Desert Island Tricks
Each week we invite one of the biggest guests in the world of magic to maroon themselves on a desert island. They are allowed to take with them 8 tricks, 1 book, 1 banishment and 1 non magic item that they use for magic! We discuss their 'can't live without' lists and why those items were chosen.
Episodes are uploaded every Friday and are available via all Podcast service providers!
To find out more about the team behind Desert Island Tricks, please visit: www.alakazam.co.uk
Desert Island Tricks
Iain Bailey
What happens when a professional electrician turns his workplace tools into instruments of wonder? Iain Bailey reveals how his day job has become the perfect foundation for creating authentic, practical magic that resonates with audiences everywhere.
In this captivating conversation, Iain takes us through his Desert Island Tricks list, showcasing effects that brilliantly merge practicality with astonishment. From Holy Moly (using standard washers) to his viral Dove Magic routine (featuring cleverly punned deodorant and dishwasher products), each selection demonstrates his philosophy that magic should be "fun and practical”.
Bailey's inventive approach shines through in creations like Dig It, a card reveal involving a miniature spade, and Reverb, his AirPod vanishing effect that cleverly utilises audio illusion. What makes Iain's work particularly compelling is his commitment to directness - banishing long, tedious tricks in favour of powerful moments that deliver maximum impact in minimum time. "Is the juice worth the squeeze?" becomes his guiding principle for selecting effects.
Perhaps most fascinating is Bailey's willingness to embrace his professional identity, creating a "Tricks of the Trade" stage show that combines electrical work with magic rather than hiding his day job. This authenticity has served him well, helping him produce magic that feels organic and genuine rather than contrived.
Whether you're looking for practical performance advice or creative inspiration for everyday object magic, this episode delivers with humour, insight, and plenty of surprising revelations. Listen now and discover why sometimes the most magical objects might already be in your pocket or toolbox!
Iain’s Desert Island Tricks:
- Holy Moly
- Dig-It
- Imagination Coins
- Little Hand
- Rope, Nut, Knot / Fibre Optics
- Reverb
- Dove Magic
- Nest of Wallets
Banishment. Long Tedious Card Tricks
Book. The Approach by Jamie D Grant
Item. Swiss Army Knife
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
I have a funny story about this because I originally, at the end, produced a latex dove and I showed Dave Loosley this. The problem was with the dove is that it creates this shock and people are thinking, wow, he's actually done it, he's produced a real dove. And then when you kind of fold it up and put it away in your case, they kind of realize, oh right, ok, now it's another anticlimax. You know it's like, ok, okay, yeah, he hasn't actually really done it. So the kind of emotional roller coaster that people go on when they see it is kind of yeah, excitement and then disappointment.
Speaker 1:And when I showed dave loosely over zoom, he said I like the effect but it needs a big finish. That's all he said. And then I took him literally. I took him at his word, went out and bought a big bottle of finish rinse aid and honestly I owe everything to david. I won't tell him that to his face, obviously, because I probably want some financial compensation maybe. But you know I'll tell him on here. He probably won't listen to this, hopefully, but yeah, I have him to thank for that.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. We have another magician who's visiting our magical island today and this creator I came across I don't know maybe four or five years ago when he started to work with Alakazam with some of his incredible releases Things like Measure for Measure, keyring One Card Monty, the Jameson Wallet and he's now like self-releasing some really really clever tricks and some really great ideas. I know that we really enjoyed Dig it, which was really, really funny, and if you've seen him perform his dove magic routine, it's very, very funny. He's a brilliant creator. I'm really excited to see what his list compiles of. But today's guest, of course, is the wonderful Ian Bailey. Hello, ian, hello.
Speaker 1:Jamie, the wonderful Jamie, I'll call you that back, straight back at you. Thank you very much for having me. It's been a long time us trying to arrange this but because of my day job it's kind of gotten in the way. But I'm actually on holiday this week and I've chosen to spend some of my holiday being with you on this metaphorical desert island.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm very excited to see what your list comprises of. Now, just going through the list of tricks and in fact I know that you guys can't see this, but Ian actually has a shelf behind him with his products on, and you tend to be very organic with your approach to magic, so your releases tend to be very organic using things like a tape measure, um air pods, you've got keys, you've got um deodorant. In some respects, you know all of these really organic things. So my prediction for your list is we're gonna to have a very organic group of tricks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think you're far off, to be honest. Yeah, yeah, some of them are my own and then some of them, I think the tricks that I have chosen are very still, you know, still along that kind of theme, and all my kind of tagline on my website is everything needs to be fun and practical, and I feel like everything on my list matches that and fits in with those rules.
Speaker 2:Well, you're a big fan of a pun as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, it's got almost too predictable now, the amount of tricks that, for example, some of my good friends, harry Harrington, he'll see a trick and he'll go straight up to me at a convention and says, right, this is you, this is right up your street, and it is usually something pun related. And I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, yes, that trick is definitely made for me. So there we go, but you know, it's good fun, it's good.
Speaker 2:Well, the idea is we're about to maroon Ian on his very own punny island. When he's there, he's allowed to take eight tricks. Banish one thing. He gets to take one book and one non-magic item that he uses for magic Particulars like who's there? What's there? Are there animals there? Are there people there? All that good stuff we do not mind. This island is in Ian's own imagination. So, with that being said, let's find out, ian, what you put in position number one.
Speaker 1:okay, so position number one um, a lot of this stuff is a mixture of things that I perform at gigs but also carry on me all the time and, uh, my first one is from a magician who has influenced me the most by all of my coin magic that I learned wasn't from any kind of classical books, but was from this one magician. My coin magic that I learned wasn't from any kind of classical books that was from this one magician. My card magic was heavily inspired by this guy as well. Um, and this was one of my first ever purchases and has so much nostalgia attached to it, and it is called holy moly by jay sankey.
Speaker 1:For those who don't know me or or anything about me, that's about to change, unfortunately for you, but I do actually have a day job and that is an electrician. So for the past kind of 15 years I've been an electrician and so when I saw Holy Moly, this is just something that is just perfect for me. Every single day of the week it's just in my pocket, ready to go, and it just really fits within the whole kind of industry in which I work, you know, and I can just kind of have it in my pocket or I can pretend I'm grabbing it out of a toolbox. You know it's just the perfect moving whole effect for me. And it may not suit everyone because they might think it's a bit weird you carrying washes in your pocket, but for me this doesn't look pre-prepared, this looks very, very organic in in the kind of industry that I work in. Like you said, like the measure for measure trick is me just being on site with a tape measure and just thinking how can I make a prediction with this? You know, if I was to pull the tape measure out and get someone to stop at a very specific point, you know do a kind of like a very quick influence trick.
Speaker 1:You know I went down that avenue. So yeah, it definitely. It definitely fits in with the construction theme and even my kind of stage show.
Speaker 1:I use that term loosely because I don't perform much on stage, but I have a stage show which I call Tr of the trade, which combines both my magic and my electrical work together.
Speaker 1:I don't come on dressed with a high-vis jacket and stuff like that. It's not that kind of in your face, but if you were to watch it you would know where that inspiration is coming from and you can see that. I think ultimately I just want to be as honest as I can on stage and I think a lot of people who perform magic shy away and pretend that they don't have a day job and they make out on social media that they do this full time and there's almost a shame attached to having a day job, which I think is a real shame because you can do things for the love of it and I think if I can bring of my my jobs together, uh, then it just makes the performance the most authentic and the most enjoyable for me and hopefully makes it quite niche and interesting for the people watching well, that's a great opening gambit as well.
Speaker 2:Holy moly, I think. In terms of us predicting the organicness of your set, I think we're on the right track. So let's see.
Speaker 1:Let's see where you go with number two um so number two uh, you've already mentioned it and it fits along this kind of uh in construction theme is called dig it, which, um, was my first kind of proper self-release. It was a trick that I was kind of risky enough to buy the packaging, to buy all of the gimmicks that I needed, know, the playing cards and everything, to kind of make the gimmick together. I've got a friend who had a 3D printer so he was able to make the gimmicks for me, and so what Digit is is essentially a very interesting card reveal. So two people select a card and I think a lot of the reviews you may see online they've dragged the effect out and made it longer. They've put dealing sequences in and things like that, which is fine and suits them, uh, but the performance you'll see on the trailer and the performance I do is very, very quick and to the point. All of my magic is very, very direct to the point and hopefully fun, um and so.
Speaker 1:But what happens is you have a deck of cards. Someone says stop, and then two cards are remembered. So let's say it's the seven of diamonds and the two of spades. Um, you guess the first person's card. You say right, you're thinking of a red card, this is a diamond, this is a seven of diamonds. And they say yes. Then you say to the next person I want, I'm going to try and find your card. So you shuffle the cards up and you turn over the top card and it's the three of spades. And you say, was that the card? And they say no, it was the two of spades. And you say, ah, okay, so there's one, one extra spade. Let me remove the spade. So you pull, basically hold the card up right in front of your face and then amazingly, pull off a little miniature spade out of the playing card. It's this weird production of a tiny little spade. Um, and then you turn over the card and now it's the two of spades. So you've kind of removed that extra spade, which once again is very fun. And then you're then able to show the sand on the spade and when you kind of show both sides of it, you're able to blow the sand off and give it a shake and weirdly, engraved on that spade is the first person's card, the seven of diamonds. On that spade is the first person's card, the seven of diamonds. So what it was is a real inspiration of Wayne Rogers appearing spade or missing spade trick that he performed on stage. And number one, they're incredibly hard to get hold of. And number two, I kind of wanted a very practical close up version of that.
Speaker 1:It also works really well because we filmed the trailer whilst we're out on the holiday in Menorca, so it kind of we were able to get shots of the beach. We were going up to random people performing, you know, down the streets in Menorca, which was lovely. I remember saying to Alex Kirk about this that if I didn't manage to get the footage by a beach, he said, yeah, you probably end up having to perform outside of juicings, you know, kind of like a builder's merchant, which would have a very different feel. So thankfully, everything was ready for me to perform the trailer. Um, to film the trailer whilst we're on holiday, uh. But yeah, it's just one of those things which is just very clear and direct and to the point, which is what I think my magic should be so.
Speaker 2:When you come up with your routines, do you tend to think about the plot line, or do you tend to think about the line that you're going to put in, or the joke, is it? You come up with the joke and then you work backwards. How do you come up with that concept?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's interesting, you say actually, because I think it is a combination of both. So you'll see, like some of the other effects that are down on this list, that some of them are my own. I kind of think, right, ok, let's work with a pun first. And so, you know, the dove magic thing is an example of that.
Speaker 1:The spade, obviously, is just a reworking of a classic trick that's been out for a long time. But key ring, the trick that I released with Alakazam, I had on my notes app key ring as, like a. You know, you just take a word and then you're able to break it apart, and actually I was able to take, like the genius that I am, take a word called key ring and just put a space in the middle and make it a ring made out of a kink, and that was enough to work with, and and actually I really, really like that effect and I think it does work with that kind of funny little pun, but that inspiration really does open up and you're able to make magic effects out of words and phrases that we just take for granted. And so, yeah, there is a combination of both.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a great trick and a great second choice. So what did you go in with your third selection?
Speaker 1:My first selection is, I think, probably the strongest coin magic you could ever perform. I have this kind of real love-hate relationship with coin magic. Some of it, I feel like, isn't particularly fooling. Some of it goes on for too long and I think you can end up I remember williamson saying this at the session convention if you end up doing too much stuff with the coins of them, jumping from here to there and up this, leave and all this, eventually the power of it gets lost, um. And so if you can make it clear and direct, then I think this is great. But this trick before I tell you the name of it, uh, luke Jermay gave a testimonial for this and he said that this would be the only coin magic he would ever perform. And this was back when he was just doing mentalism. So for someone as high caliber as that, you know, to kind of put his name attached to a magic trick says a lot.
Speaker 1:And this trick is called Imagination Coins by Garrett Thomas. This trick is very imagination coins by garrett thomas. Um, this trick is very, very ballsy. It's very bold, um, but is actually very practical, weirdly and just incredibly falling. So what you do is you give them four coins in their hand and they're able to stack them up into a little pile in their hand, and you just ask them to pretend to pick up one of the coins and give it to you. So you hold out your empty hand and they pretend to pick up one of the coins and put it in your hand, and then, weirdly, one of the coins appears in your hand and now, rather than four coins being in their hand, they've now only got three, and you haven't touched their hand. They've literally mimicked everything. They stacked up the coins in their hand. They were able to count how many coins there were, and so that's the first thing.
Speaker 1:You then stack up all the coins once again in their hand. They do that and they can clearly see there's four coins, and this time they actually do give you a coin. So they pick up the top coin out of the stack and give it to you, and you hold your hand around the coin. They hold their hands around their four coins and, weirdly, weirdly, one of the coins then disappears from your hand and then reappears back in there. So rather than three coins being in a hand, they now have four.
Speaker 1:Um, it's like I said. It uses a gimmick that everyone's really familiar with. Everyone already owns, uh, but to put this gimmick in their hands as opposed to yours is, like I say, very, very kind of bold. But I've never got caught on it and it's just been one of those tricks that it's just has the power of sponge balls. But, you know, has this kind of more I don't know, grown up, feel to it with it just being coins, and so, yeah, that for me is always a really, really kind of goes to effect when I'm out and about.
Speaker 2:It's such a lovely coin routine and what's interesting is, earlier on you mentioned that a lot of your magic is very direct. I would say that this is an incredibly direct coin trick. It's very. This thing's going to happen and then we're going to reverse the thing that just happened and it's still going to work. Both times it's a very easy to understand coin trick. Both times it's a very easy to understand coin trick. So why did you choose?
Speaker 1:this routine over other coin tricks or routines. Um, I think it comes down to, I think, once again going back to lucha may, I think he was saying and but ben o obviously has this kind of feel when it comes to coin magic. But he said that if you can make a coin jump from one hand to the other, then you've done the impossible and that's it. You don't have to then repeat it again and again. And it's a bit like what people say about the linking rings, and I'm sure there's loads of people who differ and have beautiful linking ring effects. But if you've linked one onto another, then you've done the effect already. Now the effect is done, it's impossible, it's very impressive.
Speaker 1:But to then kind of repeat it again and again, you kind of think like, is it really necessary, unless it builds? But yeah, for me I just think that you know, making a coin disappear from one hand into the other is one thing, but for it to disappear from my hand and appear in theirs and vice versa, that you can't really get stronger with that, with coin magic. The coin magic is so international, it's so very, there's nothing to hide, you know, it's very clear what's happening. And that, I think, is just a great example of making it extremely direct and as simple to understand as possible well, it's another great choice and leads us nicely into number four.
Speaker 2:So what did you put in your fourth spot?
Speaker 1:So number four is actually an effect that I use to make the last coin disappear in Imagination Coins and makes it even more kind of funny and strange, and it's called Little hand by michael amar. Uh, this effect, out of all the stuff I do, this is the one that gets the most talk about at gigs. It's the the one about that every friend of mine wants me to perform. They call it baby hand. It's now known as baby hand amongst all my friends. Um, and weirdly, I performed this uh at uh to a friend at work years ago when I worked at a film studio. I had another electrician friend and he filmed me perform it to camera. And then years later probably five, six years later, I decided to put this up on TikTok and I did very well out of this one video. I didn't make any money out of it because I don't think I had enough followers and I don't really know how it all works on TikTok. But I have one video on TikTok and this is me performing it and it's got 16.8 million views. Just this one effect, 16.8 million views.
Speaker 1:I had random phone calls from people who claim to put kind of internet content together for people to choose, like talk show hosts. You know to have kind of like a portfolio that talk show hosts can pick and choose from. And they were phoning me up and they were saying oh, we can't wait to see what else you're going to be putting out on TikTok. We really like your content, we like the direction you're going. Um, yeah, we can't wait to see what else you're you're gonna film and bring out. Um. And I just had the absolute glee of just telling them that no, that's it, I'm done. I'm done. There's no, there's not going to be any more videos. Um, and they can understand it. And I think it's just because I just I didn't want to be a TikTok star Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I just thought, well, if that's not what I want to do, I'm not going to put layers of time and effort into it. But I also like the fact that I've only got one video, because I can say that 100% of my videos on TikTok have gone viral and I think that's quite a nice claim to make, and I think that's quite a nice claim to make. Um. But also there was the uh youtube channel called the daily dose of the internet. He featured it on there. He's got like 13 million subscribers on youtube. He featured it on there.
Speaker 1:Um, it's just a really, really funny and, once again, direct vanish of a coin and actually leaves you pretty clean to a certain degree. But the amount of misdirection you have when that final coin disappears, um, with this little hand kind of coming out of your empty hand to make the coin disappear, is just the most unusual thing that you can do. And michael myers seems to have this where he does lots of really kind of strong pieces of magic and then finishes off with a little hand and it's there's something about it that just breaks the ice, that changes the atmosphere completely, and just, it's almost this release that everyone has when they watch it. You know, it's just it's the end of the conversation. We brought everything to a close and you can't do it better than Little Hand, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:And I normally use it just at the end, where I say you know, would you like me to explain how I've just done all of this magic that you've just seen? And I say this is what sleight of hand means, and I kind of do a coin roll and I say that's one form of sleight of hand, but this is another and then, um, yeah, and then I make it disappear and yeah, it is that just a brilliant ending, where you've left them in a great condition. You can then walk away and like kind of disappear, a bit like Dynamo, you know. You just kind of do the effect. Everyone's kind of screaming around and wondering what on earth went on, and then you've just moved on to the next group. So, yeah, it's a real mixture, depending on who you perform to.
Speaker 2:Well, it's another great choice and leads us into a number five. So what did you put in your fifth spot?
Speaker 1:Number five did you put in your fifth spot? Uh, number five, I'm going to be crafty here and say my rope routine, and that's only because it uses two combined um, which I know is is illegal on this, uh, desert island. But I'll explain it and then we can see what happens. Uh, but it is rope not, not rope, not not by, I think, giovanni liveira, I think I'm pronouncing that right um, through the magic estate, it was released and, once again, this is an effect which uses props that are every day for me as a, as an electrician. So, a length of rope and a massive hex nut, that's, you know, huge in your hand.
Speaker 1:And, uh, typically what happens is you perform this at a table or wedding or something, and you thread this big nut onto some rope, you tie a knot around it, one person holds on to one end of the rope, the other person holds on to the other, but before they even grab hold of the end, the nut is already off the rope, and it happens several times and it keeps coming off and on and then randomly disappears and then suddenly appears on the table right in front of them. When I'm performing this on stage, I actually make it appear on someone's shoulder, so I get them to hold on to the rope and then it appears on their shoulder. And what's great about this rope knot trick is I will typically perform ring on string with like a small hoodie cord when I'm doing kind of walk around, you know, kind of strolling. But if I'm at a table you want to make it as visual as possible. So you've got the effect of ring on string, but with this massive hex nut which is visible for everyone to see.
Speaker 1:I then follow up and this is where it might get controversial, jamie, all right, but give me some grace here. I then follow up and I say would you like me to explain how this works? And then I go straight into fiber optics by Richard Sanders, where I then say actually what you didn't see is I cut the rope in half, I then take the nut off and then I restore it and then I then lead into that rope routine afterwards. So using the two together makes it a much longer routine. But once again it's still direct because it's very easy to understand and it's very visual. But I like giving false explanations because I think there's a lot of humor that can be brought into that and I'll even let you have both of those, mainly because I think that's a great lead-in.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great way to combine two tricks, and I think it's quite nice listening to how performers put tricks and routines together and moves together to make it something completely different. And I also really like that. It's a nut on rope, so it still follows along with your electrician side of things. I think that's really smart. Does that mean that you're purposely now looking for tricks that fall into your electrician band, or is this just all coincidental?
Speaker 1:I think some of it is coincidental, because I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't just choose an electrically themed trick if it wasn't strong enough. You know like it's got to be. It's got to be a strong trick, it's got to be fun to perform, it's got to be something that I would enjoy watching, because you know there's other tricks out there that are kind of electrically themed, that I just don't think are particularly kind of interesting for me.
Speaker 1:So I I have actually recently bought michael ma's book uh, that was just back in print, I can't remember the name of it, um, that's it. So I think, probably the magic of michael ma, maybe something like that, um, and that has a, a bill to light bulb effect, and so I bought it purely for that, to read what that would look like and what that, what the methodology was. So I am obviously hunting out certain tricks, um, but I think, yeah, ultimately it's just what do I feel is the most true to me? And if it's got to be something, it's got to be something that's fun and, yeah, practical. But if it has that electrical theme, then that's even better right, here's a task.
Speaker 2:then, if you're listening to this, head over to the youtube channel alakazam's youtube channel where this video a video version of this is, and if you know of a trick that you think Ian would benefit from, that has some sort of electrical theme or you think would work with his set, then pop it below and we'll see how many electrical or builder themed tricks we can pop underneath. You're going to end up with a massive library of tricks Now you watch.
Speaker 1:Thank you everyone, Thank you very much Ahead of time.
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Speaker 2:And that leads us to number six. What did you put in your six spot?
Speaker 1:uh. Number six is a recent addition for me. Um, this is actually one of my own. It's something that I've just recently released on my, on my own site, and it's a trick called reverb. Um, I don't know if you've seen it. It's basically an airpod related trick, so it uses your normal airpods.
Speaker 1:Um, you do need an additional gimmick, which comes with this, um, but what it allows you to do is take out your airpods, one from each ear, and you put one in one hand, one in the other, and one of them disappears from one hand and then joins the other one in your other hand. So that's the first thing. You then shake them in your hand and you can hear them inside as you shake them around, and you? Um, suddenly open up your hand and you can hear them inside as you shake them around, and you suddenly open up your hand and now one of them has disappeared from your hand and then there's actually magically reappeared in your ear and it is the most practical AirPod trick I've ever seen seen. Um, I really, really like and highly rate seth races airport uh, which used a very interesting kind of gimmick uh, that is typically used for coins, and he's kind of adapted this to airpods and it was really really good and I used that for a long time, um, but it's quite angley.
Speaker 1:Whilst this is just very easy to perform, almost surrounded, you've got to watch your, your ear, where it's about to reappear, um, but even the people looking at it, they're not really registering until suddenly they look up. It's a bit like card in mouth. Sometimes people look straight at your mouth with the card in and it takes them five minutes before they suddenly realize that that is a card and it's in your mouth, um, and it's their card. So, yeah, it's. It's just really really practical everyday carry item and this, honestly, is something that I perform more than any other trick I think I've ever created, to be honest, because I've even got my AirPods in now and you know, it's just something that I've always got on me and, yeah, you just need this tiny little gimmick in your pocket and you're good to go, so yeah, it's Reverb.
Speaker 2:I think that this is such a clever trick and I think it's fair to say that it relies on an audio illusion. And I think that's really clever because there's not many magic tricks that rely on an audio illusion or an audio aspect. And I think what I particularly like is the organicness of this. I love the idea that you just pop these out and then you can do this incredible routine like you say, the audio illusion.
Speaker 1:There's been tons of these uh products out on the market some recent, some very old that use this kind of audio illusion and I just think this is the most practical use of it and the most everyday and um, you know you're not going to carry certain items around with you all the time, but this you definitely will. So, yeah, I think it's just one of the most strongest everyday carry tricks in my opinion. But you know, if someone else had released it, I would buy it. There you go, how's that for a testimonial?
Speaker 2:It's true. I think those are the best sorts of tricks, though, when you've clearly created this for yourself and it just so happens that you can produce it for other people. But if you haven't seen it, I do urge people to see it. I actually spoke to Ian beforehand and said how clever I thought it was. I think it's a great, great routine and a great trick. So it's a great entry to number six and leads us to the tail end of your eight. So what's in number seven?
Speaker 1:I don't want this to end, jamie, I'm enjoying it so much. This is very therapeutic for me, I hope. Number seven, in no particular order, I should say number seven is Dove Magic. We alluded to that at the beginning. Alluded to that at the beginning, um, but this trick for me, I just don't. I don't see any opener on stage. That's, that's better, in my opinion. Um, for me anyway.
Speaker 1:Uh, for those who haven't seen it, what I do is I have a big handkerchief and I show both sides of it and then I ball it up, show my empty hand and I say that I'm gonna now produce a dove. So I reach into the handkerchief and produce a dove but it's a dove deodorant. And uh, and immediately people, especially the British population, love a good um, like that um, and they're getting their hopes up, thinking it's going to be a real dove. But it's not um, and then, yeah, so you produce this uh, this deodorant stick uh with dove. You then put it back into the hanky and suddenly open up the hanky and it disappears. And I think for us magicians who know this hanky sheath gimmick, we don't realize how strong this is.
Speaker 1:I was, I was originally playing around with the egg bag and I do like the egg bag, but it is quite restricted. You know you've got to unfold it, you've got to hold in a certain way, and they just kind of tap it around and prove there's nothing in it. Then you turn it inside out again. Whilst this particular handkerchief, you open it up, they can clearly see there's nothing there, you know, show front and back and then ball up. So yeah, so firstly I balled up, make it appear, I put it back into the handkerchief, click my fingers, open the handkerchief up and it's now disappeared and it's reappeared back in my pocket. So I then grab it again and I hold it behind the handkerchief and I say that I'm not going to misdirect you this time you won't be. You know, look out for the misdirection, hopefully you won't be misdirected. And I slowly kind of put it underneath my arm, right underneath my armpit, and pretend as though it's disappeared, and I say is there any idea where it is, any idea where it is? And they say under your arm and say sure, and they say yes. And then you reach under your arm and it's no longer a Dove deodorant bottle, but it's a sure deodorant bottle. There we go. That's how high the humor is in the bailing household. Um, and that gets a great reaction.
Speaker 1:Once again, you put the dove magic away in your pocket and you say you know what you, I know what you're thinking, though this needs a big finish. And then you whip away the handkerchief and now there's a massive bottle of finish, dishwasher, rinse aid. And there you go and uh, yeah, it's just a really, really quick, to the point, opener, very, very practical. I do it stand up, I do it round tables and technically, I'm doing it close up. When I'm doing it at conventions, you know, people ask me can you do this close up? And it's like, well, you've just seen it six inches away from your face. So obviously it can be. You know, it just depends on the performance environment really. But yeah, it's just one of those routines that, once again, is very fun and practical and is so easy to do. It's the easiest bottle production you're ever going to do.
Speaker 1:I have a funny story about this because I originally, at the end, produced a latex dove. So I used to produce the dove as the ending and I showed Dave loosely this and before I tell you what he said, the problem was with the dove is that it creates this shock and people thinking, wow, he's actually done it, he's produced a real dove. And then when you kind of fold it up and put it away in your case, they kind of realize, oh right, okay, now it's another anticlimax. You know it's like, okay, yeah, he hasn't actually really done it. So the kind of emotional rollercoaster that people go on when they see it, um, is kind of yeah, excitement and then disappointment.
Speaker 1:And when I showed Dave loosely over zoom, he said I like the effect, but it needs a big finish. That's all he said, right. And then I took him literally, I took him at his word, went out and bought a big finish. That's all he said, right. And then I took him literally, I took him at his word, went out and bought a big bottle of finished rinse aid. And honestly, I owe everything to David. I won't tell him that to his face, obviously, because I probably want some financial compensation maybe. But um, but you know I'll tell him on here. He probably won't listen to this, hopefully. And uh, you know he's got enough going on anyway, winning awards and things like that he's doing. Well, dave loosely doesn't need need anything else from me, but, um, yeah, I have him to thank for that and I think it's completely changed the effect and just made it tons more funnier and uh without him realizing actually he had more of an influence without him actually realizing.
Speaker 1:But, um, yeah, it really has helped the effect and uh, yeah, so that's my, my trick for number seven well, it's a great choice and leads us to your last selection.
Speaker 2:So what did you put in your eighth position?
Speaker 1:uh, number eight. I have owned this for years and years and I think it's probably one the strongest close, close-up magic effect she can perform. And um, it is nest of Wallets by Nicholas Einhorn. I have the deluxe, super soft ones, I think, and I thought, oh, I better buy another set of these in case they wear away. They have not worn away at all. They are as good as they were when I first bought them. I don't know how many years ago this has been. It's been maybe 12 years. It's been out maybe 10, 12 years.
Speaker 1:I in the past have played around with um ring flight, but for me this, this is much stronger and I I'm not normally a fan and this is not it's not one of my banishments and not a strong opinion um, but I know a lot of people combine ring flight and then nest of wallets, which I, I'm sure, works well, but I can't do it myself. I just think, actually just make it appear in the Nest of Wallets at the end, because for me that's far stronger. And once again, it is just quite funny at the fact that you've got this wallet and you open it up and there's another wallet inside and then there's another one and then wrapped up in the cloth, hanky, is their ring. Um, it is just so easy to perform and if I had like a tv spot, for example, if I was kind of on like a, a news show, you know, for like kind of one of those breakfast tv show, this is what I would do, because I know that I've done it thousands and thousands of times and it's very unlikely it's going to go wrong and you haven't got the worry of like ring flight, where a diamond flicks off and the ring flies across the room. You know you're under control of their ring the whole time, so you can be as delicate as you want to be with it.
Speaker 1:Um, and I just think it's an incredibly strong, powerful routine. I think I actually did this on my magic circle audition as well, actually, and so, yeah, I obviously feel comfortable performing it under extreme test conditions, because the audition for the Magic Circle was terrifying. But yeah, there we go. So it's just such a good routine. I think Nicholas Einhorn's a legend for that.
Speaker 2:And do you use it with a ring or do you go for a coin or other object?
Speaker 1:I do perform it with a ring, or do you go for a coin or other object? Um, I do perform it with a ring. Yeah, I know some people shy away from doing tricks with their rings, but I think, because the nest of wallets is different to ring flight, you know, you can be very, very delicate with the ring, which is good, um. So, yeah, I perform it with that. Um, in fact, nicholas Einhorn, I had this kind of great privilege because when I first got into magic, I watched David Blaine on card magic in Waterstones and it was Nicholas Einhorn's, one of Nicholas Einhorn's books that he's, you know, published on card magic and I still have that to this day, and I actually brought it with me to the session convention and he signed it for me and it's just great.
Speaker 1:So it's just funny how these things go full circle. I came across Nestor Wallets and his other magic releases and then I just dug through the old bookshelf and I thought, oh, yeah, I remember that book. I wonder who wrote it. And, lo and behold, it was him. So, uh, yeah, it's nice how those kind of influences come full circle, really well, I think it's a great and a very organic list.
Speaker 2:We've got holy moly, dig it, imagination coins little hand rope nut not slash fiber optics we're allowing that. Uh, reverb dove magic and nest. So we've got Holy Moly, dig it, imagination Coins Little Hand Rope Nut, knot, slash Fibre Optics we're allowing that Reverb Dove Magic and Nest of Wallets A very, very interesting eclectic mix there. All very organic, I would say, as predicted, but it does lead us to the controversial banishment. So what would you like to banish from our industry for forever?
Speaker 1:Well, this will be controversial. So probably 50 of the the audience maybe. But I actually asked a friend of mine, elliot hodges. I asked him I'm going on this podcast tomorrow what do you think my uh, my list is going to be and what is my banishment going to be? And he guessed probably 50 of them and he guessed the banishment straight away and he said in his own words, which I think is probably better than what I've put down. He said any trick that lasts more than 20 seconds, which is which I think is, is good. I think what I've put down on my list is long, tedious card trick, um, but it is tricks in general. I know it is controversial, but I mentioned this to my wife and she just straight away was like yes, yes, I agree.
Speaker 1:And I think I was at the Chris Congreve convention recently and Steve Cook was kind of speaking there and you know there was a Q&A and he was just talking simply about the exact same thing, about methodology, or you know certain kind of dealing sequences that you need to do, for example, that make the effects happen, and you kind of think is it really worth? It? Is the juice worth the squeeze? Is what you need to ask in these environments and I think some tricks go on forever and the outcome is just really not worth that 15 minutes that I've just been doing dealing cards into certain piles or whatever. And in fact, when I'm at a magic convention and I know a trick's going to last more than kind of two or three minutes I get, I get a bit anxious and I feel trapped and I want to walk away. Get a bit anxious and I feel trapped and I want to walk away. Um, because, yeah, it's just, I've just got very short attention span. Whether it's my generation that's been ruined by social media, I'm not sure what it is.
Speaker 1:Um, and it works for their audience. You know, it's not. It's not that I say that you should net. Well, I am saying that, aren't I Cause I'm banishing it. That is essentially what you've just asked me to do. But on my island, where I've just happened to land on a plane crash, I would send anyone out into sea if they showed me a long, tedious trick. There's no place for them on my island, but I wouldn't be welcome on theirs either, and I appreciate that, that I respect that. But, uh, but on this island there's no long, tedious tricks, and that was probably the most lengthy response, ironically, to your, to your question, but there you go.
Speaker 2:Can you think of a specific card trick? So could you give us an example of one that you would banish specifically?
Speaker 1:I don't want to respond. To be honest, a lot of gambling tricks don't appeal to me, but they appeal to other people and it's only because I don't play poker and stuff. There's a time and place for everything and yeah, it's just me in. In my personal taste, I don't like long gambling routines and things like that. Um, but yeah, I'm really sorry everyone. I'm sorry what I've just said.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that it's each to their own and that's why we put it in here. So long tedious car tricks or process heavy tricks are banished, they are gone. Everything on your island is 20 seconds or under, so we're gonna find out what's in the book position.
Speaker 1:Uh, the book position. I was, um, I was, oh, this is tough. I'm not, weirdly, and I should never admit this I'm not classically trained in magic. I don't own tar bell. I don't own raw road to magic. I don't own Tarbell. I don't own Royal Road to Card Magic. I don't own any of those stuff and I think it's kind of probably shaped the magic that I now produce.
Speaker 1:But my biggest influence and to take this kind of back to the beginning is Jay Sankey. He's the biggest influence that I've had. In fact, I've just been re-watching some of his revolutionary Coin Magic DVD and he is just completely crackers the way he used to perform on those DVDs. I have so many fond memories of me at the age of 12 shouting to my brother to come and have a look at this funny part in this DVD that Jay had done, because it was just so unusual. You never saw that in kind of magic DVDs. I know Peter Nardi brought in a lot of humor with his Stealth Assassin wallet and that was a joy to watch as well. But yeah, so Jay's had a massive influence and what I was going to do before we recorded this was I was going to pretend that I've bound the entire definitive collection, the definitive Sankey books, into one volume.
Speaker 1:I was going to get a large piece of paper and kind of treat it like a dust jacket and put it around the entire stack and just call it the definitive Sankey you know elite edition or whatever. Just to kind of you know, because I know what you're going to do. You're going to get me to choose one of the books. However, I have mentioned that book on Penguin's podcast years ago and I don't know what I'm doing right now because I'm actually going to go in a different direction because I've already mentioned this. But the one thing that made me want to go with the definitive Sankey books is that once you know five methods, you're good to go.
Speaker 1:He loves the Erdene's colour change. He loves the twirl change. You know it's very kind of. He takes one move and just comes up with hundreds of tricks out of this one move. And when I was performing at restaurants, this was an absolute joy and a godsend to me, because what it meant was that I could look at my books and pick up a trick and just go out and perform at the same day, and especially in an environment where you're, you have regulars and they want to see you know a different trick each time. Rather than having to learn a lot of method and a lot of kind of you know performance stuff, you can literally just take the same format that you used the previous week and come up with a completely different card trick out of it, yet it literally to you the one performing it is the same trick you know, and I think that's that's great about his books. So I was going to choose that, but I haven't chosen it all right, um, because I didn't want to repeat myself.
Speaker 1:The one thing, the one book, and it is a singular book, and you'll I can see the smile on your face and how excited you are about that um, is this book called the approach, and this is by, uh, jamie d grant, and this was a book that was really really helpful when first starting out in magic, and it's still one that I kind of go back to occasionally. And what this book is, it's quite unusual in the fact that it's got a lot of kind of fill in the gaps, and so it kind of gets you to write down who you think you are as a performer. Are you a funny person? Are you serious? What's your strengths, what are your weaknesses? It gets you to list your 12 most favorite tricks. It gets you to put them into sets. So you've got three sets of three, for example, something like that you know, and then have a couple surplus other tricks.
Speaker 1:Um, it gets you to make lists and as a magician I'm sure a lot of people are very much the same. I have, like I mentioned tons of lists in my notes app of tricks that I think are good for this environment and good for this environment. And he's got so much detail in here that you're making a note of what tricks you're putting in which pocket when you go out and perform. And it's just this real kind of nice OCD thing where you're just putting everything together and you go out to the gig and you feel very, very prepared. And it's just been one of those books that I think has been re-released I think Vanishing Ink have just re-released it but it is, I think, for anyone who's kind of getting into close-up magic, I would really really recommend this because it's got so much kind of business advice which I think is still applicable to this day, but it really just helps cement your entire list of tricks and puts it into a kind of a more concise format where you're actually going to go out and perform.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's great, and we've not had that one on the podcast before, so that's very good. And when you mentioned about putting things into pockets, I guess you don't have that problem with the tool belt that you always have on when you're working. You know what.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is one of the best things. If I'm performing Chop Cup, for example, on stage, I can literally just put on a tool belt and perform it out of there and it doesn't look strange. It's not like this kind of kangaroo kind of you know pouch that I think a lot of people have to wear. Actually, a tool belt for me looks very appropriate, you know, which is great.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, there are certain advantages about that, which is good yeah, it's very, very clever and leads us onto your item. So what is your non-magic item that you you would use for magic?
Speaker 1:okay. So, um, elliot did guess this as well. Um, and I think it wouldn't come to you know, wouldn't be much of a surprise for a lot of people, but it is a swiss army knife and I have one here. This is a Victorinox one and I love these, and the reason why. And I would say check with your country's legislation, be careful if you're under the age of 18, et cetera. I don't know if you want to fill in any more health and safety gaps here or legislation. Jamie, you're fine, I've covered it all. Yeah, so just be careful if you're carrying a knife.
Speaker 1:But I actually have two YouTube channels. One is Ian Bailey magic, where I kind of just give random advice and I kind of go over old tricks and try and make them new and I do product reviews and things. That's kind of my magic audience. But then I also have one called Ian's EDC and I haven't uploaded in a while, which is typical of me. But the EDC terminology we are so familiar with it in the magic world, but it existed long before magicians started using it and there is. If you were to type in EDC on YouTube, there are tons of people reviewing wallets, reviewing gadgets, reviewing pocket accessories, pocket knives, torches, that kind of thing, um, and I and I've got a youtube channel where I kind of talk a little bit about that as well um, but not only is the victoria knox knife fitting with my electrical background, it's great and I use it daily for everyday life, when it's in my pocket anyway, but this one item allows you to do so much.
Speaker 1:So charlie fry I don't know if he's featured it in this book, but on his penguin lecture he has a great knife through bill trick, uh, where you yeah, you stab a bill, rip it and then restore it, and a lot of the tricks that you see where items go through bills, the. The amazing part isn't the fact that the note is restored. The amazing part is that you've managed to even puncture a hole in the note to begin with, and no one really thinks of that, whilst with a knife it makes complete sense and you know the. The restoration is where the magic should be, and charlie fry has a great use of using a pocket knife and doing that effect. So so I recommend watching that lecture.
Speaker 1:Not only that, you've also got a pair of scissors on here, so I could do 21st century Phantom if I want to, so I can cut silhouettes with this one thing rather than carrying a separate pair of scissors. There are tons of things that you can do with this item, and not only that. It's extremely helpful to have on a desert island, isn't it, and cut down branches. I could do all sorts, you know, start fires with it. So, um, yeah, it's a very helpful item to have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's one. I think we've had it several times on the podcast. Um, we have had people take on different utility knives, and a lot of magicians and performers that I know almost have the like emergency kit, which is a small box that they take with them everywhere, or sometimes it's almost like a, a bath bag, like what you would take on holiday and put all of your bath stuff in, and there's always some sort of multi-tool or swiss army knife in there, because it just can save you when you least expect it to in in a, in a bad situation where maybe something's broken and you need to repair it, maybe something's gone missing and you need to make something else.
Speaker 1:It really can save you in a lot of professional situations yeah, definitely, definitely, no, I, I agree, and I think there's there's a guy on youtube called john gadgets and, uh, funny enough, and he he's kind of come up with all these little kits that you carry in your bag and stuff like that. And if anyone wants to see the thousands of items I carry in this tiny little pouch that fits in my pocket plasters, sewing needles, all sorts um, I just find it really really fun to try and get stuff down into a small package. You know that can get you out of trouble. So, um, yeah, I definitely definitely relate to that well, let's revisit your list.
Speaker 2:So we started off with holy moly, dig it. Imagination coins, little hand rope nut, not slash. Fiber optics, reverb dove, magic nest of wallach. We've banished long, tedious card tricks. Your book was the approach by jamie d grant and your item is a swiss army knife. What an incredibly fun and organic list.
Speaker 1:Thank you, sir well, thank you for having me on. I've enjoyed it and, uh, yeah, like I say, I really really enjoy listening to the podcast. I think the guests that you've had on and the guests you're going to have, as you've alluded to, um, it's just very exciting and I really, really enjoy it. So I think it's worth the effort you're putting in and the magic community definitely appreciate it. So thank you for doing that and thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for coming on and, like Ian said, we've been trying to get Ian on for a little while now, so it's great to finally have it recorded. But, ian, if people want to find out more about you, if you lecture all of that good stuff, where?
Speaker 1:can people go to to find out all of this stuff? So they can go on to ianbaileymagiccom. That's my website. That's where I run my shop, where you can purchase all my magic there. I also have the YouTube channel, ian Bailey Magic. And yeah, if you run a magic club or you attend a magic club, then do invite me to lecture, because it is the thing that I enjoy more than anything. I've really, really enjoyed it. I was recently up in Edinburgh and we made a nice weekend of it up there and the group up there are amazing and, yeah, it's just the thing that I enjoy more than anything else in magic is lecturing.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so I'd love to love to see you there. So please do go and seek him out and get him to uh lecture for you. Thank you again, ian, and thank you all for listening. Don't forget, if you want to be a part of our monday version of this or early week sometimes sometimes it's not till tuesday, if I'm entirely honest then um, head to your email, send in your list of 8 tricks, 1 banishment, 1 book, 1 non-magic item that you use for magic to sales at alakazamcouk. Put in my desert island tricks into the subject line. That means it comes through to me and I can get one of these recorded for you.
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