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
Jamie Daws
This week we flipped the format and put our host in the hot seat to reveal a set that can carry an entire career: intimate close‑up, parlour storytelling, and full‑blown stage moments that stick. The choices are surprising, practical, and deeply audience‑first, from Richard Sanders’ Identity, retooled to fit holiday crowds, to ProMystic’s MD Mini and Inception, a duo that turns mind reading into a shared experience people can’t stop talking about.
Joined by guest host Peter Nardi, we dig into why some methods never die when they’re framed as real experiences. Pegasus Page To Lovecraft shows how a torn page can become a narrative anchor and a gift. Killer Elite Pro gets its flowers for transforming a classic mentalism principle into a cinematic micro‑thriller. And Toxic Plus (within the iThump ecosystem) proves that app magic can be invisible, fair, and scalable, whether you’re at a dinner table or in a thousand‑seat theatre, the audience does the work on their own phones while you drive the story.
The finale? PK Touches, presented as the closest thing to “real” magic many spectators will ever feel. We talk structure, safety, and why it creates electric rooms where strangers lean in and whisper instead of just cheering. Along the way, we challenge a common fear: chasing only loud “wow” reactions. Magic is an art, and art earns permission to evoke different emotions, curiosity, unease, wonder, even quiet tears. For resources, we spotlight Seance, a bound collection rich with hands‑on séance methods and essays, and a humble non‑magic item, rope, to build a spirit tie and cabinet anywhere, proving that theatre doesn’t need heavy tech to feel impossible.
If you love smart, reliable, and story‑driven magic that puts the spotlight on your spectators, you’ll find ideas here to reshape your set and your thinking.
Jamie’s Desert Island Tricks:
- Identity
- MD Mini
- Inception
- Killer Elite Pro
- Spirit
- Pegasus Page
- TOXIC +
- PK Touches
Banishment. Being worried about eliciting different reactions in an audience
Book. Seance
Item. Rope
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
Whenever we have a convention, we always get some lovely comments. Lots of people coming up saying that they enjoy the podcast, which is excellent. And one of the things I always get asked is when are the tables going to be turned? Everyone wants to see the host have to endure the torment that they put on other people. So I am actually joined today by the one and only Mr. Peter Nardi.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, hello. I've been asking you to do your desert island tricks for ages and you keep putting it off. Have you actually sat there and punished yourself by saying this can only be eight tricks that I can perform for the rest of my life?
SPEAKER_02:In honesty, I've always had one or two that I knew would make the list. They're going to be the ones that you know immediately. But I have skirted the rules. Now, this week is a little bit different because whenever we have a convention or we go to an event, we always get some lovely comments. Lots of people coming up saying that they enjoy the podcast, which is excellent. And one of the things I always get asked is when are the tables going to be turned? And whenever we watch TV shows like I'm a Celebrity, everyone wants to see the host have to endure the torment that they put on other people. So I am actually joined today by the one and only Mr. Peter Nardi. Hello, hello. So you are here because the tables are very much being turned today.
SPEAKER_01:They are. I've been asking you to do your Desert Island tricks for ages, and you keep putting it off. Um and then we thought, seeing as it's the Christmas period, I presume this is going out on Boxing Day.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yeah, this will be on the Friday on the Boxing Day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, on Boxing Day. So I thought it would be good to put you in the hot seat for a change. And uh let's hear your eight tricks, one book, one non-magic item you would use for magic, and one thing you would banish forever.
SPEAKER_02:And it's really interesting being on this side because obviously we're at the end of well, we're coming up at the time of recording this one, to the end of the second year of doing the podcast. And we've had so many amazing guests, and it's interesting because we didn't know when we launched the podcast how it was going to be received or where it would go. And I think the most interesting thing is how different people have gone down different routes with their their lists and how they've come up with what they've come up with.
SPEAKER_01:I don't listen to a lot of podcasts, I've got into them a bit more now. Um, but this one I do listen to every week because I love the reasonings behind uh why certain people choose certain effects. Um, and on occasion it has had me looking up effects, thinking that sounds great. You know, I want to get one of them or I I want to do this. Um, so yeah, I'm interested to hear your list of eight. I think I know one or two that I would expect to be on there, whether they are or not, I don't know because you haven't told me. Um, but I am gonna ask you this question. Uh-oh. Have you put a lot of thought into your list? Have you actually sat there and punished yourself by saying this can only be eight tricks that I can perform for the rest of my life. This is it. I mean, not that I'm gonna hold you to that, but you know, for this for this exercise.
SPEAKER_02:Well, in in honesty, I've always had one or two that I knew would make the list. They're gonna be the ones that you know immediately. So there, yeah, there are a couple that I I immediately knew, but I think the really interesting thing, and I'm not sure if other people have experienced this, but as soon as I sat down, there were one or two things that immediately I put down without much thought. Those were the ones that I I I would immediately go to uh without even thinking. And then it's just the ones around that that you have to start really considering and thinking about. But I have skirted the rules because I'm the host, I know all of the tricks of the trade. So I do have honourable mentions in here as well, of course. I have made sure Devil's Advocate does not have to come out at any point. So he will be.
SPEAKER_03:I'll be the judge of that.
SPEAKER_02:Um, so I think I've I've got it down. Uh, I've certainly got I got down to two books, so I do have an honourable mention book as well. But yeah, I think there might be one or two that are a bit of a surprise in here.
SPEAKER_01:So for anyone that hasn't joined Jamie on a Desert Island tricks before, this is what it's all about. We are some magicians who imagine they're gonna be uh stranded on a desert island, and on that island they can have eight tricks, one book, one non-magic item they use for magic, and they can banish one thing. Now, those eight tricks, when you think of it, even as a magician, if you try and do this at home, think about narrowing down everything that you perform, everything that you know, into just eight effects that you could choose to perform for the rest of your life. Now, you can't just turn around and say, uh, I'll take a deck of cards, I can perform a hundred tricks. No, if you take a deck of cards, that deck is used for one trick only. You could take eight decks with you and have eight different card tricks, but the whole uh point of this exercise is to find eight tricks that you could not live without. So saying that, Jamie, let's go on to your first choice.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so this is gonna be probably the curveball of my list, possibly the one that people didn't think of. And the reason I've gone for this one is it's one of those routines that I think has fallen out of favour, and certainly there'll be lots of new people who haven't heard of this, but when it came out, it caused a big stir. It's from a brilliant creator who lots of people absolutely love, but it's one of those routines which is really adaptable to your audience. So at the time of recording this, obviously we're going out Boxing Day, and I have been at my local residency and we get lots of kids in. So one of the things I've done with this routine is I ask someone to think of their favourite Christmas film. Normally it's a kid, because instead of having them sign their name on a playing card and remember a playing card, all of that, I get them to draw a character from a film. So the trick that I'm talking about is called identity by Richard Sanders. Now, when it was uh originally marketed, the idea behind this was you would meet someone and you would draw these lines on the back of a card. These lines would then, even though they were permanently drawn on there, they would jump to different cards. Finally, they would end up on the back of this person's signed card, and then when you shake the lines, they morph into the name of that person, hence identity. Yeah, and it was such a brilliant trick, but in my walking set, I can cater it to any event that I'm at. So, like I say, with the Christmas films, I get them to think of a Christmas film at the moment. Spoiler alert, Home Alone seems to be the most popular one, so I get lots of Kevins being drawn. They basically draw that picture onto the card, it gets lost into the deck. I then draw squiggles on the back of a card, those squiggles jump to different cards, which is just a nice visual moment that no one has to really think about. And then I shake the card, and the lines on the back change to the name of the film, so home alone in this case. And then, of course, you get to give that card back with the lines on the back of the card. It's such a clever routine. And on the original project, there was a version that was gimmicked and ungimmicked. I use the ungimmicked version. So I can literally rock up at a gig, open up a new deck of cards, prepare the card normally behind the bar very secretively, and keep that card in my pocket. And when I want to use that routine, all I have to do is place that card into the deck, and then I'm ready to go. So it's a really good trick. It's one like I like I say has fallen out of favour, which is a shame, because it's such a wonderful, wonderful routine.
SPEAKER_01:No, it is a good routine. I mean, anything by Richard Sanders is, you know, really workable, really commercial. Um, I think there's one big issue with Richard Sanders uh stuff, and that is the fact that it's really hard to get hold of. It comes out, he releases them, they sell really well, and then you can't get them for years. And I think that happened with identity, um, because at one point it was everywhere, and and now, like you said, it's I don't think it's fallen out of favour, I just don't think you can get it. It it's one of those things. But yeah, that's uh that's an interesting choice, and I will say I had no idea about that one, and I've never seen you do that one, so that wouldn't have crossed my radar at all.
SPEAKER_02:Well, if you if you go into Harry's office and where his desk is, there's the whiteboard in front of him. If you look, there are a couple of playing cards pinned to the board, you'll actually see one of the ones that I did to Harry on there. I can't remember what he chose, but you'll actually see the the squiggly lines he kept it on his um whiteboard.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm gonna check that out as soon as we finish, and I go back into the shop. Right, so that was identity at number one, and I will say these are not in any particular order. So it's not number one's the favourite, number eight's the least favourite. It it's just eight tricks you can't live without. So what would be in your second spot, Jamie Dawes?
SPEAKER_02:So I think at this point we're gonna start getting onto the ones that maybe you would guess. So number two would be MD Mini by ProMystic, and the interesting thing was it was Pete who actually got me onto this. So Pete was the one who convinced me to get one of these, and this was one of the first kind of high-priced items that I'd purchased for walkaround. And for those that don't know, this is effectively a small Rubik's cube, a mini Rubik's Cube that is disguised as a keyring. You can have it as a keyring or not, it's entirely up to you. And the spectator can place any colour they want on top, place their hand over it, and even though you are well away from the action and what they're doing, you can then reveal the colour that they have picked. There have been other popular versions over the years, so obviously Anne Verdi has got his dice version of this as well, and uh ProMystic also have a dice version as well. So this is your preference as to what you want. I really like the Rubic Cube one because I just think it's nice and colourful, it's bright, it's really engaging. And I have now used this. It this is an A set piece every table I do this at, and it becomes a challenge piece, which I really like. So I have two challenge pieces, which is the invisible deck, which is not in my list, even though it it well could be because it's brilliant, and the MD Mini. And this is a lovely moment where you allow the audience to challenge you and to be awkward and to be difficult because the method is so surefire and it's so clean that they can go through and rotate through those colours as man, and trust me, they do. They they love to try and catch you out, but you can set up the audience, which is lovely. So, quite often I'll say something like, I want you to do it again, but this time catch me out. Really go for a colour that you don't think I'll get, and for some weird reason, with that line, the majority of people stick with that same colour, and then you get that lovely moment where you say, Well, I tried to push you into that, and you haven't changed your mind, you've just kept it on the same colour. So it's a really lovely piece of mind reading, and I know a lot of people are funny about electronics. We've spoken about it so much on this podcast about different electronics, but like I say, I've used the MD Mini for it's gotta be between six and eight years, I think I've had it now. I can't say specifically when I had it, but it's never failed me. That being said, the only time it has failed me, and Pete will know this, is it elicits such an incredible reaction from your audience, it sometimes gets thrown. Um so I have had the MD Mini a s several times thrown across uh the restaurant table or a room, and it got to a point maybe three years ago, I want to say, where the whole thing just crumbled, as in the outer shell broke and fell apart. And uh I said to Pete, I do not know what to do because I cannot live without this trick, uh, and I'm a regular restaurant magician, so I have to have this trick. And luckily, Pete managed to get another shell over from ProMystic really quickly. But it's one of those things because it looks so innocent, people then handle it completely innocently. And the whole point of a prop like this is that you're stood away from it. So, in terms of audience management, it's a really difficult one to control an audience. The whole point is it's supposed to be a really innocent thing, put on the table, you're away, they handle everything, and it's completely hands-off. So when they do throw the prop, there's not really a huge amount that you can do in that situation. But the interesting thing about that is the innards, so the actual electronic part of it, have never been damaged. So that's how robust and well built these gimmicks are. They absolutely are workhorses for me, they they completely work every time. Uh, so I have absolutely no fear in using ProMystic products, and for me, I hope it will always always be in my set for forever.
SPEAKER_01:Do you know what it's quite surprising because I I was the same as you, I know I talked you into getting one, but I purchased a real die probably 15 years ago, um, and it was a huge amount of money. Huge. Um, but it's been whenever I've performed, it's been a major part of my close-up, and it always works. It was probably one of the best investments I've ever made in a trick, and you're right, with um with ProMystic, with Labco, um, when you go for a company like that, it costs a little bit extra, but you know you're getting a prop that will work. You know, I I don't think I've ever been let down by a ProMystic or a Labco. Um, and if I have it's usually me not charging or changing the batteries. So, you know, it is not but that that's a good second choice.
SPEAKER_02:Even what you just said there though, I think the we we so many of the electric electronic gizmos coming out now are all rechargeable, and that's fine to an extent, but if I'm at a gig and my MD Mini decides to die on me, I have batteries in my case, and it takes what a minute if that to change the battery in it. Whereas the rechargeable ones I then have to plug it in and let it recharge for a while. So should anything ever happen in a gig, I love that the promistic things are all battery operated, and I mean in the UK, certainly, we're all around supermarkets, there's there's one within five minutes of wherever we are, yeah. So we can always run in and get batteries from one of them and put and put them in the product. So I think even having them battery operated is is a big plus nowadays.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I think so. And the other thing about it, you know, we know it's just a one in six, but don't underestimate the power of that. And it's one of those strange sort of little effects that each time you do it, let's say you've got my my routine is three phases, I think yours is three phases. Three is a lovely number, but each time you do it, each phase is stronger and stronger and stronger, even if you do exactly the same thing, it it's still in their mind, it's just stronger and stronger and stronger.
SPEAKER_02:And it will go around the table. Someone over the opposite side will say, Oh, well, now I want to have a go. Let me try. You won't be able to get me. Um, and that's what I mean by like the challenge piece. It's one of those great things. If you've got a let's say a difficult customer or a heck heckler kind of chap, then hand this to them and and let them have have a go, you know. It's gonna absolutely dumbfound them. The only problem now I've found is the amount of people that think that a lot of my routines are done with smart glasses. So I have to take my glasses off at a table because somehow they think my glasses are helping, uh, let alone do they know what's really happening with the prop, which is where the real magic is.
SPEAKER_01:I I think that's that is a big problem now, is technology is so advanced now that people are just coming up with these weird and wonderful solutions, which at the end of the day are plausible because they can say, Well, your phone's listening to you. Well, it's not, but it will be in my next trick. But yeah, no, that's a really good second choice. So, what would be in your third position, Jamie?
SPEAKER_02:Well, third position is the ending to my MD Mini routine, and this is another primistic product. So this is Inception. If you're unaware of what Inception is, this is a tool which allows you to input ideas into someone's head using a very, very clever kind of technology. And I remember being in Nando's of all places many years ago, outside the Magic Circle uh by Houston, and there were a bunch of magicians there, and I can't remember who it was that did it, it may have been Rob Pound, actually. Actually, who uh did this to me for the first time and let me experience it. And that moment when you have your fingers in your ears and you hear a voice in your head is easily one of the most magical things I've ever experienced since being in Magic.
SPEAKER_01:I will say as well, you're not hearing it through your ears, you hear it in your head. Mm-hmm. It's very strange.
SPEAKER_02:It's it's absolutely bizarre. But that was the moment when I knew I had to get one. That had to be something that I put into my act. And the really interesting thing is, over the past maybe let's say about eight years, the way that I think about the tricks that I'm performing is very different. So a lot of the routines that I choose now are all to do with the spectator's experience, it's not really to do with me. For example, I only really generally do one card trick because you know that's about me, that's my skill, that's the thing that I'm doing. It to me that doesn't feel like as much of an experience for the audience as some of these things, whereas the MD Mini and then going into Inception is you know, it's all about them. I've managed to get this colour, but it's not about me. I want to let someone else experience what I hear in my head. So then everything becomes about them. And at the end of that trick, no one focuses on me, everyone focuses on the person who's heard the voice. So the questions are: did you really just hear that voice in your head? Did that really just happen? Surely not. You didn't hear that. But there's no focus on me, it's not about me at all at any point, it's about them and their experience in that moment. And I think that's what's so interesting about the way that I try and pick the tricks. Now, it always has to have a strange element. There has to be something weird, and it has to end with them wanting to talk to each other about their experience as opposed to what did he just do in that moment? What do you think he did? It I I want every conversation after that to be grounded in their experience and what they've had happen.
SPEAKER_01:The other thing, as well, for those people that don't know, is Inception and MD Mini, and like with a lot of pro-Mystic stuff, um, they sort of connect together. So with uh the MD Mini, and this is something that you do a lot, Jamie, because you do in your stage show as well. At one point with the MD Mini, you will have one spectator reading the mind of the other spectator. So the other spectator picks a colour, and yet spectator number two knows what that colour is. So they they connect uh together quite organically as well. It's all ready there for you. It's it's ready to go, um, which is really good. That's uh that's a great third place, and I think I would have I think I probably would have guessed that one, I'm gonna be honest.
SPEAKER_02:Well, like like you said, I've done this in the stage show as well. So every stage show that I've done, I've used both of these props. And I think that's another interesting thing is people think that you can't use MD Mini on stage, but if you have the spectator on the stage doing the magic, there's a lovely moment where their face confirms to the rest of the audience what's actually happened. And I also think that you you mentioned about them talking. I think that's another thing that I've discovered with ProMystic over other versions, because there have been other versions of Inception on the market, and I have tried two or three of them, and none of them function in the same way. They do not function, they don't have the same reliability, they require either third-party things that you have to factor in to play things through it, etc. etc. Whereas everything with Inception is self-contained, so everything's stored on the device itself, and there are different sensors. So if I hold it one way, it will do one thing, if I hold it another way, it will do another thing. So it's super super easy to use, and it means that I don't have to worry in in the moment about what's going on. So, you know, you can use it for stage and you can use it very reliably. The the whole sort of promistic ecosystem is great because you buy one thing and that connects to the receiver. So you you can then sort of expand the universe in which you're you're buying stuff. You have the the hub, and then everything connects to the hub, so to speak. I remember as well the first time I did inception, which I'm not sure if I've told you this. So I was in a restaurant, one of my old uh restaurants that I used to work in, and uh there was this young lady who came in with her family, and I did inception on on the girl. I said, Right, you're gonna read your brother's mind, this is gonna be amazing. She heard the voice in her head, and she just froze. And when I say froze, I mean she she literally didn't move. And I said to her, So did you hear the voice in your head? And she just froze. She she wouldn't reply. Can she not hear me? I'm not quite sure what's going on. I said, Are you okay? Did you hear the voice in her head? And the the first thing she just said is, That's the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. She was so freaked out by it, she couldn't talk. Yeah. And it it created such pandemonium at their table, they that but not not in a negative way, like in an excited way. Everyone was just like, What do you like that that actually happened? You really heard a voice in your head, and it's there there's a trick coming up later on. It has the same thing where this one person experiences something so unfathomable and impossible. And you said something earlier on as well, that that's one of the things they hear it in their head, and that's the thing that I really point out to them. So I say to them, Now be honest, you heard that voice, but not in your ears, in your head, and I get them to confirm that because then you get this moment where everyone's like, What do you mean you heard it in your head? and they're like, Well, I heard it in my head, it wasn't in my ears. So, yeah, it's a it's a wonderful trick, it's unlike anything I think anyone will perform, and it's definitely a reputation maker because there's not many people performing with this sort of device. So when I hear, you know, people say, Oh, there's a magician at this other place, you tend to hear other routines, and I guess there are very few people who they can go, oh, he made me hear a voice in my head, even though my fingers are in my ears.
SPEAKER_01:No, really good choice, mate. Really good choice. So that brings us on to number four.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, number four has an honourable mention in it as well. Hmm. So number four is one of the first tricks I ever brought and gigged. So I remember my first gig was when I was 16, and I was hired at a tennis club for a Valentine's night. So everything was against me in this situation. Number one, uh it was, you know, Valentine's night, which was weird. Number two, it was my first gig ever, so I was incredibly nervous, but I remember having this trick and knowing that I had this trick made me so excited. Now, by the time I finished with this trick, it was so worn out that the paint had come off, the cards were all warped, the plastic was coming off, and I still have it to this day. Uh, this trick is Killer Elite Pro, which is a wonderful Andy Nyman trick, and probably we've spoken about it before, I think it's probably my favourite Alakazam trick. Now I am a huge, huge Andy Nyman fan. I have been a huge Andy Nyman fan since I was young, and I remember going to the Magic Cave, which was a stall in London, and that was where I met people like uh Angelo Carbone, Lee Hathaway, Neil Henry. We we used to go there and the these amazing people would be there, and they would always show me something new. And I remember this one day, two tricks came in. It was Killer Elite Pro, and my honourable mention here is Dice Man, which is another incredible Andy Nyman trick. And Dice Man, they you know they carried on and on and on fooling me with that, which was annoying. But Killer Elite Pro was the first time I'd ever experienced this method, and it was so clean and so baffling that it it absolutely knocked me for six. The first time that you experienced this method, there's no backtracking at all. So, for those that don't know, the idea here is that you have some collectible cards, uh, each one has a different famous gangster from films on there, and you tell a story about these four people, they're at a card game, someone's found cheating, the a gun goes off, three of them get shot dead, but one of them survives because he has a wallet and a lucky poker chip in his pocket. The bullet hit that ricochet off, and somehow he survived. They make a selection, and then you prove that they are correct, and that was the survivor. That is the crux of the routine. I had to buy it straight away. I bought it straight away, and I did it at every single gig for years. That's what I mean. The plastic on the one that I've got is, you know, um, there's like a little plastic window that's torn off, it doesn't work anymore. There's uh lovely golden font text on the back, that's all rubbed off, the cards are peeling away because it was so so well used. It's just a wonderful trick, it's such a nice routine. It was the first time that I was introduced to storytelling magic as well, because you have to tell a story to give context to what the props are, and obviously the story makes it more interesting. The the method is unfathomable and absolutely brain boggling as well. It's just a wonderful, wonderful routine, and I hope it's one that people were out there performing because it it's just great.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it it really is. I remember the first time I saw it, and um the method used in it, I've said it many times, is probably one of my favourite methods in mentalism. Um, and I think what Andy did with Killer Elite was bring it bang up to date. It it was, you know, at the time Killer Elite came out, it felt cool, it felt modern, um, and it took this old principle and really breathed a lot of new life into it. Um yeah, I mean, I I would agree with you, I think it's one of um Alakazam's finest releases. Um, it will be making a comeback at some point, but yeah, it's it's a brilliant, brilliant trick. And it's as relevant today as it was uh when it first came out. But that that's a really good choice. And Dice Man, once again, what a killer. I mean, Nyman, I I've been good mates with Andy for longer than I care to remember. Um, and the first time I ever see him do something like Dice Man, I I still remember the first time he performed it on me. And the great thing about Andy is we all know he's an actor. So we would be having a conversation, and before I even realised, he was halfway through his patter of this trick before I even realised we were getting into a trick. He's um he's very good at that. And and Dice Man was the one he literally fried me with, absolutely fried my brain. Um, yeah. Two good ones by uh probably one of the UK's best, maybe one of the world's best spent lists. So we now hit the halfway point. We're at number five. So what have you got in your fifth position?
SPEAKER_02:So I've got another honourable mention here, and this is the self-serving part of the podcast. You're welcome. Uh, this is where I pick one of my own routines. There is one routine in particular that I think if I was stuck on a desert island, I would love to have this all the time for several reasons. Number one, it can play on a stage, which we and Peter can attest to this. We used it in the stage show a few years ago as the closer to the first half, and it got a great reaction, it's great close-up, it's self-working, it's got several moments of magic, and it uses something that isn't playing cards, it uses photographs. So the trick I would take with me in number five is Spirit, which is it's effectively a living in dead separation or an out-of-this world style effect, which of course, I mean, I first saw Darren do this many, many years ago on one of his TV specials where he had them separate living and dead. So in this version, they select a Polaroid. Let's say they pick Grant, they put him to one side. The rest of the photos are then separated into two piles of spirits and of the living. All of the choices are made by them. Some of them are discarded into a third pile. Um, then at the very end, you turn over the first pile, and on the back there is a letter on the back of each photograph which spells out the word living, the second pile spells out the word spirit, and then the discarded pile ends up spelling out the name of the person they took at the very beginning. It's just such a fun routine, it's such an enjoyable one to perform, and I think one of the biggest surprises with it is I built a spirit cabinet which took a lot of effort and a lot of money, and we do other incredible tricks in the routines. Two two of the tricks are uh sorry, three of the tricks are in this list, and yet this still ended up getting one of the biggest reactions. Out of all of the really big expensive props, every night it got gasps from the audience. They they were absolutely dumbfounded. And what's amazing is you get the first gasp of the living, the second gasp, not so much, because they know what's going to happen at that point with spirit, and as they're reacting, they're completely unaware of what's about to happen, and that's they've already taken one. Of course, when you turn over that name and it matches, it just gets an even bigger response. So for me, out of all of the ones that I've I've created, with an honourable mention to Bane. Uh, I that that would be my honourable mention here. It nearly went in there, but for me, I think uh, in terms of stage and close-up, I can do spirit, whereas Bane would be more stand-up. Um, so yeah, for me, spirit would have to be the one trick out of all of mine that I would take with me.
SPEAKER_01:Brilliant. It's such a great trick, and yeah, like you said, last year or it actually did you do it? You did it last year and the year before in your show. You did it in both shows, if I remember rightly. Yeah, um, and it just feels so fair. They literally make every choice. It's um, yeah, it's a lovely effect and a well-deserved spot in your top eight.
SPEAKER_02:It was based as well, just as a credit, on uh Jim Critchlow's White Star. Um has the same kind of concept in there. So, yeah, just to throw that in there in case you want to check out other versions of it. Of course, check out Darren's as well because you're never gonna get better than Darren Brown's version either.
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SPEAKER_01:So what do we have sneaking in to your sixth position?
SPEAKER_02:So this is another one that I put into the show, and in fact, I've put it into every stage show that I've ever put together so far, because I think it's one of the finest pieces of magic that we have for several reasons. Number one, again, it uses a prop that you wouldn't normally use with magic, which is completely organic, a very, very organic prop. It's in the hands of the audience the entire time, and you can very easily adapt this to different performances and different performance styles. It's easy to make as well. So if you're in another country and all of your luggage goes, you can go to a shop, buy what you need, make it up, and have an incredible, incredible piece of magic. So the sixth spot I would take Pegasus page, but specifically to Lovecraft by the Jack. And for me, I mean again, Pete ha has seen the show, but there's a lovely moment in there where I have to obviously perform the Pegasus page with a book, but make it make sense. So during the show, I my character says a uh this little line, and he says, Something really strange happened to me. A few weeks ago, I wrote something in my diary. I closed my book, put it underneath my pillow, and when I woke up, someone had torn the page out. And to this day I do not know where that page is. And that sets up the context of the Pegasus page, but it also sets up the context of the end of the show. Because at the end of the show, the page that I was on about from my diary entry is actually in a box that's been on the stage from the very beginning. So you get this lovely moment where they go to the box, you say, Can you see what's inside? And typically they just went, Oh, it's your diary entry. They understand fully what's happened. But I think the Pegasus page is almost like an illustration in a book to the story. So I tell the story, and then the the Pegasus page is showing the audience what I mean, what's happening, the impossibility of this thing. And we have it appear inside a box that was made by Chris Mallon at Strange Stage, which allows things to appear in and out. Um Pete wrote a very lovely joke for this moment as well, which in my innocence I did not understand what the joke was, but it gets a brilliant, brilliant laugh every night. It's such a lovely routine, and that's why it's so good. It can be played really seriously, it can be played jokingly as a comedy piece. It's completely impossible. You can make the page appear wherever you want, and then you can give the book back to them and let them keep it, which is one of the best things that you can do. So, in terms of a routine, I really do think it's one of the most perfect pieces of magic that we have, and for very little work, you don't you have to do virtually nothing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, it's great. And once again, you know, I've seen you do this numerous times, and it never fails to get a killer reaction. Um, and I I would say your your choice of which one to do method-wise to Lovecraft, I think you'll be hard pushed at the moment to find a better method um that that just appears so fair and so clean. Uh that Jack was an incredible, uh, incredible performer, incredible creator. Um, and and this was one of his finest, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. And I'm I I remember trying the original method, which I think was in the Jinx, and that basically meant that you had to doctor a book, and I'm fairly sure they mentioned to use the the transfer letters in in order to change it or to rub something out. But for me, the idea that you can give the book back to them, and they have absolute free reign to hold that book and to keep that book forever and have this impossible object trumps everything else. And I know that there are other versions like there's um a version where you can use a smaller card and you place the card in, get them to peek the corner of the page. That's great. But with to Lovecraft, with that version, you don't have to use an envelope like the Jack uses. In the shows that we've done, we had all the fun of the fear. So instead of the envelope, I used an old carnival sign, and I said, you know, this was one of the carnival signs that was here, and I think in uh What Lies Inside, the second iteration of that show, we had a uh a picture of the actual venue that we're at, but many, many years ago it was all black and white and spooky. So that you really can just use any book depending on the theme of your show. So if you're a comedy magician, not that you would do this, but you could have a book of jokes, you know, and that that's you'll get into that trick. Or you can use a scary book if you want to go down that avenue. You can use any book and obviously make it appear in anything, and of course, use any insert you want, dependent on the theme of the show that you're putting together.
SPEAKER_01:I will say, in in all honesty, as you started speaking, I did write something down thinking I know what he's talking about, and then halfway through I had to scribble it out. What what did you put? Um I'm not gonna tell you because I I think it's still to come.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Let's move on to number seven.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, number seven was spoken about quite recently on the podcast, and the guests said that they thought it was the perfect trick, and I think I'd be inclined to agree. I remember learning Toxic many, many years ago now, and Toxic was an every table trick for me. It was one that I struggled not to do it because I loved it, and it was also a great one to have on you if you had nothing on you. So if someone came up to you and you're at a pub or a bar or a restaurant and they said, Aren't you this person? Can you show some my friend this thing? You could go to it straight away. And what was even better was you could borrow someone's phone and do it on their phone, and that's how I did it for years and years and years. And then, of course, we we know we all got hit by the big Apple drought, and we can no longer do that version. It doesn't allow us to. So when I was looking for different solutions, of course, iTump slash Toxic Plus came up, and I have never looked back since. I actually believe this to be a superior version than using borrowed phones because it allows everyone at a table to perform it. It's a very easy app to work when you get your head around it. It's a bit of a pain to set up to begin with. There's a lot going on there, but it's a brilliant trick. And again, we used it in the show. We had a lovely clown moment where a balloon is bought on and a number appears inside uh folded a piece of paper in that balloon, and then it ends up being a date at the end of the show as well. So it can be used in such a variety of different ways to force a ton of different things. The fact that you can do it to a whole audience of people or close up, you know, this this can quite literally fill an entire thousand-seater theatre with everyone being involved, and all you need is a mobile phone, which is crazy. And it I'm I spoke to um a friend of mine last night, Jack, about this. It's very much an invisible app as well, as in everything's done on their phones, you're only helping to facilitate that as an illustrative thing with your phone. They are the ones doing the magic on their phones. You're you're not really using an app per se, and then as soon as they have that final number on their phone, of course, you yours is away anyway, so it doesn't really matter. So I think it was Harry DeCruz that said he thinks this is one of the best tricks ever, and it's perfect. And I I think I absolutely agree. I think it's perfect in every way.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the way the the whole audience gets involved, I've I've seen, you know, both of your stage shows, I think you did it, or the your Halloween shows that we went to. I also uh I've seen a couple of magicians do it in a theatre, a PAX theatre on stage. And the fact is, we're all sitting there as the audience with our phones out, we're getting the same result. It it really seems extremely fair. Extremely fair. Um I've never performed it myself. I know Harry does it a lot. I think it's something that I need to to look into because I I know how powerful it is. I don't know why I've never performed it, because it is superb. So that is uh i Thump or Toxic Plus. So Toxic Plus is actually the iFump app, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so it's it's within that ecosystem. So when you buy one, you you get the other. But you know, if you're worried about app magic, there's you you're never gonna get one better than that. And what another thing that I found really interesting is considering so many performers do it now, at no point have I ever approached a table, said, Can everyone get their phones out and get their calculators up? No one has ever gone, oh, I've seen another magician perform this. Yeah. Which is interesting uh from my perspective, because I just think so many people perform it now, but for some reason it just feels completely impossible anyway, even if they have seen it before.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that brings us neatly on to your final trick. Right your selection.
SPEAKER_02:At this point, I've kept one till last. Now I'm presuming this is the one that you wrote down.
SPEAKER_01:I I hope so.
SPEAKER_02:I'm I'm gonna write it down again. Just in case. There's no one that doesn't know me that doesn't know what I would probably say at this point. And a lot of us talk about our like ten thousandth timer. This is mine. I I have quite literally done this so many times now, I it's second nature to me. I can do it anywhere, anytime, under any condition, and absolutely fry with it. We mentioned at the head of the podcast that these aren't in any particular order, and I know on Mark Elsden's episode he said if he he if he was pushed to only have one trick for the rest of his days, that's what it would. For me, this is it. This is my one trick, and I genuinely believe I could do an entire gig just with this one trick, and you know, everyone would absolutely love it. It's the closer at tables. I do it at every single table, at every event, every restaurant, every wedding, every party. It is absolutely one of the best pieces of magic ever. Unfortunately, I think some performers are quite scared of performing it because of what's involved, and certainly when I lecture, this is the one that people want to know about the most. But I think that if you have performed it as many times as I have and and tweaked the issues that could potentially happen, it it doesn't go wrong for me ever now, because I have a way around everything. So in number eight is PK Touches, and I know so many people listening to this now who are going, Yeah, knew that was coming. Um because I absolutely rave about this to everyone. I think it is one of the most incredible pieces of magic ever created. It almost defies the idea that it's a trick because it feels so real to people, and when you perform it, you know, you you'll have so so many people in your performing situations that say, you know, I've seen card tricks, I can maybe guess that, I can maybe guess that, but that thing with the tapping, that I have there's no way I can explain it. I've never seen anything like it. Now there are lots of different versions of PK Touches out there. Obviously, there is Banachek's original psychokinetic touches. There's also Leon Monore has some great work on it as well. Um, another great version that I love is called D'Angelo's Touch, which I use quite a lot in restaurant work as well. It's a lovely moment to get everyone focusing in on what's happening in the restaurant and you know get them to look over. It's also a great way to get social media posts as well, because you allow them to film it and then they post it all over social media. Uh, and then of course, Peter Turner recently published a book called Pocket Book through Illusionist, and that has a ton of PK Touchers ideas. Uh, I also have a couple of my own ideas which are published in different places, including Alakazam through um Taboos and also in Peter Turner's book, so they are in there as well. But effectively, with this routine, you have someone at the table close their eyes, you tap someone else, and the person with their eyes closed feels it. You tap someone else again, but a number of times, let's say three, the person with their eyes closed then feels that three taps and identifies it with three specifically. You tap someone in a specific area, let's say the back of their shoulder, and the person with their eyes closed then reports being tapped on the shoulder, even though there is no one near them. I then have them place their hand out and uh we're still with their eyes closed, sorry, and I have another one of their family members with their hand out. I tap the family member with their eyes open's finger, and the person with their eyes closed then reports feeling that tap on the same finger. I then repeat that with a different finger. They put their hand down, and then finally I uh tell them to keep their eyes closed and I brush someone's long hair on their nose like a little brush, which gets a nice little giggle. The person with their eyes closed then reports feeling something on their nose. They report that it was brushing down three times and it felt like a feather or a brush or something soft. Then, of course, they open up their eyes and pandemonium breaks out on that table, which is great. And the way that I close it again, I said it earlier on with Inception. I very much believe that the magic should never be about me, and I want the conversation to be about them. I don't really enjoy having a round of applause. I don't like the big cheers and the whoops. What I do like is one table going to the other table next to them who they've never met before and going, Oh my god, what just happened? Is that what happened to you? And the highest compliment I had was one of the waiters at my current residency, um, when I started back there last year, said, I've been working here now for four years, and I've never ever experienced an atmosphere where strangers are all talking to themselves, uh talking to each other rather, and there's just excitement and electricity in the room, and that's what this does. Everyone just wants to talk about it. It it's such an exciting, strange thing. And at the end of the set, I literally just say, Great, so Peter, open up your eyes and ask them what really happened, and I just walk away, and I just that that table will just then erupt into conversation and and curiosity. And you better believe that when you go to the next table, they are gonna be watching over because they want to see that trick again, and they experience the same thing, but from another table, um, and they freak out. I genuinely believe this is the closest thing that we can perform to real magic that feels like you have some sort of powers or or something weird. Um, and I've had people say, Oh, yeah, I've seen things like that, it's energy, it's like chakra that you pass over to different people. Uh, it there's so many different explanations that people give to it, but very rarely is it anything magic adjacent. It it's always something spiritual or you know, a bit woo-woo and out there. Um, so for me, this is my number one PK touches. The only thing that I'd say is if you are gonna go out there, find someone that does know it very well because I've seen it done very badly, very, very badly, many, many a times. Um, and with the scripting and stuff that I've adjusted over the many years of performing this, it means that anything you think could feasibly go wrong. For example, people opening up their eyes at the wrong time, or uh well, that's really the only thing that I think people are worried about. Um, that doesn't happen anymore. It doesn't happen, and if it does, uh there's a very, very simple out for it. So if you ever do do it, find someone that has worked it a lot and then go out with them, try it once. That's what I did with Harry. I taught it in your living room. Um he said, Oh, I've always wanted to do it. I taught it to him in the living room. He went out the next week to his football match and got one of the best reactions he's ever had, and he still remembers the reaction to that to this day, and he's never stopped doing it ever since.
SPEAKER_01:No, that that's one of his go-to's, and it is, you know, probably one of the strongest impromptu effects you could do, and at its core, it is 100% impromptu. I know you mention a phase where something else is used, but um without that, it was always designed to be an impromptu. If you look at Banachek's original, there were no gaffes, no gimmicks, no nothing. You can do it on the fly. I think it it was Leon Manor that added the extra touch into the routine. Um but yeah, it's it's phenomenal. PK Touches is so incredible when you witness it. I remember when uh Harry was doing a stage show with 4MG, we were in a theatre, and then afterwards my family were there, my sisters and brother-in-laws, we all went out for dinner, you were there, and you stood up and performed PK Touches on two of my brother-in-laws. And my brother-in-laws love magic, but they're skeptical. You know, they will try and work it out if they can. They were blown away, and and they even my sisters, you know, and bearing in mind they've seen magic all of my life. I mean, they're older than me, so not all of their life, but they've seen it all of my life, and um, yeah, I mean, they they just had no idea what was going on. It genuinely looks real somehow.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even D'Angelo's Touch, so the the most recent sort of iteration that came out that was popular was D'Angelo's Touch. And what's lovely about that is I don't normally do that at every table, but if someone says, Oh, please can you do this on someone else, and you know that they're very much wanting that, I literally in the middle of the restaurant get one of them to stand up and I say, Look, you're gonna feel silly, but I promise you it's worth it. And then I ask someone else to get their phone out and film it. Um, I do a slightly different version of D'Angelo's Touch because I think D'Angelo's touch is a bit rapid and that doesn't follow my style. So I've uh worked different ways to allow distance, so I can be very, very, very far away from them uh at the conclusion of the routine. But then that video, then you get this lovely moment where everyone's reacting that sat down at the chairs, and then the person who's just had it done to them then gets to watch the video back with everyone at the table, and that they they quite literally step them through to say, see, look, he's not touching you there, and he's not there. Look how far away he is. They end up filling in those gaps for you. You don't have to do anything, uh, and then that video ends up on social media that it ends shown to all of their friends. Oh my god, you have to see this guy look what he did. What do you mean he's not touching you? Yeah, go like go to the restaurant, see it. You'll you'll it it's it's just one of the best routines that you'll ever ever do.
SPEAKER_01:Perfect. So that is all your eight.
SPEAKER_02:That is all my eight. Yeah, there we go.
SPEAKER_01:So we had Identity by Richard Sanders, then we had Mini MD and Inception by Pro Mystic taking up spaces two and three. Uh, then we had Killer Elite Pro by Andy Nyman with a little nod to Dice Man. Um, we had Spirit by Jamie Dawes, we had to Lovecraft, which is uh the Jack's version of Pegasus' page, Toxic Plus, and the legendary PK Touches. That's a good solid eight. And to be fair, looking down at this, if you had this on your desert island, you could perform a stage show, you could perform close-up, you could perform Parlo, you could perform strolling. The the stuff you've selected here um you know will will actually fall into every performing scenario. It's really, really good. Um so moves us on to books or book. Oh, we're gonna do the book.
SPEAKER_02:So normally we'd do the banishment, but. Uh we can go book first.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I don't know now because even though I'm the one asking the questions, you seem to be the one that wants to tell me what to do. So in Peter's Des Island tricks, we go for the book next.
SPEAKER_02:Well, so the reason the reason that we put banishment there was just in case it had a tiny negative tone, the last two choices would bring back the podcast to be impossible.
SPEAKER_01:Did yours have a slightly negative tone?
SPEAKER_02:No, never.
SPEAKER_01:Right, we'll do the all right. Let's do the banishment then. Go on. What would you banish? Magic podcast.
SPEAKER_02:No, I'm joking. Um I would banish. Me as host. I would banished. Magicians worrying about eliciting different reactions from audience members. So what I mean about this is we are a group of people who really think very deeply about this, and we like to think of it as an art form. But unlike other art forms, we tend to be really worried about making our audience feel uncomfortable or frightened or anything other than amazed and wild. And I think that is I think it's sad, and I also think that it will stop us pushing the art form forward. So for example, if you go to the magic circle and you are down in the club room, there are posters on every wall, and every well, nearly every one of those posters has something supernatural in it, it has something bizarre or something weird about it, and you know that's our history. At one point, our history was we just want to create spectacle, we want to create something that is almost otherworldly. It's absolutely impossible. And now, not to discredit card magic at all, because I I love card magic, but now when you go to the club room, it's just everyone sat down with a deck of cards, and it seems like because we're worried about different genres and maybe making people feel a different way, we're not we're not remembering the roots of our industry, we're not remembering where we've come from, you know. Uh, and certainly like with Bizarre Magic, I love Bizarre Magic because it's creating a different is it's it's creating a different feeling in the audience, it's eliciting a different emotion, but always in a fun way, but it doesn't have to be a negative thing, it doesn't have to be bad. So, you know, we've spoken about Derek Delgodio's in and of itself on this podcast several times, yeah, and for me that's such a wonderful show, and that show is not about wow, it's about intrigue, it's about emotion, it's about making the audience think and feel something different. And I think we are always so wrapped up and getting this round of applause and this wow, and that's incredible and it's amazing, that we lose the ability to be able to challenge an audience and make them think and make them feel you know. Films do it amazing. You don't get Stephen King going, you know what, I'm not gonna write another book in case they get upset at what I'm writing and they get scared, you know. That's not a thing. Someone doesn't write a a song and go, Yeah, I can't write a sad song in case it makes someone cry. It's not that they don't care about it, they care about giving someone this emotion and this feeling. Whereas we we don't tend to do it in magic, and I think it's really sad that we're always going after the wow moment as opposed to the making an audience feel something other than that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, I can I can go back to sitting down and watching Jim Critchlow, and there's been a a couple of times that Jim has performed stuff on me where it's not a wow moment, but it's a moment that you just cannot describe. You know, you sit there and you go, What on earth? And that I still get that feeling if I perform um Emily's Revenge heirloom, every time I read that letter out, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. You know, it's such a moment, and for the audience, when they start piecing the puzzle together in their mind, it it's yeah. I I yeah, I agree with you. I I think uh you know, we can be uh sometimes too scared of um you know doing what we want to do because not not so much feel that you're gonna offend someone because if you you shouldn't do a trick that's gonna offend them, but maybe not get that screaming uh, you know, oh my god, there's two sponge balls in my hand reaction, which is a great reaction, but to to be able to get a more subdued reaction where people are just inside going, oh my god, you know, it doesn't always have to be the audible scream or cheer or whoop. Sometimes when they say nothing, they've been impacted far more meaningfully than they would do with you know, a card coming out of your wallet or saying, so yeah, no, I agree with that. I think that's a that's an interesting banishment.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, it's not one that we've had before, so that's good. Um but yeah, I think I think if we weren't all so concerned with doing what everyone else is doing and being commercial, quote unquote, you you can do what you want. You can create something unique to you, or you can worry about being commercial and making everyone else happy. The whole reason that we're doing this is because it's something that we enjoy and you know maybe we can affect other people in a positive way.
SPEAKER_01:No, and if you I know you mentioned it before, but uh in in and of itself by um Derek Delgardio, the show which is probably a magic show I've seen that has left me feeling like no other magic show I've I've ever seen. It it you can't describe it, but let's just say uh you know, there are people crying in the audience. I mean, these people and for for good reasons, they're they're tears of happiness, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02:But it's still more like relief, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:It's like Yeah, and it it's but that's not I mean none of us are going out. I mean, you you don't go into a wedding and go right, okay, yeah, I'm gonna have everyone crying.
SPEAKER_02:Hopefully not.
SPEAKER_01:You use it in in the right place at the right time, and um but you know those people have had a a moment that they're never gonna forget. They are never gonna forget that. Even I mean, I I would like you suggest that everyone try and track down this show and watch it. It's like nothing you've ever seen. Don't go in there thinking you're gonna watch you know 20 20 tricks a minute. It's it's not that, it's not about the magic. The magic is incredible, but it's about the story and the journey. You know, even to the point where no, I'm not gonna spoil anything, but yeah, watch it. But yeah, I I agree. I I think what we do is an art form, and with any of with any art form, there are different emotions at play, you know. Even if you look at art, you can look at a photo that will make you happy, you can look at a painting that will make you sad. Um every form of art has has got this, that's what it's about. So, yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_02:See, now we've got to bring the podcast back up, you see. That's why we've done it in that or that order.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so I'm gonna start there by going, Hey Jamie, well, that was a great banishment. So now we're gonna get on to your book.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so um, I've got an honorable mention here as well. So I managed to get it down to two books because there are two books that I have referenced back to more than any other, effectively. And probably about the same as each other, but one of them just kind of won for a specific reason. So my honorable mention would be Architect of the Mind by Drew Bakinstoss, which is an incredible, incredible book. If you don't know who Drew is, he is a phenomenal mentalist. Uh go and check out his Penguin Lecture, which is one of the best penguin lectures you'll see. The way he combines different methods to create something so much more substantial than the sum of its parts, uh, is just incredible. And there's so many great routines and ideas and structures, just structures of routines and ideas in there. It's absolutely brilliant. Um, but it didn't quite make it to number one. The one that I would take with me is Seance, which is uh the bound collection of Seance magazines, and the reason why this snubbed it a little bit because this has so many different ideas and thoughts from different people, it's a very diverse bunch of people. So you you know you've got Eugene Burker in there, uh you've got our good friend Terry Tyson in there, that's how I got to know Terry. Um, but there's so many interesting ideas in there, and it's a very manual book, which I really like. So instead of us relying on some of the things that we have now because we're lovely and modern, 20 years back, 30 years back, we didn't have the technology and the accessibility that we have now. So, you know, there's some brilliant, brilliant old school methods using mousetraps in order to animate things in in a in a haunted environment, you know. There's so many great things. There are spirit ties in there, there are um, you know, essays in there, there are ideas in there, there's history in there, there's just tons in there. And every time I go back to that book, I discover something new. It's just an absolute joy to read. If you can get hold of one, just don't even think about it. I don't know how much they're worth nowadays. I wouldn't sell mine for anything. I think I will always, always keep it with me because I love it dearly. I think it's a brilliant book.
SPEAKER_01:Brilliant. Um, so that brings us to the last choice of your desert island tricks, and that is your non-magic item.
SPEAKER_02:So my non-magic item would be rope, but for a spirit tie, because like I said, I can I know the rules of this podcast, I know how to how to get around this. I would use this so that I could create a spirit cabinet on the island. Alright, so all I need is uh a little stump tree stump as the chair. Um I'll put some massive vine leaves around uh to make the the spirit cabinet, and then of course this rope would be to tie up the spirit medium inside. For me, when I did the spirit cabinet for the first time, it's the first time I'd experienced what a stage magician must feel, in that I didn't have to do anything. So all I had to do was stand in front of the curtain and allow the person that was inside tied up to do the magic for me, which is still a little bit scary because you're not in control of that moment. So you you just hope very much so that everything's gone right in there and something hasn't gone wrong. And I mean, we had our very own Emma has done it um for me. Uh we had Mel, a good friend of mine, did it, and when I do it, we have um poor them, they have to sit through the entire show until the ending because this is the finale, and then they are a member of the audience. Of course, the audience don't realise that they're a plant, but they are actually in the show without the audience realising. They get tied up to the chair, and at the very end, they have an episode, they scream, and then we have to stop the show and evacuate them uh with their loved one or whoever's with them. And it's such a lovely moment in the show, and one of the things we we did it for the first time at a place called Speedway, and it was called All the Fun of the Fear. And Mel, who was a good friend of mine, she's not an actress or anything like that, she's just a good friend who was willing to do it. She had this lovely moment where she walked, we we sent her back into the auditorium because we're mean that way, and when she walked in, we we were all worried. Did the audience really believe this? Did they think that this was real and that she's had some sort of episode? And someone kissed her, it's just a stranger, kissed her on the forehead and said, Don't worry, you'll be okay now. And that for me was proof that the audience really believed in that moment. So for me, I would have to take rope so that I could make an impromptu spirit cabinet in that moment. Um, and again, there are lots of different spirit ties. I believe the one that I use was just from Tarbell in the end, um, and it's a great one where you tie a rope around each wrist and then they cross arms over their body, it's then tied to the back of them, and then they can then be tied to the back of the chair. So it seems absolutely impossible that there's any way they could move, but secretly they are they can easily access certain things inside the spirit cabinet, let's put it that way. And then combining that with other props like uh special spirit bells, which can be remotely operated, you get a nice combination of methods that cancel each other out. So if anyone did think that somehow she had access to them, at one stage she doesn't need to have access to it, so we can make the conditions a little bit more fair. So, yeah, I'm skirting the rules and I'm taking some rope to make uh a spirit tie for a uh spirit cabinet.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, great. And I I will say as well, just a bit of a funny story. When myself and you were pitching the Halloween show at a venue that was um it was, I mean, they have ghost hunts at this venue, it it is a haunted venue. Um, and we sat down and we showed the owner of the venue a bit of last year's show, which was the Spirit Cabinet, to which they asked, That's amazing, but what do you do if the spirits decide not to play that night? I mean, like she bought it hook, line, and sinker. Yep. What was going on?
SPEAKER_02:And and that that wasn't sarcastic, that was deadpan, very, very serious.
SPEAKER_01:We we had to convince her that we had pre-booked the spirits, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:They were on the payroll.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um, so uh that's a great, great list. So let's just go over it again. In your first choice was Identity by Richard Sanders, second choice was uh Mini ND. Remember, these are in no particular order, just uh Jamie's eight he can't live without. Uh the third choice was Inception. Four came Killer Elite Pro with a little nod to Dice Man. Um then we had Spirit by Jamie Dawes, to Lovecraft, which is a Pegasus page routine uh by the Jack. Um Toxic Plus, which is part of the iTump app. Uh PK Touches, uh notably Banachek's version and D'Angelo's Touch, but I think you got a mixture of everyone's in yours anyway. Uh bookwise, we had a we had Architect of the Mind by Drew Backenstock as a little nod, but your main book was Seance. Uh non-magic item was rope, and your banishment was magicians being too worried to perform meaningful magic.
SPEAKER_02:You started off with that and then just ducked out of it towards the end.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But uh magic that may make people feel uncomfortable. So that's a really good desert island tricks, and it was really interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and it also means that people don't have to keep coming up to me at conventions and saying, When are you doing your one? I have done it, I've been on the other side of the table now. Um, I have been put through the same torment as everyone else.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, and what a perfect Boxing Day one. So everyone's had their Christmas dinner. Boxing day is gen generally a day that we have a little bit of time to chill, I think. The madness of Christmas Day is over, and then you just get to sit down, everyone's doing their own thing. So um yeah, I mean, what a great thing for them to listen to. So before we wrap up the podcast, Jamie, is there anything you want to add before we say goodbye to everyone?
SPEAKER_02:Uh no, just thank you to everyone who's listening to the podcast. You know, it is not the easiest thing logistically to do a podcast one a week, as we've discovered uh recently. It's it's very much a labor of love, you know. Uh it's something that we really enjoy having out there as well. The whole point of this, and this is what me and Pete said at the very beginning of this, is we just wanted to create a good podcast. And that's what we say to the guests. So one uh before I meet, this this is like backstage now of how the podcast is put together. Um, each guest has a welcome letter that they receive, which welcomes them to our island uh as a castaway, and it basically outlines everything that they need to do. And then before the podcast, I have like a little terms and conditions that I read to them. So, for example, we don't want methods spoken about on the podcast. If they have any anecdotes and stories, those tend to go down really well. If they can synopsize the tricks, that goes down well as well because people know what the tricks are. Obviously, try and keep bad language down to a minimum, all of that good stuff. So all of that is read out to them, and then we just kind of let them go into it. I don't know their lists beforehand, everything is done spur of the moment, that way it's interesting for me as well. Um, after doing I think we've done over a hundred of these now. So it's such a good podcast. Uh, hopefully the community is liking it, but the only way that it can grow and carry on. On is if you know people are listening. So if you know a magic buddy or a friend, let them know about your favourite episode, and hopefully we can uh get even more people listening to this for many, many, many years to come. In fact, we actually had uh several months ago now, we had the British Library um ask us to put all of these in the British Library Archive as a podcast of historical significance, um, which is pretty crazy. So, yeah, the the fact that it's pretty cool that that's where we're at now with with the podcast. It's got so much to it now, and we've had so many incredible names. And if you are listening to this and you've not been on the podcast and you'd like to be, send us an email and hopefully we can get you on here. Or if you know someone that you wish could be on the podcast, let us know and we'll try and get them on here.
SPEAKER_01:And the other thing as well, and we did do this, but it dried up, and that was stranded with a stranger. So if you're a listener to the podcast and you would like to get your eight tricks on, all you need to do is send us in an email at sausaalakazam.co.uk with the subject line My Desert Island Tricks, and basically just write it out. And if we get enough of these, Jamie will start doing he used to do a little bite-sized Tuesday, um, and it was called Stranded with a Stranger, and it's where we go over a bit about you, your eight tricks, why you chose them, your banishment, and everything else. So um if you want to get involved, and remember a lot of these things are driven by you. You know, take a step up, send us that email, and we can feature you on Desert Island Tricks. And believe you me, we're just as interested in what you would choose as we are what any big name in Magic will choose.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Your choices are just as relevant as everyone else. But remember, what makes these so interesting is not so much the choices you make, but the reasons why you made those choices. Yeah, so if you would like to get involved, send us an email to sales at alakazam.co.uk. Subject line my desert island tricks. And then uh you've listened to the podcast, you know how it goes, give us a little bio of you, whether you are a performer, whether you're just a hobbyist, whether you just do it, you know, literally for yourself, for your own enjoyment. Um, then list out your eight tricks, give us a reason why you chose those tricks. Could be the first trick you ever learned, the first trick you ever saw. They don't even have to be tricks that you can uh that you actually perform. In some of uh these podcasts, people have just gone, uh, you know, if I could take anything and I could do anything, it would be X by X, you know. Mark Spellman. Yeah, it would be Mark by Mark.
SPEAKER_02:Um so yeah. And we've got maybe two or three of them saved up as well. So if we can get like a string of them in the bank, then we we can do like a maybe a six-week series every now and again. But we do have another idea which I'm still kind of developing, and the idea is going to be called Desert Island Tricks SOS. And the idea is that obviously it's been two years now. How mad is that since we started with the first guests. So we want to invite them back onto the island, read their lists back to them, and see if they would still stick with that list two years later, or have they reconsidered it? Would they change something? But on top of that, we will then give them two more choices, so two more things that they can have on their island, because you know, they've been stuck there for two years now. It's been a long time. We need to give them a bit of a helping hand on the island. So we're gonna give them two more things to discuss as well, and just see if these, you know, people and performers are still sticking to that desert island list. It'll be really interesting to see if you know, we're saying these are our for the rest of our life tricks, but does it really mean that? Would would anything change? Hmm. So, yeah, we're gonna try and get that going in the new year as well, which I think will be a really interesting uh second edition of the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Fantastic. Right, so before we wrap up, just want to say um on New Year's Day there is a special video going on YouTube, and it's a sort of look. It's myself, Jamie, and Harry joined by a few guests, and it's a look at uh what happened this year at Alakazam Magic and a little sneak peek of what you can expect from Alakazam in 2026, including quite a big announcement, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Quite a big or very big announcement.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's a big announcement.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's a very big announcement, yes, very, very big.
SPEAKER_01:Um so join us on YouTube on New Year's Day. What time's that going up, Jamie?
SPEAKER_02:Uh uh whenever I get up in the morning. So probably about nine o'clock, I should think.
SPEAKER_01:Okie dokes. So join us for that. And if you don't want to miss it and you you're in fear of forgetting it's gonna be on, pop over to the YouTube channel now, hit the subscribe button and the notification bell, and you will be notified when we do go live. So I think that brings us to the end of this Desert Island tricks. At this point, Jamie, I am gonna hand over to you because um I can't remember how you sign off.
SPEAKER_02:So thank you all for listening with another episode. We hope that you've enjoyed your Christmas and you've had a chance to relax, eat far too much junk food, let's all be honest, and of course, look out for that announcement next week on YouTube. We'll be back next week with another episode. Thank you, Peter, for being my host.
SPEAKER_01:You are welcome. I truly enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_02:And uh, we will see you all next week. Thank you guys. Have a great week. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_01:Hi, Peter Naughty here, and I really hope you enjoyed that podcast. I just wanted to make you know that Alakazam have their own app. You can download it from the App Store or the Google Play Store. By downloading the app, it will make your shopping experience even slicker at Alakazam. You'll also get exclusive in app offers and in app live streams. So go download it now, and we'll see you on the next podcast.