Latest / The Magic Guys / Magic Bars of Japan: Whiskey, Fork Bends and Midnight Cards #256
Transcript
- 0:00They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys.
- 0:10Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 256 of the Magic Guys.
- 0:16I'm one of your hosts, Josh Norbedo, and next to me is the handsome, gorgeous, famous...
- 0:24It's Nick Kay, everybody. Hi, everyone. I'm Nick Kay.
- 0:29Uh... good to be back yeah welcome back to australia welcome back,
- 0:34whoop there we go how's it feel how's it feels good yeah you guys did an amazing
- 0:41job while i was away i was tuning in and listening to the part of my downtime so yeah it was great,
- 0:48That's got to be a weird thing to listen to the pod while you're in Japan.
- 0:52It is pretty cool. So for the folks that don't know, for the past few weeks, I was away on vacation.
- 0:58I like to retreat to the mountains and get as far away from people as possible.
- 1:02And so I was in Japan, but all over Japan, just visiting different mountains,
- 1:07drinking lots of beers and eating way too many dumplings.
- 1:10And yeah. And in that journey, we visit a bunch of magic bars,
- 1:13which we'll be talking about today, but not before we say what up to our friends in the chat.
- 1:17Tim askin good to see your friend herbert wasp good to see you buddy gutbuster mike what up.
- 1:24Degenerates he knows us well yeah it
- 1:27was really well yeah anyway alex lamb i
- 1:30i like we we we had a bit of a back and forth
- 1:33because i was posting on my socials every like i
- 1:36i didn't post a lot on my on my trip because i was genuinely enjoying
- 1:39doing nothing on my vacation but i would
- 1:42just do like one post a day just to let everyone know that
- 1:45like i'm alive leave me alone because i got 50 people like
- 1:47let me know you're okay it's like i'll do one post that way
- 1:50you know i'm alive leave me alone and i would post a
- 1:53beer every now and again and then alex was like man that
- 1:56beer looks crispy and i'll be like it is and
- 1:59then i'd go to another place and i'd say like look at this beer and he's like oh
- 2:02i need to send me like a sad can on his coffee table
- 2:05and we just had this back and awful weeks which
- 2:09was great so we might even have to have a group
- 2:12called post your crispy beers on the
- 2:14discord which you can join magic beer and magic mix pretty
- 2:17well you know i gotta say even though i don't drink beer like i'm
- 2:20sure it mixes pretty well what is your drink everyone wants to know i mean i'm
- 2:25more of a sweet liquor guy so i'm usually having like canadian club or southern
- 2:30comfort with coke you know like just that kind of stuff nothing like nothing
- 2:35manly nothing like sophisticated.
- 2:40Aren't you sweet enough well thanks man thanks so much hey super quick gig story
- 2:46before we get into it just while it's on my mind,
- 2:49because everyone can relate to this did a show last night a big
- 2:52show corporate show 900 people in the
- 2:55audience live streaming me to the screens they've
- 2:58got a dedicated roving camera guy
- 3:00on a on a like tripod with wheels
- 3:04for when i go into the audience like we're talking like the
- 3:07full production anyway this is the one time
- 3:10on stage i'm doing the solution by
- 3:14michael murray and right so i'm so
- 3:16the lady is going to solve the cube behind her back oh yeah
- 3:20sorry just to be clear like explain explain exactly what that is yeah yeah
- 3:23yeah well rubik's cube magic is going super
- 3:26well and then at the end the volunteer on stage is going
- 3:29to impossibly solve the rubik's cube behind
- 3:32her back bring it out solved she's the star you know everything goes to plan
- 3:37she get i you know i asked her do you understand she's like yep great i'm like
- 3:41okay here we go And I glance back and I can see her mixing up the cube Like
- 3:47fully mixing up the cube behind her back,
- 3:51And I'm like, oh, goddammit, this is for so many people.
- 3:55Now, I know I have a spare cube in my case, which if I have to,
- 3:58I make a joke about, oh, that's all right, we'll try again with one that's not
- 4:02mixed up too much. And I grab out whatever, a new one and whatever.
- 4:06But something interesting was, I don't know if you've had this too,
- 4:10Nick, but because we do cube work so much, I saw her mix it up and I'm like,
- 4:14okay, yeah, all right, just pause there for a second.
- 4:16And I grabbed the cube and I could see it wasn't super duper mixed up.
- 4:23Like I could see it was probably five moves away from being sold.
- 4:27So I was like, oh, you've been mixing it a lot now.
- 4:30Just pause for a second. And I found one bit that was a little bit still solved.
- 4:35So I was like, oh, look, behind her back so the audience could see,
- 4:38but she couldn't. I'm like, look, she's doing pretty well so far. And I showed them this.
- 4:42And then behind her, I'm like trying to fucking solve it now.
- 4:46Like for real i'm like oh fuck how the fuck what am
- 4:49i meant to and and so i end up i end
- 4:52up solving it miraculously behind her
- 4:55back i'm really i really solved this cube and then
- 4:58i just quickly mix it back up again and i'm like all right let's make it more
- 5:00difficult we don't want her to solve it too quickly go back
- 5:04and then i just had to be like now actually this time just hold it
- 5:06there don't even do anything and then you know and
- 5:09then i'm like to someone in the audience you know boom say when
- 5:12she brings it out and it's solved and we have an ending to the routine which
- 5:17she was shocked and surprised as well which you know so was i but it was like
- 5:22such a pressure moment having that many people watching this that i don't want
- 5:26it to stuff up and it's the one time it didn't go the way it should go actually
- 5:31in the moment was able to solve it.
- 5:33And mix it up again anyway if any magicians listening
- 5:36they know exactly what i'm talking about and it was just a pressure
- 5:39moment that that i have it on camera too so if
- 5:42anyone wants to see it let me know but it's just me shooting my
- 5:45pants for like 30 seconds and then being like all right
- 5:48we're back on this roller coaster baby yeah yeah
- 5:51but like you know credit to you buddy i mean that that's a really good recovery because
- 5:54i i've been in that scenario myself i i i use the same principle but just a
- 5:59different algorithm to to mix it up and so while i was my script is very clear
- 6:04i'm like you see what i'm doing behind my back and i'm just turning the and
- 6:07i just go yeah you're going to do the exact same thing you're just going to
- 6:11keep turning it like this real slow,
- 6:13all right now and like this terrific now there's no way in a million years gonna
- 6:17and then i say you're gonna be able to solve this without looking at it right
- 6:19terrific and in the action of them bringing them forward it's eight moves bang
- 6:22bang bang bang bang it goes into their part now i've been in scenarios where
- 6:25I've stand behind them and I do this. I'm like, go ahead, turn it.
- 6:29And then they go slower, slower, slower, slower. And then sometimes I go like,
- 6:32no, no, no, just like I showed you. And so they're twisting it.
- 6:35And then what I have to do in that moment is like, no, no, no, like I showed you.
- 6:39And they go, hang on, you know, you're doing, you're doing it wrong.
- 6:41And then I take it, mix it up real quick, which only takes like two seconds,
- 6:44bring it back out again, mixed to the audience.
- 6:47Show them that i'm doing the secret move behind
- 6:50the back and then do the solve once
- 6:53again as it goes back to their pocket like it's i've been in that scenario but
- 6:56yeah yeah well i don't i don't just go good luck with that i watch i'm like
- 7:02turn it slower slower slower but then what i like to because i think the revelation
- 7:05for myself is then i want the spectators the audience to see what i'm doing
- 7:10so i actually turn i put the cue behind my back and then i turn my back to the
- 7:15audience go watch what I'm doing.
- 7:16And then they can see this kind of like duality of it happening behind my back
- 7:21and also happening behind there.
- 7:22I've seen your routine and I love it. And it's great. I love that.
- 7:25I love that perspective.
- 7:26But where were you last night, Nick? This is no good to me now, buddy.
- 7:29This is what I, I needed you to tell me this yesterday because I've never,
- 7:33I had this situation happen maybe once a year,
- 7:38like when they're just super drunk, but like she gave me the very
- 7:41clear like ah yes you know like that
- 7:43light bulb yes and you're like okay they're they're
- 7:46on it and my glance i always do a check
- 7:49to make sure as well but yeah it's just anyway whatever be
- 7:53like nick everyone and you'll be fine but
- 7:56it was yeah well mike mike is asking do you have to
- 7:59depend on them following the instructions and it's like well yeah because
- 8:01it is a dual reality based thing so like what
- 8:05they understand like it's still very true but
- 8:08this is there's a double entendre that's sort of inlaid with your particular script
- 8:11so the way you choose the word very important they're very
- 8:14much still just as fooled but yeah they're a
- 8:17spectator in being involved on stage and they got
- 8:20to know how to be involved yeah yeah also in
- 8:23the chat welcome our friends from Gosford and from Michigan good to see you
- 8:27and a question here from Scotty P anyone who's been following Josh's social
- 8:30media which is always fire he's got this new segment in in he does in his act
- 8:34which is about random objects and so scotty p wants to ask how is the random
- 8:38object from the audience routines going.
- 8:42Yeah. Thanks, Scotty. Yeah. The short answer is it's, yeah, it's still interesting.
- 8:45I'm working it out every week. Last week I was given peanut slab.
- 8:49That was the objects that the audience put under the box for me to, to do something with.
- 8:54So I do have it on camera, but like, and it did get a good reaction,
- 8:58but I'm just kind of like gathering info at the moment, like seeing what are the common,
- 9:02like 20 things or shapes that people have given me so I can best decipher,
- 9:08like the best kind of approaches for each thing so
- 9:11i'm kind of in my learning stage but but yeah it's
- 9:14going well and it is fun buddy i got an idea we should
- 9:18do like a challenge for one episode of everyone just sort of post a bunch of
- 9:23stuff we spin a wheel and then whatever that is we have like two minutes to
- 9:27come up with an idea using that routine and using that particular item like
- 9:30on the spot i think that'll be really fun it'll feel like i'm back at the theater
- 9:34of magic yeah I would love to do that.
- 9:36Yeah. Well, we've spoke about this in the past where we do a thing called Magic
- 9:39Sports which is effectively like whose line is it anyway but with magic?
- 9:43And we've done shows with this here in Melbourne at the Magic Festival,
- 9:46et cetera. And we do this kind of on a monthly basis.
- 9:48One of the things we do at the end of the show is called Make a Trick.
- 9:51Now, we actually have a lot more time to create something. I'm not sure where you're...
- 9:57Like impromptu bit is in with your show but the
- 10:00way it works at the magic sports is that everybody throws
- 10:04stuff into a bucket and then there's three magicians on each
- 10:06team without looking we reach in grab an object
- 10:09and and then we've got basically to the
- 10:12end of the show to script something put something together
- 10:15and put a whole made-up routine in that
- 10:18time and you receive a lot of really crazy
- 10:21stuff in in a theater and throwing stuff into a bucket like
- 10:24you know we one time got someone's prosthetic leg nice
- 10:28do magic with that you know what i mean well you know what i someone was
- 10:32gonna give me their crutches last week
- 10:35or like a few weeks ago and i didn't but i but whenever
- 10:38i see an object that i don't take i always go home thinking what could i've
- 10:43done and now i realize i would have totally used the crutch to like flip to
- 10:48any named card like using their their crutch you mean like kick it over like
- 10:53with a breather yeah like as if you're using your finger to flip.
- 10:56Flip the deck you know set it up so that you can
- 10:59just go but i would have done that with the crutch i reckon in hindsight
- 11:03but in my show it's like dead in the middle because because
- 11:06it's something i'm working on it's you know put it right in the middle so
- 11:09it's oh great stuff on the side of it but i'm
- 11:12i'm literally like i turn around and i instruct someone
- 11:15to be the chooser people hold up objects for them
- 11:17they consider their options they put something underneath and
- 11:20then i i have no time to think of a routine i just turn
- 11:23around and i start my routine and then i go and
- 11:26we're gonna use boom oh we're gonna
- 11:29use the peanut slab my childhood fondest memory of sweet and
- 11:32then i just have to keep going and it'll
- 11:35it'll become like it'll become my favorite thing to
- 11:38do eventually but right now i'm just yeah anyway thanks scotty
- 11:41p come and see the show and don't bring any weird shit all right are you ever
- 11:47worried that some that they might something phallic in the in that thing like
- 11:52i can't wait it'll be it'll be it'll be viral viral content someone just puts
- 11:58like a big floppy donkey wiener and it's.
- 12:02Do magic with that yeah well then you
- 12:05can do flip stick with it right like if it's
- 12:07got a stuck cup on it you could probably do little plunger
- 12:11if it's one of those like oh yeah and well if it is a vibrating thing you know
- 12:15you put a ring on it and you turn the vibration on it and the ring will start
- 12:18spinning you know um anyway that's just related to a gimmick that like is available
- 12:24on the market you know you put the ring right at the tip of your nail and it will,
- 12:30cause it to spin anyway i've said too much no i
- 12:33i do premise if there are kids in the room i say now keep
- 12:36in mind there are kids in the room and then i move on but good
- 12:40times yeah we we one time got tampon for for the routine and then we did a vanishing
- 12:47water no we did like a sign card in the in the tampon thing so like we you know
- 12:52gimmicked it up and then you sort of push the card came out and it was like
- 12:57their signed card. So, yeah. Whoa.
- 13:01But imagine if you had slush powder and you did the vanishing water in the cup.
- 13:08That's pretty funny. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever read The Jerks,
- 13:12which is like the worst trick in the world to do where it's card to impossible
- 13:16location and it's kind of based on using...
- 13:19The the tampon injector to do an actual effect like i don't know if you know
- 13:23that or not but it's on the jerks so i'll let you guys search that one i'm not
- 13:28promoting it i don't suggest you even do it but it does exist so by all means
- 13:32don't google jerks tampon okay that's not gonna,
- 13:37do you any favors jokes for the next speaking of googling segue segue segue
- 13:46segue speaking of googling that's how i on my vacation whilst in the amazing
- 13:51country of japan found so many cool,
- 13:55magic bars magic bars there are
- 13:58like as common as as anything there's like you sometimes i found one that was
- 14:02literally 20 meters from each other and i was unaware that i were there because
- 14:06i don't read japanese too well and so it really got me thinking and so i thought
- 14:11it would be cool for anyone who's looking to go visit that amazing country to
- 14:14tell you guys about my journey and what it's like,
- 14:16because I still struggle to kind of understand how these bars even stay open.
- 14:22It's staggering. So let's take it back to the beginning. So I was actually trying
- 14:26to figure out like, like, you know, like the history of it and how it even happened.
- 14:30So if you aren't aware what like a magic bar is in Japan, their bars are very small.
- 14:36They're like no bigger than your lounge room type of thing. And even your lounge
- 14:39room would probably compass their, the size of what an ordinary magic bar would be like.
- 14:46And they're engineered to be very small and intimate, maybe 10 to 30 people at most, right?
- 14:51And they're always built around the bar or something like a horseshoe type vibe,
- 14:57but that's typically how it's done.
- 14:58And it's always featuring really good close-up magic.
- 15:01And more times than not, the entire operation is run by one single person.
- 15:07And what I mean by that is that you got one guy doing magic for you,
- 15:11making you drinks, serving you snacks, just one cat doing that. So he'll do like,
- 15:16a routine make you another drink make another drink
- 15:19run back into the kitchen pull a little thing like it's
- 15:22just one cat running the whole show so it's kind of cool and i was like how
- 15:26did this even begin how is this so popular and doing my little very little amount
- 15:31of research that i actually did it was basically after the second world war
- 15:34where western culture especially in american entertainment uh flowed into japan
- 15:39now the and i say that in a very strange way because.
- 15:43After the, the, the bombing, the awful bombing, you haven't seen Oppenheimer
- 15:47or script that out, but basically half the country was decimated,
- 15:50but it was the Americans that rebuilt it.
- 15:53And I say that because half the country, like there is different power that we have in Australia.
- 15:59Like we run a two 40 volt Americans run on half of that at like 110 volts. Okay.
- 16:04So the weird thing is that the Americans rebuilt one side,
- 16:08all the electronics on that side of that, of, of that country
- 16:11110 volts and then like on the other side are
- 16:14all australian standard at like 240 volts so
- 16:17just just a weird little little fact about about
- 16:20the country so during that time the television and variety shows it really influenced
- 16:25the areas of osaka and tokyo and then basically in the 70s and 80s there was
- 16:32this amazing growth period in areas like shinjuku jinza and a bunch of other
- 16:36places where theme bars really became a thing.
- 16:39Hostess bars, magic bars, and jazz bars. In fact, the very first jazz bar I went to in Japan was...
- 16:47Two like two doors down from a jazz bar as well
- 16:49with like rock and jazz jazz is like crazy popular there
- 16:53and so the magic bars really flourished
- 16:56because they fit perfectly into japanese
- 16:59culture and if you know anything about japanese
- 17:02culture and especially like in the automotive realm like one
- 17:05of the greatest cars ever built out of japan is called like the nissan skyline
- 17:09or the gtr skyline right and the
- 17:13the gentleman that created that like he
- 17:16would have uh protégés underneath him and and he would
- 17:19just have them day in day out for like a year just
- 17:22draw straight lines on paper just straight lines that's it
- 17:26like and they'd be like i came here to design cars
- 17:29what do you make me draw like straight lines for and he's like buddy if you
- 17:33can't draw straight lines you have no business drawing cars and so it's that
- 17:37notion of this they had such a high respect for craftsmanship you just need
- 17:42only look at the way they present their food and the way that sushi is made
- 17:46and everything of that nature.
- 17:47For me, the culture of magic and how hard we work on things and the intricacies
- 17:53involved with that, it just fits perfectly into Japanese culture with that detailed,
- 17:58orientated sort of performance that we have, right?
- 18:03Right. Yes. I mean, you're not in podcast. No, yeah.
- 18:06No, I'm just getting amazed that I'm also just trying to Google a couple of
- 18:09pictures to give you guys a visual of it. And this is amazing.
- 18:14I want to go there yesterday.
- 18:17Yeah. Now, there's so many of them, you know, they're not just with the close
- 18:20up notion, which is what I experienced. They also have proper shows.
- 18:24Now I was very much freestyling my trip and I tried to go see an actual sit down show.
- 18:29Unfortunately, the timings didn't align we did communicate there was one
- 18:32venue called magic bar mgm and
- 18:35unfortunately they were really polite and they were trying to
- 18:38be super accommodating but like we just you know we were just jazzing
- 18:41and didn't plan it appropriately but it would have been amazing to see
- 18:44some of the actual stage performances they had on offer there so as
- 18:47one of the cool things there now the beauty about performing in japan is that
- 18:50everybody is so respectful and they're so
- 18:53lovely that like when you being a
- 18:57magician in japan is like one of the greatest things you can experience because everyone
- 19:00is just polite respectful you're not going to
- 19:03get that sort of bogan-esque no no let me shuffle
- 19:06let me look they're just going to sit there and go oh very
- 19:08nice and bow beautiful oh very nice and bow like it's just
- 19:11remarkable because they just they revel in the
- 19:14mastery that's involved they just appreciate seeing the craftsmanship
- 19:17and you you just have this
- 19:20automatic respectful audience that
- 19:23won't heckle and they will watch carefully and they'll
- 19:26do everything respectfully in fact when i took i had
- 19:29a couple of buddies with me and i said to them that like when we go into these things
- 19:32they're probably going to give us their business cards so when you do that can
- 19:35you please get the business card so this is one from a magician that performed
- 19:39for us called sage absolute rock star so when he gave his business cards to
- 19:44us at the end of the show i said make it a point to do this look at the front all right observe it.
- 19:51Compliment something about it, and then look at the back.
- 19:54Oh, that's a great photo of you, Sagi. That's very nice. And then you look at
- 19:58it again, back to the front, and then put it in your pocket for safekeeping.
- 20:02Like you give them the respect of...
- 20:05Looking at it and really appreciating it they're like oh okay now i really want
- 20:09to get to know you as much as possible when you do that so it's one of the exchanges
- 20:12you've got to have culturally.
- 20:14Interesting huh yeah like there's a respect
- 20:18element yeah going into it you
- 20:20know yeah very cool absolutely so
- 20:24look i mean i've been to japan many many times and most times i
- 20:26don't i don't actually bother going to the bars at all but i thought i'll make it
- 20:29a point to do it this time and so we did
- 20:32now i only managed to go to a couple of places one
- 20:35being sapporo and then the northern island of tokyo i
- 20:38didn't stay in tokyo i've done it way too many times before and kind of want
- 20:42to tell you guys about this particular bar because they're actually so difficult
- 20:46to find yeah like you'd be walking through the city and trying to get an address
- 20:53in japan is very difficult so you'll use your you know.
- 20:58Your maps to help navigate you there, sure. But then what will happen is you'll
- 21:03get to the building and then it's just this giant building.
- 21:05And so the addresses kind of go like the number, the place, the street,
- 21:10and then the floors, and then on the floors, locations in the floors.
- 21:14Ah, right. Yeah, so I get to you. The single floor.
- 21:18Yeah. This happened to be in Singapore as well. It's confusing.
- 21:23Yeah, it's hella confusing. So, I mean, but all well and good once you get there.
- 21:27So we, we, we find this place and it's just this red sign with scroll,
- 21:32like a LED sign and it's scrolling.
- 21:34And eventually it said magic like opens at this time. And I thought, great.
- 21:37So we rock up and we're going like down underground into this cheeky little bar. You go in there.
- 21:43There was like half a dozen Japanese businessmen all laughing, screaming.
- 21:48Everyone's smoking inside. Now it's culture to have a gas bar inside.
- 21:53If you have a smoke on the street, they'll be like, no.
- 21:57Like go inside and smoke cigarettes.
- 22:02Whoa. Yeah. Control shock. Yeah. Big time.
- 22:07Wow. So, you know, so you're just sitting there, you know, like they bring you
- 22:09out an astray. I'm like, oh, okay. So, you know, because they're just so used
- 22:12to everyone having a smoke inside.
- 22:14And, and then, you know, so when we first arrived, this, this bar had actually
- 22:18three magicians in it and they said like only English. And I said, yes.
- 22:21And I went like, sagge. and so i guess so he came
- 22:24over and just blew our minds really beautiful
- 22:28stuff it was like actually having josh nabita he was like he did
- 22:31he did like all the really really kind like nally stuff
- 22:34with the cubes and whatever else there is a bit of a common thread which i will
- 22:37say as we kind of go along but it's kind of like everyone has their standard
- 22:42in in these bars like different magicians all the other ones we went to were
- 22:46kind of smaller because in sapporo it's kind of a north island it's buried by snow,
- 22:52and you know the foot traffic isn't as much there but I'll talk about that in
- 22:56a sec so the routines these guys did Saga was one of the standout guys he was,
- 23:01You know, like the guys that are really good will do fork bending.
- 23:05So I'm holding up a fork for the viewers on the YouTube right now.
- 23:09You can see how gnarly that kind of bend is, right?
- 23:13Like that is a twist in the time. Right. In the actual. Yeah. What the hell?
- 23:19So you can see how gnarly that type of like, look at that.
- 23:23Now, this is like, yeah, go ahead.
- 23:26No it looks like if magneto had just destroyed wolverine's claws.
- 23:32Made of alimantium that's now what nick is holding up yeah i mean that's so crazy how it just.
- 23:40Yeah and so this is like the one
- 23:43i'd seen prior but i'd never seen this particular bend before thankfully he
- 23:46gifted me this one the gentleman that performed for me but
- 23:49what's really cool is that like once they've done performing in
- 23:52it they shove their business card in it and they gift you that so it's
- 23:56like a little business card holder holy crap that's
- 23:59genius yeah so there's a little pro tip for you
- 24:02if you if you do want to start exploring something like this you
- 24:05can bend it all up into the type of thing i've
- 24:08never seen it done this way before the other way i have seen
- 24:11done before but this one was gifted to me so i got to keep it
- 24:13which is really like we're all used to the standard you know
- 24:16morgan strebler gold standard of liquid
- 24:21metal but that i've never seen and just looking at that
- 24:23i'm fooled because yeah that doesn't make
- 24:26any human sense yeah their bands were really
- 24:29good and what's cool about it as well is that like all all
- 24:32of their cutlery was like just in a packet like brand new and they
- 24:35they just they drop a packet with two on there they'd be like open
- 24:38the packet check them out you crack open it's like
- 24:40they're just for some reason like all the cutlery is just like that like it
- 24:43comes is just like two tear it open this and
- 24:46that everyone's looking at it everyone's trying to bend it and then these guys
- 24:50just come out and just start crushing like so my two buddies that were with
- 24:53me it was great because it was like it's okay the dogs that people can't hear
- 24:56the dog on the pot anyway it gets put out so yeah and so they just crushed that
- 25:01and you know his big finish was a sign card.
- 25:05Inside of a like a like a green tea type type number which is so like the bottle
- 25:12was kind of like all covered up and then he's like he produces the bottle like
- 25:15this but then when he peels back.
- 25:17Like all the branding, it's just this car, but like, boom, it's in there.
- 25:21And so really strong. And he did this all in his person, man.
- 25:25Like it was pretty exceptional magic.
- 25:28So it sounds like really elegant, really classy gentleman magic.
- 25:33That's what it sounds like.
- 25:34I found a couple of pictures. I think they're from the same.
- 25:38These two pictures are from the one magic bar that I could find.
- 25:41It's called the Owl Magic Bar. Okay.
- 25:45I guess this is what I do think of when I think of a Japanese magic bar.
- 25:49Like you've got the whiskey and everything behind him, like the actual bar set
- 25:52up, and then everyone's sitting at the bar, right? And then you've got the magician in front of you.
- 25:58I think this is just a different, yeah, different angle. Oi,
- 26:02a goldfish. Well, that's not even, I think that might be a fighter fish.
- 26:06Fighter fish production mid bar show. That is next level commitment.
- 26:11Yeah, I mean, and just even looking at the way this guy's
- 26:14dressed in these photos like it you know it sets
- 26:17another kind of yeah gentlemanly standard i
- 26:20like it yeah and i was i was very polite in saying
- 26:23like i was like magician no like no magician
- 26:26no magician so i was like perform to them and i will help you
- 26:29and they're like gotcha and so we were just really
- 26:32really really had a fun jamming and then like you know they finished their
- 26:35set we have a chat a little bit of a cultural exchange sharing a
- 26:38couple of moves back and forth and then yeah some of
- 26:41them actually kind enough to gift me a couple of decks which i'll share with
- 26:43you guys these are really cool yeah those decks
- 26:46they gifted you are they their own custom decks
- 26:49i believe so i think it's actually akira i
- 26:52forget his surname but akira who does the linking cigarettes i believe these
- 26:56are his decks so they're called straight playing cards and the this i mean this
- 27:01is like why why why are they giving to you hey why because they oh it was just
- 27:05a gift because it was a great magic but um they give you straight playing cards.
- 27:11Anyway no but these are we'll move on these are okay these are quite nice they
- 27:15have like a more premium style deck which is this one here which is dope these are actually marked,
- 27:21in, in really good fashion. But so what I like about this deck in particular
- 27:25is that like, I mean, it feels pretty good. It doesn't farrow amazingly,
- 27:28but that's all well and good.
- 27:29But what I do like about this is like the jokers are cool because they have
- 27:33like a hat and then a rabbit. So you can do like the rabbit jump out of the hat type thing.
- 27:37That's kind of cute. But what's really clever is that when you go to the court
- 27:41cards, they got this cool strip across them.
- 27:43And the reason they do this is because it makes it easier for people to sign picture cards.
- 27:49Oh my God, that is genius. That is genius.
- 27:53It's just beautiful and simple and so clever. Yeah.
- 27:58Yeah. And the marking on the back is like just exceptionally like you can't,
- 28:02you can't even tell like that it's an M. No.
- 28:06You know, like, well, not with that. Here we go. Focus, focus, focus.
- 28:10Like you cannot even tell. That is the 10 of clubs, right? Nope.
- 28:16Nope. I have no idea. Can you see it?
- 28:19I'm pointing at it can you see it not really okay yeah it's really good it is
- 28:24yeah yeah like it's so beautifully hidden so really really nice but that was
- 28:29a beautiful gift from them and then it's this premium deck which has got like
- 28:32a lot of lots of shiny little business on there,
- 28:35feels really nice and then like the inside look at that yeah same deal these
- 28:40ones just have a kind of lighter finish on the black cards like it's not as
- 28:43bright as you can probably see but it's,
- 28:47these ones feel really nice they feel like a really nice matte
- 28:50finish and and so forth but these are not marked but
- 28:52they do look dope they do look dope so that was
- 28:55very kind of them to gift me that after we had a little culture exchange sharing
- 28:59the magic so yeah so then like the next part we went to same kind of deal met
- 29:03a lovely kid his name was junior he performed he was great you know i liked
- 29:07about him he was very like street-esque painted nail polish and And so was his TT.
- 29:13Like he had the same nail polish. Yeah.
- 29:18So he did some stuff with a tip and painted his thumbnail for that. And I was just like,
- 29:25I respect the hustle, man. That's actually quite cool. Nice.
- 29:29Yeah. What came first? Did he get the TT like that? And he was like,
- 29:31oh, I better make all my fingers look like that?
- 29:33Or did he paint the TT because of how his nails look already?
- 29:38That's an interesting thought. That's a very funny thought, though.
- 29:41Yeah. And so, you know, he did some really cute stuff. A lot of like,
- 29:44because the one thing that's great about Japan is they have like fake food everywhere,
- 29:48which I purchased a lot of last time I was there.
- 29:50So like, very like realistic looking dumplings and stuff like that. So he can do.
- 29:56You know, just stuff like that. So what trick, Tim Askin has a question and
- 30:00he was asking what trick did I do for them?
- 30:03I, I did like a multiple cards, I showed him my multiple card select,
- 30:06and then I did my card in the box for some, and more than anything,
- 30:11I just shared moves. I was like, here's a cool move for you.
- 30:14And they're like, oh, I love that. And I was like, yeah, my gift,
- 30:16you know, to share a move.
- 30:18I'm like, oh, I like this, but here's a cool move that you can use for controlling
- 30:21this card. And he was like, oh, that's cool.
- 30:23So I'll show him like the Viper control and stuff like that and so yeah
- 30:26and yeah the disappearing whiskey in
- 30:29fact yeah i drank a lot of whiskey highballs and the cool thing is
- 30:32this guys when you do go they all kind of vary in price depending on how long
- 30:37you stay there or how much magic you want to see but you're looking at about
- 30:4140 000 yen which is like 40 bucks australian for an hour show and all you can drink,
- 30:51all you can drink yeah damn bro and did you take it like a challenge or.
- 31:00Yeah i was okay my buddies are bigger drinkers than i am i just don't have the
- 31:04the capacity in my stomach to drink as much but but it was all well and good
- 31:08and it was just little things that were quite cute and quirky so like for example
- 31:12we went to junior's bar which i did write down It's called the record in Hokkaido.
- 31:19So we went there and found it down this icy road.
- 31:24So like we're walking through Sapporo, we find this icy road.
- 31:27We're all slipping as we're trying to walk, walk through and we get to this
- 31:31building and I'm like, the building looks closed. None of the lights are on or anything.
- 31:35And I was like, I've come this far. I've got to go a step further,
- 31:38right? So I go and I pull in the door. Sure enough, door's open. Thank goodness.
- 31:42And I start walking down the hallway trying to like see where this thing is.
- 31:45And I see the magic sign, which I was able to match with what I saw on Google.
- 31:50And I went, oh, cool. I think I found it.
- 31:51You know, then I opened the door and opened another door. And I'm like, are you open?
- 31:54And he was like, yeah. I was like, I'm bringing my friends. I'll come right back.
- 31:58So you walk into this room and it's just this tiny little room, quite long.
- 32:03And the bar no one's in there because you can't even find the joint and so then
- 32:08you go and you sit down with this cat it's super quiet there's like very low
- 32:11level jazz in the background.
- 32:13And then you just sit you down you know puts out a snack what's
- 32:17your thing asterisk assuming we're all gonna have a smoke over there
- 32:20or whatever else yeah but my favorite part was
- 32:23i mean like oh i'm gonna use the bathroom and you go over to the toilet and then
- 32:25you grab the handle the handle just comes off like i just
- 32:28had my gags everywhere i was just oh that's
- 32:33fun man hey i'm gonna put i just put some japanese text in the private chat
- 32:38do your best can you say that whole sentence as best as you can just now yeah
- 32:45go no you try that's what i'm saying where is it,
- 32:50in the i just put it i can put it in the general comments but i just put it
- 32:53in there all right in Okay, so it's just here.
- 33:05Yeah.
- 33:10He said, I used to be in a band in Japanese, baby.
- 33:20I guess we have to drink now. Put it in the comments so everyone else can see
- 33:22what he was trying to say. Yeah, boy. I was born in the band.
- 33:29I was born in the band. I was born in the band.
- 33:33That is hilarious.
- 33:40That's what my google just told me it sounds
- 33:42like yeah boy anyway yeah so
- 33:46they're doing super cool stuff there was one really cool effect that he
- 33:48did where it was kind of like a i don't know what you call it like a like a
- 33:53what do you call it like a chicago opener type effect where it was like yeah
- 33:57but it was just really clever so like he kind of like palmed an item underneath
- 34:01the spread like this and then was like oh look at that but then what he did
- 34:05was he put this down on the table,
- 34:07and like so this was just sitting on the table like this and he was but he was
- 34:10referencing up here and he did all the stickers oh and then you look back and
- 34:13it's like just like a hamburger just sitting on the deck fine you're like that's
- 34:17so clever like this little bits like that were,
- 34:20really really cool you know herbert here was asking we probably both have answers for this,
- 34:26do you think there are any differences in the attitudes between aussie
- 34:30and japanese close-up magicians how do you feel about when you watch each of
- 34:34them well i gotta talk about some commonalities that i saw across these magicians
- 34:39so for example they all did ambitious card the exact same way and they all use
- 34:45the tilt move for it it was like whatever whatever like.
- 34:50Was taught or handed down or read that might be it like it was interesting one
- 34:56thing like some people mixed it up themselves there was you know you know kenji
- 35:00with this other this third bar that we went to his bar was like really beautiful
- 35:03all lovely wood he was like in his 60s he'd been,
- 35:07performing magic since he was like 13 and he was explaining that this is the
- 35:12second oldest bar in like Sapporo is what he said, or in Ashwakaya,
- 35:19I think it was pronounced in that particular region of Sapporo.
- 35:22So it was like just really, really fascinating.
- 35:25But there's certain things that like there's a commonality that they all tend to do.
- 35:30So they all, everyone does the, put your fingertips together,
- 35:33put the sticky tape around it, and then you penetrate the wine glass.
- 35:37Like everyone did that effect.
- 35:40Yeah. That's interesting. I wonder if the tilt move, for example,
- 35:46if that's because of Cyril's magic specials in Japan.
- 35:51Because Cyril is known heavily for doing that.
- 35:55Yeah. I don't know if that's a culture thing. I'm just like,
- 35:58they just replicate that.
- 35:59I mean, I will say from afar, whenever I've seen any Japanese magic,
- 36:05it's always that the difference for me, they take
- 36:09it like an art form that has
- 36:12to be mastered in like how a
- 36:15ninja would learn you know like the art of or calligraphy or
- 36:18like you know you really do your diligence to
- 36:21learn that craft and then they they
- 36:25perform it as like a craft as opposed to in australia we tend or in in western
- 36:31culture i feel like a lot of the time people just learn enough like they get
- 36:36not good but they get like enough skill to then start showing people and they try and hide their.
- 36:45Not defined skill set yet with comedy and
- 36:48they yeah that and they try and it's sort of like not polished yet whereas i
- 36:52feel like in japan they're very much like i polish my art form and then i display
- 36:57it and it's very much like thank you very much like boom boom like precision
- 37:01yeah that's my feeling of it anyway that's like the vibe i get yeah you know
- 37:05it's it's interesting I think that Ozzy's,
- 37:08as far as style goes,
- 37:10it's the most different.
- 37:15Yeah, there's not a lot of commonality between all Aussie magicians, for example.
- 37:20We're all very... I feel like there's a wonderful level of individualism that's
- 37:25exuberant across every performer.
- 37:27Even LJ just in the comments, like, he's so different from me,
- 37:30I'm so different from you, Josh.
- 37:31I mean, skill level-wise, I think you and I have a lot of similarities,
- 37:34but I think as far as presentation and so forth and personalities,
- 37:40we're quite different, you know?
- 37:42Yeah, we did a show together and people watched our acts separately and enjoyed
- 37:47them separately, you know? Absolutely.
- 37:49But like with the Japanese culture, I just found like so many similarities with the routines.
- 37:54Everyone does the same thing. And the question was like between Japan and Australia,
- 37:59I would say that Japan, there's a lot of similarities.
- 38:02I would say that Australia, there's a lot more individualism.
- 38:05Maybe it's because we are a multicultural society as well.
- 38:09That might be it. You know what I mean? Because like, you know,
- 38:11I'm Greek, you're Aussie,
- 38:13someone's German, whatever it might be, you know what i mean so that might be
- 38:15like the fact of the culture that actually influences
- 38:18that because i will say that whenever i
- 38:21go to magic live and i meet an american who's like can i show you a trick it's
- 38:28counting cards almost every time it's like i want you to count i'm like okay
- 38:35and uh and uh i want you to shuffle the shuffle the cards first yeah yeah shuffle first.
- 38:42Yeah whatever you want do you want to shuffle it again yeah and I'm like the shuffle,
- 38:51It's always that, okay, you want to do a trick? Shuffle.
- 38:56Unless it's Franco Piscali, then he just demolishes you.
- 39:00See, there's something, yeah. It's remarkable. And he's an individual without question.
- 39:05You can't replicate that.
- 39:09The guy's a Mona Lisa. He's amazing. But yeah, I do find that with a lot of Americans.
- 39:14And I think, and also the Canadians. A lot of times people show me tricks and
- 39:17he's like, I want you to count cards. I go, American? He goes,
- 39:19Canadian. I go, okay, keep going.
- 39:21Like it's whereas if they ask someone in australia we say name any card that's what we say.
- 39:29Yeah we don't even pick one
- 39:33name one yeah it's in my pocket or
- 39:36it's at my fingertips or how do you want me to find it or it's
- 39:39in your tampon or whatever you know it's not shuffle the
- 39:43day and i think there's strength in that i think that needs to
- 39:46be yeah because i mean the thing is we don't we
- 39:48don't have nearly enough magic international magic come to our shores
- 39:51i mean short of the melbourne magic festival we probably
- 39:54wouldn't see a lot of international acts at all you know
- 39:57we're blessed that rc win's going to come and
- 40:00visit us in the coming weeks which i assume you're going to josh that's
- 40:04going to be incredible yeah yeah we'll see what happens
- 40:07yeah it was just announced today at the melbourne magic
- 40:10festival that magical katrina will be joining the
- 40:14the lineup to the melbourne magic festival so that'll
- 40:17be interesting to see i believe she'll be doing her kid show i think
- 40:20i didn't actually have time to read the email this morning i just learned
- 40:22a catch ring oh cool cat's coming and then i moved on yeah great
- 40:26yeah yeah another american coming through that'll be
- 40:29fun yeah so yeah it sounds like to to
- 40:32yeah further what you were saying like in japan
- 40:35it's very much like this is the magic you do if you're a close-up magician and
- 40:41like how good can i get it doing that set that everyone does like now watch
- 40:45me do it how perfected mine is or it sounds like that rather than let me be
- 40:51creative and think outside the box and blah blah blah it's like.
- 40:54We all, yeah, if you're a magician, you do these 10 things, but let me see how
- 40:58good I can execute these 10 things.
- 41:00Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And so everyone did like the same, and it was kind of interesting.
- 41:05It was like, we go to a different bar and my buddies were like,
- 41:08oh, we've seen this one. And I was like, let him cook, let him cook, you know?
- 41:12And then we saw this one and this one. And then, yeah, you know,
- 41:16Kenji was like probably my favorite.
- 41:18Like we spoke about it. I was like, yeah, Kenji, like, and he was,
- 41:20he was a G man. And like, like when you walk into, here's the thing,
- 41:24every time we walked into these bars, other than the first time, the bars were empty.
- 41:28They were empty. There was dead quiet, but they were open and they were going
- 41:33to be open from seven till two in the morning.
- 41:37And they would just sit there and wait for folks to rock up.
- 41:40And then we rock up and they're there and they're poised and they're impeccably dressed.
- 41:46And there's not a single stain on their shirt, not a single sweat stain on their anything.
- 41:51It's, it's phenomenal. Like it's insane.
- 41:55Yeah. So Kenji was the, was at a bar. I think it was called Welcome, the Welcome Magic Bar.
- 42:01And his was the hardest to find. I wouldn't
- 42:04have found it if I didn't have the kindness of a couple of locals that
- 42:07came through they were walking through with a couple of other Aussie
- 42:10blokes and I went you guys go into the magic bar and
- 42:13they're like no we're going and whatever and I was like oh
- 42:15and the guys and then one of the Japanese guys who spoke English really
- 42:18well he was like what are you trying to do and I and I was
- 42:21like this place and he just took my phone and just started walking
- 42:24up the stairs come come and I'm like all right and
- 42:27then he was kind enough to take me like all the way to the place
- 42:30and like things being bowed and away he went and it was
- 42:33that was probably my most favorite experience sitting
- 42:36around with him there was one really cool thing that these guys do
- 42:39with regards to their social media and so forth they
- 42:43do a lot of stuff where it's like you have a blank card and you can't see anything
- 42:47hold it up and smile and then they take your phone and take a photograph put
- 42:51it down and then like later on reveal like you're thinking of a card what card
- 42:57are you thinking look back at that blank photo of the photo with the blank card
- 43:00and then it then like it appears.
- 43:03Know what I mean? And I've seen that, I've seen that gimmick at Magic Live,
- 43:06but I never really felt the need or want for it.
- 43:08But when you look at the capacity of photographs and sharing it through social
- 43:14media and extending that type of reach.
- 43:17I will say from experience since doing Theater of Magic that like any opportunities
- 43:21for photographs are really important to the success of one's business.
- 43:26And especially if it's something that's like location driven,
- 43:29they need to be able to go there and take photographs and be a part of that
- 43:32you know like our media wall is lit
- 43:35like it's staggering how like we finished the
- 43:38show say thank you very much and go straight to the media wall and
- 43:41then everyone just rush this lines up to take like photos as we
- 43:44leave and says thank you like it's it's pretty dope
- 43:46yeah that card herbert
- 43:50oh who just mentioned it the rainbow card yeah i i do
- 43:54like you i don't use it so
- 43:58i might light a little fire the other one that's fun
- 44:00is ozzy wins double exposure that's a
- 44:03that's a fun impromptu photo moment as
- 44:06well yeah yeah all those are good the goods
- 44:09yeah the goods yeah absolute banger
- 44:12and so yep that's what the venue's like and then
- 44:15like the last one we went to was very funny it was kind of
- 44:17upstairs it was cold old where's
- 44:21my notes as i go back up the fontaine
- 44:24magic bar like fontaine playing cards i
- 44:27was like okay this guy better be good and he was dressed in like like proper
- 44:33garb like he's in like proper like samurai garb type of thing you know like
- 44:36with the robes and stuff really polite very soft and he was great because this
- 44:41guy did all original stuff all original uh and when i say original it It was like,
- 44:45it was like original in a sense that like, oh, he took this idea and this idea and made them a routine.
- 44:53You know? So that was really cool. But even then, you know, like my,
- 44:57my buddy, he, you know, he smokes.
- 44:58And so he like, in this one venue, we're like, Oh, can we, you know,
- 45:01like get, get an ashtray.
- 45:03And he was like, no, sorry, balcony. And we're like, okay. So he walks out to the balcony.
- 45:07Now I thought, well, I've got to go see this. Right. So I walk over and like
- 45:11his clothes lines there.
- 45:13It's just his clothesline. We just walk out to his clothesline.
- 45:16Like, Oh, like his jocks are probably here like it's just you know snow all
- 45:22around us and the thing as well yeah,
- 45:26yeah just casually yeah but again
- 45:29cute little venue little plate of chocolates he performed
- 45:32his bit he was the most expensive bar we went to yeah he charged a lot for whatever
- 45:36reason and I wasn't going to say no so we paid basically double what everyone
- 45:40else was charging so we did that he did his bit we had again a nice culture
- 45:44exchange took a photo this and that thank you Herbert let's shout him out Herbert, come on.
- 45:50What are you doing to us? A $10 donation.
- 45:55One bicycle deck each for Mick and I. Cash back.
- 46:00Yeah. And so look, I mean, all in all, each bar had its own little differences.
- 46:04Each bar had a lot of commonalities. But it was just so curious to me as I look through these,
- 46:11how they actually have been around for as long as they have and how they survive
- 46:17with what to me seemed like phenomenal to be open six days a week.
- 46:25From seven till two in the morning and they'd
- 46:28be lucky if anyone comes in and they're so damn hard to
- 46:31find you know like that's genuinely staggering to me and i just couldn't quite
- 46:36i'm trying to understand like and like this is your full time this is all you
- 46:39do is like yes and i'm like how do you you know i was also really gnarly man
- 46:43so my buddy he drinks rum he drinks rum like a sailor Okay.
- 46:49So we get there. He's like, what do you want to drink? Have the rum.
- 46:53And then he's like, Oh, finishes the rum. Um.
- 46:57And then like sends a text and literally six minutes later, some old guy just
- 47:02rocks up with another bottle and an invoice and says, thank you.
- 47:06And leaves and then, and then just goes and then my other, yeah.
- 47:09And then, and then my other buddy drank all the whiskey and then sends a text.
- 47:13The same guy rocks up six minutes later and goes, boop.
- 47:17And it's like, it's like, I don't know how it works.
- 47:20But like we ended up in a situation where this one old man.
- 47:23Is just like sitting there with like a stockpile of
- 47:26all this booze waiting for like stores to text him
- 47:29or shoot him a message being like yo can you bring some rum he's
- 47:32like yeah man i'll be on my way and then just brings it there in a bag and
- 47:34sends him an invoice and then just walks off bro i saw this
- 47:37in a nelk video the nelk boys went
- 47:41and did a japan trip which is a great vlog that
- 47:44everyone should go watch and they like met up with the the japanese
- 47:48mafia when they were there and so anyway it's crazy but but one
- 47:51particular part is they're like mid-walk in
- 47:54this park like this giant park there's no shops around
- 47:58or anything and like man i could really go for a beer and their
- 48:01translator that's looking after them goes oh we can just order
- 48:04beer and he's like what do you mean we can just order beer we're
- 48:07in the middle of nowhere he's like watch this and he orders this beer
- 48:10and a fucking drone comes out of
- 48:12nowhere and drops it off at this like drone
- 48:16station where where people can order stuff and it
- 48:19dropped off like this whole bucket of beers for them
- 48:22and they're in the middle of nowhere like that's one
- 48:25thing they've definitely figured out is you know you
- 48:27can get anything anywhere anytime yeah and
- 48:31there's vending machines everywhere with everything in them
- 48:34like hot coffees it's there and there's no trash cans anywhere like if you find
- 48:41a trash can it's like finding a leprechaun it's crazy and yeah there's no trash
- 48:46cans anyway like so you have rubbish you just hold on to it like for half the
- 48:49day and then And you find a rubbish bin and you're like, oh.
- 48:51And you just empty your pockets, you know?
- 48:53Oh, wow. And erroneous of there
- 48:55being no bins anywhere. It is the cleanest country I've ever been to.
- 48:59Huh. Yeah. Like, yeah.
- 49:02I mean, it's like, so, yeah. So the guys were asking, did I go for a show or the snow?
- 49:06I was there for the snow and I will, I will tell you some really fun things
- 49:09as like we, we move on from magic and just, and just praise the country.
- 49:13So I will make a quick mention of some bars that I didn't get to see,
- 49:16but some of my friends in the past have been to, and I'm just going to mention this one.
- 49:20I had a list of five, but given the time we have, I mean, just go to as many
- 49:23as you can while you're there.
- 49:24But there was one in particular in Ginza, it's called the magic table.
- 49:27And the magic table is unlike our friend Damien's a part of. The magic table is this.
- 49:34Guy at this one little table in this one little bar
- 49:37and he and he performs this magic and i saw the
- 49:39video of what my buddy took and it was basically like he does
- 49:42this thing where he like opens up a matchbox and
- 49:45then takes out a little matchstick and then the matchstick just kind of like jumps up
- 49:48and then the matchstick like jumps like this and
- 49:51then the matchstick is like it's it's vertical like think of
- 49:53like pixar animation and then it's just
- 49:57kind of going across all the playing cards like
- 50:00it just bounces all across the crowd and then stops on one playing card and
- 50:03it's their selection like it's the most like animated
- 50:07thing i've ever seen as far as magic goes like
- 50:10it's phenomenal yeah and that would
- 50:13be an experience like there's a level of engineering behind that
- 50:15beautiful piece of magic that would be such a pleasure to experience
- 50:18in person so if you're if you have time
- 50:21for only one like find that place what should
- 50:24you go and visit there but yeah but look
- 50:27outside of that i i have so many praises of what a beautiful country
- 50:30it is you know one of the cool like there's just so many things that they
- 50:34just they always say when you
- 50:36come back you have like post japan blues does happen they're just
- 50:40so much better than us in every way and i'll tell you why like one
- 50:43their toilets rock you can use a toilet anywhere and it's going to be cleaner
- 50:49than where you where you've ever pooped in your own house and they wash your
- 50:53butthole for you so that's just amazing right all their trains are insanely
- 50:58on time if If they're late by 30 seconds.
- 51:01That's considered late or a delay for these cats.
- 51:04And as well as that, they've even got dedicated carriages for women only when traveling at night.
- 51:10So yeah, it's super cool. As well as that, in like trains, and because we got
- 51:18a lot of bullet trains as we're sort of bouncing around the country.
- 51:21Culturally, you don't talk on your phone. It's silence. Yeah.
- 51:27Yeah, unless you're talking to each other, that's fine. But I like that.
- 51:32Yeah, but nobody's just sitting there obnoxiously on their phone or got their
- 51:36things playing video games aloud and like none of that. Like it's just culturally not accepted.
- 51:42Yeah, that's nice. Yeah.
- 51:45Bins, hard to find everywhere. The shoes off culture, quite nice,
- 51:48keeps everything clean.
- 51:50Vending machines, they're dope because you can basically walk down your,
- 51:55like hallway and then just grab a bunch of beers and then go back to your
- 51:57room like it's just rad and and everything there is
- 52:00so cheap they had these particular um highballs these
- 52:03like whiskey highballs and they were like orange flavored like blood orange
- 52:06you get a six pack for 580 yen or something it's like less than six bucks for
- 52:12a six pack and they're like seven percenters they're just great at the end of
- 52:15the day of snowboarding all day you just want to have like a little chill and
- 52:19wonderful they are what's what's their airport like.
- 52:24Really organized and efficient is it
- 52:29like the standard western airport where you used to going
- 52:32like land walk through the thing i believe
- 52:35they actually hold the record for not having lost
- 52:38a single piece of luggage in like over a decade or possibly
- 52:41even longer like i remember that being a thing last year that
- 52:44the boys and i were talking about everything's just
- 52:47organized man like even when you like when you go to the trains
- 52:50they have like line lines on
- 52:53the floor as to where you're supposed to stand and wait
- 52:56for the train and then you and then the train
- 52:58rocks up and it stops exactly where it's supposed to and
- 53:02then everyone gets off and then everyone gets on and
- 53:05that's it no one's pushing past each other no one's like you
- 53:08know it's just just so civil
- 53:11and so organized even in traffic the way people let them
- 53:14each other in and you know like that and then they
- 53:17kind of flash their hazard lights to say thank you that's like the little thank
- 53:20you thing that hazard lights yeah it's just
- 53:23it's phenomenal man and even in bowing as well like when i finished my exchange
- 53:27with kenji and we shared magic with each other like we're bowing to each other
- 53:30and like we just like we were trying to like bow the lower you bow is like more
- 53:33respect and i just was like going full 90 degree like if not more you know i
- 53:37was like damn near kissing my feet so yeah it's it's great.
- 53:41Wow yeah and then outside of that like
- 53:44convenience stores they're phenomenal like we're still trying to
- 53:47have figure out like which which is the greatest like
- 53:50the 7-elevens there's lawson's and there's family marts
- 53:53and they're all dope like you can rock up
- 53:56and just have the most delicious desserts
- 53:59if you do go there they got these waffle ice creams that you
- 54:02got to have at the end of every day like don't even argue with me
- 54:04just go it's like a waffle double-sided waffle and
- 54:08it's like like coated it's like waffle chocolate
- 54:11all on the inside ice cream and then a full layer
- 54:15of just brick chocolate in the middle have one
- 54:18of those every day but don't eat it immediately buy it get it
- 54:20home let it melt a little bit that's a pro tip what about
- 54:23magic shops did you find any authentic magic stores
- 54:26why i didn't find any magic shops to purchase
- 54:29stuff most of the magic shops that when i look at magic shops
- 54:32and magic bars it basically took me to the same thing and a lot
- 54:35of the guys did have you know stuff that you
- 54:38could purchase inside those bars like there was this really cool tenure gimmick
- 54:41that was like he was doing this he was like fork bent and then you go like fork
- 54:47straight fork bent and it was just a double-ended fork there's a tenure product
- 54:52and it was so cool i was like oh yeah that's actually really clever like.
- 54:57Yeah so it's it's just it's a really nice cultural exchange everyone's super
- 55:01polite But if you do go there, understand that they have traditions,
- 55:05they have customs, they have culture and abide by theirs.
- 55:09Don't bring your misbehaving sort of notions to that place.
- 55:14Like you'll just, yeah, like it's just such a pleasure to be a guest in that country.
- 55:18And so it was also really nice to receive their magic.
- 55:24And that's my story of going to japan our next travel adventure will be for
- 55:32me are you enjoying singapore again,
- 55:34look i did singapore because i i performed at the f1 the formula one so but
- 55:40that's not in the in the works coming up so yeah singapore might not be for
- 55:45a bit but we'll see yeah i got my buddies trying to trying to bust my nuts to
- 55:49go like let's go to singapore grand prix and i'm like It's great.
- 55:53Oh, right. The Grand Prix. Yeah, the Grand Prix is super hot and it's humid,
- 55:57as you know, going anywhere on that side of the world.
- 56:00I just remember it being fucked for humidity.
- 56:04Dude, I was in minus 16 degrees every day and then I come back to Melbourne
- 56:08and it's 36 today, which is like 6 million Fahrenheit for the American listeners.
- 56:15It is just way too hot. I hate it.
- 56:18Yeah. If you go to Singapore for the Formula One, definitely
- 56:21take the arctic cooling vest that would
- 56:24be my pro tip i'm gonna get those guys on
- 56:27the pod one day as a surprise we should i mean look we're definitely gonna sell
- 56:32at least three of them yeah so i think our next journey as far as like magical
- 56:37journey i'll be taking i have committed to going to magic live hopefully anyone
- 56:42else coming along by all means let us know we'll catch up and run amok.
- 56:47Josh, I think you have family ties this year and won't be joining us.
- 56:52Yeah, I have to bow out of Magic Live unless any companies out there want to sponsor me to go.
- 56:57Ba-bing, I'll wear your hat. But no, we have some other overseas trips we have
- 57:02to dedicate our time and money to this year.
- 57:05But yeah, and then obviously Blackpool would be on the list at some point.
- 57:10So I see everyone getting ready to go to Blackpool, which looks awesome.
- 57:14Do you think we should? Do you think we should actually plan it?
- 57:16It'll be an expansive trip.
- 57:18But I wonder, is it more expensive than going to the US? It's Europe, man. Yeah.
- 57:26Everything's expensive in Europe. Like, I actually looked at,
- 57:28like, snowboarding in Europe, and I was like, oh, Macedonia does cat skiing.
- 57:32I'm like, let's go to Macedonia. And 2,000 euros.
- 57:36Like five grand we should do a compare like
- 57:39we should we should look up all the expenses and and compare it
- 57:42to what you know we're spending at magic live and just see
- 57:45like how much more it is you know or if
- 57:48it's yeah well that good buddy
- 57:51eric is going eric leclerc is going to be doing
- 57:54some stuff there as well he's going to be launching his brand new
- 57:57character which we'll be doing which we'll
- 58:00be interviewing as an exclusive i've already signed the deal
- 58:03for you so i'm gonna keep that silent
- 58:06and a nice surprise for
- 58:09you listeners but i mean he's talked about it and he's posting
- 58:12about it yep right his character yep but that man that would be fun to see you
- 58:17show it so he's gonna do a show as that character at blackpool or host or something
- 58:22he said that he's launching it there like he's showing the world the very first
- 58:26time who it is and so i was like great And then I said, promise me,
- 58:30you will let us do the first interview.
- 58:33And he said, yes, we'll be the first people to interview Tooth Farrick.
- 58:38Heck yeah. See, that's maybe what we need to try and find is,
- 58:42you know, he's going to Blackpool, obviously, because he's booked to go there.
- 58:46So, you know, Blackpool, just can you please book the Magic guys to come there?
- 58:53And then that'll solve all our problems.
- 58:56So that's pretty much it. We have a guest on next week, but we'll tell you more
- 59:00about that as we lead into it.
- 59:02And Nick is going to do the final word in Japanese.
- 59:07Here we go. Sayonara, bitches.
- 59:12Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now. Disappear now.
- 59:17But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.