Stranded with a Stranger: William Poliet

We're still waiting for you guys to send in your list , so don't forget , if you want one of these recorded for you , send in your list of eight tricks , one book , one banishment , one non-magic item to sales at alakazamcouk , with the subject line my desert island list . That way it comes to me and I can get one of these recorded for you .

But we do have another stranded stranger and I have had the privilege of meeting this chap twice now , so let's get into his list . He has , of course , given us a little bio . Here's what he says . I wanted to submit my desert island tricks list a while ago and it's been postponed for different reasons .

So when I met Jamie face to face at the Blackpool magic convention 2025 on the Alakazam stand , I gave him my word that I would submit my list on my return from Blackpool . So , convention 2025 on the Alakazam stand , I gave him my word that I would submit my list on my return from Blackpool . So here we are .

During my Magic Circle audition , jamie and Sarah Stott helped me with my act . So it's truly special to send my list to Jamie . My name is William Pallet and I have been a professional magician for 20 years in France and the UK .

Alongside my daytime job as an automotive engineer , I'm also currently the president of the Coventry Magic Circle and the regional representative for Warwickshire for the Magic Circle . My first experience with magic was at my 11th birthday when my uncle performed a trick which is part of my set now . More details on the list below .

At the same time on French TV there was a program where people with uncommon jobs described them . One of them was a magician who mentioned the shop he used to work for , maillet Magie Moderne . I hope I said that right . The following week I went there with my dad and brought my first trick , a coin through glass called Magic Gum .

I still have it in my magical cupboard . My performances are mainly close-up

and parlour shows for corporate events , weddings and private parties . My following list , which isn't in any particular order , is the reflection of my set which has been refined and polished over the years . Yes , so I have had the opportunity to meet William .

It was so nice to see you again at the Blackpool Magic Convention and thank you so much for sending in your list . It's always really nice meeting some of our listeners from overseas and , of course , the Alakavam all around the world . It's always great to meet all of you . So let's find out what William's list is .

I'm sure it's going to be a really exciting list . Let's find out what trick he's put in position one . So he says I will start the list with my go-to effect that I perform either during drinks receptions or at the table . It's called Signature Triumph by Nick Einhorn from his at the table lecture , which can be found approximately 27 minutes in .

I like this routine so much as the audience will witness an in the hands triumph routine , known table needed , with two extra kickers at the end . You start the routine by showing your prediction in your wallet . The participant selects a card , signs it and it's shuffled back into the deck . With a magic wave .

All the cards turn to face the same way , except for the signed card . That's the first surprise . You then reveal your prediction , which happens to match the chosen card . That's the second surprise . And when you turn this card over , it's the card signed by the spectator which is the final surprise . Well , nick Einhorn is an absolute legend .

He's created some truly incredible tricks and really we should try and get Nick on the podcast . So maybe we'll try and get him on for a future episode , but this is excellent . The fact that you have even given us the timest stamp there for us to go and check out really is a great help . So thank you , william .

So let's find out what he's put in his second spot . William says the second effect

is one of my openers in my parlor show , priceless by Michael Huat . I like this effect as it is quick and visual , but also it sets the scene for the audience . My act will be funny , they will laugh and have a good time , which for me is the most important thing .

Basically , for the ones who don't know this effect , the audience try to guess the price of your jacket . You mentioned that in fact you didn't pay for it . You remove your jacket to show a security tag with a price tag attached hanging , which is always a surprise for the spectators .

You then turn the price tag to reveal that the price given is in fact written in permanent ink on the price tag . The first honorable mention is to paul martin with his mind yours and the mystery ultimate bank night routine , which I use as my second opener . A great choice and I think we're getting an idea of your character here .

So we know that you've just said that you want your spectators to know that your act's going to be funny and that they're going to laugh . So I'm guessing you have quite a tongue and cheek , cheeky , fun persona , which is great . And this is such a wonderful trick . It really does take the security tag gag and turns it into something that makes so much sense .

So it's a great , great choice . So in your third position , you've put a set of sponge balls between two and four , according to the routine I perform . Trust me , when the audience member opens their hand and finds two or three sponge balls , when they were convinced they only had one , the reaction is priceless and this is a great time for the money shot .

Any magic trick that happens in the participants hands is a great moment for them . The routine is quite simple . I put one ball in my hand and one in the spectator's hand . I mind giving them my ball and open my hand to show that it's now empty . When they open their hand , they now have two balls .

For info , I use the one and a half inch super soft sponge balls in red . Yeah , I think you know we've said so much about sponge balls . In fact , I've just finished editing an episode of the main podcast where Spongeballs is in that set as well . So it's a classic .

It's going to be around for forever and I think , again , it's great that you've been so specific that you put one and a half inch there . So William's doing all of our hard work for us in this list . He's given us all of the info we really need . And this brings us to number four . He says this list would not be complete without at least one wallet .

Let's be honest between us . We do love wallets , and especially a peak wallet . I recently picked up the latest version of the Stealth Assassin wallet by Peter Nardi , the Crazy Horse Edition , which has a lovely dark brown leather . The previous version I have was the original Stealth wallet and this is a huge

improvement in terms of features . I can't wait to use it at my next gig . Being only at the beginning of my Stealth Assassin journey , I used the routine from Graham David Fishwick , where you take the participant on an imaginary shopping trip to their favorite shop and ask them to commit on their preferred item .

You mention that it's incredible , as you have a photo of your favorite item in your wallet and that it would be amazing wouldn't it be an amazing coincidence if these two items matched . When you remove the picture , it is a picture of a barcode . You can clearly see that the participant isn't buying it and think it's just a gag .

But the climax is when you mention that by scanning this barcode at their favorite shop , it will come up with the selected item on the till . Another honorable mention would be for the Razor Wallet by the 1914 . I like the slim design , which looks just like a cardholder wallet . A great choice .

I have had every version of the stealth assassin wallet as well , um , william , so I'm in the same boat with you .

The new crazy horse brown one , though , really is such a gorgeous wallet and I think we spoke about it before that the advancements in technology mean that the features of this wallet are much better hidden for those who used to find that a concern not that it really ever was because of the way the wallet functions .

So it's an absolutely excellent , excellent choice , and thank you for putting your preferred routine in there , which means mr devil's advocate doesn't have to show up , and that that leads us to number five . He says when I perform mind reading . I often get asked where my accent is from or directly where I am from .

I like to reply Coventry , and pause , look at their face and see if they will be brave enough to reply that it's not a Coventry accent . And then , as is always interesting to meet people from other cultures , the audience members want to know a little bit more about me and how I learned English .

This is when I perform Omnitool by Julien Loza , a French magician . I explained that in my school years , when we had no internet yes , I know I don't look that old I learnt English using flashcards . Each card had a picture on it with a word in French and the English translation underneath .

In fact , I always have this deck on me as it brings back memories of my English classes . I use these cards to perform mind reading and drawing duplications . The good thing is that it could be used by French people to explain how they learnt English , but vice versa for English people and French .

For the effect , you ask three participants to cut the deck of flashcards and memorize which one they cut to . They can shuffle the cards and , one by one , you reveal the word or the picture on their card . For the last reveal . You are completely hands off as you don't come near their cards , but are still able to reveal

the info . Well , that sounds like such a great routine . What I love there is it feels quite specific to you in that you use it to explain how you learn English and , like you said , vice versa . That's a really really clever little get into that routine , a nice little hook .

So I think that's really really cool and really that could end up being a little everyday carry . If you had some of these in your wallet and then you pulled them out and said , oh , this is how I learned English , I think that would be absolutely great . So great , great choice . And leads us us nicely onto number six .

Talking about my childhood , I still remember the magic trick . I first saw Picture the scene At my 11th birthday party . My uncle asked to borrow a deck of cards , and what he did next was beyond my imagination . It started with a pick a card trick from a borrowed shuffled deck .

The card I had selected was replaced into the deck and the deck was shuffled again by myself . Four cards were placed on the table , but none of these were mine . I then had a free choice of touching any of these four cards and when I turned the card I touched over , it was my selected card . From that moment I was hooked .

My only wish for my 12th birthday party was that my uncle would come and perform the same trick again , which he did . It was wish for my 12th birthday party was that my uncle would come and perform the same trick again , which he did . It was only at my 18th birthday party that my uncle gave me the book that he used to learn this trick . What a gift .

This trick is now called my uncle's trick and is always part of my repertoire . Without giving away the method , it's not a magician fooler , but it will freak your audience out . We sometimes forget how strong magic can be for laypeople as we see it with our magician's eyes , and for me , this is the perfect example .

The real name of this trick is Now you Can See it from a book called the Royal Road to Card Magic . Wow , what a lovely story , william . That's so nice , and it's really nice that he gave you that book as well that you learned from and I guess that's still in your collection now the exact book .

So what a great choice , and I'm sure a lot of us have Royal Road to Card Magic , so we can go and check out the exact trick you were talking about . So thank you for that . Check out the exact trick you were talking about . So thank you for that . And this takes us to number seven .

I've always been intrigued by Uri Geller and his effect of psychokinesis and telepathy . In order to avoid having bulky pockets full of spoons , I decided to use coins , a 2p coin , because this is the main question 2p or not 2p ? Yes , I know , I'm also a comedian . Back to reality .

I like performing a bent coin routine and I like watching the audience's reaction when they open their hand and a bent coin is found Once again . For us it's a bent coin , but for them it's a strange experience they'll remember forever and the fact that they can keep this signed coin is a perfect memento they will cherish .

I used to use coin vex the generation by david penn , honorable mention but I now use a one-handed , brilliant ox bender by many lindenfeld and some easy bend 2p coins from prop dog that I still have . The routine I perform is the one taught by john morton during his lecture absolutely great choice .

Anyone that's done any form of metal bending knows the impact it gets , and specifically coin bending . Even though coins are becoming increasingly more difficult at gigs to find now , lots of people used to keep those coins for many , many years . So it's a

great , great choice , william . And that brings us to your last item . He says last but not least is a card to impossible location . A signed card is lost in the deck and found inside an item that the participant was holding from the very start . But right in these lines , I can already hear Jamie asking the following . I will play devil's advocate .

Which cards or impossible location are you using ? So I'll reply to Jamie's question by another question . It depends on the performance . Would you like to know for close up or parlor ? In fact , I'll give you both . For parlor performances , I like the destination box by John Allen . The box is really well made and looks beautiful .

It's also a great callback at the end of my show . Due to the size , I prefer to use it for parlor , even if it could be used for close-up as well . For close-up gigs , however , I use Cell by David Stone .

Long story short , I used to perform it all of the time when I lived in France , but with the evolution of the mobile phone into smartphones , where the battery compartment can't be removed . I stopped using it A few years ago when I was gigging with Etienne Pradier .

He reintroduced me to it and I straight away understood the comedy side you can have with an old phone . The audience members don't see the climax coming and think it's just a gag until the end . My card to impossible location , honorable mention , will be the Light by Chris Congreve .

It's a very practical and much smaller routine than an old phone , so much better if we're talking about pocket management . Great choices . I remember when Cell came out years ago and it's so nice that people have found a way to reintroduce that routine because it was so clever , um , and it's so , so baffling .

So it's great that you are using this version and thank you for not bringing out devil's advocate and , uh , giving me both options there . Destination box I have seen har Harry has one of these and I've seen him do it . He does it absolutely phenomenally well and it really made me fall in love with that routine as well . So both great choices .

Now this brings us into your curveball items , and you were the first person on Stranded with a Stranger to give us a banishment . So here we go . Let's find out what William's banishment is . If there's one thing I could banish from magic but not only from magic it would be people that lie on mailing lists .

What I don't like is when a magician says that you can subscribe to his or her mailing list and adds don't worry , I won't spam you with tons of emails , just two or three a year . So what do they do ? You subscribe and less than three hours after you're ready to receive two emails . For me it's a no go . Interesting .

So that's almost like the marketing side of magic there that we're cutting down . So that's really interesting indeed . I know that when I wake up in the morning not just magic , like you rightfully said there , william I do have lots of spam emails . I have lots and lots of them . So I completely understand where you're coming from .

And that leads us nicely onto your book . For the book , I'm going to take one that I haven't read yet so I can learn something new . I'm deliberating between two books that recently brought and I haven't had the chance to read . These are setting the stage by eric samuels , and the magic menu , issues 31 to 60 by jim sisti .

Due to the variety of content , my choice for the desert island would be the magic menu . Excellent choice . I think we may have had that once before , but I can't be entirely sure off the top of my head . But both great , great choices . You continue .

Both books are quite big and the thinking is outside the box , and I'm already picturing myself on the desert island . I can clearly see the advantages with these books as they have many pages . Firstly , it will keep me busy reading and secondly , once I will have finished , I'll be able to use the pages to help light a fire . So the more pages , the better .

Excellent , excellent choice . And that leads us on to your final item , which is your non-magical item that you use for magic . You said , my top everyday non-magical object that I use for my magic is my ray-ban meta glasses . For the non-geeky ones , the meta glasses have a camera belt in that , built in that allow you to film point of view during your gigs .

You can then use the video footage to make content for your social media . These glasses were introduced to me by my friend Kev G final honorable mention of my list who did show me the amazing reaction footage you can have with them , which is a powerful selling point for your social media platforms . Absolutely , I have seen so many performers with these .

I think they're so , so clever . The only slight strange thing that I've had is at a lot of gigs now people are using these glasses as an explanation for the magic . So it'll be interesting to see if anyone else has had this happen to them . But people say is there a camera in your glasses ? Is that how you're seeing it ?

So you know , maybe that is a sign of what's to come in our future . But let's go back over williams list . So he started off with signature triumph , priceless sponge balls , stealth assassin , wallet , omni tool , um . He then went for my uncle's trick , which is now you can see it , and he went for the ox bender .

Finally , he went for the destination box and sell technically two , but we'll let you have it for his banishment . It was spamming mailing lists . His book was the magic menu , issues 31 to 60 , and his non-magic item was the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses . What a great , great list , william .

Thank you so much for sending that in and for taking the time to write all of that out . Now , of course , william is a stranger to us at NoMore . We know everything we need to know about him . Now we want to get to know about you .

So , like I said at the beginning of this podcast , please send in your list of eight tricks , one banishment , one book , one non-magic item to sales at alakazamcouk . In the subject line put my desert island list . That way it comes through to me , of course . Please put a bio in and the reasons for your trick .

We actually had another list come in and on that list there was no bio and there was no reason for those tricks . So we haven't used that list , sadly . So do make sure you remember those things . Now we're going to be back later on this week with another episode . We've got some incredible guests coming up .

Depending on the order that you're listening these in I don't know if you're dipping in and out of them or if you're following along systematically Next week's episode was a phenomenal episode . It's going to be a slightly longer episode , but as soon as you see the name , you'll understand why .

That being said , I think I've teased enough and I will see you next time on another episode of Stranded with a Stranger . Goodbye . See you next time on another episode of stranded with a stranger goodbye , hello , guys .

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