Latest / The Magic Guys / Secrets Magicians Wish They Knew Sooner #271

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Secrets Magicians Wish They Knew Sooner #271 · The Magic Guys

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They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys.
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We are the Magic Guys. Yes.
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Beep boop beep boop beep boop boop. Hey, I'm Josh Norbedo. Welcome to episode
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271 of the Magic Guys. To my left, we've got Nick K.
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That's right, guys. I'm Nick K. We also have here Doug Kahn.
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I guess I'm the bottom. Hey, y'all. Doug Conn here.
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Yeah, Daddy Doug at the bottom.
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Making that money while he's on the pod. No, double dipping over here at Trick
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Supply today. It's the good life.
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You know, the blue shirt that you're wearing, for anyone who's watching the
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video or watching us live, it kind of reminds me of like you're about to build
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someone's house or something.
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I've recently committed to wearing fishing gear. It's so lightweight in Las
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Vegas. It's like I get to put some color on and not have weight on my body.
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So prepare for the summer of fishing shirts as we move forward into 120 degree weather.
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Is that what you're in now? Because it's cold.
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No, but we're moving forward into it. It's coming.
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Today's about 100, actually. Yeah, it's eight degrees here Celsius.
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Wow. What's that in Fahrenheit? Yeah.
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Episodes and episodes ago nick you talked about paper
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cream that's really good for your fingers when they're moisturized non-present
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in the air and we tried to i think we all on
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the discord tried to order some and then it got it we found out
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it was like sold out is there any updates on that is that still non-existent
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i thankfully have a small stash that's keeping me going for a while yet but
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i don't apply it very liberally in the same breath so i should reach out to
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my cohort and see if there is either a better solution or maybe not a better solution,
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but like a substitute, I should say, because to my knowledge,
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I think they might have stopped manufacturing that product entirely,
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which is such a bummer because all it takes is for you to put the smallest bit
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and I just, every shot, I just do my fingertips, just the fingertips.
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And it just makes all my card work like perfect. I never miss a second.
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I never miss a double. Like everything just works.
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Doug, you got your ear to the streets. Is there anything else that people are using?
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Or to compensate for dry
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hands yeah we were just talking about that in the shop
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i pointed out drop stop which is the roy cooper's
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product we sell here it's essentially rose water and
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glycerin and a nice portable tube i lean
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in towards a product called o'keefe's working
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man's hands lotion o'keefe when
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it's colder outside and busking that always is
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with me it's it's the go-to huh o'keefe's
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o'keefe's working man's hands it's the
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shit o'keefe's is funny because they're isn't
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there a spokesperson a skeleton but they're selling skin products that's the
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thing it's it's good enough skeletons can bring their
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non-existent skin back to life how i
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feel half the time these days like a
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skeleton yeah okay we've got to get something going on because this these dry
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hands during the cold is like no good go get some rose water and glycerin that's
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what you need that's the stuff okay i'm gonna do it uh we've also got some friends in the chat.
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Mystery box studio saying glue that's mystery box studio dropping the funny
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fuzzers we have scotty p in the chat good to see you bud tim asking maddie matt
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magic good to see you my friend nick gay who left a speak pipe which we'll jump
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into in just a moment's time friends as you know the show is live herbert good
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to see you bud and gutbuster mike it's always a pleasure,
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yeah you know you guys know that of course this is a live chat you can put your
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questions in here this is going to be a very educational one but before we do
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that our buddy nick gay sent us a super cool story and we love to celebrate
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the wins whenever you guys have a win in the game so mr nabito play that record,
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Hey Magic guys, just wanted to give you a life update.
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So not only have I moved into a new house, I have my office now in order,
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but I also have picked up Director Manager.
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She's a close friend and she's going to help me focus on doing some social media stuff.
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She's got contacts in the city that we work in.
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And she is just going to help me keep me grounded in general.
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She's a good friend of mine, and we've just recently decided that,
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hey, we should do this thing.
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So I'm pretty excited. Can't wait to show more within the next coming weeks.
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I actually have a photo video shoot in two weeks, so that'll be fun,
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and I'll be sure to post pictures and stuff.
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So thanks, and I could not have done any of this without you guys.
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So big appreciation there, and see y'all later.
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From nick gay everybody it's like
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nick gay but the u.s version we
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look forward to seeing that photo shoot bro put it in the discord and anything
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we can advise on let us know but how great
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is it to have someone like as part of a team
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making helping you make content that's that's a smart move.
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Getting a director to put eyeballs on your stuff that's a step
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a lot of magicians don't take some some might consider
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that a a super secret to make yourself a
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better magician like get some pro eyes on
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it one thing i i don't think any of us do
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is i remember josh j when he lectured
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in brisbane last time like five years ago he said
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i wish like 10
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years earlier i'd gotten myself a publicist because
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they are the ones that are able to get
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you on tv and know about the events going
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on in the social world that you could pop up at
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and and it's a thing we don't think
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of because you do have to pay for it but again it helps
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you get in the press and and that was just something he said he's
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like i wish i'd gotten a publicist like 10 years sooner
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that's the first time i've heard that about a
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professional magician but it's actually great advice you
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know if you're looking to hit at a high level yeah and
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but like for the the theater of
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magic we have a publicist for when we
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have like every time we had moved to a new venue
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we did a launch we had a publicist and every time they
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were able to get us on some kind of news segment tv segment in the newspapers
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and organize for they have all the contacts for like social media influences
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to come and you know review the show put it up online none of which we would
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have had access to without one so it's.
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Hopefully that helps someone out there. But again, today's episode is premised
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on stuff we wish we knew earlier. So that was a great segue.
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I didn't even realize I was leading into. Nick, take it away.
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Well, guys, after the conversations we've had in our Discord,
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as it is an awesome community, and I implore you, if you haven't been part of
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it yet, do join. We talk about all manner of things.
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Now, today's episode is for every magician who's ever looked back and thought,
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man, I wish someone told me that earlier.
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Now, everyone in this podcast has had careers well over a decade,
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and we've been doing this for a very, very long time.
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And so because of the nature of magic being strange, and we've spent so many
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years practicing slides to discover that audiences don't actually care about
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you spending 900 hours learning something,
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we thought we'd focus on today on the secrets, the lessons, and the truths of
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what really matters and what we all wish we knew earlier in our careers,
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starting with secret number one.
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Audiences don't care how hard the trick is.
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It's one of the biggest realizations in magic. Magicians spend years,
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years working on this particular move to be able to pull it off.
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They will use a technique in a book like a Guy Hollingworth thing where the effect is the same.
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Or you can achieve the effect in other ways that don't have to be Guy Hollingworth's
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hands, but they get so committed to it. They think that, no, I have to do it this way.
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And they just flash and they flash and they flash and they overwork things.
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And if I just simplify it, you still get the same effect.
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And that's why I'm saying audiences don't care how hard the trick is. Thoughts?
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So you're saying they don't care how hard the trick is, meaning
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that you shouldn't do a difficult trick badly
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because you're trying to do a
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difficult trick yeah i think that the ends
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justifies the means i think always aspire to do you know crazy difficult stuff
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i will just say before the pod that i was doing this simple two card selection
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thing with you know with like a sandwich style effect and there is so much work
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that goes into it but the audience doesn't see how much work there is like if
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you see all of the slides and the things being hidden and you're like,
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but it looks sick, right? Because the stuff I'm doing is hard, but it's covered.
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So in the end, the effect that matters, not how hard it is.
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I would suggest if you're pursuing technical sleight of hand.
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Then you're going to have an uphill battle performing this material,
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and you've got to double down on your rehearsal to make sure all that stuff's covered.
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The method really is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it's hard or easy,
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and really, your audience should not be concerned about any of that.
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I always say that if your audience is thinking about the method during your
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performance, then you are not doing your job right.
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Your job as the magician is to suspend their belief
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and make them think about you know the moment
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not the method yeah i think
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to synopsize it i believe that the audience experiences
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the effect and not the struggle you go
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through to achieve it when we absolutely
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and when we had franco biscali on the podcast who
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we know has extreme card skill he
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mentioned that his skill range if it's
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on a a meter so imagine like your
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car you know speedometer you know he's
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got this whole range of skill level
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but he's only showing people the middle range of
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his skill like that's his actual performing range because he doesn't want to
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try a super difficult thing on the spectrum that he might fail or mess up he's
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going to pick he's going to learn super hard stuff but he's is gonna perform
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the mid-range stuff that's gonna hit and nail in performance. I like that.
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Yep great i'm glad also this though
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you could do some hard stuff and make it all about
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doing the hard stuff and be like a hard stuff guy right that's
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a that's a that's an approach so let's allow that
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to exist in the universe now you better be performing
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it well oh yeah let me give an example i
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was jamming on discord a little while ago
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and everyone was raving about like larry jennings
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type card magic right yeah and i've
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said i go nothing excites me to read his stuff i
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know it's brilliant but show me the card trick show me show me one lyric jennings
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card trick and and and you know like we'll go from there and stefan performed
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this nice nice trick right the trick was so simple and the effort was enormous
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okay and i liked it for that reason as a magician right And I'm not slandering that,
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but the reason I liked it was like, oh, method's cool. That's great.
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But I can't tell you how many times someone, like I've been at a table,
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at a convention, at a somewhere, and then people go, let me show you this from Jennings.
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And then, oh, wow, now I messed it up. Hang on a second. Let me start again.
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I'm just like, every time, every time that stuff happens or,
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oh, they weren't supposed to shuffle it and it didn't.
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Yeah, no, you, what normally happens is that the cards go in,
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like in this Pharaoh shuffle and it's like, yo, okay, that's where,
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that's where I say they don't care about how hard that stuff is.
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That's my point. You take a guy like a Richard Turner or even like Jason LaDogne
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is a better example of this style of magic where you're projecting skill,
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the audience is aware, you're doing hard stuff and that's fine,
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right? You can do it that way, but.
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Yeah. And don't get me wrong, I love to make my performances difficult to do
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compared to other options that are available, but I'm not going to do it if it's not good yet.
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You know, I think that's what we're saying. Like, don't strive for a show you
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have in a month to be like,
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I got to do this routine that has second deals and fucking
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diagonal palm shifts when it's not needed in
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terms of entertaining the crowd but if that's your character then
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yeah you better practice every effing night so
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it's not a difficult skill for your hands
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yeah but overall what
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we're saying is that's not the key feature an audience is
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wanting to see that an audience can tell if you're
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skilled like by the way you handle your props they can
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tell without you having to say this is
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a difficult trick but they are not
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coming there to see difficult magic unless it's the magic club
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you know they want to be surprised they want to be wowed they want to you know
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be blown away they don't want to walk away going wow i gotta book that guy because
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he can he can track 10 cards and palm it and like you'll never see it you know
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yeah i think the same breath nothing nothing i do is easy.
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Not one thing, nothing. It's super difficult, right? And I stand by that and
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I pride myself on it. But what I am saying is that it's not necessary, right?
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It's like Herbert is asking here, like, is there a danger of enough magicians
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doing easy variations that magicians stop doing the hard stuff and then the
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skills start disappearing?
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I think that you as an artist want to keep elevating your skill set and your
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thought process and you will think about things. But what I'm saying is this
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is dedicated to the people starting off where, you know, my, okay.
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So if you like, I'm going to start doing card magic, I'm going to get Dan and
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Dave's trilogy, and I'm going to get sick by Ponto the Smith and learn that coin magic.
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It's like, yo, wait a year, give it one or two years, three years,
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maybe then go pursue that difficult stuff. Okay.
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That's what I'm getting at. You don't, like at the beginning,
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it's not the most important thing on how difficult it is.
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And the beauty about the difficult thing is that once you've learned the difficult
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thing, it slowly becomes easier and easier and easier. Okay,
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so by all means, push yourself.
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What I'm saying is it's not the most important thing because there are people
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out there with careers making hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.
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And trust me, they ain't using slights. You know, they're not doing the work.
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You know, the hard, hard, hard work. No start.
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But they're using their brains and they're using the gimmicks to achieve what
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they're supposed to, which gives
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a nice cleaner magic. And there's nothing wrong with that, is my point.
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And in a year, when you do buy Ponto the Smith and you do buy Dan and Dave Buck's
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series, get it from Trick Supply, baby!
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Word. Secret number two.
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Personality matters more than tricks. And I say that because people don't always
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remember what you did, but they do remember how you made them feel.
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And why I think that things like your likability, your charisma,
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maybe even your vulnerability as you perform, you know.
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Can affect the way that people receive your magic. So you look at people like
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Copperfield and Tommy Wanda, they can use sincerity, they can use humor.
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You can look at someone like Lydani and just have that character of being overly confident, right?
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But erroneous to that, your personality is the vessel that carries the magic
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and the message across, the experience across, and they can feel that,
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and that can come through your being.
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So that's why I believe that your personality matters
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a little bit more than the tricks you perform yeah i
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think you just covered it all like yeah if you don't understand that listen
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to it again and then a couple more times you know the amount of times people
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will see magicians like the amazing nigel from here in brisbane and they're
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like wow that was a crazy hour show and sometimes they'll come back and they'll be
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i don't remember any particular trick he did at
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all i just remember how funny he is and how fun it
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was and that's that's there
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that speaks a lot and that's how you can stand out in your
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area against other performers where you're
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not doing crazy different made-up magic
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you're just like your charisma really stands out that's great
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you know i i love when you hang out with certain people they're
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like sponge like they might say something to the effect of like sponge balls are
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stupid and you go really go put him in
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that guy's hands and see what happens you know what i mean and
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and he's doing the most basic moves but because he's
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been doing it for the past decade and he's got every joke and every bit of timing
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perfect that's where it shines so i think character building is important and
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so does lucy darling lucy darling piff you know teller you're talking Very standout-ish characters,
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Oh my god What am I Comedy magic Josh DeVito Oh thank you so much.
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Jeff Hobson Great example He's doing the egg bag Touring the world With the egg bag,
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right, and cards-a-mouth, that on paper would look like a boring act, right?
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How can you fill up 45 minutes with an egg bag, yeah, a watch deal, and a card-to-mouth?
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But bloody hell, he's the man. You know, this leads perfectly into my next secret.
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So let's go into secret number three.
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Simpler tricks often get bigger reactions.
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And this one is going to hurt people a little bit. but
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you can i can't tell you how
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much things i've done that are crazy difficult and then
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i've done things that are so simple while i'm just jazzing
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at the bar and they turn to me and say that's the greatest trick
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i've ever seen and i'm like it was it's just a double lift just double lift
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that's it i guess nothing nothing has to it but for whatever reason it hit them
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in a way that you as a magician weren't expecting because maybe it doesn't excite
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you but when you look at examples like the sponge balls or the invisible deck or ambitious card.
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These are ultimately relatively simple, but they're simple and they're clear and they're direct.
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And I think it leads back to the old saying that my boy up on the wall over
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there, Di Vernon would say that confusion is not amazement.
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And I think that that is the key takeaway from this.
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Doug? Yeah, simple is best. You go back to that Larry Jennings stuff.
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You'll find all these multi-phase routines with
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over handled methods and it's hard to make that look like magic when you're
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doing this all the time you know with the deck or even laborious routines which
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might enamor us as magicians because we have educated mindsets towards the art
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your average layman gives a crap about you know your four phase.
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Assembly routine or eight versions
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of oil and water yeah simple keep it simple baby direct yeah what's the what's
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the saying less is more less is more i just got blown away i've been studying
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the in the in the family i've been subscribed to ben ell's work i'm a fellow cult member i guess.
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And i was blown away like one of the first lessons is he talks about ambitious
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card And he goes and performs in the real world and he does an ambitious card
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that essentially looks like real magic and has no,
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it has none of this, you know, turning over the card stuff and going in the
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deck. It has none of that.
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It actually looks like nothing happens because the slights are actually so refined.
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It's, we would look at it and go that's stupid and basic.
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No one's going to believe it. but it literally looks like real
20:35
magic and people are freaking out and and like
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the only explanation is you actually are doing magic and
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like for anyone listening that i like what you see happen
20:45
is a card is picked he gives them the deck
20:48
to shuffle he says before you give the cards back
20:51
to me check that your card is not one of the top cards
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or bottom cards because that could happen give them
20:56
the deck back and he goes watch he does nothing boom their
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card is now on top and now that's like a different routine
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and he goes no you take it you put it in the
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middle wait and now wait and then it's back at the top again and you're not
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getting to show off any fancy moves and it popping to the top or none of that
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stuff but bloody hell less is more and and yeah i'm trying to take that on as
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well these days refining it to get a bigger impact.
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I feel like the family is one of the best investments a sleight-of-hand student
21:30
can make in a modern time.
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Ben Earl has the most educated mindset towards performing these things,
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and he definitely practices that keep-it-simple approach and letting the audience
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just get all the magic in without over-complicating things.
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It's crazy.
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It's a moderndayconjure.com. All right, move on.
21:51
Yeah ancient history but we're moving on from that skit let's move on to secret
21:58
phase three now phase three is vegas vegas phase let's move on a secret number four.
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Audiences can feel your confidence testify boom if you see people people ask
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me about street performing all the time i say you want to be successful number
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one be confident you can be a horrible magician you could be horrible in lots
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of realms but if you go out there with the king of confidence.
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You're going to win. If you seem nervous, unsure, apologetic,
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the audience feels that.
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I can't tell you how many times I've performed and I've been complimented saying
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that you are so capable and so confident that it made it very easy to enjoy
22:45
your magic because me as a lover of magic,
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I'm always so fearful that when somebody asked me to be a part of a trick that
22:52
I'm going to be responsible for screwing it up.
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But I did not feel like that when you performed for me. And that's why I felt
22:58
like this was important.
23:00
And so some of the tips I think about like your confidence is that you need
23:04
to know your material. Okay.
23:06
So you also need to know how to hold yourself on stage.
23:09
We've done episodes on this in the past about how to, how to breathe and so
23:12
forth. So do scope those out, you know, being able to slow down.
23:17
Sometimes I drink too much coffee on these episodes and I talk way too fast,
23:21
but that's because it's because I've had early mornings is that I need the pop up.
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So slumming down, eye contact, being able to look at people every make you feel
23:30
like every single person in the room that you see all their faces is kind of important thing.
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And just also committing to your effects as well.
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So I think that for that reason, that when you have the confidence,
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you have, you're comfortable, which in turn makes the audience comfortable when
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you're performing and you're having a great time in turn, the audience will
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also be having fun and having a great time.
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And if you are nervous about something, don't be afraid to make it obvious and tell the audience.
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Like if you want to try something new, obviously the golden rule is you try
24:08
it in the middle of your show so you still have a killer start and killer finish.
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But you could literally say like, hey guys, I'm a little nervous to try this,
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but do you want to see something new I'm working on?
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And then you're being confident about not being confident, which is such a weird thing.
24:23
And then if it goes terrible you go
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well i did warn you and you agreed
24:29
to watch it so let's move on to something better you know
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like even be confident about the
24:35
fact that it might be something you're you're
24:38
going to be new at does that i feel like that makes sense in some weird way
24:41
we have a rule on uh with theater and magic promotions that whenever we do a
24:46
tv spot we're not allowed to do a new thing like we're not allowed to go and
24:50
buy the latest gimmick thing because it'd be cool We can only do stuff we've
24:54
done a thousand times because that way it'll be entertaining and like surefire.
25:00
Let's make double note of that. That's how you get confidence is that you rehearse
25:04
your material, you do it a bunch.
25:06
And if you're feeling nervous about doing your magic, you're probably underprepared.
25:10
So, you know, write your scripts, rehearse your routines, dress rehearse routines,
25:15
practice that sleight of hand, and then you'll have that confidence that your audience wants. Yeah.
25:22
Absolutely. Yeah. And you know what? It's something that will pass in time,
25:28
but the confidence and the competence is the important thing.
25:34
That's the important thing to go into. It's even the first thing that you do
25:38
when you start doing a trick. You want to open with something that you're comfortable
25:40
with. You want to approach an audience that you're comfortable with.
25:42
Have a script. Know what to say.
25:46
Those things will bring you confidence. It's when you don't know that you don't
25:49
have that. So it could be something as simple as, and we've spoke about it in
25:52
previous episodes, where when you approach a group, hi guys, welcome.
25:56
I'm the house magician here. It's my job to show you magic is now a good time.
25:59
Am I interrupting conversation?
26:00
That's a very simple, basic way to approach it. But there's many different lines
26:04
you can have. As long as you know what to say, there's nothing to be afraid of.
26:08
And the opening trick, if you're nervous, do a thing that you've done a thousand
26:12
times and can't be affected by you being nervous.
26:16
Don't go straight into bloody Ben Seidman's ring wallet and watch or whatever.
26:20
Do something you can fucking chill and do.
26:24
And now, when you have this confidence, it leads into what I think is a very
26:29
important secret, which is secret number five.
26:35
Most great magic happens between
26:38
the tricks so it's
26:43
the moments in between the routines it's the pauses the connection tension the
26:48
joke when somebody freaks out and you point them out or somebody speaks out
26:52
and cusses when you do something those little moments that happen in between
26:56
routines are what make the show,
27:00
especially if you're a stage performer like we are,
27:02
it takes the show to a whole new level, to a whole new experience.
27:07
And that is an important thing to learn because it makes space once you're performing
27:12
the magic for the magic of the connection and the tension and the storyline to become important.
27:20
It's not just as simple as a pick a card what i'm
27:23
gonna do now what i'm gonna do now and
27:27
then i'm gonna cut and then i'm gonna deal this many
27:30
piles that stuff is where you
27:33
could be failing your magic right but once you know what you're doing you can
27:37
allow for these moments to happen thoughts i i have a whole i have a whole bunch
27:42
of random silly props for exactly that for those in between moments of magic
27:47
and the amount of times it starts to annoy me now but the amount of times i'll do.
27:54
Set roving and they're laughing, clapping, blah, blah, blah.
27:58
And then the remark is, but where the bloody hell did that ice cream come from?
28:03
I'm like, get out of here, bitch.
28:08
You know, like I did, and, and like I did this event a month ago and I,
28:14
work like talk about this ice cream spray around
28:18
the room that's awesome so that when i got to the end that
28:21
hadn't seen me yet they're like we heard there's
28:24
fire and there's an ice cream what do you got like
28:27
okay they're the two things that people have been talking about
28:30
before i'd even gotten around to the other
28:33
side and both of those things flash paper and
28:36
this stupid ice cream from do
28:39
scala magic go buy one you can get one at trick supply i
28:42
gotta get the plug in the pop stickle by pop hayden and
28:45
do scala magic we love do scala big fans
28:49
it's it's just like yeah scotty
28:52
we're not even yeah we're not even talking about the toothless comb like
28:55
i've just got so many silly things for the in between the magic moments
28:58
because they they are what counts which is what nick's saying
29:01
that's awesome you have a toothless comb i've done
29:04
that senior toothless comb i love this i'll get it hang
29:07
on but yeah to stop wearing a hat so i can do this gag
29:10
so that's the
29:13
thing so the moments in between these the jokes the lines the you know there
29:19
are so many examples we can give so even something as simple as like asking
29:22
what they do for a living or making a joke or and then you see there's josh's
29:25
toothless comb there we go bald man's comb oh nice okay yeah.
29:32
My fiance got it for me and the funny thing is it's an actual product you can buy but now,
29:38
it's tax deductible and i i act i'm probably the
29:41
only man in the world that uses his bald man's probably
29:44
and essentially it sits in my it sits
29:47
in my jacket so anytime there's a moment where there's nothing
29:49
happening i might just take it out and just just briefly
29:52
do this put it away not say anything move on and just
29:56
people people notice it and when i went to side anecdote
30:00
really quick when i did the the the today show and they took me into hair and
30:05
makeup they're like oh you're looking great already i'm like yeah it's because
30:09
i did my hair myself and i pulled this out and they just the makeup artist lost
30:12
it because who the hell would have that prepared on them for them to say that comment and,
30:17
So, it's all stupid, but yeah, plan what you're going to do in between the magic moments. That's it.
30:24
You know, you wonder if that could be a good merchandise opportunity.
30:28
You are not wrong, sir. Yes. Yes.
30:33
Or my own line of ice cream. Like real ice cream.
30:38
I like it. There you go. Let's move on to secret number six.
30:45
I hope this one's about the deodorant.
30:53
Secret number six is you don't
30:56
need to fool everyone now this
30:59
is a big lesson in maturity as you get older and what i mean by this is that
31:05
you don't have to convince people this is really magic that you're a wizard
31:11
or a sorcerer it's okay if people are aware that this is just a trick,
31:18
yes indeed okay it's it's
31:20
a it's a it's a kind of advanced piece of knowledge that we're handing over
31:24
here but i can give you an example i was performing with theater of magic alongside
31:29
doc andrews amazing guest who will be on the show soon he did his balloon swallow
31:34
and the back row were losing their minds and they were like.
31:41
Raised their hand like in the middle of the show and like
31:44
to stop him and like could you please tell us where that
31:47
went so that we could rest so we can put our minds at
31:50
ease and it's just a simple trick
31:53
but you know it was
31:56
super entertaining and it freaked them out now the
31:59
point is is that like that ordinarily is
32:03
just seen as a silly trick right well yeah
32:07
it's like a shock moment shock moments
32:10
good fun you know we're doing the balloon swallow the deep balloon swallow where
32:13
you know it looks like you're swallowing a sword but you're swallowing a one
32:16
meter twisting balloon and away you go so everything
32:21
has the potential to seem like phenomenal but deep
32:24
down they know it's a trick they just can't figure it out and that's okay you
32:27
know it's a simple trick good times yeah
32:31
i think you're right yeah because what was the original
32:34
statement it doesn't have to be real it
32:38
can it's okay for people to know it's a trick that was that that's it
32:40
yeah yeah unless you are claiming what you're doing is real then you're like
32:46
you're walking a tight rope you know if you're chris angel or jason with danny
32:51
uh yeah but ethically ethically we shouldn't be telling people that we can generally
32:56
read minds that we can be generally you know ethically so yeah Yeah, yeah.
33:00
Unless you can, of course, like many mentalists we know, you can do it for real.
33:06
But yeah, I, sometimes people will talk up a thing that's just happened and
33:11
they'll be like, but how did you do it? And I'll be like, it's a trick.
33:15
Now, pick another card and you can make the light of it from saying it.
33:19
Yeah, I think that's completely correct. Yeah.
33:24
Don't have to have people think it's always a real
33:27
magic yeah moment yeah it's
33:31
okay for it to be a simple trick that's quite fun i mean here's a
33:33
very simple example the squeaky
33:37
toy okay the little doggy chew oh yes
33:40
squeaky toy all right simple thing you squeeze you
33:43
you you've got it in palm and you're touching things you
33:46
know oh no this sponge ball squeaks this sponge ball squeaks or
33:49
this thing squeaks and then you pull that one
33:52
out of your left hand and you're you know you're going squeak squeak squeak you
33:55
put the the one on the table you push it
33:57
to show that it works they go to push it it doesn't work there's a trick to
34:01
it okay yeah there you go and so like there's a trick to it and they're okay
34:07
with knowing there's a trick to that because it's entertaining okay and the
34:12
entertainment and the connection is what matters in situations like this,
34:17
wonderment is what matters more if they can't figure out the
34:20
trick it's still kind of fun right but ultimately it is
34:23
a trick so don't don't put too much pressure on yourself you don't need to convince
34:29
them what you're doing is well and truly real that you can read minds you can
34:32
heal the blind and you can walk on water it's not necessary for you to have
34:36
a great career you can aspire to it by all means it's just not necessary true i like it.
34:44
Go to number seven number seven performing is
34:52
the real practice dun dun dun
34:55
so you can rehearse forever in
34:58
your bedroom but that doesn't make you copper
35:02
filled you know you can
35:06
you can do all kinds of stuff in your bedroom it doesn't
35:09
make you johnny sins it just doesn't you've
35:12
got to do the work you've got to get out there well some
35:16
might say he does practice in his bedroom a
35:19
weird reference yeah but
35:23
the point is it's the flight time that
35:26
you get sharing your magic with real people
35:29
so understand that when you are out there
35:32
and you are performing for friends family people you care about
35:35
that this is you practicing what you're
35:37
doing okay and the reason i say that is
35:40
because there's so many people I know that
35:43
so well versed in card slides and I consider
35:46
way better card magicians than I am but then I've put them to work I've
35:49
put them to start performing in my venues only to
35:52
find that they're like wow I really thought I knew something and you know they're
35:58
trying to tell me the guy who has you know six residences in this town that
36:02
no you should be doing it like this and it's like oh thanks for your input respectfully
36:06
thank you but yeah they get mad because every time they give me advice, they're like.
36:10
I love that you ask us for advice and then just ignore us and do whatever you
36:13
want to do anyway. It's like, well, yeah, but I still listen.
36:16
I was just hoping that what you had to say was going to be better than what I had to say.
36:19
So to synopticize this, I think that when you are performing,
36:24
you're learning the things like your timing.
36:27
You're learning to adapt not only to the people, but to the environment,
36:32
to having a table, to not having a table, to having people who don't speak English,
36:37
to having people with no hands. You ever ask someone to hold out their hand that don't have one?
36:41
Happens it has happened and it will so reading
36:45
the energy of the room knowing that you ordinarily would
36:48
say this joke because you normally perform for your buddies at the
36:51
pub but this is an old folks home they're not going to get
36:54
that joke it might not be appropriate to do that joke so
36:57
those little things that you learn along the
37:00
way the audience management come close
37:03
as you can see come around this way now i'm going to stand from behind i'll enjoy
37:06
the view from the back of my head stupid like those things
37:09
that's why i believe that performing is where
37:12
the real practice takes place thoughts i yeah
37:15
i agree i think any magic trick i
37:18
learn that's new is always dog shit
37:22
until i've done it a bunch of times in real life
37:25
and i figure out like the actual way that it
37:27
becomes entertaining and and that's
37:30
how you work out the things that that can go
37:34
wrong sometimes and yeah i'm trying to
37:37
think of an example so like using the xy deck from ozzy wind great premise that
37:42
allows you to do some cool magic but i not worked in i not worked with it in
37:47
a in a real situation before so i was like a little bit hesitant but when i
37:52
actually started using it i was like oh.
37:55
You can fully get away with all this stuff that i was worried about people spotting
38:00
or whatever and I could work out the timing of when to do the necessary moves
38:06
to get into the routines you need to do with the deck.
38:09
And so none of that I could have figured out if I'm just in my room, you know.
38:14
Unless you're on Discord. If you're on the Magic Guys Discord,
38:16
you can be in your room jamming with other magicians and they'll help you work stuff out.
38:20
Link is in the description of wherever you're listening to this.
38:23
But otherwise, you've got to get out there, man.
38:26
Yeah. Should we go on to number eight?
38:29
I think so. let's do it originality takes longer than you think,
38:39
testify. Magicians start out by copying lines and jokes and embodying the personalities
38:47
of their heroes and stuff.
38:48
And that's totally normal to mimic your heroes and the people you look up to.
38:52
Nothing wrong with that at all. But it's through time that you eventually slowly
38:58
start to become yourself.
38:59
Now, that's if you want to be original. There are such a thing as folks who
39:04
have been affectionately called, you know,
39:07
the lunchbox magicians where they just want to buy a trick and perform it these
39:10
i'm not against it but i do know this it
39:13
can be very jarring and i've known absolute
39:16
pros who perform stuff and then go it's so weird because the moment
39:19
i take out this gimmick i become that
39:22
person and it's not the i'm like yeah we'll see what happens so finding your
39:27
own voice does take time if you want to be an original type performer and the
39:31
reason why i implore you to aim for originality is that when you become original
39:36
you get recognized and seen in a different light.
39:41
You stop being a magician to being Nick K.
39:45
You stop being a magician to Nodosh Nobito. It's very different when you start
39:50
to have your own personality and your own originality.
39:53
And the benefits of that is that you get recognition through your magic fraternity.
39:57
You get asked to lecture because you have original things that you can share,
40:01
original thought processes, original ideas, original concepts.
40:04
And so it's something nice to
40:05
inspire to, but it's something you shouldn't be too hard on yourself on.
40:09
And if it's something that you do want, just understand this takes a long time.
40:15
I've been doing this for 18 years now. So, you know, originality takes time.
40:21
I mean it's funny it's it's kind of funny that you referenced nick k and josh
40:26
norbedo but you didn't reference the guy who has the biggest following out of
40:29
all three of us here because.
40:33
When he was popping off when he was when he
40:36
was first popping off and he's showing up on everyone's feeds and like doug
40:42
what nicknames are you getting you're getting like the you know the father of
40:45
magic and like the you know all these names because people could easily recognize
40:49
you when you came on the screen and you're not like an 18 year old in a bikini
40:53
and you're frying their brains with magic.
40:56
Yeah, I'm like Grandpa Magic to the general populace, you know.
41:00
Right. Yeah, my point of view has always been like the fun uncle that fools
41:04
the crap out of you at the family gatherings. You know, that's kind of my. Yeah.
41:09
And how long did it take for you to like grow into that character?
41:16
Not like. That's my advice is stay alive a long time and then you'll get gooder, you know.
41:21
I've been doing this a couple of 50 years. Let me be clear, though.
41:24
I was horrible for the first 20 years of my life when all I cared about was
41:28
card moves and sleight of hand and reading books and learning tricks.
41:31
And I was a horrible magician. I was a good technician, a good sleight of hand artist.
41:36
But put me in front of an audience and they're going to know this.
41:39
They're going to know they saw a magician.
41:41
They won't know who Doug Kahn is, though.
41:44
You know, so yeah, this is great advice, man. find yourself and
41:47
let your audience know who you are or a perceived
41:51
character that's appropriate to your universe that's the
41:54
real win you can do that you're you're at the
41:57
top of the game and i think doug nailed it like
42:00
stay alive stay alive long enough to figure out
42:03
who you are wait till i'm 73 and
42:06
then i'm gonna be killing it you're gonna be in the prime
42:09
of your career yeah that's 73 year old
42:12
ever yeah buddy and you'd be
42:14
able to clone yourself then too no doubt but there
42:17
was a comedian it might have been tom segura there was someone saying like
42:21
you know they gave advice to this guy who was funny on stage but he was just
42:25
he was just funny he didn't really have an identity and he said just keep going
42:29
man you know it'll take you like 10 years into your career but that's when you're
42:32
at about 10 years you'll really figure out like who you are by then and And
42:37
10 years can sound like a long time,
42:38
but like the older you get, 10 years is not that long.
42:43
So it's, do you think it's something you grow into figuring out or something
42:48
you can strategically If you perform all the time.
42:51
Officially figure out. I think that's the key.
42:54
I think you hit it on the nail head that if you perform all the time,
42:58
it's so much easier to find yourself.
43:00
And the reason I say that is that I've met so many people who have been so married
43:04
to their act, whether it be through standup or to magic or abundance of other things.
43:10
And what eventually ends up happening to these folks, because they don't want
43:13
to evolve or change or move at the times or whatever it is.
43:16
I just want to say, I've got my thing. That's me. Take it or leave it. I'm like, great.
43:20
They're going to leave it eventually because over time, it's going to become
43:24
stale, or it's not going to become relevant, or there's going to be something else coming along.
43:28
And I think we all need to be prepared for that in our latter years of performing.
43:33
But the reason I think that's key is because these particular performers that
43:37
I've met always tell me things to the effect of, I'm going to reinvent myself.
43:40
I'm going to redo my branding.
43:42
I'm going to change who I am. I'm going to reinvent myself so that I can do this.
43:46
Now, I've been doing this for nearly two decades, but not once have I thought
43:49
to myself, I need to invent anything.
43:52
Like i've just been unapologetically me and that's
43:57
i think is a good thing and the reason
44:00
i haven't had to change myself is because i
44:03
haven't had to think about it it just happens naturally because every time
44:07
i perform i evolve so performing all
44:10
the time is key to becoming original and performing
44:13
all the time to evolving into someone that
44:16
you know like i'm heading into my latter years am i middle-aged
44:20
now at 40 no no i'm middle-aged
44:23
at 50 so you have 10 more years i'm
44:26
gonna live to 120 so i'm like a spring chicken relatively speaking
44:30
yeah but i just feel like you know but like what i'm
44:32
saying is that like in your 20s you can afford to be a little flirty and whatever
44:35
else and you know have a bit of a thing it's inappropriate at 40 like you should
44:39
just be a gentleman at 40 like you behave in a certain way you know what i mean
44:43
like it's you you evolve into that person you You know, I think that's the important thing.
44:51
If I reflect on when I was younger, I was trying to be the doing real magic,
44:56
slick street magic, David Blaine type of effects, trying to that be the thing
45:02
that would be my identity.
45:04
And now, now that I'm 36, 37 next month, I'm like, my goal now is to do really,
45:13
I'm going to use the word difficult, even though we just said you shouldn't
45:16
do difficult magic, but like I'm doing like what I would consider, you know, difficult.
45:21
I'm trying to do like advanced magic while being
45:24
as silly as possible at the same time is like
45:27
this kind of character that's coming out you know like this stupid comb i showed
45:30
you in the ice cream and the squeaker and the and the fake food i pull off the
45:35
trays when the the staff come around just all this silly stuff but i'm trying
45:38
to hit them with really hard magic so it's like what's that last one i'm getting
45:42
all the norbido bits today oh you got fake food you.
45:46
Yeah, the latest one is, and this is all stuff that Juice Gala sends me because
45:51
we have these chats and he'll send me a package and it will have like a fake lemon in it or whatever.
45:57
And he sends it as a joke, but jokes on him, I actually use all this stuff.
46:02
The latest thing that he sent me is this, which is a fake tentacle.
46:09
So off the tray, when the staff come around, I've talked about this before,
46:14
how I will pluck a coin off the tray to keep the beat of magic moving when they offer food.
46:20
But lately I'll say to people, oh, you have to try the tentacle and I'll pull
46:25
that off the tray and just watch the staff member, the caterer just freak out like, what the f...
46:31
And then I'll just fake pass into a hand and be like, I'll put that in this
46:35
guy's pocket. I'll put that in your pocket for later.
46:39
And you know what a quick story on that i
46:42
did that last week and fun fact most
46:45
people's suits they're wearing at an event it's like
46:48
they've just bought it because who wears a suit
46:51
anymore so when i go to fake put the tentacle in the guy's top jacket pocket
46:57
i can feel that it's sealed still so i will then make a second effect and i'll
47:04
be like oh and so that you don't lose it let me just seal your pocket closed and I'll do this thing.
47:09
I learned that from Steve Cohen. And then they'll check their pocket and be
47:13
like, oh my God, it is sealed. What the hell?
47:15
Because they don't know that a suit is sealed when you buy a new jacket.
47:20
So now they're like, why the hell do I have a pocket I can't open now?
47:23
And there's a piece of seafood inside it. What the hell is happening?
47:26
It's such a, and it just happened on the weekend. It was such a funny moment.
47:29
That's great. And that was in between the magic.
47:33
It was at a time that normally is annoying because
47:36
the caterer just stopped and interrupted the
47:39
group but it actually made it a really one-of-a-kind moment
47:42
in their eyes fake food
47:45
people carry some fake food scotty came in to
47:48
comment like you could do like a finger food
47:51
like it'd be great just like that's funny
47:55
that's great my buddy nugget barlow was in
47:57
from alaska last month working wonderground he did
48:00
he did shrimp magic magic with shrimps it
48:04
was spectacular actually he's like i like what are you going to do tonight
48:07
he's like i think i'm going to do my shrimp magic i'm like what did
48:10
you just say shrimp magic yeah i got this routine it's fucking hilarious it's
48:17
great all right it's great so yeah yeah find out who you are and that was just
48:21
a long tangent to say i think what i'm finding out i am is this guy that does
48:25
hard-hitting magic but It is such a goof at the same time. So it's fun to.
48:30
Love it. All right. Yeah. I mean, I think we all have our vices or our personalities.
48:36
And I think me by nature, I'm just a big kid who hates bullies.
48:40
So if you're mean, I will destroy you in front of everyone.
48:42
But, and the only reason why I don't like bullies is because you take away from
48:46
the fun that we're all trying to have.
48:49
So as long as we're nice to each other, like everyone's welcome.
48:51
Like I'm, I'm just like, Hey, you like transformers?
48:54
Me too. We're best friends. Come and come and sit with me now.
48:56
You know? And then we all sit and play together. Like that's the idea.
48:59
We're all playing, you know?
49:01
And then as far as the magic goes, you know, it's like, it's like the title
49:05
I afford myself is professional mind blower.
49:07
And it's just so that I can do all facets of magic. I'm not restricted to being
49:11
slight of hand artists or whatever.
49:13
Like I'll, I'll do the mind reading. I'll do this. I'll do that.
49:15
I'll do cubes. I'll do pickpocketing. it's like
49:18
i'll whatever it takes to achieve your mind
49:21
being blown i'll do that and i'll go to that nth degree so that's that it took
49:26
me a long time to find that guy a long long time and a lot of conversation so
49:30
take away he's also so humble so humble yeah yeah.
49:39
What's, what's unhumbling about me sharing advice? No, no, no.
49:43
I'm just trying to be funny, you know, try to add jokes. Yeah, we should. Yeah.
49:48
Yes. The viewers get it. The viewers get it. Now, when I, when I watch Nick, I get the vibe.
49:54
Like when I watch Nick perform, I do get the big kid vibe that now it's like
49:59
a big kid that he comes across as like a big kid who has a lot of money in,
50:05
in like just through watching him perform is what I mean.
50:07
Like, he's a big kid, but he does command the room.
50:11
There's like, you know, 5% cockiness to him in the best way because he's not,
50:15
like, afraid to try something that when the audience hear the claim they think
50:20
should not be possible. But then he does vanish someone's phone and it appears somewhere crazy.
50:24
So, like, you feel confident watching him. But then he'll also throw out lines.
50:28
Like, when someone crosses their arms, he's like, hey, chill,
50:30
I'm not trying to steal your nipples. And I'm like, okay.
50:33
So, like, he's not trying to be full-on James Bond professional,
50:36
hello there but he will call people your
50:40
highness and you know so it's a lot of
50:42
fun to watch speaking of too much money david
50:46
has just come in with the hundred dollar donation bro man wow this is crazy
50:53
we can now afford to keep this podcast running for another five years that's
50:57
awesome dude thank you so much that's crazy you guys are crazy out there very cool yeah,
51:05
wow that's yeah we appreciate your kindness we can pretty much end this episode
51:09
now we feel accomplished well.
51:12
Well we have we have three more things to touch upon before we wrap up and we've
51:15
got 10 minutes to do it so what do you say we press on thank you again David.
51:20
A wonderful donation thank you it's very appreciated you're
51:23
a good friend and i'm dying i'm actually i'm so looking forward to hanging out with
51:26
david he's going to come visit at magic fest so we're going to run amok it's
51:29
going to be dope yeah and if of course anyone else is coming to melbourne magic
51:34
festival like hit your boy up we'll we'll we'll put together a jam session and
51:38
we'll like every night we're going to have pizza and hang out anyway so just
51:42
like come and hang it's everyone's welcome,
51:45
Oh, Pete Booth with a big note. One bob. Thank you, Pete Booth. Oh, dude.
51:51
You moved a few decimal places to David's, but we'll take it.
51:54
That's the GST on the $100.
51:57
That's my man. That's one third of a thumb tip. That's not bad.
52:01
That's a good deal. That is a McDonald's soft serve ice cream.
52:06
All right. Well, let's give the audience what they paid for,
52:09
which is all the knowledge we have. There's three more to go.
52:11
Okay. Yes. Well, there's a few more to go. Here we go. Number nine.
52:18
Networking changes careers i do
52:21
believe that through relationships friendships trust you
52:24
have in a community all very
52:27
important i also think that having a mentor and going
52:30
to lectures and going to conventions these types
52:33
of things can change your life and you
52:37
know it's through no other purpose than having an
52:40
opportunity to meet your heroes to build friendships you know
52:43
we interview absolute legends you know
52:46
we have two legends in the podcast right now so it
52:49
is these sort of opportunities that open doors that
52:53
you're totally unaware of like josh nabito and i met at an audition
52:56
in sydney some 10 years ago or something and
52:59
now we're hoping a fism winning podcast together so these opportunities are
53:04
really nice and you just keep yourself open to them without ego without beguilement
53:09
you know just love everyone as you love your neighbor just go out there and
53:13
make some friends and just be polite and open to everyone.
53:16
I think that these will give you great opportunities.
53:18
You know, we have a discord for this reason. Nothing makes me more exciting
53:22
than when someone jumps on and says, Hey man, I'm from Saudi Arabia.
53:25
Any other people in the area who want to hang and talk magic? I'm like, this is sick.
53:30
This is so good. This is exactly what community is supposed to be about.
53:34
So these networking opportunities are so important. Like I was ringing out the
53:39
people going, I need guys in Canberra from Canberra hit me up and everyone's
53:43
going, I know a guy, I know a guy, I know a guy, I know a guy. I'm like, perfect.
53:47
It's an opportunity for us to all help each other. So that's why I think that
53:50
networking is important.
53:53
Man, that's such, like, that should be its own episode, almost.
53:57
Like, the amount of work that we do from other magicians giving us that work
54:03
or us giving work to other magicians or agents that we have a relationship with is just, like,
54:09
uncanny compared to how many new inquiries we get from brand new people from Google or whatever.
54:15
A little side note, Herbert coming in with the $6.66 donation.
54:20
Can I just say, maybe you didn't see, but Pete Booth is covering the GST on
54:24
every donation. So you really only had to donate $6 and he would have done the
54:29
66 cents for you, right, Pete?
54:32
So the next donation we get, Pete
54:34
will match it to the 10% of what that is just to keep it tax purposes,
54:41
just playing it straight for everyone for the donating thank
54:45
you herbert so much thank you so much yeah so doug
54:48
i think i mean with the networking options i mean it's probably how
54:50
you even ended up here in vegas right oh 100 yeah
54:54
magic conventions talking with wolfgang we had to sit down you know had some
54:57
dinner a couple times you know this didn't happen overnight it was an evolution
55:01
and you know and now like i go to wonderground and perform on a regular basis
55:05
mainly to network with the local professionals and because of that i end up
55:08
at jeff mcbride's house sometimes getting comps to other magic shows and.
55:12
And also just, you know, bouncing ideas off like-minded people in professional ballpark, you know?
55:18
Yeah. So, yeah. But I think it's more important maybe to be networking in arenas
55:22
that aren't magic-centric. You know, if you can get out and do, you know...
55:27
Like a good example is if you, if you do a gig at a venue,
55:31
make it a point to show some of the staff of the venue itself,
55:37
some magic, not don't just like perform for the client event and then you've
55:41
done a great job and leave, like make it a point to find the manager of the
55:45
venue, like do some magic,
55:47
leave your card because now you're in front of mind and they,
55:51
you do that enough and they might just mention you
55:55
when someone says they need a magician the best
55:58
example i have of this is my little
56:01
claim to fame in my in my in my stage show like introduction is that i got to
56:08
work for kate blanchett in consulting with her role in oceans eight and the
56:15
only reason i got to do that was because i did a gig and there was a casino company,
56:21
putting on like a casino themed fun night.
56:25
And I went up to them. I got their card.
56:29
We had a good time working together. I would do magic on some of their casino
56:32
tables and then I would break and they would play roulette and blackjack and stuff.
56:36
And I tried to get them work from one of my clients. I said,
56:41
hey, you're booking me. It's your birthday. Why don't you have some casino tables?
56:44
Here's this company I just worked for.
56:47
And they booked them. Now, this casino company is forever grateful,
56:51
and they start putting me forward for some of their gigs.
56:56
They're like, great, now we do gigs together because we realize we can work well.
57:02
Went out on their limb long story short they get
57:06
the contract to go and set up
57:08
and teach kate blanchett how to play blackjack and they
57:12
decide to pitch to her oh we also have a side of
57:14
hand artist on our books that can they can actually teach you
57:17
how to cheat and steal chips and stuff and they were like that
57:20
sounds great and so all because of in the very beginning
57:23
i made it a point to talk to this other vendor that was at this
57:26
party and get them work i ended up
57:28
getting the best work of all and it
57:32
all comes through networking so like that's where the magic happens it's
57:35
not on seo god damn it it's like in
57:38
the real world absolutely so we might
57:41
go into overtime but i just think these next few ones are super important
57:45
so look let's just tip it into overtime and chat it out real quick
57:48
so secret number 10 um burnout is
57:54
real i love magic
57:57
beyond anything more than it's it's
58:01
more than anything i've got in my life because i wouldn't have what i have in
58:04
my life if it wasn't for magic i wouldn't have the wealth i've accumulated which
58:08
then in turn gives me the ability to take care of the people i care about to
58:12
support people to give back to
58:14
my community all the above if it wasn't for magic but I without question,
58:20
at least twice a year consider giving up magic.
58:24
And it's just what happens. And one of those times is around December 18th.
58:33
Yeah, it's just one of those moments where, you know, like you just start thinking about it.
58:37
You start thinking about life and where you're going and thinking to yourself,
58:39
like, maybe I should not do this.
58:40
Maybe I should just get a real job and focus on, you know, being able to be
58:44
this type of person more, be, you know, here for my partner more or something
58:49
like that. You know, there's always something that makes you question.
58:52
It's normal. it is normal right then you kick yourself in the head and go what
58:57
the hell was i thinking so it's gonna happen right tim ellis like tim ellis
59:02
says i'm not equipped to do any other job,
59:06
yeah yeah but you know it's also just an opportunity for you to you sometimes
59:10
you tip the scale and you got to take a little moment and go i'm imbalanced
59:14
and i need to just not do magic this week i just need i need to just mountain
59:19
bike or i need to just not read any books.
59:22
I just, it's okay to get to those points. You know, you can rest.
59:26
Rest is such an important thing in, in being a human and you should take advantage
59:31
of it. You know, rediscovering wonder elsewhere.
59:33
There is life outside of magic. Go find that, you know, so just be weary of burnout.
59:39
We can all agree that. I mean, we all burn out on the podcast.
59:42
We all burn out on social media.
59:43
Like it's a normal thing. So don't be surprised if you start questioning it.
59:49
Yeah yeah I mean like yeah I'll keep it real like I I was messaging Nick and
59:53
Doug and I was like I think I'm having burnout from doing this podcast not because
59:57
I don't love doing it but just the the mental.
1:00:01
Framework of knowing like, okay, next week I'm doing another one.
1:00:04
Now that like, that's on my mind. We're going to make it good.
1:00:07
We're going to have a thing. We're going to have a thumb, we're going to have
1:00:09
an AI thumbnail for everyone to complain about.
1:00:13
And after five years, eventually like, oh, you know, oh, damn,
1:00:17
this is really becoming, this feels like a lot.
1:00:19
But then we have, but then we do the episode and I'm like, what am I worrying about?
1:00:23
But, you know, I, I have that same burnout vibe with video, making videos.
1:00:28
Like I'm sure Doug I can talk on and on about it. Like you push yourself to
1:00:32
make all these videos and then you stop and then one hits.
1:00:35
And then like for a while you have this run of some not doing well.
1:00:38
And you know, like right now I'm going through a phase of just trying to stick
1:00:43
to quality right now where I'm not actively making my own videos,
1:00:47
but I'm trying to collab with other people that I could make a good video with.
1:00:51
And I'm just more concentrating on learning good magic,
1:00:55
with the time that I would have spent in front of my camera filming
1:00:59
some you know reaction video or whatever
1:01:02
yeah what about you doug over the years
1:01:04
you said you did you stop magic for a certain point a few
1:01:07
times you know i've taken a break a few times
1:01:10
sometimes by necessity from like hurricane katrina for example or wiped out
1:01:16
my city and i had to find something else to do but so and then sometimes just
1:01:20
because of burnout and even maybe uh depression states you know it's a it's
1:01:25
a roller coaster and And I'd say, like you just said,
1:01:28
you do something for, you know, any length of time.
1:01:30
And if it's 10, 20 years, yeah.
1:01:33
You know, especially if you're doing the same thing, you know, over and over and over.
1:01:37
So, but it's this. In my discovery, magic is always ready for you to come back to it.
1:01:45
And it can be, you know, five years away. You can be 80 years old and come back to it.
1:01:50
Some of my customers here are as old as the hills, loving magic like a kid in a candy store. So...
1:01:58
Ride the wave and it's all good right so we have one more secret and then we're
1:02:04
going to share individual closing uh final words so secret number 11 which is
1:02:09
the last one we want to touch upon is.
1:02:15
The audience wants you to succeed
1:02:18
true they do they want
1:02:22
to see you do well most people want to
1:02:26
believe in something they want to have fun
1:02:28
they want to enjoy themselves so you
1:02:32
don't need to treat audiences like a threat that's the
1:02:36
lesson from this yeah people aren't
1:02:39
there to be defeated yeah and you can be a little less concerned
1:02:42
about them being combative you know i think a
1:02:45
lot of people are ready with their heckler lines or even creating routines that
1:02:50
involve conflict with an audience member that often leave the audience member
1:02:55
looking less than ideal in that routine so yeah yeah any anything else before we wrap this up.
1:03:06
Like if you if you really take on these bullet points from
1:03:09
this whole episode like you're really gonna make a
1:03:12
big change in your career i think like you know make
1:03:16
sure you practice stuff that you feel confident when you're performing don't
1:03:19
just buy the latest penguin magic thing and chuck it
1:03:22
in there you'll be nervous figure out who you
1:03:25
are think about the stuff you're doing in between the
1:03:28
magic that's where it happens network realize people are on your side you know
1:03:32
it's not about the hard stuff it's about the stuff that hits like this is all
1:03:36
this is these really are the real secrets of magic i believe and so yeah as
1:03:42
we wrap this up let's go in turn and maybe share one or two things that you think.
1:03:49
Would like to tell your younger self getting into
1:03:52
the game so for example if i could lead
1:03:55
the if i can lead the choir i think that it's good
1:03:58
to carry backups of things more than one pack of playing cards for example i
1:04:03
think it's important to learn people's names when you perform that's a good
1:04:08
one that's it's one of them it's one of the most valuable things that i do when
1:04:12
i'm at my residencies i've got hundreds of people coming in and out of the venue
1:04:15
and as they're walking out of the venue and I say,
1:04:17
bye Jeff, bye Tim, bye Sarah, bye, and one by one, they're walking out going,
1:04:22
they remember, he remembered our names.
1:04:24
And the manager goes, you know their names? And I'll literally sit on the camera
1:04:29
with them sometimes. And I'll go, how's your audience? Let me show you.
1:04:32
And then I go, these guys here, this is what she does for a living.
1:04:35
And they go, how do you, how, how? And I'm like, I don't know. I just care.
1:04:39
So I think that having backups, learning name, And the last thing is don't rush.
1:04:47
I have a whole list, but this is the last one I'm going to share to allow you guys to wrap up.
1:04:51
Don't rush the applause. If people clap or laugh, wait for them to stop and continue.
1:04:59
I'm going to follow up on Drago Tears' statement. He said, just turn this stuff
1:05:04
into a book. Someone already did.
1:05:06
It's this book, Maximum Entertainment 2.0. So if you're serious about this craft
1:05:12
and you haven't read this book, you're doing it wrong.
1:05:15
This covers all the topics that we just talked about as well as a hundred more.
1:05:19
It's an invaluable text, and I consider it one of the top three most important books of all time.
1:05:26
That's awesome. I think, yeah, all of this stuff is great.
1:05:30
If I was to look back and tell my younger self something, like Nick said,
1:05:34
it would be to stop being so polite and polished to the audience.
1:05:43
Rather, try and push the boundaries a bit and try and act like a part of the
1:05:48
group that would command people to do stuff and make them put their drinks down.
1:05:53
Don't just like do a trick that's just here in your
1:05:56
hands because you don't want anyone to have to put their drink down to
1:05:58
help you do a trick or whatever like i would really the more
1:06:01
i learned to just like be more free and treat
1:06:05
the gig that i'm at as like a playground to
1:06:08
bring people in and have as much fun as possible that's what i would
1:06:11
tell my younger self so it's not like a direct line i'm describing but it's
1:06:15
more of a feeling like i would allow myself to play more and command the room
1:06:19
more as a younger magician instead of being so polite like hello man look here
1:06:23
i have a thing and now it's a thing and now you should be impressed and thank
1:06:27
you so much. I would be like, put your drinks down.
1:06:29
And I make jokes all the time. I say, all right, so this time you shuffle the
1:06:33
cards, you inspect this, you lay on the floor, okay?
1:06:37
And I just see that, you know, and then they go to do it. I'm like,
1:06:39
no, no, don't do that. That'd be silly.
1:06:40
But now I know like I have the power to make them do that if I wanted to.
1:06:44
And it's kind of funny, you know?
1:06:45
I would tell myself that, play more at the gig, like be more playful. Love it, love it.
1:06:52
On that note, ladies and gentlemen, the three bald amigos are off to venture
1:06:57
into the wilderness. We will see you next week for another banger.
1:07:02
And in the meantime, check us out on the discords for more good stuff.
1:07:07
And thank you again to those who sent in speak pipes. We want to play.
1:07:11
We were just talking about this backstage. We want to hear from you guys more
1:07:15
often than us talking even. So at least one a week, we're going to open the
1:07:21
episodes with a SpeakPipe.
1:07:22
So I know, Seth, for example, you sent one through. Thank you so much.
1:07:25
We're going to open next week with yours.
1:07:28
And so keep them coming. SpeakPipe.com forward slash The Magic Guys. Also the money.
1:07:33
Keep the money coming in, guys. That was fantastic. Thank you for all the kind donations.
1:07:38
Keep that going. That's crazy. It keeps the lights on.
1:07:42
Yeah, it keeps the lights on, guys. Thank you. Yeah. These colorful lights aren't
1:07:46
cheap. You know what I mean? No, we love you all and have a good night.