Stranded With A Stranger: Phil Tilston

When you send in your list , we will read it out on one of these episodes . So I cannot guarantee how regular these are going to be , because they are purely dependent on how many we get sent in . Now , if you do want to send in your list to us it is eight tricks , one book and one non-magic item that you use for magic .

Give us a little bit of background about you as well and , of course , tell us why you chose those tricks . And , of course , tell us why you chose those tricks . Take that list and send it into sales at alakazamcouk . So that's sales at alakazamcouk , with the subject line my desert island list .

If you do that , it will come through to me , I'll be able to read through them and we can record one of these little midweek episodes . We know that everyone's loving these , so we wanted to give you another mini episode halfway through the week . So , with that being said , we do have our first Stranded with a Stranger submission .

So this was sent in to us by Phil Tilsden and he's given us a little bit of background . He says I started learning magic about 30 years ago . I'm a member of the Magic Circle and several other magic clubs . Most of my performing has been around tables and walk around .

However , for the last seven years , I've been a resident magician at Houdini's Magic Bar , where the format is to perform close-up magic at the tables but also to perform two short parlor shows per evening . I've created and released several tricks and streaming videos through Alakazam and JB Magic .

So I've had the pleasure of going to Houdini's bar Houdini , houdini's Magic Bar several times , and they're always excellent evenings out . So if you're in the UK and you haven't had a chance to go to Houdini's magic bar , please do seek it out . It's very , very good . So let's look at what Phil has to say . These are his submissions .

Number one signed bill to lemon , the strongest trick I perform . I use Masika's bill to lemon , although these are not available anymore . This holds the lemon in position inside the jacket until loading , thus not taking up any pocket space For parlor shows . I use a presentation adapted from Cody Fisher's signed build to lemon . Great , excellent choice .

Signed build to lemon is always a staple . Now there are other versions of objects into items fruit . There's some that are in something , in something , in something . I don't know if it makes it any stronger . It's not something that I've ever thought about . Let me know what you guys think .

Let me know whether you think it is more impressive to have something inside something inside something inside something , or if that's overkill . I've got no idea . But either way , side build to lemon is a phenomenal trick and a great first choice . His second choice is signed card to sealed envelope .

He says when wearing a jacket , I use Harry Robson's Mark II wallet . This uses Harry's instant reset principle , which I believe has been used by a few other magic wallets as well . I'm one of several people who helped Harry develop the instant reset function . And the instant reset function isn't fiddly at all .

You can prepare several envelopes ahead of time and load them easily whilst walking from table to table . If I'm not wearing a jacket , then I perform Carter wallet using either a JOL wallet with no palm feature or a Malacca wallet . Yep , again , it's a staple in a lot of performers repertoires because it's so strong .

And again , is it worth putting it into a envelope ? Personally , I've always put it into an envelope , or with the JOL I've put it into the little ID card feature . But does it matter ? I'm not sure it's up to you guys . For me I love putting it into an envelope inside the wallet . But yeah let me know what you think .

So his third choice is Cups and Balls . I perform this regularly at Houdini's Magic Bar . I don't believe that it's anyone's specific routine , but something I constructed from various parts of the Michael Amar Cups and Balls videos .

Apart from having a great trick to perform on the desert island , I would have a lot of time to develop new routines and practice some handling not in my current version when I've done some busking in the past , I end the cups and balls routine with the spectators bill in the lemon . What a great idea to have the final load as the card in lemon .

That's such a smart move and I think years ago I know that Craig Petty had a great chop cup trick called chop and I'm fairly sure that's how he ended his the ball . The bill ends up in that . I think it's such a smart idea and it really helps tie everything together . Number four Fiber Optics by Richard Sanders .

I perform a slightly stripped down version of the effect but perform it probably every time I perform . It's a fantastically versatile and it plays from one to 100 people , probably more . Even if there's loud music playing and no one can hear you , then it's sufficiently visible with clear effects that everyone can follow Absolutely .

And I think we've all been there , all performers have been there in those loud environments and having a trick that an audience can understand without a huge amount of speaking , it really really helps with those difficult situations when there is a DJ cranking up the music . That brings us to number five , three Fly .

I use Morgan Dollars and a shell from JB magic , again very visible for noisy environments . The routine I use is essentially the production of the coins , one at a time , from an Ian Moran trick , daryl's free fly adapted for use of a shell . The disappearance of the coins , one at a time , from a routine by Doug Brewer's book the Unexpected Visitor .

Wow , that sounds great . That sounds like an excellent collection of different methods that you've put into a full routine . And Three Fly is another one . That's dependent on what version you have and , obviously , what's required for it . It's nice and quick , it's easy to get into . You've always got everything on you . You can get into it .

It's easy to understand . Not a lot is required to explain , it just works really , really well . And that brings us on to number six emergency card or classified prediction . I must include at least one trick I have created , although it's like choosing between one's children's Emergency card .

This is an effect I've been performing for over 10 years , where the emergency card finds a spectator's signed card , the magic happens in the spectator's hand . Wow , that sounds interesting . That is apparently it's not a released one yet , um , so that's one that we can look forward to .

I've not seen that yet , so that's one that I'm looking forward to seeing , and lots of people have sort of emergency card effects out there and they always play really , really well . They're super commercial tricks , so I'm really interested to see this version that brings us on to the tail end of phil's list . So this is number seven .

We've got irish poker , a packet trick where blank cards change to aces one at a time , with a quirky presentation that suits me . It can be found in the book the dave campbell legacy at international magic interesting , great . I love tricks where cards transform and change Again . They're very commercial routines .

Anyone who's performed one at an event for audiences know just how strong they play . And that brings us on to his last effect , gypsy Thread , a trick that I've only performed a few times but want to perform much more . I use the method by Eugene Berger in the book Eugene Berger From Beyond by Larry Haas . Thank you .

However , the selection of this is not only due to the strength of the effect , but also because so many completely different presentations can be created for it . I assume I will be on the island long enough to develop a wide variety of presentations , absolutely .

Gypsy Thread is another phenomenal effect and again , it's a great one to have in your knowledge bank because if you turn up to an event , should something happen to your props , it's a wonderful piece of magic that can be purchased anywhere , I would think anywhere in the world .

Even if you're overseas and you lose everything , you can just go to a craft shop , pick up some thread and you've got an insane effect . So , yep , it's a great , great choice , and I do love the gypsy thread . So he's given us some honorable mentions and he says , in no particular order Thimbles .

I perform a shootagawa thimble routine , close up with a presentation that makes sense . The routine is from a DVD , I believe , called Thimbles by Shoot . Interesting . We've not had thimbles .

It's quite an old-fashioned prop nowadays , so it's great to see that someone's still out there performing with them , because I remember some of the thimble routines that I used to see when I was growing up were phenomenal and they looked incredible with magic sets as well .

I'm fairly sure my old Paul Daniels set had some nesting symbols which were kind of interesting . His second honourable mention is Pit Boss by Tom Peterson , a mentalism routine for parlour . I also perform it close up with a business card . Yep , pit Boss is such a phenomenal routine .

It can be adapted to loads of different people in different situations and different styles . It's such a phenomenal trick and it is available on Alakazam Unlimited . So if you're an Unlimited member and you want to learn that one , go there , check it out in Tom Peterson's section .

His last honorable mention is the Incredible Suit Jacket Escape by Anthony Linden , a comedy escapology trick . I love this trick but very rarely have enough space to be able to perform it . Yeah , that's such a superb effect . It's a funny one . It's great for parlor . I should think that if you're a compare , it would be a great compare piece as well .

This brings us on to Phil's book . He says I started learning magic with books and have a few to choose from . The important thing for me is to decide if I want a book stack with theory or a book stack with effects . That is a question that we've had on the pod before people discussing which one they would do . What one would you do If you were picking ?

Would you prefer tricks or theory ? Phil continues if I could only take one book , then I would want to take one stack with effects Interesting . Any one volume of Apocalypse by Harry Lorayne would do . There's just such a massive amount of material in each one . Absolutely , I think some of the old magazines .

There's always something hidden in there that is an absolute gem . They're always packed with interesting ideas . Honorable mentions he's given us some book honorable mentions here Designing Miracles by Darwin Ortiz I think we've had that before . Books of Wonder by Tommy Wonder I think we've had that before . Anything by Eugene Berger We've had Eugene books before as well .

So yeah , all great honorable mentions as well . Non-magic item that could be used for magic phil says swiss army penknife , preferably a fat one with lots of functions . Apart from being useful for survival , it could be used for a card stab . Very true , it could also be useful for making various props .

I , if there are walnuts on the island , then I could manufacture three shells and a pea . I could also carve items from wood . I could mark cards by scratching them lightly , etc . Yep , we've had a Swiss Army knife on there before . I think it might have been Luca Volpe who said he has one .

But yeah , a little pen , knife or multi-tool is always a really handy thing to have and I know a lot of performers actually pack one when they're doing gigs just in case anything breaks and they need to repair stuff . Some people actually have like a little repair kit with lots of different magic things in there to help repair .

So Phil has closed off his list with general thoughts . Looking at some of the items I've chosen after the fact , most relate to items that I've performed regularly over a number of years .

I think from these items I could construct a good close up or parlor show , absolutely One excellent choice of tricks , all the way from signed bill to lemon and card to envelope cups and balls . We've got fiber optics , free fly , emergency card , irish poker , gypsy thread and of course , his book suggestion there from apocalypse as well .

Really interesting , diverse and , again , like phil just said , there's a great amount there to either use close up or on stage and I think when selecting your choice of tricks it's always good to think about the diversity of those effects . Can they be performed close up and stage and parlor .

Are they only suited for a certain kind of event or audience , or can they be used in lots of different ways ? I think they're all really interesting questions that we should think about when we're trying to construct our lists . So thank you so much to Phil Tilsden for sending that in .

He hasn't given us any way to contact him so you can try and find him online , phil Tilton , and I'm sure he would love to hear from you . Now , if you want your list read out , like I said at the very intro , send in your list .

So a little bit about you , your list , why you've written each trick , your book , your item , and send it to sales at alakazamcouk with the tagline my desert island list , and then we can record one of these episodes and get it out to the public so they can hear what your list is so , with that being said , we'll be back later on this week with a another

episode of Desert Island Tricks .

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