Latest / The Magic Guys / Blaise Serra Hangs Out With The Magic Guys #186

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Blaise Serra Hangs Out With The Magic Guys #186 · The Magic Guys

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They're guys they do magic they
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are the magic guys oh
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boy ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode 186 of the magic guys i'm one of
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your hosts josh norbedo to my left we got doug khan salutations of the interwebs who is doing
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some uh some light reading there and nick
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k is on his way to malaysia so he's
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listening in and we appreciate you being here in spirit
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nick he actually jumped on backstage quickly to say
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hi and to our guests but now he's off just sitting around the world but doug
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you were doing a bit of light reading there what's uh what's the latest this
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is the sabrosa shen lem work it's magic instructions there's a hundred a hundred
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it's a hundred card tricks if you can't read is it really Really?
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Holy moly. I don't know what's in here.
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What would we actually do with 100 card tricks? This is how when you put out
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the Evolution of Magic kit, available through Murphy's Magic. Come on, Murphy.
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And when you put this out, now you can say there's over 100 tricks in the kit.
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But it's really that pamphlet and like a deck of cards?
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Is that what the kit is? No, it's just freaking Fizimac. He's got the whole
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black art and all that stuff's in here. The lapping.
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Holy. I lie. It's not all that.
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Okay well look we're here
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probably made too many of those magic kits true and
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you know when's the doug con magic kit coming out man
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that's what i need another project no that's right that's right you can it's
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an it's an ever-growing live learn slide of hand.org i need a team i need the
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magic kit team to make that happen but also hey welcome to everyone in the live
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chat right now if you're You're not watching us live.
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We do this live so you can interact with us.
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We got Jesse. We got Chris.
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We got Tom. We got Fahrenheit.
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Everyone's here. Caden. Look, we really appreciate all the kind words.
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And everyone's excited for this guest because I think, you know,
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this has been in the works for a while.
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We've been asking this guy every now and then. We just keep reaching out like,
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hey, would you grace us with your presence?
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And he's always been very gracious to eventually come on here.
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They say timing is everything.
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It's perfect timing for this man to join us. And we've had some great guests.
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I've been super excited for like all of our recent killers.
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And just as excited today, even maybe more so.
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And I don't want to, you know, cast shade on who maybe I haven't been as excited about.
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Let's go with Blaze Sarah today. Come on. Let's do it. All right.
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Give us the 10 second intro, Doug. And let's bring him on.
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Wow. Blaze Sarah. Sarah, what do I know that maybe you don't know or need to know?
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You might have seen this young man on Penn and Teller Fool Us.
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If you were at MagiFest, you might have seen him as a featured presenter.
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And if you're so, he probably fooled you badly.
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If you were at the Tacoma, the IBM convention, you watched him get the People's
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Choice Award and the Award of Merit.
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And then he trekked on down to the next national convention,
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which was a combined big deal.
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Society of american magicians it's the fism qualifiers
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and he got first place in close up there like
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that's not enough you happen to live in new york city go catch him at speakeasy
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magic where he's doing the real work entertaining live humans five or six days
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a week multiple times a night one of the hottest tickets in magic and wow he's
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here today how was that intro let's go let's bring him on.
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Music.
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Hey, guys. Thank you so much for the intro.
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It's so, it was like, I knew Josh would ask me, I was like, I got to do the
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intro, and then I was like this. That's going to be easy.
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All I have to do is say the things that I know about you.
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Like zero work involved in making you sound good. That was really kind.
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Thank you so much for having me, guys. We finally made it happen.
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I kept procrastinating for a long time, just like,
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oh yeah, guys, real soon, just after this
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and then i think i think doug i kept telling you
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after after the fism competition then i'll finally yeah you're
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like let me let me get this win in the bag and
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then we'll get on the thing man that was just what two weeks ago is it even
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that no it's been it was oh it was last week yeah it was a week ago a week ago
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oh yeah that was last monday this convention wrapped up on labor day in the
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united states yeah yeah so a week ago i was doing the they had they had like.
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A winner's performance basically so it was like all of the finalists then
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had to perform again and you find out the night
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before at the banquet that you won yeah basically
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yeah you find out at the banquet the night before oh
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you're in the show tomorrow better start rehearsing tonight
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get all of your stuff together and then and then yeah
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we had to we had to do that final performance so i think that i had just
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found out the uh the results about a week ago i know
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you work so hard for that and you're just a hard
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worker in general the magic you do is like so far
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off the beaten path original and like uncharted territory
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it's like oh thank you dude that's really kind
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yeah it was oh man i it was the most stress that
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i've ever been for a performance because it was just kind of like
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it was so many months of preparation and trying
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to get it ready for the act and then i feel
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like any i since it happened i've been so zen i've just been like nothing can
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faze me nothing thing is that level of stress because it's like if i do a performance
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if i do an hour show if something goes wrong in the first 10 minutes you still
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have 50 minutes to get those people back on your side and to blow them away
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whereas i really felt like the weight of the past.
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Couple years of like preparation was all on this one 10 minute performance and
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if there's a single mistake or something that could deduct you could penalize
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you from the judge's perspective then it's just done then you don't have a chance
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to make it up to them for another three years to
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qualify, to have a chance to go back at it.
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So I was really like, oh man, I just want to go back. Is that the deal, one and done?
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You do one performance, that's your shot, huh?
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That's your shot. Yeah, that one performance is your shot and that's what you're scored on.
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The secondary performance that was for the winner's show, that was also kind
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of a competition because that was for the People's Choice Award.
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That's how the SAM gets out of paying talent. I hope you got a check for that gig.
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I think i think all competitors lost money on that regardless of their plays like everybody.
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It's a pay-to-play kind of thing yeah so
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a few bucks i won some money for this
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is the thing i think that that people wonder about like oh
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should i compete in if you're thinking about a
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cash prize as any of the motivation for why someone want to compete
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in fizzle then i'm sorry that's just not part of the
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deal like even at the world championship level you i
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don't think there's any cash price like if you win fizzlem you
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don't get 50 bucks or anything like that no even if even at this point where
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i've won the north american championship and i'm representing north america
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and you know sponsored by the organizations to go to worlds i'm pretty sure
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all competitors at worlds still have to pay for the registration and everything it's kind of like
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a prerequisite is that everyone's paid before
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they compete so yeah it's definitely not a funny thing
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yeah i mean wasn't that wasn't that mark hobie's whole
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shtick yeah when he came to perform was like
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how much money he has yeah i spent two thousand dollars to be here if you equate
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the man hours put into the competition act oh man yeah but the people's choice
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does give you a cash prize so for the ibm they they had a people's choice cash
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prize and so i got that and then and then And at this last competition,
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I did win the thing, but did not get a cash prize because there was a separate
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People's Choice Award that Michael Blomacki got and he got the cash prize for that one.
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Yeah, wow. So how does one, or
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I mean, for you, how do you approach like rehearsing for this competition?
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Is this like a, you know, every day you have to nail it 20 times?
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Or is it like in sections?
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Yeah, it wasn't 20 times. it was more like all day every day it's my life it's
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just like it's just yeah it's just.
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And there were other projects that I've been working on simultaneously.
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So it wasn't like I could make it as much of my life as I wanted to.
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But I think that whenever you have, I don't know, maybe other people are of
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a different mentality, but I had this constant feeling of dissatisfaction with
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the act and wanting to get it ready and wanted to get it ready.
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And even right before my performance was still thinking I might want to make
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changes to it to make it better for the act. So, and post performance,
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now I have more videos of the act.
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And so getting to see it in that context, I have a bunch more ideas for things
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that I want to change for the world championship.
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So I think that it was just this thing of like the, the, I don't want to discourage
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people from competing, but I definitely, the anxiety didn't end for a while leading up to it.
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It was kind of until they finally announced that I was going to Italy, the stress wasn't over.
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I was just like still thinking about all the things that I wish I had done differently
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or wanted to change or, you know, all that kind of stuff.
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Yeah. So it was never, it was never done. So it was really, yeah,
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the preparation was mostly it was because the tricks in the set were all effects
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that a year ago, I didn't know if I would ever be capable of.
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And then that was what made me
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set them as the goal for what I wanted to include in the competition act.
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And so then it was just constant practicing to get the ideas to look in my hands
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like how i had imagined them when i first set out to do the act wow i've had
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the joy of watching some of this stuff evolve through discord jams and stuff
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like that and watching these goals be set and.
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Here like blaze
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here it doesn't the when we
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some people have to climb over a wall blaze just walks through
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it it's just i'm just gonna do this yeah
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i mean i also i guess i have like a pretty brute force kind of approach to sleight
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of hand like i set very particular criteria for like exactly what the technique
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must accomplish and what it needs to look like and and then i'll just
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grind away at it until it finally looks like that idea so it's not usually like oh i,
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you know i've got an idea for an effect i want to achieve the
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method that i'm trying to do isn't really looking
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right yet so let me try and find a different method it's kind of more like once
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i decide that this is the right method for this thing to look exactly how i
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want it then I'm more likely to stick to that method so that I don't compromise
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the vision than to compromise the method to try and make it easier,
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which I don't know, ended up making this probably way more stressful for me
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than it needed to be leading up to this competition.
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It's the way it is. When you break new ground, you have to go through the muck.
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And yeah, maybe by the time you get to FISM, it'll be something different.
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I'm curious how much of this material in the act is material that I might see
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you do if I could get a ticket to the speakeasy in New York.
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Yeah it would be it would
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be my act so that was what was great was that
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i i i was really
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scared for a long time and didn't know if i would be able to take what i wanted
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to do for the competition act and do it at speakeasy because the act itself
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is pretty angle sensitive and the way that speakeasy magic the show that i perform
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in in new york city is is laid out is every table is kind of a kidney being shaped.
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And so the magician sits at the center of the table. And then there's like 10
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to 12 audience members seated around the table.
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So there are two audience members that are directly on my left and right.
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And not only are they on my left and right, based on the shape of the table,
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they're actually slightly behind me to my left and right.
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So they have the angle I would put a camera if I was filming a tutorial.
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And now I want to try and do my FISM act, which which is extremely angle sensitive for them.
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But I think that was the most crucial thing for me that allowed me to get the
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act ready for competition was the fact that I had the opportunity to do it for
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new audiences so many times.
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I mean, I perform my FISM act five times a night for five different audiences per show.
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And then on Friday, Saturdays, we have two show nights. So then I end up getting
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to do it 10 times a night on those nights.
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Nobody gets those rooms unless you're bossy. Wow. So that's the rehearsal right
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there. We're not saying how often are you practicing?
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Like you're thinking about it all day, but you're actually...
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Performing this for real audiences yeah performance for
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real audiences every night yeah every week speakeasy i think
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i've had someone in australia come to my show and
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talk about this your show is this the one that begins at a secret entrance where
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you have to have i don't i don't want to say it out loud in case it's not a
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known thing but is this the one i'm thinking i want to pitch the speakeasy show
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for us let people know what what's the scoop like if we wanted to go see you
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in new york what's the path yeah no and i like the way that josh was asking
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it because there is a certain level of like trying to preserve the secrecy yeah so it yeah the.
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We were we so the show is called speakeasy magic and if anyone's ever heard
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of the show sleep no more which has been running for the past decade it's an
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immersive theater production that's in new york city it's probably the most
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popular like immersive theater show it's it's a retelling of of Macbeth,
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but it's in a five story building where all of the actors are all around you.
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And you can choose which characters you want to follow and which floors that you want to walk to.
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And so your retelling of the story is going to be different than any other person's
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retelling of the story because they experienced it in their own way,
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following the characters they chose to in what order they chose to.
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So the producers of that show, then started producing our show speakeasy magic.
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And so I've only been a part of it since the beginning of 2022.
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But the The show's been going since before COVID.
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And I think they just had the sixth year anniversary or something of it.
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And this is, it's Todd Robbins, is that correct?
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Yes, Todd Robbins is the host and creator of the show, yeah.
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And then we have Mark Calabrese, Alex Boyce, Rachel Wax, Jeanette Andrews. We have Eric Dittleman.
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There's a big cast of people. Matt Holtzclaw, Prakash Puru.
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And Prakash is outrageous. Are you sure you're talking about the experience itself?
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Like what people experience when they come to the show? yeah
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well i think that it's a yeah so i
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think it's a unique format so like josh was saying there is like a
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secret entrance that i don't want to spoil and and
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then you know the show begins on stage
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and you're watching the show and everyone's
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seated at these tables these tables that are like 10 to 12
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people and you're watching the show on stage and you're
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thinking like did i have did i get a crappy seat like this is not
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the best sight line and then suddenly the light dims on
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stage and then a spot like a pin spot like
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appears on your table and suddenly you realize there's
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been a magician sitting with us the whole time and then the
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show really begins right at your table where you
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yeah it's just then there's a magician per
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table 10 tables so it's like
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just a room full of screaming that just ignites all at once and then 10 tables
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10 tables and there's a magician per table so there's 10 magicians that all
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begin performing their own specialties at the same time and then we rotate so
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it's a curated show so you know the like when they're.
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When they are scheduling the show, they make sure that every person that's booked
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has a different specialty and so that every magician that someone sees while
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seated at their table is going to be completely different throughout the night.
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And it's broken up by acts on stage.
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So rather than it feeling like a normal kind of walk around thing,
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it's more like we're watching an act in front of us on stage and the light dims
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at our table. And then suddenly we're watching this act on stage.
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Alex Boyce doing this incredible dove act. And then by the time that light dims,
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now there's a new person at our table.
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So it's kind of like bam, bam, bam. It's a very New York show.
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I'd say it fits with the kind of pacing and lifestyle of New York.
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Like the Magic Castle in L.A.
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Is probably the closest thing to this experience.
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Yet it is a show where you have various theaters in one venue.
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So you go to one show and then you wait in line for the next show,
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almost like Disney World, where you're waiting for the next ride.
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It's like you're waiting in line between shows at different theaters in the same venue.
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Whereas like this, from the moment that you sit down, it's just a barrage.
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Like you're just getting bombarded. We're just beating these people down with
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so much magic before they have a chance to breathe.
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They're getting hit with something that's a completely different specialty.
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So like they can't even process and try and break down what they've just seen
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before they're hit with something else. How much time are you spending with each table?
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Like it's 10 to 12 minutes. 10 to 12? 12 minute sets.
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Yeah. So I cut it down slightly. I do basically a slightly extended intro of
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my FISM Act, but the FISM Act is a hard cap at 10 minutes.
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If you go over 10 for the competition, then you're disqualified.
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Yep. The gentleman that I spoke to in Australia that had been to that speakeasy,
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from his point of view, what he tried to explain to me was like,
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you know, he's like, the entertainment starts from the second you even are trying to get in.
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And he's like, it's incredible. like unless you
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follow a very specific set of instructions you actually won't
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even know how to to get in even if you're like at the door and so he's like
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that's awesome and then I think you know people love the idea that it's like
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a hidden thing in New York like it's not like a thing that just every tourist
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can go to like unless you bought a ticket like you're not gonna even see this.
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Theater happening oh and what i love is the uh oh sorry
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what were you gonna say no and then and then kind of like you described then
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he said yeah you go in and you're just seeing so much magic there's so many
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different performers it's like a he explained it as like an organized chaos
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like there would be a show happening on stage and then all of a sudden there's
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someone performing in front of you and then you're seeing yeah and there's like
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he's like yeah it's so old school there's like you know i think he even said
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at one point like someone was doing a smoking act which which,
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you know, you can only do in the speakeasy environment.
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Yeah, Matt Holtzclaw has an incredible cigarette act that is part of opening the show. Yeah, yeah.
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So it's really cool because it really is fit to, yeah, to this particular show.
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Like you were saying, like you couldn't do a cigarette act anywhere.
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It's only some places that you can really make it happen. And to like emphasize
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the level of commitment to the immersion and the surprise that the producers
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have, One of the executive producers of the show,
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Arthur, he said, like, if if too much gets out online on social media about
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this secret entrance and about what's there and everything and people stop talking
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about the magic show and they start talking about like, oh, you got to see the show at this place.
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He's going to just rip down the whole thing and build something different,
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you know. So we really care about keeping the mystique and making sure that
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it's more of a word-of-mouth thing.
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Exactly, Fahrenheit is totally right. That's what a speakeasy is.
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It's meant to be actually in a hidden location.
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And so, yeah, if the location isn't hidden anymore, then we'll tear it down and build a new one.
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Wow, that's so cool. And sorry, you said your, how many times,
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how many nights are you, how many nights does this show run? Is it? Yeah.
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So the show has a rotating cast and it's Tuesday through Saturday.
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So yeah, so it started off as just weekends. It's what brought me over to New York.
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So I was in Connecticut and then I was reached out to by Todd about the show to perform.
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And at first it was just weekends kind of sporadically. And then,
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yeah, then we ended up moving to the new venue and things got much more consistent.
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So it's still a rotating roster of people, but now it's really,
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you know, we all get to work very frequently.
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Five nights a week. you do work in some other theaters there
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as well right do you do like the box maybe or yeah yeah
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i was performing at the box for a while yeah that came through mark
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calabrese and then i don't know if he's been doing much
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of the box recently either because both of us were performing there after speakeasy
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we we used to the box is a nightclub that they also have one in london and it's
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it's really kind of this it's like burlesque but taken to the nth degree like
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it's it's like burlesque but where they're doing stuff on stage where you're you're like,
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is this legal? Like, I can't believe I'm watching this.
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In a very entertaining, crazy way. Like, it's well-produced.
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Yeah, like they'll put a magic act in there, you know?
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I mean, the magic was me just doing strolling around for, like,
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the VIP tables and definitely did not fit the vibe of the box. Because, yeah, yeah.
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You know, I talked to Kieran Almighty, Kieran Johnson.
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Do you know this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He performs at the box in London, yeah. Yeah, right.
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And he does cigarettes there. He does the Mollica act, but impromptu,
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you know? He's walking around and he just starts eating cigarettes in a crowd
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and taking a beer. He does the regurgitation.
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And this is what people expect in the box, right? To be shocked. Yeah.
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Yeah. I mean, that's one of like the most, just the image of that.
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And the non-magicians who may be listening, if you're a non-magician, you're listening.
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Why? But thanks. But if you're a non-magician listening and you just heard Moloch impromptu,
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you do not realize that like to all of us, that is like one of the most painful
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sounding things like that sounds absolutely ridiculous that Kieran can do that.
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He's the only one I think. Like when I think of people that should or could
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do that routine, he's like the only one. No one should.
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But I think he's the one who could. Yeah.
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And and specifically in that venue yeah oh
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my god yeah that's crazy i mean i'm sure
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he does do that but that's insane well he was doing it i haven't spoke with
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him in a few months he might not be doing it i can't imagine you're happy doing
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that trick for any length of time i mean and you're using modern you know trains
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of thought or you're not actually,
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putting all the cancer in your body not all
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of it but there's just just a smidge i don't
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know but yeah so i did i did the box and that
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was a really cool venue and i also performed at another nightclub that's
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called the stranger that the same producers also created in
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new york that that's come out more recently and that's a huge space where
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it feels like you're in a nightclub and then you walk upstairs and
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you realize that the nightclub just keeps expanding and there's insane
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choreographed acts on stage as
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well as like blackjack tables and just it's
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like just this whole space that's beyond just a nightclub so they also had
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me doing shows there but then because of speakeasy magic calabrese and i both
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now have started just doing like the late night shows now that we have two show
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nights so what is that time yeah so now we're doing just doing speakeasy rather
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than than those what is your late night show is it like 10 o'clock yeah we have
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one One at eight and one at 11.
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So the second show that starts at 11 definitely is pretty late.
23:58
Yeah, we're getting home around one. And then I'm actually starting a new residency.
24:02
So this is the one that I'm most excited about. So aside from Speakeasy Magic,
24:07
now my main focus is my first solo residency.
24:12
So I'm going to be performing in New York City starting in October.
24:16
It's going to be every other week to start off. And it'll be two shows a night.
24:20
And it's starting on Saturdays. It's the event. The venue is called Vintage
24:24
Green and it's so I'm really excited.
24:26
It's a solo one hour show and it's going to be two shows a night.
24:30
So I'll have one at eight and I'll have one at 10.
24:32
And it's also there's a whole dinner package and everything so that.
24:36
People can come at 6.30, have dinner before their 8 p.m. show.
24:39
And then while the 8 p.m. show is happening, another group is having dinner
24:42
in the other side of the space.
24:44
So then they can come in for their 10 p.m. show and then they're mine for a
24:48
whole hour and have been creating a ton of new magic specific designed around the space.
24:53
Like I was so inspired when I went to this venue and saw what would be capable there.
24:57
And so it's a lot of moments that I never really expected or saw myself doing
25:02
before that now I think are going to be like perfect for this space that I just
25:05
couldn't do elsewhere. especially because it's a rooftop.
25:07
So that's like the big thing that I'm really, really excited about.
25:11
And yeah, part of the October programming is like, I was like,
25:15
I really want to do, I really want to have something that feels really Halloween
25:20
and October themed. And we're talking about different themes.
25:22
And then the one that I loved and that I was pitching to them and I was really
25:25
hoping they were going to like, and they did, they did go with is the idea of an apothecary.
25:30
And so when people come in, part of their
25:33
ticket is they're also going to be getting an elixir you know
25:36
at the beginning of the show and then i've been working on
25:39
designing a ton of different elixirs that
25:42
both either are linked to magic that
25:45
people are going to experience later in the show or are literally
25:48
just like experiences in and of themselves like using a brazilian type of cachaca
25:54
called jambu that is from a that's extracted from this plant that gives this
25:58
like numbing tingling sensation to the mouths and stuff so i think like just
26:03
giving people you know like you can take.
26:07
I don't know if other people are thinking about doing this before October and are wanting to do a show.
26:12
I think that, you know, something like that really adds to the experience or
26:16
those, you know, kind of, you know, Halloween themed things.
26:19
And especially for this, I'm really excited about being able to give people different potions.
26:23
Yeah. Take them to the next level.
26:25
They used to do it that way in the old days, you know, let some ether loose
26:28
in the room and stuff like that.
26:30
Yeah. yeah because then they get a question you know
26:33
am i seeing what blaze is doing because i'm
26:36
tripping on this elixir or is this really happening there's
26:39
another way to just like suspend the disbelief of like what's
26:42
going did i just yeah that's true it's almost like their excuse now to release
26:47
their you know expectations and just suspend everything that's so exciting you'll
26:52
be unstoppable then how long is the run for you got like a month booked or what
26:57
uh we have starts in october and And then we have dates booked through December,
27:01
through the end of the year.
27:01
So it's going to be, so it'll basically, starting October 5th,
27:06
I'll be performing at Vintage Green every other Saturday through the end of
27:10
the year, through the end of 2024. Wow, yeah, cool.
27:14
So that's the thing that I'm really, really excited about. Yeah,
27:16
and that's been, yeah, all of my focus.
27:19
It was kind of like straight off of winning the competition.
27:22
It was straight into now I got to get all the stuff together for this show and get it ready.
27:27
So it's going to be really great. I'm going to put your website up here as I
27:30
ask if you will have the information here.
27:35
I don't have it up yet, but I, yeah, because this is actually my first place I'm announcing.
27:39
I haven't posted about it or anything. So this is my first place I'm announcing the new residency.
27:44
Right, right. This is a good place for people to go look at some of your cool
27:47
original magic, like some of the insane things you do with a deck of cards.
27:51
One on bandit. Can we talk about that for a second? Sure. Yeah.
27:56
Like, God damn it. First of all, do you know anyone else that can also perform it?
28:01
Yeah, I know this guy, Yanai from Israel is amazing.
28:08
And that's about it.
28:11
I got to say, when it came out, I was like, this is crazy that someone,
28:15
that this can be done with a deck of cards.
28:17
And then when I started to study it and learn it, I was like, oh.
28:22
For the listeners at home on the podcast, I'm on Blaze's site.
28:25
What you'll learn, a one-handed side steal to classic palm, side steal to bottom
28:32
palm, one-handed control to top or bottom of deck.
28:37
And I've seen all these things in action times 10. Like the stuff he's doing here is unbelievable.
28:44
Yeah. When you came up with that, did you just, I guess what I'm saying is that's
28:49
a very particular skill set that you have to be able to do that.
28:52
And when you came up with it, did you just do it and then assume everyone else would be able to do it?
28:57
I mean that in the best possible way. I couldn't, I couldn't do it for a really long time.
29:02
So it's like, yeah, I think that people, yeah, like they'll see these,
29:06
the moves that I come out with and they're like, man,
29:08
he must've just like found that he had this knack for
29:11
this technique and then decided to publish it but i
29:14
have a very particular kind of formulaic creative
29:17
process you know for a lot of the magic that i do and all of these were man
29:22
this you're going through my website and i'm like man i haven't updated this
29:25
website i'll get off that you're not just like i'm just like man i'm looking
29:28
at me when i just graduated high school yeah i couldn't do these moves for the longest time it was.
29:37
It was like visualize how fingers would have to move in order to accomplish
29:44
the task that I need to be done in the most efficient way.
29:48
And then, and then try and force my hands to be able to do that thing.
29:52
So like some of them, like, I do think that I like, because of the fact that
29:55
I have a background in guitar, I think that I have a natural level of dexterity,
30:01
but at the same, that being said, I'm fretting on a guitar with my left hand.
30:05
And then all of these things that to publish our right-handed moves so
30:08
it's not that it had that much of a carryover it
30:11
was more like i had to i had i had to learn
30:14
these moves just like everybody else i
30:17
think the process of learning an instrument lends the
30:20
mind to learning other things so if you're doing
30:23
that you can understand the process of learning magic you know
30:26
well yeah and i think that with with music
30:30
and and magic there is a lot of similarity in the
30:32
in the practice process and everything and i i think that
30:35
I you know I'll perform something
30:38
from the mirror and then it doesn't look like how I know
30:41
it can look and so then you keep
30:44
working at it until eventually what you see in the mirror is
30:47
more and more and more like synonymous with with what you you know it's like
30:52
it finally lines up and it's in sync with how you're envisioning it and it's
30:56
the same thing that if you play a note and you like you fret something on guitar
31:00
and it sounds really bad then you keep going at it and
31:04
you go slowly and very methodically,
31:07
and you try and eventually pick up speed until the point where it sounds good.
31:10
And I think that a lot of magicians will like.
31:14
They'll pick up a deck of cards and then the thing that they're seeing in the
31:17
mirror isn't what they want it to look like. And then they'll be disheartened
31:20
as though the technique is the problem.
31:22
But if you were to try it on an instrument and it didn't sound good,
31:26
you wouldn't assume that the technique was the problem.
31:28
You would just assume that the amount of practice was the problem until you can get the technique.
31:31
Now, I do think that one thing that I have that is fortunate is is that I really
31:39
will stay committed to ideas for a long time,
31:44
even if it's a couple years that they don't look good.
31:48
I'll stay committed to that method, knowing that it has potential and eventually it'll look good.
31:54
Even when almost every single magician that I show it to along the way says
31:59
this is a waste of time, I'll still stay committed to that idea.
32:03
And my physimac, if I had listened to all of those people on the way,
32:07
none of the tricks in my physimac would have been possible because every single
32:10
method in my physimac is all a method that at some point, some magician told
32:14
me, you're wasting your time. You should just switch the deck.
32:16
You should just put your hand in your pocket. You should just do this.
32:18
And it was like, yeah, but that wouldn't achieve exactly what I want.
32:22
Like, yes, it could look smoother and better and more perfect if I switch the deck,
32:29
but then that wouldn't achieve the specific goal that I have that I want to
32:33
be able to do my FISM act with any deck someone could hand me and to actually borrow the den.
32:38
And I really want to give that deck back to them in new deck order at the end
32:41
of the act, because I want them to think that there's a curious if you wanted
32:44
to talk about it, but can you imagine that as a, as the act you're doing, you borrow a deck and.
32:51
You got a deck I can borrow and then win, you know, give them their deck back
32:55
a new deck order. Back a new deck order.
32:57
Yeah. I mean, and now it's, now it's happening and it's crazy because it took
33:00
so long of not looking good.
33:01
I mean, I remember I had just come up with the algorithm for how to get it back
33:06
into new deck order and was working on the technique.
33:09
And I was lecture, I got, I was booked to lecture in Beijing in October of last year.
33:14
And so then I was over there and i
33:17
was just showing people separating the four suits in
33:20
in one spread and then i
33:22
was i pulled a couple friends aside and i was like you can go back in a new
33:27
deck order and they were like what no way and it took me probably like like
33:32
almost 10 minutes of just spreading like of just really slowly being like and
33:38
then this one goes here and then this one goes
33:40
this way and this one goes this way and it was
33:43
like it was so slow and everybody i
33:46
showed it to in beijing was like okay this is like a cool concept
33:49
i guess but like i don't this is so not worth your
33:52
time just switch the deck yeah and but then
33:55
i was like if it's doable it's practicable if it's practicable then it will
34:01
be performable and if it's performable then it's perfectible so it's just about
34:06
getting it to the point where you can do it and then if you can do it then you
34:10
you can practice it and then you can hone it and then it will be,
34:13
it will be great in the end if you just stick to it.
34:17
Damn. And it's obviously come true now. Yeah. It's all come true. Yeah.
34:23
Are you actively working on things that are insanely hard that'll be good two years from now?
34:28
Oh, yeah. Right now, the current project is the 12-way separation.
34:32
I promised myself that I wasn't going to start really practicing the 12-way
34:35
separation until after FISM.
34:38
But now that's definitely the next focus. And it doesn't look that great right now at all.
34:43
It really doesn't look that great. but the 12-way
34:47
separation is i want to be able
34:50
to borrow any deck and i
34:54
should probably i should probably explain what this means a 12-way
34:58
angle separation because i'm realizing that that concept probably sounds strange
35:01
to people but essentially a call is when you are separating the cards into two
35:08
vertical piles right so you have one the spread and then you have the hidden
35:14
spread which which is the, this second pile.
35:17
So along the Y axis, there's two piles.
35:20
The technique that I created for my FISM act is along the X axis.
35:25
It's four horizontal separations. So that's one, two, three, four.
35:31
So those four separations, now the, those horizontal sections are not disturbed
35:39
by a vertical separation along the y-axis so if you were to take a call that
35:47
a normal like roadrunner call if you were to take a hoffsens or call that separates
35:51
into two vertical sections if you were to extend that so it actually separates
35:56
into three vertical sections.
35:59
Then that still does not disturb my four horizontal sections from my technique,
36:06
which means that you can spread, which I've done a bunch of times,
36:10
it just is slow right now.
36:11
And I want to, by next year, I'm thinking it'll be smooth.
36:14
I want to, I borrow a deck, I spread through the cards one time to take out the four aces.
36:21
After that one spread, the deck
36:24
will now be in four of a kinds in order
36:27
all the way through uh holy fuck and
36:30
then one more spread to have those aces put
36:33
back in which would be a four-way separation now the
36:37
decks in new deck order so essentially i want
36:40
to take the whole process of getting a deck back in
36:42
a new deck order and make it just two spreads like one to take out the aces
36:47
and then one more to put the aces back in and then it's fully back the new deck
36:50
and so yeah the 12-way separation is my next focus is like right now i'm currently
36:56
doing i'm I'm spreading through the cards in the act. It's technically three times.
37:01
I spread through once to then give the deck out to be shuffled.
37:05
The deck can be shuffled after my first spread through.
37:09
And then I have to go through. So this is getting way too overly technical and nobody's interested.
37:13
Anyways. Yeah. So that's the next focus is I'm working on a 12 way angle separation,
37:18
which is essentially a triple call combined with the quadruple angle separation.
37:22
So it's just, it's just a whole lot of super practical.
37:26
Simpler applications of these techniques i've seen
37:30
right maybe using half the deck and you don't
37:33
have to go all the way down the rabbit hole but while this is you know
37:36
you're explaining the hardest stuff and then if you apply some of
37:39
these techniques to other effects maybe you have the deck preset a little bit
37:43
or something now you're making miracles oh yeah yeah if the deck is if the deck
37:49
is like shuffled by three people instead of instead of shuffled by one person,
37:56
then now you can go one, one spread in the whole decks back at noon.
38:02
Right. Like if you start with your deck and you're like, here,
38:04
you shuffle some, you shuffle some, you shuffle some, you can just go bang and
38:08
be. And now you're straight back into new deck. Yeah.
38:10
Yeah. Actually, I have one that you guys might like. This is a new trick that
38:15
I've only been showing magicians. I think I'm missing a card though.
38:18
I'm missing the, I'm missing the king of spades. So.
38:22
If you're interested in a trick. Let's go.
38:26
This is one that I've only shown magicians so far.
38:30
But essentially, I would give out these two piles to somebody.
38:35
They're like, here, can you mix these up? And so they shuffle them.
38:39
And while they're shuffling them, I'm also shuffling a pile.
38:42
And then I go, here, can you take these and can you mix these face up into face down?
38:48
Out so you've you've shuffled these and now you're shuffling them face up into face down.
38:53
So this would have been your shuffle so it's
38:56
actually a mess you can see it's like like really crazy that's
39:00
a mess so at this point then i can go through
39:03
and i can have however many people take out cards so
39:06
if if you want to pretend you're taking one out doug let's just
39:09
go with like here the three of diamonds yeah
39:11
three of diamonds all right three diamonds okay and then we'll have
39:14
another one for you josh wherever so maybe we'll
39:17
go with the the queen of clubs okay okay all right
39:21
and then we'll put it back in the deck so here we'll put your your
39:24
three back in should it go face up or face down face down
39:27
face down okay and again also you could have picked
39:30
cards that were face up or face down it really doesn't matter um and
39:33
then you can put it back in face up or face down should this
39:36
be face up or face down let's go face up face
39:39
up okay yeah and yeah
39:42
so i like to to think of this like problem solving right so
39:45
what do we have right now we have we got some problems okay so
39:48
first you shuffled them it would have been you you shuffled
39:51
them then on top of shuffling them then you shovel face up face
39:54
down then on top of that you guys will pick cards and now you're expecting me
39:58
to do something about that so that's a lot of problems so let's take a top down
40:01
approach what's our biggest problem right now finding the cards right and probably
40:07
also the face up face down right if that wasn't an issue it'd be so much easier
40:10
to find your cards If you're going to fix that, that's the problem.
40:13
Finding the cards, the face up, face down, that's two big issues.
40:16
So let's try and solve that here.
40:18
So that should look somewhere like this.
40:27
Nice where was the other one where was the other one where was the other one we miss
40:31
it we miss it okay whatever here it's here anyways right it's
40:34
like these two it was these two okay but then obviously right if you guys are
40:38
magicians you're you know that this is incomplete because we set out to solve
40:43
three problems and we only solve two of the of the three problems right because
40:47
because first you mix the cards then you mix them face up face down,
40:52
right then you guys pick the card so we found the cards we fixed the face of
40:55
face down but we still haven't dealt with the mess that you made in the first
40:58
place right so we might as well fix that bear in mind we're missing the king
41:02
of spades at the beginning like i told you that should look,
41:05
something like this damn damn new deck order for those listening on new deck reviews.
41:14
This is ridiculous stuff wait so
41:16
this is you know that's mathematically impossible for
41:20
the record i know i know things i know
41:23
mathematically impossible this is so
41:26
much easier than the competition act because this
41:29
is this can be done with any deck but this doesn't start with a shuffle deck
41:36
it starts with the deck in new deck order and then they shuffle it and then
41:40
after one spread it's both triumph like the cards are fixed face up face down
41:45
and it's back in new deck the The FISM one,
41:48
yeah, is much more complicated because it genuinely starts shuffled.
41:51
So you're using your original culling techniques to accomplish this effect,
41:56
in essence? Is that agreeable?
41:58
I would say no. I would just say no because I make a big distinction between
42:03
culls and angle separations personally.
42:05
And so I say that this is like original angle separation technique,
42:08
but there's no culling. There's no culling. Okay. Angle separation.
42:11
Right, right, right. Original angle separation, which is a Leonard Green concept.
42:15
Yeah, exactly. If the student hasn't studied that idea, that's a good starting
42:20
point for this whole ball of wax.
42:22
So the cards, you still have to do like a cut or something to shift the cards at the end.
42:31
So I did that cut, cut, and then it's fixed.
42:34
A cull would do that shifting during the thing, but then you're dealing with
42:40
other issues and the fact that you're reversing the order and stuff. Right, right.
42:46
Have you ever considered, or I guess first I'll ask this, do you work with Mnemonica
42:51
or Arisons at all? Mnemonica, yeah.
42:54
Okay, so my next question is, have you considered applying that to getting into
43:00
Mnemonica from any shuffle deck? Yeah, here's the spreadsheet.
43:06
Really? Yeah, so I really need to shout out Ryan, Rhino.
43:11
He, if anybody knows Rhino Magic on Discord, he's incredible.
43:15
Incredible. He's outrageous. It's light of hand. And he's a really smart guy.
43:18
He's also just studying like in culinary school right now.
43:21
So he, he's not in discord as much as he was before, but he was one of the first
43:25
ever members when I started my discord back like in April of 2020.
43:31
And he, he joined, he had bought one arm bandit and I've known him become friends since then.
43:36
And he was probably him and my fiance, Gabby
43:39
were the two number one people that I worked with on the fizzle act
43:42
it was just gabby is a is a filmmaker she's an
43:45
incredible director and her feedback was and also
43:48
i like she knows how everything's done so like
43:51
she's really able she can give me that feedback of you flashed here
43:54
like you know she knows so she was the biggest help
43:57
and then i would say after after gabby was was rhino and so yeah here yeah we've
44:01
got we've got the the notion and everything if people if people are trying to
44:06
figure out how to get a deck back into mnemonica then yeah use use the four-way
44:09
angle separation which i'll publish eventually after FISM and then, uh, yeah.
44:14
And then use this algorithm to, to get it back and it'll, it'll go into mnemonica
44:17
instead of new deck from a shuffle deck. Holy crap.
44:20
So you literally have, cause in my head I was like, that would be so far fetched
44:26
cause now you're not trying to think of, you know, one to 13 in the actual numbers
44:31
you can see, but now you're having to convert, you know.
44:34
Queen of hearts is 11 and whatever, whatever, but you've already done that. So, yeah.
44:39
Yeah, it's not. There are patterns that pop up in normal NUDEC order.
44:44
So even though the algorithm as you're sorting does not look like it's particularly.
44:50
You know, sorted until you get closer to the end, there's a lot of pattern recognition.
44:57
One thing that's great is when i'm sorting into
44:59
new deck order all of the fours go
45:02
into one section all of the twos go into one section
45:05
that's not the case for mnemonica for mnemonica you don't just look at the value
45:10
and i go okay the twos go here yeah i have to literally just look at every card
45:15
and its suit as its own entity and memorize each individual one for this separation you know.
45:24
The two of spades specifically goes here at the end it
45:27
actually gets easier because for the final separation it's
45:30
a four-way separation and my way
45:33
is that the cards at that point are now in
45:36
four of a kinds so now all i have to do is just
45:39
separate by suits and then they'll be
45:42
in new in new deck order if i separate the suits like all
45:45
of the clubs there if i have kings queens
45:48
jacks tens nines right if i separate all
45:52
of the clubs together then now i'm getting all
45:55
of them in order i have all the clubs in order for this instead
45:58
of thinking of all of the clubs and all
46:01
of the hearts all the spades you're thinking quarters of stack so everything
46:05
in the fourth quarter of stack is its own chunk everything so you're are you
46:11
separating everything that is the first card of each quadrant for example and
46:15
then everything that's the second one instead of four of a kind Are you going
46:18
like, you know, the two of hearts.
46:20
The six of spades, the, you know, you know what I'm saying? The three of hearts and the.
46:26
I guess it's not exactly, but kind of like that. Yeah.
46:30
And especially for the last separation, it's like, I know that.
46:36
The four of clubs through the queen of clubs
46:39
the first 13 will be one section so
46:42
all of those cards go in a pile and then
46:45
everything from the ace of diamonds to the end of
46:48
the deck is its own pile the you know the eight
46:50
of hearts to the king of diamonds this is so means nothing
46:54
to the majority of viewers i'm realizing this is
46:58
so sorry this is great it like this is so overly
47:01
technically complicated but yeah i i
47:04
mean i love talking about this kind of stuff because it's been an obsession and it's
47:07
also the kind of thing that you don't usually have the opportunity to talk about
47:10
the methodology and the thought process you more just have to do
47:12
the do the performance and and dude
47:15
that's insane to be able to have a shuffle deck look like you're doing
47:18
other effects and then end up in
47:21
mnemonica or whatever thing that
47:24
you want to end up in is ridiculous it's
47:28
all possible yeah so the method when i put it out is going to be called chunk yeah
47:31
so chunking we're chunking yeah so
47:34
and does it and does this one use two hands or yes
47:38
yeah because yeah because you're spreading yeah yeah no
47:41
nick nick had a question he wanted to jump in i guess you have maybe you have
47:45
a funny answer for this but he asked what were you doing with the other arm
47:48
when you came up with one arm bandit that's a that's a funny question i mean
47:54
that was actually i remember where I was when I came up with One-Eyed Bandit.
48:00
I was at Tannin's Magic Camp.
48:03
And it was the only year that I attended Tannin's Magic Camp.
48:07
There's this guy named Cameron Dirty from the UK.
48:10
And he's great at sleight of hand. I don't think that he performs like full time.
48:15
He just casually is an amazing hobbyist. But we were both campers.
48:19
And so I remember one night, we were hanging out really late jamming.
48:25
We were both around like 15, 16 years old. And, and.
48:29
We were just like, wouldn't it be so crazy if you could, because we were showing
48:33
each other, like, I think I was a junior in high school at the time.
48:36
And we were obsessed with bilateral center steels. So like this, where you, you do that.
48:43
So you have two breaks. It's Dr. Jacob Daly from Expert Card Technique Edition 3.
48:48
You have a break here, you have a break here, these two breaks,
48:52
and then the right hand card goes to the right hand and the bottom card goes into the left hand.
48:58
And so it's a, it's a bilateral center steel. So that was what I was really
49:02
practicing a lot at the time was, was that bilateral center steel.
49:06
And then I was like, jamming with Cameron, we were thinking,
49:08
wouldn't it be so crazy if you could just do a one handed center steel,
49:12
no one would ever suspect anything,
49:14
you know, and you have unlimited misdirection because you have an,
49:17
you have a whole hand dedicated to misdirection. You could do anything with this hand.
49:21
You can be dragging a drink, you can be handing something to someone.
49:25
And so then Then from that idea, we got really obsessed with it.
49:29
And that night, Cameron and I both came up with our own versions of a one-handed center steal.
49:34
Mine, both of them were from an Erdnase break, but mine was to just be in the
49:39
hands and then you drop the deck to strip the card out.
49:42
So the initial method required me to kind of like toss the deck to get rid of
49:46
the cards because it's still kind of halfway in there.
49:48
And Cameron's was he found a way to get it out and then spread the cards and
49:53
and steal it during the spread.
49:56
And yeah then it was it was only until like
49:59
close before i put out the one-armed bandit
50:02
a few years after that that i called cameron
50:06
and reconnected with him and then he was like oh my god i can't believe you
50:10
kept playing with that after all these years and he had his own versions and
50:13
variations and yeah so that was where you have a replacement where you reverse
50:17
the card and replace it face up into the deck at a chosen position you want
50:21
to talk about that at all yeah so you got the you You got the card,
50:24
you steal out the card, you get the named position,
50:27
and then we steal the card, we reverse, and then we replace at the position.
50:33
Any card, any number, any position. And if I'm not mistaken,
50:36
you do that with two freely named selections at two named numbers. Yeah.
50:40
So I do a thing where I have my deck and it's in the box.
50:46
So what I just did, I do in the box during the competition now.
50:50
So my deck that I bring out hasn't come out of the box yet at this point in
50:57
the act. It's still sitting there in the box.
50:59
I've brought up the people on stage and I borrow the deck.
51:03
And i'm doing the whole act with their deck so then
51:06
in my left hand i have them name
51:09
a card and then just start dealing the cards
51:12
into my left hand and they can deal like groups or bunches if they want and
51:17
then they stop whenever they want and wherever they it's like a stop trick in
51:21
my left hand and so they wherever they stop in my left hand before revealing
51:26
the card they stopped then i go how many cards would you guess you dealt into
51:30
my hand and they're like i don't know like 16.
51:32
I'm like, okay, about 16 cards. And you wanted the queen of hearts. Okay.
51:35
I'll trust you flip it over. And they flip it over simultaneously while they're
51:41
looking at this in my left hand, I've picked up the deck that's in the box and it's still in the box.
51:47
And I do all of this with now, because I've asked them to guess how many cards they dealt.
51:52
I now have a position that I need to control too.
51:55
So now when they take this deck out of the box in my right,
51:59
that's in my right hand when they take it out and spread it there's
52:02
one card reversed and not only
52:05
is there one card reversed i go now you had no idea you're
52:08
going to think of the three of spades and you definitely didn't know you're
52:10
going to deal however many
52:11
this was into my hand how many did you say you thought it was 16 how
52:15
did you know and then and then we count and the face up one is 16
52:18
so it's invisible deck at any number and it's a two deck thing and
52:20
it's convoluted but it works and holy
52:24
jesus this is bullshit i wrote in the
52:26
blurb for this i said he does things with cards no one
52:29
else does i wasn't lying wow there
52:33
you go that's yeah i'm just you know
52:36
imagine seeing that without having talked about
52:39
it first yeah and so do
52:42
you ever you know when you're performing say that maybe
52:46
not the speakeasy but let's say you perform maybe you're doing a gig or
52:48
something think do you ever perform something like that
52:52
where you know no other human can do it but then you have
52:55
that person say because maybe they're not a magician and they're like
52:58
oh yeah i can do a trick can i borrow your dick let me show you one and then
53:02
it's like the 21 car trick or they're like oh yeah i i've got it that that's
53:07
a that's a sphingali dick right i've got one at home too i can do that something
53:10
like do you there must be such a disconnect they're like that's a good
53:15
one you mind if i do one yeah i mean it's like i don't know it's nice that like.
53:22
I think I get shielded from that because of the show, that speakeasy.
53:26
When I do private gigs, then yeah, you get that all the time.
53:31
When you just have people being like, hey, can I see that? Let me show you a trick.
53:34
And they always want to show you the same trick. For some reason,
53:37
everybody knows the exact same version of the 21 card trick.
53:42
And at speakeasy, I think it's such a wonderful thing to be a part of a show
53:47
where people are buying a ticket for a magic show. And I think that it's actually
53:51
rare that we as magicians have that as the type of performance environment that we're in.
53:57
Most of the time, the dream high paying performance environment for most magicians
54:04
is a corporate event where your job is to interrupt people's evening.
54:07
And I've done that countless times. I've done a lot of restaurant gigs.
54:12
When I was first starting out in Connecticut, I was doing like three restaurants
54:15
a week. And like you get that experience of having to of having to interrupt
54:20
people's dinner and make the night about you.
54:23
But to have people already have bought a ticket to sit down at your table and
54:28
then they are there to watch you do what you do best in its best light.
54:33
And it's just such an incredible feeling.
54:37
Like, I'm so fortunate to be, you know, to be a part of a magic show like that.
54:41
And so, yeah, I think it's really different, you know, well,
54:44
yeah, when you do private gigs, you get those kinds of crazy things all the
54:47
time, but you know, in this show, it's, it's pretty great. Yeah.
54:50
It's rare that they're so primed for it. They've been thinking about this magic
54:54
show. They're going to go to magic. Do you have an interest in booking private gigs now?
54:58
Or are you just full on theater doing that?
55:01
I would imagine it's hard to go back once you've tasted those waters.
55:05
I mean, yeah, I would love to be making more money than I am.
55:09
Yeah, I was like, really, I was really just grinding away at this competition
55:13
thing and was kind of missing out on some opportunities that I probably could
55:17
have capitalized on because of the fact that I felt like I needed the time to practice.
55:22
And so I'm really happy that it worked out.
55:25
Yeah baby hey right on the horse of that your own show coming in october like
55:31
i don't know if you could do anything better for yourself than that you know
55:35
so congratulations oh yeah thank you so much i'm really excited about that that's
55:38
that's gonna be huge but yeah i i would love to do more,
55:42
work and i and i'm yeah i i think that
55:45
i think that like it's never good to
55:48
look down on any kind of gig
55:51
you know like i think that you know not now that i'm fortunate enough that i'm
55:55
in a magic show that you know where people are buying a ticket to the show i
55:58
still you know i'd still be really grateful to be doing more of like things
56:01
and stuff yeah well it's all part of evolution you put the hard work in and
56:06
good things come and you know yeah.
56:09
But that being said, I think if people are doing corporate gigs and they're
56:14
like, what is the next echelon from this?
56:16
It may not necessarily be as lucrative, but I would encourage people to try
56:20
and work towards having like a solo show because I just I think it's such an
56:26
incredible, you know, experience.
56:28
And also, it's very liberating creatively to be able to have that kind of experience
56:33
where it's like, okay, you have an hour and you have to really create this.
56:37
And yeah, I love having those kind of deadlines.
56:41
You know, I think I'm so much better as a magician now than I was a year ago
56:45
because of the fact that I set FISM as the goal.
56:48
And I said, I want to take all those ideas that I had that I didn't know if they'd ever be ready.
56:53
And I want to make that my competition act. right it forced
56:56
me to really practice hard and so i think that
56:59
like having this next show now it's forcing me
57:02
to do i like i've got this idea with a balloon and i'm so excited about
57:05
the idea of letting go of a balloon at the beginning of the show and then at
57:08
the end of the show having that balloon fly back down to me you know on the
57:12
rooftop and be able to catch it like that's something that i i'm so obsessed
57:16
with that idea now that now i'm
57:19
out of the cards world and i and And it's totally out of my wheelhouse.
57:23
So it's really pushing me to try and bring these ideas to life.
57:26
So I know I totally went off the beaten path from your question.
57:29
I think that I'd love to do more corporate gigs and things.
57:33
But I feel like I'm really happy with where my corporate set is.
57:38
I know that it does the job.
57:40
And there's only so much of creative expression that I can have in that kind
57:45
of context where I'm being booked for a private event.
57:47
Whereas if it's if it's a solo show and now i'm
57:50
getting to have more control to design the space like
57:53
there's a bookshelf behind me and i'm like oh man i get to fill the
57:56
whole shelf with all little like magic items and
57:59
different objects people could grab and pick up off the shelf and it
58:02
could be an impossible object or it could be like a cube in
58:05
bottle or a deck and bottle or it could be all of
58:07
the books on the shelf are all going to be xan man book tests and
58:11
it's going to to be amazing yeah it's
58:14
just that it's really exciting and so yeah i you know i think this is this is
58:19
a huge opportunity and i hope no doubt you and you want you like you say you're
58:22
already starting the path of putting your mindset to work on on this show and
58:26
i i would imagine by the end of october it's just going to be insane.
58:32
I hope I can see it. Yeah, I can't wait to see some of this excellent work,
58:36
the chunk, all these thoughts. It's amazing.
58:40
You know, if you're ever in Australia, you definitely have a spot at our Theatre
58:44
of Magic that we perform every week.
58:47
If you're ever in New Orleans, keep the cards in your pocket because I got a
58:50
reputation that I pulled around here. Absolutely. I don't want you to make me look bad.
58:54
For our friends, because we're almost out of time now, but for our friends listening,
58:58
I didn't want to use today's episode for this, but we just had Michael Lamar
59:02
headline at our theater of magic.
59:04
He's lecturing in Australia and I got to tell you about his parlor show he did,
59:09
which was, uh, he still got it. Did he do the lemon? Did he do the.
59:14
Yes, he did. Yeah. That was insane. I just saw that recently.
59:18
I saw that last month for the first time. And I was like, this is one of my
59:21
favorite magic moments that I've ever seen.
59:23
Michael Lamar, if you've never seen him.
59:26
Yeah. It, I couldn't believe. Did he crush it that hard? Josh?
59:30
Really? Yeah. Yeah, he got a standing ovation at our show.
59:34
Was it all Magic Club members or was it the laity? No, no.
59:37
So, yeah, so Blaze, the Theatre of Magic is like this intimate 40-seat theaterette
59:42
style where everyone's in a semicircle, tiered seating, and you're all watching.
59:47
Oh, that's a beautiful performance environment. That's awesome.
59:50
It's perfect for Michael Amar, especially.
59:52
And he came in and he was like, wow, this is going to be a fun night.
59:55
So, yeah, Doug, this is probably out of the 40 people,
59:59
I want to say five were magicians all
1:00:02
right so it was really interesting because obviously as
1:00:06
magicians we know like this is a you know a legacy performer coming right but
1:00:10
for we had audience members that had no idea Michael Ma was like they didn't
1:00:16
know who he was they've just come to see the theater of magic in Brisbane not
1:00:20
knowing what the hell they're in for which is which for me was really awesome.
1:00:24
But he, yeah, he annihilated this audience and, and he had to warn us.
1:00:29
He's like, just so you know, the way I end my show is it looks like it's ended,
1:00:33
but then there's another ending.
1:00:35
And then there's one more ending after that. And we, and that's the lemon he was referring to.
1:00:40
It's so good. The lemon is amazing.
1:00:43
And that was the one thing everyone wanted to know at his lecture.
1:00:46
And he was like, well, I'm going to just keep one thing to myself, guys.
1:00:50
Yeah yeah so that's for another time but
1:00:53
yeah that was that was crazy you know mike's killing it yeah
1:00:56
so blaze we're out of time now which is just
1:00:59
you know shows how much how much info you
1:01:02
have in there shows how much i rambled yeah absolutely which
1:01:07
is awesome now we end our episodes the same way every time and it's giving our
1:01:11
guests the the final word which could be you know something of encouragement
1:01:15
or you know something reflecting on what we've just talked about or just advice
1:01:19
for the fellow magicians out there, but I'm going to play a little logo stinger,
1:01:24
whatever you want to say, let it fly.
1:01:26
And then I'll end our episode and we'll see you guys.
1:01:30
Next week. Well, thank you guys so much for having me.
1:01:34
I think that one thing that just really comes to mind when thinking of a final
1:01:38
piece of advice for people coming off of the back of this competition is,
1:01:43
like I was saying earlier,
1:01:45
just how much better of a magician that I am now
1:01:48
than I was a year ago and how all of the stuff that I'm performing now and that
1:01:53
I finally am doing in my show at Speakeasy every night and will be doing in
1:01:58
this upcoming residency Vintage Green are all things that I just had as ideas
1:02:02
that I hoped one day I would be able to do.
1:02:05
They were pipe dream ideas that finally are now possible.
1:02:07
And it was because of setting that goal and trying to push myself.
1:02:10
So I would really encourage other people to go out there and compete.
1:02:13
I think North America is heavily underrepresented in the world magic,
1:02:18
especially competition scene.
1:02:19
And I think that magic competition is taken really seriously across Europe and across Asia.
1:02:24
And I think North America has really, really talented magicians that deserve to be seen.
1:02:28
And so I'd encourage you out there, even if you never saw yourself as a competition
1:02:33
performer, I'd encourage you to just try and discover your potential.
1:02:37
And I think that's what magic is about, is about us discovering our own potential
1:02:41
and discovering what we're capable of.
1:02:43
Create magic that makes you proud to perform it, that when you perform it, you remember.
1:02:49
Yourself sitting in your bedroom wondering if you would ever be able to bring
1:02:54
this in front You remember the first time you thought of the idea and it put
1:02:58
a smile on your face, imagining what kind of experience you'd be able to give an audience.
1:03:03
And when you finally can take those ideas and bring them in front of an audience,
1:03:07
it's more worth it than anything.
1:03:08
The amount of satisfaction, the amount of pride you'll have in your performance,
1:03:11
and how present and engaged you'll be in your performance when you're doing
1:03:16
something that pushes yourself.
1:03:18
It's just unlike anything else. anything else so i'd
1:03:21
really really just encourage people try and compete try and
1:03:24
come up with the best magic you can push yourself to try and you know
1:03:27
discover what you're capable of you're going to find that
1:03:30
you're so much better at sleight of hand and you're capable of way more than
1:03:33
you ever imagined if you do so i think just just go for it and you know strive
1:03:38
to be original and you guys can do it i believe in you so thank you again for
1:03:41
having me on i appreciate this
1:03:43
thanks for listening It's time for us to disappear now. Disappear now.
1:03:50
But we'll see you again on the next episode of the Magic Guys.