Latest / The Magic Guys / Wes Barker: Selling Out Theaters, Viral Clips & Experimenting On Stage #255

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Wes Barker: Selling Out Theaters, Viral Clips & Experimenting On Stage #255 · The Magic Guys

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They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 255 of the Magic Guys.
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Oh, it's a good day today.
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Next to me, I've got Doug Kahn. What's up, Norbedo? How you doing? How about the internet?
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Yes, it's good to be here. Thank you for... You're in the shop today,
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right? I am holding down the fort on a Monday at Trick Supply in Las Vegas.
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Yes. So feel free to go there in person and take him some food.
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I mean, come interrupt me so Josh can have all the fun with our amazing guest today.
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Yeah. Now, in 60 seconds, we're going to jump to our guest. But before we do,
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my dog is going to interrupt me.
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But also, last week, we had Tobias Beckwith, amazing, amazing,
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amazing guy, amazing interview.
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Managed oh my god my dogs are just professionalism i respect absolutely wow
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we're gonna all right that's it guys that's the magic guys we'll see you later,
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anyway we're gonna do a giveaway we promised we'd do a giveaway from the book
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and for his book and i have in here everyone commented on instagram we're gonna
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pick a random person i'm just gonna to scroll,
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I'm going to open my Magic Force app, and I'm going to scroll,
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and we're going to go with,
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The fun in life, at the fun in life, commented Wanda. You have won,
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my friend. I'm going to screenshot that.
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We're going to hit you up on the Instagram.
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We're going to get the Wired for Wonder book out to you, my friend.
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It's going to be awesome.
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All right, we have a fun guest. Now, this is actually, I'm so happy he's here,
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and it is not his first time joining us, so this is even cooler.
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This guy, I mean, you've seen him everywhere. You know, he has Guinness Book of Records.
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Magic's most creative stunt performer, known for blending sleight of hand with comedy and stunts.
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You've seen him fool Penn and Teller. He starred in Big Trick Energy.
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And honestly, he continues to push the modern magic, the view of what we see
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as modern magic. He's pushing it on stage and on the screen.
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We're going to talk all about it. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, it is... Wesbocker!
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It doesn't matter. If he doesn't, it's 10 grand. If he doesn't have it,
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he can fucking hire Eric Leclerc. I don't care.
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It doesn't have it. All right, Wes. Oh, that was true. Hey, sorry, guys.
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I love it. Wes, how are you doing, my friend?
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I'm doing good. I mean, it's, you know, 7 p.m. where I am. I've had a wonderful
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day just in the snow and sun.
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It's been a beautiful day in Canada right now. I'm chilling today.
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Yeah. Wow. that well that's a nice contrast we got
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some brain over here but it doesn't matter
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first things first this is really important eric is asking
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what is the world record for eric knows
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that i don't know this that's why he's asking something oh really
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i don't know it's on the wall i have to read every time
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it's the longest online video chain of people
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performing a magic trick okay that
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counts yeah i tried to set a very cool record years
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ago and we couldn't do it so then this time we just set a
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whatever record just to get one on the wall but yeah so you
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can add the logo to the website but so is a series
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of magicians doing one trick past the trick
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yeah is that what it was 274 magicians
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to like basically do like a a color change and then
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hand it off and then the other person that does it hands
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it off so it's just that and we four
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of us got the record but like kind of
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everybody he deserves the record i mean we did we just spearheaded it and it
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was mostly chris ramsey so you know just cool yeah true true well look you have
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a hundred percent more world records than i have so not for long i can find
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275 guys in vegas alone to beat that schmuck of a record that's,
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274 you think well we'll see have you seen the magicians in vegas that's a slow
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tuesday for us yeah but they have to be able to successfully perform a color
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change i've seen the magicians Well, we can lower that number down considerably.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. True. I mean, look, getting 10 magicians to work together is, is, is a lot.
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275 is crazy. I mean, it was just a, it was a publicity stunt for our TV show.
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I'm happy to have it because I tried years ago to do like the fireman carry
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and do the fastest mile while carrying someone on my shoulder.
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And it was a horrible, you know, it wasn't a horrible disaster,
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but like I didn't make it.
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I had hundreds of people come out to watch and TV cameras. It was a whole thing.
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And then, you know, to fall down a hundred meters from the finish line.
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I'm wondering what the prep is on that. I, you know, my buddy,
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Kevin, I carried him every day for six months over my shoulder.
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That's all the, that's that it. He was permanently bruised down the size of
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his body. And I was like, you actually did like the workout.
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I lost 30 pounds. I was working on it every day. I was going hard for it.
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I was like all about this record.
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And I really thought I'd get it. I, oh man, I was on pace, baby.
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But I met my wife that night. like that she asked me out after
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serendipitous wow so it was all worth it
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i was thinking the preparation might
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be like drink a case of beer and go for it you know and and my partner who i
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was carrying was uh actively always trying to tell me to stop drinking beer
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while i was training for this and i was like well no surprise it fuels me have
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you ever never seen popeye that's not spinach in there dude that's not spinach yeah.
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Go juice. Yes. I'm seeing you everywhere online and I love it.
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I love it. I'm seeing you like clips from when you're on TV.
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I'm seeing clips with you and your wife. I'm seeing you on stage.
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Like what is going on these days in the Wes Barker world? When you were last
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on, I think you were promoting your Abraka Dumbass book.
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Yeah. But, you know, that was like, that was a few years ago now.
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What's the latest Wes Barker going on?
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I have been actively doing like a ton of shows. I've been like,
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you know, small theaters, sort of that three to 500 range theater or like comedy
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clubs and just touring nonstop.
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I've really found like I make sure to post every day on social media like like
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a good boy, like everybody, you know, and and and the tickets are just moving, man.
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This is like I feel like I've turned a corner in a lot of ways for that, like shows are amazing.
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Most shows would be like you know they'd sell okay and then
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on the day of you still have 20 tickets left you're trying
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to hustle them or whatever but like now i'm i'm the last five
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shows i did sold out like weeks in advance and i'm like oh wow that is like
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such a turning point so that venues are calling you want to add a show and i'm
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like no for once in my life i want to live in the knowledge that it's sold out
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and i don't want to add shows and feel like i'm hustling again And I'm like,
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holy crap, you know how rare this is to feel like there's a show in three weeks and we're good?
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What? I just like, oh, that's like, I've really been, I don't know if it's the social media.
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It must be. It must be. I don't know if it's that hustle or whatever,
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but I really feel like that's what it is.
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So my live show is my, my sole focus right now.
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I have no, no TV prospects on the, on the horizon or anything.
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And my social media has just basically become me posting clips from live shows.
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So really the whole focus is
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the uh the the live act right now and i'm just loving
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it man i've never been so far enough about it
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i've been on all kinds of stages and i've been making myself available
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to do like you know guest spots or
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drop-in sets and i've just really been trying to be out there and and anytime
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i can get an audience to look at me i'll go on stage and
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dude i i got no problem saying like that's winning
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man booking small theaters on your
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own doing your own deal yeah it
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really does it feels like i'm like i'm like can i do
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this for the next 30 years i don't know like i don't know what the what the
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next i should write a goal down that i want you know like i mean i would like
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a netflix special or something at some point i want to be you know like willman's
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got that dialed down he's he's he's the he's the goat right now so i would love
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to i would love to see one streaming platform or another expand to be like.
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Like, look at Justin Wilman, look how good this is. And maybe some other,
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you know, be like, let's buy 10 more of these. That's what I would hope would happen soon.
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Well, I think, I think modern, the modern audience is starting to understand
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what magic can be besides put a woman in a box.
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So as, as that is becoming the norm, then we get more shots maybe.
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Absolutely. And I actually just saw Justin Wilman show live the other day.
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He came near Toronto. so i went out and hung out and
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uh he's almost it looks good like i
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don't know if he has another deal in place but if he said if he it's tomorrow
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he was gonna shoot another special i wouldn't be surprised like it's it's that
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good and i just want i'm like i can't a guy like that i'm like i'm so happy
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he's the one leading the charge because it does leave a good taste in everybody's
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mouth you know you can't stumble across that special and not be like why can't i watch a.
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So i really want to be the next thing for magic you
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know it's awesome too i mean there's so much i could talk about
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just then like it's amazing you have that that machine working
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in your favor now that you've created and is and
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is going and it's like you have that beautiful moment
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right now which i've heard the comedian fluffy talk about
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where it's better to not add a show and then people in
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that city are like oh did you see the west barker show and they're like
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no i couldn't get tickets so yeah the next the next
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time they're like straight away gonna buy them but
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also the great thing i really respected about
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wilman's special is you watch it and it's all stuff that
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like you could watch live like it's not yes
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ridiculous stuff that couldn't be repeated by anyone so like it's setting a
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good expectation for like entertaining comedy and magic that like can be seen
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if you go to one of your shows or one of your shows you'll you know what i mean
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He was able to make it entertaining without it being...
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I don't want to say any other TV magician's names, but like,
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it's not like, you know, everyone in the crowd's vanishing and like someone's head.
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I don't know. You know what I mean? Like it's not. Yeah, it is very much.
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We just filmed the live experience for you. We didn't do anything special.
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We just filmed the live experience.
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Like you'd watch a standup comedy special. That's what we did. And here you went.
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And like, I think that's, yeah, that's that for me, I've been dying on this
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for a couple of years now. And I'm certain I'm right. I just don't know when I'll be right.
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But this is the thing. it's good this is gonna floodgates gonna burst open
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they're gonna want a bunch more specials like this so i'm
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really excited that's the next vibe because the
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yeah watching magic on the street isn't really a thing
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you know people don't want to see that anymore right so i think this is the
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new move and just seeing the faces i'm touring canada in the states exclusively
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and it's very like 50 50 and i'm every weekend i'm somewhere else and man they're
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hungry for it and like the Tickets are flying because I think it's magic's easy to sell.
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Even, you know, even the way I do it, it's still easy to sell.
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Do you, do you approach a market with social media?
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Like, do you target the location with social media when you're appearing,
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say, at a small theater in a town?
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I don't really know. I mostly, the real behind the scenes here is I will Google,
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like I think secondary cities are, when you're not famous, are your bread and butter.
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So don't try to do a show in New York. Try and do a show in, you know.
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Like a prime example is last year I went to Chicago to do a show.
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And I, man, I lost my shirt. Like I couldn't sell tickets to Chicago.
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50 tickets, hard to sell. It was tough. and i
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go 40 minutes north of chicago to liberty bill and i
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sold 400 tickets right like easy the
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show sold out like bam right and it's like well if
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you're not a famous guy don't try and compete with taylor swift
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and bad bunny because they're going to go to chicago too you know
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what i mean like go to the suburb and you
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will clean up and that's what i've been like you know
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and i i know my my stock's
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rising i i i really hope and i see
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it soon i'll be able to go to chicago and sell 2000 seats i
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really do believe it but right now i'm like if you
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need to have a full theater then just just find
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a city and then aim at 45 minutes away do
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you use like any targeted advertising at all
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for these events yeah i'm using oh yeah i'm meta ads facebook
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ads guy but like not just the boost your post bullshit like i've taken the time
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i'm learning i'm hiring people sometimes i'm really digging into it it's it's
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been a lot you know it's that business part of show business where I'm very
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much a guy that gets up at 7.30 every day.
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So there's no shows at 7.30 in the morning. So I'm lucky enough to do this full
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time. So I treat it like a job.
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I, you know, a little Jerry Seinfeld in me, right?
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And I just get up and just do these boring ass things, which is watch 40 hours
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of how-to videos to make meta ads work for you, you know? And it's important.
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And that way you feel like you earned your pint at 2.30 or whatever time people
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get off work. Is it 2.30? It's 1.30.
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12 noon beers at noon work yeah
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meta is such an interesting place something that i just recently learned because
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i helped do a lot of facebook ads for my partner's online store and like facebook
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just added a new button which is when you're doing a facebook ad not like and it makes you
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know it makes you click the objective of your ad like do
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you want it to be people to you want to lots of views do
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you want to gain follows from this ad you know do you want people to comment
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you and so yeah you pick your interests and things like for example for us like
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people who like magic or you know live in that city and watch a certain special
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but then now there's actually a target called like.
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Target people who are likely to buy this product or buy a ticket.
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Like you can literally click. That's the objective now.
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And Facebook is becoming so smart. Like if the content is good and you set that up right.
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I mean, obviously your show has to be great, which it sounds like it is.
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But it's phenomenal how much we really should take the time to learn as much as we can about this.
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I tell you if your goal is to sell tickets or have bible videos either one of these things.
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There's one thing you have to pay attention to the most and it's the hardest thing
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to pay attention to is whenever you're on your phone you're ever
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you're watching something you have to every now and then be like
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hey why the fuck am i watching this it works
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for ads and bible videos why did i
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start watching this why am i watching a guy
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build a shed or something whatever the whatever it
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is and if you can grab yourself and and
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and reverse engineer stop the video go back to the beginning figure out
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why you stopped all of a sudden the ads
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you're making to sell your shows or if you're trying to get viral videos all
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of a sudden you're going to learn why and how and then you can emulate that
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because i just roll all the time and it's like once a week i remember to be
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like wait wait how to start how to get here and you have to backtrack those
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steps and you'll be amazed because whatever got you in, whatever hooked you in,
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you got to find out like that formula and you just got to replicate it later.
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And that'll get you viral videos or really good working ads.
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Those all lead to ticket sales or money on the internet, whatever you're looking for.
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I mean, look, let's not pretend it's all Facebook.
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It's really, the reason you're really selling tickets obviously is Kill Tony.
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I mean, Kill Tony must be like, obviously you're on my show and now you're going to sell out forever.
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Wait, it wasn't the Magic Guy's appearance that did it?
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I'll sell six or ten tickets a night just on Kill Tony for sure.
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You'll yeah you'll sell you'll sell three more books
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from this podcast so you know is your book
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still available west well just like the paperback
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like the layman copy not the the magician version sold
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out right out of the gate but yeah like i still have paperbacks going to be
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available forever it's amazon westbarby.shop audible i think audible is the
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best i mean i read it it's so fun oh good tip and then i know that way took
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me three years to write the book So by the time I read it, I was like, oh, yeah.
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And then I was like telling side stories in the in the audio book just because I remember stuff.
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I was like, oh, no way. And I just tell like this like weird, you know, I don't know.
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I love audio books. I do, too. I didn't know your book was there.
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I'll be using one of my audible credits later tonight and listening to your soothing voice.
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You know, it's really bad. I had Chris Ramsey do the foreword for it.
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And uh he's got a silkier voice and a
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nicer mic so it really cuts in nice he starts
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off the book with a beautiful thing you're about to hear and then
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i jumped in and i was like it's like watching it
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really emasculated myself i didn't like it
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but an awesome mistake i made i was gonna skip that jerk anyway
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i don't care for lamsay too much you know so it doesn't matter oh
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okay good yeah you can skip the forward then that's fine no chris
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is the g man he's the best he's uh killing now with the
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uh alien stuff he's all into aliens now are y'all still doing
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the podcast too you do the uh we stopped about
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a year and a half ago has it been that wrong yeah we
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did three full years of it and then we finally hung it up and since then he
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did his other podcasts about conspiracy theories and aliens and remote viewing
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and all this investigations and that has just taken over life of its own he's
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in a whole new world now i still see him you know every month i go hang out
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and we're still talking every day,
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but he's very much outside of magic now and he's on this whole new...
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That guy's reinvented himself so many times. I love that. People should learn...
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People should take a page out of that book, you know, it's just like,
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he's really good at finding niches and then just be like, oh,
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I'll just do that better than everyone in that niche.
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You know, he did it with puzzles and he did what he's doing.
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Well, I mean, at the end of the day, he knows how to make good content, right?
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So with that as the backbone, you can pivot and do other, you know,
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projects with that, you know. Totally. Yeah, for sure.
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Yeah. RIP, Bob. Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it. Yeah. I mean,
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I have a question about that, like putting so much time and effort over years
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into Bottom of the Barrel podcast,
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like on a serious note, how do you deal with or decide to end it?
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I've been trying to figure that out for about two years now.
19:05
Jesus Christ with this thing.
19:08
Yeah, like, okay, the Magic Guy is a good example. I love doing it.
19:11
But like, I don't actually know how I would stop it, even if I wanted to,
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because people tune in every week and even more so on your point of view.
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Like, how do you actually emotionally do
19:23
that it was it was bad i still get people
19:26
coming to shows all the time they're like oh yeah from the podcast
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i miss it blah blah for us it was easier because we refused to do it remotely
19:34
like you guys are doing we were like you have to do this in person and then
19:39
that created a huge burden i'd have to go to montreal from toronto twice a month
19:44
and shoot a couple podcasts,
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and then you know so we have 10,000 or 15,000 people watching we're like it's
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only making a couple grand a month and the cost of having our editor plus me coming in twice a month.
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It was kind of a wash always, you know? Yeah. So like, and then once we hit
20:05
that, we're like, hey, we're breaking even.
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Then you're breaking even and you go on two years and you're like, oh, this is a plateau.
20:10
We haven't punched up from this. So it really quickly became like,
20:14
I'm dying because I'm running around trying to come over all the time.
20:17
And we're just, you know, we're working so hard just to spend more money.
20:22
Like it was kind of easy. It was a very financial and stress-based decision at the end of the day.
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It was really easy to be like, if we were doing it like you guys are doing
20:30
it where it's like you're handling your own
20:33
editing i think and you're you're not having to go meet each other
20:36
and you can just like turn on the computers and have a good discussion that
20:39
would have been smarter but we also would never have been able to walk away from
20:42
it because it would have just been it's hard
20:45
right but like it being so inconvenient for me
20:47
was actually helpful in leaving it's like okay yeah
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yeah there was so much friction and you could see what would happen
20:53
how much time you'd have if you didn't switch it off okay
20:56
i just want to do other things right like
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it's so uh it's fun to it's fun to like have
21:02
chapters in your life then you close them and you go all right and you
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know maybe i'll do another podcast at some point maybe my wife i will start
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one but uh i don't know i miss i moved to freaking las vegas in my mid 50s i
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said i'm doing this now i'm done doing another thing yeah i love that and that
21:19
i thought that wasn't because of the felonies you didn't have to leave the state
21:22
i mean you know we're under napoleonic McLaw in New Orleans,
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so I could get by with shit, but I'm taking the fifth.
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I'm doubly impressed now. I kind of considered when you're doing Bottom of the
21:34
Barrel, that would be a good resource to sell tickets to theaters.
21:37
I'm sure it kind of moved the needle there, right?
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Huge. Podcast fans are the best fans.
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Yeah but having success without that shows just how killer you're doing right
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now man so yeah i really do appreciate that i and i'm really uh i found the
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key for me online it has been,
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reposting you know if it's older than like three or four months post it again
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so i'm able to post every day like i just had a couple videos i probably had
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three videos in the last 30 days do,
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over five or 10 million views each because uh
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and they're 10 years ago they're just wow i gave
22:15
an editor old hard drive that i did not
22:18
want to ever look at ever again because i've seen it too much like these are
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shows from five plus years ago and i'm like go through it and mine it and he
22:26
said okay and he's just been coming back with these clips that i'm like sure
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man put them up i don't know who cares and and they've been doing really well
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and uh you know comments like wow fuck what you're looking good.
22:36
What's your diet program?
22:39
I travel a bitch. Your skin looks great.
22:45
I think reposting is an overlooked thing.
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People think they're going to bother your fans and followers.
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You're not going to bother them because the algorithms are designed to not...
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Imagine I uploaded the exact same video right now, say on Instagram.
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I did it 40 times right now. Same video.
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Instagram, their algorithm is prioritized to not show that to the same people.
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Because if they showed it to the same people, those people would go,
23:13
this app sucks, and they'd leave the app.
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So the AI that runs that thing will try and find a new audience.
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Because it's not going to let you, it's not going to let itself suck as an app.
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So when you repost stuff, it knows that video has been out there before.
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So it's trying to find you more people. because if we
23:33
all know if you if you saw the same video like five times you'd
23:36
be like what the fuck and you get the hell out of there so it really is you
23:39
can't overload it enough at least for now it's a wild west and the internet
23:42
still so i'd say just dump as much stuff as you want up there let the ai figure
23:47
it out and it will and that's what's working out and especially on instagram
23:50
where you have trial reels now too oh eric leclerc you son of a i will fight you so hard back when he.
23:58
Oh sips a drink good times
24:01
well you know eric is now a tooth fairy so you know exactly we're all changing
24:07
we're all going through changes speaking of which you are you're you're hitting
24:10
the big 4-0 this year yeah yeah as a magician talk about it how does it feel i i mean i'm in my prime.
24:21
That's how you should feel I really do feel like it's a good time for entertainers
24:28
in general especially I would say comedians and magicians I think,
24:33
you're only getting better, you know, like as long as you're staying physically
24:36
able, like you're crushing it.
24:39
Right. And like, I think you're, you're going to hit your peaks in your forties,
24:42
you know, even like everyone's like, even your fifties, geez,
24:46
I mean, there's no end to how, how long it can last.
24:49
I'm like, I'm looking forward to it. I really think this is like my,
24:52
my vibe for sure right now.
24:53
I, I, I think twenties is for messing around thirties is for getting good at
24:57
something in forties and up is making money and, and, and hitting your peaks.
25:00
So i encourage people to make so many
25:03
more weird choices when they're younger and and don't
25:06
worry about it you have a long runway you don't have to be a smash success by
25:10
the time you're 27 like who cares like it yeah i'm looking forward to it i really
25:14
feel good about everything i'm doing right now so and i just like all the all
25:18
the friends and comedians and and magicians i know i i don't even see it tapering
25:23
off like i have friends that are just murdering and there's no age doesn't seem to matter.
25:28
If we were all supermodels, yeah, you got to time them. You expire, I'm sure.
25:33
We do tricks and jokes, man. It doesn't matter. Go as long as you want. It feels good.
25:40
That's so good. I mean, Penn and Teller, Copperfield, they're all testaments to that.
25:46
Because when I was younger, I would think, oh yeah, I'm doing roving gigs now.
25:51
I'm 19, but surely I can't be rocking up to parties and roving when I'm like
25:56
in my 30s. That's what I thought.
25:58
But then I realized, oh no, actually I get better the more I,
26:02
like as long as I'm trying to improve and working on stuff, I'm getting better
26:05
every year and more people want to book me. This is actually...
26:08
And now I'm getting closer to the age of the people that are at these events. So I can actually.
26:14
And people in general want their magicians, I think, to be older than they are.
26:18
You know, it's not as much fun to be fooled, fooled by a young wise guy.
26:23
You know, you can definitely. Yeah.
26:26
As long as you're aware of it, you can definitely benefit from from that for sure.
26:31
Oh my god like when i do colleges now i
26:35
know that i'm 39 and i know i feel how
26:38
i feel and i'm good but like if i'm
26:41
gonna drink a beer off my forehead for college kids
26:44
it's insane i'm an old man doing
26:48
this like weird physical thing they can't imagine
26:51
being 39 you know what i mean like they're devastated by the
26:54
concept i've angered them saying it out loud man so
26:57
you know when you drink a beer off your forehead in front of these 19 year olds
27:00
they i wouldn't i wouldn't i've performed
27:03
that trick way differently for them than i would for a
27:06
corporate event right because i'm probably younger than most of
27:08
the corporate people this show and they still love it because
27:11
now they're watching someone in there like the spry youth on stage at 40 years
27:16
old doing this trick they love it but then the college kids are like look at
27:20
this old man do it it's you wouldn't win you can't lose so i think it's important
27:25
wow i didn't even think of that yeah oh dude you're gonna run right Like I said
27:29
before, you're doing backflips and stuff. You're never going to stop.
27:31
You're going to be a crazy 60-year-old dude doing backflips.
27:34
It'd be awesome. Can't wait. Yeah, true.
27:37
I wonder when your last backflip will be.
27:39
It's going to be a time. One day. Look, I mean, touch wood.
27:44
I've never had an issue on stage, but I guess the day that I over-rotate and
27:48
fly off the stage or fall through the stage, God forbid, or whatever,
27:52
that'll probably be the last day.
27:53
I remember helping a famous magician in Australia here, Raymond Crowe toured
27:59
the world with the illusionist he does an effect where he ends up pretty high in the air.
28:04
Doing this kind of stretching himself effect yeah and he's
28:08
way up there he's like two stories up and and he told
28:10
me he's like yeah the day that i fall will be
28:13
the last day i do this this routine but it's not
28:16
today and fair enough yeah i like
28:19
that mentality i think so yeah right i
28:22
would also stop doing it if i came up with a better act that i
28:25
didn't need to do it in like i'm not a thick
28:28
i'm not fixed to doing backflips it's just it happens to be
28:31
a good energetic bit for on stage how i'm
28:34
open to not doing it how are you with your stage stuff
28:37
as far as like are you trying to
28:41
just hone in on like an hour of material you
28:44
love are you trying to turn it over are you
28:47
like you're like this is the tricks i'm doing and trying to lock that in and
28:50
get really good at it are you trying to like always add what are you up to over
28:53
there for me man i currently i'm trying new stuff in my show like right now
29:00
i'm doing a lot of parlor shows with the theater of magic which is where we
29:03
had Eric come in and do a show and by God,
29:06
one day we'll have Wes Barker in Australia and it will be the best thing ever.
29:10
But I'm always trying new stuff, but I'm also a part of me is a little bit jaded
29:16
by social media because I know why would I want to work on the same show forever
29:20
to never have any different content to post is a weird thing.
29:24
So I'm, I'm literally trying a segment in my show right now,
29:28
which is asking the audience to give me anything that they have brought with
29:32
them like an obscure object or whatever.
29:35
Put it under this box while I leave the room. And when they come back,
29:39
I start my routine and then I insert whatever object and now I perform with it.
29:43
I just started doing it last week. And I got to tell you, it's been interesting.
29:48
But for me, that means every show now will have a segment that could be used
29:53
as content every week, you know?
29:56
But it's also getting me, it's also like flexing this muscle in me that's like
30:00
getting used to doing stuff again.
30:02
I wouldn't think to do like rope magic with someone's shoelaces or whatever.
30:07
And yeah, so I'm always trying to do new stuff. That's cool.
30:11
That's all order. You're putting it, that's stress-inducing.
30:16
I like that. That's fun. Wow.
30:17
It is stress-inducing, yeah. But eventually you get so used to it.
30:22
You're like, oh yeah, someone's giving me an earring again or whatever.
30:25
Because for the last two years, I've been doing this challenge,
30:28
which is what I post on Instagram most of the time, which is name any card and
30:31
tell me any way you want me to find it.
30:33
And that used to be stress inducing but i
30:36
gotta be honest now i've done it so much i'm
30:39
just so used to what people say that it's not
30:42
interesting to me now so now i'm trying
30:45
now i'm at the point where i'm like just give me any object so
30:48
it's awesome bro i think long term and i'll
30:51
stop talking about me after this sentence i think long term i think
30:54
i would love to do a show which is like an improv one
30:58
hour of yeah just like chaos that
31:01
is only seen once and then it's a
31:04
new set of chaos because of the audience's
31:07
input i think that would be ideal for me because then it's always fun and different
31:12
and fresh yeah that would be oh that'd be great you should one day one day when
31:20
i yeah and i won't do backflips probably i won't have to do backflips then You
31:24
won't have to, you know, speak for yourself.
31:27
But yeah, hitting 40 and being in your prime, I think, and we were talking off
31:32
air, like you look at any great standup comic, they're all like...
31:36
Over 50 like the great you know touring and
31:39
doing massive arenas and and theaters and stuff and
31:42
so when you look at it from that point of view we're just bloody getting
31:46
started yeah oh i i agree and i just uh i don't know i don't even know what
31:50
to i end up just hanging out with comics mostly just because i don't know where
31:54
all the magicians are hiding on any given night and the comedians they're in
31:59
las vegas let me tell you okay they all live here it's like i you know on any given at night,
32:05
I'm like, oh, I want to try this new trick, and I just go to the coffee club,
32:08
and I just let me go and do it.
32:09
And I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have that outlet.
32:12
So most of my friends are comedians, and a few are magicians,
32:17
and the other one is Eric LeClaire.
32:19
And he's kind of neither really. And then the... And then you get good feedback
32:24
from the comedians, right?
32:25
Unlike the magicians who are just going to tell you, attaboy,
32:28
the comedians will be like, that's horseshit.
32:31
Magicians are often like a little bit, yeah, they're kind of like,
32:35
wondering oh where'd you find that routine or
32:38
is that for sale or whatever yeah can i
32:41
buy that from you yeah and the comedians are
32:44
like you know they're like they'll be
32:47
like that was they'll be surprised how funny it was
32:50
and then they'll kind of be like give me notes about that and
32:53
if it's not funny then they'll comment on the magic so
32:56
they'll be like that was a really cool trick and i'll know they didn't care
32:58
much for the jokes i just said so i can tweak that so i
33:01
i think the feedback is good for me there um
33:04
but but i just did like i did a guest spot on my friend's
33:07
show the other night and it was like i you know him and
33:10
i've never worked together before and it was you know over
33:13
4 000 people he has his show it's crazy theater so i was like hey i'm gonna
33:17
do a guest spot he's like sure you got eight minutes whatever and he's like
33:20
you need anything and i was like no and he's like this comic and he's like really
33:25
and i'm like no i'm good and And then I go do this set and I don't think he
33:30
knew what I was going to get up to.
33:32
You know, so I just do this eight minute set and just murders.
33:36
But he was like so confused by the fact that I think he thought,
33:40
you know, music cues, lady in the box, like stuff like because we just know
33:45
each other outside of it, never seen each other, never seen each other perform live.
33:48
So it was just very interesting to me. And he was like, this is what you do?
33:52
And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, he's like, if I had to draw a line,
33:56
he's like, if I had to draw a line between there's a graph of Carrot Top and
34:00
David Blaine, you're like here, right?
34:04
And I was like, yeah. that's insulting i'm like
34:07
no no i get where i am like i get
34:09
what i'm up to and he was like i thought it was awesome i just
34:12
didn't know in his head he didn't know that existed he thought every magician
34:16
was trying to be copperfield david blaine like that so he never really considered
34:21
it and then he was like this is crazy it was super fun so i don't know i i feel
34:26
like i feel good about where i'm at right now even though it is a shock even
34:29
to my friends that are like whoa what the hell I didn't know that was what you're doing.
34:32
How many times do you get asked, like, oh, so is the goal to have a show in Vegas one day?
34:38
Are you going to get it one day? God, so far from what I want. Oh, my God. It's crazy.
34:44
I know I went to see Shin Lim in Vegas when Spidey was doing his,
34:49
like, he has different, you know, openers or whatever.
34:51
So I went because Spidey's a good friend of mine. He was doing Shin Lim.
34:55
I've never seen Shin Cho. So I went and watched it.
34:58
Definitely, you know, I was like, it was obviously it's
35:02
a crazy show and i was so happy for spidey and then you know talking to shit
35:06
after i'm like how long do you have to do this for and it's like his contract
35:09
something like 15 years or something you're like oh my god and he's happy that's
35:15
for him obviously he wouldn't sign a contract he's not happy with but for me i'm like whoa.
35:21
What do you mean like i love the touring life
35:24
do a couple weekends a couple nights take your
35:27
time like i just had a month off like i've you know
35:30
and then that's just how you get a month off when you're doing
35:33
this is you just don't book any shows for that month and then
35:36
you have a month off you know and i really like that vibe i'm
35:39
trying to like live my life as i go you know not trying
35:42
to bank it off at the end it's the money
35:44
it's got to be the money for she yeah i don't know
35:47
how much for random but i know it's deep seven digits right like it's going
35:52
to be enough to maybe eight actually fuck yeah probably eight digits oh my god
35:57
it's got to be enough to not care that you're not doing shows anywhere else
36:00
you know yeah oh for sure yeah i don't wonder about that,
36:05
it'd be interesting how does how things going like work-life balance because
36:11
last time we talked But your wife was an air hostess.
36:14
Is that still her job now?
36:17
Yes, for sure. And so you guys are still like, you know, traveling different
36:20
places. You're doing shows. She might be working.
36:23
Yeah, she definitely changed kind of how she does the flight attendant job where she's like.
36:29
Mostly she doesn't do any layovers anymore she just goes out gets up early goes
36:33
out does the fly somewhere and flies back and comes home the same night right
36:37
she does like these one day situations because she's way more involved now with
36:42
the social media side of what we're up to and we have like a separate channel
36:46
on facebook at least with with her and i doing content.
36:49
And it's just it's really we work well together she's
36:52
great i really do think we should turn it into a podcast
36:55
or something some other kind of show so yeah
36:58
she's really trying to hone in more on that side of things but
37:01
she still likes her job the the lifestyle and the benefits
37:04
that that job has really helps us a lot so
37:07
our balance i'd say uh work life stuff
37:10
has been really really good lately but yeah
37:13
not not good enough that that she's gonna but even
37:15
i does something too like i don't even know if i made 20 million
37:18
dollars this year doing magic shows i don't
37:22
even think she'd quit like she needs something to do too she like
37:26
that job's an interesting job you're doing cool
37:28
things you're seeing cool people you know it has obviously nightmare
37:32
components to it like any job but you know
37:35
as long as as a seniority goes up you could pick your better roots
37:38
and it's pretty chill like she's in
37:40
mexico right now and i'm gonna go meet her tomorrow so i literally
37:44
that's literally what the situation is i'm
37:47
gonna go down there for three days and see her in mexico so it's pretty
37:51
good i'd say don't be a flight attendant but definitely marry one
37:54
that's a good idea that's a good advice yeah good eric
37:57
says he's not a naked watch that is true that eric yeah
38:01
that was a crazy story yeah yeah i think i'll pull it out here we go oh yeah
38:08
we might not have had the calendar last time yeah so for the for those who don't
38:11
know about their synopsis here oh yeah there it is oh oh no we just have to
38:16
flip through it a little quick flip through.
38:18
No we're good it's fine it's public somewhere but this is how you know you know
38:24
you're really close to someone if they if they go and do a boudoir shoot with your 100 with your wife.
38:33
Yeah they did yeah it's so funny because i was like yeah it's
38:36
uh they wouldn't air it on our tv show that
38:39
was like a funny prank i thought but the director thought
38:42
otherwise i thought eric you did a good job buddy i thought it was
38:45
funny yeah i i
38:47
enjoyed it too when he showed it to all of us this year it
38:51
was like we're like this is awesome oh yeah actually the
38:54
photographer was also a magician eric wasn't it mark what's
38:57
it clear clear mark tricks what's his name clearview tricks
39:01
what's it mark clearview i don't know from new
39:04
york no yeah we mark mark's in
39:07
town performing at the beau ravage mayfair club photographer that show we'll
39:11
wait just find out from eric in the chat there but yeah i think he was a photographer
39:14
okay so we keep everything in house with magic we like to keep it with the homies
39:19
you know yeah 100 because we can't afford real talent.
39:28
Yes geez so over in canada and
39:31
the u.s like do you feel like there is there kind of a boom
39:34
going on with magic or because from over here in
39:37
australia i see people doing a lot of stuff like
39:40
my buddy chris is in the u.s and he ticket to
39:42
selling super well at his show and then like i'm hearing you're
39:45
selling out obviously it's your own individual talent driving it but is there
39:50
also some kind of like is there a lot of magic on tv at the moment as well that's
39:55
playing into it do you think or it's people just craving seeing stuff live now
40:00
or i think there's something to do with like,
40:04
it's hard it's hard to say and it really does go city by city and whatnot but
40:08
like for me i feel like it in the states it's been a bit harder the ticket prices had to come down,
40:15
a bit their economics there are just a bit nuts right now so the ticket price
40:19
had to drop but if you were able to drop the ticket price you could keep up
40:22
with the sales a bit but like i wouldn't say they're flying off the shelf if
40:26
your buddy's doing really well then like he's he's doing something right but
40:31
if you do the right marketing and you pick the right you know demographics,
40:35
yeah you're still like i'm not having too much trouble but i didn't i you know
40:38
i did take five dollars off the ticket price just to deal with their recession
40:42
wherever they're going through so now what is it like 5.95 no no just 99 cents just pay what you can oh.
40:50
I can afford it yeah but
40:55
yeah i think there's like something there so it's hard to say because there's not a
40:58
lot of magic on tv right now here and and there is
41:00
no that i've seen like there's just you know
41:03
the usual social media whatever like the ads maybe that's
41:07
making a difference maybe all the magicians showing up on social media are making
41:10
people like it more you know maybe yeah i i've yet to see any sort of negative
41:17
it's almost like you can do no wrong like like they say like you know no publicity
41:21
is bad publicity it feels like that with magic,
41:24
We've seen the internet blow up with good and bad magic, right?
41:28
And emphasis on the bad and exposure and whatever.
41:31
And all that's ever happened that I've seen is tickets just go more. So like, I don't know.
41:39
And again, it's hard to say because I'm in so many different.
41:43
Canada and the u.s are massive countries and and
41:46
i'm doing shows coast to coast on both of
41:49
them so i could not possibly assign
41:52
what's happening to anything because it's
41:55
just everywhere like i'll go to one place and then
41:58
you'll sell 500 tickets at 50 bucks a ticket
42:01
and then i'll go to another place and you'll sell a hundred at
42:04
twenty dollars you know what i mean like they don't the
42:07
regions just are very different based on whatever
42:10
like curious like how do you how do you make the choices
42:13
of where you want to perform how do you find these sweet
42:16
theaters you know that i generally look
42:19
at the population size of the area so i'll target an
42:22
area that has more than 30 000 maybe less
42:26
than 200 000 people's pick a
42:28
town right it's like go to a state zoom in you
42:31
go you go to the state you can see like the big black dots it'll
42:34
say like the capital city and the other major city or whatever then you
42:37
zoom in on the state just a little bit with your finger whoop and then a
42:40
couple more cities pop up oh now i'm interested so
42:43
now i hover over those cities type those into google you know.
42:46
Population of whatever you know and then you're like
42:49
oh interesting okay like that
42:52
guy you know great falls north dakota they have 110
42:55
000 population they probably have a
42:58
theater boom now i'm googling the theater oh cool
43:01
the theater sees 600 interesting they probably don't
43:03
get a lot of acts going through click their events page look at what's
43:06
coming up oh they do like to go to com even
43:09
no one famous is coming through here oh well let
43:12
me drop you some tv credits i bet you're going to click on tv credits right
43:16
so then i throw a poster up here that says you know ellen penn and teller netflix
43:21
whatever they're going to click the stock ticket and sure enough they do right
43:24
so that's literally the process it's painstakingly slow chat gpt can't make
43:29
it go any faster, but that is how you do it.
43:32
Yeah, that was not the answer I was expecting. I was expecting,
43:35
yeah, I got a great list from a friend of mine, and he just cued me in.
43:38
No, you're busting your ass trying to figure out.
43:40
Yeah, this is Google Maps, Zoom-ins, and search in.
43:45
Great. Good to know. Good to know that hard work can work. Oh,
43:49
yeah, for sure. That's the only thing I agree.
43:51
That's doable, but knowing people that know stuff is not always doable, right?
43:57
But if you have the option to pick between nepotism and talent,
44:01
choose nepotism for sure every time.
44:03
Damn, I got to Google, what does nepotism mean?
44:06
It's where you give your jobs to the friends you know and the family you have.
44:10
Oh, yeah. All right. And you get the job because your dad's famous.
44:13
And yeah exactly yeah you want that that's obviously
44:16
what you want but uh but yeah no it's
44:19
it's good i i really love this industry
44:22
so much i love i met all my favorite people
44:25
in comedy and magic and i think it's like live
44:28
shows in a world of like all this ai
44:31
you know and all this like political whatever people
44:35
are just like so stoked to go to a live show these days
44:38
they're like you have to be there but one of
44:41
dude this is crazy one out of 10 people
44:44
i talked to in the audience if i talked to like a gen z person in
44:47
the audience one out of 10 10 gen z
44:50
people i'll say hey can i use your phone for this
44:53
trick and they'll go oh i left my phone at
44:56
home i am wow at home
44:59
whoa that's a power move we are
45:02
doing it man i'm like what are you gonna do smoke a cigarette and hell a
45:05
freaking cab afterwards what's going on here right in 1990
45:08
so like yeah i really think crap
45:11
especially the younger people are like no man like i don't know if they're doing
45:15
it ironically but they're out there living and they really want to have this
45:18
like live experience and i'm like this is so good and the more ai bullshit and
45:23
the more things that come across our screens the more lives are going to go
45:25
up i really believe that i think is why wouldn't i.
45:29
Yeah i mean it makes so much sense people ask me too like are you worried that
45:33
ai is going to make people just not believe your magic online at all and i'm
45:38
like well actually it's going to make people want to come and see it live so
45:42
much more i think if people just don't believe anything.
45:46
That's a horrible comment i hate you so much we're just
45:50
going to block eric for 10 minutes definitely block eric for now
45:52
sorry back to you josh i'm sorry i
45:55
just that is a wild thing a jerk why
45:58
you make this political there we go there's actually a timeout button
46:01
that also we'll see here we go but no i think i think
46:04
you're right like the more people especially me like i start to watch things
46:07
and not know if i'm actually watching a real thing or just an ai generated thing
46:11
but it makes me appreciate what i see in in real life a lot more also that guy
46:17
just might not have wanted to give you his phone or he's like i left my phone
46:20
at home but i but i can give you my smart watch She can use it. That's true. Yeah.
46:24
That's. No, no, it's happening enough now that I'm like, oh,
46:27
this is like a real thing for sure.
46:30
That's so great. Love it. That's. I really like that. How did it feel putting out?
46:35
Because from what I've saw, you've put out two specials on YouTube,
46:39
like full length bits of your shows, right?
46:42
One like two years ago and one like maybe five or six years ago.
46:46
Yeah. Does that feel like refreshing to do that? Or were you nervous people would now they've.
46:51
There's a mentality that, oh, they can just watch me online.
46:54
Why would they come and see me live?
46:57
I'm not saying you think that, but like sometimes people can think,
46:59
oh, if they can watch an hour of me here, why would they do it there?
47:04
Or like, are people going to now try and copy my stuff because I put up what I actually do?
47:09
It's a good question for sure. And I've actually put up probably four specials,
47:14
full length specials, but I've taken two of them down and unlisted them just
47:18
because I probably should have just left them. I don't know.
47:22
I just like, you know, you go back and you're like, I don't really like this work anymore.
47:25
I'd left the clips from those specials up, but as a special,
47:28
I'm like, this doesn't feel like a good special.
47:31
It doesn't feel like an enjoyable hour, but the clips are still fine.
47:34
The trick's standalone. I don't mind. That's okay. But like,
47:37
my God, but that's probably just like, I, I probably shouldn't have done that, but I did.
47:42
And I just- It's hard to watch stuff from- It is. When you've grown since then.
47:46
Yeah. But you know, I like leaving stuff.
47:48
Yeah. I like having full length stuff that there are people to watch.
47:51
Because most people don't, even though you get, I got a few hundred thousand
47:54
views in both of them and it feels good.
47:56
The comments are hugely supportive and you can tell people are like.
48:00
Thankful that this kind of thing exists and they're missing it and they're
48:03
where you know where is this like why is there not more of this and
48:06
i'm going to continue to put more stuff i'm probably going to increase the
48:09
mass special i put up i think i'm going to make them shorter i think i'll do 30
48:12
minute specials but i'll start to do like for sure
48:15
one 30 minute special a year for sure and i'm
48:19
not worried about you know people not wanting
48:21
to come see me live it really does drive the live
48:25
as long as you can stay one step ahead of the sheriff and keep
48:28
you know doing new stuff people don't mind if
48:31
you repeat a trick but they want to
48:34
see half new you know they want
48:37
to see like a new closer they want to see some new you know
48:39
so you do have to like really push yourself in that regard you can still repeat
48:44
stuff you don't have to worry about that people are very forgiving they're happy
48:47
to see it again if it was a good bit they're you know they brought their friend
48:50
because they told him about the one bit so they're like oh hell yeah he's doing
48:53
that and then you do two new things you're like oh this show's great and then people copy me like.
48:58
Happy to see it is fine i don't care i have no care
49:02
at all like you shouldn't steal from people you shouldn't copy people but
49:05
i genuinely don't care people will like almost daily
49:09
but definitely weekly i'm dealing with you know
49:12
like seeing clips or someone sends me something people
49:15
will just message me being like i added this to my act right
49:18
away how do you what do you think and i'm like that was it for sale okay cool yeah
49:22
yeah and i just i just want to thank you for
49:24
inspiring me to do this drinking a cup
49:27
on my head routine yeah i just
49:30
have no i couldn't care i don't
49:33
know what it is about me so i'm because you're you're living
49:36
your dream you're selling out these hundreds of seat
49:39
theaters and they may not be you know there's a
49:42
mental game i think i go through a lot where like i go on stage knowing for
49:48
a fact that i could do a better magic show and then i'm actively not doing that
49:55
Better Magic show because I'm really hell-bent on doing.
50:00
The best west barker show or whatever the
50:03
hell that means so like it's a weird thing
50:06
sometimes so i'm like dang i could just do
50:09
the tricks that are tried and true and i know and
50:12
i practice so hard and i already i just give them a good magic show it's like
50:16
no i just want to do me and it's a weird narcissism or an ego thing or whatever
50:20
but i really i'm stuck on it so when people want to copy me if anything i'm
50:26
like man amazing there's such a sea of off
50:30
stuff you could choose from and you're going to choose one of mine.
50:34
That's off to you. That's awesome. I'm putting the penis coloring book in my
50:38
act. It's in. Do it. Hit it.
50:43
What is the prerequisite when you decide to put a new effect in your show or come up with the show?
50:48
Like, are there things that has to hit for you to consider it?
50:52
It had to make me laugh when I thought about it. That's it. That's the only prerequisite.
50:57
If it made me laugh when I thought of it, I was like, oh that'll go in for sure
51:00
and then it just a funny visual or a funny line or a funny interaction that's
51:06
inevitable with the spectator if there's something about it that i think is
51:09
inherently funny i'll put it in that night and i'll figure it out later you
51:14
know and uh and some things that i,
51:17
i used to sit on the db my notebook for years and i would sit on forever and
51:23
then eventually i would try it and it would kill and like why did i leave that
51:27
the notebook for so long you know So I'm, I, I, and I'm never,
51:31
and anything that bombs, it goes, you, you find out instantly and just gets
51:36
up, you take it out of the act and you're like, okay, that's never going to
51:38
work or that has to be rethought.
51:40
So like these things that live on the page, these brainstorms and ideas, get them on stage, man.
51:46
You will find out that you're actually a genius or that was never going to work
51:51
and you, it's out of your head now. You don't have to think about it ever again. It's gone.
51:55
It's either in the show or we tried it. You don't have to live in this,
51:59
like, I have pages of ideas. You just, well, get them up there, man.
52:03
Let's see. You will be so happy. You're, like, decluttering your closet.
52:08
It's just, like, you're smarter than you think and you're dumber than you think,
52:12
all in one. And you're going to find out. You're going to sort these real quick.
52:14
And they don't have to live in this book of, like, oh, yeah,
52:17
all these things that one day I'll try. Who cares? Try them.
52:21
Yes, it's not going to be the prototype model of the trick that you want to
52:24
make. you had to do it with toothpicks and glue or whatever,
52:27
but get it on stage. Get it on his feet.
52:29
See what happens. There's only 20 people there tonight. Who cares?
52:32
Even if the thing falls apart, you'll know this was a good idea and you can
52:36
build a better one later. I believe hard that,
52:41
that they just get just put it in there so yeah the bar for me
52:43
is super low stick it in the show i love
52:46
it give it a try see what happens yeah hell
52:49
yeah and and because do you
52:52
set aside time to write or is it just when something pops in
52:55
your head mostly it's when it pops in my
52:57
head i when i go on walks you know i live in
53:00
the city i walk to everywhere i go i make a conscious effort
53:03
not to put my headphones in because i just like feel like we're on non-stop
53:07
i'm watching something editing something listening to a podcast whatever so
53:11
i take my headphones out for sure and as soon as your headphones are out of
53:14
your ears for 20 minutes all of a sudden you have all these these thoughts your
53:18
brain just thinks oh my god it's not consuming anything it just thinks and dude.
53:23
20 minutes 30 minutes of just yourself walking
53:27
your my brain just starts firing off
53:30
stuff i find like the shower this is
53:33
my time you know i get in there i'm in the shower for five
53:36
minutes and now i just start figuring shit out because same thing
53:38
you know i'll come in your shower too maybe that oh
53:41
man we'll figure shit out together we can write penis magic
53:44
together in the shower yes for sure but
53:48
no that's the key i think yeah that's that's also is drinking with friends helps
53:53
me so much because you're loose you're riffing you're saying you can see things
53:58
funny things horrible things right but also hilarious things because you're
54:02
just so free you're with your best friends and And you're just like,
54:06
it's almost like whatever the free association writing or whatever, right?
54:09
That's what it feels like when I'm with my closest friends drinking, have a good time.
54:13
Inevitably, I stumble across a hilarious premise story line and I put up my
54:19
phone right away and I'll deal with that in the morning, whatever.
54:21
I'm not going to try and figure it out now.
54:22
But like, yeah, it's just a free association way. Again, I'm not listening to
54:27
anything. I'm not consuming anything. Just riffing with people talking.
54:30
Whoever inspires you to be funny, whoever you laugh with the most,
54:33
there's going to be bits there if you're doing comedy.
54:35
Which that's all I'm trying to do. So it just, for me, that works so good.
54:39
Yeah shower doug is a vibe i know we all saw that at the same time there's a vibe baby just,
54:48
like eric i love
54:51
you pieces brother sometimes i feel like you
54:54
know there's a bit of a vibe of you know this we just see so many like new effects
54:58
that are coming out on the market and like sometime you can fall in that trap
55:03
of like oh let let me look at the prop and now let me think what could i do
55:07
with that trick in my show as opposed to like oh what would be a funny visual on stage.
55:13
And you know work from there's lessons there folks don't start
55:16
with the magic trick all the time you know start with you know the thing that
55:19
makes people happy more truly the point of view the jokes the presentation that's
55:26
one thing that doing tv magic always inevitably because they don't know about
55:30
all the tricks so the writer's room and the directors and everyone involved in making tv stuff,
55:36
they always start the other from the other end and it's very good exercise they're like,
55:41
they're like we just want to see we got this
55:44
location right and because it was cheap and the guys you know so we got this
55:48
location it's kind of weird you know it's this little boat dock and you're like
55:52
i don't know any boat magic who the hell knows any boat magic but now you have
55:56
a boat dock and then they want you to work from that end and and that was one
56:00
of the coolest things but all the TV I've ever done has been that.
56:03
It's like we start with a location or like we have a lady who's coming who she's
56:07
in a wheelchair. She's the only person I booked that day for the trick.
56:10
And you're like, oh, OK, well, now we're doing seated magic.
56:13
And it just is so fun to come out from that side because we are so easy to be
56:17
like, oh, man, this is such a sick way to, you know, I can get,
56:21
oh, the cool impression machine pad thing.
56:24
OK, how can I work that? And we're always starting at the, you know,
56:27
whatever the newest thing is and trying to figure out a trick where dude,
56:30
TD will force you to go the other way. And that is what a refreshing nightmare.
56:34
I mean, I ate it, but I love it. It's like, Oh, Oh.
56:39
That's so true so what what's um with a few minutes we
56:42
have left what is coming up next for wes
56:45
this year is is mainly touring touring and
56:47
content people will see from you online where do
56:50
we get that schedule too by the way yeah so
56:53
everything i have you know a stunt magician.com and
56:57
then there's a big button on it says tickets and always click
57:00
that and just drop a list of wherever i'm touring i think i'm
57:03
every show until the end of may is on right now i'm
57:06
gonna add more after but i'm always you know
57:09
and like dm busy fellow oh buddy
57:12
i'm i'm trying to stay busy and just if you're like come to where
57:15
i am send me a dm but like
57:18
with that dm i want to don't just be like you know
57:21
come to portland oregon i want to be like come to
57:23
portland oregon here are a couple venues that i've seen shows at that are great
57:28
like give me a couple options don't let me google too much help me out right
57:31
like i'll come to you just you know save me a couple googles and uh i love Find
57:36
out what the median ticket price is and what the availability is in the venue.
57:41
And I'll give you a free book. It's pretty sweet. Yeah.
57:44
The venue will do a buyout offer and have that ready to send to banks.
57:49
Really, no, bang them up. Don't take no 70-30. You want 80-20.
57:52
Let's go beat them up a bit.
57:55
Yeah, so I'm live touring and I'm posting every day on all of my platforms.
57:58
Like I'm really, I'm going to drop, for sure in March, I'll drop a 30-minute
58:03
special at least on YouTube. I'll do it for a long time.
58:06
I got four that i'm filming coming up with one of them is bound
58:08
to be good and and i really i'm excited
58:11
because there's so much new stuff i'm going back to some cities again
58:14
i'm like oh man i gotta bring a new show and i wrote all
58:17
this new stuff like wait the old stuff never went anywhere i'm sitting on one
58:21
of the greatest ideas i've ever had so i don't know where that whatever that
58:25
means that different people would mean different things but like i've one of
58:28
my funniest fucking bits i've ever come up with i've been doing it for like
58:32
a year now and i haven't posted it anywhere not a clip,
58:35
not nothing, and I can't wait for people to see it.
58:39
Once I drop it once, I'm going to post it a thousand times. So don't worry about
58:42
missing it. As soon as I post it once in the special, I'm going to clip it.
58:45
I have so many. Oh, man, I'm so excited. Once I can get that up there,
58:49
then I'm working on the next thing.
58:50
Because, yeah, when you have a new idea, nothing's better than touring it.
58:54
But nothing's better than actually releasing it to the world and sharing it.
58:58
And then finding out if it's actually any good. Such a weird,
59:01
we have a weird industry, dude. Yeah, dude, I'm excited.
59:04
That's awesome. And that way you can put it to bed.
59:07
You can move on but you know that the world can still watch it
59:10
and see that bit that you've been keeping to yourself for
59:14
the lives that's so good man this
59:17
hour flew truly so we can't wait to have you back again in you know in the next
59:21
the next chapter hopefully you survived your uh 40th i know you said you've
59:25
got a big activity planned and is that something you'll document like do you
59:30
think or do you think you'll just keep it yeah for the for the tax reason i'll
59:34
definitely I got to write it off a little bit.
59:37
Me and Eric are doing scotch magic in Scotland. That's what it will be.
59:41
Today we're doing cocaine magic. It's a tax write-off.
59:50
Well, all for the content. All for the content.
59:53
Wes, thank you so much for coming on, man. You can find, I mean,
59:56
you already watch Wes if you're listening or watching this, but all of his links
59:59
are in the description below.
1:00:01
Go scope them out. But go see if he's coming to a city near you.
1:00:04
If you live out of a major city, there's a good chance that he is.
1:00:08
And say hi to him from the Magic Guys.
1:00:14
He's a drag we love you Nick we're going to end our episode in the way that
1:00:19
we always do which is by giving our guest the final word,
1:00:24
wow if you're a
1:00:28
magician or following any kind of artistic
1:00:31
pursuit make success your third priority
1:00:36
make it your third favorite thing for me it's one make my wife laugh two travel
1:00:42
the world three become more famous make it your third favorite thing don't be
1:00:46
one of those guys that obsesses over the minutiae of money and success not worth
1:00:51
it make it your third favorite,
1:00:55
thanks for listening it's time for us to disappear now but we'll see you again
1:01:02
on the next episode of the magic guys.