LJ Magician hangs out with The Magic Guys #179

Rolling. They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys. How's that one?

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Magic Guys podcast, episode 179. I'm your host, Nick Kaye, and joining me this week is the illustrious, entirely amazing, very happy to be here, daddyofthepod.com.

So excited for tonight. night man we've had so many good podcasts lately and everyone seems to excite me more than the last they're guys but we're gonna be off the rails but nobito's not here so who knows how this is gonna go correct friends so for those of you watching if you're wondering where our good friend mr nobito unfortunately he is a little under the weather and has been for the past two days and i said you know what give

me the keys and i will drive this machine and i'm gonna do my my very best to not drive this thing into the ocean and drown us all. So wish me luck. Thankfully I have a wonderful, well, I have a wonderful instructor here, but I feel like very much like the child with his learner's plates on. And then daddy's like in the driver's seat or the passenger seat. Well, I'm got the wheel and you're just like, yeah, I'm the kind of dad who gets the bike started and just shoves you down the road.

You know, we just watch the, you know, ride the roller coaster and see what happens. Yeah. Nowadays we wrap up our kids in bubble wrap and then send them down that now where it's like, Yeah. Don't you miss those days where like helmets went a thing and, you know, bringing my eight year old brother home with the bloody chin. Cause we were driving bikes down the hill and ramping them up into the, you know, and we got to go get stitches. Cause you know, and that was four blocks away.

Mom's like, what are you going to do? Boys go ride your bike. We're going to ramp. We're going to ramp. Okay. Have fun. I mean, yeah, that's what I did for fun. I would, you know, no headgear, no pads. Yeah. See, it's remarkable because now kids, I'm surprised they make it through puberty nowadays. You know, like it's just, they become soft.

You know, the cool thing about the kids growing up nowadays is that we actually have a wonderful person coming on board who I've had the pleasure of knowing since he was 14 years old, since he was actually in high school. And through the years, he's come up through the ranks. He's become not only one of the most wonderful magicians I know, but one of the most people I know.

And I'm dying to introduce you all. please join me in welcoming one of my very very good friends mr lj so cool hey guys how's it going.

Lj i was saying i kind of stopped what i was saying about how many great guests we have had and how exciting i've been to be part of these podcasts but today my excitement has even surpassed them wow we've talked about it pre-show but thrilled to be here guys thanks a lot for having me yeah it's um it's it's great to be on the show sadly obviously josh you know yeah i've given him too hard of a body slam and now he can't be on the show anymore sorry he's all buff and no stuff you know yeah

those guys can't take a bath right gosh i don't know so lj for those of you that don't know who you are and the amazing skill set you have please tell us who you are tell us what you do. Okay. All right. Let's have a look at this. So I'm a former street performer. I'm a magician that now works every single weekend, thanks to the lovely Nick K up there and a whole bunch of other amazing projects that I'm working on, like my new shows that I've just debuted last week.

I am a professional wrestler of seven or so years in Melbourne here in Australia. And yeah, Yeah, it's pretty cool. I feel like when I tell people what I do for work, they're kind of always like, it's not always just like, oh, hey, show me a trick. It's more so. What the hell is going on there? Where did your parents fail? You know, that's, that's the vibe. But as soon as they find out a little bit more about me, then it gets more intriguing and more intriguing.

Oh, that's ridiculous, man. I think that if you were my kid, you know, we would be entirely proud of you. And reason being is that most recently friends, AJ did a run of shows at the Melbourne magic festival. You're thinking of AJ Styles. That's the, I'm the other, I'm the other J I'm the LJ. Yes. The LJ. Now, thankfully I'm trying to compliment you, dick brain. On you winning your award, which was the Magician's Choice Award at the Melbourne Magic Festival.

There it is, friends. If you're wondering what kind of award that is, as he holds it to screen, it's for the listeners. What this is, is it's an award that was created by the amazing Nicholas J. Johnson. What we did was we basically did a whole season of shows and then we just swept the stage and everything in the dustpan went into that jar.

Iconic stuff iconic stuff like there is all bits of magic from everyone there's pieces of all manner of magicians i even think there's like bits of like eric jones in there for all i know you know possibly better than some dumb piece of plastic exactly that it's there's nothing prosthetic about it where it's like i went to a shop got it off the shelf like that is quite literally parts of the festival there's always parts of the festival going in that jar it's a very special

award so and the way you're awarded that is ultimately all the magicians got together and said who gets it and out of everyone there all the magicians voted your show working class magician the winner tell us about the show lj okay so it's essentially. Imagine WorkSafe. Doug, you probably don't know WorkSafe. It's an Australian concept. It's when you become a magician and they put you on food stamps because you can't afford to feed your family? Not quite, not quite. That's an American program.

It ends up that way. It's pretty much the corporate sort of group that makes sure that everything is safe in all of the industries out there. And WorkSafe Victoria is the branch that I was parodying because we're here in Victoria and Melbourne. and I created a new division called Magic Safe. Custom embroidered, you know, vests and everything and run a seminar on how to perform magic safely at the Melbourne Magic Festival.

I made a fake ad and everything and I'll be uploading that on my socials today so people can check it out. And it got, yeah, like we had a whole bunch of magicians appear in it saying that they perform the magic safe way, that kind of vibe. It was very much piss take on corporate bureaucracy bureaucracy. And there's this character in the show who interrupts the show constantly trying to, you know, edit how I perform. Yeah. It's, it's really funny and I can't wait to develop it even more.

Yeah. Just for reference, Doug, like the work safe notion is a bit of a joke. Like they don't do a lot to, I mean, like, yes, they do things to keep us safe. Like the guys who are out there, you know, the blue collar, well, the boys are the blue collar, blue collar folk who are digging holes and everything else.

But ultimately what it comes down to is someone Someone who's never worked in the field coming to your place of work, your digging site, your building site, and them saying, Oh, I don't know what you do for a living, but my clipboard says you're doing. Yeah. I was going to say, they issued a clipboard and telling you how to do it the wrong way. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much the whole gist of it. Yeah. The chat's pointing out the word OSHA. That's the, what they have in America.

That's the one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what was the inspiration for that? I mean, this working class notion where you know it's what i really love is this i mean when when i first joined the magic scene i wanted to break the mold instead of us trying to prove that like oh we're magicians and we're debonair and we have all these beautiful women you know this is the first time i've seen anyone take this notion of like no we're just we're working class just like everyone else we put on

our high viz jackets we put on our safety goggles and our helmets and we go to work what was the inspiration for that that's a really good question i think it came together the like over a long course of yeah sort of strategy behind it and a lot of different people had input in it i think the main person who helped me come up the i come up with the idea of magic safe itself was probably you and i's friend jordy jordy douse he's another fantastic magician here in melbourne

who did his first show in the melbourne magic festival as well this year and yeah while brainstorming with him because i had the show name but i didn't know what i wanted into doing it when we, You love the heart of my hair? That's great. Yeah, no, it is a stark difference from the usual from this show. But, you know, look, I'm just trying to represent. Hold on. Hold on. You pointed out the hair comment, and then we glossed over

it. For those of you not, LJ's hair is four feet tall off the top of his head. That's how I get bills. When I was a kid and had hair, I went to the barber. I took a Rod Stewart album to the barber, and I said, I want my hair to look like this. And they told me to put sugar water in my hair. Is that what you're doing? I mean, how do you get your hair to stand up like that? Or is it just you?

It is kind of just me. I mean, I woke up like this and I kind of brushed it a couple of times and it's stuck up like this. What about you got some hairspray up in there or something? I do use hairspray when I'm going out at night, like if I just have a shower and stuff. But this is the state of things in the morning. Like, it's not as nice on this side. It's nicer on that side. Natural born talent. It would give Rudy Kobe a run for his money. Like, that's like Rudy Kobe height.

Like, it's not far off. I think that the only person who's beating me would probably be, like, maybe, like, Nick LaCoppa or Murray Sawchuck have the tall hair, but that's about it. I can't think of many other magicians. That's remarkable because maybe it's, like, a short guy syndrome, but you're actually quite tall by nature. You're, like, six-ish, like, about nine. You could even be, like, a big-time wrestler. Yeah, yeah, especially considering I got chunky during COVID.

That helped make a bigger impact when I land on someone. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so please, like, I mean, we definitely want to talk about the wrestling. Let's circle back to the inspiration of what the working class magician was about and Jordy's influence. Yeah, so it all started with like, so I came up with the show name Working Class Magician. And I just thought, that's a really, you know, great concept for a name for a show. Obviously, Working Class Man Jimmy Barnes was the inspiration there.

And I just thought, wouldn't it be funny if I, you know, tried to pretend like, you know, this suit wearing magician was, you know, one of the people, you know, and then it ended up being that I was one of the people. And yeah the show started taking shape after I did it in Adelaide Fringe earlier this year at the Adelaide Magic Theatre that's yeah that's where I first did the show but it wasn't anything like what it was here in the festival and it just developed and developed and I wrote down.

Pages and pages of like concepts for the show and how the tricks fit into it as well and that that whole idea just stemmed from me making that logo from WorkSafe into MagicSafe I think I can, I think I've got it on my phone and my folder here. It sounds to me like you've been a theater guy for a while. Did you do this in school as well? Like theater productions and such? Absolutely. Yeah. I grew up doing drama school, theater productions, musicals, that sort of thing.

And I was really fascinated in standup comedy from a young age that that then sort of ended up feeding into the magic. And now that's who would have been your influences in that genre and stand up? Well, the initial one was a very physical comedy duo from Australia named Lane Owen Woodley. I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but I know Nick would have. Yeah, so Lane Owen Woodley in Australia, they're very, very well known, but they're not so much sort of like an international headline act.

But yeah, they're very physical with their comedy. They did a TV series, they did stand-up shows, and it was all a little bit before my time.

They broke up in like 2006, and I caught up as I grew up, and they were a huge influence on me in that sort of performing realm who were other ones i guess another one was probably nina conti she's one of the best friend trilla quests in my world in the world in my opinion yeah just the way she communicates on stage and her humor was really influential to me and then once i started getting into magic then the influences grew and

grew for people like raymond crowe and you know tim alice and the initial person who brought me sort of into to the industry, Doc Andrew. He was my early days mentor. And then, yeah, it all snowballed from there. And lots of people have had fingers in this pie proverbially.

What's beautiful about that is that like you were really like influenced by the things that were indigenous to you, like the people that were around you, like quite literally everything you've made mention is going to be so like unapparent to the American listeners that we have here today. Cause you're quite literally like, Like, I mean, I don't know how to equate Jimmy Barnes. He would be like the what? He would be like the.

Some sort of folk singer. Hold on now, because I know Doc Andrews, a busker of renown, and he's in Australia now. He's spent time in the States. Yeah, he's been living here for my whole life, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You mentioned you did street performing. Did he kind of ingratiate you to that? Absolutely, yeah. He was one of the first people who showed me the ropes. Yeah, Springsteen, you know, yeah, Springsteen of Australia is a good comparison there.

But, yeah, so Doc Andrew was one of the first magicians who I saw on the street.

And then from there my parents were like I'm an only child so my parents sole focus was on you know trying to sort of yeah get me down the right path and there's no other real sort of entertainers in my family so the concept of me going and doing street performing in the city by myself as like a 12 or 13 year old was just alien to them so yeah I had to build up that confidence confidence with not just myself, but also in their trust.

And yeah, that ended up coming together over a not super long amount of time. I think the first street performer I ever saw was Mr. Marmalade. He's another fantastic Australian magician who just did a brand new show in the festival as well. And yeah, we sort of jammed a little bit and he showed me a couple of tricks. But yeah, my influences in magic have been really varied. There's no sort of one person to thank for the mess you see in front of you.

That's probably a good thing. Now, so just most recently, we went to a lecture on Sunday at the School of Confidence, Magic School of Confidence run by Anthony DiMasi. And we had a lovely dinner afterwards. And you were telling some good stories, I think, straight out of the vein about being in performing on street. Would you like to jump into a gig story and tell us that really hilarious story about that speaker box that's just like the boomerang speaker box?

Yeah, it brings up a lot of trauma for me. but I see what you're doing here. So yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it for the show. You know, you're paying me handsomely, so I'll do it. Okay. Let's do a gig story.

So gig stories are moments of magic that we like to share either from our personal lives whilst performing or even just our day-to-day. We want to share those stories with you, our audience for posterity. Starting with this week's story by LJ. All right. So I believe this all transpired But in the early to mid 2010s, so like I said, I would say about 2013 or 2014, this would have happened. In the span of one calendar year, probably even six months, my big $600 Street

Cube speaker, it's a Roland speaker, really great thing. I used it for years and years. For some reason, I just kept on losing it and it kept on coming back to me like a boomerang. It was incredible. So the first time that this happened, the speaker, I was taking the speaker to school and I left it on the bus that I take to school in the luggage rack. I walk off the bus. The intention was to go to the train station later on, head into the city, do some street shows after school.

And I realized about halfway through the day, hey. When I came to school, I was holding this big heavy thing in my other hand and I realized my speaker was gone. So I called up about three different bus companies and all three of them said, we don't know where it is. We haven't got it. We don't know. And I was like, fantastic. So I was under the impression that, yeah, I've just lost my $600 speaker, my moneymaker.

And yeah, I was heartbroken. About two or three days later, I'm in class and someone walks into class holding my speaker in their hands and just says, hey, because everyone in school knew I was a magician for better or worse. And yeah, they just came up to me and said, hey, I think this is yours. Like that's your sticker, right? And I was like, what the hell is going on? Yes, that's my speaker. And they said to me, yeah, I was catching the bus earlier today and it was in the luggage rack.

And I looked at it and I thought, I think that's LJ's, that's Liam's. And yeah, so it turns Turns out that the speaker was traveling on the same bus for about three days and no one touched it. No one made anything with it. And some fluke, someone found it who knew that it was mine. That's crazy. That's not a dedicated school bus, right?

That's like the public. No, no, no. that's a one publicly accessible bus that goes around like i mean i would say easily like 30 k's you know back and forth a day you know yeah so it was just absolutely unbelievable and the funniest part was the person who gave me back the speak like they didn't even really know me very well so imagine this you know kid walking through school every day you know having having this speaker in their hand you wouldn't make it one block

in new orleans yeah i'll just then. Maybe someone out doing a show with it by the end of the afternoon. Well, on that topic, there's a second part to this story. So the second time I lost the speaker was not my fault. The second time I lost the speaker, the magician who I mentioned earlier, one of my best mates, Geordie Doust, he lost the speaker. So I entrusted the speaker with him while we were both out street performing together. And his phone died and he needed to call his partner.

So he went to a phone booth, left the speaker underneath the phone booth, made the call and left. And I was in the shop at the time, just grabbing something. I come back, no Jordan, no speaker, no message, no phone call. I try and call him and his partner for the next half an hour and I get nothing. I go down to the police station. I say, hey, this is the situation.

What should I do? And they said to me, well, there's nothing really you can do until you you get in contact with him little did i know the entire time while i was doing all that trying to make calls and stuff that speaker was sitting on swanston street underneath that phone booth i finally get in touch with him and he says to me oh yeah i'm so sorry man holy shit you know i left it underneath the the phone booth on swanston street right next

to the pitch and i'm like okay bolt back to the pitch check underneath the phone booth it's not there i'm like man look it's not there and he's like oh my god i'm so sorry you know i'll buy you a new one when i get the funds together and i'm like you know like once again heartbroken yeah that's the worst because that is your money maker on the street and and if that's not an easy replacement you know especially like 600 bucks like that's that's a

lot of money for for this for young liam but yeah the craziest part about this i went back in the next day because i'm like look i need to make some some more money because I've cut my day short, my speaker's gone, I need to get my mind off this. Come into the city and I'm performing right next to the same spot that I was the previous day. A friend comes up to me who I hadn't seen for a little while, starts talking to me.

And then I see out of the corner of my eye, a couple of, you know, junkies, shall we say, walking down the street, carrying a big Roland Street QBX. I'm just like, okay, that's not a little Bluetooth speaker. That's, that's a, you know, that looks like mine. And I kind of stopped the conversation with my friend and I go up to him. I'm like, hey, hey, hey man, how's it going?

You know, I start looking at the speaker, kind of doing a little bit of a pickpockety style thing where I'm like, oh yeah, cool.

Look at this. is and i start talking to him about the speaker and i start asking him questions hey where'd you get the speaker from you know and he starts making up some answers and i said oh i'm not sure if you know this but that sticker there i put it there about a year ago and this is my speaker and i've got photos to prove it and he goes oh okay you know yeah sure mate good on you and he keeps on walking along i make a phone call to the police

who are just down the road and he keeps walking direction towards the police. And as the situation continues to develop, I keep on going, look, mate, it's my speaker. They're going to give it back to me. This is not going to end well. You can just hand it to me now and we're all good. We get down towards the police station. They meet us out the front, two cops, and they stop him.

And within about one minute of me showing them photos, they hand the speaker back to me and they're just like, yep, it's your speaker.

No worries they then take him in to the station because he had a whole bunch of drugs in his bag as well yeah and and yeah i got a little lick in at the end of just going like she just bloody handed me the speaker mate yeah yeah but yeah so that happened within the span of about like six months easily about six months and then yeah two or three years later i sold the speaker for about, 100 bucks less than what I bought it for because I took good care of it other than losing it twice.

So yeah, then I upgraded and I haven't lost that one yet. So what'd you upgrade to the Bose? Yeah, Bose S1 Pro. But lessons have stuck, you know, shall we say? Yeah, don't lend it to Jordan and don't leave it on a bus. Well, they say if life's not a lesson, it's a test. And that's certainly something like both entities were being checked there. What rig do you use in your shows there, Doug? I have a Samson Expedition. It's like a hundred watt amp.

It's pretty good. You know, it fits in a backpack. Is it what? Is it bulky? Is it big? So that's why I bought this one. It's a little smaller, fits in a backpack nicely along with the headset. I use a Samson Airline 99 with it and it's all in one backpack for me. And I don't do big circle shows.

I don't need necessarily to blow it out but the boast yeah fair enough oh yeah so that's what i use yeah i mean a lot of people don't appreciate how important that is when you're trying to do shows over the sound of the street the street sweepers the trucks uh the people walking by i when i was doing street shows when you're next to the footlocker as well like they play music so loudly like in that yeah yeah like that was nuts i remember like we tried to build a relationship with

them so that whenever we were out there in front of those stores that blasted music and had the big open doors you know like like it's not a it's not a you know a double door that opens and closes it's not a you know swing or anything like that it's just an open store blasting music you know so yeah you've got to try and build up relationships with not only the stores but you'd obviously have a few relationships with some

of the like the local the local life that's Some businesses love you and some hate you. So, you know, hopefully the ones that love you are in the good spots. Yeah. It's no fun to go to work and have conflict.

That's it. That's it. Yeah. Awesome. I have an interesting gig story, if I may. It was such a weird thing. Now we spoke about this interaction, LJ, over dinner, but I think I want to share this with Doug because I don't know how to process what happened, but let me tell you what happened. So I was performing at my residencies and I was performing for this particular corporate group that were in our venue.

They were in superannuation, like in your 401k retirement fund stuff you know and and and basically very large group about 100 people and they're going between all these people circulating and so i'm meeting different people every time i come through the group each time as they're engaging in all the activities the venue has to offer now i'm performing away and and and certain managers and so forth oh please show some stuff to this stuff to this stuff said no worries i'm doing

my thing and then this woman comes over and she is just awful like the type of person who puts out that energy that they would be unhappy in heaven. And I don't get upset about it because my mentality is that those who hate need love the most.

So I'm just being polite and kind and everything. And she's just like, I'm a cynic and I won't get into the details of how awful she was or what she did, but just understand she was awful in every conceivable way to the point of grabbing cards, bending them, tearing them, throwing them in the floor, just an awful human. And, and I was just like, this is cool. Like, I'm not going to let it affect me. I've had the best week. I've had the best day and whatever.

And, you know, she's sort of attacking me at one point being like, I'm a cynic and you're full of shit and et cetera. And I was just like, oh, look, I think that you should sort of take an adjustment here and just understand that, you know, how I do things is not important. It's why I do it. I do it purely just to make people smile and everyone's here is having a great time. And that's, that's my job. And, And, you know, I'm just a guy with a skill set who uses it to make people happy.

Just like I'm sure you have an amazing skill set, right? And she was like, well, yeah. And I was like, great. What do you do? And she was like, I'm in charge of media relations. I'm the media relations manager. Okay. And I laugh and she's like, that's very condescending. And I'm like, no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to be. I just, I just think it's funny. She's like, what's so funny? And I go, just that you're in charge of relations.

And, you know, I run an agency with 50 contractors and not all of them have their superannuation set up. And I have to tell them, you got to set it up here and here and here. And, you know, I could, I could have been, you know, had another business or my superannuation could be in your company. Then I can meet someone like yourself and I can go to your CEO and say like, you know what, I'm taking all the super for myself and all my money out of your business to put it elsewhere.

And if you want to know why, go talk to your, your manager. I just think it's funny that like, you don't see every single person as a potential customer and just treat them respectfully. I just, I just think that's funny. And certainly if you're in a work environment, right. If you're in a company function.

You're representing your company. You're representing yourself. you know like yeah if you're coming across like that it's pretty bad yeah and i just watched this woman shrink till about an inch tall and she was just like oh my god and she just shrunk inside herself and was like i've just i've given myself the ick and i was like and then she's like getting teary she's like oh my god i was just so awful and she was drunk you know what i mean and just like

I'm just like, oh, my God, I give myself to him. And then she was trying to tell people, like, I was so mad to him. I was such a bitch to him. And I was just like, no, it's between you and me. Let it go. I was thinking to myself, like, shit, I don't want her to have a breakdown. And then management goes, why are you crying? The magician. And the magician is mad at me. I'm like, I don't want to lose my job. Just imagine Patrick's first shift.

Oh, man. And I'm like, I'm not here to make people cry. I'm not here to do that. But I just rattled this woman. And she was like, I'm just looking at myself. I'm reflecting and I'm blah. And she's like, I've just had the worst week. I'm sure you had a bad week too. And I'm like, I've had the best week, you know, I've had the best week ever. Like it's been amazing. Massive wake up call. She's like, why are you so positive? I'm like, every day above ground is a good one. Oh, cut it deeper.

And she was like, how do you handle me being a bitch to you? And I'm like, I live in a world where people bleed all over me and I never cut them. And she, oh, cut her again. Again, like after another, and I'm just sharing my little life ethos is, you know, at the end of it, she was like, how are you so positive? What's your secret? I'm like, read the Bible. Just hammering this chick. And she was like, I'm so sorry. Can I buy a drink?

Can I make it up to you? And I'm like, no, but you can leave a five star review. Thank you very much. And I moved on with my life, but I just thought it was so weird. That she took it like quite a bit. It was a happy ending. It was like, she was a happy person at the end of the, like, it seems like she needed that. It seemed to me and I did it and I, and, and hand to God, I did not do it with any beguile or attacking or any hostility. I did nothing but treat her with love and it changed her.

And I just think that was like the most interesting interaction I've ever had with an awful person. Hmm. Yeah. Like, like, cause that can go one or two ways. There's only, there's only two outcomes. You know, it's either the answer is violence from their part or what you just happened had happened, which is like the 0.01% chance. And I don't know, like, yeah, maybe it's the fact that like, she doesn't know you, you've just had this interaction with her.

So she's getting a completely you know sort of what's the word unbiased opinion of her you know and then yeah relating it back to her work at a work function like yeah they just maybe you just really chose the right words and it got i hope so i hope so because a part of me just feels like like i didn't go out with the intention of changing people i don't go out there to correct behavior and and fix people while i perform

it's worth noting though sometimes our job is not not necessarily performing at people, but conversing with them. Maybe, you know, they want to know about you. You're learning about them and you just have a conversation sometimes. And I guess sometimes you become a therapist. Yeah, no, it's valuable like that. You can put that on your rate card, Nick. What's the therapy? Or if I get drunk, crazy women, do I just let them go?

That's really funny because I approach groups and go, okay, what do you guys want to do? Cards, coins, borrowed objects of my award-winning stuff or therapy? That's what oh right that's the new opener yeah that's my new opener it's like you want to do card coins my award-winning stuff what do you guys want therapy what do you want to do. Yeah, but I guess I guess I'm just putting it out there because like a part of me feels like I almost did something wrong.

And I think it's just because I didn't mean to have such a profound effect on her. And I feel I don't know what it is about it, but I feel bad and I don't know why. You've been in the trenches too long to when these situations come up, you'd rather play ball than to just let it go. You know, the the the younger Magi would probably just be like, OK, so I'd bother you.

Him like oh really i can't say that i would have done that any you know any differently than what doug just said you know like i mean i don't i don't want conflict and you know look to be fair there is some situations nick and i have spoken spoken about this at length you know because we're working every weekend in similar venues you know for similar crowds you know sometimes you do have to educate someone you know just a little bit you know like you've got to be very careful but um.

Yeah i think that there's been a few situations that nick and i have spoken about where somebody has come across like a dick and then you've got to go hey that behavior is not okay you know because i think yeah one thing that nick said a long time ago i think it was something to the extent of like people don't look at magicians as you know professional performers sometimes they just you know don't know how to interpret us you know and then we get sort

of bunched in with all of the other you know all the other service industry if someone doesn't treat them with respect they won't treat us us with respect and you know you should do that for everyone but um it's fascinating like i i've heard that story twice now and it's still really really.

Yeah perplexing how she's come to such a realization after that conversation yeah well i certainly don't go out with the intention of like correcting behavior when i'm when i'm existing it's not my intent it's just i just be polite and and tell people that like i'm just here to make you smile and you know if you don't want to see magic that's okay i'll go like you know.

Yeah as a professional you have to be ready for that because a lot of your audience is going to have a preconceived notion that you're stupid and magic's dumb and if they're drinking it's even going to be worse because now they have no filter to tell you about their feelings yeah and for sure if you're going to work professionally be ready for this right well he has a great idea from alex lamb and it's that you use peak wallet to get a name and then you can say so tell me how

this person hurt you that's a great idea alex i like scott links out just just start crying alex is popping out some good ones you don't like magic my mom hated it too my dad wouldn't pick a card yeah well gut buster mike also made a point saying that most people double down of instead of self-reflection the fact that she you know self-reflected i think i think that that you know it's it is a reflection that she is a good person but by

nature like and probably Probably a product of her environment that she became a person that she wasn't proud of.

So I don't know. I would love to think – I'm humble enough to not have this ego that, like, I changed her that day. Like, I would love to think that it had something good. Like, that she is better off for it or that she is happier for it or that she was like –. You know, it's just like, I love magic because I met this magician and, and we had this interaction and now I'm a big fan because I can't say many people

have said like, Oh, I used to hate magic, but then I've just met you. And this was so great. I think I'm going to change my mind about magic. You know what I mean?

Like you got to represent. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I was just going to say, you know, yeah, it can also be a product of where you work and who you're around. Like while I was, uh, while, while COVID was in the lockdown stages here in Melbourne, I started doing other work because obviously I couldn't do magic and I really didn't like performing online. I just didn't connect with it. But I started unloading containers.

Mostly sanitary products, that sort of thing from containers, big piles, and then wrapping around in Glad Rat, which was kind of poetic for what I used to do on the street. But yeah, it was interesting because all the guys who I was working with had been doing the same sort of jobs their whole working life. I'd just come in, I'm from a completely different world and the money was good, but the vibes were terrible.

Like it just, it, like I came home every day that I was working and I just felt crap because all these guys who I was working with were just feeling crap all the time, you know? So yeah, I ended up leaving that job and I felt so good after I left it, you know? So maybe it's potentially what's around her, constant stress, constant pressures from work.

That could be a factor, you know, and she's come out and she's still got to be on the money you know because she's at a work function so yeah then she's not her guard is still up and that's um that might be a factor i don't know i mean that's a very good and that's a very good point you know like you're gonna meet strangers and they might take their data out on you but you need to know that it's got nothing to do with you it's just like whatever they're going through

and i think that that's like i said there's a lesson and a test and i think that maybe we we both learned something that day in that nightclub and i hope she's better for it because i I just want to make folks smile, so I hope she's better for it.

But magic story done. That went a lot better than what I expected to. Thank you guys for your input. And yeah, thank you for you guys in the comments for sharing your thoughts as well. Like, I think you're right. The gut buster, Mike, I think she was a good egg. And I just said I had to remind her of that, that she's kind of lost her way. But that aside, we've spoken a lot about magic.

But what we haven't spoken about is wrestling. Yeah, we put this off long enough. My plan was to just focus on this topic, really. This has my full attention, strap in, put your belts on, climb the turnbuckle, let's jump in.

You wrestle as this character. Yeah, the escape artist, Matty Wild. That's me. I gave Nick some merch. What? The way that your wrestling character is related to variety arts? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So I'm a magic wrestler, and I use that to my advantage in matches to give you an idea. Like, the wrestling doesn't come into the magic very often.

Occasionally, little bits and pieces, mostly from the physical side of things like in my most recent show there's a point in the show where i take a big fall right near the end of the show because i made an unsafe working environment for myself while complaining about the work yeah there we go oh man i want that is it a great can i buy that shirt yeah yeah we're looking at escape artists merch yeah yeah no i was absolutely thrilled with the person who that was a

magic shirt i wouldn't buy it but But knowing it's a pro wrestling shirt, I want that so bad. Where do I get it, man? Where do I get that? Well, I have stock here at my house. I can send it to America. Find you in the DM. Send you $400 for shipping. You know what? I'll bring one up to you coming to Magic Live, Doug. Are you going to Magic Live? I'm not going to be there. Look how excited I am. It's Chris.

All right. right tell us more about this situation so uh so to give you an idea as to the stuff that i do in matches that relates to the magic i've used flash paper many times to blind opponents i've used appearing canes frequently to pop out of nowhere and clobber someone in the middle of a match while the ref's not looking or clobber someone who's an outsider outside of and interfering you know yeah i'm so i'm predominantly one of the good guys but i have tendencies to to sort of lean

into cheating a little bit, but in an Eddie Guerrero-style way, you know, yeah, a little bit more... Like that, as opposed to heelish kind of ways. But yeah, I've also, in a very violent match that I had, I told someone that it would be a cool idea before the match if I like spray them with cards in the face and then, you know, kick their face off. And then after that, then at the end of the match, once they've beaten me, they pick up a card and staple gun it to my head.

And that was an incredible visual. And it was very funny.

When I came up with that idea, idea I mentioned it to the booker the guy who runs the show and he was like yeah no I don't like it and then the person who I was wrestling he's a long time veteran of the industry even back then and we're talking like six or so years ago he goes hey you know Liam had this idea to do this thing and the booker was like oh yeah great idea let's do it you know how do you not like that I know I know it was really funny though

because it's just like oh yeah no we're not going to do that and And then when I told it to the guy who I was wrestling, you know, oh, yeah, they said no. Then they're like, no, no, no, no, no. I got this. I got this. I'm going to go and I'm going to have a chat with them. And we're going to do that spot because I want to staple gun you in the head. And I'm like, hey, yeah, I'm getting a staple to the head.

But, yeah, so there's also been times where I've, like, pulled cards out of nowhere and, you know, paper-cutting people and stuff like that. Yeah, all that kind of chat. I feel before we continue to talk about this that I need to talk about wrestling just a little bit. And me more than you, because I'm an older guy who's been around the block, right? You start talking about how wrestling should be respected. People are going to think you're a nincompoop.

But I know a few things, and maybe I'm an old nincompoop. But, you know, the art of wrestling, and I call it an art, it started as a circus art, actually, if I'm not mistaken. And it could be gladiator arts going back that old. It could be that old. Very tiny. As old as magic is. But this is a theatrical art form. And if you think about what it is, it's men or women in this day and age wonderfully using dramatics and they're wearing their fancy costumes.

Sometimes they have assistants and all that. But more importantly, they're using secret techniques in a live theater. Asking their audience to suspend their disbelief. And they're doing this without the traditional fourth wall that exists in standard theater. And this is not something that is maybe exists outside of magic and maybe street performance. I think like some juggling shows and things like that, street performers have the same vibe.

So I'm going to ask everyone to have a little respect for our discussion of professional wrestling and the similarities it has with our art for magic. And yeah, Let's continue. There is a staggering amount of similarities. Is there something you have to add to what I said there as far as similarities go? Yeah, I would say that you're spot on with the concept that magic and wrestling have the element of suspending the disbelief with a crowd who we are engaging with.

There's no fourth wall that we're really breaking. There's an amazing amount of production values that go into a wrestling show.

The lights, the music, the staging, the costuming. me and this is another similarity i think to you know lots of performing arts but certainly magic absolutely and the closely guarded sort of secretive nature of the industries that's the key right there you know once you get in then you can find out a lot about it but also just as much as you know we see people exposing how to do tricks online is the same for exposing how to you know wrestle a match and guess

what i'm stage you know it's the same thing and wrestling is more popular than ever people know it's a skit they know it's fake yeah okay we can still enjoy this knowing these things are are you.

Know it's theater at its base level it's theater and if you're able to connect with an audience on an emotional level and make them feel something well you know it's going to be good theater yeah if you look at if you look at the common factors i mean what there's probably like an abundance of practice and rehearsal and commitment that goes into the performance parts i mean they've put in their bodies in the line as much as you know all the skill sets

of a wrestler oh man are you kidding me at least certainly comparable to any sleight of hand artist would you agree lj yeah definitely you know we practice it a similar amount it's just a lot more physical you know but even then to be honest with you then there's there's physical acts that you know have magic in it one act that i just watched recently we had hector mancha in uh in melbourne and his physimac from 2015 is extremely physical you know so yeah we we have a

lot of similarities between both industries and i think it's yeah once people do any more digging than initially just going oh wrestling and magic yeah i don't know you know once they do any digging they'll be like hang on you know you know max maven was a huge fan yeah i took his ear off about at it when he was in town as well a few years back. Max was a great guy. He was really lovely. He loved wrestling, right? Oh, yeah.

We have a question here from Farron and it says, do you practice with the person you are going to wrestle? Yeah. So I'm definitely sort of open to talking about it because even though, yeah, look, it's a closely guarded industry, you know, I feel like that suspension of disbelief is what keeps it alive, you know? So, yeah, I'm happy to talk about it. You know, I don't think it's something that, you know, you couldn't find with a quick Google search, so you might as well hear it from me.

When we you know are sort of planning out a match and we're practicing with each other you know before the show there's a few different stages of that you know sometimes we go out with a completely rehearsed you know match and that's why you know you can get some matches out there that's really dynamic you know using lots of um flips and and and you know incredible perfectly timed sequences that are really really hard to do and then you

can sometimes get matches that are a lot more story-based and you know you can plan them out just as much or just as little but yeah the most common way that i think is sort of like a middle ground between not planning anything which is possible to do that which we train for and then planning everything so i kind of sort of leave a little bit of middle ground like the most recent match that i had this past weekend we planned the start of the match we planned a couple of spots

in the middle of the match and then we planned the finish but all of that extra flavor was up to us in the match so So we're communicating with each other secretly. How often will you change what's going on with the audience reaction to the moment? Is that something that comes into play if you feel like the heat needs to be more on the heel? Yeah, definitely. I guess the heel usually leads the match. The bad guy. The heel is the bad guy.

Yeah, yeah. That's wrestler speak for the bad guy. So the bad guy usually leads the match because, yeah, they're sort of more in control of it. And if you don't have a bad guy, you know, in that match, if it's more of a sort of good guy versus good guy sort of situation like it was this past weekend, yeah, it's more of a whoever's more experienced, you know. But also we can talk to each other throughout the match and, yeah, find ways. Do you communicate a lot during the match? Is that going on?

It depends on how much you plan it. If you plan it a lot, then not so much. If you plan it, you know, just a little bit, then, yeah, lots of communication.

And you just find moments to do that. you know you find little breaks in in in the momentum where you can communicate with each other but because you're also separated by the guardrail and all the crowd is making noise and stuff like that it's quite easy to be able to get messages from one to the other and sometimes we even use the ref as well to do that okay there's certain tv shows that are leaning into this notion of wrestling like glow which is

the was it the glamorous ladies of wrestling great show it's a true story. Yeah. Do you think that the depiction shown in those shows is pretty accurate? Yeah, there's also another one that's had Stephen Amell in it from the Arrow series called Heels. And that one is also set in a similar sort of time. Here's the best one. Watch The Wrestler with Mickey Lawrence. I've got it down here in my DVD. Of course you do. Yeah, it's a great film.

Also, the one that came out fairly recently was Zac Efron about the... Oh, yeah, the Von Erich movie. The Von Erich family, yeah. That was good. That was a great film. Yeah, that was very, very similar sort of vein.

And, yeah, I mean, if you watch even true stories about wrestling through podcasts and videos like this or, you know, people talking top 10 lists, that sort of stuff, you'll learn a lot about the industry very quickly. And it is a – for a long time, it was a very dark industry. And in some cases, it still is. But, yeah, I think that the presentation in media is sometimes very accurate and sometimes very inaccurate.

Like young rock for example there's a lot of inaccuracies in there because they've tried to make it more palatable for a non-wrestling audience young rock being the show about the rock as a young man growing up yes yeah rock the dwayne johnson as ollie davis calls him but yeah no so he's um he's a fascinating one because he kind of likes to sort of try and appear more into that hollywood style but just recently he's come back into the wrestling family to try

and rehab his image because of his failures in Hollywood recently over the last few films he's made, you know, so he's come back.

That was an interesting revival of his character too, how they had to pivot that situation, you know, from what it was supposed to be into something else. And yeah, it's riveting. Yeah. Can I, can I just ask, sorry, just for the sake of naivety, because I, I haven't really delved into the wrestling world since maybe like the year 2000. And, you know, maybe because there wasn't access to it, you know what I mean? It was always on,

like a cable TV would you have to pay for and so forth? You know, I didn't really have access to that growing up. You know, there's people like Sting that were very, very prominent during my time. Stone Cold, very prominent. What's the kind of lifespan for a wrestler? Is it the type of thing that you will time out on? Yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah, as a magician, I feel like you can keep performing for a long time. Tell that to Ric Flair.

Well, that's what I was getting at. So is Ric Flair still in? He just had his last match at like age 72. No kidding. No, no, he's older than that, Doug. He's older than that. And that match was for, you know, like I had a feeling. He had like a heart attack in the match or something. He was about to die. Yeah, right. And it was because he neglected his medicine and he didn't hydrate at all before the match.

Yeah, and he almost died. Yeah, ridiculous. Ric Flair is the GOAT, but not a role model for sure. No. Go on now. To his credit, 75 years of age. He's still going. This man doesn't have a pause button. He's still active, sort of, but not wrestling active. I think he's done now. No, he's marketing. I think Viagra and weed now is his job. I just found out that Sting, I just mentioned a moment ago, is 65 years of age.

I happily watched his last match at AEW. I bought that pay-per-view. I was not sad about it. Especially because the best in the world was on there. Tell me who that is. Was Punk on that show? No. Was he? What about Will Ospreay, though? Yeah, Will Ospreay. Yeah, yeah. He was on that show. I was going to say, that's not his moniker, but I guess it's sort of true. Oh, yeah. Punk is the best in the world, but I'm talking about the legit best in-ring performer of the modern era.

Yeah, I would say that Will Ospreay definitely has a contendership for that.

Yeah, he's on another level, man. Oh, my goodness. you know how i was mentioning earlier that that athleticism that you can have in matches where your choreography is like it's like a dancer you know it's unbelievable and it is that yeah it's remarkable what is going on all these guys are like hitting 60 i'm just doing a quick google search stone cold undertaker all these cats are 59 30 60 the smart guys you know the more important thing is to be an entertaining performer and as

long as you're good on the mic and can generate the audience reaction you can work a slow style in the ring do some punches and headlocks and not have to take a hard wet road right yeah no there's definitely ways to to prolong the um the the the career but look here's another example that we can all relate with teller for example you know his body is shot these days and he's had a million different surgeries because he's a very physical performer as he does his shows.

And, you know, he's had to tone it down a lot. And obviously it's the same thing in wrestling. You know, if you work your body out too much, the injuries will rack up. You know, it's a very physical industry. So, you know, sometimes you're out early, sometimes you're out late, sometimes you stay too long, you know. Yeah, it's a varied, yeah, life expectancy for a career in wrestling. I have another silly question.

Go for it. is it like there's like a Mexican scene of wrestlers and yeah there is like a huge level of physicality that I've seen comparative to.

To to that is there a reason for that like when you see them jump it's almost acrobatic it is almost like circus acrobatic when you watch them like ray mysterio i believe like he was so physical and he's still going aerial moves like you would not believe like it why is what's the influence of the mexican notion versus anything else is there a reason for that that you're aware of yeah so i guess it's just you know look i mean it's the

same thing in magic I'll compare it to it every time if I can, and usually I can. In Magic, there's a whole bunch of different styles of Magic. Just like in Wrestling, there's a whole bunch of different styles in Wrestling. There's Lucha Libre. There's more of American-style storytelling. There's deathmatch Wrestling with weapons and blood and violence and glass and thumbtacks. That sort of stuff is pretty crazy, and I've done a little bit of it,

and I'm probably not going to again. Some of those matches are just insane.

Yeah, no, I did one. one of the gcw gwz what's the california federation yeah gcw there's um czw ecw was the one back in the 90s and 2000s oh i was there for that run the whole thing i watched every one of those shows i think yeah that stuff was crazy that was all human federation you know there was a mick foley mankind who was a very unique character and crazy i met him he's a nutcase he's awesome yeah he gained a huge level of popularity i remember during

that time he had the mask on it was it was basically like a very slipknot era if you know what i mean and i listened to a couple of interviews during that time because you you send me you send me wrestling stuff and i send you wrestling stuff on socials we have a bit of a giggle you can put me in that loop you know oh yeah absolutely but what i found interesting was that you know there's you mentioned there's a level of

communication that happens secretly during a match And I find that really fascinating. And there's certain performers that when you do the moves or whatever you communicate. Some wrestlers are worse than others or rough than others. And apparently everyone who performed alongside mankind, they struggled and he like, you would almost guarantee that he would be sloppy and do something that would generally hurt you. Like was the, was the consensus.

Have you been in any situation where people haven't given you that courtesy where you've been hurt by them because of their sloppiness? Yeah, there has been a couple of times and look, honestly, it's sometimes it's just freak accidents. I can honestly say for Mick Foley's style, Mankind's style, yeah, Cactus Jack, whichever character he was portraying throughout his career, like he had a very hard-hitting, you know, rugged style of wrestling because that was his character.

You know, that's what he wanted to portray because that was what made him stand out. Yeah, but in terms of my in-ring stuff, I like to consider myself a pretty safe worker. You know, I don't, you know, put anyone in risky situations. You know, like I'm pretty well-trained. I've been through a lot of different schools and I've, you know, learnt a lot of different things and I keep that up.

But, yeah, there has been a couple of times where I've been in situations where other people have had accidents happen and then that has hurt me. Like I got a concussion and I got knocked out in the ring off a bad powerbomb. So the guy who was giving it to me. So in the rings, there's a couple of different ways that the rings will be put together. There's one with metal beams that flex and then hardwood, bit of padding, canvas, right?

Right the other type of ring which is a lot less common now but used to be very common uh is a spring-based ring so there's one predominant spring in the middle of the ring.

Wood padding yeah so yeah that would be the prominent one why not anymore yeah not anymore because the springs are a bit temperamental and also the issue with the spring-based rings i'm gonna i'm gonna tell you what happened to me i i took a sit-out powerbomb you can look it up up online it's like the you know dave batista famous hollywood obviously used to be a wrestler his finish was the batista bomb where he would get someone

someone's head in between his legs he would flip them up so that they were sitting yeah with their crotch right next to their face and then they would he would slam them down and sit out with it at the same time now if you both land together it's a it's a safe good easy bump you just got to tuck your chin and and smack the Matt, the one that I got given was in a spring-based ring, and the guy who did it to me, he was meant to sort of push me down a little bit, and then I take the bump

at the same time as he takes the bump on his ass. He did not push me. So he landed with me on his shoulders pretty much in the process of coming down. Spring goes down from his landing and then comes up into the back of my head. Knocked out, concussed, bad. I wake up in the back and like carried out. I've got the footage. It's hard to watch. But yeah, so that was the situation that happened. And I later found out that he hadn't really done the move before.

So that's a situation where like, look, that's something you want to practice a training and make sure you're safe to do it. So that's, yeah. That's the parody of magic. That's the parody. Like these are the common grounds that wrestling has to magic. I can totally appreciate like why now so many magicians are into it.

There's a lot less risk of injury in magic. But to be fair, I mean, yeah, there is still a lot of risk, you know, not just of exposing a trick or, you know, having a bad performance but yeah you can you can injure yourself doing something stupid like if you're doing a razor blade swallowing act or a needle swallowing act you could bloody kill yourself you know so yeah same thing in the wrestling you just gotta practice and then

once you practice enough some people get the hang of it some people don't just like in magic you know like i've got all this inside of my head it's just gonna come out you know well i generally find it inspiring to the point where like i would gladly start watching wrestling again like or even in a social capacity where we all get together and get pizzas and do the type of thing that as this episode slowly draws to a close, I want to ask you, LJ, what would be the magic guy's.

Titles right so let's say doug's a wrestler all right what's doug's name and what's his finishing move okay and that's that's an interesting one i was not expecting that question and i absolutely love it that is just about the best question i've ever been asked okay oh shit okay while you're thinking about here's where i'm going if i was to make magicians wrestlers for example one time a reason would come out and his finishing move would be like the symphony and he would come out and he

would play like the violin and then he would just bop your one and then like you'd be out you know like it would be all over yeah like the danny d.o.t's would be like i don't know like it would be something and then he does some sort of like pile driver move you know what i mean yeah yeah he'd have to do something big and and and and like big and impactful like a big power move craig watson will just like go over to a monitor and rip the TV off,

then go back into the ring and just dump the TV on you. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think Josh... Yeah. Maybe like... Because you can use bits of your own name, you know, like Douglas Condini or something like that, or even just a single name like Condini, you know, something like that. The con artist. I'm thinking here's a good one. The finishing move, the goshman pinch. That'd be so good. That's a good one. Yeah, as in Doug just grabs you by the

neck or something, and you just drink. With the pinky. Drink the pinky. Oh, he's got him in the gosh darn pinch, and he just goes down and falls asleep.

It sounds like goshman like was a wrestler from the 1920s you know you know who was a wrestler is eddie fechter i don't know if you know his name eddie fechter was a renowned bar magician from new york and he started the effectors flicking finger for all like popular convention here's a good one here's a good one mine's going to be the card stab and what i'm going to do is i'm going to grab a dude i'm going to throw a deck in the air and then i'm going to like

body slam him into the card somehow, or some sort of like pick up and smash cards go everywhere. And then you open his mouth and like, it's like a card in his mouth. Like the death card. That's going to be my move. It's going to be like Cosentino. You can do the, the, the sawn in half, which is like a backbreaker onto your knee kind of vibe. Yeah. And he's got, he's already got a bloody wrestling name. Yeah. My wrestling, you know about, well, you know about Fantasio from WWE.

Yeah. Okay. I had one person say I should do that and I was just like no I think I'm good I think I'm going to do cool magic yeah that was a travesty so what I see I see Doug Kahn as in like Kahn man I would be a heel for sure I would be using sneaky tactics, you're a Kahn man and you'd be bribing the referee to look while you're doing stuff and then you would pick smart, and then what you would do is like you would do like the peen shell game, but you would just go like bang.

And then like the shells would be on the person's eyes and they're blind and they can't see what's up. You just throw a bunch of peas in the floor and then they slip and then fall on the piece. Like, I think that would be hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. I would, I would like my title as a magician to be smooth operator and come out in the suit. You know what I mean? Yeah. And a smooth operator. Oh yeah. That's, that's, that's got, that's got legs.

I like that. That'd be fun. And then Josh, what would Josh be? Josh has just got to be a big man, right? Like he, you got to use that size. Yeah. Got to use that. That would be, he big. Um, I don't know. That's a hard one. That's a hard one. If he was here, then I'd give him a wrestling name, but he's not here. So I see Josh with like the title, just like hot Josh. And that's it. Yeah. He's got the sunglasses and the hat. Sunglasses, the hat. It comes out. The smallest Speedo available.

How small can we get this thing? Yeah. We'll need that to make his package look bigger because it's not really. Yep. Comes out with a can of V naturally. Takes a sip. Spits it into the air. Runs, you know. Almost like he backflips into the ring. Yeah. 100% backflips onto the ring.

Yeah. I see that for sure. but geez that hour has gone by super quick and i say that we wrap this up with something fun i have this idea for a rapid fire question are you ready for this lj as we wrap up okay first question if you were locked in or stuck in an elevator with any magician living or dead who would you like to be stuck in there with ray crow nice if you could be stuck on the show please yeah i'll work on it yeah do it done what about if you were stuck in the elevator with

a wrestler oh either taker or maybe kenny omega nice who is the coolest person in your contact list oh jesus. I feel like it has to be probably like Tim Ellis because he's just got so much stuff. Like you had him on the show, you know, and we know him well. So, yeah, it's got to be Tim. Like he's got so much amazing knowledge. All right. If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be? Unique. Nice. And final question, did you have a good time?

Oh, absolutely. Is that even a question? Like I was grinning from ear to ear and laughing my ass off the whole show I had a fantastic time well we had the best time and unfortunately out of time we'll probably end up talking wrestling a little while after this and we should probably make a night of it as well to get together and watch a match every now and again but LJ thank you so much for being on the show and thank you to everyone for in the chat who has been

here Randall Alex Kevin all you guys thank you all for being here I say it's about time we take it to the final word and we'll leave it with you LJ. Thank you very much to the Magic guys for having me on the show. Absolutely had a blast. And if you're interested in seeing more of my work and upcoming shows in Australia or elsewhere around the world, just look up LJ Magician and you'll be able to find me on all your favorite social platforms.

I've got some shows coming up in October for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, which is the same one that won the award in the festival we just had in Melbourne, the Magic Festival. And yeah, I had an absolute blast today. Thanks a lot for having me. 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.