Latest / The Magic Guys / Kieron Johnson: Performer, Creator and socials extraordinaire #252

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Kieron Johnson: Performer, Creator and socials extraordinaire #252 · The Magic Guys

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They're guys they do magic they are the magic guys,
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Ladies and Schmentalmen, we're here at episode 252 of The Magic Guys,
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the podcast where we interview professionals, we talk about our lives as professionals,
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and hope you learn a thing or two, or at least have a good laugh on the ride
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home from your gig. But to my left, I've got Nick Kay.
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Hi, guys. I'm Nick Kay, and next to me, we have... I'm... Oh,
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who is next to you? It's not me.
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You, Doug. It's... Wait, I'm on the phone.
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People, we're doing it live. I'm on the bottom. I am not next to you.
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I didn't want to call you a bottom on this broadcast.
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My name's Doug Kahn, and I couldn't be more excited about tonight's show.
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As I was telling my wife, our guest tonight is a boss.
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Hello. A certified boss.
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Yeah. Should we get into it? Yeah. I mean, and just quick hello to our guest, Scotty Link.
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Thanks for joining us. And thank you for the little something,
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something that's on the way.
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Very kind of you. We'll talk more about that. scotty p we
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just saw him at the brisbane theater of magic he
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came to and he showed us a few little uh pieces of
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magic he's working on very cool as well and robbie
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i was waiting for one more person thank you boom now
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i feel like as you know this is a stop talking okay now so guys this is a live
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show unrehearsed where we constantly talk over each other there is a comment
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section so you can have all the questions you need to ask our guests,
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which I would love to announce.
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Friends, today's guest is one of the most original performers we've probably
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had on the show, one of the most original performers in modern magic.
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He actually has over 1 million followers on TikTok and a resume the length of
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a Bible, which is great because he has a beard like Jesus.
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Performing at London's West End, and today he is here on the Magic Guys podcast.
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Please join me in welcoming Mr. Kieran Johnson.
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.
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kieran johnson welcome to the magic guys live please tell our friends who are
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you and what do you do i'm kieran i do magic bubbles and weird stuff i guess
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and yeah a bit of an inventor and,
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just a guy that does stuff basically we'll take it but yeah you do a lot more
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than than just that But I just dump coffee all over my desk.
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So I'll be muted for a few minutes.
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Excellent. Sorry.
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Just as we planned.
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Typical tech. Yeah, I do more than that. I just don't really know how to describe
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myself because I don't really ever think of myself as being one thing.
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And then everyone else is so obsessed with me being one thing.
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And the whole thing about me is I just kind of do things.
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So yeah that's very true you know
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kieran a lot of folks prefer to create with restriction but it
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seems that your magic truly like knows no bounds
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and i actually had this down as a question like do you actually have any
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limits to the magic you create like whether it be like physically or ethically
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or anything of that nature like where do you where do you see yourself stopping
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are you boundless i just do what i want that's awful isn't it but i've never
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believed in these rules i i I never understand why magicians,
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they have this whole thing where they go, I am a coin guy. I do everyday magic.
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Surely if you're a magician, you do everything. That's why a magician doesn't go, I'm a magician.
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And I'd like, I have this theory and I'm sure lots of people disagree with me,
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but like, you know, you know.
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Like Gandalf he's a wizard right he
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he he isn't he's he doesn't just do magic he
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is magic and I think as a magician or a performer if
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you're going to embody that that's what you should be and you should
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be thinking about that I think when we start limiting ourselves saying
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oh I only do this or I'm a minimalist or
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I'm this we end up putting ourselves in the box and I
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think we hurt ourselves more than we think because we
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think we're doing this cool thing I think magicians like to think
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if we only do this and i focus on this then
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i'm cool but really you're just doing yourself
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a disservice because you're never growing you're like
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you know i i started working on the linking ring six months
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ago i had a lot of pushback from
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my friends i go why are you doing this they always do this to me i'm like and
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i'm showing them now i've created loads of really new original
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moves i show matthew garrett at the sessions my
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new moves and now he wants to publish them i don't know if i want to publish
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them i'm on the fence because i kind of just want to keep my stuff for
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myself but but you know i think
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as a magician we should be looking at like rather
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than be i'm in a box it's not even that thinking
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outside the box it's just not thinking with restriction i think that's one of
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the biggest things that i never really think that there's a restriction i just
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think if i want to do it i'm going to do it or i'll figure out how to do it
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if i can and don't get me wrong i love classic magic i love the egg bag i love
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linking rings i love classic card magic But I also like alternative magic as well.
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And I also like phone magic. I hate saying that.
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I hate like phone magic because I feel like I'm selling out when I say that.
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But I like all magic in terms of magic.
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It seems like the restriction comes from almost title, you know,
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Kevin, the mind reader, you know, Bob, the card Smith, you know,
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Jeff, the coin guy. Like, I feel like that's where the restriction comes from.
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But creatively, I think for me, the restrictions only come from me not wanting
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to do an effect a certain way.
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For example, if I'm going to vanish a coin, I might not be like, I want to vanish a coin.
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I'll just do a false transfer. No, no, no. The restriction is no false transfers.
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Has to be with a sleeve up and it
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has to be with one hand and I have to show my hand back and forth like
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that's where I create restrictions I think that's what gives me direction do
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you find yourself creating in the same way when you do your pieces of magic
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or do you just ultimately think of the effect and don't care how you
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get there I don't think it matters how you get there because
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an audience doesn't go oh my god he didn't do
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that or this they just went it vanished a vanish should
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look like a vanish no matter if you do this vanish that vanish that
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vanish it should look the same i think weirdly magicians
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start thinking well if i do this it won't look it should just look the
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same no matter what and i know that sounds hard because then you gotta think well
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how can i get there but i think any effect that you do shouldn't
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have the restriction of the method it should just be i'm
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gonna do that trick as long as i do it as well it
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doesn't really matter how i get there because only only us care about the integrity
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of the sleeves you know i i found this really recently with my rewrites cube
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that i've got so fast with the cube in the hand that people started thinking
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that my cube is special but they never used to think that because I'm doing
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it all the time and I got so fast and quick at it now.
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But now I'm just like but at first that irked me because I was thinking I worked
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really hard to get to this level but then I thought you know what now I can
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just put it down and I know what they're going to say I know what they're thinking
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so now I can go 50 quid if you want to buy it I'll take it hard.
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And that creates a laugh because they're all thinking it so now they're like
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and now what I've done is I've dispelled that by going oh fuck is not.
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Just with a joke. So I don't have to think, oh no, I need to slow down,
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do it less, do it better. I just know that's what they're thinking.
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Tell a joke, that dispels it. They then go, fuck, excuse my language,
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but oh my goodness, you did that.
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And now that you're just watching their minds explode inside,
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just by thinking about that.
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So I think we don't have to compromise on our slights or our movement.
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We just have to think about how are we selling it. I think
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performance isn't really about the moves and the
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magic an audience doesn't care how you do a trick
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they just want to know tricks done well i think anyway
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and and it doesn't matter how good you are how brilliant you are how clever
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you are cards you're always going to have someone that thinks they know and
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and you can't you can't you can't compete like there's no bad thing with that
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it's just that's human nature but there's always another audience i i never
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fight an audience if i'm not having a good time with an audience member,
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then I'll just walk off because I don't have, it's my time as well, right?
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You know, I think sometimes as a magician, we think, oh, I have to stand there.
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Not that I have a bad time because the problem, I start saying this,
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the magician will be like, oh, no, he has bad time. It's not that.
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It's just, I respect myself enough to know that I don't care because I know I'm good enough.
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So if they don't want to, if they don't feel I'm good enough,
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that's okay because I'm okay with who I am. Does that make sense?
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Yeah that makes perfect sense this this lady and gentlemen this is the point
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of view of an artist not a craftsman right it's someone who approaches things
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with a unique point of view and congratulations kieran and hey thanks for existing.
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Now before we get to where you're performing right now doing seven shows a week
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which is so awesome and especially if you're getting to like learn little bits
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of how audiences react the same each night.
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So great. But before that, you mentioned something that got you started before
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this, which was performing at a place called The Box.
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And I know it's quite a prolific place, but I have not heard of it before.
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So it's kind of a great time to tell me and maybe some of the viewers that haven't
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heard of it, what that is.
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Okay. So I didn't start off at The Box. I just accidentally fell into The Box after lockdown.
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I originally just, my first proper gig was a magic bar in England called Illusionist
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Magic Bar and by Mark Bennett in Bristol.
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And that was my first experience of being a magician. What did you do there,
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Aaron? I'm curious what you were performing at that place.
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So I started off by doing all the same stuff everyone else did.
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So I started off with Omni Deck and things like that.
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You know, the standard magic that most magicians did. But the problem I had
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is Mark didn't like that. So he told us that we had to change our set.
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And it couldn't be anything anyone else was doing. So I started thinking about stuff I could do.
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And as I was walking home, I found a brick. And then I thought,
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oh, would it be cool if I make a brick out of my hat?
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I heard stories of this guy called Bruce, oh God, terrible, Gordon Bruce.
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And he produced a brick. And I was thinking, oh, I wonder if I can produce bricks.
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Then I thought, how am I going to... But now I'm like, I started reading this
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book on millennia, and I'm like, well, I want to commit to carrying a brick.
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So I started carrying a brick for me everywhere i went and strapping it on
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me just and i would walk around wherever i
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went with a brick strapped to my back thinking and that
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and i started thinking about that magic and that mentality and
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i started like i started playing around with ideas like oh what if i did chop
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cup but the chop cup ended up with gravy granules and then i produced a whole
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load of gravy and then i started thinking well what if i did started messing
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with hot and cold what if i produced a plate and then produced an entire food
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and then ate the food in front of the audience while chancellip like this.
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Whole idea that magic was just happening around me rather to them
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and to me just it was part of who i was how
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how old were you at this theater like what how i'm
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about 24 at this point in my life and then two years two years before that i'd
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spent in a hometown living in the squat riding a train for free up and that
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well for four quid up and down from where i lived to liverpool and I would just
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do magic to anyone that would watch me.
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And I guess I was doing traditional stuff, but I would throw in weird stuff.
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Like I would razor blade swallow on the train. I don't know why.
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And I was just, and I guess even back then I was creating my own tricks.
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I was really fascinated with like this, the story of the guy that sold his soul
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at the crossroads. I love that.
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So I played with tricks like that and I liked storytelling and things.
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So even then I was playing.
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This is the kind of material that lands you at the box. And that happens after
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your success on social media, which I'd like to get back to and focus on that
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specifically. And yeah.
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Josh's Josh's question about the box. What's going on there?
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What are you doing? Well, so like, I just wanted to give you a sense of where
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I was with the magic and stuff.
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Yeah. So, well, yeah. On that note, sorry, Kieran, like how far back does your magic journey begin?
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Was it late in life? Was it?
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I started when I was 22 and then I got, yeah, and I, and I, and I basically
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ended up in the illusions after being homeless for a while.
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I met Rocco Solano and he was really kind to me.
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He gave me a suit and gave me some money and told me I needed to get out of
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this town and figure something out.
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So I went to Bristol and I basically turned up on the door with a bag,
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a bin bag full of clothes and asked him if I could have a job.
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And he laughed. I said, I've got nowhere to stay.
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And next thing you know i'm there for two years i
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meet my wife a few months later we've been together since and
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then the best origin story i've ever heard
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yeah so rock funded me and
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gave me a suit and then i met my wife and let's
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go yeah yeah and then i
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worked there for two years and it was interesting and then i did
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ross stevens came in and it mark
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recommended my trick the to the max which is the fire
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to ice production and then that became a
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hit which is like my first release was like a
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smash hit and then I did like chaotic after that
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and then other stuff so then I was lecturing and performing and residencies
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and then I started doing consulting and it was pretty cool and then COVID came
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and I was I was working on tv shows and behind the scenes things but I I was
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never really very successful I was I was you know I was working I was doing gigs so when
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not very successful i was like working regular spots i
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wasn't really you know i was doing gigs
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for 100 quid at residencies and things like that and i get the occasion
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gigs but i wasn't like raking it in as a performer but
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i was enjoying performing and teaching and then covid happened and obviously
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the whole world stopped and then i started doing social media and but during
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that time what i don't know many people know is my daughter ellie was born and
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she spent the first few months of her life in intensive care.
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She has something called Down syndrome, which you probably do know.
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I feel like I'm talking to you like you wouldn't know what that is,
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but she has Down syndrome.
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And I was trying to connect to her, and I started reading about other things,
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and I started blowing bubbles for her.
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And they told us that she probably wouldn't talk or move and stuff.
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The first time I blew a bubble was the first time she reached her arm out.
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It was the first time we saw physical movement and noise. I think it was laughter, but it was noise.
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And that's what gave me the passion for bubbles.
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And then the whole world went crazy. Ellie came off oxygen just in time because
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obviously we were having discussions with doctors about running out of oxygen,
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which is the maddest thing.
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Like when you think about like, you know, you're talking about possibly not
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getting something that you've always taken for granted that you could get because
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the pandemic started coming quite hard.
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And I was actually a week before the pandemic happened.
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I was actually flew out to America to do America's Got Talent to do the regurgitation,
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which I'll talk about more in a minute.
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When i got to america they basically didn't do
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the auditions and i got sent back home so there's
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me thinking finally i'm getting my break i'm i've been
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on having tv i've been working as a magician behind
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the scenes working for all these magicians doing all the things that i've been
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working my ass off got myself did well on german television did really well
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on elite tv and i'm like now i'm heading to america my life is about to change
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this is it i'm gonna i'm gonna blow up and i'm not just gonna be that guy at
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convention that invents tricks that everyone does Yes.
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Because i think one of the hardest things for me when i was at
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that point in my life is i was watching everyone else do my stuff
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on telly and have success with it but i was still
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working for a hundred pounds in a in a
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in a in a wire have you been on america's got talent i feel like i saw you there
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no i was i was gonna go on the same year ryan tricks was on but i came in later
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and the pandemic happened i got sent home from la so it never happened but i
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did so now Now I'm back in England.
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Obviously my daughter is still not quite well, I don't really know what's going
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on with life, COVID happens.
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And then I started, obviously I had that experience with Ellie with the bubbles
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and I thought, this is something I really like doing, I'm going to explore this more.
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So I started blowing bubbles for her and my son and for the first few months
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I just did it to myself and I would make fun videos for friends but I wouldn't
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post them. because I didn't really understand TikTok. I didn't really get what it was about.
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I posted a few videos before that, but I didn't really understand what you had to do or was good views.
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And I ended up meeting this bunch of magicians that were all in a group that were all like.
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Trying to push each other and the whole idea was it was like this motivational thing
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and i was watching them all blow up but they were all doing the same thing they
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were all like going oh if it's a red card you have to follow if it's a black
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card and it was all that crap and i i didn't want to do that and i remember
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doing the bubbles and they're more laughing and then i i kept posting because
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my friend said i should post and i started posting the videos and i started,
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exploring and playing around with things and finally i did a video where
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i cook a marshmallow with a bubble and i turned it into a flamethrower and
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that video went viral and then
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all those videos that no one watched which had like 50 views
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suddenly all got views and then before you knew it i
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had i was i was like a hundred thousand
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then i started doing other stuff i started doing my regurgitation
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stuff my smoke tricks i did i did a whole series called
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x-men ability before the bubbles really did the
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bubbles helped me get there then the x-men abilities really helped
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me get to the next level and then i went back to bubbles and
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on my tick tock very much so i was more of an experimentalist
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with different styles very much on youtube
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and facebook and instagram i've always been particularly just bubbles but on
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tick tock i did magic and other stuff and i started the lollipop you know the
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trend with the lollipop everyone was doing that that's on my channel because
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i did i did like 100 million views just on those videos it was a whole series million views.
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That's just from the lollipop. Just from lollipop videos. It's rare that you
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post a video on YouTube that doesn't go viral.
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It seems like everything you post on the hardest platform performs amazingly.
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You obviously have a strong eye for it. And we're getting off the question even. Yeah, yeah.
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I'm leading to the box. It's very important. Now that we're talking about it,
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I want to add a little bit of advice that you might offer to anyone interested
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in excelling on short-form platform.
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Like any constructive advice would be great for the viewers and us.
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Don't be afraid to repost the same video. Tweak it. If it doesn't go viral,
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people always think, oh, it goes viral.
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It's not because I take it down. I look at what was performance. I look at the analytics.
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I change one thing. I had a video that I posted 20 times. It all failed at one
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time. It did 100 million.
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And the first time, no one watched it. So I just tweak it and just be critical.
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And a lot of problems with a lot of videos I see, especially magic videos, are too long.
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They're too long. like too much crap in the
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middle not enough at the start not enough of it too
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much at the end there's there's sometimes there's seven or
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eight seconds where it's just dead time i'm like why haven't they cut there
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but but the thing is i i can't say that i could take someone else's videos and
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make them successful i just know how what i need to do i know that for some
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weird reason my voiceover stuff worked really well i noticed i and i i played
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around with different things.
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But the reason I talk about this journey is because this is how I get into the box.
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And I get into the box because I start posting on Instagram.
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And one of my Instagram videos does 10 million views.
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And I get this invitation to this nightclub. And I look it up and there's not really much about it.
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It's quite underground, quite a secret place.
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It's exclusive. It's where kings and queens go and princes and royalty and famous
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people. So this is a big deal.
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This seems like this is the place i i would
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have wanted to be my whole life that i was finally getting to so i
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walk in they tell me i suddenly realized that i'm in a place of i'm in a this
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is a place where shock acts go where where you you see extreme acts that you
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wouldn't see anywhere else in the world and you see amazing circus performers
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the best circus performers in the world circus la but also the best like almost like a modern day.
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A show of shock stuff and artistic things and.
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Musicality things places you wouldn't i won't
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describe some of the acts but they are if you look at
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the surface it could seem quite shocking but then when you
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realize there's a story and a movement and
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a reason and a political thing behind it you suddenly realize
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that actually what you're seeing is art it's just at the face
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of it can seem shocking but when you look deeper there's more to it so
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suddenly i found myself at this place and i'm there to blow bubbles
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and i don't know what type of stuff they do i
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just know that they want me to do bubbles on stage so i
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didn't know that the whole point of their show was their show is only
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15 minutes long at the start and they have a they
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have a they basically have a singer so a
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chanteuse a compare who gets them all
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riled up and then they have three acts one is
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like uh and they're all kind of like uh sexy themed
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and shocking themed acts and skilled
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acts some as i said some of the best performers in the world i've ever seen
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i've seen them at the blogs and then um they have
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two of those shows so i didn't know so there
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there's me on stage for 10 minutes doing bubbles and bear in
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mind i've never done bubbles on any stage in
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my life i've been doing bubbles in my house i've
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never been on a stage doing bubbles i have no idea how
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to construct a show bubbles i'm just the guy stood there like trying to get
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things to work i i didn't know about air quality i didn't know about space i
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didn't know i didn't know anything i just knew and i know but i didn't pretend
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to know anything i told them i said i've never done this i just do on the internet
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I was honest with them. I told them that.
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So I turn up. I do that. It doesn't go well. It's not a success.
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I knew I hadn't done well when no one was really talking to me.
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And I was just packing away all my stuff.
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And I get chatting to them. So what this guy, a lovely guy called Bryn.
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And I just say, oh, he goes, oh, talking about the bubbles. I went,
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oh, I'm actually a magician.
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He went, oh, I love magic. We're looking for a magician. Can you do some magic?
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And then I say, yeah, I've got something in my bag. So I just do a couple of
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things quick off the cuff, not even planned to do magic.
23:01
Just happened to have some bits in my back. Do that. He's like...
23:06
Sorry, you just happened to have a brick strapped to your back?
23:09
At that point, I wasn't really doing that stuff anymore.
23:13
Like, I moved on. And I didn't really know where I... It's funny.
23:18
I hadn't done magic for years because of COVID. I've been doing the bubbles.
23:21
I wasn't really thinking about magic.
23:23
I hadn't even done a magic trick to anyone in two years.
23:27
I haven't done a few bits online. I haven't really done magic at this point for a long time.
23:32
So I just had my cards in my bag and I cut my cube because I like playing with those things.
23:38
And I just did something quick off the spot.
23:41
And then he said, this is going to sound crazy. Is there anything else you can do?
23:46
And I went, oh, yeah, do you want to see something really mad?
23:48
I'm a regurgitate. He went, what do you mean? I went, you got some water in a coin?
23:54
And I started doing the coin and the regurgitation on this. And everyone just
23:57
went, why did you not tell us that?
24:02
Do you want a job it's like i went well
24:05
i was here for a job he went yeah not the bubbles fuck that we
24:08
want that excuse my language you're fired but now we want to re can we rehire
24:12
you again but now yeah well i think i think once it well and they start asking
24:16
me questions like and they're like we don't have anyone that can do this and
24:20
we got the space downstairs and we want to make it we want to make it edgy and
24:24
we're looking for a magician but we want someone that's edgy and does magic and shocking.
24:28
Let's be clear about this because listeners might not understand what you mean by regurgitator.
24:33
We just kind of glossed over and maybe explain what this is.
24:37
Well, basically, I feel like everyone knows this. I have the belief.
24:40
Maybe not there. There's a guy that doesn't, so talk to him.
24:44
Okay, sorry. I just always presume it's bad having that. I can swallow objects
24:48
and bring them back. So, like, I can swallow a coin.
24:50
I can swallow smoke, a lit cigarette, water, sugar.
24:53
For real, no trick. It seems like a trick. Everyone's always asking me what
24:57
the trick is. It's no trick.
24:59
I've done it under x-ray and the real deal. And then I can bring back the smoke
25:02
or the cigarette or the smoke or the water.
25:06
And I can even bring the sugar back last if I want to dry and these are just
25:10
something I was born with I've had this since I was a kid I'm what you call
25:14
a natural born regurgitator I think that's the terms for it and you can go distance
25:18
I've seen you in action you're like a fountain.
25:23
Yeah well I was born I've always been able to do it since I was a little boy
25:27
and it just never I never really thought of it as anything,
25:31
I did it in my magic I use it as a holdout mainly and
25:34
I did a couple of tricks for my friends because you imagine
25:37
this i can do the best bite out coin you've ever seen coin can
25:40
be examined and signed i can bite out and then
25:44
hand it back out no one else like you have to
25:46
have my my ability to be able to do that but i can do that so
25:50
and i can so i used it to switch things and change things in magic but i i used
25:54
to do it for my friends and then i used to do it at conventions and i would
25:57
get told off at the convention so i would secretly go to the toilet at vanishing
26:01
i would be in the toilet for about an hour just showing people the regurgitation
26:05
and andy be like have you been regurgitating again and then the bathroom theater.
26:10
Yeah so when but when david blaine did it
26:13
and started water spout and everyone went oh this is
26:16
amazing so now it's cool now it's cool i'm sorry i i now now i'm no longer i
26:22
barely get into the bathroom i'm the next thing i know the next year i'm on
26:25
stage at the session performing it getting a standing of vision i'm going to
26:28
meet america it's funny how value anyway and then And obviously things opened
26:34
up for me for that and TV and things,
26:35
but then obviously COVID happened and then being a regurgitating COVID.
26:39
And that's why I never mentioned it to the box because...
26:41
I thought that was done. I thought I was never regurgitating again on stage.
26:47
I didn't think that was happening again. I thought the world didn't want that anymore.
26:52
So in my brain, they didn't even think about it as a thing when they went into
26:55
the box. And I didn't think it was the thing that was going to get me a job.
26:59
But they loved it. Yeah, when the world was like, we're not doing French kiss
27:04
anymore, you're like, well, I probably shouldn't throw up anymore either.
27:08
Well, it's not throwing up. because I feel that's a disservice for it because
27:12
when you throw up, you retch, your body is disgusting and smells.
27:15
When I do it, it's like breathing.
27:19
Imagine you put a bit of water in your mouth and you spat out.
27:23
That's what it's like for me. I can just do it. It's no smell.
27:28
There's no thing. It's all clean.
27:32
I'm curious. At the box, Kevin and I had a few sessions online back during the
27:38
pandemic And you had mentioned you were doing the Mullica cigarette routine. Yeah.
27:44
Is that still in your repertoire? No, I did it once for a week.
27:48
I know, like, obviously he says don't do it when you buy the books.
27:54
But I just wanted to see if I could do it.
27:56
So I did it for a week. Did I do it as well as him?
27:59
I would say probably I did it.
28:02
One percent good i i didn't have what he
28:05
had to do it i could do it and the
28:07
difference between me and malica was i um i
28:11
just swallowed them and then
28:14
i water spouted and then and then when i got backstage i did what i needed to
28:18
do but nice yeah so i would on purposely let let the cigarettes burn and set
28:24
fire to the napkin in my mouth because i could just you could share the the
28:30
pretext you're performing in here?
28:32
What was your character in the show? Imagine seeing this.
28:36
I was playing a homeless guy that walks on and he's drunk and basically the
28:42
idea of him is he likes a cigarette but he forgets that he's lit a cigarette
28:47
so he likes another one and then he accidentally eats a cigarette but he doesn't
28:50
realize he's doing it and before he knows it,
28:52
he's got loads of cigarettes but he's so drunk and he's drinking and eating
28:55
crisps and before you know it, he's got a mouth full of cigarettes but doesn't
28:58
really know what to do with them because he's trying to get to his drink.
29:00
So it's it's it's so it wasn't
29:03
just the context of i'm going to be mark it was a character and
29:07
he was drunk um and i think i think this
29:10
image kind of uh summarizes what the box is yeah yeah yeah and i used to be
29:18
close-up magic upstairs as well and i would walk around the the with a torch
29:23
in my mouth and you can't talk to anyone and i would walk and do magic and,
29:27
and do it in a very hard environment where you can't explain to them what's going on.
29:33
You're just spotlighting visual moments?
29:37
Not so much. I was doing proper routines, but because I had so many good mentors
29:42
like Rosewood, and obviously the owner was really supportive,
29:46
and just all these wonderful people in my life that I just learned how to perform
29:50
without saying anything.
29:51
And I was able to perform tricks like card and wallet and things like that,
29:55
and captivate the whole room with the
29:58
area just without set just with my body language and
30:01
that that was a that was a really interesting space and so when
30:05
teller came he followed me around the tables so there's the king of silent magic
30:08
watching me do silent magic with a torch so that was the last dress yeah i mean
30:14
he was really nice no pressure yeah the idea of like i'm not saying this is
30:19
what you did but like i can just imagine teller following you around and And he's like,
30:23
how are you going to get this noisy, in this environment,
30:27
these people's attention and you just walk up and grab their cigarette and swallow
30:30
it while it's lit or something like, you know, your abilities.
30:33
Of course, you need to do it, but, you know, that's what I'm imagining.
30:38
Yeah. And that's the interesting thing, isn't it? It's easy to think, oh, that's what you did.
30:42
I opened up with a Rubik's Cube and the Rubik's Cube in the hat and things.
30:46
I was doing classic magic.
30:47
I was doing sign the card, but I was doing classic magic. Yeah,
30:52
occasionally I might do the tic-tac-a-i or swallow the sugar and bring the sugar
30:56
back dry or smoke something. Generally, I was doing classic magic.
31:01
But I was just able to do that. And I stopped doing my lollipop production trick
31:09
because I felt like that was too needy for an audience like this because this is a very rich audience.
31:14
So I just did good magic but without talking, silent.
31:20
And I was able to win the crowd over through my body language I guess in my
31:27
mind it was so good they had to watch,
31:30
They had no choice but to watch. Where other magicians who'd done that environment
31:34
before died and couldn't get them to watch, I was able to bring them in.
31:39
And, you know, Teller was very complimentary. He said I had a good flow and,
31:43
you know, a good grasp of how to things.
31:47
He gave me a bit of advice as well on things, which was really good and helpful.
31:51
But, you know, and I think that was really important for me.
31:54
Because I think sometimes when I talk about the registration,
31:57
people don't think that's what I do. But when I was doing upstairs,
32:00
I was doing more classic magic.
32:01
When I go downstairs where I was talking, then I would do the water spouting
32:04
and the sugar and the more risky thing.
32:08
But in the private rooms, when they paid a bit extra to see something really shocking.
32:12
And again, mixing that with magic and stuff.
32:16
Really interestingly learning how to control very rich people and get them to watch me.
32:23
Because bear in mind that they go to this place to drink and have fun.
32:26
They didn't go to see a magician. and also like I'm not I'm an older magician I'm a bit I'm not.
32:32
I'm not a good looking guy in the sense of some guys, you look at Ben Hart,
32:36
he's a very good looking guy. He's very striking. You watch him, you go, ooh.
32:39
I'm more like, who's this homeless guy?
32:43
But I learned how to control the environment there.
32:48
I always put myself on the floor when I performed there.
32:51
I never did it standing up because I found that if you stood up,
32:55
there was a lot of resistance from these people.
32:58
So when I went lower than them, what I realized is I
33:01
could control the eyeline because they would they would look down so
33:04
even though i was in a subservient position i was
33:07
i was i call it doming from the bottom technique i was able to use by buskers
33:13
even you know if you're on the street and you that same confrontational dynamic
33:18
can be avoided by going low and even even not looking the audience in the eye
33:23
when you're asking them to do things.
33:27
Yeah i found that was working for me there and stuff and eventually i met them like um,
33:33
they i i they my friend was working
33:36
on a show for the showman and then after the
33:39
box uh because the other thing is not only
33:42
did i do magic at the box i also performed musicality acts
33:45
on the stage obviously it's grad so regurgitation i had an
33:47
act where i would play a drunk guy and basically his his
33:51
whole thing was he was a rich drunk guy drank too much and
33:54
he was walking around and he started stealing everyone's drinks drinking and
33:57
then he wasn't really it turned out he wasn't really rich he couldn't
34:00
afford to pay his bill so rather than pay his bill he brings back the liquid
34:05
and starts filling the glasses back up and loses control and the waitress ends
34:08
up getting covered in water but the whole point of the space is everyone thinks
34:14
that I'm this drunk and out and I remember one time I was performing there and,
34:20
The director of the Transformers movies, Michael Bay, was there.
34:25
And so I have my drink on the table and I just literally just.
34:30
Because I'm in character, I'm just writing his space. I'm moving around.
34:34
He doesn't like me very much. The waitress comes over and moves my bottle. I scream at her.
34:39
He's getting security to try and get me out of the building.
34:43
And the security, obviously, no one, an act. And he's now stressing out. So then I go into the act.
34:50
And then I see him afterwards.
34:53
He's like, I didn't realize you were an actor. You were really good.
34:56
So I thought, he took my business cut.
34:59
I thought, oh my God, I'm going to be in the Michael Bay movie.
35:00
But it never happened. But it was pretty cool.
35:04
And that's the really cool thing about that space of giving you the freedom
35:08
to express yourself and try these new things, that you're doing these crazy
35:12
things in this environment.
35:13
And then, so when you go into close-up magic and go into a corporate event,
35:17
it all seems quite mundane and boring, really.
35:21
True. Yeah, everyone's very polite and, you know, they just,
35:24
they'll stand and watch you and clap politely if you don't, you know,
35:29
break them in with something wild.
35:32
Is there anything else you've noticed about performing for
35:35
these wealthy people that you speak of like when you're
35:38
in that environment where there's just so many in one space is there
35:40
anything else you've noticed like they're just regular people they're
35:44
nice but they just want to be entertained like anyone else i
35:48
think the really cool thing i learned is i never treated anyone any
35:51
different i'd never have i don't care if you have money or not money
35:53
and i think that's the ethos off the box as well they don't
35:56
care if you have money or not everyone's the same it might
35:59
not seem like that from the outside but it very much is inside everyone's
36:02
on equal footings in that space and there's lots
36:05
of really interesting power things going on there but i just
36:08
treated them like i would treat anyone else i never i never put anyone on a
36:14
pedestal i never put anyone down either so i i found that when i was working
36:18
for these people that i was just like chatting i became friends with some of
36:23
them and you know would chat to these people you You know,
36:26
it was free. I just treated them like anyone.
36:30
I've noticed, if anything, they actually enjoy magic more somehow.
36:34
Like they're open to the experience because they're not...
36:37
At least in my experience, trying to prove that they're the biggest in the room
36:41
because they're already comfortable in, like, you know, because they're Michael Bay already.
36:46
So they're just happy to sit there and relax.
36:49
Talent knows talent. Yeah, I found that. And Michael Bay used to do magic as
36:54
well when he was little. So we talked about that. Get out.
36:56
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And, you know, we got a couple of questions here
37:01
in the comments if we could shoot them at you, Kieran.
37:03
So someone, Tim Ascombe was asking, have you ever swallowed
37:06
anything that you weren't able to return like that went all the
37:09
way and you weren't able to get back up again one
37:13
time i was in the car and i was doing i was followed five corners one two three
37:17
four five and i was just practicing for fun and i i literally got distracted
37:23
i don't know what my phone rang i forgot they were in me and i i didn't even
37:27
think about it i i it It wasn't like I didn't bring him back. I just forgot.
37:32
And then I went around my day. And then I went, oh, about five hours later,
37:36
but oh my God, I never brought those coins back.
37:38
And I tried finding them and I'm like, they've gone.
37:41
And I remember looking three days later in the bathroom. I flushed the toilet
37:44
and when I looked down, perfectly in a line that was one, two,
37:48
three, four, five coins with another one.
37:53
That is a crazy statement. I didn't, I forgot they were in me. That is wild.
38:00
What have we got?
38:03
And I forgot to bring it back. But yeah, I've never lost anything that I couldn't
38:08
bring back, no. But that was the only time.
38:11
It's different to say you lost something versus I'll get it later.
38:14
Like that is like, I'll get it tomorrow after my strong latte.
38:18
Like that's a different trick.
38:21
But there is another trick here asking, is there a limit to how many times a
38:25
day it can be done or is that not a problem? Thank you.
38:29
My wife doesn't like me doing it so much. So she's really pleased that I'm not
38:32
doing it out of the box as much doing it.
38:34
She was worried about, no one really knows what the health limits are.
38:38
But all we know is that most regurgitators die young.
38:41
Sorry, I should laugh about that. But generally, I think it's because they're
38:47
swallowing things they shouldn't be swallowing, like gasoline and petrol and
38:50
stuff. And I'm not that stupid.
38:53
I always keep it clean. I don't even swallow a billiard ball because most regurgitated
38:57
deaths have died from a billiard ball.
39:00
So, you know, I never think large objects are amazing.
39:05
Everyone else goes, oh, what's the biggest object you can swallow?
39:06
I'm like, I think I like the artistry of the control, like smoking a vape and
39:12
then swallowing the sugar in the water and then say, what do you want back? Do you want the water?
39:16
Do you want the vape? Do you want the sugar? i like that but i
39:19
think that's more of a magician approach to it than what maybe
39:22
an audience who wants to see shocking things are looking like but like
39:26
i feel like i'm not answering this question but in terms of
39:29
limit as long as i don't eat and i'm clean i could
39:31
do it all day yeah so that's right but as soon
39:34
as i eat then i can swallow coins if i've eaten
39:37
and i can swallow sugar and i can kind of but the
39:40
water when i've eaten is hard like so i don't right i
39:42
can do it i can i can do it but i don't like doing it
39:45
yeah so can it seems like you almost like compartmentalize
39:50
what's in your stomach like you have separate compartments is that
39:52
what i'm hearing not it sounds like it but no i kind of well i kind of just
39:58
put it in different places and so i guess so but no i don't my stomach is the
40:02
same as everyone else but i can just hold things if that probably doesn't make
40:05
any sense anyway and you know when i start saying this i don't feel like i'm
40:08
lying even though i No, I'm not. But then I feel like a liar.
40:12
The smoke just kind of exists in my stomach. The water is at the bottom.
40:15
And then I kind of keep the sugar before it hits the water. I'm kind of holding
40:18
it. So imagine like you're holding it like a fist. I'm just holding it where I need to hold it.
40:22
The same way. So it's like a backpack. So it's like a backpack.
40:25
Yeah, like a backpack. Like a backpack.
40:27
Right like a big bag you've got you got your lunchbox
40:30
over here your water bottle over there same thing you can keep your
40:33
water here sugar there yeah
40:35
and you have a conscious control
40:39
of the muscles within yeah that's that's the best way and when i did it on the
40:44
x-ray the doctors went we're going to prove you're a fake because my mate's
40:47
a magician he's a doctor and he told them all about me they went there's no
40:50
way anyone could do this and i did it on the x-ray under the proper conditions
40:54
they put this stuff inside me I started doing it and they just started freaking out,
40:59
that's the best my brain just went somewhere I get this idea of you being like
41:03
sir you need to pay for your coffee you're like nope,
41:08
so how does this lead into now performing in The Greatest Showman,
41:14
Yeah, it's a bit of a mad place to go from, isn't it? To The Greatest Showman to go from.
41:19
But The Greatest Showman is probably a good fit because The Greatest Showman
41:23
is based on P.T. Barnum. It's the circus.
41:26
P.T. Barnum had a regurgitator. He had The Great Wildo.
41:32
They had these type of people in their show.
41:35
So it's kind of a good fit, really, when you think about it because I'm kind
41:39
of the guy they would have had in their circus anyway back in the old days.
41:42
But originally, I wasn't meant to be there. I was there to teach one of the singers how to do magic.
41:47
One of the producers really wanted me in the show but they wanted their singers
41:52
to be able to do other skills so they wanted their singer to be the magician
41:56
and I think with close-up magic I think because you can do stuff on stage I think sometimes,
42:03
people think close-up magic is easy to learn and I think they forget that just
42:07
even fanning a pack of cards or springing a pack of cards takes time and I think
42:13
they thought oh you could just
42:14
bring the cards and do do some stuff but the the the
42:17
guy he just didn't have a good time i don't think i
42:20
think he wanted to sing and i think i don't really know much about
42:23
what happened but anyway i turned up to give
42:25
him my lesson and they said oh he's gone i went oh
42:28
when's he coming back he went oh he's not can you can
42:31
you just step in this room i went right he went we're just
42:34
going to pick you up for costumes can you can you
42:37
do three weeks uh and i went i
42:40
need to speak to my wife because she was about to start a job as a teacher teaching
42:43
course my my daughter was starting school we didn't know
42:46
how you know obviously because she has downs we didn't know
42:49
how she was going to settle into the school so it was probably the worst time
42:53
to get a job but at the same time it would be stupid to turn down this because
42:57
it was an opportunity so i couldn't believe i was debating whether i was going
43:02
to do this or not it's like finally the dream comes true and then my life isn't
43:07
at the right point for this but.
43:09
We figured things out and friends come and help and family help and the school's
43:13
like, you got to turn down this opportunity.
43:15
We'll help you with Ellie. We'll make sure that she's okay. So suddenly this
43:19
support, because everyone else says, you can't give up on this.
43:21
My wife's like, you can't give up on this.
43:23
So I do three weeks and I said, oh, we want you to stay for a bit.
43:26
We don't really know how to fit in.
43:28
So why don't you just do the weekends? I'm like, sweet. I'll just do the weekends,
43:32
do that in the box. That's great. I just do both.
43:35
Well, sweet gig. So I did that for a few months and
43:38
then they said oh you know we kind of
43:41
we kind of like realized that when you're not here on the
43:44
on the wednesdays and thursdays it's not as good but can you
43:47
just do the wednesdays and thursdays i went actually can you just stay can you
43:50
just stay two years so well i'm the thing is they didn't really know what i
43:56
was going to do so they said can you do some on stage and i did some stuff on
43:59
stage and i one day i just i decided like four days in of trying different things.
44:04
I said, why don't I just do the bubbles?
44:05
I've only ever done it on stage a couple of times, but maybe I should do that.
44:10
So I started doing the bubbles and it was a bit okay.
44:13
But then I said, then one day, like a few days in, I just said,
44:17
do you want to know how this happened, how I became a bubble guy?
44:20
And I started telling the story of my daughter at the show and how I became
44:23
a bubble guy and how everything was accident and we believe in fate and all that stuff.
44:27
And the director was like, that's really good. Just keep that. So I started doing that.
44:33
And that show grew from there. And I was doing close-up magic in a tent parlor style and stuff.
44:39
And then they had a juggler, but he broke his foot. And they didn't have a spot.
44:44
They said, do you want to do 10 minutes of magic? and at the first couple
44:48
of weeks it was a bit spotty but again work with the director on it
44:50
and now there's a small because i do all the
44:53
pre-show stuff so it fits about 250 300
44:56
people so now i do the pre-show magic and
44:59
then as soon as i've done the magic i have a minute break and let
45:02
the audience fill out we fill it and then
45:05
i do the bubble show so now i'm like on stage every
45:08
day like doing 25 minutes of
45:11
bubbles and magic and then i'd also do one set of parlor magic
45:14
before that and that which is a storytelling piece and
45:16
then i go and do the vip area for 10
45:19
minutes 15 minutes and then their money's worth
45:22
out of you huh geez they're loving you no wonder
45:25
they want you there every day oh i love it though
45:28
i like the opportunity to get better and a place that will let me experiment
45:33
and if i say i want to try a new piece that work with me on it i decided for
45:37
a linking ring we worked for it we put a lot of effort into it i did it 10 times
45:41
it was terrible but they let me do it it wasn't like the worst thing but it just wasn't as good as,
45:46
i was trying to do a voiceover thing and i lost a lot of my personality and
45:50
directs like we're losing your personality we're losing who you are and this
45:54
isn't working and i went no it's not working but to have a place and a director
45:58
that will just give me that space is amazing.
46:03
Wow and now you're at the point where you're you're performing we're talking
46:06
about this about this off air
46:07
seven shows a week right five days a week yeah i mean magic in this show,
46:14
and occasionally at the box now again the box is really cool because they're
46:17
kind of like so i can i have an open invitation to be there when i need to so
46:22
it's nice like to have that there and stuff yeah but they're very supportive
46:27
they they were like really pleased that this happened for me,
46:31
so that was really nice going from a venue that like they're there very proud of me to be where I am.
46:38
So, you know, I have a question doing all of this, right?
46:42
So thousands of people are coming and they're seeing you at the greatest showman
46:47
or at the box, you know, then you have this massive following on,
46:53
on, on all the social pipes.
46:56
Do you look at them as completely different entities?
47:00
Like I'm entertaining completely different people or,
47:04
cause what's the choice that you made where you're
47:07
like gonna stick to bubbles for example like a lot of your
47:10
work is bubbles they do really well but like someone
47:12
who sees you or someone who knows you as a
47:15
magician like me knows you've created all these crazy magic
47:18
effects that you that i wouldn't see you do on the social so like do you just
47:22
split them in your head and they're they earn you money in different ways as
47:26
different things or different audiences or like what was your choice because
47:29
it seems like a wild choice to like not link them to what you do in real life
47:33
as to what you do online for example,
47:36
yeah i mean it has hurt me like before the showman that it did it people would
47:41
go like i they'd recommend me for a gig and then the client it'd be a high end
47:46
they're like but where's your magic that's like i just see bubbles and i'm like
47:50
and i'm like well i do magic as well but
47:52
i i think for me is a lot of times i was kind of scared to put my magic on social
47:59
media because i figured right if it's bubbles they can't really hurt me because
48:03
like but with magic i just felt vulnerable,
48:06
but I guess that's why I never really put it online or if I did I did something
48:10
with a tap or regurgitation because I figured that it was no one can critic.
48:15
It's not that I don't like being criticized I do but I just don't think I could take it online,
48:22
Yeah, people are jerks online, a bunch of jerks. I can take it with the body
48:27
stuff, and I can take it with the bubbles, but I love magic so much.
48:32
And also, the other thing is, other magicians watch my stuff,
48:36
and I got nothing against other magicians. I love other magicians.
48:38
I hate people that go, I hate magicians. I met a magician the other day who
48:42
came to the show and told me he hated everything about magicians.
48:45
Don't understand that attitude.
48:47
Never, you know, if that's your opinion, that's fine. But for me,
48:50
I love magicians. that I love. I went to the session at the best time.
48:53
I'm surrounded by people who love the art of what I do. Why would I not like
48:57
you? You share my interest.
48:59
I could talk about, this is the one space where I can talk about stuff and you
49:03
understand what I'm talking about. I want to be in that environment.
49:06
I want to find someone that's really good at a slight hand move that I don't
49:09
know, and then it's going to help me.
49:10
I'm not afraid of going, I don't understand something because I know that I need that to get better.
49:16
If I start going, I'm great, then I'm just some guy that never gets great.
49:19
Where if I'm a guy that...
49:21
Understood but i think with with online stuff i just i don't know i just felt very vulnerable,
49:27
and i guess i didn't need to do it and i and i
49:29
kind of like the fact that i have this other outlet creatively and
49:33
then i get to do my magic on privately and i
49:36
i feel like it's a mystery i get to keep as well so but
49:39
i i think i wouldn't i wouldn't be opposed against doing
49:42
magic now online i just don't feel like i need to
49:45
but at the beginning it was more of a scared of doing
49:48
magic online but also like the other thing is i
49:51
don't want to do tricks and then someone else copies me i
49:54
want to keep a lot of my new work to myself my new ideas if
49:57
i do share it i share it with close friends i'm trying
50:00
to keep a lot of my new work to myself yeah that's an interesting point as well
50:04
in the past like you said you see all these magicians on tv and everything doing
50:09
effects you created so is that what led you to now want to keep some some of
50:16
the new kieran stuff to yourself?
50:19
I still do my classics but I also have loads of new material that I like working on myself.
50:26
I think I feel like when you publish something, you give a part of yourself to that piece.
50:33
I watched a kid do one of my tricks the other day and they were talking about it and I'm like,
50:40
And I asked them why they do it. And they went, oh, could it get a good reaction?
50:45
And then I was telling them why that piece was written. And this guy was like,
50:48
he didn't even know I wrote it.
50:49
And I was like, and he went, no, that's not why it was written.
50:52
It was just written because it's a good trick. I went, no, it's written because of this.
50:55
And he didn't know. I never told it. But I thought it was really interesting
50:59
that they don't know why these pieces existed.
51:02
You know, I wrote the lollipop trick originally with
51:05
the card and the production because i i felt not
51:08
good enough as for my audience and i wanted them to
51:11
like me so i started doing that trick because
51:14
i thought that was going to make people like me and now
51:17
i just see people doing it because it gets a good reaction but i wrote that
51:20
because i was looking for a piece that liked me i wrote the ice for fire because
51:24
i was feeling really confident my life was going great i didn't have much money
51:28
but i was happy with my wife and i was really And I wanted to have that feeling
51:32
of what if I could do that, you know?
51:35
So ironically feeling cool and confident about myself when I did card and ice,
51:40
I just did it because I wanted to be the guy that put the card in the ice and
51:43
I wanted to be the first person to seal it. I did that for vanity.
51:46
That wasn't, it was done. I card and ice exists purely for vanity.
51:51
The signed card at the side of Rubik's Cuban jar, which most people don't even remember.
51:56
It's mine. I wrote that because I was grieving and I was sad and I was not in a good place mentally.
52:01
You know, me and my wife were going through a lot of time. I wrote that because
52:04
I just needed to focus my mind on something.
52:06
So that's why I created that. You know, I wrote the can trick because it was
52:10
a practical joke on France.
52:12
We were in a, I used to wash dishes.
52:15
Everyone was allowed on a can. Everyone would put the can on the shelf.
52:17
Everyone would still be other person's can. I thought it would be hilarious
52:20
to make all the cannons have different liquids.
52:21
It's a joke. It's a practical joke.
52:24
It was never meant to be a trick. It was just a joke, you know?
52:27
So all these pieces have like different connotations, you know?
52:31
Stickman Bob is written because I love Dan Harlem's cartoon.
52:35
And that's the trick that made me become a magician.
52:39
And I wanted to bring that trick into a 3D world.
52:42
So I wanted the cannon to really fire through the cart. I wanted to create his
52:45
trick, but not have it animated. I wanted to bring it to life.
52:48
And that's why Stickman Bob.
52:51
Exists so these pieces weren't just written because i
52:54
was looking for a trick they were written because of the way
52:57
i was feeling or the space you know but people
52:59
don't know that you know the chocolate bar exists why does
53:02
the chocolate bar exist because i kept forgetting oranges were in my bag they
53:05
kept rotten i go back to my bag in the week after they go so i'm like i need
53:11
to find a new way of doing this because i'm forgetting to take these oranges
53:14
out oh you know what i'll do a chocolate I didn't know I because I need I I
53:19
can't keep doing this to myself every week,
53:22
you know I can't tell you how much I needed
53:24
to hear this because I was having a discussion with some friends about
53:27
my show the other day that I've got coming up and so like I'm scripting everything
53:31
and the effects are the effects but everything that you're saying is the exact
53:36
same motivations I have where it's like I'm not trying to make the storyline
53:40
the throughput or the forefront of it it's the breadcrumb that's sort of sprinkled
53:44
throughout the routine that,
53:46
shows a pie like a piece of yourself a part of
53:49
yourself that like you would only know if you know and there's
53:52
that and i think that adds so much depth to your routines do you have advice
53:57
for folks who are creating stuff like consider these three things consider what
54:01
message you want to portray what how to inject parts of yourself express personality
54:07
do you have any advice of that nature when creating,
54:10
Yeah, be selfish. Create for yourself. Don't create for an audience. Be selfish.
54:15
That's the opposite advice anyone would give you. Don't go, create commercial
54:18
effects. Don't screw commercial.
54:21
Like I used to carry a tin of beans hot in my pocket. That was not commercial.
54:25
I did that because I wanted to do it. So create the tricks that you want to
54:28
perform. Don't think about whether it's practical.
54:31
Don't think whether it's going to even work. It probably won't.
54:35
But don't think about it in terms of, am I going to sell it later?
54:38
Just create the tricks you want to create and if it works amazing if it doesn't
54:43
work try again and if it doesn't work the first time don't give up do it again
54:47
and again and if it doesn't work after 10 times then don't do it because you
54:51
you know and and and just experiment and play and just.
54:56
Don't don't be afraid don't think of you know one
54:59
of the things you know we're often told the
55:02
thing i always think about is there is always a new audience
55:05
always a new audience whether that's on tiktok social media
55:08
real life there is always someone new and and
55:11
and not everything you're going to work is going to work for everyone but if
55:15
you can get if you if you can be hands on your heart
55:17
you know it works for you that's what you should do you no one else's opinion
55:22
matters in this world other than your own opinion it doesn't you know we can
55:27
have people that come into our life and tell us oh this is what you should do
55:30
or do that but ultimately the only person that can and make a decision on what you do is you.
55:35
And I failed, like I failed on stupid tricks that you shouldn't fail on,
55:39
because I think any trick you do, even if it's new, even if it's self-working,
55:45
you can fail because you might not know.
55:49
Things that you don't account for or the person that sold the if ideal commercial
55:54
piece they might not have these problems because they probably didn't do it that much you know,
55:59
so in terms of like you're gonna fail and and
56:02
i think in sideshow there's this saying what it's
56:06
not if it goes wrong it's what you do when it goes wrong and
56:09
i think it's how you handle that and i and i find having to
56:12
handle failure on stage at the showman with
56:15
the bubbles the heat there and even with the magic
56:18
and but picking myself up and then you know what that doesn't
56:21
work but do this this and now yeah sorry i go no no no that's hey it's the greatest
56:27
episodes are when we're not the ones talking this is this is phenomenal stuff
56:30
yeah especially when josh isn't
56:33
the one talking yeah i mean but did i tell you i used to be in a band no.
56:43
But ultimately we say it all the time we have to be ourselves
56:45
but we how how often are we doing this
56:48
how often we we trying to be someone else and
56:51
i think sometimes as the magicians we delude ourselves don't we we we
56:54
buy a trick or we learn a trick from the book and we go i do it different i'm
56:58
not like that guy but the truth is you probably do exactly the same and but
57:02
we have to tell ourselves this because this is a lie we have to tell ourselves
57:05
to feel like we're not frauds but but i think there's an honesty of going you
57:10
know what i am doing it like that guy
57:12
but how and i should do it like that guy for a bit then how
57:15
can i put bits of me in it how can i make it mine how do i make it flow for
57:20
me so if someone else does that trick it doesn't feel like the same trick even
57:24
if it is the same trick how does it not feel like the same trick and no and
57:29
i think also just again that that concept of just having fun with your magic and,
57:35
not thinking there's rules I think as soon as you put rules you know practice
57:40
is important but I think that there's no rules in magic.
57:45
Yes yeah that's the part you couldn't agree more
57:48
and you know what we should have we
57:50
should have made this a five hour episode because i'm so interested right now
57:54
but we are coming to an end already so stay you know just stay tuned for the
58:00
part five and six that'll come out over the next coming months and years whenever
58:05
he has time when he's not doing seven shows a week.
58:09
Yeah i think what we're saying is that there
58:12
was such a beautiful amount of knowledge you just shared and obviously our
58:15
time is nearly up and so i guess on behalf of all
58:18
of us here as well as our listeners like please say you'll come
58:21
back and chat to us again yeah i mean i i
58:24
just think i submit i feel like
58:27
everyone knows this stuff but i know that isn't the truth but yeah
58:30
i you know i'd be happy to talk about i could talk about it all day the thing
58:33
is like i i just i think it's so
58:36
hard in this world to to be different but
58:39
i think we are but we all but also
58:42
at the same time everyone is different right you like some
58:45
people like things we should get we're all individuals so if you
58:48
can make your magic individual and be true to yourself
58:50
i think the problem with me is i'd never chased money because of that there
58:55
was a lot of struggle but because but now i'm got it to a way i somehow accidentally
58:59
got into a job where i get to be an artist and a performer i realized how lucky
59:04
i am to be in a space like that fortune favors the prepared,
59:11
ah just wasn't so prepared i just you know it's funny how all these things are
59:15
actually isn't it you know i mean and the funny thing is if i hadn't started
59:19
doing the bubbles i wouldn't be here now that's true it's not funny it's a life
59:25
where you're willing to take risks and work hard so you know that's that's not an accident.
59:31
Yeah yeah you just yeah you started doing
59:34
the thing that you enjoyed doing even if bubbles weren't going to
59:37
work on stage that you didn't know if you bloody gave it a try
59:39
look this is all this is too good
59:43
so we're going to end our episode in the way we always do
59:45
which is by giving our guest the final word
59:49
hello kerry
59:53
the mate here my guest final word is try
59:56
and be true to yourself and do the tricks you like if you
59:59
like the tricks you like the audience will like and
1:00:02
not be afraid you know obviously ask for opinions but
1:00:05
the only opinion at the end of the day matters is your own opinion and
1:00:09
you know you can film your show and you can be looking back at it and go good
1:00:13
i personally never film shows i saw a few the other day that says if you want
1:00:17
to get better you have to film shows but i think there's a something daryl once
1:00:21
told me and this was really interesting and i I thought this was one of the
1:00:24
best advice is practicing, always practice in front of a mirror.
1:00:28
And then his next advice was don't practice in front of a mirror.
1:00:31
You know, there's different ways of practicing.
1:00:34
Maybe that will work for you. Maybe it won't. But, you know,
1:00:37
at the end of the day, I think the takeaway from it is just find your own way.
1:00:42
So I hope that helps. Peace.
1:00:46
Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now.
1:00:50
Disappear now. But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.