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From Broken Fingers to Broadway: Christopher Wayne's Journey · 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... Oh my gosh. Nick,
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what episode are we up to today? 215. 215.
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Oh yeah, to my left, I got Nick K over here. Hi, I'm Nick K and to my right there's Josh Nibito.
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Can't believe it. We're here for another episode of Goodness.
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And obviously, this is the podcast where we as professional magicians share
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our lives, our shenanigans, the real working stuff, and introduce cool guests like we have today.
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Doug is running around rampant in Vegas, so no doubt he's going to have just
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a plethora of stories that we have to catch up on next week with him.
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But Nick, what is the latest with you before we dive in? Anything the viewer should know today?
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Well the melbourne magic festival is in full swing i hear
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it's going very well we've got amazing acts like tobias dostal
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performing there as well as our friend that we interviewed some
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weeks ago eric leclerc so be sure to scope out those
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guys as well as the many other awesome amazing acts
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and then that oh man so are you
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just really quickly are you like hanging out
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with these guys are you like have you seen their shows yet i guess
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it's more for next week but i've had back to
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back gigs and in between that i've been renovating a property of mine so
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i've been really busy with that
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and i've got to get this property back on the market because every week that
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it's not on like there it's 500 bucks i'm losing so
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i've had to prioritize a lot of magicians out there got a cool extra two mil
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see nick and you can buy an apartment from him anyway look guys today we have
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a we have an international comedy magician ready to share some crazy stories now Now,
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obviously, he's one of our best friends in magic and one of the co-owners of
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the Theatre of Magic that we're forever talking on and on about.
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He's a triple header now.
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This will be his third appearance on the Magic Guys podcast,
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but his stories get crazy every time.
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He's from Brisbane, but he's currently playing off-Broadway in New York.
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Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a huge big welcome to Mr. Christopher Wayne.
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That can't be a real audience Surely That's amazing How do you get them all around this early?
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You know The time zone difference And,
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No, you're the comedy magician. I don't even know. It's fake. It's all fake.
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I'm not today. Just like my career. Christopher, we, of course,
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adore, love you and know you very well.
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But for the folks, the new listeners who might not know who you are,
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please tell us who you are.
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Cool. Guys, thanks for having me back. And congratulations on your success since
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I was last on because I'm a listener as well.
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And obviously, your FISM nomination was insane.
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And just the amount of listeners and all the guests you guys have had.
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Just well done. To Doug as well.
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My name's Christopher Wayne. I'm from Brisbane, Australia. I'm primarily a comedy magician.
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So my thing is I co-created a show called The Naked Magicians with my best friend
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and business partner, Mike Tyler. We did that for nine years together.
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And it's the most successful Aussie magic show in history.
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So we did about 300 cities, 1,300 shows around the world from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong.
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London's West End, two seasons at Edinburgh Fringe,
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and a residency in Las Vegas at MGM grand in 2019
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and now we're doing
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it we're back with the naked magicians five years later
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in new york of all places
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uh and then in between those two things in between vegas the world ending and
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new york i was lucky enough to co-create the theater of magic which uh runs
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in two cities now in australia yeah very fond of that i love it too is it can we start with like.
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Because originally you weren't going to play in this
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off-Broadway show correct like you like even
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though you created the show and the show was going to play on here
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do you want to tell them a little bit
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about like how hard that was to like how you ended up being here in the show
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I guess yeah so the show the Naked Magicians is a duo show with my originally
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with myself and Mike Tyler and that's all it ever was the closest we ever had
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to having another Naked Magician was Josh when we were doing a tour and I broke my...
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My foot i think and uh
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we ended up going down the painkiller and and
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cast her out for that and i josh didn't have to get
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his dong out on stage so we yeah
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mike and i did a like a little mini australian tour in 2022
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and we kind of decided to put everything to
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bed mike's married and has a beautiful family and
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i just needed to figure out my life i
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think and and then a promoter in the us so our show's been quite popular in
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the us we've done we played about 130 cities over here over the years and they
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reached out about another tour and we said look we're too old to be in the show
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but we'd love to help you guys we'd love to you know offer you a new version of the show,
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and they said cool well let's go find a cast and mike and i.
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We spoke to a lot of magicians and a lot of not magicians and then we ended
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up finding just this perfect, perfect candidate to replace Mike.
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And we had this amazing venue opportunity
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in New York City, but we just couldn't find a guy to replace me.
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And I'm a pretty specific type of character in the show because it's just based on my personality.
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And we just couldn't find someone, but we didn't want the opportunity to miss.
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So we're like, maybe I can go back to the gym for a couple of months and it
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kind of worked out great because this new guy's not really been in a show like this before.
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So when we're on stage together, I can cover anything he misses.
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So it ended up working quite well.
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And it was a bit daunting because I'd put that part of my life to bed very much
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mentally and emotionally and spiritually, surely.
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And here we are. And life, right
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that's life so in in
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the show in which you progressively undress and
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so forth and expose yourself like there is this huge level of vulnerability
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and i believe and i would assume that it takes this huge level of confidence
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to be able to stand you know on stage to begin with let alone shirt off pants
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down and so forth what's your training regime look like in for the for the gym?
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Like, are you in this constant state of no carbs, no carbs? Like,
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how's that existence for you?
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It's been surprisingly easy. This was my easiest cut at 41.
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So Mike's just perpetually been in shape his whole life, but I am traditionally
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a chubby boy and I've always yo-yoed with my weight.
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So I'd go on like a tour and I'd be really lean for it.
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The challenge in this particular instance, Nick, was I was drinking in particular
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a lot of alcohol and not exercising much for the last few years.
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And I just want to shout out Alyssa, who I just found out is watching one of
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my best friends. That makes me so happy.
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Dad, she loves it when I do a dab. Yeah, it's her favorite.
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I gave up drinking, Nick, about
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just over nine months ago for the first time in my entire adult life.
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So a very, very long time, over 20 years. And weight just fell off me,
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just so freaking fast from that.
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And this was before I knew about this Naked Magicians opportunity.
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So I remember when I started losing weight, I'm like, I might start eating healthy again.
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And then I started eating healthy again, and I was starting to feel good as
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well as be a bit thinner. I'm like, I'm to go back to the gym.
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And then I'm going to go push myself a little more.
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And then I started just doing all of that. And then it was somewhere in the
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middle of that, that the Naked Magicians opportunity came up.
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And what I've always said is if you're going to get on, there's no greater motivation
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in the world to eat healthy and exercise than knowing a few hundred people are
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going to pay to see you naked on a stage.
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Like, yeah, it makes you want to get your butt into gear.
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And crazily enough, at 40 into 41 years old, it was the easiest because of just
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diet and then exercise that age-old thing.
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That's amazing. And interestingly enough as well, Chris was telling us off backstage
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that for his co-star in this show, they didn't find a magician and try and teach him the act.
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They found a comedian and then taught him magic.
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Is that, I guess that's the best outcome?
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Like, do you think it's better to find a comedian, teach them magic rather
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than a magician and teach than comedy it depends
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on the show and it depends on the type of magic
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show because ours is like scripted like
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we improvise throughout but there's like we know what we're doing throughout
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like the show has a direction and an
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order cutting you know no different to i
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don't know matt king for example you know his tricks
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go a certain way and it's going to end with the beer at the end
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but uh he's going to improvise the whole way through and we were like we were
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trying to find a magician who was like he had to be over five foot ten you know
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we want someone taller on stage had to have a certain aesthetic because we do
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take our clothes off in the show and had to be like an elite level comedy performer.
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So then when you realize there were none of them, you're like,
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all right, let's find a comedian.
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What's that journey look like? That's the thing, especially when you've got
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such an important shell that needs to be filled, a big shoe to be filled, so to speak.
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What's that journey look like? Take us through that because seldom do the magicians
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that listen to this have to step into a role.
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Do you know what I mean? So what does it look like?
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Yeah, it's like we're just going to be ourselves or alter ego version of ourselves,
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a higher version of ourselves and so forth. But to step into,
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did you give this gentleman space to inject himself or did he have to fully embody who Mike was?
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Like, how was that process of finding him and guiding him through that?
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Yeah, nice. That's an amazing question, Nick. Incredible. So, okay.
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In our show, casting is based on the audience.
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So our audience is primarily girls' nights out, followed by gay men and then
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cheeky couples in that order. Yeah.
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And a part of what we offer them is like the sexual and the attractive aesthetic.
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So they have to be funny and they have to be equally hot, just that hot and
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not just like, oh, they're a good-looking person, but like, you know,
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the type of person when they walk, and I don't fit this.
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This is me setting a, like Mike Tyler is a, you know, he looks like a Ken doll with eyebrows.
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I was just, I was the fat friend by proxy that, you know, sort of hung on.
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But we knew that they they had to be really attractive because there are people
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that you know anyone can look okay in a suit we can put on a suit but we wanted
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someone that when they walked into a room people would notice because of wow
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that's a good looking fellow right there and in our show there's a specific
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moment where we tear off our shirts and we want the audience to scream and that's a pop in the show,
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It's like for us, it's like the bit where Copperfield makes the car appear over the audience.
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Yeah, we kind of just couldn't afford the car. So it's like,
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just tear your shirt off.
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Where do you find that? So we wanted someone that would not hit our standard,
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but would reach what we're selling our audience.
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And then from that, we happened across this hilarious and very handsome comedian on Instagram.
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Just, he looked like Clark Kent. he looked like henry cavill and was really
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funny he could do impressions and he had he had stage presence but there were
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also a couple of videos of him doing crowd work and we're like this guy can
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improvise and he can if you get something thrown at him he can deal with it on the spot,
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and it's like it's not hard to teach someone how to do a mallory master prediction right.
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And it's not hard to teach someone snowstorm in
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china it's not easy but it's easier than teaching someone comedy timing and
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the power of silence and rhythm and crowd work and stage work stage presence
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and pacing so we went that road and we've we spent months with him over zoom,
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to but oh you can ask more about that but to answer your other
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question nick mike was like the the build
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and it's like we step into mike first and then when you understand his role
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in the show you can start finding your bids so for the first week of previews
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he was pretty much just doing like mike's scripts almost verbatim and then in
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notes in week two we're like okay your
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job in this show is to do something that's not in the script and make the audience
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laugh we gave him that note one night that was his only note and he's like okay
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and i'm like so what trick do you think you want to do that in and then i said
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just do whatever you want don't obviously You don't be offensive.
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Doesn't matter what the joke is, get a laugh out of the audience.
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You have my full blessing.
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And he kind of asked, is that okay if I cut loose a little? There was an actual
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conversation about that. And I'm like, now's the time.
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And then every show now, he's finding at least one or two more of them that
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are his own, that are unique, whilst he's got a stack of jokes that we are discovered over the years.
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Sorry for ending a rant. No, that's perfect.
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We've still got 45 minutes of potential ranting.
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Go for it no it's really the reason i love about that is
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also that like i like my favorite musical for example is a
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comedy which is the the book of mormon okay i
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think it's one of the funniest things ever i've seen this seven times that's
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how much i love it right and i've seen it from conception
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when it was first around and then i've seen
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it like a few years ago and obviously it's been around for so
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long that the version that was then versus what it is now
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it's totally different it's tighter it's funnier and there's a lot of jokes
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that happen that i just believe are almost want to say almost like indigenous
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or like from the people who are a part of it you know what i mean just because
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of their body type or whatever it might be like they do something to to make
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it better and i think it's really cool that you've allowed him to.
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To do that do you think that by the end of this run there'll
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be certain things that he's injected that will be like almost
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a permanent imprint on the show 100 he
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in rehearsals he because he's a comedian we're teaching
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him a trick and i'm not going to give away the joke or the trick but it's
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one of our it's a great piece in the show that mike has finessed
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to perfection over literally thousands of performances
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and he he
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as he was just going through it he just made a joke about it's
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like a list of celebrity names and he just made a joke about one of the celebrities
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where we just we're like how did
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we miss that 1300 times yeah
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and it was he put it in the show on night one and the
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audience just lost it and that's it's like
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aaron thank you so much that's in the show it's yours and now it's like not
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just ours it's it belongs to someone else and because of that there's more joy
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in the show than there was when it was just mike and i yeah wow and speaking
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of Because it's always been Mike and you this whole time. Yeah.
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What's it like for Mike to watch the show happen when he's not in it?
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Has he told you any comments about that?
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And what's it like for you to do the show, look over and not see Mike? Is that still weird?
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I don't know. None of this feels real yet, if I'm to be honest.
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Fair enough. But it wasn't as weird on stage. It was really weird in rehearsals.
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And Mike was in Australia when I was doing rehearsals over here with the new guy.
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And like Mike would zoom in
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and that was really weird because I had a laptop in
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the theater and I could see Mike's face and then
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I'm standing on stage his name's Adam Rose and it's
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like welcome to the Naked Magicians my name's Christopher
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Wayne and then I've heard 1300 times and I'm Mike Tyler and we know what you're
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thinking and then he says Adam Rose and then Mike like I saw Mike smile on the
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screen and I smiled and we just shook our heads because we we always knew this
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would be a great opportunity for us but we just never imagined how do you imagine
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it's someone else you know.
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It's weird. Yeah. Well, I guess if the options were seeing it evolve and seeing
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someone else take the throne, so to speak, versus watching it die and letting it, you know,
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be lost in the sands of time. Like, I think that's a much better place to be.
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We also had a third option, Nick, of doing it beyond our years,
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where people would turn up and we would slowly taper down like that.
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And we had really agreed to not. so I've
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got a time limit on me because audience is number one but
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yeah I'm really thankful that we're finding a new life for the show and
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a new audience it's pretty cool because like our show
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doesn't cure cancer but bloody hell there's so many shows over here that are
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like heavy or have like themes and now there's like one show that's like magic
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magic dick joke magic dick joke magic and it's great it's great I think he just
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wrote a hit yeah and that's actually literally.
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Somebody's just sampled that and it's going to be on the billboard in no time,
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if anyone's going to do it it's scotty p i bet he'll do it question about comedy chris,
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i'm most recently okay when it comes to performing and when people promote comedy
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in magic it's never really done from a think about the comedy first aspect it's
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kind of comedy happens sort of step by second nature.
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And as far as comedy is concerned, I consider myself someone who's naturally funny.
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And I don't think that I can get on stage and do a Kill Bill set,
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for example, and do one minute of just straight stand up.
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That's not something that by nature I can do.
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Like I would have to really think about it and calculate that sort of thing.
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But put me in front of a group of people and interact and make fun and I can
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be polite and funny or I can tear apart some hecklers. Not a problem.
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I, since then, have taken it upon myself to start learning comedy.
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And I've just recently got my hands on the comedy Bible, which I'm slowly working
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through because every chapter is some things to work on.
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Is that something that you did with regards to learning comedy?
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Or is it just something that you did by nature? Did you just watch a bunch of stand-up folk?
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How did you actually learn comedy? What tips do you have for anyone who wants
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to learn and understand comedy?
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I'm thankful for the question. And I'm so excited for every magician to ignore
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the advice that I'm about to give, despite the fact that I believe it's crucial.
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The number of magicians that have ignored this advice astounds me.
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Go to, I went to comedy clubs. I was doing as many open mic nights as I was doing magic.
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And I feel like there's like, cause that's kind of like the old school of like
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guys like Matt King and Michael Finney would travel around and do comedy clubs with comedy magic.
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And if you can, like a comedy audience, they don't care if it's magic or not. They just want funny.
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You have to be funny. And I have died a thousand deaths on comedy stages,
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but that's where you find, it's where you find the most.
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And it's, you know, it's like with these kids these days with magic,
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you know, like YouTube magicians and stuff that practice and just do their stuff
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in front of a camera at home.
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It's, it's not the same until you take it to a live audience.
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I'm drinking sparkling water. I'm a little gassy.
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You just have to go and try material. And that can be just written comedy,
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like just jokes that you've written or a comedy magic set at open mic nights.
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They're everywhere. And you can get in Australia, you can get five minute spots really easily.
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And you just know. And I remember there were so many bits that I tried that just died horribly.
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And I'm sure there were some bits in there that I found that I've kept in my material to today.
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But yeah, comedy audiences will tell you if you're funny or not.
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And if you want to know if you're funny or not, perform in front of a comedy audience.
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Or if you sell yourself as a comedy magician, great. Go perform at a comedy club. See how you go.
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So that's it. Just baptism by fire. Get in there. Yeah.
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That Peter Booth, Chris and I played the best shithole pubs in Brisbane.
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Yeah. I remember that, the Newmarket Hotel like 20 years ago.
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And Pete was doing the exact same thing. He's one of the funniest comedy writers I know, in my opinion.
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And he was up there, I remember, working the same material every week.
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I feel like there's comedy clubs where it's difficult because sometimes you'll
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be this rose among the thorns where every act that gets up prior just bombs, bombs, bombs, bombs.
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So you've got this audience that is just like ice cold at that point,
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then you got to try and pull yourself up from there.
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So that's quite a skill set. And I try to equate it to in the magic realm, whereas I feel like.
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Those comedy clubs probably equate to doing street shows where you've got oh
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wow yeah yeah that's kind of like the equivalent like it's the same sort of
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battlefield so to speak you know.
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And i'm going to say nick going back to what you said you're the king
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of charisma i i love watching your reels of
21:30
your live performances and you you are so you hold
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a room with your uh with your energy and you
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do you work when you're doing a trick you still manage to
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incorporate three other people even if the trick's just with one person i
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think a lot of magicians might confuse comedy with charisma because
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at an event we're often the most charismatic person in the room
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and we have tricks but doing tricks and being
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funny are two very separate things and then they're tied.
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Together later i would love to ask you is there anything that
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you've learned from reading these books or watching
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like is there anything you've learned about comedy recently that you've
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adapted into your performances or that's made you think more
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and also interject before nick
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answers real quick he mentioned doing a kill bill
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set he meant a kill tony one minute set earlier because
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nick has just gotten on the kill tony
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train after seeing the netflix special of
22:21
kill tony which is insane by itself yeah look at
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that and we represent exactly and
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we are effectively the opening act for kill tony most
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people leave this podcast and start listening to that one so
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yeah and so what
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have i learned i i'm learning about joke structure more than anything which
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is very much stand there and tell a joke it's one of the things i dislike the
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most about comedy magicians if i'm being honest to when they get on stage and
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they stand there and they just do this and then do a trick i feel that that's
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not something that i want to do.
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But I also, what I'm saying by that is that the more I'm learning it,
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the more I don't want to do that in my own act.
23:03
Okay. Yeah. But I would much rather do a joke and be funny as I'm doing the
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trick, because I just feel that you need to champion something in your act and
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you got to either champion like yourself, the magic or the comedy.
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And I would rather champion the magic and me be the vessel of that,
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which is why I have that status of having the charisma.
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And what I've also learned is that a lot of the things that I've learned along
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the way is that a lot of the comedy can be very derogatory. And I really dislike
23:34
giving anyone a bad time.
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That is not what I'm about. I would rather take the brunt of people's rudeness and everything.
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I let people be rude to me when I perform. And I just wrap up by saying,
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sorry, guys. I go, this was fun.
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But I don't get paid to be mistreated or disrespected and so forth.
23:50
And I think what you're saying is rather hurtful. So I'm going to walk away from this interaction.
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In close-up right yeah or going at
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the table or working bars and restaurants and so forth i just go
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like i'm just gonna walk away if you guys change your mind i want to see some magic i'll
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take an apology and we'll kick off again but until then i'm gonna
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walk away i'm i'm not having a good time neither are you guys so
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we're done and i just walk away and i'll tell management i go hey fyi those
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guys were a bit rude and i walked away if they say anything it's because they
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were i don't know calling me a slur or something of that nature do you know
24:20
what i mean like yeah so it's that type of thing. But I think that it's also fun.
24:26
It's very challenging. So for example, one of the examples, we'll do it right now as a group.
24:32
So you had to write as many kicker jokes, sorry, punchlines to this.
24:38
The good thing about being fat is.
24:40
End that challenge now i learned
24:45
something from this all right because i only came up with like two good ones and
24:48
what i said was the good thing about being fat is it makes it really hard to
24:52
get kidnapped all right so that's the first that's the first one i wrote down
24:57
and then and the next one was which i didn't like but i wrote it down was according
25:02
to lizzo i'm an automatic 10 out of 10
25:05
and that was the next one i wrote i didn't like it but i wrote it down anyway
25:09
and then that's all i did.
25:10
And the thing was, I should have written eight, whether they were good,
25:15
bad, or offensive, I should have just wrote them down.
25:17
And one of the things I learned at the end of this exercise was that you've
25:23
got to get all the ideas out of your head onto the paper, whether they're good or not.
25:27
It doesn't matter if they're good, bad, or offensive or anything, get them on the paper.
25:31
And they said, if you did less than like three, that's because you thought of
25:35
them and went, that's not very good. Don't write that down.
25:37
Don't do that when you're creating
25:39
comedy. That was one of the things I learned from the comedy Bible.
25:43
Interesting. Their writing is definitely great. Sorry, Josh, can you go? No, no.
25:49
I'm just digesting myself. But I think that's such an interesting idea to just
25:53
write down as many of the jokes. Or I guess in magic, as many of the plots you
25:59
think could go for that routine.
26:02
Scott wrote a good one. What's the good thing about being fat?
26:05
Feet don't get wet in the rain.
26:07
You know like yeah
26:11
yeah but exactly yeah so it's very challenging and you
26:14
got to write those jokes down and try to figure it out and that's the thing and and
26:17
the thing is i don't want to do anything detrimental or or
26:20
disrespectful to people about pulling them down like that's
26:23
where i'm like the polar opposite so i would rather do
26:26
some like i'm crowd work is more my thing than telling jokes so
26:29
i love asking someone what do you do for a living i'm a plumber that's amazing
26:32
do you like go-karting they're like yeah cool you got
26:35
turtles no thank goodness you know what's a
26:38
day like for you i've been missing out on great opportunities comedy i believe
26:43
exists within people's lives and and the answers that they give and it's also
26:48
the other night i had a woman up on stage for rope on my cut and restored rope
26:53
routine she was in the front row and it's it's a bit it's a bit risque.
26:59
I'm i'm gonna counteract what you're saying right now
27:02
in that so so this routine
27:04
is i'm completely naked top hats covering my genitalia and she's
27:07
got to hold the scissors with one hand and she's got to hold the top hat
27:10
with the other and i and i i'm like
27:13
what's your name uh i can't remember her name and i'm like who are you here
27:17
with i see you've got a wedding ring on and she's like yeah my husband's not
27:21
here and then so three jokes right away oh your husband's not here well that's
27:26
okay your daddy is joke number one and then i'm after i get the other two jokes
27:30
and i'm like well if you're not here with your husband who are you here with,
27:33
And then, Nick, I've got no bad answers coming my way. And guess what? I didn't.
27:39
Well, that's my dad. That's my mom. That's my sister. That's her husband.
27:42
That's my other brother-in-law. And that's my other sister.
27:45
Well, the trick didn't start for eight more minutes. I'm like,
27:49
mom, dad, it's nice to meet you.
27:50
I'm sorry it's under these conditions. I'm sure you raised it to be better.
27:53
I'm like, wow, you two guys, this guy looks like he owns a gun. Do you own a gun?
27:58
And he's like, yeah, I own a gun. And I'm like, how did I know?
28:01
I'll tell you how I knew. It was the goatee. They don't exist in Australia like that.
28:04
And this guy, you look like you host UFC parties on Sunday.
28:08
And I'm like, yeah, do you know how you got the same goatee as the guy that's got the gun?
28:12
And then we were just off and it was just, you've got a wedding ring.
28:16
You're married. Where's your husband? And then, and then it was the next question.
28:20
He's not here. Who are you here with? And then zoom in, zoom in, zoom in.
28:23
I love questions because the comedy is different every time then because every
28:28
single volunteer will have a different answer for you.
28:31
Yeah so that's that's a beautiful piece of crowd work there you
28:34
know and and that's the way that i sort of perform whenever i'm
28:37
doing something it's always this notion of like i have jokes
28:40
that i can't i've got one of three options i can take like a choose your own
28:42
adventure or you know that sort of pathway i
28:45
can take and sometimes there's an opportunity to say a joke at this point but
28:49
i don't always choose to say it i'm like not for this crowd let's go the other
28:52
way so those those are really nice ways to take it but as a as a close-up worker
28:57
as well you you you kind of get the opportunity to do 30 sets a night and with
29:02
30 different audiences because every,
29:04
and I think this is what makes you such an amazing and exceptional close-up
29:07
worker because you've done it so many times and you can work any social dynamic.
29:12
That translates to comedy so easy because it's just every crowd is just a different
29:17
crowd. A little bit different, hey?
29:19
Yeah. Yeah. So we're at the halfway point now and there is a story that's so juicy that we even...
29:27
Put a little bit of it in the caption of this live.
29:31
Chris is in New York playing this massive show.
29:34
All this pressure's on his shoulders. They've got to train someone.
29:37
And then something insane happens the night before opening.
29:42
Chris, can we open this can of worms and explore this story?
29:48
This is a triumphant make or break moment.
29:52
How the hell does this happen? yeah and we
29:55
should probably start by saying there's no villain in this story it was
29:58
a complete accident and it's a it's not a sad story
30:01
we're going to figure it out and and we we won
30:04
but uh so i've been doing cut and restored rope for
30:07
as long as i've been doing magic over 20 years now in the
30:10
naked magicians i've done it that 1300 times never
30:15
with an issue and in the naked magicians you know i've had women
30:17
on stage that are drunk nervous goodness knows.
30:21
What else and we were rehearsing it was our final rehearsal
30:24
before opening night brand new
30:27
scissors all the props are brand new and we were.
30:30
Just going over and someone at the venue was assisting
30:34
with i'm like hey can you just run through this
30:37
trick with me real quick and they'd help
30:40
me with it like three three times already that day and then
30:43
i did the first move to cut through the thing and
30:46
for some reason somehow the scissors missed the rope and
30:49
cut my knuckle of my middle finger completely
30:53
off all the way down to the bone and yeah
30:58
that's how my night ended well it didn't end my
31:01
night went on to the next night but uh that's how my night started
31:04
just the night before opening with just this
31:07
freak one in a million accident that still.
31:11
Has me in a very compromised position so i
31:14
don't even know this is my first time telling the story in full I
31:18
had to go to hospital and I got treatment everyone was
31:21
amazing everyone at the venue took care of me straight away
31:24
and the first day they gave me thank goodness
31:27
probably saved me from more serious
31:30
damage and then they got me to the hospital at the
31:33
hospital I got treated pretty quickly but the damage was
31:36
pretty bad so when they started dabbing away at
31:39
the they had to like do that thing I keep forgetting what it's called tie it
31:42
when they tie something off a tourniquet tourniquet
31:46
they had to tourniquet my finger because it just wouldn't stop bleeding and
31:49
i think josh had had a photo of me when i was like in the waiting room there
31:53
we go and uh yeah that's when they tied it off because it was just shooting
31:59
out and then they're like oh this isn't good we can see uh your finger and i'm like what.
32:05
Mean and like oh we can see the
32:08
insides buddy and so they they like they couldn't stitch it all up because it
32:12
was too wide and they didn't want to put me in surgery so one side got glued
32:16
the other side got stitched and then they're like you're probably gonna have
32:20
to take two weeks off to four weeks off and then we'll uh we'll undo it and
32:24
then have a look at what we're dealing with and,
32:27
And then I got a taxi home. And now there's about 18 hours until we open in New York City.
32:35
And yet we didn't know what to do. I can't be replaced. There's no other me.
32:39
The other guy's just, you know, he's as fresh as fresh.
32:43
And we were literally at, well, does the show get to open? Or do I pack up my
32:47
bags and go home? And that's what we were left with.
32:51
The story ends with me getting on stage. But three people got me on stage.
32:56
And the first would have been Kerry the amazing Nigel who's
32:59
the most numbers facts driven human on the planet I
33:03
was a wreck I hadn't slept I was upset I was crying I'm like I don't know what
33:07
to do and he's just he's like okay well I can't tell you what to do but I can
33:12
help you understand the situation separate to what you're feeling right now
33:15
and he helped me understand that and he's like so you gotta do with that what
33:17
you can and I'll show the finger in a second by the way It's wrapped.
33:23
Then there was my friend Lachlan Stewart, who everyone should check out on Instagram.
33:26
He just made a world record running 58 marathons in 58 days across 58 states
33:31
between America and Australia.
33:33
And he's married to Amy Shepard, the lead singer of the band Shepard.
33:37
And I FaceTimed him. He's literally on tour in Amsterdam with his wife in the back of a tour van.
33:44
And he's an elite level athlete. And I said, look,
33:47
man, I've got this situation in front of me and I don't know what to do and
33:50
I need you to help me make this happen you can't say
33:53
anything nice to me right now you just need to tell me what like
33:56
what I need to hear to get this done and he
34:00
gave me the advice of an elite level athlete and it
34:03
came down to you've got two choices and it's do the show or all the shows off
34:08
and go home is that correct and I'm like yeah and he's like so okay let's choose
34:12
which one do you want to do and I'm like I want to do the show and he's like
34:16
ah shit that's bad news man and i'm like why and he's like you're gonna have the worst day ever,
34:23
and i'm like okay and then he's like so
34:26
here's the deal and he told me about when he was doing the marathon on
34:29
day nine he had a foot injury and his team
34:32
like called the marathon off you can't go any further and
34:35
he said well they were talking about the logistics of calling off a
34:38
an international marathon he was looking up crutches versus a cane and he said
34:44
when everyone says no and everyone said no my doctor said no the team said you
34:49
you know let's let's rest they were amazing and they were saying you just follow
34:52
doctor's orders there was no pressure on me whatsoever from the team,
34:56
but mike and i were like we as if we're going to come this far and quit.
35:01
So lachlan's last advice was leave your shit at the door,
35:05
So I left all of my feelings in the apartment that day. And then the third person
35:09
that got me through it was Mike. And he just said, you know, I will have your back.
35:12
He couldn't get on stage, but he's like, I'm going to be in the crowd and I've
35:15
got your back and you just need to know that I'm there.
35:18
And then I prayed like I'd never prayed before and took a couple of Nurofen
35:21
and went out and opened in New York like this. Woo!
35:28
Yeah. Yeah. And we say that to anxiety. We say that to anxiety.
35:32
I'm guessing that's what this photo is. this is yeah that's me waiting to get seen oh.
35:42
Damn was there a moment where you and
35:45
mike had to consider mike doing half the
35:48
show no mike mike was here visiting and
35:51
and has never played my role as well
35:54
and to do that in one day would be insane yeah yeah
35:58
so that just that wasn't something we even considered and and
36:01
it also wouldn't have done it justice to the audience is two guys
36:04
stumbling around on stage it was either go and do the show that
36:07
we promised or we don't do it at all yeah so
36:10
and then from a magic point of view because you use your
36:13
thing like we use our fingers so intricately for so much magic like did you
36:18
do the rope routine still yeah yeah I did I almost fainted the night I did it
36:23
on opening because I had so I'm fine now but like the the night it happened
36:29
I didn't I couldn't sleep and literally every time I close my eyes,
36:32
I just heard it and saw it nonstop.
36:36
And it was, it was just so fresh. Like my, and on stage that night, my hand was quite sore.
36:41
And then I just remember when I like did the first move and I can only do it
36:46
with that hand. And I'm like, so just cut and I'm like, Hey, just be careful.
36:49
Just right through there. And I just watched her and then, then she did it.
36:52
And it's still a bit hard to do the routine right now, but it's a little bit
36:56
easier every night. I'm definitely a bit more, uh.
37:01
Look, Nick, I found comedy in it. And so the joke is now, hey,
37:04
when you do this first cut, I need you to be careful because the lady last night, she wasn't.
37:09
That's the joke. And the audience, I get like a six out of 10 laugh out of it.
37:13
But it's better than no laugh, you know? It's the second time I got a circumcision.
37:17
Do you guys know that it was David Copperfield this happened to last?
37:21
Well, unless, you know, I'm sure it's happened to someone else out there. I looked it up.
37:25
1989, he lost the tip of his finger on stage in an actual show in front of thousands
37:30
of people yeah wow same same same routine cutting restored rope yeah that's how much i love you yeah.
37:41
Wow and you can see the tip of that finger in the museum when you do the tour
37:46
yeah mike found my knuckle hey,
37:50
far out yeah that was that was
37:52
wild well there's this what's what's
37:56
the lesson you want to share with the audience about that experience as
37:59
well like when when that happens there's a couple of things
38:01
that i feel that i'm taking away from it where it's like it's happened yes if
38:06
you can't hide it highlight it so you do you from the onset address what happened
38:11
or do you do it do you just ignore it until that routine comes up in the show
38:16
yeah i ignore it until that joke and it hasn't received, no one's been weird about it.
38:21
And there are lessons from it, but they're not like practical magic ones.
38:25
The ones that I learned, I learned some really strong lessons about myself because
38:30
I've performed with a broken foot. I've performed with a dislocated knee.
38:33
So I've toured in casts as in like leg or feet cast twice. I've done theater
38:39
of magic with a broken ankle.
38:41
I'm a pretty healthy person. Just something about my right side doesn't like me.
38:46
And I got through all those shows. this was the hardest for me because it's, it's my hand.
38:51
And obviously as a performer, this is as a magician, especially I took,
38:58
I think I went out on stage the next night with a focus of like,
39:02
I couldn't make it when I was going out there about battling my hand.
39:07
So the drive was just to look after Adam, my co-star and let him know that he
39:13
had a buddy on stage and to make the audience laugh.
39:17
And I focused on those two things and they took the energy off my hand.
39:22
The lessons I learned were about anxiety and they were about human resilience
39:25
and they were about the people in your life.
39:28
Anxiety, you know, Stoics and the Bible even teaches us that,
39:33
you know, the brain tells us what isn't true and creates these stories of things that might happen.
39:38
What do they say? Fear stands for false evidence appearing real. Yeah.
39:43
Number two would be that your body really is capable of much more than, than we realize.
39:50
Lachlan is the best example of that, pushing through those marathons.
39:53
But like, all I, all I wanted to do was like go to bed and have some like painkillers
40:00
and just sleep it off. But I had a mission.
40:03
We worked so hard to get here and there was an audience coming to see the show.
40:08
So I made it about that. And then I think the final thing was my circle.
40:13
Like I just I couldn't have done it without Mike being
40:16
there I couldn't have done it without talking to Nigel and Lachlan 100%
40:20
and then for me personally there's no other time in
40:23
my life where I could have done this and I would credit that to sobriety for
40:26
me personally because it's just given me more confidence and removed anxiety
40:30
from my life so uh when I had to I'd never had to focus more before and I was
40:35
able to thanks to you know just being a bit clearer sorry for that I rant so
40:40
much, guys, and I get so conscious about it.
40:43
Look, we're all here to learn about you, man.
40:46
And so it's nice that you have a depth of understanding on yourself that you
40:50
can articulate that well enough that we can totally appreciate that and live
40:54
in that moment with you. You know what I mean?
40:56
It's pretty great. You've really dug yourself up from some pretty dark places, man.
41:01
And for me, from one friend to another, it's genuinely inspiring.
41:05
So thank you for the vulnerability of sharing that with us as well.
41:09
Like we i appreciate you it's a pleasure man i'm i'm
41:12
thankful to still be here and i'm so thankful that
41:15
i get to make people laugh it's just the best thing ever it's
41:18
the stupidest thing in the world and i love it so much you know
41:21
it's remarkable because no no one would have thought that you would have any
41:24
inequities whatsoever with you being this effectively an
41:27
international superstar who's done shows you know
41:30
and what and i mean i mean that what i mean is like if
41:34
we sat at a table right there's only
41:37
there's only ever going to be one of us right like
41:40
if we were there with all the magicians in melbourne all the best guys you could
41:43
possibly have there's only going to be one of us who's gone are
41:46
you often shows in vegas and new york and had residencies and stuff and we'll
41:50
be like oh yeah well i do birthday parties you know what i mean like there is
41:54
a level that you've achieved which is pretty pretty cool and it's just remarkable
41:58
because no one would have ever thought that with what you've achieved that you
42:01
would be battling the sobrieties and all those sorts of issues that you've had in the past.
42:05
Like it's the type of thing where there's a lot of strength in that.
42:08
Well, thank you very much. And I like what you said.
42:12
And I'm very like, I am thankful for like my little chapter and all the cool
42:16
stuff that I can say I've done.
42:17
But then I'd also say that if I was sitting with all those magicians,
42:21
I'd be like, I just want to know, like, are you making people happier when you do what you do?
42:27
And so who cares if that's in Vegas or New York or at a birthday party?
42:30
In fact, I would argue that more memories are made at a birthday party than in Las Vegas.
42:36
You know? True. I saw people sleep in my show in Las Vegas.
42:42
Wow. Front row, Tuesday night. I still remember him.
42:47
I've never seen that at a birthday party. That's a weird vibe.
42:50
Like, yeah, I mean, you've got to be getting more soul-fulfilling vibes from
42:56
playing here than playing in Vegas, right?
42:59
Because Vegas is like, they could just be sitting at a show because they're
43:02
waiting for their lunch to digest or something.
43:05
Whereas New York, at least, they're coming to see that show.
43:09
Oh, it's crazy. They choose us. It's crazy to me that they choose our show when
43:14
they could go see Wicked or they could go see, you know, Dan White or,
43:18
you know, any show on Broadway.
43:19
And it's so, with that is a bit of a, surely a duty just to give them the best
43:25
bloody show ever, every single night.
43:27
You know, how could you not? And it's so cool because New York is just insane.
43:34
It's the most affluent people in the world and the most poverty in the world.
43:38
And just everyone is head down, go, go, go, go, go.
43:43
There's always a fight or something outside. and just they come into this room
43:47
and laugh for 70 minutes at the stupidest stuff ever it's it's again not curing
43:52
cancer but it's just 70 minutes of just fun and i like that and it's ironic
43:56
i was talking to mike the other day and i'm like how did our show not get outdated how
44:02
have we not had to change the jokes to suit the times how have
44:05
people not grown out of it and it's like it's
44:08
just fun it's not political and it's fun and it's it's
44:10
just about everyone in the room i love that i i can
44:13
hear in the the background a faint like police car
44:17
driving by your new york window oh it's insane lads it doesn't stop that's crazy
44:24
like right now it's what time like 8 45 there or something like that yeah yeah
44:29
it is and it sounds like it's full like hustle and bustle mode still.
44:34
It'll be like, what night of the week is it? Is it Monday here?
44:37
Yeah, it's Monday night. And it won't stop. It won't stop at all.
44:41
It doesn't stop. I just moved rooms.
44:43
I've been blessed with a two bedroom here. And I just, I had to put tape.
44:47
There's tape on the windows.
44:48
I've got earplugs. It's insane.
44:52
Mike and I were talking about it. Vegas a hundred times, like is a hundred times
44:57
calmer than New York on each day or night of the week.
45:01
Yeah. and it's like i was the other day
45:04
i was walking through here and no one no one
45:07
normal doesn't have airpods in it's like
45:10
if you walk out of the house put your airpods in and if someone hasn't
45:13
got airpods on 99 they're a psychopath it's
45:17
a really interesting thing wow i haven't seen
45:20
a normal person like without their airpods yet what
45:23
about like the ray-ban medis are they a common more
45:27
common occurrence there i still haven't seen that
45:30
and i still haven't seen one of those people that's like uh hey what do you
45:33
do for work yes right right yeah i haven't are you spotting influences out there
45:39
like shooting stuff or trying to interview people i haven't seen any of that
45:43
stuff yet but i haven't spent a lot of time like i've been at the theater most of the time but.
45:49
There's a park near me where all that stuff happens apparently and
45:52
i'm gonna go check it out one time it's such a wild city it's
45:56
yeah i've never experienced anything like it that's why
45:59
i'll see if you guys we can keep talking but i'll see if i can get you guys the
46:02
empire state building while we're on oh damn all
46:04
right that sounds good oh and
46:07
obviously new york is filled with some of the best magic
46:11
shows playing as well so hopefully we'll
46:13
get a little report when chris comes back to brizzy from yeah
46:17
josh what am i going to see again i
46:21
think you're going to see the new york speakeasy magic show
46:25
that's the one that nick remember when
46:27
we had blaze sarah on oh my god for those
46:30
who are just listening to this right now we're just seeing the
46:33
most new york view you could ever hope to see
46:36
yeah ever that's on my fire escape like
46:39
it's just insane imagine if i die while we're live streaming oh my god think
46:45
of the views yeah we get so much attention i mean if that doesn't get us the
46:52
fism award i don't know what does naked magician dies fully clothed wah that'll be the headline.
47:01
Like chris chris asked me as well a few weeks back when we organized this like
47:05
oh could i could i be running in new york for the whole episode because that's
47:08
very artsy you know like we'd see a lot of new york in that episode but i just
47:12
had to kind of say like that is how accidents I think being on a one hour podcast while you're running,
47:19
could be dangerous and i'm an accident prone sob if we've learned anything i
47:24
have seen you get a fractured ankle
47:27
while out jogging with you that was a hilarious thing we were just about,
47:33
nick we were about to go on tour again with the naked magicians and josh and
47:36
i went for a run and i just slipped we were on this path and it was uneven and i slipped,
47:41
my foot snapped inverted and do you
47:44
remember mike tyler did not believe the
47:47
story for some reason yeah he called me
47:50
like hey bud yeah what um we'd
47:53
like trying to teach chris like you guys are doing like trying to
47:56
teach him some flips or something on the grass that's right i'm like
47:59
no he thought i was like break
48:02
dancing or doing some crazy stuff or trying to get like a nut selfie yeah yeah
48:06
but it would be hard to justify how you didn't hurt yourself on a live stream
48:12
if that something god forbid was to happen oh yeah or scotty p mentions or you
48:16
could injure yourself from popping a balloon at the Yekka. That's its own story as well.
48:22
Well, can I say off the back of that, that there is a lot of times,
48:27
okay, so for example, I do like mountain biking, right?
48:30
And the way I used to ride before I was self-employed versus the way I ride now, I'm a lot more tame.
48:38
And when I do anything, like right now I'm renovating, okay?
48:41
Property of mine. And I wear gloves nonstop, nonstop.
48:46
Because these are my money makers if anything happens to them like i'll be fuming
48:49
like i've got this callus here from from the from painting on my thumb from
48:54
painting the ceiling you know what i mean as i was renewing just just that friction
48:57
against the and and that was through a glove you know what i mean i was through
49:00
a glove so like i take care of my assets so much,
49:06
do you find that now that you're,
49:09
doing this show that you kind of like, I would like to go and do this,
49:13
but I better not just in case I hurt myself.
49:15
Oh, I've been like that since Vegas, since 2019. Cause that's when it started.
49:20
As soon as other people are involved with me, I take it way more seriously for some reason.
49:26
Oh, my nose is running. Cause I went outside bloody hell. Yeah.
49:30
So ever since then, I've taken it a bit more seriously. And also I'm just old.
49:33
Like I'm, I'm old and boring. I don't even want to do that stuff
49:36
like i'm trying to learn how to play playstation
49:39
right now because that's what i like doing after i've had to make like do two
49:44
shows a night of crowd work and yeah if anyone has any tips by the way i'd take
49:49
that so yeah i've just been boring for a long time like that and also i just
49:53
never thought anything would happen yeah you don't really think as a magician getting into magic,
49:59
you're going to have so many injury prone or potential moments,
50:05
especially doing a cut and restored rope or balloon dog.
50:10
Because this was a couple of years ago now, but me and Chris were doing a show
50:13
and because we had to do the show 20 times,
50:16
we don't realize that the impact of stomping
50:19
a balloon on a solid floor could potentially be
50:23
a risk after the 17th show in dress
50:26
shoes that impact could eventually so it's
50:30
kind of like someone said like i think penn and teller
50:33
said it like any magic effect you decide to do if there is any element of it
50:38
it could be dangerous you should consider not doing it because it will go wrong
50:42
at some point in your career so it shouldn't be something that like could be
50:46
deadly or really hurt yourself like they're the guys that shoot the gun at the other guy's face right.
50:52
Yes, that's them. And swallow razor blades and juggle fire and those guys, yeah.
51:01
Cool. Pretty dangerous. There's a question here asking, you know,
51:06
did it cost a lot for you to fix your finger at the hospital?
51:09
I assume it would be covered under some sort of travel insurance that you have?
51:13
Yeah, yeah. It's not cheap. Let's just say that.
51:17
Yeah. It's America. But I think the thing that was more interesting is because
51:21
it was New York, So at the time we've just got it wrapped down and it's like
51:26
even all the bandages on top, it was just bleeding through everything.
51:30
I had to go through a metal detector and then I had to, yeah.
51:35
And then I had to show them my bag and then I had to sign in at a security desk with ID.
51:40
And then I had to, and that's all before I was allowed to go to the admissions desk.
51:45
And the admissions desk was another 15 minutes of paperwork and insurance.
51:49
And and i i got a bit salty at
51:52
one it's like 10 minutes i'm literally dripping onto
51:55
the table and then the woman goes are you
51:58
single or married and then i i look down
52:01
and i'm like i'm i just said i'm bleeding on your table right now
52:04
do you really care and yeah and then yeah i didn't like it i don't like american
52:12
hospitals i don't like any hospitals who does wow so so so from a Arrival to
52:20
treatment, how long did that take?
52:22
Like, it was urgent care, and I reckon I was in there for, like,
52:27
an hour and maybe waiting for 20 minutes.
52:30
But, yeah, I was blessed with, like, just one-on-one with, like,
52:33
a doctor-surgeon guy, and he was just in there with me for, like, an hour.
52:37
Doing his magic. Yeah. Yeah. Thank goodness. And now you're able to do the shows,
52:41
which is fantastic. And for anyone in New York or who's going to travel there
52:45
to see the show, like how much longer do they have to see it?
52:48
And then what happens once it finishes?
52:50
Yeah. Right now we're running until the end of May. You can see the Naked Magicians in New York city.
52:56
And then on the, I think it's a Sunday, the 25th of May, we're going to be playing
53:00
in Boston at Asylum Comedy Club at Laugh Boston, which is one of,
53:05
Boston is my favorite city in the world.
53:07
And it's where, funnily enough, we've done the second most amount of shows next to Adelaide.
53:12
So I can't wait to go back there. It's a 350 seater. So it'll sell out pretty
53:16
quick. But if there's any magicians in New York, please reach out.
53:20
May I share a story before we go about something that happened? Yeah, please.
53:25
I was on a, I had a two days off and I
53:28
went to Boston to take some time off and to catch up with some friends
53:31
and i took they've got this thing over here called amtrak it's
53:34
so cool it's just it's like a fast train and i
53:37
went to the dining car to get some snacks and the guy that was working the dining
53:41
car had a deck of bicycles like collector's edition and while he's cooking my
53:46
stuff i'm like hey man you uh you do some magic and i i avoid telling people
53:51
i'm a magician especially at the moment if they don't know who i am i don't
53:55
bring it up so i don't have to tell and I can't do a trick.
53:58
And so I'm like, oh yeah, I'm a bit of a fan of magic. I love watching it on YouTube.
54:01
And I'm like, do you do magic? And he's like, no, I don't do any tricks.
54:04
I just, my hands are too big, but I love playing with cards.
54:07
And he's like, there's this magician I'm obsessed with that does card stuff.
54:11
I'm like, oh yeah, he's like, yeah, he's this, he's like this bald dude from
54:14
Australia that does all these trick shots and catches them.
54:17
And I'm like, oh, Josh Norbido? Cool. He's like, yeah. And I'm like,
54:20
yeah, I think I've heard of that.
54:24
That's awesome. Yeah. Woo-hoo. So that was really cool. That made me laugh.
54:30
That's cool. Made me proud of you. Ah, thanks, man.
54:34
Well, and he didn't reference Jason Ma, which is surprising.
54:40
Usually he's the Australian rep for magicians.
54:43
I got one on you, Jason. there's one person that
54:46
mentioned the bald guy i reckon you guys attract you
54:50
and jason are both amazing when it comes to online content and i
54:53
think one of the things that's cool now is that you have a very different audience
54:56
to jason there's no competition there true the way he presents magic versus
54:59
how you do is quite different and i think different people watch it yeah i think
55:04
you're right i get the audience that probably likes to watch live show clips
55:10
of of good magic Whereas Jason,
55:13
you're getting the two camera down the barrel, watch this incredible sleight
55:18
of hand and banter, sort of dynamic.
55:21
And there's a place for both. Absolutely. That's a really cool story.
55:26
Thanks for sharing that.
55:27
You're very welcome. Did he then proceed to show you the 21 car trick or something?
55:33
No, he had a line behind him of Americans that wanted a coffee.
55:40
Which is crazy on a train that you can just order a
55:43
coffee and and have a train cart come through i'm
55:46
obsessed with the train ride to boston like it's a three and a
55:49
half hour train ride is there's one dining section that's just a cafe and they've
55:53
got hot food like it's a cafe so and they've got free wi-fi on the train and
55:58
you've got like charging ports and stuff so you just you get work done you watch
56:02
a show you watch america every version of america is in between New York and Boston.
56:07
And by the time you're there, you're full, you're rested, you're good to go. I love it.
56:12
Okay well we got a minute we got a couple of minutes left before we wrap things
56:16
up i'd like to shoot some rapid fire questions at you chris you up for that
56:19
cool bring it on all right first question other than magic what are you good
56:23
at uh it's comedy i think i love playing guitar ah shit i used to be good at playing guitar.
56:32
Maybe just play slide you just put a slide over the and just play slide guitar
56:36
that'd be great i'll get back to you on that but that was like my little secret
56:39
hobby guitar i love it a lot,
56:41
And running is my other thing that I'm secretly, I don't know if I'm good at
56:45
it, but I hold well for a 41-year-old. Running is my little thing.
56:49
Do you think there'll be an opportunity to do the marathon whilst you're in
56:53
the States in any capacity?
56:56
No, I don't think I'm here for any of them. But more to the point,
56:59
you have to qualify over here. And I'm just not that level of fast.
57:04
Yeah. Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? Lift is broken down one-to-one time in a lift.
57:10
Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with oh that's
57:13
good there's this guy his name's ryan someone he's
57:17
the author of the daily stoic books and i
57:20
can't remember his surname right now but i love his content and i'd love the
57:24
opportunity to pick his brain or if it was a panic attack he would be the best
57:28
person to be stuck in an elevator with okay someone would have forgotten his
57:31
name right now ryan holiday yes boom yeah i've stumbled across that stuff in
57:37
the past as Well, I love Stoic philosophy.
57:39
So, yeah. It'll change your life. It'll change your life. Okay. Who would play you,
57:45
in a movie? I don't know because we can't freaking cast me now.
57:50
No, I do know it'd be Adam Sandler.
57:52
Adam Sandler because he's got a generic egg head and he's funny sometimes and
57:58
a just understimulated moke the rest of the time. I can't think of anyone more perfect to play me.
58:04
Okay. If you were to host your own podcast, who would be the first person you would like to be on it?
58:10
Oh, okay. The first person that comes to mind, this is a unique one,
58:13
but it would be David collins from the umbilical brothers i think they are one
58:18
of the most underrated comedy acts in the world even though they are global
58:21
but david has the most fascinating entertainment story ever,
58:26
they were they were in a position like us at one point in in when they were
58:30
first coming up in america and they got to do all the chat shows and mike and
58:34
i got to do those chat shows once but on one night they did a chat show and
58:38
robin williams was the guest oh wow that robin was so obsessed with them that
58:42
they ended up touring with Robin for an extended period of time.
58:45
They were like this, David and Robin Williams. And he has the most amazing stories
58:50
about traveling with him, how much he changed the umbilical brothers' lives,
58:55
how much Robin changed people's lives in his encounters.
58:59
And then also the effect that it had when Robin passed.
59:03
It's just the craziest story. And I think the umbilical brothers
59:06
who don't speak much on stage have some of the most exceptional entertainment
59:09
stories like who's interviewing the umbies exactly yeah yeah we should ask him
59:15
to get on board i don't i think i might have dave's contact somewhere i mean
59:19
i said i have a friendship with him doing comedy festival he was so lovely and
59:22
so talented oh would you guys like to do a podcast with dave.
59:26
Not bring him on board yeah oh my god i i can't guarantee his answer but he like he is a friend.
59:36
Like it's insane yeah now last question
59:40
is have you had a good time i've had
59:43
the best time of my life over here i've made oh do
59:45
you mean on your show or in new york either is fine no our show screw you look
59:49
everyone else i mean we're in new york i've got to be having a good time this
59:52
is great because when i watch you guys and i don't miss many episodes i want
59:56
to be a part of the i try and include a question whenever i can i love your
1:00:00
show so being on it is great i it's a hoot,
1:00:04
and chris has been a big help in this podcast too like david regal we would
1:00:08
not have had on the podcast without you you know there's plenty of guests that
1:00:11
have been introed through chris and then onto the pod so he's vicariously a
1:00:17
producer of the show definitely not i'm just I'm just such a fan of you three, Doug included.
1:00:23
And you guys just deserve it. You're not winging it. You work really hard on it.
1:00:28
We do. And it's just because we care. And we're in that position now where we've done pretty okay.
1:00:32
And we just want to give back. So any opportunity to help our Magi friends with
1:00:38
their questions, with their spitballing, with anything we can do to bring them knowledge.
1:00:43
That's what we're about. So guys, thank you once again for listening. This was episode 215.
1:00:48
I've been Nick K. that's been josh nabit and i think it's
1:00:51
time that we take it home with the final word are you ready josh
1:00:54
let's do it so chris this
1:00:57
is where you interject the final word oh
1:01:01
what of the podcast i thought it was done this
1:01:05
is an excellent skit that we're doing right now but leave the viewers what what
1:01:09
final word of wisdom should they be left with before we wrap up if i've learned
1:01:13
anything sorry i thought we were done guys if i've learned anything in the last
1:01:17
uh two weeks is that magic is not about us and that was the only way I was able
1:01:21
to get past this was to really make it about the audience.
1:01:25
In every encounter that we do, be it in one stage show or be it in every single
1:01:30
close-up set or in a meeting with a client,
1:01:32
I think we're in such a blessed position to entertain people with magic and
1:01:37
if our goal is just to make people better for their time with us and we get
1:01:42
to use magic as the conduit for that,
1:01:44
I can't think of a better way to live a life. I really can't.
1:01:50
Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now.
1:01:56
But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.