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
Kay Dyson
What happens when a career-threatening injury forces a flying trapeze artist to reinvent herself? For Kay Dyson, it meant becoming "Miss Magic”, a transformation that has led to performances for celebrities like Victoria Beckham and The Rolling Stones, and appearances on shows from GMTV to Wizard Wars.
Kay's journey began in Gerry Cottle's Circus as part of the groundbreaking all-female Flying Bell Stars. After a harrowing accident that came within millimetres of breaking her neck, she found herself drawn to magic through a chance encounter with a close-up magician. Within six weeks, she was performing professionally, a meteoric rise powered by her natural performance skills honed in the circus.
Throughout her 20-year career performing at Manchester United and countless high-profile events, Kay has developed a distinctive approach to magic that plays to her strengths as a female performer. "A lot of tricks don’t work for a female... you've got to put your own spin on it," she explains, describing how she transforms traditional effects to suit her perspective and persona. Her vent mask routine, where she transforms male volunteers into "Chantel" before performing French Kiss, exemplifies this creative adaptation.
Kay's performances are carefully designed to create emotional variety, rom the belly laughs of her sponge ball routines (which once literally saved her life during an encounter with a tribe in Africa) to the tears induced by her yet-to-be-released sentimental closing effect. She likens her show to a roller coaster, taking audiences through surprise, wonder, tension, and release.
Whether she's developing new original effects like "Losing Your Marbles" or planning her next theatrical production, Kay continues to push boundaries and create magical memories that last, sometimes even being mentioned in funeral eulogies, as happened with her performance for a vicar's wife. Her story reminds us that magic isn't just about tricks, it’s about creating moments that connect us and sometimes outlive us.
Kay’s Desert Island Tricks:
1. Extractor (E2)
2. Vent Mask (French Kiss)
3. Hook
4. Last Rolo / Losing Your Marbles
5. Sponge Balls / Ding Dong
6. Cards Across
7. Psychic Touch / 7b. Magic Kettle
8. Yet to be released Rising Revelation
Banishment. Scruffiness
Book. The War Magician: The True Story
Item. Diary
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
And I promise this is a true story, I'm not kidding. We got a job in Africa. We were driving around and we saw this little hut. So we just pulled up in the middle of nowhere and we said, oh, let's go and explore and have a look at this hut. So we're walking up a little hill towards this hut and all of a sudden there was about a dozen people that just came from the other brow of the hill and they were it was a tribe tribal men, were tri.
Speaker 1:It was a tribe tribal men and they were coming towards us and ben and I were like, oh, my goodness me. And they sort of like hunched forwards and they're sort of walking towards us with a real like serious face and ben started to panic. So then I started to panic and I'm like I think we'd better turn around, we better run. And he got. He had a sponge ball in his pocket and he took this sponge ball out and he went and started snorting it and then coughing it up and I'm like, give me some. Because it stopped him in the tracks. I said, give me some. So I've got short sleeves on, so I'm just doing the the two balls, producing, you know, the sponge balls with two balls, kept producing them, hiding it, producing it, and he's snorting it, coughing it out in his ear, out his ear. And this tribe just literally freaked out themselves, stopped in the tracks and then turned around and ran away. It was surreal.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. We have another guest waiting in the island wings I guess we can call them Now. I know that a lot of you are going to be listening to this audibly, but today we actually have a video version of this, so if you prefer to watch this episode, you can head to YouTube. If you're already on YouTube, hi guys, but if you are listening audibly, then please head to YouTube, and then you can watch a video version of it as well. That's because we have a really fascinating guest with us today, so I'm going to let you know a little bit about her first.
Speaker 2:So Kay Dyson, professionally known as Miss Magic, originally started her career as a flying trapeze artist Like how cool is that? At Jerry Cottle's Circus, where she was part of the pioneering all-female act, the Flying Bell Stars. She turned to magic following an accident, but her resilience led her to become a sought-after performer for high profile clients such as victoria beckham, sting the rolling stones and appearing on television shows including brace yourself, guys gmtv I'm a celebrity, get me out of here. Pen and teller, wizard wars, sorcerer's apprentice richard and judy Lorraine, as well as appearing in a number of TV commercials. Beyond her performances, kate is a member of the Huddersfield Circle of Magician and we are absolutely thrilled to have her here. So put your hands together at home and I genuinely expect you to clap for Miss Kate Dyson. Hello Kate.
Speaker 1:Oh hi, Jamie, Thank you for that intro.
Speaker 2:Well, it's an amazing career. Like it just feels like you literally run away from the circus, run away with the circus, and since then your life must have been on this trajectory to where you are now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I mean it has been, I suppose, a different, a different career to most and yeah, it's been exciting and I've, I've loved every minute of it and I'm still enjoying it, thoroughly enjoying, um, you know the magic that I'm performing now. I love it, absolutely love it well, let's very briefly.
Speaker 2:Normally I wouldn't do this part and talk about, because normally it's about the concept, but I'm really interested in your early days. So can we talk about Jerry Cottle's and that sort of experience? How did you get into that? How was that a thing that manifested?
Speaker 1:So I'd been to Loughborough and I'd got a national diploma in sports management. So I started writing off to um, like as you do, loads of health centers, things like that. Didn't get anything back. And I saw this advert and it said ex-gymnast required to join Jerry Cottle Circus in brackets. It said must be blonde. So this was in the gymnast magazine. I mean, can you imagine like reading that? Now it wouldn't be allowed. And I was just like, oh, this is me, this is me.
Speaker 1:And as a child I had one dream, which was to run away and join the circus. So I wrote off and then I got a letter back because back in those days you didn't really have a phone, so you didn't, you know, you just had landlines. And they wrote back to me and they said right, we want you to come for a month's trial. I was so excited and I told my mom I'm off to join the circus. And she went you're not joining a stinky circus when I am.
Speaker 1:So I went down to London and I remember it was St Albans and I remember walking over this bridge and I could smell popcorn and candy floss. And I looked over the side of the bridge and there was a circus and I just got all tingled. It was amazing. And then there was some roaring of lions and I met this guy in some pink tights and he said, oh, hello, I've got my backpack. He he said, are you okay? And I said yes. He said, oh, I'm Larry, I'm going to be your catcher. And I was just like, wow, absolutely, I just loved it. And then he showed me my accommodation and it was a horse box and it had a great big gapper right on the door and he goes this is where you'll be sleeping. And I was like, okay, but it was just amazing and I thoroughly, I thoroughly enjoyed the circus days, loved the flying trapeze.
Speaker 1:I used to get a massive adrenaline rush at five o'clock and again at like eight thirty. So there's two shows a night. But I just loved it and I took to it like duck to water because I'd been a gymnast and I trained at a really high level. So I trained with Olympic gymnasts but unfortunately I wasn't good enough to make the Olympics but I was training six days a week, so moving from gymnastics to the trapeze was quite easy for me. Just doing the somersaults in the air was just. I just loved it, absolutely loved it and then I had a bad accident. So I ended up, um, doing somersaults to my ankles with a blindfold, and it went horribly wrong.
Speaker 1:And the catcher, our timing was out. So what happens is when you go to a different town, when they set up the equipment, you know, for the trapeze, the poles and everything, you don't know if you're flying uphill, downhill, it's never, you know, super flat. So the first couple of shows you're trying to get the feel of if you're to swing uphill or downhill. And our time was slightly out. So as I opened up, the catcher clipped me and I carried on sort of rotating.
Speaker 1:But because I had a blindfold, I didn't know where I was and I literally came down in the net, my chin, hit my chest and all of a sudden I got this great big lump here and I just couldn't hold my head up. So I managed to get out of the net and they sort of like put my hair in a ponytail and just like held my head, took me to the hospital and they were like oh my gosh, you've almost broken your neck. You are like half a millimetre of your neck snapping. So I ended up in a massive like a hard collar, like a metal brace, really. So that was the end of my career in the circus.
Speaker 2:That is intense, that's unreal, um. So let's talk about, then, your transition into magic. So obviously, you've had this horrendous accident and you're faced with never performing your trapeze act again. How do you decide to move into magic? What was that journey like?
Speaker 1:well, I didn't actually.
Speaker 1:I sort of fell into magic. So after the circus career, um, about 12 months later I got a job on the ships. So I worked on cruise ships for a while. Then I left the cruise ships and I got a job for Red Bull, um, and I was doing all their major sporting events. It was a cracking job, um. We'd literally go and watch the windsurfing championships and we'd just have to look after the two number one and number two world windsurfing champion champions, and then we'd be giving out vodka and Red bull. We're going to lots of high-end parties.
Speaker 1:I remember going to jack villeneuve's party, his birthday party with danny minogue that was his girlfriend at the time and it was in a multi-story car park and so, and they'd put all these massive silks up, put some cars and there was guys on bikes doing stunts and then the seating area was toilets and hospital beds. It was bizarre. So I was going to all these weird and wonderful parties and then I was doing the Grand Prix. So I'm going around with the you know, vodka rep at the Grand Prix and there was a magician there, um, called Ben Woodward and he's wandering around doing close-up magic around the tables table magic. And I was like, oh, I just kept following around and I like, show me how to do it, show me how to do it. Um, and then my boss said to me right, you're going on tour with john alace's old racing car, you're going to go around all the naffy camps, right? Okay, so I had a jeep and then I had a trailer and this car was in the back of the trailer, which is no problem, driving the trailer and everything like that. But I couldn't get the car out of the trailer by myself. And this you know racing car is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. So she says to me um, well, you like you need to take somebody with you. And I'm like well, who am I going to take? And she says I'll find somebody by the end of the day. Anyway, it goes up to this magician didn't even really know him. Well, I didn't know him. And he goes do you fancy coming on tour with me? For about a month, anyway, I said do you fancy coming on tour with me? All you have to do is help me get this car out of the trailer and help me jack it up. And he goes. Looked in his diary and he went well, I've got a gig here and a gig here, but yeah, I could do so. That was it. So I ended up taking this magician on tour around all the Nafi camps.
Speaker 1:Now we didn't actually work until sort of I think it's about 10 o'clock at night, so during the day we were free to do whatever we wanted. So what do you do in England? You go to the pub, don't you? Because it's always raining. So we'd get up, have breakfast, go to the pub and he started teaching me magic. And after about a week I jumped up, went to the table next to me in the pub and did an ambitious card routine and he was like oh, I can't believe you've done that. So he says I'm going to teach you now properly. So he started, I did about six weeks and he was, you know, teaching me um, things like slaying, ring, um, card stuff, uh, sponge balls, that kind of stuff, and uh, he then got me a job and it was for Gillette the shavers and I only knew a few tricks.
Speaker 1:So I've gone in and it's like a bit of a corporate ado. So I've performed and I got spotted by this agent called Jilly Bushel and she's like darling, darling, you're fabulous. She says how long have you been doing it? And go six years. Sorry, I went six weeks and then Ben whacked me and he went six years. She's so funny. I went, oh yeah, six years and she signed me up there and then and uh, yes, said, do you want to do it professionally in full time? I'm like, yeah, I do, because I got paid a week's wage for two hours work. I'm thinking I'll have a bit of this. So that's really how I started.
Speaker 1:But as a kid, when I was six, I actually thought I was magic. So I used to watch Bewitched and on a night time I'd lie in bed and I'd wiggle my nose. I'd go like that, hold out my hand and try and get my hairbrush and had one of those really old-fashioned, beautiful hairbrushes. I'd be like this every night trying to get my hairbrush, because I actually believed that I was like bewitched Samantha Montgomery. So I think in a weird way maybe I don't know maybe it was in me, because I always wanted to be that magic person and I really, really believed in it and I really practiced. And then fast forward to my early 20s. I chanced meeting with a magician I mean, who'd have thought? And then I never looked back and the work just started coming in. And yeah, and I'm still doing it now.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Thank God for Ben taking you under his wing and teaching you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he was a great magician because he was a comedy magician, so it was kind of like my type, my style, if you know what I mean. Um, we hit it off really well and I just loved the comedy side of it as well. Um, and I remember to say thank you to him. I took him to Vegas and we went to see the Amazing Jonathan and Matt King and then for me that was like this is it? I just absolutely loved it. Fell about laughing with the Amazing Jonathan. I thought he was fantastic. And then he had his wife, didn't he? Which was his sidekick. So then Ben and I came back and we said we could do an act like that. So we had the Ben and Bonnie act and I was kind of the ditz. But then he said, well, how cool would it be if I was the magician? So we're like, right, we'll do that. And then we opened what we call a buffoonery bar. So we built this bar, shoved it in the back of the car and then we'd like go off and just set up events, this buffoonery bar, um, and we did like little shows and I was sort of the you know the the dits, but also I would be the one that in the trick. Would you know, come good and remember. We were doing.
Speaker 1:Oh and remember, we were doing a show in Lanzarote and we were dying. We'd written this show on the plane because we'd gone for an audition. This is terrible. We saw it in the stage magazine. I'm actually blushing thinking about it. We saw this advert in the stage magazine to go to Lanzarote to a comedy club, but they wanted magic and comedy. I'm like, oh, we can do that. So this audition was in this guy's front room and we took Rocky the Raccoon. We're doing Rocky the Raccoon in a man's front room and Ben is snorting cigarettes. Make him come out of his ear snorting cigarettes, coughing them up. This guy thought it was hilarious. He said, yeah, brilliant, we're going to book you. It's the comedy club in Lanzarote and we want you there next week.
Speaker 1:We're like, ok, so we were literally sat on the plane writing an act and we didn't even sit next to each other, we were opposite each other in the aisle and we're like, writing this act anyway, first day. Oh, it was awful. We were so bad, we were dying. But do you remember the? Um? I don't know what it's called.
Speaker 1:When you've got the, the beer glass and you can chug it in seconds. So I came on with um a beer glass and I kept offering him and he's like, no, I'm busy, I'm busy. And then I got the beer and I just went waste, not, want, not, in a stupid voice like that and I downed this pint in something like I don't know 0.2 seconds and the crowd went mental. There was a rugby team in and they stood up and they cheered and I thought, right, I need to do again. So I'm backstage and I've got some cans of lager and I'm pouring another beer and then all I kept doing was butting in and butting in of Ben doing his routine Waste, not, want, not and kept downing this pint and the audience were going crazy and the rugby players were just standing up cheering and screaming and it was hilarious, so we just kept it in and that screaming and it was hilarious, so we just kept it in and that was.
Speaker 1:That was the only funny, the funniest bit in the actual act, but we were absolutely shocking, um, and then after about three days it started coming together and after two weeks, yeah, it was all right and we got people actually then coming back and telling the friends so but yeah, just blagging it so, going back to thinking about those tricks that ben taught you in your early days, did any of those tricks make it into your top eight?
Speaker 2:Have they followed your entire?
Speaker 1:career, but there's still about three or four that I still use today. Obviously, I've adapted them, maybe modernized them, but yeah, I definitely still use those tricks that he taught me. That was solid, you know, a solid platform that he taught me, and I am very, very grateful.
Speaker 2:Well, let's get into your list then. So if this is your first time listening, the idea is that we're about to maroon k on her very own desert island. When she's there, she's allowed to take eight tricks. Banish one item for our industry, take one book and one non-magic item that she uses for magic particulars like who's there, what's there? All of that good stuff we do not mind, it's in k's own imagination. With that being said, let's find out what you put in your first position, kay.
Speaker 1:Well, I have thought about this and I've actually done it, literally like I am going to be marooned on this desert island. So there's a couple of things in here that well, there's one thing I wouldn't do, but I have done, but I would take with. So it's not necessary, it's not my set, but this is what I would think. So, first of all, I think I'm going to have a bit of a parlor show. So what I would do on my desert island, I'd get some driftwood and I was going to make um the side of my stage. So there's my little stage, I've set it out, I've got my driftwood up and then I'm going to do a massive um like a chalk line, but in the sand. So I'm going to make my sand line. So I've now got, I've got a stage, the sea is behind me so that my audience have got a fantastic view, and I got this idea from a gig. I went to see Tom Jones and he was in in what was it called Golf Joanne and I remember seeing Tom Jones and it was all the speakers, sort of in an arch, and then at the back of the stage was just open sea and boats came in and you could see, can in the background and fireworks, so that's kind of like what I was. That's the scene that I'm setting. So you've got your audience looking through these nice pieces of wood and you've got the sea, and then your audience comes and I'm going to go for like a local tribe and I'll tell you why later because there's a story coming up there and I'm thinking more parlour, roughly about 40 people, 40, 50 people. So they're all sat down and my first go-to trick is extractor, and I actually I've been doing this for about 20 years and the reason I've picked extractor is because I find it a fabulous opener.
Speaker 1:If I'm doing table magic, it's a great opener for me. It's cards, yes, um, but it's quick, it's punchy and it's non-shuffling and all this choosing a card, fanning them out. Don't have to do all that. It's really quick and it gets people's attention. So when I approach a table, I've done it with cards in my hands and I've also done it without cards cards in my hands and I've also done it without cards. And when I approach a table, if I don't have cards in my hands, you have to explain what you do and they don't get it. I'll say hi, I'm Kay, I'm a magician and they just don't twig that I am actually a magician and we've all had oh, what instrument do you play? But I think I get that a lot.
Speaker 1:Obviously, being a female, people just do not expect you to perform magic. So by going up and having the cards in my hands, I'll literally go hi, I'm Kay. Miss Magic, can I show you a quick trick? Then I'll do a massive riffle of the cards and then I go that was it. Usually that gets a really good laugh, and then sometimes I even just walk away and go to another table and then I'll start working on that table. Then people are like oh, what's going on? And then you've got their attention and then you go back and then I will go into extractor. A lot of people don't know about this trick and a lot of people don't use this trick, and that's why I like it, because I've never met anybody else that's done it. So with my extractor I use a nail and I'll just quickly run through it.
Speaker 1:So you, I've done my quick riffle and I give the cards out and I just choose a card, pick your favorite card, whatever card you want. So they pick it out, you take the cards, you put them back in the box and don't need those just yet. I put them away. Then they sign the card. I then hand an envelope and ask them to inspect the envelope my glamorous assistant. Then they put the card back in the deck and then the deck goes inside the empty envelope. In my pocket I have a six inch nail, as you do, and then I tap the like there's the wine glass. So I tap the glass again. That's getting attention and people from other tables will start looking because it's like you're going to do a speech.
Speaker 1:So I'm stood there with my six inch nail and I do have quite a few little innuendos that I can do, depending on the table. So it's like yes, sir, that is six inches and that always you can. From that I can set the. I know what the table is going to be like. You can set the tone of the table if you can be cheeky or if you can't be cheeky, because usually you do get lots of giggles, but sometimes you just get a little cheeky smile. Um, so that then sets me in good precedence for the what trick I'm going to do next, because I never go to a table with a set routine. I always make it up on the spot, depending on who's around the table. And so then, with my six-inch nail, I'm going to find your card.
Speaker 1:So let's just recap, think about this I gave Johnny the cards. Johnny, you've flicked through the cards, you chose a card, you signed it, you placed it back in the deck. We then placed the deck inside the empty envelope and then it's like with a six inch nail. You know, would you be impressed if I can find your card? Yes, so would I. And then boom, you've got the signed card hand out, the signed card. They get to keep it and you're done. And I just find it a real for me, I find it a real nice, opener. But what I've done for my desert island? I've switched the nail to a knife, a sharp knife, because I'm going to need a sharp knife to gut my fish so you've.
Speaker 2:You've almost found a loophole there, but I I'm going to let you have it all right, Because technically that's a non-magic item that you're using for magic, but you need it for the extractor, so you get to keep that all right, so we're going to give that to you. So when you mention that you have the envelope, do you stab the nail through the entire deck?
Speaker 1:and then you tear it out. Yeah, so the cards are in the deck, so I hold the envelope, then I stab right through the envelope, right through the deck and then up. So I do it and I really play it big as I'm doing it. It's like, would you be impressed, yes, or would I? And then it's like I really go like that and then throw my arm in the air and really make a massive statement, sometimes even get them to do a drum roll. Could have a drum roll, please? You know, everyone does the drum roll. And then it's like everybody's looking and as they're looking over, I, then I've got a massive boom. There is one card, but not just any card, and then you show it around, show it them last. I do believe this card belongs to you, and of course it's signed. And then sometimes, not always, but sometimes they even go nailed it oh, just depends on food, I mean, but it always gets a oh, and I quite like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really like that.
Speaker 1:And then you've got everybody on side because you've you know, you've been quite bold, you've been quite, and you've got everybody on side because you've you know, you've been quite bold, you've been quite, and you've got their attention without saying hi and having to explain that I am a magician. Because you know, when you're actually trying to say, oh, I actually do magic and nah, I can't be doing all that, I literally go up quick trick, boom, that was it. That gets your laugh, you're in there, gets your attention. Then you've got, like you said, you've got your nail, then you've got your big boof. So you kind of usually have them then, and then whatever you go into next, you know you're all right because they'll listen to you I think that's also.
Speaker 2:I mean, we've had the extractor a decent amount of times on the podcast, but I think that's probably the most unique approach I've heard to using it as a tool. And for those who aren't quite sure what the extractor is, it's less a trick, more a utility item, and it allows a card to be lost into the deck by the participant and then allows you easy access to said selection or card and then you can do with it what you like. So, yeah, I love that. I think it's a great choice and a very, very strong opener for number one, but does lead us to number two. So what did you put in your second position?
Speaker 1:Well, number two I've gone for the vent mask. I absolutely love the vent mask. It's one of my favourite routines. Now, I'm not a ventriloquist, but I get by. I've been performing this now for some time and it kind of puts all the focus on your volunteer or victim, should I say. And the vent mask is where you put the. It's like half a face, so you tie it over the head and you've got half the face and you have a lever and then it's pressing the mouth and the mouth opens and you can really go to town with this, absolutely go to town with it.
Speaker 1:I always, always pick a guy, always, and his name is usually Chantel. And then Chantel has various hobbies and Chantel likes reality tv. Chantel has been on a naked attraction. Chantel likes dancing and also likes magic. So then we do a magic trick and I do French kiss with Chantel, which I think works beautifully, and you've just got so much mileage for humor and you know accommodate and it's.
Speaker 1:It's best when it's um, if you're in an, say, doing a, some kind of office or works, do, and you use the md or somebody like that, it's, it's so strong because everybody knows that person. So if you're doing a private party where everybody knows each other. That's when it's at its best. I do do it in my little cabaret shows um, and it's brilliant. But if it is all like you know work people or everybody that knows somebody in high power and you do it on them, it's just, it's priceless and people talk about it for such a long time after I still get messages oh, we saw Chantel.
Speaker 1:I mean, I did it literally the other week and this girl came up to me and she said, oh, that is the best laugh I've ever had. She said thank you so much for this memory. I've got it all on video and she showed me her phone and she changed her dad's name to Chantel in her phone. So I I love things like that because they're going to remember you, they're going to remember that moment and they're going to you know it. It's such a happy, fun, belly, laughing time.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think I would take the vent mask with me and again, coming back to the island, the reason I've taken that is because I can put it on a coconut. I was thinking if I get my vent mask, I can put it on a coconut and I can talk to myself and it's like castaway is like Castaway that Tom Hanks did and he had Wilson. He had the volleyball Wilson. So I thought well, even better, I can talk to myself and I've got my vent mask and I'll just entertain myself and make myself laugh. Come up with new routines with my vent mask.
Speaker 2:This is an interesting one, because regular listeners to the podcast know that this has been on someone's banishment, so someone has banished vent masks from the industry previously, and then we had an episode with mark bennett who counteracted that and said that he loves the vent mask.
Speaker 2:The reason that I bring that up is, uh, that guest, who I believe it was John Archer, his uh logic around that is that a lot of the time it's a routine that is set so you almost buy it and then you have the laughs. They're the same jokes, they're the same, it's the same structure, and I think that was his point with it. But I think what's interesting with what you've done is by putting the french kiss into that routine. That really makes it feel unique and it's very well considered as a trick for a vent mask. That's very clever on a number of levels, I think yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:Um, when I came up with the idea, I thought, well, there's nobody doing this, nobody at all that I know of doing this. And when I came up with it, it was like a light bulb moment and I got so giddy. Um, and I love the french kiss. And I think again um, when I, when I look at a trick that, um, that guys do, I I think, well, how can I? Why is it different? For me? Because, and it is very, very different.
Speaker 1:I mean just a quick example if you're doing um card to wallet, I would never do that, never. Why would I pull out a man's wallet? It just looks wrong. So, a lot of tricks and magic effects for a female. You've got to put your own spin on it, you've got to twist it around. You can't just buy it and do what it says on the packet because it doesn't suit female magicians. So, for this, like the French kiss, for me, personally, I think it's not quite as ooh when you ask a man to kiss you, whereas if a man asks a female for a kiss, when you're doing, when you're doing the trick, if a guy's going to a girl, it's funny, but you're going, like you know, come closer, come closer. And sometimes the girl can be a bit like ooh, whereas if you're doing it to the guy, I don't know, I think it sits better. If you know what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do, but I think what's interesting about what you've done as well, though, is by putting the vent mask on the man, he's not really the man anymore, he's Chantel.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that's where it's clever. And you've also set up a barrier between your mouth and their mouth, essentially, so it doesn't feel, I presume, as intrusive, I think as actual French kiss.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and I'll be ringing John Archer when I get off here.
Speaker 2:That was always the aim with this was just to start Magician Wars. There you go, but it does bring us to number 3. So what was in position 3?
Speaker 1:So number three is something that I've done but scares me and I do like pushing myself outside my comfort zone. So this is hook, but again I don't perform it anymore. I have performed it, but hook because then I've got my fishing hook, see. So I've got my fishing hook, I catch my fish, I've got my knife to gut my fish and I've got Chantelle to talk to with the coconut. See where it's going. And hook is like a Russian roulette where you've got this fish hook that you put in your mouth and from the fish hook you've got four pieces or five pieces of string and you have to ask a volunteer to pull really sharp play. Pull down one of the pieces of string and you go through it one by one and of course, at the end the one that's still left hooked. You open your mouth, out comes the fish hook and it's still attached to to the string. And this made me really nervous. But I love the, the drama of it, and I love watching people's faces squirming. You know it's like when you're doing a. You actually squirm, don't you thinking? Oh, and when I caught this, I remember filing down the hooks, thinking I can't put that in my mouth, it's too sharp. So actually my other half was filing them down for me and I had a gum. I put a gum shield in and I was practicing it with a gum shield, which was fine. And then I'm thinking, oh, this could so easily go wrong, you know, if you got the wrong person and they tugged it really hard and it got stuck or something. So I did it a few times and it really used to make my bum cheeks clench, um, and I was like do I love it? Yes, because I love the reaction of the people squirming in the chairs. But then I thought, well, it's not very ladylike, is it? Sticking a fish hook in your mouth as well? So that kind of like that was a bit of a negative. And then I'm like I don't really want the fish hook to come, because it could quite easily just come through your lip and you could quite easily get hooked and I didn't fancy going to the hospital. Why have you got a fish hook in your mouth? So I did drop it and I don't do that anymore. And also I tell you what I dropped as well.
Speaker 1:I used to do the the knife stab, and one time I had a beautiful. I've still got it if anybody wants it, you can, you can, it's going cheap. I've got this beautiful mahogany, probably about I don't know three foot long, and it's got this like it's like a dagger, um, and I think there was four or five slots and you place the dagger in the slots and one time I was doing this and I really didn't know where it was and at that point I'm panicking, I'm thinking I really don't know where it is and it turned out that the guy didn't actually put the knife under the cup, it hid it and he was a bit tipsy. But it taught me a lot did that, because the guy that came up I should have just done something totally different. I should have gone in quick card trick or anything and got rid of him, but I didn't, I persevered and that taught me a lot. It's like if you're not happy with the person who's up on stage, just get rid of them, don't persevere, because there's no point, because they're trying to trick you, they're trying to make fun of you, they're trying to make you fail. Just get rid of them. So it taught me a lot did that, and then I stopped doing it. Um, so yeah, but I do love that Russian roulette type of routine where people you can watch people in the audience and they are actually, you know, like looking behind the hands and it makes people squirm. So that would be my number three, even though I don't do it. But also, I like pushing myself out of my comfort zone as well and I was not comfortable doing that, but I enjoyed doing it once I got into it and I think it's good. It's good to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 1:I remember doing um. I put my name down for the comedy club in Manchester, probably about eight years ago, and I'm thinking, why have I done this? And I was petrified, why have I done this? I'm not even funny, I don't know what I'm going to say, but it really pushed. You know, it pushed me, um, and I'm so, I was so glad I did it. I got gonged off, because you get gonged. If you know good, they gong you off and I did get gonged off, but I did last for nearly four minutes. You get five minutes and I lasted four minutes and I thought you know that's that was good going. I think it came about. Third, like in in many times, two made it the full way and then I was the first that didn't make it, but got through the longer. So I was dead proud of myself. But I was so nervous and it really pushed me to that uncomfortable position, but I did it and I got through it and I was so glad at the other end that I'd done it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I do like tricks that push you um out of your comfort zone I for me.
Speaker 2:one thing that always stands out was deron's show. I'm not sure if you saw this, but he had a part where he showed clips from tv where it had gone wrong before he actually did it. And then he just comes out with the spikes on the stage and then he goes into the routine and that moment of the audience seeing it on the screen really heightens that moment of danger and anticipation.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's a great idea, which would be great you an anticipation.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's a great idea, which would be great. Well, something something that you mentioned earlier as well, which was really interesting, is you said about it's not very ladylike putting this uh hook in your mouth, and we sort of spoke a little bit before the podcast, and we spoke about how, sometimes, maybe, you can use the misconception of being a female magician to your advantage, and I bet that there are some wonderful moments, though, because you put in that fishhook in your mouth. I bet that gets such a great reaction. From a man, yes, it's going to still get a reaction, but from a woman, I can imagine that the reaction is even more impactful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I never looked at it that way, way, but yeah, especially if you drag it out as well, do you know? I mean, and like, yeah, just really slowly put it in and, um, make a big thing of it, yeah, with some good music I'm going to be doing that now, in two weeks, I'll have my dramatic music and I'll be like it's coming out the cupboard um, but there's a great list so far.
Speaker 2:So we've gone from extractor to vent mask and french kiss to hook. So we've got three really different tricks so far and different concepts. So where did you go with number four?
Speaker 1:well, this is an interesting one. I thought you know what I'm gonna throw it in, because it's like a cheeky little plug. It's. I don't know if it's called last roller or losing your marbles. I don't even know what it's called, because it doesn't exist yet, apart from in my head. Um, so I have come up with a new trick, which I'm explain, and what happened was I did a mini lecture at the Magic Circle, and I was showing it was about trade shows, and I was demonstrating some of the effects that I do to draw in the crowds, and I did this one particular effect, and it was mine.
Speaker 1:I made it myself, and at the end of the night, marvin Burglass came up to me with Michael J Fitch and they went. That was really great. How did you do that trick, though? And I'm like which one? The one with the dice and I was like what do you mean? He said, well, how did you do it? And I was like you don't know? And they were like no. So when I told them, they're like you flawed us, you absolutely flawed us, and they were like no. So when I told them they're like you flawed us, you absolutely flawed us, and they're like is it yours. I was like, yeah, and they couldn't believe it. They're like, oh, it's brilliant. I was like, thanks.
Speaker 1:So I decided I am going to make my own um trick with it, which is what I am currently doing. So I've performed it only a couple of times, but I need to, I need to get it on video and then I'm going to send it into you, lovely people, and see what you think. So I haven't even got a name for it and because my mind's always going all over the place, it started off as um do you ever feel like you're losing your marbles? So it was going to be um, losing your marbles was going to be the title, and I told it to uh, rod Williams and he's like, oh, I love it, absolutely love it. Then I came up with him a poker chip idea to go with this routine and he said, well, what about a rolo? I was like, oh, absolutely love the rolo. So I am currently writing a routine with the well, writing the script for the rolo, which I'll explain in a minute, and I think that would be the main seller and it would sell um, especially for people that do weddings. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you now my rolo marble one, and this is my little script that I've got.
Speaker 1:So, basically, I have a marble, you need a pack of cards, and then I've got a jar, a see-through jar with some dicing, with a lid on, and it sort of starts off and it's like do you ever feel like you're losing your marbles? Well, I once did, until I found this. Now, this is not just any ordinary marble's, a very special marble. You see, according to legend, this marble has been passed down through generations of forgetful people, a bit like myself. Um, and then I've got two people. So one of them is, as I said, said, holding the dice. So get them to shake the dice and then get the other person to choose a card. So this little forgetful marble's got a bit of a twist and it's said that this marble can always find its way. So, the person finding the card they have a look at a card, they place it back in the deck and then they shuffle it and then they hold the deck. So now they've got a card in the deck and then they shuffle it and then they hold the deck. So now they've got a card in the head. The person shaking the dice. What I want you to do is add all the numbers that are face up. So all the numbers that are face up, they'll add them all up. And now they've got a number in the head. So take the marble and I'll say this marble now will find its way, and in this case it's the exact card at the exact number. So take the marble and vanish it, smash it into the deck, so the marble is now vanished For the first time.
Speaker 1:What was your card? Whatever? Two of hearts, let's say. And what was the number? Let's just go say 14, say 14. Okay. So what they do now they've got the cards, it's all hands off. The person holding the dice holds out the other hand and then that person will count down 14 cards and on the 14th card will be the two of hearts with a marble squashed on the card. So that's kind of the trick.
Speaker 1:Then I thought well, guys like poker chips. So I came up with Jack. Jack's got his poker chip and it's a lucky gambling chip. So same routine. And then the one now which I think will be a lot stronger is the roller. So it would be like um, jane, do you love mark enough to give him your last rollo, and then they'll say yes, and you go. I do mark, do you love jane enough to give her your last rollo? I do um. And then you can sort of ask them where they met, and if it's somewhere like a nightclub or somewhere like on holiday, that's perfect because you can go through.
Speaker 1:As I said, I've not written the script yet, but you can go through the scenario. So if you hadn't booked the holiday and you hadn't been in that nightclub at that exact same time, you would never have met. So then the roller then goes on to see if it is fate forever, you know, can you always find each other? And then that person will do the card, that one has the number, and of course it ends up on the right card, the right number, and then, yet again, fate has brought you together the right place at the right time. But it needs scripting. So that is my new trick, and I've never really put anything out before and I haven't got a title. But I thought, well, I'll take it with me because I've got a roll of tweed and I can work on it. So it gives me something to do on my desert island, and then by the time I come off my island it'll be polished, finished and ready to market.
Speaker 2:I think that sounds great. It sounds really good and I would put a vote in for losing your marbles. I think that's a great one.
Speaker 1:See, that suits me and that's what I came up with first and it's like a bit whappy losing your marbles and it suits my character and that's the one I've sort of been working on more. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's for me. It's always about the concept of a trick. You well, I think that's that's for me. It's always about the concept of a trick. So I love the idea of all you have to do is say one line and the audience is hooked. So your line there is do you ever feel like you're losing your marbles? That's it one line, you've got your audience straight away and everyone's wondering where it's going to go to. So I think it's great. How about this? Since we're on YouTube, we'll get people to vote below. So you went for last roller or losing your marbles, so we'll get people to vote below, and then maybe that'll give you a definitive idea. So what did you put in your fifth spot?
Speaker 1:Now, my fifth spot is Spongeballs, and there's loads of reasons why, um, sponge balls for me is just, I don't know, it's just it's got me so many gigs and there's a story that goes with it. So and actually this is with ben again um, we got a job in africa and, um, we were driving around and we saw this little hut. So we just pulled up in the middle of nowhere and we said, oh, let's go and explore and have a look at this hut and I promise this is a true story, I'm not kidding. So we're walking up a little hill towards this hut and all of a sudden, there was about a dozen people that just came from the other brow of the hill, um, and they were try, it was a tribe, tribal men, and they were coming towards us and ben and I were like, oh, my goodness me. And they sort of like hunched forwards and they're sort of walking towards us with a real, like serious face and ben started to panic. So then I started to panic and I'm like I think we better turn around, we better run. And he got, he had a sponge ball in his pocket and he took this sponge ball out and he went and started snorting it and then coughing it up and I'm like, give me some. Because it stopped him in the tracks, I said give me some. So I've got short sleeves on, so I'm just doing the the two balls producing, you know the sponge balls, with two balls Kept producing them, hiding it, producing it and he's snorting it, coughing it out in his ear, out his ear, and this tribe just literally freaked out themselves, stopped in the tracks and then turned around and ran away.
Speaker 1:It was surreal. Like, honestly, I can see it now Gives me goosebumps. It was surreal and we're going. Did that really just happen? I mean, it was mad and we just literally legged it, literally legged it back to the car, got in the car, turned around and just went back to base. It was like, yeah, it was amazing car, got in the car, turned around and just went back to base. It was like, yeah, it was amazing, absolutely amazing. So I'm thinking on my desert island, if a tribe does come up to me, I can scare them off with sponge balls.
Speaker 1:But also this trick has made me into a into what I call the lion's den, and I am very lucky, very lucky, that Matt still books me at man United and I've been working at man United for 20 years now and there used to be about 20 magicians. Sadly, now it's gone down to about five magicians. But I am so lucky. I'm so lucky that I keep getting asked um to go back to man U, and for me that was um back in the day. That was a job that really helped me grow as a female performer, because we would go in a box, a corporate box, and you've got anything from, let's say, six to a dozen people If you do in the centennial, you might have a room of about 30 people, but they're predominantly males. And so many times still now, so many times, I knock on the door hi, magician, da-da-da, walk in and it's just full of men, usually, as I said, about 12 men all having a drink.
Speaker 1:So I've heard every scenario going. I've you know every one liner. You drop a card. Oh, while you're down there, love, you know, they throw a card on the floor and go and pick it up. I've heard it all. But it is literally like going in the lion's den. So I'm thinking right, I'm not having this, I need stuff, I need tricks to show them up, basically.
Speaker 1:So sponge balls is my ultimate favorite, and then all I do is I'll do the sponge bowl routine and whoever's been giving me this, I get the hand. I go like that, open your hand, you know what's coming. And they open the hand and there is a big sponge ding dong. I don't have to say a word because I just literally go, you know what you are, and they go, go, open their hand. Everybody in that room will go and they'll just shout out like that and I don't have to say another word, and they fall about laughing and I've just got them. Then I've got them in the palm of my hand and I can do whatever I want with them. So the sponge balls for me has helped me grow as a real confident magician.
Speaker 1:In situations where it's predominantly males giving it this, giving it that, yeah, and I just absolutely love it. If David Penn's watching, he'll be freaking out because he he says to me Katie, don't do the ding dong, do not do the ding dong, you don't need to do that. Your magic is far better and far stronger. But I love it, and he's got me so many jobs, like literally, I have done it and I've got so many jobs from that. The one thing I don't like, though and I think he's, and I've seen it before.
Speaker 1:When guys go up to a table and they start off with sponge balls and they do ding dong, it's like no, no, no, no, don't do it. You don't do ding dong straight away. Still to this day, I warm up to it. I know when I can do it, I know when I can't do it, and I would never, ever, go to a table cold and just do it. I might do brainwave, get them to shuffle the cards, and when they're shuffling the cards you get little titters, you get a laugh. You know, then I build up to it. So I would never go in and do it cold. And again, I think, being a female as well, you get away with it more, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Do you want another story? I was at this stunning wedding, absolutely beautiful wedding, and there was one table of older ladies and they'd all got fantastic hats on. It was a really posh wedding, gorgeous, gorgeous hats, and they were all sort of like 60s, 70s, 80s and they were just having such a giggle and I went over, did some magic for them and they were just really cheeky and I loved them to bits and I thought you know what I can get away with ding dong with these because they're just proper cheeky ladies. So I did the ding dong and everybody gasped and I'm like, and then they all fell about laughing. This lady pulled me to the side and she went do you know who that was? And I was like no, she went, it's the vicar's wife. I was like what, it was the vicar's wife. So but they loved it and that couple still see me and they say, oh, oh, they still talk about it. This is years and years and years ago, like years ago. She doesn't still talk about it.
Speaker 1:And then about, oh, about five years ago I was in town and I got stopped because it was a local wedding that I did. I got stopped by this lady in town and she said excuse me, are you, are you, miss Magic? I said yeah, in town and she said excuse me, are you, are you, miss magic? I said yeah. She said oh, um, do you remember doing that sponge willy um on the vicar's wife? And I goes, oh, I do. And I was like that. I said oh, I went, yeah, I went, how is she? And she went, oh, she's passed away. And I was like, oh, she said, but you gotta mention at the funeral.
Speaker 1:So I was like, yes, I've made it. I couldn't believe it. She said you actually, you actually got a mention at the funeral and for me I was on a high the entire week. It actually made my week, um. So I just I love sponge balls and I love ding dong and it's got me out of so many situations where you know I feel like I'm gonna drown in a minute because these guys are so drunk and having to go at me that I've just I get out of it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's it, sponge balls well, I think that's the first time that we've ever had a story, ever a tribe and and running away from them. But I wonder what. What would have happened if they were freaked out by just the sponge balls? I wonder what they would have done if you produced the sponge ding dong in front of them as well. I wonder what their reaction would have been then.
Speaker 1:Uh, I didn't have that on me, I actually don't go around carrying it around. He does live in my but thankfully Ben had some sponge balls in his pocket. But yeah, can you imagine what they'd have done?
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Speaker 2:It's literally less than a pint unbelievable well, I think that's a great great choice and some great justifications there as well for having it, but it does lead us to number six. So what was in your six spot?
Speaker 1:Number six Well, I've kind of gone back to this one because cards across, I used to do it years and years and years ago. And then I actually first saw it for Matt King, and years and years ago. And then I actually I first saw it from Matt King All those 20 years ago and I loved it. So I've been doing it for years and years and years and I put my own twist on it. And then Matt King came to Blackpool, didn't he? To the Magic Convention and performed his show. But I didn't see his show Because I wasn't at Blackpool that night. But I was absolutely gutted because I thought, well, he'll be doing his cards across and then everybody's going to start doing it. So I've dropped it, but I'm going to pick it back up, pick it back up again.
Speaker 1:Um, because the the way I sort of um is in like sort of stage or parlor, I use it as a bridge to telling people a little bit about myself. Um, I once went to a concert and I was like, well, this is a bit boring, and it was actually James Blunt concert and I was like I'm a bit bored and a bit bored. And then the second half of the show he told a story about himself and I thought, oh, I like that story and I quite like him now. So it made me warm to him. And I think if you give a little bit of yourself to an audience, they like that, you know, they like a little, they like to know a little bit about you. So rather than just say, oh, I used to do this, I used to do that, it's sort of using this opens up for me to tell them my circus story.
Speaker 1:So she'll pick out three cards and then I go right, I want you to look at your husband, have a right good look at him, and I want you to, I want you to write down what you really like about him on the first card. So she'll write down I don't know his humor, his looks, whatever. She'll write something down, um, and this then, for me is great audience just having a laugh with the audience, because I can peek over a shoulder and I can be like, oh really, I'll get the sick bucket if it's really nice. And then on the next one I'll say to her get your other card, look at your husband, and I got what really annoys you, and she'll write down what really annoys her. And again. This is a really funny one.
Speaker 1:They come out with some absolute corkers and then on the last one I'll say look at your husband, what favorite body part do you like the most? Write down your favorite body part, and you'll be amazed what they write. Like, I've had biceps toes, I like his toes. It's bizarre what people write, but it's funny.
Speaker 1:And then of course, we do the cards across oh. But so then I'll say to them where are you from? And wherever they're from, I've been there. So if they say, oh, we're from Wales, and I go, oh, whereabouts in Wales, and they'll say Pontypridd, and I go, oh, pontypridd, I've been there with the circus. And then I tell them that it's true, I was in the circus and we came to Pontypridd. I've even had it where I was with Jerry Cottle Circus and I've even had it where they go. I remember the circus coming to town and, um, so that's been quite good. But it leads me into telling them a little bit about myself, that I've been a trapeze artist in the circus, because everybody loves that story.
Speaker 1:And then I say right now what we're going to do. We're going to make three cards magically and invisibly somersault from here to wherever, whoever paul's belt buckle, whatever. So they're going to somersault, just like I did, to the hands of the catcher. So here we go, and as I'm doing my somersaults, the cards are going to do the somersault. So I tell the story about that. Um, and yeah, for me I think it's a great little, a nice little way for me to explain the trapeze while the cards are somersaulting to the hands of the catcher, but they're going to so-and-so's belt buckle instead, and I've shared a bit of a story. So I kind of I'm putting that back in now into my set. When I'm doing my two hour show, because people do like to know about you and because I'm on my desert island and I'm doing parlor, I can drag it out there to two hours rather than just doing a 45 minute show.
Speaker 2:So I thought if I've got my cards across, then I can start telling them the stories so is it, though one would presume the three cards that they've written these things on, they're the ones that go over.
Speaker 1:Yes. So then at the end he counts out his cards 10 cards, obviously, he's got 13. And then, as they turn them over, and they're oh, those were the cards that were written on and can you read out. And then it's like, would you all like to know what she's written? And of course it's like, yes, and then you can sometimes have a real good giggle with that as well, cause sometimes they're like really, um, nicey, nice things, and then it goes, cause it's so nice. You know, what do you love about him? Everything, um. And then some are great, like really funny, like he snores, he farts, um, and it just it's. It's quite entertaining and it's, you know, and it's not all on you, it's on your two volunteers. So people are learning about them and people like to know what your volunteers do for a living and what you like about it and what annoys you. So I think it's quite an entertaining way of doing cards across.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great, it sounds excellent. What a great, great trick. And it does lead us to the tail end of your eight. So we're on a number seven. So what did you put in your seventh spot?
Speaker 1:so I'm being clever here, so I'm going for psychic touch. Um, because I love doing psychic touch and I think, um, it's sort of when you're doing your routine, you're up and you're down, you're up down and it, it sort of plateaus to a quiet moment because it's deathly quiet, and then you're just talking and touching and, um, it sort of builds a little bit of attention. Before that I do, I have music on, so I would. So I put a spell on you and I pretend that I'm actually putting them under. So I do all that. I put a spell on you and I get them breathing in sync and then I go all serious. So I've gone from funny, humorous whatever, to then now serious and I'm like you have to breathe in sync.
Speaker 1:I tell them a little story, actually about twins and it's about the sixth sense and the twins. There's a true story where there was one girl. She fell over and broke her ankle and her twin sister was hundreds of miles away and at the exact same time she fell to the floor clutching her ankle because apparently she could feel the pain from her sister. So I use that and I say right, wouldn't it be good if we could, if you could feel the pain from each I mean the touch from each other and then we're going to all the breathing. And then I turn to George. Whoever George, in a moment I'm going to touch you. All you have to do is remember where. Um, so you get a few little giggles, but then it, then it goes into serious and then I just do the.
Speaker 1:You know, the psychic touches which I actually I love doing. And I've just, on the end of that, I've just bought Odyssey uh, crystal pot, which I love, because then I go into, I can now, um, touch you twice on the head and you will lose the inability to read, um, so that's working really well. Now it's becoming one of my favorite routines, just because it's new and it's it's fresh, um, but yeah, psychic touch, but because I've said psychic touch, I haven't actually brought anything with me. Because I've said psychic touch, I haven't actually brought anything with me, because I've got my finger, haven't I? So I can have another one which would be the magic kettle or magic jug which I've never, ever, ever used in my life. I don't think I've even held one. But because I've got my psychic touch finger, I can have a kettle with me, counter, really.
Speaker 1:And then, if I'm on my desert island, I can go would like a pina colada please? And then, when I finished my pina colada, I can go I'd like a rum punch please, and then the magic kettle give me a rum punch and then I can have a whiskey and coke. See, so it's all leading up to everything that I've got on my desert island. It's perfect, isn't it? Because I've got my knife. I'm going fishing, I've got my knife to gut my fish, I've got my pina colada and I've got my coconut and colada, and I've got my coconut and my Chantel's talk to when I'm kettled.
Speaker 2:You've got it all sussed out. Yeah, I think that's great. So you mentioned that. I mean we're going to reluctantly give you your magic kettle there as well, because, you are right, you're not technically taking anything, but that would lead me to believe that the version of psychic touches that you use is a gimmickless approach. Yeah, so are we saying Banachek's original handling?
Speaker 1:Yep, no loops, no, nothing, just all in the wording, all in the yeah, amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet that's absolutely brilliant and it does lead us to number eight. So what was in your final spot?
Speaker 1:Well, number eight is something that I do but nobody else does, because I've made it up and it's a beautiful, beautiful piece of magic. I'm not going to say too much because I don't want anybody pinching it before I put it to market, but I don't really want to put it to market just yet because I want to use it more. But it's a beautiful, beautiful piece of magic where at the end of my show I have a reveal and it's a way of revealing and it's slightly mechanical, so I'm of revealing and it's slightly mechanical. So I'm working on the mechanics, slightly mechanical, but I've actually made people cry with it. Yeah, I've had people come up to me and say, oh, that was beautiful, and I do want to, I do want to market this eventually, but, as I said, I'm still working on it. But it's just, yeah, really pulls at the heartstrings and it's just. I think it's beautiful and I think when people see it they will be like oh, that is a beautiful piece of magic. And I'm not really into that kind of magic, to be fair, because I like it upbeat and a bit wacky, but that just brings it down and it's different. It's different and I kind of think when I'm doing a magic show.
Speaker 1:If I'm in a fun fair, what would it be? Would it be? I don't want to be dodging, because that's like stop, start, stop, start, and then you've got, say, the mouse trap, which is, you know, it's exciting, but it's a bit rickety. That's probably where I am actually and where I want to be is the roller coaster. So I always feel like, if someone's coming to see a show, give them a little bit of everything. Because I'll tell you now, gentlemen, ladies, do not like card tricks, we get bored. You know, when you're counting out cards and that it's like amazing, but we get bored. So I try and do a little bit of everything. So I'll do a tiny amount of card stuff and slice and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Mentalism I'm really loving mentalism. So give them a little bit of that. Then you've got a vanish, then you've got the, the touches, then you've got a mask. So it's kind of like a little bit of a variety show in one respect. There's something for everybody and you want to take them on that ride, don't you? So it's like starts off, it builds, it, builds, it builds. And bit of a variety show in one respect. There's something for everybody and you want to take them on that ride, don't you? So it's like starts off, it builds, it builds, it builds. And then you're like, oh, and then you come up again, you're building and building.
Speaker 1:So I feel like this roller coaster ride that people are on at the end, if you can even get them to weep, that's like they've absolutely belly laughed at certain things and then they're now nearly crying. But I want them to come out thinking, wow, you know, that was a really, really good night. We've proper laughed and we've connected. You know you want people to connect with and you want people to just go feel refreshed and think, wow, that was just such a good night. Not too intense, not, you know, just they've enjoyed themselves. Um, and if you can ignite something within which I tried to do a little bit, but if you can ignite that bit of passion or something within them, it's quite special. And if they've had a little tear, I think that's quite special. But then I just lift it at the end.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we won't go any more into it for now, but we can expand on sort of that genre a little bit, because we have had other guests speak about this kind of trick before. We have had other guests speak about this kind of trick before. One that immediately comes to mind was Edward Hilson, who speaks about a lovely moment, which I've still not seen, where he has someone bring a photo up or a memory and then it turns into something real even though it was on their phone. So those sorts of really beautiful emotional moments. I think you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:And before you just mentioned it when I was thinking about your list, you really do have sort of everything in this list. You have the sort of card trick oh my god, she's so clever with with her magical hands. Then you have the vent mask, which is sort of a bit cheeky. You've got a hook which is a bit scary and on your edge oh my god, what's gonna happen. And then you have the psychic touch which is really what on earth is going on in in this show, what's going crazy? And now you're talking about this really lovely, beautiful, sentimental moment which gets people to think. So, in terms of coverage in your list and if this was to be an act, you really have touched on every emotional feeling that you could put into a show. It must make it for such an enjoyable show for people to watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hope so. That's what I'm trying to achieve. I want people just to enjoy it and think, oh, that was great, I want to come back, I want to see more. But yeah, I'm enjoying doing the two-hour shows that I'm doing at the minute. I can try new stuff and I like also just just looking at my audience and working with them.
Speaker 1:Like I said earlier, I don't go into, like I say, a box with a set routine. Sometimes I can walk into a room and I don't even know what I'm going to do and I'll look at my audience and then I'll just think, right, I've got my pockets loaded. I know what I can do because I've got my pockets loaded and I always take my little case with me. Always take it just in case that one person says, oh, can you do so and so, and it's like no, but I can do this and something that fits, and it's kind of like extreme burn. Always have that on you, because how many times do people say do you know the lottery numbers? Oh, I can do better than that, I can do instant lotto. And then you pull it out and it's so much stronger because people have asked you for you know a certain can you do the lottery, and then you're pretty much doing it. So I think, just have loads of stuff on you, go and look at your audience and work with your audience.
Speaker 1:If you've got loads of females, then you you'd be like, oh, diamonds, diamonds, let's have a look at your rings girls. And then I'd be having a look at the diamonds and going, oh, love, you need to trade that one in. Oh, look at that, that size of her headlamp. And oh, she's got a belt out. And it just gets everybody laughing. And you take the biggest diamond and you'd, you know, do whatever you're going to do with your diamond, but you're not going to do that if it's a group of men.
Speaker 1:So that's why I always think load your pockets, yes, if you've got a set piece. But I think if you have a set piece every single time, every single table, you become stale as well and stagnant, because you've got the same lines. You start talking like that, like a broken record, whereas if you can go up to a table and think, oh, they'd like that, they'd do like this it's, it's more fresh and you can have banter, you've got to listen to your audience, respond to them. So many times I've seen people not pick up on that joke that they could have had or respond. They've ignored it because they're at that point of the routine which is an important, it's like oh, and it's like panic. But listen to your audience, work with your audience and do what you think they would like. That's what I try to do, anyway, and do what you think they would like.
Speaker 2:That's what I try to do anyway. Well, I think you've definitely done it through even some of the stories that you just went into. And looking at your list, we've gone from Extractor Ventmask, slash French Kiss. We've got Hook Last Roller. Slash Losing your Marbles Vote down below Spongeball slash Ding Dong. We've got Cards Across. We've got Psychic Touch. Got psychic touch, your sneaky seven. Magic kettle. Uh, number eight was yet to be released. Slash rising revelation your banishment. We're about to get onto, so let's go for it now. What did you want to banish from our industry for forever?
Speaker 1:So what really niggles me is scruffiness, you know, like if you're going to a gig, look the part. Don't turn up in a shirt that's not pristine like white, like when they're grey and just old clothes and mouldiness I just think be polished. Do you know what I mean? I like to think, yeah, be a bit more. Oh, I don't like this question.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that you make a valid point there, and we've actually had guests in the past that have mentioned their non-magic item would be clothing, because it makes them feel like the performer. But this does bring an interesting question to you. I have got friends who are female magicians and one of the hardest things for them is pocket management and it must be such an annoyance for you.
Speaker 2:How have you gone around, because earlier on you mentioned loading out pockets and stuff how have you gone through your career tackling this for any of our female magicians who are listening?
Speaker 1:well, I've actually had to strip back. There's some effects that you want to do and you just go well, I haven't got the pocket space for it. And sometimes you load your pockets up and you feel like a mitchellian man because our pockets are tiny, they're not deep, like a man's pocket is really deep, whereas ours are really shallow, and you put a deck of cards in your pocket and they're peeking out. So trying to get two decks in is like oh so yeah, trying to buy a suit, I always have to have pockets in the trousers, um, and in the jackets. If you've got an additional one in the back pocket, it's a massive bonus. You can have them put in.
Speaker 1:But I do think I choose my magic sort of pack small, try and play big, because it is, you know, it is a problem and I predominantly wear suits, to be fair, like I've got some nice tuxedos that I would wear if I'm doing a corporatey, and then I've got a tuxedo dress, I've got waistcoats, that kind of stuff. So it is tough. It is tough. I know that Faye Presto, she's got a great idea. She's got a pinny and puts, like this, little pinny under a smock top and it's got loads of secret pockets. It's brilliant. So if anybody wants to know about pocket space, then speak to Faye, because that's a great idea.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't kind of work with my suits because mine are more fitted, um, but I tend to. Also, I'll have my little case with me and then I can always it takes me like 30 seconds dump everything in my case and just reload. And everything I do has got to be easy reset, like within seconds, quick, quick reset, because there's nothing worse than if you're at uh, a do doing let's say you're doing the tables and then you scurry off in the corner and then you're there for a few minutes resetting everything. It's kind of for me it's got to be quick, snappy, instant reset, otherwise it doesn't go in that particular act, especially for like the tables and close up well, I think that's great advice, and scruffiness has been banished, so it is gone.
Speaker 2:So that brings us to your last two items. So obviously we've given you eight. Of everything else, you only have one each of these. So what did you put in your book position?
Speaker 1:ah, now, this is an interesting one. I mean, if it was going to be the magic book, I've got it down here. Of course it's the mark wilson complete, uh, magic set thing. Uh, the great big bible, isn't it? You know, that's the one that I have got, but that's not the one I taking. I'm taking a storybook and it's about Maskelyne. Maskelyne the war magician. So, um, cause I'm? I'm setting the scene again because I'm now I've got my pina colada, got a Chantel next to me, um, and I've got a good book to read. So, basically, um, we all know that Maskelynekely was an amazing illusionist back in the 1930s, but what most people probably don't know, if you've not read the book, is that he went off to war and he became a bit of an illusionist in the war and he also saved.
Speaker 1:It was port adria, alexandria, and what he did? He made in the, in the desert. He made tanks appear. They did these huge cardboard cutouts and, using mirrors, it made it look like there was loads of tanks and he moved. They had a magic gang and there was like a carpenter, a plumber, and there was a few of them. They were called the magic gang and they were due to be bombed. The germans were coming in to bomb them. So he made the swiss canal, it made it disappear. And what he did? They put everything in darkness. Oh, this is no, this is alexandria. They put the port in darkness and then they got the lighting how the lighting would be and they moved it a few miles away and recreated it and lit everything up in the sky so that the bombers thought that that's where it was, and they set off fake bombs. So after the first one had gone over, because the bombs were going off in this rural land which was all lit up as if it was a port, the other bombers were just like bombing where those bombs were because they thought that's what it was. And then the Swiss Canal, they lit up, they moved it further down and they just again did loads and loads of lighting effects and just moved it a couple of miles and it helped win the war.
Speaker 1:So it's a great book, um, very, very interesting. There are debates on how true everything is, um, but it's very interesting and amazing. How illusion can you know, create such fantastic things, like in the desert, where you can create hundreds of, say, tanks, just from next to nothing? So yeah, it's a really, really interesting book and I read it years and years ago and there was a guy who was living near me and he was in film and everything and I gave it to him. I said read this. I said this would make a great film and they've done short documentaries on it. So if you don't want to read the book, you can actually just have a look, and there's a short documentary on it. But it's just a good read.
Speaker 2:I think that's really really cool.
Speaker 1:And it does lead us onto your item. So what did you put in your item position? My item that I would take with me would be my diary. I'm so old fashioned, I've got a file of facts and I've got a diary. Well, I'm having a bad day, which is like maybe once a year. I don't really have bad days, but if I do, I'll line all my diaries up and I'll go to the exact date and then I'll flick to that and I go, oh, was it so? And so, oh, my gosh, I can't believe I did that. And every single day I write a little bit in my diary. It might be one line, it might be one word, might be be a paragraph, but I've done that since I was 14. So I would take my diary and in the back of my diary I've got loads and loads and loads of note paper. So as long as I've got my diary and my pen, I can entertain myself but that's great.
Speaker 2:So let's revisit your list. We've gone from extractor vent mask. Slash french kiss hook uh, last roller, uh. And losing your marbles sponge balls. Slash ding dong cards across psychic touch your sneaky seven, part two, is magic kettle and nine is yet to be released. Your banishment is scruffiness. Your book is the war magician, the true story, and your item is your diary. What an amazing list. That's excellent. You seem to touch on every single note, emotionally and in terms of the plots. You've gone from cards to comedy. You've gone for your sort of hook, which is your scary one. Yeah, I think it's an absolutely brilliant list.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Jamie.
Speaker 2:And if anyone wants to find out more about you, if they want to find out about your shows or anything like that, where can they go to?
Speaker 1:Missmagiccouk, I'm on Facebook but I've got like 5,000 followers, so now I've had to do another Facebook, but I keep getting. I've got loads of people that want to be my friend, but I can't because I can't add them. So I think I need to do the other one where you can just join. Is that right? I'm not very good on social media. I need to brush up, don't I? I think I've got people from five years ago wanting to add and I'm like I'm sorry I can't add because I've got 5,000. But I have literally, literally a few hundred that want to add so everyone get in the waiting list.
Speaker 2:Uh apply now and uh soon.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you'll get in as well I need someone to sort me out. I need someone to do my social media. I tried it once and it was horrible because they, they started doing my social media and it was come along and the twinkle of magic, with Kay doing her sparkly, whatever, and I was like, no, that's just not me, stop, stop. So I stopped it. But I could do with some help in that field. I also could do some help and do my next stage show, because I want to do, I want to take people on holiday, so I want it like a proper theater show.
Speaker 1:I've got it all in my head, I've got it all written down. I'm going to take people on a plane. I'm going to go on this amazing journey. They're going to tell us the destination, there's loads of predictions along the way, quite a bit of mentalism in it, um, and then when they get there, they're entertained, they go and see a show, and then that's when the vent mask and things like that comes in. So I've got this big theatrical thing that I want to do, but I need help.
Speaker 2:So if anybody's watching this and they can help with the production show, please get in touch there you go, so if anyone can help get on to kay so that she can make this a reality, uh, but thank you so much, kay, for being a part of this oh, thank you, jamie.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:I was absolutely like over the moon when you asked me so well, we're great to have you here, and I really, really, really hope that you end up losing your marbles and your secret eight trick to market as well, because both of them sound like they're going to be phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Well, my secret eight one, I think, is a little bit special. I hope it is anyway.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it is, and thank you guys for watching. Of course, if you want to be a part of our other version of this, which is Stranded with a Stranger, then you can send in your list of eight tricks, one banishment, one book and one non-magic item to sales at alakazamcouk. In the subject line put my desert island list. That way it comes through to me and we can get one of these recorded for you. Don't forget to put a little bio, of course, why you chose those tricks and anything else that you really want to put in there. Then we can get one of those recorded. We'll be again back next week with another episode, but for now, have a great week.
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