performer's name. Go on, wayne Goodman. I can tip you what this is by giving you one performer's name. Go on, wayne.
Speaker 5:Goodman, no one's chosen. Terrible jokes, have they.
Speaker 4:No, no, but I understand how you got that. It will be Spongeballs. Then Yep, 100%, yeah, so Spongeballs was in at number five.
Speaker 10:So for me this one was actually, probably, of all the tricks I've got here, it's probably the easiest one for me, with the second position coming in very close behind it. I know one of the rules is I can't say a deck of cards because I can perform a thousand tricks with it. So I've got two decks of cards in my thing. I'm coming back to them later but for me, the one thing that that I can't really live without and I mean I've always got well, I've got one in my hand now I've always got them in my pocket I've got a set in my bag. Um, for me it would have to be a set of sponge balls. I love the sponge balls. I think some of the things I do with them my own things as well as classical routines is some of the strongest magic I do. It happens in their hands, and I want to just digress very quickly into a very quick story. That happened last week when I was at a family pub festival and I was doing a family show mainly children's show, but a family show and as I was doing a family show mainly children's show, but a family show and there was a as I was waiting for the lady to come out to show me where I was officially going to set up. This lady saw my t-shirt. It said Magic Wayne on it and she said, oh, we've got Magic Wayne. But I was quite away from home so nobody knew me there.
Speaker 10:But this little boy, who was about 11, got very excited and I went over and I said oh, what's your name? And he went Charlie, and I said I've got a Charlie at home. Mine's a girl, charlie. And I said uh, do you like magic? Do you want to see a trick? And the mum said I'm really sorry, he's blind, he can't see anything. And I said well, first of all, don't ever apologize and secondly, just because he's blind doesn't mean he can't experience some magic.
Speaker 10:And I gave him a sponge ball and he felt it in his hand and then, while he was looking at it, I said I'm going to push it into your hand, I want you to close your hand around it. And I managed to do the move. And then, when he opened his hand, he now had two balls in his hand and he got so excited and he couldn't believe that somehow I'd magicked the second sponge ball into his hand. And his mum was really, she got quite emotional. She said they've had magicians before who tend to just ignore him, and so for me the sponge balls signify proper magic that you can do to anybody, regardless of whether they're blind, because they can feel them, contextualize them. I do it with scn, children and adults. Uh, it's been. It's been in my set for hundreds of years.
Speaker 4:So for me, the sponge balls has to go into spot number one.
Speaker 10:Is there a particular routine that you would do with them? So if I've got to narrow it down to one routine, I think I would just do the very basic routine that I teach on the Amazing Magic Range sponge ball set. So you go from one ball to four. If I was able to do more than that or to give a special mention, um, I have something that I do that I'm going to be doing unlimited. I'm not going to right now. Um, it's one of the strongest things I do when I'm working with families, um, and, and it's very, very magical and very, very special, uh, and very, very cool as well. Um, so maybe that one. And then I do, like my, my shadow vanish that I do with coins and sponge balls, and that's a very magical vanish, um, and I do that all the time.
Speaker 10:So I suppose, if I had to write it down it needs to be the shadow or the the basic routine, because they're the ones that are full of fun, very entertaining, very magical, very cool and and leaves a lasting impression with the spectator.
Speaker 4:So either one of those, really it's a great one to use, like you just said, for either sight impaired or blind people. I think that's a great idea, also with SEN children.
Speaker 10:I work a lot with SEN schools in my area. So for those who may be in another country or don't know what SEN is Special Educational Needs I know you know that because you've worked in it as well and I've worked with autistic children. I've worked with dyspraxic children For another time. I can tell you I was actually attributed with realising that dyspraxia was on the autism spectrum when I worked with a dyspraxic boy in the 90s. So I spent my whole life really working alongside with SEN children and I find that, especially with children with autism on that spectrum, they like texture and touch, especially because they're quite severe cases and I think sponge balls are very soft but they're also malleable and they've got some texture to them so they can play with them, squeeze them, squash them up, fill them and make themselves comfortable, and then I can just make them vanish and it's very magical for them.
Speaker 10:You know it's not like a coin which is hard and cold. It's not like, um, uh, some magic prop that they're not going to recognize that they might be fearful of a sponge ball. It looks like a clown's nose, first of all. Um, it's a funny thing to have. And and yeah, so it doesn't matter how old they are or and this goes into adults as well it doesn't matter how old they are or what their condition is. I've never, I've never had somebody get worried about the sponge balls at all and they like it. They feel it and they squish it and they can feel the texture and it comforts them. They like it. I've given away so many sponge balls to people because I've gone. Oh, they really don't want to give it back or they can keep it. It's fine. I've got 200 in the box, so yeah that I think that one was the easiest one for me.
Speaker 17:That goes straight into spot number one so in spot number one it's a classic, it's been on this podcast lots um, it's sponge balls, um, but, um, I didn't write sponge balls, I wrote sponge unicorns. I got, uh, do you know, mila, she did work PropDog and she creates things out of sponge and basically you can go to her and say I would like X, y or Z, and I've got Spongeunicorns. I've got Alan Wong's eyeballs, spongeeyeballs which I'm going to be using for the whole of February and March. The eyeballs because of the gig that I'm doing. I'm a wizard and having a jar of eyeballs is much more fun than having some sponge balls. Um, and I have written down five sponge balls. I do a four sponge ball trick, um, but it takes five sponge balls to do it. Um, which which is bizarre, because most when you first get sponge balls, they come in a box of four. Um, and there should be a fifth one. Um, they come in a box of four and there should be a fifth one. I've always done it with five. There's, there's always had to be, a fifth one, even though that that will never get seen. For me it's quite. It's got to be an emotional side to it as well. It's the first trick I ever bought and I was.
Speaker 17:I was about 12 years old and in Western supermare for my birthday and we went in. We were on the pier and it was me, my mum, my dad, my brother, and my mum realised that she hadn't bought any birthday candles for the cake, so we had to go into Western Supermare to get birthday candles. I didn't know what was going on particularly. So we went into Western Supermare and there's a little bricks and mortar shop in Western Supermare called oh, what was it? Anyhow, there was a little little bricks and mortar joke shop and I sort of saw it and it wasn't. It didn't say magic or anything on it. And we went in, me and dad went in there, cause mom was looking for candles and there was the glass cabinet, the uh, the glass cabinet in the joke shop with the magic tricks in it. And this guy came out and he showed me a few bits and pieces and he showed me three sponge balls and a squeaker two squeakers technically, because one doesn't work. Um and um, and I bought these sponge balls.
Speaker 17:So, 12 years old, I bought sponge balls and it was, I think, the first thing that made me really go. This is something that I want to do. This is something that is important to me. Um and uh, yeah, I I just became a bit obsessed with chopping sponge balls in half, was the thing that I became a bit obsessed with? Taking one away, putting it in my pocket and then chopping it in half again, like everlasting sponge balls in my hand, um, which I don't do now, but uh, yeah, and, and then I was at a gig in probably 2019.
Speaker 17:I have these unicorns, uh, that mila made me and, uh, and a magician said to me. He said I hate spongebob's. He said, but seeing it as a different thing, um, makes it relatable, and, of course, unicorns are magical. That's exactly why they would be doing the things. And so, as soon as you change it from being a red clown's nose to being something that could exist in a reality, they're quite odd things.
Speaker 17:Spongeballs are, and that's why magicians don't like them. Why would I have them? Well, why would a magician have a unicorn? But it seems more relatable. Um, and the eyeballs as well. They're just. They're just things that people can go. Oh, I understand what that is, um, so I think that's really, uh, really important. Um and yeah, and I went to western. This thing in western superman got these four sponge balls and then on the way back we went into waterstones. Um, don't know why, I was a bit obsessed with books and, uh, because I decided now that I love magic, I picked up my first ever magic book, which was a hardback cover of, uh, mark wilson's complete course in magic. Um, from waterstones at the age of 12, and these, these two things sort of. I've still got it. It's the mark wilson books in my bookcase over there from when I was 12. It's lovely.
Speaker 4:So when we speak about Spongeballs, obviously there's a very famous stand-up performance from Wayne Dobson that he did on the Royal Variety Performance. So when you perform the Spongeballs, are you doing it as a stand-up piece or primarily a close-up piece?
Speaker 17:so this is that. So this is the thing. I do it at close-up, I do it at the table, um, for for any age group at all, I find that it's one of those things that just makes everybody will just want you to do it again, do it again, do it again. It is brilliant, um, I also do it with two kids on stage. I think Craig Petty does a fantastic coin routine where he does coins across with two kids on stage and you can't really see. If you're at the back of the audience, you can't really see, but you can see the kids faces and they go, wow, their eyes literally light up and you go, wow, that's something magical. That is so I do Spongeballs with two kids on stage at a kid's party. I'll do it with the birthday child. Um, and I'll do it a closeup as well.
Speaker 17:Literally, I, it's the one trick that I take everywhere with me. It's, it's, it's. I don't have an EDC as such, um, I do have something on my keys, but, um, but I, I don't have this like massive tricks. I take everywhere but sponge balls. There was a point where I wouldn't leave the house without sponge balls because people would say can you show us a thing and I'll be like, yeah sure, here you go um now, now not so much, but uh, it's, it's that, it's literally everything the.
Speaker 5:The thing is, I I think there are classic routines and, once again, the beauty of sponge balls is it's quite modular to what you do. Now, wayne Goodman's a great person to cite, because wherever you see Wayne, he will have one sponge ball in his pocket, at least one. And whether he's got one sponge ball, two, three, four, whatever he's got, he'll perform a five-minute routine with it. You know the power of sponge balls and there's a lot of what's the correct word. There's a lot of magicians that go I would never touch a sponge ball. And do you know, recently, or not recently, when Harry done BGT and he started getting more into magic and everything else, I used to say to him Harry, do sponge balls, dad, I'm not doing sponge balls. They don't suit me, they're childish, they're this, they're that. I don't want to do them. We had Bill Abbott doing an academy and Bill done a Spongeball routine and Harry went why have I never done Spongeballs before? And he started doing them and, like every magician should and will do, once you do them you'll realize how powerful they are. You know, you don't have to put in the jokes if you don't want to. I mean, they're funny objects. But the magic with Spongeballs is incredible, but the magic with Spongeballs is incredible.
Speaker 5:And when I was getting back into magic so let me just tell this very, very quick story I went to work for a computer maintenance company and at that time I wasn't fully back into magic, but I would do the odd card trick, usually using a key card. So I didn't know how to do Elmsley counts. I didn't know what an Elmsley count was or anything else. I was doing key card stuff and stepping stuff that I had learned in a book when I was a young kid. So I was doing that sort of stuff. And then I remember being in the coffee, the break room, with, uh, one of the engineers and he said to me went, oh, peter, you do a couple of magic tricks, don't you? And I said yeah, yeah, I do a couple of tricks. And he went oh, I do a couple of tricks, can I show you a couple? And I mean yeah, of course, of course. And in my mind I'm thinking well, you know, what are you going to show me? I'm the magic guy around here, mate, like this.
Speaker 5:And straight away his opening gambit was he pulled up his sleeves and he went look nothing in my hands. And then he produced a sponge ball and then performed a sponge ball routine on me. He then went on to perform, he done a sponge ball routine, he did a card walk and he did something else Three of the most powerful effects you could ever see and my mind was blown like literally blown. And that's when I re-found Davenport's magic and that cemented in my mind the power of Spongeballs, because I can still remember today watching him do it and not having a clue as far as I was concerned, those sponge balls were appearing in my hand.
Speaker 5:Whatever method I come up with would have been something like the balls are separating themselves or something you know. So I was quite lucky that I witnessed the power before I knew really what it was. But yeah, they're so strong so it doesn't surprise me. They're in the list and if you don't do it, please give them a go. And there's no better time because Murphy's have literally just released a whole range of really good quality sponges.
Speaker 4:I think it would be interesting to talk about variations, because I did say that not many of them have been chosen, but over the years I'm sure you'll remember some of them. One I think I mentioned it on the podcast before was called Black Eyes by Matt Johnson, which was one that came out when I was much younger probably late teens and that literally used black sponge letter eyes. Yeah, and it was such a cheesy routine. So you had things like you would say have you seen this? It's my new iPhone, and you'd hold it up to your ear, you'd put the eye on someone's hand and say I've got my eye on you. You then split them into two eyes and you say, aye, aye, he's pretty good. You know all of these are like really cheesy jokes, but they went down really really well when they were gigged.
Speaker 4:And then I remember I think it was magic geek brought out sponge birds, which was when angry birds was about, yeah, and of course, angry birds was all about the birds flying from one space to another. Um, so that was really interesting, but I think the other most popular version is daryl's sponge bunnies routine. I think that's the other most popular version is Daryl's Sponge Bunnies routine. I think that's the other really popular version.
Speaker 5:There's a version that I saw years ago. It was a marketed item. I don't know whose it is. I'm going to say Michael Close, but I don't think it is Michael Close and it was. A magician who's a friend of mine called John Walker showed me it and I know there's been a version released recently that uses a similar idea, because I saw the amazing Ryland Petty do it on a video. He do it on a on a video.
Speaker 5:But the idea was you bought out, you know, a pipette. So you bring out this pipette which is filled with this red substance and you literally squirt it into your hand. The substance vanishes from the pipette and that's all done with a paddle, right. But now in your hand you've got a little red sponge ball, but with two little of those bobbly eyes, and then you go through a sponge ball routine where this thing's, you know, multiplying and jumping and everything else, and at the end of the trick you get the empty pipette, put it in your hand, do that, and now it's got the red in it again. But that was a great way as well to look. I'm gonna hold one, you hold one. Now, if I take the pipette and do this, you can see, mine goes into the pipette, but I can squirt that into your hand and now it would travel over.
Speaker 5:Um, something tells me that was called close's clonesones, but I think I'm wrong. I don't think that is Michael Close and his clones, but for some reason that's in my head. I think it was called Clones, but I've never been able to find it and John Walker said he had bought it when he showed me. He showed me 20 years ago, but he said he had had it for 15 years. So you know, it's just one of those things, but it seemed like such a natural presentation for it to happen and the idea of them seeing the empty pipette you putting it into your hand that should contain a sponge ball sucking up the red. Now your hand's empty and squirting that into their hand just makes sense as a routine, you know. So, um, yeah, that's a good one. If anyone can find it or knows what it is, let me know. Um, but I know a, a version with a pipette or a syringe or something has come out recently. It wasn wasn't that, it was a little pipette with a little rubber top, beautifully made.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Yep, that sounds really good, and again, one that I guessed we would all think of. That being said, we're about to get into curveball territory, because here is where things start going off the beaten path, and we're going to start getting things that maybe aren't what you expect. So in number six it's an alakazam product utility item cards oh. Extractor yep e2.
Speaker 1:Extractor yep, e2 because, because, why not? I think it's a fantastic tool in card magic. It's you're basically you're able to place a deck card inside a deck of cards. You can place it in your pocket, you can get a peek of it. You can steal that card immediately. I think it's, it's one of it's one of my favourite utility devices, just ever. It's.
Speaker 4:It's great so, once again, devil's advocate. So we've had the e2 a few times. What would be the routine? So, how you mentioned, it's a utility device. How would you use it personally?
Speaker 1:so I does again, to place a card. Uh, touch a card, sign the card, place it back in the deck. Deck goes away and that's actually what operates. A second deck of cards and I have. It's a completely different colour, completely different style of deck, and I've created a loading system into the card box that allows it to be placed in the centre of the deck while being still sealed up. The possibilities of being able to seal a card out of a deck invisibly is amazing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, that's great, A great, great choice. The E2 is phenomenal and I love the whole having it inside in position in the sealed deck as well. It's such a great presentation. I think it's the best use for that, Especially if you're going to put together a competition piece. I think that the E2 would be a great callback to the end of the show.
Speaker 1:In fact, you can just leave the deck inside your pocket and immediately you're able to seal it and place it anywhere you want. So you can, mercury card, fold it, place it somewhere. It's like hide it in a box, hide it anywhere. It's like a closer it's.
Speaker 6:It's fantastic what I mean just as far as utilities go. I mean, I have said this before. I think it's one of the best card utilities of all time. Um, I have other people mention this.
Speaker 4:So we've had one or two? I think yeah, but now that we've got the return of it, I do think it will be a whole new generation of performers who get to use it and to experience it, that's what I'm excited for too, because I mean this is a classic, but there's been this whole new generation to magic, especially since post-COVID.
Speaker 6:You know a lot of people took it up as a hobby and I can't wait for them to see this, because this was like it was groundbreaking then and I think it's even still, to this day, groundbreaking when the new audiences see it. I mean it's just impossible to have a card inserted into the middle of the deck, in the box tucked away to have complete control and access over.
Speaker 6:That is just, it's just not possible yeah so I really think that is one of the best utilities and it's made so well. It's just I I can't say enough good things about it and it's it's what's one of the things that really every mission should own. So, and there's so many uses for it too which is one of the reasons why it made my list is because it doesn't just do one routine. It's a true utility in every sense of the word, whereas you can do so much with it and it's just ingenious.
Speaker 4:It's been quite interesting watching Pete Demit so throughout Blackpool and actually a few days ago we were at the Magic Circle convention and there's a moment where you see it's a bit like the any card at any number. When you get a really good any card at any number, magicians know where it's going. But the second that that card's turned over, you see the disbelief in their face of, yeah, I know that this is going there, but it can't have already happened and it can't all. It can't be that clean, and that's what's been amazing watching pete perform. It is. There is a moment that you visibly see all of the tension on a magician's face just sort of dissipate when they they relax and go, oh no, and everything sort of goes oh, he's got me, but I don't know how he's got me, um, so yeah, even even now it really gets magicians hard, I think yeah, I mean, how could it not?
Speaker 6:it's just, it's literally just looks so impossible. It's just everything about it. It's so clever too. So, yeah, I'm excited At the time of filming. Now it's about to be re-released, so I'm sure by the time we're here it's already out there and you guys will be singing its praises as well. I'm positive.
Speaker 5:It's good that that's made it in there, because the extractor wasn't available for quite a while. We relaunched it last year. Do you know whether these are people that bought it on its relaunch or that have used it for years? Do you know that?
Speaker 4:I think it's people that used it for years. I think that the podcast launching when it did and the E2 launching when it did probably sparked the interest in it again, because they do mention that, the fact that it's back again, but I think all of them performed it way before the relaunch yeah, and I speak to so many magicians even now that say to me I bought the extractor when it first come out and it is part of I, I can't live without it.
Speaker 5:I've got four spares, I've got this, I've got that. And I remember a very, very good friend of mine, um chris nolte, who I was speaking to the other day. He's been in the business I. I want to get him on the podcast. Actually he's been in the business for 60 years. This year he celebrates 60 years and he's still performing, he still puts on theater shows.
Speaker 5:And I remember when he bought the extractor, he rung me up and he said you're not going to believe this, peter. Now, bearing in mind this was probably 20 years ago, 15 years ago the extractor come out, so he had been performing for 45 years. At this point, let's say, and he said I've never armed a card, I've never done a palm card to wallet, never done it, never really felt confident with it or anything else. He said for me, the extractor has changed that. It's got me doing stuff I never dreamt I would do.
Speaker 5:And you know, when you, when you buy the extractor, I'm sure I go into the story behind it of my first time performing it at blackpool and this and the other um, and that story is just really true. The extractor allows you to do stuff that isn't really possible without it, because psychologically, your audience member switches off to something being able to be, if that makes sense, yeah, so I'm really glad it's made it in there. Part of me I don't want to sound arrogant would say I expect it to be in there because it is a great utility, but there's so many things to choose from that. I'm honoured that it is in there and people are still using it, because you know what it's like. You buy a trick, you look at it and go, oh yes, that's clever, but knowing that people are actually using it and getting a use out of it, and that is really great to know, so, yeah, I'm pleased about that well in magic.
Speaker 4:we have so many devices across the board, so we have devices that allow you to steal a coin away whilst it appears to be in a place that you put it even rings, ring boxes. We have ring boxes which you put the ring in and you can steal it away. So it makes sense for us to have a device that allows you to do that with a playing card in a super clean way, so it's in a position that the audience think it's there. There's no way it could move, and yet you're miles ahead and it can be loaded or placed wherever you want to put it, and any trick that has David Blaine's seal of approval has to be a phenomenal effect.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, no, no, it is great and it is. It is a utility. It's there to be used. It's there to help you make your routine one more impossible looking and two as easy as possible to do. It provides you with misdirection to a point that it would be very hard to duplicate that misdirection without the extractor or the power of that misdirection. Yeah, I'm really pleased that's in there, the extractor or the power of that misdirection.
Speaker 4:You know, yeah, I'm really pleased that's in there. Well, we're going to go from the extractor to another Alakazam product, so there is another one. It's another utility device and it is one of the ones where I always have to be devil's advocate. So I always have to ask people to give me a specific routine with that item. Any more clothes.
Speaker 5:It's very stealthy right hey the saw the stealth assassin uh.
Speaker 18:Number two is something that I can't. I couldn't live. I've had it since it was released. I've had every version since it was released and that is Peter Nardi's Stealth Assassin wallet. That wallet, when it was released, absolute game changer. I can't even remember how long ago it was, but I remember buying it direct from Peter. I think it was a Magic Circle dealer day and this will have been when I lived in London. He had just released it. It was for me at the time. It was super expensive thing to be purchasing, but as I was forging my way in mentalism back then, I thought I need a really good, so and so wallet. And this wallet wallet ticks every box and it's only. It's only got better each time.
Speaker 18:Um, I know that the first one didn't have a certain thing in the special place. Gosh, it's hard censoring yourself, isn't it? I'm just realizing. Um, it didn't have a thing, and I think it was mark spellman that, uh, I can say, took a, took a stanley blade to his and created an element that was then manufactured into the further wallets. And if I was on a desert island I couldn't live without it. But of course I would have to be allowed a supply of business cards to go with it. Hopefully that's allowed we'll give.
Speaker 4:We've made exceptions. We'll give a lovely exception of that to you as well, and you're absolutely right. But I think what's different from that very early one and the ones that we have now is the advancement of technology and the fact that things can be manufactured in different ways now which maybe weren't back then. So things can be better hidden now than they used to be.
Speaker 18:Yeah, well, like I said, because I've had every single one, I have the very latest one with the hidden mm-hmms that are very stuck in place. You can't get to them, you can't get them out, and they have made all the difference. And I tell you what whoever tested it, they did a very good job. Well, I'm assuming it's Peter, but whoever figured out the strength needed and all of that for for that element, they really did the right thing. But I use this wallet on a daily basis. If I'm hired as a mentalist, it's on me. It's part of my A-list routine when I'm mentalisming.
Speaker 18:I don't do much mentalism when I'm hired as a magician, but this is also like the wallet I carry most of the time every day. It's definitely the wallet I will have on me if I'm going out to meet friends, especially if I'm not taking my little man bag with me. I know that in this wallet, I can do a 25 minute set, and I know that every part of that set is going to be super strong. The other thing, though, is I I use the all the functions of the wallet, not always together, but I use every single function. But the wallet is also big enough, without being too big that I use it to store other effects, which we'll get into, because some of those are actually listed further down my list. But if you buy that wallet it's a whole act. I've gone to get residencies before where that wallet is the only thing I've taken and I've ended up with the residency. So to say that it's paid for itself over and over would be an understatement.
Speaker 4:It's absolutely superb now you have picked a certain kind of wallet, in the same way that you picked a certain kind of deck. Yes, I'm afraid it's time to be devil's advocate again. So, because it's like a tool as opposed to a trick, we're going to restrict you down to one effect that you could perform with that. So if you could only perform one effect with that wallet for for forever, what would that one routine be?
Speaker 18:so, yeah, so one effect that I I would do with the assassin. It has to be a routine that I call mind mansion, right, which is basically I, I go through a little story, uh with the people. Actually, for any uh magicians who are listening to this, I will be revealing this routine as part of the upcoming alakazam uh assassin session thing that they're doing. Okay, so I'll give you the basics. I go on a journey in someone's mind. It starts with them getting in a limo. They go on a journey, they arrive at a mansion, there's several decisions to make, but ultimately they get to a box. It's the size of a shoebox but it's not a shoebox and it's not made of cardboard. Inside there is an object. Whatever this object is, I want them to think about it in their mind, in fact write it down, so we've got proof for later. Here. I'll store that in there so nobody can see it.
Speaker 18:I then go back over the um the story and I ask them for the details that they would give me. Like you got into a limo, but what color was the limo? We do that. We, we went down a driveway. I said it was either one mile or it was half a mile long. Which was it? They tell me that, say how many stairs were there up to the front door? They tell me that there's a right and a left staircase and I say which one did you go up? And what is this box made from? I said it wasn't made of cardboard. What was it made from? And then, after they tell me I look as if I'm doing some kind of calculations At this point I will have, I will know what they've chosen, um, and I will say imagine now, reaching into that box you're taking out, oh, it's very heavy, it's something that's actually big.
Speaker 18:You've actually shrunk it down to fit inside the box. Um, and you've chosen an elephant or something like that. So, as basic as my my effect with the night flight is, my mansion routine is effectively someone thinking of something and me telling them what it is. But what makes it interesting is that people like the journey that they go on in their mind and by doing that and the way that it's structured. I can't say too much on here, but make sure you see the assassin thing when it happens, when I do the secret business, people are actually at that moment thinking and because they're thinking of a question they just asked, I just asked them sorry. They're usually looking up and away and by asking them a question, everyone else in the group is actually also looking at them, waiting for their answer. So if anyone knows how the assassin works and what I'm talking about here, you'll know that that is the perfect time to do your secret move.
Speaker 19:That's what I'm taking. There's two options for this peak wallet, because it's the staple of a mentalist, isn't it? It's so useful. You can do anything and everything. There is no limitation on what routine you have to do or how you have to do the thing, or you know, it's a versatile thing that I literally never leave the house without a peak wallet. I have two that I carry. I carry a Orphic wallet by Louis LaVallon, the 1914. And I also carry a warning branding stealth assassin, produced by what's the?
Speaker 15:name of the company.
Speaker 19:What is it? You say it, jamie Alakazam. So they're my two, they're my two wallets of choice. I love them, I think they're very good. I just think that there's something about a peak wallet that just is fun, it's, and there's.
Speaker 19:I sort of I tire a little bit of the conversation of like, but what's the justification of writing down, putting it back in the peak wallet, said by someone carrying an anchor chief, that turns it into a cane, like, get in the bin, like, look at my box, look at my box trimmed with silver glitter, like, but you've got a problem with writing something down and put it in a wallet. All right, all right, all right, mate, oi, mate, your stairs look deep, come on, come on, it's all right, everyone has a go at their mentalists. But it's funny, isn't it? It takes chutzpah. It takes chutzpah, that's a Yiddish word, it takes balls to do a lot of mentalism, and so I don't know. A peak wallet is just a powerhouse for me, absolute powerhouse, and if you use it in the right way, I think, if you use it in a very sort of limited, linear way of can you write this down or draw something and then put it in here and now, immediately.
Speaker 19:I'll tell you what it is then. It's rubbish, but that's like anything. It's what we're talking about. It's what andy's passionate about. It's what I'm passionate about. It's how do you take that and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, use that and time, misdirect and really justify those things, because you can get anyone to do anything, right? I mean, look at us now to describe. You can't see us, or can you? But it's. We sat in a room with a desk in between us with headphones on, talking to microphones. If you showed that to anyone, go. Why are you doing that? We just are, because that's the way it works. It's you're in charge of the process, you're in charge of the narrative. If you, if you, if you believe in the process of whatever's happening, then so will they and you can justify anything. You can justify anything with good, well-thought-out narrative. So first on my list, a peak wallet please.
Speaker 4:Okay, I think that's a superb choice, thank you. However, I'm going to be devil's advocate, because this is what I've done to everyone who's mentioned a peak wallet.
Speaker 14:Yeah.
Speaker 4:When you go, you're only allowed to do one routine with your peak wallet. What is the routine that you would do with it?
Speaker 19:I would do. Am I specifically using one of those wallets?
Speaker 4:If those are your preferred ones, then yeah.
Speaker 19:Okay then I would be doing with my Orphic wallet. I would be doing a variation of it's kind of like a name divination their name and a one-ahead routine with sort of their name ends up inside the wallet, but I'm also getting other pieces of information. It's it's just like a getting to know you kind of routine, but it's a whole one ahead. It's kind of based on Ben Williams is anything routine? Um, this forces him. It's like a multi-phase routine, just with one one peak wallet and a couple of bits of paper.
Speaker 4:The uh Ben Williams is trick. Anything's superb.
Speaker 19:It's a great trick and I really liked his original version of it. But I sort of did a version of it using an Orphic wallet and built a whole kind of little routine off the back of that with a whole bunch of stuff in there. So, yeah, very fun.
Speaker 4:It's great and both of those wallets superb.
Speaker 19:I own both of them as well I love both of them equally different reasons, yeah, it depends on the performance situation, but they both have very, very strong merits now I will caveat that by saying lots and lots of different wallets were mentioned.
Speaker 4:The orphic wallet was another one that was mentioned quite a few times. We I think we've had the jol mentioned a couple of times, um, but the stealth assassin seems to be the one that everyone either started with and have quite literally collected them, if you talk to steve della um, but it seems to be the one that people you know discovered and they started to learn peaks with, and they started to learn the cash cabaret and stuff like that with it. So I mean, it's understandable, this is one of the ones that I bought when I was 16. So you know, that's when I bought my first stealth assassin, when I was that that young.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the predecessor to the assassin or the predecessor to the stealth, was um, a wallet I created called a mind spy, and um, the mind spy was the item that started off the peak wallet craze.
Speaker 5:Without a doubt, I can quite confidently say that I'm not trying to claim credit, that is a fact. I think the last peak that came out, probably before that, was probably the Jaxx wallet. Peak wallets were quite old things. People didn't really use them, they weren't a thing. And then I created the mind spy wallet and people went crazy for it and I remember the.
Speaker 5:The whole idea behind the stealth was I started getting really known for doing mind reading and I used to use the MindSpy for that. Now that was great when I was out performing because I would wear a suit and the MindSpy was designed for a performer to perform in parlor or situations where he is in a suit. That's what it was designed for. It certainly did not look like an everyday wallet. It wasn't the size of an everyday wallet. It didn't have a functionality as an everyday wallet. It was a performance prop. Now, because I was getting quite known for doing these type of things hollywood or bus drawing duplications, stuff like that I created the assassin to be my everyday wallet. So the assassin I created I was the only one that had one or the stealth. At that time it weren't called an assassin, it was just a stealth um, and I created that for myself. So I had one personally. I never released it.
Speaker 5:And then, um, about two or three years later, I decided to release the stealth. Spellman bought one, I think, at the time, and then me and Mark started discussing and then Spellman come up with some ideas and I threw in some more ideas and that's when the assassin was born, uh, the stealth assassin, which had some extra features. And then, um, we did the stealth assassin dvd, which many claim is still the best, or are still the best videos on peak wallets ever. And it was very weird because before the point of I don't even know if you can, I mean, I know you're not that young, but I don't know if you can remember before the stealth assassin dvds, whenever you saw a dvd, and even the ones that included myself and mark spellman or whatever, it was all very prim and proper. And, mark, how would you do this? Well, peter, I'll tell you exactly how this would be done. And everything was very prim and proper and I remember it was late one night, me and Mark are sitting in the shop and we're going to film this DVD for the Stealth Assassin, these videos.
Speaker 5:So we set a camera up, we've ordered ourselves a couple of pizzas it's about nine, ten o'clock at night big bottle of coke and and we're just sort of drinking it. And then mark said so how do we film this? And I said, oh, I don't know. I said like we should really, you know, it's got to be, it's just got to be very straight. You know you don't want to offend anyone and you know, you know. And then we're sitting and we thought, do you know what? Let's just be ourselves. Let's just be ourselves, let's just have a laugh. Let's just do it. Let's just teach what they need to know, teach them some killer routines. But let's just be ourselves, because when we're together we are pretty stupid. I mean, mark is exceptionally funny and it's very hard to keep Mark straight on anything. He'll go off on a tangent, like he does, and I said let's just do it, let's just be ourselves.
Speaker 5:And I would say that's most probably the first set of dvds that came out where you had two people having a laugh on them and then that sort of started to become the norm. But I I would say that it was probably me and spellman that started that. Where which? And if you watch that, there's so many stupid moments and the same with the extractor dvd there's. And if you watch that DVD, there's so many stupid moments and the same with the extractor DVD there's. You know, if you've got them, watch them back At some point.
Speaker 5:Mark's sitting there with five thumbtips on For no reason. He's just literally got five thumbtips on one thumb and there's so many stupid bits in there so much we had to cut out, you know, um, but yeah, so the assassin is such a versatile item and I I think people love it for different reasons and I know a lot of magicians or mentalists that use this, used it when it first came out, still use it now, but have changed in between. And always that's the comment I hear more often than not. I always come back to the assassin. You know I'm not going to mention names, but I know top mentalists that have released their own peak wallets, that still buy assassins off me and still perform with the assassin.
Speaker 4:It's a workhorse, it does what it needs to do and it does it very well yeah, I think it's great and you know I think we mentioned it on one of the podcasts that the assassin has. It's just gotten better over the years because of the advancements in manufacture. So the the fact that technology's moved on, things can be made easier. The new versions of the assassin things are hidden and function, I would say, much, much better than the original version that I got yeah, yeah, and the new one, the new crazy horse one is beautiful, absolutely beautiful, yeah and again, not to not to turn this into an ad, but the mind spy yes, be coming back soon.
Speaker 5:It will be, but it's a new design of Mind Spy. So, even though the Mind Spy and the Assassin are two different things, they are two different things and they were meant for two different things. Things and they were meant for two different things. And I'll be honest with you the, the stealth and the assassin was designed to be an everyday carry. That's what it was designed for. The mind spy was designed to be a performance utility. So if you're performing at a gig and you need something because the differences, the main differences between them is the MindSpy is some sort of notepad built into a wallet, whereas the Assassin is a wallet.
Speaker 5:Now if I'm performing parlor or stage or whatever, I don't want to pull my wallet out. I want a prop that suits the performing arena I'm in. So that's why there are two, that's why there's a Mind Spy, that's why there's a stealth. But the Mind Spy in its original form, because of the way fashion has gone and everything else, the size and shape of the Mind Spy does not fit in today's society as a piece that you would quite possibly carry. So we redesigned the Mind Spy. We made it smaller, we made it so it looks more natural in an everyday performing situation, but it's still, I would say, the Mind Spy. If you want something to carry with you every day in your pocket that you're going to perform a 15 minute mentalism act, assassin is your man. If you want something that you do a lot of little parlor shows or you're doing stuff on stage, then go for the mind spy. I think there are two tools do roughly the same thing but they are specifically designed for certain performing arenas.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, that leads us nicely onto number eight then. So now number eight is Alakazam, adjacent, but not strictly Alakazam. I get that. That doesn't help at all. No, that doesn't help at all. So it's mentioned as either a method or a system, as opposed to a specific version, and there have been lots of versions of this, of which Alakazam has released one recently. So it's diabolical.
Speaker 14:This was another Kmart moment. And Morley said this was another Kmart moment, um. And Morley said I'll show you this, it's only just come out, they, they brought it out and it was a little ring box and Morley took out three dice from it uh, red, blue and white and he gave them to me. To me he said there's another one in this box. He said put those dice in your pocket, rattle them around, bring one out. What have you got? Red? And he opened the box and inside the dice box inside the ring box, was his prediction, which was another red dice, blew my mind and it was Diabolical by Steve Cook, brilliant British magician.
Speaker 14:Steve Cook, I believe Alakazam have 43 different versions of Steve's brilliant thinking thinking and steve took and again, we won't talk methods, but steve took an ancient, magical method and, with a piece of unbelievably elegant thinking for me, reinvented it. Elegant thinking for me, reinvented it, and that was a trick that I performed at gigs. I then did um, wayne dolson and colin rose, with steve's permission, brought out a different edition of it that used um gems, which I used for years and years and years, and years and years and still have in my sort of gig bag, even though I don't gig, and that is the root of three skulls on a spike. That trick three skulls on a bike became my version. And again, steve. You know Steve gave me his blessing and he's fully credited with his brilliant thinking. But seeing that trick, it's amazing how I'm just looking at these.
Speaker 14:Of these eight tricks, yeah, six of them were experiences I had in bricks and mortar magic shops and the other two were things. One of them was just something I saw, which I'll come to next, and the other one was the thing I saw in performance. But the fact that most of these are bricks and mortar magic shop experiences really makes me a bit sad when I think about how the landscape of magic shopping has changed, because our experience now isn't the same and I know I sound old fashioned are, and I know I sound old-fashioned. But the experience of watching something on video, re-watching it, re-examining it, being sold it in a way that doesn't feel you know. You know you've got the big trailer and the this and the that and you're not really seeing the whole thing and you're certainly not experiencing the magic of it, versus walking in, committing to walk to a place or drive to a place. We've got the tube or the bus, getting there, going in, looking at the shelves being part of the wonder of it.
Speaker 14:What's new? The inevitable question anything new in what's good, seeing something that you just think, oh my God, and getting that thrill. Magic shops are. Just look, anyone listening and subscribing to this are going to be a magic shop customer. But if you haven't been to Alakazam, you should go. If you haven't been to International Magic, you should go. If you haven't been to international magic, you should go. If you haven't been to merlin's in wakefield, magic in sheffield, any of the ones I don't know about that I'm forgetting you should go.
Speaker 14:Because there is no experience like in all respects, equally no experience like the disappointment of coming out again and oh, that was shit. There was nothing that I wish. He's a terrible dem or whatever it is, but there's something. It is so integral to our love of it and our hobby of it and our job of it. See the tactile nature of it. Just watching and clicking by is so passive. It's also really important, and the ease of it is joyous, that you go, click, download, got it, click, buy. It's going to be here tomorrow and that's exciting. But if you can make those pilgrimages because if they're not there anymore, my god, we're going to miss them. Oh my god, it's gonna be just so sad. Um and diabolical was another of those having morley do that on me. And then that moment sitting on the four and a half hour tube back to hammersmith where you look at the method in the written instructions and like that's so brilliant. Oh my god, I can't wait to do it um skulls on a spike.
Speaker 4:Superb when I saw it come out and I saw the prop, it just looks so well. First off, it's really well made.
Speaker 14:It looks, it just looks stunning oh my god, I mean, it's one of those joyous tricks of where, if that prop is on hold on, it's literally within arm's reach. If that prop is sitting on the side and someone comes in, you know, within five minutes they they're going to say what, what is that? Oh, let me show you. And then you're into the trip. I mean it's, it's such a great way. And again, if you're gigging or you know, doing a quiet little parlor show, just the uncovering of that the moment is you just feel the audience lean in. You know your work is already it's done half the work for you. So you know, I really that's kind of to say I really feel that with magic props, I do think it's a really out of fashion important part of what we do you're right.
Speaker 4:The method is just mind-bogglingly clever. It's so simple, but so smart but that was also for me.
Speaker 14:There was a really massive lesson within that, and a lesson that ended up going into all my work, but in particular, the work with deron was that I also learned on that trick. Whilst it is amazing as a piece of thinking, I learned very quickly that, oh, people can guess the method to this and I realized that I needed to bury the method more. The more I did it, and because there are no props, the way to bury the method is linguistic. So I really started to learn the power of language and how what you say and what process you create can really alter the perception of what a trick is and how fooling it is. In very simple ways, it's just like writing any other script, a piece of drama or a joke or a jump. It goes stories or whatever. Every little word has an impact and so that really came to fruition.
Speaker 14:The more I did that and did that and did that and that you'll, the outcome of that actually is three skulls on a spike. You really see how the method just you know, I did it this weekend at this polish convention and these are all people who are into mentalism and again and again, you just see the reaction at the end of it? Well, well, every single person in that room has got 10 versions of that trick. But you, just, you just go through that door, that exit door there, just keep going, that's it, that's it, and the door slams and then you can't come back in. Um, and I really loved that. So I had a really big lesson for me. But Steve Cook again, we need to cherish these. His books are brilliant. Fake genius. They're brilliant, brilliant books. He's a wonderful magician.
Speaker 8:I'm not sure how openly I can talk about it. There's a lot of examples out there of people who have kind of took inspiration from Steve's thinking around this principle. I can probably name a few of the effects. So I first saw this with Psycho Dice which was one of the earliest versions. I know that K-Mar Magic also had Gamble which was a four-item version, let's just say that, expanding the diabolical principle. But I know in more recent times Andy Nyman's Skulls on a Spike has kind of borrowed. Well, he's utilised the principle essentially and I know I think Alakazam have also got. Is it just diabolical? That is, with the six.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, I think it's diabolical V5 or something like that, yeah, yeah diabolical v5 or something like that.
Speaker 8:Yeah, yeah so many versions, but it's it's because it's such a great principle though it's fantastic and it's it's well laid, it's well thought. Um, I think for me I'd and again, you you already mentioned at the start, but, um, my effect loki is, um, you is heavily, heavily in existence because of Steve's work. Right, it just wouldn't be a thing without Steve's work. And I played around with the diabolical principle for a long time, with using the diabolical principle, but in invisible ways. And then I had versions with poker chips, but I knew Gamble had already been done. I played around with Lego bricks and I knew gamble had already been done. And I played around with Lego bricks and I knew apparently that's already been done.
Speaker 8:And then I was playing around with like multiple locks and multiple keys, and then obviously, what we have today is kind of a more minimal offering, low key, but it's definitely something that I go out and perform. And what's been really nice is people reaching out to me saying like I'm performing it like all the time now in their gigs and things or at their events or just with friends and family. So, yeah, it's lovely having people kind of reach out and say, oh, I've done this, adam, have you tried this and sharing ideas back to me now, which is lovely. So, yeah, that's in my last spot, but I would probably just you know, I'd like to expand that to kind of the diabolical principle, if I could. If that's all right, jamie, I know that's kind of bending the rules a little bit, but there you know I think you've mentioned enough there.
Speaker 4:I mean, for me personally, I've. You know there's lots of, like you just said, there are lots of versions of this and I know that you would never say this, but I do think that your version is the best version that I've seen using the method thank you, man that means a lot I think there was.
Speaker 8:I mean, that was what I was battling with for a long time was kind of, I suppose, the construction of the effect and how to ensure that the participant has that same feeling pretty much every time, regardless of what happens. Yeah, it's really hard to talk about this without giving things away, isn't it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it's really difficult.
Speaker 8:Yeah, no, thank you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that means a lot, Thank you adam dad's world, for example, says the uh diabolical principle um, and some people do cite diabolical as the the trick. Yeah, yeah, but there are quite a few versions of it now there there are.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so the the original version, I think that was. I think the original version was called diabolical, I, I think, and it used to be a little plastic ring box which you would put down on the table and you would say inside this box I've got a prediction. Here are three different colored dice, put them behind your back, mix them up, bring out any one, and then you know at the end of the routine, your prediction matches the dice that's in the box, or their selection matches your prediction, and vice versa. And then we released Diabolical V5, I think it was called, and that took the routine a bit further, added more colors, more dice into the mix, but the core method was the same and a lot of people have explored that method.
Speaker 5:Andy nyman's got a beautiful routine called three skulls on a spike, which I own, beautiful, and this goes back to andy talking about having weird props hanging about the house, you know, and yeah, he'd done that. And then Adam Dadswell and I'm going to put this out there, no disrespect to anyone else, because I think they're all great. I think Dadswell's is the best use of this principle I think I've ever seen. I will say, because there's a payoff in Dad's Wells that none of the others have got, because with the others you are predicting one thing, but you're sort of with Dad's Wells, you're predicting that thing, so you're getting the kicker, but then you're also getting the other kicker of you had no other choice, whereas the others don't have. That you've predicted it, that's great, but then you can't say but you couldn't have picked these. Because of this you haven't got that extra thing.
Speaker 5:I think loki by that's well. It is the best version of this effect and even though it's based on diabolical, I think he's taken it further. Most of them haven't. Most of them is the same method with a different presentation, and there are some beautiful ones out there. Like I said, free skulls on a spike is beautiful, the props are beautiful, the routine's great, as you would expect from nyman, um, but that's well is the only one that's actually looked at the method and went. Do you know what?
Speaker 4:we could add a bit more to this and what he's added makes the effect stronger well, we've spoken a lot on the podcast about blank deck endings, uh, and that's literally what this is. But for diabolical you're getting that blank deck kicker, but with keys, essentially. And we, when adam was on, we couldn't talk about this because it wasn't out yet. So now we can talk about it. We did loosely speak about it then, but I agree, I think when I saw it at blackpool, when adam did it to me and then I mean he fooled me with it, obviously, the first time you see that trick there's no way you're not going to be fooled by it.
Speaker 4:It's impossible not to be. And then when he showed me the method and then I realized it was based on that, but it was just so much better it it just took that method. Span it on its head made it so much more practical. It just took that method. Span it on its head made it so much more practical, made it make sense a lot more, I would say as well. And the way he'd structured it, routined it, the props, the whole thing was just absolute symmetry coming together.
Speaker 5:Did we launch this at Magic Live? We did, didn't we? Or pre-launched it at Magic Live. And if you think that, like you know, you go to Blackpool and you see all the stars of Magic, you go to Magic Live. You have David Copperfield come up to your stand, you know, and we me and Harry, were them in behind the stand and Chris Kenner.
Speaker 5:For those of you that don't know who Chris Kenner is, he's been David Copperfield's right-hand man for many, many years, an accomplished magician in his own right. You know, he invented the civil cart, he invented free fly. Very, very, very, very clever and technical guy. He came round to the stand and he said oh, you know, show me some of your bits, show me some of the stuff. So I performed everything we had, me and Harry performed on him. And he said I'm going to bring David back to this stand tomorrow. I want you to show him everything you've just shown me. Now Chris Kenner bought everything that I showed him, and I did say it. You know, to be totally honest here, I said, chris, you don't have to pay for it, it'll be an honour to just take them. And he said no, no, no, no, I'm going to pay you for everything and he bought everything right. So they're not freebies, we're talking about.
Speaker 5:The next day he bought David Cobb filled up, and I performed to him low key and the extractor and I performed to him Loki and the Extractor and he brought both of them on the spot without any question. Then he come behind the stand so I could teach him how to do them both. And then he kept bringing people back to see them. You know, and that to me you can't really say much more than that, in fact we had already sold out of Loki at that point and we ended up I don't know if it was to one of David's friends, but we ended up selling them our Dem unit because they were so desperate for it that we sold our Dem unit. So we didn't even have a Dem unit back. Yeah, yeah, incredible. So that plot in general sorry we went off on a tangent, but that plot in general is so clever, as you would expect from Steve Cook.
Speaker 4:It's a great one to end our list on as well, because I think we've gone, you know, all the way from something that's quite generic a deck of cards to something that's quite specific diabolical.
Speaker 5:That's a great list and it's an interesting list. It really is, because I know there's so many effects and that's the thing, like I said at the beginning, that makes this podcast so great is every week it's not every week people ringing up and saying the same tricks time and time again. You know it's different tricks and to have to have a definitive list of six that you know people have chosen it is great, because that certainly shows you what you should be at least looking out for and going. Well, you know, maybe I'll look into this if I haven't done before, because all these people are saying it.
Speaker 4:There's something there, you know yeah, well, nearly every single trick on the list. It's quite literally one or maximum two so, and that's nearly every single trick, so we're not having a huge amount of repeats on here. The interesting thing for me was trying not to get mixed up with the honorable mentions. So we haven't factored in honorable mentions to this list and we've also not factored in the stranded with the strangers with this list, because this was started before strangers began. So this is just the main podcast. So I dare say it will probably be the same with stranded with a stranger, because we do tend to get the same list on there as well. But it does bring us to those two curveball items. So obviously our guests always get only one each of these two things I think, regular listeners to this are gonna guess the book.
Speaker 4:I or certainly they're gonna get down two. So what do you reckon it was? What do you reckon the book was?
Speaker 5:The thing is with books is they are pretty personal. I wish I could have changed my book. I sort of went into the book without thinking a bit. I think you caught me off guard, Jamie.
Speaker 4:What would you change it to now then?
Speaker 5:I would probably change mine to something like Complete Course, because that's what I was when I gave my description. I think I jumped it, even though I'm happy with the book I got. But my whole reasoning behind it was I like a book with a lot of variety in it and I had a few to choose from to come into my mind and I went for one. Now I don't want to take anything away from that book I went for, but if I had that time again I most probably would have went for my. My reasoning still stands I'd like some variety in there.
Speaker 4:So I think I'd most probably swap out for a complete course the one that nearly was in the book position was the complete course by mark wilson. Now, listeners might have thought that that was the main one, but the truth is a lot of people mentioned it in their honorable mentions and didn't go for it. So they either referenced it or spoke about it, but it wasn't in their end end position. And again, with our books, we've only had I think the most that we've had is four of the same book and that's the one that we've we've got in our top position because most people pick one. There's only one or two which keep coming up. So, uh, I think it's fairly evident what this is going to be. You just mentioned that it's a personal one, and everyone that's come on has a personal reason for this book, which?
Speaker 5:is interesting.
Speaker 13:So it's notes from a fellow traveler by deron brown yeah but the reason why I'm going for this book is because of my copy of it specifically. Right, I can't go anywhere without my copy of it. Actually, that's not true. Um, I mean, like I would never read this on a train because it's a deluxe edition. I don't want to get it destroyed, but if I'm on a desert island and it's there, I'm there for the rest of my life and this is the book't want to get it destroyed, but if I'm on a desert island and it's there, I'm there for the rest of my life and this is the book I want to take with me because of the story attached to it.
Speaker 13:So I obviously, as you mentioned at the start, I worked on Unbelievable and Darren was a big part of putting that show together, and when he did his interview to release this book at the Magic Circle, we'd just finished rehearsing for that day at Three Mill Studios and I was already sort of, you know, pinching myself thinking like how the hell have I ended up here, you know, working on this show? I just couldn't believe it. And Darren and Harry D'Cruz were about to get an Uber to the Magic Circle and I walked past and I said I'm on my way there as well and they said do you want to hop in? I was like, okay, so I'm there, harry Dacruz is in the front with the Uber driver and it's me and Darren in the back of the Uber on the way to this thing. And I was like, I, I feel like a rock star, right, I just this is, this is what the hell has happened to my life. I just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 13:And you know, when you're sat in the back of a car with Darren Brown, what do you chat about now? Stupidly, I couldn't think of anything to say, so I just said, oh, darren, did you know that where we've been rehearsing Three Mill Studios? I've actually been there before. And he went. Really I was like, yeah, my mum told me yesterday that when I was a baby, I was a baby model for Pampers and, uh, we did it at Samuel Studios and he thought this was hilarious. I thought, great, darren found this funny, excellent.
Speaker 13:And, um, he kept on going on about it. You know Pampers, little Pampers boy, right, he just thought it's so funny. Then I sort of thought, well, I probably should have asked him about his career. I probably should have asked him about, kind of like, any advice for like a budding kind of like mentalist magician performer. But no, we ended up just talking about Pampers pretty much the whole way. So then when I got my book, I was so excited to get it, especially the deluxe copy, which was very expensive. He signed it. This was like 250 quid. So I've got my 250 pound edition of notes from a fellow traveler, signed by Darren Brown, to little boy Pampers.
Speaker 4:Great.
Speaker 13:Excellent, so it could not be me. So I could sell this on eBay possibly, but you know, it's quite generic I guess. But Little Boy Pampers like, yeah, you can't write this stuff, so there you go.
Speaker 4:All I'm thinking is you know how, like years later, secondhand books go on and they're like collector's items.
Speaker 13:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:Like 50 years down. One day someone's going to buy that from, like, the Magic Circle Library or something. Open it up and it's signed by Derren Brown to that person. How many stories in 100 years time are going to go about what was going on nowadays in magic for that to be a thing?
Speaker 13:Yeah, exactly who was Little Boy Pampers. Yeah, so, so yeah.
Speaker 4:So that means that after today, everyone if they see Roman about has to call him Little Boy Pampers. That's all you have to do and anywhere you see him, we'll make that stick.
Speaker 13:Yeah, yeah, thanks. Thanks for that, jamie, I appreciate that.
Speaker 20:And it's probably Darren's book that I would take with me, purely because I really struggle to read from books and the way Darren writes in this casual, informal style, it's almost like having a conversation with him and it makes me want to read the book, whereas if it's a book that's just trick after trick after trick after trick, I'm bored. After five minutes I haven't got the attention, whereas if it's a book that's just trick after trick after trick, I'm bored. After five minutes I haven't got the attention span for it or it'll send me to sleep. But with derren's it's almost like you're sat in a room just having a chat and because he puts witty comments in it, um, it's how I'm trying to write my book a little bit, um. So it's got that kind of humor to it and like a conversation. It's brilliant and obviously it's got some real gold in there.
Speaker 20:So I'm not all the way through it yet. I've still got loads more to go through it. But even from just the sort of first couple of chapters I've already got my money's worth. So yeah, it'd be. I probably wouldn't take the one I've got that's mine because it's signed by him, so I'd probably get one that I can afford to get wet, but it would be Darren Brown's notes on his fellow traveler. I'm really sorry for being boring and picking one that everybody's picked, which is why I'd go for one that I thought I'd already mentioned, one that people probably don't know about, uh, but yeah, it would be Darren Brown book of my praise not boring at all.
Speaker 4:I think it's a great choice, um, and the thing is, if we do get lots of one thing on here, it just goes to show that that one thing is something that you know people who don't have that thing should be paying attention to. That. That's all that is. Uh, and you're absolutely right. It's such a phenomenal book and he does have that sort of conversational um thing it is. It does feel like you're reading a diary. That's what it felt like to me. It felt like I could imagine, maybe the day after when he had processed whatever happened that he was about to write about. He was sitting down and he was almost spilling all of these thoughts out from his mind onto the page, but it was almost like he was writing a diary for himself to read back at the end.
Speaker 20:Yeah, it's such a relaxed style. His other books as well I mean Pure Effect. They've got some little quips and things in there as well which are sort of like, well, he's just put in there and it just makes you laugh. So his writing style is really nice like that. It's very relaxed. Even the happy book again, it's just a joy to sort of read, if you know what I mean. All his books. His writing style for me is really what makes a difference. So it's interesting that out of the three books there, all of them actually have more method in them, which is more. What I'm interested in is the actual performance method as opposed to tricks method. It's it's. I think we've all got a million tricks we don't need. I know it's been said a million times, but it's true we don't need any more tricks. What we do need is how to improve the performance and the way we do it. So, uh, yeah, definitely that's important. I think people don't take enough interest in that that they should.
Speaker 5:And the thing is that's a newish book as well, which means people are reading it now. But yeah, I know there's. Do you know what I'm going to be honest? I've got a copy of it and it's safely away with my other books I've got copies of. I haven't actually read it yet, um, but I do want to get around to reading it.
Speaker 5:I I've got a decent collection of books. I've got nowhere near what some of you guys listening to this have got, but I've got a decent collection and my idea is that at some point I'm gonna have time to sit down and actually read them. I mean, I've got the tenuism books, which you know I was gagging to get my hands on. I was so excited when they turned up and then I was so excited I put them on my bookshelf and haven't even opened them, but I do want to get around to doing it.
Speaker 5:So I've got, uh, tales from a fellow traveler and I know you've read it and you've said it's one of your favorite books, and I do want to read it because I like stories. I like information, I love learning tricks, but I love stories. I love tales and nothing you know. I mentioned chris north earlier and the one thing I like about our phone calls we we speak every month or so is the tales he tells me about you know performing magic back in the day and everything, and I love that sort of stuff. So tales from a fellow traveler is is on my to read list as as his notes from a fellow traveler.
Speaker 4:Um, that's the one tales is his follow-up uh, yeah, it is a phenomenal book. It's such a personal read. I think that's why it's such an interesting one. So, yeah, that is the book. That is, uh, the one that most people have chosen, and and rightly so. It's great, uh, but it brings us on to item. So item was another interesting one. We only really had one or two of each one, so I've had to bunch together, um, so the outcome was a notepad and pen yeah a mobile phone, yeah, or a version of people, so maybe a loved one or a family member.
Speaker 4:I think I can't remember who said it, but someone said that they would take someone with them because they know a coding system, right so the person is a method.
Speaker 5:Didn't preston say he would take his dad? Or did they take the coin?
Speaker 4:they took the coin. Yeah, but I think, uh, mike sullivan said that he would take wayne dobson, which I thought was was a great one. Yeah as well, yeah, so, yeah, I think a mixer of those a notepad and pen seems to be a fairly standard thing. Mobile phone we all have apps now, so many of us rely on magic apps. Um, controversially recently with inject, um and people, of course we have, uh, you know, lots of people want to take people or photos of people for different reasons. Yeah, but, rather excitingly, our guests get to pick something new from this point on.
Speaker 4:So from next week our first episode our guests get to do something else, so we thought it would be interesting to change it up. Make sure that the podcast is exciting and fresh and get even more controversial and get even more controversial.
Speaker 4:so obviously we don't want this to be a negative thing, so we have put a couple of restrictions that we'll talk about it. But our guests get to dig a big sandy hole on their island and bury something, banish it from the world, so it's going to stay on that island. It will be gone for good. Now, obviously we can't be mean about it, so it's not about that. It's just about raising things that maybe bug magicians, so it could be a hack line.
Speaker 4:It could be, something that magicians do. It could be something that is not directly attached to magicians. Maybe it's something spectators do and they don't like when this happens in a show. It could be a plot in magic that they don't like for a particular reason. What's interesting is we've recorded a couple of these already. Obviously, we record things in advance and I didn't know how this was gonna play. It could.
Speaker 4:It could have gone very wrong, but it's been really interesting and it's great that people are so passionate about magic and I think the passion has come out in this question more than I thought it would. No one's been unkind at any point, obviously, but it's been really and again, I can't talk about the ones coming up because I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but it's been. It's been really lovely to hear some of the answers. I think the answer is going to shock people. I don't think it's going to be what people think it's going to be, um, and I'm really glad that we added it. Actually, I think it's really good because I think it's going to get people to question what they do, what other people do, maybe re-evaluate different parts of our art, and maybe it will help us all improve a little bit and and the thing is as well, you've got to understand that one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Speaker 5:And even if I think back throughout these episodes, I know that Chris Harden would take the dancing cane, Whereas I also know I think it's Fergus Flanagan said it's the worst trick he's ever seen. So it's the worst plot. It was like he really didn't like it. So the thing is, it is very personal. It's very personal and I know Chris and I know that Chris will take it for his own amusement. It's like learning it. To some people it own amusement, it's like learning it. To some people it's therapeutic, it's nice, it's getting things looking lovely, and to other people they go. I just think it's a rubbish trick, but people have got different opinions. So it will be interesting to see what people decide to put in Because, like I said, one man's trash is another man's treasure and I think there's going to be a lot of times you sort of listen to this and go well, I wouldn't put A now. I get great reactions out of that, or you know. Yeah, I think that's going to be an interesting one. I think it's a good one to add in.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I think it's going to make people question things more. I think it's a good one to add in. Yeah, Yep, I think it's gonna make people question things more. I think it's gonna be really interesting, but let's round this out. So let's round this out by looking at the top three, so in terms of viewership or listenership, the top three episodes. So let's start from number three. What do you think the third most listened to episode is?
Speaker 5:Nick Mohammed Three. What do you think the third most listened to?
Speaker 4:episode is Nick Mohamed. No, oh, it was not, so the third most listened to was our very first episode, Preston. It was Spooky Nyman. Yeah, Preston Nyman was our third most listened to. Now, I'm not sure if that's because maybe that was the first one, so everyone listened to it straight away. But yeah, that's our third most listened to episode over Andy, which I'm sure will cause arguments in that household. That's great. Yeah, and it was a great, great episode. It was great to kick off with Preston as well.
Speaker 4:So number two what do you think is number two? The second most listened to?
Speaker 5:Well, I was going to say Andy, but you've already told me that it wasn't, so I'm not going to say Andy, just answer me. This Is Nick Muhammad in the top three. He is not in the top three Right. So then I'm going to go either Mark James or Mark Spellman.
Speaker 4:Neither. Oh, I'll give you a clue. When he was younger, he had to write on stone tablets.
Speaker 5:It ain't me.
Speaker 4:It is you? Wow, you are the second most listened to that we've had Wow.
Speaker 5:That's great. Thank you everyone.
Speaker 4:Well, it's surprising to us all. I think it's just Pete pressing refresh.
Speaker 5:I'm going to say I can take it off. Repeat now.
Speaker 4:So yeah, you are number two, and I think we all know who's number one. So number one was Darren. He's got to be Darren, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, by a long, long, long way, darren. Well, you don't have to say that, just say you just picked her at the post-it.
Speaker 4:Yep, just ever so slightly.
Speaker 5:Look, you might as well say what you said to Darren about. Oh, just to let you know, Pete has got the highest listeners. Yeah, and what was Darren's answer?
Speaker 4:We'll see about that. People won't know this. So before I come on with a guest guests, I have like a little chat with them first and then we talk about the podcast and then I tell them, you know, the do's and the don'ts, and one thing that we say is any anecdotes that you have seem to do well, and we've noticed that there's a a longer listenership, so people listen to the entire episode. When there are stories in there, they seem to to do better. Um, so that may well have something to do with that top three.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean I exactly what I said to you at the beginning I love listening to to people's reasoning behind it. Whatever that reasoning is, it's lovely to hear those stories. When I listen to Liam Montier and, like you said, it's a journey through his life, but he talks about it. This was the first time I went into a shop and I saw this and this happened, and that and those things to me, are what make these podcasts great. It's not just what six tricks do you think are good. It's not that. It's not about the tricks. It's about them and their experiences with the magic they're talking about. That's what makes this interesting. Otherwise, you're looking at a magic catalog and it's not that. It's about what makes this particular effect so loved by this performer. What is it? Is it the great reactions he gets? Is it the first trick he saw? What memories does it bring back to him? And that's what makes this podcast so good. I've got a question for you. So our listenership is that growing?
Speaker 4:Yep week on week. Yeah, yeah, it's growing and I think we've all noticed it. When we're at conventions, when we've done lectures, stuff like that, people always mention the podcast. It seems to be the first thing that people are talking to all of us about Emails that we get people saying that they're enjoying the podcast. Comments on forums the amount of forum posts that we all get tagged in now because of the podcast. So it just seems to be going up and up and up and up, which is great. It's great that people are listening to it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, that's brilliant and let people know how do they get involved with stranded with a stranger. So, yeah, if you want your list written out, we want to give everyone the opportunity to be a part of this. This should be something that's for the community, not just for a certain group of people. So if you want your list to be read out, then send in your list of eight tricks one book, one non-magic item that you use for magic and one banishment. Yeah, we can say that now to sales at alakazamcouk.
Speaker 4:Put in the subject header my desert island tricks. That way it comes through to me and we can get one of them recorded. But, like I say, the more of those we have. We've only got two in the vault at the moment which I'm trying to save, so I'm not recording them every week at the moment and I can drop them in just as a little surprise every now and again. But the more of those we have then, the more we can get recorded. And, like I said earlier, I know a lot of people have reservations about it and maybe they don't feel like they can talk about their list because they don't have the confidence. But there is no right or wrong answer to any of this. This is everyone's own individual idea, belief, interest. It doesn't matter. And in fact, the more diverse and the stranger the lists, sometimes they're a bit more interesting.
Speaker 5:I find. Yeah, 100%. I love hearing the ones where I don't know what that trick is and you go look it up. It's great, I love those things yeah.
Speaker 4:So one last question for you. We're allowed to have two guests on right, one who is no longer living and one who is living. Who could be anyone? So, in terms of someone who, if we could have them on but they've passed, who would you have invited on?
Speaker 5:Tom Mullica.
Speaker 4:That was quick.
Speaker 5:Yeah, without even a thought, that was quick.
Speaker 4:Yeah, without even a thought I bet his list would have been so quirky as well.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, I could most probably tell you his list, but I think the stories connected to them would be incredible, would be absolutely incredible.
Speaker 4:And what about your one coming up? So, in terms of the next year, if there was one guest, anyone in the world, that we could get on who's not been on yet, who is that one person you would get on?
Speaker 5:Can I go for two? I think it would have to be either David Copperfield or David Blaine.
Speaker 4:Oh, both very strong choices and they're both Davids.
Speaker 5:So if we just address the email to David, perfect, then you know, and there are reasonings behind that. Obviously, I grew up watching David Copperfield's specials and when I was a kid watching Copperfield, I truly believed that wherever he went, magic would happen. Do you know what I mean? I truly, when you see, because the thing with David Copperfield, when he used to do his shows as well, he used to do them as scenes. There would be a scene where he would be sitting in a restaurant and the rose would appear. Do you know what I mean? Everything was sort of set out and I think, as a kid watching that, I thought, yeah, if you're a magician, this this is how you live your life. You know, now I'm married, I understand that if I was to do that in a restaurant I'd probably just get punched in the throat. But as a kid, like you know, you watch Escape from Alcatraz and you know he produces two. He's locked in a cell. He produces two coins, coins and then just rubs his fingers over the coins and they turn into a lockpick and then he picks it and I was thinking, I mean, he was the real James Bond, that's, you know. So that's why I chose David Copperfield, I think, and I don't think there's anyone around now that's still got as much passion for what they do as Copperfield does. I mean, he's got a huge museum which would be a dream to visit one day and have a look at some of that old stuff and hear the stories behind it.
Speaker 5:But David Copperfield, I would say you know, had such a big impact on me growing up and stuff like that. And David Blaine changed magic, without a doubt changed magic. I was, I had magic, I had Alakazam before David Blaine hit TV Right. So I firsthand know the impact that Blaine had on magic. Before Blaine was on TV you said I'm a magician and people expected top hat, tails, bunny rabbits and stuff like that. That's what they saw as a magician. The moment I remember walking. I still had a full-time job but I had Alexan running as a little side mail order company, mail order company. I remember walking into work the day after Blaine's special was on telly and the amount of people that said to me did you see that thing last night? Can you show me a trick?
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, they're both really really good choices. We'll have to see what we can do. So, you know, stay tuned, because never ever say, say never. Uh, but yeah, those would be great choices. So let's round up, then. This has been a longer than normal episode, so if you've had a really long drive, then hopefully you've been, you've enjoyed it. It has been a bit of like a compilation, so obviously I've put little clips all the way through of different people talking about those choices. So you know, hopefully, if you've missed some of those episodes, go back and check them out, because they are really really good.
Speaker 4:Next week we're going to be back with the launch of season two. So it's season two next week with a special guest. It's going to be a video one, so you can watch this one on YouTube if you want to watch it on YouTube, but of course it will be on the normal platforms as well. And this guest is coming all the way from las vegas, oh, so can you guess who it is from? That you know because you booked him in, so I don't know why you're looking like you don't know.
Speaker 5:No, I do. Now I was thinking I think david cockfield is. That's quick yeah so yeah, and it's a very, very, very good episode, very, very, very good it is, and, and the thing is, I do I always um make sure that I'm not told what the trips are, because I I genuinely do enjoy listening to them.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I'll be well interested for that one well, thank you for joining me, mr pete, you are welcome, and thank you all for listening. So if you've been listening up until this point, we just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for listening. It's been so much fun to make. We do quite literally just make it for the community as a fun thing for us all to be able to listen to and to explore. So thank you all for listening.
Speaker 4:Now the best way that you can help the podcast is to help it grow. So tell your magic buddies about it. Post online when you find an episode that you like, that you want to share with people. Make sure that you're spreading it around as much as you can. That way, we can get a bigger viewership, we can get bigger guests on here and, you know, maybe one day pete's dream of copperfield being on here will happen. Who knows? So, yeah, fingers crossed, please do let everyone know about it, because it really, really helps. Do get your stranded with the strangers in and look forward to the twist next week where someone gets to banish things. So you know, it's going to be really interesting. Now we're going to be at blackpool next week. Um, so actually, when this episode goes live, we'll be at blackpool, which will be exciting and we're recording an episode there as well, are we?
Speaker 4:I'm certainly taking all of the equipment and we're going to probably turn the BNB into a podcast studio. Last year we turned it into a film studio. We did, and we might be doing that again this year as well, who knows?
Speaker 4:Probably. So yeah, we're going to take this, we're going to record maybe one, maybe two, who knows when we're there, uh, so we can get some live podcasts in as well. So, yep, do tune in next week. We hope you've enjoyed this little compilation episode, a little discussion of the top eight, and we'll see what happens to that top eight next year interesting.
Speaker 5:Well, thank you, jamie, and thank you for all your hard work, so I know how much you put into this and it's really appreciated it's my absolute pleasure, so we will see you all next week for another episode of desert island tricks.
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