The War Magician: Jasper Maskelyne #187

They're guys they do magic they are the magic guys, no we are live we've been live for the past 15 seconds friend oh man i'm in i'm in the time travel multiverse playing catch up over here, apparently that new internet i paid for isn't worth the money well it's it's always a worry but firstly friends welcome to episode 187 i'm your host nick gay of the magic guys and joining me this week of course is the daddy of the pod doug khan what's up y'all how you doing yeah living the

dream now our good friend josh nabito is currently away on business he's performing at the singapore grand prix so he's been bouncing around the planet having a wonderful time if you want to see his escapades please scope out his instagram justin abito and that's why i'm driving the machine this week which yeah you know what i'm a great driver and all but when i gotta drive the show i feel like i'm always gonna plow it into the ocean and drown us all oh well can't

live forever no i feel that way every day every day like it's like yeah time to drive off the tracks. Now, I haven't been around for the past couple of weeks myself, so it's been good to see you, Doug. What have you been up to? What have you been up to? It's probably more interesting than what I've been up to. Same old crap, cranking out magic tutorials. I have been creative lately, so I'm feeling good about my creative output. I've been fixing Vernon material.

But enough about me. What have you been doing, man? You've been traveling the world too.

Yeah. Well, before we jump into that, we'll circle back to that because Michael Amar was in town recently, and we're talking about all of the interactions he was having whilst Vernon was in existence you know so yeah it was really really fascinating stuff and you know if anyone's ever seen is it called the Vernon Chronicles in which he's sitting around a table, Michael the revelation tape is what it is the Vernon Revelation series oh man

that's a lot yeah I've not seen those videos for a very very long time but we had a very deep discussion about like what that was like and the conversations and one of my favorite moments in that is when When you see him talk about, they were talking about like the triumph and then Amar just does the triumph from the spot. Like, yeah. And then he just leans over and Vernon's just like, see, you suck the whole soul out of the routine.

Yeah. Vernon takes him to school and that whole tape. He's always like, that's not how you do it. Give me the cards. Yeah. Yeah.

So you're exploring Vernon stuff. Uh, fixing Vernon, because it turns out the professor didn't do everything he could do with the routines he created. I mean, that's to be expected. You know, he was alive a hundred years ago. Yeah. I've been actually working on cutting the aces and cups and balls, two great classics from stars of magic. And I really feel I found some interesting nuggets to ramp both of those routines up.

I did research the cutting the aces and I have a minor reinvention, but still a novel climax for this routine and my work I'm doing on the cups and balls right now. I've done a lot of exploring with the cups. What I'm tinkering with now is the most exciting stuff I've ever played with in years. I love hearing that. And we're going to see this? For sure, the members of LearnSlideOfHand.com and YouTube, that's where I put my proprietary higher-end stuff.

If you're a member of any of my things, you'll get that information. And yeah, it'll get out there. I'll probably do a short with some of the more interesting material for performance purposes. I love that. So yeah, by all means, folks, if you want to see that scope out, learnsliderhand.com, I'm going to scope it out for sure.

So yeah, circling back to what I've been up to, I was away the week before, which was a wild time. So I have a friend, well, yeah, yeah, in the magic community. I met him here whilst he was studying for his accounting degree. And we've been friends for many years and he's gotten engaged.

And so he asked me to come over and be part of his wedding and to perform and so forth and actually asked me to be part of the the the bridal party and so i was my first time visiting malaysia which is a remarkable country and an absolute.

Wild wild food culture and that's what i enjoyed the most about that place like the amount of, amazing foods that we consume whilst we're there like i put on a full kilo while i was there and i was hitting the gym for an hour and a half every day to try combat that but it was just not happening man like do you have milo where you are yeah it's it's i don't know you probably have something some sort of equivalent but it's effectively a chocolate based drink like from

a powder format and away you go we have it here in oz but in malaysia it is like it's like a national drink you can have it with like almost every meal there's like advertisements everywhere for it in these food halls and so forth but everything we ate had sugar to some degree and And come to find out that Malaysia is like the number one leader in like diabetes. Hmm. That's rough. Big time. And so it was absolutely wonderful. But like, they're an amazing place, amazing people.

Some of the highlights for myself were being part of an Asian or Chinese style wedding, because my friend who's Malaysian married a Chinese woman, and they have this tradition. And if you're unaware of it, let me share this with you guys before we jump into our history lesson, because they do this thing in which all the bridal party are in one location, almost like, you know, like that was an Airbnb, but it's built like a castle, this place.

So we arrive and then we have to achieve these challenges in order to get access to the bride and then take her to the church. And we had to do all this stuff whilst appeasing judges who were the aunts and so forth and the elders of this particular family member. And we also had the ability to bribe them in this process as well. So the best man had a suitcase filled with these envelopes. I got one in my fridge.

Red envelope that you could bribe your way out of situations that were very difficult. So weird. It was insane. So keep it in mind, we're dressed in our Sunday best. We're about to go to church. They're making us do push-ups in 36 degree heat and we're sweating profusely. We're getting dirtbag filthy having to do all these challenges. We had to put on pants with no hands. And I figured that's not going to be too difficult because I've done it with my teeth to get them off.

Let's just reverse the process. So I'm putting pants on my friends with my teeth, and I'm trying to do this in an allocated time, and I failed. And then because we're failing these challenges, what they're doing is they're punishing us. And the way they punish us is sadly with food. So they have these particular types of foods, and they've got the durian fruit that stinks and so forth, and they've got all these chilies and whatever else, and it's extremely bitter.

I don't know what they're called. I don't know the native tongue well enough, but you would have to eat like crazy bit of foods as punishment or take a mouthful of wasabi and so forth. And so we're doing all these challenges. And one of which was like they wanted a talent show, which I think is kind of why I was part of the bridal party and invited to go and perform there and so forth. You're the ringer for that event. I was the ringer by all means. We're going to win this one at least.

Yeah, we did. We did actually. So we won that, got a full 10 out of 10. That was great. But then there was some other stuff that we failed. And one of the punishments was that was shoving like these particular gross foods in my mouth. In that process, the what do you call her? The best man for the chick equivalent. What's the word? Matron of honor. Is that her name? Yeah. Made of honor. Yeah. The maid of honor grabbed all this stuff and shoved it into my mouth.

In that process, she put in these two particular chilies. That means you're married now in Malaysia, actually. Oh, great. Congratulations, Nick. Well, so the reason I bring this up is that I ate these two chilies and everyone was like, Nick just ate two of these something, something chilies. And everyone was like, that's not good. Why? What's what do you mean? And they're like, like, we don't know.

That's that's bad, Nick. Like we, we only, we will, we'll put one in like a full buff chair, like a huge massive meal. And we just threw two in your face and you swallowed them. And I was like, oh, okay. Like, and everyone was asking, like every few minutes, like, are you okay? And I'm like, I think so. About like 10 minutes later, I start tripping. Oh no. Really ripping, ripping hot.

Is that what it is? Like a hot pepper. so it was these i couldn't really tell but it was like these red peppers they're really thin and really long like that and they shoved two on my face and i choked them down and i was on fire because it was chili right but my chili game isn't isn't too bad so i didn't feel right where i got really exciting is that we're in the hallway and part of the process before we get the the wife is so my mate daniel is

is talking through the doorway and he's like gotta say all these niceties to try and convince her to open the door to take and i'm and it's cute as right he's like oh you know i love you to bits i'll give you face massages and then and then and all this stuff and and i'm just sitting in the hallway tripping now thankfully they're they're pretty affluent people and dr troy come over and he was like are you all right i was like i don't know man and then, And then he's like, let me check you.

And I looked down at my wristwatch and I look at my pulse and my pulse, I was just sitting there and I was at like 140 beats. I don't reach that on the elliptical at the gym, but I'm just sitting there just like, just tripping off this. So that was me for about an hour, just tripping. Oh man. That does not sound fun. Yeah. And so then we, you know, we get to church and, you know, we do everything. We're wearing white shirts that are dirt bag filthy, which is tradition,

which is great. And we, we do it all and we have a great time. Everyone there was super wonderful. Thank you to everyone for your hospitality, boss. We're there. My good friends, razzle dazzle, Richie, all you guys were so awesome. So, you know, thank you. There's too much to talk about there, which is not what we're here for today. We're here to, I was here for that.

Actually, I was going to dip in your, your, like, I'm so jealous of you guys traveling around the world, getting to experience all the culture and stuff. I got to ask if you looked up magicians in the area, do you? Well, yeah. Well, Daniel being a magician, I asked him, Hey, is there anyone we can go and meet? Can we go to certain places? Can we have a bit of a chat? And he goes like the magic scene here is not very inclusive.

He spoke about it quite negatively. I was like, Oh, that's a shame because I was hoping to meet some folks there. Yeah. Yeah. Magic's like in another country, I think is great. Yeah, exactly. Doug. And, and unfortunately, well, not unfortunately it was this particular time of year was like over a long weekend and what it was surrounding, like this new moon festival type thing.

And because it was a long weekend basically what happens is all of the workers and and i saw them like on on like that sunday like they all just sort of come out the ground and they all go to the city and they said and i was i thought i was staying in the city but i was not because the city is so vast i was kind of on the outer and they said if you go to the city you will be shoulder to shoulder wow like i would love for you to see kl

city but if you go there you will not be able to move and i was like you're kidding so many people there is so many people in kl and And I was just like, you know what? I'm having a good time here. Yeah, I get it. That was awesome. You know, I ate way too much food. I plugged the toilet at the motel room. That was awesome. Took him two days to unblock it. Oh, no. Oh, that's a story in itself. But we're not here to talk crap.

I'm not here for that. We're here to talk history to our friends. And let's say a quick hi to our friends here in the chat. Andy, that's a new face. Good to see you, friend. Gut Buster Mike, good to see you. Adonis, we have Scott Link, we have good friend Nick. Welcome, friends. Tim Askin, good to see you guys all here. So yeah, my spicy food game, that was a challenge, but yeah, so...

It's been a while since we've done this because we've had a wonderful run of interviews as the time has gone on. And so this was something that I kind of compiled together, wrote way too much about, and realized that I was being rather repetitive. So I've scaled this back to a more palatable, strict to the point, and we can leave it open for discussion as to who we're talking about.

Now, the person we're talking about this history lesson is Jasper Masculine. Shall we begin? I'm excited about this. I don't know this much about Jasper Masculine. I started to go down the rabbit hole today, and I thought, you know what? I'll just listen to Nick Kaye, see what he has to say tonight. All right. Yeah, we should do it. Let's begin. Jasper Masculine, born 1902, was a British stage magician who gained prominence in the 1930s for his spectacular illusions and mechanical magic.

His reputation as a magician would have been enough to secure him a place in history.

But his contributions during world war but it's his country let me say that again it was his contributions during world war ii that made him truly unique figure masculine claim to have used his skills in deception and illusion to assist the british army helping to deceive german forces in north africa through a series of ingenious ruses and these fake operations through his post-war accounts may have been met with skepticism and there is a little bit about that saying that But look,

it's rumors of his influence in these types of things have been greatly exaggerated. But, you know, life is all about the story. You can tell at the end of it. So we'll share what information we have about it. You guys can draw your own conclusions. But his stories continue to intrigue historians, military enthusiasts, and magic fans alike.

In this episode, we will explore Jasper Maskelyne's early life, his career before and during the war, His contributions to the military deception and his life thereafter, his legacy, and of course, the legacy which includes the upcoming film called The War Magician. So that's cool. You got a life interesting enough that Hollywood is ready to put some money down for it. Yeah. I'm pretty excited about it. I think when that comes to the forefront in any capacity, it's exciting.

I watched The Illusionist and the Plane Over with Edward Norton. Man, we've been meaning to re-watch that movie the last couple of weeks, my wife and I have been talking about it. And ultimately, it's an exaggerated telling of the influence of Pepper's ghost. And if you ever really want to understand the history of that, I highly recommend you get Hiding the Elephant, written by Jim Steinmeier.

Thank you, Jim Steinmeier. Yes, that is a remarkable piece of history as far as that particular effect goes. Now, people are achieving it on their mobile phones now. It's kind of staggering.

But let's begin with his early life and background. Now, Jasper Masculine was born into a family steeped in the tradition of magic and illusion. His father, John Neville Maskelyne, was a famous Victorian magician and one of the pioneers of stage magic during the 19th century. John Neville Maskelyne was also an inventor known for creating mechanical devices used in magic tricks, such as the first coin-operated public toilet and the typewriter. Those are used in magic tricks? What is that?

Well, he used that, but as well as that, they, you know, he's mechanical. Magicians are crafty folks. It's interesting that this is a second generation magician we're talking about because that would have been hard to do at that time. It's not like the internet was around. You go look at YouTube tutorials, right? Yeah. And if you sort of refer back to our episode on Robert Houdin, where people had these amazing skill sets like him being, well, Robert Houdin being a watchmaker.

It just goes to show when you have this level of ingenuity, how you can apply it to all manner of life, whether it be to entertain through the medium of magic or to influence things like the typewriter. I think that's enormous.

Do tell okay you know houdini was the first to fly an airplane in australia he was yeah and when you come visit yeah when you come to visit i'll take you there it's a good time so jasper's father, followed in the family tradition and became a magician in his own right ensuring that jasper grew up by grew up surrounded by magic and theatrical performances from a young age jasper was fascinated with the world of illusion and sleight of hand he inherited his family's love for magic,

but also displayed a talent for engineering and mechanics, which became a significant part of his later career. He honed his craft through countless hours of practice and experimentation, eventually becoming a successful stage magician by the 1930s. Jasper Maskelyne was known for his grand illusions, which included making large objects disappear, levitating people, and performing intricate escape acts that relied on mechanical contraptions hidden from audience view.

While his reputation as a magician was solid, Maskelyne had grander ambitions. He wanted to prove that magic could be used for more than just entertainment. He believed in the principles of illusion and deception could be used to change the course of history. And with the outbreak of World War II, Maskelyne saw this as an opportunity to put his ideas to the test.

Now, when I looked up the sort of stuff he was performing, performing as we sidetrack this, he basically performed what seemed to be, well, let's just call it standards for lack of a better term. Now, from the history that I've studied with regards to Keller and Blackstone and so forth, making things vanish, that all kind of made sense. But he kind of, from what I could read or what I did find about it, he just had subtleties that made, that sort of gave him that accolade of like, no, he's good.

He's good. The way he does it is kind of great so isn't it always the way it's not the trick it's the magician it's the performer it's how you do whatever you're doing you can do rudimentary simple things and do them expertly and, well received yeah i think so so from what i from what i found out you know he was doing the standards of you know making things vanish great tables and chairs would vanish um he did levitation tricks which that was what really influenced

them he had certain convinces in that particular way way that he did it, that really got him this street cred, so to speak. He did escapology, you know, which I guess, you know, with influences like Harry Houdini and so forth, you know, that was just the standard that kind of had to be done. He did soaring and half illusions, and he performed quite regularly at the Egyptian Hall, which was. Now that's something we can talk about, the Egyptian Hall. Correct. That is an iconic title there.

This Egyptian Hall eventually was home to an amazing collection of magic.

I don't know if this is on your report or not. that well yeah so for so basically we we did touch upon this we probably do an episode about the hall in its entirety but we should we should go see mike cavani and go see the collection yeah so for those of you that don't know it's a hall that was in london and basically you know was was titled like the home of mystery and was renowned for bringing over every international amazing magical.

Act in this particular venue a very large scale venue and and beautiful like the amount of detail put into like gold trimmings of like you know the sort of building so in itself it was kind of beautiful but just historically it was home to magic in effect but what i liked most about you know when you with regards to his routines and so forth even though he talked about stage when he actually did a lot of like car manipulation and close-up so in

a sense he's a a very well-rounded magician which is kind of great you know there's a lot of you know so i mean i i i would love to know what kind of manip he did if he was doing like split fans and things like that like i think i'm not sure where that sort of began and i'm very curious what do you know about that doug as with regards to the first sort of notion it's a little bit outside of my expertise the the card fan productions and things

of this nature you know i'm not sure of the evolution of this type of material it's a good question yeah if anyone knows in the chat do please let us know it would be really really interesting but uh so in amongst performing these and having a great career he took it upon himself and a call to action to go to world war II.

Now, when World War II began in 1938, Maskelyne, who was about 30 years of age at that time, like many Britons, felt a sense of duty to contribute to the war effort. So he established himself as one of Britain's top magicians. However, instead of joining a fight as a soldier or an entertainer for the troops, Maskelyne proposed a different role. He believed that his skills as an illusionist could be adapted for military use, specifically in the areas of camouflage and deception.

Good gig. Great gig. Now, in 1940, Maskelyne volunteered for the Royal Engineers. It's a bunch of British Army soldiers, but were responsible for tasks such as building fortifications and constructing roads and bridges and so forth to carry out demolitions. His initial attempts to convince the military that magic could be used for the wartime purposes was met with a lot of skepticism, rightly so.

The military hierarchy was not quick to to see the practical applications that magic could have in this time of warfare however masculine persisted according to his accounts masculine eventually convinced his superiors by staging a demonstration where he made a german warship appear on the river thames using only mirrors and lighting effects wow yeah so impressed by this ingenuity, the royal engineers accepted him into their ranks and assigned him the work of camouflaging projects.

Now, over time, Mashkelon formed a special unit of creative minds. It included engineers, artists, and some technicians. But this group came to be known as the Magic Gang, and their task was to develop large-scale illusions, effectively, that could be used to deceive the Axis powers in North Africa. Let's go magicians to the rescue. We've been doing it forever.

I mean, come on, Robert, who Dan did it, you know, and this kind of deception actually goes back to like the, the terracotta army, you know, they did it ancient, ancient Asian armies. They'd build these clay, you know, figurines to deceive the other armies to thinking there was more people than there were. I had no idea. I went, I went that far back. because I have seen some of those relics being sort of.

Uncovered by archaeologists and so forth. You come over the hill, you see a thousand soldiers out there, but they're all clay. But you don't know that unless you get close. Wow. I wonder if they would just put strings on them like Weekend at Bernie's and just be like... Yeah, it was just like that. That'd have been hilarious. They're all hand puppets.

So that's what they were doing with those? Because I've seen them buried and I was like, like i don't know what that's about and then i move on because it's basically something through my you know facebook feed that i would come across that yeah magicians and wars and government even like houdini was reported to be involved in some espionage and things of this nature and relating to war efforts and such right okay so let's explore let's explore this magic gang now yeah Jasper Maskelyne's most

significant contributions to the war effort occurred during the North African campaign, where he and the Magic Gang used their talents to create elaborate deceptions aimed at confusing German field marshals.

Sorry, I lost my place. Here we are. The North African desert was a critical theater of operations for these allies. Now, this is kind of... Come on, Nick. You got this, man. Well, again, this is kind of... You want me to just start making up facts and cover your... No. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, it was basically saying that the masculine believed that these large-scale illusions could be used to mislead enemies and

allow British forces to gain theatrical advantage. Okay? Tactical advantage. One of masculine's most famous projects during this time was the camouflage of the Suez Canal. Okay? This canal was a vital waterway for the Allies, and the Axis forces sought to disrupt it by dropping bombs in these raids. So they were saying, here's a canal. They're going to use this to move their folks. Let's bomb it, which means they can't move their artillery and move their soldiers and so forth.

So Maskelyne devised a system of lights and mirrors that, according to his claim, made the canal appear to disappear at night, confusing the enemy bombers and protecting that strategic asset. Interesting. Isn't it interesting? I don't know what else I could apply that to this. Like, you know, I would love to buy a Porsche and not have like my partner be mad about it. And she goes into the garage and she's like, it's just the Tesla. But then Porsche.

You know, it's interesting what magicians can put their mind to and accomplish.

You know, like I need to make this river disappear. disappear so the enemy doesn't bomb it how am i going to do that and you figure it out you know yeah i find that interesting because i wonder if like this influence that masculine did was applied to what's the gentleman who made the london bridge disappear using, mirrors and so forth what was his name did paul daniels do it i don't know it wasn't paul daniels i mean i'm thinking about copperfield did statue of liberty

he's got the moon in the works you know like yeah i'm gonna make the moon vanish so no one nukes the moon you know you gotta so yeah.

Crafty people we are yeah i guess it is notable now another notable illusion involved the creation of fake bomb craters so masculinity's team built these inflatable craters and they were placed in key locations to make it appear that the germans had bombed that area already yeah which is interesting because i figured that there would be some sort of you know i guess at that time maybe the way they documented things wouldn't be that easy or the

flow of information wouldn't have been as easy knowing that you know that would have happened but it's a lesser known fact that this magic gang would infiltrate the nazi troops and perform the 21 card trick until the get the nazis were actually rendered unconscious from just mental dumbness 21 card trick all day long.

You know what the next time someone tries to perform the 21 card trick i'm going to take it as an act of aggression knowing that but if they're in the magic gang their methods will be too good you won't know before you know it you'll be sucked in and you know because they have all the methods i'm gonna find they have all the theatrical techniques he wrote them in his book we'll get to that okay now perhaps the most well-known of masculine deceptions came during the Battle of Al-Al-Main in 1942,

a turning point in the North African campaign. In an operation known as Operation Bertram, Maskelyne and the Magic Gang were tasked by creating a fake army to deceive Rommel, who was the general of the Axis forces. And they used a fake army to basically deceive them with regards to the location of the British forces. So the magic gang constructed dummy tanks, dummy trucks, and artillery. And they basically made this out of canvas and inflatable materials. I did see some pictures of these tanks.

I was doing a little masculine research. You can go on Google and look this up. Yeah. It's like the terracotta army, but tanks. So, yeah, they applied it in a few different ways. And we'll press on because I'm certain I covered this quite well. So these decoys were placed in strategic locations, while the real tanks were disguised as supply trucks and hidden from view. Let's go.

Double dipping. happened yeah so the deception was so effective that ramel was led to believe that the british forces were much weaker and positioned in different areas than they actually were and the contribution helped lead to the actual victory of that battle right and in addition to using the decoys and the camouflage masculine and his team employed other forms of deception so for example they had fake radio transmissions to mislead them for reconnaissance reports ports the magic yeah the

magic gang used a blend of theatrical illusion so what they would do is they would like paint buildings you know to camouflage them and so forth but everything was basically used with the means of pushing psychological warfare and aimed at confusing and demoralizing the enemy. Love it. Now that's good warfare. I, you know, we need more of this and less bombs. I wonder if that's what needs to happen when we need to get Blaine and a bunch

of others and be like, Hey, let's see what we can do here. Maybe not Blaine though.

Yeah. You know, if you were going to spend, okay, let's, let's put this to the chat.

And as I read the next, the next thing about the techniques used if you were gonna send a magician to war, who would you send to defend us who is our captain america of the magic realm let us know in the chat now one of the most famous tools of deception used by masculine and his team was the inflatable tank these were dummy tanks that were made from lightweight rubberized fabrics and canvases and they were designed to closely resemble real tanks from the air.

The inflatable tanks were easy to transport, quick to set up, and could be placed in formations that made it appear as though they were large armored divisions while preparing for battle. Now, these tanks were part of a broader set of decoys, including inflatable trucks and fake artillery, all intended to mislead the Army and reconnaissance planes. How clever is that?

Super clever. isn't it great i mean how many things could i leave about to misdirect people, like i have a pile of morgan dollars on my table right now and they're all fake but if they were real it would be like six thousand dollars worth of morgan dollars, just me okay no one cares i mean it's not very warlike but yeah.

I don't lead with that, but the inflatable tanks were used extensively during Operation Bertram and were crucial in creating the illusion of a much larger and more formidable British force. By placing these decoys in open areas and positioning real tanks in camouflaged locations, Mesklen and his team were able to divert Rommel's attention away from the true British offense. fence. Maskelyne also developed other Indigenous camouflage techniques, for example.

He designed covers that made the tanks look like ordinary trucks when viewed from the air. He used painted canvases to create the illusion of large buildings or military installations where none actually existed. His work in camouflage was not only creative, but also highly practical, as it allowed British forces to move the position of their equipment without being detected by enemy reconnaissance. It's probably a lot easier to move around a bunch of blow-up toys than actual tanks.

Yeah. So basically they folded down to next to nothing and they threw them in a truck and they would just pop them up everywhere. And it was just, I mean, I just think that's genius to be able to do things of that nature. I don't know where I would apply it in real life, but erroneous of that. Pretty, pretty interesting. Now, Tim says that we could probably put Piff to go to war for us.

This is our, this is our only hope, obviously. Piff and his dragon save us it makes perfect sense if you look at Game of Thrones they could be like we have an army and then we'll just be like we have a dragon and a Mr. Piffles if that's what you want going into battle.

Actually you know man sadly I don't remember this man's real name but he's an inventive creative man magician and probably would do better than average i'd pick piff over blaine that's for sure i'll second that yeah a hundred dragon or no dragon yeah yeah so after the war jasper masculine returned to civilian life with the hope of continuing east korea as a stage magician however the post-war years were marked by frustration

and disappointment although he had been hailed as a war hero by But for some time, his contributions to the military deceptions were not only officially recognized by the British government. Mescalin believed that his wartime work had played a crucial role in the success of the North African campaign. But his claims were met with skepticism by military historians and officials. Also by Nick, who says, why would a military guy not think of this?

Why do you need a magician? it's not unfounded that you could be like yeah you're good but you know, Yeah, I don't know. I think when we're in such an early place in our evolution as people, it's kind of like saying, why didn't we think about putting phones in our pockets in the 1950s? I'm sure we did. It just, you know. Sounds to me like he lost his gravy train with the military gig and then had a hard time transitioning back to being a performer.

Is that kind of a situation here? That is exactly. And the public was not embracing him as the war hero that he should have been. Exactly. And you know what? That is exactly the situation. You see, in 1949, Maskelyne published a memoir. The memoir titled Top Secret, in which he detailed his wartime exploits. The book included stories of how he made the Suez Canal disappear, how he created fake tanks and craters, and how he used illusions to deceive the rumble forces. Oh, so this is in a book.

Yeah. Yeah. It's called Magic Top Secret. It's in his memoirs. Now, while the book garnered public interest, it also raised questions about the accuracy of Maskelyne's claims.

Times some historians began to doubt the extent of which the contributions sort of happened suggested that his role in the war may have been exaggerated or embellished now that's not like a magician to do that is it fellas i mean show business i caught a fish this big and then it ended up being a whale isn't that the story yeah it's the way we were well despite the controversy masculine story continued to capture the imagination of the public and his blend of magic and military military strategy

was unique and the wartime deceptions remain a fascinating chapter in history and both magic so that i kind of agree with. You know, erroneous of the truth or the deep, deep truths. I'm sure that history has been embellished, you know, along the way. Absolutely. Human nature. Yeah. Well, I figured. So, like you said, Doug, in his later years, you know, going from the war game, but trying to get back into the performance realm.

This is what happened in his later years. in the 1950s disillusioned with the lack of recognition in britain masculine moved to kenya where he hoped to rebuild his career however his later years were relatively quiet and his, he lived out his life out of the way of the public eye and jasper ended up passing away the ripe old age of 71 in 1973 in the following years of his death masculine story began to resurface,

largely due to the efforts of writers and historians who were fascinated by the wartime exploits. While some aspects of his story remain debated, there is no doubt that he played a significant role in the development of military deception and tactics during World War II. I think we can agree on that. I think what we're taking away from this is that it wasn't really something that was celebrated in the moment.

It was kind of something that was founded later, I guess, kind of like Van Gogh, like Van Gogh was like poor, died poor. And then years later, it's like, look at this stuff we found from this guy who cut his ear off. I feel like that's the energy that's sort of coming through on this storyline. You know, like it wasn't celebrated and during his life. It's more like after that it's sort of resurfaced.

I wish I had read that book now. So I had a little more information, you know, ground and opinion on, you know, I'm assuming the story must be very deep of Hollywood wants to tell it. Correct. Yeah. In fact, Jasper's story is once again coming to the forefront in an upcoming film called The War Magician in which Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star as Masculine.

With Colin Tevereau directing the film. The film is based off David Fisher's book, The War Magician, which explores Maskelyne's role in World War II and the use of his illusions to deceive the Nazis. The film is part of a renewed interest in Maskelyne's wartime exploits and is set to bring this incredible story of blending magic and military strategy to the broader audience. The film has been in development for many years, with Kimmerbatch attached to the project since 2015. 15.

After several delays and changes in direction, Colin Trevorrow, who's going to be directing this, was responsible for I think directing, here we go, Jurassic World. If he can handle a dinosaur, he can handle a war, right? I would say so. Cool. He's confirmed to direct the project. The story will focus on the formation of the Magic Gang, which is the team of engineers, the artists, and the illusionists who help work to create this decoy.

It'd be like Ocean's Eleven, but World War II and magicians. Yeah, which is totally what this plot is. I hope they do the 21 card trick. Do you think they'll do that in the movie? They have to. It's how they beat the Nazis. There's no way the 21 card trick beat not. Really? Really? You weren't there, Nick K.

If i was there and someone went i'm gonna use 21 cards i'd be like i'm out and i would leave, tell me when it's over i'll come back and then i'll come back and be like is a trick done, if you got enough guys doing it the whole army leaves and suddenly it's just the magic gang doing the 21 card trick no nazis war zone that's how it goes down how do you drive nazi forces out of your town show them card tricks friends show them card tricks by the time you get to the third dealing procedure

everyone is you know back in germany yeah now the film adaptation will more likely bring attention to masculine's controversial legacy while some historians continue to debate the accuracy of the post-war events his role in shaping the military was you know i think not to be pushed aside and can't be overlooked i think we should all agree on that like he obviously had some influence whether or not in his wordings or his storytellings were embellished i think it's only

fair and as a magician who sought to apply his skills to one of the most critical conflicts in history i think masculine story serves as a testament to the power and creativity and ingenuity in the face of adversity. I think we can agree on that, right? Yep. Wonderful. So look, in conclusion... Jasper Maskelyne's life was marked by both great success and significant controversy.

From his early days as a stage magician to his contributions as a military deceptionist during World War II, Maskelyne demonstrated a unique ability to blend illusion and strategy. While his wartime contributions have been debated by historians, there is no doubt that That is, innovative approach to camouflage and deception played a role for the Allied victory in North Africa.

Maskelyne's post-war struggles for recognition, coupled with the controversy surrounding the accuracy of his memoirs, have only added to the intrigue surrounding his life. And his story is reintroduced to the public through films and books. Maskelyne's legacy as the war magician will continue to captivate audiences, blend the worlds of magic, history and military strategy.

And in the end, whether his claims were fully accurate or not, Maskelyne's legacy lives on as a reminder of the unexpected ways in which creativity and innovation can be used in the most serious of circumstances. His story serves as an example of how the most unconventional ideas can have significant impact when applied to real-world challenges.

The upcoming film, The War Magician, will further immortalize Jasper Maskelyne's incredible story, bringing his unique blend of magic and military deception to new generations. And this story, this report, provides us a comprehensive exploration of Jasper Maskelyne's life and career and contributions to World War II. It brings together the details of his early life, his rise as a magician, and your unique role as a military deception.

And his legacy, although controversial, is fascinating, to say the least, in both magic and military history. What do you guys think? Let's discuss. Groovy tunes. I want to talk a little bit more about his family. But one thing we didn't talk about is his dad. And like when you mentioned the name, I know I'm going to share this just because I go here a lot. My library is dad, Neville Maskelyne. And he co-wrote this book with David DeVant.

Our magic. What an amazing look at our art. This volume is. It's one of the few books that really take a look at magic as an art. And if you look at the contents in this book and we're looking at them here online, the chapters of justification, rehearsal, speed and presentation and terminology, styles of magic, manipulative principles and mental magic. This is Maskelyne's father. So what a head start. Yeah, I was just thinking that as far as a head start

or being a springboard of that, it's kind of remarkable. You know, to be able to lean on mentors of that nature. And this is how things were done back in the day. We had people that would take you under their wing. You know, it was. This would have been one of the early important books, Our Magic. There wasn't a lot of volumes written before this one. And this book really just wraps its head around the subject like very few books have.

If you are a magician and haven't opened this book, it's public domain.

Main go take a crack and make yourself a better magician and thank masculine and then when it's wartime and you know that's coming again soon because look at the world maybe you'll have the secrets that'll get us through the next one i hope not got dark there quick faith in the human race that's okay we'll all have jobs soon we'll be we'll form the magic gang and i'll be ready, yeah we'll we'll have the 21 recruit chris angel he gets on the front lines

he's he's going to be scouting the enemy's location chris angel comes to the front no he's got boots on the ground the general's just like who's this woman you bring forth and chris is like what.

Are you ready oh yeah i i didn't get to see chris's show at the new location in vegas but that would have been interesting to see how it applies to your war effects i don't do magicians go over oh like during the iraq war do you know if any magicians went over to entertain during that time absolutely we have every time there's been like a an overseas conflict there's always we use a group of magicians that are popping up and like we're going and you know four

or five of them will jump on a plane and go entertain the troops yeah i know comedians have gone i've heard stories you know as that's what you are as a comedian you tend to tell a lot of stories but, yeah i know bands i mean the vandals like my favorite punk band they went and performed there you know like it's pretty gnarly yeah you know unfortunately magicians have in this country have had a lot of opportunities to do that the last you know 15 20 years

and they've done so you know so good on you what a crazy what a crazy gig you know what's your gig this week going to iraq and then once you're in iraq you infiltrate the enemy troops and start dealing the rose. Doing god's work well what i'm sort of realizing as well is that when you look at someone like Robert Houdin, where magic was not only used to prevent a war, you know, we're looking at Jasper Maskelyne in which his magic influence was used in the war.

I wonder what needs to happen post-war. No thoughts okay i'm glad i asked the question we spread joy and love and create astonishment and wonder to make the world forget their woes that's post-war yeah yeah this is what magicians do we make people forget their worries for a few minutes at a time yeah i prototype a thing that didn't work and i haven't quite figured it out yet but i i wanted to do a thing with a world map and talk about instead of doing a torn and restored newspaper i'm

using the world map i'm talking about the state that the world is in and how all these divisions are tearing us apart and i tear up the world map and then you restore it like the world map but i wasn't sure if that was enough and so i was kind of ruining the effect and i'll share this with you because i was having like a pen with like a giant text there and I was talking about how these people are here and like drawing black marks about like

so you have like these black marks sort of marking where everything is yeah and the idea would be that when you tear it up and you restore it the black marks come into a shape of like a peace sign and I thought that was a bit too lame but yeah. Because it doesn't restore. It restores broken, but all the black markings that I threw around formed a peace sign. I mean, I like it, but yeah, there's some things to work out there. I really like the notion of using a map for torn and restored.

Well, yeah, well, the reason I like it is because a map is naturally folded in the way of restoring a newspaper. So, yeah. Yeah. Did you see that new newspaper that keeps expanding after the restoration? I think this was debuted at magic live. Yeah. After the restoration, then you keep unfolding it and now you can do in a, like a stage illusion with the thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty cool. Actually. Yeah. I saw it while I was there and I was like, Oh, this is going to be interesting.

And yeah, you know, you can, it could also be used to like change a person out. Like, yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's, it's, you know, it's going to be niche for partner acts and stuff like that.

But if you got, out if you're doing that yeah you produce people change yourself into someone else produce the ceo stuff like that from the unfolding i love that idea yeah i just think a comically oversized, newspaper would be would be amazing that too just that is cool yeah but yeah it's it's interesting the the war effects and it's not something we think about all too often you know i think that we've been so removed from it here in australia we've not had to get involved

at all and the only reason why we get do get involved as far as war efforts go it's like we have soldiers that we have alliances with the u.s and we would send folks there and it's it's just remarkable that, we can it's remarkable how we can strategize how to combat war but like not stop but like it would just be wonderful if we could have a way to to end it entirely you know. I'm gonna i'm gonna bite my tongue and not give the solution. We can solve that problem but it's very grim.

Yeah let's not create too much controversy but look i think it's just the notion of like the ingenuity that's involved with and where you can apply it okay i'm sure the magicians have been involved with other things for example in a more modern notion let's just take a quick moment and go like we had watch builders doing magic we had folks who did typewriters doing magic we now have andrew main is like if you look up the credits for like chat gtp4 oh the

amazing magician andrew main he's the guy thank you for that love your work you know yeah like andrew is part of that you know like he is remarkable in so many ways you know i was just thinking it would be cool for to use a magician in a modern time is to employ some mental experts to use linguistic deception and psychological techniques to influence world leaders to do you know things of do your bidding and things like that i think that might be a a modern approach

to using magic methods to influence political tides yeah when you think because we we we have this amazing medium to communicate certain things and i think they may be communicating those sorts of ideas of.

Peace and you gotta look at what banachek's done with just psychological influence peter turner is on the cutting edge of what can just be done you know no props just you know natural psychology and kenton nepper with neuro-linguistic programming and his wonder words you apply these kind of techniques to certainly your magic but why not influence the evil leaders as well i wonder man maybe we got to infiltrate the the government in some way fight the power you know

there at magic live i will say this there was a cia operative of sorts and he was actually explaining how to choose the most perfect spectator when you're choosing someone and he explained the many different ways in which you can look at someone and identify what they're like and that when you do choose somebody and bring them up you know you've chose the best option and i think it's something that we do instinctively right you

look like a nice person come up and get amongst it you know what i mean no one looks at somebody with like not making eye contact and crossing their arms and just exuding any sort of negative body language and go hey you focus get up here like that's just not the way to go about it but we're also not going to choose Who's the person who's like, oh, me, and wave in their arms, and you have to do it.

It's like, you know, like I think we just instinctively look for someone nice and compliant, you know? But that's the sort of thing where... For me, I always, you know, when you do things instinctively and then you sort of read a body of work or chat to somebody who has actually done the work and can prove it in a professional sense, it just validates what you already know.

And I think those moments are kind of important, even though like you think, you know, I think the validation from another entity is kind of maybe not important, but it's nice to have. What do you think? Yeah you know there's how could i argue that mr k. Well actually i was thinking about something completely different while you're talking i'm gonna come clean here i have no idea what the question is i'm trying to engage you this whole episode what the fuck are you doing.

Look man some days are better than others that's all you know ebbs and flows no i had my mind on a related topic and now thanks to the swerve i can't even remember what that is so thank goodness we're about to wrap this thing up indeed well i think we've discussed enough about the wartime and we ended on a positive note just to show that you can use your influences in the most positive ways and i think that every single person listening we should wrap this up and call

it We'll make this the final word, if I may. And I think what we'll say is that, as I get this ready, it was my outro. Okay, so there's people out there doing things as a wartime effort, but just keep in mind that people fight battles every single day, okay? Whether it be just trying to make ends meet or just fake a smile through a rough day. And I think that we as magicians and as people have the ability to change someone's mood for the day.

That in itself is a superpower. power. And I think that is so important to be able to bring to the forefront on a daily basis for every moment you can. If you have the ability to make someone smile, you should do so. And if you have the ability to make someone's day that little bit better without any detriment to yourself, you should do so. Anything to add, Doug? Testify. Thanks for listening, friends. We'll see you guys next week for another awesome episode.

Thanks for tuning in. You can scope me out on the grams on Nick K magic, Doug, you can scope out his stuff on learn slider hand.com. And yeah, I'm out there. You know where to find me. Wonderful. Thanks. We'll see you next week. Ciao. Ciao. 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.