Stranded with a Stranger: David Rhodes

A lot of magic advice lives in theory. David Rhodes brings something better: a working performer’s list of eight routines he’d keep if everything else disappeared, plus one book, one non-magic utility item, and one thing he’d banish from the art. David’s story starts with a familiar arc, going all-in on magic in his twenties, stepping away for years into the corporate world, then coming back with fresh eyes and sharper taste.

We dig into a lineup that leans heavily toward practical mentalism and audience-first structure: Telepathy Plus as a minimalist billet miracle, a memory demonstration that builds real credibility, and a Magic Square that can turn “confusion” into a perfect closer. From there we get into blindfold work and psychometry, where the impact comes from meaning, not props, plus fork bending with a clear stance on why less is more when you want it to feel genuinely psychic. We also talk borrowed-object impossibility with ring flight, and why the strongest close-up magic often lives in the spectator’s hands.

Card lovers still get fed: Out Of This World gets its flowers as one of the most powerful spectator-driven effects ever, and David shares a sneaky multiple selection “cheat code” that lets you weave in favourites like Triumph. We round it out with Interpreting Magic by David Regal for the interviews, a corner rounder as an underrated weapon for short cards, and a banishment that every performer should consider: ditch hack lines that kill connection.

Send in your list of 8 tricks, 1 book, 1 non magic item and 1 banishment to sales@alakazam.co.uk

Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk

Transcript

Welcome And List Submission Details

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Hello and welcome to an episode of Stranded with a Stranger. We have another Stranded Stranger with us. Thank you so much for sending in your lists. We do only have a few of these left. So if you were thinking of sending in your list, now is the time to do it. Please send in your list of eight tricks, one banishment, one book, and one non-magic item to sales at alakazam.co.uk. Don't forget a little bio about you just so that we can get to know a bit about you, and of course the reasons that you've chosen your effects and your routines. The more of these we get, the more that we can record them. So please, please send them in just like this week's guest, which is David Rhodes. So David's given us a very uh brief description, but just a little bit of background. He says I was introduced to the podcast and basically binge listened to them all. As a background, I was really into magic in my early to mid-twenties, working here in Australia. Life changed and I went into the corporate world for 15 years. After a 10 year absence, I got back into magic about two years ago and really enjoying performing and learning all the things I have missed out on. So very, very brief there, but tells us a little bit about David.

David Rhodes Returns To Magic

SPEAKER_01 1:52

I've noticed this quite a bit. We just finished filming a few days ago with Chris Webb, and he kind of stepped away from the magic industry and then came back as well. Um, and a few weeks ago on this podcast, in fact, we had uh Mark Lavelle, and Mark Lavelle did the same thing, he was around, he stepped away, and he came back. So it does seem to be a thing that you know some people kind of rekindle their love for magic. I actually think that's what happened with Pete as well. I think he speaks about stepping away from magic and then coming back years later. So it must be exciting just to see how the industry has changed and experience all of these new exciting things. So let's find out what David's list

Telepathy Plus And Billet Power

SPEAKER_01 2:47

is. In number one, he's put telepathy plus. If I could only perform one mentalism effect for the rest of my life, it would be telepathy plus. In part due to the versatility of the effect, all I would ever need is three slips of paper and a pen. As an honourable mention, fourth dimensional telepathy and specifically Bob Cassidy's three envelope tests would be considered. Ultimately, I went with telepathy plus because I feel it works better one-on-one, and in certain situations the envelopes can feel a bit of overkill. My handling is a slight variation on Julia Locis from Billets for the Modern Mind Reader Volume 2. You can keep this feeling fresh by changing the presentation and interactions with your audience. Well, I'm a huge fan of billet work and uh envelopes and envelope tests. Again, a few weeks ago, we finished wrapping up a course for Unlimited all on envelope magic with uh Alexander Marsh from the 1914. So uh he had some brilliant, brilliant, unique ideas with envelopes and billets which I've never seen before. And you know, we were talking about Bob Cassidy and how his stuff it really has lasted the test of time because it's just so well constructed, it's so adaptable to different situations, like you've mentioned there, David. The idea that you can change up the subject matter dependent on what gig or event you're being paid to work at. So it's a really great choice, David. Um, and you know, there are lots and lots of three billet tests or free envelope tests, or whatever you want to call out there, and I'm not aware of Julian Losis, but after reading this, I have gone on to Penguin, I've got hold of that download, and I will be watching it, so thank you for the suggestion.

Memory Feats That Feel Real

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Let's go to number two, amazing memory demonstration. Often when we perform, it's an interesting demonstration, but has no real world application in the audiences' lives. When working with corporates, especially in their offsites, I felt that giving them a real demonstration of memory work coupled with a high-level explanation worked really well in the earlier stages of the presentations. Okay, so I'm presuming David means Richard Austerlin's routine, in which uh Richard goes around the audience and he has each person name an item, but he would have them embellish that item. So, for example, if they were thinking of keys on their keyring, he might say, Is there a specific keyring on there? What's the shape? Oh, it's a car. What colour is that keyring? And he would have someone in the audience list all of these things out. I think it's normally a list of 20, and then he would proceed to have an audience member name any one of those numbers and then tell them what the item is at that number. Somehow he's just memorised it. And he would do this several times, and then maybe he may have someone uh name one of the items and then he'd name the number. But whatever happens, he gets them to put a little check mark next to them. So, you know, if if they've said five and he said, Well, that is a cuddly toy, they put a check mark next to it. And then at the end of the routine, he goes through the list back to front from the last one to the first one, and then points out which ones he's ticked. But he'll also include all of the embellishments that the audience have put together. It really is just a wonderful, wonderful routine. Um, and I think you're absolutely right there, David. The idea of adding a little bit of skill, and I know Mark Paul talks about this in his performances, he tends to put a skill-based thing at the beginning of the routine, which helps believability in his actions and you know the routines that are going to come up, and the fact that maybe he can do these things for real, and then he sort of builds on that and builds on that. So, an absolutely brilliant, brilliant choice. And I'm sure there are lots of memory demonstrations. I'm a huge fan of uh card demonstrations like memory deck, uh memorized deck demonstrations, I should say, and again, going back to Bob Cassidy, he has a brilliant one in his book as well. Uh, and on Unlimited, we do have one by Adam Dadswell called Remembering Three, which is a phenomenal memorized deck uh effect. When I say memorized deck, this is actually a fake memorized deck presentation that looks a real pseudo one, but it's brilliant anyway. It always gets a brilliant reaction when you do some sort of memory feat. Let's go

Magic Square As A Signature Closer

SPEAKER_01 7:29

to number three, that is Magic Square. For the same reasons as above, I used to actually combine both effects into a signature piece. Oh, very nice. Where I would have a list of 20 objects, I name five objects, then the number was called out, and then I'd name another five, but this time I'd call out the number corresponding to the object called. Then I would ask someone to think of any four of them and add up the numbered position in the list and give me the total. I would get confused and seemingly get overwhelmed by the different combinations, but at the end of this chaos, I have a perfect magic square. Wow, that's great. So you would have the this list of 20. So yeah, I do think it's the Richard Oslin one that we're thinking of here. And uh from he would do the memory demonstration, and then he would have them pick any five of them, add up the numbered positions, and then he would do uh magic square from that pos the the combined number, sorry, um, which I think that's brilliant. What a really clever way to combine routines to create this incredible signature routine, and I think that builds perfectly. It it just builds and builds and builds. You start with this kind of weird memory demonstration, and then into this impossible thing that's just happened that the audience are gonna have no idea how that's happened. So I think that's a really nice lead in, and I'm sure that's gonna get lots of people listening to this, you know, that's gonna get their creative juices flowing.

Blindfold Psychometry And Readings

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Now let's go to number four, a blindfold routine slash psychometry. Within mentalism, the blindfold is often one of the most interesting visual presentations that one can do, and that coupled with the psychometry routine is almost a perfect effect. People are more interested in themselves and others, especially when they're with their friends or co-workers, rather than paid entertainment. As an honourable mention, I would like to include Sneak Thief and Magician's Griphology, as well as Christopher Carter's three billet test. Oh, good choice. These effects are perfect uh are a perfect structure of psychometry and thought reading, and are often my go-to if I only have a five to ten minutes to perform one effect. However, I include pseudo psychometry and telepathy plus already. It would sort of feel redundant. I think that's a really great choice. I'm a huge Christopher Carter fan, you know, his penguin lectures are absolutely phenomenal, his book is great, and the way that he structures his three billet test is so so clever. Feels super lo-fi, and it feels like real mind reading. Uh, I remember seeing Darren Brown's last show, I think, from the time recording, and he had a psychometry thing in there where he has audience members put things into a bag, and it's amazing the amount of meaning you can get from people's objects and things that they have on them. Um, and you know, the drawings you can have someone draw something, and you can do a reading from that. It's one of those pieces that you know it can be a signature part in your show. It kind of feels like a QA-esque style routine, but perhaps with a bit more structure because you have these very distinctive things that you can get readings from. Um, so absolutely brilliant, a great choice there in at number four.

Fork Bending With Less Flash

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Let's go to number five. Fork bending. There is a reason Yuri Geller was perceived as a psychic, and a huge part was this routine. I personally think that liquid metal is doing too much. Oh, interesting. When it comes to metal bending, less is more. Okay, I mean, arguably the majority of Yuri Geller's uh fame is because of spoon and fork bending. Certainly, I know when I perform fork bending, the first thing uh audience members say is Yuri Geller, you know, he he's such an iconic performer, and certainly this is the thing that people link him to. Um, in terms of the liquid metal, I actually think there's different schools of thoughts when it comes to fork bending. Some people kind of like that rapid, super visual aspect, some people prefer to go down the more psychic route where you know it's a bit slow and deliberate. And I mean Yuri Geller, he was really famous for you know rubbing the metal and it snapping just at that fold point. That was kind of his routine for the most part. It wasn't super glamorous, it was more the breaking of the fork, and he had that lovely moment where he sh he shakes the bottom of the fork, and as he's shaking it, the top wobbles and then eventually just falls off. So I think dependent on your style, the way that you're performing fork bending, it is down to the performer. I I love the slow versions, I love the braking, but I also really love the super fast visual stuff as well. I think it's all great. But it's also another brilliant choice. It's also very mentalism heavy so far. So we had telepathy plus, we had amazing memory memory demonstration, magic square, blindfold routine slash psychometry, and fork bending. Quite quite mentalism-y. So do we think the last few are going to be mentalism-y? Or do we think we're gonna change?

Ring Flight And Borrowed Impossible Objects

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Let's find out. Number six is ring flight. We do have a change, a classic, and such a perfectly simple and powerful effect. However, with a few of the recent releases, I think this might soon become the linking finger rings between the Nova rings and Tim Conover's routine. There is a good chance in a few months I will swap this out. Oh, interesting. So maybe in future ring flight goes and the linking finger rings become your new piece. I think that's really interesting. Again, creating a piece of impossible with someone's borrowed items, I think is a really powerful thing to do. Again, not to reference Darren Brown too much, but in his last show, he did the effect where a borrowed ring ends up on the stem of a glass uh of a wine glass, and you know, that's gonna be something that that audience member remembers forever. You know, obviously, if it's an expensive ring, they're gonna probably be getting that ring off that glass by breaking it, but the fact that they have to break it, that is something that's absolutely unfathomable. There is no way that that could have been done. And the idea of doing that kind of thing with three borrowed rings really does feel like an incredible piece of magic. They actually did this in a show called Unbelievable in London a few years ago, and it was a very deliberate, slow piece of magic with a close-up camera, uh, everything on a pencil, all of the rings on a pencil, it was absolutely stunning, and there were gasps throughout the audience. So I think it's a great choice if you're gonna switch to that, but of course, ring flight is equally as incredible. We've had it mentioned so many times on the podcast, and for good reason, you know, it feels like you're using organic items that are just there, and this impossible piece of magic happens. So another great choice, and so far it's our curveball in our list. Let's

Out Of This World Hits Different

SPEAKER_01 14:56

go to number seven, which is oh, one of my favorites out of this world, one of the most powerful card tricks of all time. Didn't James Randy say he would have paid out if it wasn't performed by a magician? That would not surprise me at all. I can distinctly remember the first time that I saw Out of This World being absolutely mind-boggled. I was about to say a much worse word there, but we're gonna keep it uh nice. I was absolutely blown away, and it's still one of my favourite card tricks. Anyone that's performed out of this world at an event knows that it hits a little bit differently for a card trick. It doesn't feel like a card trick because it's all about them and their abilities and the fact that they've done this incredible thing, there's no trickery really. They're doing everything, so it really, really feels truly, truly magical. So, 100% another great choice there. I'm loving this list so far. I would perform the vast majority of these tricks, I think, because they're all absolute killers. So let's go for number eight. Our

Multiple Selection Cheat Code With Triumph

SPEAKER_01 16:08

last choice is Oh, another curveball, a multiple selection routine. I know it's a bit of a cheat, but if it includes some of my favourite card effects, then Triumph, Poker Deal, Spectator Cuts, the Aces, etc etc. would have to be in my list. It was heavily inspired by John Graham's Encore, but not in method, but in presentation. If I have to select one effect though, it would have to be Triumph. It feels like a card trick in the sense that the spectator selects a card and you find it, however, at the same time it feels much more than a card trick. As the second all of the cards straighten out, it could easily begin be considered the best card trick anyone has ever seen. Personally, I use Kostja Kimlat's Triumph, even though it is one of the most demanding versions. The work is definitely worth the results that I feel the other Triumphs don't quite reach. Yeah, so I think the one that you may mean is the one with um the Roadrunner Cole, which is a brilliant version. And what I love about that particular version is the audience can legitimately shuffle the cards face up and face down. Um they could, you know, you're going through the cards and they are genuinely mixing them, they hand them back to you in a mixed order, uh, which you know feels absolutely fair. But that whole premise of Triumph is brilliant. You can get um apps as well that allow you to add a little moment to it. I think it's called Timeline. Uh, please forgive me if I'm wrong. But the idea is that you ask them, uh, should we go back in time? The clock on your phone goes back in time, but also the clock on everyone else's phone goes back in time as well. You get a wonderful moment where everyone's brain explodes during that, and then of course you get not only the the effect of the cards turning face up, but then the kicker of their selection being the only one face down. So it's a brilliant choice, but I really love how David has been super, super sneaky, and he has found a cheat code, which we've not had yet uh in this uh format. So he's used the multiple selection in order to sneak in lots of different tricks, so triumph, poker deals, spectator cuts, the aces, etc. I'm guessing there are some colour changes in there as well. Super sneaky, very sneaky, but I like it. I like that you've got all of those routines in there. Technically, a multiple selection routine is one trick that you've managed to sneak in. So I think that's a great choice. Let's

A Book Picked For Interviews

SPEAKER_01 18:44

go on to David's book. He says, My book would be Interpreting Magic by David Regal. Specifically for the interviews. Yes, there is great theory in the book, but I find myself reading the interviews more than any of the effects. Great choice, one that I don't believe that we've had yet. So, you know, it's gonna probably be one that I end up buying again. I've got a lovely list of books that I'm slowly sifting through, so I will add this one to the list as well. And I also love interviews. One of my favourite things to do is to go back to the old magazines, and in a lot of those, they tend to be interviews, small interviews, so they're you know, they're not really difficult if you're not into reading to get through, but they're concise, insightful, and they're from you know the greats who are no longer with us in most cases. So I love a good interview, and I think that's a great book. Let's go to a non-magic

Corner Rounder For Short Cards

SPEAKER_01 19:45

item, which I think's really clever. I love this one. The non-magic item is a corner rounder. Every deck of cards I have has two corner short cards, 27th and 52nd cards in my stack. The 27th cuts to the top and the 52nd cuts to the bottom. A great choice. I think a corner rounder is super smart to take with you, and I'm surprised it's not one that we've had more of now that I've heard it, because it makes perfect sense. I'm sure that someone mentioned in one of the uh episodes of Desert Island Tricks that they would take some nail clippers for that same thing. So a great choice. Let's go to your banishment uh to close out your list. David

Banish Hack Lines That Break Rapport

SPEAKER_01 20:28

said I would banish hack lines that sever any chance to actually build a connection with the audience or participants. Hmm. I would love to know what one of those lines are. If you are listening to this on YouTube, David, why not write below one of the lines that you mean? Because I think that would be super interesting. But yeah, I do I or rather I have seen performers every now and again who have a line and you can tell it just doesn't hit because of whatever reason, you know, it's maybe slightly insulting or it's cheesy, or you know, it could be any number of things, but in your or in my mind rather, I feel like saying, you know, maybe watch your performance back or think about the setting that you're in for that line. Maybe that just wasn't the group for that line. Um, but I do think that that comes with practice, you know. I think knowing your audience and that the more gigs that you do, the more you're around different groups of people, the more you'll get used to deciding what is good for what group and what is not good for what group. So I think that's a great banishment and a great way to close out your list. Let's go over it one more time, David. We had Telepathy Plus, Amazing Memory Demonstration, Magic Square, Blindfold, Psychometry, uh, fork bending, a ring flight, out of this world, multiple selection routine, sneaky. Your book was interpretive magic by David Regal, your non-magic item was a corner rounder, and your banish. Was hack lines that sever any chance to actually build a connection. Thank

Wrap Up Reviews And Future Guests

SPEAKER_01 22:05

you so much, David, for taking the time to write all of that out. And again, if you guys want one of your lists read out on the podcast, send in your list to sales at alakazam.co.uk, include your list, why you've chosen them, and of course a little bit about you, and we'll get one of these recorded for you. Over the next few weeks, we've got some incredible guests lined up who are recording next week. I have two incredible guests recording. The week after, I have one guest recording who I think is gonna be one that a lot of people want to listen to. I'm very, very excited for that one. Uh, that one will be a video one as well, so you'll be able to watch that on YouTube. So we've got some great guests line up, and uh I know that you guys are gonna really enjoy the episodes we've got coming up. As always, if you are on YouTube, put a little comment below, let us know what you think of this list, and if you would change anything up, or if you have any of your own suggestions. And on whatever platform you're listening to this on, please leave a review. It really helps push the podcast out to more performers, and hopefully, we can reach more magicians around the world. So for now, I hope you all have a great week, and I'll see you next week with another episode of Desert Island Tricks. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Hey

Print By Magic Custom Deck Offer

SPEAKER_00 23:27

everyone, Emilio here from Print by Magic, and I want to tell you all about the incredible service we're now offering here at Alakazam Magic. We can print any design you like onto premium bicycle card stock. Want a custom back deck to give your magic a more professional feel? Need personalized decks as a wedding gift or corporate giveaway, or maybe you've created a new trick and need custom gaff cards with altered pips or faces. We can do all of that, and unlike most printers, there's no minimum order. Whether you'd like one card, one full deck, or multiple decks, we've got you covered. Some of the biggest names in Magic already use Print by Magic, so if you've got an idea, we'd love to bring it to life. Head over to Print by Magic and let's make your dream deck a reality. Thanks guys.