Magic, Improv, and Everything in Between with Michael Dardant #193

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

Ladies and gentlemen, I don't believe this. We are at episode 193 of the Magic Guys. Up to my right, we got Nick K. Welcome to the show, friends. And on the other side, we got Mr. Master, Doug Kahn. Bonjour, bonsoir, and everything in between. How y'all doing? That was pro. I'm doing really well, man. And actually, no, I've been a little unwell, like just over the last weekend, just too much being a magician. It's all good. Yeah. But hey, I'm Josh Norbedo, one of your wizards today.

This is the podcast where we chat about our lives as magicians, interview really cool people in the field and share our shenanigans. As we can see already in the chat, Nick, who is joining us on the live?

Because you could watch this live. in the house we have our good friend thomas conger tim askin our good friend scotty p who is doing so well in the magic realm who's been oh yeah listen to our episodes regularly taking our advice reaching out to us for advice bro you are so good we are so proud of you so let me tell you what's happening fellas as we're a little low on attendance in the united states i don't think half our audience

has figured out it's been time change and it's actually an hour earlier here now well in about 45 minutes everyone will roll in and be like what's happening.

Yeah true and also in australia it's melbourne cup day which is a big day for horse racing so, everyone's like going out to some kind of luncheon event which nick i'm i'm assuming you're gigging somewhere for that today no no no i i don't want to say it as a slander i don't pay that much you can say oh those gigs don't pay that much i don't know what this is what upsets me like the racing industry horse racing industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and they

can't fork out for decent entertainment you know what i mean well like it's the the actual venues putting on a spread for people to come and watch the game at least in brisbane they're coming to watch the game on a tv screen to watch the race yeah so it's not like it's the melding cart per se but it's these venues venues selling ticketed seats that yeah over here like over the years i would run through i've sort of ran through every venue and they've all just sort of eventually gone

oh that's too expensive for whatever reason even though it goes really well and i'm in the same place as you so, Yeah, I know a lot of guys are booked today, but let me say last time I did it, it was a really good time. So I'll save that for a gig story a little later on. Yeah. What about the Formula One? Did they take care of you, Norbita? Dude, yeah, Singapore knows how to do it. Formula One paid me.

It might be the most I've ever been paid for an event, you know, just to help help that fuel my fellow magis. And they also let me bring my partner, gave her access, gave us an extra suite.

In the hotel to accommodate two people like that was great that was just really good a little bit different uh to to that's how you want your talent coming into the event comfortable you know not like oh we're making grunt money for this thing yeah and i have good news i i can't well i won't say publicly yet until i've signed the dotted line but it looks like i have another overseas contract for february next year and another place around the

world which is cool but not surprised zero surprised that's not the goods that we're here for today doug messaged us a while back and was like hey i've got an in to this freaking cool dude that has a world of knowledge to to be able to share with the pod how did you get connected with this gentleman as i start talking about this man i'm a little embarrassed i haven't invited him on our skit before magic mike darda not that magic mike if you're on instagram i think that's his hashtag boy we

go way back i'm going to guess about 30 years. That's how long he's been a professional. And I remember when I was managing Warpo's Magic Shop in the early 2000s, he was always hanging around that joint. We'd bump into each other at gigs back then. So we've been working shoulder to shoulder in New Orleans for nearly 25 years. And, you know, Mike's born and raised here. And wow, did he make things happen really over the last 10, 15 years?

I can't list all the accolades. There's been so many, but he decided to attack the magic world of the contests. He started entering all the contests in the States and even internationally, even competed at FISM. He's accumulated over 30 awards. I read that on his website. That's probably a lie. He also lies a lot. That's Mike Dardenne's skit. I don't know. He'll tell us. He probably will just come on and list them all.

So yeah, a true professional, the hardest working magician in New Orleans, an award-winning, international award winning act this guy is multi-talented he's going to tell you about his acting his improvisation school and classes that he does and juggles there's lots more let's bring him on so he can talk about it michael dar dad oh that's cool. Music.

Gosh asked me he goes is this is this one okay i forgot you stopped buying your hair a couple years ago i should have put a different thumbnail for you right no but who's that picture for so long that it's like iconic but yeah i look at it and go like who's that guy right well let me just say what a wonderful problem to have michael now for the listeners for the first time please, well i am michael dardone i lie for a living like doug said and actually i don't know if he saw this on my shirt.

Look what my shirt says. Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies. There you go. So now, now, you know, I, I, I think my, my biggest like asset is versatility because I'm not, I, I'm mainly a magician. That's like in the top there, but I've done so many different like aspects of entertainment. Sorry, hold on. My cord got stuck under my chair like that. I've got so many, I guess because of my ADD, I'd get bored easily.

So while some people just kind of like have one field of endeavor i've i've sort of it's learned from all of them so like film production and script writing and improv comedy and acting and juggling and basket weaving you name it actually and one of my one of my favorites is that i'm a virtual ninja uh streaming like virtual reality on twitch which is not not every magician does that damn you're doing of what's the platform is it meta quest with well actually i use both quest and steam and

because i have the two different systems so that i'm using and i have an entire green screen room behind me so that they can see me in mixed reality yeah you're like in it and they're watching you as though you were in the game i'm the game and so that's why i dress i dress up so that's one thing about like i've always been i've always been a stickler for staying in character and you know having characters i love dressing up like getting in character and i noticed

that a lot of people were were in this mixed reality but they weren't dressed they're just in boxer shorts and i was like no no i'm gonna be the ninja like you're i'm the i'm the game character you're watching me now a live person do these things and it's funny because people tune in and you know the screen you're like this big on the screen right so it takes them a second to realize oh this isn't an. This is an actual person in a costume, right? Or as I call it, a uniform.

I don't like using- Can we sort of explore character development? Because you have quite an exorbitant acting background and so forth. And a lot of magicians I talk to, well, this might be like a two-part question because character development is one thing. But I also find that as you evolve through your career, and thankfully you had. A very successful and long one, that you find yourself changing.

Like the person you were performing in your 20s is very different to the person you're going to be when you hit your 40s and so forth so let's start with the question of saying like as far as character development goes what advice do you have for those who are starting and finding their character well i would say for me it was actually easier to develop other characters than to figure out who i was like what my own was i would say that that took years to master that when doug first met me I was

just trying to figure it out and trying to you know just figure out how to make this trick work and and make it entertaining and not knowing how it was actually me or who I was and I feel like that took years whereas it was so much easier and more fun to just go like who's this character what kind of accent what's the name does he have a mustache like and that that is just easier and more fun and I've just always kind of loved like delving into

the world of being someone else so like one of the main characters that i do is sort of an extension of myself which is cousin cajun mike who is since i'm from cajun country and i started realizing everybody loved that oh there you go there's cousin there's a program from the society of american magicians convention where mike produced a couple of shows um you did this one too the masquerade magic that was a good one but this is the one that showcases your character uh cousin cajun mike.

So question about cousin Cajun Mike, is he is he your stand up character?

Basically that it is a stand-up character in fact people have asked before if i could show up somewhere and do cousin cage and mike doing sleight of hand magic and it's so funny how okay i get their thought process but to me i was just like obviously no like what how would cousin cage and mike know anything about sleight of hand that makes no sense like that because it just doesn't fit the character he like basically i'm a couillon as we say and

down south i'm a doofus and so like For him to all of a sudden be smooth and slick and fanning cards, what? That would not be his character. Now him messing up magic tricks or doing gags where he's trying to do magic but reveals it or whatever, drops it on the ground, that makes sense. Well, in his defense, Gambit's Cajun, right? And he's pretty swift with cards.

Gambit is Cajun, y'all, and that makes it hard for him to be smooth with an accent like that. But I learned that girls love it because they'd be like, talk to me in Cajun. And I'm like, it's not a language. And I don't have to impress you guys with card throwing skills, but they used to call me Gambit in high school because as I was learning sleight of hand from 13 on, I would throw cards everywhere.

And I have more reason to hate Channing Tatum than anyone because not only did he steal my stage name for no reason, he became my favorite character in the world. It's true. You were the first Magic Mike in this. You were Magic Mike before Magic Mike was a thing.

No card tricks spoiler alert he didn't do a single card trick as magic yeah that is weird that is that is such a good play on words and opportunity you know but then he plays, well that yeah you got to give him that i mean you know he's that kind of makes him cooler than than any of us the fact that he gets to play gambit but i watched the whole movie and i thought well at least they're going to explain it like at some point they're going to explain where

he got the name like did matthew mcconaughey make it up like we don't they never there's no reason like why isn't he dancing dave you know or stripping stripping steve stripping steve would have been better i would like that movie or or like don't like doug or something yeah.

Wang wane there's so many where's the magic coming from actually that's the name they have a version of it that they dubbed in korean and i believe that's the title they changed the title up yeah let's go that's awesome so i'm curious mike your character your magic character which i believe is is you right it's not like you know like it's definitely michael dardant right yeah i would say that that's the closest to me that basically when i'm magic mike it's really it's

really just me in my element of like i enjoy being on stage and here's here's my comedy timing here's what here's what i feel like is the way that i present and you know other than that the only difference may be that on stage, I never curse. And maybe when you meet me in person, and it's just really me hanging out without the hat on, then maybe I'll get a little more blue, but not even that much, because it doesn't fit me. Yeah.

Nice one. And can I ask as well, so Doug was saying all these accolades with magic competitions, that's sort of a funny thing in the magic world. Like people are like, do I focus on trying to, you know, figure out how to get gigs as a magician or do I try and, you know, do competition acts? Like what benefits have you found to like committing to entering these competitions to like improve your act or like, do they differ to what you might do in the real world?

Like what's sort of been your process? A lot of differences. That's an excellent point and great question because there is kind of a question of that. When we talk about who can represent the United States in FISM now and do a good job, well, the people that we think of, we go like, why would they? Why do they need that? Why would Lance Burton have to go back over to FISM? You know what I mean? And so the reason behind it, I would say twofold.

One, I felt the need to prove myself in the magic world. But I think also that there really has to do with the second part, which is to prove myself to me. I feel like it really was about that I needed that to prove to myself that I can justify my price. I can justify my talent. When a client is talking to me, I can say, hey, look at the site. I did it. I have the accolades to prove that I can even stand out amongst my peers, that my own peers, they respect me and they appreciate what I do.

And so look at the hair. and so you're having the first place international brotherhood of magicians trophy is that correct, yes and that was the first one yeah and then you just went on a tear and you ran around the world collecting all kinds of trophies i'm in your gallery we're looking at pictures on mike's so you did an act a comedy act here you are with kitty chaos and trixie manx each of which were featured in your award-winning show is that correct yeah so there was actually two acts that

was the other thing that that i did was i i went like if i'm going to make these trips and i'm going to be traveling all over going to these competitions i may as well like double my chances of taking home a trophy so i was entering close-up magic and stage magic the whole time now most of the awards are in close-up magic so most people know oh hear me no i said smart i was pointing. I wasn't aware that you had done that, Michael, but that's super smart approach. Double down.

Actually, in Quebec, there was no rules about how many categories you could enter. So the first time I've been to the Festival of Magic in Quebec, like...

Maybe eight times and the first time there was five categories and i asked how many categories can you enter they're like that i did as many as you want i i entered all five with five different acts and took first place in two of them and because like in the first first and only time i ever won a mentalism award which is like i'm not i don't you doug knows i'm not really a mentalist but I won first place in mentalism because that's the act fit that category.

And it was more of a just, you know, increase the odds kind of thing. Now that was a little crazy. I would say I would never do that again because basically for five days straight, myself and Shanna Forrestal, who was my assistant, were by the hotel pool rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing because there was five different acts for her to learn because she's an actress who had never done magic or anything. I just said, I need somebody. You're going to do this because I know you can.

And she had to learn five acts in two weeks.

And who is this? Shanna Forrestal, brilliant actress that I've worked with. A quick plug for a movie that I'm in called Trailer Park Jesus from a few years ago. And she plays my wife. Trailer Park Jesus is hilarious. I definitely recommend being on something or drinking something when you're watching it. It's that kind of flick. But the great thing is we're working on Sean Gerwin, And the director is working on the sequel. He's working on a script right now for the sequel.

You won some awards for that, right? Or it's a winning movie? We won like, I think, 13 awards at comedy film festivals, at film festivals. And most of them like comedy related. Yeah, it did so well on the independent market. It's available on Amazon, YouTube. It's just never, you know, it's not a blockbuster. It's not an Avengers movie. It's, you know, an independent film that was filmed here in Louisiana.

You're doing that. Is it just like a labor of love? You just get together with some, you know, fellow filmmakers and just put the best effort you can. For the most part, it is. In fact, to give you an idea, I framed the check. I didn't bother depositing the check I got. I framed it with a movie poster. So it's in there. Anything's possible, though. You're right. You make a good film and you never know. You never know. And the thing is, why would you want to get away with that?

That's kind of one of the problems in that balance that you try to achieve in our industry is like once you start getting paid for it and you realize you need to get paid for it and you want to get paid for it, you kind of have to say no to when you're not paid for it. But when does it stop being a labor of love? And it should it. So that shouldn't stop you from making a labor of love.

That should kind of always be the priority because that's what makes it about the art and makes you shine in what you do is the fact that they can tell you love this. You love what you're doing here. When we watched the, what do you call it? The screening of one of the many versions of Trailer Park Jesus. It was still seven versions away from the final. but there was a couple of the director's friends there watching with us and just like five of us on the couch.

And, and at the end, Sean goes, what do you think? And the guy sitting next to me goes, Oh, I really love that Paul character, which is who I play. And I think he's like making a joke because I'm sitting right there. And he goes, I love that Paul. He was so amazing. So and he's going off and Sean realized, he goes, you realize Paul's sitting right next to you. And he looks over and he had no idea.

And that to me was the best compliment I could get as an actor ever the fact that i'm sitting next to this guy why he watches me an entire movie not knowing that that it's me that that i'm him there it is yes so there's jesus turned wine and water into wine coolers in this movie jesus turns water in the trailer park jesus of course the trailer park jesus basically the entire i don't know if we can we talk about acid the unicorn by the way that's the the director the entire movies about this

trailer park on acid is is essentially you know from the plot line there sounds all right yeah gee that's a really out there plot when i did check your some of the accolades and things you've been involved with want to see if i read this correctly were you in a movie called where strippers go to die yes i was i was and guess what you know what the answer is new orleans bourbon street.

Exactly you figured it out i used to go watch them, literally yeah you could see it happen i feel like there's an in-joke there that us on our side of the planet we we kind of don't get what's the connotation there was sorry did you fill us in yeah so these guys are from australia so what a strip club is um. I'm not a strip club kind of guy, but I've ended up in a couple, a couple of times. And you end up in one or two here.

That's the wrong joint. And it's just jaw dropping what they'll put on a stage in this city. It's really like its own form of entertainment. That's kind of the, I guess the dichotomy there, because that's not what the film is about at all. It's like a horror, like drama, murder mystery thing. But the whole joke about the title is the fact, yeah, it's, it was, it was very, it was a drama.

It is not a comedy by any means in fact that's probably one of my only dramatic that's one of the only dramatic roles that i can remember and shanna forestall who i was just talking about was also in that was there and helped me through that because i was like i'm a comedian i don't know how to play this and she was amazing just in 10 minutes the acting instructor instructions she gave me is something that i'll never ever forget and that i've been able to apply to everything and but the

joke of the title is that as doug said like if you've ever been you know if you've been to a strip club like you know that one of the best questions you can get on bourbon street is which one should we go to because you know you got your your ritzy high-end joints and then you got what we would call like you know your truck stop on the way to alabama where they can't even serve alcohol because that's too risky like that's there's a difference you know just like there's

a difference in good like good magicians and bad magicians there's definitely the location. Location, location, location. Let's talk like a little transition from like your independent movie stuff. You do a lot of work in this town also on the professional television end of things. We're pretty busy here producing TV shows in New Orleans and you're always doing something. You know, CSI or whoever. Yeah.

Yeah. I have had some interesting roles and I realized that they usually look for me for interesting roles. So that can work for you or against you. So like, for example, you don't really want, I want somebody to think of me for a role that I could fit and that I, if I look the role and I can bring some talent, not just because, oh, this requires juggling or sleight of hand.

So I would say that a lot of times they think of me for specific reasons like for example i played the silverman in ncis where i was the the living statue that they knew that i had performed i had performance experience and i had been in new orleans they figured this guy could you know he knows something about street performing he could play this this role i was the only one that showed up to the audition completely in character which amazed me that's another

another time when i was like no cajun mike doesn't do magic why would you not come to this audition painted silver it's right why would you not that doesn't make sense to me and of course and got the role nailed it but that you want to be kind of considered for you you want the challenge of being able to go to after after roles they wouldn't even think that you would be able to kill but you you kill it in the audition and i will say that i've been very very busy with auditions now how many

roles do i do i land i don't even care anymore you know like i said labor of love you just do them send them off like little birds and like maybe it'll come back to me probably not and i i actually did the math because i keep all my video files of the auditions and it took a hundred auditions to nail the last one i did on disney plus so it was it was over a hundred so it was actually a hundred and so like how many people are going to play that numbers game you know are

going to take it that seriously they're like consistency persistence can you talk a bit about that process? Are these online auditions now? Is that a common thing? It is now. It wasn't before. It used to be that every time you had an audition, you'd have to drive somewhere across town and get in front of the casting director and try to memorize it before you got there, have the sides with you, figure out what they're going for. Since...

Covid we started doing online auditions where it's you and your own camera in front of like this screen behind me actually flips around and becomes a blue screen so you want your auditions for a gray or blue not a great screen and you you'd film you set up good lighting you try to have somebody hopefully read with you because it's really difficult you know if there's nobody there because normally the casting director would have a reader so if

there's if there's lines and someone's reading you know reading back to you you can't really do that without so there is that challenge. But it is, it does make it more accessible. Like I've been able to, I don't think I would have been able to do as many of those auditions every time I had to drive across town. And so that accessibility makes it kind of like, why not work hard? If some people like I might get the role because I got up early and did it.

And that's one of the things that's like, if you just get after it, like these are simple, knock them out. Who knows what they're looking for? Don't worry about the rejection. Who cares? That was 99 knows to get one. Yes.

But that one yes was awesome and it was fun and it was worth it and like the 99 knows were worth it too because those were fun as well and those were different characters that i had got to have the challenge of so when i get aggravated with it i you know like i haven't nailed one in a while i just remind myself of that that you know what who gets to get up have fun playing a new character each day so just do it just why not show them what you got and they can

reject you as many times as you want there's no limit that's the thing there's no limit to the amount of rejections you can get no one has said you can only get this much rejection you can do it all your life it's great a lot of people fear that rejection and fear like and assume as a type of failure do you have any advice for people who who are too afraid to to even try that sort of thing it's that's one thing i'll plug the the improv

right now because that's one thing one principle that improv comedy teaches you is to embrace failure because where else can you just slam dunk the failure which i guess is my phrase i don't know where to come up with this you slam dunk the failure and you can still be a success because you're still entertaining. When everyone knows that you were just thrown under the bus and you don't have a script, then no matter what you do, as long as you do it and you nail it,

it's gonna work. It's gonna be entertaining because they're gonna love it. So like if Doug and I are in a scene and Doug makes me a Russian character, just calls me Boris for some reason. Now I might have a great Russian accent. I might have a horrible Russian accent, but either way, it's gonna be hilarious. It's gonna kill. It's gonna be entertaining because they know that until one second ago, I didn't know my name was Boris.

But when you work on that kind of stuff and you accept that, it becomes so much easier to accept failure in any situation because you're used to it and you've kind of like acclimated to that where you're like, I got this. It's fine. I can fail. Yeah. I want to touch base on what you're doing with improv before we get too far along and don't and segue into this with one of the many things that you do is actually teach improv. You've been doing it for over a decade.

You want to talk a little bit about that? And then we'll talk about what you're doing on online with it now. So about maybe 12 years ago, Kate Arthurs, who is the theater director at Jesuit High School and has known me as a magician for years because her father was a magician. In fact, I've worked with her sister, Carolyn, for years and years. So the family was very familiar with magic. But she also knew that I incorporated a lot of comedy into what I do.

And so one of her students wanted to organize an improv team. But they needed a coach. They needed a moderator. They needed somebody. They needed an adult, quote unquote adult. So basically, she asked herself, who do I know who would not be at a regular job on Tuesday afternoon, Magic Mike? And so she called me up. I said, I would love to do that. And having no idea, I'm thinking, okay, this is a job to earn some extra money. This could be fun.

I had no idea how much I would learn that, how much it would teach me to be able to evaluate this and process it and figure out the intricate details as to what works and what doesn't. And these kids talking with me after a scene, it's like, we can see the matrix where we're like, yes, that's what would, that was beautiful. That's why it worked. And it's incredible. And, and then, so I decided, well, I've been doing that for a while now. I got my chops.

People started asking me, do you offer it anywhere else? And I said, yeah. Well, actually, I didn't know how to do the online thing. That's new. That first one starts tomorrow. Hold on because you have, and I'm kind of showing your cred here. I think, You have what you call a vodcast, which has a loose backbone of an improv as part of this is your something up my sleeve. Is this associated with the IBM? Yes. So the International Brotherhood of Magicians approached me.

That was after the pandemic went because Harrison Greenbaum was doing an interview show, but got really busy again with theaters and everything. And they wanted to keep the online presence going. and I thought for years I would love to just be a host because what more chance do you have to practice improv, right? To like being somebody who interviews, well, you know, I'm talking to three hosts right here. So you know how much fun it can be and how much experience you can gain from that.

And then I wasn't even thinking about the fact that, wow, what an honor it will be to interview some of my heroes that I've had along the way, like Sean Marquardt, Doug Kahn.

You had some real heavy hitters on there yeah lance burton was one of our recent guests was incredible to have you know like somebody that i watched when i was 13 years old watched would i need to be an ibm member to watch these videos or are they accessible elsewhere no actually they're making the whole video like and and some like extra stuff is going to be accessible on their website that members will be able to access at any time the rest of it though it's still

my footage and it exists on my youtube page so you can watch all of them but i realize that you have to go to you probably know that you have to go to live. Like if you just go to videos, they don't show up. You have to go to live. So I'm now I'm reposting them as videos. But also I haven't made it a podcast because I wanted to have enough set up so that I could stay consistent. And now the goal is 2025. It will be on Spotify as an audio podcast and repeat as a podcast as well.

But essentially we have 36 episodes over the last three years, but most of them can actually be split into two because i had two guests per episode so you know for the podcast i'm gonna split those up and doug was were you my first were you my first were you the number one i think you i don't know i think doug was my very first guest ever on something up my sleeve damn yeah and it's because i was like i know who to call i know who can make this rock i i know right here around the corner so

was that was that before you were on the magic guys doug that must have been about that same time i guess i would have done some guest episodes and such you know i inspired him he was like i gotta do this yeah and somehow luckily we snagged him right yeah like it's fun you know you come on and you're just hanging out with your bros meeting cool people and it's you know this is very much as much of a social thing for me as anything so yeah

it's like that absolutely So question about the improv, Mike. I think that practicing some of the techniques taught in improvisation is kind of important. You can't exactly yes and by yourself. What sort of advice do you have for people who want to practice their improv but don't always have people to bounce off? Oh, that is a – oh, my God. What an amazing question.

In fact, what I tell magicians is that practicing improv is kind of like practicing a watch steal or a classic force because you're not going to be able to do it on the mirror. Although you can start to do it in your head when you really get the concept and all of a sudden you'll have these moments where you're like, did I just script that whole conversation that I had because it went exactly how I thought it would because I kind of like forced that yes and along the way.

And essentially that's kind of what's happening in a classic force, right? We're yes ending them. We're watching their movements and that's exactly what's happening on a physical level. And so one thing I point out to people is that when you don't have a partner, first of all, that's why I didn't really know how to... Claim these or name these principles is because I hadn't had the proper training where like actual improv training, but these things were working for me along the way.

So as an individual performer, when you don't have somebody on stage with you and you're the show, unless you're only performing like to music apparatus type stuff, anytime you're interacting, that's improv because the audience doesn't have a script. This volunteer doesn't have a script. You might think, you know what they're going to say when you say, pick a card, but you don't necessarily.

And it doesn't always go as planned. And so those are moments definitely where not only do you practice, but you store them because when something happens, like just the other night, uh, there weren't supposed to be any kids at this show. It was a big birthday party show. I, they sent me what the invite was. And it said, please don't bring, bring your kids. Cause this is an adult party. Sure enough. There's three kids there and they're sitting in the front row when

I'm performing my magic show for adults. Right. But it was great. I pulled this kid up and I told her from my kids show way back, the magic words are yama, yama, yama. Gotta love your mama. And that's just like some silly thing I learned a long time ago. And it just works in kid shows. She accidentally goes drama, drama, drama. Gotta love your mama. And it was in 30 years. I've never heard that. It was brilliant. And I was like, now it's stored.

Now I'm going to remember that. How do I make that happen again? Or how do I use that if the situation comes up? Or I'll say to the kid, like if they do something weird, I'll go like, I said, yama, yama, yama, not drama, drama, drama. And it's going to seem completely improv. And it's all because I stored that improv moment in my head, you know, so I can make it real again. Sorry, I hope that answered. I just kind of went on that track. No, that's great. That's great.

I think outside of that, I love improv myself and I studied quite a bit. My personal favorite book is probably Keith Johnson's book on improv. And the first thing he says to establish in that book when you're doing any sort of improv scene is established status. Do you think that's important? I don't know if it's, if it's, I would say it's the most important, like the, from the get go, I feel that, you know, I, I say that I kind of switched the order of the rules around.

So I, what I do is I talk about yes. And first, since it's the most important thing, but that's because you got to get your mental state ready. So that is the first thing, because before anything's happened, you got to mentally know that this is how we do it. We are going to yes. And the situation, and then you got to concentrate on saying the first thing that comes to your mind.

And I think once you start to establish that, then what's going to make a scene a better story is within the first three, four lines, once you've established the relationship, the environment, then you would move on to like, now what's our status? Because that establishes character. And now we're not just watching two people talk.

Now we're watching two characters interacting and we can see what that status is, which can lead to the problem and the resolution or a, status switch to throw everything off unexpectedly. So status is very important. Absolutely. This all seems a little bit complex and something that someone might want to have a four week training course to consume. I don't think status should come up to probably week four.

So week four, we definitely should talk about status, but that is a little complex for someone to remember when they're just trying to remember to not say no.

Yeah. Well, that's why I agree because he said it's the first thing you need to establish and i'm like that's so difficult to do like or am i the jester or the king in this scene like it's very difficult to try and establish that if you're not told that you're this character you know and so that's why i thought that's the question but yeah i think that and different and difficult to portray because you might think you have status but if it's within your first line your partner might completely

mistake that and they might take the status role you know like if i say if i say you're on a planet out in space, you might think to yourself i'm an alien but then your partner becomes an alien before you can speak and now you've got to adjust and realize and in a sense that that might be considered a status situation but more of like a character an opposite situation of like if he's an alien i should be the astronaut you know and that i was going to make him the astronaut but that's

okay i'm going to go with it because yes and that is the truth he established that truth the audience knows it's true so what do i do with it and oh and this reminds me of one of my favorite moments when my students where I was just like, oh my God, this kid gets it. It was an alien. It was the same kind of thing where I guess they were on a planet. Or somehow I didn't know that the kid was going to be an alien. Somehow maybe it was a spaceship.

And so the kid didn't know he was going to be an alien. I didn't know. And the other kid, his partner, makes a comment and makes him an alien. Goes like, are you in it? Whatever. You must be an alien from another planet. And his response, his yes and, he goes.

I lost it i for the next fight i don't know what happened after that because i lost it i that was one of the funniest moments ever and just like in that simple movement yes and obviously i'm an alien oh yeah i i don't know where he got that that was just this brilliance that came through i'm like how do you recreate that that was just incredible that's that is solid improv right there all right i can only see this going in one direction i feel like we should

on this pod try some kind of improv exercise now where i would love that is there is there a way to do this on zoom that that you're familiar with michael well and we had and here's how we figured that out and this is why i realized that oh online improv courses weren't available five years ago it's something that took a little like finessing because until i was forced to do my classes for the j troupe on zoom i i would i would have never

thought about what's going to work when you're not on stage what's going to work as a video because it's a completely different thing of when you have to you know figure out what's going on with with the videos and people interrupting each other so what we're going to do so i've established like what games will work what get what games won't so one of my favorite opening games so if can we start off simple i know you have some experience so

but we'll do we'll do one of my favorite openings which is simple my presentation skills are limited to the.

Patter harry lorraine put in the apocalypse it's gonna it's gonna be great for doug so the game is what are you doing okay and so basically what's going to happen is nick is going to start and when i say pantomiming it doesn't mean you can't speak you can use your words but we want to see action we want to see activity so you're going to start go ahead and start pantomiming and just doing an activity let's see you doing an activity physical movement.

Okay. So Doug, so Doug notices that it looks like he's shooting, he's shooting a bow and arrow. Go ahead and add a little dialogue of like, what would you be saying at that moment, Nick? Go ahead and do it again and just add a little something. Okay. The character, while you're shooting the arrow, you say something. Practice makes perfect. Eventually I'll hit the apple, but right now we keep hitting the guy's forehead.

Oh my God, that was beautiful. Nick, that was amazing. So Doug walks up and says to you, what are you doing? Okay. Now we all know as an audience, you're shooting bows and arrows. But you're going to say something you're not doing. You're going to say something completely different. So go ahead and start shooting the arrow. Doug, you do that. That's the worst top change I've ever seen. Oh, that was... I think you were meant to say, what are you doing,

right? Yeah, so that was great because Doug just represented what I mean by slam dunk the failure. That was brilliant. No matter what, that was entertaining. No matter what, Doug totally did not get... I did not explain that's no that's my job as your coach i did not explain it well enough because doug didn't get it the game is like god but that was fantastic it's still fantastic okay so doug all your your line is what are you doing you're saying to nick what are you doing.

Well what are you doing i'm playing guitar so now doug you take over playing guitar, or drums so so now doug you're going to start playing guitar because nick said playing guitar yep nice and see he's already added his own improv because he picked up a prop and he has a wand so so we have even more to work with because now it's not only a guitar it's a magic guitar so doug just add a line just say something to go with what you know i used to be in a band.

So this is such a great scene okay and so then josh is going to go walk up to doug and say what are you doing right doug you've skipped your pills again what are you doing trying to get everyone to drink on the internet you know i used to be a fan wow so now josh has to let's see josh portray that okay yum yum this is tasty stuff that was perfect that was perfect okay so that is the basics of the warm-up game what are you doing and as you can see there's principles in

there we don't have to go into them now but why you're definitely sending each other and you're forced to but to make it a little more challenging what you do is you get two letters and so whatever you're doing has to start with those two letters so josh give me two letters two letters okay s, t okay so obviously just like nick it looks like i'm shooting a bow and arrow but the letters are s t so now when nick says to me what are you doing what are you doing stopping traffic.

All right now nick is going to start stopping traffic. And he's trapped in a box I love it And so now Doug is going to ask I'm stopping traffic and allowing other traffic What are you doing? And so now He has to say something that starts with the letters S and T I'm slinging turds So now Doug's Got to sling turds He has to. Doug What are you doing?

This is where you would in this tragedy of a podcast, man i obviously need okay okay i need someone's zoom improv so now i'm trying to stop this tragedy of a podcast right stopping tragedy that is fantastic good so and that is gentlemen that is what are you doing and if you would ask me what i'm doing i would say i'm serenading on tinder that's what i'd be doing right now oh and anyway oh and then then i would have to do that so yeah i will swipe you i will swipe you in one direction will i

go right will i go left let's just see what i will do what are you doing that was and that was okay well i mean we could keep going around which would be fun how about we uh nick maybe we should switch to a uh geek story segment that's a great idea let's roll into gig stories but thank you that one so gig stories is a section of the show we like to talk about moments of magic either while performing or going from our day to day and who better than to start with with our wonderful

guest michael any cool gig stories friend. As Doug knows, they're endless because, you know, when you perform in New Orleans and especially with Doug's situation where you're street performing, talk about an improv situation, you got to be ready for anything. And if you don't go home with a story, then you weren't paying attention. I have to guess that this town is one of the toughest, most challenging arenas for anyone to perform in. All the parties have alcohol flowing.

Everyone is in a party frame of mind. And usually my arch nemesis, Rockin' Doopsy, is playing Zydeco music with the volume cranked up to 11.

And you can't talk over the music and everyone's drunk. It's a hard town to work, right? Is this every gig, Mike? Absolutely. We live in a town where everybody in your audience is dressed like they're about to take center stage. And sometimes they do.

And and you know john goodman was quoted as saying i would never open a comedy club in new orleans because everyone's so damn funny i mean why go to why to go to a comedy club if you can just walk down bourbon street and you're going to be laughing so hard at everything you see because because everything's crazy uh this situation where people are who they want to be but i mean so much it's almost too much material to work with really and so that's probably

why when when i think about like what gig moments have happened there's just this barrage of craziness that comes from the french quarter so one of the easiest ones for me to actually bring up is something at a kids show which was in kenner so once it was outside of the crazy it was outside of the new orleans uh french quarter area i i got asked to do this birthday party i get to the house and the dad says i just bought her a rabbit so can you could you

make it appear and and i realized like at that moment i realized wow humans just have no idea what we do like they just think they really believe this guy must believe in magic because he just thinks that that is a he just assumes that is a skill set. Anyone who has like touched a book on magic in any situation, even though I didn't show up with my own rabbit or maybe a hat, which I didn't have a hat. Oh no, I must've found a hat. This is going to work because I'm trained for this.

And then, and then I thought to myself, like, you know what? I am trained for this. So I'm going to make this work because he wants to do this magical thing for his daughter. So I found a hat. I put the hat on her head. I did something with whatever I had with me. And then all of a sudden there's a rabbit in the hat and I give her the, I say, guess what?

This is, this is for you because it's your birthday, which now every other kid who was at that party is going to be really pissed when they realize it's not a regular routine. And I didn't, I don't bring rabbits. So at the end, uh, all the kids are playing the dad's, the dad says to me, so where, where did the rabbit come from?

And I said, you gave it to me. like i'm not taking it home right like you know there's more to it there's no you don't have a magic you have a cage not a magic cage right and so he goes no no i mean like the hat was on her head and then she she was holding the hat and then and the rabbit was there and i was like oh oh that's what that's what we call magic like oh you're the grown-up so i get you're in my special club no enjoy the mystery

fool and you you gave me the rabbit you asked for this you asked for this so like take it for what it's worth i'm not telling you if i fooled you then you deserve it you shouldn't have bought a rabbit yeah you could have done it yourself you bitch ass, if you had to do it but no yeah so that's how muggles think yeah it's kind of remarkable they go like oh we want to make a car appear and it's like okay what staging do you have oh we're just going to do it in my house I'm like you are tripping,

it's remarkable when you get those sort of inquiries.

But but you can get so much information because like they're thinking out of the box since they know nothing about how anything's done. We're enclosed based on our concept of what our science presents us of like this is possible. You can't do that. But they just come up with stuff like you're like, huh.

And then all of a sudden you're thinking on an impossible level and a different level and a creative level because you overheard some guy in the stall say that I think I think he had the dove in his car the whole time.

You don't know what you know what they're coming up with yeah all right um already uh in the spirit of improv if you guys like please love it what's your key story well because we we actually have a full improv show here what we do it's called magic sports and it's effectively theater sports but we perform magic alongside them so there's many many games that we play one of the most exciting ones that we do is make a trick and what we do is we have a

giant bucket in the center stage and everyone just throws random stuff in and then we all reach in and we grab things out and then we have to create a trick at the end of the show so while we're backstage we're trying to figure out like what to do with the stuff we have and there was this one time that a guy took off his prosthetic leg and put it in the bucket and so we had to make up a whole routine with the guy's like prosthetic leg so we just came out like in this pirate theme

to do that so that was like one of the cool times we've done that but another game that is one of my proud works is we have a thing called three tasks and what you need to do in this is you get three tasks written down on a piece of paper and you have to do a routine and achieve these three tasks without people knowing and the last time i did it was extremely difficult because i had to take off my left shoe without anyone noticing whoa so i did that i had to put a king of hearts

in a spectator's pockets without them noticing and i had to steal their watch yeah and so the way i achieved that was i I walked through the audience and as I was looking for people. I just kicked off my left shoe with my right foot and I just left my shoe next to somebody's like handbag and left it there. So then I came back out and then I tried to keep the attention up here. So what I did was in the action of them coming around, I thankfully have an index of cards.

So I just index as I got them to walk down, I just in the middle of adjusting them, just put pocket them straight up. And then I did a coin routine to keep the attention up here. And I was doing like muscle passes and so forth. And. Then I did my normal watch deal routine and sent them on their way in the action of like, Oh, sorry. I failed the effect or around the way they go. And then I said like, okay. And then I had to explain what the three things

were. And I go, I think if my shoe looks down and no one knows my shoes gone, but it's next to this lovely lady over there. And then I had to explain that I had to put a King of hearts in someone's pocket. Please check your right pocket. They take it out. And then I go, the last one was I had to take your watch and I just take it out of my top it and I show them. And so that was like one of the biggest challenges to do with these three.

That's my idea of an improv game. Come on. that's fantastic yeah that's that's how you yeah that's how you make magicians do improv which they don't know which if they haven't studied it it's completely i study it i study harry lorraine in the book but what i love about that takes bag of tricks to a whole another level right this weekend actually is pcam in victoria canada farquhar and billy shway alex seaman mike norton they started this bag of tricks

contest where you have like 10 items that you to make a show with and you have you have like three minutes to do an act but having these challenges along the way is that's like a whole nother level and here's what i love about what you said initially about how you would you would make a trick with a prop but while other things are going on you're doing these comedy sports and the whole time you you're going like how am i going to use this false leg is that

forces you to be in the moment because you can't overthink all the other things you're about to do on stage you have to let that go and just be in that moment which is exactly what you need to do in improv because your brain is focused on the end it's focused on what am i doing with this leg can i do my flamingo joke now i should be a pirate and so like the whole time and that and and so you're everything else is going to be that much better because you're

not going to overthink it and let yourself get in the way, Absolutely focused on. I think that's why ADD people are good performers. Because it gives us something to focus on. Yeah. Man. Oh, look, it's been a lot of fun. We've done ones where like, it was called like magic shop. And we're trying to sell magic props, just reaching into a box and pulling out random stuff and trying to sell it. And, you know, these guys, they put these extremely chilly chips in there.

They were like somewhere from Asia. And I was like, oh, a bag of chips. How fun. And I ate one and my face nearly caught fire.

So trying to improv all your faces on fire is another one so yeah you do have to remember about real life it's kind of like when i'm virtual reality and you have to like not run into the wall also when you're improv you have to remember that real fire burns and like stuff like like don't actually jump off the stage even though you're in character because you might break your leg you know like you have to remind yourself sometimes that's fantastic nick i

want you to like i'm hoping that enough magicians are interested in my program that we can actually have one of just magicians and you got to come and like host some of those games because that's.

Fantastic that i want to i want to play those i do have a list like it's actually a pdf with all the magic sports game in there i'll i'll dig it up it's i think it might be on my old laptop this is my new laptop here but i'll afford it to yourself so you can have a peruse through and well great like everybody people have heard of comedy sports that's been around for a long time but magic sports wow that's challenging yeah yeah well i gotta i got a quick story yeah

did a wedding gig last weekend and love weddings because everyone's in a happy mood. You're not trying to break the ice between corporate, you know. Clients and stuff like that. And I start working the reception and I'm doing a few mind reading bits sprinkled throughout it. And I've divined, you know, the names of two separate people that they're thinking of. And the, the, So the mother of the bride, the mother of the bride starts hearing about this.

Oh, he can, he knows who these two people are thinking of. I've done some card effects where I've guessed, you know, the card people have thought of. So by the time I get to her, she's just heard all of this stuff of me reading minds and she decides to challenge me, but as a classic spectator would in the way that she did exactly what I thought she would do. So she's like, man, I've heard you, you, you were able to read this person's mind, this person's mind.

I want you to read my mind. I want you to tell me the card that I'm thinking of. I'm like, oh, okay. Now I'm like, I'm just going to do the classic effect that I would, which is to take a good guess and sit on her hand.

But then whatever card she says, like, I'm going to make it a joke that of course I can't get that right, you know, and then magically make it turn into the card she says, but I she then she then goes after i sit the queen of hearts on her hand because i'm like you know you're the mother of a bride you've been drinking that's probably the only card you can think of.

But then i i see her turn she's like and i'll even tell my friend just so you know i'm not like changing my mind i'm like okay and then the fact that she is talking to her friend for more than like a second confirms to me that it probably is the queen of hearts because she's there for like long enough to say a long card so i'm like this is gonna this is way too good if this if this hits anyway so i'm ready to just find a different card but i'm like and so

i've you know she's really built this up and i've sat this card on her hand and i'm like a meter away and i'm like okay so i gave you so many chances to change your mind you know this is only in your head what card are you thinking of and she bloody says it the queen of hearts and she's like she sells herself She's like, I changed my mind three times before I thought of it, thought of queen of hearts. I'm like, okay, then you turn it over.

And there is a, a mother of a bride out there that genuinely believes like not even as a joke or magic. She like genuinely believes that I'm a psychic. And I don't know how I feel about that, but it is, it is funny.

And I heard from the groom afterwards when he was thanking me, he's like, man, this, yeah, my mother-in-law is like talking about you a lot since, since the wedding, even though we got married I've been hearing a lot about you and so that's my story there I am apparently a true medium out there so with great power comes great responsibility but it's a good gig overall yeah can I tell you the two things I love about that story.

One, the fact that he goes, he has years of stories to pull from, right?

Of the, you know, what happened on a gig. And he goes, so last weekend, like, that's how, you know, you have a cool job. It's like, you can pull from this. What happened last weekend. That's why I'm like, pay attention. You have a story every time you go home, but you can't prove. Can you prove to me that you're not psychic? Like who thought of it first? You can't. That's what those moments, they cannot prove.

But neither can you that maybe you actually did read her mind and that's why you went that way because you're right yeah i did definitely sherlock holmes her and you know profile her to go all right you do look like a classic queen of art so yeah you're right in that sense that that is my intentional it's a skill and you know you don't know how to necessarily how you honed it can i say to your point the profiling is a very

real thing i i did a show on friday night and I met this lovely Russian lady who works in government and she specializes in profiling.

And she profiled me and I gotta say she hit about 90% wow yeah like yeah it was staggering like she knew just by looking at me a lot of my habits she didn't know my history she's like can't tell you like you know because I don't think that you're this and that you might be like I don't know if her only child or not like you know she couldn't sort of gauge that but she was just like you're this you're very regimented you never

smell bad you take a lot of pride in your hygiene you're this you're that like just things that you wouldn't think about that you would know about a person you know she's like you change your toothbrush every month i'm like, like yeah i do you're obviously not from perth you know. I was in a band and the answer was she didn't she oh geez that was everyone we have yeah that's the wrong sound.

Yeah that's that before i before there was so many magic podcasts and i started listening to like magic podcasts and other things like the ones that interested me the most of the like was stuff about like fbi profiling that i love that it's crazy it's crazy interesting stuff that and essentially that's that's what you're doing you know like i walked up to a table and i knew out of four people i knew like this guy's going to be the alpha male i can tell right from his mannerisms he's

going to be the jerk or heckler i gotta deal with and right when i walked up with my deck of cards he goes oh you do card tricks let me show you this one and he just takes the cards does some stupid trick and then just walks off and it was like boy did i peg that and all the other guys are looking i'm like that what a jerk and i just then i did my thing like he wanted to be my opening act and and it was just like later i'm going how did i peg that how did i know that like of these four people

this guy was the one that was going to act that way it's crazy actually can i can i share something with you guys that happened to me before we wrap up the episode when somebody does take your cards so i was performing away at my residency on the weekend and there was this gentleman who was like let me do a trick and i was like i would want to follow my act but go ahead and then he has this woman choose a card and then he gets her to hold the cards and he's

getting ready to slap the cards out of her hand and i just went don't do that.

Don't do that and i just went i i just and no we've had conversations on the podcast prior to this michael just so just for for reference so we've just said like you shouldn't slap things out of people's hands and we said like let's not do that trick let's stop and i getting i see him getting ready to do this and for two reasons one don't abuse this beautiful young lady okay because you're trying to impress her don't do that number two i don't want my i don't want my things

on the floor yeah exactly i don't want to pick things that have been off the floor and then have other people touch them. It's just a point of professional pride and not a great customer experience that I want them to have. Was I wrong or rude by just saying like, don't, don't hit those cards. Don't do it. Don't do it. Trust me. And I, and I, I, I feel like I did him a service saying, don't do it.

Absolutely. People, well, first of all, people need to have respect for other people's property and not just completely disrespect what is your essentially prop, not just something you keep on the shelf at home that you don't care about. And so I consider it extremely disrespectful if somebody takes anything that I have on me and throws it in the water and a drink or drops it on the floor or rips it or whatever.

It's just like, why would you? got in the habit of doing if someone asked me and i'm handing them the cards or talking about them doing something i literally say as long as you're not going to whack cards out of people's hands and oh yeah 90 of the time they're like oh oh and we're tired and the other reason that you know it's completely ethical is we are tired of seeing the trick your uncle showed you yeah nobody needs to see that anymore what

i say now more than anything is are your hands clean go wash your hands and i genuinely mean that i generally mean that because i i wash my hands every hour when i rove i do three hours in my residency and i wash my hands all the time and i just last weekend alone yep just last weekend alone i'll be very clear in saying this not one dude washed his hands after using the bathroom i'm talking he was on the can i can hear him on his phone he flushed and walked straight

out and he wanted to touch your deck well erroneous of that like i just i don't want people like go wash your hands you can touch my stuff because i don't even want to shake your hand pal you know what i mean like it's just yeah it's remarkable how gross some of these dudes are so they're probably from perth yeah well Well. On that note, friends, it's been a very fun and very quick hour.

Michael, thank you so much for joining us. It's been an absolute pleasure to set up a friendship with yourself and talk improv. You know, do please hurry back. Should you have anything else to say? Gentlemen, is there anything we need to say before we wrap up? Well, in addition to, please, if you have the link to post, it starts tomorrow. Of course, we'll repeat it later. But if you want to jump in on the online improv course, go to the link right there on the site.

So you have time to do that because 7.30 Central America time, we're going to be starting and kicking this off. And it's a four part program, four weeks, 90 minutes on Zoom. So we're going to get that going. And, you know, if that's something you it's that's an easy like smash or pass. If that's something you're into, it doesn't matter that it's last minute. Like that's something you're looking for. And in addition, the talk show I do, which I got to get you guys back so we

can reverse things. And I'm going to ask you as many questions as I can. And that's called something up my sleeve, which, oh, I forgot to show you. I do. Oh, I do have something up my sleeve. And that is where I interview magicians. And we do, you know, just kind of an improv talk show interviewing magicians. It's been on the International Brotherhood of Magicians Facebook page. And by the way, here's something else. You can't even see something. Oh, wow. That's invisible.

What? Is that because it's green? Is that what I'm seeing? Yeah, it's green. I'm totally green. Holy moly. Yeah. Yeah, he just revealed the secret. It was magic. Oh, that's right. It is magic. Yeah. It's something magic. Yeah. Wow. So you could make your head disappear if you just put enough of that. Green bag on? That's interesting. I mean, like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Wow, this is getting creepy. That's awesome.

So we're going to grab that link from michael so that will be in the description of wherever you're washing watching watching that's a new word watching slash listening to this i also believe michael on his podcast he interviewed a guest that we actually have on next week which is mario the magic maker i believe you have him on at some point and i can foreshadow that by on a tangent that we have him next week on the pod love love him oh don't miss that one geez what

amazing amazing guy so fun and i can't.

Wait and so maybe yeah listen to michael's episode as a foreshadow to then joining us next week look thank you again so much for having us oh this this freaked him out by the way mario as you know who can like build robots out of cardboard i did this with i had a green drink and i was like watch this and i was just kidding and he was like what is happening like it seems there's a mess he messes with cardboard not green screens and he was just like and then everybody's laughing right his

wife's laughing and then he still goes i don't understand how did he do that she's like i'll explain it to you later that was wild interesting so that's his kryptonite is literally green kryptonite becomes invisible oh that's brilliant all right we're gonna leave it there my friends we could talk all day and we will have to have michael back but thank you again for watching my friends 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.