Latest / The Magic Guys / The Magician's Holiday Gig Survival Guide #244

Transcript

The Magician's Holiday Gig Survival Guide #244 · The Magic Guys

• 0:00
  They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys.
• 0:12
  Ladies, ladies, ladies and fellas, welcome to the Magic Guys.
• 0:17
  This is episode 244 and we're here, we're live.
• 0:23
  We're coming in strong because we're about to go into a crazy season.
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  And to my left, we've got Nick Kay.
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  That's right, folks. I'm Nick Kay. Daddy Doug is. What? He's going to get some
• 0:34
  cigarettes. He said he'll be back. I don't know.
• 0:37
  He's gone to get the milk. And he said, I'm going to go drop the kids off at
• 0:41
  the pool, whatever that means.
• 0:42
  But no, he's busy. He's busy working in trick supply.
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  He's, they just, I mean, this is news for him to share, but they've got a new
• 0:50
  brick and mortar physical store he can go into now.
• 0:53
  And he's famous and there's a whole thing. So he's living his best life and
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  someone else living their best life is our buddy Herbert here coming in with
• 1:03
  the 10 dollars. Oh my word.
• 1:08
  But thank you so much. That's going to pay for our milk that Doug's going to get, and now cereal.
• 1:14
  And thanks to everyone who's actually here in the chat. We have Thomas Conner.
• 1:17
  Good to see you. Tim Askin.
• 1:19
  Pasha. Good to have you here, bud. Good to see you. Scotty Link.
• 1:22
  Gutbuster Mike. Hey, man. He's so much fun, that cat. And yeah,
• 1:26
  Scotty Link, everyone there. And oh, we have Root B.
• 1:28
  Howdy. Good to see you, folks. Again, this is The Magic Guys Live.
• 1:33
  We do have a chat. So if you have any questions, you can pop them into the chat.
• 1:36
  We answer everything live and we do it unrehearsed because we are professionals.
• 1:41
  We're so professional that I just got to say a thing that people would normally be annoyed at.
• 1:47
  We were secretly like fangirling about when we re-listened to our episode to
• 1:52
  see how we, you know, did we ask the guests good questions and things like that?
• 1:57
  Nick and I, we quickly jumped to our chat and we're like, oh my God,
• 2:00
  I was listening to our episode on Spotify and I heard a freaking ad play during the episode.
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  And I'm like, we've made it, son.
• 2:09
  An ad playing, that means, you know, I think like the real analytics,
• 2:13
  I'll be honest, it says that we're making 18 cents per episode on Spotify from ads.
• 2:20
  So, you know, I don't want to, you know, that's plus Herbert's $10, you know, look out.
• 2:26
  We're going to be retiring from gigs soon.
• 2:29
  1018, that is, that's going to pay for our jet to Vegas. Remember we talked
• 2:33
  about getting a jet to Vegas so many times.
• 2:36
  That's right. That's right. Dude, that's got to be a one, like a one day thing.
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  Like out of the three of us that make it like super platinum big one day has
• 2:47
  to pay for that, that PJ as the kids call it.
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  And if it's Doug, it means he's got to fly from the US back here to pick us
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  up to then go back again, which would be, which would be sick.
• 2:58
  That would be fun. We'll just, we'll do the math. We'll figure out how many
• 3:01
  seats. I think we did the math one time.
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  It's 20 seats. but maybe we can do like everyone buys a ticket and we all go
• 3:06
  as a posse we all stay in the penthouse it'll be really really fun but yeah that's all I'll be there.
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  He yeah he received our shirts so
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  herbert who has donated the 10 bucks today what
• 3:19
  we did was we sent him one of our new trust the slight tees which he's saying
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  it made it so that's fantastic herbert how does it fit is it a good shirt is
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  it good quality if it isn't i'm gonna just hide your reply from everyone but
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  yeah you can see nick wearing it right now check that out look at that,
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  see the muscles yeah you know
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  it's a bit of an homage to those who spend their nights
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  practicing the slights so that they don't let them down when
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  they are in the the gigs in the trenches and
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  if you do want to grab one there's the little qr code scan that little puppy
• 3:53
  you can be cool like us too yeah you can throw it into the bucket with along
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  with the 18 cents we make each episode thank you so we're making tens of dollars
• 4:02
  tens of dollars but no obviously it was never about that We love you guys anyway,
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  but obviously it would be great to make millions.
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  Imagine if you could just podcast and give advice and it would just be so cool.
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  But anyway, nonetheless, put that 18 cents to the side, skip the ad,
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  Pasha. I don't care. It's fine. We don't need it.
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  But today it is all about giving you advice.
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  And something that we're very seasoned at is going through this cycle at the
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  end of the year where just like.
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  You're used to doing one, two, three events per week to now just doing like
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  every single day or multiple gigs a day right now. And it can be a little intense.
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  And I'm the first to admit that in the past, I had not taken this seriously.
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  And I had forgotten to put gigs in my calendar and then getting the gut-wrenching
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  call from a client saying, where are you?
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  And it's because you're at a different event because you double booked and didn't realize.
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  So trust me when I say you want to avoid and just make sure this stuff is planned out.
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  And that's kind of what we're here to go through today with a little preparation
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  guide about how you can be the most prepared for your gigs and just soak up
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  as much goodness from it.
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  Nick, are you ready for this season? Have you got your Arctic cooling vest ready?
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  I haven't prepared it yet, but it is on standby.
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  I have to put it in water to activate it. I'm keeping an eye on the forecast.
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  The moment it starts to hit the 35 degree sort of mark, that's when it needs to do that.
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  So I guess that probably even leads into our first point. Should we get into point number one?
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  Let's do it. Do I have my little button ready for these different points?
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  I think I do. And I think it is, give me a second.
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  Talking about being prepared, just nailed it, bud. You were killing it.
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  So I think point number one I have written down is stay stocked up.
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  And when I say stocked up, I mean make sure you've got all your playing cards
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  that you're going to go through for these gigs.
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  Nick, are you typically a pack a gig man, or are you using one deck for ages and ages?
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  I'm a one last i'm a packet pack a
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  gig smoker for sure and i
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  always have four in total in my
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  kit for every gig that i do the reason being is that
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  sometimes i do more than one event a day and outside
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  of that sometimes you'll be performing and you
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  know you ask a spectator to take a card they shove
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  it into like you know a wet patch that's on the table
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  and or you know and and so the cards destroy
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  the decks destroyed and you just want to get a fresh deck in that gig
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  so it's like you got four four of them you got
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  backups and you know
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  i'm i'm that guy that everyone calls and says do you have
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  any bricks do you have any bricks and it's like yes i do have bricks why prepare
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  you're prepared so this is and right now we're about to come into black friday
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  so if there's ever been a time to take advantage of stocking up it's this week
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  because this is the time where things can still make it to you in time,
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  like any, any extra things you have to order.
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  So you have to get on your bicycle playing cards. I literally just had a box right here.
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  I literally just had two bricks arrive yesterday.
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  And I'm going to order more through Black Friday. So that's number one is playing cards.
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  Second would be flash paper. If you're like us and you like a bit of visual
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  candy in your gigs, make sure you have enough flash paper.
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  It's just, we don't think about it. And I'll go to grab a sheet and be like,
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  oh, it's actually empty.
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  And then I got to hit up my dealer and be like, hey, do you have 20 sheets I
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  can buy from you? But so have a look at your inventory.
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  Business cards as well. Like I give about business cards. Are you giving out
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  business cards like the physical ones, Nick?
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  Well, again, not only am I handing out my business cards for my events,
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  I also work for an abundance of agencies. So I make sure that I stock up on
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  their cards to ensure that I'm representing them appropriately.
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  Yeah. And Gutbuster Mike has a good question here.
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  Which i hadn't considered do you do you work well with
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  a fresh out of the box deck of cards or do you need
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  to work them in i work really
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  well with a deck straight out of the box and i think
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  because i do it so often that using an old
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  gummy deck is a bit of a struggle for me you know people will
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  say things like you know like you know if we're having
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  a jam session and i pull out just a pack of standard bikes and
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  they're like ew why aren't you using orbits why aren't you
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  using this why aren't you using whatever else and i
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  go because i'm a worker and they're like what and i go but that's
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  an awful deck i go is it good enough for an hour two hours okay.
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  Yeah for two hours it's fine i go well that's all i need it for but i'm
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  not gonna go spend 30 bucks on a deck and then destroy it after like one gig
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  so yeah so i would just
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  say used to it that yes i i can take
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  a deck fresh out the box and and survive and
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  and if you know me and i think you do when i'm
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  putting mine into the stack that i work with that
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  involves riffle shuffling the whole deck four times
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  plus a whole bunch of other movements and reversing cards so
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  they are getting they are all getting some attention
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  the playing cards i guess is what i mean so they're all getting
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  air put into them you know they're not just staying straight
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  from fresh in the deck so they are getting like handled enough that now they're
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  super smooth and new but they are their own individual cards now they've been
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  broken up a little bit so yeah i hope that helps i i think what i used to do
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  was i would at least run through the deck.
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  Twice right so I would just go through every single
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  card and do that again and then at
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  least that way and then I would you know shuffle them so
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  at least then they're sort of like warmed up a little bit and you
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  can do the whole thing of rubbing the edges like on your on
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  your on your pants or whatever or on a cloth just to get
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  the rough bits out of the way sure but
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  um in this season when you're just going from gig
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  to gig you sometimes don't have that luxury okay
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  which is good because so far like everyone's saying
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  that they're taking off sort of everything we're making mention like scotty
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  p just said that like i've ticked off all the boxes you mentioned which is
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  kind of good so let's keep going with the list and see what else
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  needs to be prepared because i made a little list and i think that when
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  you're saying well i put it on the list of like do you have enough yes that's
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  it do you have enough yeah you have enough cards do you have enough paper flash
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  paper business cards batteries yeah gimmicks you know microphones And the thing
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  I'll say about business cards.
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  I almost was caught out and luckily my business card place I order from were
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  able to get me an emergency batch of 500 cards for this season.
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  But they also introduced me to a new style of digital business card that I wasn't aware of.
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  So they put this as a QR code on my business card, which I will actually be
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  able to show you the physical thing when it arrives in a week or so.
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  But just very quickly, this is a thing that if I run out of business cards or
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  someone doesn't want to take my card and they just want to take a photo,
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  which sometimes happens.
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  I can give them this QR code and I'll put it on the screen as well in case you're
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  watching this and you just want to go straight to it and see what it looks like.
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  But for those playing live on YouTube.
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  When they scan this code, it opens up this, which is kind of like a link tree.
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  It's kind of like a landing page. But the extra benefit that I've never seen
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  before is if I scroll down, it has all the different links to everything I do,
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  you know, YouTube, Instagram, email me, my WhatsApp, all that stuff.
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  But it also has a button to just instantly save my contact.
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  So if I'm low
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  on business cards I can give them the code for them to
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  scan open this up and they can just hit save contact
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  and now they've got all my info automatically and
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  so this has all the important stuff so technically I
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  could I could do gigs without a business card but
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  all my cards now have this on it and so
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  it's just a new thing that I'm adapting into this
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  season just to see what it's like if it helps it might
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  not who knows but it can't help less
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  you know so that's my little tidbit of something
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  new i'm trying and i'm sticking to it pasha
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  says now i have all your info yes well you know.
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  What i'm glad that the the millions of
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  people watching now have my info and i'm i'm happy for it
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  yeah i want to circle back to
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  what you said about batteries because it's it's an important thing if
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  you are someone who uses devices but also
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  just have a battery charging bank just
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  to ensure that like your phone has everything it needs to as well i've
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  been caught out a couple of times where i've had to do shows out of
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  town and if you ever end up in
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  a situation where like your phone is kind of on the cusp of
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  where reception is available your phone
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  can kind of exhaust itself trying to get a signal like you'll be there for a
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  one hour gig but then look back at your phone and it's like oh i was 70 now
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  i got like 10 because it was just like exhausting itself trying to to find signals
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  so having a a battery pack super handy as well because every now and again you might need to charge.
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  Whatever devices you may use if you do use them and
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  you want to make sure you have the appropriate charging table so
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  it's it might seem like a bit of a cost outlay
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  but it is something that you will use it might cost you 60 bucks for example
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  but you better charge your own 10 times off it so can recommend as far as batteries
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  go be prepared in that sense yeah scotty is saying he was gifted a battery pack
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  by a client early this year and it has been invaluable yeah you will never not need one.
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  And I, when using AudioApe for the shows that I'll do when I'm queuing my music,
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  that runs off a power bank.
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  So if that goes flat and I turn up to a gig, I now have no music.
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  And so having two of them, or at least checking the night before,
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  so crucial. But okay, so that's it.
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  Do you have enough of, is our advice for that one.
• 14:27
  Well, I got a few more things you might want to consider oh absolutely
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  bring it on i'm gonna reverse that sound okay there
• 14:34
  we go do you have enough clothes so
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  hear me out i know some guys that like are very costume driven but they only
• 14:45
  have like two shirts maybe go buy some more shirts okay because you may not
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  have time to get the washing done or whatever else and you don't want to arrive
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  at the gig smelling exactly like you do Seb.
• 15:00
  Yeah undershirts undershirts especially if you can't afford you know $100 dress
• 15:07
  shirts or whatever at least get you some undershirts so that they are the thing
• 15:12
  copying most of the sweat,
• 15:14
  Nick, what are the armpit soaker things that you have? I posted them in the... Do they have a name?
• 15:20
  Yeah, yeah. I forget. It's like... It starts with K.
• 15:25
  We'll put it in the Discord. Yeah, it's... Yeah. It's like a holster, but for your pits.
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  Like you put this thing on and these sponge... It's a better thing than that,
• 15:34
  but I'll just say sponge for now.
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  Go under your armpits. Yeah, it's kind of like a sponge, but it's got a plastic in it.
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  Like it's a type of thing that you would see like on bed sheets, for example.
• 15:42
  You know what I mean? so that if anyone were to wet the bed,
• 15:44
  so to speak, it wouldn't kind of go through, but it just covers your entire
• 15:47
  armpit and section so that you can perspire without destroying your suits.
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  It will get a little, I'm going to say the gross word, moist because of just
• 15:57
  the heat generation, but you're not actually perspiring into it.
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  You're not putting your salts of your body into it where you'll have that awful
• 16:04
  white ring around your black suit. You know what I mean?
• 16:07
  So that's another thing as well. Another thing I want to make mention is pants.
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  I actually had a magician, I got some feedback from a client because one of
• 16:13
  the guys who works for me, they were saying like he didn't come in his suit,
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  like he just wore this like different thing and I was like, okay dude,
• 16:19
  like we, you know we have a dress code, like what's your deal?
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  And he went oh, I split my pants and I just couldn't wear these pants with that
• 16:25
  jacket I look stupid and I was like, right you know, you only have one pair of pants yes, maybe.
• 16:32
  Hear me now, like you might split your pants, get a whole bunch of pants,
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  or get a few pants, you know so So,
• 16:39
  absolutely buy bloody pants and it
• 16:42
  might sound silly but when you're doing three events
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  in one day like you absolutely have to take a second dress shirt with you maybe
• 16:51
  switch up the jacket just for airing purposes and a second pair of pants i i
• 16:56
  always keep a second pair in my part of my car anyway like just in case like
• 17:01
  you might spill something on it you know god forbid.
• 17:05
  You can't find a bathroom and you're on the highway and you
• 17:08
  know you just never know when you need another pair of pants and it can't help
• 17:12
  i was doing a show out of town last week and i caught up with a friend of mine
• 17:18
  and he was like wash up and go do your gig it's a cool deal so i actually had
• 17:21
  a quick shave before i went to hit the gig i didn't realize i actually cut my neck,
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  and then i put i put my white shirt on
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  right like so like i did that going
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  to the like the bedroom got dressed put my white shirt on and
• 17:34
  then as i'm getting ready to leave he's like yo and i had blood on
• 17:38
  my shirt and then i went okay thank goodness
• 17:41
  i had two white shirts even though i was doing one gig that day still brought
• 17:45
  a second shirt for that reason so yeah so plan your day if you know you're running
• 17:51
  to two different gigs and it's hot like alex in the chat just said you best
• 17:54
  believe i had a second full change in the car yeah plan for that.
• 17:59
  You kind of bring up a good point as well. And I think that like when you are
• 18:04
  traveling, we should probably talk about travel times.
• 18:07
  That's definitely in here as well. Yeah. So let's jump to the traveling side of things.
• 18:12
  Two things I want to talk about is consider pre-booking and looking up where
• 18:16
  you're going to park at these events.
• 18:19
  And then the second one is pre-plan your driving route.
• 18:22
  So yeah, let's get into that, Nick. What's Melbourne like with driving?
• 18:26
  First of all, it's a bit different to Brisbane. I think it's a bit more chaotic.
• 18:30
  It totally is in a sense that like we're a lot more condensed where we are.
• 18:33
  And so I find that when you're in Brisbane, like your traffic isn't like condensed
• 18:38
  going from like red light to red light.
• 18:40
  It's basically like all on the freeways and the highways that you guys have.
• 18:44
  So it's, it's basically like same travel time, but you can travel much greater distances.
• 18:51
  So for example, I'm five kilometers from the city, right?
• 18:54
  That's like three mile for American listeners.
• 18:57
  Now for me to drive to the casino which is that length it's a 35 minute drive regardless okay.
• 19:06
  It's it's ridiculous and that's why as scotty made mention in the comments i
• 19:09
  have an electric skateboard to get around the city and i just skate to gigs
• 19:12
  and i get there and i throw my suit and i do my gig and i skate back it's not
• 19:16
  the way i love to represent you know what i mean considering,
• 19:19
  who i am whatever else but like it's it works well yeah dude the e-scooters
• 19:25
  are so helpful In the city Even for me Like I think I talked about it During
• 19:29
  Riverfire When some of the roads Were closed I could get in and out Of the city
• 19:32
  On the scooter So I second that Yeah I also think that.
• 19:39
  As far as considering travel and all and planning your
• 19:42
  routes definitely pre pre like book
• 19:45
  your parking if possible like in the multi-level car
• 19:48
  parks and so forth that's a great idea but also
• 19:51
  aim to get to your event 30
• 19:55
  minutes before your starting time you
• 19:58
  never know what's going to happen between that you never know what traffic situation is
• 20:01
  going to happen you know but if you're aiming to get there
• 20:04
  like bang on time i wouldn't do that now just
• 20:07
  when you allow that 30 minutes prior you
• 20:11
  might get there 15 minutes too but it's
• 20:13
  just this point where you don't have to have any stress level
• 20:17
  on your purse like in your body in your brain about
• 20:20
  you not getting there on time and sometimes you will
• 20:23
  get there on time but you'll get to the event and you'll
• 20:26
  go to the venue and say oh i'm here for this
• 20:29
  event i don't know where it is i'm like well you know
• 20:31
  like sometimes of stuff are not very helpful or they put you into the wrong
• 20:35
  event you know and you're looking for your client being like are you sure this
• 20:38
  is the right one no it's the wrong one it's like oh like those things chew up
• 20:41
  time like if you're going to do a gig here for example at like marble stadium
• 20:45
  of which there's like several venues around marble stadium you know how long
• 20:49
  it takes to walk around marble stadium.
• 20:51
  It's like a two kilometer walk in diameter. Like it's insane.
• 20:54
  So yeah, you do want to, you do want to make sure that you have time for transit.
• 21:00
  And then, you know, when you get to the event, you can just politely say to
• 21:04
  them, like, don't worry, I'm here early.
• 21:05
  I'm just, you know, like I'll be starting in 10 minutes time.
• 21:07
  That's enough time for me to get myself ready. I'll see you for a whatever start.
• 21:11
  So for example, like what I do is I will text the client. I go,
• 21:15
  hi, just let you know, I'm in my green room.
• 21:17
  I'm just getting myself prepared, but I will see you for a 7 p.m.
• 21:21
  Start and I leave it at that so that they just know
• 21:24
  I'm here they don't need to stress all as well yeah
• 21:27
  the thing the the super helpful thing you can do
• 21:30
  on google maps now is you can put in the actual
• 21:33
  date that you'll be traveling and the time so you you
• 21:36
  can say to it I'm going to be performing
• 21:39
  at the casino tomorrow and I need
• 21:42
  to arrive by 3 30 because your
• 21:45
  gig's at 4 30 and you go to sign in security all that and it
• 21:48
  will tell you oh during this time it can actually take between one hour and
• 21:52
  two hours so we recommend you leave it this time and now you know the amount
• 21:56
  of times that's helped me because anyone from brisbane driving to the gold coast
• 22:01
  knows that that trip can take anywhere from an hour 20 to three hours and yeah you don't want to be,
• 22:07
  an hour late to your gig when you have two more to do after it and it's just
• 22:11
  a nightmare so So yeah, prep the actual route. Yeah.
• 22:16
  Waze, do you ever use Waze? Tell me again. Waze, W-A-Z-E.
• 22:20
  That's a really good means of pre-planning your trips as well. Yeah. I like it.
• 22:27
  Yeah. Let's, yeah, let's look into Waze then. Scotty, you look into that and
• 22:32
  give us the brief in the comments.
• 22:34
  And yeah, parking, because venues, if you're performing at a venue at night
• 22:38
  on a Saturday, there's a really good chance. There's like thousands of other
• 22:42
  people in that same area going to dinner or whatnot.
• 22:45
  So figuring out where you're going to park and like a secondary option,
• 22:50
  if you think it's going to be full and the secondary option could very well be you park.
• 22:57
  A couple of blocks away and you just uber five minutes to the venue that has saved me,
• 23:02
  a bunch of times as well so what we're
• 23:05
  saying is just actually take active time to
• 23:08
  plan the the travel of getting to these events so so far we've talked about
• 23:12
  stocking up make sure you have everything of everything and we're up to travel
• 23:17
  any other footnotes you want to add to travel nick well yeah just one last thing
• 23:20
  before the travel is like sometimes
• 23:22
  you arrive at events and there's like inductions that you need to do.
• 23:25
  If you're performing at a casino or a large scale like convention center,
• 23:29
  they typically want you to go to
• 23:30
  security and sign yourself in as like a contractor to get to these events.
• 23:34
  Sometimes you go do that gig and you arrive on time, but then there's a whole
• 23:38
  line of people waiting to sign in as well.
• 23:41
  So there's very few places you will experience that,
• 23:44
  but just keep that in mind that if you are going to be at a convention center
• 23:48
  where they have these legalities and all these sorts of things in place,
• 23:51
  especially like with here, the Crown Casino, you definitely want
• 23:54
  to make sure that you're there because you have to get this like stupid pass
• 23:58
  and then they want you to go and drop it back in when you're done i
• 24:00
  never just take it with me but it's like i used to but i'm like screw this man
• 24:04
  it's such a pain but yeah and then there's been times where you've i've worked
• 24:08
  up at gigs and people don't have their inductions and they're doing their inductions
• 24:11
  in the corner like there's like 20 computers lined up and they go they're actually
• 24:15
  doing their induction live they're watching videos and doing an induction like
• 24:18
  When you hear a sound go whoop,
• 24:20
  whoop, does it mean escape or does it mean sit still? You're like,
• 24:24
  just get out of the building.
• 24:25
  There's an alarm going on. Get. Yeah.
• 24:28
  All right, next thing is prepping different venue versions of your show.
• 24:36
  Now, what I mean by that is you don't know exactly what you're going to walk
• 24:40
  into at a Christmas event. It could be a very loud room. It could be outdoors.
• 24:45
  It could be, if you're doing a stage show, it could be a very small stage.
• 24:49
  Or it could be a stage show, but it's actually a stand-up cocktail event,
• 24:53
  which is one thing I'm going to experience, which fortunately having a brief
• 24:58
  with the client, I found that out. And so now I can prep for it.
• 25:02
  But something to consider is making sure you have roving sets that can accommodate
• 25:08
  for really loud audiences,
• 25:11
  audiences that are all seated at tables, maybe eating, and yeah,
• 25:16
  really confined spaces as well.
• 25:19
  So what do you do in those situations, Nick?
• 25:22
  I guess these days we're used to just seeing the situation and going,
• 25:26
  okay, I'm going to do this type of set, but what are some things people can
• 25:30
  consider if they walk in and it's like, let's go with the worst one.
• 25:34
  It's like a packed tight standup room and you got to kind of like shuffle through to even get in.
• 25:41
  The worst scenario is like, we want you to do a stage show. It's a packed tight
• 25:45
  room and it's shaped like the letter L.
• 25:47
  So there's people around the
• 25:49
  corner who aren't even engaged in like being able to see things. Right.
• 25:54
  And then, and then you, they go oh we need to do a stage show where's the stage
• 25:57
  it's a half a foot off the ground
• 25:59
  you know so the line of sight is awful like the first you know six rows of people
• 26:04
  are going to love it but everything else is going to be porridge so it's the type of thing that.
• 26:10
  You know, prevention is kind of key when you ask them what it looks like.
• 26:15
  I'm in the fortunate position where I've been doing this long enough and I've
• 26:18
  performed in enough venues in every single place this town has to offer that
• 26:22
  I know every room really, really well, right?
• 26:25
  And I've been there at least once before, typically.
• 26:28
  So seldom am I going to face this again. Now, there's been times where I have
• 26:31
  been thrown into this because you might be in a situation where,
• 26:34
  let's say, there's, for example, the Riverside Room at Crown Casino.
• 26:38
  When I do stage shows there, that room is narrow, but it is wide.
• 26:42
  So it's you here, but you want to talk about angles.
• 26:46
  There's people square right and square left, and you've got to find a way to
• 26:50
  keep those engaged. So when you know the room, super.
• 26:54
  What I also do to combat stuff is sometimes I rock up. Let me give you an example.
• 26:58
  The last time I did this was I rocked up at a gig.
• 27:01
  They had an outdoor stage and it was raining and I was going to do a stage show
• 27:05
  to which I said, I think we need to pivot.
• 27:09
  And rather than me giving you a 20-minute show, I'm going to give you an hour
• 27:13
  rove, and I'm going to do it inside the venue, as opposed to out the back where
• 27:18
  they wanted to have the stage.
• 27:19
  I go, and I'm going to go from table to table, make sure everyone has a great time.
• 27:24
  And so what I mean by that is that you as the professional, as the expert in
• 27:30
  these sorts of realms, as you want to walk into a situation and go,
• 27:32
  I think that's a bad idea.
• 27:35
  Here's what I would do, but it's your choice, is what I do with the client.
• 27:39
  They're like, well, we're going to put you over here in the stage.
• 27:41
  And I go, so here's the thing. I can do that, but I guarantee those people aren't
• 27:44
  going to see anything. That's not going to happen, blah, blah, blah.
• 27:46
  And it's going to be a waste of your time and money. You don't have any lights.
• 27:49
  You don't have any audio.
• 27:50
  That's not the way to do it. So how about this? What if instead of me doing
• 27:52
  a 20 minute show, we do a one hour rove and I walk around the entire party and
• 27:56
  that way I can guarantee that everyone will see some magic.
• 28:00
  But it's a privilege you've paid for. So if you want me to do that,
• 28:03
  I will do it. And they go, yeah, you know, let's do your idea instead.
• 28:06
  Cool. And if they say, no, no, no, I want you on stage, no problem.
• 28:10
  You made the choice. You've taken the responsibility, but you've made them liable
• 28:14
  for their choice. And if it's the wrong one, they made that choice.
• 28:20
  Yeah, really good points. And we had someone mention here, it's a good point to bring up.
• 28:26
  Hopefully you know what the setup is before you go to the show,
• 28:29
  right? Well, what I'll say is with all these Christmas gigs,
• 28:32
  people will have their rooms changed around. It's just a weird thing that happens during Christmas.
• 28:38
  They're planning to be in one particular venue, like function room,
• 28:42
  but at the last minute because of weather or because the venue is trying to
• 28:45
  fit in a different other event to come in, they'll switch them up.
• 28:50
  And this is exactly what happened to me on my
• 28:53
  briefing call yesterday was I found out that the client was
• 28:56
  going to have a seated event and now it's going
• 28:59
  to be a stand-up event where I'm doing the show and so because I
• 29:02
  know that I can plan for it but we won't always know you know sometimes I've
• 29:06
  rocked up and the the room they were meant to be in they actually got switched
• 29:10
  and now they're on the balcony space which is now outdoors so of course do your
• 29:16
  diligence to always know like all the details but when you're.
• 29:21
  Just to shine some light on our calendars, like I looked at my first two weeks
• 29:26
  of December, right? First two weeks.
• 29:29
  I'm doing 15 events. That's awesome. And I can only look, thank you.
• 29:34
  It is pretty amazing to be so fortunate to do magic like this.
• 29:37
  But like I have to, as best as I can, try and get as much info from those 15 people.
• 29:43
  But it's pretty common that like some of them are going to change their stuff.
• 29:47
  Or like, I'm just not going to remember all 15 environments I'm walking into,
• 29:52
  which is why this particular tip comes in handy.
• 29:55
  Be prepared to perform in different environments that it's just going to happen.
• 30:00
  And it's something we roll with. And, you know, it's part of the fun.
• 30:03
  It's part of the game, but just like be ready.
• 30:05
  They could all be a bunch of 75 year olds, right?
• 30:08
  And now your set's going to change a little bit, you know, they're actually
• 30:13
  a very fun audience to entertain, but I'm just saying it's going to change things a tiny bit.
• 30:18
  Any other, before we go to the next topic, any other considerations, Nick?
• 30:22
  Yeah, I think that, you know, so one of the guys that's saying that like,
• 30:26
  you know, this is the sort of things we should be figuring out.
• 30:28
  So let's touch upon like, what sort of questions should you be asking when you
• 30:32
  have that phone call when someone says, I want you for an event?
• 30:35
  What's a sort of like small scale checklist without going too in deep about
• 30:39
  it? like that you would be asking the person asking you for like your pricing, et cetera.
• 30:47
  Yeah, like me personally? Yeah, like, I mean, like, so for example,
• 30:52
  when I was backstage waiting for Josh to jump on the pod and I was literally
• 30:56
  taking an inquiry and when he jumped on, he was like, yo, yo,
• 30:59
  and I'll help my phone, I'm like, inquiry.
• 31:02
  But yeah, so sometimes the first thing you do is like when someone says,
• 31:05
  I've got an event, how much? And you go, well, let me tell you,
• 31:08
  let me ask you about your event. How many people are you having?
• 31:11
  And if they're like, if they're saying like, I want you to do a one hour show, there's six of us.
• 31:17
  Like, yeah, that's a bit much, man. I think we should do a parlor show and this
• 31:20
  would be much better. Oh, okay.
• 31:22
  I've got 400 people. I want a one-hour rove. For 400 people,
• 31:26
  you should have someone roving all night, you know?
• 31:29
  Like, and then you talk about it like that, you know, and you sort of like gather information.
• 31:34
  So I was going to ask you, like, what's sort of your checklist of things that you would ask?
• 31:39
  Yeah, man. I think there's two parts, right, where we gather info.
• 31:42
  One is that so we can quote on them, on the pricing.
• 31:45
  And then the second one is Like the agreement or contract We send them When
• 31:50
  we book in it So we have it in stone Like all the details Which I can run down
• 31:54
  those little bullet points But essentially Yeah,
• 31:57
  I think same thing I ask an open question I'm like Tell me about your event
• 32:01
  And then they'll generally tell me Everything they can think of If they don't,
• 32:06
  i'll say like you said how many people what type of entertainment like what in in the best world,
• 32:12
  you know best case scenario like what is it from me that would be amazing for
• 32:16
  your event and they'll be oh if you're walking around and blah blah blah and
• 32:19
  then if at the end you did one thing that would be great in front of everyone
• 32:22
  i'm like okay i'm gathering some info great and then when they mention the venue
• 32:26
  we probably know we've worked there before but like oh are you on the, you know,
• 32:32
  the balcony room, like, oh, yeah, okay. I'm like, okay, great.
• 32:35
  I know stage stuff doesn't work there because it's so open and everyone's close
• 32:39
  together, but this works really well.
• 32:41
  And so, yeah, you're just trying to gather as much info about the event.
• 32:45
  I will say, I don't, I personally don't change my quote options depending on
• 32:52
  like how many people they have or whatever.
• 32:54
  It's just that like, sorry, I don't, I don't change the price,
• 32:57
  but it just will mean And now I'll recommend a different option of my pricing options.
• 33:03
  So we have these moments of discovery to make sure we offer the best service.
• 33:07
  And a lot of times, even if I get it in the form of an email,
• 33:09
  I'll say, oh, wonderful.
• 33:10
  Thank you for your inquiry. I have a few questions just to ensure I give you
• 33:13
  the best service possible. Could you please advise the following?
• 33:16
  All the way down. And I ask them whatever information I need to.
• 33:20
  So for example, they might go, we're at a restaurant.
• 33:22
  And I'll say, do we have our own private room at the restaurant?
• 33:26
  Or are we just got a few tables?
• 33:28
  And if they're like, we've got a few tables and I go, cool, because what if
• 33:31
  I rock up and start entertaining people who aren't part of your event, you know? Yeah.
• 33:35
  Or does the restaurant allow like a rogue entertainer to come in just for your
• 33:41
  tables if you're not in a private room, you know? Exactly. Yeah. Which has happened.
• 33:46
  Yeah. So there's little things that you want to discover. And I think one of
• 33:49
  the most important things as well, you know, is you got to make sure that you
• 33:53
  know their location as well.
• 33:54
  Because sometimes they'll go, awesome, we'll book you in. And then it's like,
• 33:58
  buddy, it's a three hour drive.
• 34:00
  You know and then you need to make sure that you compensate for
• 34:03
  that so yeah now 100 now sticking
• 34:06
  on topic with the client oh and
• 34:09
  so if anyone is curious what we ask
• 34:12
  clients when we're actually booking them i'll just show it to the screen here
• 34:16
  but you could you know you could hit me up about this any other time i'll just
• 34:20
  maximize it you can screenshot that and look at it another time but essentially
• 34:24
  those bullet points are the questions that i'm getting them to answer so it's
• 34:28
  just little thing, the obvious things.
• 34:30
  What's the client name, best contact number and name on the day.
• 34:34
  What do you want on the invoice, the date of the event, address, start time.
• 34:39
  Yeah, the start time is always crucial because sometimes they'll say that when
• 34:43
  their party is, but if you don't ask specifically when they want you, you can get messed up.
• 34:48
  Number of guests, what package, the fee, so there's no confusion later on.
• 34:53
  And will there be any other entertainment is another
• 34:57
  thing that's been helpful sometimes they'll actually put down yes there'll
• 35:00
  be a second magician and i'm like oh okay great and
• 35:03
  then you can liaise with that guy and now you're doing different magic and
• 35:06
  you can coordinate it but sometimes you just won't know and
• 35:09
  then i will also ask them like is there a
• 35:12
  theme to this dress code and christmas time there's a lot of like i'm doing
• 35:17
  one that's an 80s theme there's a mad hatter theme one there's a safari one
• 35:21
  that i'm a part of and so i'm just making these little notes so i can you know
• 35:25
  wear a different tie or a different undershirt or have a bit of fun with it
• 35:28
  so but the other important thing is the actual.
• 35:32
  Confirmation emails leading up to the event and then the aftercare like whatever
• 35:37
  you're going to send to the client after the event in order to like stay in
• 35:42
  touch or get a google review or whatever that can become a little tricky to
• 35:47
  stay on top of when you're doing more gigs than normal,
• 35:49
  during the week of the gig nick do you.
• 35:54
  Any contact with the client like hey just i'm going to see you on this date
• 35:58
  yeah what does that look like for you it's just a polite confirmation so just
• 36:03
  to circle back the last two things that on your list that i have that that people
• 36:07
  might also want to add is that i ask is there a green room because it just means
• 36:12
  you might not have anywhere to get prepared,
• 36:14
  and what would when i say that's kind of what's stipulated on the booking like
• 36:18
  i don't need a green room, but sometimes you do.
• 36:22
  Meals is another thing as well that I have on there and parking,
• 36:25
  because you might not have parking at this particular type of place.
• 36:28
  You know what I mean? Like, and, and, and all that means is like,
• 36:31
  they don't have to give you parking.
• 36:32
  You just on the booking form that you send them when it's like,
• 36:36
  when it's like, you know, like production, like production and lighting and
• 36:40
  a meals and a, you know, green room.
• 36:44
  Yes. And then parking street.
• 36:47
  That's typically what's on mine that I send to them, sort of stipulating all that sort of stuff.
• 36:51
  That's really clever. That's really clever. And sometimes the venues will actually
• 36:55
  say to you, we don't have on-site parking, but you can use our loading bay staff
• 37:00
  area for like just you, because you're only here for an hour.
• 37:03
  And you never know if you don't ask them. That's really a good,
• 37:07
  that's a pro tip if I've ever heard one.
• 37:09
  Yeah. and then on the week of the event i shoot
• 37:12
  them so all that information that we've just spoke about like that list
• 37:15
  which is effectively like for me it's it's on the invoice
• 37:18
  i send them so it's like so i've got it under because
• 37:21
  i use zero so i have under like like magic performance
• 37:24
  cost and then i have terms and the
• 37:27
  terms are all of that booking form showing like
• 37:30
  this is the person the contact of the name starting time
• 37:34
  end time everything we just spoke about i basically cut and
• 37:37
  paste that send it to them and say like hi there
• 37:40
  you know just want to touch base before your event
• 37:43
  want to confirm that all the details are still correct and they
• 37:46
  might go oh can we start at 7 30 instead of 7 and
• 37:49
  you go and if it's possible to do you say yes that is possibility but
• 37:52
  if not you know not but it's just a it's just a nice touch point to show that
• 37:57
  you're doing the best you can to ensure that you're taking care of your client
• 38:02
  100 and the other thing you can do Sometimes I'll accidentally leave it a bit
• 38:09
  late in doing that confirmation.
• 38:11
  So what I'll do instead is to quickly liaise with them.
• 38:17
  Something i didn't mention is when i send a quote to a client like if if they've
• 38:21
  submitted a form submission through
• 38:23
  my website that will have their email their name their phone number,
• 38:27
  i'll email them but i'll i'll always send a confirmation text message as well
• 38:33
  saying hey thank you so much for your inquiry today i'm just letting you know i've sent your email,
• 38:38
  let me know if you have any questions it's just a double up in case it
• 38:41
  goes to a spam or you know i want them to know there's two
• 38:44
  touch points now of communication and sometimes they'll prefer
• 38:47
  texting rather than email and so that's great you
• 38:50
  can jump to that but so so i always
• 38:53
  have that communication in my phone so sometimes if
• 38:56
  it's like the day before two days before and i'm like crap i
• 38:59
  haven't had time to email them yeah i will send them a text
• 39:01
  and i'll be like hey hey cheryl just confirming i'm going
• 39:04
  to see you this saturday at 6 45 um if
• 39:07
  anything's changed let me know and then they can quickly
• 39:10
  just like on the message or they can message back as well
• 39:13
  with extra stuff so sending
• 39:16
  a text message is a nice touch point which can be useful because
• 39:19
  now they automatically have your number again for the night great opens
• 39:23
  up that dialogue well i think we covered a lot there
• 39:26
  man this is uh we should have we should make like a pamphlet or something like
• 39:29
  this is should be a book it should be a book yeah yeah coin it um oh and then
• 39:35
  and then the last thing too yeah so absolutely make sure you do that and it's
• 39:39
  nice for the client too just it lets them though you've got everything under control you know.
• 39:45
  A second thing I want to note to that, and this is where I had been stuck in
• 39:48
  the past and now it no longer happens.
• 39:52
  Wherever it is that you write, you create your invoices. I'm really saying this
• 39:57
  to my past self, but I hope it helps someone else listening too.
• 40:00
  Whatever invoicing system you use to create your invoices, go back and look
• 40:05
  at them and just match them up in your calendar to make sure you've actually
• 40:10
  put them in your effing calendar so you don't miss a gig.
• 40:14
  Like sometimes when you're on the go, you're like, oh yeah, I'm going to quickly
• 40:17
  send the invoice to this person, but you didn't, you didn't put it in your phone
• 40:21
  at the same time or whatever system you have. Right.
• 40:23
  So something that I, I consciously do now is I will go back and look as far
• 40:29
  back as I need to until I'm going back to events I've already done and just check. Oh yeah.
• 40:34
  I booked that person for the 18th. Is it in my phone for the 18th?
• 40:38
  It is the times the same. Okay. Awesome.
• 40:41
  You just want to double check your own work. I just want to leave it at.
• 40:44
  That it's super simple to do but it requires a
• 40:48
  little bit of a conscious effort what's also good is that if you do put it in
• 40:51
  your calendar the way i do there is a search function in your calendar so what
• 40:54
  you can do is you can literally go there type in something and then just basically
• 41:00
  say like you know like let's say let's say the client was like ibm i could just go there and type ibm,
• 41:06
  computers and then everything will just go yep here's every time you've worked
• 41:10
  for them you know at some nice yeah,
• 41:13
  There's one thing that Alex made here, a comment. It says here,
• 41:16
  Alex goes, I like to ask if there's any VIPs to impress, to make sure that the
• 41:20
  person who booked me looks good.
• 41:22
  That's a good point. I don't do that in any of my communications,
• 41:24
  but I will do that when I arrive.
• 41:27
  So if my contact on the evening is, let's say it's Sarah, who's the assistant,
• 41:32
  I go, Sarah, I go, cool. If there's any VIPs, let me know who they are. Oh, absolutely.
• 41:36
  So that's my CEO. That's the blah, blah, blah.
• 41:38
  That's the district manager. That's the guy who's flown in from Germany.
• 41:41
  He owns the company. and then you go, great, make sure I do something special for them.
• 41:44
  But I do that at the event so that she can point out every single person that
• 41:49
  I need to rock their world.
• 41:50
  Really good point. Knowing those key people, especially if you know you might
• 41:55
  not get around to everyone.
• 41:56
  Super, super helpful. And then the other part of this with the communication
• 42:01
  is the aftercare of the client.
• 42:04
  Like once you do the event, you don't want to just say thank
• 42:07
  you at the event and then like that's it forever like you
• 42:10
  don't talk to them again like that is fine because like
• 42:13
  they're not expecting anything else but sending a
• 42:17
  follow-up email and if it's possible to send a follow-up email with more than
• 42:22
  just thanks i have a me leave me a review if you can add value the goal is if
• 42:27
  you can find a way to add value to that follow-up email then you're winning
• 42:31
  and examples that nick and i have now i was just talking on behalf of nick but
• 42:35
  because we have a regular show,
• 42:37
  we can invite the client post event. It's great to have you.
• 42:41
  If you ever have a night off and you want to bring your husband to see something
• 42:46
  on a night out, I would love to offer you free tickets to come see our show.
• 42:50
  Thank you for having me. And then at the bottom, you know, feel free to leave
• 42:53
  me a Google review or whatever. Then.
• 42:56
  Great. They're going to do it because you've added value. For me,
• 43:00
  I'm giving them a Google Drive link to the montage of the reactions I've collected in my Meta Ray-Bans.
• 43:08
  So I'm going, thanks so much for having me. As promised, here's the link to
• 43:11
  some of your guests reacting to the magic.
• 43:14
  And then at the bottom, PS, if you enjoyed the magic, feel free to let everyone
• 43:18
  else know with this Google Review link.
• 43:21
  And then in brackets, I'm trying to get myself to 100 reviews.
• 43:24
  A little wink face. And really important because that way, like,
• 43:29
  they can give you any feedback or sometimes they'll say, actually,
• 43:33
  this person wanted me to give you their details. I'm going to CC you in on an
• 43:37
  email. That's happened a bunch.
• 43:39
  Anything else I'm missing, Nick?
• 43:42
  No, I think that the aftercare, the wrap up is quite good. The only for myself,
• 43:47
  I don't do that as much as I need to.
• 43:49
  And I say that because I work for agencies. and a lot of the agencies I represent
• 43:52
  do that for me because I represent the agency and not so much myself.
• 43:57
  So Josh works his butt off and I don't.
• 44:02
  Whatever, you know, yeah, look, we both have no hair for a reason,
• 44:06
  right? We're working hard in our own ways.
• 44:09
  But it is something you have to make a conscious effort to do,
• 44:11
  especially this season. It can be so easy to forget to do that and so it can be really helpful.
• 44:17
  And if it's agencies that you are working with a lot, Something to think about
• 44:23
  right now, since we're at the end of November, is what are you doing to thank your agencies?
• 44:31
  Some people give them physical gifts or take them out for lunch or whatever.
• 44:35
  For me, a lot of the agencies that I'll do gigs for are interstate.
• 44:40
  So there's a website called Prezi, P-R-E, I think it's like triple Z-E, something like that.
• 44:47
  Anyway, it's a digital gift card and I'll typically send them,
• 44:51
  if it's an agency that books me quite a lot, like for high-end events,
• 44:55
  I'll send them like a $200, $300 gift card or whatever to them.
• 45:00
  And then also like their assistant who's normally like in
• 45:03
  on the emails or something like that and i'll
• 45:06
  do that for like the the key four agents that are like
• 45:09
  that i work with really well it's super
• 45:12
  easy to forget there was one year i just forgot to do it and
• 45:15
  i just felt like an idiot because i just wasn't on top of it but this
• 45:17
  is the point in the year where you can think about what am
• 45:20
  i going to do to just show them that i care it doesn't have
• 45:23
  to be even money it could be like a phone
• 45:26
  call just to be like i know this is about to get insane but i just
• 45:29
  wanted to like tell you that i appreciate you and thank you for this work
• 45:32
  or it could just be sending them a little gift hamper
• 45:36
  of you know christmas stuff paraphernalia
• 45:40
  i make hampers yeah or
• 45:44
  if you can hand make something that's even better too by
• 45:47
  the way yeah i go and get hampers and then i just like
• 45:50
  buy like i i've been working for these guys
• 45:52
  for so long like i know that daniel likes a
• 45:55
  he likes a bourbon so i get him a bourbon i know that you know perfect shelly
• 46:00
  likes a sweet white wine so i get it like a nice moscato or something of that
• 46:03
  nature like oh you know like it's yeah she likes shiraz so that's the best i
• 46:08
  mean and then yeah if you want if you want typically do it after after the crazy season.
• 46:16
  Cause I've been too busy to pop in and see them, but I'll pop in and like,
• 46:19
  okay, crazy season's over. How was Christmas? Blah, blah, blah.
• 46:21
  And I tend to do it in the new year. And I go, this is for you guys.
• 46:24
  Just my little way of saying thanks for everything that you've done.
• 46:26
  And then I go, what's your plan for the year? And they're like,
• 46:29
  then they start sharing their plans with me.
• 46:31
  And then we talk about that. And I go, what can I do to help?
• 46:33
  And they're like, if you could blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 46:36
  And I go, cool. I go, what's, what's your plans? I go, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing.
• 46:39
  I just want to make sure that the people who work for me are employed. because i
• 46:42
  work really hard on them i train them and we they work in my residencies they're
• 46:45
  getting a lot of hours up and i just want to make sure that we're all working
• 46:48
  we can all eat and they're like that's really awesome like you know one one
• 46:52
  agency recently i got booked i'm i'm booking all their magicians for them they've
• 46:58
  got me down in on their business saying talk to our magic manager,
• 47:02
  nick k nice like that's that's what the text is so like i'm their magic manager
• 47:06
  which is just they just talk to him, everything you need to know.
• 47:10
  And I'm like, and that's so cool because it allows me to make sure that all
• 47:13
  of my guys and girls who work for me get work. And that's so important to me.
• 47:18
  That's really, that's really clever. Yeah. Doing it at the start of the year
• 47:21
  is wonderful as well. I guess now's the time just to plan what the thing is you're going to do.
• 47:25
  So Nick already knows, yep. Start of the year, bang.
• 47:28
  A lot of people, a lot of agencies have gone holidays, like the last two weeks,
• 47:33
  like they're just not at their emails and stuff. So for me, just so I don't forget.
• 47:37
  Because they all leave interstate i i will i'll just consciously send them something.
• 47:42
  Start of december or middle of december so i know they
• 47:45
  get it in time and they can use it even if they
• 47:48
  use the voucher to buy their you know their family something
• 47:51
  they're always so appreciative
• 47:54
  of it because you'd be surprised how many
• 47:57
  people they represent and just no one shows any
• 48:00
  thanks and so yeah the aftercare
• 48:04
  of agents and clients are going to serve you
• 48:07
  very very well you know a little idea i
• 48:10
  had and anyone can do this obviously i i
• 48:13
  took it upon myself to sit down and just fight and and
• 48:16
  film five tricks you
• 48:19
  can do with stuff at home that takes no
• 48:22
  effort that's like a party trick it's not like a routine or
• 48:25
  a you know crazy slide it's just five little
• 48:28
  party tricks and i reckon as your thank you
• 48:31
  email you could send the thank you and then be
• 48:33
  like oh by the way if you're spending time with with
• 48:36
  your family this this christmas here's like here's two
• 48:39
  little party tricks you can learn straight away that you can perform at the
• 48:44
  christmas lunch and then by the way if you do want to leave a review it'd be
• 48:47
  a massive help here's the link you know that's great super easy to do but um
• 48:53
  you know the little details are the hardest thing to keep on top of.
• 48:57
  I totally agree. In fact, I've got a couple of little things.
• 49:01
  We're sort of at the end of what's happening, but there's a little something
• 49:04
  that we probably want to touch upon that happens in between all the craziness, and that is...
• 49:10
  Hydration and snacks yes bro
• 49:13
  that was literally it's literally
• 49:17
  the next thing on my list here all right let's talk about
• 49:20
  it pack snacks and electrolytes yeah we're going
• 49:23
  between gigs you got to plan like your toilet breaks like
• 49:27
  when you're going to have snacks you know especially when
• 49:30
  there's only if you're doing multiple gigs
• 49:33
  throughout like the city for example or even just let's
• 49:36
  just say you're doing two right you're doing one and then you're going to another one
• 49:39
  straight away you just it we don't think
• 49:41
  about it like oh yeah i'll be i'll just i'll just soldier on
• 49:44
  and i'll be fine and normally you would be fine but
• 49:47
  if you're doing that again the next day and the
• 49:50
  next day you get it's gonna december can really run a
• 49:53
  toll on your body if you're not prepared and you and you think you can just
• 49:56
  wing it because you're a young dude and you you know got a full head of hair
• 50:00
  like alex lamb but we can't all be like that so you know how it's gonna happen
• 50:05
  to you you know how it's gonna happen to you it's gonna happen to you like this
• 50:07
  you're going to have a two-hour gig from three to five, right?
• 50:11
  And then you've got one hour to get to your next one. So you've got like from
• 50:14
  five to six to get to your next gig because you're starting at like 6.30.
• 50:18
  Then you've got a next two-hour gig. So from three to like 8.30, you're not eating.
• 50:24
  Like, you're not going to eat. You're just not. And you're not going to even
• 50:27
  realize it. And then you're going to be performing away and be like,
• 50:30
  I feel really fuzzy. I can't remember that person's name.
• 50:32
  I've asked him like four or five times.
• 50:35
  All the stuff, right? Which spins me out because I know some magicians are like,
• 50:39
  oh, I can't eat before I perform. And I'm like, that's nuts.
• 50:41
  It's like my favorite thing to do, eating before a show and after. But yeah.
• 50:47
  So the reason I bring that up, I was going to say the reason I bring that up
• 50:51
  is that when it comes to food,
• 50:52
  make sure you eat even if you're not hungry because
• 50:55
  you got to eat when it's opportune right force yourself
• 50:58
  to eat something so that you will be okay yeah question
• 51:01
  and not not not a heavy meal either heavy meals gonna
• 51:04
  mess you up the mystery box studio is asking what
• 51:07
  is australia's number one snack good
• 51:11
  question i know my go-to my
• 51:14
  go-to and you can get it at any major petrol station
• 51:17
  is the chewy choc chip muesli bars
• 51:21
  yeah i think they're uncle toby's i
• 51:25
  have box that i buy it's like 18 and
• 51:28
  i have my center console on the tesla and i just throw the whole thing in there
• 51:34
  like i just dump all the contents of it in there and so whenever i'm in between
• 51:38
  gigs i just reach in grab one and i'll just nosh on one while i'm driving i
• 51:42
  also keep two cans of this stuff so So hydration wise,
• 51:46
  this is 100 plus. It's a...
• 51:49
  It's a recovery drink from Malaysia, and I fell in love with these a long,
• 51:53
  long time ago, 100 plus, and I buy them by the slab now from Amazon.
• 51:59
  I can vouch for it. I had one at Nick's place, and it's delicious,
• 52:02
  but also you feel like you've done something good for your body rather than
• 52:06
  just smashing a V or whatever for energy.
• 52:09
  Yeah, because the caffeine will drain. I have to agree with Scott Link as well.
• 52:14
  Snickers bars are incredible at a pinch. I got to say, I love a Snickers bar
• 52:19
  because it feels a little bit on the savory side.
• 52:22
  It's not as sweet and it can power you through.
• 52:27
  Scott, by the way, none of this should be taken as nutrition advice.
• 52:32
  No, it's survival. This is survival advice in these situations. Absolutely.
• 52:38
  Yeah. The same thing if you're an athlete. If you're an athlete and you're doing
• 52:41
  a hundred kilometer bike ride, buddy, you're going to like reach into your something
• 52:45
  and pull out a protein bar and snack on that.
• 52:47
  Something with nuts, something with muesli, something low GI to help you power
• 52:50
  through the next 50 kilometers of racing. You know what I mean?
• 52:53
  Like you got to keep fueling your system.
• 52:55
  It's exactly the same. I treat almost every week of performing as that,
• 53:00
  you know, as a, as a marathon, if you will.
• 53:02
  Yeah. So the note I put down here was to never trust the catering of an event.
• 53:07
  Like if they say they're going to have food for you, don't like plan
• 53:10
  that that's when you're going to eat or whatever have your own stuff
• 53:13
  ready to go so yeah the muesli bars or
• 53:16
  the crackers or the yeah the Snickers bar
• 53:19
  or whatever just have them at the ready I like to stay light so I will yeah
• 53:24
  I'll just snack on those things throughout the day hydrate so the what's it
• 53:30
  called something 100 that drink is 100 plus 100 plus if you can get your hand
• 53:34
  on that that's that is a win the thing that I I.
• 53:38
  Find tricky is I'm a big fan of the energy drinks.
• 53:42
  So I will typically indulge in a V or something before an event.
• 53:46
  But the problem is if you're doing, you can't do that for 15 events over two weeks.
• 53:51
  So structuring that can be a conscious effort as well.
• 53:56
  Like when do I think, so if I allow myself, I was a mosquito,
• 54:00
  if I allow myself to have one a day, what point in the day am I going to allow myself to have it.
• 54:06
  You don't want to have it at gig one of three because you're going to peak too early.
• 54:10
  So you got to rely maybe on the snack you're having for gig one.
• 54:14
  And then maybe at the end of gig two is when you, or you sip half of the,
• 54:19
  okay, here's what I think.
• 54:20
  You have half of the V before gig two.
• 54:23
  And then after gig two, you have the other half, right? For gig three,
• 54:27
  and you're doing pretty good.
• 54:28
  But the thing I've discovered in the last few months.
• 54:31
  I'm not a sponsor of this and I'm not saying anyone should get this.
• 54:34
  I'm just saying this has dramatically helped me is...
• 54:39
  The longevity mix produced by
• 54:43
  brian johnson's company called blueprints for
• 54:46
  anyone who knows of brian johnson's work he's the guy
• 54:49
  who i'm the tagline is he's the guy who's
• 54:52
  trying to not die his his tagline is don't
• 54:55
  die but the premise is he's trying to find the
• 54:57
  purest and healthiest versions of all the foods
• 55:00
  we eat and then he sells it through his company
• 55:03
  blueprint and it's the the most purest cleanest form
• 55:06
  of all the things you could need for everyday living without micro
• 55:10
  plastics and they test and they find that companies that
• 55:13
  even though they say it's five stars it's actually
• 55:16
  processed and changes to be a little bit lesser quality
• 55:19
  than they think it is anyway he put out this thing called a longevity mix you
• 55:23
  can find it online it's a powder you just put in your water and drink it in
• 55:28
  the morning and it i have to say my like processing ability my cpu my like.
• 55:37
  Like what do they call it like that fuzziness you can have sometimes
• 55:40
  in the morning like that you mean kind of like what you're having now yeah
• 55:43
  you know what's funny i haven't
• 55:47
  had it this morning so that's probably probably why
• 55:51
  yeah so you so your brain power seems to
• 55:54
  improve your cognitive function is the freaking word
• 55:57
  i was trying to come up with my cognitive function is
• 56:00
  better yeah brain fog as pasha's saying my energy levels seem to be more consistent
• 56:05
  throughout the day and it does have some boost in energy as well within it but
• 56:11
  it's better than a v because it's like slowly releasing personally that's something
• 56:16
  that that seems to help me and even And as someone with Crohn's,
• 56:19
  for some reason, it actually settles my gut microbiome throughout the day as well.
• 56:25
  So my stomach is actually a bit better and more consistent.
• 56:28
  Not that that should be a direct reflection of get that if you have this,
• 56:33
  but I'm just saying it has helped me as well. So anyway.
• 56:37
  How you start the morning is probably helpful as well. Like what breakfast are
• 56:40
  you having? All these things are like actually going to be important to get
• 56:43
  you through this season.
• 56:45
  Herbert asked a really good question saying, what dental hygiene go to when you're on the job?
• 56:51
  What's your dental hygiene when you're on the job, when you eat crackers,
• 56:54
  stuff that leaves things in your teeth and whatnot? Really clever.
• 56:59
  I mean, my simple answer is I, whatever I'm drinking or whatever,
• 57:03
  I also have water in my car.
• 57:05
  So before i get to the gig i will down some
• 57:08
  water by like swishing it around my mouth hardcore
• 57:11
  yeah then i'll pop i always have
• 57:14
  eclipse mints with me for some asmr
• 57:17
  there so i will pop two in my mouth before i
• 57:20
  go into the gig but i'll also keep four of
• 57:23
  them four four loose mints in my side left
• 57:26
  outside pocket so that every hour
• 57:29
  of the gig that i'm there if it's more than one
• 57:32
  hour I'll pop another two after one hour
• 57:35
  so that after a while because when you're just talking and
• 57:38
  performing for an hour like you know your mouth gets a bit dry and if
• 57:42
  you want to keep your breath fresh I'll just
• 57:45
  grab another mint so and check in the mirror in your car too like just check
• 57:50
  your teeth that you don't have like a piece of lettuce or spinach or whatever
• 57:55
  because it just happens sometimes so like as far as hygiene goes that's probably
• 57:59
  the precautions I'll take and they're all lessons I've learned over time,
• 58:03
  which now is why I do that.
• 58:05
  Nick, any, any additions to that that you found? No, it's a good question though.
• 58:09
  I'm someone who chews a lot of gum, especially when I'm driving.
• 58:12
  Like every time I get behind the wheel, it's a piece of gum goes in and I chew while I drive.
• 58:16
  So it's one of those things that like, as a close up magician,
• 58:20
  you want to look good, smell good, you know, and have all the above.
• 58:23
  And so anything that could be offensive, you want to sort of get ahead of it.
• 58:26
  And that's, that's a really good point that Herbert makes. And so.
• 58:29
  Yeah. Like, I mean, like the muesli bars can be a bit of a thing,
• 58:31
  but thankfully I get to the event, I check my teeth, you know,
• 58:34
  you can use the corner of a business card to pick something out of your teeth.
• 58:38
  You know what I mean? Like you will survive, you know, you will survive in that sense.
• 58:42
  So definitely do a check. Like sometimes I get to the gig and it's like,
• 58:46
  I'm going to go to the bathroom and wash my hands real quick.
• 58:48
  And that's just me, not only washing my hands, but make sure that I'm good and
• 58:51
  clean before I begin, but just make sure my ties on straight,
• 58:54
  make sure there's nothing in my teeth.
• 58:55
  Yeah. I mean, sometimes you can just like grab a napkin and literally just like,
• 58:59
  just up and down on your teeth like this, just like giving it a little brush.
• 59:02
  Just put it in your mouth. Like you, yeah, I do it all the time.
• 59:05
  Like even when I wipe my mouth, I'll put it over my teeth and I'll go back and
• 59:08
  forth and just scrub them to give them a little bit of a clean, you know?
• 59:11
  So look guys, I hope this has all helped or if it's made you think of anything
• 59:16
  else, put it in the comments as well, whether this is post or maybe in the discord.
• 59:19
  Let's open this up in the discord to continue.
• 59:22
  You'll find all the bullet points of what we've talked about in the episode
• 59:25
  description after this.
• 59:26
  But essentially, the things we've talked about is making sure you are stocked
• 59:30
  up on playing cards, flash paper, batteries, business cards,
• 59:34
  everything, shirts, pants, as we found out.
• 59:38
  No, like, think about it. If you're doing a show out in the country and there's
• 59:42
  going to be hay bales everywhere and you have, like, a sneezy kind like me,
• 59:46
  make sure you've always got your antihistamine in your bag. Yeah.
• 59:50
  And maybe some pain meds as well in case you get a headache after gig three or whatever.
• 59:56
  Consider your travel, pre-plan, your route, your parking, your check-in with
• 1:00:03
  the client leading up to the event, double confirm the start and end time,
• 1:00:07
  pack snacks and pack electrolytes.
• 1:00:11
  Yeah, make sure you're stocked up on everything. You're going to get through
• 1:00:14
  it. You have the energy for it.
• 1:00:15
  And the other little thing that we didn't talk about, but actually finally is
• 1:00:20
  important, is this is the time of year where you should start planning for your January.
• 1:00:27
  Like, what is your January going to be? Is it, are you just full on taking the
• 1:00:31
  month off? Can you afford to take the month off?
• 1:00:34
  Are you going to run magic workshops because it's school holidays?
• 1:00:38
  And if you are, this is the time when you would start prepping for it because
• 1:00:42
  you can't start prepping for that in January when you want people that turn
• 1:00:47
  up. So that's something you would actually start advertising.
• 1:00:50
  Like as soon as school holidays begin in December, you want to start advertising
• 1:00:54
  that that's going to be available in January and February.
• 1:00:56
  So start planning what the hell are you going to do?
• 1:00:59
  At the start of next year, because we all go through this wave of loving our
• 1:01:04
  career, doing so many gigs, there's plentiful, and then you go to zero in January,
• 1:01:09
  and you're just like, oh my God, what am I doing?
• 1:01:12
  I shouldn't have spent this money, and blah, blah, blah. So,
• 1:01:15
  think about what January looks like.
• 1:01:17
  I know for myself and Nick, Nick has his residencies, but also we'll be doing
• 1:01:21
  our Theatre Magic shows.
• 1:01:23
  I know in Brisbane, we're going to be pumping them out every weekend so
• 1:01:26
  fortunately that's been put in place to ensure work
• 1:01:30
  can continue but think about that as
• 1:01:33
  well as we wrap up here i'm gonna leave i'm gonna leave nick with the final
• 1:01:37
  word today i i i realize i've done a lot of talking but i hope that um this
• 1:01:43
  really brings you guys value in getting ready to battle down in the in the trenches
• 1:01:48
  it's the best part of the year makes us feel alive,
• 1:01:50
  you know, but we just got to make sure that we're on top of everything.
• 1:01:54
  So we're going to leave this episode by giving Nick the final word.
• 1:02:01
  So as we said, friends, preparation is key in this type of thing.
• 1:02:04
  So it's also an opportunity that when you wake up that morning,
• 1:02:06
  make sure you drink enough water and you hydrate.
• 1:02:08
  Not so much that you got to pee halfway on the drive to your event,
• 1:02:12
  but keep all these things in mind to ensure that not only you can perform at
• 1:02:15
  your best, but you give your guests the best possible performance as well.
• 1:02:20
  So stick to it. I wish you guys a very, very profitable and fun.
• 1:02:24
  Merry, Merry Christmas.
• 1:02:27
  Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now.
• 1:02:32
  But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.