From Broken Fingers to Broadway: Christopher Wayne's Journey

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

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode... Oh my gosh. Nick, what episode are we up to today? 215. 215. Oh yeah, to my left, I got Nick K over here. Hi, I'm Nick K and to my right there's Josh Nibito. Can't believe it. We're here for another episode of Goodness. And obviously, this is the podcast where we as professional magicians share our lives, our shenanigans, the real working stuff, and introduce cool guests like we have today.

Doug is running around rampant in Vegas, so no doubt he's going to have just a plethora of stories that we have to catch up on next week with him. But Nick, what is the latest with you before we dive in? Anything the viewer should know today?

Well the melbourne magic festival is in full swing i hear it's going very well we've got amazing acts like tobias dostal performing there as well as our friend that we interviewed some weeks ago eric leclerc so be sure to scope out those guys as well as the many other awesome amazing acts and then that oh man so are you just really quickly are you like hanging out with these guys are you like have you seen their shows yet i guess it's more for next week but i've had back to

back gigs and in between that i've been renovating a property of mine so i've been really busy with that and i've got to get this property back on the market because every week that it's not on like there it's 500 bucks i'm losing so i've had to prioritize a lot of magicians out there got a cool extra two mil see nick and you can buy an apartment from him anyway look guys today we have a we have an international comedy magician ready to share some crazy stories now Now,

obviously, he's one of our best friends in magic and one of the co-owners of the Theatre of Magic that we're forever talking on and on about. He's a triple header now. This will be his third appearance on the Magic Guys podcast, but his stories get crazy every time. He's from Brisbane, but he's currently playing off-Broadway in New York.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a huge big welcome to Mr. Christopher Wayne. That can't be a real audience Surely That's amazing How do you get them all around this early? You know The time zone difference And, No, you're the comedy magician. I don't even know. It's fake. It's all fake. I'm not today. Just like my career. Christopher, we, of course, adore, love you and know you very well. But for the folks, the new listeners who might not know who you are, please tell us who you are.

Cool. Guys, thanks for having me back. And congratulations on your success since I was last on because I'm a listener as well. And obviously, your FISM nomination was insane. And just the amount of listeners and all the guests you guys have had. Just well done. To Doug as well. My name's Christopher Wayne. I'm from Brisbane, Australia. I'm primarily a comedy magician. So my thing is I co-created a show called The Naked Magicians with my best friend

and business partner, Mike Tyler. We did that for nine years together. And it's the most successful Aussie magic show in history. So we did about 300 cities, 1,300 shows around the world from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong.

London's West End, two seasons at Edinburgh Fringe, and a residency in Las Vegas at MGM grand in 2019 and now we're doing it we're back with the naked magicians five years later in new york of all places uh and then in between those two things in between vegas the world ending and new york i was lucky enough to co-create the theater of magic which uh runs in two cities now in australia yeah very fond of that i love it too is it can we start with like.

Because originally you weren't going to play in this off-Broadway show correct like you like even though you created the show and the show was going to play on here do you want to tell them a little bit about like how hard that was to like how you ended up being here in the show I guess yeah so the show the Naked Magicians is a duo show with my originally with myself and Mike Tyler and that's all it ever was the closest we ever had

to having another Naked Magician was Josh when we were doing a tour and I broke my...

My foot i think and uh we ended up going down the painkiller and and cast her out for that and i josh didn't have to get his dong out on stage so we yeah mike and i did a like a little mini australian tour in 2022 and we kind of decided to put everything to bed mike's married and has a beautiful family and i just needed to figure out my life i think and and then a promoter in the us so our show's been quite popular in the us we've done we played about 130 cities over here over the years and they

reached out about another tour and we said look we're too old to be in the show but we'd love to help you guys we'd love to you know offer you a new version of the show, and they said cool well let's go find a cast and mike and i. We spoke to a lot of magicians and a lot of not magicians and then we ended up finding just this perfect, perfect candidate to replace Mike. And we had this amazing venue opportunity in New York City, but we just couldn't find a guy to replace me.

And I'm a pretty specific type of character in the show because it's just based on my personality. And we just couldn't find someone, but we didn't want the opportunity to miss. So we're like, maybe I can go back to the gym for a couple of months and it kind of worked out great because this new guy's not really been in a show like this before. So when we're on stage together, I can cover anything he misses. So it ended up working quite well.

And it was a bit daunting because I'd put that part of my life to bed very much mentally and emotionally and spiritually, surely.

And here we are. And life, right that's life so in in the show in which you progressively undress and so forth and expose yourself like there is this huge level of vulnerability and i believe and i would assume that it takes this huge level of confidence to be able to stand you know on stage to begin with let alone shirt off pants down and so forth what's your training regime look like in for the for the gym?

Like, are you in this constant state of no carbs, no carbs? Like, how's that existence for you? It's been surprisingly easy. This was my easiest cut at 41. So Mike's just perpetually been in shape his whole life, but I am traditionally a chubby boy and I've always yo-yoed with my weight. So I'd go on like a tour and I'd be really lean for it. The challenge in this particular instance, Nick, was I was drinking in particular a lot of alcohol and not exercising much for the last few years.

And I just want to shout out Alyssa, who I just found out is watching one of my best friends. That makes me so happy. Dad, she loves it when I do a dab. Yeah, it's her favorite. I gave up drinking, Nick, about just over nine months ago for the first time in my entire adult life. So a very, very long time, over 20 years. And weight just fell off me, just so freaking fast from that. And this was before I knew about this Naked Magicians opportunity.

So I remember when I started losing weight, I'm like, I might start eating healthy again. And then I started eating healthy again, and I was starting to feel good as well as be a bit thinner. I'm like, I'm to go back to the gym. And then I'm going to go push myself a little more. And then I started just doing all of that. And then it was somewhere in the middle of that, that the Naked Magicians opportunity came up.

And what I've always said is if you're going to get on, there's no greater motivation in the world to eat healthy and exercise than knowing a few hundred people are going to pay to see you naked on a stage. Like, yeah, it makes you want to get your butt into gear. And crazily enough, at 40 into 41 years old, it was the easiest because of just diet and then exercise that age-old thing.

That's amazing. And interestingly enough as well, Chris was telling us off backstage that for his co-star in this show, they didn't find a magician and try and teach him the act. They found a comedian and then taught him magic. Is that, I guess that's the best outcome?

Like, do you think it's better to find a comedian, teach them magic rather than a magician and teach than comedy it depends on the show and it depends on the type of magic show because ours is like scripted like we improvise throughout but there's like we know what we're doing throughout like the show has a direction and an order cutting you know no different to i don't know matt king for example you know his tricks go a certain way and it's going to end with the beer at the end

but uh he's going to improvise the whole way through and we were like we were trying to find a magician who was like he had to be over five foot ten you know we want someone taller on stage had to have a certain aesthetic because we do take our clothes off in the show and had to be like an elite level comedy performer. So then when you realize there were none of them, you're like, all right, let's find a comedian.

What's that journey look like? That's the thing, especially when you've got such an important shell that needs to be filled, a big shoe to be filled, so to speak. What's that journey look like? Take us through that because seldom do the magicians that listen to this have to step into a role. Do you know what I mean? So what does it look like? Yeah, it's like we're just going to be ourselves or alter ego version of ourselves,

a higher version of ourselves and so forth. But to step into, did you give this gentleman space to inject himself or did he have to fully embody who Mike was? Like, how was that process of finding him and guiding him through that? Yeah, nice. That's an amazing question, Nick. Incredible. So, okay. In our show, casting is based on the audience. So our audience is primarily girls' nights out, followed by gay men and then

cheeky couples in that order. Yeah. And a part of what we offer them is like the sexual and the attractive aesthetic. So they have to be funny and they have to be equally hot, just that hot and not just like, oh, they're a good-looking person, but like, you know, the type of person when they walk, and I don't fit this. This is me setting a, like Mike Tyler is a, you know, he looks like a Ken doll with eyebrows. I was just, I was the fat friend by proxy that, you know, sort of hung on.

But we knew that they they had to be really attractive because there are people that you know anyone can look okay in a suit we can put on a suit but we wanted someone that when they walked into a room people would notice because of wow that's a good looking fellow right there and in our show there's a specific moment where we tear off our shirts and we want the audience to scream and that's a pop in the show,

It's like for us, it's like the bit where Copperfield makes the car appear over the audience. Yeah, we kind of just couldn't afford the car. So it's like, just tear your shirt off. Where do you find that? So we wanted someone that would not hit our standard, but would reach what we're selling our audience. And then from that, we happened across this hilarious and very handsome comedian on Instagram.

Just, he looked like Clark Kent. he looked like henry cavill and was really funny he could do impressions and he had he had stage presence but there were also a couple of videos of him doing crowd work and we're like this guy can improvise and he can if you get something thrown at him he can deal with it on the spot, and it's like it's not hard to teach someone how to do a mallory master prediction right.

And it's not hard to teach someone snowstorm in china it's not easy but it's easier than teaching someone comedy timing and the power of silence and rhythm and crowd work and stage work stage presence and pacing so we went that road and we've we spent months with him over zoom, to but oh you can ask more about that but to answer your other question nick mike was like the the build and it's like we step into mike first and then when you understand his role

in the show you can start finding your bids so for the first week of previews he was pretty much just doing like mike's scripts almost verbatim and then in notes in week two we're like okay your job in this show is to do something that's not in the script and make the audience laugh we gave him that note one night that was his only note and he's like okay and i'm like so what trick do you think you want to do that in and then i said

just do whatever you want don't obviously You don't be offensive. Doesn't matter what the joke is, get a laugh out of the audience. You have my full blessing. And he kind of asked, is that okay if I cut loose a little? There was an actual conversation about that. And I'm like, now's the time.

And then every show now, he's finding at least one or two more of them that are his own, that are unique, whilst he's got a stack of jokes that we are discovered over the years. Sorry for ending a rant. No, that's perfect. We've still got 45 minutes of potential ranting.

Go for it no it's really the reason i love about that is also that like i like my favorite musical for example is a comedy which is the the book of mormon okay i think it's one of the funniest things ever i've seen this seven times that's how much i love it right and i've seen it from conception when it was first around and then i've seen it like a few years ago and obviously it's been around for so long that the version that was then versus what it is now

it's totally different it's tighter it's funnier and there's a lot of jokes that happen that i just believe are almost want to say almost like indigenous or like from the people who are a part of it you know what i mean just because of their body type or whatever it might be like they do something to to make it better and i think it's really cool that you've allowed him to.

To do that do you think that by the end of this run there'll be certain things that he's injected that will be like almost a permanent imprint on the show 100 he in rehearsals he because he's a comedian we're teaching him a trick and i'm not going to give away the joke or the trick but it's one of our it's a great piece in the show that mike has finessed to perfection over literally thousands of performances and he he as he was just going through it he just made a joke about it's

like a list of celebrity names and he just made a joke about one of the celebrities where we just we're like how did we miss that 1300 times yeah and it was he put it in the show on night one and the audience just lost it and that's it's like aaron thank you so much that's in the show it's yours and now it's like not just ours it's it belongs to someone else and because of that there's more joy in the show than there was when it was just mike and i yeah wow and speaking

of Because it's always been Mike and you this whole time. Yeah. What's it like for Mike to watch the show happen when he's not in it? Has he told you any comments about that? And what's it like for you to do the show, look over and not see Mike? Is that still weird? I don't know. None of this feels real yet, if I'm to be honest. Fair enough. But it wasn't as weird on stage. It was really weird in rehearsals. And Mike was in Australia when I was doing rehearsals over here with the new guy.

And like Mike would zoom in and that was really weird because I had a laptop in the theater and I could see Mike's face and then I'm standing on stage his name's Adam Rose and it's like welcome to the Naked Magicians my name's Christopher Wayne and then I've heard 1300 times and I'm Mike Tyler and we know what you're thinking and then he says Adam Rose and then Mike like I saw Mike smile on the screen and I smiled and we just shook our heads because we we always knew this

would be a great opportunity for us but we just never imagined how do you imagine it's someone else you know.

It's weird. Yeah. Well, I guess if the options were seeing it evolve and seeing someone else take the throne, so to speak, versus watching it die and letting it, you know, be lost in the sands of time. Like, I think that's a much better place to be. We also had a third option, Nick, of doing it beyond our years, where people would turn up and we would slowly taper down like that.

And we had really agreed to not. so I've got a time limit on me because audience is number one but yeah I'm really thankful that we're finding a new life for the show and a new audience it's pretty cool because like our show doesn't cure cancer but bloody hell there's so many shows over here that are like heavy or have like themes and now there's like one show that's like magic magic dick joke magic dick joke magic and it's great it's great I think he just

wrote a hit yeah and that's actually literally. Somebody's just sampled that and it's going to be on the billboard in no time, if anyone's going to do it it's scotty p i bet he'll do it question about comedy chris, i'm most recently okay when it comes to performing and when people promote comedy in magic it's never really done from a think about the comedy first aspect it's kind of comedy happens sort of step by second nature.

And as far as comedy is concerned, I consider myself someone who's naturally funny. And I don't think that I can get on stage and do a Kill Bill set, for example, and do one minute of just straight stand up. That's not something that by nature I can do. Like I would have to really think about it and calculate that sort of thing. But put me in front of a group of people and interact and make fun and I can be polite and funny or I can tear apart some hecklers. Not a problem.

I, since then, have taken it upon myself to start learning comedy. And I've just recently got my hands on the comedy Bible, which I'm slowly working through because every chapter is some things to work on. Is that something that you did with regards to learning comedy? Or is it just something that you did by nature? Did you just watch a bunch of stand-up folk? How did you actually learn comedy? What tips do you have for anyone who wants to learn and understand comedy?

I'm thankful for the question. And I'm so excited for every magician to ignore the advice that I'm about to give, despite the fact that I believe it's crucial. The number of magicians that have ignored this advice astounds me. Go to, I went to comedy clubs. I was doing as many open mic nights as I was doing magic. And I feel like there's like, cause that's kind of like the old school of like guys like Matt King and Michael Finney would travel around and do comedy clubs with comedy magic.

And if you can, like a comedy audience, they don't care if it's magic or not. They just want funny. You have to be funny. And I have died a thousand deaths on comedy stages, but that's where you find, it's where you find the most. And it's, you know, it's like with these kids these days with magic, you know, like YouTube magicians and stuff that practice and just do their stuff in front of a camera at home. It's, it's not the same until you take it to a live audience.

I'm drinking sparkling water. I'm a little gassy. You just have to go and try material. And that can be just written comedy, like just jokes that you've written or a comedy magic set at open mic nights. They're everywhere. And you can get in Australia, you can get five minute spots really easily. And you just know. And I remember there were so many bits that I tried that just died horribly. And I'm sure there were some bits in there that I found that I've kept in my material to today.

But yeah, comedy audiences will tell you if you're funny or not. And if you want to know if you're funny or not, perform in front of a comedy audience. Or if you sell yourself as a comedy magician, great. Go perform at a comedy club. See how you go. So that's it. Just baptism by fire. Get in there. Yeah. That Peter Booth, Chris and I played the best shithole pubs in Brisbane. Yeah. I remember that, the Newmarket Hotel like 20 years ago.

And Pete was doing the exact same thing. He's one of the funniest comedy writers I know, in my opinion. And he was up there, I remember, working the same material every week. I feel like there's comedy clubs where it's difficult because sometimes you'll be this rose among the thorns where every act that gets up prior just bombs, bombs, bombs, bombs. So you've got this audience that is just like ice cold at that point, then you got to try and pull yourself up from there.

So that's quite a skill set. And I try to equate it to in the magic realm, whereas I feel like. Those comedy clubs probably equate to doing street shows where you've got oh wow yeah yeah that's kind of like the equivalent like it's the same sort of battlefield so to speak you know.

And i'm going to say nick going back to what you said you're the king of charisma i i love watching your reels of your live performances and you you are so you hold a room with your uh with your energy and you do you work when you're doing a trick you still manage to incorporate three other people even if the trick's just with one person i think a lot of magicians might confuse comedy with charisma because at an event we're often the most charismatic person in the room

and we have tricks but doing tricks and being funny are two very separate things and then they're tied.

Together later i would love to ask you is there anything that you've learned from reading these books or watching like is there anything you've learned about comedy recently that you've adapted into your performances or that's made you think more and also interject before nick answers real quick he mentioned doing a kill bill set he meant a kill tony one minute set earlier because nick has just gotten on the kill tony train after seeing the netflix special of

kill tony which is insane by itself yeah look at that and we represent exactly and we are effectively the opening act for kill tony most people leave this podcast and start listening to that one so yeah and so what have i learned i i'm learning about joke structure more than anything which is very much stand there and tell a joke it's one of the things i dislike the most about comedy magicians if i'm being honest to when they get on stage and

they stand there and they just do this and then do a trick i feel that that's not something that i want to do. But I also, what I'm saying by that is that the more I'm learning it, the more I don't want to do that in my own act. Okay. Yeah. But I would much rather do a joke and be funny as I'm doing the trick, because I just feel that you need to champion something in your act and you got to either champion like yourself, the magic or the comedy.

And I would rather champion the magic and me be the vessel of that, which is why I have that status of having the charisma. And what I've also learned is that a lot of the things that I've learned along the way is that a lot of the comedy can be very derogatory. And I really dislike giving anyone a bad time. That is not what I'm about. I would rather take the brunt of people's rudeness and everything. I let people be rude to me when I perform. And I just wrap up by saying,

sorry, guys. I go, this was fun. But I don't get paid to be mistreated or disrespected and so forth. And I think what you're saying is rather hurtful. So I'm going to walk away from this interaction.

In close-up right yeah or going at the table or working bars and restaurants and so forth i just go like i'm just gonna walk away if you guys change your mind i want to see some magic i'll take an apology and we'll kick off again but until then i'm gonna walk away i'm i'm not having a good time neither are you guys so we're done and i just walk away and i'll tell management i go hey fyi those guys were a bit rude and i walked away if they say anything it's because they

were i don't know calling me a slur or something of that nature do you know what i mean like yeah so it's that type of thing. But I think that it's also fun. It's very challenging. So for example, one of the examples, we'll do it right now as a group. So you had to write as many kicker jokes, sorry, punchlines to this. The good thing about being fat is.

End that challenge now i learned something from this all right because i only came up with like two good ones and what i said was the good thing about being fat is it makes it really hard to get kidnapped all right so that's the first that's the first one i wrote down and then and the next one was which i didn't like but i wrote it down was according to lizzo i'm an automatic 10 out of 10 and that was the next one i wrote i didn't like it but i wrote it down anyway and then that's all i did.

And the thing was, I should have written eight, whether they were good, bad, or offensive, I should have just wrote them down. And one of the things I learned at the end of this exercise was that you've got to get all the ideas out of your head onto the paper, whether they're good or not. It doesn't matter if they're good, bad, or offensive or anything, get them on the paper. And they said, if you did less than like three, that's because you thought of

them and went, that's not very good. Don't write that down. Don't do that when you're creating comedy. That was one of the things I learned from the comedy Bible. Interesting. Their writing is definitely great. Sorry, Josh, can you go? No, no. I'm just digesting myself. But I think that's such an interesting idea to just write down as many of the jokes. Or I guess in magic, as many of the plots you think could go for that routine. Scott wrote a good one. What's the good thing about being fat?

Feet don't get wet in the rain.

You know like yeah yeah but exactly yeah so it's very challenging and you got to write those jokes down and try to figure it out and that's the thing and and the thing is i don't want to do anything detrimental or or disrespectful to people about pulling them down like that's where i'm like the polar opposite so i would rather do some like i'm crowd work is more my thing than telling jokes so i love asking someone what do you do for a living i'm a plumber that's amazing

do you like go-karting they're like yeah cool you got turtles no thank goodness you know what's a day like for you i've been missing out on great opportunities comedy i believe exists within people's lives and and the answers that they give and it's also the other night i had a woman up on stage for rope on my cut and restored rope routine she was in the front row and it's it's a bit it's a bit risque.

I'm i'm gonna counteract what you're saying right now in that so so this routine is i'm completely naked top hats covering my genitalia and she's got to hold the scissors with one hand and she's got to hold the top hat with the other and i and i i'm like what's your name uh i can't remember her name and i'm like who are you here with i see you've got a wedding ring on and she's like yeah my husband's not here and then so three jokes right away oh your husband's not here well that's

okay your daddy is joke number one and then i'm after i get the other two jokes and i'm like well if you're not here with your husband who are you here with, And then, Nick, I've got no bad answers coming my way. And guess what? I didn't. Well, that's my dad. That's my mom. That's my sister. That's her husband. That's my other brother-in-law. And that's my other sister. Well, the trick didn't start for eight more minutes. I'm like, mom, dad, it's nice to meet you.

I'm sorry it's under these conditions. I'm sure you raised it to be better. I'm like, wow, you two guys, this guy looks like he owns a gun. Do you own a gun? And he's like, yeah, I own a gun. And I'm like, how did I know? I'll tell you how I knew. It was the goatee. They don't exist in Australia like that. And this guy, you look like you host UFC parties on Sunday. And I'm like, yeah, do you know how you got the same goatee as the guy that's got the gun?

And then we were just off and it was just, you've got a wedding ring. You're married. Where's your husband? And then, and then it was the next question. He's not here. Who are you here with? And then zoom in, zoom in, zoom in. I love questions because the comedy is different every time then because every single volunteer will have a different answer for you.

Yeah so that's that's a beautiful piece of crowd work there you know and and that's the way that i sort of perform whenever i'm doing something it's always this notion of like i have jokes that i can't i've got one of three options i can take like a choose your own adventure or you know that sort of pathway i can take and sometimes there's an opportunity to say a joke at this point but i don't always choose to say it i'm like not for this crowd let's go the other

way so those those are really nice ways to take it but as a as a close-up worker as well you you you kind of get the opportunity to do 30 sets a night and with 30 different audiences because every, and I think this is what makes you such an amazing and exceptional close-up worker because you've done it so many times and you can work any social dynamic. That translates to comedy so easy because it's just every crowd is just a different crowd. A little bit different, hey?

Yeah. Yeah. So we're at the halfway point now and there is a story that's so juicy that we even... Put a little bit of it in the caption of this live. Chris is in New York playing this massive show. All this pressure's on his shoulders. They've got to train someone. And then something insane happens the night before opening. Chris, can we open this can of worms and explore this story? This is a triumphant make or break moment.

How the hell does this happen? yeah and we should probably start by saying there's no villain in this story it was a complete accident and it's a it's not a sad story we're going to figure it out and and we we won but uh so i've been doing cut and restored rope for as long as i've been doing magic over 20 years now in the naked magicians i've done it that 1300 times never with an issue and in the naked magicians you know i've had women on stage that are drunk nervous goodness knows.

What else and we were rehearsing it was our final rehearsal before opening night brand new scissors all the props are brand new and we were.

Just going over and someone at the venue was assisting with i'm like hey can you just run through this trick with me real quick and they'd help me with it like three three times already that day and then i did the first move to cut through the thing and for some reason somehow the scissors missed the rope and cut my knuckle of my middle finger completely off all the way down to the bone and yeah that's how my night ended well it didn't end my

night went on to the next night but uh that's how my night started just the night before opening with just this freak one in a million accident that still.

Has me in a very compromised position so i don't even know this is my first time telling the story in full I had to go to hospital and I got treatment everyone was amazing everyone at the venue took care of me straight away and the first day they gave me thank goodness probably saved me from more serious damage and then they got me to the hospital at the hospital I got treated pretty quickly but the damage was pretty bad so when they started dabbing away at

the they had to like do that thing I keep forgetting what it's called tie it when they tie something off a tourniquet tourniquet they had to tourniquet my finger because it just wouldn't stop bleeding and i think josh had had a photo of me when i was like in the waiting room there we go and uh yeah that's when they tied it off because it was just shooting out and then they're like oh this isn't good we can see uh your finger and i'm like what.

Mean and like oh we can see the insides buddy and so they they like they couldn't stitch it all up because it was too wide and they didn't want to put me in surgery so one side got glued the other side got stitched and then they're like you're probably gonna have to take two weeks off to four weeks off and then we'll uh we'll undo it and then have a look at what we're dealing with and, And then I got a taxi home. And now there's about 18 hours until we open in New York City.

And yet we didn't know what to do. I can't be replaced. There's no other me. The other guy's just, you know, he's as fresh as fresh. And we were literally at, well, does the show get to open? Or do I pack up my bags and go home? And that's what we were left with. The story ends with me getting on stage. But three people got me on stage.

And the first would have been Kerry the amazing Nigel who's the most numbers facts driven human on the planet I was a wreck I hadn't slept I was upset I was crying I'm like I don't know what to do and he's just he's like okay well I can't tell you what to do but I can help you understand the situation separate to what you're feeling right now and he helped me understand that and he's like so you gotta do with that what you can and I'll show the finger in a second by the way It's wrapped.

Then there was my friend Lachlan Stewart, who everyone should check out on Instagram. He just made a world record running 58 marathons in 58 days across 58 states between America and Australia. And he's married to Amy Shepard, the lead singer of the band Shepard. And I FaceTimed him. He's literally on tour in Amsterdam with his wife in the back of a tour van.

And he's an elite level athlete. And I said, look, man, I've got this situation in front of me and I don't know what to do and I need you to help me make this happen you can't say anything nice to me right now you just need to tell me what like what I need to hear to get this done and he gave me the advice of an elite level athlete and it came down to you've got two choices and it's do the show or all the shows off and go home is that correct and I'm like yeah and he's like so okay let's choose

which one do you want to do and I'm like I want to do the show and he's like ah shit that's bad news man and i'm like why and he's like you're gonna have the worst day ever, and i'm like okay and then he's like so here's the deal and he told me about when he was doing the marathon on day nine he had a foot injury and his team like called the marathon off you can't go any further and he said well they were talking about the logistics of calling off a

an international marathon he was looking up crutches versus a cane and he said when everyone says no and everyone said no my doctor said no the team said you you know let's let's rest they were amazing and they were saying you just follow doctor's orders there was no pressure on me whatsoever from the team, but mike and i were like we as if we're going to come this far and quit. So lachlan's last advice was leave your shit at the door,

So I left all of my feelings in the apartment that day. And then the third person that got me through it was Mike. And he just said, you know, I will have your back. He couldn't get on stage, but he's like, I'm going to be in the crowd and I've got your back and you just need to know that I'm there. And then I prayed like I'd never prayed before and took a couple of Nurofen and went out and opened in New York like this. Woo! Yeah. Yeah. And we say that to anxiety. We say that to anxiety.

I'm guessing that's what this photo is. this is yeah that's me waiting to get seen oh.

Damn was there a moment where you and mike had to consider mike doing half the show no mike mike was here visiting and and has never played my role as well and to do that in one day would be insane yeah yeah so that just that wasn't something we even considered and and it also wouldn't have done it justice to the audience is two guys stumbling around on stage it was either go and do the show that we promised or we don't do it at all yeah so

and then from a magic point of view because you use your thing like we use our fingers so intricately for so much magic like did you do the rope routine still yeah yeah I did I almost fainted the night I did it on opening because I had so I'm fine now but like the the night it happened I didn't I couldn't sleep and literally every time I close my eyes, I just heard it and saw it nonstop. And it was, it was just so fresh. Like my, and on stage that night, my hand was quite sore.

And then I just remember when I like did the first move and I can only do it with that hand. And I'm like, so just cut and I'm like, Hey, just be careful. Just right through there. And I just watched her and then, then she did it. And it's still a bit hard to do the routine right now, but it's a little bit easier every night. I'm definitely a bit more, uh.

Look, Nick, I found comedy in it. And so the joke is now, hey, when you do this first cut, I need you to be careful because the lady last night, she wasn't. That's the joke. And the audience, I get like a six out of 10 laugh out of it. But it's better than no laugh, you know? It's the second time I got a circumcision. Do you guys know that it was David Copperfield this happened to last?

Well, unless, you know, I'm sure it's happened to someone else out there. I looked it up. 1989, he lost the tip of his finger on stage in an actual show in front of thousands of people yeah wow same same same routine cutting restored rope yeah that's how much i love you yeah.

Wow and you can see the tip of that finger in the museum when you do the tour yeah mike found my knuckle hey, far out yeah that was that was wild well there's this what's what's the lesson you want to share with the audience about that experience as well like when when that happens there's a couple of things that i feel that i'm taking away from it where it's like it's happened yes if you can't hide it highlight it so you do you from the onset address what happened

or do you do it do you just ignore it until that routine comes up in the show yeah i ignore it until that joke and it hasn't received, no one's been weird about it. And there are lessons from it, but they're not like practical magic ones. The ones that I learned, I learned some really strong lessons about myself because I've performed with a broken foot. I've performed with a dislocated knee.

So I've toured in casts as in like leg or feet cast twice. I've done theater of magic with a broken ankle. I'm a pretty healthy person. Just something about my right side doesn't like me. And I got through all those shows. this was the hardest for me because it's, it's my hand. And obviously as a performer, this is as a magician, especially I took, I think I went out on stage the next night with a focus of like, I couldn't make it when I was going out there about battling my hand.

So the drive was just to look after Adam, my co-star and let him know that he had a buddy on stage and to make the audience laugh. And I focused on those two things and they took the energy off my hand. The lessons I learned were about anxiety and they were about human resilience and they were about the people in your life. Anxiety, you know, Stoics and the Bible even teaches us that, you know, the brain tells us what isn't true and creates these stories of things that might happen.

What do they say? Fear stands for false evidence appearing real. Yeah. Number two would be that your body really is capable of much more than, than we realize. Lachlan is the best example of that, pushing through those marathons. But like, all I, all I wanted to do was like go to bed and have some like painkillers and just sleep it off. But I had a mission. We worked so hard to get here and there was an audience coming to see the show.

So I made it about that. And then I think the final thing was my circle.

Like I just I couldn't have done it without Mike being there I couldn't have done it without talking to Nigel and Lachlan 100% and then for me personally there's no other time in my life where I could have done this and I would credit that to sobriety for me personally because it's just given me more confidence and removed anxiety from my life so uh when I had to I'd never had to focus more before and I was able to thanks to you know just being a bit clearer sorry for that I rant so

much, guys, and I get so conscious about it. Look, we're all here to learn about you, man. And so it's nice that you have a depth of understanding on yourself that you can articulate that well enough that we can totally appreciate that and live in that moment with you. You know what I mean?

It's pretty great. You've really dug yourself up from some pretty dark places, man. And for me, from one friend to another, it's genuinely inspiring. So thank you for the vulnerability of sharing that with us as well.

Like we i appreciate you it's a pleasure man i'm i'm thankful to still be here and i'm so thankful that i get to make people laugh it's just the best thing ever it's the stupidest thing in the world and i love it so much you know it's remarkable because no no one would have thought that you would have any inequities whatsoever with you being this effectively an international superstar who's done shows you know and what and i mean i mean that what i mean is like if

we sat at a table right there's only there's only ever going to be one of us right like if we were there with all the magicians in melbourne all the best guys you could possibly have there's only going to be one of us who's gone are you often shows in vegas and new york and had residencies and stuff and we'll be like oh yeah well i do birthday parties you know what i mean like there is a level that you've achieved which is pretty pretty cool and it's just remarkable

because no one would have ever thought that with what you've achieved that you would be battling the sobrieties and all those sorts of issues that you've had in the past. Like it's the type of thing where there's a lot of strength in that. Well, thank you very much. And I like what you said. And I'm very like, I am thankful for like my little chapter and all the cool stuff that I can say I've done.

But then I'd also say that if I was sitting with all those magicians, I'd be like, I just want to know, like, are you making people happier when you do what you do? And so who cares if that's in Vegas or New York or at a birthday party? In fact, I would argue that more memories are made at a birthday party than in Las Vegas. You know? True. I saw people sleep in my show in Las Vegas. Wow. Front row, Tuesday night. I still remember him.

I've never seen that at a birthday party. That's a weird vibe. Like, yeah, I mean, you've got to be getting more soul-fulfilling vibes from playing here than playing in Vegas, right? Because Vegas is like, they could just be sitting at a show because they're waiting for their lunch to digest or something. Whereas New York, at least, they're coming to see that show.

Oh, it's crazy. They choose us. It's crazy to me that they choose our show when they could go see Wicked or they could go see, you know, Dan White or, you know, any show on Broadway.

And it's so, with that is a bit of a, surely a duty just to give them the best bloody show ever, every single night. You know, how could you not? And it's so cool because New York is just insane. It's the most affluent people in the world and the most poverty in the world. And just everyone is head down, go, go, go, go, go.

There's always a fight or something outside. and just they come into this room and laugh for 70 minutes at the stupidest stuff ever it's it's again not curing cancer but it's just 70 minutes of just fun and i like that and it's ironic i was talking to mike the other day and i'm like how did our show not get outdated how have we not had to change the jokes to suit the times how have people not grown out of it and it's like it's just fun it's not political and it's fun and it's it's

just about everyone in the room i love that i i can hear in the the background a faint like police car driving by your new york window oh it's insane lads it doesn't stop that's crazy like right now it's what time like 8 45 there or something like that yeah yeah it is and it sounds like it's full like hustle and bustle mode still. It'll be like, what night of the week is it? Is it Monday here? Yeah, it's Monday night. And it won't stop. It won't stop at all. It doesn't stop. I just moved rooms.

I've been blessed with a two bedroom here. And I just, I had to put tape. There's tape on the windows. I've got earplugs. It's insane. Mike and I were talking about it. Vegas a hundred times, like is a hundred times calmer than New York on each day or night of the week.

Yeah. and it's like i was the other day i was walking through here and no one no one normal doesn't have airpods in it's like if you walk out of the house put your airpods in and if someone hasn't got airpods on 99 they're a psychopath it's a really interesting thing wow i haven't seen a normal person like without their airpods yet what about like the ray-ban medis are they a common more common occurrence there i still haven't seen that

and i still haven't seen one of those people that's like uh hey what do you do for work yes right right yeah i haven't are you spotting influences out there like shooting stuff or trying to interview people i haven't seen any of that stuff yet but i haven't spent a lot of time like i've been at the theater most of the time but.

There's a park near me where all that stuff happens apparently and i'm gonna go check it out one time it's such a wild city it's yeah i've never experienced anything like it that's why i'll see if you guys we can keep talking but i'll see if i can get you guys the empire state building while we're on oh damn all right that sounds good oh and obviously new york is filled with some of the best magic shows playing as well so hopefully we'll

get a little report when chris comes back to brizzy from yeah josh what am i going to see again i think you're going to see the new york speakeasy magic show that's the one that nick remember when we had blaze sarah on oh my god for those who are just listening to this right now we're just seeing the most new york view you could ever hope to see yeah ever that's on my fire escape like it's just insane imagine if i die while we're live streaming oh my god think

of the views yeah we get so much attention i mean if that doesn't get us the fism award i don't know what does naked magician dies fully clothed wah that'll be the headline.

Like chris chris asked me as well a few weeks back when we organized this like oh could i could i be running in new york for the whole episode because that's very artsy you know like we'd see a lot of new york in that episode but i just had to kind of say like that is how accidents I think being on a one hour podcast while you're running, could be dangerous and i'm an accident prone sob if we've learned anything i have seen you get a fractured ankle

while out jogging with you that was a hilarious thing we were just about, nick we were about to go on tour again with the naked magicians and josh and i went for a run and i just slipped we were on this path and it was uneven and i slipped, my foot snapped inverted and do you remember mike tyler did not believe the story for some reason yeah he called me like hey bud yeah what um we'd like trying to teach chris like you guys are doing like trying to

teach him some flips or something on the grass that's right i'm like no he thought i was like break dancing or doing some crazy stuff or trying to get like a nut selfie yeah yeah but it would be hard to justify how you didn't hurt yourself on a live stream if that something god forbid was to happen oh yeah or scotty p mentions or you could injure yourself from popping a balloon at the Yekka. That's its own story as well.

Well, can I say off the back of that, that there is a lot of times, okay, so for example, I do like mountain biking, right? And the way I used to ride before I was self-employed versus the way I ride now, I'm a lot more tame. And when I do anything, like right now I'm renovating, okay? Property of mine. And I wear gloves nonstop, nonstop.

Because these are my money makers if anything happens to them like i'll be fuming like i've got this callus here from from the from painting on my thumb from painting the ceiling you know what i mean as i was renewing just just that friction against the and and that was through a glove you know what i mean i was through a glove so like i take care of my assets so much, do you find that now that you're, doing this show that you kind of like, I would like to go and do this,

but I better not just in case I hurt myself. Oh, I've been like that since Vegas, since 2019. Cause that's when it started. As soon as other people are involved with me, I take it way more seriously for some reason. Oh, my nose is running. Cause I went outside bloody hell. Yeah. So ever since then, I've taken it a bit more seriously. And also I'm just old.

Like I'm, I'm old and boring. I don't even want to do that stuff like i'm trying to learn how to play playstation right now because that's what i like doing after i've had to make like do two shows a night of crowd work and yeah if anyone has any tips by the way i'd take that so yeah i've just been boring for a long time like that and also i just never thought anything would happen yeah you don't really think as a magician getting into magic,

you're going to have so many injury prone or potential moments, especially doing a cut and restored rope or balloon dog.

Because this was a couple of years ago now, but me and Chris were doing a show and because we had to do the show 20 times, we don't realize that the impact of stomping a balloon on a solid floor could potentially be a risk after the 17th show in dress shoes that impact could eventually so it's kind of like someone said like i think penn and teller said it like any magic effect you decide to do if there is any element of it

it could be dangerous you should consider not doing it because it will go wrong at some point in your career so it shouldn't be something that like could be deadly or really hurt yourself like they're the guys that shoot the gun at the other guy's face right. Yes, that's them. And swallow razor blades and juggle fire and those guys, yeah. Cool. Pretty dangerous. There's a question here asking, you know, did it cost a lot for you to fix your finger at the hospital?

I assume it would be covered under some sort of travel insurance that you have? Yeah, yeah. It's not cheap. Let's just say that.

Yeah. It's America. But I think the thing that was more interesting is because it was New York, So at the time we've just got it wrapped down and it's like even all the bandages on top, it was just bleeding through everything. I had to go through a metal detector and then I had to, yeah. And then I had to show them my bag and then I had to sign in at a security desk with ID. And then I had to, and that's all before I was allowed to go to the admissions desk.

And the admissions desk was another 15 minutes of paperwork and insurance. And and i i got a bit salty at one it's like 10 minutes i'm literally dripping onto the table and then the woman goes are you single or married and then i i look down and i'm like i'm i just said i'm bleeding on your table right now do you really care and yeah and then yeah i didn't like it i don't like american hospitals i don't like any hospitals who does wow so so so from a Arrival to treatment, how long did that take?

Like, it was urgent care, and I reckon I was in there for, like, an hour and maybe waiting for 20 minutes. But, yeah, I was blessed with, like, just one-on-one with, like, a doctor-surgeon guy, and he was just in there with me for, like, an hour. Doing his magic. Yeah. Yeah. Thank goodness. And now you're able to do the shows, which is fantastic. And for anyone in New York or who's going to travel there to see the show, like how much longer do they have to see it?

And then what happens once it finishes? Yeah. Right now we're running until the end of May. You can see the Naked Magicians in New York city. And then on the, I think it's a Sunday, the 25th of May, we're going to be playing in Boston at Asylum Comedy Club at Laugh Boston, which is one of, Boston is my favorite city in the world. And it's where, funnily enough, we've done the second most amount of shows next to Adelaide.

So I can't wait to go back there. It's a 350 seater. So it'll sell out pretty quick. But if there's any magicians in New York, please reach out. May I share a story before we go about something that happened? Yeah, please.

I was on a, I had a two days off and I went to Boston to take some time off and to catch up with some friends and i took they've got this thing over here called amtrak it's so cool it's just it's like a fast train and i went to the dining car to get some snacks and the guy that was working the dining car had a deck of bicycles like collector's edition and while he's cooking my stuff i'm like hey man you uh you do some magic and i i avoid telling people

i'm a magician especially at the moment if they don't know who i am i don't bring it up so i don't have to tell and I can't do a trick. And so I'm like, oh yeah, I'm a bit of a fan of magic. I love watching it on YouTube. And I'm like, do you do magic? And he's like, no, I don't do any tricks. I just, my hands are too big, but I love playing with cards. And he's like, there's this magician I'm obsessed with that does card stuff.

I'm like, oh yeah, he's like, yeah, he's this, he's like this bald dude from Australia that does all these trick shots and catches them. And I'm like, oh, Josh Norbido? Cool. He's like, yeah. And I'm like, yeah, I think I've heard of that. That's awesome. Yeah. Woo-hoo. So that was really cool. That made me laugh. That's cool. Made me proud of you. Ah, thanks, man. Well, and he didn't reference Jason Ma, which is surprising. Usually he's the Australian rep for magicians.

I got one on you, Jason. there's one person that mentioned the bald guy i reckon you guys attract you and jason are both amazing when it comes to online content and i think one of the things that's cool now is that you have a very different audience to jason there's no competition there true the way he presents magic versus how you do is quite different and i think different people watch it yeah i think you're right i get the audience that probably likes to watch live show clips

of of good magic Whereas Jason, you're getting the two camera down the barrel, watch this incredible sleight of hand and banter, sort of dynamic. And there's a place for both. Absolutely. That's a really cool story. Thanks for sharing that. You're very welcome. Did he then proceed to show you the 21 car trick or something? No, he had a line behind him of Americans that wanted a coffee.

Which is crazy on a train that you can just order a coffee and and have a train cart come through i'm obsessed with the train ride to boston like it's a three and a half hour train ride is there's one dining section that's just a cafe and they've got hot food like it's a cafe so and they've got free wi-fi on the train and you've got like charging ports and stuff so you just you get work done you watch a show you watch america every version of america is in between New York and Boston.

And by the time you're there, you're full, you're rested, you're good to go. I love it. Okay well we got a minute we got a couple of minutes left before we wrap things up i'd like to shoot some rapid fire questions at you chris you up for that cool bring it on all right first question other than magic what are you good at uh it's comedy i think i love playing guitar ah shit i used to be good at playing guitar.

Maybe just play slide you just put a slide over the and just play slide guitar that'd be great i'll get back to you on that but that was like my little secret hobby guitar i love it a lot, And running is my other thing that I'm secretly, I don't know if I'm good at it, but I hold well for a 41-year-old. Running is my little thing. Do you think there'll be an opportunity to do the marathon whilst you're in the States in any capacity?

No, I don't think I'm here for any of them. But more to the point, you have to qualify over here. And I'm just not that level of fast. Yeah. Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? Lift is broken down one-to-one time in a lift.

Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with oh that's good there's this guy his name's ryan someone he's the author of the daily stoic books and i can't remember his surname right now but i love his content and i'd love the opportunity to pick his brain or if it was a panic attack he would be the best person to be stuck in an elevator with okay someone would have forgotten his name right now ryan holiday yes boom yeah i've stumbled across that stuff in

the past as Well, I love Stoic philosophy. So, yeah. It'll change your life. It'll change your life. Okay. Who would play you, in a movie? I don't know because we can't freaking cast me now. No, I do know it'd be Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler because he's got a generic egg head and he's funny sometimes and a just understimulated moke the rest of the time. I can't think of anyone more perfect to play me.

Okay. If you were to host your own podcast, who would be the first person you would like to be on it?

Oh, okay. The first person that comes to mind, this is a unique one, but it would be David collins from the umbilical brothers i think they are one of the most underrated comedy acts in the world even though they are global but david has the most fascinating entertainment story ever, they were they were in a position like us at one point in in when they were first coming up in america and they got to do all the chat shows and mike and

i got to do those chat shows once but on one night they did a chat show and robin williams was the guest oh wow that robin was so obsessed with them that they ended up touring with Robin for an extended period of time. They were like this, David and Robin Williams. And he has the most amazing stories about traveling with him, how much he changed the umbilical brothers' lives, how much Robin changed people's lives in his encounters. And then also the effect that it had when Robin passed.

It's just the craziest story. And I think the umbilical brothers who don't speak much on stage have some of the most exceptional entertainment stories like who's interviewing the umbies exactly yeah yeah we should ask him to get on board i don't i think i might have dave's contact somewhere i mean i said i have a friendship with him doing comedy festival he was so lovely and so talented oh would you guys like to do a podcast with dave.

Not bring him on board yeah oh my god i i can't guarantee his answer but he like he is a friend.

Like it's insane yeah now last question is have you had a good time i've had the best time of my life over here i've made oh do you mean on your show or in new york either is fine no our show screw you look everyone else i mean we're in new york i've got to be having a good time this is great because when i watch you guys and i don't miss many episodes i want to be a part of the i try and include a question whenever i can i love your show so being on it is great i it's a hoot,

and chris has been a big help in this podcast too like david regal we would not have had on the podcast without you you know there's plenty of guests that have been introed through chris and then onto the pod so he's vicariously a producer of the show definitely not i'm just I'm just such a fan of you three, Doug included. And you guys just deserve it. You're not winging it. You work really hard on it.

We do. And it's just because we care. And we're in that position now where we've done pretty okay. And we just want to give back. So any opportunity to help our Magi friends with their questions, with their spitballing, with anything we can do to bring them knowledge. That's what we're about. So guys, thank you once again for listening. This was episode 215.

I've been Nick K. that's been josh nabit and i think it's time that we take it home with the final word are you ready josh let's do it so chris this is where you interject the final word oh what of the podcast i thought it was done this is an excellent skit that we're doing right now but leave the viewers what what final word of wisdom should they be left with before we wrap up if i've learned anything sorry i thought we were done guys if i've learned anything in the last

uh two weeks is that magic is not about us and that was the only way I was able to get past this was to really make it about the audience. In every encounter that we do, be it in one stage show or be it in every single close-up set or in a meeting with a client, I think we're in such a blessed position to entertain people with magic and if our goal is just to make people better for their time with us and we get to use magic as the conduit for that,

I can't think of a better way to live a life. I really can't. Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now. But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.