Latest / The Magic Guys / Eric Yuhasz on Rehearsal Hacks! #241

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Eric Yuhasz on Rehearsal Hacks! #241 · The Magic Guys

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They're guys they do magic they are the magic guys,
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almost broke my neck then what's up guys welcome to episode 241 of the magic
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guys this is crazy it's crazy man it's crazy,
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I'm here. I'm Josh Nobito. And to my left, we got Nick Kay.
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Hi, I'm Nick Kay. I'm here with Josh Nobito. We are the Magic Guys live. Bow, bow, bow.
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You know what's funny, Nick? Most people actually listen to us on Spotify than
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watch us on video. Can you believe it?
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Yeah. Which is good because if you watch this on the YouTube, it's just two potatoes.
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It's just two potatoes with beers just going magic, magic, magic,
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magic, magic, magic, magic.
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It's smart too it's smart too because on spotify that's
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where they get like the enhanced audio and you know in live
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we're just kind of like a bunch of knuckleheads trying to like pull this thing
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together you know absolutely um but and same with our friends in the chat too
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they they like to see the raw knuckleheadness who we got here today man yeah
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we got scotty link who said he won't miss it and this is definitely one you
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don't want to miss friends we have tim asking bringing them questions.
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We have Caden, we have Thomas Conger. Guys, thank you for being here.
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Of course, we have an amazing guest today.
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So if you do have any questions, as the show is live, you can pop your questions in the chat.
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We'll ask those questions to our said guest, which I think it's time we give
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him an intro. Would you like me to do the intro?
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Let's do it, man. Let's do it. Now, friends, today's guest is someone who bridges
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the worlds of education and magic.
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He's actually a seasoned performer as well as an award-winning teacher.
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And he's the author of this brand new book, The Practice Playbook.
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It's a book that dives into how magicians should rehearse in a smarter,
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more consistent way so they can truly master their class.
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And I'm especially excited about it because both Josh and I featured in the
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book as part of the Magic Eyes podcast.
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So without any further ado, please join me in welcoming the amazing Eric Uhaus.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you over there.
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Thank you over there. Welcome back to the show, buddy. Welcome back.
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Please, for folks meeting you for the first time, tell us who you are and what you do.
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Thanks so much for having me back. Yes, who am I? I am based out of Orlando,
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Florida, but I wear a lot of hats.
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I am a teacher, over 23 years of teaching.
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I'm also a speaker, an author, and of course, I do magic. So I get the privilege
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of combining a message from my classroom with magic.
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And I present to thousands of students throughout the country.
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And that's my main focus. I do do normal magic shows, if you want to call that.
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But my main focus is combining those two things together, teaching along with magic.
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So that's what I do. That's what I do. And it's cool. You mentioned about listening
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on Spotify before I came on.
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That's the only problem that I'm bummed about being on the show tonight is i
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don't get to listen to you all tomorrow on the way to work and back to work
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because i don't need to relive it i don't think because normally i do listen
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to you all which i have to say,
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i've listened to you all well over 80 hours can you imagine that listen.
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Over 80 hours and you've improved drastically and which is a great job you really
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do oh tell us tell us more yeah no thanks man you know i i probably don't even
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have friends that have like
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conversated with me for 80 hours so that's wonderful
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I feel like I feel like we know you as well so much more now that we've read
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the book and obviously we finally it's so funny too like it started with you
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interviewing us in last year's episode and then we actually meet in person that
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changes the dynamics and now you're an author so we're like oh he is someone we should you know,
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pay attention to now you've seen me in
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person and we can we can cuddle with it's not
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awkward it's no longer awkward when we cuddle you know i
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didn't want to tell them you know what happens in magic live vegas stays in
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magic live vegas but yeah it was just it was just a nice moment it was shared
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it was all yeah no it was actually a very unique experience for us and our listeners
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i i've actually should have done my diligence and referenced what episode number
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you did in actually interview us on.
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So for those of you who don't know, in preparation for this book,
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Eric had actually taken it upon himself. We gave him the keys to the show.
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He drove the show, asked us all the questions, and then took those good bits
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and published it in this book.
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Dude, tell us about the book. Let's jump into it.
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So the funny thing about this book, okay, this book was just really a segue
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to be able to get me to gain access to the people I want to interview for the
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current book I'm writing, which is about creativity and magic.
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But I started diving into this book
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and I started off the first handful of chapters were with people I knew.
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And I'm like, let me just get some momentum. I'm like, hey, can you recommend me to anyone?
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And then it kept building up more and more. And then I would just cold email
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people like you all. And Josh was great to respond.
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And next thing you know, I had cold emails into like Andy Gladwin and Joshua
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Jay and all these different people, Dan Harlan.
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And everybody said yes. And I'm like, man, you don't even know me,
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but thank you so much for your time.
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So that's where this book came from. I knew there was a gap.
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I knew there was a gap in the world of magic, especially magic books. And I said, okay, why?
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I want to learn more about practicing. I want to learn more about rehearsing
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because I hear these little things talking to individual magicians,
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but what if collectively I could compile those things together and just share them with the world?
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So that's kind of what the book is all about, whether it be practice,
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whether it be rehearsal and somewhere in between the two of those things,
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that's where the book kind of gave birth and it came together fast.
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Like you said, I interviewed you all or I was on the show summer of last year
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and then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, all those interviews came in.
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Wrapped it up, got printed, and by Magic Live, man, it was...
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Lack of a better term, live. Yeah, I made you sign it on purpose,
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like for just there, which I'm really ecstatic about.
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Now, I mean, the book has a wealth of knowledge from all great magicians,
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which just to rattle up a few, we have, as well as yourselves and your friends,
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going down the list, we're talking about the big names.
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We're looking at people like Michael Amar. We're looking at Franz Harari,
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April Choi, who was on the pod no more than a month ago, Nick Licapo,
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Ryan Schlutz, Eric Tate, Dan Harlan, Andy Gladwin, Carissa Hendricks,
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Joshua Jay, Jeff McBride, David Regal.
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There's an abundance, even Gregory Wilson, Shudagawa, Curtis Cam.
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And these are all just their pro tips on how to rehearse and how to make your magic better.
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And I think that it's phenomenal. And I kind of want to share some of the excerpts
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from it, which I want to start with yours, actually, which I found really useful.
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Now, one of the things you say in your book, in your chapter rather,
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is something that you apply in your current educational sort of practice,
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which you originally wrote a book for, correct? Correct. Yes.
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Right there. Yeah. Perfect. Now you mentioned it as the three W's. Tell us what those are.
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So three W's. I, with my students, my, by the way, I teach robotics, engineering design.
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So 99% of all the work is projects. So when they get done with the project,
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I need them to reflect over three questions.
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What went well? What didn't go well? What would you do differently?
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And I try to get them to think about those questions, not only in application
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to a design that they're doing,
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But everyday life, whether it be relationships, whether it's friendships,
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people that are dating, their siblings, co-workers when they get older.
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And it's one of the things I do when I finish up a show is I reflect over what
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went well, what didn't go well, what would I do differently?
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I actually have got a spreadsheet where I've kept track of that stuff.
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And I think the three W's are extremely important for everything,
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because if we all would do that, I think we would all be in a better place,
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no matter what the context,
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once we get through it, just by reflecting over those simple three questions.
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And those three again were? What went well?
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What didn't go well? What should I do differently?
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That alone is worth the value of the book.
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You should have told me that because I could have written that on one page and
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been done and say, hey, y'all, let's get it done.
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You know no it's
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really great and from some of these practice hacks what
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were some that you found and who said
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them if you can recall like ones that
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kind of were unexpected and like that's surprising some cool
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ones so nico capo had a great
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one in regards to music if you want to put music to
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a show well record your show then drop that into some sort of editing software
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and then throw in different music underneath the part that you want to add music
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to just to see if how it would play and you can find your music that way it's
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stuff like that you're like oh my gosh that's so simple why didn't I think of
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it but you just need someone to say it to you.
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His was an interesting thing. Carissa Hendricks, she was such a great interview
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because of course she's got such a theater background.
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So she was educating me on my theater terms, et cetera.
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But I love the idea of an earworm saying something just enough that you hear repeated back.
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Like I think one of her things is, what is it? Sassy bitch or something like
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that. Interesting, interesting, you know, however she says it.
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And just landing that scene to where people one month, two months,
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six months down the line, they're still saying that same thing.
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And I thought that was extremely interesting. But every chapter,
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and this is what was so incredible about this, you figured there would be a
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ton of overlap when I'm talking to over two dozen magicians.
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But there wasn't. Everybody had different things they honed in and focused on.
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And that, to me, was what was so exciting about, oh, I got to talk to the next
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person. And I kept waiting for that huge overlap, but it never happened.
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Wow. And what I'm noticing for viewers listening to this, they would have realized
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that it was only a couple of weeks ago.
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We had Jason Bird on and we were talking about a different book called Strolling for Dollars.
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And this is wonderful because this kind of lines up like yours, I would say is.
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So first you would read, let's say Tarbell, right? You would read all the magic books.
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Then you would read the practice playbook on how to actually practice and make this work.
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Art or routines you're doing actually as strong as they can be.
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And then you would read Strolling for Dollars and learn how to actually get booked for these gigs.
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This is actually working out pretty well.
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For those wanting to already know how they can get a hold of this book,
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we have a QR code right next to Nick there on the screen, which you can click to buy.
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But if you're just listening to this, which most of you are,
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which we love you for it, there's a link in the description where you can click on that.
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And it was picked up by Murphy's. So Murphy's is a huge distributor in the US
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and they get it out to all the big names like Vanishing and Penguin and some
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of the smaller vendors out there.
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So you probably could find it at your local vendor, wherever you want to search
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for. Just type in practice playbook.
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You don't have to spell my name correctly, but you would be able to find it that way for certain.
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Yeah, that is crazy. Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever like, so when you do, do you do gigs as well? Is that something?
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Cause what I'm wondering is, do you make, do you make people pronounce your last name?
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Okay. So I write it phonetically. So I give them the introduction and then I
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write it phonetically you house, just like it sounds not like it's spelled.
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So that way they don't mispronounce it.
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But if they do come on, man, I've heard a set of gazillion different ways.
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So I don't lose sleep over it anymore because i'm
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a teacher too because so it takes them about three weeks to for all the
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students to figure out how to say it and it's fine
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it's fine whatever whatever whatever comes out your
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mouth i'm pretty much okay with at this point in time so um ladies
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and gentlemen mr eric mini mouse mini mouse yes thank you here are my ears eric
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moose house what take me take it take a bow i was hoping doug was going to be
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there here because actually let's do this i do have a question If you are in
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the chat and you've never met Doug in person,
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how tall do you think Doug is?
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We can play some Jeopardy music. We had it. How tall do you think Doug is?
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Let's have a guess.
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Just while they're thinking of that, do you know who's unassumably tall? John Archer.
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Oh, interesting. Yeah. He's like a giant. He's like a six, four,
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five or something. He's a big boy.
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The person who threw me off, there was two people who threw me off at Magic Live.
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One was Kyle Purnell because I interviewed him for the Creatives book.
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And I'm like, dude, you're freaking six, five.
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Yeah. And the other one who threw me off was Doug Kahn.
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Because if you look at that little image in the corner right there,
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that makes you think he's a short Batman.
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Delegate is like my height he's probably 6162 for
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you in australia what is that 183 182 centimeter
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or something like that yeah yeah yeah so
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he's a tall dude he's a tall dude just wanted to get out of you no no you're
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just surprising and looking back to the chat we do have a question from tim
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he'd be asking him questions and he said using your three w's is there anything
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you would change or add to your book oh that that's quite interesting deep,
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which I actually address at the end of the book of the thing. So.
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Yeah, there was a couple of things that I would do. I think one of the things
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I listed was toward halfway into the book, I started asking different performers
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some advice that they would give their younger self.
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And I would have started that sooner in the book. So one of the things when
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I do introduce the books, I say, I am writing this book alongside you, meaning it's a journey.
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Every word was written in chronological order.
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So I didn't write the introduction after I had seven interviews.
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Nope. It was in chronological order. So you kind of see the growth in my own mindset.
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And I addressed that in intermission because there's certain questions that
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I dropped out, but I think I would have started that sooner.
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But I also would not have hesitated to reach out like I did.
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And anyone listening, I would highly suggest if you want to contact somebody
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in the magic community, get on their Instagram, get on their email,
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track it down and just fire off a message to them because there's so many people
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who are so approachable and giving of their time.
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And advice so i highly recommend that yeah but
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that's a good question and before we
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jump into a speak part we have that's that's pertinent to
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this convo what the hell is up with the banana in your
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promo reel of this ah yes yes the
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banana and the promo mural so the three monkeys
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are the publishers i'm glad you asked that the three monkeys are the publishers three
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young guys out of france and it was just
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one of these things the promo started i
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had the idea it's like i want this to be the anti-promo I
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want this to make fun of all the other promos so you
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have to look closely at the quotes at the beginning none of them are real but see
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if you can kind of weave in what I was getting at there
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but I because it's so funny that someone's promoting
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a card trick and it starts off with the most dramatic music ever and
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they're just kind of slowly walking along I'm like it's a freaking card trick
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man like this is not life-changing stuff so I wanted to take that angle with
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it and have fun and then of course with the the three monkeys being involved
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they had all these plastic bananas at magic live so i'm like we got to get the
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bananas in here more bananas better you know.
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Checks out yeah okay let's roll
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this which i think uh is kind of pertinent to
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to the book i think you you'd be able to actually answer this
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pretty well eric so we're gonna throw it to you this comes in
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from aj shout out aj in
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the chat hey guys a quick question for you i had a question about imposter syndrome
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and if you guys have any advice on getting over getting over the hurdle of that
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i know it just kind of sometimes takes flight time and and pushing through but i've,
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performed quite a bit obviously friends and family i've
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done some dinner parties retirement party you know a little bit of bar magic
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not a ton but i'm looking to kind of break out do a little bit more in the real
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world kind of stuff but i'm and every time i do perform i get great reactions
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and I feel, you know, it feels great,
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but I, I don't know, I don't know what it is.
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There is some kind of like mental hurdle facing that is, I'm having a hard time
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forcing myself to get out there and get bigger, bigger gigs or even, you know, attempt it.
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I feel like, anyway, not sure if you guys have experienced that or,
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or anybody else, but seeing if you guys had any, any advice for us to try to get over that hurdle.
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I'm definitely, definitely struggling to hop it right now. Anyway,
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thanks. Appreciate it. Cool. Two thoughts, Eric?
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Yeah, two things come to mind. First of all, good, good.
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I think the moment you stop having imposter syndrome completely is the moment
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you've become a little bit more full of yourself than what you should,
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because I think imposter syndrome will keep you just enough humble that you'll
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go out there and work hard and make sure you're staying fine-tuned with your
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practice and everything else that you're doing.
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So you can provide the best product for whoever hires you.
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And the second thing is I mentioned actually in this book, talking to Amar,
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Michael Amar, and he has a great story about Santa Claus.
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I think I'd shared it last time we were on. I was on the podcast and it is this
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he remembered when he was younger that he would go and do these Christmas gatherings
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and there would be a Santa Claus and whether they're backstage or in a side room or whatever,
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he would always watch and see the Santa Claus,
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not nervous, whoever it was.
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And he's like, how is this possible? You're never nervous what you're doing?
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And he's like, no, I'm giving a gift to them.
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Why should I be nervous? And I'm giving a gift to them. And I think that's a
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great mentality to have of feeling in posture.
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Okay, work hard, you develop your skillset. The more reps will lessen that to
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some extent, but you're giving a gift, whether it's 100% polished or whether
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there's some rust around the edges.
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So if you keep in mind that you're giving them a gift I think some of that can
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help to squash out the imposter syndrome.
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But I do think it's good to have just a little bit there because it's going
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to keep you humble. That's also going to keep you working hard.
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That's my two cents. What about you all? Well, I like to reference golden nugget
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number eight of the book as written by the Magic Guys and said by yours truly,
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where it says, when it comes to handling nerves, remember to breathe and that you want this to happen.
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There you go. And I bring it down to a story of, I remember saying to a cousin
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of mine who was getting married and I asked him, aren't you nervous, dude?
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And he goes, why would I be nervous? I want this to happen. Like,
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I want to get married. I want to marry this woman. I love it a bit.
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And ever since I heard that, I was like, why would you be nervous about stuff
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you want to happen? Like you want to perform, you want to be on stage.
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Why would you be nervous about that? Like you're getting exactly what you want.
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And I just went, that's a really nice way of approaching it.
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And I've had that mindset ever since, like I want to be on stage and I want to do a good job.
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And the only reason why you would ever feel nervous is because you feel unprepared.
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And one of the things since reading this book is I've read it right through.
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And as I was reading, I actually was revisiting all my old scripts.
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And I was applying all the good ideas from the book to my scripting and to the
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point where I've been sharing my new scripts to people and they've gone, that is sick.
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Like, it's so good. Like I rewrote the sort of normal crowdwarming intro that
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I do and just made it so much shorter and punchy.
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And there's like hit points every two sentences. There's like a crowd interaction
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and then an interaction and interaction.
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It's just so solid. And it's all thanks to the book, in my opinion.
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So I cannot recommend enough.
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Now, one of the interesting things I found from the book, oh,
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sorry, actually, let's have Josh's opinion before I press on. Oh, thanks.
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Yeah, just do it, bro. Just get out there and do it. No, the only thing I might
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add to that, because I agree with everything,
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There's, you know, part of you might be feeling that because you're worried
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what other people are going to think about you trying to make it and thinking
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that maybe people will see you and be like, oh, look at him trying to be a big magician or something.
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And that doesn't help because you already feel like.
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You know this imposter imposter thing and like something just to realize is
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that people don't really care about what anyone does about anything ever like
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it's you know we think people care but they actually don't and you know even
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my own content for example i put out videos every day,
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and i would say if i actually look at the people who have watched it like.
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Hardly any of them are people that i personally know
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or even grew up knowing it's all like no one cares they just you do your thing
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so i would just say don't try to think about what other people might think about
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you really going for your dreams because it's just really you stopping yourself
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and i think you'll be surprised when you let go of that and you know be prepared,
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rehearse read the book give it a crack keep a little bit of imposter syndrome
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so it keeps you in check like eric was saying and i think you'll be all right
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one of the things too i i want to piggyback on what you're saying is with that
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feeling i think it's it's important to.
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Remember it's most people have not seen a ton
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of live magic so very likely
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unless you're rude obnoxious and awful you're not going to break magic
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for them you know they're not going to walk away and say i hate
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magic because you and that awful like so
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remember it's you're providing that gift you're not
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going to ruin magic for them they most likely have
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not seen magic live in to face to face before so you get to lack a better term
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you get to pop the cherry get it's like hey man check out this great stuff i
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get to do you give them the gift of magic you walk away they feel good you feel
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good and and let that imposter syndrome just shrinks as time goes on yeah Yeah.
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And there's something to be said about find a mantra that works for you that
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like will pump you up before a gig.
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Like it's usually three affirmative things you say to yourself,
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like, you know, they're going to love this magic.
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I'm going to give them this gift. It's going to be the best performance ever.
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If you say that enough on the way to your show, you're going to really believe
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it and just know, okay, screw this imposter syndrome.
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Let me go and freaking give them the best day of their lives.
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And you will. I think someone mentioned that in this book.
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I think you mentioned that in our interview. It might have been.
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Yeah, I think you actually mentioned that same advice, which is great advice.
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I particularly use it if I'm not feeling hyped for a gig.
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Because we're about to come into the December season of Christmas parties galore,
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where I'm talking like three gigs a day, fly here, fly back,
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do another gig the night I've flown back.
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And it's like insane level, right? It's great.
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It's great not complaining, but there is a little bit of a motivation drop sort
24:11
of halfway through and you're like, oh my God, I just finished this event and
24:14
I have like two more to get through.
24:17
I'd love to be at home right now. But, you know, then you realize this is a privilege.
24:22
And then I just say to myself, you know, this is going to be the best gig I've
24:25
ever done. They're going to love this.
24:27
We're all going to have a great time. You say that enough and eventually you
24:30
get to the gig and you're like, let's go.
24:33
And yeah i think i highly recommend
24:35
to something like that if when motivation is waning is
24:38
like find the song whatever the song is and you can only listen to the song
24:43
when you specifically need that extra amperage yeah there's a song my song do
24:50
you have one yeah yeah what is your song mine's rick ross every day i'm hustling
24:55
that'll get you going yeah i like it,
24:58
I am embarrassed to say my song. Mine is pretty embarrassing.
25:04
We have three guesses. I'm going to guess Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera.
25:09
Yeah, the whole time, man. Is it?
25:12
Am I close? Not even close. I'm going to guess,
25:18
Weldman's Heil by Ramstein. Don't even know what that is. Was that English?
25:22
Because I'm not sure that translates. It's German.
25:25
It's German middle band. okay okay uh
25:28
well embarrassing uh i'm a
25:31
bobby girl that's certainly embarrassing oh yeah no this
25:35
is this is something that i hope my parents don't hear that
25:38
i say it was a song by the prodigy called smack my bitch up that's your banger
25:44
yeah that is the one am i endorsing the name or whatever the it's just the way
25:51
that beats they just christian oh i know that song Yeah, that one.
25:55
Yeah, it's just like, you listen to it, you can't help it.
26:01
Yeah, I can hear that in my head playing now. I'm already amped.
26:05
You're getting pumped up just thinking about it. Yeah.
26:07
Good one. That's a real good one. Prodigy is a great go-to for high beats per
26:12
minute, get the energy going.
26:15
For certain. Yeah. Hell yeah, I like it.
26:18
Yeah, that's a good, I couldn't pick one song because I love music like as a
26:23
whole, but sometimes I just get anchored to like a line in a song and I'll just,
26:27
I'll just keep saying it again and again.
26:29
And when I was performing at the last theater of magic, I was singing this song
26:33
and I can't remember, it's from a band called Bayside.
26:36
And there's a line in the song where he just keeps saying in certain circles,
26:41
there's a few who consider me quite good.
26:42
And i just kept singing that to myself as
26:46
i was going through and i was like in certain
26:49
circles there's a few who consider me quite good and said and i just kept singing
26:52
that to myself and that's what i went on stage with like it was which i think
26:57
is when i when i reflect upon it now i think it's actually quite a humble thing
27:01
it's like i don't sit here to profess i'm the greatest but to be in front of
27:04
an audience and go you know in certain circles people consider me quite good
27:08
like that kind of a that's kind of
27:11
a very humble brag isn't it well that's that actually that's that confidence
27:15
you have to have before you take stage because if you have no confidence at
27:18
all then what do you do on stage so you do have to have that confidence of like
27:21
okay what i'm about to provide you is good it's worth your attention it's worth
27:25
your time let's go let's go let's go.
27:30
100 speaking of speaking of which do you if we were to roll into a gig say a
27:34
gig story segment Do you have any night, nightmare or crazy coincident moments
27:39
that have happened at shows that come to mind?
27:43
Yeah. Yeah. I could. Do you want something that's more of a learning series
27:47
or you want something that's more of like entertaining, but like, okay, it's up to you.
27:51
We'll take, maybe we'll take one of each. Okay. So let's, yeah,
27:55
let's roll with it. Roll the tape.
27:58
So Gig Stories is a section of the show where we talk about magical moments,
28:01
either from performing or our day-to-day, starting with this week's. Do you have one, Eric?
28:05
I do. Okay. We'll start with you then. Go.
28:08
Remember, I've listened to you all over 80 hours. So I know the show, man.
28:13
I know the show. I know the show. So this one was a fun one. I was doing a show.
28:16
I was doing a gig. This was not my speaking slash magic thing.
28:20
I was doing a magic show for a community of 55 and older.
28:24
You mean, you mean ages? Sorry.
28:27
Okay. Right. 55 and older community. They brought me in to do a show and this
28:32
older woman. So I, I love build a lemon.
28:35
I've got my own little version of build a lemon that I've set up and it's a
28:37
running thread throughout my entire present, my entire show.
28:41
So I brought this woman up. Her name was Marianne and she was part of it.
28:45
The, the bill, she signs the bill, the bill disappears. We go through the whole process.
28:49
And then, of course, later on in the show, she gets brought back on stage.
28:54
Where's the bill? What happened to the bill? And lo and behold,
28:57
you cut open the lemon and there is the bill.
29:00
Well, Marianne, I think while I was on stage, was probably downing quite a bit.
29:06
So she gets done with it. I help her off the stage.
29:11
And then she continues to talk to everyone in every row.
29:15
And she's retelling every detail of what went on. And I'm trying to kind of
29:20
get her to hush and move on.
29:22
I'm like, give Marianne another big round of applause. She doesn't take the cue.
29:26
She goes step-by-step retelling everyone. And it was Madel. And it was signed. It was inside the lemon.
29:34
And I just finally said,
29:37
It's Marianne's show for the moment. Go ahead and finish up.
29:41
She eventually did, but it was one of those lessons of like,
29:44
okay, I'll just wait. There's not much I can do.
29:49
I go, these are what we call conversations for the drive home,
29:52
honey. Come on, let's get you back to your chair.
29:55
Let's get you back to your chair. You just let her go.
29:58
And it seemed like, I think Marianne had a reputation in the community.
30:01
So they just were like, they were rolling with it. Like, this is what we expect of Marianne. Yeah.
30:05
For certain. that's a fun one uh good
30:10
times very what's the word
30:13
confident very confident marianne bless her
30:16
shout out to marianne and how drunk she got i um there is an amazing correlation
30:21
between children and drunk people they very much behave in the same manner to
30:25
some degree and i was performing at a an event at a pub there was like a big
30:32
halloween theme amazing setup they I had like the,
30:34
like the half of it was just like jumping castles and all kinds of stuff.
30:38
And I was booked to do magic.
30:39
I was originally booked to do a show, which I'm thankful didn't happen because
30:43
I, I've done, I did my back and I'm not doing great. I'm actually walking with a cane right now.
30:46
But like the cool thing was that the stage wasn't even ready.
30:50
Like when I rocked up, I'm like supposed to be on stage in like a half hour.
30:52
Like we get a sound check and they're like, it's not going to happen.
30:55
I'm like, well, I'm only here between this time.
30:57
I'll give you an hour roving instead. Anyway, that worked out perfect because
31:01
there wasn't much going on and kids were running amok.
31:05
And in that discord, not too long ago, we were talking about getting coins and
31:09
how there's magic suppliers who do like replica Morgans.
31:13
Now, if you don't know, like the Morgan silver dollar, I think back here is
31:16
like about 80 bucks a coin. If you get like a really crappy beat up one,
31:20
because it's effectively a full ounce of silver and you're paying for a full
31:23
ounce of silver. So I purposely don't use them.
31:27
And I was saying in our discord, like you don't do that because if a silver
31:31
dollar falls through a crack and vanishes, you're going to murder whoever did that. Right.
31:36
Guess what happens on friday i a kid goes to look at the coin i'm like don't drop it,
31:43
three seconds later it drops it rolls for what seemed like an eternity hits
31:49
the wall goes down a crack through the floorboards never to be seen again am
31:54
i upset about it nay because i.
31:57
Handed out replica morgans and so my advice
32:00
is i practice what i preach like the
32:03
perp like you can use real ones and that's great cool flex
32:06
bud but all it takes is for something like that to happen
32:09
and if you're using like a proper gaff set that's
32:12
like sometimes 300 us dollars for like
32:15
that in a shell think about it man just
32:18
get some get some really good gaffes you know go see
32:21
tango he's got an amazing set for 80 us bucks you know
32:24
it's got four coins in a shell and it's stellar so do yourself
32:27
a favor and get that and save yourself the heartache so why
32:30
would someone use that particular coin what makes it better than
32:34
anything else yeah oh yeah
32:36
yeah well it's like well like to get a real
32:39
morgan it's made of silvers and it's a full ounce of silver so they're quite
32:43
expensive as a result because silver is quite a yeah quite a nice commodity
32:46
so my advice is that like if somebody wants to lose that steal it keep it like
32:50
that's actually like like it's like 100 us dollars you know what i mean yeah
32:54
for us which is like six billion dollars you know who is morgan,
32:58
Who was Morgan? Yeah. Well, she's the chick that's printed on the coin and she's
33:03
just someone of nobility.
33:05
It's not really like a, not really Corey, but yeah, it's just the,
33:08
the typically the biggest size that, that you can get as far as coin magic goes.
33:12
There's two standards. You have like, yeah. What's that? Is that an Eisenhower? Yeah.
33:17
Yeah. The 38 millimeters, I think. Yeah.
33:21
Yeah. You use Eisenhower's, don't you, Josh? Me? I just actually stick to Australian coins.
33:27
So I'm, I just, i just literally literally use our
33:30
50 cent pieces because they're big enough that
33:33
um especially roving people can see
33:36
them obviously they're not great if you're getting gaffes made for them but
33:39
uh yeah i use these or i use the collectors the round
33:42
50 cents that are all silver that we have in oh yeah
33:45
i just use them to be honest i just i don't
33:48
i don't have as much technical coin work as nick
33:51
does where like it makes sense to have bigger coins and
33:54
using them in parlor and stuff so yeah i just rock these and
33:57
that way if i lose one it's 50 cents you
34:00
know no big deal and and for a while i would use us half dollar like the smaller
34:06
ones and i just noticed that people wouldn't really have any notable difference
34:13
in response when i would use our 50 cent coins and their us coins because i
34:18
thought maybe they would find it a bit more,
34:20
interesting but like at the end of the day people just know what this is so we just.
34:26
Personally made it easier just to use these.
34:28
However, if I'm on stage and I'm doing my bottle production with a coin routine,
34:34
I particularly use a bunch of these, which are palming coins,
34:39
which look like the size of,
34:42
a half dollar but they are as thin as a
34:45
mother effer and so these are
34:48
rigid on the outside so it's super
34:51
easy to palm super lightweight really like
34:55
they're just so thin so it's so easy to manipulate but
34:58
also they're shot like they have a shine to them when the the
35:01
stage lighting hits them so if i'm on stage
35:04
i'll use this just so that people can see the
35:07
coin but that's my ted talk thanks for listening it's fantastic but my gig story
35:15
i want to i want to share with you and i was i kind of wanted to bury this just
35:19
bury this moment and never think of it think of it again because it has actually
35:24
daunted me for the last kind of two days after this gig.
35:28
But it's better to share and just let everyone learn from my idiocracy so last
35:35
week i was on this role of doing a few events and I was, it was great.
35:40
You know, we love doing magic and I'm doing a few events and it's going well. And I'm like, great.
35:45
The last event I'm doing is stage show.
35:48
I'm doing some roving and then a stage show for this company that's hired me
35:52
before, but this is particularly their charity day that they run.
35:56
So everyone plays golf, all these corporate people will play golf and then they'll
35:59
come back for this luncheon and they'll raise money for a great cause.
36:03
So I'm doing some roving when they get back from golf, it's going great.
36:06
They're all guys, like blue collar guys like tradies and stuff and they're reacting
36:11
super well and i'm also aware that they're drinking so in the show they could
36:16
be a bit loud and all that kind of stuff,
36:18
so i'm booked to do now when i do a stage show when i quote a company i always
36:24
say the show is 20 to 30 minutes so that i can stop it at 20 if you know it's,
36:32
I'm losing them or just whatever, or no one's giving me anything and I get through
36:36
it really quick, but I can also let it breathe if people are reacting super well.
36:40
And so I give it that kind of gauge, but most, I would say 99% of the time,
36:46
companies allow 30 minutes in the run sheet for me to do the show.
36:50
And I always check except for this time, cause I'm an idiot.
36:55
They sent me the run sheet the day before I'm doing the gig.
37:00
But this whole time, The notion was they're trying to kind of,
37:03
you know, get the most use from me at their events.
37:06
So in my mind, that means they want the full 30-minute show.
37:11
But I didn't look at the run sheet. So that's like error number one on my part.
37:15
Error number two was I didn't check with the MC what time they need me to finish
37:20
before I went on. That's number two.
37:23
Anyway, I'll just get to what happened. So I get on, they intro me.
37:27
The day has already run over because everyone took forever to get in from the golf.
37:32
So by the time they finally intro me, like 10 minutes into the show,
37:39
main meals start getting served, which is like,
37:42
such a big no-no for magic, like for a show. It's so distracting.
37:47
12 servers come out with these big plates, putting them down on tables.
37:51
It's a fucking nightmare.
37:53
But you push through it because whatever, it's not about you just here to have
37:57
fun with them and they're already kind of on board, you know, whatever.
38:01
But I'm like, but what I didn't realize was that was meant to happen half an hour after my show.
38:06
So the fact that it's happening now must mean that, wow, we're really like running over.
38:10
But it didn't clock because I'm just trying to keep their attention.
38:14
And anyway, long story short, they had allowed 20 minutes for me to do my show,
38:19
but they're already running overtime.
38:21
So me thinking I'm given the most value, I get into almost, yeah,
38:25
I'm at like 28 minutes now.
38:27
So I'm eight minutes over. The MC apparently had
38:31
been like ready to come on and I'm like in the last routine and I just hear
38:36
the MC go Josh I'm like yeah and he's like please mate and he's doing this and
38:42
I'm like and it finally hits me like that that feeling of like what am I doing
38:49
like it just hits me I'm like.
38:51
Damn it. And I, and in that moment I wanted to just get off straight away,
38:55
like fine, but I couldn't cause I had three people on stage and like,
38:58
they just pick cards and I'm like,
39:00
oh, and so now I'm doing a thing that's like preventing the rest of the event
39:04
happening, but like, I have to finish it somehow.
39:07
And so I'm like, oh yeah, no worries. Yeah.
39:09
Here we go. 60 seconds. And I did the fastest three card routine where I do
39:14
the back flip and all that stuff.
39:16
Like I do the fastest iteration of that I've ever done.
39:19
And then I get off stage and I like, you know, explain to the client,
39:23
you know, sorry about that and blah, blah, blah.
39:25
And, and really it's not as big of a deal as I was making it out to be as what they felt.
39:30
But like watching it back on the camera, I'm like, man, if I just check the
39:35
run sheet and then also checked in with the MC, I probably could have even shaved
39:39
what was meant to be 20 minutes.
39:41
I probably could have shaved it down to 15 minutes to like help them because
39:44
that actually would have helped them and they would have been fine with it, but I didn't.
39:48
And I went like, what felt like twice as long to them while they're trying to
39:52
get through and actually raise money, which is why they brought it on there. Sorry, man. Yeah.
39:58
I'm doing it again. I'm trying to go for you bastard.
40:02
Well, look what you did. You answered the question.
40:06
What would you do differently? The third W you reviewed it and said,
40:10
this is what I would do differently. Cause that's how you're going to learn.
40:14
That's all I could think of when you were mentioning that at the start of
40:16
this episode yeah so make
40:19
sure you check the run sheet you check with the client how long
40:22
you're going for and when you need to finish and and you'll just save your time
40:27
because like the cortisone that just went through my body the instant I found
40:31
out they were wanting me to get off stage like because of time just just hit
40:36
you and you're like oh god now I have to still perform somehow that's heartbreaking,
40:40
Anyway, took their money, ran with it like a king. Get out of the door. No, they were great.
40:45
And I've worked with them a bunch and they're awesome. But yeah,
40:48
that was just a silly, silly overlook on my part.
40:53
Whoopsie. Well, 3Ws are perfect. That's a perfect thing that you can take away
40:57
from now on. Hey, Eric, there's one more story.
40:59
You must have one more story, right? Because you only told us one.
41:03
Yeah, I do. But also Tim has a question, which I'm glad to answer for him.
41:07
The other story is, it's a learning story and it actually relates to Eric Olson,
41:14
one of the things he mentions in the book as well.
41:16
And that is when you go into a venue, educate everyone you can about what's
41:21
needed and what's going on. But this one in particular, I was so grateful that
41:27
I listened to that little voice in my head, my gut, or wherever the voice was coming from.
41:31
Because I go into, this was, I was the main speaker there that evening.
41:34
It was about 900 students and families.
41:39
All together. And I'm getting there, I'm setting up and on the stage, it's a big stage.
41:43
And there's like some chairs up there. And some of the, these other individuals
41:46
are sitting in the chairs already. I'm like, what's happening here?
41:49
And I went to the, the person who was coordinating it. Now this was not her
41:52
normal thing. This is not a normal gig where she's organizing big events.
41:56
I'm like, Hey, are they going to be on stage the entire time?
42:00
Yeah. They asked if they could just be on stage. So I'm like,
42:02
okay. So I walked away and I continue setting up and I'm just letting my brain
42:06
like kind of rock through this.
42:07
I'm like, I don't, I don't like this. I don't like this feeling.
42:10
I don't, I don't think that's a good idea.
42:12
And I don't have a lot of stuff going on behind me that they would be able to
42:16
see happens, but I'm like, I'm going to be up here for 70 minutes.
42:19
I don't want you back here looking at your phone or whatever you're doing.
42:23
So just didn't sit well with me. So finally I went up to the woman again.
42:27
I'm like, listen, I really would like them not to be on stage.
42:31
Is there any way we can pull them off a stage? We can cordon off row of seats
42:36
over here for them. They can be right real close to the stage.
42:38
I can cue them when it's time to come up, whatever you need me to do,
42:41
but I just don't think it's a good idea.
42:43
And so thankfully she was, she was like, yeah, okay, we'll get them in and move them off stage.
42:48
But I'm grateful that I listened to my gut because my gut said just something's not right here.
42:55
Like ask the question, are they planning on being on stage? And then follow
42:58
through and say, get off the stage, man. I don't want you on here. You know?
43:02
So that's, that's because any
43:04
gig stories that I remember is from things like, what can I learn from it?
43:09
The three W's, right? The three W's.
43:12
That's clever foresight. Sometimes we do just assume, oh, they're probably going
43:16
to move by the time I start the show.
43:19
Yeah. So what I'm curious about is as you were writing this,
43:22
you said you kind of did it like phonetically as you were just sort of doing
43:24
it as you were going along.
43:26
What sort of things did you learn along the way that made you realize like I'm
43:30
not practicing properly at all in effect like when you sort of saw what people
43:33
were doing like what were the so yeah,
43:37
I was humbled by the intensity and the thought that people had put into magic.
43:44
And that's one of the reasons why I stopped asking. There's a question that
43:48
I started early on asking, how do you make practice fun?
43:51
And by the time I get about halfway through, I stopped asking that question
43:55
because there were some intense, like Dan Harlan's intense thinker.
43:59
Jeff McBride is an intense thinker. And I was like, I'm not going to ask them
44:04
how they make practice fun because they had They thought about so many different
44:07
layers beyond what I can even imagine about magic.
44:11
So that was one of the things that I felt like that I learned through the scope
44:17
of this. But there were specific things, immediate things.
44:20
Going back to Dan Harlan, he said, you know what? One of the best things you
44:23
should do is to have stuffed animals or something in your room.
44:26
So this is my magic room that I practice in.
44:28
So I would put different things up in the room that had eyes.
44:31
He said, that way you're training yourself to look at those eyes.
44:36
And I heard it from another speaker a long time ago that like,
44:38
if you look at one area for like three seconds, that actually can impact about
44:42
eight people that they feel like they are, that you are looking directly at them.
44:46
So if you can learn to lock eyes, not too long, but just long enough.
44:50
And then you move and then you move and then you move.
44:53
So he was, that point was something that immediately I put into practice for certain.
44:58
Yeah well i was actually into
45:01
my next question like the question asked of how
45:04
do you make black practice fun is such an interesting thought process right
45:08
because do you think that's why folks avoid it that it's it's not like you don't
45:13
get the feedback that you would get the adrenaline rush of fooling someone or
45:17
stealing a watch like you wouldn't get that from the notion of practicing you know,
45:22
Yes, I agree. That's one of the biggest reasons for anything you don't want to practice.
45:27
I'm not getting the screams from the crowd, the response from the crowd,
45:30
but you're not going to get the response from the crowd if you don't do the practice.
45:35
So it's don't put the cart before the horse. And I think that's why practice
45:38
is so important because you want to get those big reactions when you have the
45:42
crowd and you get the bigger reactions if you put in the specific amount of
45:46
time to practice and rehearse like the hundreds of examples that have been given in the crowd.
45:52
Book and then you can you can not only get those
45:55
those squeals and screams and big reactions you can get bigger reactions
45:58
from it for certain yeah well question to you
46:01
both then do you i don't know i'm trying to
46:04
equate it to something we can all sort of figure out or experience like i equated
46:08
to something like the adrenaline rush that you get from like stealing your first
46:11
watch or something or just being able to pull off an effect it's a bit of a
46:14
miracle like it's a bit of a psychological force and if it works it's great
46:17
because it doesn't always hit but when it does it's great So you have this like, oh, like rush.
46:22
When you get to the point in magic where you perform it so frequently,
46:26
so flawlessly, you will get to a point where you don't have the,
46:31
I'm going to call it the chemical feedback that you get, that endorphin rush. Yeah.
46:37
I guess if i'm to frame it as a question do you think that's the goal and i ask you this because.
46:45
When you perform to a point where you can
46:49
not like you you do the gig
46:51
and you i i would it's going to sound crude i'll take it to the
46:54
extreme where you perform the gig you crush it everything's a miracle it's the
46:57
most perfect show ever you finish it but you feel nothing that's why you do
47:02
a line of coke when you're done like you do definitely this is happening it's
47:07
now oh what does that is that something that happens in australia i just want
47:12
to know it's so expensive.
47:15
Dollars yeah i wanted that as well like take take a big name okay taylor swift
47:20
let's go with one of the biggest names in the world taylor swift she's in a
47:23
stadium of 50 000 people they're singing her lyrics back to her how is she ever
47:29
going to recreate that well i think that's why so many people do actually,
47:32
I know I joked about it, but, but turn to drugs because they're trying to recreate that same high.
47:36
I think that's a good point. I think probably some of that needs to make sure
47:40
you're like, if you're looking, ask yourself, what is the impact you want to have?
47:44
Is the impact you want to have on you and feeling good and adrenaline and the
47:49
endorphins, or is the impact what you're trying to have on them and the audience?
47:54
And I think if you can keep that in mind i
47:58
think that will whether or not you get those spikes and
48:00
highs and lows if you can know that you've you've had
48:03
that impact on the audience i think that's what continues to move you forward
48:06
yeah totally and i think i think that's why i make myself do magic that has
48:12
to be present in the moment or i'll stuff up like because i'm putting heaps
48:17
of the outcome on what the audience says and does like with the you know the
48:21
card challenge that tell me how to how you want me to find it I think I just
48:24
slip that stuff in so that I can't.
48:27
Be like all right here we go again i can just go on autopilot but
48:30
you know there are definitely routines that you know do so well and you've done
48:33
for so long that like sort of are required but yeah we just got to find a balance
48:38
hey and that's also why i can't because also if we were on the mindset of just
48:43
deal with it because it gets a good reaction then everyone would just do.
48:48
Invisible deck sponge balls and double cross because like they're all pretty
48:54
self-working except for sponge balls but they will all get good reactions but
48:59
like you'll get no artistic pleasure from it if we're all doing it so you do
49:05
have to change things up and enjoy it but yeah.
49:07
There's no real answer is there but well i think i think as you and correct
49:12
me if i'm wrong i think as you mature as a magician you do step away from wanting to get those,
49:18
big flash responses which is still great to do double cross the sponge balls
49:22
etc and i think you move to that point where like i would like them to be a
49:27
bit more meaningful like and and i think that's one of the the process you go
49:32
through as you perform longer make correct me if i'm wrong.
49:35
It is not very much so yeah you're not going for the just the the pop that you
49:40
know you'll get but like you want to work a bit harder for it and yeah and i
49:45
also want to reference a couple of things that inspired me to make things a
49:47
little bit more meaningful.
49:48
So the chapters in particular pertain to Andy Gladwin and both Joshua Jay.
49:53
And Joshua Jay's stuff, as you know, he's a great storyteller.
49:55
And Andy Gladwin's very much in the mindset of having things hit the heart.
49:59
And the chapters before that really encouraged me to revisit my old scripting
50:07
and find ways to better it and to add meaning.
50:11
And so is that something that you would sort of
50:13
promote right now to everyone listening to
50:16
take a moment reflect on what you've currently got just
50:20
give it a visit and apply a couple of things like does
50:23
it have meaning let's apply some three w's to
50:26
begin with and just like see that even just like a couple
50:29
of nuggets out of this book and really add some value to what you're
50:32
currently doing and it wouldn't take that much to improve it
50:35
i think that's where you start you start with what you're doing i think
50:38
i think would be difficult for a walk around like if you're trying to do five
50:40
minutes like you do two tricks and all of a sudden like i want to tell you a
50:43
story about my grandmother she was in the war and like you you can't do that
50:47
but if you are doing some sort of stage performance etc and even joshua jay
50:53
one of the things he says is like you earn their trust first.
50:57
Earn their trust first with a handful of tricks, and then you give them a story.
51:01
In fact, he said he only gets like one story. Cause I just envisioned his show
51:06
being like all these wonderfully interwoven stories together.
51:09
He's like, no, I take out one really solid story. And that's what I give them
51:13
to show them heart, to show them feeling and to pull on those little,
51:17
those strings tug on their heartstrings as well.
51:20
So I think you start with what you got, See if it connects to your life in any
51:25
way, deeper shape, form, or fashion.
51:27
I mean, I think that would be a good place to go. And in fact,
51:30
if I can use this as a moment to actually answer the question,
51:33
I think it was Tim Askin asked, was about my favorite trick.
51:37
My favorite trick is it's swallowing needles.
51:41
Swallowing needles. And I've done that for years and years and years.
51:44
And so my current presentation is 55 minutes and I've always worked.
51:49
I'm like, I want every magical moment to move the narrative forward,
51:53
but I love the needles. I'm like, I can't get rid of needles.
51:56
So typically I would just start off the show. I do some swallowing needles and
51:59
then we get into the rest of it. But I'm like, I need it to fit.
52:04
And in my current show, one of the questions I address is what is your definition of success?
52:09
And we address that question by, at that point in time, I hopefully have earned
52:14
their trust. And I tell them a story from 2019.
52:17
2019 was a very difficult year for me. It started off in January.
52:21
I'll abbreviate. It started off in January. I blew out my shoulder snow skiing,
52:24
and it ended with my mom dying in December.
52:26
And I go through all these different moments of 2019. And let's just pretend
52:31
like this is, and I say a line, something Like, you know, life throws that as challenges.
52:37
And sometimes those challenges feel like needles, creating pain points every step of the way.
52:42
And all you can do is just sit back and swallow them.
52:46
Ka-bump. And then I mentioned the next one. Ka-bump. Then the next one, next one, next one.
52:50
So in that context, it's still my favorite trick, but it finally landed.
52:55
And the reason it landed is because Andy Gladwin, when I interviewed him,
52:59
he mentioned something not directly related to this, but he talked about pain
53:03
points. finding the pain points in your show and then being able to massage
53:08
them out create them to make them better.
53:10
That pain point stuck with me and that's what clicked. The moment I connected
53:15
pain point with needle and I'm like, now I've got something.
53:18
So I think it begins by just saying, hello, mind.
53:21
I want you to look for these moments that I can create a little bit more meaning
53:25
and a little bit more impact with my show.
53:27
Wow. Wow. That's brilliant. I have like, sorry, Josh, go ahead.
53:31
Oh, I have something different to this. So maybe you go first.
53:35
No, I was going to ask another question based like on the future.
53:38
So you go ahead and ask your question.
53:40
So with the, you know, five minutes we have left, this bringing up pain points,
53:44
this just made me think, and I should have, I should have brought this up like
53:47
halfway through the episode,
53:48
because this could be another 30 minutes of talking, but Louis de Martos just
53:53
did a podcast with the Magic Insight podcast, did an interview.
53:57
Have you guys seen it by chance? If not, it's okay, because there's a particular
54:00
moment and everyone do shout out to them, the Magic Insight podcast.
54:05
Louis de Martos brought up a really interesting dilemma that he doesn't know the answer to.
54:10
And it starts with saying magic is the only art form where you can lie about
54:17
your skill or your talent, right?
54:20
You can buy it from someone else. You can even perform it badly and you'll come
54:24
across as an amazing magician.
54:25
He's like, even famous magicians can be crappy magicians, you know,
54:29
and there's just no, like you can really hide behind it.
54:31
You can't really tell who's like.
54:35
Like doing beautiful art as opposed to something
54:38
they haven't put work into or just learned or whatever so he
54:41
says when someone sees a show you
54:45
know the audience will applause but they're not applauding because of how much
54:49
work you put into your act and how skillful and how customized you've made it
54:53
original and stuff they're applauding essentially because you've surprised them
54:58
and you have a secret they don't know and it's like how do you tell the difference and he's like,
55:03
I've seen a visceral difference when I have someone come backstage after seeing
55:08
my show and they tell me they enjoyed it, but I can't really accept that praise from them.
55:15
However, because I create my own original effects, I can do this thing where
55:21
I can actually walk them backstage and talk them through how some of my stuff is done.
55:26
And he said, when he does that, there's this
55:30
second level of appreciation people give to
55:32
him because they're like holy crap
55:35
that's what you were doing on stage to make us how
55:38
do we not realize how do you even think of doing that
55:41
to make this outcome happen and now they're
55:44
super impressed and he's like that praise i
55:47
can take from them because now they understand like
55:51
what's actually gone into this thing to make it
55:53
happen so he's like there is this weird predicament
55:57
where if there was a way where people could know
56:00
how much work and the plot and what's actually
56:03
going on to make it happen and you still be entertained and
56:07
it not crossing magic exposure barriers
56:10
there could be an actual way to show
56:13
proper appreciation and know who's actually really doing
56:17
this artwork but he's like i don't know what the answer
56:19
is to actually do that he just knows that people give and have a better understanding
56:24
when he actually explains how his stuff's done behind the scenes interesting
56:29
what do you guys think yeah well if there's you know darren brown has done a
56:33
lot of pseudo explanations on some of his shows where you know using.
56:38
Just scripting you know and then i do that collage at the end of
56:41
him like saying things looking at the camera giving the camera
56:44
a bit of a wink like a you know tear page 14
56:47
something something you know but that's still not
56:50
real right but the premise the premise is real
56:52
and the thing about for sure and the thing about magic is you
56:56
don't have to actually do what you're saying you only need to make it appear
57:00
as if you're doing what you're saying so you don't actually have the card go
57:05
in the middle and then rise through the pack to get to the top in an ambitious
57:09
card you only make it appear as if the card is going into the middle and then rising back to the top so
57:15
i think that if you if you keep that notion you can have a very strong effect.
57:23
I'm trying to wrap my head around this from a couple of different angles.
57:27
My first instinct is I think about sports and I don't know if you all play sports.
57:31
I don't know what any of you all do.
57:33
I know what Nick, if you're back right now, you're probably hopefully not doing
57:35
anything, but like beach volleyball. I enjoy playing beach volleyball.
57:40
If you do it well, it's going to really come across easy, but no one knows how
57:45
many hours you've clocked and how many times you've passed the ball and set
57:48
the ball and jumped at the ball.
57:49
No one's going to know that unless somehow you have some way to document that.
57:53
And even then they'll just have the smallest glimpse of it.
57:57
And I, I would be interested to see how the description you gave,
58:02
what is the information that he's sharing with them to,
58:05
so they gain that additional appreciation because without saying,
58:09
here's a chronological timeline of all the practice I've done,
58:12
then how do you get that across to someone?
58:16
Like you said, without exposing completely, by the way, here's a secret.
58:21
It is a tough question yeah it's like the it's like
58:24
the saying of you know a little bit of knowledge like when people
58:27
know a little bit about magic it can make them appreciate the
58:31
thing they're seeing more right i think it's the same reason why magicians watch
58:34
magicians and we get super excited when we see something that's never been done
58:39
and we'll talk about it forever because we know what's going on so we can appreciate
58:45
it in a different way like that's why danny drt so Woody Aragon, whatever,
58:51
will sell out their lectures and workshops and stuff.
58:53
Cause we're like, this guy's the shit, you know, but it's like,
58:58
I think a lot of people understand how cups and balls work.
59:02
Like they understand he's sneaking under the cup, but those people,
59:06
I think still love to fricking watch cups and balls because they still can't,
59:11
now that they know there's a skill, they're even more impressed.
59:15
That you're able to pull it off and their eyes can't see it,
59:18
even though they know what's happening and they can see other people getting fooled.
59:22
So now there's a heightened experience.
59:25
That's not just, oh, there's a ball there and there wasn't before.
59:28
That's interesting. But like, you know what I mean?
59:31
But I wonder if it has to do with the personality types as well,
59:33
because then, because some personality types, like my wife absolutely wants
59:37
nothing to do with understanding how something's done.
59:40
Absolutely. There was something that she'd seen me perform a ton of times.
59:43
And I figured by now she's figured
59:44
out. And I just talked about the method real quick in front of her.
59:47
And she just, she wanted to scream at me. She doesn't want to know.
59:51
And I don't think by knowing that's going to enhance her experience.
59:56
So I think it's almost up to the individuals. Like, are you going to,
1:00:00
are you a clever person that you really want to see the engineering behind it, so to speak?
1:00:04
And then that's going to enhance your experience. Or do you just want to live in that.
1:00:09
Air quotes, fantasy world of that. This is just some magical power that is possessed.
1:00:16
And I, you want to stay in that lane. So I think it almost would have to do
1:00:20
depend on each person individually of like, what is going to really get their
1:00:25
juices flowing more. Yeah, that's a good point.
1:00:28
So before the time gets away from us entirely, we will circle back and plug
1:00:32
the book one last time, but I want to know what the future holds.
1:00:36
And I want you to Just spill the beans, buddy.
1:00:38
Spill the beans in the new book. Tell us what's going on.
1:00:41
Yeah. So I am over halfway done with the new book. It's called The Creatives.
1:00:45
It's a very similar format as this, where I've interviewed.
1:00:49
This time, it's going to be a little bit fewer. It's going to be 20 is the goal
1:00:53
I'm shooting for. I'm just past the halfway point of this one.
1:00:57
And I'm interviewing who I think are extremely creative magicians.
1:01:03
And just trying to get what is their mojo? Like, what are you doing?
1:01:08
The first chapter, I was like, what the heck? How did this happen?
1:01:10
The first chapter was Blake Voigt, who you all had on. I'm like,
1:01:14
dude, where do I go from here?
1:01:15
But I've talked to some other great individuals already.
1:01:18
Eric LeClaire, Wes Barker, Suzanne. She was the first woman to ever win the
1:01:23
Close-Up Magic Award at the Magic Castle. I talked to Mind to Mind.
1:01:27
If you all got to see them, that was fantastic.
1:01:31
So that journey, I'm hoping to have that book out maybe this time next year.
1:01:36
It's been a little bit slower getting some of the interviewer interviews,
1:01:39
but that's okay. Cause that, that's the journey.
1:01:41
But one of the things I do know, it relates to what we're talking about here is I think,
1:01:46
At the end of it, I'm going to conclude discussing impact. And I think as performers,
1:01:52
as magicians, we all can have a greater impact and a unique impact.
1:01:58
And by having that unique impact, the magic in itself is creative and it doesn't
1:02:03
matter. No one can copy your trick.
1:02:05
Like no one's going to be able to do that needles trick that I described to
1:02:07
you the way I do it because it's my story, right?
1:02:10
You could swallow new needles and do all kinds of different stuff,
1:02:12
but it's not going to be the same as mine.
1:02:15
Yours might be better. in terms of storyline.
1:02:18
But I think if we start thinking about the impact we want to have,
1:02:21
then it forces us into like, I need to be more creative, which goes back to
1:02:25
what we were saying earlier of, okay, well, how do I add a little bit of my story to the magic?
1:02:32
That's so strong. Well, that was like a pre-final word before our final word.
1:02:37
So we want to thank everyone for it.
1:02:39
Yeah, yeah. Get the book. Thank you for watching.
1:02:43
Links to Eric's work is in the description. come back on when you can tell us
1:02:47
more about the next book as well and we'll you can interview us again we'll
1:02:51
let you sure thank you for including us in the book it's very very cool to see,
1:02:58
it contextualized and given out as advice. And it's so cool to know people may
1:03:02
actually be listening and going, oh yeah, I should rent out a place to rehearse
1:03:06
and have people, my friends, come and watch me and give me advice.
1:03:09
Like all that, that's really, really cool.
1:03:11
So until next time, we're going to end our episode in the way we always do,
1:03:15
which is by giving our guest the final word.
1:03:19
The final word, my friends. Thanks for joining us tonight. But the final word is this.
1:03:24
Always be a lifelong learner. Never stop learning. The moment you stop learning
1:03:28
is the day you start dying.
1:03:30
And one of the best places where you can go to learn is a practice book.
1:03:34
Check it out, y'all. Have a good evening. Good night.
1:03:39
Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now.
1:03:45
But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.