Marc Spelmann

She loves me not , she loves me , she loves me not . And you do that until the flower has got it's just a stem , it's got no petals on it , and you take the stem and you put that into your fist , where you've just been dropping all of these little petals .

And then now you blow on your hand or whatever magical gesture you would like , and then , when you open up your hand , all of the petals have reattached to the stem . When I did it , she was not expecting magic in that moment . She thought we were just sitting apart . She loves me , I was just doing some weird . You know , loves me , loves me , not thing .

And then I just went oh no , definitely loves me . And I went , that's for you , and I gave it to her and it was an amazing moment of organic , natural magic .

Uh , he is most well known probably for his return to bgt , britain's got talent a second year under a pseudonym pseudcharacter with a mask . So of course he went on to the first season and it was excellent .

It's still one of the ones that if I talk to people and they talk about magicians on Britain's Got Talent , they always talk about the man with the kid who reveals the word . They always always mention that one . And then , of course , he came back the year after as x . He's also been on america's got talent .

He's been on I think there was another britain's got talent that he did , possibly , but he'll correct me on that one . Um , but more than that , he is just a legend in terms of creating magic and mentalism as well . He's been around for a long ish time , um , he's been around and invented some great , great effects .

Some of them have already been on desert island tricks , so they have appeared in other people's lists , which shows you just how prolific this person is . Of course you would have seen by the title . It is the one and only mark spellman . Hello mark , hello james .

I want it written down and I can see you now because we're doing this on a Zoom but can you write down what your guess is of one or two of the items I don't know how many you've guessed and what peter has guessed as well and then put it behind you so that I can see that you're not doing any sneaky sort of stuff , so that this is your prediction and

we're going to see how much whether you or peter know me better than other , or if you know me at all .

When he's there , he's allowed to take eight tricks , one book and one non-magic item that he uses for magic Particulars , things like the size of the island , what's there , who's there , how it's there . All of that good stuff doesn't really matter .

This is basically Mark's ultimate list of tricks and , with that being said , let's whisk you away , Mark , on your cruise ship , no doubt to number one . What's first in your

list ?

you can say a tt so people that are non-magic listening to this , they're going wow , he really loves his tea . But you know what I mean ? Has that come up before ? Tt ? It must have , yeah , it must have 100% , okay . So I'll tell you a bit of a backstory on this .

I've always thought that the TT is out of everything that has been exposed to the general public , I think the tt is the one that breaks my heart because I think the tt , in the way that magicians and mentalists would use that particular device , it is ingenious , it is .

I I think it's one of the best of all the things that we have now , all the incredible devices , all the tech , all the things that are accessible to a magician .

Now I still look at that simple , beautiful device and think to myself that is genius , because you can effectively and you can show your hands empty and literally two feet in front of someone , and then what you can do with that tt device is absolutely incredible .

So I've always loved it as a product and I used to demonstrate in a magic shop that sadly is no longer around anymore called Davenport , so we're talking like very early 90s . I used to .

I was in sort of a struggling magician , gigging and trying to make ends meet and that kind of thing , trying to forge a career in magic back in the early 90s , forge a career in magic back in the early 90s and um , so I , as a sideline , I kind of just sort of did a couple of days at Davenport's as and when they needed me , and Betty Davenport used to

call me supermodel because I've got a background in arts and crafts . If they gave me a stack of orders , like you know , mail order , magic , kind of things that needed to be packed up and stuff , I was just a whiz kid with this .

So she used to call me supermark was my name , because I would get everything wrapped up , labeled and sent out by 10 , 30 that morning and I'd go knock on her office door and say betty , is there anything else you need me to do ? Make up some unequal , equal ropes , professor's Nightmare , all that kind of stuff .

But at Davenport's they used to have at the time imagine this is like the early 90s they used to have the best selection of TTs , all different types , different shades , rubber Am I allowed to say rubber's okay , plastic , it's all pretty vague , isn't it right ? Um , and I remember I used to collect them .

So betty would say if we had a particularly good week at dapples . She'd turn around to me at the end of the end of the week and say , mark , is there anything you'd like to take ? You know , just like a book or something like that . And I used to say to her can I have a couple of tts ?

And then I went to internet International Magic Convention and I'm just telling you why this is one of my choices . And I saw a video by a fantastic VHS video so back in the day , and it was by an incredible magician called Silvano and it was all about .

It was his lecture at International Magic Convention with a TT and how he uses it , and I already had a love and an affinity with this device because I loved it . It was just so clever .

But then , after watching Silvano do his lecture I don't think Silvano is with us anymore , but he was very charismatic , had a lovely persona , great way of performing and what he did with a TTt even as magicians we're going right now where is it ? Because we know what we're looking for . And then at the end of his lecture he said let me do it again .

So after all of his performances where we just mesmerized with his technique . Uh , he then says , let me do it . And he pulls out an illuminous green tt and then does it again . And then you go , this is how you use one of these devices like . This is like master class level .

And again , this is in like the mid 90s and that is still available , that lecture . So if you are someone who has a tt , most magicians or people that are listening to this might have Just , honestly , international Magic , get the Silvano lecture , thank me later and sit there and just be absolutely blown away by how incredible that device is .

And we all know that the price of these devices , the TTs , range from like £3.50 . I mean , obviously you can go up to like some of the more advanced ones , like sort of 20 quid or whatever , but in general they're like £3.50 . And I just , I'm sad , I genuinely am Out of everything that's ever been exposed . All the masked magician nonsense , all that rubbish .

I just for me the tt is like oh god , couldn't have just kept that one secret . But I think we use it so , um , creatively that even someone that knows of a tt in public world would not necessarily know how we're utilizing that ingenious device . So , out of everything , that's my number one .

If you said to me , you've got one thing to go onto a desert island with , that would be it .

I won't obviously discuss methods , but he got a 10 pound note and he signed a 10 pound note and he put it in a cigarette box . Cigarettes were these things that we used to put to our mouths and give us cancer . Really clever . But now we've got these things called vapes that just drown our lungs apparently . So another good well done .

Just don't do any of this with anything that doesn't feel natural . Just don't do it Anyway . So he got this note , a £10 note , signed it or put his initials on it , folded it up , put it in a cigarette box , set the cigarette box to one side , then got someone else to take out a £10 note . They put their initials on that note .

He took it up empty hands and slowly folded up their note , unfolded it it was now his note with the initials showed his hands empty , pointing to the cigarette box . He had not gone anywhere near , walked over to it , reached inside . Folded up inside was the 10 pound note . But now when he opened it , it was their signed 10 pound note .

So it's a transposition of two pieces of , effectively , paper from one place to the other . But it was so pure , with so many convincers , and obviously anyone listening to this who knows what a TT is will know exactly what that method is .

But that for me , so a transposition , I think , is so strong , I think it's really strong Under the conditions that a TT will allow you to have . That would be the effect . So I don't know . I'm on a desert island , so maybe I've got a leaf and someone has torn the corner or the edge of one of those leaves .

Kept a bit as a souvenir , I folded that leaf up , made it vanish and it ends up inside of a coconut that falls off a tree and then they can match up the corner and it is the piece of missing leaf . There you go . That's a desert trick that I literally just came up with as I'm rambling to you right now . So there you go .

One of the sorry , one of the best trick ? Oh , my god , that's another great trick with the tt . So there was a book and this would I wouldn't take this book with me , but it was darwin's 101 tt tricks . Right , it was a little manuscript . Again , davenport's used to sell this .

It was a little manuscript , staple bound manuscript , um , maybe I don't know , like the description of a trick and the method would be a third of a page . It was so like trick , trick , trick , trick , trick .

Loads of tricks , lance Byrne , all like great magicians and stuff , and one of them which I think is one of the most organic tricks and I think there's something you reminded me about it with the David Blaine thing and that is you go up , you you get a flower . So you imagine this .

You know what a TT is and a lot of people listening to this will know what a TT is . So imagine you do this . Imagine you're sitting in a park and I've done this on my ex-girlfriend . She's not my ex-girlfriend because I did this . She's my ex-girlfriend because of other complications within our relationship . But let's not worry about that right now .

He's a beautiful soul and we're still very good friends , um , anyway . So , um , sitting in a park , I got a flower and it's like a little not a daffodil , but it was what's the one ? You put underneath your chin and you kind of go oh yeah , you like butter . That weird yeah , buttercup maybe that's the clues in the title .

Maybe it's a buttercup , so anyway . So put you on the spot . Maybe it's a buttercup , right , so anyway , so you get it . It'll put you on the spot there , jamie's going buttercup , so anyway . But basically you get the flower and imagine you say , look , she loves me .

And you pluck off a petal and you put it into your hand , into your fist , as you're holding the thing . Obviously people can't see what I'm doing , but , jamie , you can see what I'm doing , right . And then plucking she loves me not , she loves me , she loves me not . And you do that until the flower has got it's just the stem , it's got no petals on it .

And you take the stem and you put that into your fist , where you've just been dropping all of these little petals . And then now you blow on your hand or whatever magical gesture you would like , and then when you open up your hand , all of the petals have reattached to the stem and it's done with a TT .

That's great and that for me , like when I did it and I can mention the lady's name because she's a beautiful soul Hannah was my ex-girlfriend and when I did it on Hannah , she was not expecting magic in that moment she thought we were just sitting apart . She loves me . So I was just doing some weird . You know , loves me , loves me nothing .

And then I just went oh no , definitely loves me . And I went that's for you , and I gave it to her and it was an amazing moment of organic , natural magic . No prop it seemed like there was no props , so you just reminded me of that . That was in 101 t hundred and one TT tricks by Darwin at Davenport .

Great choice , one that I'm not sure if everyone would have suspected you would go for .

So I'm just in my studio space going through boxes and I'm going to show you young Jamie Dawes , so you'll see on there what that says yeah , okay . And then you'll see how much I absolutely love this particular device . Oh my word .

But then we've got the more expensive jobs , like where's the more expensive ? I'm literally just going through , but I mean and this is not all of them , I mean this is the ones that I go to when I'm going right , I've got something . There you go , like these are the no , that's not expensive One . I no , they're not expensive .

But when I finally show you that one , it won't look as good on camera as it is , but it's like you know when you're talking detail yeah , that's incredibly detailed yeah so that's a ready up one anyway , but so , yeah , so that , yeah , that is , like you know , colin , who knows me very well and has been to my studio many , many times , he's seen that and

that is one box . The other one is just that sort of just again , but they're the ones that I need access to when I'm working on stuff .

Can I say names of things ? Jamie ?

And peter actually went to mark and got officially like you know , absolutely fine , please do just give me a credit , kind of thing . So did it the right way ?

And then I got the stealth wallet and looked at it and , as always , took out a scalpel , took out a cutting mat , and then went I want to do this and this and this and this , and made a couple of adaptations to sort of create what I wanted , shared it with peter .

Then peter came back to me with additional ideas and then , lo and behold , the stealth assassin wallet was born . And this is we're talking like 2003 , 2004 , something like that , so 20 years ago . Easy and um , we decided to sit down and just come up with routines for this , things that we would normally do and things that we were actually doing with it .

But then we were looking at it and going , well , what else could you do with it ? And we said and at the time we were saying you know , you could easily do a 15 minute act with this alone , because it's hidden in plain sight . It is what it purports to be and it really is .

I mean , like you know , I I actually haven't got mine here , but you know , when I'm out and about , that's why I have . So that would be my second choice .

Um , one of my favorite routines to do with it is , uh , obviously , naturally it's going to be leaning towards mind reading , uh , but one of my favorite routines is a routine and it's hard to say exactly what the routine is without explaining methods , so I'm going to skirt around it a little bit without going into too many methods .

But basically I get someone to think of , I get 10 items . So it's very organic . So we lay out 10 things on a table , whether that's a coin , a key , a pen , might be a coaster . That's nearby a glass , a bottle of wine , whatever is accessible and nearby it could be a hair clip , could be someone's watch or a ring .

And we lay those items out and I say , if I were to ask you to think of one of those 10 items and make a note of it , then obviously in that moment it's limited , it's limited to these 10 items , but that's kind of how I have to work .

So now I get them to think of one of those items and they write it down and that then gets put inside my wallet . So then at that point I turn around to someone else and say actually , let me . Let me try this with two of you . So you're thinking of one of these 10 items .

What about if I asked you to think of something far more meaningful , something far more relevant ? Someone that you , you hold dear to your heart , might not be your husband or your partner , it might be an old friend , it could be anyone .

In actual fact , I'd ask you to go back in time to a point where even the people around us right now might not know who that is . Cause if you do say your partner , your girlfriend , your boyfriend , whatever , oh yeah , we knew you were gonna say sarah , do you know ? I mean so , like , maybe make it , and that's part of my presentation anyway .

So now I go to the wallet , I take out a blank card and I give it to her , and then she writes something down that then goes back into the wallet , into the same enclosed area for safekeeping , and at that point now I make a point .

I'll put it underneath yours and let's get back to your item , and then I get the ladies , or whoever I'm doing , on to hold their hand over the items and then , very slowly , using a little bit of body um contact , mind reading , I eliminate some and then I get her to close her eyes , hold her hand over one , get her to hold her hand palm up , and then I

place one of the items in her hand and I say what was the item you were thinking of ? And then she says the ring . I say open your eyes and she can even feel that I put the ring in her hand , but it's just presentationally . She opens her eyes , she sees the ring , she's oh my god reaction .

And then at that point I say but and , and that is what you wrote down . I go back to the wallet , I slide out her card , show it and then say ring , perfect , you didn't change your mind , no great whatever . And then now I say but now think about it . You thought one of these 10 things .

You're thinking of something far more complex , something far more difficult , and let me see if I can get that , and so . So now's the point where I go to the wallet to take out another blank business card and in that moment , everything being secured as it should be , I am now able to read the lady's mind and tell her the person that she thought of .

So that's the routine , that when I was doing a lot , I don't do as much close-up as I used to do . Now I do more stage work , but when I am , I mean even socially . That's an effect that just with just having a couple of business cards and some items around , you know and you can choose what those 10 items are .

If you want to make it super simple , you could just take out six different coins , you know a pound , a 20p , a 5p , a 2p , a 1p , whatever , and lay them out and just go look . So basically you're just getting something that is tangible , seemingly achievable , you know .

And then you're going actually , but let's push this out , let's go crazy , let's get you thinking of someone that I don't even know , that , even though you're thinking of , you're both thinking of something . Uh , they couldn't be more different , because one is deeply personal , one is just an item that has no connection to you .

So even even though when you say , can you read a thought , thoughts vary drastically .

. What is in your third position ?

So I would say , if you put me on a scale of card magicians , I would say I'm probably a 6 and a half to a seven out of ten in terms of skill and ability . I pick things up pretty quickly . I can do lots of the need to know moves and some advanced stuff with cards . So cards obviously , um , a deck of playing cards has , uh , so many opportunities .

Whether you want to do something mind reading based , it becomes is more of a tool than a one trick thing , if that makes sense , um , so I would definitely have a deck of cards . Reason why I say the code is , you know , because there's certain advantages that you would have with the code over you know just an off-the-shelf deck of playing cards .

So that's why I would have the code . So the routine that I do more often than not with deck of playing cards is I do a routine which is a variation on the chicago opener . So my variation on the chicago opener is um well done who said that .

So that was the one that pete said , so it came to me just to let people aware , as I said , a very my variation on the chic Chicago Opener . Jamie just held up the pad that he previously wrote on and Peter's guess was my version of the Chicago Opener .

So my version of the Chicago Opener is a routine that I call Voozoo , and I'm sure it will end up being a download or something like that on Alakazam at some point . It's something that I'm more than happy to share now , but I don't do as much close-up as I used to do uh , but for for I mean 15 to 20 years .

That variation was was my was sometimes the only card trick that I would ever do and it was a um . Basically , the variation is a lot of the technique and the handling varied to the classic Chicago opener , red Hot Mama . There was subtleties in there that I felt improved the effect .

But equally it was with a burn on a card , which I've always loved more than I thought it was more plausible a burn appearing , especially if you had incorporated some smoke or fire in the act , um , as opposed to a card changing color .

So that would be the effect , because it's very easy to uh just get a flame and and scorch a card and then have that version of uh , the chicago opener .

We were trying to find out where it was available to learn . So , yeah , it would be excellent to maybe get that available to people , because it's obviously one that apparently you taught it in a lecture somewhere . Who did you did ? What was he talking about ? The burn card variation ? Apparently you taught it in a lecture somewhere . Who did you ?

I've done it for years , you know , and yeah , yeah , I'll speak , I'll be something that I will be more than happy to record and put out for alakazam .

But what I tell you is an effect that I've performed it for , like eric fatten , I've done it for george , the late , great george michael , um his birthday in streetly where he used to live , and , um , I've done it for god , I mean endless people . I mean I've done it like for years and years and years .

I used to work at a venue called the house of magic and I think I used to perform it in the late well , sort of early to late 90s , but late 90s . I was doing a lot of the close-up magic at the venue , the House of Magic . I think my last appearance there was 2001 , I'm sure .

Actually , I remember 9-11 happening and we were all there with all the newspapers and stuff about that tragic historical event . But yeah , I remember doing it there and so I mean , I've been doing my version Voodoo , the Chicago opener for over 25 years , um , and it's still a trick on .

I was recently on a virgin cruise ship performing and I have a burnt card in my case with a deck of playing cards and I'll do my version and it does get a really good reaction . People always comment on it and I've got lots of hints and tips and things that you can do with it .

Um , I think there's multiple things with , uh , with the chicago opener as well just going a little bit into depth on that and that is that when you think of a trick , a lot of the time when you think of a card trick , it's very much you take a card and I'll find it .

And although that is the kind of subtext behind Chicago Opener , there's twists and turns along the way , for anyone that knows Chicago Opener will know there's this sort of magician failing moment , it not quite working , and that kind of thing . I don't really go down that route with voodoo . I talk about performing .

What's the difference between a mentalist and a magician ? And I say let me show you what a magician would do first , and then I'll tell you how , how a mentalist would reframe things slightly and give it a different context .

So it's almost like I'm repeating the same trick twice , first time as a magician , with the magical elements , the burning on the back of the car , the smoke , the fire , the whatever I'm using and then the second part of it is more of a mentalist approach .

But then it comes full circle , as people would know , with the chicago red hot , mama , um , and then you get your , your moment of like well , hang on a minute , you just pulled the rug from under their feet , which I love . I love those twists , as people will know , with a lot of my work .

be pretty good .

I'm not sure , but briefly gone over it , just talking about it , I'm sure I lectured it because I was saying about a trick is never finished . Even when you buy a trick , when you buy a trick online , it's not finished . That's the mechanics , this is how it works , but what are you going to do to it ?

That's the mechanics , this is how it works , but what are you going to do to it ? So imagine that trick's 90% finished or 80% finished . What are you going to do ? What's the last 20% , 10% , whatever it is ? What are you going to put on it ? And then it becomes your piece . And that's how I felt about Chicago .

I loved it as a trick , I loved it as a twist and a turn , um . But how am I going to make it mine ? How do I change it ? How do I theme it ? How do I make it fit me ? And I think that's where magic becomes really fun , because we can learn endless secrets and methods . That's we can do that . It's all there .

You Go on YouTube now you can find secrets and methods , but what do we put onto it ? And I think the real hardcore creative magicians don't have to be technically minded . But that , for me , is the fun part , because it's almost like someone's drawn the lines to a picture and they're saying how are you going to color it in ?

And I think that's where it becomes . How am I going to color it in ? And I think that's that's where it becomes . Oh , how am I going to color this in ? You know , and that's um , and there's nothing . You'll know this . You're a creator , jamie .

Uh , there's something so rewarding about performing something that you've created , and obviously , you know I create a lot of magic , but I would never be delusional to the point where I think I've created that completely on my own . There's many influences , many . You know it's a cliche saying standing on the shoulders of giants , but I've done .

I've stood on many shoulders of many giants and you take pieces and parts and they amalgamate together to form something that feels new and , in some cases , could be new . It could be a very new angle , a new twist , a new turn , but for me , um , I love performing things that I've really put effort into .

There's some tricks that I do that get a great reaction from the audience , but it's not me . You know , being magician . X on bgt was really good fun , not for the tricks . There was one trick that I did that I created , which was the 1989 element with the boards , with that and deck , and that that was .

I've had so many people offer me large sums of money to talk to them about how that particular part works , um , but yeah , whatever , that's a mystery . But um , everything else . Now , the fun part of that for me was creating x .

The rest of it was very much things that have been done before and I'm standing on the shoulders of giants , um , but for me the creative process is really important and in that case it was very much hex . But yeah , chicago opener , the code burn card , my voodoo effect great , very , very good choice .

To be honest with you , um , and I'm not saying that to be you know , I do use it , you know , uh , but I don't use it a lot . I don't use it a lot . I use it where necessary and an MB is I've still got , you know , one from that I purchased , god , I don't know , 10 years , 10 , 8 years , 10 years ago , something like that .

Same one Works like a charm and so , yeah , I use that and I like it because it's very versatile , it's super clean . Um , obviously there's always the issue of like what happens when it doesn't work or goes wrong .

Well , if you're an experienced magician and mentalist with some years under your belt , you'll know that even things that are non-tech can mess up at times . So it's just about having good presentational skills about how things . I always have this thing where I always say don't be so delusional that you don't think anything is ever going to go wrong .

Absolutely expect something to go wrong , but don't just expect something to go wrong . Be prepared for when something goes wrong . So I always have an out and I learned this very briefly , I couldn't even mention this because it kind of relates to the tech stuff . Couldn't even mention this because it kind of relates to the tech stuff .

Um , an amazing magician , jeff mcbride , an absolute great in the world of magic , uh , he has a thing called a commando act and his commando act literally is something that packs into literally a like a bum bag , a rucksack , a kind of small bag , and he , in that bag he's got enough things that without any light , without any sound , without any microphone , he

can perform up to I think I think it was up to sort of like 15 to 20 minutes of magic . Now , obviously that does tie in with the stealth assassin that we mentioned earlier , but I always have and the stealth , even when I'm on stage , a stealth assassin is with me , even if you never see it throughout my show .

It's with me because there could be a moment where I need to all of a sudden go . Actually , do you , do you know what ? Let's change this slightly and that normally means that something hasn't gone quite right and I need to readjust . But as long as you're prepared , then you know , was it ? They say , prepare to fail or no , was it ?

No , fail to prepare , google it , google it everyone . Get the right one , anyway . So yeah , so that would be my fourth item , and if you were going to ask me what routine I would do , I would say that it would be . I think it's too . There's something very I love drawing duplications .

I love them because of the organic nature , I think , because of the how geller popularized them as much as he did and made something quite simple um , amazing . You know , he's . If anyone you know like geller's an amazing , he's . He's very charismatic , regardless of what you , what you feel or think about . Is he psychic ? Isn't he psychic ?

Aside from that , just looking at what he's delivering to an audience , I think he's got a great way of taking something that some of us could not sell , in a way , and amplifying it and making it like that's amazing . So I do love drawing duplications , but equally , I like to have an aspect of . So it's not essentially a routine as such .

What I'm actually going to tell you here is I'm going to code it slightly so that we know what we're talking about . But if you are a random member of the public that's listened this far , uh , first of all , wow , okay , um , but , uh , but yeah , you don't want to know these things because it just ruins it anyway .

So , basically , under the guise of getting someone to draw an image , I'm actually accessing more information than my audience would be aware of , if that makes sense .

So I'd be using a thing called dual and r for them to do a drawing , but equally , there might be a few other bits of required filling in that the audience is unaware of but my participant on stage is aware of .

And equally , now not only am I able to replicate an image , which seems to be the main purpose of this , but equally , I'm able to now seemingly reveal information that never was applied . That make sense ? Yep , 100% , yeah , okay , cool , so yeah , so that would be that .

All of this for the low price of just £4.99 a month , and you can cancel at any time . Perfect , if you've got commitment issues . Yes , I'm talking to you , guys . You are going to absolutely love it . If you haven't joined the platform already , what the heck are you doing ? Alakazam Unlimited is a streaming platform that you need to be a part of .

Not only that , there is also exclusive content only available on the platform .

Item number five would be and I believe I'm gonna hold it up now so you can see this it would be morgan is that morgan is that ? Do you know your coins ? Colin will tell me off about this because he gave them to me . I'm sure it's a Morgan dollar . Let me have a look . Is that a Morgan dollar ? I'm sure it's a Morgan dollar .

Anyway , old Morgan dollar coins , five of them . Old Morgan dollar coins .

I'm by no means an expert in it I'm not an Eric Chen but I can certainly do some decent coin magic and I also , like I just play with coins a lot as well . So I'd want them on the island with me . If I was going to do an effect with them , which is probably coming up , it would be a classic , probably the classic .

A slight variation on the classic coins across by david roth the late great legend that is david roth would be my trick of choice with that particular prop uh , that's one that we've had a few times , I think .

But that does bring us on to your sixth item . What's in its sixth position ? Okay ?

I probably bought about a thousand spoons from this particular company because they work for what I need , the way that I would like them to work . So I would say , yeah , um , that , and if you're going to ask me what I would do with them , I think you know where this is going to go right now . Yeah , but I have , I've always loved spoon bending .

Again , influences from from geller as well , and I mean , it's one of those things whereby you know the metal bending is just synonymous with with geller , and I don't know if anyone my historical knowledge wouldn't doesn't go that far I wouldn't know if anyone did metal bending before Geller . Was it a ?

Was it a Geller creation , certainly very popularized by Geller ? But I'd be interested to know . Maybe that's a question for a historian , but I wonder if before gala there was metal bending , and and I don't , I don't know that I've ever heard of it and I've done a lot of work in metal bending um .

My metal bending routine again , uh , obviously massively influences from gala , uh , from people like patrick cuffs , banner check , um , but equally um , I would say more so I've got a very good friend called colin klaus who has a company called refractor . They do lots of rubik's cube magic . Colin's one of my best uh friends in magic of Rubik's Cube magic .

Colin's one of my best uh friends in magic and um and Colin . I met Colin through two , two gents called Urban Magic , mike and Vern of Urban Magic , originally from Bristol , and um , mike and Vern were a double act or still are a double act .

I don't know how much they go out and perform now , but they were a double act Really cool in sort of T-shirts covered in tattoos , way before everyone else was covered in tattoos , so it was like an unusual look and they used to wear T-shirts and jeans and perform really strong magic , but as a double act .

So they they do an ambitious card and things like that , but as a double act , and the card would end up with the other performer who was standing three feet , which is really clever stuff , and they had a metal bending act that they would do together to the point where I think if you look up urban magic on YouTube , you can see them on Turkish television .

They ended up getting pulled into a news program where they did part of their metal bending . And I would say that 70% of my current metal bending act that I do , or routine , I would say 70% of it is from Colin and Urban Magic and I've added a couple of bits .

There's a few bits that I don't do , that they do , but I would say that my metal bending act is one of the strongest things that I do , because my restrictions , or one of my sorry , one of my what would be the word , one of my conditions , is that if I hand you one of the spoons that I bend , you would find it hard to do , even if you're a gym

bunny , you know , and you would still go yeah , that's , that's a spoon .

Um , there's other very popular metal bending things , um , sometimes with forks and stuff , and um , from my experience and don't get me like , artistically it looks very clever , it looks great on camera and that kind of thing but I think some of these forks , I think you hand them to Joe Public and they kind of go oh , that's a weird one , isn't ?

It Feels a bit , you know , wibbly and wobbly .

So that was one of my conditions is that I had to literally train myself and and it's not undoable as well , because with metal bending one , I think one of the most important things about metal bending is this if and this is why coin bending is really strong , because no one can bend a coin like you can't bend a coin so the minute a mentalist , a mind

reader , a psychic or whatever takes a coin and it slowly melts at their fingertips , it's actually superior to spoon bending and that kind of thing . In that it is that impossible , it's impossible to do . You can get the world's strongest man , they just can't get the leverage on it and that kind of thing .

So one of my conditions but I don't think it's as visual as spoon bending spoon bending and fork bending and that kind of could be very visual . Like you know , a lot of coin bending is visual at the end , where you get a little bit , but it's very much in the hands , kind of chatter and stuff .

So yeah , so a bunch of spoons that are surprisingly strong but have a certain quality to them that I so they would be with me .

It was not like a lot of the time you get like a floating bill or a note or something like that , and it was done in a much more , I felt , more psychic style , much more telekinesis , psychokinetic kind of minimal , but for me slightly more tangible and believable .

And I developed this when I was working at davenport's magic shop and I had access to some really like a variation of itrs and um .

And I created this particular technique and it's something that I've lectured a couple of times I touched on many , many years ago in a release many , many years ago and literally Monday just gone , which will now be probably a few weeks by the time this comes out I had lunch with Peter and Colin and I reminded Peter of this particular technique and he watched me

do a couple of things and just went to me . Why do more people not do this ? This is madness .

So it is something after years and years of doing this that we are going to re-release , release but an itr and my technique , um , it's called ut , um is um what I would do with it , which is very much psychic demonstrations , very examinable but moving objects in ways that seem impossible .

And even if you know the method as a magician you still would be going , but I don't understand quite where that would be my what's his seventh .

It's something that I really thought long and hard about before I made the decision to go down this route . It's something that works really

well for me . I know a number of top mentalists and mind readers performers have now used this system , but it's MB and I would say in , in a way , it is a , a revelation system , a prediction system that just is very organic , very innocent , especially for me .

Uh , it's I mean me , and you have had discussions about this previously and you all know how I justify this particular technique that I that I use um , but it is . It's not just a technique , it is an item , um , but that would be with me because it is very , very versatile as well so without giving too much away .

We've got a really good connection with this particular person and I write something down and then I ask them to say who this person is , their name , and then I'm able to show that I completely got that right . And it is that impossible . Looking it looks that impossible . Um , and that's the routine that I tend to use it for in my show when I do my show .

So , yes , uh , it's so , that's a routine that the device is something that just hides in plain sight , seems very organic . It's very , very clever , it's uh , and it enables you to to reveal and predict things in a way that I've not seen before great , excellent choice , um , and a really interesting list .

Uh , not maybe what everyone thought , so I think a few , though what was it ? So can we quickly ask a couple of questions about what you've got on your list there ?

That would almost negate I could do it like even seemingly cleaner , if that makes sense yep , absolutely , and I had pk touches ah okay , so now pk touches is not something , something that I take onto an island , because it's something that you , just you don't need anything .

But again , I don't feel I need to take anything for that . I know that there's multiple techniques of doing that with nothing , so I don't have to take anything , just me . If I've got arms and legs , I'll be all right .

And let's be honest , if I haven't got arms and legs , a lot of the other stuff I've taken with me is going to be a bit redundant as well , but going to be a bit redundant as well , uh , but that does take us on to your two curveball items .

So if you are able to be like I was mentioning before about adding an element of your own creativity , I think part of the fun is doing that , and there's nothing more fun than reading a book that can be a little bit dated , like practical mental magic and 13 steps to mentalism . Um , they can feel a little bit dated in the the language .

And you know , getting a phone book you know we don't have phone books anymore . You know , get grabbing six or seven newspapers ? Well , that's not always going to . I mean , we still have newspapers , but they're not readily accessible as they used to be . Um , but modernizing it ? You know the techniques are still there .

Maybe some of the tools and the apparatus has changed . Maybe , instead of a , an old notebook or a calling card , you're getting someone to doodle something on an iphone or in their notes app or whatever . Do you know what I mean ?

But the fundamentals are still there and I think , uh , that's a lot of people like you know , richard Osterlund , uh , larry Becker , the late Max Maver , late , late , um , larry Becker as well , obviously , and um , I think they would say to you so much of the work that they've created , which have been now sort of , you know , staples of many , many a performer

now grew from the seeds that were planted in those books . So practical mental magic by Anaman for me is just , if you only had one , if you were going to go , I'm going to be a mind reader and I said , listen , all you can have is this one book .

You can do it , you could take that book and create a stage act , a strolling act , just with that book yeah , excellent choice , and it is one that really should be in everyone's book collection .

And I love that because he's not saying what have you got that's new ? Which a lot of people what's new in ? You know what's the latest trick ? He actually came in and said what have you got ? That's really old , complete opposite .

And I remember in davenport , so the bottom of one of the bookshelves , they have these stock room with books everywhere and you know props and things , and they had these boxes , dust covered boxes and you take it out . It'd be all manuscripts of , like mentalism and albaker magic , haunted decks , all that kind of stuff .

But they were these barely any illustrations , lots of text typed out on an old typewriter and they were staple bound , rusty old staples and once a mary's just took one of every single one of them , probably read most of them on the plane back to spain and then just relished in finding gems that are hidden .

Uh , guy hollingworth did a really clever thing in his book , uh , drawing room deceptions , and he's got a lovely voodoo routine . So , talking about voodoo earlier on , he's got a great voodoo routine and it's actually in the introduction of his book .

So , and he said , if you want to hide a good trick anywhere , stick it in your introduction , because most people are skimming that , going straight to the contents and trying to absorb all the tricks . And uh , but I didn't ignore his introduction .

I read the introduction and everything else and I went oh , that's good , that was a really good voodoo effect different , slightly different to mine , but but a great food . And for someone like you , jamie as well I know you're you probably know it and appreciate it for what it is great routine .

So yeah , so that would be my magical items and my book amazing , uh , so well , technically you've got one item left . You've got your , one item left your non-magic item that you use for magic so obviously excluding human beings , because obviously tessa and isabella would . Obviously I'd love to have them with me .

Failing that , obviously , ticket availability you know flight availability , maybe you know they , they , uh , they've got no more seats in first class . Who knows um , but I would , I'd go with .

This is going to sound a bit crap , but I'm going to go with them with my iphone and I'll give you all the reasons why , because with an iphone it's I can watch and learn um . Bear in mind there's no internet , obviously on this desert island , but I've gone there with some mp4s , you know , you know downloads and things , so I can do that .

I can film and I can edit . I love filming , I love editing , I love creating magic , even though I can't share on social media because there is no Wi-Fi , so it's all for my own pleasure . But I love filming , I love editing .

It's something that I , if I didn't do it as part of my job , which I do , it would be something I would do just for fun , even to the point where I want to sort of Isabella's eight years old now , and I was saying to Tessa last night I want to collate all of our , all the videos that we collate on our phones that forget to look at .

Um , and Tessa's very good . Every once in a while I just find her laughing at a video from like five , six years ago of Isabella . And I said to Tessa last night , just last night literally um , I need to collate all your favorite videos of Isabella so we can do year one , year two , year three , year four , and I'll edit them as a hobby in my own time .

Um , and then it's like when Isabella turns 18 , we can literally present her with , you know , a hard drive . With this is your life kind of a moment of like . These are all your wonder years .

So my non-magic item would be an iPhone , which some could say is a bit of a magic item in itself , because you know , you know , and I know , as a lot of other people listen to this , an iPhone can be very helpful in magic .

However , if you said to me what app do I use the most on my iPhone , it would be DFB , and also the other one would be iThump Pro . I'm more comfortable saying that one , because of the price tag , would deter most , whereas DFB is something that you kind of could get , which are just obviously public domain and stuff .

But they would be the two that I use most . But I would say that things like Kirstein's W test is mind-reading gold with nothing .

Uh , I'm on youtube as well , and my main goal for this we were talking about this before we went live and that is that my main goal is to become much more proficient using youtube , because I think it's just such a great resource .

I love editing , love filming , uh , and I just need to get more up on youtube , um , but for one reason or another , instagram seems to be my just . I just I'm drawn to that as a social media platform , um , so you can find five beyond

there . In terms of what I'm up to , there's a project I'm working on at the moment I can't actually talk about , and I know that's really annoying and dull , but there's a project that is potentially really really super interesting for me , um , and if that were to come to fruition , that would would be amazing .

But I'm so long in the tooth that I have been involved in many , many projects that sound great , are almost 90% there , and then they fall to the wayside and never happen again . So that's that and , yeah , just live performances .

I want to be releasing more material because a lot of people are asking me about the things and I've realized that there's a lot of things that I no longer do or I do far less . So things like Voodoo my variation on Chicago Ovener is one of those things . I don't do .

Blockhead anymore the nails in the head but it was one of my staples of my act for many , many years Took me around the world .

I performed that on TV shows way before Britain's Got Talent , over in Asia , where millions 100 million people watched me do that live one night on Asian television in Jakarta and it was transmissioned or shown , streamed live to thailand and the philippines and , yeah , part a lot of asia . So and that was in 2010 , I think it was um , so , yeah .

So things like blockhead um , I'm gonna do a whole thing on blockhead that people can learn about very soon . That's gonna be very , very soon , uh , and it'll tell you why you should do it , why you shouldn't do it , why I don't do it anymore , why I did do it for as long as I did , the safety ramifications of doing it , lots of things like that .

So there's lots of projects . You know what it is . For me , jamie , time , it's just time , and that's part of like . Doing a quick post on instagram is much easier and achievable than me doing a longer video on youtube . So I know you're doing a lot of stuff , obviously for alakazam with these like the journeys , the videos , the tutorials , the vlogs , um .

So I know how little time you have to maybe even breathe at the moment , jamie yep , a hundred percent .

I mean , I used that all the way through the 90s , my early . It was one of my earliest creations and you know , because you've released stuff yourself , that sometimes you create things that you actually think you're happy to share because other people will develop it and use it in a way , creatively within their own acts .

For me , things like voodoo I never released , I never even really spoke about voodoo for , you know , 18 plus years um , purely on the basis that it was one of the main effects I did , even though it's a variation on a classic , it was enough of a variation that it felt like a different trick .

Almost like if you showed an audience that trick chicago in the one year and then next year I turned up and did voodoo they would feel as though they saw a different effect . It had a different feel and a different vibe . So , yeah , so I'm looking forward to you know . And also , again , it utilizes three things that I love .

One , the magic that I create and that creative process . Two , the filming of it , because I've got my own studio , my camera , so you won't have to do any of this , so don't worry , you can have the afternoon off or an hour , and then I edit it all together as well . So it's three things I absolutely love .

And then being able to share that with people that are going to maybe take them and fly with them and utilise them and enjoy them , would be lovely like really lovely thing , amazing .

that's not fair it sounds nefarious , because everyone's going to come up to us at conventions and go that bit when you were talking . What was it ? That's not fair . But listen , honestly a pleasure , jamie , and yeah , I hope to see you soon .

I'm going to come down to alakazam at some point and apparently peter's saying to me I've got to do something called journeys , I've got a journey or something otherwise , yeah , yep , we'll get a journey to recorded with you , which would be great yeah , journey . Yeah , okay , all right , make sure you've got enough memory card , because that'd be a .

You've only asked me for a list of eight things and we've been on what was it an hour and a half . I'm so sorry amazing .

So , with that being said , thank you all for listening and we'll hear from you again next week on another episode of Desert Island Tricks . Goodbye tricks goodbye hi .

So go download it now and we'll see you on the next podcast .