Stranded with a Stranger: Darren Bane

If you want to be a part of one of these , please send your list of eight tricks , one book and one non-magic item to sales at alakazamcouk . In the subject line . Please put my desert island tricks . That way it comes through to me . We can filter through these and get one recorded for you . With that being said , for you .

With that being said , let's get into today's episode . We have another stranded stranger . Now I'll be entirely honest with you . This guest isn't an entirely stranded stranger . We do know a little bit about him , which I'll get into a bit later . Most notably , his name is Darren Bain , and any Alakazam customers know we have a trick called Bain .

Unfortunately , darren liked the trick so much that he felt the need to change his name to Darren Bain in appreciation of the trick Bain . Now Darren will say the opposite . He will protest that we copied his name and that he deserves royalties for that . But I'm telling you now he liked the trick so much that he changed his name .

So we're going to get into Darren's tricks , but before we do , he's given us a little biography . Here's what Darren says I was born at a very early age and have stubbornly refused to grow up since . I was the eldest of three boys and still am . I was educated in South Bristol where schooling was less fully comprehensive and more third-party fire and theft .

I fulfilled my early ambitions of becoming a journalist and did that for 12 years before going straight and becoming an award-winning police press officer for another 12 years . I now work for a public relations agency . My claims to fame are being caught speeding in a Citroen 2CV .

It is possible having a Guinness World Record certificate for organising almost single-handedly and taking part in what was , for one year , the longest single field hockey match in history , and being required to act as a decoy for Jason Donovan in order to help him safely flee from thousands of lustful young fans after a performance at the Radio 1 Roadshow .

What a strange thing to have done Away from the day job . My time is taken up with helping my wife of 20 years to care for our disabled son playing hockey . Self-publishing books , which I've been doing for 10 years next month and have published 10 books .

And , of course , magic , which I've been interested in since childhood , but only seriously as much as I take anything seriously . For the past 10 years or so , real life and my other time consuming hobbies has restricted the amount of time I can commit to magic , which is why I'm very behind , where I'd hoped to be at this time .

I'm a huge Doctor who fan and I also like roller coasters and have a reputation for having a love for pitiful puns . Who doesn't ? And I have not yet lived in the south west of England all my life , lived in the south west of England all my life .

What an interesting life and career that you've had , darren , all the way from becoming a journalist and then working as a police press officer and now , obviously , public relations . It really sounds like a super interesting job . Now , at the very beginning , I mentioned knowing a little bit about Darren .

That's because I actually have one of his books , which is Wicked Tongue . Now , as you would anticipate from someone who worked with the police , it is a crime book . So if you want to read Darren's books . Please do support him . Head to Amazon . Type in Darren Bain D-A-R-R-E-N-B-A-N-E .

I've got wicked tongue , but he does have , as he just mentioned , 10 books for you to check out , and I've double checked . There are even Kindle versions , so you don't even have to wait , you can just get going straight away . So do go check them out and support Darren . But with that being said , let's get onto Darren's eight tricks .

In the first position he has Screen Test Pro by Steve Dimmer . He says I love cinema and have multiple movie related tricks , but if I had to choose just one , it would be this one , as it's easy to do and is hands off , so it gets good reactions . Absolutely , screen test is such a wonderful trick and whenever you mention films , everyone has a favorite film .

Everyone talks about Netflix , everyone even talks about films that they don't like , so it's always a super commercial topic for magic , and screen test is the perfect example of that .

It's such a clever trick , it's a great hands off trick and it's one that , if you haven't checked out , I highly recommend that you that it's such a clever trick , it's a great hands-off trick and it's one that , if you haven't checked out , I highly recommend that you do . It's superb and a great choice in at number one .

Now I will say , before we carry on , I do also know that Darren has a love for darker side of magic , so I'm anticipating that maybe we have some bizarre tricks . Now I haven't read forward .

I've actually just seen his second trick , which is very not bizarre magic , but other than that I have not read on , so I do not know where we're going with this list . In the second position we have Papa Rabbit Hits Big Time by Daryl .

When I was very young and had a magic set , two tricks blew me away more than any other and to me seemed more like grown-up magic and not toy magic . One was a penetrating coin effect and the other was multiplying rabbits . Later in life I discovered this version bringing the duck element and all the comedy of Daryl's performance , which really appealed to me .

A great choice , and I think we have had this before . Maybe it was on piff , the magic dragons , episode um , where he talks about this and he talks about the dark . It's great . It's such a great routine .

Daryl had a great way of just routining magic into a super quirky way that you never really knew where the trick was going , and this is a great example of that . So absolutely great choice .

And just from the jokes that you put in your introduction , I can tell that that's probably your jokey side coming through as well , which I really have great appreciation for . And it does lead us to number three , which is Nothing but the Truth by Cameron Francis .

I talk about my previous life as a police press officer and in particular , police interrogations , lie detectors , which is a natural link to using this effect . Absolutely . We actually had that in this week's episode with a guest who talks about it . It's a superb , superb trick . Cameron is such a smart cookie .

He's been around a long time , um , and every trick he brings out is always really clever . And nothing but the truth is an ideal example of that . And absolutely the fact that you were in the police and have that legitimacy to your patter really make a really interesting act . Almost I wonder if you'll ever do a police show almost .

Or maybe you can adapt one of your books into a magic show . That'd be interesting . On to a number four Mirage Coinset by Craig Petty .

Not one trick as such , but it is sold as one package and since I don't know how long I'm going to be on this island , for I want something to occupy me , and the length of the tutorial on this , craig Petty , is , to the Conjuring community , what Ken Dodd was to comedy in terms of the length of performance and tutorials .

As the ad copy says , the only coin set you will ever need Absolutely . You know Craig puts his all into these projects and I know that the tutorials are sometimes super long , but it really gives an appreciation to how much these coin sets and these tricks really can do . So absolutely .

The Mirage coin set is a great choice and , so far , a really great list . We've had Screen Test , which is sort of a packet trick . Papa Rabbit Hits Big Time , which is Sponge . We've got Nothing but the Truth by Cameron Francis , which is another packet trick , but again it's themed differently . And now the Mirage coin set , so really interesting .

And it does take us to number five , which is Dead Man's Hand by Matthew Wright and Mark Bennett . Previous comment about the only coin set you'll ever need notwithstanding , I do love this and I'm currently developing a Wild West themed routine which has this at the heart of it Wow , wild West routine .

So maybe I jumped the gun earlier when I said about adapting one of your books into a show . But that does bring us on to number six , which is a bizarre trick . There we go . Scream by Jamie Dawes .

Just one for the fun of making people jump out of their skins with the bang at the end and if I'm on a desert island and have plenty of caps it may help walled off any would-be predators . Yep , absolutely , yep Scream . I cannot rate it highly enough for obvious reasons , but it is a really fun routine to do .

It always gets a great reaction and for someone that loves storytelling which I can tell Darren does because of his books these sorts of tricks are going to be really fun for someone who enjoys telling stories to perform . And it does bring us to the tail end of Darren's routines . Here we have Time Traveller by Wayne Goodman .

I'm a massive fan of Doctor who and as soon as I brought this from Wayne I saw an opportunity to put a routine together linked to Doctor who . So I've combined it with a Paul Gordon effect , the wow gimmick , and another Wayne Goodman trick bullet time to create a Doctor who themed routine Wow , cool .

So a Doctor who themed routine with a combination of different effects in there for the routine sounds really interesting and , again , super commercial . I've not seen a huge amount of Doctor who themed routines or tricks , so I bet that's really interesting .

And it does bring us to Darren's final routine , which is Can Can from the Essential John Carey , my go-to card effect , when I want to blow someone away with a grown-up piece of magic after some clowning around . What I love about this ?

A bit like Nothing , but the Truth is that from the spectator's point of view , there's a sense of inevitability about where it's going , and then there is a kicker that they do not see coming and it blows them away .

Having had a spectator make a lot of free choices , it's quite powerful , but to produce a blank deck at the end gets such amazing reactions Interesting . I don't know anything about this one , so this is one for me to go and check out . But what you mentioned there about this sense of inevitability , it's .

I love routines like that because it really is like it's a bit like an open prediction effect , the fact that you're telling the audience what's going to happen , and they know it's going to happen , but they have no idea how it's going to happen . It's a really interesting dynamic for routine . So that's a really great list . Some really diverse routines on there .

We've got sponge on there , packetet Tricks , coin Tricks , bizarre Magic , a Doctor who theme routine and a can as well on there , which is great . So let's find out what he put in his book position . Darren put Gold Dust by Paul Gordon . It is aptly named because it really is a treasure trove of powerful effects .

If I had to pick just one , I guess it would be Corner of Piccadilly . Of course , if it's a non-magic book you're looking for , then I might be vain enough to choose one of my own or the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin Compendium all four books in one volume by David Nobbs . A great choice , and you're right , it is a tome of magic .

It's an absolutely great book and Paul always puts some really clever routines out . Of course Corner of Pic . And we get supplied with loads of syringes to administer them . I've pinched one which I used for a memory effect which I learned from Craig Petty but which I believe may have been created by Jay Sankey . It uses the out to lunch principle .

The syringe is just an additional prop for fun which I use to extract part of someone's memory . That's really interesting . I wonder if you're doing that in a sort of darker , bizarre way or if you're still doing it in a light-hearted way , even though it's a syringe Definitely not one that we've had before , but a really , really good choice .

Thank you so much , darren , for sending in your list and spending the time to write all of that out . Now again , please go check out Darren's books on Amazon , but do go check them out and support him . Of course , darren , you are a stranger , no more . We know everything we need to know about you from your list .

With that being said , if you want to be a part of one of these , like I said at the beginning , please do send in your list to sows at alakazamcouk . Send it in with the subject line We'll see you again this Friday with another episode of Desert Island Tricks , but for now , have a great week . Bye , bye .

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