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
John Carey
Card magic legend John Carey takes us on a fascinating journey through the eight tricks that defined his remarkable career, from the streets of London to teaching in 26 countries worldwide.
John's selections reveal the essence of powerful, practical magic. The Biddle Trick, with its multiple magical moments in a single effect. Triumph, where chaos transforms into perfect order except for the spectator's selection. Cards Across, which proves equally effective in close-up or stage settings. ACCAN (Any Card At Any Number), the plot magicians have pursued for generations. The Ambitious Card, with John's advice to limit phases and build to an impossible climax. Think-a-Card, perhaps the purest demonstration of apparent mind-reading possible with playing cards. His One Coin Routine, the visual magic that saved him in challenging performance environments. And finally, Card to Impossible Location, creating unforgettable magical moments when signed cards appear where they simply cannot be.
Throughout our conversation, John shares performance wisdom gained over decades: "Less is more." "The effect should build, never plateau." But his most powerful insight comes from legendary performer Fay Presto: "The magic must always be strong, but YOU are the effing magic." John's personality shines through each routine, reminding us that technical perfection means nothing without the human connection that transforms tricks into magic.
John's Desert Island Tricks offers a masterclass in selecting effects that stand the test of time while allowing your personality to make them uniquely yours.
John’s Desert Island Tricks:
- Biddle Trick
- Triumph
- Cards across
- ACAAN
- Ambitious card
- Think a card
- One coin routine
- Card to impossible location
Banishment. Chinese Sticks
Book. Royal Road to Card Magic
Item. Personality
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
Faye Presto, wonderful, successful magician from London, England, said to me years ago the magic must always be strong, but you are the effing magic. You know your personality. You've got to take those tricks and hang your personality on them. You really, really have. You know, Don't copy what you see other magicians doing in terms of patter and presentation. Make it you. Take that trick and make it you, Because at the end of the day there's nobody like you. Everybody, you know everybody's special in their own way, you know.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Now it's very exciting because today we're in the studio. So we're actually at Alakazam HQ recording this one, which normally we don't, which means I've actually got today's guest in the studio. So we're actually at Alakazam HQ recording this one, which normally we don't, which means I've actually got today's guest in the room. Now today's guest is synonymous with Alakazam, really, because not only does he have so many incredible projects with us, but he has so many Alakazam academies with us as well, and he's always coming back and giving us even more incredible magic, and today is no different. We've actually filmed another trick today. He is an absolute font of all knowledge when it comes to card magic. He has some incredible best selling books. He's an absolute legend in our world and I'm so pleased that we finally got him here. We've been trying since the very beginning of the podcast to get him here. So today's guest, of course, is the wonderful john kerry. Hello, john hello jamie.
Speaker 1:How the hell are you?
Speaker 2:uh, very good now that we actually have you in the studio and we get to record this yeah, really looking forward to this.
Speaker 1:Uh, what the guys won't know is I got down here yesterday, been here today it's about sort of quarter four british time. Here as we're doing this, uh, mr nard mr nardy senior has managed to wrestle quite a bit of money out of my wallet. Uh, but some fantastic new products which, uh, I'm really looking forward to playing with and learning and performing with um and you guys are just great. You always make me feel so welcome. We have so much fun and thank you for the kind introduction.
Speaker 2:Well, it's true, the amount of how many books have you got?
Speaker 1:now Self-published. I think it's 12 or 13 books now. Oh wow, back in the day of DVDs, starting out with RSVP, rush, stevens, and then Alakazam and Big Blind Media with Owen and Liam Montier. Owen Packard, liam Montier, probably about 20, plus DVDs. Numerous academies probably 12, 15 or more academies with Alakazam, loads of downloads with them and Big Blind Media, penguin Penguin, the biggest, probably one of the biggest magic companies in the world, you know, big like Alakazam and Vanishing Inc I've done work with them as well downloads and Murphy's Magic the biggest wholesalers in the world. They flew me to Sacramento a number of years ago when I was on an East Coast lecture tour teaching magicians at their magic clubs.
Speaker 1:Those members of the public listen to this. Magicians go around and teach at magic clubs, just like maybe people who are experts at I don't know, bridge or card games or other non-card things might teach something. You know? Uh, I'm I'm lucky enough to have traveled all around the world about 25, 26 countries, uh, at the last count, um, new zealand, australia, usa, all over europe. Not bad for a not bad for a boy from a rough council estate in London. 15 years ago I was working as a ticket office salesman in a rather rough part of London selling tickets and giving information and taking abuse when the trains were cancelled and running late. I have to pinch myself. Basically, I'm lucky magic's given me a lovely quality of life.
Speaker 2:Well, this is a rarity, so normally I ask the guests not to send me their lists, because then it makes it a bit of a surprise for me. But I do have your list here and it is what I would sort of expect. I'm not going to give anything away, because obviously we we want to make this a surprise for people listening. But if I was playing John Kerry Bingo, I think I would have had maybe three or four of these.
Speaker 1:Of the eight you asked me to. Of the eight, yeah, the only reason you've got a list is I've been sort of running around chasing my tail before I got here yesterday to Alakazam HQ plus sort of getting sucked into the world of seeing the new releases. But you got them today and it's all good.
Speaker 2:Well, these are going to be a great choice. Now, if you are going to play John Kerry Bingo along with us, think about which tricks you think John would have there, especially if you have his books as well, and then maybe you too can fill in your John Kerry bingo card. Now, if this is the first time you're listening to the podcast, the idea is that we're about to maroon John on his very own magical island. When he's there, he's allowed to take eight tricks banish one item, or take one book and one non-magic item that he uses for magic particulars. Who's there? What's there? All of that good stuff, we do not mind. This island exists in John's own imagination. So, with that being said, let's find out what John has put in number one.
Speaker 1:So then, in number one of the eight books sorry, the eight tricks, I beg your pardon is an effect called the Biddle Trick. It's also known as wow and it's one of the finest impromptu, which means anytime, anywhere, regular deck of cards. Borrow a pack of cards if you can do that with the public in this day and age. Back in the day growing up, when I used to perform in pubs in london to get experience not for money, just to get experience there were always decks there because the guys were playing games of cards. The biddle trick is a great trick, without talking methods, because, jam, you don't want to be talking about methods for this, just the actual effect. It's amazing. You make a playing card vanish. But here's the conditions A card is selected, a spectator can sign their name on it if they want. It goes back in the pack and the magician says I'm going to attempt to cut to your card. I think it's one of these five cards. And you show those five cards and you say to a spectator don't tell me what your card is, but is your card amongst these five? And they say yeah. You say great, but there's more. We're going to take this another step further. You put those five cards inside a spectator's hand, they put their other hand on top. With my presentation of it and little tweaks, you're able to do a divination, like a mind road of their card, like two of hearts, keep two hearts, keep thinking of it, say over and over, two hearts, two hearts, two hearts and then. But it doesn't end there. Then you get all mysterious mr mojo, mr magic. You wave your hand or say your magic word, alakazam or whatever, and, uh, you get the spectator lift a hand and and deal to the table or in your hand the cards. There was five down, there's only four face down cards. And then, to cap it all, you get them to turn those cards over and their two hearts or whatever the card was, has vanished. But the trick doesn't end there. And the way I like to finish a trick I say cards are like people At the end of the day, after a hard day's work and toil, they like to go home.
Speaker 1:Now I look down to the deck of cards on the table. Also, what I like to do for magicians listening in, just because you can is to when I isolate the deck after taking the five cards off. In the trick, I put the cards away in the box, the card box, and I give that pack to a spectator to hold. Then you can take the box from them and there's distance and maybe the bigger the distance between you and the box makes the effect even stronger like the other side of a table or a bar. Then they open, take the cards out, you get them to spread them across the table or in their hands, or you can do it if the conditions are not conducive to that and face up, staring everybody in the face. Amongst all the face down cards is their card.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you this trick has been in my repertoire for more years than I care to remember, never mind tell you. I think it's one of the finest, strongest impromptu mysteries with a pack of cards that there is, and it had to be on my list. Think of all that magic. You get out of it a little bit of mind reading as well. If you wish to go that route and magicians who do this trick, you'll know exactly how to do that because the trick allows you to do it with any extra work.
Speaker 2:I think on alakazam unlimited, you have a version of the biddle trick on there a brand new version what we did.
Speaker 1:I think you pulled that from the academy in march.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think so. Uh, so it's called.
Speaker 1:Mr biddle takes a breather I think that was in the academy in march or maybe another product, but anyway, yeah, that's a streamlined handling for it. Uh, where there's a clue in the title, without saying anything about the methodology, just makes it super clean, yeah, super clean. But we're not going to talk methods today because you told me not to no, but we can talk about which one you prefer.
Speaker 2:So is there a certain handling that you favor over others?
Speaker 1:no, I've played around with lots of variations, but I returned to the original with the. Mr biddle takes a breather for the technical aspect of the routine because it makes it uber fair. Once the card has returned, you can put the pack on the table and um, the spectator can cut the deck a few times as well, and yet you've still got control of their, their selection. Uh, when I do the biddle trick because I think the trick is such a strong one, with the ending, with the cards go back to the box, they take the cards out of the box. I get the card signed, which theatrically, I think is good. It makes it stronger. But also, you never know some people with short attention spans magicians are the worst for this. They've got terrible memories for remembering a card when you perform for them, so signing it basically gives you that safety net.
Speaker 1:Jamie, I teach it to a lot of my students. I teach online when I do Zoom tuition, which I've continued since the pandemic, as well as in-person teaching. If people are close enough to come to me or me to them, because they're getting, even if they're like relatively new newbies or beginners yeah, it's just starting out because they're getting a world-class piece of card magic which would fit in any professional's repertoire. I think the trick is strong enough for TV. It's the kind of effect I'm sure David Blaine would use in a heartbeat, you know, if it had to be impromptu and stuff. But obviously David likes to do the stuff. He puts together with his team, daniel Garcia and some of his technical guys, you know. But it's a killer and it's not particularly hard to do for you new magicians, check it out.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a great entry in at number one. It's a real crab pleaser. That's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2:Well, that leads us to number two. So what did you put in your second spot?
Speaker 1:In my second spot I put Triumph. Triumph is a classic effect, which? Triumph is a classic effect which I first come across in the work of Di Vernon, the professor Google Di Vernon, d-a-r-n-v-e-r-n-o-n. Members of the public, magicians. Of course he needs no introduction In the Stars of Magic book in my early 20s, a wonderful book of card and close-up magic with material in there which is 95% of which is not dated. It's still bang up to date. You can perform that professionally anywhere without any problems.
Speaker 1:In effect, a card is selected, can be signed if you wish, returned to the pack, and the pack is split into two halves, half face up, half face down. The pack is riffle shuffled together like a Vegas poker shuffle on the table. You show a chaos of face up and face down cards, face to face, back to back, blah, blah, blah. You make your magic and then the pack is spread face down across the table and their selection is the only one face up in the deck. Some guys like to delay it by showing, turning the pack face up and slowly spreading and showing all face up and there's one face down that suddenly appears and you continue to face up spread. I've tried both ways and both theatrically have their strong points.
Speaker 1:Triumph is a classic trick. It's an absolute killer and there's been many versions since the Vernon original. We're going to talk about one of my favorite books later and the slop shuffle, as it's become known, or the tipsy trick, in the book I'm going to talk about later. T-i-p-s-y is a wonderful in-the-hands version, which I perform more than the table version, because a lot of time you haven't got the right conditions for doing tabletop riffle shuffles. So the in-the-hands slop shuffle version the tipsy trick is wonderful. Google that on YouTube and online A brilliant version. The effect is visual face up and face down. There's chaos and then bang. The whole pack straightens out from chaos to back to order, except for their selection. That's been in my repertoire again more years than I care to remember. As long as I'm walking on this earth I will continue to use it.
Speaker 2:I absolutely love it and it consistently delivers amazing reactions from the public well, I think it's another really great choice, and there are different versions which have come out over the year. I know john bannon has sort of a really interesting take on it. Um, costa kim lack obviously bought out the roadrunner cole and had his version of it. The version that you do now is it the slop shuffle or do you have a preferred handling?
Speaker 1:The slop shuffle probably 90, 95% of the time. Whenever I meet people in a social situation I use it. I don't gig at this moment where I'm going to be making a return when I go to spend well, live and work overseas. Shortly back to professional performance bars and restaurants where I started out years ago back when I lived in London. I live out in Hertfordshire now. That's the one I consistently use. But when the conditions are right I've used the Vernon version from the Stars of Magic.
Speaker 1:We've won two little personal tweaks in the technical side of it. I've used Bannon's in the hands version Last man Standing. There are so many versions out there. Paul Harris had a great version years ago called Color Stunner, where you have a card select from a blue back deck. You shuffle face up and face down and then the whole pack straightens out and then the whole pack changes color, like from blue to red. But as clever as that was, I think it muddies the waters a bit. I think the effect should be card is selected, returned, face up, face down, show up, face down, show the chaos, boom, bada, bang. Pack straightened out. There's a selection.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I'm jamie dawes or john carey. I'm out of here and people. Yeah, again for beginning students. A great trick to learn to build their repertoire and confidence, because it's not difficult to do the slop shuffle. Uh, a little bit of blatant self-promotion here. You can find me on Instagram, john Kerry Magician, or you can email me johnkerrymagic at gmailcom if you're interested in lessons at an affordable price. Sorry, jamie, but you know this is what I do, naughty you're naughty.
Speaker 2:I'm going to delete that later. Kerry, I'm the one editing it. We'll keep that in, and it's a great point. It's a great point. It's a great one to start with, but it's still one that lasts the test of time. It's one that so many people daily.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, little trick slop shuffle triumph.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not dated in any way, shape or form yep, absolutely well, it's a great choice in at number two and leads us nicely into a number three. So what's in your third spot?
Speaker 1:cards across classical trick, many, many versions of this in print and on videos and downloads, and Lord knows what. I learned my version from the book I'm going to talk about later as a young man and many ways of doing it, some with selected cards. I just do the version I learned from the book I'm going to talk about later A fantastic book the version I learned from the book I'm going to talk about later a fantastic book. Um, in effect, uh, a spectator can, in this version from the book I'm going to talk about, uh, can, cut off a pat, shuffle the deck. Uh, cut off a. You say don't cover a packet of cards somewhere between you know 10 and 20 cards, and count them on the table out loud, face down. Let's just say there's 15. And that spectator can hold that packet between their hands, 15 cards in this example. Now you make mystical gestures over the deck or snap your fingers or riffle the rest of the cards towards their hands. They're holding those 15 cards, remember, between their hands and you say I'm going to make three cards magically and mysteriously pass to your hand and remember you counted and dealt them, right, yeah, and they lift up their hand after you do your magical mojo, they deal and count them out loud onto the table and three cards have gone across. There was 15 and now there's 18. And the beautiful thing about this, it doesn't mention it in the book, because the book was many, many years ago. I'm going to talk about and see, I'm teaching you about at the moment. A lot of you magicians will know what it is by now, but the public maybe not.
Speaker 1:You can do a repeat. You can say, okay, square them up, give them to your wife or give them to your partner, your girlfriend, whatever. We're going to do that again with you. And you can make, you can do a. You can do a beautiful. You can do a beautiful repeat adding three cards. You say, oh, actually, we'll take it a step further. We'll make five cards go across. Absolutely love it because there's no selection.
Speaker 1:Spectators don't have to remember playing cards because you know what it's like working professionally, jamie, attention spans and distractions in real-world ambient, noise and situations. There's other versions where two spectators are involved that stage workers use. You could use in close-up, where each spectator gets 10 cards each and you make three go from one packet of 10 to another. So then, after the magic, there's only seven in one person's hand and 13 in the other. That's another way. Nothing wrong with that. I just prefer the version from the book I'm going to tell you about later. Nothing to add on that again. A great trick to show somebody just starting out with cards to build them confidence. Also, the method in the teaser book, as it's known at the moment, which I'll tell you about in a while. The method gives you absolute confidence in doing the technical, one little technical thing, because the cover for this is built into the trick the misdirection or the shade or the I don't know direction, attention or whatever.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, yeah well, I think it's one of the rare card tricks as well, where it plays just as well in a parlor or stage performance than close up, and and I'm not talking about a card trick which is adapted to be good on stage it is verbatim as good on stage as it is close up.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I mean, you could maybe quite easily use this if you were doing a parlour show for 60, 80, 90 people, as you would maybe a group of five or six people in a restaurant. Obviously you might tweak the presentation accordingly because you're working a bigger venue and a smaller venue. But methodologically speaking, why not? And you don't have to compromise between big and small, like you say, because sometimes some people try to make close-up tricks into stage tricks and it doesn't always work. It doesn't always travel across well, whereas with this version it does. As I mentioned at the beginning, there are versions out there just again typing cards across on YouTube or Google, involving selections that go across. I want this to be just the quantity, the visual aspect of free cards going across and with the Kike, where you can make another three or five cards go across, that's enough.
Speaker 1:Cards are translocating, teleporting, call it what you will, from one place to another. The effect can be described. Yeah, I dealt 15 cards down on the table, covered them in my hands and then this geezer called Jamie he made three cards fly across. I counted them, they're 18. Then he gave them to my missus and he made another three cards go across to her hand I had. Then he gave them to my missus and he made another three cards go across to her hand. I had no idea. I mean they can describe the effect in one or two sentences and it's true, that is the effect.
Speaker 2:You can tell I'm passionate about this shit, can't you? Yeah, well, it's such a great trick and you know, I think, what's interesting about this one in terms of looking at your list as a whole and I know people listening at this point don't have a whole idea of what you're about to say but it's the only one where the cards are inconsequential to the routine, because the cards are being used as a prop in their own right as opposed to being selections.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's nothing to do with the characteristics of the cards in terms of the colours of the back or the suits or the values or numbers that you've been using as objects. I mean, you could quite easily with this have a big pouch of coins and tip out 10 coins onto the table, if you don't want to do a card trick, just thinking on the flyer and you say to the spectator would you pick those up and count those 10p pieces or quarters or whatever that currency, all the same denomination down the table? How many 10. Not one more, not one less 10. You counted them, yeah, hold them in your hand and then you could say then you could maybe say in my pocket I've got three other coins. This makes it a different trick. You can then make those three coins, using magicians methods, vanish. They've all together or one at a time, and then have three coins travel across into the spectator's hands. So when they count those 10ps or quarters or euros, there's now 13.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I went off on that tangent. There's nothing inherently wrong with that and magicians who've got a knowledge of slights and stuff. You can easily work out a a way of doing that. Or you could say if you haven't got three. I've got three invisible coins. Here's one I'm going to fly that across to your 10. Here's another oh you, so Do you reach out and you can get the spectator involved to pantomime it and throw that across. How many did you count 10.? But we played a game of imagination. 10 plus 3 is that's the answer. Count them, boom.
Speaker 2:You mentioned coins. I've seen it done with notes before, but even slices of cheese I've seen performed. As you do as you do as you do, why not?
Speaker 1:You could do it with cheese and you'd say over here, I've got three little squares of cheese and you could eat each cheese and go, not literally, you eat them, them, and then they open their hands, and now there's three. Anyway, shall we wrap this one up?
Speaker 2:Well, let's move on to a number four. So what did you put in your fourth spot?
Speaker 1:ACAN, which is an acronym for any card at any number. Many, many versions of this. Jamie, who does a lot more mentalism than me, will know that mentalists, magicians, are obsessed with this effect. It's almost like a, but they're all looking for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail means by like what the late great David Berg last used to do. You know, a card was named, the number a card was named, say the six of diamonds, a number from one to 52 was named, say 24. And then the cards would be dealt down. And there's that card Commonly known as the Berg glass effect B-E-R-G-L-A-S. For you people who are not magicians, who'd like to do a little bit of online research yeah, but they're all looking for the Holy Grail.
Speaker 1:I'm not at liberty to talk about Mr Burglass's strategies and methodologies, however. You know there is compromise. You know it's not always the same in terms of David's thing. You know you have to. I want to be a bit subtle here because I don't want to talk about methods. But there's card at any number. I've got versions where a card is physically taken, put back in the pack. I say, to respect, you're going to do some dealing, so I don't want you to be here all day.
Speaker 1:Give me a number from 10 to 20. 15? Count the cards, bang, there's the card. Is it as strong as Mr Burglass? Is any card named any number? Maybe not, but it's still a card at any number. It's not a holy grail is what a lot of magicians refer to, but I like the idea of a card is selected or named, a number is named and whatever method you're going to use. Why I like it is because it's a creative springboard. I got so many unpublished methods and I'm always thinking about the idea of the plot, but what I try to do is do it without slides if possible, just as a challenge, really, you know, without moves and adjustments. Moves, you know, just using strategy and stuff and some sneaky stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, there's so many versions of it and we mentioned, or you just mentioned, any card at any number, but there's also card at prediction.
Speaker 1:So when we think about the grail, which is probably one of my favorite versions of this plot, which is something alakazam and peter nardi put out some time ago and they've really ramped it up recently with the re, uh, with the, with a sort of updated version and bonus handlings. Uh, mike Rose's the Growl, which Peter has taken to another level with his impromptu handling, which he fooled me badly with, is absolutely outstanding. Yes, you have to buy something to do it from alakazammagiccouk. See, I said I'd do no more plugs, but I'm plugging for Alakazam, you know. I think that should give me even more discount on the merch I bought the last two days. It's wonderful.
Speaker 1:I remember when Peter first did it for me at Blackpool when the original version was launched X number of years ago, and it fooled the blah blah out of me, fooled the bajabbers out of me it's so clean. And then, a couple of years later, I saw Randy, the customer services manager for Alakazam, perform it in the shop and I've forgotten how strong it is. Is it hard to do? No, it's not hard to do. If you guys are magicians, are finding your way, check it out. The growl G-R-A-I-L. Beautiful effect. Peter's impromptu handling with the new growl is amazing and all the bonus add-ons you get is just incredible. I think it's one of the best packaged versions of that, in other words, something you've got to buy to be able to do, so check out Alakazam for that as well.
Speaker 2:Well, I think ACAN is a great shout. Now, if you were teaching one of your students and they wanted to get into ACAN, where would you recommend them to start?
Speaker 1:Start with the risk of being whatever the word is I can't find them and maybe something simple of mine, where a card is named in a face-up spread and say the six of diamonds, the pack is closed up and, in effect, the pack is given a shuffle. And then you say numbers play an important role in our lives. This is my basic presentation your door number, your car registration number, your bank code number, your lottery numbers, etc. You're going to do some dealing in a moment and we're going to play a little ritual and the people say okay, so we're not here all day. Give me a number between 10 and 20. And they say 14, wouldn't change your mind? Yeah, 17, you happy, yeah. And you get the spectator say now we're going to start the ritual and I've got some funny business for the hands right on my right hand, palm up. They do that palm and then we bring the hands up vertically and we go palm to palm and slap each just a bit of fun. So the ritual has started. You sell and put this. They change to 17, for example. Now the ritual firstly, you're going to deal 17 cards face down to the table. That's the first part of the ritual. Now, remember if you just had a different number, there would be different cards here because there'd be less or more.
Speaker 1:Now we may use numerology, which is a pseudoscience or like a fortune-telling device to tell about people's personality traits, and like fortune-telling and stuff. The number of 17, if we break it down, is a 1 to 7. So I want you to deal and stuff the number of seven. 17, we break it down, is a one to seven. So when you deal one card, pick up that packet of 17,. Deal one. Now, deal seven. You could have said any number, you named any card, you shuffled that pack and they can in this method. What was your card? Six of dimes or whatever. Turn over that card on the table and there it is. No, it's not a birth last holy ground, but it's a very, very practical method.
Speaker 1:I've got some interesting presentation which I'm going to keep to myself for the time being before I kind of put it out there with variations to do numerology and fortune telling and stuff, and it's very, very easy to do. It's not a holy grail, it's not any card at n number, but it is a genuinely named card from a spectator. Shuffle, pack, um at any number, not any number because you say you're going to do some dealing. I don't want you to be here all day. Let's make it between 10 and 20. Other versions, though mechanical versions Peter's Grail, we talked about. Mike Rose released it with Peter years ago and Peter's upgraded it and souped it up with Alakazam that version. Other versions Brent Braun's got a version I can't remember the name of which comes with a mechanical deck. That's worth checking out. Can't remember the name of it.
Speaker 2:Uh, that's about it, really, jay okay, well, there we go, and it leads us very nicely into number five number five is a classic, um, an absolute classic.
Speaker 1:It's called the ambitious card.
Speaker 1:The ambitious card, in effect, a card is selected and signed, it's returned to the pack and it jumps to the top of the pack. Use well whatever presentation you want, and then you can repeat that over and over and over again. Two minute magicians do too many phases, in my opinion. I think three minimum, five maximum is enough, and the effect should get stronger and stronger and stronger. It should build. As soon as the effect starts to plateau, level off or God forbid dip in terms of reaction, then you've got a problem. That's why it shouldn't be too many phases. And it's great because you can jazz it as well. What I mean by that? Magicians who've got lots of techniques and concepts can use different moves and sleight of hand techniques, and it's like a Chinese menu almost. You can pick one from there and one from there.
Speaker 1:My ambitious card is never the same, jamie. I always jazz it and the finish is different. The finish must always be the strongest point, obviously like a theatric here, like in any piece of magical mentalism. What's great is, though, it's never the same. It out the same. The card is selected and signed. I've got about nine or ten different finishes for it. Uh, in terms of, like you know, uh, visual finishes, impossible finishes, where it's all hands off, where the spectators mix in the cards apparently, and yet the card still ends up on top. The classic version where you bend the card uh, short ends, you bend it and bow it. You put that card in the middle. David Blaine made a sensation with it years ago. It's not his, it's by a guy called Fred Browey Frederick Brow, he was in expert card technique donkeys years ago and the card visibly pops up on top. You turn it over and there's a signed card.
Speaker 1:Some magicians like to go to the wallet, don't they, jamie? The sign selection card goes to the wallet. I don't mean that's so great. I think the card to wallet, a signed card, vanishing from the pack and appearing in the wallet, is a one and done. Just my personal opinion. We're all got opinions. The ambitious card is about that card coming to the top.
Speaker 1:There are exceptions to that the late great tommy wonder, one of my idols and heroes. He used to place a little brown box on the table. He said I've got've got a little surprise for you. And he put that box on the table, little wooden like a ring box and he'd do his routine with some wonderful moments of magic and comedy and then at the end the sign card ended up in the box on the table. I think that's better. Even though you're going to an object like the wallet, the box is on the table at the beginning. It's like a mystery object here, whereas the cards of the wallet you have to usually with most versions anyway, have the wallet in your pocket and bring it out. But I don't want to carry on waxing on about that, it's just my opinion. But Tommy's routine is one of the finest routines, never mind the finish, which a lot of magicians will know the method for.
Speaker 1:Check out Tommy Wonder, tommy, the name Wonder as in wonder on YouTube Tommy Wonder, ambitious card. It'll be one of the best six minutes you'll invest, magically speaking, in your life. I've watched that video so many times. It just inspires me. Whenever I get a bit jaded, I watch Tommy. I just do Tommy Wonder in general magic. But Tommy Wonder, ambitious card. And, like I say, the effect must build, build. There's so many. Once you've got knowledge of different slides and moves and stuff, there's so many ways to do it which makes it interesting like a piece of jazz music, jamming on piano or guitar or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know, it would be a shame for it not to be in your list, um, considering that you're such a prolific card uh creator. My question, the only question I have, really, is that you mentioned that you have several different endings. Do you have a preferred ending to yours?
Speaker 1:no, I don't, honestly. I'll use that pop-up card which is not mine. I'll use a hands-off version where the spectator can shuffle the deck and, prior to the finish, and they can turn over the top card and I'm not compromising there. They, they give the pack a shuffle on the table and um, and the card ends up on top. And there's other versions. I've got another version where a small number is named and I can make that card appear. I say it keeps coming to the top, but let's make it a smaller number. Give me a small number and I say four. They count down four and there's the card, so it can appear anywhere. I want, on command, lots of different versions. You know too many to mention, but it's fun and what I like is. What I like is it's never the same. You know, never the same.
Speaker 3:Hey guys, harry here from Alakazam Magic, I hope you're enjoying the podcast. I'm just here to interrupt and tell you a little bit about the Alakazam Magic Convention. It has taken us 35 years to get to this date. However, may the 9th 2026 will be the very first Alakazam Magic Convention. Now I know you guys are super excited, maybe just as excited as we are. First of all, the venue is a 37 minute direct train from central london. The venue is then literally a 10 minute walk from the train station. There's hotels within a stone's throw, there's restaurants nearby and there's incredible food and drink on site. That's all without even getting into the magic side of things. We are going to have four incredible lecturers performing throughout the day, including one person who's going to be flying over to the very first UK lecture. We are buzzing to announce who those four are. Not only that, there'll be dealers on site and a place for you guys to jam and session and meet new friends.
Speaker 3:Where are the lectures going to be held? This is my personal favorite bit about the alexander convention. They're going to be happening in one of the cinema screens. That means fully tiered seating, comfy seats, a drink holder and there will be a close-up camera on the jumbo cinema screen that will be giving you close-ups of all the little nuances that you're going to need to see when the lecturers are performing. There will, of course, be a full gala show to end the evening off. You guys are not going to want to miss it. The great thing is as well on the sunday, the day after, alakazam magic shop, which is a two minute drive, will be open. So if you're heading down to the convention, why not stay overnight and come and visit our magic shop? Remember, may the 9th 2026 tickets on sale now at alakazamcouk.
Speaker 2:See you guys soon yep, well, I think that's a great entry in at number five and leads us to number six. So what's?
Speaker 1:in your six spot. Number six is think a card, a spectator. You show a spectator a deck of cards, you show the faces of those cards, they think of one, you tell them what it is, or you rotate it, or you make it appear in your pocket or whatever you want to do. Uh, the first person I saw do this kind of work was the late joe riding. Joe riding was a wonderful magician, cabaret and close up magician from uh, from Lancashire, blackpool, up that way.
Speaker 1:I saw him for many years at the Blackpool Convention, a lovely big northern guy, big, cuddly teddy bear of a guy and he was always entertaining at the bar at the convention, you know, during the day or when all the dealer shows and the dealer demonstrations were finished and people were having drinks and I always remember joe doing. I mean, I can't do a lancashire accent, but essentially we go ah, lovely to see you, john, how's it going, how's the magic going? Yeah, I'll tell you what. Just think of one. You've got one. Yeah, and he would get it time and time again and it really hit me hard. And then later on, uh, I didn't go to blackpool for a number of got arrested for a few years during my youth and into my 20s and I went up to Blackpool a couple of days before the convention and went to the man, the myth and legend, mr Mark Mason's magic shop he had then. This was one of his first shops. He then moved to another premises. I didn't know that. Mark and Joe were great friends and Mark did essentially the riding method, which I'm not going to talk about, obviously, because we're not talking methods on me.
Speaker 1:You know, john, you can see these cards. Yeah, just look at one, just remember one. You've got one, you're thinking of one and he would do it and he'd do it again and he'd do it again and sometimes he'd say what was your card? Six of clubs. Oh really, I said, seen the six of clubs. I said why? Because I've got one card in my pocket I put here. Before I come here today to work at the shop, I need to show the card and all sorts of crazy stuff. And the great thing here is jamie.
Speaker 1:I don't need to tell you, as an experienced magician and mentalist and performer and creator for the public, what makes it stronger stronger, I think, is that they're actually thinking of a card. They're not saying it out loud, they're not writing it down physically taking it or stopping at a card. They're thinking of a card. They're not saying it out loud, they're not writing it down, physically taking it or stopping at a card. They're thinking of a card. And there's lots of work out there. Some of the strongest work in modern times is by my great friend, danny Daughtry, from Estopano. They met in the region of Malaga in Spain. Danny's got some incredible work. If you go on Groupacaps or Daughtry Auties World subscription services, just type in again good old Google, but YouTube, danny Auties, just look at anything at Danny Auties. If you want inspiration, magicians and the public, you just want to watch stuff which is going to just blah, blah your mind.
Speaker 1:But yeah, 4th of card, I don't really have work on it. Really I've got effects which create the impression of a 4th of card, but in terms of, I pretty much do the riding method, the riding method which Mark Mason and then later on, harry Robson and Matthew Wright who are all based up in that region Lancashire, burnley and Preston up. That way, joe was their final mentor growing up and it's interesting to see him, you know. And Harry passed on the baton to Matthew because they're great friends and showed Matthew when he was younger, matthew's created a reputation. He's a real reputation maker. If you're not doing Thinker card, a great mechanical version and I'm going to get accused of shilling for my mate Peter Nardi, here at Alakazam is his Limitless deck that creates a beautiful Thinker card, limitless Alakazam magic. End of plug. Two plugs for Nardi, two for me. End of plugs today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we think about that. So, number one, I think, when someone says, think of a card, I think it's one of the strongest things that you can do to someone. Yeah, as opposed to see a card, yeah, just think a card is amazing, and I know that.
Speaker 1:See Invisible Pack. Obviously in the Brainwave deck I should have mentioned you can do that mechanical options. The invisible deck is any card is named. The pack can be on the table at the beginning, in full view, without compromise. You say the five of spades before I came here today. Look, all these cards are face up, but I turn one card over face down and that is the card and I'm not leaving anything out there. Jamie, if you or I perform this for the public, that's exactly what they see and experience, right yeah, mm-hmm, yeah, absolutely, and I know Leo Smetzer's has a brilliant one that Harry does incredibly well.
Speaker 2:What's that called? I don't know if it has a name, but it's on his lecture which is on Unlimited, and one of my favourite versions is by Alan Kronzek. It's called Think of One.
Speaker 1:That's a great version, yeah, and John Bannon's got a variation on that called AK-47. And Alan's version before Bannon's AK-47 inspired my version's Think and Sink, which were in Minimalistica, and one or two of my further volumes after Minimalistica books. I'm talking about An interesting way of going down the route of combining the the physical or physical action by the spectator, with a mental action, all inspired by kronzak, though uh, and then bannon. I have think and think and then bannon put out ak-47. Uh and uh, yeah, great fun yeah, they're both good.
Speaker 2:Well, that brings us into the tail end of your eight with number seven. So what did you put in your seventh spot?
Speaker 1:the dancing cane. No, I'm joking. A one coin routine, uh, a non-card item. One coin routine for members of the public is you magically produce a coin like a dollar coin, a bitcoin or whatever, or you just bring it out your pocket or you, and that coin vanishes and reappears, jumps up your arm, appears behind your elbow and then sometimes grows bigger at the end into a big, jumbo-sized coin.
Speaker 1:I've chose this because this was a bread-and-butter trick for me when I used to do corporate work in London, when I lived in London many years ago, doing cocktails, pre-dinner drinks, walking around for 45 minutes to an hour before the guests of that company at their party or what have. You sat down at that posh hotel and it was great because the people were holding champagne and canapes. They don't want to be picking out cards and things. So you need something visual and I go up and sort of say hi, everybody, my name's John. I'm one of the magicians here this evening, but don't worry, it's nothing illegal, I do magic. Some people call it a job. Some people call it sleight of hand. I call it a job, which is lines I kind of learned from a Jay Sankey article in Magical Arts Journal, a magazine for magicians years ago. I don't say, by the way, to magicians, this is advice from magicians starting out would you like to see some magic? Because that gives them the chance to say no Before they know it. I magically produce a coin using a sleight of hand technique and then there's five or six moments where the coin vanishes in different ways, reappears and at the end I use the late great david roff's finish. David roff was a wonderful coin magician for you members of the public, who sadly left us what in the last two, three years, I would say 18 months or two years ago, a legend, the maestro and probably the finest coin manipulator of all time, guy Vernon, said that the professor where you make the half a dollar, which is like a 50p or two pound size coin in the UK, changing to a big jumbo, three or five inch replica of that coin. Like I say, it was visual eye candy. Other people were around the venue, can see things happening. It's got visibility and motion. It's colorful and you've got and motion, it's colourful and you've got that finish as well at the end. That was really an old faithful, you know, and the great thing is, I can do that routine anywhere in the world. I've got a coin of a decent size and I can always do an effect.
Speaker 1:One thing that really kind of cheeses me off which in English, saying for you foreign guys kind of makes me a little bit mad is magicians say oh, I've got nothing with me. Well, you've got your knowledge. If you can vanish a coin a few ways and stuff, if you haven't got your pack of cards or your special magical gizmos and apparatus, no problem, Just do something with a coin, vanish it a few times. Pulling a coin out from behind somebody's ear for the public is amazing. We get blasé as magicians about this. But you should always be able to work, which is why I think mentalism, which I know you absolutely love, and I love mentalism. The last few years I've started to purchase and invest in various books and tutorials, video and physical. Like books and manuscripts. You know, just a few scraps of paper you can blow minds without no pun intended, right, jay? So you should always be out of work. Yeah, the one coin routine great, because you can do it anywhere professionally.
Speaker 1:If you haven't got the big coin for the finish, what I used to do sometimes is change it or I would show the say I'm working in england, 50 pence piece. Put it in my right hand, put it in my left hand. I said, have you heard of a fruit machine? Yeah, and I would snap my fingers and open my hand. There's like about 10 pounds worth of loose change in there and I'd tip it on the table or the bar. So it was like a slot machine type finish for our American friends. Yeah, or I would change it into a banknote. I would change it into a folded up £20 note or something. Unfold that note and say I say you make money, put that note away and I'm done. Anyway, that's literally all I can say on that. Anytime, anywhere, magic, professionally or socially.
Speaker 2:And I guess it's almost like the queen equivalent of the ambitious card right, because it can be just jazz and each time it will be completely different yeah, absolutely, jamie.
Speaker 1:Um, it's never the same chinese menu, one from here, one from there, one from everywhere. Uh, again, I like the ambitious card and again some magicians. I think they get carried away with their enthusiasm. Nothing wrong with that, not too many phases. And again, it must build. It mustn't plateau or dip. If it starts plateauing or God forbid dipping, then you've got a problem. Less is more, you know it really is. You know Three or four phases of an ambitious or a one-coin routine is enough most of the time. Five tops, tops. You know I've seen some incredibly talented performers from overseas online and instagram and youtube, but it's after a while. You've got to be careful because otherwise it becomes a game of like where's the coin, or guess the coin or find the coin, and that's not magic well, I think that's a great one in a number seven and leads us to your final choice.
Speaker 2:So what's in at number eight? Card to impossible location.
Speaker 1:I alluded to Tommy Wonder earlier, with a folded card, signed folded card in the box at the end of his ambitious card routine, or a card to a wallet, or a card to a piece of fruit, if you work stand-up. I've seen guys do a card to an orange before, which is incredible. It's a real head blah blah for a layman to see a signed playing card appear inside an impossible location A piece of fruit, a box, a wallet, there's other things where it appears inside something that's bound up with rubber bands or whatever and it's completely impossible. It's not the kind of card trick a member of the public would expect to see, the kind of card trick a member of the public would expect to see. It's different from the kind of trick which everybody started out with, which was their uncle bob's three piles of seven, the 21 card trick. Yeah, this is a signed selection, or sometimes not signed, but a selection appearing in an impossible location. Um, and it's fantastic. So many methods. Um, I haven't got any original work on it but it's great Is.
Speaker 2:Tommy Wonders, your favourite version of this plot, then, or do you have a preferred version?
Speaker 1:No, probably. That version is probably my favourite. Years ago I used to own it before Tommy published his method on a set of videos with L&L Publishing in America. I used to use John Kennedy's mystery box where a folded cyan carbon would end up in a rather lovely little brown box, wooden box. Uh, that for many years was a go-to. Um, another impossible location, which is funny as well, a classic. It's not for everywhere and everybody is um card in mouth. I used to use that in the pub back in the day when I got my flight time learning not for money, just for experience in my teens where a signed card or a selected card ends up folded up in your mouth. You know you can't find. You try to cut to it a couple of times, it's not there. And then, and then suddenly a foldy card appears between your teeth. You take it out, you unfold it and there's the card, strong, magic and funny. As you know what really really funny. Um, lots of other methods. Uh mentioned earlier peter's limitless deck and mechanical deck.
Speaker 2:If you use that in conjunction with having a thought of card appear in impossible location without giving any methodology right, jamie yeah, well, I think they're all great and cards of impossible location is something that I think everyone should do a version of. But just going back over your list, so we started with the Biddle Trick to Triumph Cards Across Akan, ambitious Card, thinker Card, the only non-card trick that we've got in here, which was the One Coin Routine and Card to Impossible Location. Now, the only thing on my John Kerry bingo that wasn't there was some sort of dice trick. On my John Kerry bingo that wasn't, there was some sort of dice trick. I did have that. Maybe you would do a dice trick because you're so well known now for doing some incredible tricks with dice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had dice, telepathy and one or two other things, but I was limited to eight. And, by the way, with card to impossible location. If you take one or two of those words around, actually just use the last two words impossible location. That's one of my all-time favorites and there's various versions where it's not a card vanishing from the deck, it's a card which is selected in the cleanest possible way by a spectator. It's all hands off.
Speaker 1:The magician mentalist never touches the pack and yet you're able to pick up the deck, spread through and locate it or produce it where the conditions are so strong. We never touch the cards. You know, I cut to a card, I put it back, I cut the cards and I cut the cards again. He told me to deal a few cards and then he found my card impossible location. I would tag on to cards for impossible location, not as a commercial trick for you guys going out there working tables, where time is important, you've got to cover x amount of tables and and ground in an hour and a half or two hours or wherever you've got but for the right people in the right time.
Speaker 1:That is a killer, and also another one. This is naughty. I'm gonna add it on, because it'd be remiss of me not to, so I forgot to put it on my list is the trick that cannot be explained, which is a a diverting thing Stuart James as well. Two legends, which is never the same, and this is all in part. It's like an impossible prediction of a card from a regular deck which you can borrow, and the trick it's not physical sleight of hand, it's strategy and manipulating the spectators rather than the cards. It's never the same, but we haven't got time to really go into that. The trick that cannot be explained, though, is an absolute all-time favorite. I'll give you 10 there. I've been naughty, mr doors, but I wanted to put it on. Hey, it's my pod agreed, agree.
Speaker 2:Well, we've given you eight tricks, but you're only allowed one each of these. So I want you to imagine that you're about to dig a big sandy hole on your island. You're going to throw one thing inside it and then you're going to bury it to never be seen again. What did you banish?
Speaker 1:the chinese sticks, whether it comes to mind. I hate the bloody thing, you know. I mean, I've seen comedy performers do it and it's funny, you know, if you members of the public who don't know what it is, or you bring out like two bamboo sticks or two magic wands, black ones with white tips and they've got tassels on them, and you hold them and you pull one tassel down I'm trying to describe it actually because I haven't seen it for ages one tassel moves as the other one goes back and all this kind of stuff and you cross them over and it still works. You do it above your head and yeah, if you're a comedian, naturally funny person, it could like a comedian or a comedy guy or a lady. It can be funny, but for me there's no magic in that.
Speaker 1:The version where there was magic which I loved was the late great Ali Bongo's pom-pom prayer sticks, where there's pom-poms and at the end you break this big tube open. It was like a big long tube. It wasn't two sticks and you've got colored pom-poms at each end and when you pull one down, the other one goes up and vice versa. And then when you pull it apart, like the big long tube into two small tubes. You pull it apart and I believe everything can be looked at if you wanted it. But it's a stage piece anyway. Why would people want to look at it? That's better. But uh, the chinese sticks, uh, that can get buried forever, and a few other things as well. But that'll do for today. I just don't see the magic in it okay, well, there you go.
Speaker 2:I wonder if anyone will find and well, leo smetzer's has got sort of a version that is, uh, makes a bit more sense, but I wonder if someone will find a way to make a prop that makes sense. So the trick is the same trick, yeah, but the prop makes sense in the real world?
Speaker 1:Possibly I won't, because I don't want to waste time on thinking about that blah blah trick.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that's buried, gone forever.
Speaker 1:Do you want to hear a groaner of a joke? Because you know I like a groaner of a joke sometimes. The past, the present and the future Walking to a pub in London. It was intense.
Speaker 2:So we've got your book. What did you put in your book position?
Speaker 1:The Royal Road to Card Magic, jean-hugues, frederick Brouwer. I bought this in 1986 after witnessing the late great Kevin Ray, who became my teacher, performing on the international close-up the island the night before. I was only 16 years of age. Then, after the show, I went to see him and he was working with Mike O'Brien, a great British stand-up and close-up worker from England, and the late great Aldo Colombini, from Italy, who later relocated and became an American citizen, went up to Kevin afterwards after seeing the most amazing magic. He did the three cups and balls trick. He did the triumph trick I mentioned earlier, the Vernon one, essentially with some technical embellishments, and he did Al Schneider's matrix, which for the layman is four coins for like $4 or $4.50. I put in a square, they're each covered with a playing card, and all four coins assemble. And it just blew my mind because I was just buying little novelties from a company called Supreme Magic by mail order. There was no into that, and I'm 57 and I'm getting on, you know. And I went up to him and he was so gracious, so humble, and that's how Kevin was. We lost him way too soon. He became my teacher.
Speaker 1:The next morning after that IBM convention we'd arranged to meet at Magic Books by Post because, ladies and gentlemen, in the public we have trade fairs for magicians to buy books and tricks and videos and apparatus, playing cards and whatnot. And I met him for a coffee and we went over to a company called Magic Books by Post and they had a huge triple-sized stand and he asked Betty and Donald Wallace, the proprietors, to pass me over that orange hardbound book with the orange dust jacket and it was called the Royal Road to Card Magic. Passed me over that orange hardbound book with the orange dust jacket and it was called the Royal Road to Card Magic. That book changed my life. I don't think I'd be doing magic now today if I didn't get that book from Kevin. And what we did? We exchanged home telephone numbers because, again, this was an era where there was no cell or smartphones, mobile phones for aspirates, and I had the honor of, every two to three weeks, meeting up with Kevin and he said to me just one chapter at a time, because the beauty of that book each chapter teaches you a concept and it gives you three or four tricks to learn. So it's a perfect book for a newbie or beginner magician or magician. And Kevin said don't jump to chapter two, work hard.
Speaker 1:Chapter one was overhand shuffles and magic tricks. With the over, just the shuffle in your hand, which you know you can do tricks with. Learn how to shuffle the cards nice and neatly, learn how to spread them, learn how to cut them and learn those three tricks. And I met him and went through it. He praised me on one or two things. He gave me some critique from one or two other things and this was a man who was the first British magician to have the honour of being booked for the late great Paul Daniels magic show in England which back in the day before all the satellite and cable companies consistently used to reach 19, 20 million viewers prime time on a Saturday night on the BBC in England.
Speaker 1:Kevin was a three-time winner of the Ron McMillan International Close-Up Magic Competition, which was akin in standard back in the day to FISM, which is the World Championship of Magic. The standard was that high. Many people who won Ron McMillan's International Close-Up Magic Competition, including Lennox Green and others, went on to win FISM in card and close-up magic. So to have somebody like him, with his dedication and focus, instilled discipline and focus in this chunky little four-eyed kid from North London. It was emotional thinking about it. It truly was a pleasure. He was a brother from another mother, jay. I miss him. Oh, a little emotional moment there because so many lovely memories. My late mum and dad used to love him. He stayed with us a few times when he was finding life tough, paying the bills and stuff. I used to sleep on the sofa and let him have my bedroom, he and I.
Speaker 2:God bless you, kev, love you well, that's a great choice, uh, and I'm sure a lot of us worked out which one you were going to put in there, because it's just such a phenomenal book, but it does lead us, very sadly, to your last thing. So what's your non-magic item that you use for magic?
Speaker 1:my crazy personality. Uh, I don't use, like you know, external apparatus. Uh, with with tricks, in this day and age, magicians are always banging on about EDCs, which, for members of the public, is everyday carries, and the most important everyday carry is not the tricks. The tricks must always be strong, but you are the magic Carry yourself, the personality. Non-magic things are used for magic. I can't really give you a definitive answer there, jamie, because there's nothing. Like you know, I don't use a magic. I don't use an object from the household with my magic, you know. So that was one I was struggling with when I was thinking about it at the hotel this morning before I came down to Alakazam to see you and Peter in the glass today.
Speaker 2:Sorry, no, we can give you personality. It's your list, so it's your….
Speaker 1:Yeah, because Faye Presto, wonderful, successful magician from London, england, said to me years ago the magic must always be strong, but you are the effing magic. You know your personality. You've got to take those tricks and hang your personality on them. You know, you really, really have. You know and don't copy what you see other magicians doing in terms of patter and presentation. Make it you. Take that trick and make it you, because again today there's nobody like you. Everybody, you know everybody's special in their own way, you know well, we'll give you that.
Speaker 2:We'll give you personality, so I've given you value in my answers. With the other topics you have 100, so let's go back over your list one last time. We have biddle trick triumph cards across a can. Ambitious card, thinker card, one coin routine card to impossible location. Your banishment was the chinese sticks, your book was the royal road to card magic and your item was personality. What a great card set thank you very much indeed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, you know, uh, if I were, if you asked me for like 20 effects, I could have probably filled that up and it would have been more non-card. But it was nice to actually box me in on eight, even though I've got a bit cheeky at the end with, as well as card to impossible location, an impossible location of a car where the conditions make the trick, where they, they, shuffle, they cut, you, look away and yet you're able to read their mind, apparently, and name their card or physically take it out of the pack, or and uh, the trick, to kind of be explained, an impossible prediction. You know, a pack of spectators shuffles members of the public. Imagine this scenario. This is how this can pan out. They shuffle a regular, regular deck which could be their deck. Yeah, you take the pack back and you say there's power in the name. Mary isn't there. We haven't met before today, have we Mary? No, I've got a prediction here.
Speaker 1:I carry it in my pocket or my wallet and you put a face-down card from a different colored pack on the table and you say, yeah, there's a power in her name. I want you to remember this. They're your cards. Yeah, yeah, you shuffled that pack. Yeah, and I've just said two or three times, there's power in her name. Well, we're going to make a spell, like a magic spell, but using your name.
Speaker 1:Deal the cards, pick up the deck and spell your name, dealing one card at a time for your name M-A-R-Y. Hold that card, don't turn it over yet. This is my card. This card goes with me everywhere, like my credit card. I guess you could call it a lucky card or a mystery card. Mine is a two of hearts. What card is yours? Two of hearts? I guess two hearts really do beat as one bang and you've got an impossible prediction, or? Yeah, you know, jamie, the thing I can't. I could do a talk about that effect. Maybe I will with peter and you guys, but one day where we talk about that effect Actually, I did a download with Alakazam, you guys. One last plug for Kerry, but also for Alakazam at the same time, called who Says? My work on the trick cannot be explained. Worth checking out, guys, and not very expensive $8,999 from Alakazam. It's also unlimited, I think. Maybe, if it's not, put it on there, if you want, jay, with my blessing, with Peter's blessing as well, but anyway, yeah, so, that's it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a great, great list. Now, if people want to find out more about you, where you're going to be, your books, your projects, all of that good stuff, where can they go?
Speaker 1:Instagram John Kerry Magician Lots of videos in there. If you do enjoy Instagram John Kerry Magician Lots of videos in there. If you do enjoy, you'll see some stuff from products. I've recently deleted my Facebook app for personal reasons. I just need some space and time away from that. It was taking up too much of my time. Johnkerrymagic at gmailcom. If you've got questions, facebook Messenger. I've still got John Kerry Facebook Messenger, but if there's anybody interested in like Zoom lessons and stuff like that, facebook Messenger or Instagram Messenger are good places. Or my email johncaremagic at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Well, there you go. Thank you so much, John, for jumping on this.
Speaker 1:It's an absolute pleasure. An absolute pleasure, and I just want to say what I say at all of my lectures for the last five or six years around the world, something that Michael Murray, our wonderful friend, the genius mentalist from Newcastle. He found this piece of prose or poetry online years ago. I think it comes from a film actually called Kung Fu Panda or something. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but food panda or something. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is the gift and they call it the present.
Speaker 2:thanks for having me jamie. Well, there we go. What a great way to round it out now. Of course, we will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a great week.
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