Stranded with a Stranger: Brian Lloyd

If you want to be a part of this , then please send in your list of eight tricks , one book and one non-magic item that you use for magic to sales at alakazamcouk . Please put in the subject line my desert island list In that list .

Also , please put a bio about you , your eight tricks and why you chose those eight tricks , and we will get you on one of these episodes . So , yep , do get those sent in , because the more of these we get , the more episodes we get .

That being said , now we're only I don't know like four or five into these at the moment , but we have had a reply to a previous episode , so I'm not sure if you remember , but Scott Ratner sent in his list and on it he mentioned having praise from the professor , and he said that there was a story that he didn't want to divulge .

Well , he has divulged , so wait till the end of the podcast today to find out what his story was and the reply . But before that we have had another stranger land on the Alakazam Island . Today is Brian Lloyd from London . Now Brian hasn't actually given us reasons for his tricks .

Brian hasn't actually given us reasons for his tricks , but he has given us a little synopsis about him as well as his list , but just not why he chose those . But that's absolutely fine . So Brian begins .

I've been into magic since the age of nine , where I grew up watching Penn and Teller , doug Henning , paul Daniels , the Pendragons , siegfried and Roy the Great , soprendo , lance Burton and Wayne Dobson . I used to visit Alan Allen's magic shop and Davenport's every weekend when I was a teenager .

I bought my first trick age 15 , which was the Svengali deck Great trick . At the age of 19 , I ran a Marvin's Magic stall in Covent Garden where we sold dynamic coins , svengali deck , wizard deck , cups and balls and the paddle trick and the magic colouring book .

After watching David Blaine's Street Magic in 1994 , I bought the Invisible deck , along with the Brainwave deck and Chuck Leach's Raven , all from Davenport's Magic Studio in Charing Cross Underground Station . In 2005 , I bought my first Magic DVD from Alakazam .

This was Carl Andrews' Table Hopping Cups and Balls , which used two cups , and not too long after that I bought the Grail when it came out an NFW by Gary Freed , and that's when my journey of buying from Alakazam Magic started . Long gone are the days where I walked out of a magic shop with the paper instructions and a newsletter in a plastic bag .

Great , what an interesting past you seem to have had . Now you mentioned Covent Garden , and Covent Garden has had a really long history of magic , and still does today . Obviously , we have Magic Corner history of magic , and still does today . Obviously , we have Magic Corner .

So if you're ever in London and you get the opportunity to go to Covent Garden , do check out Magic Corner . Now there are the occasional magic stall there , but they tend to sell gags and jokes . In fact , some of my fondest memories was when I was a teenager .

There was a stall there , a magic stall called the magic cave , and it was run by Lee Hathaway , neil Henry and you always had just loads of great magicians there .

That was the first time that I saw Angelo Carbone , who was incredibly gracious with his time when I was growing up and helping me develop ideas and , you know , still is just a wonderful human being . So there's always been a history of magic stalls in Covent Garden .

So , yeah , if you're in London , please do go check out Magic Corner because there's some great , great magicians that perform there every single day . And you also mentioned David Blaine's Street Magic . I wonder how many magicians listening to this podcast right now remember watching that , because I certainly remember watching that .

That was the first time that I saw the bitten coin , which was phenomenal , and that was the first time I saw the , the bitten coin , which was phenomenal . That was the first time I saw the add-on move , the pop-up move . There was so much wonderful , wonderful magic in there . But now I'm just babbling on .

So let's find out what Brian's top eight tricks were . So in at number one he has put the grail Excellent choice . Now I've seenete dem this at conventions and I've not seen many people dem it , but I guarantee that there are very few that do it quite as smoothly , swiftly and slickly as pete does .

And watching magicians react to this trick is just a joy , because they just don't contemplate that it can be that clean and it definitely has to be one of the cleanest , if not the cleanest , card at number that's currently available , because it's just so well thought out , it's great . In at number two we have Knock'em Dead , another great choice .

And number three , the Extractor . Number four is Random 2 . Very interesting , we've not had that one before , but another really great effect . Fortuity is in at number five . Now the next one . I had to do a bit of research on so deceptive duplicity .

Now , brian has not put on here who these tricks are by , but in my research the only one that I could find was by Stuart James . So I'm not sure if this is the same one , but it says by Stuart James . So I'm not sure if this is the same one , but it says a prediction envelope is placed in full view while four dice are rolled .

The total of all the dice are used to deal two packets of cards . The top two cards of the packets give a value , while the top card of the deck signifies a suit . The arrived at card is found missing from the deck and in the prediction envelope . So I'm hoping that's the one . I've not actually heard of it .

I'm not sure if this is just one that's passed me by and it's really well known , but I think it sounds really interesting . I'm going to see if I can find more information on it and do let us know if that's even the same trick . In at number seven we have shuffleboard . Yep , we spoke about a version of this last week .

It does seem to be one that we're probably going to have quite a few of , I should think , because it's just such a wonderful trick . And in his last position we have Ultimate Wildcard by Jean-Pierre Valerino Great choice , it's very Alakazam in there , which I'm not complaining about at all . There's some wonderful , wonderful tricks in there .

Here's one magic book , brian , put new monica by juan tamarez , which presume which I presume , means , brian , that you have a memorized deck in your little , uh , memory bank , which is always a great skill to have , one that sadly I have yet to master . And your one non magic item .

I particularly like this because he's found a slight loophole Tall , dark and gruesome Sir Christopher Lee's biography . So he has taken two books , but one of them is a non magic book , so it does get to go in the non magic category . Magic book , so it does get to go in the non-magic category .

So excellent , really great list , some really clever methods in there , and ideas as well , and again , I always love having one that I can research .

So deceptive duplicity also , I should say , if you do want to check this one out and you also are going to research it like me , it's actually spelt die , as as in die D-I-E , as in a dice , a dash and then septive , and then the second word is doe , with a dash and then plicity , so it's die-septive doe-plicity . So , yeah , do go check it out .

But that's an absolutely brilliant list , brian . Thank Brian . Thank you so much for sharing it with us and , with that being said , we are now going to go to a previous guest who came onto this podcast and wrote in Scott Ratner . Listen to his episode .

Essentially , he spoke about a time that the professor Divernum praised his magic , but he said that he didn't want to divulge the whole story . But , very thankfully , he has given us the story in depth .

So I'm going to do my best to read this out and make it as interesting as it is to read , because it's such an interesting story and I bet it was great to be there when your classmates I don't know if that's your colleagues , your friends was there when this happened . I bet it was really interesting . But I don't want to give anything more away .

So this was the reply from Scott . In early 1977 , I auditioned for and was accepted into the junior magicians group at the Magic Castle . At the time , the beginning age requirement for the junior group was 13 , and though I was a few months shy of my 13th birthday , they made an exception for me , almost inarguably for the same reasons .

I received complimentary words from Vernon , and I'll emphasize that those reasons had nothing to do with my technical proficiency or the deceptiveness of my magic . Indeed , I would say I was almost certainly the least technically skilled magician in the junior group at the time .

However , the act with which I auditioned and was eagerly requested to perform there several times was not only cute but strong in concept , theme plots , symmetry and amusing if hokey in its final punchline . Stay tuned for the punchline . I quite liked it , for which I will take immodestly credit .

My dad helped me with the writing , but I came up with nearly all the ideas , having , even at the time , a strong sense of plot structure .

The only explanatory contextual info needed here is that a little over a year earlier , the very Mel Brooks-style Sherlock Holmes parody film , the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother , written , directed by and starring Gene Wilder , had been released to reasonable box office success , and its title was still fairly familiar at the time by the general public .

I was dressed in a purple velvet wizard's robe and my 10-year-old sister , linda today a successful Southern Californian orthodontist with three young adult children dressed in an oversized tuxedo , t-shirts , tights and a top hat was my assistant . The act began as follows Good afternoon , ladies and gentlemen .

My name is Skatori the Wizard and today , aided by my lovely assistant Linda , I would like to dazzle your eyes and baffle your senses with a few feats of magic , le jardin main and prestidigitation . At this point I looked over to my sister , who gave a very deliberate look over to the left and then to the right , and then gave me an all-clear signal .

Ladies and gentlemen , please forgive this deception . No doubt many of you have heard of Sherlock Holmes smarter brother . Well , linda , here is Sherlock Holmes's dumber sister , for she is my sister and I am , in truth , not Scatori the wizard , but that master sleuth himself , sherlock Holmes .

I then took off my wizard's hat , placed a deer stalker on my head and picked up a Meerschaum pipe . I am currently in disguise on the trail of my arch-nemesis , Professor James Moriarty . The rest of the act consisted of a small series of the most standard , familiar parlor tricks of the time , professor's Nightmare and what's Next ?

Spot card some basic half-dollar manipulation . The Grant Temple screen all used to illustrate my pursuit of Moriarty and his evasion of me and the police . For example , the Professor's Nightmare the professor's nightmare illustrated the inconsistent witness testimony that exonerated him in court , that kind of thing .

It ended with the temple screen representing one of Moriarty's secret London warehouses which was found by the police to have an entirely empty of all loot . However , I said , I am confident that the more careful investigation will reveal evidence of a long .

However , I said At this point my sister suddenly cried out and then ran up to me and whispered in my ear . I continued my ear , I continued Ladies and gentlemen , I've just been informed that Professor Moriarty has been sighted in this very building and then exchanging hats back again .

So I must quickly resume my disguise as Katori the Wizard and you , my dear sister , must return to school . School , what's school ? Why ? Elementary , my dear Linda , elementary , there's the joke . I quite like it as a 10-minute spot in the Sunday brunch palace of mystery shows .

After one of these , walking out of the castle , I found myself face to face with the professor himself sitting at the bar with one of his cronies . People have suggested to me it was probably Charlie Miller , but outside of Vernon , whose face I knew well those were just the white-haired guys that hang out with him .

Knew well , those were just the white haired guys that hang out with him . Young man , he said I saw your act . It was the best magic I've seen all this . Last week .

This was witnessed by several people , including a couple of the other junior members , who were no doubt irritated by the fact that their pipsqueak colleague of obviously inferior talent was being praised by the great man himself .

Even at 13 , I was , by this time , 13 , I knew that , far from being the best magic he'd seen all week , it was almost certainly the worst . On the other hand , on a certain level , I understand what he meant . After all , skilled as they were , what was the chance that my 16 or 17 year old junior pals would be good enough to fall divernum ?

My act was at least offering something that was even rarer than it is today A magic act with a logical beginning , middle and end , structural symmetry and a perfect comical closing line . Of course , I soon ruined this whole triumph .

About a year later , I told my assigned mentor , jeffrey Seymour , who was always very supportive , if rather wryly condescending , that I was ready to prove that I wasn't limited to that kind of cute act At the ripe age of 14 , he arranged for my request to have me scheduled at the Parlour of Prestidigitation for a mentalism act .

You surely know about all of those highly credible 14-year-old mentalists . Of course , I can partially blame Geoff Seymour for what had happened that day , as , minutes before I went on , he mentioned to me that Max Maven was in the audience . Well , the result was probably the worst thing to happen at the Magic Circle until the 2011 fire .

47 years later , I still haven't quite gotten over the humiliation . There were many witnesses to my catastrophe of the day , and I can only comfort myself with the statistical probability that a significant percentage of them , like Maven , are probably no longer with us . As for your comments regarding the Golden Age detective fiction , you're right .

The similarities are abundant , with the notable exception that the mystery writer has the added burden of making the method or solution as satisfying as the effect . Mystery , something I'm not sure even the great Hake Talbot fully understood , though David Renwick seemed to , with Jonathan Creek clearly emulating John Dixon Carr more than Talbot .

When it comes to methods of deception , however , the correlation is exact . For instance , nearly every magic plot that entails the Mercury card fold is just a variation of the basic plot of Israel Zangwill's 1893 whodunit the Big Bo Mystery . So there we have it . It's a really interesting story , and you know what's interesting there is .

It just shows you the level of people that would have been around you , and it must have been so intimidating I mean to have Max Maven there when you know you're 14 and you've got that show , and then you had Divernum watching your act as well as you know whoever else was there . It must have been incredibly intimidating .

So fair play for getting up there and doing it at such a young age . But that being said , that brings today's episode to a close . Thank you again to Scott ratner for that reply , but our stranger who is a stranger no more was brian lloyd . So thank you , brian , for sharing your list with us .

Remember , if you want your list read out , please send in your list of eight tricks , one book and one non-magic item that you use for magic to sales at alakazamcouk with the subject line my desert island tricks or list , and then that will come through to me and then we can get you on one of these .

So , that being said , we're going to be back this friday with our main episode . Thank you all for listening and we will see you again next week on stranded with a stranger . Goodbye , goodbye .

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