Milan & The Pensacola Magic School! #156

They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys. Call this the Siegfried. Oh yeah, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 156 of the Magic Guys. To my left is Nick Kay. Bonjour, friends. Down below is Doug Kahn. Salutations to the kindred. And I'm Josh Nobito. Welcome to the show.

We're here at the Magic Eyes where we as professional magicians chat about the magic world, answer your questions and the shenanigans that go on with our careers. Nick, you learned a new sentence today. What is it? Well, you told me a new sentence. Oh, I actually learned the meaning of this sentence. So I am a firm believer that French is by far the sexiest of all languages. And you can say almost anything in French, and it sounds wonderful.

And I befriended a Frenchman many, many years ago who taught me this phrase, and it sounds super sexy. And the phrase goes, tu vas manger ta patate, which sounds super sexy, but actually means you're going to eat your potato. Well, that makes me want to eat a potato. Yeah, it does. Yeah, nice one. And thanks for being here, everyone in the chat. We've got Tim, Ed, Ty, everyone's here. John, another Josh. Oh, two Joshes in one place. That's going to be an issue, but great to see you all here.

Doug, you just jumped on. Have you been having a crazy week so far? I was in the editing rabbit hole. I'm doing the thing where you're doing and time vanishes and lollygagging. But look, I made it. Oh, I know what that's like. Not Jason Maher late. I'm just a little late. I'm so tired. Oh, that's a different sound. Okay. Nice one. We've got Dylan in the chat. What's up, Dylan, a.k.a. Editor Man. This is great. Well, it's been a while, hey, since we had a guest on.

People don't want to come on this show for some reason. Yeah, it certainly has. The thing is, talking about punctuality, our next guest was kindly here like a full hour before doors open, and that's just the sign of a professional, an absolute professional. I'm actually really excited to share our guest with our audience this evening. Should we get started, friends? I think that's the only way to begin, is to get started. I vote yes.

Allow me to introduce our guest, friends. Our friend and guest joining us this week is the starter of the Pensacola School of Magic. He's been a longtime listener and first time being on the show.

He's a super kind person who's reached out, or more importantly, extended the hand of friendship to both the Magic guys and all of us personally, to which I took that hand, shook hands and said it is a pleasure to call you a friend and it would be our pleasure to have you on our show so please join me in welcoming milan brunet. Music.

Oh yeah i just realized something nick we talked about milan you know maybe showing something later on and doug has no idea what it is so that's, i was literally here one minute before the show started again milan my belated apologies so excited to talk to you about what you're doing and let me let me get it right for the americans pensacola yes pensacola yes oh i don't know pensacola you said it like maybe a french person might have said it i don't i think I think you said like pencil Coca-Cola

or something like that. Pencil Coca-Cola. Pencil cocaine, everyone, all the way from cocaine pencil. Not that. I mean, it's Florida. Yeah. I mean, he does have the chains and stuff, so, you know, that could go with it. But anyway, very entrepreneurial guy. So where are you today? You're in a hotel? Yes. So I was actually traveling with my wife and my daughter. I'm doing a conference here in Vermont. month, it's not...

You know magic conference related but it's a conference for entrepreneurs so kind of like the same spirit so they just left last night and i'm here for the next three days and i had the chance to perform yesterday so you know that was not planned but very very happy to be here what an interesting thing to do so you're getting some education on entrepreneur endeavors is that's the deal?

Yeah, my wife, my wife and I are very entrepreneur. Yeah, you know, so we, you know, we run multiple businesses. The magic school is my, you know, my newest one. And that's the one I'm most passionate about. So very excited to be here. And you know, very, very happy to be on the podcast. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background?

I mean, if this is your newest venture, like, I mean, tell us who you are, where you're from, and how you actually went from, From, you know, a super cool guy all the way from France to like a magic guy all the way here in the States in Florida. Like, tell us your story. All right. So we have a couple hours, right? Okay. Yeah. All right. So, you know, yeah, just a quick background. So born and raised in Paris, lived, you know, in France until I was about 20.

I actually met my wife when I was doing an internship in Pensacola. And fell in love, you know, the true, you know, outcome story. And we had a little bit of a long distance. Then finally, when I graduated college, moved in with her. My first business with her was, we actually started a food truck. Obviously I'm French. So we went with the French brand. I was selling French crepes and business is Mimi's Crepe and it's still actually active, you know, 10 years later.

I'm no longer running, but I have a friend of mine, Brian, that runs it and he does an amazing job. You know, and along the journey, we started, you know, multiple thing you know kayaking business we have some real estate and. Most recently, you know, been doing magic since I was, since I was eight. And I decided last year, you know, that put it on my heart to do something a little bit bigger than myself with that.

So I had this vision to open this school and I just followed it. And within two days of having that vision, I just went ahead and started it. And, you know, fast forward a year later, we're killing it and very excited. Can you speak a bit about beginning as a magician in France?

You're eight years old and you start doing magic what's the learning situation like there that's a great question dad so you know fell in love with magic when i was eight because my mom took me to magic show in paris like it was an underground theater definitely not a place for a kid but dominic de bouvier's joint huh yeah the double phone was that where you were where i'm at. La Double Femme, Dominique de Vuvier. He has a small close-up theater in Paris. No? Oh, okay. Yeah.

Honestly, I was eight years old. And to this day, I'm trying to remember what it was, but I can't really pinpoint it. Yeah. My money's on Dominique's joint. Yeah. And in his defense, he was probably drunk because, you know. They start him young over there. You can drink wine.

Wait. Before you continue your story, when did you first try wine i was probably 11 that's my grandfather 11 right but he did own two businesses by the time he was nine well i mean you know that's nice i like it but it's you know that's it's actually you know doc to your point it's it's a very hard craft to learn when you're eight so and there was before you know youtube and everything so kind of like you know the vhs and all these things and you

know looking back it's kind of like one thing that got me started with this school is i had nowhere to learn uh i'm sapped out so you know for many years after that i just kind of like was reading and i wasn't around any magician so really kind of learning on my own which is now pushing me to uh to starting that environment where you know we can we can and teach and learn. Well, question about learning. Like, do you kind of identify with what you're saying where you were effectively self-taught?

And I think that nowadays, you know, the only way that we tend to learn is not through the mentorships that were done back in the day. Like when you study history, it was, you know, Keller who was taught by so on and so on and so on, and it sort of plays on. Do you think that's something we should be bringing back in which when you become more senior as a performer, that you do take on a protege at some point?

Or do you think that it's a mixture of both? Like, what do you think is the best way for Magic going forward? I think, you know, both. I think, like, you need to have a passion for it. I do think the mentorship program is huge. I know that, you know, the truth is, I see a pattern, you know. It's like, as a kid, they're very interested in magic. And then I think I heard Doug say it one time on a podcast, but, you know, kids love magic. They want to learn.

And then you get into the teenage years, and that kind of, like, drop off. Like, you're just kind of like, ah, this is, you know, this is lame. And then I see a lot of adults now, and they want to pick it back up. But they don't know where to start. So I think having that mentor or having the person that you can reach out to is huge. So, you know, I have like now, but I've only had mentor like later, like now that I'm actually doing more in the industry, in the community.

Now that's where I'm trying to surround myself with mentor. And I 100%, I think Nick, you're right. Wow. And, you know, we got to ask the question, like what kind of stuff do you teach at your magic school? Is there something you have on you that you could, I'm kind of putting you on the spot because you're in a hotel, but like, you know, what do people come to learn at the school?

So I have different program. I have, you know, different class, but like I have the kid kids class and I have the adult class. I can, you know, I can talk a little bit about, but do you want me to show you a little something that I would teach in the adult class? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. You know, each, each week it's an eight week program and each week we have a different theme. So card magic, mentalism, you know, money magic, everyday item.

So last week we actually taught, we have a pack class right now and we taught everyday magic. So like I said, I'm traveling, so I don't have a lot of props on me. But the cool thing with magic is that you can actually do magic with everyday item. So I was going to give this one a freebie for the listener. But this one you can actually do amazing. And Doug, I don't think you've seen that, but for this trick, you need just a napkin.

Right you need an atin but this is the secret part most people don't know that you actually have a second one in your hand so you're holding yes i know right i mean mind-blowing right i promise you just stick stick until the end so you're holding this one you're actually palming this one but they don't know about this so you're like all right guys i'm going to show you this trick you can do this at the dinner table you can

do this anywhere like in a hotel room and what you're going to tell them you're going to actually tear that piece of paper but you're holding this So you're tearing this napkin, so you now have all these torn pieces. Now you're basically going to wrap this into your hand, and again, keep in mind, you're holding the other one. So now you're doing a transfer, obviously, so you're transferring this, and now you have that piece of paper that is being restored, right?

Now sometime you might get caught and be like, hey, what are you holding in your hand? Well, guess what? You have this one in your hand and you can also show the other one. But the cool thing is the other one has also been restored as well. And if you guys want to learn how this one is done, feel free to message me

on Instagram. This is a great impromptu trick to teach. What a wonderful choice for a magical lesson. And Milan's mic broke for a second, but he said, if you want to learn it, You can hit him up on Instagram, which are in the links below. What a gem. And what a way to like, it's like a sucker trick, isn't it? It's like, especially for adults, you feel like you're taking them down this path and then you just kick them over the cliff of magic.

Question about your classes. I mean, some people feel like it might be too late for them, even if they've never done it before. What is the oldest student you have? I've had... It's Doug. No. The truth is, Ilan taught me everything I know. A thousand years old? That's amazing. We've had on our first class, the oldest one, he was 75 years old. Yeah. Great, great. You know, I hear this a lot from people. The older generation is very interested in learning magic still.

You can be a kid at heart and love magic. You can start it when you're 70. That's fine. That's a great question. Actually, it's kind of a cool story because, you know, two years ago, I joined the, for the first time I joined my local magic group. And, you know, it's the Gulf Coast Magician Guild. And he, that particular student had been coming to that meeting for three years. And when I joined and I told them that I was going to start this magic school,

he was like, oh my God, can I join? I was like, absolutely.

But at first I was like, don't you perform as well? world he was like no actually i've just been coming because i just love magic but i don't know how to perform it and so he came with an eight-week course and then after each meetup that we have we have kind of like this open night if you want to try new material and after he was after he wrapped up my class i was like you need to go ahead and perform he had been coming to that group for

three years he had never performed he performed the next meeting and crushed it and everyone was so amazed because they've known him for three years he had just been sitting and enjoying magic and now he was actually able to perform that was such a proud moment for me.

That's awesome i love that you know there's i think there's something beautiful about that because who was it that said that was it percy daikonin or was it fitsky but i think there was a theory that whatever age you start magic is the mental age you have as you perform it so like if you got into it when you were eight you have like you like the stuff that an eight-year-old would enjoy about magic but if you got into it later in life that you perform stuff that's more appropriate

for that now i got into magic when i was 23 so i kind of feel like i appeal to, that demographic as a result but yeah i wonder that explains i think why i never wanted to do like kid shows because i got into it properly although i dabbled throughout my childhood i properly got into it like around you know 18 kind of thing and so that's probably why the stuff i was learning was like the theory the theory 11 you know latest coin vanishes and all that kind of stuff i have a theory

that fitsky's theories are a bunch of bs maybe i don't know if the guy I knew what he was talking about all the time. Here's what I suggest when people read Fitzki. Find the reasons to argue with him, and then you're getting something out of his lessons. Well, we might need to put him on the history lesson. What do you think? Fitzki? To discuss that further. Yeah, to discuss that further. Maybe. Maybe. Question for Milan. So you're doing a lot of other businesses outside of teaching.

Teaching what amount of magic helps in those other businesses in terms of like whether it's like meeting people maybe breaking the ice with magic or you know anything in that kind of realm has magic like helped with any of that stuff networking or agreements with business i mean magic has been a part of my life the you know for a very long time so i think you know in the the business world 100 but it's more just in you know connecting with people because

you know my wife will always kind of like in this in a sweet way but she rolls her eyes when you be like i mean i'm meeting new people and after we talk for a while they're like you know what do you do is like well now i lead with hey i i open the magic school that what can we see something i'm obviously there we go again but that's kind of like you know every every wise musician i feel yeah she's like, she's like here's your tissue box if you're

doing any kind of sales it's a great skill set to have right exactly exactly and i was in sales for the longest time technically i'm still in sales and i think like yeah just for the ice breaking part or just like you know you go to conference and you know i've done conference in the past where it's not magic related you're trying to reach that top guy that.

Everyone is trying to talk to and you see him later at the bar you know trying to and you know you'd be like hey you know and just like do you want some cool thing and you show this magic trick and now he's interested in you versus like you know the opposite so it's it's been a super great tool and that's why i teach the student it's it's a door i mean it's it's a tool that's going to allow you to open many doors in your life do you have a go-to for an ice-breaking effect.

And how many double crosses do you have right definitely definitely a good one until i was like man like they want to retire double cross what the hell did someone say that they're retired yeah we we in our list of like you know what magic should be retired yeah no i think i think i have go ahead i think the conclusion was that we said, it's not it shouldn't be retired it should people find should find their own creative way to to use it anyway please continue go i have this

full routine i can't remember exactly but it's it's a quick routine with i can't remember the name of it but it's around cards usually but like a like a like something that happens in a spectator hand so usually i like you know trick where i'm giving them the deck of cards and be like all right let me you know you go ahead and shuffle and then and then you do something like that so it's kind of like a mind blower, and they don't and I'm not even touching the deck so that's kind of like my

two go and then they'll be like do that again so then they give me back the deck card then I'll do something else but. Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. Nice. More impressive when it happens. Curious on the school. Is there a retail end of this? Do you offer some sales there? I think it's, you know, in my future plan to grow the school. I'm definitely in that period of time right now where I'm trying to, I'm not trying to rush too much.

I've had so much positive feedback, you know, great support from the Magic community. Then I'm trying to scale, but I'm trying to do it in a very smart way.

Way as you should because it's a tightrope business magic the shop is maybe something that i want to add later but i want to maybe wait for the brand to kind of be a little bit more you know a little bit bigger because it's just like you know if you get into the retail like obviously like your margins are going to start like so right now i'm just focusing on the school in person i think my next step future wise is maybe creating some type of like online course i know

like a lot lot of people have been requesting that because hey i'm not in pensacola like how do i get to you i'm like i don't really have anything to offer yet but yeah i'm i think it's going to be the next step yeah just film the lessons maybe you know that's a start i don't know i mean even sorry even like i know a lot of dance schools will will do like essentially you could do a better version of it but they'll do like a zoom dance lesson where everyone is there virtually That's true.

And the instructor can still see and, you know, give advice directly and things like that. But, okay, so someone signs up for the Pensacola Magic School. What is their timeline or like experience like? Like, are they coming once a week for like 12 weeks or something like that? What's the structure? Yeah. So both for kids and adults, and I can talk a little bit about the kid one, but for the adult one, you know, they sign up and both of them are eight week course.

So kids are on Monday night and then adults on Tuesday night. It's for an hour and a half, but usually I'm there like 30 minutes before the class starts. So if, you know, if they want to come early, doors open before and, you know, we can kind of like discuss some presentation, some thing that we've learned the previous week.

Week and then for a week and a half for like an hour and a half we'll basically like you know learn tricks on a particular subject that we had that day and for the kids we don't have that for the adult yet but i do want to have that in place but for the kids after the eight week course is over there is a full-on magic show that we put together in front of the parents and the family and it's been amazing because they finally can see the result of you know hey i've had this shy kid that

has been very interested in magic and now he's on stage just like blowing people's mind which has been like such an awesome you know experience to see that's awesome i bet you must have like parents in tears like i i've never seen my kid be so full of you know energy on a stage in front of people that's that's amazing outside of teaching a child magic like what i mean magic aside what are the sort of things that you find that needs to be

overleaped with children do you you find that their anxieties get the best of them do you find that their confidence is super lacking like what have you identified and how have you helped to help the kids overcome that.

That's true yeah you know obviously as you you that's the thing with with today's world i feel like you know you just go on youtube and on tiktok and they just you know show you how the trick is done and that's the end of it and i i have a problem with that because there's so much more that goes into it. And to answer your question, I think like, you know, I do have a lot of shy kids that comes to the school, you know, but I love the diversity and, you know, we're working on presentation.

We're working on, you know, building confidence. So I do like the first class kind of like an icebreaker. So I'm kind of like pairing them, asking question in interviewing, and then they have to present each other. So that really helps with building confidence and just, you know, know, critical thinking, problem solving, like, and just nurturing their creativity, I think all that is just this beautiful wrapped gift that's,

And the magic is just the cherry on top. Have you seen a lot of friendships flourish between the kids and between members of the classes? Like these folks who never knew each other, but because you've driven, like you've created this community that all of a sudden, like little Jerry and little Timmy are now mates and they do magic together and they ride bikes together and now their families are friends. Like, do you see that sort of progression in your environment?

Absolutely. And honestly, that was kind of like the biggest thing that I, that I love is I'm, I love people. I just like, I'm absolutely like every time, and I think it's kind of like we all do in some way, but I think, yeah, just building that community was the thing that I'm almost the most proud of is, you know, I have this private group for adults that, you know, are just like for former students and we keep sharing videos and people keep practicing.

Practicing i've seen like you know i have former former student that basically taking what they've learned and they now they have you know i'm thinking of ben one of my one of my former students he basically he owns this he's an orthodentist and he does this conference and he performed like the matrix in front of like his entire staff which is like hundreds of people and so you see that you're like oh my god this is awesome and then now we can all kind of like gather up and something with

the kids like you build those friendship around that that craft which is amazing what what happens when you find the kids that like one thing that i see in the junior communities of of australia is that they get to a point where like ego really becomes something you know where they they have this level of overconfidence because they get this.

This positive enforcement from doing something exceptional because you know magic is such a strong form of entertainment that it carries even the weakest performer you know so when kids sort of predicate all of their i don't know gusto or their you know their ego into that you know what i mean and it's built on that talent like do you have you seen that in your classes and like how do you combat saying like hey man why don't you neck up a little bit i wonder if that's like a thing that happens

further much further down in the timeline or is that i feel like that's got to to be a much longer down the track thing but i feel like it's a teenage thing you know into that sort of realm perhaps i'm not sure but have you seen it i've not seen it i've not seen it with the kids because they're just excited to learn and just excited to like you know impress their parents and friends so i've not encountered that yet i can i can definitely see where you're coming from i've not seen that

yet but you know we do our last class with the adults not really touching on that particular subject. But our last class, we do a lot of talking about audience management, you know, how to deal with hecklers and how to deal with, you know, when you, you know, deal with, you know, crowds and you're trying to perform and you're going to have this guy kind of like trying to bring you down. So we do talk about these things. We haven't touched on the ego part yet because I feel like most people.

Students that i've had come in with the mindset of just like learning and sharing and we do you know i've not mentioned but like my buddy nathan nickerson he's a great local magician as well.

And he's helped me a lot when i had the idea the school i reached out to him it was like hey nathan like i felt like i you know i have a hard time doing this on my own like i really need to you know bounce some ideas and so nathan actually joined me in that venture as a as a teacher and And he's very experienced as well. So he has a lot of good feedback. He knows a ton about history. So we take always like each class talking a little bit about like the history of magic on that particular topic.

So that's, you know, just kind of like sharing. But to answer your question, I haven't had to deal with the ego part yet. But yeah. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. I love that you have extra bodies and that you're delving into the history as well. It gives the students some extra vibes to connect to and points of view.

How many students are in your classes like what's the size so right now i cap around 12 um 12 per class yeah but then you know i've done like five or six rounds so yeah 119 since we open, and you know i don't know if you guys want to talk a little bit about kind of like the program for the kid because the program for the adult nathan and i kind of like put this course together, the eight-week course and we actually have two different eight-week course now and we're working on two others.

For the kids, it's different. Nice. Nice. Yeah, I think there's a lot of guys here who have kids who would love for their children to sort of be involved in something like this. So like, yeah, let them know. Let us know. But the absolutely so. Yeah. So when I had the idea of opening the school, I had this, I got put in touch with my friend, Jeff Sobel, who is a local magician, but he's also an executive committee for the IBM.

And he became my mentor throughout the process. And he was like, you know, if you want to teach kids, because I had the idea of what I want to teach adults, but I don't necessarily know how to teach kids. And I want to put it on the kids level and kids material. So he actually put me in touch with this great company called Discover Magic. And that was funded by three guys. You may recognize some name, but Brian Daniel South, who is a world-class magic creator.

Michael Amar, a world-class magician. And then Michael Mario Rosander, who is a world-class magician camp instructor. So those three guys got together and created this beautiful program, Turnkey.

Key whoever wants to teach can sign up to be a presenter under the deep cover magic program and, it's amazing they have you know they have the individual rap program with you know a beautiful template and each week you also learn to a trait to be a good magician so you know be prepared and you know be enthusiastic so all these great things that i didn't have to think of i just Just took the program and just like taught it how it was. Oh, amazing. How good is that? Just a question.

Of all the disciplines of magic, you know, you got your mind reading bits, you got card magic, coin magic, things with borrowed objects, etc. What is the favorite discipline that the kids enjoy? And what's the favorite discipline that the adults enjoy? Like rope magic, coins, like what do they prefer? They do like the vanishing and the kids, I'm saying that every time you make something vanish, they're just like, where did that go? And then you make it reappear somehow.

So I think like the vanish, vanishing and repairing principle is pretty amazing. For the adults, I think they do enjoy card magic a lot because it's, you know, something that they obviously like can carry in their pockets.

I've got great feedback on the card magic but like also the the everyday item is pretty huge i mean you can do that you know at a table you don't need any props you can do anything like you know after dinner things like that so everyday magic and card i would think for the adults wow and tim has just asked a question in the comment what are the ages for the kids program great question so So I start eight, eight to 12, kind of like the range.

And then once you pass, you know, 13, 14, I feel like you're more in the bucket of like the adult. And I felt like it's been amazing to see who sign up. And we've had a lot of, you know, on the adult side, like they sign up with their kids, like or a brother and sister that are teenager, like to create those bond around that craft. It's been beautiful to see. And then we all sharing this as a group. And, you know, we break out in different sessions.

So, you know, I've had brother and sister. I've had father and son. I've had husband and wife doing it together. So it's just like, yes. I was hoping to hear there'd be some adult females involved in this learning experience. You know, I'm assuming the children... Can you imagine can you imagine doug if erin starts giving you tips on like your dls and she's like she does that she does this that sucks that's what i hear.

That's what love sounds like yeah yeah he's the best magic critic because she

she just has no filter that's horrible that's it yeah what malam what what does your wife think of magic like can she still watch magic does she watch your magic yeah how's her classic past, you know i think she's listening so i'm just kidding no but i think she's she's honestly been the most support supporting person throughout this journey she she helps me, as far as the magic side goes you know with i would say hey can you i'm working

on this can you pick a card and i'm gonna get the eye rolling but you know as far as you know the business side of things she's been very supportive try to help me grow asking challenging question she you know I'm sure we can all relate as magicians with that. But no, she's been amazing. And my daughter, McKenna, she's seven years old. And so she's also, she's been taking all the kids' class. And it's amazing because I got to spend time with her as well.

How good. Have you had any weird stories or funny stories happen over your time running the school? Like has anyone got in trouble at school because they, you know, made a booger appear or I don't know. I don't know. I wonder what happens when you're bad at magic school. That's funny. Like little Johnny took my Game Boy, put it in a bag, and then it vanished, and he put his hand through the bag. You have to go do ventriloquism for 30 minutes.

Well, they're doing that prank where they hold like a sauce sachet in their hand, and they put a fork through it, you know, to look like it goes through their eye. I don't know. Anything come to mind? No, don't give them idea, though, if they're listening. You send them to read Fitski for 20 minutes. That'll fix them. I'm going to poop in a change bag. I can just see that happening. Try it at Fudge. And there goes our sponsors.

So we're going to throw it back to you, Milan. Any weird stories come to mind

or funny? No, no weird stories just yet. I've just had very positive feedback from kind of like, I'll share that because when, you know, I was kind of like deciding what I wanted to do as far as classes. Originally, I thought I just wanted to do kids and teenagers. But then quickly I realized kids, I had no problem filling out the class, but teenager, I couldn't find any teenager that wanted to go to magic school.

And I had lunch with my buddy Brent Lane who is known as the radio guy here in Pensacola I was trying to pick his brain and you know he was like it's too bad you don't have a class for a doll because you know I would definitely sign up for that and I was like you would sign up for a magic class and he's like yeah so I just you know waited a couple of seconds like well Brent guess what an adult class just opened up so he was my first student and then after that honestly I've had had tons of

adult reaching out because they wanted to learn that man what a great idea to do like couple you know couples are always looking for cute things to do but what if you had a a type of thing where it's like welcome to the couple's class right and it could be just like it's date night let's go learn a trick and then you teach this couple how to do it like a speakeasy type routine and they can communicate to each other and like as a team that idea

you know what i mean like think i mean think about it bro i mean valentine's day is literally like 15 days away way you know what i mean and you could just go hey yeah go have dinner at this across the street come to my school learn a magic thing together and then together you guys can be the life of the party everywhere you go to eat and drink and and whatever else like there's an idea there, yeah i'm sure my love my wife would love that too that i'm not there for that.

All right we're halfway through, why don't we change gears for a second we haven't done one of these for a little while but nick has has these reviews that he does about magic. And as a magic teacher, maybe we can get your thoughts on this product as well. But Nick, how do you feel? Are you ready to fire up a review? Are you ready to give it to him? All right. Music. This portion of the podcast is brought to us

by our good friends at piper magic australia's premiere online magic store and this week we are looking at a product by mark lemon called ptsd said to be the perfect card prediction i kind of want to talk to you guys about this one so what you get in this package is you get a gimmick envelope well you get two envelopes one is black one is red depending on what stage you're performing on you get some gimmick cards and and some very in-depth

video tutorials explaining how you can go about performing this trick. Now, as far as difficulty goes, this is not a very difficult trick to do, provided you can remember a script and say what you need to say in order to get the message across and slash influence. And outside of that, you just got to be able to take a card out of an envelope. You can effectively do this trick. Now, as far as pros and cons goes, the cards are made of plastic, so it's going to last you a very long time.

There's no wallets, switches, extra envelopes, no phishing, thin cards, none of the sort and there's no fumbling with indexes kind of. And once you get the product, you'll be able to tell. Now, as far as the con goes, if you intend on performing this in the surround, you are not going to be able to perform this with somebody standing behind you. Or if you are going to do that behind you, you need to be weary of your angles.

Outside of that, once you take a card out of the envelope, they cannot look inside the envelope. And you can't effectively hand out the card for inspection. However, there is a handling taught where you can hand out the envelope for inspection, but you need to be able to sit down in order to achieve that method. Now, as far as costing goes, Piper Magic currently have this for $80.95, which is approximately 60 US dollars. So I had to ask myself, is it worth it?

And I say yes for the quality of the product and for how direct and awesome it is. And then another part of me goes, that's a bit X-y.

And the reason I say that is that because it's so direct and so quick it's effectively a one minute trick for 80 bucks granted it resets almost immediately and everything else you could fire it off super duper quick but another part of me is kind of like 80 bucks kind of a kind of hurts so when I had to ask myself who is this trick for I think it's for anybody who is looking to perform a really impossible piece of magic in a very direct way now I want you guys to

kind of think about how you would go about performing this think about joshua jay's trick inferno where he has the matchbox and so forth it's effectively in principle very similar but this is far more direct with less fishing and in essence less presentation now if it's going to be part of a larger scale sort of effect that you're doing then by all means get it and if you're gonna want to get it make sure you get it from pipermagic.com.au

and use discount code piperguys so that you guys can get a discount on all every single purchase cards coins rubber bands you name. Music.

Milan, are you buying much magic these days? I am, unfortunately. And that's because of you guys, mostly. I am, unfortunately. The biggest curse for a magician is just, I think you will never have enough, right? I call it the magic lottery. It's like gambling. But question to the group, have you seen this effect? I have not. Let me also want to review your review.

View two two thumbs up man what a solid review of that product you know i've seen it i've seen unboxings man i think that was a very fair look at this potentially strong piece and i've heard the uh the the instructional on the uh inferno-esque part is unique and interesting it really really is like there is a lot of great knowledge here and when you see those type of things that seem so impossible on TV, it's effectively showing the methods to achieve that.

And it is deeply impressive, super impressive. You know, I think that when we talk about pricing magic and you say 60 might be too much, I would say that if you're lucky enough to find any magic routine that would go into your working repertoire, 10,000 is not enough. So the price point on effect versus money, you know, I don't think we should quantify that in the reviews, maybe. Does that make sense? That's a good idea. You know, if this is going in your working repertoire, well,

congratulations, you won the lottery. Yeah, the money doesn't. That's right. You could buy a $2 book and find a gem that becomes the biggest thing. A 10-minute talking piece with audience volunteers. How much does that work? Yeah. And you're totally right. And I was a little bit torn as to how to price it up because in essence, it's expensive. But the reason I wanted to bring that up is that comparatively...

Yeah so we're looking at something that's double the price so and you take some longer like it takes longer to perform so sometimes people want to gauge their product on well i bought it and i get six minutes on stage with it and people find value in that so so it was really interesting trying to gauge the value of it because i think it's entirely valuable i think it's amazing right but i could appreciate how some people would be like that much money for one minute if you're

buying magic just to you know find the secret out like most tricks you're probably going to be sad about it no matter how much you spend huh yes and i kind of love it that if you are that type of person don't get it and let that price point protect the secret because the secret is so damn good and the trick is so damn good it should be that way with most magic, most professional routines i like when i i like when i pay a lot for something

and then i realize how good it is and i'm like yes that means that like way less people are going to have this, you know right or like the barrier to entry being you know that that you've got to build something or you know it's like oh so much effort to learn this technique i'm like that's awesome because no one else is gonna gonna do it you know and scott says like i mean erroneous how long it takes to perform how long does that live that memory live in your spectator's

mind and i did Did not think about it. That's up to your presentation. So that's up to you as the performer to make. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. Speaking of performing, if I may, just one last thing before we delve back into Milan's world. We are opening up the newest, our new home of the theater of magic here in Brisbane. And we're now residing in the treasury hotel, which is part of the hotel and casino here in the city. And we made a new trailer.

I shot and we edited a new trailer. I'm going to play it just real quick, you know, just because, uh, why not? This is the theater of magic new season. Beautiful. That looks sick.

Starting this Saturday, get your ticket at ticketech.com. No, don't go. I am going to fly up and perform there with you guys. That just looks like way too much fun to not be a part of. And then being alongside people like Chris and Nige, come on, man. Like. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's, it's the place where you learn how to do magic at the Pensacola magic school, and then eventually end up at the theater of magic in Australia.

That's what it is. It seems to be the progression. It's like, first you become a listener, then you become a guest. And then from a guest, you become a, you become a host. Yeah. It's got to be exciting to be on the casino property, right? That's going to be a move in a stronger direction. Yes. Yes. I think so. So I think it definitely adds a little something to it. And they're like, oh, we're going to the casino for this show.

Definitely it's gotten a few eyeballs looking at it like, oh, wow, you're in the casino now. Like, you know, the show is going to be the same wherever it was. But there's this added layer of experience that comes with being where it is now. Magic shows are synonymous with being part of the casino. I mean, go to Vegas is totally evident. But I think what's even cooler is that it's going to be a secret magic show.

If you know you know type of thing i love stuff like that if you know you know what i mean yeah totally totally so milan are you doing any do you do any public shows i do some like it's it's not so not something that i do much these days but you know i'll do it if people ask me i'm actually going to be doing a couple you know on stage performance i did one yesterday but you know know right now i'm really trying to focus on the school i have one residency

right now that i'm working on a private club in pensacola but to touch on your point congratulations the trailer looks awesome and i think you're right like the location of where you're performing is huge like to tie it back to the school we are having the school at the you know pensacola rex theater which is one of the oldest building and pensacola is a very very old town so having that location i I think makes the school even much more cooler, you know? Yeah.

Is the theater operational as a theater? It's actually a church. Oh. It's Generation Pensacola, but they also do events out of it. And, you know, like they have film sometimes, but it's mostly a church and a coffee as well, a coffee shop. Love it. Well, you know. Love, love, love it. Most magic meetings do happen in churches, so that, you know, it makes sense that would.

Look my end game is this i got a small theater with a coffee shop that's for me and then the magic shop so i can you know spread the wisdom and you'll find me maybe in france because i'm not going to do it in the states but maybe yeah doug you gotta come yeah actually you guys are all gonna go come to melbourne and see like the the laneway theater which is exactly that like it's a little 50 seat theater with tiered seats and yeah

like that should you guys ever make it it down you have friends you have me so that'll be great are there magic venues in in florida like is there any sort of like magic bars or things of that nature where you could see folks. Not that I know of. There might be some, but. In Florida, there was the Theater of Magic. It's operational in St. Petersburg right now. I think they were in Orlando for a while. You know, Bill Malone had a place for the longest time over there in Boca Raton.

You know, Malone's Magic Bar. Oh, yeah. Damn. Yeah, but even in bigger cities, like, for example, before coming in Vermont, we had a layover with, you know, my wife and daughter in New York. So I went and checked out, you know, Tenant's Magic Shop.

And then oh yeah don't blink as well it was cool i mean you see it in a bigger you know bigger city but pensacola is still a fairly small town but it has tourism in it it's a it's an attractive area for visitors so i think this might lend you know when i talk about retail that might be something that could work there maybe seasonal right but yeah we got all those tourists from new audience coming you know well yeah you got clean beaches there you know the gulf

of mexico is not too pretty in the mississippi you know what i mean so milan you were saying that there's certain growth that you would like the school to experience why don't you share that like what is your envisage like what do you envisage happening for the school and tell us so if there's any way that we could possibly help either you know between the three of us and of course our community like Like, let us know, what is the dream?

Yeah, that's a good question, Nick. I think, you know, when I had this vision for the school, I wrote down, you know, I went crazy and wrote down all this crazy idea that I had and actually look back at it. Some of the point that I had on there was, you know, international school.

So I don't know exactly what it would look like. But, you know, my vision for this would be to one day open something, different location, maybe reach you know reach a group of people that not necessarily have because there is obviously a need for it right is the people want to learn i think they're longing to learn but they have they have no mentor no way to do that so implementing this school and you know why not australia

now that you know we're in contact that would be that would be a great great way to learn a great way to start and then maybe like friends because obviously i'm from there but but I'm open. So kind of like international school, you know, working on new curriculum right now with Nathan for the adult class and then potentially like move some of it online. Yeah.

But yeah, and honestly, right now, I'm just pouring into my students and creating like new talent, because I've seen a lot of like, especially on the kid side, a lot of amazing potential. So could you do a zoom type lecture, like at your school, where everyone comes to the school, you get a projector up, and then like, either one of us can like lecture and share magic with with the audience. That's a great idea. Yeah.

All right, write that one down. You're welcome. And then yeah, absolutely. Surely. And then, you know, just like you mentioned, you mentioned earlier, like, you know, a special class.

So I was thinking also doing like, you know, for just like, you know, maybe couple or just, you know, grandparents and grandkids or, you know, just single guys how to pick up, you know, girls at the bar or things like that, you know, just kind of like different, different group of people and just have like, you know, that's. Yeah, we can we can do a class on the bold magic because obviously you don't have experience in that. But but we plenty we have plenty.

But then as far as you know like that's kind of like the idea of like how the school is growing and i didn't mention that but like i'm really big into giving back to the community so there is a there is a portion of the seats at the school that i donate to you know a low-income family or a partner with the with the charity called big brother big sister dog i don't know if you're i love this that's so good that's beautiful it's big to me because i'm

like you know like If you can afford it, it's great. If you can't, I'm still going to welcome you in the school. I don't want this to be a barrier to entry. So that's my big thing. Honestly, these are probably some of the students who need it more. Exactly. So good. Well planned. I would gladly donate a lecture in any Zroop capacity to help out those who need it. That sounds wonderful. That's awesome.

It would be my pleasure. And likewise. And all I'll charge is one of those chains you're wearing because they obviously – I mean, I'm over here thinking, I'll show up one day, you know, put your face more on YouTube and we'll make a video of me coming to visit and advertising. Yeah. I was actually, yeah, in New Orleans recently. I didn't hit you up, but I went to that, you know, playing card shop. Oh, yeah. How beautiful is that place?

That's beautiful. He was telling me, yeah, it's like, I'm working, I'm working with Doug right now. And it's like, wow, we'll have to get all together for sure.

Yeah yeah it'd be like it'd be like being in a band you know i got friends in pensacola it's not out of out of the realm for me to come you know spend the night there and then pop over and you know be a guest teacher and film a little youtube thing that works for everybody maybe so you got you got one more friend now so yeah stay in touch we'll make that happen absolutely yeah milan did you have any musical influences or anything of that nature to

you know like is the influence influence you or your performance style by any chance? I mean, your former band was definitely a big, big influence.

I dreamt for many, many months to say that. I'm just kidding.

I don't know. Why? Do you have something in mind? No, somebody just put an excuse to drink. There we go. Cheers, everyone. Nice. Nice. What age did you come to the US? I feel like we did talk about it, but... I was, yeah, I said that at the beginning, but I was right off college. So right around 20. 20. And did your wife, did you meet her in France or in America? We met when I was doing an internship here. She was formerly the morning anchor for the local Channel 3 News here in France. Oh, okay.

We met at the bar. And guess what? Help me. I did some magic and she did not care for the magic.

Dating a local celebrity. All right. pick it up when she told her friend that you know she was dating a magician they're like does he live in his mom's basement that's the first thing that's the general it's a general presumption yeah but hang on so what where is she from is she she's she's american she's from american yeah so instead of saying i met this hot french guy she said i'm i met this magician, Does magician override like the accent?

Because surely the accent has got to be a good starting point. French magician. That's a flex. Oh, bonjour. Mange la patate. Oh, yeah. Fun fact, I lived in France for a year when I was 11 years old. And I clarified for all. Oh, my father works with Michelin tire, you know, and Michelin French company. And I learned many things in France at that age, but it was hard to find. I was always looking for books or magicians on TV and it just wasn't there. I couldn't see any of it.

Yeah, it's, it's hard, but I did see the French beaches. Oh yeah. You guys are looking at each other like there's boobies on that beach. Is that true? I became a man in southern France. At 11? Goodness me. What are you going to do? Not look? Drinking and on the beach you know at 11 probably oh yeah that's like the legal age 11 no it's 18 but you know.

All right good stuff so um man i hope i hope some of our listeners show up at your class one day and you're like oh yeah i'm here because i saw you on the on the podcast the magic club does love you because now you're also a feeder for that organization organization and in this day and age the groups desperately need this yeah can i the president, sorry go ahead sorry can i say what i envisage for your school just for the conversation i've been i've been building

sort of a mental imagery of you know like what your dreams aspirations are and so forth and what i envisage is that people come to class and they also have the hands-on experience but then when they leave they have access to an online platform that covers everything everything you just spoke about in that class. So they need to go home and be like, I forgot where to put my finger.

They can actually do it in person, go home, have this video material that they would have access to on the Pensacola website. And then, you know, just reiterate whatever they're trying to learn. Do that. Right. We do it.

Sorry i mean no not at all that's that's what what i envisage you know and and then you would probably like have to like you can't access the next one until next week i know you're getting ahead of yourself but don't do that yes we already have so we already have that so the first class you know i didn't really know what i was doing so the first class i just did that and i'm really big into getting feedback because i was like you know guys i'll be honest like this is a dream,

and we we're putting it into reality but it's like i don't really know what we're doing so So the first class was kind of like, you know, testing, but then I received feedback that like, well, you know, you learn so much because one of the main thing they like, we just want to know one or two trick, but I'm like, guys, we're going to be together for eight weeks. Let me tell you, you guys going to know way more than that. So by the time the class is done, they know roughly like 30 to 40. Whoa.

And then we did do that. So when I get back home, I went and filmed myself teaching those tricks again. And you know, my house and, and I put them on the Google drive and they have access each week, I basically invite them to the video. So I didn't mean to cut you, but that's already something that we provide. Yeah. Awesome. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Nice. And I think it's such a great way of teaching. You know, I've got to say that as this episode slowly comes to a close, I'm so thankful we set up a friendship. And the reason is like, it's just so refreshing to find someone so passionate, equally passionate, if not more passionate than we are about magic. Like it's so great. Great. It literally makes me warm and fuzzy. And I'm just so thankful that like you are doing this.

And I'm even more thankful that you've extended the hand of friendship and we're able to now call you a friend. So like, thank you for being here. And more importantly, and thank you for doing this school. It is so great. Quick side. Oh, sorry. Go on, please. You're coming to an end, but I want to reiterate what I said on the message to you guys. When I first reached out, you guys are doing such an incredible job for the community.

And i'm so grateful like honestly this was a dream of mine to be on the podcast one day and i was like oh this is not gonna happen but then you know i'm like i mean you guys are like there is tons of people that you know like have reached out to me just from the podcast and then also just you guys are doing so much if you guys you don't realize it i'm telling you there's tons of magicians out there that are just listening to you guys on a

weekly basis and are getting a ton out of your feedback and just like i feel like i've known you guys for years which is amazing and you know, just thank you guys appreciate y'all yeah that's that's great how long ago did you first like hear about the podcast yeah, It's probably like a year and a half, maybe, I want to say. Okay, so a little, yeah, gotcha, gotcha. How much better is it since Nick Kay joined? Not in there. I'm just kidding.

I'm not making any point here. Nick definitely did bring the structure to the podcast. That's for sure. We're much more on track with Nick Kay and behind the scenes. That's for sure. Yeah, absolutely. We're doing it every week. Absolutely. Nick's a fan of Shanker. Yeah. Yeah. Are you a fan of Gary Vee? You give me big Gary Vee vibes. Gary Vaynerchuk.

No, I mean, I listen to his content. I don't, I mean, yeah, no, I mean, I, you know, I'm, I'm big into, I'm trying to, with the magic, I'm also trying to bring like some motivational, you know, speaking aspect to it.

When I speak, especially when I talk to the kids, I think, you know, magic is a great platform to also teach them things like gratitude and just like goal setting and things like that so maybe you know without wanting it like maybe just your the way the way you carry yourself and the way like you approach things how how you you know you're doing multiple businesses it just gives me that same kind of vibe but you're also happy at the same time you

know it's it's very refreshing i'm very grateful yeah hey i'm i'd be grateful of that full head of hair because you know god knows we don't have it but uh hey look as we come to a close we can you can continue this conversation with milan by finding him on his socials which are all in the descriptions below john says milan is cooler than gary v well hey he gary can't do magic so you got that right you follow him and earlier in this episode if you joined late he did show a piece of magic

which is really cool and not in sort of mainstream knowing of of tricks you can hit him up on his pensacola instagram or his personal one ask him about it get some in more detail and we're going to leave Milan with the final word of the show. So here we go. What an honor to get the final word. So just guys, you know, just thanks for having me. One of my thing that I always say is like, you always think you have more time.

So just my, my final word is just don't wait. Just go out there and live your dream and go make magic happen. Thanks y'all. 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.