Episode 200: The Magic Milestone

They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys.

Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot believe I'm saying this. Welcome to episode 200 of the Magic Guys. This is ridiculous! To my right, we have Nick K. Merry Christmas, people! Oh, yeah. Down below, we've got Doug Kahn. Happy holidays, kindred spirits. And ladies and gentlemen, let's go. 200 episodes of The Magic Eyes. That's 1,400 in dog years, you know. Even better. And we do love our dog audience out there, you know. Caden, what is up? Thank you for joining us, my friend.

Everyone is, you know, slowly jumping in this live stream today because we're a day early and that's because we all have different Christmas plans and you know we did actually talk about just leaving episode 200 for the new year so we could like plan for it and stuff but I'm like we can't end the year on 199 episodes you know we've got to we've got to end it with a bang so Nick thank you for dressing in your usual attire normally you De-Santi yourself for our podcast,

but now you're back in your usual state. Yeah. How are you feeling? This will be its everyday wear. Can I be honest? I'm actually exhausted. I'm so happy that I've got a quiet week and just a couple more gigs before the end of the year. It's been an epic December, dude. Yeah, it, it, no doubt so many gigs and I'm seeing, I'm seeing all our fellow magicians in Australia, like finishing up their gigs and they're posting like

how many they've done and like, Oh yeah, I've made it out. And you know, Oh, all done now. Some of these guys are actually doing a lot more gigs than, than I did in December. So I don't know. They all under, under, uh, sold you and they're getting all your work from last year. Like I had your Dorbito last year. I got 50 bucks cheaper.

That's what it is. that is what it is thanks for saying that Doug no man I mean guys gotta work you know we gotta eat and thanks for all those gigs this year I appreciate it 100 maybe we should start the magic oh well we can't that would be a conflict of interest because Nick runs an agency but I was going to say the magic guys agency but that doesn't really it's going to be guys that sit at home you know watching podcasts all day it can be a it can be a partnership and

yeah don't get me wrong and i've made friends through this podcast that i've given work to and so forth in fact you know we've had people like lj the amazing lj who's not only an amazing magician but also a wrestler and that was a fun episode reflecting on the past you know well i wouldn't say the 200 that i've been a part of but i mean there are so many awesome moments of the people we have met along this way and the friendships we have set up and then when you have these moments

where you meet the people in person.

It is just so great, you know, and that is the spirit of what this episode is about, kind of reflecting back on those 200 apps. How many have I been a part of, Josh? Like 50? Dude, that's a great question. All of, all of this year, right? All of 2025 at least. Yeah. So, you know, that's 50 at least. So it's, it's a lot, you know?

Yeah. And you've, and you've just contributed so much and especially your history lessons and just your knowledge on, on performing in, you know, advanced techniques and, and clothing and just all those extra tips.

All the tips about reducing body sweat and moisture pharmaceutical tips for you know bowel movements it's been such a great year if anything like i've just it's really been solidified to me how important nick tries to press onto everyone that you should smell good and be on time and be easy to work with and you know if you can do those three things you're already like halfway there right i'd like to think so man like it's pretty offensive being around anyone

with bad breath or body odor or when you're a close-up magician who's clearly just punched a couple of cigarettes before coming in and saying hi everyone and you're like so yeah yeah so what i did because we've also had some amazing guests on this year and and every year but what i did was and this is in no particular order or who is better or whatnot i just i found six of the final words. Which is the minute of wisdom that they give to us at the very end of the episode.

And I've just grabbed six of them that are all just a little bit different and loaded them up here.

And we can just kind of reflect on, because normally when they give that final word, their podcast ends and we don't get to talk about it. But here, I thought we'd play it and then it actually gives us a chance to dissect kind of what they're saying. Some of them are quick and some are funny, but some really have some good substance to them. so I think maybe I'll kick off the first one this one is from David Regal,

talking about how magic helps people get through their day. So let's hand it over to David Riegel. The final word is not to be too touchy-feely about it, is what we do helps people get through life a little bit. When people see magic and they're astonished, It's connecting them with a feeling they haven't had for a very long time. Even if it's a comedy effect, when you're an infant or a toddler, you just laugh. You laugh, and you're delighted, and you're amazed, and it's involuntary laughter.

When I see the best magicians in the world, like Armando Lucero, I look over, and there's some captain of industry. Is he worth a billion dollars? Maybe. and he's rolling back and he's kind of kind of uh the floor's gone out from under him and i think this man has not felt this way in a very long time i think at the end of the day, that's what we do better than any fish so that's my my final word.

Now strong words man and i i gotta say i agree with that a whole bunch and the earliest memory I had personally from like that learning that he just, he said in which it's a gift and that you make someone's day a little bit better. I, in my very early in my career, when I took my car in for a service and my mechanic was right next door to the office I used to work in.

And there was a pack of playing cards everywhere, you know, like there was always one on the dashboard or in the side console or in the cup holder, like there was always something.

And he asked like, what's the deal and i said like i you know it's a hobby and i started showing this guy some magic and he actually said to me because i was having the worst day after showing him something i was having the worst day man and now i just like can't stop smiling and that was the first time i went wow, okay there's something interesting here so i really empathize with what he kind of says has there been any scenarios in which you guys have had this sort of

experience and went like you You know what, to his point, I totally agree. I remember like similar to this, but in just a different lane, I remember doing a show and thought nothing of it other than it went great. And afterwards, this girl came up to me. She's like 26 and she's like, and she helped out in the show and she came up to me and she's like, you don't know this, but like my number one stayed, my number one fear in life. Number one is getting on stage.

And I've always wanted to try and conquer that. And you just helped me do that today. Like you made me feel so comfortable and like, I can't believe I've actually done it and been on a stage in front of a room full of people. And then she tagged me in a post on Instagram later that day because a friend took a photo of her on stage and stuff.

And she wrote this whole thing about how she'd overcome this thing now for the year and that was a similar feeling i was like holy crap yeah people don't public speak like you know it's a very small handful of people that are comfortable doing that and and i just it didn't even occur to me that they might be coming on stage for the first time so that was pretty wow pretty mind-boggling to me that's yeah i i've heard from people online where it's actually been life-changing like

some of the moments that they've absorbed through the things i've offered on just online magic videos be it like during covid i think a lot of people struggled or able to find some entertainment and smiles and you know i wouldn't even discount things we offer online i've heard from more than one person that like literally the magic has been life-saving you know be it you know some depressive order or something people are going through so echoing what david said yeah our

our skill sets to make people forget their worries are maybe of a higher order than any other art form you know music certainly would count movies but magician when you give them a sense of wonder all the worry goes away and uh yeah we're very special artists.

Yeah yeah that's too good all right i could talk about that all day but um alas we shall move on this one i can't remember what to expect from morton here but this is what morton said for his final word yeah he's one of my favorites all year what about more controversial guests all right here we go oh wait we need to just so people know one's coming.

Be better be don't settle don't just do stuff but then again nobody cares and and you shouldn't listen to me i i have nothing this i i have no money i have no friends i i live alone and i'm in denmark it's not a very nice country okay i'm lying it's a very nice country but yeah just don't you listen don't listen to me but then maybe i think you should but but you shouldn't because is why would you but i think you should but but but again i am

nobody who cares like two years ago i was nobody now i'm just nobody with a big fucking glass trophy from fism because i'm the fucking world best so please listen to everything i've said the better than you show them really because it's it's i'm i'm just a big dumb guy like i look at i'm i'm i'm nobody but, please listen but then again you shouldn't i'm sorry.

You should though so basically what he's saying is be better and don't just settle for how how you are right now is what he's trying to say in that bit yeah what do you think what do you think nick yeah look i mean by all means be better in every way you can like you know just be be good at magic the you know be good at life magic will come from being good at life and being a good person that's one of my most favorite learnings of my life you know be good at life magic will come.

I would encourage anyone who hasn't listened to that whole episode to go back and absorb some of the things he had to say in it. And then you get a little more context about, you know, what he means by be better, you know? Can I do one quick shout out as well to something that he's released recently? Yeah. Yeah. So this jumbo card trick, I actually bought this in Vegas, but the tutorial hadn't been released yet.

So you were able to buy the product without a tutorial and they've only sort of just released a tutorial.

Now this is a good bit of business there's a lot of comedy to be had it is the easiest most fun thing you can do i am going to play with the presentation of this quite a bit so it's morton jumbo card trick by morton christensen available through vanishing ink it is it's a cool bit of kit scope it out okay i remember him talking about this effect yeah is this a version of don allen's big deal is that trick mentioned at all in. So you can have your prediction in your pocket.

And then you can have two packs. Left or right? Right. Keep or throw? Keep. Left or right? Right. Keep. Right. Keep. Left or right? Left. Keep. So we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Just pick a number. three so this one here yeah to be clear the middle card yeah so just to be very clear so we made a prediction my big jumbo cuts are on microphones in the way i don't know if you can see that okay if i just yeah yeah a perfect match boy macho won't my worries are gone okay yeah it's

it's Cool. And it was a little fun to be had there. That is a version of Don Allen's big deal. I surmise he had an interesting cleanup or introduction for this wonderful routine. There's a lot of ways you can present that as well. I'm sure, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think any utilities that are limited by your own creativity, by all means, scope it out. So I wanted to give him a shout out because he's a wealth of knowledge.

I've put on my to-do list during my little bit of downtime to go back and revisit some of his lectures and his masterclasses. And I also had the pleasure of hanging out with him quite a bit whilst I was in Vegas at magic live. And he's just 50 kinds of awesome. So if you are unfamiliar with him, go back and scope out that episode. Absorb all the genius that is Morton Christensen.

He talks a lot about how when he buys an effect, he likes to actually deconstruct the gimmick, for example, and learn how it works. So he would know how to make more of them if one broke or to tweak it or enhance it or, you know, always try to make things a little bit better and push yourself. And it's very inspiring as well as him being super duper laid back about himself even though he won a FISM award. Pretty crazy stuff. All right, we can't go past Blake Voight. Blake Voight came on earlier.

This was about eight months ago now, I think it was. And this is what Blake had to say for his final word. Here is the final word or words. I would say bad ideas. Don't be afraid of them. Embrace them. Whatever version of them you call, whether it be silly ideas or bad ones, I think some of the best ones I've ever seen happen that aren't mine or mine all started off as a bad idea.

So stick with the bad ideas, keep creating, and thank you for having me on this podcast. This was super fun. The best smile in magic. Speaking of bad ideas, I thought it might be fun to float a Christmas ornament today.

Oh great ideas i spent about three hours here experimenting with regular invisible thread vector thread fishing line i had wax i got other rising gimmicks and at the end of the day i all i got's a big big blooper reel this was a pretty good method here though this thing i got a lot going on with this contraption here i dude i thought that was like some sort of star wars, like X-Wing fly.

I was going to, you know, if things had gone better, I might have had time to edit together like a blooper reel, but I don't know if you can see the picture. I've got my tripod with an inflatable magic wand taped to it hanging over the top of our Christmas tree where I've fed down a variety of. Different kinds of thread. I ended up taping a straw to the top of our tree topper to run the line through this. Maybe you can see that in this picture a little bit.

Yeah, that's all of it turned out to be crap. It's all bad ideas. And quite frankly, Blake Voight's suggestions is trash. Bad ideas are not always good. No, I mean, it's nice to have permission to do bad ideas, though.

The permission to fail. i really feel that it's allowed me to excel quite a bit after that yeah josh you know it was it was good for the first like 15 minutes i what i originally thought was i do steve pearson's floating cigarette hookup and i have this running over the head right and so then this floats up and it lands on the tree but then it looked exactly what it looks like something's dangling off my face so i was like filmed it

shot it all right and then i'm like that's no good let's go back to the drawing board about time you get four four deep into that you know redoing the ideas and taping your inflatable wand sorry did you end up with an ending like that you like did you end up filming an end version yes by the time i'd switched to the fishing line with the straw running through the hat i finally nailed a great float it floated up and then clear as a bell on the video you can see the flip fishing line

no hiding it i don't have the skills to erase it so to make a long story short no at this point best i can hope for is a blooper reel which you might see tomorrow well you know all ideas start somewhere right so the end goal is you wanted to show what the ornament.

Floating up and landing on the tree how a magician you know decorates the tree and what i wanted to do is just blow the ball out of my hand and it floats up and you know if you want to give me a minute i'll go grab the computer you can see the footage that i have of doing it you know maybe we'll save it for the the discord yeah let's do that uh that's interesting i mean look Like we could spend this whole day sessioning on ideas and stuff for that, but maybe we'll keep going. Well, yeah.

Well, I was going to say, hey, man, one more thing that I was trying to create. So I had an effect that I was trying to create, but I couldn't quite get the economy. Well, I wouldn't say the economy and movement, but like for me to attach gaffes and so forth with this particular effect that I wanted to do, if we can double my. Do it, Josh. Yeah. You got it? Yeah. So I wanted to play with this idea, which I will share with you guys.

So the intention of this friends, if we can go full screen on myself, Josh, is I wanted to gift you guys back something for all the support you've given us over the past 200 episodes. I mean, even just down here, Caden, fun fact. The Blake episode was the very first episode that Kate watched. And then now he's hooked. So that's how you get them. So that's really, really cool. And I wanted to play with this idea where you have a stocking filler, maybe a Christmas type thing.

In this case, we have my bag, innocuous bag, if you will. And the idea with this is that you focus on a stocking filler. So with a wave of the hand, you can produce and place in candy canes, putting them in, you know, and make it look really magical. And then you do a whole bunch, which you can then produce all of the candies and then give them out. That's so. Yeah. And it was because of Blake Voight's notion of saying, like, hey, give it a crack and be able to fail.

And all I did was revisit a couple of ideas from Tarbell, apply it to a Christmas idea. And that I realized is like, man, if you're doing a Christmas show for kids in any capacity, that is going to be a full routine. you can have a lot of fun with. And I just now came up with an idea that would work a lot better using this effect. So I will post on our Discord how that effect is done as a gift to all you guys who have been listening.

So do scope out the links for the Discord, which Josh will put in there later. As a little thank you from me on behalf of all the Magic guys who have been a part of this, thank you to our listeners. Thank you a bunch. Cool. Yeah.

That was a great effect the the only one i was thinking of doing today and i've not thought about whether i should do this on the stream or not was i actually did this yesterday so i standing there at my our rapping station rapping presence and wait wait wait wait, while people were rapping were you beatboxing, That is funny, but no. I mean, yes, I probably was, but that's not, I guess, part of the story. My partner runs a business and she has to package her orders.

So she has like a table set out for that. And I was like, I will use that station for wrapping the presents that I have for people. But I sat, I really hope I don't flash this straight away. I sat this on the table, but face so that it was facing this way to her. So everything looked normal, but every time she'd. What this is, listeners, is a empty cup, empty glass, if you will. And then every time she would walk away, I would shake it and change it into candy.

And this is a funny moment to show on video, but basically I would set it up that Sandy didn't know that I was sitting there just chowing down on Skittles. Because every time she would come in, I would just vanish the Skittles and it would look like an empty glass. Real life practical applications for magic. I feel like parents with young children are going to need this to be like, you know, when grownups try to have a snack, but they can't because the moment

they hear the rap and the kids are like, you know, like a Doberman. Holy crap. Absolutely. Or you could like change it from, no, yeah, liquid to get too messy. But yeah, change it to being empty. Yeah, have you ever seen the one where there's a lady, she's kind of holding an ice cream sandwich, but it's hidden behind a piece of lettuce to the kids. Look, she's just eating lettuce.

Yeah, I'm with you. Ah, that's funny. That's funny. All right, this is probably one of the... Greatest pieces of advice for when someone says they want to become a full-time magician, which we have many listeners in that same state. This was from Sean Farquhar when he came on the podcast. This is not the final word, but this is just the snippet that was really insightful. And so, Sean Farquhar, ladies and gentlemen. I tell everybody to say, all my students, I have this acronym that I use.

I say, yeah, The secret of success is talent, but it's not what you think it is. It's break it down. It's tenacity. You have to be tenacious. You have to never want to give up. You have to really believe that what you're going to do is what you're going to do. And then regardless of what other people say, keep doing it. And then A, which is authenticity. You have to be authentic. You just can't go out there and pretend to be somebody else.

There's only one of you. Be you and you'll be great. L, likability. If you're a jerk, then nobody's going to like you. My dad said, if you got them laughing and on your side, you can screw up and they'll still love you and they'll still follow you. So likability. Then it's E, that's entertaining. You have to be entertaining and ethical. Ethical and entertaining. If all you do is you fool people, nobody wants to be fooled. I can fool you by saying, look, there's somebody behind you and you

might look. That's not entertaining. N, natural. Be natural in the way you perform. Everybody says, if you really want a fooled person, look at how you naturally do it and then find a way to make that the way that you cheat. That way you have that naturalness. Very important. And then T, did I mention tenacity? Oh, yeah, I did. Yeah. Tenacity.

So man there's a lot of point there like i mean tenacity we can all agree on that it barely even requires just you know discussion but the authenticity is what i find really interesting and i think that comes down to people's like intent if they are really just genuinely happy to do magic with the intent of making people happy i feel like that's the guys who do really well whereas the ones who kind of will do things for their ego to be like i'm all this

and blah blah blah and they'll do a gig because i've done gigs with one particular magician around town i don't cross paths with two all too often maybe two or three times a year or at least their name comes up and they go he's great but man he's got an ego like it's just like sickening and it's interesting because i want to kind of throw this out there to you guys that's off the back of this because i've been pondering this for a while where i meet people who haven't been

in the game for very long or have done magic for a long time but don't perform all too often and they say things like oh i want to be this type of magician i want to be the kind of debonair type guy i want to be this and i want to be that and it's like bro that ain't you at all like at all and it's i find it fascinating because a part of me tries to figure out like should you be genuine and authentic to who you really are but if you're a piece of crap

you know what i mean like like you know like then be the fake person because i because the the biggest thing that makes me clash in my head. Is when you look at somebody like lucy darling who is an amazing character like phenomenal. And i've seen before many a times here in melbourne so i i i kind of i kind of get stuck with the thought process and i'd like to chat about it if we if we have a moment yeah it's an interesting i mean the i think the difference is that when lucy darling is on stage.

She's not confused about that being her actual self. She's very aware that that is a character that's only on that stage, you know, and then she comes out of it and she's back to normal. Whereas the people you're describing probably want people to think like that's who they really are all the time. And that's what's going to trip them up is because people will catch them out not being like that. Does that make you, does that like make things feel?

Feel a bit more sense right yeah like i've i as much as i love nick k as a character, but there's a border and boundary boundary around him like not with his creativity but to where he lives and i don't make i don't make my life problems nick k's problems if that makes sense you know nick k just goes out there does a job and gives but i don't trouble him with like when is the bills going to get paid how are we going to cover our mortgages you know it's like no i,

Nick K is this character that goes out there and has the best time but he's at work, as far as I'm concerned as far as the divide comes from but I love that guy because he goes out there and then he funds my lifestyle in which I'm able to then take care of my parents and my sisters and everything else and the dogs you know gotta take care of the dogs and the animals you know so it's yeah it's an interesting thing but. I guess that level of authenticity is that like the character is a divide.

And it's just interesting when that character is like leaps and bounds apart from the actual person do you know what i mean like it's very difficult like, When you sit with Lucy Darling and you can talk martinis, you can talk about martinis and beautiful things and the finer things in life because she by nature is a very classy person in a sense, right? But then when you want to sit with somebody who's like, I want to be debonair and so forth, it's like, well, have you ever read a book?

No. What do you know about art? Nothing. Do you read poetry? No. Have you read any book on stoicism? No. It's like, well, how do you profess to be something that you have no knowledge of? So I guess the answer is you've got to build a character, right? I don't know why magicians sometimes lean towards the suave debonair. You know, they think they're supposed to be sexy and mysterious. And that's going to work for maybe 1%, and I'd say less than that of the populace.

And probably your average human doesn't want to see their magician really be that way. because, you know, it's like the egotistical thing. And I was like, who's that guy with his raised eyebrow, you know, or his fancy hair. You know, I think people like a bit of humility. And like you'd say, like Lucy, a character that they can relate to, maybe as opposed to some elitist Mysterium that, you know. I know a magician like that comes on the TV. My wife makes me turn the channel,

you know. But Matt King comes on and she scoots up to the front, you know, to watch. Yeah. Well, and I think what that really also has to come down to is Sean Farquhar's next one after Authenticity, which is likability. So you can be a cocky character, but they have to be likable. Yeah. Like it has to be likable. Otherwise, you're not going to get away. Like no one's going to be forgiving if you stuff up. They're going to be waiting for you to mess up.

And, you know, they're not going to want to see you again if you're not likable. So, but on the flip side, there is also something to be said about that cocky character that is disliked in the way that people have online content these days. And a lot of the characters that are mean or not mean, mean, but like a little bit mean or a little bit edgy, there is a place for that as well.

You know like the Nelk boys for example became so so world famous by doing pranks on people that were not nice pranks but like they had their own following of other people who are also you know little weirdo nerd guys that were like oh yeah they're doing the thing so there's but the thing is they're being authentic to how they are naturally so so, They're just being themselves, which is to be cocky and annoy people.

But what I'm saying is there is an audience for that, but as long as you're being authentic. But then, yeah, in magic, though, you do have to be likable if you're going to have a career in it. Well, you know, Caden kind of leads into that topic as well.

But Caden just made a comment saying that I personally feel when I perform my character, so to speak, is really just my normal personality turned up to a 9 or a 10. And that I kind of agree with. You know what I mean? And I feel like it's an alter ego. It's a higher version of yourself. And that's a nice place to be, man, because I definitely couldn't be the turned up to 11 spinal tap version of Nick K all the time and still have friends and family that want to be around me.

Because that's extra, man. That's a lot of energy. Well, one, to put out there and project to the planet, number one. And number two, for people to receive nonstop, like you need peaks and valleys, you need highs and lows, you know, you need like the roller coaster doesn't go up, up, up, up, up. And then, you know, and never drop like it needs to be drops and then party over. 100%. Unless you have met Jason Maher in person, then you will realize there is someone who is that character 24-7.

That guy is a larger version of himself, but he always is that. And but he's kind of like the anomaly but we've been in shopping centers we've been in shopping centers and he is just like as if he's recording a video while he's like talking to the guy we're walking past for no reason you know in the aisle to get to the.

Red bulls and he's like hey mate how you going dropped a shoelace and like i'm like who are you talking to did he ask for a like and a share as well out there i think so i think yeah i well it works but you know but he has his own burnouts where you know like right now he's not making content but you know that's just that's his roller coaster and but he but he is authentic to himself by just being crazy echoing dude yeah all right next up ben sideman this is a i

think a short and sweet one but uh i thoroughly enjoyed his episode how many good guests this year i don't know anything i don't know what i'm talking about i don't know that i'm very good at almost anything you should not take any of this as advice and by any of this i mean any the other things I've said. Everything I've learned, I've learned from trying things and failing and asking other people questions and just trying to get better.

So don't look at me as any sort of authority figure. I don't recommend that. I just try to get a little bit better every day when it comes to magic and life and you should too. Beautiful. For those who haven't watched this episode or haven't watched it in a little while. Essentially what he summarizes in that is that his skill set, his main skill is that he's never happy with his work.

So that skill of never being happy with his work is what makes him obsess and try and tweak a little bit of something every day to...

Every show whether it's just changing the color of a prop maybe where it sits on stage maybe one line maybe the music just he's always tweaking something every single time and forever never being satisfied which goes to show you know the success he's had and the latest uh he's just done another expose online and he's just going up and up crazy crazy stuff yeah i think what i also like what i took away from that is that a lot of people like will read things or listen

to things or you know watch a lecture of sorts whatever else but i think that they take some people's words as gospel and it's like that is the only way that is the word of god and we have to do it this way or forever and it's like well you don't man because and i've said this many a times where like the books of wonder are the most wonderful thing and to my wonder says in his books everybody wants to see magic they just don't know it yet whereas my mentality is if they

don't want to see magic screw them go somewhere else.

You know what i mean yeah so there's my theory there's his theory and i think that it's important to be open and listen to everything that's out there and formulate your own opinions or don't even have an opinion you know get your own theory out there you know doug that's the real stuff you know find an original point of view and then you know get so good people want to copy you and then go tell them they shouldn't listen to you it's interesting that it's some of our great guests

are saying the same things you know it's like here's what i do here's what i do but don't listen to me you know do you and do you as good as you can do you and you can amp yourself up to that nine or ten and you'd be rocking that stuff like ben sideman is yeah i remember talking to a magician and he was saying something to the effect of like oh i've got the best way to rove man i got this amazing opener it's phenomenal i'm like what do you do because

what I do is I go grab a drink and I just walk around the party and I wait for somebody to ask me, Hey, what do you do? And then I show the magic. And I thought to myself, if I hired you for an hour and you waited for people to ask what you do, I would never hire you again. Like, he's like, but because he read it in a book, which I'm not sure it was, it was a card guy.

I was one of two people, but I won't say who it was. Cause I don't want to sound like a slander, but on a paid gig, I really don't agree with that. And gut buster Mike, as he said, it says here, it's crazy to me when people are definitive about theory, this is deal with absolutes. Yes. Gut buster Mike. Do I have? Only six deal with absolutes. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Wow. I don't know. I kind of like the idea of just ponying up to the bar at my next gig and just hanging out. Yeah.

What do you what do i do oh 30 minutes in yeah i wish someone would just ask me already yeah how many people did you get to oh well only two people asked me what i do so what if people are literally trying to avoid you all night because they're like i don't know that guy and i'm not interested in you know what i mean like it's not a networking event. Although it it is interesting i there's you know five or ten seconds before i tell people that I'm a magician when I meet them.

So at events, I'll just very confidently go up and introduce myself, like just say, Oh, Hey, how are you going? And they'll go and they'll just respond to it. Like, Oh, Hey, I'm Mick. Yeah. What's your name? Oh, I'm Josh. And then I'll get into the rest of whatever. But it is interesting that people just naturally at events, just openly like invite conversation and, and, you know, want to know who you are.

Like if I wasn't booked to perform somewhere and i'm at an event i'm not just going up to people and shaking hands and asking names but it's funny to know that you could do that because i haven't told them i'm the entertainer there yet when i'm doing that there's something to be i would suggest that your body energy you know that you're bringing to the table is commanding some presence that's a bit higher than a normal interaction might be you know right right and they're yeah they

feel maybe like they're safe because you're in control yeah i think confidence is paramount right for most performing situations certainly if you're going to interrupt someone in their social environment you're like yeah doubly so if you're on the street you know if you're doing street magic and you want to you know ingratiate an audience you better be supremely confident about what you're doing they will taste the blood and leave you bleeding if not you know you know i've been really

impressed watching sam sam osborne's videos lately of him on the streets and his ability to command his audience is just so refreshing to watch and his latest clip doug you know as a as a as a busking master the the thing he's doing with the magic wand is that something that's been around for a while or did he i guess in some in some aspect Jack. Like pointing the wand at people and making a quip about them. It wasn't, he says, stop. And the lady, this is a, he goes, this is a magic wand. Look,

I can prove it. Point, you know, stop walking. And he's like, see, I'm trying to think of an exact, you know, reference, but not exactly the same. So, you know, stuff like that is just so fun. Like you command enough attention that like people will just do whatever it is.

You're there saying because you're in control of the ship yep yeah yeah one of the things that Scott Scott Link asked is does your attire set you apart and I think that if I can speak on that real quick is that I typically when I'm doing my residencies I wear all black you know at most a white shirt but typically I wear my black suits nowadays I've sort of shied away from the colors entirely but I think that because I'm six foot two and you know bald and

a beard and you know can look quite menacing in a sense or like a security guard when i walk to a table there's this moment of silence like crap are we in trouble when i come over and say hello and then when i'm like no i'm the magician you know like not that i have to correct it but when the messages are crossed like is now a good time for magic or mind-dropping conversation like oh i thought we're in trouble this is great

yes we'd love to see some magic so i i half wonder if that's the customer experience that they're getting from.

Big scary suit man versus josh nabita kind of handsome smelling good colors man you know what i mean like do you think that your attire has that i'm just looking up this is what people see when they see this good looking dude rock up in a suit at holy moly turning up to to say hi where is it oh this is the best version i can find they're seeing the real life uh hitman show up and they're like, oh crap, who is this guy? Agent 47. Is it the Agent 47 or Johnny Sins?

I could be, yeah, I'm an astronaut after this. Johnny Sins comes up a lot, especially in my YouTube comments. But, you know, I welcome all the banter. Yeah, the attire certainly helps for sure. And, you know, and there is a subtle difference too if you're in a suit as opposed to a waistcoat. A waistcoat, there's a slight air of maybe your, the catering staff.

For a second and then as opposed to a jacket maybe you're the manager of the place or something yeah yeah yeah but for sure and you know and then if you're wearing that sexy elf hat that nick had on at the start you can just people just let you do whatever you want yeah but you know i still think it applies to the street right doug i mean the way you would dress on street would be something almost nice enough to go to a party in and you

know what i mean like you're not really sort of dressing in thongs and shorts and singlet it's interesting you know anything kind of works out there but if i had to set a rule it would be that you will be paid according to how you look so like if you're going to walk the fringe and you know like go shirtless or something you better be a riot an amazing performer and so on but for magic i think it's nice to dress it up a little bit you know and then when people

go to tip me at the end they feel like a dollar is not enough you know this guy's obviously used to making more than a dollar you know. But I do enjoy going out and just wearing whatever I want sometimes. If I'm feeling today's a t-shirt day or a vest day and, you know, no fancy clothes, no dress shoes, tennis shoes, that works too. And I think it is all, again, about being confident and owning your performing character. It probably comes back a little bit to that authenticity thing.

Right. Like, what do you feel most comfortable in yourself? Not everyone feels comfortable wearing a suit, even though to Nick and I, it's like our Superman cape.

To other people it might be really feeling out of place or strange i remember the first the first high-end restaurant i got i i went out and bought a tuxedo to perform in because i felt i needed it to be better dressed than the clientele and talk about just being in a penguin suit where it really didn't fit me you know i walked around that thing for about six or nine months before i figured out that this is not happening you know and then yeah i got myself a

nice suit and toned it down a little bathroom you know it's more me one thing i will say about like clothing and so forth is that it doesn't matter what you have it's just more so the condition you keep it in because i've seen a lot of folks who you know due to their character they're like oh i have to have these colors and so forth i have to have this type of thing and it's like it gets to a point where a year of performing in that same set of pants that same set of whatever

else like it looks tired and so it's not always It doesn't have to be a $3,000 suit. It can be a $70 jacket. It does not matter. As long as the condition looks good and you look sharp, Rigi Dij. Rigi Dij, baby. That's got to be. That's not what I meant to press, but we'll roll with it. All right. We've got one final, final word that I have accumulated today. This one really hit hard. It's also the longest final word too. And it was from Blaise Sarah when he came on.

He dropped some knowledge because he had only just won the North American Magic Championships. And this is what he had to say about whether someone should consider...

Additions well thank you guys so much for having me i think that one thing that just really comes to mind when thinking of a final piece of advice for for people coming off of the back of this competition is like i was saying earlier just how much better of a magician that i am now than i was a year ago and how all of the stuff that i'm performing now and that i finally am doing in my show at speakeasy every night and will be doing

in this upcoming residency of vintage green are all things that I just had as ideas that I hoped one day I would be able to do. They were pipe dream ideas that finally are now possible. And it was because of setting that goal and trying to push myself. So I would really encourage other people to go out there and compete. I think North America is heavily underrepresented in the world magic, especially competition scene.

And I think that magic competition is taken really seriously across Europe and across Asia. And I think North America has really, really talented magicians that deserve to be seen. And so I'd encourage you out there, even if you never saw yourself as a competition performer, I'd encourage you to just try and discover your potential. And I think that's what magic is about, is about us discovering our own potential and discovering what we're capable of.

Create magic that makes you proud to perform it that when you perform it you remember yourself.

Sitting in your bedroom wondering if you would ever be able to bring this in front of the stage you remember the first time you thought of the idea and it put a smile on your face imagining what kind of experience you'd be able to give an audience and when you finally can take those ideas and bring them in front of an audience it's more worth it than anything the amount of satisfaction the amount of pride you'll have in your performance,

and how present and engaged you'll be in your performance when you're doing something that pushes yourself. It's just unlike anything else. So I'd really, really just encourage people, try and compete, try and come up with the best magic you can, push yourself to try and discover what you're capable of. You're going to find that you're so much better at sleight of hand and you're capable of way more than you ever imagined if you do.

So I think just go for it and strive to be original and you guys can do it. I believe in you. So thank you again for having me on. I appreciate this. Blaze, Sarah, what a beast. discover your potential by pushing yourself. You're so much better at sleight of hand than you think you are. So good. Well, time to work on my quadruple lifts. Do you know what Blaze does? The things this guy does, he practices what he preaches.

When he explained what he does, I'm like in disbelief. I'm like, this is not a thing. And then I tried to push it being like, had you considered being so, you know, and he talked about this on the podcast. So this is not the methods. This is just, he basically talks about how he can take a shuffled deck from anyone and within one or two spreads through the deck, it's now a new deck order. And that's amongst the many miracles he'll do with a deck of cards.

And then I just jokingly said, well, have you ever considered being able to put it into a memorized order? And he's like, yeah, here's the spreadsheet for how I do that. I'm like, whoa, what the, hang on. What the actual are you talking about that you can do that? And that's insane. That's what happens when you push yourself. Yeah. I'm so bad at magic when I watch him. Well, that's the thing, right? Like it is about sort of pushing those boundaries and so forth.

For me, the first person that comes to mind, right, when you think about like how good they are at magic and how much they show it, Dave Williamson, right?

When you look at his performances that have gone on television and so forth he does a top change a mercury card fold maybe you know and a cover maybe a double lift like the stuff he actually performs that's super entertaining is is like the tip of the iceberg compared to the plethora of knowledge that he has underneath the water and the amount of slides he knows and the ability to to do what he does like it's it's really interesting how you have all this knowledge

but you don't do that and you know in one of his interviews he said that.

It's some advice from his father where he goes only give him 40 like only give him 40 of what you can do and and he does like he only does like 40 of the amazing slides that he kind of knows and that's that's interesting man and and i'll be honest like i practice so many things like arming and like crazy sleight of hand bits but do i do it in my normal performance working material no you know yeah it happened to me where i was doing a sandwich effect where like a thought

of card joker's go in the deck find the card and it occurred to me that i had loaded the wrong card.

But i remember learning a site where you can change a sandwich card as you flip it over, the sand switch and i never performed that like in real life only ever for fun at home anyway executed this move and the audience the the spectators watching freaked out just the same as they would if i had gotten it right and not had to do that fixer but i'm not doing that move every time but god it was fun to know that i could do that to fix the situation was pretty awesome and the other thing

i find really funny too is how many times have you heard or seen comments where David Williamson or Darren Brown or David Blaine will do an effect and then people are like, well, I can do a double lift. Where's my TV show? As if like the thing they're just doing there on the surface level is the reason why they're who they are or where they're at. It's so funny. Ha ha ha. Yeah, I think it's funny. Anyway. No, that's great.

Actually, it's just why you said that. I just came up with a method for this sandwich effect that you were just talking about. I'm like, I wonder if you're doing what I just thought of when you mentioned. That's what happens when I was like, I don't know the sandwich. I need the sandwich. Right, right. We're going to have to talk about. I can perform it. It's very simple. I'm not simple. It's really not simple, but I'll, I mean, I'll do the move for us.

So. Okay. Yeah. So can you, can you talk it through the listeners as well? So as to what's going on? Yeah. Yeah. So I was doing an effect where, how do I normally do? So, so what normally what happens is I take out the deck of cards. I take out the jokers and I'm like, let's do a warmup. You hold onto these and can you, and then can you name a card? Okay. Again, for the listeners, you hold onto these two red cards, which is going to be the sandwich cards.

Great. Oh, yes, that's right. So hang on, I'll switch it out for the jokers.

Okay. So I'm holding two jokers in my hand. i would give these two jokers face up to a spectator and normally what would happen is i would get them to name a playing card like that's in the deck once they've named that card while they're holding the jokers i would spread out the deck and i would have them place the two jokers in the deck wherever they wanted they're just kind of plonking the two jokers face up together as a pair in

the deck somewhere and normally what would happen is i would show them it very fairly i'm like okay that's about a third of the way down look my fingers are just going to square up the deck and i put the whole deck in their hand which is just a face down deck with two jokers wherever they placed it and then yeah and they're face up jokers are face up for reference. 100 that's the most important thing to know is the jokers are face up everyone yeah.

Then, sorry, anyway, anyway, the effect is it's an imagination effect where now the audience is holding these, this deck of cards and they imagine that their site, that their named card is going to be found by the jokers. They're going to sandwich it between them and then go back to where they started. And then when they spread out the deck, they see that the two jokers now do have a card in between them. And at this point, normally they would take that card out and it would be their

thought of card. Okay. That's normally what happens. But what happens on this particular occasion, I had to fix it by doing a fun switch was I realized that the deck showed, basically I could see the bottom card and I knew, oh, holy crap, I've not put the right card in between the jokers. So let's say the card they were meant to have was the four of diamonds. Okay. And I know that I'm in this situation.

So what I did was once I showed them this display of there is a card in between, I said, what are the chances that this would be your card? And then as I turn it over, boom, it is four of diamonds. And that's it. Wow. Boom. Where do I learn that? So that is actually a lloyd barnes effect which um is taught on illusionist called the sand switch.

It came out many years ago and i don't really see people performing it but for some reason i really took a knack to it at the time but never used it for an effect yeah but it got me out of that situation so well that i thought well hang on why aren't i just making that the effect then where i I just... Put two jokers in someone's hand with a card in between it. And then the card they named just use that switch to, to, to, to be the effect.

But anyway, I like it. It's something worth looking into if you need that as a method, you know, to change a card in between, but yeah, it just, it saved the situation. And now I know, okay, I could probably do that every time that I mess up and it would get me out of that spot.

Doug's about to school us. Actually in my book, i have a top change handling of a sandwich pair so if you had the wrong card in between the sandwich, you can still do the top change here and if you set this card down it applies it's the same one so this would be my handling of something that's similar so the card gets top change beneath the sandwich so it's down here now but it's not readily apparent to the viewer you're just kind of doing this and setting it down so yeah that's

really nice too a pincher top change doug con handling and then there's also helder gamirez has his book nick i know you're a gamirez student as well his big book that we that i have it's big and big red one no it's a big blue book one of is later anyway he he has a similar idea of of a top change but he makes people think the two cards he's holding are the jokers and he's any top changes one for the thought of card and then he does a mexican turnover of the card you think is the the

thought of one but it's actually a joker on the table so you still end up in a clean situation but there's no heat on your top change because people think. You're just holding the two jokers if that makes sense. Okay. It's got a really nice tabled thought of card routine as well. Anyway. Cool. Yeah, because when you mentioned my brain went somewhere else and I don't know if we should be turning this episode into a jam session or not. The idea is that you can have.

Two i don't i don't have joker so i'll just put the two red kings and i'll put them here in my breast pocket as you can see full well so they can have a card chosen so doug just just think of one and you choose a card that right you just don't say get in your mind got it got it terrific and then you say the card was the queen of hearts the queen of hearts i don't are you sure because if you have a look here in between wait that's supposed to be the other way around here we go,

okay so from here you can take and show that you have a kind in between and then if you just do the ishka bibble sandwich right so the card in between as fair as can be you can now take this and give it to the spectator oh yeah that it's the queen of hearts so you just have any different cards in an ishka bibble sandwich i'm like that's kind of a fun fun way to play with that the version of the koski switch is what that is ishka bibble sandwich being eric jones routine

meaning of a few sandwich things but yeah which idea i found the book just for reference since we're still talking about this stuff it's this one here secret language by helder gemuras.

Cool in the book i won't show you any of the other instructional bits but you can see some photos where he's like explaining some of the positioning of like the two cards being on the on the ground with a card in between and stuff it's really great stuff look how thick this book is by the way this is just wow he has an entire section on just finesse which is like finessing moves that exist and he's just like added little tweaks to make them a little bit little bit better as he would

say so friends here we are we're an hour in which means it's time to wrap up everything now before we do i guess it's just a quick opportunity to say that it's been a year, some great moments, some tough ones, but we made it through.

And we made it through with the support of you guys, our listeners, and the guys who hang out in the Discord and jam, the guys who are guests and friends from Doug's side of the planet, and his LoneSlideAhand.com who come along to listen to the hilarious and fun things we have to say. We hope that we bring you a lot of good stuff and a lot of knowledge. If you enjoy the interviews, let us know who you want us to interview.

We'll do what we can to make those things happen if you like the history lessons let us know who you'd like to learn on otherwise I'll do it myself and choose who I want to learn from but the idea is that we want to give you guys as much value.

Knowledge and community and support as possible nothing fills our cups more than knowing that you guys are, enjoying what we do number one and two that you're out there spreading your magic showing your love and I think that's super cool so if there's stuff that you enjoy let us know if it's something that you want also let us know and we'll do what we can to keep you guys smiling yeah look we you know i always say this we started this as

a way to just catch up with with two of my magic mates and people just listening on the convo but but the community you guys have become just as much of an important part of this of this roller coaster because we bounce off you know what you want to see and also your speak pipes we love hearing we get to hear from you.

And even today, Alex Lam put in the chat that he, from things he'd heard from us, he actually hit the streets and went and introduced himself to restaurant owners and has one which is interested in chatting more in the new year.

And like being around other magicians, knowing that they're actually doing the thing is what helped him realize, okay, it's time for me to do it as well, you know, and obviously then Scotty P is actually out there doing these charity gigs and, you know, we're hearing from all of you getting out there and actually doing it.

It's just really amazing to see. And it is also very fulfilling because knowing that the stuff we're just saying out there into these little microphones is getting soaked up and is being useful to help you guys out as well. Doug, you must see this on an even bigger scale because you're actually teaching people. And I know your Discord is insane compared to the one we run. There's people chatting about all sorts of different things, different categories.

Is like what's your experience been this year with teaching the the you know internet of you know i'm getting to see guys grow up now and go to work you mentioned like sam osborne out there crushing it you know over the last you know really year he's come into his own but you know there's there's half a dozen dozen other stories like that you know jimmy ferrister pops in here occasionally just jimmy and you know he started from

an amateur last week he had a couple of gigs He was doing a corporate and a kid's party after that. And, you know, yeah, we're doing good work and making a difference. And I'm honored that, you know, it's part of my life. How cool is it? You know, I got a guy in my Discord. He's asking for advice. Where does he go for the summer? He's going to go to England and he's going to be on the pitch with Sam Osborne next June, July before, you know, Edinburgh.

And it's like what what what a what a thrill it is to watch the future of magic thrive in this modern you know modern time where i think magic could be considered to be a little bit on a bit of a tightrope as far as how a young a young magician can can grow and and good news You can grow great. Go cry. Yeah. So look, friends, it's been an honor serving your content this year. We are now completed episode 200. We're going to take the next two weeks off.

Everyone enjoy your Christmas and your holidays. And you'll see us still on the internet, but we're going to come back strong in the new year. Start with episode 201. We're going to get to a thousand before you know it.

We're going to have a lot more maybe plastic surgery and, and what if we all have full heads of hair by episode a thousand? That'd be hilarious. I looked into it. It's, it looks painful as hell. I'm not doing that. I like being bald. Yeah, no thanks. Same, same. Yes. The ball club. Anyway, you guys have been awesome. And this has been episode 200. We'll see you next time on the magic guys.

Thanks for listening it's time for us to disappear now disappear now but we'll see you again on the next episode of the magic guys.