Latest / The Magic Guys / Petey Majik! Street Magic to Vietnamese TV Star #236
Transcript
- 0:00They're guys. They do magic. They are the magic guys.
- 0:09Ladies and gentlemen, I can't believe it. Can you? We're up to episode 236 of
- 0:15the Magic Guys, where we interview professional magicians.
- 0:19We talk about our busy lives and I almost stumble over my words.
- 0:23But to my left, we got Nick K.
- 0:26Coming at you live, where mistakes will happen and we will not erase them because
- 0:30no one's perfect unless you are the guy who's about to speak.
- 0:35We got Doug Kahn. Nanu, Nanu. I'm doing the Mork tonight.
- 0:38Or I could do the Cena. It's up to you. Oh, yeah. Hey, I'm Doug Kahn and I'll
- 0:43be your Magi wrestling Mork tonight.
- 0:47Man, I'm struggling, fellas. You're doing it. You're doing it.
- 0:51We're lies. How weird must it be to be Cena, by the way? And like,
- 0:56it's a thing for fans to pretend like they can't see him.
- 0:59That's got to be an interesting exchange, you know?
- 1:04For those who don't know, he, you know, that's a part of his character is that
- 1:07he can be invisible, invisible, in quotation marks, and yes,
- 1:12fans will pretend like they can't see him.
- 1:14And I saw a clip of Jake Paul doing that when they met him.
- 1:17Yeah, I mean, a lot of people don't actually know that he's the fourth member
- 1:20of the Magic Guys who's been in every episode ever since. In fact,
- 1:24he's here right now. Say hi.
- 1:26Thanks, ma'am. So, like, he's, And he's been around for a while.
- 1:28He's been crashing on my couch.
- 1:31You would think magicians would be better liars. Yeah, and you know what?
- 1:35I can't believe that, like, of all magicians, like, why don't they have that?
- 1:39Like, why isn't Dynamo's thing like this? But erroneous.
- 1:42Look, the people who are here are the folks in the chat.
- 1:45We have Tongi Elam. Thank you for being here. Thomas Conger.
- 1:48Good to see you, buddy. Tim Askin. Good to see you. Scotty Luke.
- 1:51Good to see you, friends. Again, we do have a chat and comments.
- 1:55So please, if you have any questions for our guests today, pop them in there.
- 1:59If there's no other bits of business for us to talk about, shall we jump into it, friends?
- 2:03Yeah, look, I'm excited for this. Now, he is maybe the reigning champion of
- 2:08most been on the podcast guests.
- 2:11I got those words out.
- 2:13He's the guy that I talk about in my show. I literally say at the start of my
- 2:17show, the reason I wanted to
- 2:18become a full-time magician is because I saw this guy and he had a coin.
- 2:22And this is the guy, my friends, who you're going to see.
- 2:25He's been a professional magician longer than I've been a professional magician.
- 2:29And he first started in Australia. Then he went back to his country in Vietnam,
- 2:35where he just blew up and became a celebrity, starring in movies over there,
- 2:40being a celebrity magician, having TV specials come out.
- 2:44And now he's got this amazing magic show that's tied into the folklore of the
- 2:49culture, which is so unique.
- 2:51And we're going to talk all about it. So please help me in welcoming my friend, PD Magic.
- 2:57Music.
- 3:14Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. BD Magic doing camera magic at its best.
- 3:20BD, thank you for being on the podcast.
- 3:22Please make your way upstairs and tell us, who are you and what do you do?
- 3:26Yo, yo, yo. What's up, guys? And our viewers.
- 3:31Obviously, I am an artist. Is that what we say these days when you get sort
- 3:36of further into your career? I'm an artist. I'm an entertainer.
- 3:39I'm a visual artist. I'm a professional magician because, you know.
- 3:42That's it. I'm a professional liar.
- 3:47And you blow on someone's mind? Yeah. How long have you been a professional
- 3:52liar for now? It's been a while.
- 3:54I think the technical term for professional is your first paid gig, correct?
- 4:01Yeah. When you accept payment for your services, you are a professional.
- 4:05See that? Yeah. I would say, yeah. I guess so. Yeah.
- 4:09I mean. maybe semi-pro there was a
- 4:11mike tyson bio that i'd read one time and what's
- 4:15the guy with the crazy hair i forget his name his manager basically
- 4:19don king don king thank you and what
- 4:22he said to him was yeah correct what he
- 4:25said to him was you're a professional now do you know what that means and he
- 4:28said like oh because i get paid he goes no professional will
- 4:31fight no matter what and i thought that's interesting so i took that notion
- 4:37and i went like i'm a professional which means i will perform no matter what
- 4:40so even if like i've got a show that night and something awful happens i'm still
- 4:45going to do that show because world keeps spinning so two different,
- 4:49ideas on what a professional is yeah so pd
- 4:52can you because i know all about you and we're going to jump into questions but
- 4:56for the audience that have just started watching since we
- 4:59won fizz and baby um congratulations i saw that amazing thank you and that's
- 5:05how we could afford to get you back on here could you give a synopsis of the
- 5:09audience yeah could you give the audience a little rundown of your career and
- 5:13kind of what the things you've been able to play with as an artist and do.
- 5:17I think like like all magicians I started off you know just your basic card
- 5:22tricks most of them were like mathematical self-working tricks and then when
- 5:27you get into a hobby you start to meet other people in that hobby as well and
- 5:32that's when I met JJ and then a few other people along Queen Street Mall.
- 5:36I think Jason I had met at the time, he was a bar back at a club that we used
- 5:40to go to and perform at as well. But he was already doing a little bit of magic here and there.
- 5:44Short hair, pimples everywhere kind of thing. Yeah. Fun to do.
- 5:49Just to be clear, this began location-wise in Brisbane, is that correct? In Brisbane, correct.
- 5:55Right, and the Jason, he's referring to as Jason Ma from the original Magic Guys.
- 6:01This is before Busking. This is 2001.
- 6:05This is thin Jason.
- 6:08Thin Jason. Actually, Jason had like a very sort of emo fringe,
- 6:13sort of just down this way.
- 6:15He wore black and he wore like the leather black bands.
- 6:18I have an old photo. i'm gonna find it but i'll send it to you guys and you guys can
- 6:21do a throwback at some stage so that yeah 2000 2001
- 6:24i would say i was still in university so just
- 6:28doing it for fun and then that was where a friend
- 6:31of mine he was like yo there's a school carnival for
- 6:34grade threes and fours do you want to set up a table and
- 6:36just do some magic there we don't there's not much budget but we can give you
- 6:39something and that's when i went down and it was 40 just for that one hour at
- 6:44a table were sort of kind of half dressed up with a top hat and kids would just
- 6:48line up and I'd just do one or two tricks and then they'd leave and venture
- 6:53off to the next part of a little school carnival.
- 6:55And that was it. I spent the 40 bucks on beers.
- 7:01That's funny because I had it in my head that it was like you being a cloud
- 7:04at this school carnival and I'm like, alright fellas, gather around,
- 7:08I'm going to get some beers. Oh, you're the best baby.
- 7:11That was always It's my instinct to do magic. Get beer.
- 7:16But I think that was more... Man, Baxil.
- 7:20To say, someone has more cats than me. Isn't Baxil? Yeah, there he is.
- 7:24I've actually used her once in a show before.
- 7:27And surprisingly, she was quiet in the box. Oh, wow.
- 7:34We got a guy in Vegas, Mondray, finishes act with Maine Coon Cat Production.
- 7:39This thing is the size of Texas, this big-ass cat. Can you imagine?
- 7:43Wrangling a cat into any form of a magic production on a regular basis.
- 7:47Does that make them a tax deduction and every single thing you do for them is
- 7:52kind of like... Absolutely. Technically, yeah. Absolutely. For sure.
- 7:55I never thought of that. The time allotted to shuttling the cat litter is a deduction.
- 8:01That's a good time. So was it a very small box or something?
- 8:05You'll have to see Mondrezak, All Stars of Magic Show at the Planet Hollywood. Come check it out, 4 p.m.
- 8:11Tuesday through Thursday. That's all I have to say about that.
- 8:15I like a good early matinee slot. No, it is. In Vegas, you can...
- 8:20What, Josh? Are you on this show today? No, no, it's good.
- 8:24Sorry, I was trying to keep the interview part going, but I do enjoy the cat's info.
- 8:30Sorry. Okay, so where were we? So, yep, at uni, and then, you know,
- 8:33like everyone else, if you're doing it around that sort of age,
- 8:36it's mainly to pick up chicks.
- 8:38It's a great icebreaker, at least. And then Allie Wild, which you've done some
- 8:42gigs for, Josh, she was at that school carnival, and she's the one that came
- 8:46up to me and said, yo, here's my card.
- 8:49Give me a call. It was like an agent management company, top chick management
- 8:53at the time, I think it was. But they did more circus stuff.
- 8:56And I was like, okay, cool. I don't really take it seriously.
- 8:59So I just took a card and put it in my pocket. And then later on,
- 9:02she saw me again in the day. She's actually, give me your number. I'm going to call you.
- 9:07And then I started off just doing charity stuff, street festivals and stuff
- 9:10like just roving mainly.
- 9:12And then she put me through like a workshop development where you
- 9:15just do a bit of stage presence and and how to
- 9:18rework various parts of your act tell us
- 9:21about that tell us about that because a lot of folks don't actually
- 9:24that i know as far as magicians go they don't
- 9:27really typically do a course whether it be like
- 9:30an improv comedy thing or perhaps a you
- 9:33know uh clowning that's one that i really in the past right yeah so let's talk
- 9:40about education in that realm and also we'll ask what you did at university
- 9:43but like tell us what this workshop was about so i did like a two-day workshop
- 9:47with a professional clown if you want to call it that um tom grader and he.
- 9:53Is a clown but not your typical clown with your
- 9:56red nose and stuff he was more theatrical mr bean type
- 9:59clown sort of pantomime a little bit doesn't really
- 10:02speak he worked with me on
- 10:05specific magic tricks that i did where he didn't
- 10:08necessarily know how the trick worked he would look at it and go how can we
- 10:11stretch that out to two minutes three minutes or something like that because
- 10:14essentially a choose a card find a card trick is just 30 seconds
- 10:18if you just do it and it's a to z right so he
- 10:21did exercises where he would use he'll take a whoopee cushion
- 10:24and a chair and we're all sitting there and he'd be like what is this does
- 10:26anyone know what this is whoopee cushion okay cool what's its function it's
- 10:30a prank you put it under someone's seat and they don't know to sit on it makes
- 10:33a fart sound so he said how do we make this more funny he said i'm going to
- 10:37give you a task he puts it on the chair you all know it's there i'm going to
- 10:39call your name out at random and when you come up there i want you to try and
- 10:43squeeze the air out of the whoopee cushions but try not to make as much sound as possible.
- 10:47So then you've got people coming up and then they're kind of like.
- 10:50And then it starts to go, and that makes the whole thing even funnier, you know?
- 10:54And that whole exercise alone is like two minutes per person just to try to
- 10:58squeeze it out of the whoopie cushion.
- 11:00So it opened up a lot of, I guess, ideas and creativity-wise to stretch or sit
- 11:09on a moment in your trip so people can absorb it and then, I guess, go from there.
- 11:14That's a really interesting point. I was, many years ago, I was chatting with
- 11:18one of our top illusionists, Sam Powers, and he was, we're talking about just
- 11:23certain illusions and like how they work.
- 11:25And he goes, if you want to get some time out of it, you need to do this.
- 11:28And the reason I bring that up is let's say you have an illusion and it's like
- 11:32for the most primitive purpose, Josh gets into a thing, a curtain goes up,
- 11:37curtain goes down, Josh is gone.
- 11:38That's amazing. That was $40,000, that illusion. And it went for two seconds and now Josh is gone.
- 11:44So when you think about it like that and you go like well
- 11:46how much you know without it seeming like
- 11:49a waffling type boring thing is sort of dragging itself out it's a really interesting
- 11:55thing to be able to do that to like squeeze the entertainment value out of something
- 11:59as primitive as a whoopee cushion so that's good now you're obviously very highly
- 12:02educated because you did go to university the question here from tim asking
- 12:07wanted to know what did you do at university,
- 12:09Well, I graduated and had a bachelor's degree in marketing, advertising, and e-business.
- 12:182004 was when I finished. I only worked in the field for maybe eight months.
- 12:23I worked at a car rental company. I did marketing and sales for them, and that was it.
- 12:27Magic on the side, and then eventually sort of just took that route.
- 12:32I think the marketing education does still come in handy today.
- 12:36A lot of stuff is still relevant especially p2p stuff
- 12:39all the online stuff is is constantly changing or as you know so if you're not
- 12:44posting often or regular enough then you sort of get stay you're not relevant
- 12:48to to the game and people forget you so that's the hard part too so yeah as
- 12:53i've gotten getting older i i get more lazy in posting and i should be posting more,
- 12:58especially stuff with the show but now that we have a marketing team
- 13:01that does it for me you know i'll walk in and then
- 13:04the girl goes pd we need to shoot something for the show you know okay cool
- 13:06and then she'll edit it and post it and that makes things a lot more easier
- 13:09for me but personal wise i haven't done it too much for myself which i should
- 13:13so but yeah well before we talk about like the show that you've been into like
- 13:18there's a gap that i'm interested in so you basically got an education here in brisbane in oz.
- 13:24Then you went back to Vietnam. So explain that journey from going from like
- 13:29Brittany, fooling around doing magic.
- 13:32And I guess you would have established yourself to some degree in Brisbane.
- 13:35And then you'd pick yourself up with nothing but your skill set.
- 13:38And then you land in Vietnam, starting from essentially scratch again.
- 13:43Tell us what that journey was like.
- 13:45So actually, we had a big opportunity here. So I don't know if you remember
- 13:48a few years back, Adam Murphy and Selena on Australia's Got Talent.
- 13:51I think they came semi-finalists or maybe top four or top two. Yeah.
- 13:56I actually went on tour with them to Qatar. Oh, no.
- 14:03But it's just Adam now, right? Selena's not performing anymore, I believe.
- 14:06I think she steps in every now and again, but she's got a pretty decent career
- 14:10as a professional high-end DJ doing nightclubs and so forth.
- 14:14Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
- 14:17But we should get on the show or at least Adam and be like, what's up?
- 14:21Yeah yeah so during that time adam myself
- 14:25and jj got a call from julie duff
- 14:28who worked in channel nine in sydney for like
- 14:32like sort of getaway type programs so she called
- 14:35us up and said hey we want to put together a pilot episode sort of like an ensemble
- 14:39of magicians of different sort of backgrounds and and stuff and then pitch it
- 14:44to fox and see we can get something going so prior to that i was doing the warehouse
- 14:48show that that josh said had gone to and you know just as much.
- 14:54Residential gigs as possible like a family nightclub the ecca
- 14:57the royal show i was doing a lot of just that sort
- 15:00of stuff the occasional morning show appearances then
- 15:04when this opportunity came up we went down to sydney we shot
- 15:07this pilot episode that was like
- 15:09maybe nine minutes of just walking around the street darling
- 15:12harbour and doing some some street magic and that was during the era of
- 15:15like i think still blaine chris angel and stuff
- 15:18so that stuff was really hot you know you know we're walking around
- 15:21carrying forks to do fork bending on the
- 15:24street which is something you probably wouldn't do now you're talking
- 15:26more just walk in a restaurant and do it and we shot that episode
- 15:29it looked great i think i still have it somewhere i remember
- 15:33seeing the trailer i i can still vividly remember the trailer
- 15:35of you guys yeah it was shot it was good because like back
- 15:38then you're not shooting with what we're shooting now they're shooting actual on the
- 15:41shoulder the cameras you know so when people see
- 15:44that they're like oh what's going on here they want to be in there they don't
- 15:47want to be in the shot i think we were like maybe one signature
- 15:50away from a green light like the ceo of
- 15:53the actual fox network he
- 15:57wasn't there we went as far as buying a
- 16:00classified ad print in a newspaper for that day was a reveal so when he came
- 16:07he was come through would do this force and then would say hey have you seen
- 16:11the latest paper this morning and he would turn to the latest paper and then
- 16:14you'd see the card revealed in the print that's how far he went but he wasn't there that day.
- 16:20So then Julie was like, okay, let's just sit on this and we'll see when he comes back.
- 16:25And then that's when I went to Vietnam just as a holiday with my mum to see family.
- 16:29And my mate who was living in Ho Chi Minh City, he was like,
- 16:32yo, you should consider coming here, man.
- 16:34Like there's no one doing what you're doing. There is, but not in the street
- 16:37sort of style of that sort of caliber in a sense.
- 16:40And plus, if you can still speak Vietnamese, there might be something here.
- 16:45So I stayed for a week with him. I saw some opportunities because there was
- 16:49a big expat community here.
- 16:52So I could maybe at least start off doing stuff for the foreigners already with
- 16:56the Australian consulate and stuff like that.
- 16:58Then eventually when I came back, it took me six months to sort of make that
- 17:02final decision, pack two suitcases, and then go over there.
- 17:06And then while I was over there, I just did a small gig for Mercedes.
- 17:10It was like maybe $200 for roving.
- 17:14And like you said earlier, Nick, in our pre-talk, because i
- 17:17had to start over so no one knew who i was and then i
- 17:20eventually said look let's do a show like a little parlor stand-up open
- 17:23mic type show free free entry because we
- 17:26knew a guy that had a venue and he had nothing on wednesdays i said
- 17:28look let me take that wednesday night free show i can
- 17:31do a revenue share at the bar like 15 of
- 17:34drinks whatever so i did this free show
- 17:37it was maybe 30 minutes of stand-up magic with just
- 17:40everything i had on me and that was
- 17:43a show that landed me a tv contract because the tv
- 17:46network owners in vietnam was there and he was like look we
- 17:49don't know how we can help you but we're looking to do like this sort
- 17:52of travel show where we can sort of show
- 17:55foreigners who come here different parts of vietnam like the bentan markets
- 17:59the reunification palace the museums and if you can be that person that our
- 18:04two hosts will take you around then you can do magic also at those places so
- 18:08it was like a getaway sort of magic type show in a sense yeah.
- 18:14It was crazy to see, from Brisbane, to see Petey go overseas and then all of
- 18:20a sudden we see this trailer come out months later.
- 18:22Like this epic looking trailer for a TV magic series.
- 18:26And we were like, what the heck is going on? This is awesome.
- 18:30Honestly, it was very overwhelming because even then I didn't feel my skill
- 18:34set was good enough or polished enough.
- 18:38I didn't have any consultants. I didn't know any magic guys there.
- 18:41I only just met a few guys that did magic and like these
- 18:44are young kids who were getting into the dan and dave cardistry stuff
- 18:47so they're fully skilled in that i knew like
- 18:50maybe two or three cuts that wasn't even that crazy
- 18:53but i had to source out somewhere that had someone
- 18:56was selling magic props and stuff so i could sort of use for
- 19:00these episodes and i only had like a six weeks
- 19:03to prepare to shoot 14 episodes we shot 14 episodes in
- 19:06like 20 days whoa so in
- 19:09vietnamese at the time 2011 that was when we shot it
- 19:12they're very they're very i
- 19:15guess dramatic in in leading up
- 19:19to a trick so like i i get taken to this place where they
- 19:22sell all these pots for your your plant and there's different chinese designs
- 19:26and vietnamese designs as well and i come in and i'm oh these are really nice
- 19:30you know they tell me about different ones and then i accidentally break one
- 19:34well it was on purpose but i accidentally break one and then we restore it and
- 19:38i didn't have anything on me,
- 19:39but I did have Sean's briefcase.
- 19:44That you could fit a bowling ball in and that
- 19:48was just sitting in the back like we just purposely sit
- 19:50in the back with the with the actual double pot inside
- 19:53it and i would pretend to put the broken pieces
- 19:56in it and then would open up and out comes the thing so
- 20:00i had to make deal with stuff like that but on a on a street magic sort of perspective
- 20:05it doesn't make sense that a briefcase is just sitting there in the back but
- 20:08that's that's what we did and it kind of worked i guess that's amazing let's
- 20:12let's talk about like what you learned jumping straight into something like that because,
- 20:19i think that we some of us who
- 20:22are a bit naive about magic thinking like i could just do magic on tv it's
- 20:25so much more if they do it well obviously you know and i think in my opinion
- 20:30the brief that's a brilliant idea so like what did you learn or what are some
- 20:33of the biggest takeaways that you could share about transitioning from doing
- 20:37a comedy show you know on a stage versus doing it for TV and for camera?
- 20:44I think for me, especially in Vietnam, number one was a little bit of the language.
- 20:49I could speak it, but I wasn't fully fluent. I didn't have the natural slangs and stuff.
- 20:56That was number one. Number two is the Vietnamese audience, the public,
- 21:01they're still, in 2011, they're still very reserved.
- 21:04So as soon as they see cameras, they're kind of like, oh, I don't want to be
- 21:07on TV. Whereas I guess in the Western countries, everyone's like oh what are
- 21:11you shooting and we want to jump in front of the camera,
- 21:13i had issues especially when they're carrying big cameras
- 21:16and then you know big sound boomsticks as well like it's like a massive production
- 21:20going around just to shoot you know a small clip of magic so that was a part
- 21:24that was difficult to do and then just not having as much other magician consultants
- 21:30to help me with the with certain tricks i did one where i still do today is like a card,
- 21:36card to watermelon and we paid this like when
- 21:39you go to vietnam not so much now but back then there's people
- 21:42on the street where they'll lay out like a mat and they'll sell fruit so we
- 21:46asked this lady if she could set up where we were shooting that
- 21:48day and we're going to come and buy a watermelon or choose a watermelon and
- 21:53the card is going to appear inside obviously had to prep everything and she
- 21:58was sitting there for ages and when you shoot stuff on set you could you could
- 22:01take forever just to shoot one small scene so she's frustrated that she can't
- 22:05sit there making a living,
- 22:07so our director was like you know what tell her we'll buy all her fruits for
- 22:11the day but just sit there you know.
- 22:14So I learned that production in a big scale like that, it's consuming.
- 22:20There's a lot of people on board, especially for TV and censorship in Vietnam at the time.
- 22:25I was really restricted on doing too much card stuff or money stuff in Vietnam
- 22:30that involved some sort of devaluing of the note because Ho Chi Minh is on the note, on every note.
- 22:38And I did the classic one where you get two different notes, you fold it,
- 22:42they put both in their hands you take one out and they switch places so
- 22:46that one got censored because of the way
- 22:49i folded the note they didn't like that it folded across ho chi
- 22:52minh's face because it was like a disrespect thing so
- 22:55then they even suggested how about we do it with american dollars i was like but
- 22:58we're in vietnam it's kind of weird if i just take out american dollars so
- 23:01we still shot it it just didn't go to air on
- 23:04on national tv but i think on
- 23:07youtube that's where the loophole is and then like there's people playing cards
- 23:12regularly on the street it was hard to just come up and say hey can i show you
- 23:15something with a deck of cards that's they're using in vietnam it's like they
- 23:19don't want to promote that there's gambling or some sort of card playing on
- 23:22the street so i wasn't allowed to just come up and just do something to those guys also.
- 23:27Things like that yeah that's that's a little
- 23:30limiting and that's the kind of stuff you've got to think through hey yeah
- 23:33it's better now but 2011 that was when it was was
- 23:36the censorship was quite high yeah well i
- 23:39guess going to a whole new country one thing that all people should keep
- 23:42in mind is cultural limitations and that's
- 23:45the way that some things could be could be received you know i had
- 23:48a cousin who was i think she was in egypt or thereabouts and some and she was
- 23:53going through some stuff and it's a thousand degrees there right but as a woman
- 23:56you're not supposed to be able to show your shoulders and she was wearing a
- 23:59shoal and taking a photograph and she leant up to take a photo of the roof shoulders
- 24:04fell like the thing fell off the shoal and exposed her shoulders,
- 24:07to which they wanted to publicly lash her. Wow.
- 24:11But $1,000 got her, a bribe got her out of the situation. So...
- 24:16Is that a clip on Pornhub or something?
- 24:18Yeah, well... Because it's private, isn't it? Yeah. It's not from Pornhub.
- 24:22Yeah, it's pretty gnarly. Lady flashes shoulder. Yeah.
- 24:26Oh, so hot. No. Lady reveals all.
- 24:29Yeah. And now because of that, like, it is just one of those things,
- 24:33like, you... that people are kind of unaware of, which is...
- 24:37Yeah, just something to keep in mind. I mean, like when we go to Vegas,
- 24:40you can go wild. Like it's so hard to get arrested. Like it's so hard, right, Doug? Yeah.
- 24:45Living proof. Yeah.
- 24:49And like, what did you find personally, Petey, with street magic?
- 24:53Because you were like, in my mind, the king of street magic in Brisbane.
- 24:57You could go up to anyone, you know, get a conversation going, show them magic.
- 25:01You had your own series that you produced with Sean Murgart in Brisbane doing street magic.
- 25:07And then you go to Vietnam and I remember seeing some street magic clips and
- 25:10they looked great, but what did you, like straight away, did you have to recalibrate all your magic?
- 25:17Not even for camera, but just like when you would approach people like you would back here.
- 25:22Yeah. I mean, like you couldn't sort of just, well, I don't know if it was like that in Brisbane.
- 25:30I can't remember exactly, but here you kind of sometimes have to go,
- 25:33hey, can I show you a magic trick?
- 25:35And you kind of have to finish by saying it's free. i'm not going to charge
- 25:37you for it and then they're kind of like oh okay and then you kind of be like
- 25:41can i film it so we've had to adjust like you sort of start the shot from far away,
- 25:47if you're filming that is and then you sort of just let the camera slowly come
- 25:53in and then they kind of just accept it i guess you know what i mean so that's
- 25:58that it was that was the only thing i sort of had to deal with and then just
- 26:02vietnamese i think i think having a little bit of.
- 26:06Of if they know who you are on tv then it's easier for
- 26:08you to sort of oh hey you're that magician and then and then
- 26:12uh you could just do the trick whereas it's when
- 26:15i first started it was more like oh who are
- 26:18you oh no no i don't have any money that sort of stuff but i do do the the david
- 26:23stone technique where he has a coin and i do this in roving still and you sort
- 26:29of walk past a group and you know when they're engaged in conversation you don't
- 26:32want to just sort of go in and perform so you kind of throw a coin near their
- 26:35feet and they'll look down at it.
- 26:37And then you go, oh shit, is that yours? Did you drop this? And you just do
- 26:40a quick vanish. And they're like, oh. And then you get into your trip.
- 26:43It's a good sort of way to just break into it.
- 26:46Yeah. You know what? Someone needs to make a video of doing that so people can
- 26:50actually understand the dynamic and how that works.
- 26:53I've got the Meta Ray-Ban, so I might try that at a gig soon.
- 26:57Do you? Like it's the normal transfer. It's not the sunnies, right?
- 27:02I use the, yeah, no, the the translucent that they're
- 27:05not prescription ones yeah so i
- 27:08wear these clear ones i have i do have the the shaded ones as
- 27:11well but they know you're filming right there's a light that comes on or no yeah
- 27:14yeah and i'll tell them but but if i'm just throwing the coin like to start
- 27:18off with like that's from far away right so like i might film that but yeah
- 27:23with these for i and i always pitch this to magicians i i tell the group before
- 27:29i start filming i'll be like hey you might be wondering what these are they
- 27:32have a little GoPro in them so that.
- 27:34Later you'll be able to watch that's just how
- 27:37i you should get like a literal literally a little gopro and
- 27:40go look see there's a little gopro yeah you pluck it out i think actually now
- 27:44i do remember there's another there's another good way to approach that i've
- 27:47been doing recently and you're gonna you kind of gotta have to come up you're
- 27:51gonna be a little bit sort of abrupt and sort of like panicky so you just have
- 27:54one card and you sort of just rush and go hey guys quick quick quick,
- 27:58name a card and then they'll just they'll say
- 28:01something and if you hit it you hit it otherwise you do a
- 28:04quick top change boom that's an easy way to get in when you
- 28:07come in sort of rushed they kind of go what's what's going on here quick quick
- 28:09quick just name a card quick quick and then they kind of um ace of
- 28:12spades that's a good way to just do it wow that's
- 28:15interesting i've never heard that the rush approach yeah like
- 28:19just go in like hey guys and you let them see it and then
- 28:22someone's gonna be like and then bam interesting approach
- 28:25that's cool it's like it's like a pattern interrupt is
- 28:28what it is yeah you know i'm curious if there's any correlations between
- 28:32doing the more like tv
- 28:35style street magic versus doing street shows in a sense that like if you were
- 28:40busking you know the notion is get a mistake and a peg and a go away type of
- 28:44thing like doug i think you guys probably speak to this very well do you see
- 28:48any sort of correlations where it's like getting stop versus interrupting like it's interesting.
- 28:54Yeah, there's not really, you know, I remember when David Blaine hit the scene
- 28:59with his street magic special and all the buskers in the world went,
- 29:02that's not street magic.
- 29:03That's not how street magic works.
- 29:07But look what happened is it kind of evolved its own art form and kids around
- 29:12the world started running out into the sidewalks to perform magic for strangers.
- 29:16So it's its own thing now, capturing reactions in the wild for the public.
- 29:21But I wouldn't relate it to an official busker street performance.
- 29:27That's a more theatrical experience, I think.
- 29:31But I think one thing you've got to account for with street magic on TV is the camera is a person.
- 29:37You have to treat the camera as a audience person.
- 29:41Whereas when you see buskers, they don't have a camera. They're performing to this crowd.
- 29:46Whereas with Blaine and stuff, or Cyril, he's like, okay choose a card show
- 29:50it to them and he'll look at the camera and go show it to them as well as in
- 29:53them as in us watching we're part of it and then the thing with the camera is
- 29:59you don't want to cut away too many shots otherwise people think okay you cut
- 30:02away you could have switched decks or something like that.
- 30:05I'm thinking how cool would it be if like a big production house took a swing
- 30:08at actually capturing what it takes to be a busker you know maybe featuring
- 30:12three or four street magicians and showing the real deal I can't think of any
- 30:16show that has done that like you know,
- 30:19a day in the life of Gaza, per se, or something like that. Yeah.
- 30:23I mean, talking about a travel show, like what better way than a busker traveling
- 30:28around the world, earning the money to continue traveling and documenting that
- 30:32and showing the different locations.
- 30:34I mean, that just seems like a no-brainer in theory.
- 30:39Yeah. And if you put a few of them together, so there's some dynamic between, you know, the...
- 30:44The bros. I think the only reason that hasn't been done is because buskers are
- 30:50a free spirit and will never nail down to a schedule.
- 30:53Yeah, it's tough. If I know Jason Ma long enough.
- 30:57I have to beware on Tuesday. No thanks.
- 31:01Yeah, I also think that's where it circles back to the cultural connotations
- 31:05as well because I know in some places, some busking friends of mine have gone
- 31:09to perform and it's like illegal to ask for money because that's considered
- 31:12begging and begging is illegal and so forth.
- 31:14That's the reason why we have busking licenses here in Oz anyway.
- 31:17So there has been scenarios where it's like they've had a shows that have got
- 31:21the crap beaten out of them by authorities.
- 31:23So is there anything of that nature that could have come into play in Vietnam?
- 31:27Well, recently I was told that all the, you know, those static statute people
- 31:32that stand still, like we have that here on the walking street here too.
- 31:36And a few people that dress up as, I want to say Disney characters,
- 31:40but they look like Disney characters on crack because they're super skinny.
- 31:43They don't fill out the mickey mouse outfits some of
- 31:46those have been banned or like not allowed to do anymore i don't know if there
- 31:50has to be a license here either but i have seen the statue people with a box
- 31:54at the front and then and then you know people put money and what i've done
- 31:58is if you stand far enough from one of those statues and they're looking at you you do the cards view,
- 32:03and they break because i don't expect cards to come out of your mouth and they're
- 32:07like this and they're like, what the hell? I just saw a guy spew off cards. Done.
- 32:14Yeah, as far as I know, I don't know if there's a license required in Vietnam.
- 32:18Do you see street magicians in Vietnam? Is that a thing there?
- 32:22There was a group of young guys that set up a table.
- 32:26The walking street, it's long.
- 32:28It's like our Queen Street Mall and you'll have buskers every, I guess,
- 32:3220 meters sort of all the way down for everything
- 32:36from like a karaoke singer to a guy
- 32:40that's displaying live snakes that you can get photos with a little bit of circus
- 32:44stuff some jugglers some people with segues you can hide and then there was
- 32:47a group that did maybe four four young kids that did magic and they just rotate
- 32:54did like a five minute set each i don't know if they had any any money that,
- 32:59you could donate or whatever, but yeah, I think it was more for them to find their skills.
- 33:04Yeah. Yeah. Cool. It's content for them as well. They always film it,
- 33:09so they'll post it up. Yeah.
- 33:11So you do the travel show. It goes well, I imagine.
- 33:16And did you end up doing a season two of that? I'm just trying to remember.
- 33:20No, what happened was I think the company changed over and what I did was I signed with that same.
- 33:27Production company to do game shows so i moved on to game shows and i had a segment
- 33:32on a game show where it was different type of game shows but the one that i
- 33:36had the longest was they had celebrity guests come on split into two teams and
- 33:40i would do a magic trick and they would have to guess how it was done and they
- 33:45didn't have to guess correctly it was just whoever guessed,
- 33:48closest to a theory of how it could be done and i would just say yeah they're
- 33:53the winners i didn't have to reveal anything and then they would win the cash
- 33:56prize so i did a couple of just,
- 33:59you know ones where you sort of trick them and leading them
- 34:02into the wrong answer and and they
- 34:05wouldn't they wouldn't be able to pick it i did stuff with stripper decks
- 34:07as well and they couldn't figure it out that's
- 34:11awesome because what i remember is pd came
- 34:14back on a break between shoots and stuff and
- 34:17we caught up and when we caught up he was
- 34:20getting recognized in the restaurants we
- 34:23were at in brisbane by vietnamese people
- 34:26that recognized pete from movies he was in
- 34:29and i think that was the first time i realized i mean
- 34:32i knew you had started to do more tv over there but
- 34:35i didn't maybe realize the scale and we're sitting at lunch and this guy comes
- 34:38up and like asks his son to take a photo like a grown man like a 50 year old
- 34:42man is like son can you take a photo of me with i think he might have said your
- 34:47character name or something in vietnamese I was like, oh, damn, this is crazy.
- 34:53I wonder if that film is still, oh, if you can get on a VPN,
- 34:57like a Vietnam VPN, I guess, you can still see that film on Netflix here.
- 35:02It was the first film. But there should be an international series out,
- 35:07Vietnam's first horror short series, like six episodes, that I just did a cameo
- 35:13for like a few months back.
- 35:15Called devil's diner that should be international so if you look up
- 35:18on your netflix now and if you type in devil's diner
- 35:21if that's on there i'm like a couple
- 35:24seconds in an episode and i'm
- 35:27do a little bit of magic well not not really actually
- 35:30just i just make something disappear grab this girl's hand behind the bar and
- 35:33sort of flirt with her and i only got that role because my mate who was directing
- 35:39who did the the first film that i was in he was the one that got the approval
- 35:43to do vietnam's first international i guess netflix horror series so i came down he loves whiskey,
- 35:51devil's dino heart porridge is the one i'm in yeah oh damn okay yeah so so he
- 35:57uh he loves whiskey so i sort of sort of just came down and said hey man congratulations
- 36:01on on getting the gig and we're just sitting there i'm watching and then he
- 36:05was like pd actually i need you for something and i I was like, what?
- 36:09And he goes, can you do like just a small scene? Not tonight.
- 36:12I'm going to shoot here tomorrow.
- 36:13I just need you to flirt with the bartender because we need to make the guy
- 36:16that she's seeing jealous.
- 36:18So in that episode, you see two short scenes of me flirting with her,
- 36:23you know, making someone disappear.
- 36:24And then later I make a move on and she slaps me. Like a real slap.
- 36:29And it was like 12 takes. So I was getting slapped 12 times.
- 36:33It was because she was like, every time she slapped me, she's like,
- 36:35oh my God, Petey, I'm so sorry. And then Ham's like, Ham's the director. He goes, cut.
- 36:39She goes, Lang, stop breaking character. When you slap him, you don't say sorry.
- 36:44And she kept, when she finally got one, she laughed. And then I laughed at one. And I was like, fuck.
- 36:50So then later, he pulls me aside. He pulls me aside. There he is. He says, Petey.
- 36:55Yeah. Look at that. The boy Petey. That's what I had. I didn't even realize
- 36:59you're in Netflix. He pulls me aside. That's so cool. I'll just show this scene for a second. Yeah.
- 37:05So yeah, the bar scene. it looks like you even do some
- 37:07magic here like you look at it wipes
- 37:13the glass condensation gives it to the bartender disappears
- 37:16smooth man you did that so smooth
- 37:19i feel like that's something you used to do back in the day because that was natural
- 37:22yeah um yeah so then ham
- 37:25he pulled me aside goes pety kiss her for real because
- 37:28all he said all he said for me to do was go in and make a move
- 37:31on her and then she sort of pushes me away slaps me but because
- 37:34she couldn't get the slap and holder character he goes
- 37:37just kiss her grab her and kiss her for real so i went in bam smack on the lips
- 37:41and then she was like slap me because she couldn't believe it herself and then
- 37:44she was like what are you doing and then it was like perfect cut so i was like
- 37:51and then she goes oh my god and then he goes yes sorry thanks i made him kiss you blah blah yeah.
- 37:57Were there any thoughts when you were moving more into acting that you were
- 38:01steering maybe away from magic?
- 38:04And was that like, as an artist, a conflicting feeling or were you happy to
- 38:09go in that direction? I think so.
- 38:12I think what, like, I don't, I didn't do it full time and I was,
- 38:16I didn't have huge roles like some of the bigger A-listers here.
- 38:19I had maybe two films that I was like the main role and that's tiring.
- 38:23Like i don't know how it is in australia but in vietnam they're on a real strict
- 38:28budget so if they need to if they only have this much money they'll have to
- 38:31shoot everything in a certain amount of time they'll shoot a full movie in 45
- 38:35days whereas in hollywood it could take months,
- 38:38you know and then you've got dietitians to try and keep you in
- 38:41shape if you're going to stay the same weight class for the whole movie in
- 38:44this one it's like and you don't get trailers or anything you know you're sitting
- 38:47on little mini stools as you
- 38:50do in asia and and you're shooting through
- 38:52the night if you're shooting at hotels they've got to try and black out some some
- 38:55time slots where patrons aren't walking in and out shooting at
- 38:58four in the morning doing a breakup scene at four in the morning or whatever
- 39:01if you're shooting away i couldn't really get but even if i had like let's say
- 39:06i shot today and then it was two days later till i shot another day if i got
- 39:10a gig in those two days they wouldn't let me go because they didn't want the
- 39:13risk of me not being able to come back or something happening so that was a
- 39:18little bit off-putting and then eventually i just.
- 39:21Didn't take as many roles and then just went back into corporate magic and I
- 39:25just felt that was a bit more rewarding.
- 39:28And I just did a few cameos here and there. Yeah, it's really interesting that
- 39:32a lot of folks don't see that side of it.
- 39:34There is a movie that Jack Black did with his band, the Tenacious D movie, Pick of Destiny.
- 39:38And if you haven't seen it, or if you don't have it, I have it on DVD and you
- 39:42watch with a DVD commentary.
- 39:43They comment on how filming took over X amount of time. And they actually get
- 39:48progressively fatter and fatter throughout the movie.
- 39:52Because there's catering. And all they did was eat.
- 39:55And like in the final scenes of the movie they're just going like oh yeah we
- 39:58were really heavy in this show i put on like 60 pounds like is this whole like
- 40:01conversation but it's yeah it's one of those things to think about all right
- 40:05tell us now we're going to get to the good stuff of what you're doing now so
- 40:09on the screen people are seeing the show called the mystic night show,
- 40:14how did that start what is it and how
- 40:18does it tie into so about four
- 40:21years ago just before covid hit i did this
- 40:24thing on a platform called vibe
- 40:27g so vibe g in vietnam is kind of like master class that you see so there's
- 40:32people that go on there and teach how to make coffees and stuff like that and
- 40:35i had a very short workshop to do just basic magic and sort of confidence building
- 40:40public speaking type stuff so i was on there listed to do do that workshop and then And from there,
- 40:47I got introduced to a French Vietnamese guy who owned this art space.
- 40:53And if you've been to Vietnam, a lot of the venues, they're only five meters
- 40:57wide, but it goes like 15 meters deep.
- 41:00A lot of the housings are like that. So when I went into this room,
- 41:03I went, oh, this is kind of cool because he had it separated with these curtains.
- 41:07So it was three little rooms separated with these curtains. I'm like,
- 41:10man, this is kind of cool.
- 41:11I imagine if you can do some sort of a magic show, but people walk through.
- 41:14And at the last room is where they sit down.
- 41:17So I spoke to him and then my manager now, he's German dear and he said.
- 41:25We go, hey, can we do a show here? And he's like, yep, I welcome any show here,
- 41:30whatever you want to do, magic show, whatever, as long as there's some sort of Vietnamese culture.
- 41:34So then we sat down and thought, what can we retell that's Vietnamese?
- 41:39And then one of his stuff, the guy on the venue, he goes, hey,
- 41:43why don't you tell a fairy tale, a famous Vietnamese fairy tale, a folklore story?
- 41:48And then we sifted through countless stories, and I sat on this one story where
- 41:52I thought, man, this is kind of cool.
- 41:53The story is about this king the hung
- 41:56king who has his daughter princess minu who he
- 42:00wants to marry kind of like aladdin but he had
- 42:02to find the best suitor for his daughter so after
- 42:07calling and filtering down to two
- 42:10men who happen to be these gods a mountain god and
- 42:13the water god they come down and then they would have
- 42:16this challenge that they would have to do in order to marry the princess and
- 42:19it was to bring back three unique animals and that's the horse with nine manes
- 42:23the cockerel with nine tails and the elephant with nine tusks whoever could
- 42:27bring that back first gets to marry the princess so we curated the whole story
- 42:33based around that so when people come in.
- 42:35I would give the synopsis of the
- 42:39story at the start we split them into two teams a
- 42:42team mountain team water and they do sort of little games
- 42:45and activities to see who would
- 42:47win and marry the princess and i incorporate magic into
- 42:51all of those parts of the story like i'll reveal not reveal
- 42:54the trip but i'll reveal one part is with horse we
- 42:57printed out this sort of nine piece puzzle
- 43:00of a picture of the horse and we stood them up in the team and then we give
- 43:05them a time limit to do the puzzle and when they finish it i explained to them
- 43:10that the horse's nine main actually has premonition powers it already knew that
- 43:14you guys would win purely because it has those powers so.
- 43:19I'll prove it to you with the card tree so i
- 43:22put my hand on the horse's mane and i did the silly sort of you know
- 43:25getting the horse's power i'm going to transfer the power to me to know
- 43:28exactly what card you choose i force him a card and
- 43:31i get it wrong through a hot shot i get it wrong through a
- 43:34card change and then i go okay look what's the next animal
- 43:37let's we've got to move on see who's going to marry the prince and then my assistant
- 43:40goes hey the horse you know the
- 43:43horse can't transfer powers right that's what do you mean because the
- 43:46horse can't transfer only the horse knows and then when you flip the horse
- 43:49over the card reveal is on the other side of the horse so it's just simple things
- 43:53like that like i said like uh what i did in the workshop one simple card trick
- 43:57is dragged out into this five minute act because there's a puzzle solving involved
- 44:01in it and then some guesses wrong and then the reveal.
- 44:07So that's pretty much the whole gist of the story. So I figured the sweet spot
- 44:12for magic for me here anyways is.
- 44:17Trying to deliver it in a new way because so much stuff is on YouTube,
- 44:20so much reveals are on YouTube.
- 44:23So another way to maybe reinvent old tricks is to deliver it with an attaching story.
- 44:31And it's great. Most of our guests are tourists that come through,
- 44:35so they'll look up things to do in Ho Chi Minh City, and then we're up on the
- 44:39first top five, I guess, because our ads are working. So we spent a lot of money
- 44:43on some ads that seem to be working.
- 44:47Well, talk about that for a minute. Are you using Facebook advertising or what
- 44:51is your… Yeah, Facebook and Instagram.
- 44:55So that's where some of the content comes through. And it's just spamming for that week or two.
- 45:00I've had someone come through. And at the end of the show, when we do a little
- 45:02bit of meet and greet, I ask them, how did you find out about the show?
- 45:04They said, man, we kept seeing your ads on my show.
- 45:06It kept annoying me. So I thought I'd come and see what it's all about.
- 45:10So it kind of worked, I guess. But like you said earlier, Josh,
- 45:13in our pre-show talk, it's still hard. Like, you know, when I run Friday and
- 45:18Saturday shows, sometimes Fridays will get full.
- 45:21We can only seat 24 people max, but we average around about that 16 to 20 mile.
- 45:26And some days, some weeks we get bam, Friday, packed.
- 45:32Saturday, six people. And then when we get something like six people,
- 45:35we've got to try and we will invite maybe some free of charge guests from hotels.
- 45:40Hey, look, this is what we're doing. Maybe we can do something with you guys
- 45:43at the hotel, doing a show package or something.
- 45:44So we had to fill the seats to at least 10 just to make it a more sort of rounded
- 45:49off show but it's it's still it's not an easy to get to that sort of high selling mainstream,
- 45:56sort of shows it's not an easy task like
- 46:00you either got to keep going through your list
- 46:03hey guys have you seen the show if you haven't seen the show come see it
- 46:05again or bring a friend you know like i want
- 46:09to get to the point where i almost don't have to do that myself but it's inevitable
- 46:13you kind of have to you know i kind of have to post about it and stuff like
- 46:17that it's so smart to tie it into the culture so that you have the sort of the
- 46:23town backing you in a sense and also like like.
- 46:27I was just going to say, in Vegas, it's very similar. The hustle is real for
- 46:30some of the smaller shows working the intimate venues. You'll see them rallying
- 46:33the troops to fill some butts in seats, put some local magicians,
- 46:37giving them a call out to come to the show and so on. It's a necessary thing.
- 46:42Last year, last September, this time last year, we actually did one month at a different venue.
- 46:47That venue had 50 seats, but the only problem with that venue was,
- 46:51well, not a problem. It's just a venue with a stage.
- 46:53So people come in, they sit down straight away. so they don't get that walkthrough experience
- 46:57at our smaller venue the reason why
- 46:59we didn't continue on with that venue is because someone had
- 47:02already it's an art space so someone had already booked them out for
- 47:05every friday and saturdays for the rest of the year so i i didn't
- 47:08want to take thursdays and sundays i mean who's going to go see a magic show
- 47:11on a sunday night you know when people
- 47:14go we were in vegas maybe another magician
- 47:17yeah so we went back but i
- 47:20did recently do have a contract with this new venue it's
- 47:23sono bar and grill restaurant so they have a small boutique
- 47:27style i guess fine dining i call it fine dining
- 47:30but they like to call it elegant dining so we did a show with them where i come
- 47:36out in three parts and each of the magic tricks i do is stuff that's used in
- 47:42their dish so i'll do something with the watermelon and then something with, say for example.
- 47:49This bag shit, I can just take this out, I've got this bamboo stick shit on this little bag. Nice.
- 48:01So the old straw thing, but I've made it into bamboo because they've got bamboo in their dish. Yeah.
- 48:10That was fun to do. Yeah, so essentially you're tying whatever the thing is
- 48:15you're trying to pitch to do magic there.
- 48:17You're taking the essence of what they are to sort of get them behind it.
- 48:23And that's going to be fun too, like as a creator coming up with... It's challenging.
- 48:28Yeah. It's challenging, yeah. But I have sort of...
- 48:33I've really gotten into trying to
- 48:36somehow always incorporate a transpo in
- 48:40in the show but we do a transpo in the mystic show just a
- 48:44simple copperfield style switch but people
- 48:47don't people don't realize it and i realize that's that's
- 48:51still quite needed even in smaller close-up shows
- 48:54you sort of look at it copfield does this massive
- 48:57grand illusion show with multiple illusions and then
- 49:00we have a segment where he does some card tricks like his mcdonald aces which
- 49:03is a nice change that shows his skill there so i
- 49:06always thought why not if we are the close-up parlor style magicians
- 49:09we should at least add one big grand illusion in
- 49:12our show so to speak you know something big
- 49:15at least so in in the mystic
- 49:18show we did the switch and it's a subtle switch that's why
- 49:21i have the masks it's the only way i can sort of for a
- 49:24split second draw people's attention away from
- 49:27me being the other guy in the mask for a moment and then i'm in the other side
- 49:31of the room because your costume is like how do you describe the costume it's
- 49:35like kind of like an emperor or like a emperor actually our marketing our marketing
- 49:41team calls us sushi chefs because when you look at it we look like sushi chefs.
- 49:46We both wear the same black emperor outfit I just have the extra I have the
- 49:51extra piece on at the front and the crown,
- 49:54so that depicts that differentiates me from being the king the other guy Dale
- 49:58he has the same black outfit but he wears his mask with a different sort of
- 50:02design and he wears this other hat.
- 50:05So I have the double mask, I guess, and that hat too. So if I need to be him,
- 50:12that just goes on the top of me without wearing that king part,
- 50:15and I could be him briefly for a sweatshirt, and I could go to the back,
- 50:19and then later it's there. Oh, yes.
- 50:20I'm seeing these pictures now with the white painted masks. Yeah.
- 50:24Perfect. I only have the mask on at the start. That's it. I'll take it off later on.
- 50:29I'm the only one that takes it off. The other guy doesn't take it off.
- 50:31So no one actually knows who he is.
- 50:33Yeah. I love the intimacy of the venue, the audience watching you guys up close.
- 50:40It looks like it would just be a ball of fun.
- 50:44The website to go and check out the Mystic Night Show is in the description
- 50:49of wherever you're watching or listening to this.
- 50:51But if they're in Vietnam, if any magicians go there on holiday,
- 50:56they're just going to themysticnightshow.com to get tickets or there's a different setup over there?
- 51:03Yeah, you can just go to mysticnightshow.com. If you guys come over and make
- 51:07a trip here, if we can plan it long enough, you guys can perform too.
- 51:12I want to do a night where Mystic Night Show, because that's the brand.
- 51:15The show is Mystic Night Show, and the show that I do is called Legend of the Two Gods.
- 51:19But I want to also just have multiple different shows under that.
- 51:24So if we have a night of magic, then you guys would be more than my pleasure
- 51:27to have you guys feature on there and do a set.
- 51:30We can change the story to like, The three bald mountain gods or something.
- 51:35And it's like a different folklore. Three stooges. Three stooges.
- 51:43It could be a reveal, you know, like three old hearts kind of thing. Yeah, there you go.
- 51:50You could use like, you could build out a bald cap to be almost like a thumbtip
- 51:55working where you could hide stuff under it and, you know, conceal it.
- 51:59You take off a bald cap and you shove it silk in there. You're on to something there, Norbido.
- 52:05Yeah. I mean, all these people with hair are missing out on this opportunity,
- 52:08this real estate right here.
- 52:12That's cool.
- 52:14Yeah, so that's been the work as of recent.
- 52:18We're trying to scale it, but it's been a little bit difficult scaling it.
- 52:21We've had a second team performing it, not my show, but another team performing
- 52:26a different show under the Missing My Show.
- 52:28But we've done like three test shows and there's parts of it that I'm still not really happy about.
- 52:33And some of our guests who's come and watched it and give us the critique and
- 52:37feedback, they were saying that they didn't understand some part.
- 52:41So we're still at the drawing board for that other magician.
- 52:44But that's the idea. I want Mystic Night Show to constantly just be running.
- 52:49So then sometimes if I have corporate bookings on Fridays, Saturdays, I don't have to.
- 52:53It can be run. Like how you guys have Fear of Magic, and it's always running
- 52:57regardless of you guys being there or not.
- 52:59Yeah. That's the hard part. That's the dream, right?
- 53:02Yeah. Is the show performed in Vietnamese? I mean, if you have distributions, it's English.
- 53:07I should do one in Vietnamese. Is that a common language in Vietnam?
- 53:12English? English? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, because most of our guests are tourists,
- 53:18that's why we have it in English.
- 53:20Cool. But I should probably do a Vietnamese option because then that will open it up.
- 53:26The TV specials you did were in Vietnamese. Yeah. My Vietnamese back then was shithouse.
- 53:37So it's interesting. The people that know you from doing magic locally would
- 53:41have seen you been doing it in Vietnamese.
- 53:44So, yeah, maybe there's a split show option.
- 53:47Well, some of those people who see me now, they're like, hey,
- 53:49your Vietnamese improved.
- 53:51Right, right. Yeah, because now it's every day. Every day for you.
- 53:56Yeah. Well, actually, I still speak a lot of English, so, yeah.
- 53:59Well, most of my friends here are Aussies as well, so.
- 54:02Gotcha. We're wrapping up shortly, but we normally do a segment called gig stories.
- 54:08And I'm wondering if you have any stories up your sleeve that have happened
- 54:13in your career that are notable of funny moment or like just wild.
- 54:18Did I tell you the slush powder one? I think I did tell you the slush powder one.
- 54:22I don't think Nick knows. Go on. Great. Let's go into that segment.
- 54:27So gig stories is a section of the show where we talk about moments of magic,
- 54:30either while performing live on national television or
- 54:34mishaps with slush powder starting with the
- 54:36story from pd what happened so i
- 54:39did this wedding with dr rhythm he's a beatboxer so
- 54:43our show was called the magic box like street magic plus beatboxing it
- 54:46was a magic box and we had this box with just stuff that
- 54:49we had in it that we would use so at the wedding i did a
- 54:51trick with the bride and groom using slush powder so you'd
- 54:55invite a bride and groom up and i'd ask who wants to sit
- 54:58in the hot seat so at that time the grooms i'll sit there so obviously
- 55:02one cup has a slush powder in it i pour water in it
- 55:04and then i tell the girl to stand next to
- 55:07her next to her husband i'm standing here and i'll
- 55:10say look love is about trust loyalty so
- 55:13you have to trust me on this one you have to trust each other so we
- 55:16do the whole 360 turn and i drink mine in
- 55:20in her while her back's turn and everyone sees it the husband sees
- 55:23it but they you know they all stay quiet and then i'll say it's all about
- 55:25trust you love each other everything will be okay so i walk over to him and
- 55:30i tip my cup over and obviously nothing comes out it's because i drank my water
- 55:34and then she's there going oh no oh really do i have to do it do i have to do
- 55:38it and then i was like you have to do it but before she before i could do anything
- 55:42else she goes actually can i just splash it on his face.
- 55:46And I was like, what? And then she went like this, but she did it hard enough
- 55:49that the slush card, the gel came out, hit him in the face, and it just crumbled in pieces down.
- 55:56And me and Dr. Rhythm, we're looking at each other, and then we look at the
- 56:00audience, and I kind of just went, oh, my God, the water turned to gel.
- 56:04And everyone went, oh, wow. And they just started coughing.
- 56:09So that was like the weirdest moment. So ever since then, when we've done that trick, Dr.
- 56:15Rhythm comes over and he'll hold the cup and help them pour it in case we get
- 56:18any more of those mishaps.
- 56:20Hang on. If we dissect that for a second, she was fully prepared to just douse
- 56:25her now husband in water. Yes.
- 56:29Yeah. So that was unexpected. There was no way I could control it because she
- 56:34was like, can I just splash him? And then she immediately just went bam.
- 56:38She probably thought it would be funny if he got wet or something.
- 56:42For the video or yeah for the for
- 56:45the bit i have a little gig story here i want to shout out someone you know
- 56:50i work in a magic shop here in las vegas i get to see lots of cool folks this
- 56:53week i saw that rudy kobe was in the shop bizarro joseph abriel but look who
- 57:00else was in the shop this was a highlight for me see if you recognize this young man,
- 57:06Did you have price? That is Aiden Moore, your current champion of the youth
- 57:11champion for the Melbourne Magic Festival. Wow.
- 57:15It is. Yeah, he was. Yeah.
- 57:18Dude, this kid is amazing. His skills with a deck of cards are freaking unbelievable.
- 57:23And hey, Aiden, I hope you're watching. You said you were a fan,
- 57:27and I hope you see this later. It was so good to see you this week.
- 57:31And freak, man. Your card skills are crazy good. How old is he? Right.
- 57:3618 is he that old or not even that he's a
- 57:39junior champion right you guys i told him
- 57:43to stay in touch because like i'm gonna put that kid to
- 57:46work he's no doubt he's so well
- 57:49spoken he is he's gonna be something great yeah he says he's a fan of the magic
- 57:54guys i hope you see this episode aiden so nice to meet you and y'all go find
- 57:58him on the social medias check out his cardistry videos he'll blow your mind
- 58:02yeah we're gonna have to get him on the pod that's just gonna happen and aiden come on up.
- 58:09It is wild seeing the yeah the new generations 100% and we also,
- 58:15go for it yeah I was just going to say a question if you
- 58:18took the new generation today and brought them back in the time that we learned
- 58:23through books and VHS do you think that they would learn as quick as they would
- 58:28today back then because I feel video instructions are too because here's the
- 58:33thing I was that kid I was that kid learning from books as fast as I could.
- 58:38And when you're on page three of Sybil and you have to turn the page, it's a speed bump.
- 58:45It's a hard road to hoe without the internet and YouTube.
- 58:49Yeah, but the creativity and originality on your patter, your patter would be
- 58:54more original because you're not sort of, you're having to just create that
- 58:58yourself, I think is the advantage. That's right. What we went through.
- 59:02That's true. That's why we're all so good. Oh, wait, you guys are the internet
- 59:06generation. Never mind.
- 59:09We've got a friend from Australia, our friend David. He's going to be in Vietnam
- 59:12in a few weeks. He said his hotel is right near your venue. Look at that.
- 59:17The podcast officially sold you at least one ticket, Petey. I'll do a shout out on the show.
- 59:23Yeah, David, we got to see that selfie of you two actually making it there.
- 59:29That's going to be awesome.
- 59:30And I also want to quickly shout out our friend in the chat,
- 59:34Herbert, who donated $5 Australian dollars to the show.
- 59:39Is that an equal split? That is. It sucks for Doug because he's in the US.
- 59:45So that will convert after the paypal fee
- 59:48to about 32 cents yeah that's 5.8
- 59:52is it oddly enough that makes my net worth 32
- 59:55cents hell yeah no we we
- 59:58appreciate you hovid that's that's so cool we're going to find a
- 1:00:02good use of these donations at some point instead
- 1:00:05of just a beer but look this has
- 1:00:08been awesome third time i can't wait
- 1:00:11for the fourth time we have pd on when we just talk
- 1:00:14about the future success or maybe eventually when we do
- 1:00:16get to do a guest spot at the mystic night show that would be awesome go
- 1:00:21and check out his show check out his socials they're
- 1:00:24all linked below they're tagged right now on instagram as
- 1:00:27well but look we're gonna leave and finish
- 1:00:30our episode in the way that we always do which is by giving
- 1:00:33our guest the final word what's up
- 1:00:38guys and viewers magic guys my final word
- 1:00:41for you is when someone asked me should
- 1:00:44i take up performing or be an artist as
- 1:00:47or a magician whatever i jokingly said no
- 1:00:50it's it's it's it's a lot of agony is a lot of struggle but honestly i'll tell
- 1:00:57you this if you stick to it and it's it's passionate it's in your drive to to
- 1:01:03want to perform i promise you if you stick to it and go the hard yards,
- 1:01:07it's very, very rewarding.
- 1:01:09And that's all I got to say. Stick to it.
- 1:01:15Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now. Disappear now.
- 1:01:20But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.