Latest / The Magic Guys / Christopher Wayne Is Here To Help YOU Write A Show! #253

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Christopher Wayne Is Here To Help YOU Write A Show! #253 · The Magic Guys

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They're guys they do magic they are the magic guys,
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ladies and gentlemen what's going on sit down buckle up grab your wands and
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let's have some fun it's me it's josh norbedo your fellow magic guy welcome
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to episode 253 of the magic guys we're here. Well, I'm here.
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I'm here, ladies and gentlemen. The one that cares about you the most.
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No, the other guys care about you, but they are traveling. Now,
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some of you already brought it up. You've seen on the Instagrams,
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Doug has been at Magi Fest.
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He's been getting bombarded with our fellow podcastees and he's been running into crazy guests.
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Bill Malone was there. I want to hear so much about it and I feel like we'll
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get the debrief next week.
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But with all this weather going around, I believe where he is got snowed in. So his flight.
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He's at the airport right now, probably watching this with terrible internet.
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And maybe we'll see a comment from him later. And Nick, our boy Nick is so successful
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that he's had to take a holiday and he's on a flight to Japan right now for some snowboarding.
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So fun tip, if you're in Japan, which one magician is randomly enough,
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go track him down and tell him that you're in a band and that will trigger the
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needing to take a drink shots inside joke with the podcast.
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But we're not here today just by myself. I did consider it, but I feel like
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it's much better if we have someone on,
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someone with some wisdom to share, someone that's one of my best friends in
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magic and just has such a great track record of magic and shows and writing
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and producing that we try to get them on at least once a year.
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And since we've done the podcast for five years now I rang him up and I said
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bro it's time for your fifth appearance on the pod so ladies and gentlemen please
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help me in welcoming my friend it's Christopher Wayne.
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Chris, how are you doing, my friend? That live studio audience sounds amazing.
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It is an illusion, yeah. I think all the pandemic virtual shows just forced
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us to get those little sound effects to make ourselves feel good when people
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do Zoom shows and everyone's on mute.
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For people that don't know, you and I have been doing Theatre of
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Magic together for a few years now and there's something that I've literally
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always noticed and never brought up with you you just did it you only
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ever refer to me as your best friend and then you always add
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in magic and it's like what what are we man like what are the terms of our friendship
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yeah well to be fair outside of magic I don't know what friends I have so I
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just clarify it so that it's like the most meaningful source, you know?
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It's like saying this woman, she's my, she's the favorite girlfriend that I live with.
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There's no other girlfriends, but it's like just adding that extra bit. That's interesting.
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Yeah, I might have to. I think it's because at Theater of Magic,
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I don't know, like we have to say in Magic because why would you just say you've
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brought someone who's your best friend? That's actually a really good point.
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Yeah, this next guy brought him on because he's my best friend.
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And maybe that's why. Oh, we won't make the whole episode about my feelings. That'll be horrible.
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Okay, well, the friends in the chat are here to see you and they're happy you're here.
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We've got we've got pasha we got herbert what's
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up my friend from tasmania tim askin gutbuster mike
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our friends from the u.s we got scotty p there everyone's turning up for uh
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some cw knowledge so first of all when chris jumped on i was like that background
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looks like a green screen but it's not you're in boston and is it snowing because
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it looks like a tint of Yeah.
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So we were kind of joking about it before we went live. I was only originally
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supposed to be in America for the better part of six weeks.
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And now this is my apartment. I live in Boston.
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It was like April last year. You were on the pod and we talked about you just
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getting there and you'd sliced your finger off.
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Yeah. For the viewers, what's the update on that? Is that back to fully functioning now?
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Praise God, it is. So you can hardly even see it now. I got a scar. See that scar there?
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Yeah, that's it. And you can see I got a weird bend in my finger now.
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But I have mobility, I do have arthritis now in that one finger.
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But apart from that, it's completely fine. And there was a chance I'd never
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get to use it again, that finger. So it's nothing but a miracle.
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And I'm so glad I did those shows because I almost, you know,
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I was really close to not doing them. Yeah, man.
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But yeah, the background is real. We've got a snowstorm on the East Coast right
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now and it's been amazing.
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It's been 24 hours of snow, two and a half feet we've had outside of just, yeah, it's amazing.
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It's such a contrast because it is hot as balls here in Brisbane right now.
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Minus 18, Josh, right now.
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That's crazy. Mm-hmm. Wow. Well, you're not just there putting up the cold for no reason.
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You've been having some success there continuing on from April.
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So you did the Naked Magicians The mindset originally was We were going to get
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you back Like in a few months So to catch up the people from the last episode
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What happened since that opening of Naked Magicians That sort of now kept you,
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in America? Ultimately, all good things. So the Naked Magicians was playing
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off Broadway and we had a new cast, a new cast coming in.
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And then one of them pulled out and I'm like, well, I can do it.
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My mom just commented, hi, Bubba.
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And yeah, so I'm like, oh, I can fill in while we find the new guy.
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And then the guy, we never found the new guy, but the show kept getting extended off Broadway.
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And I'm, so I was okay with that. And then there was an opportunity to bring
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the show to Boston, I met a performer down here and I'm like,
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man, this guy could be the new naked magician. We were actually in a kitchen making coffee.
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And then he was a standout comedian. And I remember he grabbed the coffee mug
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and I saw his arm. And I'm like, this son of a bitch works out.
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And I literally looked at him. His name was Anton. And I'm like,
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do you want to be a naked magician?
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And then I went on this mission to open the show in Boston.
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And we ended up replacing the Blue Man group at
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the Charles Playhouse downtown they had
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closed up after 29 years and then so
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we now I'm in Boston with this show and then I'm
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like all right I've got to get out of the show now because the goal was
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to find a new guy I've got Anton and then
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we did a national casting call and found an amazing theater
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performer from our Chicago called Jack and I
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we brought him to Boston the show has been doing
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great here but then in that process of living in
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Boston I decided to open another theater of
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Magic originally is like a short-term thing but
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as you know Josh it's kind of become like the viral magic show
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here in Boston and we're selling
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out three three shows a weekend three on a
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Saturday 60 seats a show every single week and
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it's so right now it's a really blessed chapter where are the two shows that
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I'm most proud of the Naked Magicians and Theatre of Magic have found a new
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life with this new cast and then the Theatre of Magic is like a whole new iteration
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in America and something that's interesting is like it's my first time here,
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I used to be here as one of the naked magicians but now I'm here as like a comedy magician.
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There's no one really like me in America. Like even my personality stands out
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day to day in America because I'm a bit more of a larrikin and I'm louder and
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I'm like Northeasters aren't very emotional and I'm always talking about feelings.
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So my act is really landing here with American audiences.
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Yeah, it's been a great time. I don't want to go. Well, I live here now. Live in the Americas.
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Yeah, you're one of my best friends in America.
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Man, when Magic Live comes, like I don't have an excuse to go anymore.
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100% it's got to happen yeah and that's
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super interesting because Naked Magicians is a big
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theater show you can see you know what's the
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largest amount of people you've had in a theater for
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the most people we've had for one show is 1900 people
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in Durham North Carolina and the Naked Magicians
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is about to go on a national tour it's its first national tour
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since uh 2020 they're doing
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about 30 cities in the again the biggest theaters in
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America and we didn't know how it would go with a new cast but
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it's outselling everything mike and i
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ever did in every city including durham they're going back there
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and it's selling gangbusters so it's yeah it's crazy to
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see these jokes and tricks that we wrote 11 years ago just uh kick off again
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in these big theaters it's insane and and while that's happening that the interesting
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contrast is these shows that are doing super well at the boston theater of magic
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are for 60 people right So 1,900 people have seen Naked Magicians at one time,
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Theatre of Magic selling out, but 60 people.
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And I titled this episode, How We Could Help You Write a Show.
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Like in today's day and age right now, should people consider writing a big
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theatre show or should they consider writing a parlour show?
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Well, the writing, you're asking two different questions there,
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I feel, because a theatre show comes down to the economics.
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More than the content. Anyone, if you've got enough money in your bank account,
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can hire a theater today, go and make a poster with a graphic designer,
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do some marketing and hope that people turn up.
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I think, which one should you write? It's what you want to do.
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I know if you're a grand illusionist, of which there's probably like six left
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around the world, you probably want to look at a bigger venue because you're doing bigger tricks.
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But I think of a magician in Australia, a young guy who's got ambitions of playing
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big theaters like a thousand seats a night.
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And something I've tried to encourage him to do is to start at the parlor shows.
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And even though right now, after 21 years, I've gone all the way up and I'm
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like, get me in the smallest room possible.
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I think if your goal is to have a big room, you probably want to go via the
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small room on the way anyway, because you need to learn to, as a performer,
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you need to learn to work for 40 people, 60 people, 100 people before you can take 500 or 1,000.
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Because it's the same rules that you'll have for managing an audience,
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just magnified when you've got more people in the crowd.
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Yeah, that's a really professional answer. So it's actually start with the,
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what makes sense, the intimate group.
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And then through like demand, would you say like, yeah, I think so.
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Like, yeah, I mean, you can always, again, I'll never stop anyone from taking
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that bet on themselves, but like economically, if you, if you were like,
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I need to do a magic show and I don't want to lose money.
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I'd say, cool, go and find a space. It's not a theater because the,
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a theater is a business and they're designed to make as much off you as possible.
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When we worked together in Showman, I'm sure you got a bit of a taste,
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especially in Australia, of how our theaters are designed to have more staff
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than they need or expect just a lot of BS that's unnecessary.
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But I think if someone said, I want to write a show, I'd say,
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it's the same rules as stand-up.
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The rules of stand-up are write about what you know. And I'd say it's the same with magic.
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So sitting in your room learning card tricks, maybe don't go and write a show
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about how you're a hustler on the street trying to make money.
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Go and write a show about, you know what, call it the nervous magician.
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Call it the introverted card shark and write a show about how you're terrified
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to go out in public, but magic's the one time where you feel you can use it
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as a bridge to do it with other people.
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And do that show in the back room of a library for 15 people sitting around
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a card table because it's what you know and it's where you're most comfortable
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and where you won't be shaky.
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That's a rant, but, uh, yeah. No, we love the rants. That's what we need.
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Let me break up that rant with a little speak pipe we have that came in from Tim Raymond.
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This is, I have to play this because this is just the first time I've ever heard
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of this happening to someone in a show. So I just want to see,
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like, if this has happened to you and what, like, just what your reaction is,
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I guess. So this is from our friend Tim Raymond.
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Let's see what happened to him at a recent gig. Hello, Magic Guys.
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I just got a quick little gig story for you.
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So this afternoon, I was doing a bit of a parlor show type thing for some old
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folks at an aged care facility.
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There was a young girl in the audience, so I got her up at the start and she was helping me out.
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She was about six years old and we're kind of bantering with her through the
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show and audience is loving it.
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She's loving it. She's having a blast. right towards the end.
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I'm doing a little routine with a mouth coil and some toilet paper.
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Halfway through, she goes, I'm weeing. And then I look down and she's got piss
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running down her leg and it's forming a little puddle on the floor.
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I'm like, right, is there a parent or someone? So they've taken her off,
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they've cleaned her up and managed to catch her after the show.
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And she was fine. I said, look, great job. You did awesome.
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Gave her a high five and that was it. So it ended well, but at the same time,
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that was definitely a first.
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So i mean it's good at retirement village
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she's everyone pissed their pants at your show she
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was the only person announced it like that's the first thing the only one that
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didn't have a diaper on yeah oh well bless you man for making sure she felt
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good afterwards you know because a six-year-old she could have social anxiety
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for the rest of her life so uh as a performer we should yeah leave him,
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leave him feeling better than we found him. So it sounds like you dealt with that well.
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I had that happen once, except he ran off as it started, like holding his crotch.
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This is like 20 years ago, nearly.
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But man, yeah. The only other thing that comes to mind is I would have acknowledged
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it with the audience. And like, I think of Billy Madison.
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If you're doing Timmy Toilet Paper, which it sounds like you were,
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because you're doing a comedy show, I would have grabbed a glass of water,
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a couple of drops and put them on your pants and gone,
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we're in good company or you know what magic does
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that sometimes just it's because it's an elephant in the
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room and it and it's there's no way you could embarrass her
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more so it's i'd make light of it
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so we're all just i think that's the
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perfect answer yeah i never would have thought to make that that choice put
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some water on yourself as well so that everyone's the same i don't know if that's
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bad or not but like there's definitely something there like ladies and gentlemen
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the appearing liquid effect and you know take this toilet paper with you with your parent I don't know,
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there's definitely a way to make it fine I do it by accident in the next trick
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with my like I do healed and sealed in my show I do it with coke can and accidentally
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spill some on my crotch I'd make it an accident and then her little name's Madison
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oh Madison you and me together buddy.
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Something like that, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the running joke,
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because the next person that comes on, you're like, now, I have a track record for making people.
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Yeah. So, yeah. It looks like live magic is a numbers game as soon as you involve audiences.
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And when we do roving, it's very different because it's, although every group
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is different, it's the same environment. You know, they're going to be looking down around you.
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But like when you're on stage, there's so many variables. And especially,
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that's not a theater, that's a retirement village or an aged care facility so
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people can get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink, take a call.
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It's just a numbers game. You're probably not going to have someone piss their
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pants for the next thousand shows.
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But when you've got like three or four volunteers in your show,
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sometimes something's going to happen.
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Yeah, I mean, far out. The amount of times I've seen you have just crazy stuff
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happen at Naked Magicians, not to mention theater.
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I mean, theater of magic is more intense because anything that anyone does that's
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loud or out of the ordinary, it's like there's a spotlight on it straight away
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because there are 50th of the people in the room.
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Yeah, yeah, you kind of, whatever happens on stage in the theater of magic.
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I remember when we played Aspen, Colorado with the
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Naked Magicians and there were 800 people it
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was sold out and then we walked on stage and two
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minutes in a guy in the front row just leant forward and just vomited everywhere
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like just everywhere and i could smell it
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and he was just like a mess and i'm really
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bad with vomit and and then straight away mike
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and i look at each other and mike like just keep going because we realized we
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were the only people that could see it just us in the front row and
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then the other 20 or 30 rows it was just 10 people could
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see the spew and it's like so the show that part
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was affected for us but no one else knew about it
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and then a cleaner came and delicately dealt with it but yeah
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in the theater of magic hey if something if someone sneezes or it's
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like everyone stops and looks around yeah i had one person snort i got my first
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snorter at the theater of magic and it was the most beautiful thing and there'll
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probably be a clip of it later this week but it like everyone heard it and everyone
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laughed and it was great but like just one little sound out of place.
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Yeah. You can hear it straight away.
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I feel like it's always, uh, women that snort in comedy. Was it a woman?
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Yeah. Yeah. 100%. And she did it by herself. Like it wasn't with the group all
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laughing as well. It was just her.
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There's so much joy coming out of it. It was fantastic.
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It's too good. Okay, so yeah, back to helping our friends in the chat here.
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You've made really good points. Talk about stuff you actually know,
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right? That's super important.
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People can see through it when you're trying to be Superman and,
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you know, do the impossible and with no context or that you're,
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yeah, a street hustler or you have a psychology and reading people or,
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you know, all of that stuff. They're going to know.
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So josh the other thing i'd add to that is your
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show doesn't have to be deep and it doesn't have to be a message at the end
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and for anyone i just say go and watch the amazing nigel at theater of magic
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who does just 45 minutes of just and they're all tricks that we've kind of seen
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through time and he's he's taken classics and made them very much his own version like incredibly so,
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and but like there's no message in his show he just gets on stage,
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murders murders murders murders murders thank you very much and then uh everyone
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goes home happy no message yeah it's like it's still his energy but he just doesn't build any,
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bullshit around it it's just like a can of crazy is
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how we describe him and he just does stuff with that energy and
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that's just i would describe it for magicians like
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the visual in my head is if you want to make a show just
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make an above ground pool and as crazy as that
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sounds an above ground pool is the
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perfect refresher on a summer's day that's fun for night our
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60 minutes max and you're like i'm good now you don't need to make a pool with
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all these different depths and layers and then you got to add chemicals and
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all these other things to keep it pure and that's that's a big complex process
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and with your first show just make it above ground pool make it fun make it
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about you, make it what you know and love,
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and then you don't have to be stressing in the back of your head about sound
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cues and where you're standing on stage and all that stuff. Yeah, that's a great point.
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Boston Theatre of Magic, do you use any tech at the moment? No.
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Music pre-show, and then it's me. So the show is 90 minutes.
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There's a 10, 15-minute interval in the middle. When I haven't got an opening
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act, it's just me doing two halves.
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And both halves have a beginning and an end. The first half for me is like how
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I got into magic and my favorite tricks and why I do them. And the second half
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is my obsession with time travel.
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And yeah, the end of my show is why I love magic. And it's because I can't travel back in time.
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Done. And then I've got a trick at the end where I rewind the clock in front
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of everyone. But yeah, there's no tech. It's just me and a suitcase.
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Yeah, which is great because then nothing can screw you up if tech doesn't want to work.
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Then if you do add tech, it just enhances it. Like you're not relying on your
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show being good because of the layers that come in during the routines.
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Yeah, for sure.
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It's getting pretty deep now. Is there anything that's like unobvious that people
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might not realize to consider when they're trying to put on their own one-man show?
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Like what feelings will they go through or like, you know, should they do it alone?
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Yeah. Okay. That's a, that's a really great question. The first thing I'll say
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is doubt and it's an artist doubt.
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And it's something that I experienced again recently when I opened the theater
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of magic here and it was, is anyone going to come?
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When I opened it in Boston, there were two other magic shows here at the time.
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There was Paul Gertner at Omni Parker House and Four-Handed Illusions at Hampshire House.
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And I remember opening it. And in Australia, I've got quite a bit of like enough
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profile as a magician that if I put on a show, I know people like some people
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are going to come and buy tickets to see me.
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But when I opened it here, it was just a concept, the theater of magic.
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My name wasn't in it. There was no picture of me.
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I'm like, are people going to come? And I was just willing to find out.
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But that will keep you up at night until the show itself.
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And then every time you see a ticket come through in your email and you get
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the notification, it's the most just relieving feeling.
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And I've been doing this a long time and I think I'm good at it,
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but I still have that anxiety.
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I think the other thing that people won't realize is how you're going to feel
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five minutes before your first show, which is utterly terrified.
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And again, my first theater of magic show, I was telling someone about this recently.
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It was when we did it at the original theater
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in brisbane the elizabeth picture house and i
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was the first magician to perform a set i did it behind the
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table and josh like i went from being in the naked
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magicians we had 32 people in the room
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and i don't know if you remember how it felt but when i sat down in front of
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that table and i just had 32 people this close to me i still remember oh shit
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running through my head i was terrified and you have to be prepared for that
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just that first wave of speed and adrenaline when you make eyes with your audience.
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And the last thing I'd say is, I think people underestimate how hard it is to
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get people to buy tickets now.
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In that, number one, the format that we're referring to today,
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the growing trend of pop-up magic theaters that's happening around the world
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that's inspiring magicians, which is great.
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It is very hard right now to convince people to separate from their money,
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both the economic side, then there's also so many shows on right now,
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then there's so many magic pop up things.
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So you've got to be prepared to have something that's going to stick out.
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But I would just, magicians have to be willing to fail because the other option
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is you will do your whole career and wonder what would have happened if I tried.
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And yeah, that's why I was willing to fail. And now I'm here and I'm very happy that I'm here.
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Yeah, and I mean, people are seeing the successes of your shows,
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but you have tried things that haven't worked as well, right?
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Like you haven't just hit a home run every single time.
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Yeah, I mean, like I've had shows that have been smaller and,
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you know, people don't know that I've made other shows. It's probably the best
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thing. They're the best point.
23:49
Yeah, like Two Man Tarantino. I'm really proud of it. It's probably like the
23:52
funniest, not funniest, but most fun show I've written.
23:55
And it did three sold out seasons in Brisbane, two weeks a season.
23:59
But that's all it did, you know, and I brought back the aggro franchise and that went well.
24:05
But that, you know, that had a cap and the cap was Australia.
24:08
I'm trying to think of an idea that really like poops the bed properly.
24:13
Not even poop the bed, but like you've had concepts where you've really thought
24:16
about it and then gone, actually, no. Oh, you know what the best example is?
24:20
The Magic Lounge. It's the best example ever.
24:23
And so two years before I opened the Theater of Magic, I opened a similar thing
24:27
called the Magic Lounge. The venue was wrong.
24:29
I didn't really understand the marketing on how I'd sell a show like that yet.
24:33
I thought on that marketing for like two years.
24:36
And yeah, that was a great example. I failed at the Theatre of Magic premise
24:40
before we came up with Theatre of Magic, and it was called the Magic Lounge.
24:44
It was fun, but it wasn't a sustainable business, and it also wasn't an enjoyable night out.
24:50
Like, there was a nightclub in the room next door and drunk people coming through. Yeah.
24:55
It was like a cabaret, like dinner cabaret vibe.
25:00
But I think because of that environment and yeah, relying on the venue to do
25:06
so much of the hospitality, we couldn't give them that five-star experience
25:10
that now we can because you can control everything.
25:13
Right? And a lot more of the environment. I don't want to give our secret sauce
25:16
away too much of it, but I feel like the five-star service that we offer is
25:21
a big part of the experience because,
25:23
you know, for us, it encourages a husband to take his wife out on a nice date,
25:27
et cetera. So yeah, for sure.
25:29
Yeah. Had I not done it, the magic lounge, there were like 10 things where I'm
25:33
like, well, this doesn't work. This doesn't work.
25:35
So, and then when we, when you, me and Nigel got together and came up with theater,
25:38
I was able to sometimes go, oh, this won't work because of those failures.
25:44
Yeah, and now it's just so fun doing those shows.
25:47
I've got Shane Hatton here right now in Boston. He's a mentalist from the UK.
25:52
And man, he's my opening act. And he's also one of my best friends in magic.
25:57
And it is so much fun having a bro here right now.
26:00
We eat hot chips in between the shows and we give each other notes and talk,
26:03
try this line. Oh, that was really good. But maybe if you, it's the best doing it with other people.
26:07
That's such another great thing too. the collaboration of working with other
26:11
magicians during this theater of magic.
26:14
To be able to give notes with no ego to each other to make it better is so good.
26:21
You said Pasha was in this group watching, right?
26:23
Yeah, Pasha's in here too. He's one of our, on the Brisbane team.
26:27
Yeah. Here we go, Pasha Daly.
26:28
And him and his brother are the two best examples. Like they've both gone from
26:32
being, Pasha was like, not amateur, but in between amateur and professional.
26:36
And now he's just a professional stage performer.
26:39
And then I haven't seen Cartel evolve, but I know that he is. And it's the same story.
26:44
Yeah. Yeah. He is becoming a monster.
26:48
Iron sharpens iron. I know not everyone likes the Bible, but there's a verse
26:51
in the Bible. It's just iron sharpens iron. And that's what it means.
26:54
It's good minds around each other build each other up. Yeah. Amazing.
27:00
Well, in saying that, we have another speak pipe from Scotty P,
27:04
who is another one of our best friends in the Magic Guys universe.
27:08
And the Theatre of Magic as well.
27:10
Good friends with Chris and I, and let's see what he sent in for us today.
27:16
Hi, Magic Guys. Hi, Chris. Scotty P here.
27:19
I have a question regarding the one that got away, by which I mean,
27:24
is there an effect, routine, or stump that you've always wanted to include in
27:29
a show, but haven't quite been able to figure it out?
27:34
That is it. Thanks, Scotty. Damn. Yeah, there is for me.
27:38
There's one that I really like, actually, that I haven't been able to.
27:43
I took a break, but what about you, Josh? I'll come back to it.
27:46
Is your, can I guess yours? Yeah. Is it the ring wallet and watch premise?
27:52
That's one of the two. Yeah. Okay. Cause I know, cause that,
27:56
cause personally, that's also one that I've, I've loved over time and I have
28:01
worked on it in parts of my life and I've just never,
28:04
it's just never been good for me or, and I've just never nailed it.
28:08
But failing that, yeah, the one that got away,
28:12
look, I've forever been trying to incorporate my
28:16
beatboxing hobby into magic more like
28:19
like make it weave into an effect better than just
28:22
i can beatbox between my shows and that's
28:25
still i there was one routine where i did try
28:28
it out a few times in a few shows but it's just not nothing's landed
28:32
yet so yeah that's the one that's still gotten away from me a bit but never
28:36
say never but yeah so that's the one that still eludes me because it's so tricky
28:39
because there's not an effect that already exists that i can just copy it's
28:42
got it i've got a something's got to pop into my brain but ring wallet watch that in,
28:49
flying you know i can't fly on stage it's easy don't worry about it the thing
28:55
with ring wallet watch is just the watch hey it's just so there's not a good
29:00
vanish i don't know if you guys talk about methods on this but there's just
29:02
not a good vanish because you gotta have the two and then the pull i don't like that.
29:08
That's definitely one of them. But it's like when it's pulled off well,
29:10
Tommy Wanda's version just looks like ballet.
29:12
And then the other is actually only a year old. And it's one that I just think
29:16
about every other week, but I haven't, I don't even have it with me in America.
29:19
But it's Super Lemon by Henry Harrius, which I did at Magic twice.
29:23
And I love the premise of it so much. And when I watched it, I was like, yes.
29:28
And then when I used it, I knew it was for me, but I haven't figured,
29:33
I still don't know how I apply it in my show yet.
29:36
And it's like, I can't figure out what that thing is.
29:40
And I think we were even talking, we were sharing notes on it at the time you were doing it.
29:47
And I guess maybe just put it to the side for the time being.
29:51
So that's, yeah. And I'll do it one day because I think the idea is just so good.
29:56
And I know that the win with it is not the win that they've given us in the package.
30:02
Like there's an idea to add to it that'll make it pop.
30:06
I know it, I just haven't found it yet. And I'll get it when I'm on a flight
30:10
or sitting on the toilet or having a shower or something is when the idea will
30:13
come and you'll get like a three-minute voice message. Excellent.
30:18
And for those listening, the premise of it, the idea is that you can show the
30:22
audience something that you can then reveal is not actually what they saw and
30:27
things kind of transform in front of you without you realizing.
30:31
And so, you know, I don't see anyone performing it. It was kind of like a,
30:35
it went through a phase of like seeing lots of people performing it for a time
30:39
and now it's kind of faded out, which is really the best time to start doing it.
30:44
Yeah. Well, it is a, it is a trick. There are some tricks like Bolarama by Kevin James.
30:48
Anyone can pick it up and then do it in 30 seconds and you look like a master.
30:53
But a trick like Super Lemon requires you to come up with an exceptional presentation
30:57
for the trick to be exceptional.
30:59
And that's, I think, why not many people do it because you've got to sit down,
31:03
and go, how am I going to do this to fool and entertain an audience?
31:08
Yeah, that's so true. And things like the ballerama, people think of that as
31:13
a big stage trick, but you do that at the Theatre of Magic sometimes.
31:17
I've seen you open with it, and it kills in such a small space as well.
31:21
I just bought another one and had it shipped to Boston. Yeah,
31:24
I do it for 60 people, 50 in Brisbane, 52 in Brisbane.
31:27
And yeah, it's great. It's killer. You can do it with the front row six feet
31:31
away, and it knocks them for six.
31:33
And when that bowling ball hits the floor that close to people,
31:36
I'll never don't go buy it guys it's mine it's out of production it's you know
31:42
who uses bowling balls now anyway.
31:45
I thought about that the other day I thought about how there's something me
31:48
in a tuxedo there's something weird about me holding a bowling ball but it's
31:51
just a bowling ball that's all it's going to be,
31:54
soon it's going to be like a humanoid robot head or something that pops out
31:58
not in my show baby no AI in our show,
32:02
what about when they can start buying tickets to come see your
32:04
show because they're a companion into the human or something i don't
32:08
know yeah i'd probably allow it just because there'll be some kind
32:10
of diversity thing where
32:13
we've got to accept all robots but until then and you
32:17
have to have a certain amount of robots in your show as as part of the theater
32:21
that's right oh good lord oh man that's inside jokes for everyone who's done
32:28
theater theater shows okay so prepared for all All those feelings,
32:34
you're going to feel anxious before the show, important thing is you do,
32:39
You know, you mentioned stand-ups before. Like stand-ups are a good example
32:43
of like, they will just go out and do it and fail and bomb and kind of learn.
32:49
A high horse that I'll kind of die on, Josh, is if you call yourself a comedy
32:54
magician, go and do five minutes at a comedy club and for three months,
32:59
again and again and again.
33:00
And I'll tell you what, that first set, you'll probably die on stage.
33:03
And I say that as someone that has died many times on comedy stages.
33:06
But there is no better place to cut your teeth as a comedy magician or
33:09
a parlor magician than at a comedy club michael finney
33:12
lance burton mac king comedy club
33:16
legends that's how i cut my teeth over in a
33:18
stretch jeff hobson another one there's no better place
33:21
to get funny and to find out if you're
33:24
actually funny or not a comedy audience will tell you oh yeah
33:28
and it's a good you know i know magicians don't
33:31
want to fail like if they're working on a new magic trick it can feel daunting
33:35
the idea of finding audiences that you can just try it out and it not work that's
33:39
kind of not what we're saying we're saying like when you feel like you have
33:43
an act and you're trying to add a comedy into it actually go and do it for people that
33:49
know what funny is and you'll get an instant feedback i think i brought this
33:53
up this is like a a question that hasn't really i've never really heard the
33:58
perfect answer for it but you know
34:00
we brought this up before off air stand-up comics can put up clips of their
34:05
stand-up comedy and through that can build an audience that will then come and
34:10
see them live in theater.
34:12
Yet magic doesn't have the same outcome.
34:16
Like magicians can't just put up an abundance of magic and now they fill their live shows.
34:22
And what do you think the difference is? Like, why does that not happen?
34:27
You know, why can't we fill out theaters because we go viral on...
34:31
I have thought, but I'm going to contradict myself with them.
34:35
So the first thing I'll say is Jason Ledunier sells out right now across America from his Instagram.
34:42
However, Xavier Mortimer, when he was playing the Stratosphere at the peak of
34:49
his... Well, I'm not... He might be doing better now, But when he,
34:52
you know, when he started going mega viral, that did not translate to ticket sales for his show.
34:57
And I've thought about that a lot. And the first thing I've said to you,
35:00
I think I've said it to you before, is that we don't have any relationship with
35:04
what we're watching online.
35:06
There's no commitment to it. It's free.
35:08
And when we're done with it, we do this. And then it's, we've got something else entertaining us.
35:13
So there's no relationship to what you're watching.
35:17
But then I think if people are going to see Jason but not Xavier,
35:21
what I see in Xavier's material doesn't translate to a live show necessarily.
35:27
Well, it does because he does it live. But I don't think an audience watches
35:30
Xavier Mortimer hang off the side of a house and levitate and go,
35:35
wow, I want to go buy tickets to that show.
35:38
We watch Jason with a deck of cards and he's the guy that sits at a table with
35:43
a deck of cards and does this stuff.
35:45
Yeah, I'm not sure why. I'm not sure why. Does it have something to do with
35:50
Jason is interacting directly with the people watching?
35:54
Like every video is comment blah, blah, blah, said do it this way.
35:57
All right, I'm going to try it. And, you know, if you come see me live,
36:00
I'll do whatever the heck you say.
36:01
Is it something building a relationship maybe?
36:05
Yeah. And, I mean, you and I have had lots of views on our videos over.
36:09
You've had so many more than me. It doesn't always translate to ticket sales.
36:13
Yeah I think people that are paying money to go to theater and to see live shows
36:17
you still have to reach them like organically versus and the other thing is
36:22
we if I get 2,000 views today,
36:24
they're going to be from 30 different places around the world and then
36:28
the three people that see it in Boston I gotta
36:31
hope that they buy 50 tickets yeah yeah yeah
36:35
it's such a curious thing and I think there's something about because
36:38
I brought this up to Adam Trent when we were at magic live and he something
36:42
he added on top of that was the shareability
36:45
of your clip like if a comedian is
36:48
talking about something that you find funny because you do that
36:51
thing that they're joking about you might send it to your friend that also
36:54
does that thing like you know and so that's going to get sent around a lot more
37:00
whereas magic might be like you might send it i might send it to you going oh
37:04
holy crap how crazy is this but that's maybe as far as it goes like the relatability
37:08
of the thing they're talking about that we also feel like we do as well.
37:13
Yeah, that's very true. I mean, we kind of just watch magic, don't we? And go, huh.
37:18
Yeah, but when they have the same view as us and it's funny and we're like, oh yeah, okay.
37:22
I think a really good, this doesn't answer the question, but it might be transferable
37:28
as we seek our answer is that the show Penn & Teller Fool Us is watched by millions
37:32
of people around the world.
37:34
And it's great for Penn & Teller's ticket sales, but the person on the street
37:38
that watches every episode would not be able to tell you the name of a single
37:42
magician that's been on it other than Shin Lim.
37:45
Damn. And like every magician that's been on it,
37:48
has it on their website and their bio but none of them are packing out theaters
37:51
afterwards their their prize is to put is to open for penn and teller in their
37:56
theater so i yeah this the way people respond to buying tickets to things is
38:02
very different now when 10 years ago cosentino in australia had a tv special
38:06
sold out sold out sold out sold out he lives on that legacy now,
38:09
it's not necessarily the same these days yeah and
38:13
and i guess the the positive side of that why we
38:16
why we bring this up is because when people
38:20
come to see your sellout shows at boston theater magic like is
38:24
it fair to say not 95 percent of them
38:26
are coming there not having seen you before like they're not like what i'm saying
38:32
is people don't have to be try and get famous on social media before they can
38:35
start oh putting out a show i was nobody in boston and I've done four TV spots
38:42
now on like NBC and Fox and they've helped.
38:45
And then sometimes at the show,
38:46
people are like, I saw you on TV with Gene this morning. It was great.
38:50
And I've like, I've had people come that saw me on TV like three weeks ago, four weeks ago.
38:54
But again, my name's not on it. My face isn't on it. I'm not selling me.
38:58
I'm selling the experience of a, of a night coming to see a great magic show
39:02
and have some cocktails.
39:03
And yeah, people are coming because they've seen the ad, not because they've seen me.
39:09
I had 50,000 people watched me do the bowling ball trick on TikTok the other
39:12
day. And like my ticket sales didn't spike. They just stayed exactly the same.
39:17
Right. So yeah, like it's definitely social proof. Like if people look you up,
39:21
they can see those clips. Oh, he was on TV.
39:24
This is lots of views. That's great. But, you know, cause I feel like I've seen
39:29
a trend of people rather than starting to become a magician by performing live,
39:34
they're spending a lot of time trying to put out these clips on social media to,
39:39
to get lots of views and followers thinking that's how
39:42
their career will like 100 100 and
39:46
you know get out gary v's will tell us just post post post it's
39:49
the best way it is the best way to get attention but it's
39:52
not the best way to get ticket sales or to make yourself famous it's
39:56
like it's like saying you want to go to vegas to
39:59
be a famous magician i think the internet now he's like
40:02
you go i'm gonna go to vegas be a famous magician you get there and then all
40:06
of the famous magicians the best ever in history are on one street and like
40:12
even when i was there i was at mgm grand you want to go buy tickets to see me
40:16
or david copperfield who's 20 meters the other direction they're going to go
40:20
to david and the internet i'm not telling people to not post but it's where the most competition is.
40:26
And yeah it's one of the things with theater of magic i make
40:29
all of my marketing and i make the experience the opposite of what
40:33
like we don't have screens we don't have technology we encourage them to turn
40:36
their phones off we're going to take you back a hundred years to when the performer
40:39
greeted you at the door and welcomed you i try and make it counter-cultural
40:43
versus an internet experience yeah and and also if you think of like those vegas
40:49
magicians you just mentioned,
40:50
they're not spending their time on social media putting out today's video like
40:55
a great example is matt franco who is now but he's doing that after he's doing
41:01
that now because his shows are already selling out because he's Matt Franco and now he's making fun.
41:06
Doug was talking about it. But I think David would be a great example.
41:09
He doesn't have a I don't even follow David Copperfield on media but he's not like a regular post up.
41:15
Yeah, Copperfield, yeah, he lives off the legacy of his specials,
41:19
obviously, like we talked about.
41:21
So then if we pause there, Josh, if we pause there to figure out why,
41:27
like to answer your question, do people come to his show to see the trick that
41:31
they saw him do on Instagram
41:32
when he vanished the Statue of Liberty, or do they come to see David Copperfield, the legacy?
41:38
They don't know what he's going to do in the show, but he's not going to make
41:41
the Statue of Liberty appear, which is what they saw. they come in to see the
41:44
product which is David Copperfield and the legacy so he doesn't need to post so,
41:50
And then, does that make sense? Yeah, 100%. But also, I mean,
41:55
he has a ton of marketing within Vegas for his show, right?
41:59
Yeah, it's more to let them know that he's here.
42:03
It's not explaining David Copperfield. It's saying David's here.
42:07
That's right. Because in Australia, how many times do we get people saying like,
42:12
remember that guy at Copperfield? Yeah, I wonder what he's doing now.
42:16
Because they're sort of out of this fear of… Yeah.
42:20
And then and in Vegas I'm glad to bring this show up in a podcast but I remember
42:24
I take a fascination with magic shows and the marketing in particular and the
42:29
show what was the futuristic one that they tried to do Metaverse of Magic.
42:34
It was really bad the poster was really bad and I was actually on a date once
42:38
and we were driving into the city and then the bus there was a bus in front
42:42
of us with the poster on the back and I looked at her and I went I just said
42:46
what's that show and she looked at it she's like,
42:49
a movie i don't know why she had an american actor but she she looked at it
42:53
and had no idea what it was right in that moment i'm like they're gonna struggle
42:58
because it wasn't marketing that explained to the audience what their experience
43:01
was going to be what the show was or anything like that it was just five magicians
43:05
that no one had ever seen or heard of looking mysterious.
43:08
Yeah yeah whereas whereas a good flip example is we just had the now you see me live in brisbane,
43:15
and everyone sees that line and they know exactly what that is they're like
43:19
oh the movie and they've got four characters they kind of have similar profiles
43:23
to the people in the movie it's backed by Lionsgate it's got the branding,
43:27
yeah and yeah and yet you might not know of any of the magicians in it if you're
43:32
just a regular you know person wanting to see what's out but you'll probably
43:37
go see it and I did go see it and the room was it was a packed out cue pack,
43:44
that's interesting isn't it i i'm obsessed with ticket sales and magic shows
43:48
and that's why we got you here boring yeah just something else people might
43:54
not know too is like the time of year too like ticket sales can be affected
43:59
by the month of the year or the season right like we just had a.
44:06
Why are we selling less tickets right now? And then we talk to some other people
44:10
that do regular shows and they're like, oh yeah, this happens every year.
44:13
And then it's like seasonal cities have seasons. And then there's like,
44:17
like right now in Boston, people don't go out this week. Everyone's hunkered down.
44:21
And in Brisbane, we've got that, like you've got Brisbane Festival and then
44:25
the ECA and then I think the NRL finals somewhere on either side of that. I could be wrong.
44:29
One of the finals, like there's like a season where there's so much going on in the city.
44:33
Like the and with that all of those places
44:36
have their own marketing as well so you have
44:39
to be tuned into that for sure it's i
44:43
i have found in in my 20 something years that
44:46
the show is like the easiest part of what we do and
44:50
i was talking to someone today in a sentence that i said was i've
44:53
sold every single damn ticket theater of magic including the
44:56
cities that i'm not at and then i like got tired when
44:59
i said that sentence and i'm like man the amount of times i've like had
45:02
to deal with marketing dickheads and facebook meta backend
45:06
stuff it's the hardest part and like
45:08
setting up the show and packing up the show and yeah the show
45:11
is like yeah we
45:14
won't go into details but you know trying to deal with marketing teams and
45:17
and you're like you have a great idea involving brochures and they're
45:20
like no no we prefer to be carbon friendly or whatever and
45:23
we we only do digital not physical handouts
45:27
don't even get i don't want to i know question above
45:32
josh yes oh you got it absolutely the question
45:35
is what is it what is it like having to give up
45:38
every weekend to perform i feel you'd miss events of friends and family yeah
45:43
yeah so i would i would say number one it's hard sometimes i miss out on stuff
45:50
and like birthdays or like i'm a single guy If I want to date,
45:55
I got to take a girl out on like a Tuesday.
45:57
Like I want to be a performer more than anything else in the world and
46:00
performing is my favorite Saturday and it's
46:04
a trade-off and without disrespecting a desk
46:06
job where you're providing for your family behind desk for me personally
46:09
I'd rather miss out on two days a week and have the other
46:12
five versus work for someone else
46:15
for eight hours a day five days a week and but that's
46:18
I don't have a family to support so I
46:22
realize you know people work for different reasons but like the emotional side
46:25
of it you miss out on stuff i've cried alone so many
46:28
times in the last 10 months going through a breakup
46:31
the thing with the finger my parents like
46:34
missing them but like i'm it's like
46:37
the price tag for me for chasing exceptional opportunities on the other side
46:41
of the world there's a there's a price tag to it and it's just what do you want
46:45
and how bad do you want it and whatever your answer is is perfectly fine yeah
46:50
i think yeah that was a great question And a great answer.
46:54
I think the same thing too. I think, yeah, I think we're so fortunate to be
46:59
doing this thing we love that the.
47:01
We're working the whole time. We're like, we're always on entering emails and
47:06
Chris even more so all the time, but we're really performing,
47:09
at least for me, yeah, Friday and Saturday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
47:13
So we actually get way more time to make time to see people than the question
47:19
suggests, like missing out on.
47:20
Like in advance, yes, if I see a friend's wedding, luckily weddings will give
47:25
their dates like well in advance.
47:27
So yeah, I'll go put that in the calendar quickly.
47:30
And I know I'll give up work to go to this wedding now.
47:34
Like anytime you have to go to a social thing, you know, you shouldn't think
47:38
about it, but I know like, okay, this has costed me $3,000 to go to this thing.
47:44
And like, you just have to disassociate that. But yeah, that can happen.
47:48
And I can be at home on a weekend and my partner's gone out with her friends
47:52
and I'm like, oh, this is normally when I'd be working, but I'm not like,
47:55
what do I do with myself on a Saturday night?
47:58
You know but um but but really it's like it's
48:01
great yeah we love performing so it's not like we don't
48:04
really feel like we're missing out on something we're like
48:07
the most social anti-social people ever because we're always at
48:10
parties we're in the life of the party on stage we're
48:13
you know performing for these big groups every week
48:16
anyway you're the first person i've spoken to since saturday
48:19
at the theater of magic yeah right
48:24
i literally do this podcast so
48:26
i get to socialize with it's like
48:29
a scheduled time to catch up with doug and
48:32
nick and then our guests you know for part of that reason there's another question
48:37
we had from herbert here is it better to be a small fish in a big pond or a
48:42
medium fish in a small pond i.e big competition in vegas but less than five
48:49
commercial magicians in tasmania.
48:53
Think i one's easier to achieve but
48:56
it again it comes down to what you want because some magicians
48:59
just want to work birthday parties their whole life
49:02
or just do like private events and then
49:05
they're the happiest people on earth and i think it just
49:07
comes down to what you want and i i'll say what
49:10
was that gentleman's name herbert yeah yeah i the
49:14
first half of my career my ambitions were to like get
49:17
famous they really were but now the
49:20
the most joy i have is not out of like my fame
49:23
it's not it's not even fame just people knowing me as a magician but it's just
49:27
performing and in this chapter of my life i love making people happy which wasn't
49:32
something i always wanted my ambitions used to be a bit more selfish so i don't
49:36
care where i get to do that and i don't care if i'm the most famous magician
49:40
in the world which wouldn't be fun at all.
49:43
Just want to do my I just want to sell my show in Boston
49:46
and the only reason I go on TV over here is
49:49
to sell tickets and to let people know it's on it's not so I have
49:52
people stop me on the street and ask to see a trick so yeah
49:55
man I think it just is a great question it just depends what your ambitions are
49:58
yeah yeah and I think there's also something to
50:01
do with like what's that there's a.
50:04
Classic saying like you are you become the average.
50:08
Of the top five people you spend the most time with yeah like
50:11
actually if you do go and spend time like if
50:14
you do put yourself in a place where you're around the like the
50:17
best magicians in the world like it's probably going to lift
50:20
up your game whereas if you try to think i'm
50:22
gonna go i'm gonna move here because there's like
50:26
i can i'm already better than these magicians it's
50:29
probably not gonna help your your skills
50:33
something i've thought about is that if i moved to
50:36
boston two years ago and opened a magic theater it would have
50:38
failed already and when i got to boston
50:41
i had to do it without you and nigel helping me every week
50:44
i i just i knew i
50:47
was ready i knew i was ready because i'd done the naked magicians 1500
50:50
times and dealt with every situation ever i'd done
50:53
theater of magic maybe 150 performances with
50:56
you guys and dealt with all the stuff on the way you know and so
51:00
i was ready to come over here and be great alone
51:04
but at any other time in my career i would
51:06
have already been in the dust over here and it came from collaboration with
51:10
mike tyler you the amazing nigel as
51:13
just my top three influences and minds that i share ideas
51:16
with yeah yeah collaboration what that's been such a key like how do magicians
51:23
work together without egos getting in the way that's something that unfortunately
51:28
online at least you know we tend to have this thing that happens because we
51:32
can't help but compare ourselves to the thing we're seeing.
51:35
And sometimes people vocalize that, but like, is there a key to collaborating with other performers?
51:41
Do you know why I think it works for us?
51:44
It's because we're best friends in magic because we
51:49
all watch each other take a turn of it and we we
51:51
all respect that we'll like a theater of magic we've
51:54
all been nervous we've all gone up and we've all
51:57
done great and we've all had errors and then so there's a combination of success
52:02
and humility that is shared amongst us and yeah i so i think that that helps
52:08
whether if if you're online you can just say well i've got more i've got more
52:13
followers than you. So you should listen to what I have to say.
52:15
But when we're in an environment at Theater of Magic, we're just all in the
52:18
same playing field. We're just trying to survive that set and do our best one for the audience.
52:22
And I think that's when you can collaborate without ego. There's a shared goal,
52:25
which is to entertain the audience.
52:27
But then there's also, I respect these guys. They're doing the same thing as
52:30
me. Let's see what we can get off one another.
52:33
Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's it. We're all in this together in the same.
52:38
Everything's equal in that moment.
52:41
Trisha has a question. Would you ever consider opening more magic shows in other
52:45
cities like you did Boston?
52:48
What an interesting question. Well, all I will say is if you know me,
52:52
I'm not one to, uh, to settle with where I'm at.
52:55
And you can tell that because he's meant to be in Brisbane at the Brisbane Theatre of Magic.
53:00
Yeah. And then, then we, and then, and then
53:03
it expanded to Toowoomba Theatre of Magic
53:06
which is still running Melbourne Theatre of Magic and he's kept going and now
53:10
he's Boston Theatre of Magic but yes I would consider it and I believe that
53:14
America is a place where that's a great opportunity for sure and Josh I've got
53:19
to ask you with your permission I would like to perform Brisbane Toowoomba and
53:22
Melbourne Theatre of Magic in a few months,
53:25
Please, I will hold you to that if that's what you're saying.
53:30
I know when I'm coming back for a visit, but I'm not going to say this yet. It's very soon.
53:35
Lock it in, ladies and gentlemen. That's going to happen. Yeah. That was not my ear horn.
53:44
That'd be awesome. And then we can say, direct from the US, Christopher Wayne
53:49
presents. That's one of the reasons I got depressed in Australia.
53:52
When I got introduced every week.
53:54
I mean, I was depressed anyway, but it was like all my intro has ever been in
53:58
Australia is the stuff that I do in America.
54:01
And then I, now I get to do it. It's, you know, Caboolture Theatre of Magic next. Nice.
54:07
Yes, nice. Yeah, that's so funny. We have an inside joke at the Theatre of Magic.
54:11
Whenever we would introduce Chris, we would say he's performed in Vegas and
54:16
da-da-da and West End, and now he's here in Brisbane.
54:19
And for those who live in Brisbane know there's a suburb called West End,
54:24
which is like 10 minutes away from the venue.
54:26
And so Chris always likes to clarify, he means West End, the big time West End,
54:33
not 10 minutes down the road. Yeah, not the one with the junkies and the protest.
54:37
And that joke is a combination of, I'll tell you, ego and like comedy.
54:43
It's like me wanting to like say, hey, just so you know, I'm good.
54:46
And then I dump on West End. I've got this new joke now that I opened my show
54:50
with over here because I, you know, I moved here for a woman. It didn't work out.
54:54
Josh is, oh, he's still there. And so my new line in the show that gets off,
54:58
I say, guys, I was performing off Broadway in New York. I met a beautiful girl
55:02
from Boston and I fell in love with Boston. And that gets a, oh.
55:07
Yeah. And I say with Boston and then they all go, ah, and I'm like,
55:11
no, seriously, she's stuck, but I stayed.
55:14
And then we're off to the races and now they know that I'm a human and it's great.
55:20
Bro, that's funny. Oh, man. Yeah, that's good. That's good. What do they say?
55:26
That's why you're a pro. I'm just glad to be in comedy.
55:29
Yeah, true. Yeah. That's right. Because
55:31
you're living, it's your lived experience. You're not making it up.
55:34
People can see the feeling in your eyes when you say it.
55:38
And that's going back to our point about writing what you know. My show is just me.
55:42
I talk about how I discovered magic by my grandpa, why I do it now,
55:46
why I moved to Boston. I literally talk about my breakup and that how,
55:50
when it sucked, the thing that kept me here was the theater of magic,
55:53
knowing that I had shows on the weekend and how it's my favorite thing in the world.
55:56
And, and they're all true. And I'm not putting on an act. I don't even have
56:00
to memorize the script because I'm speaking from the heart.
56:02
And then that the audience gets me as a result of that. Yeah.
56:06
Yeah. And I make some dick jokes. Yeah, of course. I mean, that is your lived experience, right?
56:15
We can talk about that stuff. Yeah, wow. So how is your mental CPU going right
56:21
now with managing a touring US show that you're not in, but you're very much
56:25
responsible for, and making sure that Boston Theater of Magic sells out,
56:29
and then performing three shows a week while making sure that your opener is
56:34
there every week, and then connecting with us in Australia to make sure the
56:38
Australian Theatre and Magic brands are working at the same time,
56:42
and having time to come to the podcast.
56:45
Yeah, I'm a bit tired right now, for sure. I just finished a big chapter last week.
56:50
So the Naked Magicians finished in Boston on Friday night, and that marked the
56:54
end of all of New York, all of Boston.
56:57
But more importantly, it marked me finding the new cast, training them,
57:00
and then doing it on their own.
57:02
And man, the sigh of relief that came out of me, I'm very tired and my brain is full,
57:08
but it's just a time in my life where there's a lot of things at my plate And
57:12
I'm just choosing to receive them and do the best I can. It's one of the reasons I love America.
57:17
It's where opportunity meets hard work and potential.
57:21
And so I'm just trying to do the best that I can. And again,
57:25
this is one of the things that fuels me, Josh.
57:27
Actually, it's two things that I think about most days is that there are people
57:32
with theater of magic and then 30 cities around America for the next four months
57:35
that already have tickets stuck
57:37
to their fridge for their fun night in a very shitty time in history.
57:41
They get that's their night off that's number one but then number two and and
57:46
you just i think you have to know me better or you know me well but for people
57:50
listening they might think i'm speaking a bit of hot air something that's really
57:54
important to me in this chapter of my life is jack and anton.
57:57
Mike as my business partner with the naked magicians you and nigel
58:00
i love seeing guys like pasher and cartel sean
58:03
murgaard pete booth nick cositas lj the
58:06
magician like come under our umbrella and become even better than they already
58:10
were these things drive me every single day and it's all centered around my
58:15
favorite hobby which is magic so i'm fried i'm so fried but it's a blessed season
58:20
and then i get to it's not just a success that i'm sharing it's a success that
58:23
i'm putting with other people and it's so cool.
58:26
Amazing and yeah it's making it bigger than just yourself or just ourselves it's raising the next,
58:35
it's like that you know what raising the tide lifts all ships you know like
58:39
helping everyone else actually makes magic better and makes the teamwork and
58:42
whatever whatever other motivational,
58:45
things i can insert here as we come to a close you're right make sure if you're
58:51
in the us go see chris in person you'll not be disappointed,
58:55
And I can't wait for you to come back and perform at the, we'll announce date,
58:59
I guess we'll announce a date when it comes that you might perform at the Brisbane
59:03
Theatre of Magic. Or we might keep it a surprise.
59:06
I guess we'll see. But how about we end the episode in the way we always do,
59:12
which is by giving our guest the final word.
59:14
I'll leave it up to you, Chris, whatever pops into your head.
59:17
But ladies and gentlemen, we'll see you back next week with the gang.
59:20
Until then, here is your final word.
59:27
I wasn't prepared for this while the uh I forgot
59:30
that this is a part of the show but tying into the episode if
59:33
you really are thinking about making a show I'd encourage
59:36
you to just do it but I'd apply that to most parts of life
59:39
anyway like we get to live once and we are
59:42
blessed to have this really cool hobby that right
59:46
now at this time in history people have a huge interest
59:49
in thanks to a combination of social media and live shows
59:52
the only difference between you finding out if you can
59:54
do it or not is just trying and we're
59:58
also at a great time in history where there's shows like the magic guys where
1:00:01
you can write in or you can dm josh or
1:00:04
myself on social media with a question and we'll just reply not because we want
1:00:07
clicks or views on a show but because we love magic and want to see the next
1:00:11
generation rise so i'd say do it i'd say be willing to be scared and be willing
1:00:16
to fail and you probably won't it's a really dodgy time in history and And there's,
1:00:22
I'll tell you, I find a lot of joy in people, like in America, it's so divided.
1:00:26
But then when I do my show, 60 people, there's no politics, just 60 people enjoying
1:00:30
magic and laughing for 90 minutes straight.
1:00:33
And so I think although we're never curing cancer, the net value of what we
1:00:36
do actually brings more joy to people than most times in recent history.
1:00:41
So use that as encouragement and just go and do it. Or as an alternative to
1:00:46
chasing your dreams, don't.
1:00:47
And you can sit back and watch the rest of us do it. That's your other option.
1:00:53
Thanks for listening it's time for us to disappear now disappear now but we'll
1:00:59
see you again on the next episode of the magic guys.