Magic Moments and Gig Stories #206

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

Oh what a funny what a funny way to start but i'm you know what i'm glad we know now and i haven't done an hour of talking into this microphone when actually it's been coming out of the camera behind the display like display thing gosh anyway to my left we've got nick k, Hello from Canada, friends. I'm hearing in the code myself. I hope that you're not dealing with that. Hooray! Friends, I will remind you, we do this show live.

There is no safety net. We're just two drunk professionals. One drunk professional, one pro. And here we are, guys. Thank you for joining us today. Thomas, Tim Askin, Scotty Link. Thank you all for being here. Andy Lackey, that's a new face. Good to see you, bud. Yeah. What's up? But thank you all for being here now. Yeah. So we did ask you guys to send through some speak pipes of any questions and queries that you may have. A few of you guys have done that. It's not too late to do it.

Or if you do have questions, you can put them in the comments, in the chat, and we'll answer them live here on the interwebs. Absolutely. Yeah. So thank you all for doing that. Yeah.

Yeah. Look, we want to keep it fresh and we love hearing from you guys. And we're always surprised what comes out of our speak pipes. And it's always super encouraging to hear you guys doing well and then gig stories and questions. Who knows what's going to come up? Our first one is from Caden. Did I see Caden in the chat as well? Well, he's here in spirit if he's not. But we have one from Caden. I'm going to unmute the Bluetooth and watch Nick

for the volume and we're going to see what Caden's up to. Here we go. Hey, what up, Magic guys? This is Caden here. I wanted to tell you about a quick gig story. And that gig story is actually that I just had my first ever real gig last night. I did a Valentine's banquet at a church here in my hometown in Minnesota. And I did about an hour of roving 30 minutes before a meal, 30 minutes after.

And then I also did a short, I think it was like a 15 ish minute stage show that was all Valentine's themed following kind of a sequential journey using like a theme of like following the journey of finding your spouse and all three tricks built off one another. If anyone's curious about that, I'd be happy to talk more about that in the Discord, like what tricks I did or anything. But I just got to say, after doing my first gig, man, this is so awesome. I am super pumped up.

And I just had this feeling like if I could do this every day for the rest of my life, I would be so happy.

And I just wanted to say thank you guys, because it's a lot of your performance tips that have helped me get to the point that I'm at. Let's go, Tayden! Jeez, man. Tell you what, man, like that is a baptism by fire to jump into a gig in which you start roving table to table and doing stage portion. And we've discussed this in episodes past where we've sort of debated whether or not it's better to do the roving thing prior to doing a stage show.

I've always said it is because everyone kind of when you when you do break the ice and you do do something nice for them, they go, I'll do some more. I'm like, I'm going to be on the stage afterwards.

So make sure you stick around. and they know to expect to see more magic and they know to give that attention so i think that as far as a first one goes it's great like good for you man and thank you uh for the kind words and letting us be a part of your journey please keep it going we want to keep hearing all the awesome things you get up to like that is so great thank you for sharing that yeah the fact that you did a stage show at your first gig is incredible as well and what you're

talking about like the epiphany of how fun it is guys that's just like so you know that's what we're always going on about like it's one thing to make video little videos that we post online and stuff to camera and hope they go viral blah blah blah but the real like intoxicating like like passion for magic comes from performing to actual people and when it's in a gig environment and it's not like your family or friends and then they love the thing that you

just did it's like the best freaking feeling in the world another thing i want to make mention actually is that you might end up in a situation where you do a show everyone loves it everyone receiving your magic is like this is the greatest thing ever but you're like i wasn't that good. Because it didn't feel as good as gigs you've done prior. And that's, I hope, I hope you experienced that, Caden.

I hope that you have that to look forward to. And remember this comment where you're like, Nick did say that there's going to be a gig where they have the best time and I didn't. That is going to happen at some point. It's just a matter of time. So don't be discouraged about like how it always makes you feel. Yeah. But you know, you're just getting into it. So like, it's going to be a while before you feel that. I think that high is going to stay with you for

a while, but that's awesome, bro. It's awesome. I think there's another one from Caden a little bit later, another speed pipe. But look, also, did we mention Doug? So Doug, he's killing it at Trick Supply.

And I want to let you guys know, thank you. Someone who ordered from Trick Supply put in the comment of their order that they heard about Trick Supply through listening to this podcast. So that helps out Doug so much and helps him justify why he's streaming live on the podcast during work hours there. So please feel free to do that more often. Even if you already buy from there, just add that note in and it'll help the world go around.

And who knows what stuff we might be able to use as giveaways in the future and things like that. Who knows? But Doug, it's a public holiday in the US apparently. You guys in the chat probably know what that holiday is.

It's probably, I think it's president's day today, because I think that we're experiencing the same thing here in Canada. Oh, yeah. It's a long weekend, everyone. The mountains, great. Chockers. Yeah. Hey, there's a great question here from Gaten Smith. This is great. What are your thoughts on a psychic character versus a psychological character?

So he's gone with the comparisons of like lewis laval which i'm guessing full psychic like performing versus derren brown which is very much mentalist i'm psychologically influencing there's no you know psychic powers going on here oh this is interesting yeah this is very interesting because on my downtime and in transit sort of on my vacation i've been reading strong Magic by Damon Ortiz. And if you haven't read this yet, friend, I highly suggest you do because it covers things of this nature.

And it's interesting because it's a very personal question and it's a commitment you want to make as a performer. So for example, the title I afford myself is Nick K Professional Mind Blower. And it gives me the freedom to do whatever I want. I can be the mind reader. I can be the hypnotist, the pickpocket, the whatever I would need to be. And that is a wonderful, wonderful place to be.

And there's some folks out there that are just like, I'm the mentalist, like my friends, Phoenix Montgomery, like he is to me, the greatest mentalist that Australia has to offer. And it's, but he's put himself in that box and he, and it's a conscious decision because he, he's not a sleight of hand guy. He's not a magic guy at all. And he genuinely like hates it when anybody blends mentalism and magic. So as far as. I think the question is, and I love where you're going with this.

I think the question is, what are your thoughts on psychic versus psychological? Well, it's when the audience. Well, it's two separate entities, man. It's just like, it depends what you want to, it depends what you want to be. Are there other ethical things to consider? Well, that's the thing, right? So there was a particular gentleman who, I'll leave his name out of this equation, but he actually, I'll be very honest, I've seen him perform some stuff that cannot be explained.

He did these mind reading things. He was able to tell people stuff. Truly blew me away. He's now moved on and become a psychic and does a whole bunch of readings and stuff like that, right? And the reason he left the magic scene was because we do have a code of ethics, especially as part of the Australian Institute of Magic, where we don't profess that what we're doing is real.

And I think that as far as the psychic character, that is going to be an interesting place to be because it is one of those things that has been debated for centuries, really. Yeah, it's a harder character to be because you have to always be… The psychic, like you can't then go and do any other genre of stuff because you're the psychic. Why would a psychic have sponge balls or link like, or anything magic? Like you have to fully be the psychic.

You can't be late to a gig because if you didn't see the traffic coming, that means you suck. Dude, that's funny. So honestly, if you're a psychic, you'd be like, I came here early because there's going to be a car pile up on the M3.

And if i didn't come early i'm gonna be 40 minutes late and i'll be like that's weird i can't believe you knew that yeah but i think it's tough like but on tv you know a lot of psychics like celebrity psychics get their own show because like it's not a magic show now it is a medium series where these celebrities are getting you know connected with their lost loved ones and stuff, Yeah, like the, what was his name? Edwards?

I'll be honest, I've seen, I've seen at least two, there's like two that are like mainstream at the moment, but, but you know, so like it does pay off in some way, but like, I don't look up to them in any way. I just go, man, they're really scamming the crap out of these people.

Well, what if we look at the other side of that? We look at the psychological character, the psychological character, if we were to try and identify that is, I guess it's somebody who has a high skill, you know, it's the type of thing that it's not a gift if you know what i mean like you know some people that have a gift and they can see dead people that's a gift you know but yeah the psychological character is somebody who says i have a skill set and i'm presenting

it to you guys and i wonder and i'll put this question to the audience like do you think it's easier to digest do you think it's easier to accept watching somebody who just has a wonderful skillset, entertaining and doing things that appear to be mind reading and so forth and finding out people's deepest secrets versus. Somebody trying to convince you that your dead grandmother is here and she, she's been watching you.

Yeah. When you get your laptop and you're, and, and, and you're up to no good, you shouldn't be doing that like your grandma says stop making stop making love to a computer you pervert like who knows like it would just yeah you do that too um yeah it's tough i think they're totally different things one's like entertainment and one is meant to be seen as like i don't know, a viewing of some kind but for me i definitely feel more comfortable when like there's a visible like thing like

what am I trying to say like when they can kind of see you're you have a process you're going through to make it happen in terms of like a psychological sense that's what I like to be honest what I like to do is like my when I think of me the the heightened version of me on stage I seem to react in a way of like I'm also surprised that you're we got so lucky today again. Like I always like to, I always throw in things about like, what are the odds that da, da, da, da, da. Like a few weeks ago.

I think I've talked about this somewhere, but, you know, I was like something perfect happened. But I just I always say this line anyway, so they don't really know. But I'm like, what are the odds that on your birthday turning 33, the card you just named at a clubs will actually be at that position in the deck? And so I seem to like use that kind of language like this is crazy. Like, what are the odds that that would happen? How did you know to make that decision?

And so it's almost like I'm like the orchestra allowing this stuff to happen, but I'm by no means like a medium or like even a super powered, you know, AI robot that can tell your face expression. I totally agree with that, Josh. And I, I, what I really like about the sort of magic effects that we, that we do and kind of the style that we, I guess we almost have in common is that you do stuff that is almost so impossible that it could just be luck.

You just got lucky. You know what I mean? It's like, there's no way he goes, no way. He's just, he got lucky. But how is he lucky every time?

How is he lucky every time? and i lean into that style of magic and effect a lot a lot it's so great yeah especially at a gig when they think it was locked but then they see the same thing happen for another group and they're like what yeah and then like someone will challenge you like all right well then make this card appear out of thin air and you're like well okay then you know what else would be weird if you were a psychic and you walk to up you you

approach a group you would say something to the effect of like what is your name and you're like shouldn't you know that shouldn't you know that if you're a psychic you know yeah a psychic you know getting hired for a roving gig would be super weird but if you're yeah if you're a mind reader if you're the mind reader and it's not through, psychological abilities you're in the same yeah you're in the same pickle.

Difficult stuff. Good question, though. Good question. Good question, because I was exploring the mind reading thing, and we'll touch upon this before we move on to the next one. But I was just kind of thinking, like, being a mind reader is a weird thing versus, like, studying people's behaviors so that when they did something, you knew they were going to do that, or you were walking them down the garden path to do that.

Like, I was making you choose a seven of hearts every time. uh like if you were to force a card 10 times then do an ambitious card routine for example it would show that like you can read people's body language well enough and know what they're going to do when they're going to say stop it's like those sorts of things where it's like he just got lucky you do it again it's like he must be very skillful and i kind of lean into that but as far as the dedicated

mind reading thing i'm going to put this to you guys, i lean heavier into the notion that like i'm going to put a thought into your mind and know what you're thinking versus think anything you want and I'll be able to tell what it is. So for example, for example, take this, grab a book, flick through, look at a word and, and, and then when you're done, put the book down like that, that in a sense is like, great.

So now we've got something in your mind, like putting something in your mind. That's a cool thing. Or even just like writing something down on a piece of paper, having a conversation and then go, what's your favorite vegetable? And they go carrot and you turn it over and it's a carrot. You know what I mean, like something like that is... Is plausible. And I think that because it's plausible, it makes it more realistic and easier to digest. But then again, I don't know. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Great food for thought. And thank you for that question. Another question that just came up, Adonis, thoughts on setting up a set list or a show?

I guess what he's asking is, like how do you go about how you set up your effects absolutely so one thing that you want to think about is every routine you do or act performance that you do the next one should excel the preceding one meaning it should be more impossible more entertaining and a better magic trick and it should crescendo up into a big finish that is sort of the most generic way to write a show.

So what you might want to do is to get a sheet of paper and maybe make a whole list of routines you can do, draw a line across like a straight line and gauge how impressive each routine is on that timeline and ensure that it kind of does, it proves it as it goes along.

That is the most generic way of doing it. That's probably how it's taught in books more than anything i like to really strong and hit hard and and get everyone's attention then just take a breath slow the pace down a little bit coast along in the middle a little bit big finish that's how i like to do things so i'm more like a hammock type setup nice routines josh how how do you go about i mean like you do sets every week at the you know almost

every week you know if you're not doing it for corporate doing it our very much loved theater of magic what sort of process do you go through when it comes to setting up your set and wait and just to be clear so you'll do a close-up set and estate that yeah, At Theatre of Magic, that's right. Yeah, there's a close-up set that exists, a stage show, and then there's a corporate show that exists.

And I guess the little nuances is, because there's so much subtlety and nuance on what we're saying, but if I'm doing a corporate show, I guess the thing I'll try to focus on is that every routine is visually different. So they in no way feel like they're watching the card magic show or like the balloon show or the Rubik's Cube show.

Like there's always like each routine has a different anchored item so right now and it's funny too over the years like when i first started doing a corporate show i used to need like six or seven different routines but now i could only i like it's actually hard to figure out how i'm not going to go over time like what how much stuff do i have to take out so i only am on stay for 20 minutes like if you know what i'm saying like it's so easy to inject showmanship into like one routine that like

that can take up the majority of the time because a. Corporate gig they generally want you for like 20 maybe 30 minutes if it's like an after dinner show before the awards so yeah my set list in my head is like I come on and I do like a bottle production which is like basically something very flashy and fast to get their attention like oh okay magic's happening but it ends so quick and there's not really much interaction with the audience it's like a quick boom little spike in

attention okay now we move on and then i'll do a cube act and then i'll do a little bit of by play with the audience and then i'll end with like getting three people on stage i'll do my whole dancing act with the backflips to catch the card and what's meant to be like the grand sort of boom high energetic ending but they're three different props so they're seeing like a bottle a cube thing and then a big car neck with people on stage so that's like the corporate set.

I try and keep it pretty tight, you know, so it's really just three acts. If I'm at the theater of magic, what I've noticed is because there's three magicians typically at the theater of magic. And us as magicians, we all love card magic, right? Even if we all do different styles, we still love card magic. And at the Theatre of Magic, there's a magician hosting who will also do like pre-show magic before the show starts. Then there's the close-up acts, which Nick has smashed.

And I can't wait to see you again smash. That sounded weird. And then you have the main show.

And what i try to do is limit how much of my routines are card acts which is funny because like i just know by the time we get to like the the stage set that i do but like that they've seen quite a bit of good card magic so i try and do my entire 40 or 45 minutes without card magic until like the very end when i've given them a massive palette cleanser of all different magic that's not that the coins rubies cubes different different things maybe some

mentalism and then yeah and then i'll leave that to the end so that's how i try and structure it when i'm there and i try to yeah make it everything more impressive like nick said slowly building up if i'm trying something new i might try it out in the middle because then you know you can top and tail with better stuff and they'll sort of forget about it and yeah i think about the visual of how I'm ending. Like it has to be a big ending or like a memorable ending or a notable ending.

It can't just be like that trick's over and now I'm done. Like it has to look like you finished. And yeah, right. Like what Nick said in the beginning, you write down every effect that you could do on stage. See which ones look a little too similar to each other and try and just break up the visual texture of like what would actually look interesting next to itself and which ones build up. And I think you'll smash it. And, you know, reach out to us if you have any questions.

Well, let me ask you this, dude. If you were going to do a dedicated card set, let's say you were going to do 45 minutes of just straight cards. Okay. That's, that's interesting because like, how would you, I know how I go about it. So I'll say how I go about it. And if you're any different, let me know. But what I like to do is I'd like to have it. It seems like the one card that's chosen plays out for like several routines.

Routines so if somebody chooses the card once i'll do a i'll do all kinds of stuff like i'll do maybe i'll do like a cut in the box routine i'll do a sandwich effect then i'll do something else for example maybe an ambitious and that's like one set but a lot of people when i see them doing things because they've learned the trick so modular they go this trick is done i'll have a new card chosen this trick is done i'll have a new card chosen and i think that

if a smart thing to do if you're going to be doing a set in which, a single card's being selected just use the same card man just let it roll in one into the other, yeah and then and then you know the thing is once you've done the show as well like review it, review it and make adjustments if required one of the most important things to look out for when you do this is that sometimes you will look at a routine and let's just say that it's something that requires like four aces to be on

top and you finish a routine and then those four aces on the toppers. So because of that, you just naturally want to roll into a different routine. Don't fall into that trap because you might find that it's not as strong as another routine that you could have done. So just keep that in mind too. That's true. I'm thinking about the card segment of my closer back that I'll typically do.

And it's, it normally follows the pattern of they come up, We do a warm-up effect where I'm trying to gauge them. And it's generally something like take a card and then through them trying to lie about what it is, you deduce what it actually is.

As a warm-up thing and then i'll be like okay great well let's just try this you just picked a card what if you just you know named a card and then they name one they find it themselves so i haven't yet really done like a pick and sign trick yet so it looks different so they handle the cards themselves they find one card and then we'll use that card to sign it and then we'll go into like a longer routine like can't under box or the homing card or something like that or you

know the my whole thing of like tell me how you want me to find your card so like it will be like a little opener tester something quick now something that's a bit longer of a process but they're doing it and then it's me doing it with them assigning it and we're doing the whole ninja stuff and then if i was like if i had to feel like more time then i would go into, i really like the the new rz trick where you leave the room and they do the

card trick in the room with you on speakerphone that's just such a cool different visual i really like that and then i'll probably come back and do like a 10 card multiple card find or something something that looks obviously much bigger and like as an ending. Wow, 10 cards is a lot, man. Does the audience dig out like 10 cards? Yeah, yeah. It's how I end my current Theater of Magic stage shows because you're rapid firing. And when I say 10, it's really nine, but one of them is invisible.

Like I miscall someone having picked a card and you've done like the Rubber Dub Vanish. You're like, oh, so you picked no card. And they're like, no, no, I didn't. I'm like, oh, then we found it. We move along. So it's actually 10. It's actually nine, but you are like technically jazzing, seemingly jazzing and doing it with 10. And I make a joke that, oh, normally I only do this with six, but... We've gone overboard tonight so whether i find it or not i guess it's entertaining for you.

And we you know a little element of will this work for me it's very fun and it and it adds a very, obvious ending when we find that the last card yeah it's just fun yeah and i assume you crescendo have the way each card's found it's the found like in a more and more impossible way and whatever else and that's how i set it up i'm going to try and find every card but each one in a in a different way from the first hopefully building

up to end with a big crescendo finish and i always have the final card signed because i just want to make it clear to everyone that like that is their card so i don't have to wait around for them to confirm it or say is it theirs and i also know because i don't want to get to the ending and having messed up my own slides and reveal the last one wrong so i always get them to sign it just in case cool yeah hey we got a speak pipe do it we we got a speak pipe from tyler tyler august

oh let's play it let's see what you got it's a minute 30 so strap in okay so this is a funny story that was a failed trick but that turned into an absolute miracle so i did this trick to my old boss back in like 2019 when i was just doing magic as a hobby, and what the trick was was they would pick a card i would hand the deck of cards to the spectator they would throw the deck of cards in the air I would reach in and grab one card and it would be theirs.

So I did this to my boss and everyone else was watching so he picked a card I took it back I glimpsed the card just so I had a safe you know in case I grabbed the wrong card or if I got the right one I could check. And so I glimpsed the card, shuffled the cards, and I gave the deck of cards back to him. And I said, all right, go ahead and throw the cards in the air. He threw them in the air. I reached in to grab one card as these cards are in the air. And I totally missed grabbing a card.

Like, cards are everywhere on the floor, scattered. And there's not a single card in my hand. And in my head, I'm like, freaking out. Like, what am I going to do? I don't even know what my out is.

And since i glimpsed the card one in a million i don't know how it happened his card landed face up on his foot like no joke it was crazy i said look on your foot and he freaked and he still talks about it today bloody hell that's that's a that's a lot to take in also what is this method that you're doing an actual reach out to grab the card that's in the air that seems like well either made up or insane well we've we've done that josh in a in a very successful instagram

post you're not wrong that's absolutely that's absolutely correct yeah so you're a fellow ninja i love i mean it's a good segue like i love when that impossible thing happens that was actually an accident yeah it's so the hardest thing is when you want to emulate that again and again that's the that's like the best and worst thing you know where it's like yes it happened one time by accident and now i make it happen every single time.

Yeah, that's how I try to improve my sets generally is because of the stuff the audience says and I remember it and use it next time. But when it's something like that, like an actual bonafide miracle that just has to live on by itself, it's crazy. I can tell there's one thing that happened at a gig that I wish I could emulate every time. And I guess there technically is a way, but it was just way too perfect.

So I'm I'm gonna do double cross which everyone knows what that is on this girl at a corporate gig and just as I've done this stuff and I'm now getting into the routine they break for the the awards and I'm like oh we'll come back to it we'll come back to you later so she's walked away now with like the trick prepped if you know what I mean and it's and I kind of like leave I forget about it the awards go for like 20 minutes I'm doing

magic for another group now and there's like a table between us. And I see the girl sort of wander over to start watching, but she's on the other side of the table. So I'm doing magic and I'm like, and, and the way that, and you'll see in a street magic vlog coming out shortly, that the way I approach double cross is with playing cards. So I get someone to name a card. I write the, like the indice and the, and the suit onto my hand, like seven diamond or whatever.

And I get them to decide which one of the two for me to use. I pulled it off like the ink pulls off and I throw it onto their close fist. But as I'm doing this routine, I just go to the woman as if like by chance, oh, and can you just put, you know, one of your hands out in front of you and just go like this. And she's like, okay. And she's like perfectly set up now for a miracle. And everyone's just seen that I'm so far away from her and everything just worked out perfectly.

And I'm like, okay, boom, I'll take off the heart. Boom, in terms of handover, it was like, it was talked about for like the whole night. And even she had no idea, like she had forgotten. That we had like started to like, that I had done anything for them that night. I'll tell you what she forgot. She forgot to wash her hands, dude. Well, how, how often do you wash your hands after a speech?

You know, but it was just like, it was just like so fun because you know, what's going on and you're like, Oh, this is crazy.

But you can't, that's how it happens every time. as far as they're concerned yeah yeah yeah trying to bring that back to life is good but it just goes to show the strength of having a time misdirect that yeah in that sense absolutely, there was another time i had a jumbo coin and at the time i was doing a one coin routine in a roving set and i'd end with like the jumbo coin you know how original but this it was this asian guy, he had just had a wedding and he goes to me,

he doesn't say, so I've just done the coin routine. And then I've literally just retrieved the big coin to make it appear over the small one. And I swear to God, just before I do that, he goes, haha, if you're really good, make it a big money. And I'm like, oh, like this, boom. And he just lost his, he lost his mind, tipped me like a hundred bucks because in that moment, I've just given him like the ham sandwich, you know, in that ham sandwich principle.

He's like, I've just done all this stuff through this one coin. Oh, if you're really good, make it big money. Okay. Boom. Like with no hesitation. Those are the moments that was like, I want to say 10 years ago, and I still remember it today because to me, it was such a magical moment. I one time was doing a Thought of Triumph, which required a switch at the end. And all I did was I shuffled a pack face up and a face down.

I did the setup so that I could do whatever I did. But I know that the card that was going to be face up in the deck was going to be a 10 of diamonds. And I just gave it a shuffle. I go, just look, see, tell me if you see your card. And, you know, they just don't say anything. Just look at the cards. And I finish it up. I have him hold the deck. And then I go, what card are you thinking? And he goes, 10 of diamonds. And I just went, I'm not even going to touch the deck in those moments.

And they just spread through all the cards are correcting themselves. And there's only one face down your card. You know, it's, you can emulate that sort of stuff. I mean, those miracles are great, but you can find ways to emulate that. So for example, you can do a pre-show thing where it's like, just think of a card and we'll mess up. Are you thinking of a cover card? Are you thinking? Boom.

And away you go. So yeah. yeah i mean it's it's the reason it's the reason why i love doing mnemonica work so much because you in real time do create they themselves co-author the effect and create those moments that are unreplicable yeah like like you know i was at a wedding gig and the bride everyone's watching the bride i wish i had this footage man the bride and me are doing a card trick and all friends are crowded around and i'm like you name

any card you want and she's like queen of hearts and she herself without me telling her goes to pick up the top card like as if like gesturing towards it and and i'm like but but are you sure and she's like oh actually you know what everyone probably thinks that on their wedding day or whatever so i'm going to change it to two of hearts and she's still holding this card which would have been wrong but she doesn't know that. And I know that I'd put the two of hearts on top of the deck.

So in her mind, she's gone to pick the top of the deck, changed her mind mid picking it up, and then looked at it and seen it's now the card. She changed her mind mid picking up and just the wedding effing stopped in that moment. Like she was not married for that moment. She was just like in outer space and it was the best. And I'm probably the only one that remembers it from that day because I probably got wasted and partied on.

But things like that are that's what i would describe as like real magic like it's sort of out of your control and yet you're in the right wavelength for just stuff like that to happen. And yeah it's the best yeah and you want to give those moments every time you perform like you really do and yeah and that's the thing right and so i mean when we look at the effect like about what you just described, these incredibly lucky moments, if you can manufacture them, they just slay.

And that's the thing. Find the lucky moments, find a way to manufacture them and just keep them happening. Cause I just think that's where the most fun is.

I do a thing. I haven't done this routine in a while, but I have a folded cart under a wine glass and I just, before the show starts, I just walk over to it, like fold it up, put it under the wine glass.

And i just say like name a card and that person will go three hearts and i'll walk over i go cool and i pick the wine glass up it's upside down i pick it up and i just go maybe change your mind and i put it back down and then go on with the routine right and then i walk back and then, do you want to change your mind no and then i pick it up look at my watch put it back down again we still have time he might change his mind and i just keep

doing that and i just do it the whole show the whole show and and then i'll actually finish the show and then be like oh wine glass.

Last chance man and he's just like nah and i'm like all right just open it up and it's yeah it's just one of those yeah yeah it's using a cheeky little gimmick i made in a and a sleeving technique but it's um yeah that that filled the crap out of me when you did that at was that the thing you showed me at theater magic that's the thing that's crazy bro that's crazy that genuinely just is you picking up a card holding it out like this

they can just take it and it's it's bullshit i tell you that's crazy yeah we got one more speak pipe from our buddy caden again this is a 2.0 of caden caden you're up brother let's see what you got part two Hey guys, Caden again. In addition to talking about my first gig, I wanted to tell you all about a magic moment that happened actually while I was just hanging out with some friends just a few days before the gig.

So I was out to eat with several of my friends and we were just kind of hanging out and I ended up doing a few of them asked to see some magic. Long story short, ended up doing like over an hour's worth of material for these guys at this table, just a few friends of mine. And one of my friends, I was just kind of doing a few finding card routines to start out. And she asked if she could take the deck and put the card in.

And just because I was hanging out with some friends, I thought it could be kind of fun as a little challenge to just challenge myself. So normally I wouldn't, but I did let her.

And I just kind of saw where she put the card in, and kind of was trying to estimate about what I thought her card would be and I'm looking through the deck, I did a ribbon spread and I just look at it and I say, I think your card was the nine of hearts and by some miracle, I was able to guess correctly and she freaked out, was asking me how it's done and I just kind of said, it's just magic and left it at that And that was just a super,

super fun little magic moment that I wanted to share with you all. Thanks. Dude, how funny that that fits into like what we were just talking about. Big time. That's awesome. Just keep it going. I think that's why I'm a big fan of Ozzy Wynn's School of Magic, because what he's trying to do is create those like random decisions that seemingly the audience makes, which makes it seem like luck. Yeah.

You know what it is? It's an investment from the audience. When they start doing stuff, it's an investment. So I've got this new thing I've been tinkering with, which is annoying because you need a lot of people to be able to do it. And it's like, everyone gets packets of cards. Everyone gets packets. And I give a bunch to the person to my right. I'm like, just look at one and think of one. It doesn't matter what it is.

And then all the cards go back together and they're mixed and they're shuffled and whatever else. And then I just go, name your card.

And they go, ace of clubs and i go spell it and they just spell ace of clubs and it hits like it's just even though everyone's mixed and when you when you build it up when you build it up it's like because everyone thinks like no let me shuffle like it's going to make it more difficult like let's make it really difficult and you know what just grab a packet look at one lock it in your mind yeah and it's

great that and then it just goes someone's thinking of a card are you thinking of one you're thinking of one it's like it wasn't even didn't even choose one i just thought of one because there's the other dual reality in that moment and it but those moments man those moments slay and it's really hard to manufacture those moments in practice because in theory like you got to hand out all these packs you should have seen me on the plane

man i'm just dropping packs of cards all over like the the tray you know the food tray yeah just to practice you know what i mean and i had a lady bring out a call for me so i had a nice little mat to work with and.

Yeah like it's those are the moments man that's where the strength is like pick a card find a card any kind of 21 card trick sort of mechanical base like count four then minus three and i'm like god kill me like yeah i'm not a big fan yeah it's because i'm not a big fan of counting tricks that i'm really working hard to want to like them and trying to create effects where like you spell things and you write things like like i hate it so what would i do to make me love it and so i'm just trying

to create as many versions of these types of effects that that that i like because ultimately i perform the magic i want to see it's a nice place yeah and maybe that's the advice we should have here it's like perform the magic you want to see if you could make up a trick.

You know 100 yeah what would you love to see great way to think of it yeah i'm i mean even my lego trick which you and i've sort of tinkered with for for a very long time like i still can't get that right like it's it's good but it's just not it's not there yet you know right yeah oh speaking of which you know the new pennantella fuller season is out at the moment okay what are your thoughts on the the paper plane act is that from alex no oh the the the manip guy this is like a FISM winning

paper plan flying through the air I saw it I saw it in Vegas um. I, to describe the act, there is a, imagine sort of card manipulation where you're doing split fans or producing single playing cards from behind your hand. Now, transpose that for paper airplanes that you can throw. That's effectively what this magician was doing. Maybe this is slightly different to. To what I saw, the Manipax? The Pennantella one. Maybe what you're describing is a very great act, but maybe a little bit different.

Oh, I'm not sure. Why don't you describe the act? Because I don't think it's the one I saw in Vegas then. There was an amazing magician who performed this and produced basically a giant, like giant airplanes, like enormous, like as big as he was. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's the craziest thing ever. Someone will put his name in the chat. It is Caden, the one I'm talking about that was on Fool Us, but someone will YouTube and bring it up.

It won a Grand Prix award or something, but this is very bare stage and he comes on with like a trash can and a piece of paper and it's sort of as he's sort of like gesturing at it it starts to like crumble itself into like a plane okay and then what's interesting is so he so he throw i think first he throws it and it just does nothing he throws it and just kind of falls on the ground then he comes up to it and he kind of tinkers it a tiny

bit and he throws it and it does a 180 around him and he catches it in the trash can. But it looks like, and I believe that is actually a juggling move. Like he has learned how to do that because he does it two more times. But then things get a little crazy and then it goes a little further. And then eventually all of a sudden it goes all the way around his body and then gently lands in the trash can.

And it sort of heightens up from there. It gets crazier and crazy from there then it's going like fully around for a while and he can like stop it when he wants to and then like but and at the end of every time he can like unfold it and like whatever crumple it up wow at one point at one point he opens up the plane takes off his shoe puts his shoe in the paper folds it up and then makes his shoe disappear and then a shoe

falls from like the roof what as a joke and and like the finale is he goes to throw the plane and when it's over the bin but still in the air it stops and then when he's ready he gestures and the plane just like explodes into like cut up pieces of paper and just falls down wow, Caden says, Nikolai Stribal is his name. Wow, I did not see that. That sounds phenomenal. It sounds more so like a flying rig, man. Here's the thing. And he'll do stuff like it goes through a ring and stuff.

So absolutely, it's some kind of anime, like, you know, some kind of wise or something. But Penn and Teller gave him the trophy because they even say, like, we're aware of all sorts of flying rig things.

And we can pick up like things you you must be using but we don't know how you're doing a whole bunch of that stuff like the the the rigs that we know of don't allow you to do a lot of the stuff you're doing so you fooled us and and yeah it's i reckon it's i think everyone should watch it because i watched it and i was just like this is so refreshingly nice to watch also very fooling but just like a very nice like silent to music act the one you're talking about

sounds wicked like sounds great as well yeah this cat this cat just from out of nowhere was just like just left arm right arm left arm right arm just throwing them just non-stop like the amount of paper and stuff that was all over like it was such an epic act and then he produced like two giant jet fighter type things made from paper like it was epic dude yeah and it was astonishing that act you know as you would expect to see at magic live and obviously it's

blackpool which has just happened our good friend dom chambers performed his his show there boy in his deck yeah he got it was very very well received if you haven't seen it it is a hilarious piece of magic that's extremely careful very filthy don't bring kids to that yeah yeah there is a lot of. Yeah. References in there that kids will not understand, but I've seen the show. I brought a bunch of people to it and I loved it. I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

I'm so happy and proud of him to be able to present that at Blackpool. That is super cool. You know, speaking of conventions, something we should bring up, Nick, is the assembly convention happening in Brisbane.

We actually have a convention happening in Australia.

We actually have one. It's going to be in my home city of brisbane in the same venue which we run the theater of magic which will be kind of tied to this convention because the theater of magic will happen the night before with some special entertainers and then and and then we'll have the actual one day convention like this is great for australia so if anyone listening is in australia there's still registrations available to to come along because there is a capacity of people

that can fit in the room both nick and i will be there so you know just great day of magic to learn see dealers selling people selling magic stuff people lecturing like it is going to be a great time yeah you excited nick i am you have a list of the lecturers we're going to be there i mean i know so we will have sean taylor right our australian british creative mind we will have christian grace who is really in the top

of everyone's mind at the moment with like stuff he's creating i think he just put out something which is the invisible deck his invisible deck which uses a normal deck and. He's brought out so much magic from the UK. And then the last guy, I just, only because I haven't heard of him before, I don't know how to pronounce his name. But let me just quickly look it up here because there's probably a guy that people know of. And I'm excited to meet him and see what he does.

Yeah, maybe we'll do a diligence on that one a little bit and try and fill you guys in. Yeah, absolutely. I might reach out to Christian and see if we can even get him on before the convention. That'd be great. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, look, I just want to bring it up because we're near the end of the episode, but it's something to think about if you're in Australia or close by. I think even Brendan Dooley's coming over for it and he's in New Zealand.

So, you know, come make a weekend of it. It's going to be pretty fun. I can see Scotty P here. looks like I'm tardy to the party. Right. Late to the episode. Nice. Scotty P also making a appearance in my upcoming vlog that'll be out in the next few days, doing some street magic. You know, it was interesting too. Scotty came with myself and Oliver Parker, who is a friend of James Brown, who we had on the podcast recently.

And he came and he held his own. We were doing street magic and Scotty couldn't stay out too long, but it was great to see him going from just having been someone commenting in on the podcast to then actually being put out in this real world environment. And it was quite funny, this spectator, he just so happened to pick. Might get him self-cancelled, but it's worth it for the video. And yeah, you guys look out for that. Scotty P says, it was a blast. Hell yeah.

Hell yeah. So yeah, we've got the assembly coming up. Obviously, Magic Live is going to be in August. I'm definitely confirmed for it this year. I had the green flag from the girlfriend, so you know we're going. Nick's got the green flag from himself because he's his own boss. And Doug's living in Vegas. So there's no reason we can't find Doug in Vegas. So yeah, it's going to be good. It's going to be a good time.

Going to be a good time. Going to have no money when I finished from looking at all the stuff for sale there, I'm sure. You got yourself a pretty good haul when you were in Magic Live last time, right? I remember you showing me a couple of things.

Man, when you have the benefit of it being a tax deduction, yeah it's you can't help it you basically see things long before they ever hit a shelf and you know it depends what type of magic you're into i love utilities i love anything where it's like this can help you again let's just say it drops coins in your pocket i need it like you know what i mean like that's the sort of things i love seeing there's a new thing i think i mean just just now just now i'm seeing advertisements for

it at gravity clips is now like i've seen it on my socials just like just in this past week being advertised for it and if you don't know what it is it's it's bulldog right the thing you have yeah it's like these five bulldog clips and spectator chooses one you then pull the string and then they all drop except the one they chose so it's like a just a nice cute visual yeah and i bought that ages ago like at magic live so it's just a cool place to be man,

And obviously when we were there last, you know, Teller was kind enough to take us to the show and hang out backstage, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah, it's, it's a good time. And so there's a lot to look forward to in this year coming with multiple conventions. Yeah. Did we talk about Teller's show? Penn and Teller's show? Yeah, we did, right? We haven't, we haven't quite discussed the show, but we obviously didn't want to, you know, you hadn't seen it yet. It was the thing.

Ah, okay. We were seeing it that following week. But yeah that's a whole different discussion altogether and uh that's yeah which unfortunately we don't have the time for so it might be worth us wrapping up look absolutely it's been a pleasure to you know we only had three speak pipes we had so many live comments so it's it's been great to go back and forth with you guys nick how long are you still on your vacay for your avaganza yeah i believe that i will be under the sea in i hope not god the

plane situation has been very uncomfortable well you've not seen there's been a lot of flight crashes and so yes yes that is that is right yeah for reference i was in the mountain today and there's no reception up there it's just you know like otherworldly and the moment i drove back into town my phone blew up because there was a plane crash in canada and everyone was freaking out and i'm like i'm fine I'm fine. Yeah, but I will be in Japan on Tuesday.

Okay. Yeah. That's going to be fun. But the week after, I'm back home and I'm in full swing. Yeah, great. Will you be streaming in wearing your kimono? Oh, dude, don't tell me. Will you come on the pod? Yeah, I literally was in a bathrobe when I first turned the computer on. If you can come on the pod in a kimono and you've got the two chopsticks tying your non-existent hair up just on the back of your head.

That would be great. Wouldn't be the first time. Or you're sitting like, you know, short on like a sumo, like eating some soup and you're like, yeah, that'd be funny. I like it. I dig it. Look, thanks for joining us today. I hope you've had a magical week and it's great to hear Caden doing his first gig. I know Scotty has always been updating me on future gigs he's got coming up. You know, this is what we're about. We're about supporting each other and just having a goddamn good time.

And reach out if you have questions about things like set lists or orders of of um sequences you do with effects reach out to us we have the discord there for a reason and look this has been great so nick any last word from you my friend no just thanks everyone for being here and you know we we did have a jam of this discord some while ago because of the episode not being able to be run uh everyone was sort of bouncing around the planet you guys enjoyed it a whole

bunch and if there is a way that we can sort of do this on a regular basis or have like a regular jam session where we all that jam session went for three and a half i think nearly four hours last time um it was crazy it was like the most fun day bob possible was there just being the genius that he is we had so much fun people were coming in and out of meetings they were just like i'm just in between meetings and i thought

i'd jump on and i'm just like cool man and like i gotta go my meeting's starting and you know like people were amongst it it was actually very very fun so So, you know, if there is ways that we can add value and help you guys out, we love hearing the good news of you guys performing. Kudos to Caden and everyone else out there crushing it. Kudos to Scotty P's been out there crushing it. We love hearing it. You guys keep the good work. And we'll see you again 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.