Gig Ready: Inside a Magician’s Bag #221

They're guys they do magic they are the magic guys, yo yo yo ladies and gentlemen we're in the flow of the show here we go to my left for episode 221 we got nick k i'm gonna go that hi i'm nick k and joining us this week also is daddy doug say what up daddy look i busted out the green lucite mylar magic wand for this episode but that's a point that gives me like green goblin vibes or ivy from batman or you know also from

this is a unique wand green blue site with mylar tips yeah that's a great looking one man i bet you it's perfectly weighted as well because it's that sort of solid like liquid all the way through that's beautifully solidified that's really important is if it strikes the noisy child properly.

Doesn't leave bruises on kids when they're heckling at a show. Of course, my friends, this is episode 221 of The Magic Guys. I'm Josh Nolbedo. I don't think I've said it before, but who cares? This is the show where we as professional magicians share our lives as working pros or shenanigans that go with it, interview wonderful guests. And today we show you what we've got in our bags, which would be interesting to see what type of bags we carry too.

We've got some friends in the chat, Nick, who's stopped by today. Yeah, we've got some good friends. Gary Davis, good to see you, friend. Hope you're in good health. We have Tim Askin, Scotty Link, Dragoteer. And we have, oh, Ireland, Colin. We have Kian Lafford. Good to see you, friend. Thanks for coming and joining the show. I love it. Mike, one of our lovely locals. We love seeing him. Gahan, good to see you, bud.

Michael cool guys thanks for being here in the chat as you guys know this is live unrehearsed unprepared we're relatively prepared and we mean it i'm not well i'm definitely not prepared yeah but the thing is when you've been good as long as you've been good doug you don't need to be prepared you're always ready you know you can open up a fridge door and there's a spotlight and you're like i could do 20 minutes with this you know what i mean like it's just like that so So.

In theme of what we're talking about today is we thought it would be cool to talk about what we have inside our gig bag. Starting off with my gig bag. If you want to get into it, say yes. Let's do it. This bag, Mary Poppins looking bag. I got this for 15 bucks about 15 years ago off eBay. Ooh, look at this. This is like my regular sort of bag. In there is a whole heap of crap. We're going to go through it one by one. I'll talk you through it. The main crux is this thing there.

What this is, is like all my bits, I keep everything in Tupperware containers, okay? And there's a reason for that. Even all my stage shows are all in large scale Tupperware bags or in storage containers. So that when I got to do a show, I open up a suitcase, I grab the container with all of its bits that pertain to it, throw it in, zip it up, and I catch a flight and I go do my gig. I don't need to think.

Everything is prepared and always ready to rock. And that way I don't have to ever worry about going to a gig that something might be missing. Okay? So this thing here, it's like a food container effectively, okay, with lots of different compartments. In it, I have chapstick naturally. I have some of these little rubber gimmicks, which if you're a part of my lecture, you would know what they're about. I do a type of blown up and broken and restored balloon effect, which is very fun.

I have a hearing aid because what's that behind your ear? And if you find someone really funny to do that to, sometimes you go, what's that behind your ear? and they go, huh? And I speak into it and I'm like, Gavin, Gavin. And he's like, what? And I'm like, and then I just like pretend to put it back in. I have a slinky, a little slinky, which I love using ever since we met Rick Holcomb. He does a really cool trick with the slinky.

And I use it in the context of doing a gravity pass, like a muscle pass. So coin goes up and down and everyone's like, oh, did you not see how it works? It's this thing that makes it go bouncy bounce. And then I give them back coin and I just finger palm that off and throw it in my pocket killer. Yeah, it's a really good bit. I have an abundance of coins. I won't get into it individually. I've got Chinese coins. I've got Morgan dollars. I've got shells.

I've got jumbo coin, jumbo Morgan naturally. I have a Zippo lighter. Zippo lighters are important and the reason I do it is that whenever I'm performing, either put it on the table or I have somebody do this and hold out their hand with fingers, and I ask him to hold onto the lighter, typically by.

The lid like so so the zippo lighter can then just be suspended up and i just say hold on to that don't freak out about what happens next i light it up i then use flash paper to produce a back of playing cards or produce whatever i want to produce so it's a very good strong way to grab the attention as an opener when you're performing from table to table and that's why i always carry a zippo lighter i do like your commitment to a zipper lighter

like i think you're the only guy i know that rocks one as opposed to just a little big one yeah i've never considered one of those zippos that like themselves like i i have i have but then i kind of feel like i don't really know what else i'd use it for than getting someone to hold it like this you know what i mean like yeah but while they're holding it you zap yeah i've also got the other zippo lighter which you use to put someone's ring in you can vanish

someone's ring then you actually open up the it by lighter and it's inside another very cool effect yeah i would suggest if you got yourself a green lucite mylar tip one you don't need fire anymore they just they're with you right away okay especially for mylar packs of playing cards four decks i always have four decks always have two red two blue reason being is that i can do up i can do as many as four gigs a day that's why whenever I'm roving and so forth.

So I always have four decks plus backups and away you go. Also on the back of them, so I have like my standard deck, but on the back of them, I make stickers and I put it on every single card. So when I'm performing away, it says, follow me on Instagram. They can scan the QR code and just follow me. Baby, that is fire.

It's just a really good way i also do effects that where the revelation is on my instagram and i did this whole bit where it's like i knew you were gonna do that because i wrote it down. On my instagram where's your instagram scan the qr code then all of a sudden you build your following and away you go this is another banger i've gone too fast that's okay you just let me down but paper cream paper cream is what a bank tellers use to count money and it's also what.

I use i just it's just like a little putty like this you put it on your thumb all right and then you rub it across the tips of your fingers so you just rub it like you just you do your thumb across your tips of your fingers like this once they're all rubbed in your card work is bulletproof your second deals me some of that yeah you can you can get it from amazon your second deals phenomenal like you just nothing bothers you i buy this for all my friends who do magic or like magic but

also do like physical labor so i got friends who like are prop builders for example so i give this to my friend val of magic universe who makes all the props for all the illusion that's in town and so forth as well as like you know even andy who's like my myotherapist you know what i mean he's a card guy as well and i'm giving one of those every now and again this is called a secret savant made by sean good goodwin is that his name sean goodwin this

is what i used to hold coins in my in my business i know i'm i'm sort of showing you what it looks like but i have his permission for my lectures where i said to him hey i love your product can i tell people about it so they can buy it and then at people after lectures it sits in your jacket like this there is a magnet i've just reinforced it with tape it normally looks prettier than that i promise but this goes in your pocket.

Like the the magnet goes in your pocket and then it just hangs like in your jacket underneath your jacket and then when you want to remove coins you just push up like this and it's straight god damn it and what if you want to get rid of coins you do it the exact same way so i typically will go like take all three out and while i'm chatting to people and then i start producing i'm like oh that's the first one which is great i can split there's two bloody hell that's good And then from here,

I go, there's one, two, here's three. I take it, I'll catch, squeeze, and it slowly starts to appear over there. I got to take notes of what I'm buying after this episode. Hang on. But what pocket are you putting that in just for the viewers? Is this the little coin pocket? Yeah. I'm sorry if I'm going really fast. I just know there's a lot of shit in my bag, man. There's a lot of stuff. And I don't want to take the whole episode about me. So the magnet goes in the

pocket and then this goes on the inside of your jacket. Okay. So it's called a secret savant. Gotcha. Gotcha. Sean Goodwin. Is it Goodwin? I'm pretty sure it's Goodwin. Sean spelled S-E-A-N. Well, it's hanging about here, right? It's like over here somewhere. I put it in my right. In the outside pocket is the magnet. Outside right jacket pocket. Oh, so it's at the bottom of your jacket. So the jacket hangs about here, so no one sees this, right?

I see. It hangs at the hem of your coat at the bottom. It hangs at the hem of your jacket, and then you just reach your hand under, and just by pushing up, you've now got it into finger palm. And what I like about it most, other than being able to get things directly in and out of finger palm, I love that it frees up a pocket. I carry three coins in a shell in that. Right there. So that is an absolute banger of what's, what's in that one. Yeah. Damn.

Yeah. I have a couple of other gimmicks that I might be releasing. So I can't show you that. And I just got a series of like Bobby pins and, and cause you never know, like your jacket might tear or something like that. I got topics and stuff, but yeah, so that's everything in that container.

That was nine minutes already. Jesus Christ. Moving on to the next one. People have questions. People. Sorry. Yeah. So. For the paper cream, is it any good for coins or is that too much? It helps with coins. I typically use very large coins to make them easier to work with. But every now and again, depending on humidity, I will rub a little bit on my palms. If I've got to do a routine with half dollars, there's some routines that I'm trying to upscale to use with Morgans.

But I have an effect that I do with like a coin and a glass. It's a seated parlor effect.

The the glass that i need for the has to be a certain size like it's very particular with how this routine works yeah and sometimes yeah you'd like just using smaller coins you want to have a little bit more grip it's not sticky it's not like an octopalm it's nothing like that it's just to give you moisture on your fingers so that you can do second deals and not miss anything like it's just yeah was lucky ladybug in that case we'll get

to that that's a different case yeah we'll get to that yeah okay this one oh right okay there's more to it yeah there's a whole bag of shit in there caps wallet all right i use this to write revelations in and whatever else and a zip compartment i normally vanish if you've if you've seen my videos i vanish someone's phone, that phone appears inside of this. Okay?

Yeah. I've also got some gimmicks inside of this that I do effects with where you take a 50 and then you wave your hand over it, it turns into 100. And then from here you can split it into two 50s. So that's a cool gimmick of mine. I call that splitting the bill.

Lighter fluid lots of pens magnum sharpies especially okay these are for when i'm doing my stage shows and i've got to write revelations i have a ring flights the ring flight i use is the prop dog ring flight i got this for my 30th birthday i'm 40 now this has been gone for 10 years it's never let me down absolutely amazing so i love that however he's only performed it three times yeah all right yeah flash paper all my flash paper is broken up into

little pieces in advance i basically fold it and fold it and fold it and fold it until they're kind of like one inch by one half inch and then i just tear them up all in advance and i roll balls and then i put those little balls in my pocket so whenever i want to do a production i just pull out one little ball from like that and you can see and i just put them in a ziploc bag and that's what they look like nothing sus yeah

business cards i mean well these ones to write stuff down on i have a but this is my backup ladybug by deuce gala in here oh you got a bag for yours how yeah. Yeah i got bags for mine and i've got lots of pens i've got heaps i've got a knife which i always forget whenever i'm flying i always forget that i have this knife cutting open lemons etc et cetera, popping balloons, whatever it might be. Tissues for blowing your nose. Very important. I needed that so bad the other day.

And then I got a series of golf balls. So I have a golf ball act working at the Holy Moly. I have a whole bunch. And then I have this crystal one here. You've probably seen this performance on my Instagram. That's a good one right now. Next container. Oh my God. There's more. All this is on my person when I perform as well. Right. Right. Handkerchief goes in the right pocket. I need that to produce a bottle. So it opens it up and I produce a bottle. So that's why I need that.

Lady bug, ready to rock, always with it in the top corner, ready for the first load. Okay. As well as lots of little baggies of this, which is all the lady bugs. You need all that. Here is an index, which I'm not going to show. I have one of my best kept secrets, but I have a 52 card index. I'll give you a quick glance. There. That's all you're getting. That's all you're getting. Okay. This is an amazing effect. It's called foiled again. It's bizarros.

If you are unaware of what this is i produced a jumbo coin for the kids the kids fool around with it they're like blah blah blah oh is there chocolate in them like yeah there's totally chocolate in there you just got to peel it back and you can have a bit of the chocolate and then you can take it back and give it to the kids love love this i think we have one of those in the cabinet i haven't looked at it yet it's nice to know what that the it's called it's called Foiled again.

I have two of these. You have a part of all the local Vegas magicians who produce products, but I haven't got to all of them yet. Yeah. So that's called Foiled Again by Bizarro. It's like a 20-buck gimmick or something. It's just the best. That bill change you did was also shades of Bizarro, right? His bill breaker would have been the prepassory change. Yeah, correct. When I created it, I said to him, I go, hey, man, is this like yours? And he goes, it's kind of more like a this,

but you can use it. And I was like, thank you, Biz. So that was very cool of him to give me that permission. All right. So now there is a whole bunch of random shit that's not too important in here. But I'll just say at a glance, this is a gimmick of mine for a coin and bottle, which I took my lectures. I've got a whole bunch of random bits that aren't that important. Gaff cards, gimmicks, gimmicks is all stuff that I teach in my lecture.

But the last thing I'll make mention is, oh yeah, Rubik's Cube, flash paper. What stickers were on that Rubik's Cube just then? Is that? It's a Hijinx Hotel, Rubik's Cube. Oh, that's cool. I got some. Some of the people I work for, they have these. They're awful, but they're great in the same sense as well. If I were 50 cents, you'd be stoked. I have ears. You can pull an ear from behind someone. When you were doing the hearing aid gag, I thought silicone ear would be good to hear too.

I've got that. I also have clean underwear. You never know. You just never know. Okay. You know what? You know, what's really funny is I also carry spare underwear in my case. Like if I'm traveling, especially, but like, I wasn't going to bring it up, but you're very brave to bring it up. And I think it's, it's worth noting. You just never know. Yeah. This is full disclosure. Again, another, I bought a backup,

bought a backup pen just in case the other day. What the hell are you guys eating in Australia? I've never traveled with spare underwear in my gig bag. Maybe I'm just...

Maybe i'm just ignorant you're just living on the edge i didn't know you never know if you don't know three more things i want to share i've got this is a well this is the pokemon doesn't matter it's just a gift i keep meds i always keep meds in here is it's almost like a first aid kit but what's inside is sinus sinus meds rubber gloves like headache tablets things of that nature sometimes when you're performing you never know what's going to happen gastro pills

the pills i take they're called gastro stop because sometimes you're performing away you might and then all of a sudden you're like i got to use the men's room and you just flush that literally happened to me on friday and i was just like okay it took a couple of gastro pills and i was just i've managed to make it through the gig no worries so i actually had two gigs that day so i had to make sure that i don't poop all over my audience that and some pseudo

fit which is a sinus a sinus sinus relief pill. I, as someone mentioned earlier, I sound sick. I am a little under the weather. I'm just, I think I'm just exhausted and there's a big change of the weather. But sometimes I do a lot of gigs, a lot of weddings, especially they're all out of town and they're all in like country Victoria. So there's lots of like hay bales and outdoor. And, and the last thing I want to do as an MC at a wedding is be sneezing the whole time and not be able to speak.

So I always keep sinus medications for that reason two more things this like a lint remover if you like especially cat hair or dog hair or whatever else sometimes you're doing a gig and you just go through something your suit gets ruined and you just want to give it a quick one of these and then you're all cleaned up again so i always keep one of these like these they're from ikea they're like a buck each so always keep one of those in your kit and

the last thing i keep is this is another container naturally this container has all like a bunch of different cards from all the the different people I work for. So like all the different agencies that are in here. So like at a glance, I've got a Megan entertainment. I've got top dog entertainment. I've got applause entertainment. I've got just all the folks that I work for. I have all their cards in there. So that when I'm performing, if I'm working for top dog, I open it up.

I put five or six cards in my breast pocket. So when someone says, can I get a business card? You just give them that agent's card immediately. Cause you obviously want to promote whoever you're. Yeah. So I do that immediately. so that is another hot tip that I've never heard before so we're learning today yeah I mean like each one and that's lovely advice yeah so it's just you know like I got my own cards in there I've got.

And megan i've got top yeah just whoever whoever i'm working for i just keep little chunks of their cards in this container so it's ready to rock and just to make sure that i can represent them so yeah very minor but pro tipish and again like i've got see this is like another gimmick that i use for a trick that i created and it's empty because i've used all the gimmicks and i got to make more so there's that is everything you need to know as to what's inside nick k's gig bag.

I love the sectional tupperware container the the tupperware with all the sections that's a sweet thing if you had just showed us a toothbrush as well we would have seen everything you own i feel like or everything you need to survive in general let alone a gig you know yeah that's great yeah i was expecting i was expecting some body deodorant at some.

Point are you not sharing that part of the don't you have something you roll all over your maybe that's maybe that's before you leave the house technically and he's like oh the episode's only an hour so i probably won't go into all that not sweat stuff on don't you isn't that in the bag correct yeah that's not in the bag it's all done before the show so i have a separate bag that if i'm traveling one thing you always want to make sure you do have is tooth floss like for

flossing not only like for oral hygiene which is what i use it for you also want to make sure you have it so that it doubles as a sewing kit as well which i also have a sewing kit yeah so if you if it's your jacket if you sew it on the inside they'll never see that and that that thread is stronger than any cotton thread so you can really at a pinch you can really get through that because every now i mean like i wouldn't

use it for a button i've got a separate little kit inside of this at the very bottom which is for if a button falls off my jacket then i'll just sew up that button again um jesus holy shit i'm realizing how fast and loose i am when you see my bag in a second.

Yeah yeah i've even got i got like i mean there's a very minor kit in here but like eye drops things like that you know it's all it's all in there but again man like sometimes i'm there all day i got band-aids yeah and sometimes it's just because like i'm performing and then you know the the groomsman has a tumble and i'm like come here dude and i put a band-aid on him i'm like all right go do your speech now like it's

just but tell me you make it appear from flash paper first like yeah yeah yeah good dude good dude, Yeah. Well, that was great. Someone said that's the, this is the episode I didn't realize I needed. And, you know, sometimes you just need to know what people are rocking in their case. Millions of products available to buy, but you know, what are guys doing gigs actually bringing with them, you know? All right. Look, dude, that was awesome. Thank you for sharing.

And you can take your seat at Magicians Anonymous now. And, you know, if we move along, We also had a message earlier from a past guest of ours who's been on the show. And I mentioned, hey, if you want to be in the episode, just send me a video. So we actually have a sneaky guest appearance from one of our past guests, one of our favorite. We love them all, but especially this guy. So let's hear from our friend. Hi, guys. It's James Brown here, all the way over from the UK.

My apologies for leaping into the middle of your Magic Guys podcast. But I thought I'd let you know what was inside my bag. And here's the little beauty. In my bag, I have the classic cards, coins, bits and pieces, elastic bands, because crazy man's handcuffs is a must, and a little miniature pot of jam. And for those of you who know my work, you'll know why I never go anywhere without it. I also have a double cross Sharpie pen.

And mentioning the double cross Sharpie pen, And I suppose this would be a good moment to let you all know about my new book, Building Worlds, available from Amazon. That's Building Worlds. It's nine effects from my working repertoire plus four magical essays covering how to practice, my thoughts and feelings about why magic matters, how to make really great deep connections with the people around us. This is 30 years of my life condensed in. So please do go and buy it.

And with that, I'll send you back to the boys because they're really worth listening to. So, tata for now. Ah, so cool. So cool. You know, James sent us a little sneak peek of his lecture notes last time he was on. And it blew my mind the way you could think about using different types of effects like Double Cross, for example.

His version of Double Cross is so different of an experience to the audience that someone actually said to him, I saw someone do something where, you know, they just grabbed my hand and did a little thing and there was a thing on it. But that's nothing like, but I've never seen this before. And it's like, it didn't matter that everyone else in this city was doing that same effect. It's, um, anyway, and I, and I believe that is included in this new book he has.

So the, in the link of where you're listening to this or watching this is the, is his book. So do go check it out, support him. And yeah, it's just cool. Yeah. And what's, sorry, go ahead. I'm going to reference, um, what episode number that was.

You go ahead, Doug, I'll dig it up. no i just was going to reflect on how enjoyable his visit was when he was here last time and i really dig the vibe he's going with with his magic certainly and as he matures and highly recommend james you know thought process be in your world just you know yeah i think of james brown lately yeah if you want to see that previous episode it's on episode 197 with james brown yeah and And just, I mean, James Brown is the literal reason I actually do magic.

I was terrified to meet him because meeting my heroes is one of those things that I'm always scared about. I could not be happier meeting him and being able to call him a friend of the show. It is the greatest. So please support our friend James. I'm getting a copy of that book. For sure. Thank you. Nick and I both actively use his box clever routine in most shows. I just used it on the weekend.

And yeah, a lot of his effects, right? Coin to eye, coin under watch, card under watch, all that, all the good stuff. So we need to, everyone peer pressure James to come back. The Magic Guys, because that would be great. One second, I'm just going to go buy the book. No, all right. Should we continue? I would love to show it to my bag. Mine's not as comprehensive, but still, it's what I use. It's what I can get through all my gigs with.

And I guess I have different variations of what bag I take with me, because at the Theatre of Magic, I've been really liking using this, similar to the style of NYX, where it's a flat bottom bag and it opens up. This one looks very nice, but it's so cheap from China that I wouldn't take it anywhere else other than just to sit on a table at a show. But aesthetically, it looks really nice, you know?

Okay, so simple stuff. Rubber bands. I personally love doing rubber band magic and I incorporate it with my stack magic as well with cards.

But these are the ones I love using from penguin magic their size 19 and a half from memory about 19 and a quarter which is like the standard size that can go around your wrist and not be like too tight or anything like that and personally i like using different colors because because if you do a linking rubber band routine for example it's pretty cool when they're different colors and they can obviously see that they're different it's the same band going through and

it's not like you're weirdly wrapping it round or something, making it look like the same band, you know? And so I love using them. Then obviously I do have my DC as well. Not used very much, but I do have it since James mentioned it as well. A new addition is this glass has been a bit of fun to play with. I got this from Vanishing Ink and it's just a glass, but it's a glass that's made to specifically be able to hold a Rubik's Cube.

So that if you're doing a matching routine, for example, so like, you know, it's really funny. Hold it up with, with, with the, with the, take the cube out the light, take it out and then just hold it up. Doug, does it look like it's got googly eyes? If I go like, uh, like this, that's funny. Hey, how can I, does it, is there any other way to play with it? No, that's pretty funny. Yeah. And so I guess the idea is, you know, you could poetically pull this away with a silk with the cube in it.

And then after you've had someone mix it up, you can just sit this on top of it on the table. So it's kind of fun, you know, because then it's like implying that the cube is not touched again. And so I was playing with this at the Theater of Magic on the weekend. And that's real glass? Oh, of course. No, no. No, no. Yeah, you know. It's acrylic. Oh, yeah, it looks great. Because it looks glass to me. That's really nice, that one.

Right, right. No, very much plastic. And so you can chuck it in your gig bag and not worry that it'll break. Did you get that from like a camping store or did you just happen to find it at like Kmart or? No, this is actually from, I think this is actually from Henry Harrius's website. Great. Sorry, I said Vanishing Inc. before. Oh, my God. Henry Harris sells it.

I guess probably, he probably got it from Kmart, but, you know, he recognized that it's hard to find a glass that can fit a Rubik's Cube in. So it's only like, I think it's only like eight bucks or something. Yeah. Sorry, $50 Australian. But yeah, you can fit a glass in it and it's a nice image, you know. Is it wide enough for a deck? Let's have a look. I don't know. Yes, it is. It's actually not too bad. Ooh, I like that. I want that now.

Yeah look at that's actually yeah pretty cool and then if you're doing your you know your it'll you know the rising card works great in a glass like that as the finish you put it on a shelf it rises out of the day yeah yeah yeah all right bloody hell there you go henry just sold you i'm getting one of those for sure uh but if anybody's trying to find something a little more locally i know that like there's if you look up camping supplies like wine glass camping or

picnic or something of that nature that's where i found mine i got a i got four of them in a single thing i use one for gimmicking trying to do this whole like, thread thing but don't worry about it like but you can just get those like many different types so yeah look look look that up if you need it, Or support our friend Henry. That's it. I'm sure you can find them everywhere. But I guess if you are buying Rubik's Cube paraphernalia, you can just click, you know, add to cart.

Same with the bags. Like the bags that he sells, I just get them because like, I'm already there at the site buying the stuff anyway. Yeah.

One of my favorites that, you know, we don't see so much mainstream, Tiny Plunger. I love rocking a Tiny Plunger because I will take with me a, What I've found is that if I take a bandana with me, this is more like a silk one, but if you fold this up enough, it basically becomes the soft base you need in order to do this routine. So at a table, I might sit this down saying that, oh, let me just sit this down so my cans don't get wet or destroyed.

You know, you never want to know what's happening at parties. Sit this down and then you can do your routine or sometimes like a lot of events, there's enough of a covering on the table that you can just do it anyway. Now I'm not doing this all the time, but especially if it's like a private party where there are only like 20 or 30 people and I'm there for a while, this is like a fun bit that it's a routine that goes for a while.

And it's like, it brings people in. It's really, people love seeing this because it's like. Not really about the cards. It's great when a card trick has some other anchor to come onto it. Anyway, I think the bit where you do the mind reading, where you stick it to the forehead, that is so fun. It's just so funny. And if this is the first time you're ever seeing someone pull out a tiny plunger and you don't know what this is, look up John Armstrong tiny plunger.

Or if you're subscribed to me on YouTube, just type in Josh Nobito. I don't know what I've called it. Probably the plunger card trick or something. So the Theater of Magic, I did that routine and I'm sure it's documented in there. I think for at least one video. I keep this with me. This is a velvet cord for ring on string. And I got to say, I don't always use this, but just every now and then someone will say like, can you do magic with something I'm wearing or that I give you?

And if they have a ring on, boom, ring on string, it's organic, ready to go. And this cord is like, it's just like a plush velvet that's just perfect for it. It's like soft and looks nice. It's not a shoelace, which I feel for me fits a bit better. You can look up and find, I did purchase this from a magic site, but it's really, it's just called velvet plush cord, I think. And you can find it anywhere. And yeah, but you could probably message me and I could probably find where

I got this one from, but I keep this. So I keep this in my pants pocket and then I sit my Bic lighter on top of it. So this is, I always know this is in my pocket, ready to go. And then it also makes it easier for me to grab my lighter at a gig because now it's sitting on top of this. So it's always in there is the point. And then my coins, I keep in a little grandma coin purse.

And, but now I have to go and get myself the secret savant. And in here, because in here, what I'm mainly keeping is just a couple of our Australian 50 cent coins. And I also keep two. Of these pennies so I can do a transpo, which for me, it feels very much like a card changing in someone's hand. But when you can change a coin in their hand, they love it. And so, yeah, keeping my coins in this when I'm traveling to a gig. I also have a knife, but mine's not as impressive as Nick's.

This is just for when I go to some dangerous areas for gigs, obviously, and keep that locked up like this. I'm just kidding. This is for when I do a routine that I know if I accidentally break it during the show, I can use this to still reveal the thing I need to reveal. My wallet is the, what's this one called again? The J-O-L wallet, I think. And in here, this is my, and mine's just for cards really. But in here is where I'll actually keep my lucky ladybug cards as well.

Similar setup, but I just keep mine in here just in case there is someone with a kid with them or like it's just a nice moment to use it. I love that style wallet, the J-O-L that loads from the outside, no slide, that load is smooth as butter. That's really worth noting too, yeah. It's no setup. You don't have to go in and do a thing and it's just boom, ready to go. It's like, it's great when you're just in the trenches, you know. I guess in here is where I also keep my loops.

So my loops are always in my wallet as well, ready to go. Not that i'll use it all the time but um i have been having fun doing like a a named card, coming out of the deck haunted style again just with stack work so they name a card and it's and then that's what you know floats out and then last you ever use the plunger with that do you integrate the plunger and the name a card over.

You know i haven't yet but i love but i love that yeah i haven't yet the plunger is its own routine for you it's a standalone yeah i would say i haven't workshopped it enough to like change it enough to be yeah fitting stack work but it's like because what it is is like so and i this leads into perfectly so when it comes to decks of cards like i'll have two decks with me a red and a blue deck and i will have them in the arrangement that i prefer both of them so that eventually

one of them will get shuffled by the audience eventually and then I'll go into all of that material that's with a shuffled deck and that's normally when at some point I'll bust out the plunger if I'm going to and then I also keep a double blank deck with me as well for the double blank ambitious where you just have them sign it and now you're just doing magic with their signature, and these cards are also really good for doing billet work because if you have

someone write info down on this fold it up it's it's great for peaking that and and also you just do so much stuff with it like you can do most card tricks with a blank deck because the cards that need to be seen you can just write the info on it or you can use this for doing i know my buddy adam maxford will do a drawing duplication that uses a method that this would be great for too so this stays in one of my extra pockets at gigs.

And yeah, the last two things are, I always keep an ice cream with me. Nice. That's always just so fun to catch people off guard. And if I'm at the theater of magic, I'll just keep one of these with me, which looks like a deck, but it's really a box. It's a deck box. It's a coin in a box. And these are from Jeffrey Wang. If I had a dollar for every person that messaged me about where did I get the box from, I would be able to retire, honestly.

I think that's it, friends. Yeah, I don't have any chapsticks or... I mean, I honestly do travel with underwear and an extra shirt or whatever, but it's just not in here. But that's essentially... My TED talk. Very civil. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and just a little shout out. I've started, I did get this. I want to start playing with this for when you borrow a bill from someone, you can play the harmonica with it.

So that's, I'm just showing it cause I only just got it. So I'm not going to try and use it now. It's not electronic either, which is fun. No, really? Yeah. It's a manual. It's a gimmick. So it's sleight of hand basically. And then it lets you play the harmonica and then give the note back or, or then use it for routine or a business card or a, I mean, you can do it with anything, but the idea is you hold up an object that they've given you, you play the harmonica, you give it back.

Yeah. You got to show me that afterwards. Cause I, I'm using the one from, I think N, N2G, which is electronic based one. And so that's great. Yeah. I want one of them too, but yeah, this, you know, it's always fun when you can not rely on tech, you know?

Yeah. Look, we take a quick break before we press onto Doug, cause we've got a couple of questions for you josh first one from alex lamb i'm not sure this pertains to but the knife the knife, all right okay line is yeah a rough line central yeah what does this mean does it still have a smell does it still have its smell what the underpants or the.

The box the the ice cream they smell like chocolate when you get them you got the deuce gala man we're getting we're plugging the deuce gala today with the ladybugs and the pop stickles you know i think because i've had this out of its case for a little while it doesn't but the the orange one i have still does have a smell but yeah yeah yeah good question though gown said what do you write on with your sharpie's giant notepad question mark i use a foam board a four size foam board and

what i do is i print my logo and then basically sticky it to the back so that whenever i'm writing something on stage i'm holding up my branding so while i'm writing you can see my by branding so that's what i got yeah yeah nice yeah yeah i mean it's it's all we need so we need right all right look i want to know what doug's choosing The thing with Doug is, I know you don't have to do as many gigs as Nick and I do, and you can pick and choose a little bit.

And also in your busking style, busking, obviously you need to account for a million other things. What I've also realized is that I've come from the roving aspect. You've come from the parlor aspect. And then we've got Doug performing in the more stage slash street aspect. So this is going to be really interesting to see the dynamic between the three of us. Yeah, 100%. Thank you. Doug, can we see what's in your case? I just banged my microphone. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?

We can hear you. Yeah, I think we can hear you better, actually. I want to talk about the case itself, which, is there a Magic Guy sticker here? Ooh, yeah, we got one. Right there. Yeah, I see it. Nice. Yeah, it's back on the other side. So, this for me allows me to do a close-up parlor, stage, anything you want. The whole show is in here. It's on wheels, which is great. You know, anytime you could put things on wheels and it's got the extendable handle.

And this bag also has outside pockets. So there's like a pocket here and here. And like in the front, there's one. Like I keep my rope up here, for example. And what this does is it makes the props instantly accessible compartmentalty, you know, from, you know, if you're working a stage and you need your rope, you know, it's right in the front. They can go back in there, in there when you're done. So highly advocate the catalog case.

I've been using these for 30 years and the inside of these are really well compartmented. My closeup cases in here pop into this if you want, but like there's my wands and my Sharpies and another bag where I keep thumb tips and sponge balls. And then like I do a ring routine, there's dividers in here where the rings are kept separate. Great. Yeah. This is the Martin Lewis one to six spot card. You know, you can do this for a thousand people. I can do the rings for a thousand

people. I can do the ropes for a thousand people. So if I need to entertain a thousand people for 20 minutes, this bag allows me to do that. You can do all of those routines close up or parlor as well. I generally have a hat in here and some signage if I'm busking as well. And you know what's missing from my bag today is my, I call it a toiletry bag where you have the sun scene and the nail clippers and the sewing. We went to the pool today and my sunscreen was in there, so I pulled the bag out.

Yeah, I have to change the catalog case on wheels. As I'm rambling, I'll note that this case allows me to transport that DJ laptop stand. I use bungee cords and strap it to it. So now I'm rolling into the gig hall with a table and enough to entertain five people or a thousand. I was just looking at that case. I bet you could fit an instand in that case as well, because they're so thin.

I'll tell you what I used to put in there. I have upgraded since, but a small amplifier when I was using just like a happy amp situation, you could have a whole nine yards in that catalog case. You know, the act, the amplification.

And then if you're able to carry a table in with you, it's a one trip in and out, which you know is is important if you're working a lot of the you know these convention halls and stuff you don't want to be making two trips to the car to load in yeah the catalog case i don't know amazing that's um great i've just been looking it up whilst you mentioned it and what a. Great great solution in almost like almost every way like can you leave the what like

when you have it on stage can you kind of leave it open like can you leave the mouth of this open like this reason i very much so yeah generally stays up and then when josh busted uh his case out i'm like i'm in the same ballpark but you know this case it's been around the french quarter a couple dozen times and if you get a good one that holds up you know yeah the design for guys back in the day they used to have to carry catalogs to sell their products so they needed a good sturdy solution for

transporting these heavy things damn that's good it is not a cheap bag for the folks out there looking at it yeah you're the cheapest one i can find 150 on that one you know yeah so and that's probably 300 bucks aussie which is what i'm looking at about here but it is look when it's making you money every weekend it's a great solution i'm actually really tempted to go and do that myself because um i've seen them in second hand stores so if you get to the goodwill and stuff like that,

you might have some luck over there finding a nice bag at a good price because people don't use them anymore, but they do have value to magicians. And I think, yeah. And I love the idea of just being able to like, cause once the handle goes down, it's so unnoticeable. Like you don't even think there's a thing in there.

And I love that especially, but for me also what the, the, the big selling point is being able to leave the mouth open, like to leave this bit open because I do stuff in my act and then I roll it up and I just throw it into the bag and then I move on. And then when it comes time to get off stage, I close the bag, grab my crap and I'm off. So you can carry that traditionally like this doctor's bag and wheel it around.

Yeah easy peasy on both the counts yeah that's great so this is the close-up case that i keep inside there this is the tcc close-up case i don't know how much of this y'all want to get into the players i'm doing walk around magic i'm doing sponge bunnies i'm doing eight ball production hard to wallet i use the real man speed loader plus this is a tony miller design is what i go with it's a hip pocket front loader and no no no slide either it's an interesting flap design uh

you know half a dozen decks i got a couple gimmick ones brainwave unshuffled i've got a color changing knives here i was going to really enjoying performing that and then up here i've got slideini silks there's my ears i. Got some backup sharpie markers thumb tip and silk that's a jl magic wand this is great for work and walk around if i'm not using the street wand and yeah that's about it you know sponge bunnies card tricks i always have coins with me and uh here's here's what i do

for coins i use different size and or colored purses so i can feel by color or sight which coin routines are in my pocket as needed and you know not have to open a purse and dig through a different different one you know to get a different coin thing any questions on that it's kind of quick but you know i feel like we've seen enough tricks today where's your underwear i know i've been missing the underwear i'll have to put that in the toiletry bag

with the sunscreen someone said no one mentioned a towel always have a towel with you at least a hand towel for mopping sweat or you know maybe a spill happens and no one said that i don't go anywhere without throwing a towel in my bag before i leave I actually have something a little more discreet. I have a napkin, like a cloth napkin. So it looks almost like it can be used for whatever else. Like it can be used for a silk production or this or that. It's not quite as abrasive as like a towel.

Well, I'll tell you what I use is a, as a, a washcloth and I use it in my back pocket. And what that does is elevate the eight ball so that when I do the steel out of my back pocket. So now I have this washcloth serviceable in my back pocket as needed, you know, if I need to do a little touch-up if I'm sweaty, and then it serves as an elevator for the 8th hall steel. Yeah.

That's great. It makes a lot of sense. And then now that you're in the shop all the time, are you seeing stuff in there and you're like, oh, it would be good to have, but we're limited with pocket space. So are you seeing stuff that are almost maybe making it into your set instead of something else? Yeah. It's like every day I see something new I want to put into the rep.

I think the most recent thing, the one that's really going to make it is the ox bender the coin bender you know you guys use one of those anyone use up the ox bender i bought the ox bender at magic live and never used it but i do own i do own david david penn's coin vest and i do think it's fantastic i still have it and it's so good it just doesn't fit my character anymore it makes no sense for like a sleight of hand character to then mentally bend a coin so for me i just made the choice to not

use it anymore but i have it and i recommend it and the ox bender when i saw it damned for american coins like pennies and stuff just seemed like.

Amazing to use but like have you done yeah have you done coin bending routines and if you have what is the audience's response when you do it they've seen you do knuckle busting, magic and then what happens when you bend a coin honestly i have not i'll tell you what turned me on to it i was watching the firefly tutorial last week and they suggest integrating that and maybe even with the smoke gimmick and i don't know if you need to do all that but the

the host of the tutorial is enthusiasm for the ox bender had me look in that direction and i took one home and played with it and it's not a cheap buy so well i'm just going to demo it at the shop till i like good enough and then when i got my routine down i'm gonna buy one get back with me in a couple weeks after i've had some reps with the thing you know what i never ended up using nick the year that we went to magic live when i was there as well

2018 the big hype at the time was a signs bill to sharpie effect yeah you got the you got the whole gimmick that basically the the the note It vanishes and almost goes straight into the pen for you. Like it was a really cool utility. I've not used it a single time. I still have the box and I was so hyped when I saw it and I've not seen anyone performing it and I haven't used it. Is that the same for you?

Did you play around with it? I was working on an effect with it entirely where, cause I do this whole, like, you know, the old traditional thing. You know, the coin pen effect where you do this type of thing you put behind your ear. Like I actually do that in my roving set, but it's a whole thing with, and then I produce like a jumbo coin and a jumbo pen at the end of it. And I was like, I'd be so cool if you could like ask someone for a bill and

then just like strike, vanish, vanish the bill. And that bill, that's what I was going for with it.

It is just so, I think the problem is that it's difficult with Australian in currency because we have the polymer plasticky stuff i think that was what made it difficult for me yeah the thought of in real time yeah because at home when we're folding the bill yes you can get it in the thing easily but you're right like in the heat of the moment would it get would it get stuck when you're trying to do the last little load bit yeah with our money but but even in america like

i haven't seen anyone any clips going online of of dudes doing it with.

Us notes even i know nicholas einhorn bought out his own version which i feel like might be more of a workable i've heard that's a good one yeah it might also be because we are you know after covert leaning into that cashless society and getting a hand on some unabill is quite difficult at times but you know it's probably a myriad of reasons why it's not as popular as it used to be but it's it's just interesting like i bought it with all these intentions of yes i'm going to do an

effect that like you know no one's seeing being done and then i think for me what it was is the gimmick is just too chunky of a thing to add to my suit and stuff you know yeah you know it probably actually alex makes a good point that it could be a good idea to talk about things called the junk drawer in which we've gone i'm gonna get my hands on this i'm gonna do stuff with it, and then you never do a damn thing. It might be worth, yeah.

You know, one thing I wanted to touch on today is the bag that I keep in my car. It's an emergency bag that has rope, set of Professor's Nightmare, two sponge balls, a deck of cards, and a big coin in it. So now I'm ready to do a show anytime, anywhere that my car is close by. Forget your bag? No problem. You're at a bar, you need to do a set? No problem. You know, you've got a gathering?

Ready to like a go bag like yeah it's a magic show it's in my glove compartment it takes up this much space and you know if you're a magician you should be ready to do a show anytime that's my thought yeah that's great oh yeah a go bag seth says that he keeps altoids there you go ready to go in it. Yeah, I do keep a deck, like a good deck ready to perform, like a full deck. It just sits in the side door of my car, but it's really just, I don't know, for safety or if I'm bored.

My wife talked me into one of these man purses, and this for carrying around magic stuff has been great. You get your cards, coins, they got some tip in here, a Sharpie, and then you can also put your weed in here in Las Vegas, and it's all just street.

You know but no for me as opposed to carrying around everything in your pockets you know the cards and it gets bulky and if it's hot it's doubly a problem and yeah so this is a good solution too if you're a magician a man purse a merce a merce satchel is it a satchel indiana jones has one you guys use the merce no either of you sport in a bag i personally well yeah go ahead josh because i carry as little as possible like for me it's just i and my phone like even the keys to my house it's

all digital my i don't have car keys because i have a tesla it's literally that's my car keys that's my house keys everything i need is just here like yeah i don't rock immerse even at a gig like for my i've talked about this a billion times but my rubik's cube that i'll i'll do a rubik's cube routine in roving and i'll and i'll carry the the cheap one which is I sat it down somewhere. Oh yeah, this one.

So yeah, we talked about these. I found these, they're 50 cents each at the store I found them at in Australia, but I will not even keep this on me. I'll sit it down on a cocktail table at the gig and I'll just eventually come to it and then do magic. So I try to not have like bulky stuff on me, but I love the idea of it.

And I know like my friend Adam Axford, our friend, he, he'll rock like the gun holster type thing where he's got like this the thing on under his jacket with the the holster so he can put stuff in those pockets too what about you nick what oh you said you try to have as little as possible i yeah i don't carry a thing man like when i'm day to day like if someone says like show me something i'll be like like if i'm at a cafe i'm like give me just three coins give me three coins from the from the

counter yeah and i'll do something like okay just bring me something bring me stuff and i'll just do like that's what i'm like you know it'd be a good idea maybe this has been done already but has anyone made a top hat that you can just take off and it has all your stuff your roving stuff in it because it has like individual sections inside it that are pockets maybe.

You know i wonder that's a great idea anyone's thought of that that's kind of fun yeah i will i will carry stuff in like in my jacket pocket at most like because i'll have like my i put a deck in my breast pocket because you know that's how i got into magic i used to have cigarettes in there And so instead of having cigarettes, I keep purposely keep packs of playing cards and my cigarettes used to go as a little reminder of like, that's where you came from.

You don't know where you're going. So good. You know, what's cool is like every bag we've just gone through is different. So there isn't like any one right way to, why is the, wait, Alex has said, why is this guy's head shaped like a Rubik's cube? Oh, cause you're putting it in the hat. Well, it's not going in this kind of hat. Like I'm not doing like, you know, this kind of thing, which, you know, you could almost rock, but it's not really, it's kind of floating pretty lightly there.

But actually that would be an effect on its own to reach inside and pull out what they think is an actual Rubik's Cube. That's kind of fun. So many options, so many, you know. So what I've learned is I need to go and buy a catalog bag, a tub of paper cream, a secret savant, another pair of underpants, a toilet paper roll to fit in my bag. Someone mentioned earlier, that's, why didn't we think of that?

I eat the tissue. um yeah there's little travel tissue numbers the only thing i didn't mention is i carry with me michael amars ceiling card to ceiling wax but i the way i keep it is i just take a playing card like one of the advertising cards from the deck that i've opened i cut i tear it in half and then that is what i stick a ball of wax onto and then i close it and i just i just put a rubber band around the middle.

And I, and that's just, if I don't already preload this, if I look, if I walk in the gig and I see it's got a good ceiling, which I did on the weekend. And then it, when I know I'm going to do the routine, like while they're signing the card and I turn around, I will just grab the wax out and stick it on my belt buckle. And then I can easily grab it later. But if I need to, the rubber band is there. So I can say, you know, like I can just build it up.

Like in the way that Michael Lamar says he has his box of secrets, I'll just pull this and be like, ah, do you know what this is? And they're like, no. And I'm like, ah, this is a high-tech tension dispenser. And I give it to them and now I can just grab that off. So instead of taking the whole tub, I will just put two balls of wax on a torn card.

Now we have a use for our advertising cards and... I know if you're listening to this, which most of our listeners do, that sounds weird, but you can watch the video. It's basically a ball of the Michael Marwax stuck onto a card. And that takes up no space now. It just goes in my left outside jacket pocket. I like it. And we're good to go. Great trick. That trick's killer. Yeah. It's killer. It lives on. It's a frozen moment in magic.

Always make sure you have a high enough ceiling, obviously. Cool. Well, it's been an hour, friends. without a quick chat oh gary gary's just cuts where can i purchase paper cream amazon that is the only place i've been able to get it from it might be sold i i was trying to get some recently i think it might have sold out or someone was complaining to me but didn't have a lot buy it in bulk man seriously and what's really funny is that like out of all my friends they're like you're the only

guy i know who gets to the bottom of it like generally to the bottom of it i'm like scraping the sides of it like this so like because i use it every gig and so they're just like you're the only person i know like they always lose them and then just grab a fresh one but they're like you're the only guy i know who's ever gotten to the bottom of it like several times so.

Gary davidson just said out of stock but yeah look keep your eyes on that stuff there is some other stuff out there i know my friends have tried it they're all being like deeply disappointed, my advice just write it out but guys as we come to a close thank you all for listening i hope this was of some value to you guys we have no idea what we're going to talk about next week although it might be fun to go through a whole bunch of stuff and go the junk drawers,

the things that we thought were going to be exciting and then go, never did it. And then actually it might be a good idea because there's probably stuff that I bought 10 years ago and gone. And maybe it's like, maybe now's the time it's been 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? Let's put out a preempt here. Let's, let's include some, some gig stories next week from you guys. Send in a speak pipe. I'm letting you know a week in advance,

okay? So you don't have to send them in during the episode like some people do, and I can't screen them. Send in your SpeakPipe, speakpipe.com forward slash The Magic Guys, or just go to our website, themagicguysshow.com, and there's a button you can send your voicemail. Let us know some crazy gig stories you've been up to. We'd love to plan, and maybe we'll do that as well next week. This has been a great episode.

Also, check out James brown's book on amazon the link is in the description and we'll see y'all next week and i gotta play our outro video let me try that again sorry and we'll see you, next week 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.